Don’t hand control to the machines just yet January 18, 2019 Bad news: the robots are destroying jobs. The good news, however, is that the jobs they are destroying are their own. This week, a hotel in Japan was forced to lay off its 243 robots, after they ended up creating more work for their human colleagues. The Siri-like virtual assistants couldn’t answer the guests’ questions, [...]
Concerns over Sophos as shares tank in early trading after ‘subdued performance’ warning January 18, 2019 Sophos Group shares were down 23 per cent in early morning trading after reporting “subdued performance” in its third quarter trading update. The IT security company said a “challenging” previous year was context for the disappointing results, which saw the company earnings decline eight per cent year-on-year for the nine months to 31 December to [...]
IBM links up with Vodafone for $550m cloud computing contract January 17, 2019 IBM and Vodafone have entered into a joint venture to provide businesses with support for linking up cloud systems, which can support next-generation technology such as machine learning or 5G networks. Vodafone will pay IBM $550m (£423.4m) under an eight-year contract as part of the deal, the firms said today, enabling it to offer tools [...]
Netflix shares slide as it misses revenue estimates despite profits bump January 17, 2019 Shares in Netflix fell as much as five per cent in after-hours trading last night, after the streaming giant missed analyst estimates on revenue and paid subscriber growth. Netflix reported $4.19bn in revenue for the three months to the end of December last year, narrowly missing the $4.21bn predicted by consensus estimates, as collated by S&P [...]
The world’s biggest data dump: How do I find out if my email was caught in the Collection #1 hack? January 17, 2019 More than 722m email addresses and passwords were uploaded to the internet on Wednesday, in what is being referred to as the world's biggest data dump to date. Known as Collection #1, the dump was discovered by security researcher Troy Hunt, who is also the owner of hack-checker website HaveIBeenPwned.com. Initially uploaded into a hacking [...]
Universally Challenged: Oxford University turns on under-fire Chinese tech giant Huawei January 17, 2019 Oxford University said last night it was suspending donations from Huawei following widespread concern over the Chinese tech firm’s practices. The university said it had decided on 8 January that it will “not pursue” new funding opportunities with the firm “at present". “Huawei has been notified of the decision, which the university will keep under review. [...]
Flawed cyber insurance policies could lead to years of litigation January 17, 2019 The majority of cyber insurance policies on the market are riddled with flaws and may not pay out in the event of a data breach or hack, according to new research. A review by insurance governance company Mactavish of dozens of off-the-shelf cyber policies identified a litany of flaws. Mactavish chief executive Bruce Hepburn said: [...]
Consultants ‘braver’ about challenging clients who treat women inappropriately, says PwC January 17, 2019 Advisers are “getting braver about…calling out our clients” who act inappropriately towards female consultants, a partner at PwC told a tech industry event in east London today. The partnership at PwC gets “incensed” when client chief executives shout at female partners, said Mads Thomson, who leads the the professional services firm’s technology consulting business in [...]
Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss: Snoop Dogg invests in Swedish fintech unicorn Klarna January 17, 2019 Rapper Snoop Dogg has invested in $2.5bn (£1.94bn) Swedish fintech company Klarna, it emerged today. The rapper, famed for hits such as Gin & Juice, From tha Chuuuch to da Palace and Ain't Nuthin but a G Thang, has more lately reinvented himself as an investor, playing a role in specialist cannabis venture capital firm [...]
Funding Circle beats revenue growth forecasts three months on from IPO January 17, 2019 Small business lender Funding Circle has beaten its forecasts for revenue growth and loans under management three months after a disappointing debut on the London Stock Exchange. The company hit revenue growth of 55 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018, exceeding the 50 per cent guidance which was estimated at the time of its [...]