Robots, AI and digital disruption are coming to the hedge fund industry October 20, 2016 The robots are coming. And the hedge fund industry appears to be accepting it. “There’s a very strong business case for replacing humans with algorithms in a lot of areas of the business,” said one respondent in a survey of more than 100 hedge fund leaders and executives. Some 58 per cent of those interviewed [...]
Stephen Hawking: Artificial intelligence research crucial to the human race October 20, 2016 The UK is about to further boost its status as a world leading centre for artificial intelligence (AI) with the launch of a new centre in Cambridge which is set to explore the implications the technology holds for humans. Officially opened by Professor Stephen Hawking on Wednesday, the £10m Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence [...]
Twitter fires its new head of VR… in the same week it hired him October 19, 2016 Twitter is ploughing on into the world of virtual reality, though it faced a small setback today after announcing it had fired its new head of VR (roughly 48 hours after he started his new job). A Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, Gregory Gopman, had joined the struggling social network to work on a nascent team charged with [...]
Google Pixel review: Quite comfortably the greatest Android phone ever made October 19, 2016 Every Android phone has come with some compromise built in. Whereas the iPhone owes much of its popularity to Apple’s ability to control every last design detail – creating software and hardware that works in perfect harmony – Google has always had to rely on third-party manufacturers to build its phones. Imperfection’s gnarled fingers tended [...]
Shares in this Apple supplier just fell off a cliff after a profit warning October 19, 2016 UK tech firm Laird, which supplies components to Apple among others, has warned on profits sending shares tumbling to a five year low. Increasing pressure on margins and a shift in the production cycles of mobile devices has caused the firm to lower full-year forecasts to £50m. That's down from the previous outlook of £75m after [...]
Britain’s tech stars rally against Brexit immigration curbs in open letter October 18, 2016 Britain's top entrepreneurs leading the country's hottest startups have called on the government to ensure they can hang on to their access to talent and skills from abroad so they can remain competitive after Brexit. Zoopla boss Alex Chesterman and founder of fintech unicorn Funding Circle, Samir Desai, are among nearly 50 leaders of the UK’s most promising and successful [...]
Letter: Entrepreneurs urge government to consider access to tech talent after Brexit October 18, 2016 Entrepreneurs at the UK's fastest growing startups have signed an open letter urging government to consider the tech industry's need to access international talent in the wake of Brexit. Dear Editor, Britain’s digital industries are expanding at an extraordinary pace, creating jobs and contributing some £161bn in turnover to the economy. Companies like Just Eat, Mimecast, Shazam, Skyscanner, Mimecast and [...]
Yahoo beats Wall Street estimates ahead of Verizon takeover October 18, 2016 Yahoo beat Wall Street earnings estimates in its third quarter earnings, which was a welcome bit of good news for Marissa Mayer’s firm. The company said it earned 20 cents per share on an adjusted basis, above analyst predictions of 14 cents and reported a 6.5 per cent rise in quarterly revenue. But although Yahoo reported [...]
Quiz: Who said it – real Trump or robot Trump? October 18, 2016 Can you tell the difference between Donald Trump and a robot? The Presidential hopeful's Tweets are increasingly erratic as voting day approaches, although, he has always had a peculiar way with 140 characters. Following along with the Presidential election race, there's a Trump Twitter bot that aims to recreate the magic of his tweets using artificial intelligence. Read [...]
Surprise, surprise: Oil majors face a “resoundingly negative” threat from the rise of electric cars October 18, 2016 A leap forward in battery technology could pose a "resoundingly credit negative" threat to the oil sector and disrupt global credit markets, according to a report from Fitch Ratings. Falling demand for fuel could scupper oil majors' prospects in particular as transport accounts for 55 per cent of total oil consumption. "Widespread adoption of battery-powered vehicles is [...]