Tay, Microsoft’s racist chatbot, made a tired and emotional return last night March 31, 2016 The robots are already turning against humanity – although for now, they're sticking to causing red faces. Tay, an artificial intelligence chatbot on Twitter which Microsoft was forced to shut down last week after it started, among other things, spouting racist diatribes and denying the holocaust, made an ignominious return last night. After a silence lasting almost a week, [...]
Chesnara year ended December 2015 profits bolstered by Dutch deal March 31, 2016 Chesnara today announced a boost to its profits for its year ended December 2015, thanks partly to its recent acquisition of a Dutch closed book insurance company. Chesnara, which specialises in takeovers in the pensions and insurance sector, revealed that its profits before tax had increased to £42.8m, up from £28.8m the year before. The company completed its purchase [...]
Tata Steel crisis: Jeremy Corbyn’s petition to get David Cameron to recall parliament passes 100,000 signatures – but why is the Labour leader doing it? March 31, 2016 Jeremy Corbyn launched a petition yesterday to get David Cameron to recall parliament over the growing steel crisis. That's right. Instead of using his existing platform (and mandate) to call the Prime Minister to account, the leader of the opposition is resorting to grassroots tactics to get him to act. The good news is it's a popular [...]
AO World’s share price surges as it raises its full year forecast March 31, 2016 AO World's share price soared this morning after raising its full year forecast this morning. The electricals retailer said its UK business had performed strongly in the last three months of its financial year, with both revenue and Ebitda ahead of expectations. As a result, UK revenues for the year to 31 March are expected [...]
Royal London boasts record breaking year March 31, 2016 Pensions and investments group Royal London has reported strong full year growth, thanks to record-breaking performance and cost savings. The figures New business in Royal London's life and pensions arm was up 40 per cent to £6.7bn, as the financial firm also improved operating margins by two per cent to 43 per cent, achieved as operating [...]
Tui’s share price rises as travel firm shrugs off terror impact to be upbeat about year’s prospects March 31, 2016 Tui's share price climbed this morning as it shrugged off issues plaguing other travel firms, with solid current trading and a full year earnings forecast of at least 10 per cent. The figures Revenues for the year to 20 March are up three per cent, although total customer numbers are flat. In the UK bookings are [...]
London has the worst 4G download speeds – but these are the best and worst networks March 31, 2016 Ever feel like it's taking forever to download the latest episode of your favourite TV show to catch up with on the way to work? Londoner's in fact suffer the worst download speeds of five major cities in the UK tested for 4G mobile network performance by Ofcom. Read more: One simple map showing UK's mobile coverage by poscode Residents of the [...]
City Moves for 31 March 2016 | Who’s switching jobs March 31, 2016 Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking has appointed Kelvin Aston as head of its industrial manufacturing business, based in the bank’s London head office. Kelvin has been an executive director involved in the industrial sector for the past 20 years and has over 35 years’ experience within banking, initially at Barclays [...]
UK house prices: Sales to first-time buyers pause in February despite year-on-year rise March 31, 2016 The number of first-time home buyers rose by seven per cent in the year to February despite a slight drop in activity since the start of the year, new data today shows. First time buyer sales stood at 21,000 last month, which was 6.6 per cent ahead of February 2015’s figure of 19,800, according to Your [...]
New Barclays/Opinium report finds millennials are most worried about being shown up by tech-savvy younger colleagues March 31, 2016 One in three workers between the ages of 18 and 34 are worried about being shown up by even younger colleagues, according to a new report out today from Barclays on digital skills. According to the report, including surveys conducted by Opinium,18-34 year-olds are the age group that is most worried about whether they are [...]