How did we get here? A short history of artificial intelligence City Talk For over seventy years the story of artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of saturating the capabilities of AI to the level of computational power available, and then waiting for Moore’s Law to catch up. During that time there have been bubbles of AI hype, research booms, funding busts and a quiet rebirth. Here we [...]
Europe’s place in the global AI race City Talk History is a good predictor of the future. In the Eighteenth Century the industrial revolution led to technological, socio-economic and cultural changes that eventually transformed not just our quality of life, but also our expectations from life. The early adopters of technological change have compounded their progress ever since, and the earliest industrialized nations continue [...]
Cobots are coming to a workplace near you City Talk The word ‘robot’ is a relative newcomer to the English language. It was the brainchild of Czech playwright Karel Čapek who introduced it in his 1920 hit play Rossum’s Universal Robots. The word is drawn from the old Slavic word, robota, which means “servitude” “forced labor” or “drudgery”. By contrast the word ‘cobot’ is a very modern portmanteau [...]
These are the jobs of tomorrow May 18, 2021 The future looks bright if you are a data analyst, a scientist, a robotics engineer, a business development professional or an artificial intelligence or big data-specialist. These are amongst the top twenty roles that are increasing in demand across all industries, according to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report. The report claims that [...]
Are we working more than ever? May 12, 2021 Furlough and working-from-home have dispersed workers into a diverse range of new working patterns. Social media is filled with anecdotes from workers who start their day late and finish early but still get more done by virtue of not having to commute to an office. There are those who have already returned to and embraced [...]
London investor Tej Kohli on chasing the ‘second wave’ of CRISPR-Cas9 April 13, 2021 “The only thing worse than losing money on an investment is having to watch the value of something that you didn’t back grow beyond all expectations” says London-based technologist and investor Tej Kohli. Kohli is talking into a laptop with the team of experts that he has assembled to spearhead a new initiative for his [...]
8 weird and wonderful applications of CRISPR technology March 31, 2021 Techno-optimists like to talk about the notion of a “singularity” – a time when technology progresses so rapidly that life is transformed beyond recognition. The driving force of this hypothetical event is typically regarded to be artificial intelligence becoming omnipresent. But what does omnipresent AI really mean for everyday life? ‘Technoking’ Elon Musk says that [...]
Technology transfer offers a fast route toward rebuilding the COVID-ravaged economies of low-and-middle income countries March 11, 2021 Technology transfer is a measure of the way in which countries manage their international flows of capital, goods, services, ideas and people. Borders and tariffs in rich countries often impede the economic and technological exchanges that could otherwise accelerate development and growth in poorer nations. Evidence shows that quickly spreading technology and technological knowledge quickly [...]
Bitcoin highlights the opportunity for sustainable data processing March 9, 2021 The price of Bitcoin is not the only thing that is surging. According to an analysis by Cambridge University and reported on by BBC News, the computer processing power that is now required to “mine” the cryptocurrency is 126.35 terawatt-hours each year. Or put another way: if Bitcoin was a country, it would be in [...]
