UK skills gap threatens to stall Starmer’s AI plans as firms looks abroad February 10, 2025 A severe shortage of the nation’s tech skills may stifle the government’s push to turbocharge artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK, a survey has warned. Keir Starmer announced the government’s AI opportunities action plan in January, in which he pledged to create over 13,000 jobs in the tech sector. But it may struggle to get [...]
Call for UK regions to bid to become AI Growth Zones February 10, 2025 Regions across the UK have been encouraged to put themselves forward to become new economic centres for AI development, as the Government opened bidding for new AI Growth Zones. Growth Zones were announced as part of the Government’s AI Action Plan last month, designed to be new centres of development for AI technology and infrastructure. [...]
Hyper-personalisation: Has AI finally made retail’s ‘holy grail’ possible? February 8, 2025 Hyper-personalisation has long been the holy grail of retail: to recreate the customer experience of a local, everyone-knows-your-name store on a global scale. Now, with the combination of data tracking, AI and our ever-increasing tendency to consume online content, genuinely personally-tailored ads are just about within touching distance. These ads, introduced in their earliest form [...]
Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta: Is big tech overspending on AI? February 7, 2025 Tech titans have projected pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence (AI) in 2025, yet Wall Street impatiently awaits returns on their investments. Amazon is leading the charge, having recently committed over $100bn to AI infrastructure this year, surpassing Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta. The four tech behemoths reported a combined $246bn investment in AI in [...]
Amazon shares plunge after tech giant misses earnings February 7, 2025 Amazon missed expectations for its cloud computing arm, raising concerns about the tech leader’s investment in artificial intelligence (AI). On Thursday, the tech behemoth told the market that its cloud division, Amazon Web Services, reported a fourth-quarter revenue of $28.7bn (£23.1bn), slightly below Wall Street forecasts of $28.84bn. The miss disappointed investors, who were already [...]
Will AI change how you watch the Super Bowl? February 7, 2025 From AI-generated game stats to augmented reality viewing experiences, technology is changing how we interact with sports, says Nicole Junkermann On 15 January 1967, when the legendary quarterback Bart Starr made his second touchdown of the match to clinch the game for the Green Bay Packers, America’s first-ever Super Bowl was watched by a stadium [...]
CMA boss sacking must signal the end of regulatory overreach February 7, 2025 The CMA has damaged business with its trigger-happy approach to blocking mergers and acquisitions. The appointment of Doug Gurr is a good start, but will a new chairman be enough to turn around an organisation set in its ways? Asks Matthew Lesh In recent years Britain’s competition regulator has enjoyed a surge in taxpayer funding [...]
UK’s data centre ambitions threatened by grid red tape February 6, 2025 Delays connecting to the electricity grid may risk the UK’s position in the global AI race, as proposals for new data centres are pushed down the track, experts have warned. The National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) is grappling with a major backlog, and it is understood that any proposed big infrastructure project looking to hook [...]
Public sector pay gap threatens UK cyber resilience February 6, 2025 The UK’s national security is at risk due to a growing pay gap between public and private sector cyber roles, making it harder for the government to attract and retain top talent. A recent study by Naoris Protocol found that salaries for key cyber security positions in the private sector can be nearly double those [...]
Meta fact-checking U-turn probed over Ronaldo Facebook deepfake scam February 6, 2025 Meta’s decision to scrap fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram is under review after Brazilian football legend Ronaldo Nazario was caught up in a deepfake scam. The company’s oversight board has launched an investigation after Meta initially rejected calls to remove a post that used an AI-manipulated video of Ronaldo to promote a gambling app. Meta [...]