The end of road rage? Your car will soon be able to tell what mood you’re in – then play your favourite music to cheer you up February 21, 2017 Could this be the end of road rage as we know it? Ford might just have a solution in the works as it expects the cars of tomorrow to be able to pick up on minute changes in our facial expression and inflections in our speaking voice. So advanced systems, equipped with microphones and in-car cameras, could [...]
The government must relax visa rules to safeguard our tech boom February 20, 2017 The UK digital technology sector is emerging as a global force. A record £6.7bn was invested in UK tech firms in 2016, more than any other European country. In contrast, the automotive sector received £1.66bn in investment. This record boom means the sector already accounts for 16 per cent of domestic output compared with 10 per [...]
“Rise up”: The full text of Tony Blair’s Open Britain speech on Brexit February 17, 2017 Tony Blair has been absent from British politics for years, now – but today he returned in spectacular style, urging the UK's population to "rise up" against Brexit. Although some (including former deputy PM Nick Clegg) liked it, the majority of reaction has been that he missed the mark. Not sure what you think? Here's [...]
Private equity giant Blackstone buys majority stake in London technology company Cloudreach February 16, 2017 Private equity giant Blackstone has announced a deal to acquire a majority stake in a London cloud technology company. Cloudreach provides cloud computing products and services for companies including BP, Pearson and Hearst Corporation. Founded in 2009, the company now has offices in seven countries and has a presence in both Europe and North America. [...]
Artificial Intelligence to reveal the biggest secret in oil February 15, 2017 The EIA is, and will continue to be, the gold standard for reporting U.S. oil inventories, and the administration’s weekly reports have the power to immediately swing crude oil prices depending on builds or draws in oil stocks. But while the U.S. is a transparently reporting country, other nations are not revealing oil stocks data, [...]
Ford gears up for a major AI investment to boost its self-driving car offerings February 11, 2017 Ford is spending big to up its game in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The US carmaker said it will invest $1bn (£800m) over the next five years in Argo AI, an AI software and robotics technology startup, to support its autonomous vehicle development. Pittsburgh-based Argo AI, which was founded by former Google and Uber leaders, will work to develop a [...]
Replace 250,000 public sector jobs with robots, urges think tank Reform in radical workforce overhaul driven by technology February 5, 2017 Automating admin jobs could reduce the public sector workforce by more than a quarter of a million people saving the economy billions of pounds, a leading think tank has suggested. And adopting technology such as artificial intelligence, chatbots and drones, could radically overhaul the public sector and streamline Whitehall even further, according to a new report [...]
It’s time for business leaders to get serious about the threat to jobs from artificial intelligence January 30, 2017 "I love driving for Uber, but they want to replace me with driverless cars. I don’t know what will happen to me and everyone else, but there could be a revolution.” A conversation with my Uber driver last week unearthed a new fear that few of the world’s business leaders seem to have grasped – [...]
Why could digital tech reach over $2.7 trillion by 2020? January 30, 2017 Whether it’s big data, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud storage or cyber security, the effects of digital technology development are all around us. Recognised as the third industrial revolution, we are experiencing one of the most transformative periods in history. Digital – transforming our industrial society In 2001, a group of software developers met at the [...]
Top dogs: 37 of the hottest startups to watch right now January 25, 2017 Nearly 40 UK tech startups have been branded "ones to watch" and will be mentored by top entrepreneurs, founders and investors to get them scaling up to become tech giants. A startup which lets wannabe pet owners borrow other people's dogs, BorrowMyDoggy, and an innovative mapping company which just landed backing from Daimler, What3Words, are [...]