Bloomberg innovators 2016 list: These are the most innovative businesses in the UK – From coffee creators to fintech leaders January 26, 2016 More than 50 businesses have been named the most innovative in Britain credited with changing the way we live, work and think. Leading fintech startups, creative coffee makers and bionic hand creators, are just some of those to have been chosen by a group of leading investors and entrepreneurs including Saul Klein and Rohan Silva. [...]
Relax: Artificially intelligent robot Godzilla won’t enslave us all – it’s humans, not technology, we should worry about says Oxford academic January 26, 2016 After stark warnings about the risk of artificial intelligence to the future of humankind from such luminaries as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, one academic has countered such arguments Breathe a sigh of relief: a robot Godzilla won't enslave us all, he reassures. Luciano Floridi, professor of philosophy and ethics of information at Oxford, has said [...]
Google agrees to pay £130m in back taxes in deal with HMRC January 23, 2016 Google has agreed a deal with HMRC in which it will pay £130m in back taxes after an "open audit" of its accounts by the UK tax authorities. The £130m covers corporation tax owed since 2005, and senior figures at Google have said it would follow rules which will result in it paying more tax [...]
Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk win 2015 Luddite Award for their “alarmist” warnings about artificial intelligence January 20, 2016 Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have just “won” the 2015 Luddite Award for their warnings about artificial intelligence. A world-renowned physicist and the entrepreneur behind ventures like Tesla and SpaceX, neither of the two are exactly what you might call afraid of technology. But the worries the two have expressed on the future of AI [...]
Davos 2016: As technology absorbs our mundane and routine tasks, we must realise our own higher calling January 14, 2016 Today, bits are reshaping the atoms around us. Emerging technologies in artificial intelligence, deep neural networking, and machine learning enable us to reimagine the possibilities of human creativity, innovation and productivity. Research institutions, businesses and governments explore the great new frontiers of human possibility. So many of our systems have evolved beyond what we thought [...]
Apple just bought emotion-detecting startup Emotient as rivals Facebook and Google continue Silicon Valley’s push into artificial intelligence January 7, 2016 Apple just bought emotion-detecting startup Emotient, taking a deeper plunge into artificial intelligence. Emotient, founded in 2012, uses AI software to analyse facial expressions and detect people’s emotions. The firm’s primary audience has been advertisers hoping to evaluate viewers’ reactions to adverts. Exactly what Apple plans to do with it is unclear, but Apple has [...]
Facebook Messenger app passes 800m users and David Marcus predicts decline of SMS and text messaging January 7, 2016 Facebook is predicting the decline of SMS in 2016 as it revealed its Messenger app has passed the 800m user milestone. David Marcus, the vice president of Facebook messaging products said there is still "much more opportunity ahead" and the app, which launched in March 2014, was still in its early days. The figures mean Messenger [...]
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is going to build an AI butler to help around at home and work January 4, 2016 Mark Zuckerberg has announced one ambitious new year's resolution for 2016: he wants to build a butler robot. The Facebook founder announced late last night his plan for the year was to create "a simple AI to run my home and help me with my work", comparing it to the AI butler character Jarvis from Iron Man. "I'm [...]
The best games of 2015: The year’s Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC video games rated December 9, 2015 Game of the Year: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Under normal circumstances a game with as many glaring problems as Metal Gear Solid V wouldn’t get anywhere near our year-end list. There’s its hastily tied-up storyline, dubious representation of female characters (boobs!), underwhelming multiplayer element. But this isn’t an ordinary game. Its beautifully [...]
Countdown to Christmas, Syria vote and Star Wars economics: Here’s what got us talking this week December 4, 2015 A ray of sunshine after the gloomiest November in 86 years: this was the week in which the Bank of England declared the end of the financial crisis. Even banks aren’t stressed any more… What got us talking this week 1. Festive fun Only 20 more sleeps until the big day, and don’t we know [...]