Jeremy Corbyn’s only hope of power may be in an SNP coalition, Labour group warns January 3, 2017 Labour's only hope of power may be to form a coalition with the likes of the Scottish National Party, a leading left-wing group has warned. A report from the Fabian Society this morning has claimed that the party is on track to drop below 200 seats in the House of Commons for the first time since [...]
I-Office: The brave new world of work January 3, 2017 It's 3 January, 2030. You get up at 6am, have a shower and get dressed, slipping into your self-tying shoes as you leave the house. On the way to your first day of work of the new year, you reserve a desk from your icontact-lens and flick through the morning’s emails. In the office, you are [...]
An ageing population, robots taking jobs and increasing inequality: The 10 biggest dilemmas facing the UK in 2030 December 29, 2016 It's not even 2017 yet, but think tank the IPPR has turned its attentions to the year 2030, to work out what challenges the UK will be facing by then. The resulting report, Future Proof, suggests we'll be grappling with an ageing population, increased automation of jobs – and increasing inequality. But what will be the [...]
Habito founder Daniel Hegarty talks fintech mortgages, bigamy and working above a kebab shop December 19, 2016 Many people have a career change. Before venturing into fintech, Daniel Hegarty, founder of digital mortgage broker Habito, was a professional musician, composing for TV and film and touring internationally. In 2007, he joined a few people trying to work out how to do loans on the internet in real time, in a pre-launch company [...]
Putting the “art” in startup: UK art marketplace Artfinder raises $2.2m December 14, 2016 UK art startup Artfinder said today it has raised $2.2m (£1.7m) – some of which came from the man behind the Amazon Echo. The company, which bills itself as an art marketplace, said it had brought on a new VC investor, Oxford Capital – and the round was also backed by William Tunstall-Pedoe, the Cambridge AI [...]
Here’s everything you need to know about Amazon’s new see-it-take-it shop December 6, 2016 David Bowie died, then Brexit, then Trump – now Amazon has launched a shop where you can just take stuff off the shelves and walk off. When will the madness of 2016 end? If it's all getting a bit much, chill out and read our handy guide to the new Amazon Go shop. I've seen the [...]
Google’s DeepMind is using “blockchain related” technology to increase data transparency December 5, 2016 DeepMind is using technology "related to blockchain" in an effort to become more transparent in the way it handles patient data in a tie-up with NHS health trusts which has caused concerns over privacy. Co-founder Mustafa Suleyman said the British artificial intelligence company owned by Google is working on a "general transparency architecture" for monitoring [...]
Uber’s created its very own lab for researching artificial intelligence December 5, 2016 Uber is getting deeper into the artificial intelligence game, creating a dedicated lab staffed with top researchers by acquiring a startup with expertise in the technology. The 15 staff of Geometric Intelligence will form the basis for the billion dollar startup’s San Francisco Lab, which will research the growing area of AI and machine learning [...]
Opening a new passage to India for UK SMEs December 1, 2016 It wasn't so long ago that the future foundations of global trade were going to be built by Brics – that is, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. These expansive developing countries, with huge populations and emerging economies, looked set to dominate the new century. But it hasn’t happened, and presently won’t. Brazil is in [...]
How can you monitor data in 810 billion photos? November 30, 2016 Have you been watching the epic Planet Earth 2 from the BBC? If so, you'll have been amazed at the roving drone that filmed billions of locusts in Madagascar. How about the jaw-dropping footage of a starving lioness trying to take down a giraffe at full chat? You were there. Almost. The images were simply stunning. Combine them with some 810 billion [...]