AI startup Onfido tops $100m investment as it closes $50m funding round led by Softbank and Salesforce April 3, 2019 Digital identity startup Onfido today closed a $50m (£38m) funding round led by Softbank, bringing its total investment above $100m. Read more: London fintechs dominate startup programme as they bid to scale-up Salesforce Ventures also co-led the funding round with Softbank Investments (SBI), while Microsoft’s M12 fund and existing investors also contributed. London-headquartered Onfido will [...]
Nouriel Roubini interview (Part I): Expect a ‘synchronised slowdown’ in 2019 April 2, 2019 When Nouriel Roubini talks, it’s worth a listen. Not known for his optimism, the well-known American economist bears the moniker ‘Dr Doom’. CFA Institute spoke to him to get his take on topics including the prospects for global growth and technologies. CFA Institute: When you spoke to us in 2015, roughly six years after the [...]
The Matrix was released 20 years ago – how close are we to the film’s vision of a tech dystopia? April 1, 2019 The Matrix first premiered in US cinemas yesterday 20 years ago. It revolutionised the way that we viewed the potential power of machines, and simultaneously marked the dawning of an age of suspicion and fear surrounding our relationship with technology. Yet far from the apocalyptic fears of artificial intelligence (AI), the applications of this emerging [...]
Ford and Volkswagen to team up on development of next-generation pickup truck March 28, 2019 German car making giant Volkswagen has penned a deal to produce a pickup truck with US rival Ford, as discussions continue over extending an alliance between the two firms. Volkswagen and Ford announced last year they were in talks to work on a range of commercial vehicles, later branching out even further to include electric [...]
AI is coming for you: One in three City of London jobs at risk from automation March 25, 2019 More than one in three jobs in the City of London are under threat from automation, a study has found. The Office for National Statistics identified around 710,000 jobs in the Square Mile which they said were at risk from new automated technology. However, the figures make the City one of the top four safest [...]
DEBATE: A third of voters would rather AI ran the country than politicians – so should robots move into Downing Street? March 22, 2019 A third of voters would rather AI ran the country than politicians – so should robots move into Downing Street? Takashi Sonoda, chief executive of internet of things company Uhuru, says YES. The idea that an artificial intelligence (AI) device could wholly take over the decision making at the top of the British government is pure [...]
City Moves for 19 March – who’s switching jobs at EIP, Legal & General Investment Management and Oaknorth Analytical Intelligence? March 19, 2019 Who’s on the move today? EIP Leading intellectual property law firm EIP has appointed Nora Fowler as an associate in the firm’s trademark team in London. Nora joins from Novagraaf UK, where she managed worldwide trademark portfolios and provided strategic advice to clients from a multitude of sectors. Nora has a wealth of experience working [...]
The World Wide Web is 30 years old – what will be the future of the internet? March 14, 2019 The World Wide Web turned 30 years old this week: on 12 March 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal to the world’s largest physics laboratory, Cern, that outlined a new way to link, share, and manage information over the internet. As the main way that the vast majority of us access the online world, the [...]
AI’s success story still has a few missing chapters March 11, 2019 This article is not written by robots – we promise – but apparently the day when they could be is already upon us. We have just finished reading about the GPT-2 text generator which, according to this Spectator piece, “not only does text analysis and augmentation, but generates highly sophisticated content”. “It can effectively write articles,” [...]
Draper Esprit leads £7m funding round in deep tech firm Hadean March 7, 2019 Venture capital firm Draper Esprit has led a £7m funding round in London deep tech firm Hadean. Hadean has created the world’s first cloud-first operating system to allow programmers to scale up their code and reduce the manpower and time wasted on engineering. Read more: London-listed Draper Esprit to double down on Europe with £100m [...]