Best of 2021: Lilian Thuram on equality, books and Southgate December 27, 2021 In this interview from November, World Cup winning former France footballer Lilian Thuram explains why he turned his back on the game when his playing career ended to focus on championing equality through his foundation and, more recently, his books. A bespectacled Lilian Thuram reaches for a map of the world and turns it upside [...]
Best of the year: Political opinion and Westminster analysis to make sense of 2021 December 25, 2021 Artificial intelligence has been at the very centre of the news agenda this year, with the government announcing a national AI strategy as part of its “levelling up agenda”. But how can ministers make use of this technology and regulate it if they don’t understand how it works? Brian Mullins was making this point back [...]
Microsoft’s $16bn Nuance bid secures EU antitrust approval December 21, 2021 Microsoft's $16bn (£12bn) bid for AI company Nuance has won approval from the European Commission following an antitrust probe.
Chinese AI firm SenseTime heads for £580m listing despite US investor ban December 20, 2021 Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime Group announced today that it has relaunched its $767m (£580m) Hong Kong share sale after its listing was pulled last week following an American ban on investment.
Explainer-in-brief: Biden’s Beijing face off – just not with facial recognition December 16, 2021 US President Biden has put eight Chinese companies on an investment blacklist, meaning American investors are not allowed to take stakes in these businesses. Targeted companies include DJI, the biggest drone manufacturer globally, Yitu Technology, an artificial intelligence company, and CloudWalk Technology, working with facial recognition. The Biden administration believes their products are used by [...]
London’s Signal AI raises $50m to hire UK talent and ramp up international expansion December 15, 2021 Signal AI, a British startup that is trying to solve the “information overload” faced by business decision makers with its artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, has today closed a $50m Series D funding round. Its latest round was led by growth-stage investors Highland Europe, who have previously backed ContentSquare and Matches Fashion, and brings [...]
Can developing tech change the broadcasting landscape? December 15, 2021 If the Covid-19 pandemic provided one significant challenge to broadcasters, it was the logistics of commentating on games without actually being in attendance. Television networks had to rely on local workers to set up match feeds in order for their commentators to call the matches from home or a local studio. That solution, however, raised [...]
CMA launches probe into Microsoft $16bn Nuance deal on antitrust concerns December 13, 2021 Britain’s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Microsoft Corp’s $16bn acquisition of artificial intelligence and speech technology firm Nuance Communications on antitrust concerns. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) this morning said it was launching the probe to establish whether the deal would “result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or [...]
Biotech BenevolentAI to make £1.3bn market debut in Europe’s biggest Spac deal December 6, 2021 British biotech BenevolentAI has today agreed to go public at a €1.5 billion (£1.3bn) valuation in Amsterdam via Europe’s largest-ever merger via a special acquisition company (Spac). BenevolentAI’s deal with Odyssey, a blank cheque company founded by dealmaker brothers Michael and Yoel Zaoui, will allow it to raise €390 million (£332 million) ahead of its [...]
Israeli AI firm Windward to list on London AIM with £126m market cap December 1, 2021 Maritime technology firm Windward has announced today its intention to IPO on AIM on 6 December with a market cap of £126.5m.