FTC demands merger data from tech giants February 11, 2020 The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued special orders to Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft to provide information on mergers that were too small to report to antitrust regulators, the FTC said today. The queries occur as the Justice Department, the FTC, state attorneys general and the House Judiciary Committee are investigating the big [...]
Don’t dismiss the apprenticeship levy — it could fix the UK’s productivity puzzle February 11, 2020 The UK economy is not what it was 50 or even 20 year ago. We are an economy driven by services, data, and technology. As such, we need skilled managers to run the teams and operations that keep UK businesses at the forefront of innovation and change. The apprenticeship levy is a brilliant tool for [...]
DEBATE: Could AI ever win an Oscar? February 11, 2020 Could AI ever win an Oscar? John Gikopoulos, global head of AI and automation at Infosys Consulting, says YES. It’s entirely possible, and plausible, that artificial intelligence (AI) could soon win an Oscar. With the South Korean film Parasite winning Best Picture this year — the first ever foreign language film to do so — [...]
Tech firms needs to earn back public trust in order to innovate February 6, 2020 Innovations in technologies such as biometrics, cyber security, and artificial intelligence stand to perform an unprecedented, positive role in society. But their development means that we’re being asked to entrust more of our lives to technologies that we don’t fully understand, hand over our data to people we can’t see, and form relationships with businesses [...]
Government’s AI adviser calls for crackdown on social media targeting February 4, 2020 Social media users are being left in the dark about the way major platforms target information at them, the government’s artificial intelligence (AI) adviser has warned. A report published today by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) called for tighter regulation of online targeting systems, which use personal information about users to decide [...]
The second order impacts of artificial intelligence February 4, 2020 Much has been said about how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning might change the investment profession. Whether it is the advancement of automated trading, using alternative data to find new investment signals, or robo-advisors becoming more capable, the main focus to date has been on how these tools will cause the investment manager’s job [...]
Alphabet slides as it breaks out Youtube and Cloud revenue for the first time February 3, 2020 Google parent Alphabet’s shares fell in extended trading after it missed fourth-quarter revenue estimates, and gave an unexpected deep-dive into its sales breakdown for the first time. Alphabet reported overall revenue of $46.08bn for the three months to the end of December, versus analyst estimates of $46.9bn according to Refinitiv. Meanwhile it posted a profit [...]
The ethical executive is coming to a boardroom near you February 3, 2020 We are undergoing a paradigm shift in our political, economic, and commercial worlds — and it’s truly stranger than fiction. Donald Trump, Brexit, Cambridge Analytica, the weaponisation of data, deep fakes, and artificial intelligence (AI) — phenomena that would have seemed inconceivable a decade ago are now our day-to-day reality. While some businesses are ahead of [...]
Tech start-up Cera acquires Mears Care February 3, 2020 Homecare tech start-up Cera Care has acquired Mears Care in a deal worth more than £30m. The acquisition will boost Cera’s employee numbers to 2,000, with 20 offices across the country and the ability to deliver more than 10,000 visits a day. The London-based startup said the deal will allow it to roll out its [...]
Cyber success is vital to the UK’s future January 30, 2020 From the Bletchley Park codebreakers to Tim Berners-Lee and the invention of the World Wide Web, the UK has a rich heritage of computing technologies. We see this pedigree coming through in our cyber businesses. Take Darktrace, the UK’s first cyber firm valued at over £1bn, which is changing the way businesses protect critical data [...]