Facebook’s London accelerator programme expands to startups outside UK September 23, 2019 Facebook has announced the third edition of its London accelerator programme, which will be open to startups from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) for the first time. The scheme is open to high-growth startups and aims to support those that are “harnessing the power of technology to have a positive impact on the [...]
DEBATE: Are MPs on right that UK firms need more robots? September 19, 2019 Are MPs on the Beis committee right to say that British businesses have too few robots? YES, says Chetan Dube, chief executive at IPsoft Whether it’s a physical robot or digital colleague, MPs on the business, energy and industrial strategy (Beis) committee are absolutely right that UK businesses need to step up their automation efforts [...]
UK must adapt to automation or firms will suffer, MPs warn September 18, 2019 MPs have warned that British businesses could lose out to foreign competitors if the country fails to quickly adopt new technologies such as automation, and have called on the government to take action. Read more: Robot rollout: Number of businesses using automation doubles in 2019 Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee said the [...]
Punching power: F45 is innovating gyms using technology September 16, 2019 Fitness is a cut-throat business. Competition is intense: there are over 7,000 gyms in the UK, and the market is worth about £5bn. Around one in seven people are paying some form of gym fee. Unsurprisingly, new fitness brands are popping up all the time to capitalise on the health and wellbeing trend. To stand [...]
Benevolent AI’s valuation halves to $1bn in further blow for Neil Woodford September 15, 2019 Benevolent AI, the tech startup backed by troubled stockpicker Neil Woodford, is set to lose half its value as it announces a major new investment. The London-based firm, which is led by former Facebook executive and government minister Baroness Joanna Shields, has secured a cash injection from Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek. Read more: Fresh [...]
Ignore Elon Musk’s doom-mongering – AI will strengthen our society, not break it September 10, 2019 In Elon Musk’s mind, the dystopian thriller Ex Machina is forecast, not fiction. Debating Alibaba’s Jack Ma at the World AI Conference at the end of August, Musk claimed that humanity was directly threatened by the development of artificial intelligence, and that human beings were simply a “biological boot loader for digital super-intelligence”. The billionaire [...]
City Moves for 10 September – Who’s switching jobs at HSBC Global Asset Management, Sia Partners and FXD Capital? September 10, 2019 Today’s City Moves includes HSBC Global Asset Management, Sia Partners and FXD Capital. HSBC Global Asset Management Joanna Munro has been appointed global chief investment officer of HSBC Global Asset Management. Based in London, Joanna will take over from Chris Cheetham at the end of September, reporting directly to Nicolas Moreau, global chief executive officer. [...]
AI investment in UK reaches record high September 9, 2019 Investors poured a record level of money into the UK’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector during the first half of 2019. Trailing behind only China and the US, the UK is currently third in the world for raising investment in AI after hitting an all-time high in the six months to June this year. Investment in [...]
Hey Conservatives, stop attacking Greta Thunberg and come up with better market-led ideas September 5, 2019 Nobody likes being lectured at. Perhaps this aversion explains – although in no way excuses – the sustained attacks on the teenaged climate activist Greta Thunberg by many on the right. Whether it’s vile jokes about her dying at sea or the faux concern about her mental health, anyone who makes such comments should be [...]
It’s time to give AI the human (resources) touch September 5, 2019 It is no secret that automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the workplace. The debate on how wide-reaching these changes will be is one that feels never-ending, with no one truly knowing what impact it will have. The one certainty is that unless the workplace is fully behind AI and automation, it’s likely to [...]