Shutterstock CEO Jon Oringer on putting profit first and selling his billionth image | City A.M. April 9, 2018 Many moons ago, there was a game called GoogleWhack. The objective was to return only one hit from a Google search query consisting of just two words. Naturally, with billions of pages indexed, it’s quite tough, and today, probably impossible. I propose a new, but similar, game using Shutterstock. Type in any two words, and [...]
Back to school: We must teach AI to have a moral compass April 6, 2018 In the UK, it’s mandated that 13 of the first 18 years of a young person’s life are spent in some sort of education. We invest very heavily in teaching children what they need to know to be functioning and productive members of society: our doctors, our teachers, our data scientists of the future. Artificial [...]
Artificial intelligence fintech investment firm Arkera grabs £4m from investors including Brevan Howard’s Alan Howard April 5, 2018 Arkera, a new fintech app which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to aid personal investing, has raised £4m from investors including the co-founder of hedge fund Brevan Howard. Alan Howard led the funding round along with electronic trading firm XTX Markets, with additional input from payment services firm Docomo Digital, ex-Deutsche Bank chief operating officer Henry [...]
Why I’m sick of bad press releases from lazy PRs who have never read me or this newspaper April 3, 2018 On 1 April, I published a column on the City A.M. website. Check it out: it’s a spoof of a press release. You may think it’s hyperbole. It isn’t. It’s the kind of effortful rubbish that I receive every day. In the past, when some grotesquely bad press release hit my inbox, I would mock [...]
DEBATE: Are we over-focusing on STEM at the expense of creative skills? April 3, 2018 Are we over-focusing on STEM at the expense of creative skills? Caroline Julian, head of policy and public affairs at the Creative Industries Federation, says YES. The future of our economy is creative. With robots taking on increasingly complex tasks thanks to technology like artificial intelligence, it will be those with creative skills who will [...]
Blockchain firm targets “failing” online retailers April 3, 2018 Online retailers, often blamed for Britain’s high street funk, are set to face their own disruption from an artificial intelligence-driven platform. Blockchain firm Eligma is planning to raise £17m from the sale of tokens later this month. The digital currency can be used across a range of online stores. The firm has created a platform [...]
Emmanuel Macron faces down the unions in bid to modernise French economy April 2, 2018 Emmanuel Macron is trying to forge a new path for France, but his efforts reveal a fundamental tension between his ambition and the reality of the French condition. Last year, Macron’s government announced plans to liberalise the economy, starting with employment reform – an area that left his predecessors scarred. Changes to employment law, making [...]
Artificial Intelligence Is Coming for Your Job March 23, 2018 Serendipity shapes careers. Who you meet, who you connect with, and who you build relationships with will define your professional journey, impacting not only the jobs you get, but also the experience you have in those jobs — sometimes, even the sense of fulfilment you experience in your career. Few careers unfold as planned by [...]
AI research company is making a plan for how Mayor of London Sadiq Khan can promote AI in London March 22, 2018 Mayor of London Sadiq Khan hired London-based artificial intelligence research group CognitionX to plan how the city can best harness AI. Khan said he believes that London is already in a strong position in the data economy, so he wants CognitionX to produce a report that outlines how AI can positively progress the city’s policies [...]
A sensible way to play the robotics megatrend March 21, 2018 In the next few decades, chief executives of major global corporations could all become redundant. They will be replaced by robots with highly-developed artificial intelligence, because machines are quicker, more rational and do not get bogged down with silly human emotions. That’s according to Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese internet behemoth Alibaba. Of course, [...]