30 years since the dawn of the World Wide Web, Britain is still at the heart of tech success March 12, 2019 It has been 30 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee sat down at his desk at Cern and changed the world with a humble sounding document called “Information Management: A Proposal”. The memo, piloting a system to allow computers to share information via an emerging technology called hypertext, did not catch many people’s eyes as it [...]
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,” [...]
14 shares for your ISA March 9, 2019 By Richard Beddard from interactive investor. Richard reveals three rules, codified in his Decision Engine, that reduce the stress of trading. Every five weeks I share my Decision Engine’s ranking table, which orders the shares I follow by the scores I have given them. The scores are a measure of confidence a company will turn [...]
Captain Marvel review: Brie Larson is a revelation in this middling Marvel romp March 7, 2019 It seems almost unbelievable that it’s taken Marvel 20 movies to feature a female lead, especially when Brie Larson makes it all look so effortless. Alongside a digitally de-aged Samuel L Jackson, she brings verve and charisma to what could easily have been a forgettable entry into the Marvel canon. It’s a strange film, showing [...]
‘Tim Apple’: Donald Trump makes latest name gaffe with Apple boss Tim Cook March 7, 2019 US President Donald Trump has referred to Apple chief executive Tim Cook as ‘Tim Apple’ in his latest name-related gaffe. Trump met with the Silicon Valley boss during a White House meeting of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, which was set up to help the country manage the shift to automation and artificial intelligence. [...]
British identity startup Onfido quietly closes £4m funding from Augmentum Fintech March 6, 2019 Digital identity startup Onfido has quietly closed a £4m investment from Augmentum Fintech, City A.M. has learned. Documents published by the London-listed fund yesterday revealed the tie-up, which appears to be a one-off injection made last month ahead of an upcoming funding round for the company. Onfido, which makes technology used to verify customer identities [...]
Five fintech trends to watch in 2019 March 6, 2019 There’s no shortage of stories on how tech breakthroughs will transform financial services, from changing the way we interact with our personal finances to threatening entire banking institutions with disruption. It can be difficult to predict exactly what this landscape will look like in the next few years, but most seem to agree that the [...]
One in 12 of Europe’s new startups work in AI sector March 5, 2019 One in every 12 newly founded companies in Europe calls itself an AI company, with the field dominated by UK startups, a new study reveals. But two-fifths of the 2,830 startups show little evidence of AI, the report released today from venture capital firm MMC Ventures and Barclays shows. Artificial intelligence, technology which allows software [...]
Automakers and the tech giants are battling over the future of the car industry March 5, 2019 More than 100 years after the petrol-powered car passed go for the first time – and despite worldwide sales at a record high in 2018 – stress fractures are starting to appear. Tesla is on track to outsell both BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the US, car sales in China are declining for the first time in [...]
London can strengthen its relations with Scotland March 4, 2019 On a brisk evening in January, I had the honour of hosting a Burns Supper at the Mansion House with the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon. The night was complete with bagpipes, haggis, and of course a “wee dram” of whisky. The event brought together leading business figures from both sides of the border, [...]