News

Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics

November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20
Lords propose making tech giants pay for using news

Digital platforms such as Google and Facebook profit from running adverts alongside publishers’ content, but no financial compensation is given for carrying that content, says Lords committee
November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20
Algorithmic transparency obligations needed in public sector

Public sector’s use of algorithms with social impacts needs to be more transparent to foster trust and hold organisations responsible for the negative outcomes their systems may produce, says report
November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20
Government pumps £20m into AI research projects

Alan Turing Institute’s artificial intelligence (AI) research fellows will receive funding for 15 projects including using AI to detect cancer and improve the performance of virtual personal assistants
November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20
How Grab is using technology to improve trust and safety

Southeast Asian unicorn Grab is tapping artificial intelligence and other technologies to keep its users safe and cyber criminals at bay

November 26, 2020 26 Nov'20
Robots taking jobs, but creating careers

Robotic process automation developers tell Computer Weekly about the job they never expected to be doing
November 26, 2020 26 Nov'20
Tony Blair Institute and Oracle combine to launch cloud-based vaccine management in Africa

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) and Oracle have combined to launch a vaccine management programme in several African countries
November 25, 2020 25 Nov'20
Australia’s science agency unveils mapping tech for SMEs

The digital specialist arm of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has developed a mapping system to help robots navigate dangerous and complex terrain
November 25, 2020 25 Nov'20
Scottish government unveils strategy for digital planning

Scotland’s government has published a document that describes its strategy for the digitisation of the nation’s planning system
November 25, 2020 25 Nov'20
UK government Geospatial Commission stipulates actions to exploit location data

Report outlines some actions public bodies and companies can take to make better economic use of location data
November 24, 2020 24 Nov'20
Three options for next year’s IT strategy

CIOs are under pressure to reduce costs, but they also need to modernise applications and help their businesses return to profitability

November 23, 2020 23 Nov'20
Inside Huawei’s APAC cloud strategy

The Chinese technology giant is counting on its strengths in hardware infrastructure and focus on research and development to make a mark in Asia Pacific’s public cloud market
November 20, 2020 20 Nov'20
Pioneering companies use AI to drive profit

The latest research from McKinsey shows that there is a strong correlation between an organisation's artificial intelligence maturity and profitability
November 17, 2020 17 Nov'20
Automated image recognition: How using ‘free’ photos on the internet can lead to lawsuits and fines

Germany-based photographer Marco Verch uses computer scripts to populate the internet with topical images and photographs. People and companies who make mistakes in following the complex licensing terms of his ‘free to share and adapt’ photographs ...
November 12, 2020 12 Nov'20
IT Priorities 2020: Budgets rejigged to support 2021 recovery

IT has been essential in helping organisations remain operational. IT chiefs are now considering the IT to drive a sustained business recovery
November 10, 2020 10 Nov'20
DCMS’s Whittingdale: National data strategy not tied to EU trade deal

Minister tells ODI Summit that national data strategy is nearly finished and will fuel UK economic growth post-Brexit and post-pandemic
November 10, 2020 10 Nov'20
Gartner: Composability will make business more resilient and agile

CIOs have stepped up to the challenge of supporting their organisations during the global coronavirus crisis. Now they are set to do more – with less
November 06, 2020 06 Nov'20
Lockdown 2: Balancing job retention with automation

As the UK enters its second coronavirus lockdown, experts have questioned the funds that governments across Europe have put aside to support businesses
November 05, 2020 05 Nov'20
Quarter of UKISUG members plan S/4 Hana migration by 2022

Research by UK and Ireland SAP User Group and analyst firm shows SAP customer base still moving slowly to S/4 Hana
November 05, 2020 05 Nov'20
Mastercard: Looks like a tech firm, acts like a tech firm, is a tech firm

Financial services giant finds itself in a prominent position as the volume of digital transactions increases
November 03, 2020 03 Nov'20
Mixed blessings for robots in retail

Ocado has acquired two US firms to boost its robotics expertise, while Walmart has reverted to using staff for shelf inventory checks
November 03, 2020 03 Nov'20
NHSX launches second round of NHS AI competition

NHS is looking for artificial intelligence products to help with triage, screening, imaging and intelligent operational automation
November 03, 2020 03 Nov'20
Robot lawyer gets Sberbank role

Russia's largest state-owned bank creates a robot lawyer to reduce the time taken to process documents and make decisions based on them
October 30, 2020 30 Oct'20
Google third-quarter results highlight public cloud goals

Google is the third player in the public cloud market, but it sees multicloud support as a major differentiator
October 29, 2020 29 Oct'20
How Shell is fleshing out a digital-twin strategy

Digital twins are among the innovations that use AI, IoT and big data to help asset-intensive industries manage their operations
October 28, 2020 28 Oct'20
Avalon Airport deploys touchless kiosks, CT screening

Australia’s Avalon Airport has rolled out touchless check-in and bag drop systems that passengers can control using speech, head gestures and eye gaze
October 27, 2020 27 Oct'20
SAP Q3 2020 results: revenue down 4%, cloud silver lining hailed

SAP’s third quarter 2020 results stated a 4% year-on-year reduction in revenue, with an 11% increase in cloud revenue lightening the gloom
October 26, 2020 26 Oct'20
Chatbots will not replace call centre agents

Chatbots have not lived up to their promises and are better poised to support call centre agents in the blended realm of customer service and employee collaboration, says a regional Avaya executive
October 22, 2020 22 Oct'20
Saudi Arabian authorities work with Chinese IT giants on digital goals

Saudi Arabia has signed two agreements with Chinese IT suppliers as it strives to deliver its ambitious programme to diversify its economy
October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20
Pace of digital transformation accelerates

As businesses strive to return to profitability, business leaders are relying on tech innovation to drive economic recovery
October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20
Study finds AI can teach humans new tricks

Artificial intelligence tends to rely on supervised learning, but making the most of AI requires people to take on board what these systems learn autonomously
October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20
Serco and Sitel contact-tracing contracts agreed to be penalty-free for underperformance

Penalties for underperformance were not included in NHS contact-tracing contracts with Serco and Sitel, it has emerged from questions to the Department of Health by Conservative MP David Davis
October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20
Services Australia taps AI in document processing

Services Australia and Capgemini have developed an AI engine to classify and extract information from claim documents in a pilot project
October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20
Emerging tech can improve regulatory processes, says BEIS report

Regulators should take a best-practice approach to the use of emerging technologies but need to be aware of the challenges, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20
NHS England issues integrated cloud ERP procurement advice call

NHS England is calling on software suppliers for advice concerning the feasibility of moving and integrating its ERP systems in cloud infrastructure
October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20
Public data should not be held by US tech giants

One-off evidence sessions to follow up on the recommendations of the House of Lords AI Committee revisit the data and ethics debate
October 08, 2020 08 Oct'20
CDO interview: Pets at Home uses data analytics to further petcare ‘ecosystem’

Robert Kent, chief data officer for Pets at Home, describes how he has built a data analytics team and technology stack to enhance the petcare company’s understanding of its customers
October 07, 2020 07 Oct'20
Nvidia reveals its plans for Arm

Nvidia intends to acquire Arm for £31bn, as part of its plan to “create the computing company for the age of AI”
October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20
NetSuite CEO Goldberg: Growing in the house of Oracle

NetSuite CEO Evan Goldberg briefs analysts and press on the eve of the supplier’s annual, this year virtual, conference
October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20
Cambridge to host UK’s most powerful supercomputer

The Cambridge-1 supercomputer, based on technology from Nvidia, will be used for AI-powered drug discovery and analysis of NHS datasets
October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20
Business leaders call on G20 to drive affordable and responsible tech

A new report from the Business Twenty has urged G20 members to use digitisation to support economic recovery
October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20
Singapore firm rolls out robotic barista

Crown Group’s robotic coffee kiosk, powered by a slew of artificial intelligence capabilities, serves up coffee beverages round the clock without the need for human baristas
October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20
Wipro and AWS open Sydney innovation centre

The Wipro-AWS Launch Pad will offer in-house technical expertise for Australian businesses as well as a physical studio to spearhead cloud adoption
September 30, 2020 30 Sep'20
VMworld 2020: VMware partners to accelerate enterprise applications

A partnership with Nvidia promises to expand AI acceleration to other business apps. It also aims to make Kubernetes enterprise-ready
September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20
Oracle OpenWorld 2020: Miranda – business model changes are driving turn to cloud

Steve Miranda, who leads Oracle applications development globally, spoke to Computer Weekly ahead of his keynote at the virtual version of OpenWorld. Supply chain management and customer experience are vectors where improvements are being made, he ...
September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20
Over two million Brits using open banking

Data shows more than two million people in the UK are now taking control of their financial data through open banking
September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20
UK and US marked down on responsible AI

The UK and US have been rated as leaders in government use of artificial intelligence, but the Nordics and Baltics attained the highest scores for responsible AI
September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20
Tibco eyes growth in emerging APAC markets

Tibco’s regional head honcho, Erich Gerber, sees massive potential in Asia’s large population and thirst for technology, including advanced analytics tools that will help businesses glean actionable insights
September 25, 2020 25 Sep'20
Government on the hunt for telexistence tech

Defence and Security Accelerator wants several technology innovations that can help people operate in dangerous environments without being physically present – with £500,000 funding available
September 24, 2020 24 Sep'20
Coronavirus shows inadequacy of rear-view mirror planning

Looking at historical data has hampered businesses’ attempts to move forward effectively during the pandemic
September 24, 2020 24 Sep'20
Can banks solve money laundering puzzle through technology?

Banks face a huge challenge in identifying and stopping money laundering without interfering with police investigations
September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20
The inside story of Taiwan’s AI whizz

Not content with his stellar achievements in artificial intelligence, Chih-Han Yu wanted to create an impact with his work and formed one of Taiwan’s most important unicorns
September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20
Green Cargo extends Rimini contract to keep legacy SAP backend running

Mainframe and SAP to provide systems of record, with real-time data for new digitisation initiatives, built on multi-cloud, RPA and low-code platforms
September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20
Unilever partners with Google Cloud to bolster supply chain sustainability

Consumer goods giant Unilever is drawing on Google's cloud technologies to help it achieve its goal of finding sustainable sources of palm oil, and reduce the risk of its operations leading to deforestation
September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20
Patch grows data capabilities with Snowflake

A Snowflake data warehouse pulls in data from various SaaS systems to provide master data for management reports for horticulture retailer Patch
September 21, 2020 21 Sep'20
DBS taps AI and data analytics in intelligent banking move

Singapore’s DBS Bank has started tapping AI and analytics to provide customers with hyper-personalised insights and recommendations to win more market share
September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20
Government IT leaders on how Covid crisis will shape future delivery

At a TechUK Building the Smarter State event, government IT leaders shared their experience of the coronavirus crisis, and their thinking about how future service delivery will aim to be more joined-up for citizens
September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20
Alibaba Cloud unveils ‘cloud computer’, delivery robot

At its annual Apsara conference, Alibaba Cloud debuts a thin-client computer and a logistics robot that can carry 50 packages in one go
September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20
Lorca security scaleups to get Splunk data expertise

Lorca inducts Splunk onto its co-marketing programme, giving security scaleups access to new data expertise
September 14, 2020 14 Sep'20
UK’s ‘historic’ trade deal with Japan promises advantages to tech industry, says TechUK

TechUK was among the organisations that have welcome the ‘historic’ trade deal between the UK and Japan that is expected to boost trade by £15bn a year
September 14, 2020 14 Sep'20
Can Nvidia expand software business through £31bn Arm deal?

Nvidia is to buy rival chip designer Arm for £31bn in a deal it hopes will put it at the forefront of artificial intelligence for edge computing
September 14, 2020 14 Sep'20
NTT taps data analytics and cloud for Tour de France

NTT’s analytics and cloud capabilities stood up to the test amid crashes and poor weather conditions during the first stage of this year’s Tour de France
September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20
Santander to double investment in fintechs

Santander is doubling the amount of money it invests in fintech startups after the success of its funding arm, which was established in 2014
September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20
Government funds digital manufacturing projects

The business secretary has announced £300 million of funding for virtual assistants, augmented reality and digital supply chain innovations
September 09, 2020 09 Sep'20
Government publishes long-promised national data strategy

The government has published a national data strategy aimed at fostering innovation and increasing economic growth. It will also appoint 10 data fellows each year to work in the orbit of Number 10, and create 500 analyst jobs by 2021
September 08, 2020 08 Sep'20
Matt Hancock announces £50m for healthcare AI projects

The NHS and industry must have a ‘symbiotic’ relationship, says health secretary Matt Hancock as he promises to improve the environment for innovation in healthcare and announces £50m in funding for a series of healthcare AI projects
September 07, 2020 07 Sep'20
Artificial intelligence keeps HSBC ATMs stocked with cash

HSBC is using artificial intelligence technology developed in-house to help it make sure ATMs are appropriately stocked with cash
September 07, 2020 07 Sep'20
AI Summit 2020: Regulating AI for the common good

Speakers and panellists at the virtual AI Summit 2020 spoke about the tensions between cooperation and competition in the development of artificial intelligence
September 03, 2020 03 Sep'20
Insurers accept they were slow to adopt digital

Insurance companies know they must prioritise digital investment and are planning in-house development to help make up lost ground
September 03, 2020 03 Sep'20
How Certis is digitising security operations

Certis has developed more than 50 applications in a year to help employees do their jobs better and has set up an AI centre to tap the potential of robotics and video analytics in security
September 02, 2020 02 Sep'20
UK to build commercially available quantum computer

The UK government is backing a quantum computing project that will provide businesses with access to the technology
September 02, 2020 02 Sep'20
Weta Digital goes all-in on AWS

New Zealand visual effects studio plans to migrate most of its infrastructure to Amazon Web Services and tap machine learning and analytics to deliver projects more quickly
September 02, 2020 02 Sep'20
Ethical and professional data science needed to avoid further algorithm controversies

BCS is calling for higher ethical and professional standards in algorithmic development to ensure public trust in future government information systems
September 01, 2020 01 Sep'20
Pure aims at unified file and object and launches new QLC storage

Flash storage maker says unified storage in file and object is what is needed for contemporary analytics and AI workloads, while it launches a new all-QLC version of FlashArray//C
August 31, 2020 31 Aug'20
How India’s Tata Capital is expanding its digital footprint

Tata Group’s financial services arm has been migrating branch walk-ins and voice calls to self-service digital channels staffed by chatbots as it expands its digital footprint
August 28, 2020 28 Aug'20
NHS gets £50m in AI funding for digital pathology

Government funding package focuses on earlier diagnosis of cancer in the West Midlands, north of England and London
August 28, 2020 28 Aug'20
University of Staffordshire recruits robots to get more out of its people

University staff were bogged down with administrative work, but will now have time to be creative
August 28, 2020 28 Aug'20
Office for National Statistics defines better cross-government data linkage

ONS review of data-linking practices across government is consistent with Cummings and Johnson drive to put data in command of government
August 28, 2020 28 Aug'20
Machine learning wards off threats at TV studio Bunim Murray

TV studio behind reality hits including The Real World and Keeping Up With The Kardashians turned to Darktrace’s Antigena email protection service to keep its people safe from Covid-19 threats
August 27, 2020 27 Aug'20
Tour de France 2020 fans to get virtual experience delivered by NTT

This year’s Tour de France was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. IT services company NTT has teamed up with event organiser ASO to offer a virtual experience to fans who cannot be at the roadside
August 27, 2020 27 Aug'20
CTO interview: David Rafalovsky, Sberbank Group

Russia’s Sberbank is well into its digital transformation journey, with artificial intelligence and supercomputing now at the centre of its plans
August 26, 2020 26 Aug'20
Salesforce Q2 2020: Benioff says crisis will speed growth

Salesforce announces 29% year-on-year revenue growth for the second quarter, and grieves for Dreamforce 2020
August 25, 2020 25 Aug'20
Covid-19, demographic shifts to drive automation

Businesses will need to shore up their productivity through technology and automation to cope with the pandemic and a shrinking workforce, says an industry expert
August 25, 2020 25 Aug'20
MongoDB grows Asian footprint through Alibaba Cloud

MongoDB teams up with Alibaba Cloud to expand its presence in Asia-Pacific as it prepares to release a serverless variant of the open-source database
August 19, 2020 19 Aug'20
Vodafone builds smart enterprise on SAP S/4 Hana

Holger Grewe, group head of corporate transformation, and Ignacio Garcia, CIO corporate systems, at Vodafone, convey how SAP S/4 Hana has been purposely implemented as part of an ongoing smart enterprise transformation
August 18, 2020 18 Aug'20
Department for Transport seeks industry views on autonomous vehicle technology

The government wants industry’s views on plans to use automation technology to take control of cars travelling at speeds of up to 70mph, keeping them safely in the lane on motorways
August 17, 2020 17 Aug'20
DBS Bank teams up with AWS on AI skills

Singapore’s DBS Bank is organising an AWS DeepRacer League to equip thousands of employees with skills in artificial intelligence and machine learning
August 14, 2020 14 Aug'20
ICO acknowledges GDPR concerns over A-level results scandal

Information Commissioner’s Office says it has engaged with exams regulator Ofqual after its use of an algorithm to calculate A-level grades backfired
August 14, 2020 14 Aug'20
UK government investigates AI labour market

Survey will seek to discover new requirements and issues posed by artificial intelligence technology
August 13, 2020 13 Aug'20
Singapore firms struggle with RPA roll-outs

Almost three-quarters of Singapore business leaders say their organisations are facing difficulties in scaling up their implementations of robotic process automation
August 12, 2020 12 Aug'20
Police use of facial recognition found ‘unlawful’ in court

In a landmark decision, the Court of Appeal has ruled that South Wales Police’s facial recognition deployments breached human rights and data protection laws
August 11, 2020 11 Aug'20
UK lags in AI skills and AI project success

Global study by Microsoft shows that UK organisations have more artificial intelligence projects that deliver zero value than other countries
August 05, 2020 05 Aug'20
Five tips to lower S/4 Hana costs

With budgets being squeezed, how can organisations on SAP ECC reduce the cost of switching to S/4 Hana?
August 05, 2020 05 Aug'20
Home Office drops ‘racist’ visa algorithm

The Home Secretary has pledged to stop using an algorithmic decision-making system to assess visa applications after migrant welfare and technology justice groups challenged the tool for helping to create a hostile environment for migrants
August 05, 2020 05 Aug'20
Nokia to set up robotics lab at Indian Institute of Science

The Nokia Centre of Excellence for Networked Robotics will explore the use of drones, advanced communications and artificial intelligence in agriculture and industrial automation, among other applications
August 04, 2020 04 Aug'20
Police require radical reform to deal with 21st century challenges

Early findings from a major review of policing reveal forces are struggling to keep pace with the changing nature of crime
August 04, 2020 04 Aug'20
Nordic enterprises look for SAP price reductions as they navigate Covid-19

Businesses in the Nordics are using SAP Cloud Platform to address Covid-19 challenges and are also seeking price reductions
August 03, 2020 03 Aug'20
Private equity leads Nordic IT sector consolidation

Private equity firms and industrial giants are triggering mergers and acquisitions in the Nordic tech sector as investment slows amid the Covid-19 pandemic
July 31, 2020 31 Jul'20
ICO launches guidance on AI and data protection

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published guidance aimed at rendering the application of machine learning to data compliant with data protection principles
July 31, 2020 31 Jul'20
IFS CEO Darren Roos: Customer investment in cloud and digital has held up during Covid

Business applications supplier’s chief executive tells Computer Weekly that business has been surprisingly good during the coronavirus crisis
July 30, 2020 30 Jul'20
BASF partnership develops AI-powered smart mining

A collaboration with IntelliSense.io is being used to power AI-based optimisation of mining processes