News

Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics

• December 07, 2021 07 Dec'21

  IT Priorities 2022: ERP gets back on the horse

  Automation and going cloud-first have gained significant interest for enterprise software and data management investment in the UK, according to the annual TechTarget/Computer Weekly IT Priorities 2022 survey

• December 07, 2021 07 Dec'21

  AI assistant Bürokratt to reduce bureaucracy in Estonian government

  Estonia to launch a Siri-like digital assistant that will automate the completion of government service requests

• December 03, 2021 03 Dec'21

  NUHS to tap edge supercomputing to crunch AI workloads

  Singapore’s National University Health System will tap edge supercomputing resources to train AI models in a range of healthcare-related AI applications by mid-2022

• December 02, 2021 02 Dec'21

  Pandora Papers: How journalists mined terabytes of offshore data to expose the world’s elites

  Six hundred journalists spent over a year mining 2.94 terabytes of data that revealed offshore companies and the politicians, world leaders and celebrities who secretly owned them

• December 01, 2021 01 Dec'21

  Unesco member states adopt AI ethics recommendation

  The non-binding recommendation seeks to define a common set of values and principles to guide the development of ethical AI globally

• November 30, 2021 30 Nov'21

  UK bank branch cull continues as TSB condemns 70 more

  TSB’s branch closure programme gathers pace as dozens more high street premises are shuttered

• November 30, 2021 30 Nov'21

  Over 100 civil society groups call for changes to EU AI Act

  Civil, human and digital rights organisations sign open letter calling on European policymakers to put fundamental rights at the heart of the proposed Artificial Intelligence Act

• November 30, 2021 30 Nov'21

  Accenture to create 3,000 UK tech jobs

  Accenture’s recruitment plan in the UK is a response to businesses to the release of pent-up demand for digital transformations

• November 29, 2021 29 Nov'21

  UKISUG 2021: S/4 Hana skills deficit and legacy custom code hamper migration

  On the opening day of its 2021 conference, the UK and Ireland SAP User Group unveils member research showing concerns that an S/4 Hana skills deficit and a surfeit of legacy customisation is retarding migration to the Hana-based ERP

• November 29, 2021 29 Nov'21

  UK announces standard for algorithmic transparency

  Public sector organisations will pilot artificial intelligence governance framework and evolve it based on feedback

• November 29, 2021 29 Nov'21

  UK ‘impact startups’ raise £2bn in 2021

  Impact startups in the UK have raised record levels of investment this year, with most of the capital raised going to climate tech firms

• November 29, 2021 29 Nov'21

  NetSuite CEO Goldberg: Growth companies nimble for post-Covid normality

  Evan Goldberg, executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, reflects on the post-Covid-19 pandemic economy through the prism of the Oracle-owned SaaS company

• November 24, 2021 24 Nov'21

  Regulation of AI needed to avoid the mistakes of social media

  Government is urged to work with industry on a flexible regulatory framework to ensure the explainability, reliability and robustness of artificial intelligence

• November 24, 2021 24 Nov'21

  Societe Generale accelerates data and artificial intelligence strategy

  French investment banking giant increases its focus on data and artificial intelligence as digital transformation matures

• November 24, 2021 24 Nov'21

  Police tech introduced with little scrutiny or training

  A Lords inquiry into the adoption of advanced algorithmic technologies by police in England and Wales has been told that new tools are being introduced without proper training and with little scrutiny of their impacts

• November 19, 2021 19 Nov'21

  UK government announces safety tech challenge fund winners

  The Safety Tech Challenge Fund winners will now develop technologies to limit the spread of child abuse material in encrypted environments, which the government has claimed will not be repurposed for other uses

• November 16, 2021 16 Nov'21

  Unit4 research finds divergence between decision-makers and employees in SMEs

  Sponsored research among mid-sized enterprises finds decision-makers and employees to be radically at odds in reading what makes a successful organisation

• November 16, 2021 16 Nov'21

  Nvidia/Arm: Competitions and Markets Authority to drill down further in Phase 2 investigation

  The merger between Arm and Nvidia is to be investigated further following publication of the CMA’s Phase 1 report into the deal

• November 16, 2021 16 Nov'21

  Blueprint for future high street shows tech’s role in creating thriving communities

  Technology will play an important role in creating thriving communities after Covid-19 lockdowns renew interest in local high streets

• November 16, 2021 16 Nov'21

  Can UAE become a world leader in AI?

  The UAE has launched multiple programmes as it bids to be a world-leading location for artificial intelligence innovation

• November 16, 2021 16 Nov'21

  Medtronic ups ante in digital health

  Medtronic wants a slice of the burgeoning digital health market and is teaming up with startups and other organisations in Asia-Pacific’s healthcare ecosystem to raise its game

• November 12, 2021 12 Nov'21

  New law needed to rein in AI-powered workplace surveillance

  MPs and peers call for new legislation to regulate the growing use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, which is being used to surveil workers’ performance and behaviour

• November 12, 2021 12 Nov'21

  Oversight of biometrics and surveillance should not go to ICO

  Biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner Fraser Sampson has panned the UK government’s proposed plan to absorb the functions of those roles under the remit of the information commissioner

• November 11, 2021 11 Nov'21

  Green energy Cray supercomputer to power weather predictions

  HPE is building a supercomputer that will be shared by four European meteorological services

• November 11, 2021 11 Nov'21

  Financial Conduct Authority chooses Aiimi for improved information discovery

  The Financial Conduct Authority has awarded a three-year contract to UK enterprise search firm Aiimi to enable the regulator’s staff to find documents more easily and collaborate better

• November 10, 2021 10 Nov'21

  Vast Data: Big shifts promised for an AI future

  Purveyor of Universal Storage says AI and GPU-based compute will dominate, and is set to benefit with its (relatively) cheap, deep and quick QLC-plus-Optane offer

• November 10, 2021 10 Nov'21

  EU artificial intelligence regulation risks undermining social safety net

  Europe’s proposed artificial intelligence regulation will not adequately protect people from European governments' increasing use of the technology in social security decisions and resource allocation, says Human Rights Watch

• November 09, 2021 09 Nov'21

  Yoti develops age estimation algorithm for under-13s

  Age estimation technology developed by Yoti is being pitched as a way of helping social media platforms and other online businesses protect younger internet users from harm

• November 09, 2021 09 Nov'21

  Real Madrid teams up with Adobe to enhance global fan experience

  Real Madrid is using Adobe’s Experience Cloud software to better connect with its fans in Spain and worldwide

• November 09, 2021 09 Nov'21

  Gartner: Why CIOs need to replan their roadmap

  IT has always been about gaining more efficiency by automating processes, but greater efficiency doesn’t lead to a step change in business outcomes

• November 09, 2021 09 Nov'21

  Singapore ups ante in AI with sectoral programmes

  Singapore launches two national AI programmes to bolster adoption of AI by financial institutions and the public sector

• November 05, 2021 05 Nov'21

  Petrol station retailer EG Group opts for Rise with SAP to fuel growth

  EG Group, a petrol station and food retailer, is looking to improve its operations with a move to Rise with SAP on an SAP private cloud alongside an implementation of the SuccessFactors HR system

• November 05, 2021 05 Nov'21

  UK and US governments agree joint quantum collaboration

  Representatives from the two governments issue a joint statement on quantum information science and technology (Qist)

• November 04, 2021 04 Nov'21

  Rise with SAP attracts 11% interest from SAP customers

  Research from the UK & Ireland SAP User Group has found only 11% of members plan to use SAP’s Rise with SAP business transformation as a service offering

• November 03, 2021 03 Nov'21

  Facebook self-imposes facial recognition moratorium

  Facebook and Meta have committed to halting their use of facial recognition technology and deleting the biometric data of more than a billion people by the end of 2021, but will retain the underlying algorithms and software for potential use in ...

• November 03, 2021 03 Nov'21

  ODI Summit 2021: ‘Social prescribing’ for mental health lacks data infrastructure

  A report published at the Open Data Institute’s annual summit finds social prescribing activities geared towards improving mental and physical health lack sufficient data infrastructure

• October 29, 2021 29 Oct'21

  Amazon Q3 2021: AWS nears 40% in year-on-year growth

  Amazon has reported 39% year-on-year growth for its public cloud division AWS and posted overall third quarter revenue of $110.8bn, up 15% on last year

• October 29, 2021 29 Oct'21

  Facebook rebrands to Meta amid continuing controversies

  Facebook has changed its corporate name to Meta to support its work on the next generation of “social technologies”, but concerns around trust and privacy persist

• October 28, 2021 28 Oct'21

  Illegal state surveillance in Africa ‘carried out with impunity’

  Analysis of surveillance laws and practices in six African countries finds that existing privacy laws are failing to protect citizens from illegal digital surveillance, which is being facilitated and enabled by global tech companies

• October 28, 2021 28 Oct'21

  Benioffs and Salesforce put $300m into combating climate change on eve of COP26

  $200m committed to reforestation and restoration efforts, and $100m for non-profits over the next 10 years

• October 27, 2021 27 Oct'21

  TSB opens 100-seat tech centre in Scottish capital

  TSB has opened its latest tech centre in Scotland while IT services provider CGI announces the creation of hundreds of UK tech jobs

• October 26, 2021 26 Oct'21

  COP26: Is the tech sector ready to rise to climate challenge?

  There is growing recognition that the tech sector produces mountains of e-waste and consumes significant amounts of energy and natural resources

• October 26, 2021 26 Oct'21

  Government selects network analytics tech to combat Covid-19 loan fraud

  The UK government has awarded a contract to network analytics software provider Quantexa as part of its efforts to fight fraud, especially that connected with Covid-19 business support schemes

• October 25, 2021 25 Oct'21

  Singapore-developed chatbot to provide genetic counselling

  National University Cancer Institute, Singapore’s chatbot will kickstart the counselling process for patients who have a higher risk of contracting hereditary breast and ovarian cancer

• October 22, 2021 22 Oct'21

  MEPs vote to expand Europol data mandate

  The European Parliament has voted in favour of expanding Europol’s mandate to process data and develop AI tools, but critics claim it contradicts a previous vote which opposed using new technologies to predict crime

• October 21, 2021 21 Oct'21

  SAP Q3 2021: Cloud year-on-year revenue up one-fifth, S/4 Hana adoption steady

  SAP’s third quarter 2021 showed 20% year-on-year growth in cloud revenue and steady, incremental growth in S/4 Hana adoption

• October 20, 2021 20 Oct'21

  What does Saudi Arabia’s autonomous vehicle agenda mean to the rest of the world?

  If all goes according to plan, within a few years, one million people will live in Saudi Arabia’s ‘city of the future’ – and every one of them will depend on a fleet of self-driving cars

• October 20, 2021 20 Oct'21

  Police IT buyers should compel suppliers to prove AI claims

  House of Lords told that UK law enforcement bodies should use their position as buyers to compel private sector suppliers to divulge more information about how their AI-powered technologies work

• October 19, 2021 19 Oct'21

  Zopa becomes unicorn with latest funds to go to bank operation

  Zopa will invest in its growing digital bank operation after becoming a unicorn in its latest fund-raising round

• October 19, 2021 19 Oct'21

  Making machine learning operational

  As artificial intelligence matures, IT departments will need to take control of change management and governance of data models

• October 17, 2021 17 Oct'21

  Graphcore opens Southeast Asia hub in Singapore

  The AI chipmaker is looking to expand its sales teams and hire more engineers to support customer deployments in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia

• October 15, 2021 15 Oct'21

  Manchester City teams up with Qualtrics for fan experience management

  Manchester City is teaming up with online survey software firm Qualtrics, part-owned by long-term City Football Group supplier SAP, to engage more intelligently with the football club’s fanbase

• October 14, 2021 14 Oct'21

  CIO interview: Cynthia Stoddard, CIO, Adobe

  Leading IT at one of the world’s best-known software companies brings its own challenges and opportunities around digital transformation

• October 12, 2021 12 Oct'21

  BCS calls on government to retain protections against AI

  BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, wants the government to retain protections that allow people to have decisions about them made by an AI reviewed by humans if needed

• October 12, 2021 12 Oct'21

  Ban UK police use of facial-recognition, House of Lords told

  Experts giving evidence to the House of Lords have said that UK police use of facial-recognition technology is disproportionate and ineffective, and further questioned the utility of algorithmic crime ‘prediction’ tools

• October 12, 2021 12 Oct'21

  Nearly half of finance firms will acquire or partner fintechs in next year

  UK financial services firms are preparing to acquire or partner fintechs as they target business growth

• October 12, 2021 12 Oct'21

  AI estimated to provide 10% boost to UK GDP by 2030

  AI has financial benefits but there are concerns the technology could displace a significant number of human workers in the next decade, says report

• October 11, 2021 11 Oct'21

  UnaBiz raises $25m in Series B funding

  Regional IoT tech supplier will use the funds to strengthen its foothold in key markets and develop new products and services

• October 07, 2021 07 Oct'21

  How data drives Air Canada’s cargo business

  Data-driven insights and artificial intelligence are helping Air Canada to find a new business path as it expands its cargo business following the pandemic

• October 06, 2021 06 Oct'21

  MEPs approve report opposing certain uses of AI by police

  European policymakers have approved a report on the use of AI in criminal matters, rejecting several amendments in the process that would have made it easier for police to potentially conduct predictive analytics and biometric surveillance

• October 06, 2021 06 Oct'21

  Ocado gets closer to autonomous delivery with Wayve trial

  Startup Wayve takes what it believes is a different approach to autonomous driving by modelling the behaviour of a driver

• October 06, 2021 06 Oct'21

  Aetos to deploy Singtel MEC for security operations

  Security firm Aetos will use Singtel’s multi-access edge computing platform to run applications such as surveillance robots, drones and video analytics at its security command centre

• October 05, 2021 05 Oct'21

  Australian organisations lack maturity in responsible AI

  Most Australian organisations are still in the early stages of their responsible artificial intelligence efforts despite growing use of AI by businesses and consumers, study finds

• October 04, 2021 04 Oct'21

  Chancellor uses Tory Party conference speech to announce AI scholarships

  Artificial intelligence holds the key to unlocking productivity, and developing the right skills to harness this potential was one of the focal points at the Tory Party conference

• October 01, 2021 01 Oct'21

  Met Police purchase new retrospective facial-recognition system

  Retrospective facial-recognition software purchased for £3m by the Met Police will be deployed in coming months amid continuing controversy around the use of biometric technologies by law enforcement bodies

• September 29, 2021 29 Sep'21

  Blue Prism deal adds RPA to Tibco software product range

  Robotic process automation provides another piece of the jigsaw in Tibco’s drive to be a data company

• September 28, 2021 28 Sep'21

  APAC IT spending to grow by 9.3% in 2021

  Organisations across the region will spend more on technologies such as AI and IoT this year, as part of their long-term investment plans to improve operational efficiency and customer service

• September 27, 2021 27 Sep'21

  Uber drivers strike over pay issues and unfair dismissal claims

  Unionised Uber drivers take industrial action in response to ongoing disputes over pay and claims that drivers are being unfairly dismissed as a result of the company’s technologies

• September 24, 2021 24 Sep'21

  Big Data London: Mitigate AI bias rather than try to remove it, say experts

  Bias cannot be stripped from artificial intelligence systems, but organisations can work to mitigate it, Big Data London 2021 attendees heard this week

• September 24, 2021 24 Sep'21

  Big Data London: NHS Digital data service struggled with Covid testing demands

  A critical component of NHS Digital’s data processing struggled to cope with demand caused by Covid-19 testing, Big Data London 2021 attendees heard this week

• September 24, 2021 24 Sep'21

  IBM ramps up quantum education initiative

  IBM is trying hard to break quantum computing away from the boffins to find real-world application areas

• September 24, 2021 24 Sep'21

  London publishes guidelines for ethical use of smart city tech

  Latest draft of the ‘Emerging Technology Charter for London’ encourages local authorities, public services and technology companies to improve how they implement technology in the capital

• September 22, 2021 22 Sep'21

  Dreamforce 2021: Benioff declares Salesforce as net zero and Slack ubiquitous across stack

  Marc Benioff, CEO and chair of Salesforce, declares his company net zero in a keynote at Dreamforce 2021 in San Francisco, alongside update on Slack integrations

• September 22, 2021 22 Sep'21

  UK government launches first national artificial intelligence strategy

  Ten-year plan is expected to drive corporate adoption of the technology, boost skills and attract international investments

• September 22, 2021 22 Sep'21

  Newham aims to harness local talent to build data economy in London

  The London Borough of Newham sets out to enable its young, digitally savvy population to build a data economy for sustainable growth through the launch of Newham Sparks at London Tech Week 2021

• September 22, 2021 22 Sep'21

  AI cannot be regulated by technical measures alone

  The regulation of artificial intelligence must address the power of tech companies, as technical measures alone will not be enough to prevent the harms caused by AI-driven technologies, says report

• September 22, 2021 22 Sep'21

  Legacy, unautomated IT was root cause of human error in pensions underpayment

  Caseworkers at Department for Work and Pensions had to use systems dating back to 1988 and manually move data to different systems, leading to human error

• September 21, 2021 21 Sep'21

  UK needs coordinated effort to regain ground in high-performance computing

  The UK is falling behind in the supercomputer league as a lack of skills and awareness of large-scale computing holds back organisations

• September 21, 2021 21 Sep'21

  IDC: Salesforce-related economic activity will create 271,000 UK jobs and £52bn in sales by 2026

  IDC research published on the eve of Dreamforce 2021 claims Salesforce-related economic activity will create 271,000 British jobs by 2026 and stoke £52bn in revenue

• September 21, 2021 21 Sep'21

  DBS eyes AI and blockchain talent

  Singapore-based bank DBS is looking to hire 150 developers and engineers skilled in artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain through its hackathon programme

• September 20, 2021 20 Sep'21

  Trust deficit retards predictive analytics adoption in banking, says Qlik

  Concerns about trust and regulatory compliance are impeding the adoption of predictive analytics in financial services, according to data analytics firm Qlik

• September 20, 2021 20 Sep'21

  NGO Fair Trials calls on EU to ban predictive policing systems

  The use of artificial intelligence to predict criminal behaviour should be banned because of its discriminatory outcomes and high risk of further entrenching existing inequalities, claims Fair Trials

• September 17, 2021 17 Sep'21

  Whittingdale and Warman ousting completes reshuffle of every digital, data and tech minister

  All of the UK ministers responsible for technology, digital and data are moving on as a result of Boris Johnson's latest reshuffle

• September 15, 2021 15 Sep'21

  UN human rights chief calls for moratorium on AI technologies

  High commissioner’s call for a moratorium on the use of AI systems that pose a serious risk to human rights is accompanied by a UN report on the negative human rights impacts associated with the technology

• September 14, 2021 14 Sep'21

  Renault set to test out Google supply chain digital twin

  Digital twin simulation of supply chain draws in disparate data sources to deliver efficiencies and prevent disruptions

• September 14, 2021 14 Sep'21

  Oracle Q1 2021-2 results: Cloud revenue reaches a quarter

  In its first-quarter results for fiscal 2021-22, Oracle claims that its IaaS plus SaaS revenue represents 25% of its total

• September 13, 2021 13 Sep'21

  RPA adoption still in its infancy in Asia-Pacific

  While there have been successful deployments of robotic process automation in mature markets, adoption of the technology is largely in its infancy across Asia-Pacific, says a regional Blue Prism executive

• September 13, 2021 13 Sep'21

  Portcast secures $3.2m, eyes global expansion

  Logistics startup Portcast will use its pre-Series A funding to expand globally and bolster its cloud-based service with prescriptive AI capabilities

• September 09, 2021 09 Sep'21

  Government relies on tech to reduce NHS waiting lists

  Health and social care secretary Sajid Javid aims to reduce NHS waiting list backlog through use of virtual wards, artificial intelligence and new surgical hubs

• September 09, 2021 09 Sep'21

  Tech R&D gets cash boost through £113m Future Leaders Fellowships

  Projects including a four-legged, multi-terrain robotic walker, ‘biogeobatteries’ and organic smartphone materials are among 97 projects to receive funding

• September 09, 2021 09 Sep'21

  Ali Ghodsi, Databricks CEO: Scandi-Californian hybrid is an ideal

  Ali Ghodsi, CEO of Databricks, reflects on the business culture of Silicon Valley, his Iranian-Swedish background, and where big data analytics is going during these early days of machine learning

• September 07, 2021 07 Sep'21

  Procuring law enforcement tech needs greater scrutiny

  Tech firms are playing a high-stakes game to drive adoption of artificial intelligence and surveillance technology in law enforcement

• September 07, 2021 07 Sep'21

  Government opens £2bn chest for big data analytics

  The Crown Commercial Service has published an early notification notice for a £500m per annum big data analytics procurement framework, which will run from 2022 to 2026

• September 02, 2021 02 Sep'21

  National Highways sets out data-driven plan for Strategic Road Network

  Digital twins, data sharing, predictive analytics and the use of drones all get a mention in Digital Roads five-year strategic plan

• September 01, 2021 01 Sep'21

  University of Sunderland applies technology through robot dog

  Students will apply technologies such as artificial intelligence to robotic dog as part of their learning

• August 31, 2021 31 Aug'21

  Singtel counts on telco edge to crack enterprise 5G market

  Singtel is counting on its investments in its multi-access edge compute platform to stand out in the enterprise market for 5G services

• August 29, 2021 29 Aug'21

  Mainland Chinese businesses lead tech adoption in APAC

  Chinese firms are more likely than others in Asia-Pacific to tap on artificial intelligence and business intelligence among other technologies to drive innovation

• August 27, 2021 27 Aug'21

  McLaren Racing pursues car build efficiency with Alteryx

  McLaren Racing selects Alteryx analytics software in pursuit of greater car build efficiency in face of Formula 1 cost cap, and to improve fan engagement

• August 25, 2021 25 Aug'21

  Algorithmic accountability needs meaningful public participation

  Global analysis by Ada Lovelace Institute and other research groups finds algorithmic accountability mechanisms in the public sector are hindered by a lack of engagement with the public

• August 25, 2021 25 Aug'21

  M1 deploys surveillance robots at Keppel Bay

  Singapore telco M1 is deploying surveillance robots and other 5G-enabled equipment to beef up security and maintenance operations at Marina at Keppel Bay