News

Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics

• 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

• August 24, 2021 24 Aug'21

  HMCTS discloses £12.5m HMRC tax bill over IR35 status contractor assessment errors

  HM Courts and Tribunals Service has acknowledged IR35 status contractor assessment errors and paid HMRC £12.5m

• August 24, 2021 24 Aug'21

  UCAS renews IT services contract with Infosys to drive automation

  IT cost optimisation and enhancing services for students are among the main goals for the UK's Universities and Colleges Admissions Service

• August 24, 2021 24 Aug'21

  Campaign groups claim police have bypassed Parliament with plans for live facial-recognition tech

  Civil society groups call for Parliament to scrutinise the use of live facial-recognition cameras

• August 24, 2021 24 Aug'21

  Inchcape picks Rise with SAP on Google Cloud to motor on digital

  Auto sector company Inchcape has chosen SAP’s Rise service on Google Cloud to drive forward its digital transformation programme