News

Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics

• March 14, 2023 14 Mar'23

  NCSC warns over AI language models but rejects cyber alarmism

  The UK's NCSC has issued advice for those using the technology underpinning AI tools such as ChatGPT, but says some of the security doomsday scenarios being proposed right now are not necessarily realistic

• March 14, 2023 14 Mar'23

  AI interview: Elke Schwarz, professor of political theory

  Elke Schwarz speaks with Computer Weekly about the ethics of military artificial intelligence and the dangers of allowing governments and corporations to push forward without oversight or scrutiny

• March 10, 2023 10 Mar'23

  Technology minister Michelle Donelan defends data reforms

  Secretary of state Michelle Donelan has defended the government’s new data reforms as providing certainty for businesses while simultaneously retaining high standards of data protection, but industry figures are having mixed reactions

• March 08, 2023 08 Mar'23

  UK government introduces revised data reform bill to Parliament

  Designed in close collaboration with technology businesses, the UK government is re-introducing an updated version of its Data Protection and Digital Information Bill to Parliament, which civil society groups say upends key safeguards

• March 08, 2023 08 Mar'23

  Executive interview: BT chief procurement officer, Cyril Pourrat

  BT Sourced is part of BT Group and aims to tackle the telecommunications giant’s multibillion-pound spending. We speak to its procurement chief

• March 07, 2023 07 Mar'23

  Taking back control: Could a distributed model breed a better AI?

  AI tools such as ChatGPT are trained on datasets scraped from the web, but you don’t have much say if your data is used. Technologist Bruce Schneier says it’s time to give control of AI training data back to the people

• March 07, 2023 07 Mar'23

  APAC IT leaders bullish on tech spending

  Over half of respondents in this year’s IT Priorities study have bigger IT budgets as they continue to make strategic investments in cyber security, cloud and automation, among other areas

• March 06, 2023 06 Mar'23

  Guinness World Records goes digital

  Guinness World Records has been around since 1955. Over the past 20 years, it has transformed from book publishing to consultancy and digital content creation, most recently marshalling NetSuite

• March 06, 2023 06 Mar'23

  Lords Committee to investigate use of AI-powered weapons systems

  House of Lords to investigate the use of artificial intelligence in weapons systems, following UK government publication of AI defence strategy in June 2022

• March 06, 2023 06 Mar'23

  Government announces Science and Technology framework

  The government has announced the first major work completed by its recently launched Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

• March 03, 2023 03 Mar'23

  Newham Council expands on data economy plans unveiled in 2021

  Newham Council plans to set up a ‘data campus’ at East Ham Town Hall to continue the data economy development vision it announced at London Tech Week in 2021

• March 02, 2023 02 Mar'23

  AI interview: Michael Osborne, professor of machine learning

  Artificial intelligence researcher speaks with Computer Weekly about the implications of a market-driven AI arms race and the overwhelming dominance of the private sector over the technology

• March 01, 2023 01 Mar'23

  CIO interview: Clare Lansley, CIO, Aston Martin Formula One

  A rare female CIO in a male-dominated sport, Lansley discusses how digital transformation is all a part of helping the team to move further up the F1 grid

• February 28, 2023 28 Feb'23

  Industrial safetytech startups secure £150m funding since 2020

  Industrial safetytech investment reached a record high of $100m in 2021, and remains significantly ahead of pre-pandemic funding levels despite a dip in 2022

• February 28, 2023 28 Feb'23

  Korea telecom giant SKT doubles down on AI

  SKT plans to broaden the use of AI across its business, from delivering AI-powered services to improving customer experience using generative AI models

• February 24, 2023 24 Feb'23

  UK police have ‘culture of retention’ around biometric data

  A culture of retention around biometric data in UK policing is damaging public trust, says UK biometrics commissioner, who is calling for clear regulation to govern police use of biometric technologies

• February 23, 2023 23 Feb'23

  ANZ CIOs flag priorities amid inflation concerns

  CIOs in Australia and New Zealand are concerned about inflation and plan to adjust their technology priorities to optimise resources and combat cyber threats

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  UK HSE to launch regulatory sandbox for industrial safety tech

  The sandbox will see the regulator work with industry and tech startups to accelerate the development and adoption of a range of safety-related technologies, with a particular emphasis on data and analytics

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  Tony Blair and William Hague call for a remade strategic state to stoke UK innovation

  Former Labour prime minister and former Conservative Party leader argue for a remaking of the British state to capitalise on artificial intelligence, biotech and climate tech, and reverse the country’s decline

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  Institute for Government cautions government to draw right lessons from pandemic

  The Institute for Government has published a policy document warning government not to draw wrong lessons from data sharing during pandemic

• February 21, 2023 21 Feb'23

  Singtel eyes retailers with enterprise 5G offerings

  Singtel teams up with Apple’s enterprise solution partners to drive 5G adoption among retailers with industry-specific offerings aimed at improving retail operations and customer experience

• February 21, 2023 21 Feb'23

  NetSuite and Oracle executives optimistic about economy

  Oracle NetSuite’s recent SuiteConnect event in London found executives in optimistic mood about the economy and positive about synergies between the two businesses

• February 16, 2023 16 Feb'23

  Mock crime prediction tool profiles MEPs as potential criminals

  Developed by Fair Trials, the example crime prediction tool uses the same information as police systems to assess the likelihood of someone committing a crime in the future

• February 15, 2023 15 Feb'23

  Home Office partners with BAE Systems on border analytics

  BAE Systems wins three-year contract worth £38m to help Home Office develop Cerberus, a project to secure UK borders through advanced data systems and analytics

• February 09, 2023 09 Feb'23

  New Border Force unit to deploy more surveillance tech in Channel

  Newly established Small Boats Operational Command (SBOC) will deploy a range of surveillance technologies in the English Channel in an attempt to deter crossings

• February 09, 2023 09 Feb'23

  EDF increases GIS software use at Hinkley Point C nuclear power site

  EDF is increasing its use of a geographic information system from Esri to get a central view of construction data in the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station project

• February 09, 2023 09 Feb'23

  Consumers want tech-driven clothing stores

  As consumers increasingly visit stores as the pandemic subsides, NTT Data finds that technology in shops could persuade consumers to return to physical shopping

• February 08, 2023 08 Feb'23

  Is business ready for ChatGPT?

  Generative AI models like ChatGPT promise to revolutionise the way people gather data and make informed decisions

• February 08, 2023 08 Feb'23

  CDO interview: Very’s Steve Pimblett on finding UB40

  The chief data officer of online retailer Very, Steve Pimblett, explains the place of data cataloguing in its data strategy, both for governance and innovation

• February 06, 2023 06 Feb'23

  How artificial intelligence is playing a role in insect farming

  An AI engine developed by Singapore startup EntoVerse is helping cricket farmers improve yield by optimising environmental and other conditions

• February 03, 2023 03 Feb'23

  MEPs vote to amend platform worker directive

  MEPs have voted in favour of amendments to the European Commission’s platform worker directive that would introduce a presumption of employment and increase algorithmic transparency

• February 02, 2023 02 Feb'23

  Government plans to catch tax fraudsters with help of AI

  Cabinet Office signs a deal with data analytics company Quantexa, aiming to use data and artificial intelligence to tackle public sector fraud

• February 01, 2023 01 Feb'23

  NCSC for Startups inducts four companies into programme

  Four more startups are set to join the NCSC accelerator, which helps the UK government develop technology and approaches to pressing cyber security challenges

• February 01, 2023 01 Feb'23

  NASA works with IBM on foundational data model for Earth science

  Using IBM’s foundational model for artificial intelligence, NASA plans to offer researchers a way to access the vast troves of data it collects about Earth

• February 01, 2023 01 Feb'23

  Innovative Technology deploys age estimation tech in shops and pubs

  A company involved in Home Office-led trials of biometric age estimation technologies has begun rolling out its hardware to UK shops and pubs so they can use its facial recognition algorithm to assure customers’ ages

• January 31, 2023 31 Jan'23

  Crédit Agricole tests quantum in finance

  The corporate and investment bank has run experiments with Pasqal and Multiverse to demo quantum computing in finance

• January 31, 2023 31 Jan'23

  University of Stirling taps into Alation data catalogue technology

  The University of Stirling is the first non-US university to participate in a data management education programme provided pro bono by data catalogue supplier Alation

• January 31, 2023 31 Jan'23

  MPs warned of AI arms race to the bottom

  Expert tells Parliamentary committee that tech companies developing artificial intelligence are cutting corners and placing safety on the backburner, opening up ‘enormous risks’ for the future of AI

• January 31, 2023 31 Jan'23

  Mark Logan on his vision for a Scottish technology ecosystem

  The Scottish Government’s entrepreneur advisor speaks to Computer Weekly about the philosophy behind an ambitious technology ecosystem strategy

• January 27, 2023 27 Jan'23

  SAP 2022: 11% revenue growth, 2.5% staff targeted by restructure

  SAP has announced full-year 2022 revenue of nearly €31bn, up 11% year on year. In 2023, it will explore a sell-off of Qualtrics stake and do a restructure, with an impact on 2.5% of staff

• January 27, 2023 27 Jan'23

  Deci claims breakthrough inference performance on Intel Sapphire Rapids

  Israeli startup Deci claims GPU-like performance in running computer vision and natural language processing models on Intel’s fourth-generation Xeon processors

• January 24, 2023 24 Jan'23

  Executive interview: Andrew Roughan, CEO, Plexal

  Plexal CEO Andrew Roughan talks about how tech startups collaborate with the government to transform public services, the barriers to entry, and how the process can be improved

• January 23, 2023 23 Jan'23

  Trellix automates patching for 62,000 vulnerable open source projects

  Since revealing startling statistics about the prevalence of a 15-year-old Python vulnerability, Trellix says it has helped fix almost 62,000 vulnerable projects in the past four months

• January 23, 2023 23 Jan'23

  Royal Society calls on public sector to pilot privacy tech

  The Royal Society says public sector bodies should lead the way in piloting privacy-enhancing technologies to unlock the value of data without compromising privacy and data rights, but lack of standards and incentives mean adoption is slow

• January 20, 2023 20 Jan'23

  Year-on-year growth down to more customers, says Ocado

  As the customer landscape shifts, Ocado reports year-on-year revenue growth in the last quarter of 2022, bolstered by a successful Christmas

• January 19, 2023 19 Jan'23

  Newham Council rejects use of live facial-recognition tech by police

  Live facial-recognition technology should not be used by police in Newham until biometric and anti-discrimination safeguards are in place, according to a motion passed unanimously by the council, but the Met Police and the Home Office have indicated...

• January 19, 2023 19 Jan'23

  Outdated IT infrastructure poses growing risk to UK Security Vetting

  Delays to UKSV’s important work in safeguarding the country’s national security are in part down to a legacy IT estate in dire need of modernisation, says the NAO

• January 19, 2023 19 Jan'23

  APAC consumers expect human-like service from chatbots

  Consumer expectations of chatbots in Asia-Pacific have risen in tandem with improved performance of AI applications over the past year, a study has found

• January 18, 2023 18 Jan'23

  Oracle and CBI: companies cautious, selective in 2023 IT, business investment

  Oracle and the CBI are seeing much the same picture of cautious technology investment of UK businesses in 2023, in the context of long Covid and the energy price inflation crisis

• January 15, 2023 15 Jan'23

  Thai enterprises spend more on software amid growing digitalisation

  The majority of software spending in Thailand during the first half of 2022 went into applications followed by infrastructure software and development tools, according to IDC