Amazon abandons sexist AI-powered recruiting tool October 10, 2018 Amazon has reportedly had to scrap an artificially intelligent recruitment tool built by its in-house engineering team, after sources told Reuters the results began to be skewed in favour of male candidates. Five members of the team who worked on the tool in 2014 said it began to teach itself that male candidates were preferable over [...]
The City View: Michael Hewson on Germany’s Russian energy oversights and Merkel’s legacy April 19, 2022 Today Andy Silvester talks to Michael Hewson, Chief Markets Analyst at CMC Markets. They go through the latest IMF forecasts, which included downgrades and the worst growth forecast in the G7 for the UK; Germany’s exposure to energy price fluctuations, the mounting pressure to reduce its dependency on Russian oil and gas, and Angela Merkel’s [...]
Public Health England becomes UK’s biggest advertiser during lockdown August 4, 2020 Advertising spend in the UK almost halved during lockdown according to the latest figures, with Public Health England becoming the nation’s biggest advertiser over the course of the pandemic. Traditional advertising spend — including on TV, newspapers, radio, cinema and billboards — fell more than £1.1bn year on year between the start of lockdown and the [...]
Amazon eyes British retail space for grocery stores October 7, 2018 Online retail giant Amazon is eyeing up the acquisition of several sites in Britain to develop its checkout-free grocery business. The Sunday Times yesterday quoted sources as saying Amazon wanted stores of between 4,000 sq ft and 5,000 sq ft to house Amazon Go, an arm of the business that uses technology to track the [...]
Spotify to suspend political ads in 2020 December 28, 2019 Music streaming service Spotify has said it will pause selling political advertising in early 2020. The world’s most popular music subscription service, which according to latest figures has 141m users listen to its ad-supported platform, said the pause would include its original and exclusive podcasts. It comes as campaigns for the presidential election set for [...]
Screenshot: Should online harms laws take on the hackers and pirates? February 12, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Ya boi in Hanoi **Who’s taking on the online hackers and pirates? **Will Big Tech finally cough up for news? Media Moment of the Week: Ya boi in Hanoi Tempted as I was to feature *that* cat lawyer this week, I think perhaps, to borrow Michael Gove’s words, [...]
The best smart home devices of 2020: Here’s how to transform your house with the very best in connected tech February 19, 2020 No longer the preserve of gadget geeks, the tech-powered home of the future is finally going mainstream. If you’re ready to get on board, here’s our pick of the best devices in every class to upgrade your dumb house to a smart home. Best smart display: Google Nest Hub Max Once your house is heaving [...]
Lending against Crypto? – A $10bn loan market emerges as 2020 comes to a close December 15, 2020 At the time of writing, the global market capitalisation of crypto assets (bitcoin, Ethereum and the like) is in excess of US$400bn. While still much smaller than other more traditional asset classes, this is considerable growth in market cap from a year ago, and yet – considering the perception of inherent volatility in crypto as [...]
Google it: Alphabet hits $1 trillion landmark amid ad growth optimism January 17, 2020 Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has hit a landmark stock market valuation of $1 trillion (£760bn) for the first time. The company’s shares rose by 0.76 per cent yesterday, enough to make it the fourth US-listed company to hit the milestone. Shares ended the day valued at $1,450.16. Alphabet hit the valuation 22 years [...]
Westminster approves £150m Cavendish Square health hub underneath Oxford Street April 29, 2020 Developers have today been given the green light for a £150m plan to transform Cavendish Square into a subterranean health and wellness hub. Property firm Reef Group has outlined proposals to turn a 1960s car park below the Georgian square in the West End into specialist facilities for the healthcare sector, as well as premium [...]