Could the office be staffed by chatbots? May 29, 2018 Whether checking insurance quotes, ordering concert tickets, or seeing if your favourite trainers are back in stock, almost all of us will have encountered a chatbot in our daily lives. Capable of providing fast access to information and offering pre- programmed responses to minimise misunderstanding in communication, businesses have found that chatbots have cut customer [...]
DEBATE: With Amazon’s Alexa recording private conversations, are we too complacent about AI in our lives? May 29, 2018 With Amazon’s Alexa recording private conversations, are we too complacent about AI in our lives? Joe Baguley, vice president and chief technology officer (EMEA) at VMware, says YES. As more complex and automated technology enters our daily lives, we must bear some responsibility as consumers to ensure that we are educated on what that technology [...]
Space man? Virgin boss Richard Branson says he will go to space in ‘months not years’ May 26, 2018 Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson says he is in training to be an astronaut and his first trip to space could be in “months not years”. Talking on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme multi-millionaire Branson said that he was close to achieving his long-held ambition of space travel. Read more: Richard Branson says space [...]
Bitcoin mining could take up 0.5pc of global energy consumption in 2018 May 20, 2018 A study has found that by the end of this year, bitcoin mining could be using as much as half a per cent of the world’s global energy usage, making it a significant threat to renewable energy efforts and potentially making it an inefficient investment. Bitcoin mining, which has received increased interest from both the [...]
Uber chief product officer Jeff Holden becomes latest to leave the ride-hailing app May 18, 2018 The chief product officer and front man for Uber’s flying taxi plans Jeff Holden is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities. Holden, who joined the company in 2014 after leaving Groupon, has been at the forefront of Uber’s new project Elevate and his resignation comes at a bad time for the project that now [...]
Royal Mail share price falls as record revenues fail to offset profit problems May 17, 2018 Royal Mail today blasted through the £10bn revenue barrier, as continued stellar growth overseas offset a stuttering performance in the UK. But shares fell five per cent this morning with investors disappointed by a sharp deterioration in annual profits, which were hurt by charges from the firm’s pension fund overhaul. Today’s results take the shine [...]
Big Tech must be tamed, for the sake of a fair society May 17, 2018 Just as the competitive oil rush gave way to Rockefeller’s new monopoly in the form of Standard Oil, so the internet’s infrastructure is being built around a handful of companies of immense and growing power: Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, along with their Chinese equivalents, Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu. There are real concerns that while [...]
The swashbuckling author of Be More Pirate is teaching entrepreneurs how to be maritime buccaneers May 16, 2018 Before Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, maritime swashbucklers were about more than eyeliner and Orlando Bloom. In fact, it’s possible Robert Louis Stevenson was closer to the mark in presenting pirates as heroic outlaws, whose thievery and sword-fighting merit glorification over farcical misrepresentation. This is the view of entrepreneur-turned-writer, Sam Conniff Allende. The Livity [...]
Uber appoints Amazon guruJamie Heywood as regional manager of northern and eastern Europe May 14, 2018 Uber has poached Amazon’s director of electronics as its new regional general manager for northern and eastern Europe as the management shakeups continue. Jamie Heywood will join Uber next month to take on the role that covers its operations in more than 70 cities and 12 countries, including the UK. The role was previously held [...]
Voice search will finally force marketers to use plain English May 14, 2018 Half (50%) of all searches will involve voice by 2020, according to ComScore, thanks to the rise of voice assistants. At last, organisations will need to ditch marketing jargon and speak the language of their audience if they want to be found online, or they will simply lose their business. Around a decade ago, I [...]