Financial news

• ChatGPT CEO shares concern over AI being used to interfere with elections – video

  16-05-2023 22:47
  
  The CEO of OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, told the US Senate he is concerned about the use of artificial intelligence to interfere with election integrity. Speaking before Congress for the first time, Sam Altman suggested that the US government should consider licensing and testing requirements for development of AI models. The White House has convened top technology CEOs for a hearing to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. Industry experts, including Altman, called on lawmakers
  
  Read more

• Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim submits late £5.5bn bid to buy Manchester United

  16-05-2023 22:25
  
  Improved offer includes clearing the club’s £1bn debtBid also pledges fund for club and surrounding communitySheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani has made a dramatic fourth bid for Manchester United, with an improved offer of no more than £5.5bn which includes the clearance of the £1bn debt and a fund solely for the club and surrounding community.More than two weeks have passed since Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the Ineos owner, each submitted what were supposedly fin
  
  Read more

• Ghanaian influencer charged in New York for allegedly scamming lonely seniors

  16-05-2023 21:52
  
  Mona Faiz Montrage – AKA Hajia4Reall – allegedly tricked victims into sending money overseas to the tune of more than $2mA high-profile Ghanaian Instagram influencer has pleaded not guilty to New York charges for her alleged role in several online “romance schemes” that targeted lonely seniors, court records indicate.Mona Faiz Montrage, who was arrested on 10 November in the UK and extradited to the US several days ago, was part of a West Africa-based “criminal ente
  
  Read more

• US charges ex-Apple engineer with stealing trade secrets, then fleeing to China

  16-05-2023 21:36
  
  Justice department announces charges involving company’s self-driving car technologyThe US has charged a former Apple engineer accused of stealing the company’s technology on autonomous systems, including self-driving cars, and then fleeing to China.The Department of Justice on Tuesday announced charges in that case and several others involving the alleged theft of trade secrets and efforts to steal technology to benefit China, Russia and Iran. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The Guardian view on the cost of living crisis: Labour needs creative solutions | Editorial

  16-05-2023 20:07
  
  Rather than placing all bets on growth, the party should focus on the public goods and services that sustain our daily livesThe sharp fall in disposable income among UK households has been blamed on the war in Ukraine, supply chain problems and Conservative policies. It is a product of all these things. But it is also a symptom of a longer decline in living standards that predates them. In response, both the Conservatives and Labour have proposed variations on the same programme of growth and jo
  
  Read more

• No 10 food summit ‘no more than a PR stunt’ and failed to tackle key issues

  16-05-2023 19:30
  
  Rishi Sunak’s Farm to Fork meeting, the first of its kind, failed to address solutions to inflation, soaring costs and food security, say attendersRishi Sunak’s Downing Street food summit has been described as “empty" by food and farming industry representatives, who rounded on the prime minister for failing to discuss soaring inflation or set out measures to safeguard British food production.The Farm to Fork summit, the first meeting of its kind, brought together farmers, food
  
  Read more

• Vodafone’s new boss still needs to dial up radicalism | Nils Pratley

  16-05-2023 17:59
  
  With job cut savings soaked up by reinvestment, a turnaround depends on Margherita Della Valle making value-creating dealsVodafone to cut 11,000 jobs worldwide over next three yearsIt is remarkable that a company, even one as big as Vodafone, can announce 11,000 job cuts over three years but also say that no net cost savings will flow to the bottom line. A notional €250m (£220m) gain will be consumed entirely by reinvestment. Such is life in the world of European big telecoms –
  
  Read more

• Silicon Valley Bank’s former CEO tells Senate he is ‘truly sorry’ for collapse

  16-05-2023 16:50
  
  Greg Becker tells banking committee that takeover of SVB was ‘personally and professionally devastating’The former CEO of the collapsed lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has said he was “truly sorry” for what he called the “devastating” collapse of the bank that triggered the worst banking crisis since 2008.Speaking at a Senate banking committee hearing on Tuesday, Greg Becker said he believed the bank was responsive to regulator concerns about managing risk an
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• ‘It was apocalyptic’: Tim Richards of Vue on cinema’s collapse and comeback

  16-05-2023 15:00
  
  The chain’s founder is celebrating its 20th anniversary – but for a while it, and the industry as a whole, was on the brinkTim Richards is celebrating a milestone he feared he might not see – the 20th anniversary of the creation of Vue, Europe’s largest privately owned cinema chain. That achievement looked precarious in the pandemic, when the world’s biggest cinema operators were pushed to the brink.“When it is your baby, your firstborn, going through this, it
  
  Read more

• 4BIO Capital Portfolio Company Ray Therapeutics Closes Oversubscribed $100M Series A Financing to Advance Optogenetic Gene Therapies for Blinding Diseases

  16-05-2023 14:00 via globenewswire.com
  
  Press Release4BIO Capital Portfolio Company Ray Therapeutics Closes Oversubscribed $100M Series A Financing to Advance Optogenetic Gene Therapies for Blinding DiseasesSeries A follows initial seed investment from 4BIO Capital in 2021Funds will advance Ray Therapeutics’ pipeline of optogenetics gene therapy programs for blinding retinal diseasesLondon & San Francisco, CA, 16 May 2023 – 4BIO Capital (“4BIO” or “the Group”), an international venture capital f
  
  Read more

• UK interest rate rises are taking the labour market off the boil

  16-05-2023 11:02
  
  Number of vacancies falls and more people rejoin workforce – but work is needed on skills and ill healthUK payroll numbers fall as unemployment rate rises to 3.9%There are signs the Bank of England’s interest rate rises are making businesses think twice about hiring staff, bringing down the number of vacancies.Pushing in the same direction, the high cost of living is driving more people back into the workforce. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• One in five workers will be higher-rate taxpayers by 2027 – IFS

  16-05-2023 01:01
  
  Jeremy Hunt’s freeze on allowances and thresholds will put a quarter of teachers and one-eighth of nurses in 40% income tax bracketOne in four teachers and one in eight nurses will be higher-rate taxpayers by 2027 as a result of the government’s record freeze on income tax allowances and thresholds, according to a leading thinktank.The Institute for Fiscal Studies said better-paid public sector workers will be among the almost 8 million people – one in five of all taxpayers &nd
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!