• Bank of England handed powers to regulate key tech firms including Amazon and Google

    Direct oversight of ‘critical third parties’ such as Oracle and Microsoft given to ensure resilient cyber-defences and help safeguard UK economyThe Bank of England has been handed powers to regulate important tech firms including Amazon and Google from next week, amid fears that system failures could threaten financial stability and harm consumers.From Monday, the Bank and fellow City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be in charge of ensuring that four large-scale
  • The bulging in-tray of challenges Andy Burnham faces upon entering No 10

    The bulging in-tray of challenges Andy Burnham faces upon entering No 10
    From welfare and defence spending to cost of living and geopolitics, we look at the key issues left over from StarmerAndy Burnham is expected to become prime minister in less than two weeks and has promised to significantly change Labour’s agenda and deliver improvements for all parts of the UK.But he will arrive with a bulging in-tray of challenges and issues left over from Keir Starmer – from geopolitics to the cost of living. Here is what Burnham can expect to find behind the Down
  • Alarm over launch of facial recognition in UK shops that instantly alerts police

    Civil liberties groups say Facewatch system in stores such as Sainsbury’s and B&M is ‘dangerous escalation’Facial recognition technology in shops will soon alert police in real time to the presence of serious offenders, with civil liberties groups warning of a “dangerous escalation” towards surveillance and criminalisation in the retail sector.Facewatch, a facial recognition system used by more than 100 businesses including Sainsbury’s, B&M and Spar to
  • ‘AI accountability agenda’: US senator unveils package of bills to curb tech’s harms

    Exclusive: Senator Ed Markey on why he has proposed legislation aimed at curbing datacenters, automated hiring systems and harm to childrenUS senator Ed Markey is worried about the perils of unregulated artificial intelligence.What part? All of it: the costs associated with thirsty, energy-guzzling datacenters, intrusive workplace surveillance, bias in discriminatory algorithms, AI overriding workers’ judgments, and deepening economic inequality – as those who profit most from AI rak
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  • South Korea chip maker SK hynix rides AI boom raising $26.5bn in huge US listing

    South Korea chip maker SK hynix rides AI boom raising $26.5bn in huge US listing
    SK hynix, a supplier of advanced memory chips, has seen profits skyrocket thanks to the global race to build AI datacentresSouth Korean chip maker SK hynix set pricing for its mega US listing on Friday, aiming to raise $26.5bn as it takes advantage of the AI boom in what will be one of the world’s biggest ever stock sales.The Asian semiconductor giant plans to issue the equivalent of about 18m shares on Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq index later in the day. Continue reading...
  • Reeves to launch City ‘skills compact’ committing firms to retrain staff in AI

    Exclusive: Plan to improve skills of thousands of financial sector workers to keep pace with tech revolutionChancellor Rachel Reeves is to announce a new City “skills compact” that will commit firms such as Barclays and Lloyds to retraining thousands of financial sector workers for the AI revolution.The financial services skills compact will be launched on Tuesday, during what is likely to be Reeves’s final Mansion House speech to City bosses before Andy Burnham’s expecte
  • Telstra CEO Vicki Brady faces questions on nationwide outage – video

    Returning from annual leave, Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady has faced a barrage of questions for the first time since the company's nationwide outage on Wednesday affected train services, payment systems and triple zero calls. Brady says the failure was not the result of job restructuring, insisting that 'people and processes worked as they should have'. She said Telstra would conduct a thorough investigation into the software glitch behind the outage.An earlier headline on this video incor
  • Robota review – machines on the march in next-gen version of sci-fi classic

    Schwarzman Centre, Oxford
    Headlong’s take on Karel Čapek’s 1920 tale of romance and robots is rife with timely debates about tech’s threat but at times the philosophical discussions drag onIf our world is currently thinking through the brave new future of generative AI and super intelligence, Karel Čapek’s 1920 play RUR: Rossum’s Universal Robots proves the notion of robot consciousness and rebellion is not a new anxiety. So does Mary Shelley’s Frank
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  • ‘A lot of red flags’: plans for New Zealand’s first datacentre spark concern as locals demand greater transparency

    ‘A lot of red flags’: plans for New Zealand’s first datacentre spark concern as locals demand greater transparency
    Plans to build a NZ$3.5bn datacentre in Makarewa in the country’s south has drawn concern about electricity and water use, and potential noise pollutionPeople living near the site of New Zealand’s first planned AI datacentre are calling for more transparency about the project, especially about how the centre’s huge electricity and water use and potential noise pollution could affect them.Singapore-based company Datagrid has secured approval to build a NZ$3.5bn (US$2bn) AI datac
  • Instagram’s AI image generator alarms privacy experts

    Instagram users should check privacy settings after rollout of new Meta AI image generator, advocates warnMeta has sparked blowback from privacy advocates for allowing its new AI image maker to generate photos of users with public profiles by default.Users of Meta’s Muse Image AI tool, released Tuesday, can tag public Instagram profiles and generate pictures that pull from faces of people featured in these social media posts. Instagram users are not notified when their posts are integrated
  • SpaceX and AI startup wealth fuels demand for private jets

    Newly minted rich and those anticipating huge IPOs are fueling buying and charter spree in the private jet sectorSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Aviation lawyer Amanda Applegate skipped her annual vacation last month as a surge of wealth from AI startups and SpaceX sent a wave of tech investors shopping for private jets, ⁠burying her in paperwork for aircraft-purchase agreements.The ⁠attorney, based in Cleveland, Ohio, attributed the rush to a handful ​of majo