News

Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics

January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21
Unforeseen consequences of new technologies put UK at risk

Lords committee told that the risks associated with various emerging digital technologies must be assessed together, with input from UK citizens, if the government is to avoid ‘siloisation’ of fundamentally interconnected problems
January 13, 2021 13 Jan'21
South Central Ambulance Service drives out of Covid data fog with Qlik

Ambulance service’s business intelligence has come into its own during the coronavirus crisis, helping the managers behind the paramedics to deliver the service with fast data flows and joined-up datasets
January 12, 2021 12 Jan'21
Former ministers speak out on Mike Lynch extradition

As Mike Lynch, founder and former CEO of Autonomy, awaits his US extradition hearing, several former Tory MPs have expressed their concerns
January 11, 2021 11 Jan'21
Ordnance Survey opens up direct, API access to location data for public sector

Location data made available to public sector organisations via application programming interfaces, reducing data management overheads

January 08, 2021 08 Jan'21
Major facial-recognition supplier builds system to identify masked faces

Facial-recognition supplier claims new system can accurately identify masked faces, therefore promoting public health during the pandemic. But questions remain about whether its existing UK law enforcement clients will be deploying the technology
January 08, 2021 08 Jan'21
AI Council advises government to do artificial intelligence moonshots

The AI Council has published a “roadmap” of advice to government in respect of developing a UK state strategy for artificial intelligence, encompassing skills, vendor support and public sector procurement
January 07, 2021 07 Jan'21
Poor data flows hampered government’s Covid-19 response, says the Science and Technology Committee

House of Commons Science and Technology Committee finds poor data management to have hampered the government’s Covid-19 pandemic response
January 07, 2021 07 Jan'21
Competition and Markets Authority kicks off Nvidia/Arm investigation

In September, Arm and Nvidia announced a £31bn merger. Will Arm chip design remain free from Nvidia’s influence?
January 06, 2021 06 Jan'21
Distributed supercomputer DiRAC gets a £20m upgrade

New funding will be used to boost performance and make the HPC system much more energy efficient
January 05, 2021 05 Jan'21
AI advancement: Mimicking decision-making

In The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger is transported back to 1984. If Arnie had to rely on cloud connectivity, he’d still be walking around naked

January 04, 2021 04 Jan'21
Caerphilly council delivers free school meals through automation

Welsh council expands its robotic process automation project, which has successfully helped the council deliver free school meals during the Covid-19 pandemic
January 03, 2021 03 Jan'21
Covid-19’s impact on the retail supply chain

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed gaps in the ability of retailers to mitigate supply chain imbalances
December 31, 2020 31 Dec'20
Pandemic heroes dominate New Year Honours List 2021

The New Year Honours List 2021 is remarkable for its recognition of those who have excelled during the Covid-19 public health emergency, including digital and data professionals
December 30, 2020 30 Dec'20
Top 10 ASEAN IT stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 ASEAN IT stories of 2020
December 30, 2020 30 Dec'20
UK-EU Brexit deal passes Commons with six-month data adequacy bridge

IT industry trade body TechUK has welcomed a six-month data adequacy bridge, in the wake of the EU-UK trade deal that the House of Commons has voted for
December 30, 2020 30 Dec'20
Top 10 information management stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 information management stories of 2020
December 29, 2020 29 Dec'20
Top 10 business applications stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 business applications stories of 2020
December 24, 2020 24 Dec'20
UK-EU Brexit deal: TechUK and DigitalEurope hail new dawn but note unfinished data business

Technology trade bodies TechUK and DigitalEurope welcome Christmas Eve UK-EU Brexit deal as a new dawn, but say there is work still be to done on data adequacy and financial equivalence
December 24, 2020 24 Dec'20
UK-EU Brexit deal: TechUK sees positive runes on digital and data adequacy

TechUK is giving a cautious welcome to the imminent UK-EU trade deal, seeing positive signs for data adequacy and digital trade
December 24, 2020 24 Dec'20
Top 10 Downtime Upload podcasts of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 Downtime Upload podcasts of 2020
December 22, 2020 22 Dec'20
Top 10 retail technology stories of 2020

Computer Weekly looks at what 2020 had in store for the retail industry – just how did technology help retailers adapt to changing customer behaviour during the pandemic?
December 21, 2020 21 Dec'20
Nordic CIO interview: Åsa Melvanius, Lund municipality

For Åsa Melvanius, CDO at the Swedish municipality of Lund, created a “robot factory” that has saved the city more than 6,500 hours by automating routine processes
December 21, 2020 21 Dec'20
Top 10 artificial intelligence stories of 2020

AI has moved beyond a tool for web giants and internet startups to something mainstream businesses should take seriously
December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20
Government can’t be complacent with AI, says Lords report

Report urges coordination on policy and use of artificial intelligence, and sets out recommendations for how official bodies should respond to advances in the technology
December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20
Guide Dogs data strategy navigates path to organisational view

Guide Dogs CIO Gerard McGovern is mapping out a data strategy that is aimed at taking the charity from an individual to an organisational view of data
December 15, 2020 15 Dec'20
Finland examines wider use of AI video camera technology

Authorities in Helsinki will use artificial intelligence and video technologies to help them automate monitoring of crowds
December 14, 2020 14 Dec'20
Google services outage: Gmail, YouTube and Docs temporarily down

Google’s services suffered unexpected downtime on 14 December 2020. Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive, the Android Play Store and its maps service all affected
December 14, 2020 14 Dec'20
Digital Ethics Summit 2020: governance key to inclusive post-Covid economic recovery

Pluralism key to developing and deploying technologies for an inclusive post-Covid economic recovery, according to a panel at Digital Ethics Summit 2020
December 13, 2020 13 Dec'20
Singapore trials beacons to bolster police operations

Police beacons equipped with video cameras, sirens, floodlights and speakers are being deployed at two parks to improve public safety in a year-long trial
December 10, 2020 10 Dec'20
Alan Turing Institute appoints global advisory board to aid digital identity schemes project

The Alan Turing Institute announces an international advisory board for a project investigating digital identity schemes, with a view to building the technology and organisational infrastructure to sustain them as trustworthy
December 10, 2020 10 Dec'20
DCMS’s Whittingdale: National Data Strategy enters post-consultation phase

Minister for media and data tells TechUK’s Digital Ethics summit that the long-awaited national data strategy has entered a new, post-consultation phase, and that the UK is set to show international leadership on digital and data in 2021
December 09, 2020 09 Dec'20
Top IT predictions in APAC in 2021

The Asia-Pacific region will continue to be a cradle for technology innovation in the new year, whether it is 5G services, artificial intelligence, cloud computing or cyber security
December 06, 2020 06 Dec'20
China lags US in computer vision

China trails the US in the field of computer vision despite making inroads in computing and research, new report finds
December 04, 2020 04 Dec'20
Government data quality framework geared to overcome poorly organised data

The Office for National Statistics has published guidelines aimed at improving “disorganised” public sector data
December 04, 2020 04 Dec'20
Avast and Borsetta to support Intel’s AI security project

Security firm Avast and AI security specialist Borsetta have signed up to support an Intel-led artificial intelligence security research project
December 03, 2020 03 Dec'20
Dreamforce 2020: Hyperforce shifts Salesforce to public cloud

Salesforce COO Bret Taylor announced “Hyperforce” during Marc Benioff’s opening keynote at the virtual version of the supplier’s 2020 Dreamforce event in San Francisco
December 03, 2020 03 Dec'20
S/4 Hana projects come off back burner, but skills shortage impedes progress

UK and Ireland SAP User Group members set to ramp up S/4 ERP migration projects, but skills shortage and retirement of SAP managers in user organisations are a concern
December 02, 2020 02 Dec'20
How IoT keeps water flowing in rural communities

Non-profit organisation Charity: water has built an internet-of-things device packed with sensors to keep wells in remote parts of Africa and Asia flowing with clean water
December 02, 2020 02 Dec'20
Salesforce confirms rumoured Slack acquisition on eve of Dreamforce 2020

Salesforce has announced a $27.7bn stock and cash acquisition of Slack ahead of the virtual iteration of its Dreamforce 2020 event
December 02, 2020 02 Dec'20
CIO interview: John Davison, First Central Group

For the last nine years, John Davison has provided an IT strategy to drive business operations. Automation is the next phase of that strategy
December 01, 2020 01 Dec'20
Wayra partners with UK government for Latin American scaleup project

Two scaleups from three Latin American countries – Argentina, Chile and Uruguay – will be selected by a project that will help the growing firms expand overseas into the UK market
November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20
Lords propose making tech giants pay for using news

Digital platforms such as Google and Facebook profit from running adverts alongside publishers’ content, but no financial compensation is given for carrying that content, says Lords committee
November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20
Algorithmic transparency obligations needed in public sector

Public sector’s use of algorithms with social impacts needs to be more transparent to foster trust and hold organisations responsible for the negative outcomes their systems may produce, says report
November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20
Government pumps £20m into AI research projects

Alan Turing Institute’s artificial intelligence (AI) research fellows will receive funding for 15 projects including using AI to detect cancer and improve the performance of virtual personal assistants
November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20
How Grab is using technology to improve trust and safety

Southeast Asian unicorn Grab is tapping artificial intelligence and other technologies to keep its users safe and cyber criminals at bay
November 26, 2020 26 Nov'20
Robots taking jobs, but creating careers

Robotic process automation developers tell Computer Weekly about the job they never expected to be doing
November 26, 2020 26 Nov'20
Tony Blair Institute and Oracle combine to launch cloud-based vaccine management in Africa

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) and Oracle have combined to launch a vaccine management programme in several African countries
November 25, 2020 25 Nov'20
Australia’s science agency unveils mapping tech for SMEs

The digital specialist arm of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has developed a mapping system to help robots navigate dangerous and complex terrain
November 25, 2020 25 Nov'20
Scottish government unveils strategy for digital planning

Scotland’s government has published a document that describes its strategy for the digitisation of the nation’s planning system
November 25, 2020 25 Nov'20
UK government Geospatial Commission stipulates actions to exploit location data

Report outlines some actions public bodies and companies can take to make better economic use of location data