They explore the difficulties governments face in regulating social media platforms while maintaining free speech and Elon Musk’s controversial stance on free speech absolutionism.

The conversation then moves to an insightful interview with Tom Alcock, founder of Code Red Partners, who shares his expertise in cybersecurity recruitment. He discusses the need to recruit beyond traditional methods, emphasising practical experience and diverse backgrounds.

Alcock also highlights the challenges of retaining cybersecurity talent, especially the importance of creating inclusive environments that foster engagement and prevent attrition to illicit opportunities. Diversity, he explains, plays a crucial role in bringing new perspectives and enhancing the overall effectiveness of cybersecurity recruitment.

The post TI:TALKS: Brazil bans X, plus finding cybersecurity talent with Tom Alcock appeared first on TechInformed.

Experts claim that mixing artificial intelligence and automation may offer enterprises a future where technology can self-diagnose and solve issues without human intervention, reducing potential system downtime and boosting productivity.

The concept of an autonomous enterprise sees AI-driven systems manage tasks like predictive maintenance, allowing employees to focus their skills on innovation over troubleshooting. These systems operate in real-time, leading to fewer disruptions and enabling seamless operations across all departments.

Given GenAI’s momentum in recent years, are we anywhere nearer to seeing true autonomous enterprises?

According to Akhilesh Tripathi, CEO and founder of automation vendor Digitate, we are approaching a key moment in the development of AI that will see much more automation across the enterprise sector.

“When we started Digitate, we recognised that, in most large organisations, automation was siloed — it sits within its own island,” he explains. “We found these islands exist because automation doesn’t scale.”

In other words, automation for individual tasks or processes worked, but once additional complexity was introduced, most AI and automation platforms would fail or struggle.

The problem, of course, with having automation but only operating in silos is that it isn’t really automation because businesses still need someone or something to connect each of the processes.

And it is AI itself that can offer a solution, says Tripathi.

Proactive

Digitate was launched in 2015 as part of Tata Consultancy Services. It initially offered its Ignio suite of services, which aims to automate enterprise operations.

Tripathi is a TCS veteran, having worked for the Indian giant for more than two decades and rising to head up its Canadian unit. He assumed the chief commercial officer of Digitate at launch and became CEO in 2020.

“Tata has been working on automation and AI since the 1980s. At one point, I worked on a project where we developed a way to automate the delivery of coolant for a water plant.

“As we got more into it, it became very clear that this sort of process automation could be transformative from an enterprise standpoint, but you need to put it directly in the hands of the enterprises so they can maximise its value.”

Digitate has already worked with several large enterprises to help them join up automated processes and deliver AI-powered services.

Avis

This includes a project with car rental firm Avis, which was facing a situation that had left its IT and support teams constantly firefighting and manually resolving issues, as well as several other challenges.

Avis engaged in an organisation-wide digital transformation project to move from manual and reactive operations across its 2,900 offices spanning 112 countries to an autonomous and predictive one.

At the time, the rental firm was using a third-party monitoring tool to monitor business-critical applications, but it had suffered availability issues caused by server-level problems, resulting in missed critical alerts.

To overcome this, Avis approached Digitate to implement a solution that would monitor and manage the availability of a third-party monitoring tool. Its Ignio AI platform allowed Avis to monitor any server-side issues, and whenever one arose, the platform conducted a root-cause analysis. It would then triage the issue automatically and perform ‘self-heal’ functions where possible.

Digitate also worked with Avis to reduce downtime of critical applications, including its booking tool for customers. Ignio monitored an Oracle database and functional attributes of a CMS system linked to the applications to isolate issues. It then drilled down further into the application layer, web layer, and database layer to triage issues and proactively fix them.

Overall, Ignio has managed more than 176,372 requests to date, leading to a 68.6% reduction in noise and 99.9% uptime for in-scope critical applications. Around 60% of detected incidents were resolved automatically by the platform.

“We love seeing innovation happen in areas that have been pain points for us for years. This saves us a ton of time and has dramatically improved our compliance,” said Avis in a customer testimonial.

Data-day AI

The Ignio platform uses generative AI to assess data points produced by existing operations, then predict potential problems and, where possible, solve them before they need human attention. If it cannot resolve them, it can flag problems earlier, reducing downtime.

Data hygiene is one of the significant challenges facing any enterprise looking to automate processes. If the data used by analytics tools such as Ignio is not clean, its effectiveness will be reduced. However, many companies are using reems of legacy data that are not clean, which is embedded in the processes they are looking to automate.

Tripathi acknowledges this challenge but says AI can be used to recognise duplicity or anomalies within data sets.

“We will have both the logs and information from a sensor, so that helps us to make sense of those processes and survey what is good data and what is not,” he explains.

“We can also present this back to the enterprises so they can start the process of cleaning up their datasets internally, which also helps automate processes in the long run.”

The platform can also detect what is classed as “normal” performance from processes and devices in what Tripathi calls an enterprise contextual blueprint.

“This is dynamic – it is constantly updating,” he adds. “But we can know what ‘Monday morning normal’ is compared to other days and reverse populate that.”

Engie

Another Digitate customer, energy provider Engie, generated around 150,000 bills for its 12+ million customers every day.

“Even a minor percentage of problems with billing or invoicing leads to a huge impact, resulting in customer dissatisfaction, handling front desk manual corrections, and piles of unbilled revenue,” says Tripathi.

In some ways, technology made this worse. The introduction of smart meters led to a higher need to correct meter readings, negatively impacting customer satisfaction.

Engie turned to Digitate to help it reduce the generation of incorrect bills and invoicing, reduce revenue realisation loss caused by backlogs, and improve customer satisfaction.

Ignio was integrated with an Oracle database to conduct the automatic execution of service requests with scheduling while identifying and correcting erroneous data in SAP.

This led to more correct meter readings and billing, which in turn led to fewer erroneous bills and examples of double billing. Digitate also helped Engie automate more of its call centre functions to improve customer service.

Stats-wise, this involved more than 4,000 batch jobs that were monitored autonomously. On the finance side, payment files worth 2.5 million were integrated without delay, and monitoring improved system stability by 30%, according to Digitate.

The AI equation

Confidence in AI systems is on the rise, and according to Tripathi, this means that elements of automation have now gone mainstream. However, with it have also been some warnings, including several business leaders who warned of the threat newer AI models could pose to humanity.

Tripathi believes AI will make humans “appear more intelligent” because users will be able to extract more insights from business processes and incorporate them into discussions.

He argues that when mixed with automation, AI can “simplify conversations and accelerate problem resolution.”

“If you strengthen that relationship, businesses will see huge advantages. Leaders can better understand what is going on in their business and visualise challenges, helping to build more support for the most complex problems that automated systems can’t overcome alone,” he adds.

He concludes: “In my view, GenAI plus human is better than just a human. But GenAI plus automation AI, plus a human, is better than GenAI. We are big believers in augmenting intelligence – it is never about replacing it.”

The post AI’s role in the autonomous enterprise appeared first on TechInformed.

Occurring just a couple of weeks after the global CrowdStrike IT outage, which ground airports to a halt and forced medical facilities to resort to pen and paper, it felt the right time to reflect as firms find themselves under pressure to adopt AI  faster and release products before they are properly evaluated.

Lisa Einstein, senior AI advisor at the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), compared what she called “the AI gold rush” to previous generations of software vulnerabilities that were shipped to market without security in mind.

“We see people not being fully clear about how security implications are brought in. With the CrowdStrike incident, no malicious actors were involved, but there was a failure in the design and implementation that impacted people globally.

“We need the developers of these systems to treat safety, security and reliability as a core business priority,” she added.

The Internet Security Alliance’s (ISA) president and CEO, Larry Clinton, put it more bluntly: “Speed kills — today we’re all about getting the product to market quickly — and that’s a recipe for disaster in terms of AI.”

He added: “Fundamentally, we need to reorientate the whole business model of IT, which is ‘Get to market quick and patch’. We need to move to a ‘Secure by Design’ model and to work with government partners so we are competitive and secure.”

Many of the event’s sessions, which featured speakers from WTT, Microsoft, CISA, Nvidia, as well as the CIA’s first chief technology officer, were focussed on how organisations might achieve ‘Secure by Design’ AI, which TechInformed has summarised in eight key takeaways.

1. Do the basics and do them well

“You can’t forget the basics,” stressed veteran CIA agent Bob Flores during one of the event’s panel sessions. “You have to test systems and applications and the connections between the applications, and you have to understand what your environment looks like,” he added.

Flores, who, towards the end of his CIA career, spent three years as the agency’s first enterprise chief technology officer, asked Black Hat’s AI conference delegates: “How many of you out there have machines that are attached to the internet that you don’t know about? Everyone’s got one, right?”

He also warned that, with AI, understanding what’s in your network needs to happen fast “because the bad guys are getting faster. They can overcome everything you put in place.”

And while enterprises might think it’s safer to develop their own LLMs rather than to rely on internet-accessible chatbots such as ChatGPT, Flores is concerned that they might not be building in security from the beginning. “It’s still an afterthought. As you build these LLMs, you must think, every step of the way, like a bad guy and wonder if you can get into this thing and exploit it.”

2. Architect it out

Bartley Richardson, cybersecurity AI lead at GPU giant NVIDIA, advised the Black Hat crowd to look at AI safety from an engineering perspective.

“When you put together an LLM application, don’t just look at every block you’ve architected there; look at the connections between those blocks and ask: ‘Am I doing the best possible security at each of those stages?’ ‘Is my model encrypted at rest?’ Are you putting safeguards in place for your prompt injections?’ This is all Security by Design. When you architect it out, these things become apparent, and you have these feedback loops where you need to put in security,” he explained.

3. Create a safe space to experiment

Matt Martin, founder of US cyber consulting firm Two Candlesticks and an AI Security Council member for Black Hat, advised that creating a controlled sandbox environment within which employees can experiment was important. “A lot of people want to use AI, but they don’t know what they want to do with it just yet – so giving them a safe space to do that can mitigate risk,” he said.

Martin added that it was important to understand the business context and how it was going to be applied. “Ensure someone in the company is in overall control of the projects. Otherwise, you’ll end up with 15 different AI projects that you can’t actually control and don’t have the budget for.”

4. Red team your products  

Brandon Dixon, AI partner strategist at Microsoft, explained how the software giant is balancing advances in AI with security. “We’ve done that through the formation of a deployment safety board that looks at every GenAI feature that we’ve deployed and attaching a red teaming process to it before it reaches our customers,” he says.

Red teaming is an attack technique used in cybersecurity to test how an organisation would respond to a genuine cyber-attack.

Check out our healthcare cybersecurity tabletop coverage here

“We’ve also formed very comprehensive guidance around responsible AI both internally and externally, consulting experts, which has enabled us to balance moving very quickly from the product side in a way that doesn’t surprise customers,” he added.

5. Partnerships are paramount

According to CISA’s Lisa Einstein, ‘Secure by Design’ relies on public and private enterprise partnerships. She added that this is particularly important in terms of sectors that provide critical infrastructure.

To this end, in 2021, CISA established the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC). This public-private partnership aims to reduce cyber risk to the nation by combining the capabilities of the federal government with private sector innovation and insight.

Einstein told conference delegates: “CISA only succeeds through partnerships because more than 80% of critical infrastructure is in the private sector in the US.

“We have a collective and shared responsibility. I’m seeing organisations that didn’t think they were part of this ecosystem, not realising that they have part of the responsibility. Tech providers also need to help these enterprises become more secure and keep everything safe,” she said.

Partnerships with and between vendors were also emphasised at the event. Jim Kavanaugh, longtime CEO and technology guru of $20 billion IT powerhouse World Wide Technology, spoke on the benefits of the firm’s long-term partnership with chipmaker Nvidia, including advances with AI.

In March this year, WWT committed $500 million over the next three years to spur AI development and customer adoption. The investment includes a new AI-proving ground lab environment and a collaboration ecosystem that uses tools from partners, including Nvidia.

While former CIA agent Flores recognised that such partnerships were crucial,  he also stressed the need for firms to conduct robust assessments before onboarding.

“Every one of your vendors is a partner for success, but there are also vulnerabilities. They must be able to secure their systems, and you must be able to secure yours. And together, you must secure whatever links them,” he noted.

6. Appoint an AI officer

The conference noted the rise of the chief AI officer, who oversees the safe implementation of AI in organisations. This appointment is now mandatory for some US government agencies following the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of AI.

These execs are required to evaluate different ways to deploy robust processes for evaluating use cases and AI governance.

While it was not a requirement for CISA to appoint a chief AI officer, Lisa Einstein stepped up to the role last month as the organisation recognised that it was important to its mission beyond having an internal AI use case lead.

“CISA wanted someone responsible for coordinating those efforts to ensure we were all going in the same direction with a technically sound perspective and to make sure that the work we’re doing internally and the advice we are giving externally is aligned so that we can adapt and be nimble, “she explained.

While this doesn’t have to be a board-level appointment, Einstein added that the person needs to be in the room with an ever-expanding roster of C-Suit players: the CIO, the CSO, the legal and privacy teams, and the data officers when decisions and policies on AI are made.

Einstein added that, within ten years, the position should be redundant if she’s done her job well. “By then, what we do should be so ingrained in us that we won’t need the role anymore. It would be like employing a chief electricity officer. Everyone understands the role they must play and their shared responsibility for securing AI systems and using them responsibly.”

7. Weave AI into your business operations

For ISA chief Larry Clinton, Secure by Design starts with theory. For over a decade, his organisation has collaborated with the US National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), the US Departments of Homeland Security, and the Board of Direct Justice on an annual handbook for corporate boards to analyse cyber risk.

According to Clinton, ISA is currently developing a version of this handbook specifically for working with AI, which will be released this fall.

Clinton claimed that enterprises need to bring three core issues to the board level.

“AI deployment needs to be done strategically. Organisations underestimate risks associated with AI and overestimate the ability of staff to manage those risks. This comes from an idiosyncratic adaptation of AI, which needs to be woven into the full process of business operations, not just added on independently to various projects,” he says.

The second issue, he said, was education and the need to explain AI impacts to board members rather than explaining the nuts and bolts of how various AI deployments work.

The third issue, he added, was communication. “It’s critical that we move AI out of the IT bubble and make it part of the entire organisation. This is exactly the same advice we give with respect to cybersecurity. AI is an enterprise-wide function, not an IT function.”

8. Limiting functionality mitigates risk

According to Microsoft’s Brandon Dixon, limiting the actions that an AI system is capable of is well within a human’s control and should, at times, be acted upon. The computer giant has done this with many of its first-generation copilot tools, he added.

“What we’ve implemented today is a lot of ‘read-only’ operations. There aren’t a lot of AI systems that are automatically acting on behalf of the user to isolate systems. And I think that’s an important distinction to make — because risk comes in when AI automatically does things that a human might do when it may not be fully informed. If it’s just reading and providing summaries and explaining results, these can be very useful and low-risk functions.”

According to Dixon, the next stage will be to examine “how we go from assertive agency to partial autonomy to high autonomy to full autonomy. At each one of those levels, we need to ask what safety systems and security considerations we need to have to ensure that we don’t introduce unnecessary risk.”

The post Black Hat USA 2024: Eight ways to achieve ‘Secure by Design’ AI appeared first on TechInformed.

Elon Musk’s Starlink has blocked access to social media app X in Brazil. The billionaire Tesla owner initially skirted a Supreme Court order banning the platform in the country.

Earlier this week, the Brazilian Supreme Court banned X — formerly known as Twitter — based on concerns about misinformation after it failed to appoint legal representation.

A Supreme Court panel unanimously upheld the block on Monday, undermining Musk and his supporters’ efforts to portray Justice Alexandre de Moraes as attempting to censor political speech in Brazil.

Starlink initially appeared to refuse to comply with the Supreme Court justice’s order to prevent users from accessing the app – but it has now released a statement saying it will block X.

Had Starlink continued to disobey Judge Moraes by providing access, it could have faced repercussions from Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel.

Read more

Volvo slams brakes on EV-only 2030 target

Carmaker Volvo has abandoned plans to only see electric vehicles by 2030, saying it will continue to offer some hybrid models by that date.

Citing changing market conditions, Volvo said it was rowing back the EV ambitions that it unveiled three years ago, joining rivals including General Motors and Ford in reassessing plans.

Volvo said it now expects at least 90% of its output to be electric cars and plug-in hybrids by 2030, but it will also continue to sell a small number of traditional hybrids with conventional engines.

“We are resolute in our belief that our future is electric,” said Jim Rowan, chief executive of Volvo.

“However, it is clear that the transition to electrification will not be linear, and customers and markets are moving at different speeds.”

Read more

Nokia downplays mobile sale rumours

Finnish telecommunications vendor Nokia has downplayed reports that it is preparing to offload its mobile network business to rival Samsung.

A report from Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, claimed Nokia has explored various options for its mobile telecoms arm, including selling part or the entirety of the division, spinning it off into a separate entity, or merging with a rival.

This prompted the Finnish firm to release a statement reaffirming its commitment to the mobile division.

“Nokia has nothing to announce in relation to the speculations published in an article today, and no related insider project exists,” the company stated. “Nokia is committed to the success of its mobile networks business, a highly strategic asset for both Nokia and its customers.”

The company highlighted recent progress in the division, stating: “The business has made significant progress this year both on right-sizing its cost-base while protecting its product roadmap and winning new deals with new customers and increasing share with existing customers.”

Read more

EU, US, and the UK sign agreement on AI standards

As stated by the Council of Europe human rights organisation, the first legally binding international AI treaty is open for signing by the countries that negotiated it, including European Union members, the US, and the UK.

The AI Convention, which has been in discussion between 57 countries in total, addresses risks AI may pose while promoting responsible innovation.

“This convention is a major step to ensuring that these new technologies can be harnessed without eroding our oldest values, like human rights and the rule of law,” said Britain’s justice minister, Shabana Mahmood.

The Council of Europe is an international organisation separate from the EU with a mandate to safeguard human rights. The AI Convention will mainly focus on protecting people affected by AI systems and is separate from the EU AI Act.

Read more

Verizon to buy Frontier in an all-cash deal with $20 billion

Network provider Verizon has stated that it will buy fibre-optic internet provider Frontier Communications for $20 billion.

The deal will enable Verizon to better compete against US rivals AT&T and T-Mobile as they double down on unlimited plans and bundling options.

Frontier has 2.2 million fibre subscribers in 25 states, which will add to Verizon’s 7.4 million such users in nine states and Washington, D.C.

“The acquisition of Frontier is a strategic fit,” Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said.

The deal is expected to close in about 18 months and will expand Verizon’s coverage from the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions to multiple states in the Midwest, Texas, and California.

Read more

The post Starlink bans X in Brazil, Volvo abandons EV target, and Nokia downplays mobile sale rumours appeared first on TechInformed.

As cities swell, so does the demand for robust and efficient infrastructure – from housing to transportation and healthcare, there is pressure on local governments to invest in services. And many of these are underpinned by connectivity.

Technologies such as 5G and fibre are not merely faster and more efficient – they are the bedrock on which innovation builds in both the public and private sector. These sorts of connectivity enable real-time applications, such as intelligent traffic systems and public safety announcements, and also play a key role in the daily lives of citizens and businesses.

But not all cities are built the same, and connectivity can vary greatly from nation to nation, or even in neighbouring cities.

Take London, for example. Despite being a major technology and financial hub, the UK capital has significant room for improvement when it comes to connectivity, according to telecoms measurement service MedUX, which names it as one of the worst for quality 5G experiences in a study of 10 European cities.

According to the MedUX – which works with telecom providers, regulators, and enterprises to quality assess fixed and mobile wireless internet broadband – Berlin has the best connectivity. It found that the German capital has an 89.6% reach and was also the best city for 5G streaming with an average latency of less than 40 milliseconds.

By comparrison, only 77.5% of London’s population has 5G on its devices, below the urban average. Plus, it has an average download speed of 143 megabits per second, while in cities such as Lisbon, the speed is 528 Mbps, and 446 Mbps for Porto.

“Investing in high-quality 5G networks is crucial for achieving the smart cities’ vision,” says MedUX CMO, Rafael González. “This involves more than just widespread 5G coverage; it requires networks that meet specific performance standards for different use cases.”

Future-proof cities

MedUX’s research found significant disparities in network quality between regions, such as the UK compared to Germany – but consistent and reliable connectivity is essential for real-time applications and critical mission services.

For governments, the real task goes beyond laying fibre and erecting 5G towers. It requires a concerted effort to ensure these infrastructures are utilised to their full potential.

“In smart cities, high-quality connectivity is essential not just for enabling future-proof technologies like 5G but also for societal development, efficiency, and competitiveness,” says González.

He adds that real-time data transmission enabled by high-speed, low-latency networks are crucial for applications in traffic management, public safety, emergency response and more.

“Reliability and consistent performance also play a critical role in ensuring access to services and improving overall city efficiency.”

Take smart traffic management, such as Manchester city’s ongoing digital transformation of its transit system, where 5G connectivity can help in providing real-time data of transportation.

This will aid in streamlining transportation so commutes are timelier and can also help traffic light systems with reducing traffic and ensuring a better flow of vehicles.

“I really believe in the next five to ten years we will start to see smart transportation as a reality,” he adds.

“Smart traffic management, in general, is a very interesting use case, not only for real-time traffic data but also for autonomous vehicles,”

González points to the future idea of controlled lanes that will host only autonomous vehicles that will wirelessly communicate with each other and infrastructure: “That’s going to take more time, but of course, we are going to see that.” And 5G quality must keep up.

“Another use case that is very important is telemedicine.”

Similarly how the UK city of Liverpool has implemented 5G cells around the area of Kensington to ensure residents using telemedicine devices are connected, and nearby GPs can monitor their health remotely.

However, as cities become busier and GPs and hospitals become more strained, this type of remote monitoring will become more essential – so the need for quality 5G is equally important.

UK telco response

Given the poor results, TI asked telecoms operators in the UK what was going on – perhaps surprisingly, they acknowledge the performance issues, blaming market issues.

Robert Finnegan, CEO of Three UK tells TI: “UK mobile networks rank an abysmal 22^nd out of 25 in Europe on 5G speeds and availability, with the dysfunctional structure of the market denying us the ability to invest sustainability to fix this situation.”

Finnegan claims his firm’s proposed merger with Vodafone will “unlock £11 billion” worth of investment in digital infrastructure to help improve 5G networks across the UK.

Reza Rahnama, MD of mobile networks at BT Group says since EE, which it owns, launched in 2019, “it has prioritised quality of experience and reliability.”

The MedUX report supports this, with EE ranked the highest for UK mobile operators.

“While some networks have focused on peak speeds in small areas, EE’s approach has been a more consistent experience for a wider number of customers.”

“A lot of the focus has therefore been on continuous coverage, by upgrading areas of coverage, rather than some of the less targeted approaches that can be adopted by others.”

Recently EE implemented 5G ‘small cells’ in the London borough of Croydon.

Small cells are street-level miniature masts that attach the existing street furniture, like phone boxes and lampposts, with the aim of boosting signal in busy areas.

“These sites are a crucial part of our mobile network and help to reduce congestion, boost speeds and improve experience,” says Rahnama.

“By using advanced network analytics, we’re able to identify areas of London and the rest of the UK that experience high traffic demands and would therefore benefit the most from small-cell deployment.”

What did local government have to say? A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, tells TI: “The Mayor’s Connected London programme has supported the delivery of core 5G infrastructure, and over the last seven years this has seen full fibre coverage rise from 4% to nearly 70% of the city.”

“This is an addition to hundreds of kilometres of London Underground tunnels and stations getting 5G coverage. Above ground, thousands of TfL and council assets, such as lampposts, are being used to help boost 5G on high streets and busy areas.”

Investment and permits

For cities such as London which are lagging behind, González points out that more investment is needed, and the challenge of achieving permits to deploy physical infrastructure adds to the delay.

Plus, in 2020, the UK banned Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s infrastructure over concerns that it posed a risk to national security.

Kester Mann, analyst at CCS Insight explains that this has caused the UK to take a step back as operators had to replace a lot of existing equipment, costing around £500 million (though other European countries face similar challenges.)

Mann adds that there is a lot more caution in the UK in general for deploying 5G networks compared to the 4G era.

“4G was a significant period, with networks being at the forefront because of the 1800 MHz spectrum which allowed telcos to deploy 4G quickly and allowed for more use cases,” says Mann.

“With 5G, the ‘C-band’ spectrum, which is valuable for coverage, requires more infrastructure to achieve the same coverage.”

He also says that concerns about the return on investment have halted more money going into infrastructure.

“Investing in the next stage of digital infrastructure like 5G is important. While there’s a valid point about the lack of consumer use cases, the next stage, 5G standalone, presents potential new applications and services, particularly for enterprises.

Operators like BT are moving towards launching standalone 5G, which could generate more interest.”

BT’s Rahnama says: “It’s worth remembering that 4G remains a reliable and fast alternative. In fact, 4G small cells offer speeds of up to 300Mbps and ensure that our customers receive unrivalled reliable mobile connectivity.”

“What’s more, to date, 5G deployment has been done over a 4G core. The rollout of 5G standalone – where the technology sits on its own core – should help to improve customer experience further in the years ahead.”

Mann concurs that the move to 5G standalone could kickstart the market, alongside the merger between Three and Vodafone, “potentially leading to stronger investment in the UK.”

“Having three strong providers might be better for the UK market compared to having two major and two subscale operators. This has worked well in other countries like the US, China, and South Korea, which mainly have three networks.”

The UK government has a target for all populated areas in the UK to have standalone 5G coverage by 2030.

“This is primarily being rolled out by private mobile network operators EE, O2, Vodafone and Three,” says the spokesperson for Sadiq Khan.

Mann added that London’s urban landscape could potentially make coverage a challenge compared to more open European cities.

“Small local deployments, or small cells, might address this.”

The spokesperson for the Mayor of London says “Khan is committed to improving mobile coverage in busy and built-up areas in London and is future-proofing mobile connectivity by reforming planning laws to require all new developments to have sufficient connectivity.”

“Improving digital connectivity in London will help to increase innovation, productivity and growth across our economy and will help us to continue building a build a better London for everyone.”

The post How London aims to improve its 5G, rated the worst in Europe appeared first on TechInformed.

The multi-year program aims to scale generative AI use cases, providing cost reductions and operational efficiencies.

Hein Schumacher, CEO of Unilever said: “We have already introduced 500 AI applications across Unilever, helping us to reach new levels of efficiency. But as AI matures and becomes increasingly intelligent and intuitive, we see so much more potential.”

“With the help of Accenture’s world-class tools and capabilities, we will be able to analyse where and how AI can have the highest transformational impact and deliver the greatest returns.”

Unilever will make use of Accenture’s ‘GenWizard’ platform.

Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture, said: “This next exciting chapter in our decades-long collaboration with Unilever will raise the bar on how enterprises can scale GenAI to power productivity and value at speed.”

“Accenture’s GenWizard platform will enable Unilever to create a full spectrum of targeted GenAI solutions across its business that can realise efficiencies and cost savings, uncover new ways of working and ultimately help drive competitive advantage.”

Last month, TI spoke to Unilever’s VP for consumer experience technology about how the big name is using artificial intelligence in its beauty experiences.

The firm has launched two consumer-facing apps that use AI to recommend beauty products based on a customer’s selfie.

TI also spoke to the firm’s R&D head of digital about how it is using AI to make its products more sustainable. Read the case study here.

The post Unilever and Accenture expand GenAI partnership appeared first on TechInformed.

So far, the government-funded organisation has awarded around £500,000 spread across the two initiatives.

The supply chain project Seamless Trade Across Borders aims to enhance cross-border trade and is supported by defence firms Leonardo and BAE Systems, the International Chamber of Commerce, and UK telco BT Group.

In a statement, Digital Catapult said that it hoped the incubator would support the UK Government’s Electronic Trade Documents Act, which aims to modernise international trade by making electronic documents easier to use.

The government claims that the act could unlock £25 billion in economic growth. Over 60% of international trade transactions are expected to be digitalised within the next five years.

As part of this incubation, Digital Catapult matches industry partners with technology innovators to address international supply chain challenges, including achieving seamless cross-border trade.

Technology providers involved in the project include inventory tracker Kavida AI, eTEU, an industry tech body for the shipping industry, AI tool builder Linear Works, and Exabler, which produces an AI tool that helps facilitate cross-border trade. Each provider will receive up to £85,000 to develop their solutions.

Kavida AI has previously partnered with Digital Catapult and UK manufacturing SMEs to achieve national-scale visibility. Founder and CTO Sumit Sinha added that the new initiative aligned with its vision of developing AI agents that empower businesses to conduct seamless cross-border trade at scale.

The innovation agency’s second initiative, the Product Carbon Footprint Measurement project, hopes to drive advances in how carbon footprint data is measured and exchanged internationally. It is backed by FMCG giant Unilever, GS1 UK and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

IBM announces new clean energy cohort for sustainability accelerator

Two startups, Altruistiq and Siccar, will also join the programme. Both will receive up to £125,000 to develop solutions to improve the carbon management process using artificial intelligence (AI), distributed ledger technology, and advanced identification systems to improve reporting on Scope 3 emissions.

Both initiatives build on the success of the Digital Catapult’s Digital Supply Chain Hub, which is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and has helped over 40 startups and SMEs to secure more than £3 million in funding

To learn more about the programme and how to collaborate with supply chain leaders, please visit https://hub.digitalsupplychainhub.uk.

The post Digital Catapult launches supply chain & sustainability accelerators appeared first on TechInformed.

The B2B sports technology firm aims to enhance sports technique coaching, commentary, and analysis with artificial intelligence and benchmarked by gold-standard athletes.

As its CEO and co-founder, Pedersen talks with TI about how the company integrates AI in sports to provide high-quality technique analysis.

The former CMO for air quality tech firm AirThings, and fintech firms InstaBank and Omny, also discusses the inspiration behind the venture, the process of developing the technology, and its potential impact on the sports industry.

The conversation with the Oslo-based founder also covers the firm’s recent seed funding round, amounting to $1.8 million, with investors including Magnus Carlsen, the highest-ranked chess player of all time, and ex-pro tennis player Dekel Valtzer, as well as Skyfall Ventures.

What inspired you to cofound Sport AI?

I’ve been playing sports my entire life and have a particular passion for tennis. I played juniors in New Zealand and NCAA college tennis in the States and continue to play today. My career has been in tech, so now, founding my own company that combines my love of sports with my tech experience is the perfect opportunity for me.

How does your sports background influence the technology?

I understand sport deeply. I know what it means to learn, train, and strive for improvement. Our technology aims to open access to high-quality, objective sports data for everyone. Growing up in New Zealand, I and many others didn’t have access to top-tier technique analysis, which has been reserved for pro players with teams of experts. With advances in AI, particularly computer vision and machine learning, we can analyse techniques, compare them to gold-standard players, and provide immediate feedback for improvement.

Can you describe the process of developing and refining the technology?

As our name suggests, we rely on AI, specifically video analysis. The video can come from various sources like mobile phones, broadcast feeds, or cameras mounted at sports venues. We analyse the footage to understand the technique and compare it to a gold standard. This standard could combine the best players’ techniques or a specific player you want to emulate, like Roger Federer. We then provide immediate feedback on how to improve.

You were just at the US Open. Do you find yourself thinking about how AI would correct techniques as you watch sports?

Definitely, the opportunity to analyse techniques and improve training, data accuracy, and fan engagement across various sports is huge. It can even enhance product recommendations for sports equipment. For example, we can use our technology to help players choose the right tennis racket for their style rather than just imitating a pro’s choices.

What feedback have you received from your early users, and how has it shaped the product?

Technique analysis has traditionally been subjective, expensive, and unscalable. Our technology changes that by empowering coaches with data and giving players trackable improvement metrics. This benefits the industry, and our users will see its potential.

How has collaborating with other professionals in competitive sports such as chess contributed to SportAI’s success?

Collaboration has been crucial. One of our early investors is Magnus Carlsen, the world-renowned chess player and an absolute superstar who has heavily relied on AI to improve his game. He believes AI can significantly enhance training across all sports. Our team combines expertise in sports and technology, creating a strong, diverse foundation.

What are your priorities after the recent seed funding from Skyfall Ventures?

We’re focusing on product development and onboarding customers in three key areas: training and coaching, product recommendations for brands and retailers, and broadcasting. We’re partnering with forward-thinking brands to roll out our technology over the coming months.

Now, how do you take your coffee?

I prefer a large, milky coffee — ideally a large latte. However, I live in Norway, where everyone drinks black coffee without often having the option to add milk. So, adding milk these days is a bit of a luxury.

How do you wind down from your busy schedule?

Tennis and training are still big parts of my life. They keep me in shape and make me a better leader, team member, and family member because I stay in shape and still get to experience the sport. It’s good for mind, body, and soul.

Read: Transfer deadline: Using AI in sport to recruit football talent

The post A coffee with… Lauren Pedersen, CEO, SportAI appeared first on TechInformed.

Though specific details remain sparse, Shashi Verma, TfL’s chief technology officer, has assured the public that there is currently no evidence of customer data compromise.

“We have introduced a number of measures to our internal systems to deal with an ongoing cyber security incident. The security of our systems and customer data is very important to us, and we will continue to assess the situation throughout and after the incident.

“There is currently no impact to TfL services, and we are working closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre to respond to the incident,” he said.

The organisation’s corporate headquarters at Palestra House, Southwark, is thought to be the main site affected. Due to office mitigations, employees have been advised to work from home.

The organisation has been transparent in its communication, aiming to prevent misinformation and reassure the public, particularly given the ongoing nature of the attack.

Javvad Malik, lead security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, emphasised the need for ongoing vigilance, particularly for organisations managing public infrastructure.

“We also need to bear in mind that the main root causes which allow criminals to penetrate organisations are social engineering, unpatched software, or poor credentials. While it’s not certain how the breach at TFL occurred, it is quite likely one of these avenues would be the culprit,” he said.

Mayur Upadhyaya, CEO and co-founder of APIContext noted that the attack on TfL underscores the importance of securing all parts of an organisation’s IT infrastructure, not just those directly exposed to the public.

He added: “TfL’s response, including the work-from-home directive and enhanced security measures, underscores the need for preparedness and contingency planning to minimise the impact of cyber incidents. Such proactive steps are crucial for maintaining operational resilience and mitigating potential damage.

“In today’s interconnected world, APIs are the lifeblood of digital operations. Securing these gateways is paramount to preventing unauthorised access and data breaches. Regular security assessments, vulnerability management, and incident response planning are essential components of a robust cybersecurity strategy.”

The cyber-attack comes after a string of attacks on public services in recent months, including a June cyber-extortion attempt on the NHS by the Russian ransomware gang Qilin.

William Wright, chief executive of cybersecurity company Closed Door Security, added: “The big question people will also want to know is who carried out the attack and if it can be attributed to another country, like Russia. TfL was also attacked by Russia last year, so it definitely isn’t out of the realm of possibility.”

Last year, personal information was stolen in an attack by a Russian ransomware group.

Wright said: “Given Russia’s recent uptick in attacks on the West, it wouldn’t be surprising, but it is far too early to speculate.”

The post Transport for London hit by major cyber-attack; no customer data breached appeared first on TechInformed.

Clearview AI uses data scraping technology to harvest people’s public photographs from websites and social media platforms to create an online database of 20 billion images of faces and data.

According to the watchdog, Clearview has not objected to the DPA’s decision and would therefore be unable to appeal against the fine.

“Facial recognition is a highly intrusive technology, that you cannot simply unleash on anyone in the world,” DPA chairman Aleid Wolfsen said in a statement.

“If there is a photo of you on the Internet – then you can end up in the database of Clearview and be tracked. This is not a doom scenario from a scary film. Nor is it something that could only be done in China,” he added.

It also banned Dutch companies from using Clearview’s services.

The DPA ordered an imposing penalty of up to €5 million if Clearview doesn’t halt the breaches of the regulation.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Clearview’s chief legal officer, Jack Mulcaire said that the decision is “unlawful, devoid of due process and is unenforceable.”

“Clearview AI does not have a place of business in the Netherlands or the EU, it does not have any customers in the Netherlands or the EU and does not undertake any activities that would otherwise mean it is subject to the GDPR,” Mulcaire added.

Two years ago, the UK watchdog (ICO) also fined Clearview AI £7.5m for the same reason.

At the time, the ICO said that even though the firm does not offer its services to UK organisations, Clearview still had customers in other regions and found it “likely” that it could still use the personal data of UK residents given the nation’s high number of social media users.

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