John Smeddle

Why Kainos’ £10 Million Investment in Belfast is Bigger than Money

Kainos is a British digital design company operating in the corporate space, based in Belfast. They’re about to invest £10 million to develop the use of Generative AI in the workplace. We’re used to quoting figures in the hundreds of billions of dollars when writing about tech investments. So what makes this minnow-sized, £10 investment […]

Social Media is now the Weapon of Choice in Ukraine War

“The first casualty of war is the truth.” This was first uttered by Aeschylus, a Greek playwright,  2,500 years ago. The notion of this axiom has now entered the digital domain. And social media is the weapon of choice.  The BBC has reported that X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and Telegram have failed […]

X Moves in on LinkedIn’s Turf

X, formerly known as Twitter, is to collect users’ biometric data which includes education and job history. In its quest to become the ‘everything’ app, moving in on LinkedIn’s turf is the first step. And it’sgoing to make it so much more than just a first contact point between prospect and employer. Both parties will […]

Chandrayaan-3 Discovers Colony Building Blocks

This is like the gift that keeps on giving. India’s lunar mission, achieved on a shoestring budget, has found traces of sulphur, aluminum, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon and oxygen. These are the building blocks of future colonization. It means that these materials will not need to be transported from Earth at vast cost. It […]

Rest Easy, Mr.Turing

Bletchley Park to address the twelve challenges of AI The November AI summit will address the 12 challenges of AI. It’s a fitting tribute to the leader of the Allied Force’s codebreaking team, Alan Turing. The key challenges were distributed to the media to heighten the sense of urgency needed to address this rapidly advancing […]

Heavyweights Musk and Zuckerberg Head the Bill

Sorry, but that headline should read ‘head to the hill’ not ‘head the bill’. Because that’s where Elon and Mark are going. To Capitol Hill, to advise the lawmakers on how to deal with AI. But given their recent, rather silly pugilistic proclamations about a cage fight, what do you expect? So what could be […]

£2,300 a Minute. That’s what UK Scammers are Costing you.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have issued an alarming report for the first eight months of 2023. They’ve received 7700 complaints of scammers trying to swindle the British public. And it’s costing the country £2,300 a minute. How do they do it? By pretending to be the FCA, actually. They call you. And it’s […]

The Latest Weapon in the War on Dementia. Socks.

The University of Exeter in Devon, England, has been developing smart sock technology. This is to help those who suffer from dementia. These socks collect data from the wearer, which is then sent by wifi to an app. Whoever has the app can see real time data which includes heart rate, temperature, sweat rates and […]

MTN Backs Africa’s First Metaverse

Africa’s homegrown telco giant MTN is creating a village in Ubuntuland, Africa’s first metaverse. The telco is keeping a promise it made 18 months ago. Ubuntuland takes its name from the Zulu and Xhosa word Ubuntu, which means ‘humanity to others’. It’s an appropriated word to encourage respect and tolerance. It has been a much-needed […]

U.S.A.F. wants AI Jets

Requests $6 bn for development The United States Air Force is asking for a ton of money to build 2000 AI-powered Valkyrie fighters. It’s important to note that these aircraft are not drones. They are capable of assessing and reacting to hostile interference. And much to the consternation of human rights activists, they’re capable of […]