Wall Street supremo’s pile into a new AI hedge fund dubbed the future of finance
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Until now the financial services industry has never been able to benefit from a network effect, but that’s about to change and it could tip Wall Street on its head. The “Network Effect” is a phenomenon known the world over, it’s where a service...
Press release: Legal SaaS A.I. platform LawGeex raises $7 million in funding round
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The world is changing and the legal profession is by no means immune, but in many cases it is start ups and entrepreneurs who are challenging the status quo. Over the past few months I’ve been highlighting how the world of law, from the...
No humans required, the fully autonomous AI running a Wall Street hedge fund
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Companies that use artificial intelligence to augment their human workers is nothing new, but companies that are run by artificial intelligence, without any human input, are. I’ve been documenting the emergence of fully autonomous organisations – organisations that are able to run and scale...
Walmart chases Amazon Go, will start trialling cashierless stores
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The retail wars are hotting up and innovation is still many retailers weapon of choice, but as Walmart steps up the pressure on Amazon hopefully customers should be the winners. Following in the footsteps of its arch rival Amazon, Walmart has announced that it is...
JPMorgan unleashes artificial intelligence to automate its legal work
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF With massive technology budgets and a paranoia of startups stealing a march Wall Street is going all in on innovation and automation. With companies like LawGeex and ROSS Intelligence trying to automate the legal world it was only a matter of time before the...
Google tests AI’s natural killer instincts, discovers society must be very, very careful
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As artificial intelligence is embedded into more of our world’s digital fabric inevitably AI’s will come into conflict with one another, but rules might help us stave off armageddon – or bring it about. If climate change, nuclear weapons or pandemics don’t kill us...
Nowhere to hide for Goldman’s elite as AI culls jobs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Banking is one of the world’s oldest professions, but people only have a profession if they have a job, and as Wall Street drives to full automation there are fewer jobs to go round. At its height back in 2000, the US cash equities...
So long Asimov’s Laws, say hello to the 23 Laws of Robotics
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Whether they’re hardware based, or software based, machines are getting increasingly capable, creative, intelligent and resilient – and that has experts worried, so now they’ve created a new set of laws to try to guide the technology’s development and trajectory. Ever since people first...
Robo-lawyers want to automate the entire legal world
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Most lawyers and legal professionals agree that their profession hasn’t changed much in hundreds of years, but now artificial intelligence, and the rise of “robo-lawyers” is beginning to change all that. To many people, lawyers, like doctors, optimise the pinnacle of what it means...
Accenture automates 17,000 jobs without making anyone redundant
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the age of automation humans are all too often the collateral damage but with vision and careful management that doesn’t always have to be the case. In the past eighteen months one of the world’s largest professional services and technology companies, Accenture, according...
Robot sales in 2016 were the best ever
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Sales of robots, particularly in China, are booming and analysts expect more of the same in 2017. The rise of automation and its impact on jobs has dominated headlines for a while now, whether it’s because Foxconn are cutting 1.2 million jobs, or companies...
Futurist keynote, London: The Future of Capital Markets, Accenture Capital Markets Summit
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Investments and the capital markets, arguably, sit at the heart of our capitalist society, but they, and the industries they rely on to find Alpha, are starting to change at a faster rate than at any point in their illustrious history and it’s sending shockwaves...
Europe will debate robot rights, ethics and AI kill switches in February
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Machines are increasingly becoming autonomous and intelligent and it’s one of the greatest dangers humanity has ever faced, later this year law makers in Europe will finally determine how we govern, monitor, manage and tax them in order to minimise the damage to society. ...
UK’s NHS gives millions of Londoners their own on call AI doctor
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF For better or worse, more and more healthcare services are being augmented and automated using new artificial intelligence services, only time will tell what the results will be. A few months ago Baidu rolled out a limited trial of a new virtual doctors service,...
New EU report recommends Universal Basic Income for all 27 member states
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The rise of robotics and new, intelligent AI automation systems that threaten Blue and White collar jobs is spurring governments around the world into action, so far a Universal Basic Income is the only idea they seem to have to dampen societal unrest and poverty....
Robots to get legal recognition as Europe votes to classify them as ‘Electronic persons’
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The move by the EU to classify robots as “Electronic persons” is a watershed moment. It signifies a significant attitude shift in policy and the way that new robo-systems are viewed, and paves the way for new laws and new regulations. With robots and...
Japanese insurer announces it will replace office workers with artificial intelligence
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF More and more companies are experimenting with AI as a way to automate away jobs, and as the human toll continues to increase this is just the beginning Fukoku Mutual Life, a Japanese insurance company with a turnover of $6.8 Billion in 2016, announced...
The world’s largest hedge fund is using AI to automate its entire management team
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The news is filled with news about automation and machines that are taking our jobs, arguably for the first time we can see companies who are automating both the workers at the base of the pyramid, and the executives at the top. In the next...
1.2 million jobs to vanish as Foxconn unveils plans for fully autonomous factories
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Foxconn is one of the world’s largest employers, and its pursuit of 100% automation at all of its factories will put millions out of work and give China a headache We’re hearing a lot recently about how most of our jobs are going to...
Finland rolls out its universal basic income scheme to 2,000 citizens
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As technology replaces and automates more jobs governments are experimenting with universal basic incomes as a means to keep people out of poverty, now Finland has taken the plunge. It’s January 2017, and as promised, Finlands government is now rolling out it’s ambitious Universal Basic...
