As Microsoft’s iconic spreadsheet Excel reaches the big 4-0, dedicated fans have lined up to detail how it has morphed from a key business software tool into an essential life aid — from managing long-distance relationships to discussing baby names.

Launched in 1985 as an exclusive programme for the Apple Macintosh, Excel helped cement Microsoft’s reputation as one of the biggest players in software in the 1990s.

However, it has developed a much wider range of users, including Lucy, 41, who used Excel to manage her long-distance relationship when her partner relocated from London to Macclesfield, using it to keep track of train times and costs.

“We split the costs with the higher earner paying proportionally more,” she said.

Luke, a civil servant from London, revealed how he named his two sons with the help of Excel, sharing the spreadsheet with his office in the hope his colleagues might provide inspiration.

Read more…

Do Fitness apps endanger world leaders?

French newspaper Le Monde has disclosed that the locations of major political figures, which are supposed to be confidential, can be easily tracked through the online fitness apps used by their bodyguards.

The investigation showed that some US Secret Service agents use the Strava fitness app to record activity and share workouts with a wider community.

The finding raised concerns that the security of figures such as President Joe Biden, presidential rivals Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and other world leaders could be at risk.

Read more…

Competition probe into Google Anthropic deal

The UK’s competition regulator, the CMA, has launched an investigation into Google’s investment in AI start-up Anthropic amid concerns that established tech companies are building a dominant power base in artificial intelligence.

Google parent Alphabet made a $2bn investment in the AI startup last year and has also signed a major cloud agreement with the US-based ‘public benefit’ outfit.

The CMA, along with the US Federal Trade Commission and the EU, are investigating several AI deals.

The CMA is currently investigating Microsoft’s deal with ChatGPT maker OpenAI. It also launched an investigation of Amazon’s investment into Anthropic in August but opted to clear the deal last month.

Read more…

Apple’s AI features rolled out in select regions

Apple has started rolling out its suite of AI features, announced in June, to selected users in the US, UK, and other English-speaking regions, but not in the EU or China.

Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI tools, is accessible to users with eligible devices (iPhone 16 or later, iPad, or Mac) by updating to the latest version of Apple’s operating system, iOS 18.1.

To access these tools, users need to join a waiting list and ensure that their device language and Siri language are set correctly.

Features include writing tools to help refine text, summarised notifications that surface what’s most important, and the ability to search in photos and videos by description.

Read more…

Meta AI Search: Meta’s move away from Google and Bing

Meta is developing its own AI search engine to replace Google and Microsoft in Meta AI with the aim of reducing its reliance on Google Search and Microsoft Bing.

The development follows Meta AI’s new partnership with Reuters, which allows users to get Reuters news without leaving Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp.

Read more…

Irish Data Protection Commission fines LinkedIn for privacy breaches

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has imposed a €310 million fine on the networking platform LinkedIn for analysing personal data to conduct behavioural analyses for targeted advertising without obtaining explicit consent.

The DPC’s inquiry was initiated following a complaint made to the French Data Protection Authority in 2018.

It found that LinkedIn infringed on three different rules concerning transparency and fairness.

The decision includes a reprimand, an order for LinkedIn to bring its processing into compliance, and administrative fines totalling €310 million.

Read more…

The post Excel turns 40, Google’s Anthropic deal under scrutiny, and LinkedIn fined for privacy breaches appeared first on TechInformed.

The managing director of tech, media, and telecoms for Google UKI has been awarded both an MBE and an OBE for her troubles.

During Black History Month in the UK, Kingori spoke to her fellow Google Alum, Ramat Tejani, at Black Tech Fest about leadership, navigating change, and fostering inclusion in a constantly evolving AI-driven era.

“People mourning the way things used to be will get left behind, 100%” she warned.

From high fashion to high-tech

Transitioning from the world of high fashion to the world of tech is no small feat. In her conversation with Tejani, Kingori described the experience as empowering.

When asked about transferable skills between the two industries, Kingori remarked that both industries demand constant learning and adaptation.

She noted that while she brings a wealth of experience from publishing, she remains in a deep learning phase within the tech world — a trait that all leaders today must embrace.

“Leaders normally show up with a deep knowledge bank from rising through an organisation or industry ranks. But today, we have to lead through change and admit that we don’t know everything,” she said.

Kingori emphasised that leadership now requires humility and collaboration.

She likened this to her time during the rise of social media at Conde Nast when seasoned executives were unfamiliar with emerging platforms like Instagram, and younger, less experienced team members had to step in as experts.

“Try to speak to someone over 35 about TikTok and see what happens!” she exclaimed.

In the tech world, Kingori uses the same approach, empowering her team to share their expertise where hers falls short.

“I see that it makes other leaders nervous, but if I don’t know something, I’m going to empower and uplift my team. I’ll say, ‘You’re the expert on this. Let’s pool our knowledge and create something really collaborative’.”

Navigating change in the AI era

A key theme during the conversation was how leaders should manage change, particularly as AI continues to reshape industries.

Kingori encouraged the audience to adopt a mindset that welcomes change, understanding that disruption creates opportunities for those willing to innovate.

“You can go almost anywhere in the world, and Coca-Cola is the same. We are conditioned to like standardisation, but the world is shifting. Jobs will exist in the future that we don’t even understand yet.”

She continued: “Social media managers didn’t exist before. Now, it’s a key role, and a whole industry has been created around it. So, what will be next?”

While much of the public dialogue surrounding AI focuses on the potential loss of jobs, Kingori encouraged the audience to think about the jobs that will be created, urging them to explore where new opportunities will arise.

“People with ultimate power over things will need to diffuse that power to capture the entire opportunity. It’s about getting into the mindset of letting some things go, learning, and figuring out paths to success rather than mourning what was.

“The people mourning the way things used to be will get left behind, 100%.”

Inclusion in AI: a new frontier?

While there is significant discussion around the risks of bias in AI, Kingori highlighted the potential for AI to be a force for good if deployed thoughtfully.

“There are questions around inclusion that we’ve been trying to crack for decades. Human beings are full of bias, and AI has the power to be led by that bias or to be a neutralising force,” she said.

“I think that there are huge gains that can be made when AI is deployed much more around fairness, especially in these new roles that will be created.”

She referenced Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold, an AI system that recently won a Nobel Prize for solving a complex “50-year-old” scientific problem around protein folding.

Kingori argued that AI has the potential to similarly “solve” long-standing issues of inclusion if marginalised groups are actively involved in shaping these technologies.

“We have this opportunity to kind of “AlphaFold” the inclusion conundrum. The caveat is that we, as marginalised groups, must be in these spaces,” she said.

Kingori was optimistic that AI could help break down some biases inherent in human decision-making, particularly in hiring and organisational structures.

However, she issued a call to action to those from underrepresented communities.

“If we want AI to be part of the solution around problems that organisations face with inclusion, then where we have roles in these organisations, we need to show up,” she stressed.

“Because then you are, in your own small way, shaping what the technology looks like and who it sees, and those things actually matter.”

Storytelling through data and creativity

Coming from a background in publishing, Kingori understands the power of stories, but she now finds herself in a world dominated by data and algorithms.

Rather than viewing these as oppositional forces, Kingori sees them as complementary, highlighting the importance of blending data with emotional resonance to create impactful narratives.

“It’s like linking the head and the heart. The idea that the two exist separately is wrong. Your heart won’t function if your brain doesn’t, and vice versa. The magic happens when we link them.”

AI, she argued, is a tool that can help tell better stories, but human intuition and creativity will always be necessary to bring data-driven insights to life.

It’s not about replacing one with the other but integrating both to achieve more effective communication.

“I don’t think it’s a zero-sum game. It’s not one or the other, in my view,” she concluded.

Key takeaways

The conversation ended on an optimistic note, tempered with caution. Kingori’s advice to tech leaders could be summarised in four points.

Embrace the unknown; leaders should be comfortable with uncertainty and empower their teams to collaborate.

Prioritise mindset over knowledge, fearing change is going to hold you back. Instead, it should be viewed as an opportunity for growth.

Harness the power of AI to boost inclusion. Marginalised voices must be part of the development of AI software to ensure the technology serves everyone fairly.

And finally, effective communication in the age of AI requires a mix of data-driven insights and human-centred storytelling.

Read more about Black Tech Fest adding some seasoning to the scene here.

The post Google’s Vanessa Kingori on leadership, change, and inclusion in the AI era appeared first on TechInformed.

OpenAI has revealed details about its experimental AI framework called Swarm, which offers developers a blueprint for creating interconnected AI networks capable of collaborating to solve complex tasks.

While OpenAI has stressed that Swarm is not an official product, the initiative has sparked intense discussion among AI ethicists about the future of automation.

It’s suggested that potential business applications could involve AI agents in various company departments collaborating to analyse market trends, devise marketing strategies, identify sales leads, and provide customer support with minimal human input.

The integration of the framework into businesses could free up employees to focus on other initiatives; it has also raised the question of the evolving nature of work and the future role of human decision-making.

Read more…

TikTok plans mass job cuts

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported that TikTok’s content moderation division is set to lose at least 125 jobs as part of a company strategy shake-up.

Those affected, who work in content moderation and other safety roles at the video platform, have been told they may be made redundant.

The platform employs approximately 500 staff in the UK focussed on content moderation, according to the Communication Workers Union.

TikTok sent an email to employees last week, stating that it was facing “evolving challenges” such as increased demands on moderation efforts, and a wider range of harmful content and bad actors. As a result, the company proposed to make changes.

The email was signed off with a link to a “wellbeing resources” document, illustrated with an image of hands in the shape of a heart.

Read more…

New UK bill set to reduce the addictiveness of social media to teens

A new heavyweight bill to be discussed in the UK parliament this week aims to exclude some teens from social media algorithms in a bid to make content less addictive.

The bill is backed by Labour, Conservatives and child protection experts.

The Safer Phones Bill, championed by Labour MP Josh MacAlister, will also include a review to determine if additional safeguards are necessary for phones used by individuals under 16.

MacAlister said: “Evidence is mounting that children doomscrolling for hours a day is causing widespread harm.”

Instagram introduces AI for age verification to protect children

Read more…

Elon Musk’s Robotaxi demo flops, prompting sell-off

Tesla shares fell sharply last week as investors were left underwhelmed by the company’s long-awaited Robotaxi demonstration.

Even well-known Tesla enthusiasts such as Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives said that Elon Musk failed to offer enough detail on how the company would roll out its Robotaxi venture.

Tesla is facing increasing competition from companies like Alphabet-owned Waymo. However, Musk, who unveiled 20 vehicles last week, stated that Tesla’s Cybercab would be priced at under $30,000, in contrast to the $250,000 for a Waymo taxi.

Musk also unveiled his Robovan, capable of carrying 20 passengers, but provided no production date or pricing for the product.

Read more…

Baidu drives its new robotaxi service in Chongqing and Wuhan

Google threatened by antitrust crackdown

The US government is considering a series of ‘remedies’ following its landmark judicial ruling against Google in August which could see the tech giant broken up.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said that Google, which accounts for 90 per cent of online searches, is illegally crushing competition and causing ‘pernicious harms’ to Americans.

It said Google used its Chrome browser and Android operating system to direct users to its search engine, where it makes money selling ads.

Remedies under consideration would be aimed at preventing Google from using these products to the advantage of its search engine.

More detailed proposals from the DOJ are expected next month, whilst Google has said the remedies ‘risk hurting consumers, businesses and developers’.

Read more…

The post OpenAI Swarm raises job fears, TikTok faces job cuts, and Tesla Robotaxi launch flops appeared first on TechInformed.

Google is the latest Big Tech player to signal a move into nuclear power to meet the growing need for carbon-free energy to power the explosion of data centre growth.

In a recent interview with Nikkei Asia, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google’s carbon emissions had risen by 48% since 2019, fuelled largely by the expansion of AI-related data usage.

He added that the company was investigating the possibility of harnessing power from small modular nuclear reactors to enable it to meet its plans to be net zero by 2030.

Google’s move follows a series of announcements from technology giants about leveraging nuclear power to meet their projected energy demands.

Earlier this year, Amazon revealed that its cloud service subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, had bought a nuclear-powered data centre in Pennsylvania to enable it to reach net zero by 2040.

Microsoft stepped into nuclear with its project to reactivate the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, which had been producing energy until 2019 when its former owner shut the loss-making operation.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has signalled that nuclear is a good option to meet the AI company’s growing data centre needs.

Why nuclear energy is key for AI data centre sustainability

Carbon-free power sources have become more critical as the companies have come under a barrage of criticism for greenwashing and under-reporting energy usage by data centres. The concern is that expanding data centre energy consumption is jeopardising big tech companies’ sustainability plans.

According to International Energy Agency research, data centres are hugely energy-intensive operations, accounting for 1-1.5% of global electricity demand.

Data centre energy use is expected to double by 2026, with the IEA revealing earlier this year that data centre energy consumption reached 460TWh in 2022 and could rise to over 1,000 TWh by 2026, driven by fast-rising AI and cryptocurrency workloads.

Megatech leaders have recently been scrambling to find alternative power sources for data centres, from nuclear to solar and geothermal power. Pichai confirmed that the company was looking to expand traditional renewables.

Going nuclear: Digital Transformation at EDF’s Hinkley Point C

However, he underlined the importance of nuclear energy, a reliable source not subject to the same peaks and troughs of supply as some renewables.

Although Google’s Pichai didn’t detail where the nuclear sources would be based, it’s understood that the US and Japan would be most likely.

Google’s global head of data centre energy, Amanda Peterson Corio, has also indicated that the company is looking carefully at nuclear options, telling Bloomberg:

“In the US, in highly regulated markets where we don’t have the opportunity to directly purchase power, we are working with our utility partners and the generators to come together to figure out how we can bring these new technologies — nuclear may be one of them — to the grid.”

Read more: The Rolls-Royce of use cases: quantum computing applications in industry

The post Big Tech turns to nuclear to meet green targets appeared first on TechInformed.

The post YouTube reveals AI-powered features at annual creator event appeared first on TechInformed.

The search giant has won its challenge against a €1.49bn ($1.66bn/£1.26bn) fine from the EU for blocking rival online search advertisers.

The EU accused Google of abusing its market dominance by restricting third-party rivals from displaying search ads between 2006 and 2016.

Europe’s second-top court ruled the European Commission, which levied the fine, “committed errors in its assessment.”

The Commission said it would reflect on possible next steps, including an appeal to the EU’s top court.

Google welcomed the ruling: “We are pleased that the court has recognised errors in the original decision and annulled the fine,” it said in a statement.

It is a rare win for the tech giant, which was hit with fines worth a total of 8.2 billion euros between 2017 and 2019 over antitrust violations.

Read more here…

TikTok warns of US ban consequences

This week, the social media urged a federal appeals court to block a law that could soon ban the social media app in the US over national security concerns related to its Chinese parent, arguing the consequences of such a move would be “staggering” for free speech.

Under the law signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year, TikTok will be banned in the US if it does not divest from its parent ByteDance by January 19 2025 — the day before the next president is inaugurated.

On Monday, a panel of three judges heard its arguments at an appeals court in Washington DC.

“This law imposes extraordinary speech prohibition based on indeterminate future risks,” TikTok and ByteDance’s lawyer Andrew Pincus told the court.

During the hearing, however, his argument that the law would be an unprecedented ban on a single speaker and his claim that it would be “unfeasible” to divest the US arm of the firm was challenged.

Read more here…

AWS claims onsite IT trend is threatening business

Cloud behemoth AWS says it faces stiff competition from on-premises data centres — a turnaround from its once-proud boast that all workloads would eventually move to the cloud.

Tech news site The Register examined a summary of evidence given to the UK watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in which AWS denied that customers faced any difficulty in switching from its platform.

To demonstrate this, AWS listed examples of customers who had decided to bring their IT back on-site.

“Building a data centre requires significant effort, so the fact that customers are doing it highlights the level of flexibility that they have and the attractiveness of moving back to on-premises,” the tech giant told the CMA.

AWS added that customers may switch back to on-premises for several reasons, including “to reallocate their own internal finances, adjust their access to technology and increase the ownership of their resources, data and security.”

However, the data centre trend could have been cited as an evasion tactic. Andrew Buss, IDC senior research director for EMEA, told The Register that while cloud repatriation was “becoming more common,” the share of companies actively repatriating public cloud workloads was “in the single-digit percentage sphere.”

Read more here…

UN calls for global AI fund to help smaller economies

Governments and private enterprises should contribute to help states that are unable to invest and benefit from advances in AI, a new UN report states.

The fund would help provide models, computing power and AI-related training programmes, according to recommendations from the UN secretary general’s high-level AI advisory body.

Dame Wendy Hall, professor of computer science at the University of Southampton and a member of the UN’s advisory body on AI, said that the West must not make the same mistakes with the technology that it made during the climate crisis.

Referring to developing countries outside the northern hemisphere, Hall said states unable to invest in AI should be given help.

Read more here…

The post Google avoids €1.49 billion EU Fine, and TikTok Fights US Ban appeared first on TechInformed.

In the ongoing battle within the EU to regulate multinational corporations, led by European Union antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, Apple has been ordered to pay Ireland €13bn ($14.4bn) in back taxes, while Google has been fined €2.4bn ($2.7bn) for antitrust violations.

Vestager, who has made a name for herself going after Big Tech’s tax arrangements within the EU, said in a post on X, “Today is a huge win for European citizens and tax justice.”

One bad Apple

The case against Apple goes back to 2016 when the European Commission accused the company of receiving illegal tax benefits from Ireland.

According to the Commission, Apple’s subsidiaries in Ireland paid a much lower tax rate than other companies — as low as 0.005% in 2014 — a practice that violated EU state aid rules.

The Irish government, however, sided with Apple, arguing that the arrangement was lawful, stating that its low corporate tax rate is an essential tool in attracting foreign investment.

In 2020, the General Court of the CJEU issued a judgement annulling the Commission’s case, but the Commission appealed the judgement, and the Court has now ruled its 2016 decision stands.

In an official statement after the latest judgement, the Irish Department of Finance said: “The Irish position has always been that Ireland does not give preferential tax treatment to any companies or taxpayers.”

Apple vehemently denied the European Commission’s accusations, insisting it complied with both US and Irish tax laws.

“This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to,” an Apple spokesperson said. “We always pay all the taxes we owe wherever we operate, and there has never been a special deal.”

The iPhone 16 manufacturer maintained that its income was already subject to taxation in the US and that the Commission was trying to rewrite the rules retroactively.

Despite this, the Court ruled in favour of the Commission, and Apple must now repay the taxes.

In Google, we antitrust

The case against Google dates back to 2017 when the European Commission fined the company for abusing its online shopping comparison market dominance.

According to the Commission, Google gave preferential treatment to its own comparison-shopping service, disadvantaging smaller rivals.

The fine was the EU’s largest antitrust penalty ever issued at the time, totalling €2.4bn ($2.7bn) — until 2018, when the EU fined Google €4.3bn ($4.75bn) for abusing the dominant position of its Android mobile operating system to promote Google’s search engine.

Google has consistently contested the EU’s decision, arguing that its practices improved the quality of its services for consumers.

The company adjusted its shopping service in 2017 to comply with the EU’s ruling but continued to appeal the fine.

In a statement, Google said of its adjustments: “Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services.”

Despite these efforts, in its latest ruling, the Court solidified the Commission’s stance that Google abused its market position and that it was right to find Google’s conduct “discriminatory” and its appeal “must be dismissed in its entirety.”

Google faces another similar trial in the UK as a London court has argued that Google should pay £13.6bn in a lawsuit over whether it has too much influence on the online advertising market.

Who EU gonna call?

The cases were undoubtedly being closely observed across the EU as a significant moment for Big Tech’s European tax affairs — especially as the EU’s investigations between companies and member states have faced setbacks.

Just last year, Amazon successfully defended its tax arrangements in Luxembourg in a court battle, and the Commission similarly lost a case involving the Netherlands’ tax treatment of Starbucks, though it chose not to appeal.

The post EU strikes a blow against Apple and Google in landmark rulings appeared first on TechInformed.

Judge Amit Mehta found that Google violated section 2 of the Sherman Act, a US antitrust law.

“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” he said.

The Department of Justice and a number of US states brought the case against Google in 2020.

It presented that Google paid companies such as Apple and Samsung billions of dollars a year to automatically default to its search engine.

Apple received $18billion, according to The New York Times.

Plus, Samsung received $8billion over four years to make its search engine, voice assistant and Play Store the default on its mobile devices, according to a testimony presented by Epic Games Inc.

Google’s fate will be finalised in the next phase of proceedings, which may mean a mandate to stop certain business practices or even a breakup of Google parent Alphabet.

Nevertheless, Google plans to appeal the ruling. Kent Walker, president of global affairs pointed to the ruling’s acknowledgement that Google “offers the best search engine,” yet it “concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.”

“As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use,” he said.

“This landmark decision holds Google accountable,” DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan said in a statement. “It paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans.”

It’s the latest blow to Google after a federal jury in California found that its app marketplace is an illegal monopoly.

Plus, it faces a separate case from the DOJ and a handful of states accusing its online advertising business of dominating the market, too.

The post Google illegally dominated online search, US judge rules appeared first on TechInformed.