Computer & Technology

If we keep looking to please Donald Trump, the UK will miss out on state of the art technology

2 weeks ago Jaime E. Love
Trump and Johnson onstage during the annual Nato heads of government summit in Watford in December: Getty
Trump and Johnson onstage during the annual Nato heads of government summit in Watford in December: Getty

Last week saw two, apparently unrelated, clashes in the battle for dominance in the world of Big Tech, involving companies and governments which dominate the digital economy. Apple won one round of a complex legal battle with the European Commission to protect its use of low-tax jurisdictions. And Huawei lost out on UK business after the British government did a U-turn from its decision to allow limited Huawei participation in the UK 5G network. A perfect storm of Conservative backbench insurrection and US sanctions made the previous UK position untenable.

These clashes are skirmishes in a much bigger war for dominance of the emerging digital world economy and the new, overlapping, technologies within it: artificial intelligence; 5G; big data; advanced semiconductors; and quantum computing.

One aspect of this multi-faceted conflict is between the

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A quarter of a billion people could find themselves jobless this year

2 weeks ago Jaime E. Love
Microsoft president Brad Smith. Photo: Getty
Microsoft president Brad Smith. Photo: Getty

Microsoft (MFST) president Brad Smith says global unemployment may reach a quarter of a billion people in 2020.

His stark warning comes as the US Congressional Budget Office estimates a 12.3 point increase in the unemployment rate putting 21 million employees newly out of work.

“It is a staggering number. The pandemic respects no border. Many other countries and continents face similar challenges,” Smith told the BBC.

Millions will need to learn new digital skills to get jobs or retain their existing employment, according to the tech giant boss.

Microsoft recently announced plans to deliver skills and training to 25 million people across the globe with the help of its subsidiary company LinkedIn.

It will spend $20m (£19.6m) on the programme. The software company estimates the global workforce can absorb around 149 million new technology-oriented jobs.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: Up to 1,200

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Coronavirus surge, renewed lockdowns fan fresh worries about global fuel demand

3 weeks ago Jaime E. Love

By Ahmad Ghaddar, Stephanie Kelly and Laura Sanicola

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Surges in coronavirus infections are slowing a recovery in fuel use from the doldrums of lockdowns in the United States and other countries, raising concern it could be years before consumption rebounds from the impact of the pandemic.

Global fuel demand fell by around a quarter at the peak of the lockdowns, when over 4 billion people worldwide were asked to stay at home. The unprecedented decline in demand forced producers to make record output cuts and pump hundreds of millions of barrels of oil into storage.

Fuel consumption and oil prices had recovered some ground as governments relaxed restrictions on population movements and the output cuts stemmed the glut.

That recovery is stalling, however, as infections swing upward in top fuel consumer the United States, as well as in other major economies such as Brazil and India.

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Gloucester County Recognized For Location Technology

3 weeks ago Jaime E. Love

GLOUCESTER COUNTY, NJ — Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, presented Gloucester County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) with Esri’s Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award on Monday, county officials announced.

Selected from over 300,000 eligible candidates, Gloucester County OEM received the award for its innovative application of mapping and analytics technology, as well as thought leadership in the field of emergency management.

“The Gloucester County Office of Emergency Management has demonstrated impressive work with Geographic Information Systems,” Gloucester County Freeholder Director Robert M. Damminger said. “This work is innovating the way we respond to emergencies. They’ve implemented several map centric solutions including our damage assessment platform.”

Joe Ward leads GIS intelligence for Gloucester County OEM in conjunction with the planning department and Gloucester County Emergency Management Division. Ward has upgraded Gloucester County’s GIS capabilities and our drone project which can assess emergencies and their impact in real-time.

This

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AI technology will soon replace error-prone humans all over the world – but here’s why it could set us all free

3 weeks ago Jaime E. Love
Getty Images
Getty Images

It has been oft-quoted – albeit humouredly – that the ideal of medicine is the elimination of the physician. The emergence and encroachment of artificial intelligence (AI) on the field of medicine, however, puts an inconvenient truth on the aforementioned witticism. Over the span of their professional lives, a pathologist may review 100,000 specimens, a radiologist more so; AI can perform this undertaking in days rather than decades.

Visualise your last trip to an NHS hospital, the experience was either one of romanticism or repudiation: the hustle and bustle in the corridors, or the agonising waiting time in A&E; the empathic human touch, or the dissatisfaction of a rushed consultation; a seamless referral or delays and cancellations.

Contrary to this, our experience of hospitals in the future will be slick and uniform; the human touch all but erased and cleansed, in favour of complete and utter digitalisation. Envisage

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Top-Performing Technological ETFs Amid Coronavirus Crisis

3 weeks ago Jaime E. Love

The technological sector has kept its promise of strong returns so far this year, combatting the economic slowdown induced by the coronavirus pandemic. The S&P 500 Information Technology Sector Index has gained around 18% so far in 2020 as against the broader S&P 500 index’s loss of 2.4%. Going on, it is being widely believed that the major technology companies’ resilience to the coronavirus crisis have been supporting the Nasdaq Composite index. Major technology stocks like Facebook (FB), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX) and Alphabet (GOOGL) are all positive in 2020 so far. Moreover, Amazon (AMZN) has supported the Nasdaq by gaining more than 45% in the year.

On major support from Amazon and Microsoft, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index gained 0.5% on Jul 9 in spite of its major market peers declining by more than 0.5%, largely due to rising coronavirus cases.

The second half of 2020 is

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