The Future of Work; The Present of Fake Science
Matt, and
Niels
Featured this week:
The UK government held its first AI Adoption Summit, announcing £200 million in skills funding and an ambition to upskill 10 million workers by 2030. But with HSBC weighing 20,000 cuts and UK firms reporting net job losses at twice the international average, are the government and business leaders really comprehending the scale of the challenge? And what are the prospects for AI-related job creation or displacement in the longer term?
A Lancet audit found AI-fabricated academic references rising twelvefold since 2023. When science gets so flooded with AI slop, the consequences for research – and for training future AI models – could be severe.
In the news:
CMA forces Google to give publishers AI opt-out — The world's first binding order of its kind, giving UK publishers control over whether their content trains Google's AI products. Read more
Police told to pause AI in court statements — Forces in England and Wales must stop using off-the-shelf AI for evidential work until accuracy can be verified beyond reasonable doubt. Read more
PhysicsX raises $300m at $2.4bn valuation — The London startup, founded by former Formula 1 engineers, applies AI to industrial design problems that previously took weeks of computation. Read more
Cambridge tests first AI-designed vaccine in humans — A universal coronavirus vaccine candidate, whose active component was designed entirely through computer simulation, showed safe immune responses in its first human trial. Read more
Uber and Wayve open London robotaxi sign-ups — Commercial autonomous ride-hailing in London is closer than most people realise, with rides priced at standard Uber rates. Read more
Only 2% of UK manufacturers have AI widely embedded — A Make UK report finds Germany, the US and Japan are pulling two to three years ahead, with skills shortages cited as the main barrier. Read more
