Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) are starting to dramatically improve the provision of goods and services ranging from healthcare to financial services and technology. But it's just the start. As big data gets even bigger and computing power continues to grow, AI will transform virtually every aspect of life as we know it.

The Rise of a Superpower

Over the past two decades China has successfully transformed itself into a global technology superpower. It now accounts for 20% of total world R&D spending, publishes more academic papers than any country apart from the United States, and is home to the world’s most valuable unicorn.

Amidst China’s technology boom a list of titans have emerged including Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu. China’s Titans’, although dwarfed by the US Tech Giants in terms of revenue and users, continue to post exceptional growth figures with much potential still to fulfil. In this article, we explore China’s technology ecosystem, the infrastructure and how some of China’s most promising companies compare to those in the US.

Technology in medicine is constantly evolving, and the revolutionary tech of 3D printing has caught Amelie Martin’s interest, a Year 11 student from Comberton Village College, whilst on her virtual work experience placement.

Today, our conventional manufacturing technologies are too expensive, inflexible and slow for medical applications and aren’t compatible with biological materials.

3D printing is set to revolutionise the industry, bringing fast, customisable, and cost-effective manufacturing into medicine, and has already been predicted to be worth £2.5 billion by 2025. 

Artificial intelligence is a technologythathas stirred the art industry.Whilst on work experience, Shael Kumar (Yr 11 student) explored theimplications of code meeting canvas, asAI continues toredefine artistry. 

On Alembic Strategy Café’s livecast - Reigniting the Economy I spoke about supporting entrepreneurs leading the digital revolution.

• The pandemic has accelerated e-commerce and the digitisation of many sectors of the economy led by Healthcare and Education. 

• Angel investors understand that building businesses of scale take at least 7-10 years, which is why it is called ‘patient capital’. So ‘don’t sell too early’.

• The UK is well positioned as a global AI leader having invested as much in AI R&D as the rest of Europe. It’s 3rd behind the US and China.

• The workforce of the future will need digital skills. Therefore we need to start with Schools teaching technology and financial literacy.

• The pandemic has mimicked ‘war-time’ urgency forcing companies to refocus on their business models (pivot if necessary) and show leadership qualities. Successful CEO’s have understood the importance of resilience, being a good role model, showing transparency along with exemplary communication skills to ensure the wellbeing of their teams.

Click here to listen.

Whilst on internship from the University of Leeds, 2nd year student George Travell explored the potential policy prescriptions for the 4th Industrial Revolution.

We’re in the midst of a technological revolution but have we been here before?

The fourth industrial revolution is well on its way to remove 20% of UK workers from the job market by 2030 - a report by McKinsey Global Institute has found. In their study of 46 countries they predicted job loss to be 800m by 2030 whilst still concluding that more jobs will be created than destroyed. Rising consumption particularly from developing economies is one source of new demand which could create approximately 280m jobs globally. Development and deployment of technology itself could create up to 50m.

There is an increased concern about the number of deepfakes being generated; a worrisome product of artificial intelligence. Work experience Yr10 student Natalia Leighton from The Herts and Essex High School decided to delve deeper into this controversial topic.

With the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the last decade, one of the newest crazes is deepfaking, but what actually is it?

China is currently piloting a vast ranking system using big data and AI processes to monitor citizens’ behaviour. The social ‘Sesame credit’ system was first announced in June 2014 by the governing State Council of the People’s Republic of China and will be mandatory for all businesses and citizens once fully operational by 2020.

Whilst robotic use cases have been prevalent in many industries including the military, manufacturing, agriculture and healthcare for quite some time, Sophie O'Flaherty Yr11 student from The Herts and Essex High School was curious to see what a positive and integral role they have played during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Humans are imaginative and for thousands of years have dreamt of new and exciting ways that future generations may lead their lives, and, for over a century, robots have been a big part of that vision. There are in fact more than 2.6 million robots at work in the world today most of which are used for industrial applications, such as electronics manufacture, drug production, welding and much more.

We're increasingly encountering robots in our everyday lives, with robots as well as examples of Artificial Intelligence (AI) being found almost everywhere; robots such as 'Roombas' that clean your home as well as the 'virtual assistant' (your Smartphone) that you’re probably carrying around in your pocket right now!

As you’ll read below, the Covid-19 crisis has shown us the extent to which robots can be utilised. So, while we may not be living on the moon in 2020 our robots can already do some pretty amazing things!

Facial recognition is often being talked about as one of the next big things but where can it be used and how secure is it? While on work experience, Sam Shelton (Yr10 student) from The Bishop's Stortford High School looked into the subject.

I was delighted to present at this year’s Futurefest event last week-end (17th Sep 16) and participate in a panel along with Brigitte Minamore, Melody Hossaini and Cindy Gallop.

Here’s a brief synopsis of what I said including some of the statistics I referred to: 

While on work experience, Henry Walton of Hockerill Anglo-European College looked into the growing Smartwatch phenomenon.

Is now the time of the Smartwatch?

Growth of the Industry

2012 saw the rise of a new industry following the success of the newly founded smartwatch company Pebble. The company pitched their e-ink display smartwatch to crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in April that year and received $100,000 in the first 2 hours after the project went live. The project went on to raise over $10,000,000 from 70,000 backers, demonstrating the substantial demand for intelligent wearable technology.

The Pebble Watch

Although fitness bands and simplistic smartwatches have been in existence for almost 10 years, it was Pebble’s success that acted as the catalyst for the smartwatch industry’s growth. Other major brands such as Samsung, LG and Motorola quickly followed suit and released their own products across 2013/14.

The huge impact of e-Commerce and home deliveries are revolutionising the retail industry and radically changing our shopping habits. Rose Nott from Birmingham City University has written an article on the future of the online shopping experience.

These are the key technology themes we will be watching closely during 2019:

1. #Techlash - tech builds a conscience

By 2020, it is forecast that 1.7MB of data will be created every second for every individual on the 

planet. Managing data properly must be a top priority for companies in 2019. If they do not have

robust procedures in place to ensure that data is managed, stored and utilised appropriately, they

will run the risk of being caught in the #techlash epidemic.

2. #5G – the race has begun

5G will open up significant opportunities across industries by increasing reliability, saving time, 

money and dramatically enhancing the final user experience. Three key reliability improvements 

over 4G will be a 1,000 times speed increase, improved latency and high precision connectivity due 

to the ultra-high frequencies. IDC predicts more than 30 billion devices will be connected to networks globally by 2020. 

The latest advancements in human-like robots have led many to reflect on the future of AI, robotics and the governing ethics. Rachel Gbolaru Yr12 student from The Bishops Stortford High School explored many unanswered questions they pose whilst on work experience at Delta2020.

At an IT conference in late 2017, the artificially intelligent humanoid robots, Sophia, was granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia, and became the first ‘non-human’ to have a nationality. Sophia was appointed the UN’s first non-human “innovation champion.” Although most observers saw this act as more of a publicity stunt than a meaningful legal recognition, some found this gesture as openly disparaging human rights and the law. This controversial issue has raised some very important questions that are yet to be answered. Should robots be granted rights? What kind of rights should they be given? 

Data will continue to be the fuel of the digital economy and this year it underpins all our tech themes. We believe blockchain technology has only just started to revolutionise industries, IoT adoption will surge as it drives productivity and government regulation will have to move fast to catch up with past innovation. A year on from our Ten Tech Trends for 2017 - A quantum leap the digital revolution continues to displace and disrupt. 

‘The digital revolution is the new industrial revolution’. Digital disruption continues to shape our world of today and our future of tomorrow. Following on from our research on Ten Technology Themes to watch in 2016, here are the ten tech trends we shall be tracking in 2017.

iPhone sales have decreased by 50% since 2015. Max O'Reilly, Year 10 student from The Bishops Stortford High School on work experience at Delta2020, decided to look into the diminishing role of the smartphone in the future mobile device industry.

Since the first iPhone was announced in 2007, there have been 21 different variations on the original iPhone model. But, while there is obvious change, the designs have never substantially moved on.

It is quite probable that you are reading this blog on your phone, yet more than likely that would not have been the case ten years ago! With the rate of technological change ever increasing and only accelerated further by COVID-19 Yr11 it provided student Hannah Beckett from The Bishops Stortford College the opportunity to explore what the next decade in tech will look like.  

From ‘Hover Boards’ to voice activated ‘personal assistants’ one would think that the modern age of technology is certainly in no shortage of variety. Considering the last decade of technology has borne substantial significance in combating the problems of today such as climate change which, thanks to Elon Musk and the four fellow founders of Tesla, has consequently, led to a 3.6 million ton depletion in CO2 globally. Thus, in a world where technology plays such a large role in everybody’s day to day life, it has led me to consider the part it may play over the next ten years. 

Phoebe Seymour (Yr12 student) from The Bishop's Stortford High School researched the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand why fewer women are pursuing AI careers when the majority of the constructed AI personalities are female.

It is common knowledge within the tech world that there is a severe lack of women in the artificial intelligence (AI) field. Statistically, 50% of all A-Level physics classes in the UK do not contain girls according to Sherry Coutu, and women received just 18% of undergraduate computer-science degrees in 2011 (National Centre for Education statistics). 

SAGE podcasts and vodcasts span a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. 

Therefore I was delighted to be a guest on the @SageNAmerica Advice Podcast with @edkless to talk about why I invest in early stage growth companies.

The translation and interpretation industry has doubled in the past seven years, advancements in translation technology have enabled translators and interpreters to improve their performance. While on work experience, Wendy Cowen (Yr11 student) from The Bishop’s Stortford High College explored how translation technology is breaking down language barrier

The Corona pandemic will impact every industry. Whilst most have been hit negatively; there are however some that will benefit or actually be 'born' through this adversity. Therefore, Lucas Griffiths Yr11 student from Malmesbury School, Wiltshire decided to research an alternative option to the traditional Summer Holiday!  

To begin, what is Virtual Tourism?  

In brief, it’s a way for someone to travel somewhere with the aid of technology, all without having to take a single step. It comes in a multitude of forms, ranging from something as simple as a guided tour on YouTube, to a fully immersive state-of-the-art virtual reality setup. Virtual tourism refers to a broad spectrum of digitally augmented realities, but the most commonly used devices are computers and VR headsets.

Companies from all industry sectors understand the importance of investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI). It has the potential to transform the way we live and the ability to tackle inherent societal challenges. Whilst on work experience from the Herts and Essex High School, Yr10 student Emily Hollins explored its future impact and opportunities.