In June 2020, amid great job-market uncertainty, EY launched its groundbreaking Tech MBA in partnership with Hult International Business School. The first of its kind, this fully-accredited course offers all of EY’s 300,000 people the chance to develop new knowledge, behaviours, and skills in a range of technology, leadership, and business areas — such as artificial intelligence blockchain, robotic process automation, employee wellbeing, diversity & inclusion, and sustainable business practices.

Being heavily involved in tech at EY, I was obviously thrilled about the trailblazing move. In a decidedly rubbish year, it gives everyone at the company the opportunity to better…

Today marks this year’s April Fools’ Day, when the world’s slickest pranksters get the chance to hoodwink us all with their craftiest practical jokes and hoaxes. I like to think I’m pretty sharp-eyed, but in the past, even I’ve been taken in by a cunning jape or two on this tricksiest of days. And I was convinced the same had happened this morning when I chanced upon an innovation called SlugBot. No, your eyes do not deceive you.

Believe it or not, SlugBot isn’t some cooked-up jest. It is in fact a real invention, dating back two whole decades. This…

Today in the UK, we celebrate Wear A Hat Day! It’s now been 11 years since Brain Tumour Research launched this quirky annual event to support its worthy campaigning activity and raise vital funds for discovery research. And it’s easy to understand why. Brain tumours are indiscriminate — they kill more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer, which is why it’s almost unbelievable that a mere 1% of UK cancer spending goes to the disease.

2021’s Wear A Hat Day also honours key workers, to whom we owe so much after the past year. Take NHS workers…

In a year when outdoor festivals are on hiatus, I was excited to attend my first virtual festival. And it was indeed a true AI-fest. Guests at the AI Festival 2021 were treated to scores of thought-provoking insights from speakers in academia, politics, and industry — with Facebook, Google, and MIT just a few of the most notable organisations there.

I especially loved hearing from UK experts, such as the Alan Turing Institute, Babylon Health, BT, and UCL, who showed that UK AI talent can compete with its more renowned counterparts elsewhere in the world. …

As part of this year’s exciting EY International Women’s Day activities, I named my inspirational mother as a role model. The founder of multiple businesses and a former Great British Bake Off contestant, she’s definitely where I get my entrepreneurial and can-do spirit. As Women’s History Month continues, I’d like to highlight another personal hero, one revered by many women in mathematics and technology, and by lots of women in general: Ada Lovelace, inventor of the algorithm.

Many success stories start with a talented parent. This is certainly true of both me and Ada Lovelace, daughter of “dramatically dark and…

For anyone who has ever suffered a loss, Microsoft could have an incredible solution — but it’s a controversial one. The US Department of Commerce recently granted the tech giant a patent permitting the manufacture of a chatbot based on a deceased person’s information, including “images, voice data, social media posts [and] electronic messages.” If Microsoft goes ahead with the idea, it would create AI versions of humans, possibly accompanied by digital representations of their face or body.

We already have access to the technology needed to make this happen. And we’ve seen AI used to bring the dead back…

Right now, the world looks at New Zealand in awe, and that’s thanks to its highly effective pandemic response. Decisive action on border control after the outbreak of coronavirus limited the total number of Covid-related deaths to just 26 (the equivalent of 293 per 1 million people). It also means that our Kiwi friends can already enjoy a relatively normal life while we in the United Kingdom remain confined to a never-ending Netflix binge — although we can now see light at the end of the Covid-y tunnel.

But it’s not just New Zealand’s location at the ‘edge of the…

Rodney Ascher’s vivid, cinematic documentary is the ultimate conspiracy theory must-watch for ‘Living in a Simulation’ newbies

If you know nothing of simulation theory, Rodney Ascher’s journey “down the rabbit hole of science, philosophy, and conspiracy theory” might just fire up your CPU. If your exploration of the concept has already gone beyond the cursory, then I don’t think A Glitch in the Matrix will fall on the right bandwidth for you.

In his newest documentary, Ascher takes a commendable shot at probing the fascinating idea that we’re living not in reality but in a computer simulation — an idea…