These days, it’s tough to avoid newspaper headlines warning that artificial intelligence is coming for your job. The problem is that, often, the only thing these oversimplifications get right is that there is, in fact, an important connection between automation and work. What’s surprising is how many examples there are of AI acting as the […]
The technology most likely to shape our future, the way we live our daily lives, has arrived. It’s not social media, big data, or AI, but cryptocurrency – a digital monetary system made up of blockchain technology. Within two decades, the days of financial intermediaries will be over. No more central banks and traditional financial […]
Talking about the rise and rise of Bitcoin in China to the WEF, Eric Mu a local entrepreneur and Bitcoin miner listed the factors contributing to its popularity there: “…a large internet-savvy population, cheap and abundant hydropower, mature electrical manufacturing, capital control and a depreciating currency.” In fact, Mu could have been describing any one […]
Have you heard about the latest artificial intelligence (AI) risk? It’s not a wild-eyed fantasy about killer robots and controlling machines. This concern is firmly rooted in the real world: are unrealistic fears about AI technologies leading to prohibitive policies that quash innovation? The unfounded fear of AI is great, widespread, and not limited to […]
While the country was consumed with the Charlottesville debacle last week, President Trump was busy reigniting his PR campaign against an American retail staple: Amazon. In a tweet composed last Wednesday, Trump said: “Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt – many jobs […]
A few weeks ago, the Indian road and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said that driverless cars would be banned in order to “protect jobs”. This kind of fallacious argument is nothing new. Over the past year or so, newspapers have been publishing articles arguing that automation is to blame for job losses. Even seemingly intelligent people, […]
It’s silly season, so no wonder the FT is publishing absurdities. Over in the pink pages, John Thornhill is suggesting that Facebook, perhaps Google as well, should be funding something like a basic income. Since the data they make so much money out of is our data, why shouldn’t we get something in return? Which is to […]
Here’s a question for you. Which of the big tech firms is growing the fastest? Here’s a hint: it’s the one that has quadrupled its revenues over the last three years, while slashing its prices some 62 times. It’s also the one that this week announced another quarter of extraordinary growth, with sales up 42 […]
Nothing enrages a certain kind of Englishman more than being told what to do by a Frenchman. So if you’re that sort of Englishman, you’re not going to like this: France is insisting that French law should apply to everyone, everywhere, all the time. It is trying to overturn the basic rules of sovereign jurisdiction, and the […]
If bitcoin were a country, it would be Somalia – horribly unstable and the perfect breeding ground for a boss-class of criminals. Or so Jim Edwards argued in a 2013 Business Insider article. Today, the cryptocurrency still hasn’t lost the stigma of being volatile and ideal for criminal activity. Yet, while it may be true […]
The publication of Matthew Taylor’s employment review today has re-opened the debate on the “gig” or “sharing” economy. Trade unions, politicians and commentators seem to see these platform technologies as a troublesome challenge, given they do not conform to existing business models on which employment legislation has been predicated. But, dear readers, that is the whole […]
Imagine a system that can translate the will of the people into instant action. No more waiting for elections. No more filtering democracy through legislators and regulators. Instead, a question will pop up on your phone. Should maternity leave be more generous? What should the new royal yacht be called? We’ve found a senior ISIS […]
In Ghana, a for-profit firm called LandMapp is “unlocking land’s value” by helping to secure farmer’s unofficial land rights. These farmers may have customary or traditional rights to their land, but in many cases these rights are not formally recognised. The company uses GPS-enabled smartphones to map the boundaries of farmers’ plots. They verify boundary […]
This January, the Crime Survey of England and Wales included fraud and cyber crime for the first time. In the 12 months to September 2016, there had been two million incidents of cyber crime and over 3.5 million reports of fraud. Of nearly 12 million incidents of crime recorded in the survey, almost half (47 per […]
The work of the Centre for Policy Studies normally concentrates on economics – what is known as Thatcherism. Like Margaret Thatcher, our founder, we believe in the small state, low tax, free markets, independence, self-determination and the kind of policies that bring widespread and deep-rooted prosperity. But as Mrs Thatcher knew, there can be no […]
It is obviously going to be difficult to get an economic idea across to Owen Jones – the lad’s a socialist for goodness sake, one who praised Venezuela’s policy loudly for some years – but needs must, eh? In his latest Guardian column, he tells us that Clem Attlee’s government produced the social democratic nirvana […]
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