Met police in talks to buy Palantir AI tech for use in criminal investigations

Emissions understated by factor of five in Essex plans for tech giant, while Greystoke’s Lincolnshire plans show similar error Developers working for Google have significantly misstated how much carbon two proposed AI datacentres will contribute to the UK’s total emissions in planning documents reviewed by the Guardian. The tech company wants to build two huge datacentres – one 52-hectare (130 acre) project in Thurrock and another at an airfield in North Weald, both in Essex. To do so, developers are required to submit planning documents calculating how much carbon these projects will emit as a proportion of the UK’s total carbon footprint. Continue reading...

The company’s UK and Europe boss has become a lightning rod for the British public’s fear of a US tech takeover The hall was packed with rightwing radicals when Louis Mosley heralded a coming revolution. Just as Oliver Cromwell – that “crusader for Christ and liberty” – routed King Charles I’s royalists, “a similar revolution is brewing today”, said the UK and Europe boss of Palantir. Globalism’s “twilight” was upon us, he said in a speech dotted with admiring mentions of the podcaster Joe Rogan and “Elon’s Doge”. It was not a typical peroration for a big UK government contractor with more than £600m in deals with the NHS, the Ministry of Defence and police. But Palantir, the world’s most controversial tech company, is no typical contractor. In recent years it has gained firm footholds across Britain’s public sector while appalling critics with its leadership’s rightwing rhetoric and its work for the US and Israeli militaries and Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown. Continue read

The gentle French garment is now as cursed as the infamous megacorp, which has accumulated $80m in government contracts in Australia alone It’s taken me years to find a chore coat with a cut that flatters my big tits but, now that I finally own one, I want to incinerate it. Such is the power of brand contamination; infamous data surveillance megacorp Palantir, has decided to bang a logo on a chore coat to sell as corporate merch. Continue reading...

AI technology is leapfrogging, yet that doesn’t mean we always want a revolutionary feature out of it. What most users would want more of are simple capabilities within AI that can help with their everyday tasks, whether in the office, at home, or anywhere else. On those lines, OpenAI may have just come up with […] The post ChatGPT is Now Inside Excel and Google Sheets: Here is How to Use it appeared first on Analytics Vidhya.

A slew of tech earnings predict an expensive future for everyday electronics buyers, and big developments in the UK tech world Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian. Today, we examine how a slew of tech earnings predict an expensive future for everyday electronics buyers and two big developments in the UK tech world: Workers at Google DeepMind, headquartered in London, petitioned to unionize to stop their employer’s military work. And UK police are increasingly adopting live facial recognition, with considerable consequences. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: With the use of facial recognition skyrocketing, there are calls for the rapid development of safeguards Good morning. Over the last couple of days, the Guardian has been reporting that facial recognition technology is being rolled out across the UK at a pace that appears to be outstripping the rules designed to govern it. Police forces are increasingly using live systems to scan members of the public in real time, while retailers are deploying similar tools to identify suspected shoplifters. Advocates of the technology argue that facial recognition is effective and here to stay. Critics warn it risks creating a system where people are monitored – and sometimes wrongly flagged – without clear safeguards. Middle East crisis | Donald Trump has threatened that Iran will be “blown off the face of the earth” if it attacks US vessels trying to reopen a route through the strait of Hormuz. Delivery industry | More than 7,000 Just Eat couriers are taking legal action agai

Exclusive: Biometrics commissioners say face-scanning not as effective as claimed and new laws needed to regulate use How does live facial recognition work and how many police forces use it? Guilty until proven innocent: shoppers falsely identified by facial recognition Britain’s biometrics watchdogs have warned that national oversight of AI-powered face scanning to catch criminals is lagging far behind the technology’s rapid growth. With the Metropolitan police almost doubling the number of faces they scan in London over the past 12 months and a rising use of the technology by retailers in the UK, Prof William Webster, the biometrics commissioner for England and Wales, said the “slow pace of legislation was trying to catch up with the real world” and “the horse had gone before the cart”. An independent audit of the Met’s use of facial recognition technology (FRT) has been indefinitely postponed after the police requested delays. Polling shows 57% of people believe the systems are

Exclusive: Mayor raises concerns about using public money to support firms who act ‘contrary to London’s values’ Sadiq Khan may oppose Scotland Yard using Palantir’s AI systems to process criminal intelligence because of his “concerns about using public money to support firms who act contrary to London’s values”. The mayor of London’s office made the statement after the Guardian revealed last week that Palantir, which works for Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown and Israel’s military, has held talks with the Metropolitan police over a wide-ranging contract that could run into tens of millions of pounds. Continue reading...