Machines learning

A fascinating evening last night, at the invite of Mark Smith at LexisNexus, I was given the opportunity to speak with a group of law firm knowledge managers and, as is my style these days, get them to play with Lego for a bit. As the conversation evolved over dinner, one of the participants said … Continue reading Machines learning

The everyday sexism of AI

I'm currently preparing a talk for a group of HR professionals on the subject of AI, machine learning and robots. My opening gambit is going to be that robots have already taken over our houses and have us enslaved. A strong pitch. What are these robots of which I speak? Well, you probably know them … Continue reading The everyday sexism of AI

Trust in Algorithms

Another day, another airline algorithm atrocity - this time not a doctor being hauled down the aisle by United, but a ten year old child being barred from travelling with his family by Air Canada. For all of the talk about PR disasters and customer service woes, in our automated algorithm obsessed world one dialogue … Continue reading Trust in Algorithms

Minimum Viable Workplace

As someone who occasionally lives a coffee shop working lifestyle, I feel I have come to understand what are the bare requirements for "knowledge" working these days. In no particular order: refreshments a chair and table somewhere to have a chat with someone toilets wifi (ideally) a power socket protection from the vagaries of the London … Continue reading Minimum Viable Workplace

Flavours of cloud

For my sins I seem to have spent a fair bit of time in the company of sales people from the big ERP vendors in the last few weeks. One of the last bastions of on-premise thinking, enterprise resource planning (AKA "the finance system") is starting to see its transition into the world of Software … Continue reading Flavours of cloud

Driverless trains

If we are on the cusp, according to the likes of Elon Musk, of all being whisked around in the comfort of autonomous vehicles, why aren't our train systems already ubiquitously automated? Whilst I have no doubt that driving a train is a challenging task, presumably without the need to actually steer surely the challenges … Continue reading Driverless trains

Spring 2017 bookshelf…

Here's the stuff currently being read, been read or on the "to read" list... Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration Pixar's Ed Catmull explores how the animation studio explores and creates ideas. (To read) Dark Money: how a secretive group of billionaires is trying to buy political … Continue reading Spring 2017 bookshelf…

Back doors

The recent hubbub in politics about security services back doors into end-to-end encrypted messaging service has got me thinking. Putting aside the issues of technological impossibility, as we enter into a world in which more and more devices are connected, a storm of questions about the morals, ethics and necessity of back doors into things could … Continue reading Back doors