• Intellectual property: striking the right balance

    In an effort to remain joined up across the programme, Christos has suggested this week’s blog topic: “Intellectual property represents a compromise between encouraging new ideas and allowing the full use of existing ideas” Kenneth Arrow (1962) The subject of … Continued

  • Are voice clones the latest disinformation threat?

    In an era of disinformation, holding onto what we mean by ‘truth’ can be increasingly challenging.  A decade ago, Photoshop might have been used to manipulate images, for example, by adding in a person to a photo who was not … Continued

  • Algorithmic bias and facial recognition

    As I mentioned in my last-minute slide about Clearview AI and facial recognition technology (FRT), I think this is a great case of an emergent issue where, for better or worse, firms have had both considerable ability to shape the … Continued

  • Green industrial revolutions, 10 point plans, goals and agenda setting

    This week, the British Government released its 10-point plan for a ‘green industrial revolution’ (you can read the press release, which was actually the only information available for the first 24 hours!).  The plan claims to ‘mobilise £12 billion of … Continued

  • Will the vaccine(s) be successful?

    Vaccines have had a transformative impact on global public health.  Despite many decades of progress, however, there remain important challenges associated with immunisation. Determining whether a vaccine will be successful involves resolving important questions regarding vaccine effectiveness, distribution and uptake.  … Continued

  • How safe is our data?

    In 2017, The Economist famously highlighted an oft-cited metaphor of Data as the New Oil to describe the growing centrality of data to the global economy (others assert it is not).  More recently, The Economist have re-evaluated and asked whether … Continued