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Chatbots are proliferating rapidly thanks to advancements in AI. Most of us have come into contact with them, commonly in a customer service capacity. Formulaic responses aside, they can save a lot of time. Who wants to spend over an hour on hold, only to be hung up on? Chatbots mimic whatever information is fed to them. The result is a reflection of the integrity (or otherwise) of whoever programmed the information. Given the nefarious potential, it’s left some to question i

What if we could predict the behaviour of bush and forest fires before they ever break out? Thanks to the bright sparks working away at some of the world’s most exciting startups and research institutions, breakthroughs in space technology could soon be setting the world ablaze – in a good way. As if we didn’t have enough on our plates, recent history has seen angry, ruthless blazes ripping through the natural environment like, well, wildfire. From Australia to the Amazon, Ca

A 2021 study by WWF found an area of forest totalling 43 million hectares – almost double the size of the UK – was wiped out in just 13 years across the world’s key deforestation hotspots. Unsurprisingly, commercial agriculture was found to be the leading cause of deforestation. The Amazon rainforest is approaching a tipping point, where scientists fear losing a further 5% of area could lead to runaway climate change. Finding a solution is now a race against time. Enter tech

Do you struggle to remember what life was like pre-pandemic? You’re not alone. Nobody could have anticipated the speed of widespread digital transformation lived through from 2020 onwards, thanks to recurring lockdowns. Banana bread and DIY videos were the tip of the iceberg; the gaming, entertainment, and e-commerce sectors witnessed accelerated growth, in a way previously inconceivable. QR codes became de rigueur. Cash has all but disappeared. TikTok exploded. The question

Going to the cinema in the late 20th century would have been a very different experience without the acting talent of Mr. Val Kilmer. With iconic roles in everything from blockbusters like Top Gun (1986), Batman Forever (1995) and Heat (1995), to cult classics like True Romance (1993), Kilmer’s voice was one of the sounds of the 80s and 90s.  Now, after a painful battle with throat cancer, scientists have been able to use a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and

When you think of market research, you might picture wannabe-entrepreneurs from The Apprentice conducting their so-called “focus groups”; scrawling down notes about biscuit preferences from pre-school children and their parents.  Typically, contestants skirt over any negative feedback and continue full steam ahead with their nonsense concepts. It makes for great entertainment (“what were they thinking?!”) but does little for the reputation of customer research. Market resea

I utilise language in almost all aspects of my daily life. I rely heavily on my ability to read, understand and interpret, whether that be managing complex development projects at work, creating educational videos for my iluli video channel, or teaching my kids their times tables on an evening.  But not everyone enjoys a straightforward relationship with the written word. According to the British Dyslexia Association, the number of individuals with dyslexia in the UK is aroun

In January 2021, Top Gear website introduced a “cute” mobile charging robot. I must admit the accompanying images leave me in two minds. On the one hand, it is pretty cute – it looks to have a personality, like a bulked up, streamlined version of R2-D2 or Johnny 5 (if you’re old enough to remember that far back).  On the other hand, it’s kind of sinister. There’s something about its blinking digital “eyes” and waiting for you behind a wall in an underground car park that gi

When you think of virtual reality combat simulations, I expect you’ll picture video games. A fully immersive version of Call of Duty , perhaps? Solitary folk in their high-backed chairs barking orders from beneath their VR headsets? But we’re not talking fun and games here. We’re talking about the Royal Navy’s cutting-edge training programme. You had to be there... In January 2021, Wired published a behind-the-scenes article exploring the Navy’s futuristic training centre.

After power, the second most important thing for my motorhome is fast, reliable internet. For years, camping and caravanning trips meant little to no mobile phone signal and no internet access whatsoever. Whilst caravan sites have upped their game in recent times, the Wi-Fi at most sites remains abysmal. All it takes is for everyone to head inside and fire up Facebook at the first sign of inclement weather, and any hope for stable Wi-Fi goes out the window. For someone like m

For many, a holiday in a caravan or motorhome offers the opportunity to spend some quality time “off grid”. The chance to hitch up and...

With temperatures continuing to rise around the world, it’s clear we’ll need to rely on something other than rain dances to fend off droughts.  That’s where 'cloud seeding' comes in – a type of weather modification that typically aims to increase the amount of rain or snow. According to a March 2021 article in The Guardian : Cloud seeding involves using aircraft or drones to add small particles of silver iodide, which have a structure similar to ice, to clouds. Water droplets

When I think of farming, I picture tractors, wellington boots, hay bales and an awful lot of hard work. A farm would be one of the last places I’d consider to be futuristic. But I’d be wrong. Agritech start-ups around the world are on a mission to reinvent farming. And yes, we’re talking robots. In December 2020, Intelligent Living published an article detailing how a two-acre vertical farm run by artificial intelligence and robots out-produced a 720-acre flat farm. That’s q

In December 2020, the BBC published an article detailing how Japan’s government plans to fund artificial intelligence matchmaking schemes to combat the nation’s tumbling birth rate.  The state taking an active interest in the love lives of inhabitants feels like something from a Black Mirror episode, but with birth rates falling to a record low it's perhaps not surprising. According to the article: “Japan's population is projected to fall from a peak of 128 million in 2017

Life expectancy in the UK has more than doubled over the course of two and a half centuries, from below 39 years in 1765 to 81.1 years in 2020. Smallpox outbreaks, World War One and the Spanish Flu epidemic contributed to dips in an otherwise overwhelmingly positive trajectory. Even since the turn of the millennium, the life expectancy rate has increased by more than 5%. But it has since stalled, with the slowdown reported as one of the biggest among 20 of the world’s leadi

I’m no make-up aficionado. I can’t tell powder from primer. But I can appreciate the tech trends that are transforming the beauty industry. Not only are they promoting inclusivity through advanced personalisation, they’re fantastically futuristic too. Take the Nudemeter,  a computer vision tool designed by Harvard Business School graduate Atima Lui. Users upload a selfie, complete a short quiz et voilà! An algorithm suggests the product that best matches their skin tone. Acco

Towards the end of October 2020, Forbes published an article detailing a trial in which an artificial intelligence-based diagnostic tool had reduced hospital admissions by more than 50%. Even in “normal times”, such a substantial reduction would be welcome news. But at a time when a global pandemic has pushed many of the world’s health care systems to breaking point, it’s very welcome news indeed. The tool’s manufacturer — Clare Medical — concluded that “predicting which pat

The past 16 months or so have been unlike any other in my lifetime. At times, it’s been all too easy to focus on how the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have affected our own lives: our daily routines, seeing friends and extended family, keeping the kids entertained on weekends…  But there have been more changes to our surroundings than we’ve perhaps noticed. Take fundraising for The Royal British Legion, for example. Poppy sellers have been a fixture of UK high streets for

Fifty years ago, Joni Mitchell lamented “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” in her hit single Big Yellow Taxi. She wasn’t wrong, and we have 2020 to thank for proving it to the masses. In a 1996 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mitchell stated: “I wrote “Big Yellow Taxi” on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked d

Innovation breeds innovation. There’s no two ways about it. When the first iPhone was announced, we were blown away by the existence of a weather app.  Today, there are more than 1,960,000 apps to choose from. Not bad, when you consider there were just 500 when the App Store launched back in July 2008. That said, it’s no surprise that app development has gone from strength to strength. Why wouldn’t entrepreneurs take advantage of an accessible, cutting-edge platform with glo