Newly formed VodafoneThree vows to create thousands of jobs
VodafoneThree, the newly formed leader in the UK’s mobile market, is aiming to more than double its broadband business by 2034 as it pledged to create thousands of jobs and upgrade its network.Vodafone has become the fastest growing provider of home broadband since expanding beyond mobile services in 2015, and plans to grow its customer base from 2 million to more than 4 million over the next eight years.VodafoneThree has deals in place with CityFibre and Openreach to target its services to customers, and on Thursday announced a partnership with London-focused Community Fibre.The merger of Vodafone’s UK arm with Three creates a business with 27 million customers backed by a pledge to invest £11bn over the next decade to roll out next-generation 5G services across the UK.VodafoneThree plans to close some of its almost 650 stores on high streets and in shopping centres but create about 400 customer service jobs previously outsourced overseas.
Three UK has about 290 stores, and Vodafone, which controls 51% of the new UK joint venture, has about 350 outlets.The overlap in many locations means that as VodafoneThree combines its businesses, an unspecified number in close proximity will be shut.However, Max Taylor, the chief executive of VodafoneThree, said there would be no redundancies.“Staff levels will come down over time naturally.”Taylor said that the company would not look to increase its customer base by considering a takeover of the troubled rival telecoms and broadband company TalkTalk.
The UK’s fourth-largest telecoms group has about 3.2 million customers but is struggling to stem a customer exodus and is facing financial difficulties, which has made it a potential takeover target.BT and Virgin Media O2 have looked at the possibility of a bid.James Ratzer, an analyst at New Street Research, said: “We genuinely believe that almost regardless of the price, Vodafone is so focused on the integration of Three UK for the next few years that a TalkTalk integration would not be possible for them to take on.”The £16.
5bn VodafoneThree merger, bringing together the third and fourth largest mobile operators in the UK, has been underpinned by a pledge to invest billions in extending 5G mobile coverage across the UK.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionThe new company, which has about 13,500 employees, has said it will provide more than 99% of the UK with 5G coverage by 2034.The first £1.3bn of its £11bn investment will be made this year.The company has said that during the eight-year build period it will create 9,000 jobs annually on average, and as many as 13,000 in the years when investment in the project peaks.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said: “I’m delighted that this huge investment is being made in mobile phone network infrastructure, better connecting people with families, loved ones and work by providing stronger, more widespread 5G coverage.”
Disney and Universal sue AI image creator Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement
Disney and Universal sued an artificial intelligence company on Wednesday, alleging copyright infringement. In their lawsuit, the entertainment giants called Midjourney’s popular AI-powered image generator a “bottomless pit of plagiarism” for its alleged reproductions of the studios’ best-known characters.The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims Midjourney pirated the libraries of the two Hollywood studios, making and distributing without permission “innumerable” copies of their marquee characters such as Darth Vader from Star Wars, Elsa from Frozen, and the Minions from Despicable Me. Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The suit by Disney and Universal over images and video represents a new frontier in the raging legal wars over the copyright and the creation of generative artificial intelligence
‘They went too far’: Musk says he regrets some of his posts about Trump
Elon Musk has expressed contrition for some of his tweets about Donald Trump last week, in an apparent effort to retreat from an explosive falling out that has threatened to damage the Tesla boss’s business interests.Musk was by far the biggest donor to Trump’s presidential campaign, but tensions between the two erupted into public view last week and rapidly escalated, as the world’s richest man called for the president’s impeachment and mocked his connections to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a series of posts.On Wednesday, Musk posted on X, the social network he owns: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”Musk’s public apology came after the tech billionaire privately called Trump on Monday night, the New York Times first reported, citing three people familiar with the matter
Meta to announce $15bn investment in bid to achieve computerised ‘superintelligence’
Meta is to announce a $15bn (£11bn) bid to achieve computerised “superintelligence”, according to multiple reports.The Silicon Valley race to dominate artificial intelligence is speeding up despite the patchy performance of many existing AI systems.Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, is expected to announce the company will buy a 49% stake in Scale AI, a startup led by Alexandr Wang and co-founded by Lucy Guo, in a move described by one Silicon Valley analyst as the action of “a wartime CEO”.Superintelligence is described as a type of AI that can perform better than humans at all tasks. Currently AI cannot reach the same level as humans in all tasks, a state known as artificial general intelligence (AGI)
UK students and staff: tell us your experiences with AI at university
The use of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools are becoming increasingly commonplace in UK higher education. A February survey of 1,000 students showed an “explosive increase” in use of generative AI in particular over the previous 12 months.With this in mind, we’d like to find out more about how AI is affecting students at university.How has AI impacted your studies? Have you used AI tools? Have you been suspected of using AI when you haven’t? What guidance have you been given by universities or tutors about using AI? Do you have any concerns?We’d also like to hear from university teaching staff – what is the impact of AI on students’ work? What are the challenges?You can tell us about your experiences with AI at university using this form.Please share your story if you are 18 or over, anonymously if you wish
As big tech grows more involved in Gaza, Muslim workers are wrestling with a spiritual crisis
Is working in big tech halal? Muslim workers are reckoning with the possibility that their jobs go against their religious obligationsBefore Ibtihal Aboussad was fired by Microsoft for protesting the company’s work with the Israeli military during a celebration of the firm’s 50th anniversary, she sent two emails.The first went to all of her colleagues. She appealed to their universal humanity and urged them to stand against Microsoft’s contracts to provide cloud computing software and artificial intelligence products to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).She sent the second to the “Muslims at Microsoft” email list. Its subject line read: “Muslims of Microsoft, Our Code Kills Palestinians
AI can ‘level up’ opportunities for dyslexic children, says UK tech secretary
Artificial intelligence should be deployed to “level up” opportunities for dyslexic children, according to the UK science and technology secretary, Peter Kyle, who warned there was currently not enough human capacity to help people with the learning difficulty.Kyle, who is dyslexic and uses AI to support his work, said the government should carefully look at “how AI can transform education and help us assess and understand a young person’s abilities into the future”.He spoke as the TV chef Jamie Oliver, who is also dyslexic, launched a campaign calling for improved teacher training on dyslexia and earlier screening of children to detect the condition sooner. About 6 million people in the UK are estimated to have dyslexia, which primarily affects reading and writing skills.Kyle told the Guardian he had felt “quite emotional” when seeing AI technology used to help young people learn with “incredible empathy, encouragement and knowledge”
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