Business secretary backs shift to electric arc furnaces at British Steel plant
The business secretary, Peter Kyle, has backed a shift to cleaner electric arc technology at the state-controlled British Steel plant, raising questions about the future of the UK’s last remaining blast furnaces.Kyle said the government was “keen to see that transition happen”, as he works on a new steel strategy, which is expected to be published in December.A shift to electric arc furnaces at Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, would secure the future of steel production at the plant – under emergency state control since April – as the UK tries to meet its target of net zero carbon emissions.However, it would also raise doubts about the fate of blast furnaces that employ thousands of people, and the UK government’s previous pledges to preserve Britain’s primary steelmaking ability, producing steel from iron ore.When the government recalled parliament in April to take control of British Steel, it feared the site’s Chinese owner, Jingye Steel, was planning to close it permanently, with the loss of as many as 2,700 jobs.
Ministers have not yet outlined plans for Scunthorpe’s longer-term future.The government set aside £2.5bn for the steel industry in its election manifesto last year, but Kyle confirmed that it has already spent hundreds of millions of pounds of that money to keep operations going at British Steel and another manufacturer, Liberty Steel, which fell into insolvency in August.Kyle said the government had been forced to change plans as the global steel industry faced a slew of crises.“Britain is operating in a highly complex global environment, which includes, of course, the impact of tariffs, but also the impact of oversupply,” he said.
Donald Trump has caused chaos with trade levies, while a huge amount of steel has continued to flood global markets from China as it looks for other markets.Using up the money set aside for the steel industry would probably mean less money for capital investment.Nevertheless, asked if he thought there would be electric arc furnaces in Scunthorpe, Kyle responded: “I do.” He said he would provide more details in the government’s steel strategy.Steelworkers will be cautious of the plans after the experience of Tata Steel, which last year cut 2,500 jobs at Port Talbot, in south Wales, as it switched to electric arc furnaces.
The plan would also require a deal with Jingye, still the legal owner, to walk away.A move away from blast furnaces would also raise questions over the UK’s ability to make virgin steel.Jonathan Reynolds, Kyle’s predecessor as business secretary, repeatedly said the government was taking control of the Scunthorpe site to preserve “primary steelmaking”, the ability to produce steel from iron ore.Alasdair McDiarmid, the assistant general secretary of Community, a union representing steelworkers, said he welcomed “the government’s firm commitment to a just transition”.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 promotionHowever, he added that it would be important to “maintain primary steelmaking capacity here in the UK”.
The UK has relied on blast furnaces to produce primary steel, but they generally vent huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.Electric arc furnaces, by contrast, use electricity to melt down scrap steel, not iron ore.The government is considering investing in a separate facility to turn iron ore into direct reduced iron (DRI), which is compatible with electric arc furnaces.That DRI could then be produced using clean hydrogen, preserving primary steelmaking ability with much lower carbon emissions.However, industry sources have cast doubt on the financial viability of such an arrangement.
Frank Aaskov, the director of energy and climate change policy at UK Steel, a lobby group, said it was “encouraging to see the secretary of state set out a clear future vision for the UK steel industry and British Steel”.He said the steel industry needs “a stronger business environment through lower power prices and robust trade policies”.Kyle spoke to the Guardian from Cardiff, where he was meeting small businesses to hear about productivity improvements using digital technology.He said the government wanted to play a “greater role” in coordinating AI training for companies.
People in the UK: have you received good or bad financial advice from an AI chatbot?
Tech companies are pumping billions into the growth of artificial intelligence, with OpenAI this month signing a $38bn (£29bn) cloud computing deal with Amazon as part of a $3tn datacentre spending spree.But as people increasingly use AI chatbots – such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Meta AI and Perplexity – for advice and task completion, some observers have concerns about misinformation, hullicinations and irresponsible advice.A survey this year from KPMG and the University of Melbourne found that 80 percent of people in the UK believe AI regulation is required.We want to hear from people who have asked chatbots for financial advice. Have you asked AI tools for help with money, debt or personal finance? Were you recommended anything unexpected, or unsuitable? What was the financial result? Do you have concerns?You can tell us about askng AI tools for financial advice herePlease include as much detail as possible
AI slop tops Billboard and Spotify charts as synthetic music spreads
Three songs generated by artificial intelligence topped music charts this week, reaching the highest spots on Spotify and Billboard charts.Walk My Walk and Livin’ on Borrowed Time by the outfit Breaking Rust topped Spotify’s “Viral 50” songs in the US, which documents the “most viral tracks right now” on a daily basis, according to the streaming service. A Dutch song, We Say No, No, No to an Asylum Center, an anti-migrant anthem by JW “Broken Veteran” that protests against the creation of new asylum centers, took the top position in Spotify’s global version of the viral chart around the same time. Breaking Rust also appeared in the top five on the global chart.“You can kick rocks if you don’t like how I talk,” reads a lyric from Walk My Walk, a seeming double entendre challenging those opposed to AI-generated music
UK firms can win a significant chunk of the AI chip market | John Browne
The UK is in a uniquely promising position, far too little understood, to play a lucrative role in the coming era of artificial intelligence – but only if it also grabs the opportunity to start making millions of computer chips.AI requires vast numbers of chips and we could supply up to 5% of world demand if we get our national act together.Our legacy in chip design is world-class, starting with the first general-purpose electronic computer, the first electronic memory and the first parallel computer. Today we have Cambridge-based Arm, a quiet titan designing more than 90% of the chips powering phones and tablets globally.With such a pedigree, it is not idle daydreaming for British companies to win a significant chunk of the AI chip market; 5% is a conservative, achievable ambition
EU investigates Google over ‘demotion’ of commercial content from news media
The EU has opened an investigation into Google Search over concerns the US tech company has been “demoting” commercial content from news media sites.The bloc’s executive arm announced the move after monitoring found that certain content created with advertisers and sponsors was being given such a low priority by Google that it was in effect no longer visible in search results.European Commission officials said this potentially unfair “loss of visibility and of revenue” to media owners could be a result of an anti-spam policy Google operates.Under the rules of the Digital Market Act (DMA), which governs competition in the tech sectors, Google must apply “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions of access to publishers’ websites on Google Search”.Commission officials said the investigation was not into the overall indexing of newspapers or their reporting on Google Search, just into commercial content provided by third parties
Anthropic announces $50bn plan for datacenter construction in US
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced a $50bn investment in computing infrastructure on Wednesday that will include new datacenters in Texas and New York.“We’re getting closer to AI that can accelerate scientific discovery and help solve complex problems in ways that weren’t possible before,” Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in a press release.Building the massive information warehouses takes an average of two years in the US and requires copious amounts of energy to fuel the facilities. The company, maker of the AI chatbot Claude, popular with businesses adopting AI, said in a statement that the “scale of this investment is necessary to meet the growing demand for Claude from hundreds of thousands of businesses while keeping our research at the frontier”. Anthropic said its projects will create about 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction jobs
Waymo announces that its robotaxis will drive freeways for the first time
Alphabet’s Waymo said on Wednesday that it would begin offering robotaxi rides that use freeways across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, a first for the Google subsidiary as it steps up expansion amid global and domestic competition in the self-driving industry.Freeway rides will initially be available to early-access users, Waymo said. “When a freeway route is meaningfully faster, they can be matched with a freeway trip, providing quicker, smoother, and more efficient rides,” it said.Waymo, which already operates in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, is also extending operations to San Jose, including Mineta San Jose international airport, the second airport in its service area after Phoenix Sky Harbor.The move comes as Tesla expands its robotaxi service with safety monitors and drivers, and Zoox – backed by Amazon – offers free robotaxi rides on and around the Las Vegas Strip
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