Ollie Pope believes pressure on England place will push him to deliver in Ashes
Ollie Pope believes the pressure of defending his spot in the England team amid constant speculation about his future and the rising challenge presented by Jacob Bethell has given him greater clarity and quality, leaving him well placed to improve a poor record against Australia when the Ashes start on Friday.In 10 Test innings against the Australians Pope has never scored more than 42, averaging 11.16 in the three games he played last time England toured here in 2021-22, and 22.50 in two matches when the Ashes were last contested in 2023.The 27-year-old looked in fine form when scoring 100 and 90 in the warmup fixture against the Lions at Lilac Hill and will head to the Optus Stadium for the first Test with confidence high.
“I’m someone who likes time in the middle just to get myself ready for a series.I found it really beneficial,” Pope said.“Everyone is pretty aware conditions were very different [to the Optus Stadium, venue for the first Test] but it’s a month and a half since my last game so it’s just nice to have some time in the middle.”Having spent a fair amount of his England career fielding questions about whether it is about to end, Pope answered the latest query with a grin.“I’ve got so used to those conversations being had, and seeing them,” he said.
“I don’t go looking for them but it’s pretty hard to avoid sometimes.I’m so used to seeing it I’ve just learned to focus on my game.I’m just trying to become a better player each time I step out, and that’s all I can do.“It’s been good for me that I’ve learnt that under the most pressure I’ve been able to deliver.I know that I can learn how to deal with that and get the best out of myself.
Everyone wants to be the first name on the team sheet, that’s pretty clear, but at the same time we’re playing international sport and I’ve got to remind myself of that at times.There’s always going to be someone on your heel if you haven’t quite scored the volume of runs that you would have liked.I’m learning to live with it and put my best foot forward.”Watching Pope preparing in the nets over the last week it has been clear that he is doing additional, focused work, returning for extra sessions and constantly discussing his technique with staff, particularly the assistant coach Jeetan Patel.“I’ve done a bit of work on my game, tidied up some areas,” he said.
“Just a couple of little technical bits.I’m not going to go into it too much before the series.Just smoothing out a few areas.”As a result he goes into the Ashes confident that he will improve on the performances that got him dropped two games into England’s last tilt at the urn in Australia, having scored 34, four, five and four in his first four innings of the series.“I think I’m a far better player than I was the last time I came out to Australia,” he said.
“I’ve got those experiences behind me and I know how I want to go about it so fingers crossed I can deliver with a lot of runs.I got dropped pretty quickly in the last series and rightly so at the time.I just wasn’t as clear how I wanted to play.I didn’t know my game well enough and I didn’t know the conditions like I might have known them, so they’re things I’ve banked.Growing up a little bit and getting used to playing these big series and games helps.
For me, I’ve got complete clarity in how I want to go about batting on each of these pitches.”
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
A tax roadmap for electric cars | Letters
Rachel Reeves’s proposal to introduce a pay-per-mile tax levy on electric vehicles is idiotic, especially suggesting that hybrid vehicles will have a reduced rate and still pay the usual road tax (Rachel Reeves considering pay-per-mile tax for electric vehicles in budget, 6 November). Furthermore, requiring drivers to predict their yearly mileage in advance and then pay or reclaim the difference for actual mileage depending on whether they have underestimated or overestimated it is too cumbersome. If the DVLA is to oversee the collection/repayment system, it will undoubtedly need to recruit more staff or outsource the arrangement, with all the attendant pitfalls that would entail.The fairest way for the taxation of all motorists is to abolish the road tax and introduce a road toll system, as used on the Dartford crossing and the M6 toll road. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) would need to be an essential feature
UK budget watchdog in danger of strangling economic growth, says TUC boss
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Ollie Pope believes pressure on England place will push him to deliver in Ashes
England have become something ugly, brutish and formidable to play against | Andy Bull