UK workers wary of AI despite Starmer’s push to increase uptake, survey finds
It is the work shortcut that dare not speak its name.A third of people do not tell their bosses about their use of AI tools amid fears their ability will be questioned if they do.Research for the Guardian has revealed that only 13% of UK adults openly discuss their use of AI with senior staff at work and close to half think of it as a tool to help people who are not very good at their jobs to get by.Amid widespread predictions that many workers face a fight for their jobs with AI, polling by Ipsos found that among more than 1,500 British workers aged 16 to 75, 33% said they did not discuss their use of AI to help them at work with bosses or other more senior colleagues.They were less coy with people at the same level, but a quarter of people believe “co-workers will question my ability to perform my role if I share how I use AI”.
The Guardian’s survey also uncovered deep worries about the advance of AI, with more than half of those surveyed believing it threatens the social structure.The number of people believing it has a positive effect is outweighed by those who think it does not.It also found 63% of people do not believe AI is a good substitute for human interaction, while 17% think it is.Next week’s state visit to the UK by Donald Trump is expected to signal greater collaboration between the UK and Silicon Valley to make Britain an important centre of AI development.The US president is expected to be joined by Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI who has signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK government to explore the deployment of advanced AI models in areas including justice, security and education.
Jensen Huang, the chief executive of the chip maker Nvidia, is also expected to announce an investment in the UK’s biggest datacentre yet, to be built near Blyth in Northumbria,Keir Starmer has said he wants to “mainline AI into the veins” of the UK,Silicon Valley companies are aggressively marketing their AI systems as capable of cutting grunt work and liberating creativity,The polling appears to reflect workers’ uncertainty about how bosses want AI tools to be used, with many employers not offering clear guidance,There is also fear of stigma among colleagues if workers are seen to rely too heavily on the bots.
A separate US study circulated this week found that medical doctors who use AI in decision-making are viewed by their peers as significantly less capable.Ironically, the doctors who took part in the research by Johns Hopkins Carey Business School recognised AI as beneficial for enhancing precision, but took a negative view when others were using it.Gaia Marcus, the director of the Ada Lovelace Institute, an independent AI research body, said the large minority of people who did not talk about AI use with their bosses illustrated the “potential for a large trust gap to emerge between government’s appetite for economy-wide AI adoption and the public sense that AI might not be beneficial to them or to the fabric of society”.“We need more evaluation of the impact of using these tools, not just in the lab but in people’s everyday lives and workflows,” she said.“To my knowledge, we haven’t seen any compelling evidence that the spread of these generative AI tools is significantly increasing productivity yet.
Everything we are seeing suggests the need for humans to remain in the driving seat with the tools we use.”Sign up to TechScapeA weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our livesafter newsletter promotionA study by the Henley Business School in May found 49% of workers reported there were no formal guidelines for AI use in their workplace and more than a quarter felt their employer did not offer enough support.Prof Keiichi Nakata at the school said people were more comfortable about being transparent in their use of AI than 12 months earlier but “there are still some elements of AI shaming and some stigma associated with AI”.He said: “Psychologically, if you are confident with your work and your expertise you can confidently talk about your engagement with AI, whereas if you feel it might be doing a better job than you are or you feel that you will be judged as not good enough or worse than AI, you might try to hide that or avoid talking about it.”OpenAI’s head of solutions engineering for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Matt Weaver, said: “We’re seeing huge demand from business leaders for company-wide AI rollouts – because they know using AI well isn’t a shortcut, it’s a skill.
Leaders see the gains in productivity and knowledge sharing and want to make that available to everyone.”
Sainsbury’s recalls two own-brand hummus varieties over E coli fears
Sainsbury’s has recalled two varieties of its own-brand hummus over fears they may contain a deadly strain of E coli, advising customers who have bought the products not to eat them.The affected items are 315g containers of JS Classic Houmous, with a use-by date of 13 September, and 200g tubs of JS Lemon & Coriander Houmous with a use-by date of 14 September.The Food Standards Agency said the affected batches could contain shiga toxin-producing E coli (Stec), and that the items had been recalled as a precaution.Point of sale notices will be displayed in all stores selling the products until 3 October, explaining to customers why they have been recalled and what to do if they have already bought them.Sainsbury’s apologised to customers for any inconvenience and advised them not to eat the affected products
AstraZeneca pauses £200m investment in Cambridge research site
The drugmaker AstraZeneca has paused a planned £200m expansion of its Cambridge research site, completing a depressing week for the UK pharmaceutical industry.The decision by the UK’s largest company means none of its much-trumpeted £650m investment package in the UK – which was originally announced in March 2024 – is proceeding.The now stalled £200m Cambridge project had been expected to create 1,000 jobs. In January, AstraZeneca scrapped plans to invest £450m in its vaccine manufacturing facility in Speke, Merseyside, citing a cut in government support, after months of negotiations.An AstraZeneca spokesperson said on Friday: “We constantly reassess the investment needs of our company and can confirm our expansion in Cambridge is paused
ChatGPT may start alerting authorities about youngsters considering suicide, says CEO
The company behind ChatGPT could start calling the authorities when young users talk seriously about suicide, its co-founder has said.Sam Altman raised fears that as many as 1,500 people a week could be discussing taking their own lives with the chatbot before doing so.The chief executive of San Francisco-based OpenAI, which operates the chatbot with an estimated 700 million global users, said the decision to train the system so the authorities were alerted in such emergencies was not yet final. But he said it was “very reasonable for us to say in cases of, young people talking about suicide, seriously, where we cannot get in touch with the parents, we do call authorities”.Altman highlighted the possible change in an interview with the podcaster Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, which came after OpenAI and Altman were sued by the family of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old from California who killed himself after what his family’s lawyer called “months of encouragement from ChatGPT”
Larry Ellison briefly overtakes Elon Musk as world’s richest person
US tech billionaire Larry Ellison is neck-and-neck with Elon Musk in the contest to be the world’s richest person after briefly overtaking the Tesla chief executive on WednesdayEllison’s wealth surged after Oracle, the business software company in which he owns a stake of 41%, reported better than expected financial results.Oracle shares rose by more than 40% in early trading, at one point valuing the business software company at approximately $960bn (£707bn) and Ellison’s stake at $393bn, just ahead of Musk’s fortune of $384bn, according to Bloomberg’s billionaires index. However, Ellison’s lead was short-lived as the stock closed at $328, a rise of 36% valuing Ellison’s shareholding at $378bn and putting Musk back ahead.The pair sit comfortably ahead of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.Ellison, 81, also has other sources of wealth, including a stake in electric carmaker Tesla, where Musk is chief executive, a sailing team, the Indian Wells Open tennis tournament, and an island in Hawaii, according to Bloomberg
Raucous crowd and sprint stars give World Athletics Championships explosive start
There was a moment on the opening night of these World Athletics Championships when the bottled up frustration of missing out on a full-fat Tokyo Olympics – with crowds and fun and unbridled joy – suddenly seemed to be unleashed. It came at the end of a thrilling women’s 10,000m, a roar that could have been heard on Mount Fuji, and a vast outpouring of appreciation and pride.At the front of the pack, four contenders were whittled down to two before the Olympic and world champion Beatrice Chebet took off with the Italian Nadia Battocletti in pursuit. It was like watching Wile E. Coyote chasing Roadrunner
New Zealand 46-17 South Africa: Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final – as it happened
That’ll be it from me.Here’s the report from Sandy Park from Rob Kitson.Lucky him, that was some game.Hope you enjoyed it!The next quarter-final gets underway shortly.Alex Reid will be your guide:Now some words from South Africa’s battering ram, Aseza Hele:It was very tough but we gave them a taste of South Africans
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