UK ministers accept $1m from Meta amid social media ban consultation
Ministers have accepted $1m (£728,000) from Meta, the US tech and social media company, to build AI systems for defence, national security and transport, sparking warnings about the UK government’s “alarmingly close relationship with Trump-supporting US tech giants”.The money from Mark Zuckerberg’s company will be used to pay experts to “develop cutting-edge AI solutions … to support national security and defence teams”, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) announced on Tuesday.The money will pay for four British AI experts, coordinated by the government-funded Alan Turing Institute, to “play a pivotal role in rewiring our healthcare, police, transport systems and more”, said Ian Murray, the minister for data and digital government.The move comes after Meta executives had 50 meetings with ministers in the last two years for which data was available, one of the highest levels of direct access of any technology company, a Guardian investigation found.The government is consulting on a ban on social media use by under-16s, which would have a major effect on Meta’s Instagram platform.
Meta said the money had been allocated to the Alan Turing Institute before any ban was floated.Announcing the $1m deal, Meta said it was “proud to help bring top British AI talent into government, fast-tracking the transformation of public services”.DSIT said: “People across the UK could benefit from faster, safer and more reliable public services as leading British AI specialists join government to modernise critical systems used every day – from public safety to transport maintenance.”But the tech justice campaign group Foxglove asked: “What’s Meta getting for its million dollars?” It added: “When it comes to big tech, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”“This is yet more evidence of the UK government’s alarmingly close relationship with Trump-supporting US tech giants,” said Donald Campbell, Foxglove’s advocacy director.
“It’s deeply worrying that ministers are still naive enough to swallow this kind of lobbying from a handful of Silicon Valley plutocrats – who have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt they do not have the British public’s best interests at heart.”Daisy Greenwell, a co-founder of the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign, said the deal “highlights an uncomfortable reality: tech giants spend vast sums to gain access and influence in policymaking”.She added: “That makes it even more important that decisions about children and online safety are shaped by independent evidence and the public interest, not by the companies whose products are under scrutiny.”The government also announced a new partnership with the San Francisco AI company Anthropic, which will build and pilot a dedicated assistant tool for public services on gov.uk, starting with a model that will give jobseekers career advice “and help to lock down a job”.
Anthropic said the project implementation work was “pro bono”.DSIT said the technology was “part of a cutting-edge plan to use AI agents for national government services, with a pilot expected to begin later this year”.In October, Anthropic announced that the former prime minister Rishi Sunak was taking an advisory role at the $350bn startup.The former Downing Street chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith is a policy and communications adviser to Anthropic.The deals come as ministers wrestle with policy decisions that directly affect Meta and Anthropic.
As well as launching a consultation last week on banning social media use for under-16s, they are also due to set out changes to how creatives’ copyrighted works are protected from being mined to build AI models, such as those made by Anthropic.Beeban Kidron, a cross-bench peer who campaigns on child protection and copyright, said: “This government is walking into dependence on Silicon Valley, is undermining the chance to build a UK AI sector, and above all is busy giving away some of the most precious datasets in the world to Silicon Valley, who could well afford to pay.”The Meta-funded AI experts will be tasked with using AI to develop models that analyse images and videos, enabling councils to prioritise transport infrastructure repairs more effectively.They will also “develop cutting-edge AI solutions which run offline or within secured networks to support national security and defence teams to make vital decisions while safeguarding sensitive data”, the government said.
Treasury announces business rate support package worth more than £80m a year – as it happened
The Treasury has unveiled a support package worth more than £80m a year for pubs and live music venues in England and Wales, in a climbdown that follows a fierce backlash against plans to overhaul business rates.Trade bodies had warned that Rachel Reeves’s changes to business rates, announced at the chancellor’s November budget, would trigger widespread closures and job losses in the hospitality sector, particularly in pubs.On Tuesday, the government announced financial support to mitigate the effect of the rates shake-up, after officials admitted that they had not foreseen its total financial impact.The package, final details of which were still being hammered out on Monday night, is expected to be worth more than £80m a year, over three years, for pubs and gig venues.Dan Tomlinson, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said every pub in England and Wales would get 15% off its new business rates bill from 1 April, worth an average of £1,650 for each
Pubs and live music venues to get support after business rates backlash
The Treasury has unveiled a support package worth tens of millions of pounds for pubs and live music venues in England and Wales, in a climbdown that follows a fierce backlash against plans to overhaul business rates.Trade bodies had warned that Rachel Reeves’s changes to business rates, announced at the chancellor’s November budget, would trigger widespread closures and job losses in the hospitality sector, particularly in pubs.On Tuesday, the government announced financial support to mitigate the effect of the rates shake-up, after officials admitted that they had not foreseen its total financial impact.The package, final details of which were still being hammered out on Monday night, is expected to be worth nearly £100m for pubs and gig venues.Dan Tomlinson, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, said every pub in England and Wales would get 15% off its new business rates bill from 1 April, worth an average of £1,650 for each
How ICE is using facial recognition in Minnesota
Immigration enforcement agents across the US are increasingly relying on a new smartphone app with facial recognition technology.The app is named Mobile Fortify. Simply pointing a phone’s camera at their intended target and scanning the person’s face allows Mobile Fortify to pull data on an individual from multiple federal and state databases, some of which federal courts have deemed too inaccurate for arrest warrants.The US Department of Homeland Security has used Mobile Fortify to scan faces and fingerprints in the field more than 100,000 times, according to a lawsuit brought by Illinois and Chicago against the federal agency, earlier this month. That’s a drastic shift from immigration enforcement’s earlier use of facial recognition technology, which was otherwise limited largely to investigations and ports of entry and exit, legal experts say
UK ministers accept $1m from Meta amid social media ban consultation
Ministers have accepted $1m (£728,000) from Meta, the US tech and social media company, to build AI systems for defence, national security and transport, sparking warnings about the UK government’s “alarmingly close relationship with Trump-supporting US tech giants”.The money from Mark Zuckerberg’s company will be used to pay experts to “develop cutting-edge AI solutions … to support national security and defence teams”, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) announced on Tuesday.The money will pay for four British AI experts, coordinated by the government-funded Alan Turing Institute, to “play a pivotal role in rewiring our healthcare, police, transport systems and more”, said Ian Murray, the minister for data and digital government.The move comes after Meta executives had 50 meetings with ministers in the last two years for which data was available, one of the highest levels of direct access of any technology company, a Guardian investigation found.The government is consulting on a ban on social media use by under-16s, which would have a major effect on Meta’s Instagram platform
Sri Lanka v England: third men’s cricket one-day international – live
Gone! Rashid lures Hasaranga into a chip which just isn’t timed. Duckett takes the catch as if he’d never dropped one a few minutes ago.41st over: Sri Lanka 263-7 (Rathnayake 94, Hasaranga 9) Hasaranga fancies this. Facing Curran, he plays himself in for two balls, then strokes a gorgeous off-drive on the up for four, folowed by a pull for four more. Eleven off the over!40th over: Sri Lanka 252-7 (Rathnayake 92, Hasaranga 0) Meanwhile Rathnayake motors on into the 90s
Elina Svitolina humbles Coco Gauff to set up Sabalenka semi in Australian Open
Coco Gauff is known across her sport for her mental toughness and problem-solving abilities, her tendency to grind out victories from unenviable positions. However, down 1-6, 0-3, 0-30 on Tuesday night and sinking quickly, the 21-year-old has rarely looked as helpless on a tennis court as when she expressed her despair to her support team: “She’s outdoing me in everything,” she said.This time, there was no way back for the third seed as Elina Svitolina ended a courageous, focused performance by securing the most significant result of the Australian Open so far, completely dismantling Gauff 6-1, 6-2 to reach her first semi-final in Melbourne.Svitolina, the 12th seed, will next face Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1 and two-time Australian Open champion. Earlier on Tuesday, Sabalenka dismantled the 29th seed Iva Jovic 6-3, 6-0 to reach her fourth consecutive semi-final here
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