UK labour market ‘continues to weaken’ as unemployment hits four-year high and wage growth slows – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.The UK’s labour market ‘continues to weaken’, according to the latest employment and unemployment data, just released, highlighting the economic challenges facing the government.The Office for National Statistics has reported that the UK’s unemployment rate rose in the March to May quarter, to 4.7%. UPDATED: That’s up from 4

UK unemployment rises and wage growth slows as jobs market ‘weakens’

Unemployment climbed and wage growth fell in the three months to May, according to official figures that will put pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates next moth.Data from the Office for National Statistics, released on Thursday, showed that Britain’s official unemployment rate rose to 4.7% in the three months to May, up 0.1% from April.Pay growth slipped from 5

AI firms ‘unprepared’ for dangers of building human-level systems, report warns

Artificial intelligence companies are “fundamentally unprepared” for the consequences of creating systems with human-level intellectual performance, according to a leading AI safety group.The Future of Life Institute (FLI) said none of the firms on its AI safety index scored higher than a D for “existential safety planning”.One of the five reviewers of the FLI’s report said that, despite aiming to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), none of the companies scrutinised had “anything like a coherent, actionable plan” to ensure the systems remained safe and controllable.AGI refers to a theoretical stage of AI development at which a system is capable of matching a human in carrying out any intellectual task. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has said its mission is to ensure AGI “benefits all of humanity”

Zuckerberg says Meta will build data center the size of Manhattan in latest AI push

Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that Meta would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on developing artificial intelligence products in the near future and, to that end, construct a data center planned to be nearly the size of Manhattan.The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is among the large tech companies that have struck high-profile deals, and doled out multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers in recent months – some as high as $100m – to fast-track work on machines that could outthink humans on many tasks, a concept known as “super-intelligence” or “artificial general intelligence”.Its first multi-gigawatt data center, dubbed Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026, while another, called Hyperion, will be able to scale up to 5 gigawatts over the coming years, Zuckerberg said.“We’re building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,” the billionaire CEO said

The Open 2025: first round updates from Royal Portrush – live

The early leader Nicolai Højgaard lashes out of the thick rough down the right of Darren Clarke – this is going to take some getting used to, if we’re not to get extremely confused – but can’t find the green. His ball topples off the left and down a swale. He chips up to seven feet, but will have work to do if he’s to escape with par. Tom McKibbin however – admittedly in less unpleasant rough – arrows his approach from 169 yards to nine feet. He’ll have a great look at birdie

Marcus Smith defies odds to claim Lions spot for first Wallabies Test

Marcus Smith has been named on the bench for the British & Irish Lions’ first Test against Australia, while Tom Curry and Sione Tuipulotu have been selected to start in Brisbane on Saturday.Smith has defied the odds to claim a place in the matchday 23, benefiting from injuries to Blair Kinghorn and Mack Hansen and being preferred to Owen Farrell among the replacements.His selection comes after a rollercoaster season in which he was England’s most creative spark from fly-half during the autumn campaign before losing his place to Fin Smith, moving to full-back before finding himself on the bench. He has never looked entirely comfortable at full-back but his versatility earned him a place in the initial Lions squad and he has appeared in five of their six matches.Barring a late change of heart, he is set to be preferred to Farrell