Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

London Mayor Sadiq Khan could be in breach of equality rules as Uber vows to take court action over ban Uber vows to take court action against Transport for London's ban By Nicola Harley 23 SEPTEMBER 2017 • 9:24PM Sadiq Khan could be in breach of equality legislation over the decision not to renew Uber’s licence in London, a former adviser has warned. The Mayor of London was told on Saturday that because more than 90 per cent of the 40,000 drivers are from 
 et hnic minority backgrounds, the move has destroyed a “lifeline” for them. The taxi app has announced it will take court action against Transport for London’s (TfL) ban, which is due to come into force next Saturday. TfL claimed the service was “not fit and proper” to hold a licence amid allegations of sex crimes by its drivers, but women’s charities fear passenger safety will be put at risk. On Saturday a petition to reinstate Uber had more than 590,000 signatures. Iqbal Wahhab, former chair...

If AI takes over the world, capitalism may well not survive Ken Chu says it is time to think about what form of economy and society can ensure that we get the most out of AI and robots, to defend against future human joblessness and tech titans cornering all the riches By Ken Chu PUBLISHED: Sunday, 30 July, 2017, 8:46am New technologies are advancing at a rate never seen before. Many people are gravely concerned that humans will soon be displaced by artificial intelligence, robots and all kinds of cutting-edge automation. Take the driverless vehicles under testing. If cars are self-driving and accident-proof, would we need drivers or even insurance? Will such technology put us out of work? Telsa CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has even warned that we should start regulating AI because it might pose great existential threat to humanity. To some, this is unfounded paranoia. Undeniably AI and robots will revolutionise our way of life, our labour market and our econom...

Inside the Chinese dumpling factory where robots do all the work Video offers insight into how automated plant can produce frozen food round the clock with no need for human workers By Sarah Zheng PUBLISHED: Sunday, 20 August, 2017, 6:57pm A factory in northern China is now making frozen dumplings without a single human. Instead, rows and rows of robots work 24 hours a day in the unmanned factory in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province. They knead the dough, add stuffing, fold the dumplings, package them and fast freeze them. A video originally posted on the Chinese streaming site Pear Video showed machines working systematically from assembly lines to fold and sort the food. Online users had mixed reactions to the video, with some worried about possible job losses from automation while others insisted that handmade dumplings were still superior. “Will robot-made dumplings be tastier than handmade ones?” a Beijing-based social media user said. “The taste of thes...

'WE ARE ASTOUNDED' Uber come out fighting over ban as 187,000 sign petition backing firm amid mounting customer anger Uber employs 40,000 drivers in London alone - but TFL has deemed it 'not fit and proper' to hold a licence By Holly Christodoulou 22nd September 2017,  4:02 pm Updated: 22nd September 2017,  7:34 pm UBER has come out fighting after being stripped of its licence - as more than 187,000 fuming customers sign a petition to keep the app alive in London. Transport for London announced this morning that the company  will not be given another private hire operator licence  after its current one expires on September 30 over safety fears. They said Uber in London is "not fit and proper" to hold the licence but the firm is going to appeal the decision and will be able to operate in the capital until the process is over. If they lose the appeal,  Londoners will no longer be able to get an Uber  - but the move will be welcomed...

Apple Fans Missing For iPhone 8 Release Day September 22, 2017 7:43 AM PASADENA (CBSLA) — There was something missing at Pasadena’s Apple Store for the Friday release of the iPhone 8 – a line of eager fans. Previous releases of the iPhone attracted hundreds of Apple fans waiting in the early morning hours at several stores across Southern California. The Apple Store has a ticketing system, but that never stopped eager iPhone fans from camping out overnight. But on Friday morning, all was quiet on Colorado Boulevard, except for employees inside the store handing out tickets. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus touts new features like wireless charging, new camera features, and a faster processor. The lack of a line may be due to more people waiting for the November release of the iPhone X, which has a more drastic redesign. The updated Apple Watch and Apple TV also went on sale Friday http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2017/09/22/apple-fans-missing-iphone-8-release...

Artificial intelligence pioneer calls for the breakup of Big Tech By Steve LeVine  Sep 20, 2017 Yoshua Bengio, the artificial intelligence pioneer, says the centralization of wealth, power and capability in Big Tech is "dangerous for democracy" and that the companies should be broken up. Why it matters: Bengio is a professor at the University of Montreal and a member of the three-man "Canadian Mafia" that pioneered machine learning, the leading method used in AI. His remarks are notable because of his influence in the AI community and because he or his peers all either directly lead or consult for Big Tech's AI programs. Says Bengio: "Concentration of wealth leads to concentration of power. That's one reason why monopoly is dangerous. It's dangerous for democracy." The AI pioneers: Bengio consults for IBM and his colleagues Geoffrey Hinton consults for Google and Yann LeCun for Facebook. Ruslan Salakhutdinov, a protege of Hinto...

Mercedes Plots Tesla Attack With $1 Billion U.S. Electric Push Company to make plug-in vehicles, batteries at U.S. factory Investment in electric SUVs to create 600 jobs in Alabama By Christoph Rauwald and Elisabeth Behrmann September 21, 2017, 9:00 AM PDT Daimler AG plans to spend $1 billion to start production of Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles at its Alabama factory, setting the world’s largest luxury-car maker up to battle with battery-car specialist Tesla Inc. on its home turf. The German automaker will build its fifth battery plant globally and create more than 600 jobs in the region, the company said Thursday in a statement. The Alabama factory will assemble electric sport utility vehicles, taking on Tesla’s Model X and making Stuttgart-based Daimler the first European company to assemble plug-in autos in the U.S. “We’re celebrating our 20th anniversary at our production facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and we’re taking this as an opportunity to expand the...