Zoe Kleinman’s Post

This story came about because of a chance connection I made at an event. Old school reporting still works! And what an interesting case of UK battery innovation. Even the weather gets a mention ☀️ I can see it’s creating some good conversations on here which is great. ⚡️Nyobolt EV battery charges 10-80% in 4 mins 37 secs on test track, with 155 mile range ⚡️can still charge to 80% after 4,000 cycles (in lab) ⚡️it’s still lithium-ion and works with existing superfast chargers… but there aren’t many in the UK

I posted the below on X the other day about my own experience of trying to live and work around poorly-targeted information overload and it's gone a bit viral. I've now got a lot of people saying "yes but how can we FIX this?!" The honest answer is I don't know! Perhaps in the near future AI will be the answer, but I don't think it's there yet. I know I'm fortunate to be part of a platform that everybody still wants to be on. But I feel like I can't switch off because the avalanche doesn't stop when I do. I'm already feeling anxious about my holiday next week. This was my post: I have around 4,000 unread PR emails in my BBC inbox. My LinkedIn private messages overflow. I get pitches via Instagram DM, WhatsApp, text message. I’ve don’t have open DMs on X but I get pitches there too. I am utterly overwhelmed by people digitally shouting at me for their client (or themselves) to be heard, 24/7. It’s out of control. I am only one person and I can’t usually do more than one story per day. Most of the comms I receive is not relevant to me but I am sure I sometimes miss good stuff in the constant deluge. I do tech news. This doesn’t mean I am interested in which video game 50% brits played last night (survey sample: 20). Or what your client has to say about a story I’ve already covered. It’s also lovely that your client is “in town” and wants to talk at me over coffee/lunch but I don’t have the time and also “town” for me, IE London, is often 400 miles away. Please think before you hit send. Some of us are drowning!

Ive done six months worth of networking in one jam-packed week. London Tech Week, AI Summit and Founders Forum have been an epic round of brilliant discussions, great meetings, new story ideas and different perspectives. I am buzzing! This is the part of the job i really miss when geography gets in the way. It has also been exhausting. One morning I made a mistake. I went to a session that wasn’t as relevant to me as I thought it would be. I made a discreet exit only to encounter a room full of groups of people confidently chatting, and I knew no one. I’ve never been good at asserting myself into these situations and social anxiety took hold. I sat down alone, forlornly clutching my phone and trying to stop myself from just leaving. I was angry with myself for wasting precious time and opportunity but equally I just couldn’t summon the energy to dive in. After 10 mins and lots of deep breaths, I decided I may as well go and panic quietly inside a different session instead, and at least listen to something other than the critical voice inside my head. I’m so glad I did! I listened to a brilliant speaker, who I did manage to make contact with afterwards and whose inspiring story I now hope to be able to bring you in a few weeks. I’m quietly proud of myself for holding my nerve but wow, it was tough. How do you do it?

Zoe-in-a-box! Hologram fun at London Tech Week with Brit start up Miirage who are deploying pre-recorded displays in shopping centres in UAE. They also see a market for them in airports, tourist attractions, museums. The boss Mark Lister told me Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is interested in a desk-sized version to sit beside his laptop as a digital assistant….

In the avalanche of AI products unleashed by the tech giants in recent months, there has been one notably absent company – Apple. The firm has stayed largely quiet about its AI ambitions for the last 18 months while ChatGPT-fever raged around it. Today, one hour into a high-energy keynote in which we saw Apple execs sky-dive and parkour, it finally laid out its plans for the tech – and there was a lot to take in. The company has faced criticism for not “keeping up” with its rivals in the AI arms race but today’s news puts it firmly back on the grid. “Apple Intelligence” (see what they did there…) is not a product or an app or a tool in its own right. It becomes part of the fabric of every app and Apple product customers use. Whether it’s a writing assistant refining your message drafts or your diary being able to show you the best route to get to your next appointment. In that sense, it’s got definite Microsoft co-pilot vibes  – but you won’t have to pay extra to activate it. Apple was characteristically keen to stress the security of Apple Intelligence, with some of the processing carried out on the device itself, while larger actions requiring more power will be sent to the cloud but no data will be stored there. Given that it will require a considerable amount of personal data in order to be truly useful (a dilemma facing all AI products) this is paramount to its customer base who pay top dollar for its products on the basis of its privacy promises. Its decision to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT tech as well had been widely anticipated but it is an unusual move for a company that so closely guards its own products. Apple really does not lower the drawbridge very often. Is it a sign of recognition that even Apple can’t compete with ChatGPT right now? If so, it tells us a lot about the current power of the AI supergiant OpenAI. The firm did say it would integrate other firms' products in future, but didn’t name any of them. What else did we learn from WWDC keynote? Well, the first hour was AI free. so in no particular order.... - Vision Pro launches in the UK (and Australia, Canada, France and Germany) on 12 July! But it launches in Asia first (China, Japan, Singapore on 28 June). It now has 2,000 apps (but don't ask me who's using them) - With iOS18 you'll be able to hide and lock apps, schedule messages to send at a later date, add text effects (bold, underline and strikethrough but also animated letters). You'll also be able to tap two iPhones together to exchange cash (US only). - You'll be able to send texts via satellite (much more info needed here please Apple!) - Airpods will now include head gesture control IE you'll be able to nod or shake your head to receive or decline a call - Apple TV will enable subtitles if you turn down the volume or go back to watch a bit again - Calculator comes to iPad with Apple pencil - you write equations and the answers appear once you do the = sign (the world's maths teachers weep)  

I'd be lying if I said I'm not a sucker for trying out a new gadget - both inside and outside of my job. I'm very intrigued by the new wave of AI devices that are undoubtedly coming our way - and I was looking forward to trying out the Rabbit R1 which ships in the UK and Europe this week. The reviews so far have been... well, not entirely glowing, to say the least. Me and my family spent the weekend with it - my feature for the BBC below. tl:dr - it made me appreciate my phone. The smartphone has become an unsung workhorse in our lives, and it's only when you try something else that you realise just how *clever* and versatile those little rectangles actually are. Also a couple of bits of context which didn't make the final edit but I think are important to a tech-focused crowd: 1. The Rabbit R1 has faced accusations that it is essentially a glorified Android app, and tech journalist Mishaal Rahman from Android Authority reported managing to install the tech behind it onto a Google Pixel phone. I put this to the firm. It strongly denied this, saying that while there are some “unofficial emulators” around, its system is “very bespoke”. 2. I also asked it about allegations that the company was previously involved in fundraising for a big NFT project that never delivered. On this subject, it said that more than 80% of its current employees had joined since December 2023. https://lnkd.in/efyjJq5G

Self-doubt alert... sometimes, I think my job is so unusual that I wonder about my transferable skills. So huge thanks to Neil Cutting FCA MBA and the team at AccountingWEB.co.uk for this article - it was really refreshing to view my work through a different lens 🙏 https://lnkd.in/eYw6Ht_E

My debut article for BBC News' new deep-dive section: it's all about the potent mix of Scarlett Johansson, Silicon Valley arrogance and AI safety. Usually my job is to tell a story concisely - I have 2 mins of airtime, or 200 words. So it was great to be able to really get into this. I hope you like it! https://lnkd.in/e7Hk3WkG

I've just ploughed through a 132 page report on AI safety so you don't have to (you're welcome!) and it offers a fascinating snapshot of how quickly the conversation has moved on. When I attended the world's first AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park, in November, I asked whether short-term threats like job losses and bias were in scope for the inaugural discussions between world leaders and tech giants. I was told no, this would be an event focusing on the absolute worst case scenarios: the big, blockbusting, doomsday-style existential threats. Fast forward to May 2024 and the word "safety" has been removed entirely from the title of the gathering, which is now called the AI Seoul Summit (it is being held in S Korea). The latest report, which has just been published by the AI Safety Institute that was set up following Bletchley, says from the get-go that there is an "uncertain" likelihood of any doomsday scenarios. There is "no evidence yet" that gen AI could automate a sophisticated cyber attack or develop a lethal bio weapon, it goes on, and the risk of the complete loss-of-control of an AI system by humans has a "highly contentious" plausibility. I'm slowly climbing back out of my imaginary bunker. That said, the threats the Institute does focus on do rather resonate more with what I was saying six months ago. Issues with bias (the report asks "can AI ever be completely fair?"), copyright and the resulting lack of quality data to train systems on, job losses, and sustainability (AI is a power-hungry beast. The US "may struggle" with the AI sector's demand for electricity, it says). The report, written by AI "godfather" Yoshia Bengio who himself has warned in the past of existential threats, concedes that nobody, including AI developers, really understands why AI generates the output it does. There is currently no good enough way of doing it. It also states that the current go-to process of safety-testing AI tools by "red-teaming" them - that means assembling people to try to force them to do bad things, has no official best practice guidance. Red Team evaluators can display their own bias, it admits. Overall, bias and representation is described as "an unsolved problem" - unfortunately I think we all know that by now. The conclusion of this report isn't exactly a headline writer like mine's dream. The future is uncertain and nothing is inevitable, it basically says. Colour me not surprised! It will be very interesting to see how the conversation is shaped six months from now. Maybe I'll be back in the bunker by then....