A start-up which uses artificial intelligence technology to address the problem of late payments for small firms is to set up a base in Scotland. Previse plans to create 37 data science jobs in Glasgow, following an £800,000 grant from Scottish Enterprise. Its AI technology is designed to enable large firms to pay suppliers on the day they receive an invoice. It plans to start rolling out its first instant-payments programme with several blue-chip multinational buyers. The London-based firm's technology calculates a buyer's likelihood of paying an invoice.

Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the world's most well-known scientists and has had his life story told in books, documentaries, and Oscar-winning dramas. But conspiracy theorists claim we hardly know anything about the award-winning physicist, who celebrated his 76th birthday on Monday. For there are certain corners of the internet where people are convinced that the real Professor Hawking died decades ago and that in the intervening years the political and scientific elite have installed a lookalike to act in his place. Some of those who believe he has been supplanted think Professor Hawking, Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge, died in 1985 - three years before the publication of his best-selling book A Brief History of Time. The idea might seem outlandish, but conspiracy theorists have outlined six signs that they claim clearly support their idea, ranging from the way he looks to the complexity of his theories.

The code has been copied to your clipboard. Several recent studies examined how machine automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will change the future of work. Some estimates predict these technologies could displace up to 30 percent of workers worldwide by 2030. One study was published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, an international company providing financial and tax services. It predicted about 38 percent of American jobs could be at high risk for automation by the early 2030s.

Small and medium-sized businesses are getting their 2018 plans under way, putting ideas in motion to attract new customers, grow revenue and profits, and ride the waves of change in their industries. They are also likely considering the IT investments they will need to make to do all of that. How will SMBs approach technology in 2018, and how will the changing IT landscape affect business decisions? Radical changes are unlikely next year, as trends that suffused 2017 will evolve, according to small business IT analysts. Next year, artificial intelligence applications will become a larger part of small business' cloud usage, according to surveys and analysts, as SMBs take advantage of AI advancements from Microsoft, Google, IBM and others.

Fintech and automation are critical to growing transaction-banking services in the era of Big Data. Faced with more-demanding corporate clients in a multibank environment, transaction banks have invested millions of dollars in creating a seamless technological experience by integrating their banking platforms with those of their corporate and institutional clients. Treasurers want real-time visibility and control over their cash and liquidity, to minimize external borrowings, effectively manage working capital and maximize returns, according to Chet Kamat, CEO of Oracle Financial Services Software. "It is critical to have systems that not only effectively manage and monitor transaction-based liquidity but also help corporates project their positions based on future cash flows," he says. "Treasurers are looking for an integrated system that makes it simple to monitor positions across multiple geographies, with multiple banks, and that eases reconciliation between bank systems and corporate systems."

PARIS (Reuters) - The French government aims to broaden its powers to block foreign takeovers of French companies deemed as strategic, to also include firms involved in data protection and artificial intelligence ('AI'), the finance minister said on Friday.

President Donald Trump cancelled his visit to the United Kingdom -- his first since taking office -- which was scheduled to happen in February this year, multiple reports revealed Thursday. The reason he gave for cancelling his visit was heavily criticized by British politicians. During his visit, he was supposed to inaugurate the new U.S. embassy in London as well as hold talks with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on Feb. 26 -27. Trump put the blame of having to cancel his U.K. visit on former President Barack Obama. After Trump's tweet, a number of British politicians celebrated the fact he will not be visiting their country, adding that the reason he gave for cancelling was untrue.

This year's Edelman Trust Barometer revealed the largest-ever global drop in trust across all four key institutions – government, business, media and NGOs. One sector, however, has so far weathered the anti-establishment storm: tech. Edelman found that 76 percent of the global general population continues to trust the sector. But will this trust survive the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence? AI, after all, is known for being a black-box approach.

The UK has experienced a "lost decade" for productivity, with no increase in production efficiency between 2007 and 2017. Beware those who tell you they know the answer to our longstanding productivity woes. It is a highly complex question and there is no consensus on the precise causes, or what we should prioritise to solve the problem. Yet the bald facts are indisputable. In 2015, this country's output was just 76% of the level in the US, and well behind that of most of our other major competitors in the global marketplace.

Prince William recently wore a scrub suit during his visit to the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London. People likened the duke's appearance to Dr. McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) from "Grey's Anatomy" since both men wore scrub suits. And since McDreamy is no longer part of the hit ABC TV series, the publication noted that Prince William was there to fill in the void even though it's only temporary. The Duke of Cambridge got a closer look at two top surgeons using advanced robotic surgical technology called a da Vinci XI machine. He also watched the two surgeons operate on two cancer patients.