Fashion and lifestyle have a knack for the surprise. The out-of-the-blue rise of butter moulding, say, or the sudden coolness of a shoe with a cloven toe. Divergence and disparateness are the mood music for 2024. What this means for fashion is yet more extreme luxury, both of the stealth wealth and exhibitionist varieties. But there will also be more emphasis than ever on thrifting, textile recycling, and the development of new materials, especially in the luxury market. Expect more seaweed yarns, plastic-free sequins and grape leathers like those shown by designer Stella McCartney at Cop28. With several elections set for 2024, slogan T-shirts will be used once more for political statements and to pledge allegiance rather than for more personal messages. Expect Maga caps and merch in the vein of Keir Starmer's Sparkle With Starmer tee, turned around at speed after he was glitter-bombed at Labour conference.

BENGALURU: With increased adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, companies are now taking advantage of such emerging technologies to drive growth. Dell Technologies is expecting to see a significant impact of these technologies. "The utilization of AI and ML is becoming more widespread as companies seek to take advantage of the benefits these technologies offer. We have been exploring this field and currently have multiple projects, products focused on using AI to improve our business," Ramesh Jampula, VP, IT, India and APJC Regional CIO, Dell Technologies, told this newspaper. Talking about emerging tech such as IoT, multi-cloud, Jampula said businesses have varying needs that influence their IT strategies, but they all share common goals of reducing costs, increasing flexibility and creating new value.

Eight humanoid robots will be the star attractions when the United Nations hosts its first summit since the start of the pandemic on the benefits of artificial intelligence, it said Wednesday. The AI for Good Global Summit, first held in 2017, will return to Geneva on July 6 and 7 after a three-year Covid-imposed break, the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said. The event will aim to showcase how artificial intelligence and other new technologies can help reach the UN's so-called sustainable development goals (SDGs), including on fighting climate change and boosting humanitarian action. "It's in our collective interest that we can shape AI faster than it is shaping us," the ITU's new chief Doreen Bogdan-Martin said in a statement. "This summit, as the UN's primary platform for AI, will bring to the table leading voices representing a diversity of interests to ensure that AI can be a powerful catalyst for progress in our race to rescue the SDGs," she added.

But with no major innovations awaited in handsets, analysts expect the four-day Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona to focus on new uses for artificial intelligence (AI) and the looming deployment of super-fast 5G wireless networks.

Phone makers will seek to entice new buyers with better cameras and bigger screens at the world's biggest mobile fair starting Monday in Spain after a year of flat smartphone sales.

Artificial Intelligence is set to take centre stage at BelTech 2017, a major technology conference that will take place in Belfast on 6th April. Belfast is well placed to become a centre of excellence for AI technologies if the province's tech industry plays to its strengths in sectors such as healthcare and cybersecurity, according to the team behind the high profile conference, which aims to be the premier technology event for local software practitioners, business leaders, entrepreneurs and young people aspiring to break into the industry. BelTech is curated by Northern Ireland-based digital solutions provider, Kainos Software, and will feature influential international speakers from the worlds of software engineering, machine learning, connected systems, immersive technologies and cybersecurity. Tom Gray, Group Chief Technology Officer at Kainos, said that the opportunities and challenges presented by the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence are likely to run through all strands of the conference. He said: "There's a lot of work going on to position the UK tech sector and a certain amount of agreement that many of the major areas of tech in the years ahead will be supported by developments in artificial intelligence. "If the UK is going to be a hub for AI, it's inefficient to have all regions focusing on the same tech segments.