Author: SKYNEWS

A British start-up which enables companies to ‘self-host’ their artificial intelligence functions will this week announce that it has raised nearly £10m in a round led by one of Europe’s leading venture capital firms.Sky News understands that Doubleword – previously called TitanML – has secured the funding from Dawn Capital, a backer of successful technology companies including Mimecast and iZettle. Doubleword was set up to tackle what is known among tech experts as the ‘inference problem’, with AI becoming increasingly central to companies’ interactions with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.Money latest: Uber making big changes to how you payInference refers…

The cyber attacks on M&S, Co-op and Harrods should be a “wake-up call”, a cabinet minister has warned as he announced a cybersecurity investment boost.The attacks have seen empty shelves and an inability to pay by contactless card or place online orders over the past fortnight. Cabinet minister Pat McFadden spoke at CyberUK on Wednesday, a government-organised gathering of tech experts and business leaders in Manchester.He said: “Cyber attacks are not a game. Not a clever exercise. They are serious organised crime.”The purpose is to damage and extort. The digital version of an old-fashioned shake-down. “Either straight theft or a…

Some of the world’s most famous names were at the Met Gala in New York for what has become known as the biggest night in fashion.Each year, A-list celebrities provide plenty of talking points as they pose for the world’s press in outfits that are often as stylish as they are bizarre. The annual event ushers in the Costume Institute’s spring exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.This year’s theme was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” celebrating the style, politics and history of the way black men dress.Diana Ross, Lewis Hamilton, Sabrina Carpenter and Alicia Keys were among the celebrities in…

Deliveroo has agreed terms for a £2.9bn takeover by US-based delivery platform DoorDash.It emerged just over a week ago that a deal was on the table. DoorDash said on Tuesday that its 180p-per-share offer was final though it reserved the right to raise it should a rival bidder emerge.Money latest: Your rights if a taxi is lateThe offer represented a 44% premium to the value of Deliveroo’s shares on 4 April – the day before it approached the company with its takeover proposals. The offer, which was unanimously agreed by an independent board, is being recommended to shareholders.Deliveroo co-founder and…

A M&S insider has told Sky News it could be “months” before the retailer fully recovers from an ongoing, severe cyber attack – and that the company had no plan for such an incident.Hackers have been holding the High Street brand to ransom for more than a week now, forcing it to suspend online orders and halt recruitment. An employee at M&S’s head office, who spoke to Sky News on condition of anonymity, said that last week had been “just pure chaos”.”We didn’t have any business continuity plan [for this], we didn’t have a cyber attack plan,” the source said.”In…

Donald Trump has said he will target films made outside of the US as part of his ongoing tariff war.The US president said the country’s movie industry was “dying a very fast death”. He complained that other countries were “offering all sorts of incentives to draw” filmmakers and film studios away from the United States.In a post on his social media site Truth Social, he said this was a “concerted effort by other nations and, therefore, a national security threat”.Mr Trump said he had authorised the Department for Commerce and the office of the US trade representative to put a…

The new owner of WH Smith’s high street chain has effectively been barred from launching a wave of mass store closures for at least 12 months amid plans for rapid restructurings at two other retailers it owns.Sky News has learnt that WH Smith would have the right to cancel a year-long transitional services agreement (TSA) put in place with Modella Capital – which struck a deal to acquire the business in March – if it launched a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) before the first anniversary of the transaction’s completion. The clause in the TSA, which enables Modella Capital to continue…

Millions of cancer patients are set to benefit from faster diagnosis as their analogue NHS records are gathered in one place in a new digital platform.Cancer 360, a new tool to be rolled out across the service soon, brings cancer patients’ data into one central system, so clinicians can prioritise those most in need and see patients quicker, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said. The £26bn technology upgrade will benefit millions of patients in the next five to 10 years by transferring existing analogue systems and the data they hold into a digital one.It means staff will…

Lady Gaga has performed in front of an estimated 2.1 million people at a free show on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach.Some 500,000 tourists travelled to watch the concert, which was paid for by the city in an attempt to boost the struggling economy. Image: Lady Gaga performing at the huge open-air concert. Pic: Reuters Saturday night’s two-hour show, which marked Gaga’s biggest ever, marked the first time she had played in Brazil since 2012, having cancelled an appearance at the Rock in Rio festival in 2017 over health issues.Gaga, who released her seventh studio album, Mayhem, in March, opened…

The Co-op has apologised after hackers managed to access the data of a “significant number” of past and current members.The firm said the compromised data included names and contact details but not passwords or bank and credit card details. It said it was “continuing to experience sustained malicious attempts”.The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) are helping the company investigate. Spreaker This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend…