‘A stomach of steel’: amateur investors ride out dips amid talk of an AI bubble

It was more than just a hunch, says Jacob Foot of his first foray into US tech stock investments back in 2020.The 23-year-old says he played around with artificial intelligence tools in his first job and thought to himself: this technology is going to be a big deal.Foot put his savings each month into US shares and in particular the biggest investors in AI, the Magnificent Seven (M7). For several years the list has included the chipmaker Nvidia, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Alphabet (the owner of Google) and Meta (the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp).Five years on, Foot expects to complete the purchase of a “bigger house in London than I expected”, a dream he could not have realised without his stock market bets paying off

Ben & Jerry’s owner stopped brand developing flavour for peace in Gaza

The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s has accused its owner of being part of a movement of “corporate butt kissing” of Donald Trump and says management blocked the ice-cream brand from producing a flavour in support of peace in Gaza.Ben Cohen told the Guardian that Unilever was pursuing a “corporate attack on free speech” by blocking the development of a special flavour in solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is understood the flavour had been approved by Ben & Jerry’s independent board and first mooted about a year ago.Magnum, the group’s ice-cream arm, confirmed it had not gone ahead with the board’s suggestion for a Palestine product this summer.Cohen has mounted a “Free Ben & Jerry’s” campaign to persuade Unilever to sell the brand to a group of socially minded investors who he says have pledged to allow it to continue its “social mission

Alan Turing institute launches new mission to protect UK from cyber-attacks

Britain’s leading AI institute has announced a new mission to help protect the nation from cyber-attacks on infrastructure, including energy, transport and utilities, after it was embroiled in allegations of toxic work culture and the chief executive resigned amid ministerial pressure.The Alan Turing Institute will “carry out a programme of science and innovation designed to protect the UK from hostile threats”, it announced on Tuesday as part of changes following the resignation last month of Jean Innes, its chief executive, after a staff revolt and government calls for a strategic overhaul of the state-funded body.The mission comes amid growing concern over Britain’s vulnerability to internet outages and cyber-attacks after this month’s incident affecting Amazon’s cloud computing globally and recent cyber-attacks crippling production at Jaguar Land Rover factories, and supply chains at Marks & Spencer and the Co-op.Blythe Crawford, the former commander of the UK’s air and space warfare centre , will report back next month on how the government-funded institute “can best support the scale of government AI ambitions in defence, national security and intelligence”.The chair, former Amazon UK boss Doug Gurr, said 78 different research projects at the 440-staff institute have been closed, spun out or completed because they do not align with the new direction

Tech chiefs tell Trump to call off troops – will Firefox go ‘full AI’?

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, confounded by the ending of Bugonia and looking forward to seeing Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.In this week’s newsletter: the head of Firefox talks AI-integrated browsers; the tech billionaires’ support of Trump and their successful request to defer national guard deployment to San Francisco; and the growing prevalence of face-scanning in online dating. Thank you for reading.Do you need an assistant for your online activities?Multiple major players in artificial intelligence are moving on from chatbots like ChatGPT and are now focusing their efforts on new browsers with deep AI integrations

Cameron Norrie hails ‘biggest win’ after roaring back to beat Carlos Alcaraz in Paris

Cameron Norrie produced the greatest win of his career as he recovered from a set down to topple the world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the Paris Masters.Although he has defeated Alcaraz on two previous occasions, Norrie’s triumph marks his first ever victory over a reigning No 1.“Massive. So big for me,” said Norrie, who becomes the fifth British man in history to defeat a world No 1. “Coming back from injury last year, I lost in the first round of qualies here

Borthwick rips up script with move to hybrids that could lead to Pollock on wing

Steve Borthwick is considering playing his fast-rising back-row Henry Pollock on the wing at some stage this autumn as he seeks fresh impetus in all areas before the looming November Tests.The England head coach says he wants his side to hit the ground running against Australia on Saturday and may also start Ben Earl at centre this season.England’s team to face the Wallabies has already had a significant makeover with Tommy Freeman starting in midfield and no place for either Marcus Smith or Ollie Lawrence in the matchday 23.Six British & Irish Lions players, including Pollock, have been named on the bench with Bath’s 22-year-old flanker Guy Pepper, the Leicester prop Joe Heyes and the Sale wing Tom Roebuck all starting.Part of Borthwick’s rationale is his desire to stick with combinations which went well on tour in Argentina but he is also looking for different ways to maximise the skill sets of dynamic, hybrid players such as Pollock, Pepper and Earl