What AI and machine learning mostly need is an image makeover. I’d like to set something straight. Writing about AI and machine learning does not always involve robots. Sometimes it does, like CHIRON, a pioneering ‘care-in-the-home’ system which in the future may help people to stay living independently in their own homes for longer. That’s just one application of AI and machine learning and would make for a good picture: a robot delivering a...

Skimping on the services of a professional proofreader is a false economy. Recently a friend opened a takeaway business and came by to hand out menus, fresh from the printers. There was an awkward silence. Finally, someone spoke. ‘Where’s Lona Street?’ Our friend looked blank. She followed the finger, to where it pointed at the menu. ‘It should say Iona Street.’ There was a typo in the address. The menu had been put through a spell...

Suppose you’ve been asked to pull together this year’s Annual Report. You quite like the idea. It gets you valuable time with the Chief Executive, exposure to the heads of each business function and licence to enquire about opportunities for career progression. You can almost feel the satisfaction of producing a tangible output, increasingly rare unless you work in manufacturing. But what are you actually being asked to do? You are being asked...

Facebook has introduced measures to reduce the number of clickbait headlines that it shows in your newsfeed. A victory for all of us who have wasted time clicking on a headline, and ended up being misled into reading a load of nonsense. Farewell to ‘32 Health Things You’ve Been Doing Wrong for Years’ and ’12 Facts You Won’t Believe Are True.’ Perhaps we can look forward to the return of well-written, factually-accurate headlines, to click on to...

Every actor has been scouted by a football club. The number of lads who nearly signed as a professional footballer before retraining as a performer is perhaps surprising. In the ‘50s, Sean Connery was reported to have been scouted for Celtic. Actually, he was offered a trial by East Fife, but why spoil a good story? ‘I could have been a footballer, but injury put paid to that, so I chose the theatre’, is a claim that appears time-and-again in...