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Category: Technology

Technology

GPs turn to AI to help with patient workload

Deepali Misra-Sharp Dr Deepali Misra-Sharp uses AI to help take notes This is the fifth feature in a six-part series that is looking at how AI is changing medical research and treatments. The difficulty of getting an appointment with a GP is a familiar gripe in the UK. Even when an appointment is secured, the rising workload faced by doctors means those meetings can be shorter than either the doctor or patient would like. But Dr Deepali Misra-Sharp, a GP partner in Birmingham, has found that AI has alleviated a chunk of the administration from her job, meaning she can focus more on patients. Dr Mirsa-Sharp started using Heidi Health, a free AI-assisted medical transcription tool that listens and transcribes patient appointments, about four months ago and says it has made a big difference. “Usually when I’m with a patient, I am writing things down and it takes away from the consultation,” she says. “This now means I can spend my entire time locking eyes with the patient and actively listening. It makes for a more quality consultation.” She says the tech reduces her workflow, saving her “two to three minutes per consultation, if not more”. She reels off other benefits: “It reduces the risk of errors and omissions in my medical note taking.” With a workforce in decline while the number of patients continues to grow, GPs face immense pressure. A single full-time GP is now responsible for 2,273 patients, up 17% since September 2015, according to the British Medical Association (BMA). Could AI be the solution to help GP’s cut back on administrative tasks and alleviate burnout? Some research suggests it could. A 2019 report prepared by Health Education England estimated a minimal saving of one minute per patient from new technologies such as AI, equating to 5.7 million hours of GP time. Meanwhile, research by Oxford University in 2020, found that 44% of all administrative work in General Practice can now be either mostly or completely automated, freeing up time to spend with patients. Corti Lars Maaloe (left) and Andreas Cleve co-founders of Danish medical AI firm Corti One company working on that is Denmark’s Corti, which has developed AI that can listen to healthcare consultations, either over the phone or in person, and suggest follow-up questions, prompts, treatment options, as well as automating note taking. Corti says its technology processes about 150,000 patient interactions per day across hospitals, GP surgeries and healthcare institutions across Europe and the US, totalling about 100 million encounters per year. “The idea is the physician can spend more time with a patient,” says Lars Maaløe, co-founder and chief technology officer at Corti. He says the technology can suggest questions based on previous conversations it has heard in other healthcare situations. “The AI has access to related conversations and then it might think, well, in 10,000 similar conversations, most questions asked X and that has not been asked,” says Mr Maaløe. “I imagine GPs have one consultation after another and so have little time to consult with colleagues. It’s giving that colleague advice.” He also says it can look at the historical data of a patient. “It could ask, for example, did you remember to ask if the patient is still suffering from pain in the right knee?” But do patients want technology listening to and recording their conversations? Mr Maaløe says “the data is not leaving system”. He does say it is good practice to inform the patient, though. “If the patient contests it, the doctor cannot record. We see few examples of that as the patient can see better documentation.” Dr Misra-Sharp says she lets patients know she has a listening device to help her take notes. “I haven’t had anyone have a problem with that yet, but if they did, I wouldn’t do it.” C the signs C the Signs software is used to analyse a patients medical record Meanwhile, currently, 1,400 GP practices across England are using the C the Signs, a platform which uses AI to analyse patients’ medical records and check different signs, symptoms and risk factors of cancer, and recommend what action should be taken. “It can capture symptoms, such as cough, cold, bloating, and essentially in a minute it can see if there’s any relevant information from their medical history,” says C the Signs chief executive and co-founder Dr Bea Bakshi, who is also a GP. The AI is trained on published medical research papers. “For example, it might say the patient is at risk of pancreatic cancer and would benefit from a pancreatic scan, and then the doctor will decide to refer to those pathways,” says Dr Bakshi. “It won’t diagnose, but it can facilitate.” She says they have conducted more than 400,000 cancer risk assessments in a real-world setting, detecting more than 30,000 patients with cancer across more than 50 different cancer types. An AI report published by the BMA this year found that “AI should be expected to transform, rather than replace, healthcare jobs by automating routine tasks and improving efficiency”. In a statement, Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of General Practice Committee UK at the BMA, said: “We recognise that AI has the potential to transform NHS care completely – but if not enacted safely, it could also cause considerable harm. AI is subject to bias and error, can potentially compromise patient privacy and is still very much a work-in-progress. “Whilst AI can be used to enhance and supplement what a GP can offer as another tool in their arsenal, it’s not a silver bullet. We cannot wait on the promise of AI tomorrow, to deliver the much-needed productivity, consistency and safety improvements needed today.” Alison Dennis, partner and co-head of law firm Taylor Wessing’s international life sciences team, warns that GPs need to tread carefully when using AI. “There is the very high risk of generative AI tools not providing full and complete, or correct diagnoses or treatment pathways, and even giving wrong diagnoses or treatment pathways i.e. producing

Netflix to raise prices as Squid Game and sport fuels subscribers

Netflix will raise prices across a number of countries after adding nearly 19 million subscribers in the final months of 2024. The streaming firm said it will increase subscription costs in the US, Canada, Argentina and Portugal. “We will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix,” it said. Netflix announced better-than-expected subscriber numbers, helped by the second series of South Korean drama Squid Game as well as sports including the boxing match between influencer-turned-fighter Jake Paul and former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. In the US, prices will increase across almost all plans including the standard subscription with no adverts which will now cost $17.99 (£14.60) a month, up from $15.49. Its membership with adverts will also rise, by one dollar to $7.99. The last time Netflix raised prices in the US was October 2023, when it also lifted costs for some plans in the UK. Asked if prices were set to increase in the UK, a spokesperson for Netflix said there was “nothing to share right now”. Meanwhile, the company said it finished last year with more than 300 million subscribers in total. It had been expected to add 9.6 million new subscribers between October and December but far surpassed that number. It is the last time that Netflix will report quarterly subscriber growth – from now on it said it will “continue to announce paid memberships as we cross key milestones”. As well as Squid Game and the Paul v Tyson fight, Netflix also streamed two NFL games on Christmas Day. It will also broadcast more live events including WWE wrestling and has bought the rights for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. Paolo Pescatore, a technology analyst at PP Foresight, said Netflix “is now flexing its muscles by adjusting prices given its far stronger and diversified programming slate compared to rivals”. Net profit between October and December doubled to $1.8bn compared to the same period a year ago. Sales rose from $8.8bn to $10.2bn. Source link

TikTok users flock to Chinese app RedNote before US ban

Getty Images “TikTok refugees” are streaming to Chinese app RedNote, where they have been welcomed with open arms TikTok users in the US are migrating to a Chinese app called RedNote with the threat of a ban just days away. The move by users who call themselves “TikTok refugees” has made RedNote the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Store on Monday. RedNote is a TikTok competitor popular with young people in China, Taiwan and other Mandarin-speaking populations. It has about 300 million monthly users and looks like a combination of TikTok and Instagram. It allows users, mostly young urban women, to exchange lifestyle tips from dating to fashion. Supreme Court justices are due to rule on a law that set a 19 January deadline for TikTok to either sell its US operations or face a ban in the country. TikTok has repeatedly said that it will not sell its US business and its lawyers have warned that a ban will violate free speech protections for the platform’s 170 million users in the US. Meanwhile, RedNote has welcomed its new users with open arms. There are 63,000 posts on the topic “TikTok refugee”, where new users are taught how to navigate the app and how to use basic Chinese phrases. “To our Chinese hosts, thanks for having us – sorry in advance for the chaos,” a new US user wrote. But like TikTok, there have also been reports of censorship on RedNote when it comes to criticism of the Chinese government. In Taiwan, public officials are restricted from using RedNote due to alleged security risks of Chinese software. As more US users joined RedNote, some Chinese users have also jokingly referred to themselves as “Chinese spies”, a reference to US officials’ concerns that TikTok could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation. RedNote’s Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, translates to Little Red Book, but the app says it is not a reference to Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s book of quotations with the same name. But security concerns have not deterred users from flocking to RedNote. Sarah Fotheringham, a 37-year-old school canteen worker in Utah, says the move to RedNote is a way to “snub” the government. “I’m just a simple person living a simple life,” Ms Fotheringham told the BBC in a RedNote message. “I don’t have anything that China doesn’t, and if they want my data that bad they can have it.” Marcus Robinson, a fashion designer in Virginia, said he created his RedNote account over the weekend to share his clothing brand and “be ahead of the curve”. Mr Robinson told the BBC he was was only “slightly hesitant” about accepting the terms and conditions of using the app, which were written in Mandarin. “I wasn’t able to actually read them so that was a little concerning to me,” he said, “but I took my chance.” Getty Images The proposed TikTok ban would require app stores to stop offering the app, which could kill it over time While a ban will not make TikTok disappear immediately, it will require app stores to stop offering it – which could kill it over time. But even if TikTok dodges a ban, it may prove helpless against users moving to alternative platforms. Some social media users tell the BBC that they find themselves scrolling on RedNote more than TikTok. “Even if TikTok does stay I will continue to use my platform I’ve created on RedNote,” Tennessee tech worker Sydney Crawley told the BBC. Ms Crawley said she got over 6,000 followers within 24 hours of creating her RedNote account. “I will continue to try to build a following there and see what new connections, friendships, or opportunities it brings me.” Ms Fotheringham, the canteen worker, said RedNote “opened my world up to China and its people”. “I am now able to see things I never would have seen,” she said. “Regular Chinese people, finding out about their culture, life, school, everything, it has been so much fun.” The community so far has been “super welcoming”, said Mr Robinson, the designer. “I love RedNote so far … I just need to learn how to speak Mandarin!” Source link

Google faces UK investigation over search dominance

The UK’s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into whether Google has too much power in online search. Google accounts for 90% of UK web searches – the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking at whether it is using that dominant position to harm competition or choice for users. It is its first investigation after gaining new powers to investigate and enforce changes at firms it determines to have “strategic market status” in digital markets. The CMA says it wants to ensure the tech giant is “delivering good outcomes for people and businesses” and that there is a “level playing field” for rivals. Google says it will cooperate with the investigation but has warned against what it calls “overly prescriptive digital competition rules.” In a statement Google said: “We will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure that new rules benefit all types of websites, and still allow people in the UK to benefit from helpful and cutting edge services.” It is the latest in a series of investigations Google faces worldwide. In the US, the government wants it to sell its browser, Chrome, to address what a judged ruled was its illegal monopoly in search and related advertising. The CMA says potential changes it could impose include sharing data Google collects with other businesses, or giving publishers more oversight of how their data is used for its artificial intelligence (AI) features. “Millions of people and businesses across the UK rely on Google’s search and advertising services,” said Sarah Cardell, the CMA’s chief executive on Tuesday. “And for businesses, whether you are a rival search engine, an advertiser or a news organisation, we want to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed.” she added, especially given the potential for AI to “transform” the market. The CMA’s announcement of its Google search and advertising investigation follows the digital market competition regime coming into force in January. It gives the CMA powers to investigate firms it believes may dominate or occupy a key strategic position in a certain sector. An explainer on its website says a company must meet several conditions before it can be determined to have “strategic market status”. These include having a UK turnover of more than £1bn or global turnover of £25bn, occupying a position of strategic significance or “entrenched market power” in relation to a certain digital activity. The CMA says it will look at whether Google is using its position in search to prevent rivals from innovating or entering the market, or if it is “self-preferencing” its own services. It will also look at whether Google is collecting large amounts of user data without proper, informed consent. “It’s our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal – for example in how their data is collected and stored,” said Ms Cardell. It will have nine months to carry out its investigation and two options at its disposal if it finds Google to have strategic market status – imposing rules on how it behaves, or making interventions designed to boost competition. Pinar Akman, professor of law at the University of Leeds, says it is “highly likely” the CMA will launch further, similar investigations under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer (DMCC) Act in coming months. “There is a general trend of regulating digital markets with large players around the world and the DMCC Act represents the UK’s response to that growing trend,” she told BBC News. Prof Akman added that the regime offers more flexibility than regulation such as the EU’s Digital Markets Act in tailoring any interventions or requirements to market specifics. It comes after the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer lauded AI’s “vast potential” to transform public services. In a speech on Monday, Sir Keir said recommendations from the AI Opportunities Action Plan – a set of proposals backed by several tech firms – would be implemented across a range of areas to help grow the economy and make AI “work for working people”. Source link

US markets watchdog sues Elon Musk over Twitter stake disclosure

The US markets watchdog has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk alleging he failed to disclose that he had amassed a stake in Twitter, allowing him to buy shares at “artificially low prices.” The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit alleges that the multi-billionaire Tesla boss saved $150m (£123m) in share purchases as a result. According to SEC rules, investors whose holdings surpass 5% have 10 days to report that they have crossed that threshold. Musk did so 21 days after the purchase, the filing says. In a social media post, Musk called the SEC a “totally broken organisation.” He also accused the regulator of wasting its time when “there are so many actual crimes that go unpunished.” “Musk’s violation resulted in substantial economic harm to investors,” the SEC complaint said. In a statement emailed to BBC News, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, described the lawsuit as a “sham” and “a campaign of harassment” against his client. Twitter’s share price rose by more than 27% after Musk made his share purchase public on 4 April 2022, the SEC said. Musk ended up buying Twitter for $44bn in October 2022 and has since changed the platform’s name to X. The complaint was submitted by the SEC to a federal court in Washington DC on Tuesday. The lawsuit also asked the court to order Musk to give up “unjust” profits and pay a fine. The head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, announced in November that he will resign from his role when Donald Trump returns to the White House on 20 January. That was after Trump said he planned to sack Mr Gensler on “day one” of his new administration. Under Mr Gensler’s leadership, the SEC clashed with Musk, who is a close ally of the president-elect. But Musk had run-ins with the SEC long before Mr Gensler took office. In 2018, the regulator charged Musk with defrauding investors by claiming he had “funding secured” to take Tesla, the electric car company he leads, private. He later settled the charges, stepping down as chairman of the firm’s board and agreeing to accept what was dubbed a Twitter sitter – limits on what he could write on social media about the company. Source link

All porn sites must ‘robustly’ verify UK user ages by July

Getty Images All websites on which pornographic material can be found, including social media platforms, must introduce “robust” age-checking techniques such as demanding photo ID or running credit card checks for UK users by July. The long-awaited guidance, issued by regulator Ofcom, has been made under the Online Safety Act (OSA), and is intended to prevent children from easily accessing pornography online. Research indicates the average age at which young people first see explicit material online in the UK is 13 – with many being exposed to it much earlier. “For too long, many online services which allow porn and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services”, said Ofcom boss Melanie Dawes, adding: “today, this starts to change.” Ofcom confirmed to the BBC this meant user-to-user services such as social media platforms must implement “highly effective checks” – which in some cases might mean “preventing children from accessing the entire site”. However, some porn sites and privacy campaigners have warned the move will be counterproductive, saying introducing beefed-up age verification will only push people to “darker corners” of the internet. ‘Readily available’ The media regulator estimates that approximately 14 million people watch online pornography in the UK. But it is so readily available that campaign groups have raised concerns that children see it at a young age – with one in 10 children seeing it by age nine, according to a survey by the Children’s Commissioner. “As age checks start to roll out in the coming months, adults will start to notice a difference in how they access certain online services,” said Dame Melanie. The rules also require services which publish their own pornographic content – including with generative AI tools – to begin introducing age checks immediately. Age verification platform Yoti called such technology “essential” for creating safe spaces online. “It is important that age assurance is enforced across pornographic sites of all sizes, creating a level playing field, and providing age-appropriate access for adults,” said chief regulatory and policy officer Julie Dawson. However Aylo, parent company of the website Pornhub, told the BBC this sort of age verification was “ineffective, haphazard and dangerous”. It claimed pornography use changed significantly in US state Louisiana after similar age verification controls came into force, with its website’s traffic dropping 80% in the state. “These people did not stop looking for porn, they just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don’t ask users to verify age,” it claimed. “In practice, the laws have just made the internet more dangerous for adults and children.” Firms get clarity Ofcom has published what it calls a “non-exhaustive” list of technologies that may be used to verify ages, which includes: Open banking Photo ID matching Facial age estimation Mobile network operator age checks Credit card checks Digital identity services Email-based age estimation The rules specifically state that “self-declaration of age” is no longer considered a “highly effective” method of checking ages – and therefore is not acceptable. It also states that pornographic content should not be accessible to users before they have completed an age check. Other age verification firms have responded positively to the news. “The regulator’s long-awaited guidance on age assurance means adult content providers now have the clarity they need to get their houses in order and put in place robust and reliable methods to keep explicit material well away from underage users,” said Lina Ghazal, head of regulatory and public affairs at Verifymy. But privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch warned that many age-checking methods could be circumvented, and should not be seen as a panacea. “Children must be protected online, but many technological age checking methods are ineffective and introduce additional risks to children and adults alike including security breaches, privacy intrusion, errors, digital exclusion and censorship,” said boss Silkie Carlo. “We must avoid anything like a digital ID system for the internet that would both eradicate privacy online and fail to keep children safe,” she added. Source link

BT scraps EV charging point scheme having only installed one

BT Group The pilot scheme’s only charger will close in February BT has abandoned its scheme to turn green street cabinets into electric vehicle (EV) charging points having completed only one of the 60,000 conversions it initially said it was aiming for. The metal cases, seen on streets around the UK, are usually used for phone and broadband cables. When it announced the project in January 2024, BT said repurposing the cabinets was a “unique opportunity” to address a “key barrier” to people switching away from petrol and diesel cars. However, the scheme has now been scrapped with the firm saying it will be focusing on “the Wi-Fi connectivity challenge surrounding EV’s” instead. “It’s disappointing that it’s not going to proceed,” Stuart Masson from automotive website The Car Expert told BBC News. “The good news that we are seeing in the industry is that the overall rollout of electric charging points is accelerating faster than had been predicted a couple of years ago,” he added. However, he said that most of the charging points are in busier areas rather than on streets nearer to people’s homes, meaning BT’s decision was still a setback. Mr Masson welcomed its pledge to improve wi-fi infrastructure around EV charging points. “It’s very frustrating when you turn up to a charging point, you go to log into the app… and you can’t get a connection because you’re buried in a multi-storey car park somewhere and there’s no signal,” he said. “If BT can make a dent in that then that would be really good.” Scheme falls flat Many green cabinets are coming towards the end of their lifespans as BT upgrades to fibre broadband. But only one of them, in East Lothian, was ever actually turned into a public charging point. It will now close in February, according to The Fast Charge newsletter, which broke the story. The charger currently shows as “out of order” on the Evve Charge app, which shows the locations of EV chargers in the UK. East Lothian Council told the BBC there were still many EV charging options in the area. A spokesperson said: “East Lothian has one of the highest numbers of electric vehicle chargers per head of population among Scotland’s local authorities, with more than 370 public places to plug in cars.” A BT Group spokesperson said the trial tested “a great deal about the challenges that many on-street EV drivers are facing with charging and where BT Group can add most value to the UK EV ecosystem.” They added: “Other emerging needs we’ve identified include the wi-fi connectivity challenge surrounding EV’s – our pilots will now shift in focus to explore this further.” The government has set a target of 300,000 public charging points by 2030. Its own statistics show there are 73,334 public charging devices in the UK – a 37% increase on a year ago. Nearly a third of these are in Greater London, according to EV charging company Zapmap. Bumps in the road for EVs The Department for Transport responded to BT’s decision by stressing that 2024 was “a record-breaking year for EV infrastructure,” with nearly 20,000 EV charging points added in the past 12 months. “This comes alongside £6bn of private investment in the pipeline by 2030, helping EV owners drive with the confidence that they will never be too far away from a chargepoint,” it said in a statement. The car industry however has voiced concerns about the speed with which the UK is attempting to transition to EVs. Ford said in November 2024 that the government’s timetable for moving away from internal combustion engine cars would not work without further financial incentives. The following month the government launched a consultation with the automotive and charging industries to shape its phase-out of petrol and diesel cars. It said it had invested £2.3bn to support the switch to EVs, as it reasserted its target to stop sales of new fossil fuel-powered cars by 2030. Source link

iPhone AI news alerts halted after errors

Getty Images Apple has suspended a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that drew criticism and complaints for making repeated mistakes in its summaries of news headlines. The tech giant had been facing mounting pressure to withdraw the service, which sent notifications that appeared to come from within news organisations’ apps. “We are working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update,” an Apple spokesperson said. Journalism body Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it showed the dangers of rushing out new features. “Innovation must never come at the expense of the right of citizens to receive reliable information,” it said in a statement. “This feature should not be rolled out again until there is zero risk it will publish inaccurate headlines,” RSF’s Vincent Berthier added. False reports The BBC was among the groups to complain about the feature, after an alert generated by Apple’s AI falsely told some readers that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. The feature had also inaccurately summarised headlines from Sky News, the New York Times and the Washington Post, according to reports from journalists and others on social media. “There is a huge imperative [for tech firms] to be the first one to release new features,” said Jonathan Bright, head of AI for public services at the Alan Turing Institute. Hallucinations – where an AI model makes things up – are a “real concern,” he added, “and as yet firms don’t have a way of systematically guaranteeing that AI models will never hallucinate, apart from human oversight. “As well as misinforming the public, such hallucinations have the potential to further damage trust in the news media,” he said. Media outlets and press groups had pushed the company to pull back, warning that the feature was not ready and that AI-generated errors were adding to issues of misinformation and falling trust in news. The BBC complained to Apple in December but it did not respond until January when it promised a software update that would clarify the role of AI in creating the summaries, which were optional and only available to readers with the latest iPhones. That prompted a further wave of criticism that the tech giant was not going far enough. A news alert from December 2024 was among the complaints made by the BBC to Apple Apple has now decided to disable the feature entirely for news and entertainment apps. “With the latest beta software releases of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable,” an Apple spokesperson said. The company said that for other apps the AI-generated summaries of app alerts will appear using italicised text. “We’re pleased that Apple has listened to our concerns and is pausing the summarisation feature for news,” a BBC spokesperson said. “We look forward to working with them constructively on next steps. Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to audiences which is essential to building and maintaining trust.” Analysis: A rare U-turn from Apple Apple is generally robust about its products and doesn’t often even respond to criticism. This simple statement from the tech giant speaks volumes about just how damaging the errors made by its much-hyped new AI feature actually are. Not only was it inadvertently spreading misinformation by generating inaccurate summaries of news stories, it was also harming the reputation of news organisations like the BBC whose lifeblood is their trustworthiness, by displaying the false headlines next to their logos. Not a great look for a newly-launched service. AI developers have always said that the tech has a tendency to “hallucinate” (make things up) and AI chatbots all carry disclaimers saying the information they provide should be double-checked. But increasingly AI-generated content is given prominence – including providing summaries at the top of search engines – and that in itself implies that it is reliable. Even Apple, with all the financial and expert firepower it has to throw at developing the tech, has now proved very publicly that this is not yet the case. It’s also interesting that the latest error, which preceded Apple’s change of plan, was an AI summary of content from the Washington Post, as reported by their technology columnist Geoffrey A Fowler. The news outlet is owned by someone Apple boss Tim Cook knows well – Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Source link

TikTokers say goodbye to their ‘Chinese spy’ as they move to RedNote

TikTokers have been saying goodbye to the app and to their “personal Chinese spy” who has allegedly been surveilling them over the years. The BBC spoke to US influencers who participated in these trends and how they feel about a possible move to Chinese app RedNote. A TikTok ban in the US is set to go ahead on Sunday after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal. Video by Meiying Wu Source link