FTI Consulting News Bytes – 16 February 2024

FTI Consulting News Bytes

We start this week by looking at TikTok’s renewed efforts to combat misinformation ahead of the EU elections in June. We then turn to an AI-aided mission by Google and the Environmental Defence Fund to track planet-warming emissions of methane gas ahead of a satellite launch next month. Next, we look back on a strong week for Uber as it announced a $7 billion share buyback after reporting its first ever annual profit off the back of a post-pandemic ride-sharing rebound. Elsewhere, we explore the findings of a new report which places London behind key European peers for quality of 5G connectivity. Finally, we examine Google’s pledge to boost AI skills in Europe following a landmark report by AWS finding that if maintained, the current trajectory of AI adoption could inject €600 billion in gross value added (GVA) into the continent’s economy by 2030.

This week’s news

TikTok strengthens misinformation efforts ahead of EU elections

In the run-up to European Parliament elections in June, TikTok has announced plans to introduce a local language app, named Election Centres in each of the 27 EU member states, TIME reported. The tool is set to be available for TikTok’s 134 million monthly European users to access in March and its primary objective is to better educate European users about the electoral process, enabling them to distinguish between factual information and misinformation. In their piece, Reuters notes that this app builds on work TikTok initiated in 2021 in addressing misinformation, adding that it accelerated when Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and Spain went to the polls last year.

Google joins mission to map methane from space

On Wednesday, Google and environmental group Environmental Defense Fund unveiled a new partnership to track planet-warming emissions of methane gas, which according to the Financial Times will now be aided by artificial intelligence technology. The MethaneSAT satellite is scheduled to blast into space in March aboard a rocket operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Google has said it will provide the AI computing capabilities required to crunch vast amounts of data produced by the orbiting methane monitor. According to experts, reducing methane emissions is one of the most powerful short-term actions needed to address global warming.

Uber announces share buyback after returning first annual profit since 2019

Uber hit a record high on Wednesday following the announcement of a $7 billion share buyback. A strong recovery in ride-share revenue and robust demand in its food delivery business saw the company post its first annual net profit since its 2019 public debut last week. As per Reuters, “following a pandemic-induced slump the ride-share market expanded sharply as people went out more and employees returned to offices.” This helped Uber to more than double its market value last year and has seen other market players such as Lyft record high levels of bookings. The ride-share giant exemplifies a trend seen in many tech firms over the past decade: high spend encouraged by low interest rates to acquire market share foregoing turning a profit in the short-medium term. However, as interest rates have risen and raising money has become more difficult, companies have been forced to focus instead on turning a profit. Now, according to many analysts, Uber has sufficiently scaled and has decided it’s time to return capital to its owners.

London’s 5G connectivity lags behind European rivals 

A report has found London has fallen behind its European peers for 5G quality of connection, ranking 10th among other capitals according to fixed and mobile network benchmarking firm MedUX. Using robots to quality assess fixed and mobile wireless internet broadband, MedUX listed Berlin as top of the list on the grounds of its 89.6% 5G reach and low latency of less than 40 milliseconds, with Barcelona and Paris just behind. London, however, appeared close to the bottom, with 77.5% of the city population using 5G on their devices, below the urban average, according to a write up of the report by CNBC. The British capital performed poorly on other key metrics, including download speed, giving users an average speed of 143 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to 528 Mbps for Lisbon, 446 Mbps for Porto, 326 Mbps for Barcelona. The report offers several key reasons for London’s relatively poor 5G connectivity, including the UK Government’s decision to ban Huawei from investing in its networks in 2020 disrupting British carriers’ roll outs. Another suggested factor was the impact of industry mergers and acquisitions and the subsequent regulator pushback, leading to disruption to 5G installations.

€25m to boost AI skills in Europe

Google announced this week a pledge of 25 million euros to assist people in Europe learn to use AI, Reuters reported, following a landmark report by AWS finding that if maintained, the current trajectory of AI adoption could inject €600 billion in gross value added into the continent’s economy by 2030. Google has opened applications for social enterprises and non-profits that could help reach those most likely to benefit from training. It will run a series of “growth academies” to support firms using AI to scale, and it has expanded its free online AI training courses to 18 languages. The company hopes that the nonprofit program will help people across Europe from all backgrounds develop their skills in AI, helping to fight against a growing digital ‘skills gap’ as research increasingly shows that the benefits of AI could exacerbate existing inequalities.

Top Tweets of the Week

• Zoe Kleinman, Technology Editor at the BBC: “we wanted AI to bring us magic and wonder. What if all it does is push us harder?” wise words from @verityharding’s new book.
• Tom Warren, Senior Editor at The Verge: Nvidia has released an early version of Chat with RTX, which lets you run an AI chatbot locally on your PC. It’s a promising look at how AI could be set to overhaul Windows.
• Alex Wickham, Reporter at Bloomberg: Inflation comes in slightly lower than forecast in relief for BOE policymakers Held at 4%, economists had forecast 4.1% Via @tomelleryrees.

Number of the Week

123.4m – The number of viewers averaged across television and streaming platforms for the Super Bowl, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.