AI as a dual-use technology – a cautionary tale

by Daryl Ilbury

Few countries were scarred more by a quantum leap in military technology during the Second World War than Japan; the atomic explosions that decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki nearly 80 years ago are still seared into the nation’s psyche. So, it is unsurprising that the country is wary of academia giving research impetus and energy to military technological development, even if it encourages dual-use technology with broader benefits to society. Artificial intelligence (AI) is too attractive a game-changing technology for powerful countries not to consider its use in military conflict, especially if it has spinoffs during times of peace. One of Japan’s most respected computer science and engineering researchers is urging caution.

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The social determinants to adopting digital grocery retail technology

by Daryl Ilbury

Before supermarkets, smart retail was embodied in the efficient, personal service of the typical neighbourhood grocery stores. Supermarkets squeezed out those stores and introduced the convenience of buying many different products in one location. Today, that location is increasingly digital, the retailer and customer completely separated, and a customer’s value lies not in their friendly wave as they enter a store, but in the data displayed in their online behaviour. Digitalising the shopping experience in this way may open the way for what retailers consider smart retail technology, but as two leading researchers in food retail have discovered, that technology is only as effective as the willingness of humans to use it.

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