Tech

I’ve been watching how lenders, banks and credit-check firms use algorithms for several years now, and the same question keeps coming up at briefings and roundtables: can a machine lend fairly where humans have failed? That’s a deceptively simple question. Algorithms can speed up decisions and spot patterns invisible to humans, but they can also entrench historic prejudice or create new, opaque ways of excluding people. In the UK, regulators...

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Why I started asking questions about edtech and privacyI remember the first time my child's school announced a new online learning platform. The teachers were enthusiastic — more interactivity, easier homework submission, a single login for all subjects. As a journalist who watches how tech and policy intersect, my excitement was tempered by a simple question: what happens to my child's data?Edtech can be brilliant when it's used thoughtfully....

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When I tried Apple's Vision Pro for the first time, I wasn't just curious about a new gadget — I was thinking about the people I know who design sets for theatre, edit films in cramped flats, run small creative agencies in Manchester, or teach typography at a university in Bristol. The Vision Pro looks like a consumer device on the surface, but it contains features that could reshape how creative work is organised, distributed and experienced...

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