A library of snippets
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OpenAI announced on Thursday that it is launching a research preview of Operator, a general-purpose AI agent that can take control of a web browser and independently perform certain actions. Operator is coming to U.S. users on ChatGPT’s $200 Pro subscription plan first. OpenAI says it plans to roll this feature out to more users in its Plus, Team, and Enterprise tiers eventually.
From: OpenAI launches Operator, an AI agent that performs tasks autonomously | TechCrunch.
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In a surprise move, the FCA says it will “remove” the £100 contactless limit, “allowing firms and customers greater flexibility, drawing on US experience, and levelling the playing field with digital wallets”. Digital wallets with biometric logins currently circumvent the limits applied to payment cards at the checkout.
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This year’s Davos, or more properly the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland had a focus on the fundamental principles driving trust, including transparency, consistency and accountability. Now, because I am horrible nerd and having spent a life in secure communications, payments and identity, these words are not mere banners but have very specific meanings to me. Hence I was very interested to head there for some fresh mountain air, fondue and strategic thinking about the future of trust in the world of electronic transactions.
I came back with three key trends that made me think about the evolution of transactions and reflect on what opportunities they might bring.
First of all, there was a lot of talk about stablecoins. These are no longer a fringe topic. A recent YouGov survey (commissioned by Visa and others) of 500 cryptocurrency users in each of five emerging markets found that stablecoins, which typically track the value of the US dollar, are increasingly seen as a “core application” in the crypto space, offering practical solutions such as currency conversion, remittances and payment for goods. The Atlanta Fed put the current value of all stablecoins in circulation at more than $200 billion (comparable to the gross domestic product of counties like New Zealand or Greece), of which all but a small fraction are backed by US dollars. Stablecoins are not about speculation and gambling, they are about a practical alternative to the existing payments rails. I think we are going to spend an increasing proportion of our time in the payments world helping financial institutions, retailers and others to understand the key trends in this space and then move on to their first pilots using the new digital currency.
Secondly, I found myself in a couple of sessions about digital wallets, where issues of identification, authentication and authorisation come together. In particular, I was very pleased to be invited to attend the Open Wallet Founation’s session on interoperability with brought together ISO, IEC, W3C and others to share thoughts here. We have long advised our clients on the strategic important of the digital wallet as the key channel between service providers and customers, so now that the UK government’s impending “super app”, the EU’s digital identity wallet and Big Tech’s wallets are jostling for what used to be called “top of wallet” but is now just “wallet”, our skills in developing practical strategies are digital identity are going to be of incredible value across the ecosystem.
Third, and finally, it was impossible to escape AI. Every conversation — whether it was about hydrogen production or loaylty schemes, horse training or ethical invesmment — touched on AI. Central to these discussions is the shift toward “agentic AI”. A new report from Citi on “Agentic AI – Finance & the ‘Do It For Me Economy” (disclosure: I am one of the external experts quoted in the report) talks about how agentic AI that adapts to circumstances and acts autonomously has huge implications for a financial services sector that will need to respond to the demands of AI customers. Speaking at the Salesforce annual conference last year, CEO Marc Benioff said that AI agents are the next step in the evolution of AI and he is surely correct. One of the key fintech investors, Bain Capital Ventures, are similarly bullish. They say that like the emergence of the ecommerce and mobile shopping eras, the agentic shopping era will be similarly disruptive, elevating some who are on the front-end of these changes while demoting others who lag behind.
The idea of networks of agents, with their own digital identities, exchanging their own stablecoins via their own wallets, might well sound somewhat futuristic but it really isn’t. There are companies developing tools and platforms in this space right now and with our practical experience in every aspect of the transaction value network from risk analysis and scheme rules to data security and countermeasures, we can’t wait to help them put these tools to work in the real economy.
What I brought back from Davos, apart from a wooly hat, was some real excitement around the evolution of electronic transactions into a new era and the opportunities for Consult Hyperion and FIME to bring together vision, capabilities and practical experiences to help clients across all sector exploit the new technologies to the great benefit of citizens and consumers around the world.
When I stopped by MIT’s Dome at Davos this year, I sat in on a very interesting panel about international AI development that included Sir Demis Hassabis, the nobel-prize winnong cofounder of DeepMind, discussing (amongst other things) the dangers of “rogue” AI. Sir Demis said that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the future.
When I stopped by MIT’s Dome at Davos this year, I sat in on a very interesting panel about international AI development that included Sir Demis Hassabis, the nobel-prize winnong cofounder of DeepMind, discussing (amongst other things) the dangers of “rogue” AI. Sir Demis said that we are now entering the era of agentic AI and that this meant new dangers.
Youshua Bengio took an interesting perspective, noting that the security services work to protect us from the actions of hostile nations and that perhaps we should view AI as one of those hostile powers.
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Driving licences will be digitised and available on smartphones this year, paving the way for it to become the go-to proof of identity for tens of millions of people.
The digital version of the driver’s licence will be available on a government app and could be accepted for everything from buying alcohol to boarding domestic flights and voting.
The scheme will be voluntary and drivers will still be issued with provisional and full photocard driving licences, but ministers hope the move will “drag government into the 2020s”.
The plans are due to be announced by ministers next week in a “product launch” event in central London.
Supermarkets could link the digital licence with self-checkout technology, so customers can scan to prove their age rather than waiting for a staff member to come over and approve the purchase.
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The science and technology department is also looking at how it could integrate every government service in a single app, including claiming benefits, paying taxes and proving the right to work.
The government will stop short of introducing compulsory national ID cards, as pushed for by Sir Tony Blair, the former prime minister, in a bid to avoid arguments about civil liberties.
The new licences could be used to avoid long waits for store staff at check-outs
ANGEL SANTANA/GETTY IMAGES
About 50 million Britons have either a full or provisional driving licence, a document first issued more than 120 years ago and which has been a credit card-size photocard since 1998.There is no legal requirement for drivers to carry their licence when at the wheel, although if a police officer requests to see one, drivers must produce it within seven days. But motoring experts said that drivers heading abroad would still need to carry their photocard.
Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for The AA, said: “There are clearly some benefits of having a digital licence, especially if you are pulled over by the police and need to show your documents.
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“However, it may be some time before it could be used and accepted abroad. Drivers already feel embarrassed if they’ve left their licence at home when hiring a car on holiday, but they’ll be annoyed if their digital licence won’t be accepted.”
The familiar photocard will still be needed for driving abroad
ALAMY
An app called “Gov.uk” has been developed by the department of science and technology and will be ready to launch this year.The digital driving licence will only be available in a virtual wallet in the government app, instead of being added to existing Google or Apple wallets. One feature explored by developers allows users to toggle their address on and off on the licence, hiding it from staff in shops or bouncers at bars and clubs.
From: Digital driving licence to be available on phones this year.
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The economist Tyler Cowan, commenting on AI’s voracious need for content for training models, observed that it makes sense for authors to see AI as part of their audience. He suggests that a reason to write for AIs is to convince them that you are important. I thought about this too. Far from banning LLM’s from using my articles, comments, posts and books in their training processes, I actively want them to hoover up as much of stuff as possible because I want to influence thinking on the topics that I write about. I want my views to become part of the worldview. If I truly believe that the bulk of transactions should be based on credentials rather than identity (to give a straighfoward example) then I want every LLM in the world to pick that up and regurgitate it in every conversation around the topic. Why wouldn’t I?
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National Crime Agency bosses have been alerted by a Sun on Sunday probe to dodgy British firms offering “click and collect” fraudulent papers for £5,000.
Migrants buy them, then pick them up after arriving by boat or air.
One ad promised they could get a full driving licence and pass “theory and practical certificates without exams”.
Another firm, operating from Swinton, Gtr Manchester, offered “original guaranteed” UK passports for £5,000.
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The adverts have appeared on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and X.Migrants can use the fake documents to make bogus applications to remain, or secure a job illegally — with most employers unable to spot the forgeries.
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An illegal immigrant from Algeria worked in a Slough school for 20 years with fake documents, court hears.
Mounir Lameche worked as a school caretaker under a fake name and fraudulently used an Italian passport to pass a DBS check.
The 48-year-old was arrested after a DBS application was made under the name of Adel Boughamouz, which the court heard was a “false name” used by Lameche.
Prosecutors told how Lameche had obtained employment at Beechwood School in Slough after passing the DBS check with his false documentation.
From: Slough: Illegal immigrant worked at school for 20 years with fake ID | Slough Observer.
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Chief executive Oliver Morley tweeted a photo, external showing a “prototype” using Apple’s Wallet app on an iPhone.
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The commercial documents outline that the technology will incorporate nine core elements of functionality:
Identity – including the ability for users to log in, then manage an account and their personal preferences
Store – covering the provision of a digital wallet for credentials and certifications
Read – a mailbox for messages and other communications
Ask – incorporating search, chat and navigation services
Apply – allowing users to make digital applications, renewals and registrations
Book – for booking appointments, and providing calendar services and reminders
Approve – enabling citizens to provide consent, sign documents, and verify information
Notify – covering reminders, alerts, and other proactively provided information
Pay – including one-off payments, as well as regular or automated payments
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Today, the total value of all stablecoins in circulation exceeds $200 billion, of which more than 98 percent are backed by US dollars. To put this into perspective, their value is comparable to the gross domestic product of counties like New Zealand or Greece.
From: Here a Coin, There a Coin, Everywhere a Stablecoin – Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
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