Your commercial news round-up: chatbot, scams, extremist politics, Labour, house prices

Reading time: six minutes

There’s a new AI chatbot available and it’s here for “relaxed conversation”, the government has introduced new plans to tackle financial scams and the Conservative Party has been accused of bordering on “extremism” by one of its own. But that’s not all, Keir Starmer has gone back on his pledge to end tuition fees and the price of houses has changed, but not in the way economists predicted. This week’s commercial news round-up has stories spanning across technology politics and the economy to keep you in the loop and help build your commercial awareness.

• The co-founders of Google, DeepMind and LinkedIn have joined the likes of Snapchat and ChatGPT by creating their very own AI chatbot. Year-old start-up Inflection AI has produced ‘Pi’ to meet consumers’ growing interests in generative AI, which can be understood as an AI system capable of generating text, images or other media in response to written prompts. Pi, not to be confused with a delicious dessert or numerical ratio, has been designed for “relaxed, supportive, informative conversation”, said Mustafa Suleyman, Inflection AI’s chief executive. According to the chatbot, its name comes from the mathematical constant π and was chosen because like π the AI chatbot has unlimited potential. Users of the new chatbot will be able to engage in personal conversations through text, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook or directly via an app. Pi has been beta tested by users over the past few months and will eventually be able to aid users in online tasks.
   
• Our next story takes us away from the joys of technology and into its dangers as we look at the financial scams plaguing Britain. British intelligence agencies have been tasked with increasing efforts to tackle financial fraudsters who are costing the UK an average of £7 billion a year. The move is part of the government’s new national fraud policy which will address some of the common methods used by scammers and crack down on “ruthless criminals scamming the British public out of their hard-earned cash”. Ahead of the strategy’s release, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “It’s vital we adopt a new approach to this threat.” Last year alone the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) responded to 2.1 million phishing attempts, with approximately 2.7 million cyber-related acts of fraud taking place in total. The NCSC identified Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as an “acute cyber threat” to Britain. The government has directed intelligence agencies to stop scams at the source, they’ll be assisted by 400 new:
  • specialist police investigators;
  • local forces; and
  • international partners.
     
• Braverman also features in today’s third story about the alleged “extremism” of the Conservative Party. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, former co-chair of the Conservative Party, has told the Financial Times that Conservative politicians’ dialect, when speaking on immigration, is creating a “really dangerous space”. She voiced her concerns after Braverman stated that asylum seekers demonstrated “heightened levels of criminality”. Braverman said this in support of a speech made by Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who noted that the number of refugees entering Britain needed to be controlled due to those seeking asylum having “completely different lifestyles and values” from those in the UK. Warsi accused Braverman and the party of “prejudice and bigotry” adding that she found it a “difficult thing” to speak out against another politician particularly when the bigotry is “coming out from the mouths of politicians of colour”. She likened the dialect used by some Conservative party colleagues as comparable to the early days of the US Republican party’s right-wing rhetoric that led to the election of Trump.This isn’t the first time someone has come forward to remark on the language used by Conservative Party MPs; earlier in the year we reported on Gary Lineker who took to Twitter to condemn Braverman’s language when speaking on immigration.
   
• Sticking with politics for our next story, we’re going to look at the Labour Party’s pledges that were announced on Tuesday ahead of today’s local elections. Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has gone back on his promise of free tuition for all students in England. Labour’s original plan to axe university fees would’ve cost £9.5 billion funded by raising taxes on high earners. Starmer told the BBC that he was still committed to finding a “fairer solution” than the current system, but he wouldn’t be providing further details on this until later this month. Whether the solution will be a reduction in university fees, greater financial support for low-income students or a change in how students repay their loans is unclear, but former Cabinet Minister David Blunkett said last year that Labour would guarantee “any policy change on university tuition fees in England supports and incentivises flexible, part-time study”. Taking a step back from university fee plans, it’s understood that Starmer will be focusing his campaign on tackling the cost-of-living crisis. The Labour Party leader has previously called on the government to implement a tougher windfall tax on oil and gas companies and has also pledged to remove the investment allowance granted to the industry under the Conservatives. 
   
• Rounding off with some good news, UK house prices are on the rise, signifying that the property market is stabilising as borrowing costs ease. Data from mortgage provider Nationwide revealed that property prices unexpectantly rose 0.5% between March and April ending seven consecutive months of decline. Analysts predicted that prices would continue to fall by 0.4% so this increase is a welcome surprise. The average house price rose to  £260,400 in April. Nationwide’s Chief Economist Robert Gardner said the rise signified “tentative signs of a recovery”. However, economists are sceptical, suggesting this rise is unlikely to trigger a significant rebound. Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics, stated: “Demand likely will remain weak enough to ensure that the stock of unsold properties continues to creep up and prices continue to fall.” Buyers will now be reliant on nominal wage growth and easing mortgage rates to ensure affordability in the coming months.

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