Scientists Discover Ice On Mars Where It Shouldn’t Exist

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Scientists have made an unexpected discovery while studying old images from the NASA archives – a region of ice near the Martian equator, where water simply isn’t meant to exist.

Everything we know about the red planet says water isn’t thermodynamically stable at low altitudes, but a team lead by researcher Jack Wilson, John Hopkins University, has now suggested that this might be wrong.

And this new information could be groundbreaking for any future Mars missions.

NASA

The images in question were first collected by the neutron spectrometer instrument on NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft (the agency’s longest-operating Mars orbiter) between 2002 and 2009.

But have recently undergone some serious editing.

Wilson’s team were able to reduce blurring and remove ‘noise’ from the imaging data, improving the spacial resolution from approximately 320 miles to 180 miles, allowing us all a closer look.

“It was as if we’d cut the spacecraft’s orbital altitude in half,” Wilson said, “and it gave us a much better view of what’s happening on the surface.”

As a result they were now able to see evidence of ‘significant hydration’ near the equator, located between the northern lowlands and southern highlands along the Medusae Fossae Formation.

Spotting unexpectedly high quantities of hydrogen gathering at high latitudes, the planetary scientists knew this was a sign of buried water ice much lower down (even though the spectrometer itself can’t directly detect water).

This revelation is so mysterious because although hydrogen was always known to exist higher in the atmosphere, as confirmed by 2008 NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, but it was thought that this was impossible closer to the surface.

Indeed the team wonders how the water could be preserved there, with some speculations suggesting that it is only being held there by an ice and dust mixture cycled through the atmosphere the polar areas.

But those conditions last occurred hundreds of thousands of millions years ago and any ice deposited there should be long gone.

“Perhaps the signature could be explained in terms of extensive deposits of hydrated salts, but how these hydrated salts came to be in the formation is also difficult to explain,” Wilson added.

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One In Four Teens Admit To Bullying Someone On Social Media – But Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Panic

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In late 18th Century England, public concern over Imperial wars in America, India, and Europe, was matched by a growing fear of an altogether more insidious problem developing at home – the increasing mass consumption of novels!

‘My sight is every-where offended by these foolish, yet dangerous, books […] I have actually seen mothers, in miserable garrets, crying for the imaginary distress of an heroine, while their children were crying for bread’ – The Sylph no. 5, October 6, 1796: 36-37

For critics of this trend (which gained pace after the publication of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela in 1740), novels were seen as both psychologically and physiologically harmful: warping ideas of life and relationships, while also damaging readers eyesight and posture.

Fast forward a few hundred years, and this debate has echoes of current consternation around social media – albeit with the main focus of that concern moving from ‘ladies’, ‘mistresses’, and ‘belles’ to today’s young people. Look through any national newspaper and you’re likely to find at least one shocking story of abuse or crime linked to social networking sites.

However, while the tone of the debate on social media may have similarities to the novel-reading panic of the 18th Century, public anxiety in the contemporary case is backed up by empirical evidence. The NSPCC has, for instance, reported a doubling of Childline calls related to cyberbullying between 2012 and 2016, and a recent report by the OECD classified 37% of British 15-years olds as ‘extreme internet users’, significantly above the international average (26%).

At Demos, in our upcoming report ‘The Moral Web‘, we’ve focused on understanding how young people act on social media, and what motivates their decision-making. We found that a quarter of 16-18 year olds admit to bullying or abusing someone over social media, with many saying that they feel drawn into negative behaviour due to the visibility of communication, leading to a need to be seen ‘to act tough’.

The public response to moral panics of the past is generally to look to prohibit or restrict access the object of ‘vice’ or censor content deemed particularly harmful. In her analysis of the novel-reading panic of the 1700s, Ana Vogrinčič, finds evidence of significant attempts to ‘thwart their spread and restrain novel reading’. However, she argues that these attempts often proved counterproductive (in this case increasing public attention given to this literary form).
Again, there are parallels to our current predicament. Much of the contemporary policy response has so far focused on online safeguarding, social media companies are under increasing public pressure to ‘do more’ to remove harmful content, and schools and parents often get drawn into attempts to limit access to smartphones, and reduce screen time.

While all worthwhile endeavours, there are both practical and social limits to solely restrictive approaches. From a practical perspective, the nature of social media technologies makes traditional forms of regulation difficult – for example, constant connectivity through smartphones means that young people are regularly online outside spaces of parental mediation. There’s also a danger that overly intrusive interference into young people’s digital worlds becomes counterproductive, encouraging more covert online behaviour, as well as limiting positive developmental opportunities.

Our research for instance found that while a significant minority of young people engaged in abusive behaviour, social media provided the majority with opportunities for honest and empathetic communication (88% said they had given emotional support to a friend over social media) and civic and political engagement (51% had posted about political or social causes).
So how to address the legitimate concerns that underpin public anxiety? Our research finds that young people’s character and social and emotional skills are important in shaping how they think and act on social media. Traits of empathy and self-control were, for example, found to be particularly closely linked to reduced likelihood of engaging in bullying behaviour online.
It’s here that we feel policy-makers, schools, and parents can make the biggest difference – empowering young people to make a positive contribution to their online communities by building their social digital skills, together with those wider character traits which guide and shape behaviour.

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Chatbots – A Blast From The AI Past With An Uncertain Future

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The idea that we could hold meaningful conversations with computers creates a strong and diverse set of reactions. For some, being able to talk with a chat bot is an exciting idea, opening up a whole range of business and personal opportunities from customer service and tech support to fashion, healthcare and legal advice.

For others, particularly parts of the mainstream media, a computer that can chat is a portent of a Terminator-style AI armageddon of the human race. When Facebook discussed some of its recent chat bot developments, where the bots apparently developed their own language, it was described by one national newspaper as ‘controversial’ and ‘unsupervised’. A side bar in The Mail’s coverage of the story offered a frightening picture of ‘The AI Warnings’ that come with such developments.

Many more outlets incorrectly reported that the experiment was shut down because Facebook ‘were afraid of the results’, when in fact the bots were just not working as intended. This fearful perspective will no doubt return whenever the next big chat bot story emerges, but it takes the emphasis away from much more useful discussion on where chat bots might be of greatest benefit in the future – or even if they have a future at all.

The view of many is perhaps summed up by a recent piece in leading tech website The Register who argue that, “the jury is still out” on chat bots. Yet, the idea that we can hold meaningful and useful conversations with a computer has been fascinating AI experts for decades.

The following is part of a ‘conversation’ between two bots – one called ELIZA, created to assume the role of a psychotherapist and one called PARRY, who was programmed at act paranoid.

ELIZA: Good Evening. Tell me your problems. Please terminate input with a period or a question mark.

PARRY: People get on my nerves sometimes.

ELIZA: I am not sure I understand you fully.

PARRY: You should pay more attention.

ELIZA: Suppose you should pay more attention.

PARRY: You’re entitled to your own opinion.

ELIZA: What makes you think I am entitled to my own opinion?

PARRY: It bothers me just to be around people in general.

ELIZA: Please go on.

PARRY: I went to the track at Bay Meadows a while back.

ELIZA: What does that suggest to you?

PARRY: I went to the races.

The conversation went on for some time, with PARRY becoming increasingly ‘frustrated’ with ELIZA’s seemingly unhelpful responses.

It’s quite different and much more meaningful in human terms to the language ‘invented’ by the two Facebook bots. It’s also interesting to consider when you put it into a historical context – that AI conversation took place in 1972.

Originally, ELIZA (created in 1964) and Parry (created in 1972) were intended to act as Turing Test candidates to see whether a computer could convince a human it was real on the basis of a conversation between the two. Given the ‘personas’ created for ELIZA and PARRY, someone came up with the idea of hooking them up and that friendly chat was the result.

Passing a Turing Test is supposed to show that a machine is displaying human levels of intelligence. Whether it does or not has been debated since Alan Turing created the test back in 1950, and for the past ten years has been the objective for an annual chat bot competition, The Loebner Prize.

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Apple And Fitbit Show That Smartwatches Are Still Very Much Alive And Kicking

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Credit: Wareable

For the past few weeks I’ve been wearing the new Apple Watch Series 3 on my left wrist and the Fitbit Ionic, the company’s first ever smartwatch, on my right.

The experience of using both at the same time has been interesting to say the least. On the one hand (well, wrist), there’s Apple’s third generation Watch, which has come on leaps and bounds since the first one and is finally starting to provide a more compelling argument that iPhone owners need one in their lives.

Notifications have been a smartphone staple for what seems like forever and above anything else, this is what I’ve found myself tapping into most on the Watch Series 3. A glance at my wrist on a packed tube carriage or running on a treadmill in the gym. I don’t tend to deal or respond to these notifications a lot of the time, but it’s nice just to be aware of what’s happening at work or knowing there’s a WhatsApp group conversation I need to be part of. I know, a smartphone does this already, but normally when I grab my phone it means spending time checking in on Twitter, Instagram and a bunch of other apps. Basically, more screen time.

Apple’s third smartwatch does a pretty credible impression of a sports watch too. It’ll track my swims and runs and not leaving me waiting achingly long for a GPS signal to lock on. There’s also something quite addictive about closing those Activity rings before my other Apple Watch owning friends. Until battery life gets significantly better though, I’m not sure it’ll ever replace a dedicated sports watch, but for most, it does tick the boxes.

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The big new addition of course is LTE, which has been available on smartwatches before, but means I can leave my iPhone behind and get a smartphone-like experience on my watch. Taking and making calls from my wrist or asking Siri about appointments in my calendar in public is just something I’m never going to get used to. But the notification support or the ability to stream music (which isn’t available just yet) without having to remember to transfer new music over to the watch iTunes could persuade me to spend a little more for the luxury. Ultimately, though I still want my smartphone by my side. What happens when you want to grab a quick snap of something? A smartwatch just isn’t cut out for that.

Then there’s the Ionic, the only other smartwatch that has been talked about as much as Apple’s. Fitbit has taken its fitness tracker DNA and put it inside of a design that is best described as Marmite. Some will love it, some will hate it. Unsurprisingly, fitness tracking is where the Ionic impresses most, but it does a decent job as a smartwatch too. Notification support is more basic than Apple’s approach, but features like Fitbit Pay contactless payments work effortlessly and while there aren’t too many standalone apps right now, the few that are there, work well.

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Fitbit’s CEO James Park gave his reasons why the company didn’t include LTE in its first smartwatch, and I’m inclined to agree with what he had to say on the feature for now. But there’s a sense of inevitability that it will be on the Fitbit agenda further down the line. One of those reasons will no doubt have been battery life, one of the biggest differentiators between Apple and Fitbit’s smartwatches and the reason the Ionic spends more time on my wrist. It just lasts longer (four days to Apple’s day and a half) even with a super bright display and that’s something Apple is going to have to seek to improve. Because if it does, then Fitbit will seriously have to raise its game.

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Breaking Down The New Red Dead Redemption 2 Trailer

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Rockstar dropped the second trailer to its keenly-anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2 on Thursday. Fans will now commence poring over the footage to pick apart all the details to the sequel to one of the most universally acclaimed games of all time. Well, we say sequel, but more on that in a minute…

You can watch the full trailer here but below are just some of our key takeaways, which might have to keep us going until the game’s teasingly unspecific ‘Spring 2018’ release date.

The real star character of the original Red Dead Redemption was its rich and beautiful world, and RDR2 appears to be no different. In fact, with this game coming out on a generation of even more power consoles, photorealistic visuals should be expected. But still, look how pretty!

Here’s our first glance at, we guess, our main character. Rockstar name him as Arthur Morgan, and he seems like a really swell guy. Here he is trying to collect some cash from this down-on-his-luck sap. Protection money? Debt? Or just a kind reminder of a loan between friends? It’s probably not that one.

While the original game spent a lot of time in bizarro Texas and Mexico, we did get a little mountain gameplay. Rockstar seem to have doubled down on that here, with plenty of Rockies-like scenery, complete with deep snow you can see below. They might just be showing off, or this might tell us we’re in for more diverse world this time round.

More on that – we see here some poor hog being gobbled up by a gator. So we’ve got snow, we’ve got desert plains, and we get Bayou territory too? It feels like this game world is going to be vast and, therefore, full of predatory terrors.

Actual proper heists were weirdly lacking in Red Dead Redemption but it looks like there’ll be ripe opportunity to do some actually villainous hijacking now. Also, if we could get one half as comedic as this legendary Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid scene, that’d be terrific.

Bonnie MacFarlane – a rancher ally of John’s in the first game – was a brilliant character, a woman trying to do the right thing to keep her family’s livelihood going against the odds. Rockstar doesn’t have a good track record of creating deep and complex women but given that Grand Theft Auto V had exactly zero positively-framed female characters, that we appear to have one in RDR2 is, we suppose, progress?

This line from our presumed protagonist is, really, the big reveal of the trailer. Players of the first game will remember Dutch van der Linde as the former mentor of John Marston, and the ultimate baddy of the story. The presence of a (much younger) Dutch in Red Dead Redemption 2 tells us this is essentially a prequel to Red Dead Redemption, and might even include some story of how John Marston came to be the outlaw we knew in the original.

Whereas John was quite a morally grey character, Arthur pledging allegiance to Dutch shows that we might be firmly on the bad side in this one. Or maybe the game’s retained the ‘Redemption’ as a hint towards a conversion for Morgan?

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New Amazon Echo Speaker Unveiled With Late October UK Release Date

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Amazon has unveiled not one, but three brand-new Echo devices at a special event held at its HQ in Seattle.

The three new gadgets are the new Amazon Echo now at a lower price, the Smart home-controlling Echo Plus and a small quirky Echo Spot which contains a small circular display.

Leading the event is the brand-new Amazon Echo. This sequel to the popular voice-activated speaker now comes with a new design, improved audio and a cheaper price.

Amazon

According to Amazon the new Echo boasts improved sound quality over the original with sound processing by Dolby. It also comes with Amazon’s second generation far-field microphone technology which should make it even easier to talk to in big or noisy rooms.

Then of course there’s the design. Amazon’s taken a leaf out of Google’s book and like the Google Home, now offers the Echo with a range of different covers.

Amazon

It costs £89.99, is available to order now and will be released in the UK on the 31 October 2017.

Next up is the Echo Plus. This features the same design as the original Echo but comes with two major improvements.

Amazon

Firstly, it now has the same audio improvements as the Echo including both a dedicated tweeter and woofer and audio processing by Dolby.

The second feature is arguably the more exciting. Echo Plus is actually a smart home hub, which means that it is compatible with hundreds of smart home products straight out of the box.

You simply tell Echo Plus to discover what’s in your house and it will search for, and then connect to everything that’s compatible without you having to go through each individual product.

For the added convenience and slightly bigger audio Amazon’s charging £139.99 for the Echo Plus and it too will release in the UK on the 31 October.

Last but not least is the Echo Spot. This doesn’t have a UK release date but it’s sure to be a hit in the US.

Amazon

It’s essentially a tiny version of Amazon’s larger Show speaker, with a small circular display that can show information, requests. It also has a camera that means it can double as a nursery camera.

Finally Amazon announced that the Echo Show would be launching in the UK on the 16 November for £199.99.

Amazon

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New Amazon Echo Speaker Unveiled With Late October UK Release Date

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Amazon has unveiled not one, but three brand-new Echo devices at a special event held at its HQ in Seattle.

The three new gadgets are the new Amazon Echo now at a lower price, the Smart home-controlling Echo Plus and a small quirky Echo Spot which contains a small circular display.

Leading the event is the brand-new Amazon Echo. This sequel to the popular voice-activated speaker now comes with a new design, improved audio and a cheaper price.

Amazon

According to Amazon the new Echo boasts improved sound quality over the original with sound processing by Dolby. It also comes with Amazon’s second generation far-field microphone technology which should make it even easier to talk to in big or noisy rooms.

Then of course there’s the design. Amazon’s taken a leaf out of Google’s book and like the Google Home, now offers the Echo with a range of different covers.

Amazon

It costs £89.99, is available to order now and will be released in the UK on the 31 October 2017.

Next up is the Echo Plus. This features the same design as the original Echo but comes with two major improvements.

Amazon

Firstly, it now has the same audio improvements as the Echo including both a dedicated tweeter and woofer and audio processing by Dolby.

The second feature is arguably the more exciting. Echo Plus is actually a smart home hub, which means that it is compatible with hundreds of smart home products straight out of the box.

You simply tell Echo Plus to discover what’s in your house and it will search for, and then connect to everything that’s compatible without you having to go through each individual product.

For the added convenience and slightly bigger audio Amazon’s charging £139.99 for the Echo Plus and it too will release in the UK on the 31 October.

Last but not least is the Echo Spot. This doesn’t have a UK release date but it’s sure to be a hit in the US.

Amazon

It’s essentially a tiny version of Amazon’s larger Show speaker, with a small circular display that can show information, requests. It also has a camera that means it can double as a nursery camera.

Finally Amazon announced that the Echo Show would be launching in the UK on the 16 November for £199.99.

Amazon

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New Amazon Echo Speaker Unveiled With Late October UK Release Date

check out this post on New Amazon Echo Speaker Unveiled With Late October UK Release Date

Amazon has unveiled not one, but three brand-new Echo devices at a special event held at its HQ in Seattle.

The three new gadgets are the new Amazon Echo now at a lower price, the Smart home-controlling Echo Plus and a small quirky Echo Spot which contains a small circular display.

Leading the event is the brand-new Amazon Echo. This sequel to the popular voice-activated speaker now comes with a new design, improved audio and a cheaper price.

Amazon

According to Amazon the new Echo boasts improved sound quality over the original with sound processing by Dolby. It also comes with Amazon’s second generation far-field microphone technology which should make it even easier to talk to in big or noisy rooms.

Then of course there’s the design. Amazon’s taken a leaf out of Google’s book and like the Google Home, now offers the Echo with a range of different covers.

Amazon

It costs £89.99, is available to order now and will be released in the UK on the 31 October 2017.

Next up is the Echo Plus. This features the same design as the original Echo but comes with two major improvements.

Amazon

Firstly, it now has the same audio improvements as the Echo including both a dedicated tweeter and woofer and audio processing by Dolby.

The second feature is arguably the more exciting. Echo Plus is actually a smart home hub, which means that it is compatible with hundreds of smart home products straight out of the box.

You simply tell Echo Plus to discover what’s in your house and it will search for, and then connect to everything that’s compatible without you having to go through each individual product.

For the added convenience and slightly bigger audio Amazon’s charging £139.99 for the Echo Plus and it too will release in the UK on the 31 October.

Last but not least is the Echo Spot. This doesn’t have a UK release date but it’s sure to be a hit in the US.

Amazon

It’s essentially a tiny version of Amazon’s larger Show speaker, with a small circular display that can show information, requests. It also has a camera that means it can double as a nursery camera.

Finally Amazon announced that the Echo Show would be launching in the UK on the 16 November for £199.99.

Amazon

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Science Should Never Become Boring… Here’s Why

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As you might expect, ‘athlete’ and ‘firefighter’ are two of the most sought after jobs for children. But it wasn’t a surprise to me to find ‘astronaut’ and ‘scientist’ holding their own in the top ten as well. Why not? Defying gravity, even zero gravity, must be one of the most exciting scientific developments of our time, and children everywhere want to be a part of it.

So, why is it that that in recent years 47% of young people think that science subjects are for those who are ‘boring’, with a further 55% of online conversation describing STEM as ‘too difficult’? What about the role physics has played in making space travel real? Or the scientific research which has allowed pilots to fly across the world at up to 39,000 feet? Science certainly isn’t boring and I’m fascinated to know why one in two schoolchildren think it is.

Answering a question like this is not straightforward, and no one answer can solve it. But I think one way to address the issue is by encouraging schoolchildren to understand science away from their textbooks. I was lucky – Mr Davies, my primary school teacher, was nothing short of legendary in the classroom. He loved doing the sort of exploding volcano experiments that left red stains on the ceilings, and got us jumping out of our seats from the start of the lesson.

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Photo Credit: Jonathan Birch/Statoil

It was these kinds of lessons that put me on the path to where I am today: presenting science live at events, on the TV, and on the radio. Doing what I do gives me the chance to convey to the next generation that science is not only important, but fun.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves – not all science is volcano-exploding-awe-inspiring amusement. Some elements of STEM subjects can be tremendously pure, complex and difficult to convey. But, even these subjects can be explained to children in interesting ways. I’m not expecting every lab technician in Britain to charge towards their nearest school test-tube in hand; but when scientists can explain things in a way that we can all relate to, it’s great to try and make the link.

One way, for example, of presenting science to young people is as an explainer of everything we see. Science can answer a simple question, like why on earth your voice sounds different on video, or a more exciting one, like exploring how fireworks explode. Beyond this, science is about answering the most complex questions young people will face, so let’s do everything we can to make it engaging.

Explaining real-world phenomena, big or small, in terms of science is what I love, and that’s why I am working with Statoil and the Science Museum on this year’s Young Imagineers competition. Steph McGovern, Jill Tully, Lopa Patel and I are inviting 7-14 year olds to design the future, under the title ‘what invention would you create to make tomorrow’s world a better place’. We’re looking for a huge mix: everything from teleporters to biscuit dunkers welcome! Entries can be submitted here.

The ten most creative entries will be shortlisted and the entrants will get a chance to develop their invention with a top developer. Then, they’ll be invited to showcase their entry to us with a live audience in an exclusive day of events at the Science Museum, on the 18th of November. The winner will get an even bigger prize – their invention will be created and displayed inside the Science Museum for everyone to see.

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The Rise Of Robots Won’t Mean The End Of Professions

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The Royal Society of Arts survey last week warned that increasing automation and artificial intelligence (AI) could see 4 million UK private sector jobs replaced within a generation. They are not the only ones to make pessimistic estimates on the ‘rise of the robots’.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, made global headlines at the start of December when he warned we’re “in the midst of a technological revolution that is once again changing the nature of work”. A Deloitte and University of Oxford study also warned that 95% of finance professionals were at risk of losing their jobs over the next 20 years.

Whilst some elements of manufacturing and services have faced continual disruption from technological advancement, the advent of AI and smart robotics threatens professional level jobs as never before. Yet driverless cars or Amazon’s experiments with drone deliveries may be just the beginning of what computing power might replace. Many technologists and policy-makers have dubbed this period ‘IR4’ or ‘Industry 4.0′ – the Fourth Industrial Revolution.’

When ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) conducted the global ‘Generation Next’ survey of 19,000 students and qualified accountants under the age of 36 – the generation most vulnerable to the impacts of innovation – 84% welcomed the advent of new technologies. This was not because today’s aspiring accountants underestimate the threat posed to their career paths: two thirds expected automation to replace a large number of entry-level jobs in the near future.

What those surveyed did recognise, however, was that the technology offered opportunities for new, more productive forms of work. Young professionals in shared services in particular see technology as an unprecedented opportunity to focus on much higher value-added activity (90% of respondents in the UK compared to 84% of respondents globally).

What they and other finance professionals are able to recognise (perhaps more acutely than others outside the profession) is that straightforward number-crunching has always played a low-level role in the professional accountant’s skill-set.

While automation of this basic data analysis is almost inevitable even at current levels of technology, there is no obvious reason to believe that the digital revolution will be able to substitute for the strategic vision and forward-thinking counsel that accountants can bring to a business.

Even as computers and the internet have transformed the workplace in recent decades, accountants have grown increasingly important to the effective running of organisations. One reason for this is that businesses are navigating a globalised landscape where technology can destroy traditional industries and build entirely new ones in the space of only a few years, just as digital photography disrupted the growth of famous brands like Kodak and Polaroid.

In this ever-changing world, businesses appreciate the value of highly skilled accountants capable of thinking ahead and providing insightful guidance on investment, innovation and strategy, enabling firms to grow, adapt and build resilience. This is why qualified professional accountants are highly sought after for CFO positions and increasingly taking the step up to CEO. And that in turn is why so many younger accountants look towards the new machine age with ambition and optimism.

Yet the growing role of ‘smart’ tech means that all of us will face ever greater challenges to stay smarter than the robots. As part of ACCA’s ongoing research into the future of the profession, we predict that developing digital skills will play an essential role in the future relevance of finance professionals: there is a lively discussion already underway about whether or not today’s accountants should be learning to code.

Crucially, and perhaps unsurprisingly, given that business is, after all, about people, is that the professional accountant of tomorrow will need to work just as hard at honing their interpersonal skills.

These range from the emotional intelligence to manage teams and communicate better with clients, through to developing the creativity and vision needed to exploit new commercial opportunities as they arise.

While we may muse on the day when robots become indistinguishable from humans, in reality robotics is a still some distance from being able to replicate processes which require complex and independent judgements. There is little purpose in competing with computers and AI when it comes to the speed of calculations or ability to process vast quantities of information.

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