Jade-Ruyu Yan

is everyone on glue

Excerpt from Bokkerink's press release: He "retired in December 2020 as Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG)" ... "He has also worked as a Senior Advisor to BCG and a strategic advisor to a small number of corporates."

Marcus Bokkerink confirmed as the preferred candidate for Chair of the Competition and Markets Authority The preferred candidate for Chair of the Competition and Markets Authority has been confirmed as Marcus Bokkerink.

Annnd if we're talking about precedent, in the press release for Gurr's predecessor Marcus Bokkerink, the government mentioned his big biz experience in great detail (two whole grafs, even):
www.gov.uk/government/n...

This appointment sends a Big Message to Big Tech. This quote from the piece I wrote about this says it all:
"Why would [a former Amazon executive] want to join the Competition and Markets Authority?” he asked. “He woke up…one morning and thought, ‘That’s the job for me?’ Why? Just keep asking why.”

Former Amazon boss named interim chair of CMA Doug Gurr will lead the CMA on its mission to support growth for the UK

To be fair, they did go all out a year ago and call him "former Amazon boss" in their press release announcing that he would be the watchdog's interim leader: www.gov.uk/government/n...
But the way they are trying to talk about his natural history museum job is so silly, no one cares (no offence...)

Doug Gurr confirmed as the new Chair of the CMA Doug Gurr is now the permanent chair of the CMA following an open competition for the role.

Also in the actual announcement, this short AF thing: www.gov.uk/government/n...

Also no mention

Doug Gurr selected as preferred candidate for Chair of CMA Doug Gurr has been announced as the preferred candidate to remain as chair of the Competition and Markets Authority.

The press release from the UK government announcing his selection and appointment calls him "a tech entrepreneur and senior business leader." No mention of Amazon? Also 'tech entrepreneur' I am laughing.
www.gov.uk/government/n...

This is from Gurr's LinkedIn. I find this weird. Unless there's some sort of privacy setting going on, it's crickets about his Amazon experience.

Given that he's a public figure and that experience poses a conflict of interest, the omission feels very loud.

Nothing to see here: Ex-Amazon exec to lead markets watchdog Experts described the decision to appoint Doug Gurr as the head of the CMA as “very positive” if you are Big Tech

A former Amazon boss will now lead the UK watchdog that investigates and penalises companies like Amazon, for the next five years. People are worried.

Read more about it here: www.opendemocracy.net/en/cma-chair...

My newest question: why are we avoiding mentioning the word Amazon?

Nothing to see here: Ex-Amazon UK boss to lead competition watchdog Experts described the decision to appoint Doug Gurr as the head of the CMA as “very positive” if you are Big Tech

Nothing to see here: Ex-Amazon UK boss to lead competition watchdog

The government keeps going on and onnnn about how the UK's economy is struggling because we don't have enough Big Tech investment. Enough alreadyyyy just admit that you like each other, don't be embarrassed. <3

So good of former Amazon exec. Doug Gurr to do charity for the Competitions&Markets Authority when he's got a full-time job at the Natural History Museum. Love to see giving like this.

If you have questions that you want answered about the UK's tech developments or something you think I should look into, please get in touch with me at jade-ruyu.yan(at)opendemocracy.net

This trip is the start of my reporting on tech developments for @opendemocracy.net What's been striking to me is how difficult it is to get the facts about developments that affect us all. It takes a lot of deep research and incessant follow ups with companies and government bodies.

Btw a data centre “doesn’t create any jobs” apart from a few engineering jobs and “transient jobs” during the construction phase, said Hone. I’ve noted this before but perhaps we should all start saying it ritualistically, like a prayer to ward off the incessant PR

Sometimes there are noise buffers, said Hone, but with this site the planes flying overhead are already noisy

Outside there's the cooling system, which looks like any other industrial thing you've ever seen. But importantly, it's loud, a lot of incessant loud buzzing. One immediate environmental factor with data centres is the noise, and this is where the noise comes from.

Inside a Google data center YouTube video by Google Workspace

We walked through a warehouse-type building (it was actually originally a warehouse), with rooms filled with “cabinets” that actually do just look like cabinets. No pictures allowed, sadly, but here's an earnest video from Google touring one of its data centres: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZmG...

This is a 20-megawatt data centre, which is sort of medium to big. The building is from the 2000s and gives vintage corporate. “If I’m going to turn around and turn this into an AI data centre, I’ve essentially got to at the very least empty half the building of customers,” said Hone.

Redcentric actually sold its entire data centre arm last year to Stellanor for £127 million. “The data centre market is getting more and more specialised,” said Hone. Redcentric has decided to focus on its managed services operations and its data centre business is expected to wrap up this March.

When I asked him what percent of their capacity was supporting AI workloads, he said he couldn’t know. “All I offer people is a secure environment for their cabinets. I don’t know what those customers do with those cabinets,” he said.

“Our job is to do three things only,” said Hone. “Provide power without any interruption, provide cooling, and security. That literally describes what a data centre does.”

There are all sorts of data centres with different capacities. Hone compared it to food: “You can go anywhere from a market stall to a hypermarket.” Redcentric doesn't "attract your Microsofts, Googles, Apples,” he said. It's a colocation provider, (like a landlord) renting out space to companies.

Today I waltzed around a data centre to see wtf it was all about. (I was kindly shown around a data centre owned by Redcentric by the director of facilities Paul Hone. Redcentric is a managed IT service provider that only operates in the UK.)

Meet our new tech reporting fellow: Jade-Ruyu Yan Investigative journalist Jade-Ruyu joins openDemocracy to follow the UK’s rapidly evolving tech and society beat

Exciting news for @opendemocracy.net www.opendemocracy.net/en/tech-repo...

I'm pretty proud of this poem I made out of the euphemisms that companies used to describe the ICE occupation in corporate communications. Also read the whole story: racketmn.com/corporate-co...

Building Community-First AI Infrastructure Microsoft is launching a new initiative to build what we call Community-First AI Infrastructure—a commitment to do this work differently than some others and to do it responsibly.

Not to be unhelpful but @microsoft.com if you're only starting to be community-first now, are your previous developments community-second, community-third, community-nth? Sad face.

blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issue...

I contributed investigative research and fact-checking. All opinions, analysis, and conclusions expressed in the piece are those of the organisation.

The VC firm's investments include gambling platforms targeting vulnerable users, bot farms tricking people into thinking AI-generated ads are posted by real people, fintech companies implicated in fraud and illegality, AI companion apps linked to suicide, and other controversial ventures.

Andreessen Horowitz is shaping AI policy — while investing in a bleak vision of the future - Model Republic The firm’s investment portfolio is full of companies that have exploited legal loopholes, created disturbing products, and broken the law.

I'm a fan of a dossier, particularly about AI developments & a company's actions over decades, both which can be such an information overload.

From The Midas Project, a look into VC firm's a16z's "notorious" investments & efforts to shape AI policy: www.modelrepublic.org/articles/a16...