Isobel Asher Hamilton

isobel@thedailyupside.com

Isobel Asher Hamilton (she/her) is a senior reporter at The Daily Upside. Previously she worked at Business Insider and Mashable. She specializes in covering Big Tech, social media, and AI. Isobel is based in London.

Energy

Big Banks Promise to Back Nuclear Energy

Photo by Wim van’t Einde via Unsplash

A group of 14 large banks and other financial institutions announced that they’re going to up their support for the nuclear power industry.

1 min read
Social Media

LinkedIn Deepens Its Facebookification with AI Data Scraping

Photo by Souvik Banerjee via Unsplash

Reports have surfaced that LinkedIn is quietly opting its users in to data scraping so it can train its large language models.

2 min read
Artificial Intelligence

Can Voice Assistants Make a Comeback in the Age of AI?

Photo illustration by Connor Lin / The Daily Upside, Photo by Garry Killian via Freepik

Once upon a time, the biggest prestige battle in Silicon Valley was who had the best voice assistant. Then came ChatGPT.

4 min read
Artificial Intelligence

AI Could Make People ‘Uninsurable,’ Financial Regulator Warns

Photo by Vlad Deep via Unsplash

The insurance industry needs to be careful when using AI, or else AI black boxes could render consumers uninsurable without any explanation.

1 min read
Healthcare

Making Weight-Loss Drugs Takes a Whole Lot of Muscle

Photo by Chemist4U via CC BY-SA 2.0

In the obesity drug industry, two players have really been throwing their weight around. There isn’t a third in sight.

1 min read
Consumer

Shein’s London IPO Overshadowed by Transatlantic Geopolitics

Photo by DMCGN via CC BY 4.0

A Labour Party official said he’d like to see legislation that heavily impacts imports of Chinese textiles — a potential problem for Shein.

1 min read
Big Tech

Starlink’s Transport Ambitions Notch a Big, United-Shaped Win

Photo by Anthony Quintano via CC BY 2.0

United Airlines announced that it’s struck a deal with SpaceX’s satellite internet service, Starlink, to beam Wi-Fi into its planes.

1 min read
Consumer

McDonald’s Lengthens the Meal Deal Wars

Photo by Ready Made via Pexels

McDonald’s announced that its $5 summer meal deal, which was only supposed to last through June, will now be extended into December.

1 min read
Consumer

Gym Group Finally Profitable Again Post-COVID

Photo by wombatzaa via iStock

The Gym Group announced on Wednesday that in the first six months of this year it swung back to a profit for the first time since 2019.

1 min read
Big Tech

EU Fines Finally Catch Up to Big Tech

Photo by Georges Boulougouris via CC BY 4.0

Apple lost a court case over a €13 billion EU tax bill, and on the same day Google lost an appeal against a €2.4 billion antitrust fine.

1 min read
Media & Entertainment

Ubisoft Shares Take a Hit Over Investor Unease

Photo by Thibaut Broggi via CC BY 2.0

Shares in major video game publisher Ubisoft took an over 7% hit on Monday after a minor investor’s letter.

1 min read
Politics

The Ever-Trickier Geopolitics of Being Elon Musk

Photo by Ministry of Communications of Brazil via CC BY 2.0

Elon Musk’s fight with Brazil has highlighted how his interlocking array of companies can put him in a difficult geopolitical spot.

2 min read
Media & Entertainment

UK Antitrust Watchdog Launches Probe into Ticketmaster

Photo by Drew de F Fawkes via CC BY 2.0

Some fans found that while they were waiting to buy Oasis tickets, the prices had quietly crept up from £135 ($177) to £350 ($460).

1 min read
Energy

US Dithering on Hydrogen Gives Foreign Investment a Way In

Photo by Etienne Girardet via Unsplash

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) signed a deal with Exxon to buy a 35% share of a new hydrogen plant just outside Houston, Texas.

1 min read
Artificial Intelligence

Canva Shows AI Doesn’t Come Cheap

Photo by Jonathan Borba via Pexels

Canva users found that their subscriptions were going up as much as 300%. Subscriptions are going up from $120 a year to $500.

1 min read
Finance

Warfare is ESG Now

Image Credit: iStock, A.Greeg

Defense stocks are taking up a growing slice of the ESG (environmental, social, governance) pie. Reports attribute that to the war in Ukraine.

1 min read
Autos

Uber Spreads Its Self-Driving Bets

Photo by Ilya Plekhanov via CC BY-SA 4.0

Uber announced it’s investing in Wayve, a UK-based startup that’s building self-driving software for cars.

1 min read
Autos

China EVs Stay Strong Despite Domestic, International Headwinds

Photo by EEYAUT Waihung via CC BY-SA 4.0

A couple of China-based EV giants had good news to share in spite of a weakened consumer at home and fresh tariffs from the EU and Canada.

2 min read
Big Tech

Google’s AI Energy Thirst Runs into a Problem in Ireland

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski via Unsplash

Google’s hopes for a new data center just outside Dublin were dashed this week when South Dublin County Council refused planning permission.

2 min read
Big Tech

A Small Union Win Casts a Big Shadow Over Amazon

Photo by Todd Van Hoosear via CC BY-SA 2.0

Prosecutors for the NLRB concluded that a group of 84 unionized Amazon drivers in Palmdale, California are employed by Amazon.

2 min read

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