Nicole Kobie

Nicole is a journalist and author who specialises in the future of technology and transport. Her first book is called Green Energy, and she's working on her second, a history of technology. At TechFinitive she frequently writes about innovation and how technology can foster better collaboration.

Joined: 3 Feb 2023
Articles: 133

n image to show the concept of botsitting - where humans have to fix the mistakes made by AI - woman sitting at desk angrily fixing code

Innovate

What is botsitting?

Workers delegate tasks to AI.... which is handy, as they need all that freed-up time to clean up the mess made by AI. Welcome to botsitting.

Governor Kathy Hochul signs an Executive Order to create the nation’s first moratorium on new hyper scale data centers

Hardware

Is it time to stop building data centres?

Are we building too many data centres, too quickly? New York thinks so – and it’s pausing new approvals for a year.

office worker eating an ice lolly whilst working at their desk in hot conditions

Collaborate

Heat waves are making work impossible, but what can you do about it?

Organisations are already using smart watches to monitor for heat stroke, but Nicole Kobie argues that it isn't enough to make working in heat waves viable

data centre heatwave shown by data centre in the middle of a city location and those surrounding it in beach gear, sweating, while those further away are wearing jumpers and overcoats

Innovate

Data centres are making heatwaves hotter

Are reports of data centres making heatwaves even warmer just a load of hot air? Our fan-cooled reporter investigates the latest reports

UN Secretary-General António Guterres talking at the London Climate Action Week (image: UN)

Innovate

UN calls on AI companies to stop hiding human costs of AI

The UN has called for AI data centres to come clean on energy and water use, claiming they already chew through more electricity than most countries.

remote work loneliness shown by woman sitting alone at desk with rain in the window

Innovate

Remote work is bad for us – but that’s because we’re doing it wrong

Research published in Science suggests that remote working leads to more time spent alone, and in turn that’s leading to mental health concerns

Innovate

Anthropic’s IPO is a milestone for AI

We delve into the questions raised by Anthropic's IPO: What is it trying to achieve when it already has so much money? And why now?

Innovate

Is Google ruining Search with AI?

Google has announced its biggest upgrade to Google Search since the 1990s, but is it really going to help? Nicole Kobie investigates

ai at work shown by robot hand lifting worker out of the office

Collaborate

Workers don’t like AI – maybe companies should listen

A reputable survey has shown the aching gap between what workers believe about AI and what their employees think - so who's right and what do workers actually want?

amazon busywork: light-hearted image of office to illustrate the idea of AI doing pointless work - include a leaderboard showing "Employees who most use AI" in the background

Data

Amazon employees automate busywork to pretend they’re using AI

Amazon employees claim that in-house AI systems are being used by their colleagues for no good reason - unless you count impressing their managers with their tokenmaxxing