Apollo Hospitals has announced a partnership with Google Cloud to put healthcare in the hands of every Indian with Apollo’s digital platform, Apollo 24|7. Access to healthcare in India is challenging. According to a report by McKinsey & Company, 60% of hospitals, 75% of pharmacies, and 80% of doctors are in urban areas. This leaves the rural areas underserved. So, this technology presents an opportunity to improve access to healthcare for Indians countrywide.Apollo 24|7: More detailsBuilt entirely on Google Cloud, Apollo 24|7 aims to deliver various healthcare experiences to people in India with telemedicine services, online doctor consultations, home delivery of medication, and improved clinician decision-making. Key pillars of this partnership include:The development of an AI-powered clinical decision support system: Apollo 24|7 teams worked with Google Cloud to build a Clinical Intelligence Engine (CIE) using Google Cloud’s Vertex AI and generative AI (gen AI) models. This enables doctors to identify the next best action for patients during consultations. The CIE service leverages data from Apollo Hospitals and large language models (LLMs) from Google Cloud to create a proprietary solution in which all patient data is kept securely within the hospitals’ systems.The AskApollo patient-facing service: The platform also powers AskApollo, which helps patients with care navigation services. This first-of-its-kind service is built on top of Apollo’s CIE, which was developed using millions of real-world clinical data points gathered over 40 years of clinical excellence, and analysed using Google Cloud’s advanced AI and machine learning technologies. Apollo Hospitals is also exploring the use of Med-PaLM 2, an LLM developed by Google that is trained in medical knowledge and can answer medical questions and generate clinical text summaries. Providing a highly scalable, modernised cloud platform for Apollo 24|7: Apollo 24|7 is India’s largest and fastest-growing health platform. In collaboration with Google Cloud partner, Searce, the Apollo 24|7 engineering teams deployed 78 microservices and 40+ databases on Google Cloud with zero downtime. The Apollo 24|7 data lake is also built on Google BigQuery, which brings together siloed data onto a single platform to help drive better decision-making and clinical outcomes.Delivering authentic healthcare information on Search: Google has long worked with Apollo Hospitals to source authoritative and helpful health information for features on Google Search. Google’s deep AI capabilities combined with Apollo Hospital‘s 40 years of experience in healthcare have the potential to make diagnosis more accessible, accurate and affordable. Both organisations are collaborating to find new ways to bring the best health information to people in the future.Google’s AI appraochGoogle Cloud’s approach to data governance and privacy policies ensures customers retain control over their data. In healthcare settings, access and use of patient data are protected through the implementation of Google Cloud’s reliable infrastructure and secure data storage, along with each customer’s security, privacy controls, and processes. Google’s approach to generative AI also means customers have access to monitor and review model outputs and leverage safety guardrails and model documentation to enable responsible use in a customer’s use case and context.

Razorpay has launched the “UPI Autopay on QR’ in collaboration with NPCI at the Global Fintech Fest 2023. This solution aims to streamline and simplify the challenges associated with maintaining and expanding subscription-based businesses. UPI Autopay has emerged to become a popular way to make recurring payments. RBI’s Bulletin has also highlighted a 143% year-on-year growth in successful transactions under the UPIAutopay feature has been prevalent across various realms of businesses.From OTT platforms to investments and insurance, UPI Autopay is on its way to becoming the second nature of accepting and making recurring payments in India.Razorpay UPI Autopay on QR: How will it workRazorpay UPI Autopay on QR will help subscription-based businesses by harnessing the widespread use of QR codes for driving rapid adoption and quick acceptance. This will help the business to get more growth opportunities.Currently, customers are required to download the merchant app or log in to a website before they can subscribe to specific offerings. For example, if someone wants to subscribe to a particular OTT platform, they have to navigate through the entire process of visiting the platform’s website or landing page, logging in with their credentials, and then making a payment after selecting their preferred payment service provider app. The lack of innovation in subscription payment methods, such as the ability to use a single QR code for multiple users to enrol in the subscription has only made things worse. With ‘Razorpay UPI Autopay on QR’, businesses will now be able to broaden their reach, enhance visibility across markets, and ultimately accelerate their growth. After creating a QR for their subscription offerings, businesses will be able to use those in their marketing efforts across online advertisements, newspapers, billboards, websites, TV, product packaging, delivery bags, etc. This will enable them to drive better growth and sustain their footing in the market. Razorpay UPI Autopay on QR: What it means for usersRazorpay UPI Autopay on QR will transform customer onboarding into a swift 2-step process. This will involve ‘scanning and paying’ in just 30 seconds. This approach will replace the previous 6-step journey and will eliminate the need for downloading an app or signing up on the website. This new method will also allow multiple customers to conveniently scan through a single QR code.

In a first, the European Commission has designated six technology giants – Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft – as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The commission has, in total, designated 22 core platform services provided by these gatekeepers.The DMA is aimed at making the European Union region’s markets in the digital sector fairer and more contestable. These six gatekeepers will now have six months to ensure compliance with the DMA obligations for each of their designated core platform services.What services are covered under gatekeeper designation?Alphabet: Google Maps, Google Play, Google Shopping, Google Ads, Android, Chrome, YouTube, Google SearchAmazon: Amazon Marketplace, Amazon AdsApple: App Store, Safari, iOSByteDance: TikTokMeta: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Meta ads, Meta MarketplaceMicrosoft: LinkedIn, Windows PC OSProbe into Microsoft, Apple submissionsThe Commission also said that it has opened four market investigations to further assess Microsoft’s and Apple’s submissions. The companies argued that some of their core platform services do not qualify as gateways. They are: Microsoft: Bing, Edge and Microsoft AdvertisingApple: iMessageHowever, it is to be noted that these services meet the gatekeeper designation thresholds. According to the rules, any service offered by the company that meets two criteria are gatekeeper designated. These are: They have a market value of at least EUR 75 billion (approximately $82 billion), and Either own a social platform or app that is used by at least 45 million people every month or have at least 10,000 active business users. “Under the DMA, these investigations aim to ascertain whether a sufficiently substantiated rebuttal presented by the companies, demonstrates that services in question should not be designated. The investigation should be completed within a maximum of 5 months,” the commission said.The Commission has also opened a market investigation to further assess whether Apple’s iPadOS should be designated as gatekeeper, despite not meeting the thresholds.Some respite for Google, Microsoft, SamsungThe Commission has also said that it will not designate Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung Internet Browser as core platform services despite noting that these services meet the thresholds under the DMA to qualify as a gatekeeper. This is because Alphabet, Microsoft and Samsung have “provided sufficiently justified arguments showing that these services do not qualify as gateways for the respective core platform services.” Next steps for designated gatekeepersGatekeepers now have six months to comply with the full list of do’s and don’ts under the DMA.“However, some of the obligations will start applying as of designation, for example, the obligation to inform the Commission of any intended concentration,” it said. In case a gatekeeper does not comply with the obligations, the Commission can impose fines up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide turnover, which can go up to 20% in case of repeated infringement.

The subject of implementing pop-up messages on the website is debatable among marketers. The statistics from HubSpot show that 64% of customers find pop-up notifications annoying and intrusive. However, global brands such as Lego, Airbnb, Adidas, Ikea and others still use pop up message(s). So what is the secret of these page elements appearing while users browse the site? Their success depends on many factors. In this article, we will look at the tactics that can help craft user-oriented pop-ups to increase conversion and user engagement. What Are Pop-Ups? As the name implies, a pop-up is a website element that appears with a certain message. The functionality of such notifications lies in the fact that they can serve many purposes. Marketers use them to announce an offer, gather feedback, invite people to subscribe to newsletters or display any other kind of information. If not created properly, users might be annoyed by pop-up messages due to the following: They appear very often. When visitors just landed on the website and didn’t figure out what it is, and you over-burden them with new information, it will not play in your favor. The same applies when you implement pop-up elements very often. Prevent viewing the main content. The pop-up element is not created correctly if it covers the whole page and nothing can be seen through it. Cannot be closed. If the message is difficult to close, it will cause a lot of user dissatisfaction. They can even close the page without waiting until the closing button works. What Are the Best Tactics to Create a Powerful Pop-Up? This small message may seem very easy to craft. However, its creation requires thorough analysis of many aspects. Here are some rules that will help you create effective and not intrusive pop-ups. Define the Pop-Up Goal In this message every little detail matters. Think about what you would like to achieve with a pop-up notification. It should be a concise message that will not take more than several seconds to comprehend. Include interactive widgets in your message such as buttons, timers, progress bars, forms or any others that require a user’s action. Create Personalized Content The best way to catch a visitors’ attention is to tailor the pop-up message to their needs and interests. Depending on an individual, a notification should show the relevant information or even not show up at all. For example, based on what a user was searching for, you can offer a blog post to learn more about that. Or show what products they were viewing. Offer alternative options if these products are not currently available. For that matter, you can set rules, and the message will show up when the products are out of stock or a visitor has finished scrolling the page. For example, if you want to run a pop-up that encourages customers to subscribe to newsletters, it should be displayed for those not subscribed yet. Show It at an Appropriate Time and in Moderation No matter how exclusive your offer is, if it is shown from the first seconds visitors enter the website, it won’t have any value. Customers don’t know your brand yet; they are just exploring your website and won’t know how to apply what you offer. By analyzing a user journey, you can see when it is the most appropriate time to catch the visitors’ attention. Another rule for an effective pop-up message is to show it in moderation. These notifications really work, and they can bring positive results, but if shown on every corner and every five seconds, viewers will simply leave your platform. If a user dismissed the message for the first time, don’t show it again. Create Different Formats The success of any pop-up message also depends on its format. There are different formats for desktops and mobile devices. Thus, you have to build different pop-ups for different platforms. The size of the message also matters. It is ineffective if notifications cover the whole screen and a user can see nothing but the offer you promote. Don’t use overlays if you choose to display it at the center of the screen. What Pop-Ups Do Users Like? Customers love pop-ups if they provide value for them. Use these ideas to satisfy your clients: Offer discounts. Most visitors come to your website just to look at it. Not everyone is eager to buy from you from the very start. However, you can increase their desire to shop by offering an appealing discount. A great example of an offer is a spin-to-win pop-up message. The idea that you can get something for free or with a discount is more than attractive. Provide social proof. User reviews are what customers are looking for when considering a purchase. They want to see that the product is of high quality and that people who bought it are satisfied. So, provide this social proof in your pop-up message. Use written user reviews or videos to show what your clients think about your brand. Personalized recommendations. A few customers come to the website with a clear vision of what they want. But you can create personalized pop-up messages about what they would like based on their web search history. Limited time offers. Who wouldn’t like to buy a product at 50% off? And if such an offer is limited in time, it looks even more appealing. The timeframe influences the process of decision making and most customers will consider the offer now. Conclusion Pop-up messages might be annoying, but they might be engaging if designed correctly. The best tactics to follow are to set a clear goal for the pop-up, make it user-centric, show it at an appropriate time, and display it in the right format. The idea of a good pop-up message lies in the value it provides for a customer. Thus, think of a user first and then create a pop-up.

The cryptocurrency landscape has been a subject of intense debate and skepticism. However, the increasing involvement of institutional investors paints a different picture. Let’s explore this further. The Rise of Institutional Interest Over the past few years, the attention and excitement around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have grown exponentially. This has led to many questions, especially from institutional investors. Are hedge funds and other large investors genuinely buying significant amounts of cryptocurrencies? What purpose does it serve in their portfolio? In September 2021, the answers became clear. Data confirmed that Bitcoin has been increasing in institutional investment portfolios since early 2020. Philip Gradwell, Chief Economist at Chainalysis, noted that starting in mid-March 2020, there was a significant increase in Bitcoin being held by large investors. These investors were buying at least 1000 bitcoins each, suggesting an investment of more than $30 million at a time, indicating that hedge funds and other entities with deep pockets were involved. This shift in investment patterns indicates a growing trust in the potential of cryptocurrencies. The Shift in Perception In its early years, Bitcoin was often dismissed by institutions as a flashy, worthless digital asset favored by criminals. However, the sentiment has shifted dramatically. Bitcoin, which once seemed to be on an ideological collision course with institutions, now bears the hallmark of institutional acceptance. This change in perspective has been driven by Bitcoin’s outstanding performance relative to other asset classes. Today, family offices, hedge funds, and traditional money managers view cryptocurrency products and services differently. A staggering $17 billion worth of institutional capital has poured into the crypto space in just one year. This shift is not just about numbers but a fundamental change in how institutional investors perceive the value and potential of cryptocurrencies. The Role of Major Players When giants like BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $9.5 trillion assets under management, add crypto to their balance sheets, it sends a powerful message. BlackRock is among the 16 mutual fund managers, including Morgan Stanley Investment Management, that have gained exposure to the crypto market. This involvement by major financial institutions signifies a broader acceptance and validation of the crypto market. Furthermore, endorsements by influential figures like Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, as well as financial experts like Paul Tudor Jones and Ray Dalio, have bolstered confidence in the crypto space. The Reality of Scams Like any other sector, the crypto world is not immune to scams. However, labeling the entire crypto market as a scam due to the actions of a few malicious players is an oversimplification. The increasing involvement of institutional investors, the growing adoption rate, and the technological advancements in the crypto space all point towards a legitimate and promising future. It’s crucial to differentiate between individual fraudulent activities and the broader, genuine potential of the crypto market. The Current State of Institutional Crypto Investing The cryptocurrency landscape has evolved significantly, and institutional investors have played a pivotal role in this transformation. Here’s a snapshot of the current state: 1. BlackRock’s Foray One of the most significant developments in the crypto space was BlackRock’s move to file for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) through the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This move by the world’s largest asset manager sparked a new wave of optimism around the crypto market. Following BlackRock’s lead, other major firms such as ARK Investment, Valkyrie, and Fidelity also filed their applications for a Bitcoin ETF. 2. Significance of Institutional Interest Ed Moya, a senior market analyst at OANDA, emphasized the importance of BlackRock’s interest in the crypto space. He highlighted that this move marked a turning point in dispelling the notion of cryptocurrencies as a fleeting trend. The interest from such a significant player signaled to many that crypto is here to stay. 3. Global Crypto Adoption While crypto adoption is progressing slowly, there’s a steady global interest. The regulatory environments in regions like the U.S. and Europe are still taking shape, which might be influencing the pace of adoption. However, blockchain projects are progressing, indicating a committed interest in the space. 4. Bitcoin ETFs and Mainstream Acceptance The momentum of Bitcoin ETFs has had a ripple effect on the broader crypto market. While Bitcoin ETFs haven’t ignited widespread interest, they have influenced the perception of cryptocurrencies. A spot Bitcoin ETF is seen as critical for further mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies. 5. Future Outlook The long-term outlook for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be influenced by several factors, including the development of central bank digital currencies, the adoption of smart contracts, and sustained public interest. If Wall Street remains committed to the crypto space and more investors allocate a portion of their portfolios to crypto, Bitcoin’s potential for significant rallies increases. Conclusion The involvement of institutional investors in the crypto market is a testament to its legitimacy and potential. While scams exist in every sector, it’s essential to differentiate between individual fraudulent activities and the broader, genuine potential of the crypto market. As the crypto landscape continues to evolve, it’s clear that its potential is being recognized and harnessed by some of the world’s most influential financial institutions.

In a quaint Regency-era office overlooking London’s Russell Square, I cofounded a company called DeepMind with two friends, Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg, in the summer of 2010. Our goal, one that still feels as ambitious and crazy and hopeful as it did back then, was to replicate the very thing that makes us unique as a species: our intelligence. To achieve this, we would need to create a system that could imitate and then eventually outperform all human cognitive abilities, from vision and speech to planning and imagination, and ultimately empathy and creativity. Since such a system would benefit from the massively parallel processing of supercomputers and the explosion of vast new sources of data from across the open web, we knew that even modest progress toward this goal would have profound societal implications. It certainly felt pretty far-out at the time. But AI has been climbing the ladder of cognitive abilities for decades, and it now looks set to reach human-level performance across a very wide range of tasks within the next three years. That is a big claim, but if I’m even close to right, the implications are truly profound. Further progress in one area accelerates the others in a chaotic and cross-catalyzing process beyond anyone’s direct control. It was clear that if we or others were successful in replicating human intelligence, this wasn’t just profitable business as usual but a seismic shift for humanity, inaugurating an era when unprecedented opportunities would be matched by unprecedented risks. Now, alongside a host of technologies including synthetic biology, robotics, and quantum computing, a wave of fast-developing and extremely capable AI is starting to break. What had, when we founded DeepMind, felt quixotic has become not just plausible but seemingly inevitable. As a builder of these technologies, I believe they can deliver an extraordinary amount of good. But without what I call containment, every other aspect of a technology, every discussion of its ethical shortcomings, or the benefits it could bring, is inconsequential. I see containment as an interlocking set of technical, social, and legal mechanisms constraining and controlling technology, working at every possible level: a means, in theory, of evading the dilemma of how we can keep control of the most powerful technologies in history. We urgently need watertight answers for how the coming wave can be controlled and contained, how the safeguards and affordances of the democratic nation-state, critical to managing these technologies and yet threatened by them, can be maintained. Right now no one has such a plan. This indicates a future that none of us want, but it’s one I fear is increasingly likely. Facing immense ingrained incentives driving technology forward, containment is not, on the face of it, possible. And yet for all our sakes, containment must be possible. It would seem that the key to containment is deft regulation on national and supranational levels, balancing the need to make progress alongside sensible safety constraints, spanning everything from tech giants and militaries to small university research groups and startups, tied up in a comprehensive, enforceable framework. We’ve done it before, so the argument goes; look at cars, planes, and medicines. Isn’t this how we manage and contain the coming wave? If only it were that simple. Regulation is essential. But regulation alone is not enough. Governments should, on the face of it, be better primed for managing novel risks and technologies than ever before. National budgets for such things are generally at record levels. Truth is, though, novel threats are just exceptionally difficult for any government to navigate. That’s not a flaw with the idea of government; it’s an assessment of the scale of the challenge before us. Governments fight the last war, the last pandemic, regulate the last wave. Regulators regulate for things they can anticipate.

Reliance Retail said it has signed a joint venture agreement with Ed-a-Mamma to acquire a 51% stake in the brand The Reliance Group company said it would closely collaborate with founder Alia Bhatt and leverage the management strength of its subsidiary Reliance Brands for growth of Ed-a-Mamma Founded in 2020, Ed-a-Mamma manufactures and sells kids wear and maternity wear products Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) on Wednesday said it is acquiring a majority stake in Alia Bhatt’s children’s wear brand Ed-a-Mamma. In a statement, RRVL said it has signed a joint venture agreement with Ed-a-Mamma to acquire a 51% stake. RRVL said it aims to closely collaborate with Bhatt and leverage the management strength of its subsidiary Reliance Brands to spearhead the business. Founded in 2020, Ed-a-Mamma manufactures and sells kids wear and maternity wear products. The startup operates in an omnichannel model, selling across ecommerce platforms and offline retail chains including Lifestyle and Shoppers’ Stop. “With sustainability as its core proposition the brand has garnered acclaim for its meticulous attention to detail, using ethically sourced materials and eco-conscious production processes. This aligns seamlessly with Reliance Brands’ vision of fostering a more responsible future for the fashion industry,” said Isha Ambani, director of Reliance Retail Ventures Limited. (This is a developing story)

Tencent has announced that it will launch an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot on its home turf this week. With the launch, the company will be among other big tech companies in China, including Baidu and SenseTime Group. These companies released their AI chatbots last week.The company has released a post that shows a demo conversation a user has with the AI chatbot. The chatbot is able to write promotional materials. The development comes after China started to approve AI chatbots for public release last month.According to a report by news agency Reuters, Tencent has been developing its own AI model named “Hunyuan” for months. Last month, the company said it was expanding the test of the model internally.In a report in February, the publication claimed that Tencent formed a team to develop a ChatGPT-like chatbot named “HunyuanAide”.Over 70 LLMs in ChinaRecently, Baidu CEO Robin Li said that various companies have released more than 70 large language models (LLMs) with over 1 billion parameters in China. Baidu also has its own AI chatbot called Ernie. Li said the latest version of Baidu’s AI chatbot, Ernie 3.5, has a processing speed twice that of the previous version and it offers 50% improved efficiency. He also noted that the company will launch a new version in the near future.Other companies that have launched AI chatbots include TikTok owner ByteDance as well as AI start-ups, Baichuan Intelligent Technology, Zhipu AI and MiniMax. Unlike other countries, China is making it mandatory for companies to submit security assessments and receive clearance before releasing AI products to the masses. The government accelerated efforts to support companies developing AI as the technology to compete with the US.

It’s easy to trick the large language models powering chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. In one experiment in February, security researchers forced Microsoft’s Bing chatbot to behave like a scammer. Hidden instructions on a web page the researchers created told the chatbot to ask the person using it to hand over their bank account details. This kind of attack, where concealed information can make the AI system behave in unintended ways, is just the beginning. Hundreds of examples of “indirect prompt injection” attacks have been created since then. This type of attack is now considered one of the most concerning ways that language models could be abused by hackers. As generative AI systems are put to work by big corporations and smaller startups, the cybersecurity industry is scrambling to raise awareness of the potential dangers. In doing so, they hope to keep data—both personal and corporate—safe from attack. Right now there isn’t one magic fix, but common security practices can reduce the risks. “Indirect prompt injection is definitely a concern for us,” says Vijay Bolina, the chief information security officer at Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence unit, who says Google has multiple projects ongoing to understand how AI can be attacked. In the past, Bolina says, prompt injection was considered “problematic,” but things have accelerated since people started connecting large language models (LLMs) to the internet and plug-ins, which can add new data to the systems. As more companies use LLMs, potentially feeding them more personal and corporate data, things are going to get messy. “We definitely think this is a risk, and it actually limits the potential uses of LLMs for us as an industry,” Bolina says. Prompt injection attacks fall into two categories—direct and indirect. And it’s the latter that’s causing most concern amongst security experts. When using a LLM, people ask questions or provide instructions in prompts that the system then answers. Direct prompt injections happen when someone tries to make the LLM answer in an unintended way—getting it to spout hate speech or harmful answers, for instance. Indirect prompt injections, the really concerning ones, take things up a notch. Instead of the user entering a malicious prompt, the instruction comes from a third party. A website the LLM can read, or a PDF that’s being analyzed, could, for example, contain hidden instructions for the AI system to follow. “The fundamental risk underlying all of these, for both direct and indirect prompt instructions, is that whoever provides input to the LLM has a high degree of influence over the output,” says Rich Harang, a principal security architect focusing on AI systems at Nvidia, the world’s largest maker of AI chips. Put simply: If someone can put data into the LLM, then they can potentially manipulate what it spits back out. Security researchers have demonstrated how indirect prompt injections could be used to steal data, manipulate someone’s résumé, and run code remotely on a machine. One group of security researchers ranks prompt injections as the top vulnerability for those deploying and managing LLMs. And the National Cybersecurity Center, a branch of GCHQ, the UK’s intelligence agency, has even called attention to the risk of prompt injection attacks, saying there have been hundreds of examples so far. “Whilst research is ongoing into prompt injection, it may simply be an inherent issue with LLM technology,” the branch of GCHQ warned in a blog post. “There are some strategies that can make prompt injection more difficult, but as yet there are no surefire mitigations.”

United Airlines had to halt all of its flights across the US due to a computer malfunction, as reported by ABC News. The airline requested the Federal Aviation Administration to pause all departures nationwide. However, just an hour later, United resumed its operations and lifted the ground stop.On Tuesday, United had to cancel seven flights and delayed 364 others, which accounted for 13 per cent of its scheduled operations. Flights already in the air were not affected.“We are experiencing a systemwide technology issue and are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights that are already airborne are continuing to their destination as planned. We will share more information as it becomes available” the airlines said in a post on social media platform X. “Thank you for your patience as we work on a resolution to get you on your way as soon as possible.”“United asked the FAA to pause the airline’s departures nationwide. For more information, contact United regarding its request and monitor http://fly.faa.gov for updates,” wrote the Federal Aviation Administration on its official social media handle. “We have identified a fix for the technology issue and flights have resumed. We are working with impacted customers to help them reach their destinations as soon as possible,” replied the airline to its earlier post.United told Engadget that a software update resulted in a widespread slowdown in its technology systems. The airlines stated that they are looking into the cause of the issue, but clarified it is not a cybersecurity concern.On September 28 the United Kingdom’s air traffic control system experienced technical problems that resulted in the cancellation of more than 500 flights in and out of British airports. Britain’s National Air Traffic Service (NATS) stated that the issue caused restrictions to the flow of aircraft in and out of the UK on one of the busiest holidays of the year for travel. Travellers experienced widespread flight delays into London from popular vacation destinations. Later in the day, NATS announced that the technical issue had been identified and resolved, and they were working closely with airlines and airports to manage the affected flights as efficiently as possible. According to BBC News, over 230 flights departing the UK and at least 271 flights scheduled to arrive in the UK were cancelled.