Ex-Uber drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam. IWGB

Ex-Uber drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam took Uber to court last October over their employment status and won. They argued that they should be given basic worker rights such as holiday pay and national minimum wage. Uber appealed the decision at an employment tribunal in London in September but company has failed to overturn the court ruling.

Uber has failed to overturn an employment court ruling that said it must treat its drivers as workers as opposed to self-employed contractors.

The legal case against Uber was brought about last October by ex-Uber drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam. They claimed Uber was acting illegally by not giving drivers basic worker rights (such as holiday pay and the minimum wage) and won.

Uber appealed the decision at a two-day employment tribunal in September, saying that Uber acted just like traditional minicab firms. The company has always maintained that drivers who use its platform are independent contractors. It frames itself as a technology platform, connecting riders and drivers and taking a fee in the process.

Judge Jennifer Eady QC announced her verdict at an employment tribunal court in London on Thursday. 

Nigel Mackay, employment solicitor at law firm Leigh Day, which is representing the drivers, said: "We are very pleased that the EAT has rejected Uber's appeal.

"We have always believed that the Employment Tribunal’s decision from last October was entirely correct in saying that our GMB member clients were entitled to workers’ right such as the minimum wage and holiday pay.

"We now hope that Uber will accept this decision, rather than seeking pursuing appeals, so that we can swiftly return to the Employment Tribunal on behalf of our GMB member clients, for the Tribunal to decide the compensation that they are entitled to."

This story is developing...

It's a major decision that could cost Uber millions of pounds and make the San Francisco-headquartered company think twice about its UK business operations. The ruling could also have ramifications for other companies operating in the UK's so-called gig economy, such as Deliveroo.

Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Paul Jennings, partner at Bates Wells Braithwaite, which is representing the drivers, told Business Insider that the ruling could prove to be very expensive for Uber if drivers seek to claim back pay that they may have missed out on. " It's going to cost them," he said.

Jennings added: "They've achieved market dominance at the expense of drivers. If they want to continue here they just have to accept these are the basic standards."

But Uber drivers shouldn't get too excited about the prospect of receiving standard worker benefits just yet. It's likely that Uber will appeal the decision, meaning that the case could end up being dragged through the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Jenning said its conceivable that some Uber drivers could end up being workers and some could end up being self-employed.

"The whole thing is complicated with drivers using a multitude of apps," he said. "I think then the driver potentially moves into a self-employed space where they're marketing their services to the world through a range of portals."

There are over a million people working in the gig economy in the UK, according to recent government estimates.

Some of Uber's drivers, such as parents and part time workers, enjoy the freedom and flexibility that they get by being classed as "self-employed". But many others depend on the app to make a living.

Uber did not immediately respond to Business Insider UK's request for comment.

Original author: Sam Shead

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

In the first quarter it was available, the iPhone 8 sold significantly less devices than its predecessor the iPhone 7 did when it launched. In Q3 2017, the iPhone 7 was still the most popular smartphone in the world, Canalys estimates.

We've got one of our first indications of iPhone 8 sales — and they're not spectacular.

The new Apple smartphone has failed to beat the launch its predecessor, the iPhone 7, in its opening quarter, according to a new report from research firm Canalys.

Apple shipped 11.8 million iPhone 8 and 8 Plus's in Q3 of 2017, Canalys estimates — versus 14 million iPhone 7's back in Q3 2016.

But there's one big qualifier in all of this: The iPhone X. This year, for the first time, Apple has also brought out an ultra-high-end third handset, which only went on sale in November, in the fourth quarter of the year.

This will inevitably prompt a proportion of would-be iPhone buyers to hold off from picking up an 8, instead waiting for the X. It causes a shot term dip in Apple's sales figures — though the company will be calculating that sales of the new device will more than make up for it in the long run.

The iPhone X. Hollis Johnson

But it also places additional pressure on the iPhone X to perform well — and highlights why the current delays of the device must be so frustrating for Apple. It sold out within minutes of becoming available to pre-order in late October, with some customers waiting weeks for their handset to arrive.

Overall, in the Q3 period (July, August, and September), Canalys estimates that Apple sold 46.7 million smartphones — with the iPhone 7 being the most popular device.

It was the world's most popular phone for the quarter, with Apple shipping 13 million handsets. In second place was Apple's iPhone 6s (7.9 million), followed by the Samsung Galaxy J2 Prime (7.8 million), the Oppo A57 (7.8 million), and the Oppo R11 (7.2 million).

"Shipments of older devices, such as the iPhone 6s and SE, saw an uptick in Q3," Canalys analyst Ben Stanton said in a statement. "The iPhone 7 also shipped strongly after its price cut in September. Apple grew in Q3, but it was these older, cheaper models that propped up total iPhone shipments. Apple is clearly making a portfolio play here. With the launch of the iPhone X, it now has five tiers of iPhone and delivers iOS at more price bands than ever before. This is a new strategy for Apple. It is aggressively defending its market share, but it will not compromise its rigid margin structure to do so."

Original author: Rob Price

A Google X executive refused to comment when asked about his organisation's relationship with London artificial intelligence lab DeepMind, which is also owned by Google.

Based out of Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, Google X is Google's moonshot factory. It's working on revolutionary new technologies and ideas such as hot air balloons that beam down internet to rural communities and self-driving cars.

Meanwhile, DeepMind is an AI company in London that Google acquired in 2014 for a reported £400 million. The firm is building machines that can learn for themselves and is regarded as one of the world leaders in AI.

Mo Gawdat, chief business officer of Google X, said he couldn't share the details of the relationship between Google X and Google DeepMind. "I wouldn't be able to share that," he told Business Insider at the Wired Live conference last Friday. He added: "But all of Google works together."

Google X and DeepMind are two of the most forward-thinking business units that sit under Google parent company Alphabet. If the two divisions teamed up then DeepMind's AI agents could theoretically end up playing some sort of role in self driving cars and Google X's other projects.

Google has found a couple of uses for DeepMind's algorithms over the last 18 months. For example, DeepMind's algorithms have been used by Google to reduce the amount of energy consumed in its fleet of power hungry data centres. Google is also using DeepMind's "WaveNet" algorithms to generate the Google Assistant voices for US English and Japanese.

DeepMind declined to comment.

Original author: Sam Shead

10 things in tech you need to know, November 10 - Business Insider

Original author: Rob Price

Roku crushed its first-ever earnings report as a public company on Wednesday, thanks largely to the massive growth of its platform business. This business includes revenue from advertising and licensing deals, and for it to grow people need to be watching content on Roku's platform. As we can see in this chart from Statista, its users need no convincing to do so. The 3.8 billion hours of content streamed on Roku's platform in the third quarter equates to 2.5 hours of daily watch time per user. 

The company also saw a 48% increase in active user accounts year-over-year, showing that consumers like what Roku is selling and that things could look even better for the next quarter. The company said it is now on track to see $500 million in revenue this year, up from $400 million in 2016. 

Mike Nudelman/Business Insider

Original author: Caroline Cakebread

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Apple CEO Tim Cook, right, with Eddy Cue, the company's senior vice president of internet software and services. Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Apple released its latest diversity report Thursday. Among the company's leadership and tech-worker ranks, women made only a slight gain while underrepresented minority groups actually lost ground.  Still, the company noted that half of the people hired overall in the last year were either women or members of such underrepresented groups.

Apple released its latest diversity report on Thursday, showing that, despite its stated commitment to diversifying its workforce, the iPhone maker remains predominately white and male. 

The proportion of women in its leadership ranks only rose slightly in the last year and among its tech workers, didn't change at all. Underrepresented minorities made no gains among Apple's leadership since last year, and actually lost ground among its tech workers. 

Overall at the company, the proportion of women remained unchanged and the percentage of underrepresented minorities barely nudged.

"Meaningful change takes time," the company said in its report. "We’re proud of our accomplishments, but we have much more work to do."

A company representative did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. 

Worldwide, only 29% of Apple's leadership — a term it didn't define — is female, according to the report. Apple has raised that proportion just one percentage point since 2014, and the increase just happened in the last year.

In terms of ethnic diversity, Apple's leadership ranks also barely changed. Whites constitute 66% of Apple's leadership, down just 1 percentage point from last year. Although the proportion of Asians in its leadership rose from 21% to 23% in the last year, the percentage of blacks, Hispanics and multiracial people didn't change at all.

Apple's leadership page offers a good indication of the company's lack of gender and ethnic diversity at its top. Of the 19 senior executives shown on the page, only five are women,  and just two are black. Among the 11 people in Apple's top executive ranks, only one is a woman, and none are black. 

Apple's tech workforce also has a long ways to go to be truly diverse; currently, it's 52% white and 77% male. Last year it was at 55% white and 77% male. The proportion of underrepresented minorities — blacks, Hispanics, and multiracial people — actually declined in the last year from 18% to 17%. 

The company did have some successes to point to, in terms of diversifying its workforce. Half of the people Apple hired between July 2016 and July 2017 were from groups traditionally underrepresented in the tech industry, including women, blacks and Hispanics, according to the report. It also said that the proportion of workers under 30 who are women or members of underrepresented minority groups were higher than the company's overall average for such groups. 

However, Apple didn't say what kind of jobs it was hiring those members of underrepresented groups to do. Traditionally, the workers in its retail stores have been much more diverse than those in its leadership ranks or among its tech employees. Those retail employees also tend to be paid significantly less than Apple's managers or tech workers. 

Original author: Caroline Cakebread

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A screen shot from one of the disturbing videos on YouTube. YouTube

YouTube said it plans to start putting age restrictions on videos involving children's characters that have been flagged for having inappropriate content.  Age-restricted videos are automatically blocked from showing up in its YouTube Kids app, the company said.  The policy change follows revelations that YouTube is pointing kids to thousands of disturbing videos involving kids characters and that some of those videos are making their way to YouTube Kids.

Following revelations that YouTube is serving up to kids thousands of inappropriate and disturbing videos, the company said it will step up its efforts to prevent children from seeing such content.  

YouTube will restrict access to videos involving children's characters that are flagged for having content that's inappropriate for kids, the company said in a statement. Users won't be able to watch such videos unless they are logged into the site and are older than 17.

Such age-restricted videos are already automatically blocked from showing up in YouTube Kids, the company's app that's designed for children under 13, YouTube said. So when videos are flagged for inappropriate content, they shouldn't show up in YouTube Kids. 

"The YouTube team is made up of parents who are committed to improving our apps and getting this right," the company said in a statement. 

The Verge previously reported the move. 

YouTube plans to start age-restricting such flagged videos in coming weeks. The company relies on unpaid volunteers and general users to alert it to videos that violate its guidelines. It has a team of moderators that review such flagged videos. If those moderators determine that flagged videos involving children's characters are actually inappropriate for kids, they will place the age restrictions on them. 

The company is in the process of training its moderators on the new policy. 

The changes follow the publication of a popular Medium article and a New York Times story about the thousands of disturbing videos on YouTube that target young viewers. While the videos frequently depict popular children's characters, they're typically knockoffs made by obscure or anonymous producers, rather than by the recognized studios that own the rights to the characters. Although the inappropriate, knockoff videos depict those characters in lewd, violent, or disturbing scenarios, YouTube often lists them alongside benign official videos from the characters' owners.

The videos are primarily found on YouTube's main site and service and can generally be viewed by anyone visiting the site. But The Times reported that some of them have shown up even in YouTube Kids. 

The move to restrict access to the flagged videos was not a direct response to the recent press reports but has been in the works for some time, YouTube told The Verge.

The policy update is YouTube's second move this year to discourage the proliferation of disturbing videos featuring family-friendly characters. In August, the company updated its advertising policy to bar such videos from including ads. 

Get the latest Google stock price here.

Original author: Zoë Bernard

Maj. Kurt Wampole and Capt. Matt Ward, 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron pilots, taxis a C-130H Hercules at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, October 7, 2013. US Air Force/Master Sgt. Ben Bloker

The Air Force's ongoing pilot shortage appears to have gotten worse over the past year. The force is pursuing a number of policies to train and retain more pilots and airmen. Officials warn that resources are stretched thin and budget concerns are exacerbating the problem.

Senior Air Force officials have warned publicly for some time that the service is facing a severe shortage of pilots.

Though its expanded its total force during the 2016 fiscal year, as of April 2017 it was still 1,555 pilots short —more than 1,000 of them fighter pilots — of the roughly 20,000 it is mandated to have.

"We are in a crisis," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said in late September. "If we don’t find a way to turn this around, our ability to defend the nation is compromised."

In fiscal year 2017, which ended in September, the shortage of pilots grew, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said during a press briefing on Thursday, speaking alongside Goldfein.

Wilson said the force was short 1,926 pilots, though the Air Force corrected that after the briefing to "around 2,000."

Capt. Michael Slotten, a 61st Fighter Squadron F-35 student pilot, climbs into an F-35 Lighting II at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, July 7, 2017. (US Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Jensen Stidham)

Wilson said the biggest reason for the overall shortfall has increased "is that we are too small for all the missions we are being asked to carry out."

"Surge has become the new normal," she said, adding that increased operational demands can be sustained up to a point but over time it wears down pilots and air crews. "We're burning out our people because we're too small for what the nation is asking."

"We're making the mission happen," Goldfein said at the briefing. "But we're having to do it very often on the backs of our airmen."

Constant demand and ongoing missions around the world

The Air Force has been conducting ongoing missions over Iraq and Syria, where US aircraft have led the air campaign against ISIS — though those operations have decreased considerably in recent weeks.

Recent months have seen increased operations in Eastern Europe to support NATO forces as well as in northwest Asia, where US planes have done exercises with South Korean and Japanese aircraft amid tension with North Korea. Goldfein said the US would have a continued bomber presence in the Pacific.

Air Force officials dealing with the shortage have said it could eventually prevent the Air Force from deploying aircraft and resources when they are needed. Goldfein said Thursday the situation had not reached that point and wasn't projected to in the next year, but he didn't discount it in the future and said officials would be watching with "laser focus."

US Air Force

"There is no one single thing that we can do to fix the problem of retaining pilots and developing new pilots," Wilson said. The force has pursued a number of policies to correct the shortfall, she said, focusing on improving quality of life for fliers and on retaining those currently in uniform.

Heftier bonuses and increased pay has been offered to counter what Air Force officials see as the draw from commercial airlines, which can offer higher compensation. But Air Force officials have also pointed to issues with the training pilots as the main factor exacerbating the shortage.

Goldfein said the force was adding resources needed to go from producing 1,200 pilots a year to 1,400 a year and increasing the number of candidates going into the fighter-pilot track. But officials have said the Air Force will need to train 1,600 a year to stabilize its ranks.

Other Air Force officials have said the force may need additional resources, like instructors and aircraft, in order train pilots in sufficient numbers.

The Air Force is looking to outsource some of its "red air" duties, which refers to pilots flying in the role of adversaries, to free up Air Force aircraft for other tasks. The service is also looking to bring back retired pilots and add more support staff to fill administrative and instructor roles and allow active-duty pilots to stay with units that need them.

'Reconnecting to the value proposition'

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein prepare to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee, June 6, 2017. US Air Force/Scott M. Ash

"For the first couple of years we were really focused on defense, which is how can we retain as many pilots as we can," Goldfein said.

"So we're first and foremost looking to retain everyone we can as we build up out capacity to produce more, because the problem statement is that we as a nation don't produce enough aviators," which includes the military, business, and commercial sectors, he added.

"We're doing a number of things" to improve pilot production, Goldfein said, but it's a long-term project, so the focus is on retention for the moment.

Tech. Sgt. Javier Cruz/USAF

Despite offering more money to fliers who decide to stay, the Air Force has seen the number of pilots taking their retention bonuses decline, though at a slower rate.

Goldfein said part of the reason for that continued slide was that money was not the main focus for many pilots but rather the "value proposition" of working with highly skilled people on meaningful missions.

"It's nice to have the additional resources and we appreciate Congress' authority to be able to increase aviation bonuses," he said. "But if we're going to retain these pilots, it's going to be about reconnecting to the value proposition."

Both Goldfein and Wilson emphasized that budgetary issues — sequestration in particular — were hindering the Air Force's efforts to train pilots and to meet its operational demands.

Wilson said the sequestration, as it's currently structured, needed to be lifted. Goldfein said he worried that, "if we cannot move past sequester in its current form, we're going to break this force."

Original author: Christopher Woody

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Reuters

Goldman is looking to deepen its relationship with more universities across the US. The financial giant has typically focused much of its energy on a basket of a couple dozen schools, but its CEO Lloyd Blankfein said the firm is casting a wider net.  Goldman hosted a half-day session with undergraduates from CUNY, a public university in New York City earlier this month.  During a fireside chat with students in September, Blankfein said the firm is looking for talent outside the Ivy League to compete with Facebook and Google.

Goldman Sachs is embracing top students from outside the hallowed halls of the Ivy League.

Goldman Sachs chief officer Lloyd Blankfein hosted a fireside chat in September for 250 students from Macaulay Honors College, a New York-based public school, during which he outlined the firm's new outlook on recruiting talent. He told students the firm is no longer "trapping" itself by "recruiting from the same 30 or 40 schools." 

The firm has been deepening its relationship with the college, which is considered a high-caliber public school.  On November 3, Goldman hosted a resume and interview workshop for 75 Macaulay students.

Goldman's outreach to Macaulay is the latest in its attempt to shake-off its Ivy League reputation. Through new technologies, for instance, the firm has been able to expand its reach with video interviewing and webinars. 

Traditionally, it actively targeted a basket of just a couple dozen schools, including those in the Ivy League as well as some higher-ranked public schools such as Brigham Young University and Rutgers University, for instance.

Blankfein said during the fireside chat that for some students from non-targeted schools, getting through the doors of Goldman was akin to a "salmon who had to swim upstream." But increased competition from Silicon Valley has forced the firm to pivot and open its arms to different types of talent. Here's Blankfein:

"It wasn't an act of kindness on my part, or generosity, or trying to create diversity; it was as pure selfish, naked self-interest, we wanted to really extend our net further because everybody’s involved pretty much in a war for talent. And we compete against obviously all the other financial services firms, but we compete against all the technology firms."

Goldman's attempt to become the Google of Wall Street has been well-documented (In fact, it's even being taught at Harvard Business School). A recent report by CBInsights showed 46% of Goldman's recent job listings were in tech. 

"The highest percentage of technology jobs were for platform roles, followed by operations engineering and equities technology positions," the report said. 

The logic behind Goldman's push outside the Ivy League is that it'll help fill those positions. Here's Blankfein (emphasis our own):

"Thirty percent of the people who work in this firm are engineers, are technologists, because of the way the financial markets have gone. So we compete against Facebook and Google and all these other places for talent. And increasingly, everybody casts a wider net, which means in a way we don’t go to a lot of campuses now when we screen people. We do a lot of this interviewing electronically, which has allowed us to do a very, very wide net on people."

In some respects, the bank's efforts have paid off. Goldman conducted round-one interviews with undergrads from over 950 schools this year, up 20% from the year prior. And nearly 50% of the firm's summer interns in the Americas were students from "non-core" schools in 2017.

Original author: Frank Chaparro

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J.Crew has struggled in recent years. AP

The former CEO of J.Crew, Mickey Drexler, told Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times' DealBook conference that he approached Amazon about a possible acquisition.  The deal did not go through, obviously. Drexler also said that the company was close to a deal with Uniqlo.

 

Mickey Drexler has a few regrets in his time of business. One of them, as he told Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times' Dealbook conference on Thursday, is that he never sold J.Crew when he had the opportunity.

Drexler, the current chairman and former CEO of J.Crew, told Sorkin that he approached Amazon about acquiring the company before he stepped down earlier this year. The deal did not go through, and J.Crew has continued on its own.

He told Sorkin that Amazon "should have" bought J.Crew, however, as it would have "acquired a machine of style and taste in fashion."

"We're content, in a sense," Drexler said.

He added that Target and Walmart, which purchased menswear retailer Bonobos earlier this year, also could have purchased the brand.

Though the deal never happened, Drexler also said that he would not enter an agreement to sell J.Crew's products on Amazon. He said the e-commerce giant would "own" the customer in that case, and it could potentially take the best-selling items to turn into Amazon private-label goods.

J.Crew was close to a deal with Uniqlo in 2014, which also fell through after J.Crew rejected a price that Drexler described as "fair."

Original author: Dennis Green

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Original author: John Lynch

This photo, which won the young photographer Nature in Urbania category, shows a bonnet macaque peeping out from the wheel well of a tourism vehicle. Sitara A. Karthikeyan/The Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017

The winners of the prestigious Sanctuary Asia magazine photo contest award have been announced. Many of the images portray the complicated and often dark relationship between humans and nature. This year's overall winner is particularly disturbing: It shows a mob pelting a mother elephant and her calf with flaming balls of tar.

On November 7, the Sanctuary Asia conservation magazine announced the winners from the 2017 Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards contest.

Many of the winning photos depict the complex — and often dark — interaction between humans and other living creatures. Some images, like the shot above by Sitara A. Karthikeyan, highlight the effects of disappearing habitats. That photo, titled "Valpari Vagrant", shows how a combination of shrinking wild areas and tourists' habit of feeding wild monkeys have led macaques to hang around humans, trying to co-exist as best they can.

The photo that won the overall wildlife photographer of the year contest, however, is particularly disturbing.

In the image below, "Hell is Here" by Biplab Hazra, a mob pelts a mother elephant and her calf with burning balls of tar. 

"Hell is Here" by Biplab Hazra. Biplab Hazra/The Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017

It's hard to look at. In the caption for the winning image, Hazra explained that this shocking scene is actually a common one.

"The heat from the fire scorches their delicate skin as mother and child attempt to flee the mob. In the lead, the cow’s expansive ears are angled forward as she stoically ignores the crowd of jeering men. Behind her, her calf screams in confusion and fear as the fire licks at her feet. Flaming tar balls and crackers fly through the air to a soundtrack of human laughter and shouts. In the Bankura district of West Bengal, this sort of humiliation of pachyderms is routine, as it is in the other elephant-range states of Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and more."

India is home to more than 70% of the global population of Asian elephants, but interactions between people and these animals are not always peaceful. According to Hazra:

"The ignorance and bloodlust of mobs that attack herds for fun is compounded by the plight of those that actually suffer damage to land, life and property by wandering elephants, and the utter indifference of the central and state government to recognize the crisis that is at hand. For these smart, gentle, social animals who have roamed the sub-continent for centuries, hell is now and here."

The conservation organization's photo contest is meant to highlight powerful photos that can evoke supportive human responses. But not every one is as dark as the contest winner.

The image below, "Between a Rock and Hard Place", shot by Anand Bora, won the conservation photography category.

"Between a Rock and Hard Place" by Anand Bora. Anand Bora/The Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017

The leopard in that well had fallen in and kept itself alive by swimming for 30 hours before it was discovered. After spotting the animal, villagers managed to help forest officials devise a way to get the big cat out of the well.

"All our inspiration springs from nature… music, dance, philosophies, religions, culture, arts… and photography," Bittu Sahgal, Founder and Editor at Sanctuary Asia said in a news release. "These awards are Sanctuary's way of acknowledging this reality and reminding us all to celebrate, revere and protect this source of life."

Original author: Kevin Loria

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has rolled out a chatbot on Facebook Messenger that delivers innovation news and also touts the company.Called Hugo, the bot was developed by Quartz Creative and DigitasLBi, and first trialled on Quartz's website.

Wondering how cloud computing works? You could just go and tap Hugo.

Hugo is a chatbot that helps users learn about the latest innovations in fields such as financial services, healthcare, retail and energy. The bot, developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Quartz's creative services unit and agency DigitasLBi, made its debut on Facebook Messenger today. Users can start a conversation with Hugo by sending a Facebook message to HPE.

Scores of brands have chatbots, with a majority of them being used for customer service. But Hugo doubles up as both a marketing effort as well as a product demo, said Marissa Freeman, HPE's chief brand officer. The aim is to engage potential customers – whether they are just learning about the company or mulling a purchase – by pulling them in based on a topic they may be interested in and ultimately leading them to buy a product. 

"HPE stands for innovation and we want to make sure it is what we continue to stand for moving forward as well," she told Business Insider. "Hugo reaches everyone on that marketing continuum, and seamlessly directs you to the point where you're ready to make an actual purchase."

HPEFirst conceptualized in March of this year, Hugo has evolved into its current form on Facebook Messenger after previous iterations. Back in July, for example, Hugo was literally embedded into custom native display ads that were served around a sponsored editorial series that Quartz and HPE ran together on the publisher called "Machines with Brains," which highlighted how technology and artificial intelligence intersect with humanity.

Thanks to built in artificial intelligence capabilities, the more Hugo chatted with people, the smarter it became, according to HPE. Every conversation helped Hugo to become better at interpreting open-text requests and prompts.

These ad experiments helped the team customize the bot based on user insights, leading to its current incarnation on Facebok Messenger. And that ideally means Hugo's tone is more similar to your smart, helpful friend, rather than a bot.

"It is someone that wants to learn from you as much as you want to learn from him," said Michael Dolan, Quartz Creative’s creative director. "It is never snarky or sarcastic."

According to Sean Mahoney, VP group director at DigitasLBi, Facebook Messenger was the next obvious home for Hugo for it to achieve scale. 

"Audiences don't seek out information the same way they used to anymore," Mahoney said. "And Facebook Messenger is a platform that people are already on." 

Original author: Tanya Dua