13/04/2016 BBC Business Live


13/04/2016

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 13/04/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock.

:00:00.:00:09.

Facebook launches chat-bots for its popular Messenger app,

:00:10.:00:15.

proving artificial intelligence is making its way

:00:16.:00:17.

Live from London, that's our top story on Wednesday, 13th April.

:00:18.:00:42.

Like them or love them, the robots are coming.

:00:43.:00:47.

At Facebook's annual developers conference, boss Mark Zuckerberg has

:00:48.:00:59.

Tesco's returns to profit. What has the boss got to say about that? We

:01:00.:01:05.

have spoken to Dave Lewis. Plus we will tell you all the you need to

:01:06.:01:09.

about financial markets, in Europe, they are really, really bullish, but

:01:10.:01:16.

why? We will fill you in. Advertising at 40,000 feet, we will

:01:17.:01:23.

meet the man behind the in-flight magazines and movies cashing in on a

:01:24.:01:28.

captive audience. We will find out what the most played film is on a

:01:29.:01:31.

plane? It is not what you think. Would you trust talking to a

:01:32.:01:36.

computer to get things done or would you prefer the human touch? Let us

:01:37.:01:37.

know. Use the hashtag. Facebook has been holding

:01:38.:01:47.

its annual developers The idea is to show off new products

:01:48.:01:53.

the social network believes will be This year, the company

:01:54.:02:02.

has unveiled chat bots It's a form of artificial

:02:03.:02:09.

intelligence which Facebook hopes will create a more interactive

:02:10.:02:16.

experience within the messaging app, such as giving users

:02:17.:02:18.

the ability to shop, Chatbots learn from data sets

:02:19.:02:20.

so they can mimic the way Many big companies are

:02:21.:02:26.

already using virtual assistants on their websites

:02:27.:02:30.

because they are cheaper And some studies suggest people

:02:31.:02:32.

prefer dealing with bots on websites According to research firm Gartner,

:02:33.:02:38.

up to 85% of customer service Dave Lee is at the Facebook

:02:39.:02:50.

developers conference for us. Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook's

:02:51.:03:07.

ten year plan. The soaks network is the biggest in the world with 1.6

:03:08.:03:12.

billion users, but the sites ambitions go further than that.

:03:13.:03:17.

First on the agenda was Facebook Live which has attracted millions

:03:18.:03:21.

upon millions of views. Also Facebook is going to start rolling

:03:22.:03:27.

out chatbots, these are artificially intelligent robots that can talk to

:03:28.:03:30.

humans as if they are our friends! It gives us a new way, Facebook,

:03:31.:03:35.

hopes that we will interact with businesses. It is not all going

:03:36.:03:40.

swimmingly for Facebook. A study suggested that people are sharing

:03:41.:03:43.

less personal information on the network and saving that kind of

:03:44.:03:47.

content for other services like Snapchat.

:03:48.:03:59.

Alex Wood is with what. -- Alex Wood is with me. What is a bot? I liken

:04:00.:04:11.

it to sometimes when you have been o website and the little windows pop

:04:12.:04:16.

up and you can talk to a person, but there is no person at the other end,

:04:17.:04:21.

it is automated. Is there scepticism about how these work? You will get

:04:22.:04:25.

the same automated response, it is looking for odd words that you are

:04:26.:04:28.

asking for help, perhaps your bill or something and you are going to

:04:29.:04:31.

get stock phrases back. Is technology at the point where it can

:04:32.:04:36.

get beyond stock phrases? The key thing to understand is machine

:04:37.:04:40.

learning. So Facebook's announcement today is about showing the system

:04:41.:04:43.

can actually continue to learn and the more that people use it, it

:04:44.:04:46.

learns more about natural conversation and actually builds its

:04:47.:04:50.

knowledge base up so it can only get better the more people use it. Now,

:04:51.:04:57.

you told me you use chatbot for an artificial intelligence PA, how does

:04:58.:05:00.

it work and do you trust it entirely to plan your life? We have been

:05:01.:05:04.

testing it out at the office for the last couple of weeks, we have Amy or

:05:05.:05:09.

Andrew for your personal aye cystant and it is for the times you want to

:05:10.:05:13.

book a meeting and you know with the client, you have got back and forth,

:05:14.:05:18.

I am available this time and that time. Amy pretends to be a human

:05:19.:05:22.

being and has the conversation back and forth on you are behalf with the

:05:23.:05:29.

client and sets-up the meeting. AIM even picks up things like I know you

:05:30.:05:33.

met Alex a couple of weeks ago, you met at Starbucks, do you want to

:05:34.:05:38.

meet there again? It is incredibly human. I find that terrifying, but

:05:39.:05:43.

that's just me. Let's talk about Facebook as part of the Messenger

:05:44.:05:48.

app. A lot of controversy at the time, but that's starting to make

:05:49.:05:51.

sense now and they are throwing resources, throwing the efforts into

:05:52.:05:54.

the Messenger app to allow the Messenger app to allow

:05:55.:05:57.

developers to develop bots? A couple of years ago when they made that

:05:58.:06:02.

split, a lot of people were surprised, they thought why would

:06:03.:06:06.

you do that? It was annoying from a user's prospective, but it was a

:06:07.:06:10.

clever move, but I think I have some concerns there as well because let's

:06:11.:06:13.

take a step back and remember that all the chat bots and the system

:06:14.:06:17.

that Facebook is building, it is about doing it in fab's world. It is

:06:18.:06:24.

not very open. So I think there is concerns there that we have to think

:06:25.:06:28.

about. One we will watch closely, Alex, thank you very much. Good luck

:06:29.:06:37.

with your artificial intelligence PA!

:06:38.:06:41.

The International Monetary Fund has cut its global growth

:06:42.:06:43.

forecasts for the second time in just three months.

:06:44.:06:45.

The IMF says it expects growth for the world

:06:46.:06:47.

economy to slow to 3.2%, down from the 3.4% it

:06:48.:06:50.

China's slowdown and weak commodity prices are being blamed,

:06:51.:06:56.

as well as the risk of geopolitical shocks.

:06:57.:07:02.

China's online retail giant Alibaba is making a move

:07:03.:07:04.

It has agreed to buy a controlling stake in online retailer Lazada

:07:05.:07:12.

for about $1 billion to expand its e-commerce business.

:07:13.:07:15.

Lazada is headquartered in Singapore and also operates in Malaysia,

:07:16.:07:17.

Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

:07:18.:07:23.

UK supermarket giant, Tesco, has returned to profit

:07:24.:07:25.

after reporting its first quarterly sales growth for three years.

:07:26.:07:32.

Pre-tax profits for the year came in at ?162 million

:07:33.:07:35.

with like-for-like sales up 0.9% in the fourth quarter.

:07:36.:07:43.

The results follow last year's ?6.3 billion loss, the worst

:07:44.:07:45.

Earlier Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis, spoke to us,

:07:46.:07:48.

and explained how these figures are not just a flash in the pan,

:07:49.:07:51.

It is the culmination of a series of deliberate things that myself and

:07:52.:08:04.

the team have done over the year. It is not just here in the UK, it is in

:08:05.:08:08.

our businesses internationally and in fact, all of our businesses are

:08:09.:08:11.

showing positive momentum all the way through the year. So it is not a

:08:12.:08:15.

flash in the pan. It is broad based and it is significant against to

:08:16.:08:19.

your own admission where we started from 16 months ago.

:08:20.:08:24.

Dave Lewis, the boss of Tesco. We were having this conversation

:08:25.:08:27.

globally where is the Tesco, moving up and down the ladder of the

:08:28.:08:30.

world's biggest? It is around about number five. Wal-Mart is right at

:08:31.:08:39.

the top. Costco is um there. -- up there.

:08:40.:08:46.

Tesco as we have said and you heard there, seeing a rise in sales, but

:08:47.:08:51.

that march of the discounters including Aldi and Lidl eating into

:08:52.:08:54.

market share, but we should point out they are a still small part of

:08:55.:08:59.

the market. Tesco, remember, controlling about 28% of the UK

:09:00.:09:00.

market. Focus is on China this week

:09:01.:09:05.

with it's latest growth But today we've had

:09:06.:09:07.

an update on exports - they grew faster than expected

:09:08.:09:15.

in March - by nearly 19%. Leisha Chi has the details from our

:09:16.:09:18.

Asia Business Hub in Singapore. There are hopes the economy might

:09:19.:09:26.

have turned a corner. Japan's Nikkei up nearly 3% and Australia up 2% and

:09:27.:09:33.

the Hang Seng up 2.4% because export ins China rose in March for the

:09:34.:09:37.

first time in nine months. They jumped by 11.5% year-on-year while

:09:38.:09:42.

imports fell by 7.6% and this is better than economists forecast. No

:09:43.:09:53.

what dot numbers mean? It shows that the manufacturing sector is picking

:09:54.:09:57.

up amid a prolonged slowdown, but analysts say that the data was

:09:58.:10:02.

actually affected by seasonal factors and that it maybe too soon

:10:03.:10:06.

to say the worst is over. So we have to keep a close eye on the GDP

:10:07.:10:10.

numbers out on Friday, but the expectation is it will show that the

:10:11.:10:14.

economy expanded by 6.7% in the first quarter.

:10:15.:10:21.

Thank you so much. A lot of focus on China. The other

:10:22.:10:26.

reasons for a strong session in Asia, the night before on Wall

:10:27.:10:30.

Street we saw strong gains in the United States and the oil price

:10:31.:10:33.

remaining around about $44 a barrel. We will talk about that in more

:10:34.:10:37.

detail in a few minutes time and are looking ahead to the oil meeting in

:10:38.:10:42.

Doha on Sunday. Let's look at Europe. We are into the trading day

:10:43.:10:49.

by 40 minutes. At the open, Tesco shares opened lower despite the good

:10:50.:10:52.

news from the retailer and the bullish comments from Dave Lewis,

:10:53.:10:56.

not helping its share price today. More focus on the cautious outlook

:10:57.:10:58.

for Tesco. Will it last? And Mariko Oi has the details about

:10:59.:11:01.

what's ahead on Wall Street Today. Well, Wall Street will be pouring

:11:02.:11:10.

over more IMF wisdom on Wednesday. This time in the shape of its global

:11:11.:11:15.

financial stability and investors don't need the IMF to tell them that

:11:16.:11:20.

it has been a volatile six months since the last report came out, but

:11:21.:11:24.

they will be keen to hear what the fund thinks can be done to guard

:11:25.:11:29.

against a plummeting oil price and difficulties with China's economic

:11:30.:11:32.

transformation. Closer to home, investors will get their first look

:11:33.:11:36.

at how Wall Street's biggest banks have been doing in the past few

:11:37.:11:41.

months. Biggest of them all JP Morgan puts out its earnings before

:11:42.:11:45.

the market opens and it is expected to reveal grim losses in its

:11:46.:11:48.

investment banking business and on many of its loans to the energy

:11:49.:11:52.

sector. If the company makes a profit, it will likely be thanks to

:11:53.:12:04.

its cost-cutting efforts. Join Foley is with us. We heard from

:12:05.:12:08.

Singapore about the implications for the rest of the world, here in the

:12:09.:12:15.

UK, it is mine they'res will do very well? The implication from the

:12:16.:12:18.

figures is manufacturing perhaps in China is getting some momentum back

:12:19.:12:21.

again and of course, if you think about the things that China

:12:22.:12:25.

produces, well, half the world's steel for instance. So steel, what

:12:26.:12:29.

goes into that, iron ore and of course, coal and miners benefit on

:12:30.:12:35.

the back of that. So we have seen some commodities generally this week

:12:36.:12:38.

go higher, oil prices are higher recently too. So miners certainly

:12:39.:12:44.

finding some support, but of course, we do know that some of the steel

:12:45.:12:49.

that's been used by China has been used by recycled scrap steel and

:12:50.:12:53.

that, of course, isn't good news or miners. Looking at oil down today 1%

:12:54.:12:59.

plus around $43 a barrel, but that's really high, isn't it? 13% higher so

:13:00.:13:03.

far this year. Energy stocks really enjoying the moment? They really

:13:04.:13:08.

are, of course, we have the really crucial meeting in Doha and many

:13:09.:13:11.

people are sceptical as to whether or not, A, there will be

:13:12.:13:12.

a production freeze and B, whether or not that is going to sort out the

:13:13.:13:17.

supply glut because although there has been news from the US that we

:13:18.:13:20.

have less rigs in operation and that's been going on for the past 16

:13:21.:13:25.

weeks, we still have a huge amount of supply in oil which could mean

:13:26.:13:29.

that the rally that we have seen is capped.

:13:30.:13:42.

We will meeting the man behind the agency cashing in on in-flight

:13:43.:13:54.

magazines and entertainment. More on the news from Tesco? Like

:13:55.:14:01.

for like sales up 0.9%. Sales are still down over the year as a whole.

:14:02.:14:07.

The supermarket has shaken off its annual loss. It saw a pre-tax profit

:14:08.:14:11.

of ?162 million for the year to February. Let's delve into the

:14:12.:14:17.

numbers with Nick Hood. Nick, good morning. Some evidence, it seems, in

:14:18.:14:21.

this set of figures that the supermarket is finally turning a

:14:22.:14:24.

corner. Well, it is a good start, but there is a long way to go and

:14:25.:14:29.

you have got to remember with all of these major turn around exercises,

:14:30.:14:33.

you get easy wins early. I think it will be much more interesting to see

:14:34.:14:39.

where this particular supertanker retail supertanker is in another 12

:14:40.:14:43.

months, another 18 months. It is a really tough market out there and

:14:44.:14:48.

the latest sales figures show that they are still losing market share

:14:49.:14:53.

to the discounters at Aldi and Lidl, but not as quickly as they were

:14:54.:14:57.

before. It is good news though, isn't it for Dave Lewis who is

:14:58.:15:00.

fairly new in the job and shortly after his arrival, there was that

:15:01.:15:06.

whole accountancy scandal and also all sorts of problems. He says the

:15:07.:15:10.

turn around is about management actions. He has stabilise the

:15:11.:15:15.

business, would you agree? I think he is doing very well, but what you

:15:16.:15:18.

have got to remember, this is in the UK in particular, a business that

:15:19.:15:23.

employs 310,000 people and what he needs as well as management action

:15:24.:15:28.

is culture change and that's a really tough act to pull off across

:15:29.:15:32.

so many people. I think everybody wishes him the best of luck with it.

:15:33.:15:38.

It is a long-term thing to do to be fair, isn't it? Shares down sharply

:15:39.:15:43.

today. Why is that? The trouble is the headline figures that came out

:15:44.:15:48.

were about the top line. The sales growth which at 0.9% in Q4

:15:49.:15:53.

impressive, but look at the bottom line. ?70 billion worth of sales and

:15:54.:15:59.

just a squeak of a profit at ?162 million.

:16:00.:16:06.

What the market is asking is whether the UK core business can actually

:16:07.:16:11.

make money in such a tough and as he said challenging the deflationary

:16:12.:16:17.

market. Thanks for explaining that. Any moored details you may need are

:16:18.:16:25.

on the Live page. That is the place to find full analysis.

:16:26.:16:31.

You are watching Businessmen recovered alive. Our top story

:16:32.:16:39.

today, your new best friend is a chatbot, apparently. Facebook could

:16:40.:16:47.

introduce artificial intelligence, if Mark Zuckerberg gets his way. We

:16:48.:16:51.

will hear from him a bit later. It's quite interesting, what he had to

:16:52.:16:56.

say. Let's move on. When you're on a plane no doubt you flick through the

:16:57.:16:59.

in-flight magazine and channel hop on the television and the chances

:17:00.:17:02.

are it's been made by our next guest. He is the boss of Spafax,

:17:03.:17:14.

where he has been for over 20 years. It is the company behind some of the

:17:15.:17:18.

magazines in your in aeroplane seat pocket and the in-flight

:17:19.:17:20.

entertainment you see during the flight. Spafax has been owned by the

:17:21.:17:30.

media conglomerate WPP for over 15 years. It publishes over 30

:17:31.:17:35.

magazines in 15 languages around the world. Let's chat to Neill now. It's

:17:36.:17:46.

such an interesting area. You have a captive audience, people stuck on a

:17:47.:17:50.

metal tube for eight or 12 hours, long haul flights. You can sell it

:17:51.:17:56.

to them in that time. This must be a brief opportunity for you and one

:17:57.:18:01.

that you clearly cash in on. It is a fantastic opportunity but first of

:18:02.:18:06.

all it is a service environment. You have a relationship with them and

:18:07.:18:13.

it's about helping them pass the time with movies and entertainment,

:18:14.:18:18.

but mainly brands like Bacardi, Jaguar, they recognise the value of

:18:19.:18:24.

that audience. All business requires travel, essentially everybody is

:18:25.:18:28.

travelling through our niche if you like. Those brands, as you

:18:29.:18:33.

mentioned, recognise the fact that this audience is captive and also

:18:34.:18:36.

there is a trolley coming down the middle aisle selling the stuff

:18:37.:18:40.

you're looking at in the in-flight magazine, all of it is sold at the

:18:41.:18:44.

airport you arrive at. It's kind of a win-win for the seller, isn't it?

:18:45.:18:52.

It is. The audience is also high net worth individuals and it's difficult

:18:53.:18:56.

to convince yourself to get the selling... The children are nagging

:18:57.:19:04.

the parents! But you do hear of extraordinary sampling opportunities

:19:05.:19:06.

where people literally give away their latest new technology, things

:19:07.:19:11.

like product launches. It's a fantastic opportunity to test it

:19:12.:19:15.

with that key audience. The fact you are talking about that lucrative

:19:16.:19:18.

market, you said business travellers represent the most discerning

:19:19.:19:24.

customer segment on earth, that is a bold claim but one that is clearly

:19:25.:19:28.

working in your favour. I think so. They're no different to everyone

:19:29.:19:32.

else, they watch the same TV shows and do the same things. TV is your

:19:33.:19:38.

background. Before you join this organisation you work for BSkyB, you

:19:39.:19:41.

work for television production companies as well. When it comes to

:19:42.:19:45.

that in-flight entertainment, how do you decide what is on offer? Because

:19:46.:19:49.

people often moan about what there was, what there wasn't. Random

:19:50.:19:57.

episodes... We just had a come as Asian before we came on air and my

:19:58.:20:00.

biggest bugbear is that you sit down and you want to watch a series of

:20:01.:20:05.

something and it is episode three, season four. You have none of the

:20:06.:20:10.

stuff that came before or after, but that is a licensing issue, isn't it?

:20:11.:20:14.

We are very lucky, we buy products from everyone and we have a crack

:20:15.:20:19.

team in offices around the world is going to will the convention than

:20:20.:20:29.

meeting all the distributors. We have some of our clients... It is a

:20:30.:20:33.

case of trying to understand the audiences. TV is going through a

:20:34.:20:38.

global, a lot of the popular shows are popular shows. House of Cards,

:20:39.:20:48.

The Big Bang double theory. But we are having to find the emerging

:20:49.:20:53.

markets as well in Korea and elsewhere. The expectations of

:20:54.:20:58.

people on planes now is changing. If you have been a nice plain with nice

:20:59.:21:04.

facilities and then you get an older plane, it is very jarring. I imagine

:21:05.:21:09.

the demands of passengers are harder to fulfil because it is ratcheting

:21:10.:21:15.

up all the time. It is also the technology in people's hands. We are

:21:16.:21:19.

very focused on personalisation in the future and the technology in our

:21:20.:21:22.

hands allows us to connect with people even when there isn't a

:21:23.:21:26.

system on board. Now they are launching satellites with high

:21:27.:21:30.

bandwidth capacity, putting wireless servers on planes. What about an

:21:31.:21:39.

in-flight chatbot, would you have one of those? I hope so! Ireland

:21:40.:21:46.

were watching two chatbots having an argument on the Internet, very

:21:47.:21:52.

amusing! -- I member watching. Thank you, it has been fascinating. If

:21:53.:21:56.

you're watching us and 40,000 feet, let us know when you land or send as

:21:57.:22:00.

a message. In a moment we will look through the business pages. First

:22:01.:22:07.

this morning, we've talked about Facebook and the tech giant's views

:22:08.:22:11.

on artificial intelligence. According to the founder, Mark

:22:12.:22:14.

Zuckerberg he's going to change the world.

:22:15.:22:18.

To say that we can build something and make it better than it has ever

:22:19.:22:25.

been before. You have to be optimistic to think that you can

:22:26.:22:29.

change the world. And people will always call you naive. But it's this

:22:30.:22:35.

hope and this optimism that is behind every important step forward.

:22:36.:22:43.

Our lives are connected. And whether we are welcoming a refugee fleeing

:22:44.:22:49.

war or an immigrant seeking more opportunity, whether we are coming

:22:50.:22:52.

together to fight global disease like Ebola or defied climate change,

:22:53.:22:58.

I hope that we have the courage to see that the path forward is to

:22:59.:23:04.

bring people together and not push people apart. To connect more, not

:23:05.:23:08.

less. That's why I think the work we're all doing is so important.

:23:09.:23:12.

Because we can actually give more people a voice. Instead of building

:23:13.:23:18.

walls, we can help people build bridges. Mark Zuckerberg, there.

:23:19.:23:22.

Jane is back with us. He's changing the world,

:23:23.:23:28.

Jane. There's a lot of chat about his speech on social media, perfect

:23:29.:23:34.

that... It sounds wonderful, what he's saying sounds great, but if you

:23:35.:23:38.

look in Europe and the moment especially, the reality is that we

:23:39.:23:44.

are building more walls and borders. What he's saying sounds wonderful

:23:45.:23:47.

but the reality, certainly in politics right now, is a lot

:23:48.:23:51.

different. The interesting thing with technology and we saw this with

:23:52.:23:56.

the time at the migrant crisis, when the programme was at its height --

:23:57.:24:03.

the problem was that its height, this is a tendency to spread the

:24:04.:24:09.

message. People are able to find out how to get around using technology.

:24:10.:24:19.

People would redirect and again this is about information flow. Why

:24:20.:24:23.

aren't more migrants coming to the UK? There is a perception that the

:24:24.:24:29.

wages might be higher, the benefits might be better. -- why are more

:24:30.:24:36.

coming to the UK. We have touched on the issue of steel and China earlier

:24:37.:24:43.

and there is an article about this today in the Sydney morning Herald.

:24:44.:24:45.

Talk us through what they are talking about. This is fascinating.

:24:46.:24:53.

It is about iron ore and steel. China is the world's largest

:24:54.:24:57.

producer of steel, it produces about 50% of the world's steel, it uses

:24:58.:25:04.

cold to melt the iron ore. It is now saying that it is now becoming a lot

:25:05.:25:14.

more usable to use scrap. Washing machines and cars are being melted

:25:15.:25:17.

down to provide the iron that is needed. Great for the environment,

:25:18.:25:24.

presumably? This is it because coal is a very dirty fuel. If we're using

:25:25.:25:29.

scrap, the mills we are using to melt down the scraps are run by

:25:30.:25:34.

electricity because we can use cleaner electricity. From an

:25:35.:25:37.

environmental perspective, yes maybe there is an upside there. But for

:25:38.:25:42.

the iron and coal producers, this is bad news. Really interesting given

:25:43.:25:45.

the context of all the steel problems across Europe. Thanks for

:25:46.:25:53.

your contributions. We did not really have time to get the chatbot

:25:54.:25:56.

Twitter conversation in, but there was a lot of it. See you tomorrow.

:25:57.:26:09.

Hello there. Something of a north-south split to today's

:26:10.:26:15.

weather. For most of England and Wales it is a dry, sunny start to

:26:16.:26:18.

the day with a view showers forecast. For Northern Ireland and

:26:19.:26:22.

Scotland we have cloudy

:26:23.:26:23.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS