Author: Eternity Lab

José Adorno for BGR

When Apple announced the iPhone 16 lineup, the new models featured an exclusive Apple Intelligence feature: Visual Intelligence. Powered by the Camera Control button, it was actually a gimmick to promote the new camera sensor, as with the release of the iPhone 16e, Apple started offering Visual Intelligence on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16e devices through the Action Button.

Apple says this feature helps users “learn more about the places and objects around you.” By pointing your camera at a flyer featuring the work hours of a coffee place, you could get Visual Intelligence to suggest actions, such as adding the information to your calendar, calling the business, checking its website, and so on.

While this feature can also be powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT to offer a broader knowledge, such as understanding the history behind a sculpture or a painting in a museum, Apple continued to improve the feature in iOS 26 by offering the ability to use Visual Intelligence on screenshots that you take on your iPhone. Here’s how to master this new experience.

Apple’s Visual Intelligence gets an upgrade in iOS 26

José Adorno for BGR

With iOS 26, Apple is introducing an experience similar to Google’s Circle to Search. If you recall, Google offers the ability to physically draw a circle around an image to initiate an online search. For example, if you’re trying to find similar jeans to the ones you saw in a photo on X, you can simply circle the jeans in the image and use Circle to Search to learn more.

Apple is going in the same direction, and it’s even working with Google and Etsy to offer better results. Here’s how this boosted capability works:

• Take a screenshot (simultaneously press the volume up and side buttons).
• Using your finger, circle a part of the image you’re interested in, such as someone’s jeans.
• From there, you can Google related queries or ask a question to Apple Intelligence.

By circling a part of the image, you’ll see a glowing animation similar to the Clean Up tool. However, in this case, you’re getting information about that part of the image instead of editing it. If you tap the Apple Intelligence button, you can ask questions to Apple Intelligence or to ChatGPT, if you have it connected. Now, just use your creativity. Anytime you want to know more about an image, screenshot it, use Visual Intelligence, and then delete it; all without leaving the screenshot UI.

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Co-op Group chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq has apologised to all six and a half million of the group’s members after revealing that their personal data – apparently limited to names, addresses and other contact details – was stolen in a Scattered Spider cyber attack against its systems.

The attack, which unfolded in parallel with incidents at Marks & Spencer (M&S) and Harrods earlier this year, saw cyber criminals penetrate key IT systems causing disruption that spilled over into the physical world as store shelves emptied. It quickly emerged that Co-op member data had been affected but the full scope of the breach is only now being revealed.

Four people were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the cyber attacks last week, although they have now been bailed pending further investigation.

“I am incredibly sorry,” said Khoury-Haq during an appearance on BBC Breakfast. “It’s awful to have happened, that’s why we feel like we have to do something positive now.”

Khoury-Haq said the attack had felt like a personal one because it hurt customers, members and colleagues, but expressed relief that Scattered Spider had been caught and evicted from the retailer’s systems before they could deploy ransomware.

Jez Goldstone, cyber security expert at innovation and business development network Label Sessions, said:“Individuals cannot rely on mere trust when dealing with large enterprises. They are vulnerable and they are not doing enough to protect your data. Unfortunately, these breaches only add to the mountain of already breached data – billions of identities are already traded on the Dark Web. It costs next to nothing to obtain compromised identities.

“You can’t put the horse back in the stable,” said Goldstone, “but you can, firstly, demand stronger protections from regulators and the organisations you do business with. And, secondly, be aware of scams that try to get you to take urgent action because of some seemingly credible threat – real companies don’t put you under pressure.”

Hacking partnership

Following its experience at the hands of cyber criminal hackers, Co-op has teamed up with social impact business The Hacking Games to try to prevent future cyber attacks by identifying potential talent, especially among teenage boys, and channelling it into legitimate career paths.

The youth of Scattered Spider’s members has frequently been remarked upon in coverage of the group, with many of its operatives believed to be minors. One of the individuals arrested last week was aged just 17, and all four of the men indicted in the US over the gang’s activities last year are in their early 20s.

Co-op said there was an urgent need to engage young people and inspire then to follow ethical security careers in a sector that faces a constant skills shortfall. As such, it said, The Hacking Games, which was purposely set up to try to tackle address the link between talented but unengaged young people and cyber crime by connecting the security community to unconventional talent – particularly neurodivergent individuals living with ADHD and/or autism – makes an ideal partner.

Its partnership will draw on Co-op’s nationwide presence and ethical, community-driven business approach and The Hacking Games’ knowledge and expertise in the area to reach into Britain’s schools – starting with 38 institutions that operate within the Co-op Academies Trust. Looking ahead, the ambition is to develop a longer-term plan that could be rolled out across the entire UK education system, supporting engagement, targeted student and parent training, and future careers opportunities.

“At Co-op, we can’t just stand back and hope it doesn’t happen again – to us or to others. Our members expect us to find a cooperative means of tackling the cause, not just the symptom,” said Khoury-Haq.

“Our partnership with The Hacking Games lets us reach talented young people early, guide their skills toward protection rather than harm, and open real paths into ethical work. When we expand opportunity we reduce risk, while having a positive impact on society.”

Fergus Hay, co-founder and CEO of The Hacking Games, added: “There is an incredible amount of cyber talent out there – but many young people don’t see a path into the industry, or simply don’t realise their skills can be used for good. This partnership with Co-op will help unlock that potential. It’s about giving people the opportunity to do something positive, showing that their talents are valued and creating a generation of ethical hackers to make the world safer.”

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The main talking points in the UK’s gigabit broadband market have centred around how quickly full-fibre roll-out is taking place and when, not if, the government’s access coverage targets will be met, but research from Vitrifi has revealed that slow activation and limited automation remain major obstacles for operators seeking to monetise their investments in fibre and next-generation connectivity.

The study from the data-centric, intent-driven network operations software company, which questioned 100 senior decision-makers across incumbent and alternative network providers, highlights how entrenched manual workflows and fragmented processes are delaying time to revenue and compounding operational costs.

Among the clear findings were that hidden friction was undermining return on investment (ROI), there had to be more for automation than implementation for its own sake, and investment plans were falling short of imperatives.

The study revealed that a mere 3% of fibre broadband operators have fully automated their service provisioning and activation. As a result, Vitrifi observed, manual interventions persist even in ostensibly modern environments, exposing operators to high costs, customer frustration and heightened risk as competition intensifies.

While nearly three-quarters (71%) of respondents have been deploying fibre for over five years – and almost half serve more than a million users – many operators report the same fundamental challenges. The top barriers to monetisation cited were low provisioning and activation (37%), high operating costs per customer (37%), internal operational silos (32%) and low customer take-up demand (30%).

The impact of this was clear, said Vitrifi, with 75% of operators saying provisioning a new customer connection still takes more than four days, and nearly half (45%) reporting that it often exceeds a week. One in three operators stated that while some automation exists, processes remain heavily reliant on human intervention at critical stages.

Although automation has been widely promoted as the solution to such constraints, the research highlighted a more nuanced reality, in that simply automating existing workflows without rethinking how operational signals drive readiness can accelerate inefficiency rather than resolve it.

Operators urgently need a smarter approach that starts with reliable live signals and ends with trusted, revenue-triggering outcomes. Automating complexity without clarity just adds cost Oliver Happy, Vitrifi

Despite recognising these barriers, less than four in ten (37%) operators said they were planning to invest in automating their provisioning and activation workflows in the next 12 months. Instead, the majority are prioritising incremental improvements to staff training (51%) and analytics capabilities (47%).

Assessing the trends revealed by the study, Vitrifi said the misalignment between operational urgency and investment focus could leave operators exposed as funding cycles tighten and investor expectations around monetisation intensify.

“Too often, automation is treated as a tick box exercise – something to layer over fragmented processes,” said Oliver Happy, head of product at Vitrifi. “Our findings show that operators urgently need a smarter approach that starts with reliable live signals and ends with trusted, revenue-triggering outcomes. Automating complexity without clarity just adds cost. Fibre deployment is no longer the differentiator. Operators who can activate revenue at scale – without compromising customer experience – will set the pace in an increasingly competitive market.”

And this competition is intensifying. Only days ago, leading independent provider CityFibre announced that it has received a cash injection to “supercharge” the next phase of growth to boost the UK economy through the large-scale deployment of 10Gbps XGS-PON network.

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Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) systems could assist terrorists in disseminating propaganda and preparing for attacks, according to the UK’s terror advisor, but the level of the threat remains “purely theoretical” without further evidence of its use in practice.

In his latest annual report, Jonathan Hall, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, warned that while GenAI systems have the potential to be exploited by terrorists, how effective the technology will be in this context, and what to do about it, is currently an “open question”.

Commenting on the potential for GenAI to be deployed in service of a terror group’s propaganda activities, for example, Hall explained how it could be used to significantly speed up its production and amplify its dissemination, enabling terrorists to create easily sharable images, narratives and forms of messaging with far fewer resources or constraints.

However, he also noted that terrorists “flooding” the information environment with AI-generated content is not a given, and that take-up by groups could be varied as a result of its potential to undermine their messaging.

“Depending on the importance of authenticity, the very possibility that text or image has been AI-generated may undermine the message. Reams of spam-like propaganda may prove a turn-off,” he said, adding that some terror groups like Al-Queda, which “place a premium on authentic messages from senior leaders”, may avoid it and be reluctant to delegate propaganda functions to a bot.

“Conversely, it may be boom time for extreme right-wing forums, anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists who revel in creative nastiness.”

Similarly, on the technology’s potential to be used in attack planning, Hall said that while it has the potential to be of assistance, it is an open question as to how helpful current generative AI systems will be to terror groups in practice.

“In principle, GenAI is available to research key events and locations for targeting purposes, suggest methods of circumventing security and provide tradecraft on using or adapting weapons or terrorist cell-structure,” he said.

“Access to a suitable chatbot could dispense with the need to download online instructional material and make complex instructions more accessible … [while] GenAI could provide technical advice on avoiding surveillance or making knife-strikes more lethal, rather than relying on a specialist human contact.”

However, he added that “gains may be incremental rather than dramatic” and likely more relevant to lone attackers than organised groups.

Hall further added that while GenAI could be used to “extend attack methodology” – for example, via the identification and synthesis of harmful biological or chemical agents – this would also require the attacker to have prior expertise, skills and access to labs or equipment.

“GenAI’s effectiveness here has been doubted,” he said.

A similar point was made in the first International AI safety report, which was created by a global cohort of nearly 100 artificial intelligence experts in the wake of the inaugural AI Safety Summit hosted by the UK government at Bletchley Park in 2023.

It said that while new AI models can create step-by-step guides for creating pathogens and toxins that surpass PhD-level expertise, potentially lowering the barriers to developing biological or chemical weapons, it remains a “technically complex” process, meaning the “practical utility for novices remains uncertain”.

A further risk identified by Hall is the use of AI in the process of online radicalisation via chatbots, where he said the one-to-one interactions between the human and machine could create “a closed loop of terrorist radicalisation … most relevantly for lonely and unhappy individuals already disposed towards nihilism or looking for extreme answers and lacking real-world or online counterbalance”.

However, he noted that even if a model has no guardrails and has been trained on data “sympathetic to terrorist narratives”, the outputs will depend largely on what the user asks it.

Potential solutions?

In terms of legal solutions, Hall highlighted the difficulty of preventing GenAI from being used to assist terrorism, noting that “upstream liability” for those involved in the development of these systems is limited, as models can be used so broadly for many different, unpredictable purposes.

Instead, he suggested introducing “tools-based liability”, which would target AI tools specifically designed to aid terrorist activities.

Hall said while the government should consider legislating against the creation or possession of computer programs designed to stir up racial or religious hatred, he acknowledged that it would be difficult to prove that programs were specifically designed for this purpose.

He added that while developers could be prosecuted under UK terror laws if they did indeed create a terrorism-specific AI model or chatbot, “it seems unlikely that GenAI tools will be created specifically for generating novel forms of terrorist propaganda – it is far more likely that the capabilities of powerful general models will be harnessed”.

“I can foresee immense difficulties in proving that a chatbot [or GenAI model] was designed to produce narrow terrorism content. The better course would be an offence of making … a computer program specifically designed to stir up hatred on the grounds of race, religion or sexuality.”

In his reflections, Hall acknowledged that it remains to be seen exactly how AI will be used by terrorists and that the situation remains “purely theoretical”.

“Some will say, plausibly, that there is nothing new to see. GenAI is just another form of technology and, as such, it will be exploited by terrorists, like vans,” he said. “Without evidence that the current legislative framework is inadequate, there is no basis for adapting or extending it to deal with purely theoretical use cases. Indeed, the absence of GenAI-enabled attacks could suggest the whole issue is overblown.”

Hall added that even if some form of regulation is needed to avoid future harms, it could be argued that criminal liability is the least suitable option, especially given the political imperative to harness AI as a force for economic growth and other public benefits.

“Alternatives to criminal liability include transparency reporting, voluntary industry standards, third-party auditing, suspicious activity reporting, licensing, bespoke solutions like AI-watermarking, restrictions on advertising, forms of civil liability, and regulatory obligations,” he said.

While Hall expressed uncertainty around the extent to which terror groups would adopt generative AI, he concluded that the most likely effect of the technology was a general “social degradation” promoted by the spread of online disinformation.

“Although remote from bombs, shootings or blunt-force attacks, poisonous misrepresentations about government motives or against target demographics could lay the foundations for polarisation, hostility and eventual real-world terrorist violence,” he said. “But there is no role for terrorism legislation here because any link between GenAI-related content and eventual terrorism would be too indirect.”

While not covered in the report, Hall did acknowledge there could be further “indirect impacts” of GenAI on terrorism, as it could lead to widespread unemployment and create an unstable social environment “more conducive to terrorism”.

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With the UK government recently reaffirming its commitment to the Shared Rural Network (SRN) scheme to improve mobile coverage in rural areas and bring 4G connectivity to all parts of the country, 30 government-funded mast upgrades have been activated in rural towns and villages throughout Wales.

Announced in 2019, the £1.3bn SRN programme was designed to wipe so-called notspots from the map, providing high-quality 4G coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025.

The principle of the project was that through public and private investment, mobile phone masts would be built or upgraded across the UK to eliminate rural mobile notspots – that is, areas with poor or patchy coverage that could not receive a 4G signal from all mobile network operators (MNOs), or any signal at all.

The UK’s three MNOs – EE, Virgin Media O2 and the recently created VodafoneThree – committed to invest £532m between them to improve 4G coverage and level up connectivity, overseen by a jointly owned company called Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited (DMSL). The operators’ funding has been complemented by more than £500m from the government.

To deliver the first phase of the programme, all operators committed to upgrading or building mobile infrastructure and extending the reach of their 4G networks to eliminate partial notspots by 2024. The second phase of the SRN, publicly funded by the UK government, is due to be completed in 2027. This will see the roll-out of shared masts to bring 4G connectivity to areas that hitherto had no existing mobile service.

Across the UK, 56 masts are now live as part of the SRN. The UK government’s 95% geographic UK landmass target for the programme was met at the end of 2024 – a year ahead of the December 2025 deadline – and 4G geographic coverage from at least one mobile network operator stood at 96% by January 2025.

Since the SRN began, more than 10,000km2 have gained mobile network coverage for the first time. Almost 35,000km2 across the UK now has coverage from all UK operators, including over 3,500km2 in Wales, covering roughly 20% of the country.

Thanks to the Shared Rural Network, notspots are shrinking, connections are growing, and more coverage is on its way Ben Roome, Mova

The latest roll-out will see businesses and community organisations in areas including Llangernyw, Pandy Tudur, Gwytherin, Cwmystwyth and Llanymawddwy benefit from better connectivity. These activations also bring enhanced connectivity to national parks Bannau Brycheiniog and Eryri, and areas of outstanding natural beauty Wye Valley and Bryniau Clwyd a Dyffryn Dyfrdwy.

The upgraded masts are calculated to cover a footprint equivalent to 66,470 football pitches, and over half of them are providing new coverage to areas of outstanding natural beauty or national parks. The UK government gave its assurance that upgrading existing masts will limit the visual and natural impact on the environment, causing less disruption to the surrounding areas.

These activations also bring coverage from all UK MNOs to over 2,500km of roads across Wales. The boost to coverage has been carried out by upgrading existing mobile masts, which previously only connected EE customers and anyone making 999 calls, meaning communities can benefit from improved connectivity without the need for additional infrastructure.

Commenting on the deployment, Ben Roome, CEO of Mova – the operating brand for DMSL and wholly owned by the forum main operators – said: “Thirty new EAS masts are now live in the Welsh hills. For the first time, signals from every mobile network are threading through valleys and reaching a further 2,500km of road, bringing connectivity to residents, businesses and anyone passing through. Thanks to the Shared Rural Network, notspots are shrinking, connections are growing, and more coverage is on its way.”

The secretary of state for Wales, Jo Stevens, added that funding by the UK Government meant 30 sites in Wales that were previously poorly served now have .

“Reliable connectivity improves every aspect of day-to-day life in rural Wales and makes a huge difference for local businesses, residents and visitors,” said Stevens. “This is an important step forward in our mission to kickstart the economy and unlock opportunity in rural areas across Wales.”

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Network and infrastructure management technology provider NetBox Labs has received a significant boost by raising $35m in Series B funding.

NetBox Labs is the commercial owner of NetBox, the open source network and infrastructure management stack used by tens of thousands of enterprises, including dozens of Fortune 500 companies, hyper-scalers, artificial intelligence (AI) scale-ups and government entities worldwide.

NetBox claims that in just a short time, its core platform has become “the standard for how modern technology infrastructure is built, managed and automated” to accelerate innovation, streamline operations, unlock AI use cases, and guarantee adherence to critical performance and security standards.

NetBox has a large community of contributors, partners and technology integrations. IT offers development across the NetBox ecosystem, delivering a stream of features for customers and the community, and a portfolio that not only comprises NetBox, but also includes NetBox Discovery for automated network and device discovery; NetBox Assurance for finding and fixing drift in infrastructure from its intended state; and NetBox Operator, an agentic AI operations platform for network and infrastructure teams.

In 2023, NetBox Labs raised $20m in Series A funding to help companies struggling to make sense of complex and rapidly evolving networks and infrastructure. The company plans to use the investment to continue its rapid pace of innovation and scale to meet widespread global market demand, including hiring across customer success, engineering, marketing, product, partnerships and sales.

“There’s a race to expand and modernise the complex infrastructure that keeps every aspect of today’s digital world quick, resilient, secure and manageable,” said Kris Beevers, co-founder and CEO of NetBox Labs. “NetBox is now a ubiquitous platform at the heart of a composable network and infrastructure management stack, with adoption soaring even more as AI drives massive demand for infrastructure.”

The new round was led by NGP Capital, with participation from Sorenson Capital and Headline. Existing investors also participated in the round, including Flybridge Capital, Notable Capital, Mango Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures and IBM.

Upal Basu, partner at NGP Capital, said: “NetBox Labs represents a powerful convergence of open-source innovation and enterprise-scale network automation, positioned perfectly to address the expanding needs of complex, modern networks.

“Their impressive commercial growth validates our belief that they can become the de facto platform for network operations, observability, automation and security. Every infrastructure team in the world knows NetBox, and we look forward to being part of the journey as companies continue to displace disjointed legacy infrastructure management tools with the modern and cohesive NetBox stack.”

Jim Julson, head of network at CoreWeave, which uses NetBox Cloud to power its rapidly expanding AI datacentre footprints, said: “We’re building dozens of new AI datacentres every year, full of complex infrastructure. NetBox is crucial for accelerating our timelines with automation. Deploying our infrastructure even a month sooner as a result of these efficiencies directly impacts our revenue, and NetBox enables streamlined operations and automation once infrastructure is in production.”

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Reddit

No, you didn’t actually break Reddit, but there’s a good chance you’re seeing an error message informing that you did right about now. On Wednesday morning at around 11:52 a.m. ET, Reddit began experiencing a widespread outage. Attempting to load any page on the website redirects visitors to a page letting them know that “reddit broke!” We’re still gathering information, but we are sharing everything we know about why Reddit is down below.

Why is Reddit down?

Shortly after 11:30 a.m. ET on July 16, reports of Reddit outages spiked on Downdetector. At the time of writing, there have been over 72,000 individual reports, indicating that nearly everyone is having trouble accessing Reddit this morning. In other words, it’s not just you. Something broke that is causing problems for anyone who wants to visit Reddit.

Investigating: We are currently investigating this issue. https://t.co/F58Yb4HSnu

— Reddit Status (@redditstatus) July 16, 2025

Meanwhile, the Reddit Status page was updated at 11:52 a.m. ET to note that the team started “investigating elevated site errors.” As of 12:07 p.m. ET, Reddit said that the staff “identified the cause of the issue and are working to address it.” It’s 12:17 p.m. ET as I write this, and for now, everything seems to be working as expected once again.

Here’s the latest update from the Reddit team as of 12:21 p.m. ET: “A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.”

The incident was fully resolved at 12:38 p.m. ET, and the site is back up and running.

Reddit has had problems before

Outages like these aren’t especially uncommon at Reddit. Looking through its archive of recent incidents, you should expect a short interruption about two to three times a month. For instance, in June, there were two instances of “elevated errors,” each of which were resolved in less than an hour. One involved comments failing to publish on the site.

In fact, there has been at least one incident report every month since 2025 began. Considering that Reddit is one of the 10 most visited sites on the planet, it’s no big surprise that the servers occasionally become overwhelmed by the traffic. That said, it’s no less frustrating for those who are visiting the social news aggregator to continue a conversation, catch up on world events, or seek out firsthand appraisal of a product they’re thinking about buying.

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Google

The future of Google’s Pixel lineup is just around the corner. Made by Google 2025 will officially take place on August 20, according to the invites Google sent out on Wednesday. The event will be held in New York City this time after setting up shop in Google’s hometown of Mountain View, California last year. The tech giant explained on the invitation that it plans to share “the latest on our Pixel phones, watches, buds, and more.”

As for timing, you can tune in to watch the Made by Google 2025 keynote live at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, August 20. That’s a week later than last year’s showcase, but still much earlier than in previous years. For instance, Made by Google 2023 didn’t kick off until October 4, and in 2022, the event took place on October 6.

What to expect at Made by Google 2025

There’s no doubt that Google will bring the latest Pixel lineup to this year’s event, which should include the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold. The biggest upgrade over last year’s models will be the Tensor G5 chipset, which was mass produced by TSMC, not Samsung. Early reports indicate that it’s a huge leap over the Tensor G4.

Meanwhile, fans expecting a redesigned look are going to be disappointed. Leaks have made it clear that Google doesn’t plan to make any substantial changes to the design of the phones this year. All four models look virtually identical to their predecessors. This generation is all about the added horsepower of the chipset and the arrival of Android 16.

Beyond new phones, Google is also set to unveil the Pixel Watch 4 — which is rumored to be a bit thicker than the third-generation model to make room for a bigger battery — and the budget-friendly Pixel Buds 2a wireless earbuds.

We’ll be back with more coverage ahead of the Pixel 10 launch event on August 20.

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Summer has arrived, which means hydration should be top of mind every day. If you were intrigued by the arrival of the HidrateSpark Pro 2 smart water bottle earlier this month, you should also be aware of Waterllama’s latest update, which improves the app’s ability to accurately track the amount of water and other liquid you drink every day.

With version 1.89, the company added 100+ popular beverages from around the world, including popular drinks like Coke, oolong tea, horchata, and more, which means you don’t need to fill in your drinks from scratch. Most importantly, the app adds up your hydration score for you, so you can tell whether you’re moving towards your goal or not.

For example, if you drink alcoholic beverages, you’re actually dehydrating yourself because you’ll have to use the restroom more often. If you drink milk instead, you’re actually increasing your hydration because of its electrolytes and nutrients.

Waterllama is also making it easier to create custom beverages. Users can pick a color, match their cup, and choose from 100+ hand-drawn icons, which the app hopes will match your favorite tumbler. In a press release, the company says, “If you’re unsure about hydration or caffeine in the beverage you’re creating, don’t worry. You can simply choose a beverage that it’s similar to, and all the known characteristics will be applied to your new beverage.”

This update also brings self-styled widgets, explanations for failed challenges, and 17 new app icons for you to try out. From the whimsical balloon llama to the elegant flower llama, there’s a new icon for every preference. There are even the unique glass and candy options to give an interesting pop to your iPhone Home Screen.

Additionally, the company is readying an update for iOS 26 later this fall. Waterllama is available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. The app is free to download but requires a subscription to unlock all the perks.

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A lack of opportunity for progression is a main reason why women are leaving the technology sector, according to the Lovelace report.

Research by Oliver Wyman and WeAreTechWomen found that between 40,000 and 60,000 women are leaving digital roles each year, whether for other tech roles or to leave tech for good, with a quarter stating the reason to be a lack of opportunity to advance their career in their current roles.

Deborah O’Neill, partner at Oliver Wyman, said the drop in women in the technology industry is usually put down to childcare issues, but really it is more about an unlevel playing field preventing them from advancing in the tech workplace.

“That’s not just a statistic, that is a loss – potential lost innovation, lost opportunities – for this country and for all of our organisations,” said O’Neill. “How can we have a world where everyone wants to deliver these big, ambitious programmes, but women are saying, ‘There’s no way for me to advance’? Something doesn’t add up here.”

Women account for around 20% of the technology sector in the UK, but this number falls when looking higher up in organisations. The report quoted figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showing the number of men working in information and communications increased 11.5% in the past five years, while the number of women working in the same sector decreased 7% in the same amount of time.

Karen Blake, head of strategy and consulting at Powered by Diversity, said the UK is “hardcoding bias” into technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) by preventing women the opportunity to contribute, adding: “We are systemically driving away the talent we need most. Inequality doesn’t just hurt individuals, it creates a sluggish environment that drags down our entire national progress…This goes deeper than economics. We’re bringing women up systemically excluded from leadership and career frameworks. We’re hardcoding bias into the future itself.”

A lack of flexible working, a lack of role models, misconceptions about what tech jobs involve and being deterred from relevant subjects at school are often-cited reasons why women leave the tech sector or avoid it altogether, and while these are important to note, the Lovelace report has painted a different, more up-to-date picture.

Only 3% of women who contributed to the Lovelace report stated childcare as the reason they chose to leave the technology sector, which is a much lower number than usually cited – in fact, 55% of those asked had no children or dependants.

Half of the respondents were earning less than average for their roles, and 60% said they were finding it very difficult to find their way into leadership. But this isn’t down to a lack of experience or expertise, with 60% of those asked having 10 years or more of tech experience, and more than 70% having gained additional qualifications and leadership training.

Instead, the report referred to the “mid-career” point in a traditional pyramid organisational structure being a “bottleneck” for most women in tech. Closely following “lack of career progression” as the main reason as to why women are moving roles or sectors was “a lack of recognition and low salaries”.

Almost 10% said the reason they are leaving their current role is because of poor company culture, while 8% said they feel held back by a lack of role models, sponsors or a supportive network.

More than half of the women who took part in the report said their career progression has not advanced in the way they thought it would, with women waiting an average of three or four years for a promotion, whereas the industry average is usually two years.

Vanessa Vallely, founder and CEO of WeAreTechWomen, said the barriers she has faced in her extensive career are the same many women are still facing now, and the industry should be more concerned with retaining and promoting female talent.

“[Women are] walking away from systems that fail to see them, reward them or provide a future that they can believe in. Mid-level women are waiting over five years for a promotion,” said Vallely. “Over 60% of experienced women are earning below their industry benchmark. Nearly 80% are considering leaving their roles, and these are women who have spent 10, 15, 20 years building their careers and their resilience.”

But this isn’t just a problem for women, it’s also a problem for organisations and the economy during a time where the UK is pushing to be a technology superpower, the report stated. The tech industry is currently lacking between 98,000 and 120,000 skilled professionals, which is a number likely to increase in the wake of fast-paced technology adoption such as AI.

This number is exacerbated by the vast number of women leaving the industry, which is costing the economy between £1.4bn and £2.2bn every year, and between £640m and £1.3bn is wasted every year when women jump between employers looking for a place where they can gain the advancement and recognition they’re looking for in a role.  

To address some of these issues, the report called for organisations to assess whether they are causing “career stagnation” for women, and to tackle it by putting clear advancement paths in place, ensure opportunities are provided to the most skilled workers, and making sure career ladders have visible and defined requirements with equal pay opportunities.

At the report’s launch, Samantha Niblett, MP, a member of the women and equalities select committee, urged the tech sector to keep “pushing politicians” to help develop legislation that will help change the workplace, adding: “If you’re working in the tech sector, don’t give up, don’t move, don’t shift: change it.”

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