Latest news with #Artisan
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
BookTalk: Lim Tian Wee, founder of tea brand Gryphon, juggles different books depending on mood
Besides enjoying e-books, Mr Lim Tian Wee likes reading several titles at once as this lets him adapt to different moods and mental states. PHOTO: COURTESY OF LIM TIAN WEE Who: Mr Lim Tian Wee, 56, is the founder of local tea brand Gryphon, which was established in 2006. He is a fourth-generation tea trader and his family continues to run the century-old wholesale tea business, Lim Lam Thye. Gryphon is distributed in more than 1,000 food and beverage and hospitality outlets across 11 countries. The brand relaunched its Artisan range of teas with a refreshed look and updated flavours in April. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Edinburgh Reporter
22-05-2025
- Business
- Edinburgh Reporter
Artisan Real Estate welcomes Caledonian Brewery planning consent
Artisan Real Estate is to progress with the homes-led transformation of the former Caledonian Brewery in Shandon, Edinburgh following planning approval by The City of Edinburgh Council (CEC). Councillors at CEC's Development Sub Committee on Wednesday (21 May) unanimously granted consent for Artisan's ambitious proposals to develop the historic brewery site into a sustainable, low-carbon residential neighbourhood delivering 168 new high-quality private and affordable homes. Sitting at the western edge of Edinburgh's city centre, the Caledonian Brewery was the capital's last major brewery prior to the ceasing of operations in 2022. The brewery was founded in 1869 by George Lorimer and Robert Clark and its distinctive range of B-listed Victorian buildings provide an important reminder of the city's once extensive brewing heritage. Welcoming the planning consent, Artisan's Managing Director for Scotland, David Westwater said: 'This is a hugely exciting opportunity to breathe new life into a complex and historically important city centre site, providing a high-quality mix of new homes and affordable housing in line with the Council's policy to help tackle the city's housing emergency. 'Artisan's UK-wide expertise as a regeneration specialist will now deliver a sustainable new residential community in an accessible city centre location that will respect, preserve and enhance the rich history of the Caledonian Brewery. Working closely with our heritage experts, we have unravelled the different layers of history and development which have governed the evolution of the site. This has been a model design approach to a very complex and challenging site bringing together a mix of buildings developed at different stages during the last 150 years. 'From the very start, Artisan placed the preservation of the site's unique heritage right at the heart of our approach, creating a distinctive footprint which both reflects the brewery's historical legacy whilst creating a high-quality and well-connected urban neighbourhood which promises to set new standards for city centre living.' The Caledonian Brewery's unique heritage and character will govern Artisan's development approach. Around one fifth of the homes will be housed in the existing listed buildings which will be preserved and repurposed. Additional development proposals will respect and reflect the original footprint of the brewery – including recreating the skyline of the maltings buildings which was demolished following a fire almost 30 years ago. Most of the listed buildings on the site date from the late 19th to early 20th century and were constructed using distinctive red brick with white brick dressings. The existing brewhouse and maltings were built in 1892 following designs by renowned Edinburgh architect Robert Hamilton Paterson, who also designed the Royal Scots War Memorial in the city's St Giles Cathedral. The brewery currently houses a vast amount of brewing equipment – including what was the last remaining direct fired 'coppers' to be used in the UK, which have been attracting the interest of independent breweries across the world. As part of the redevelopment plans, Artisan intends to 'upcycle' as much of the internal equipment as possible, allowing the Caledonian Brewery's significant technical legacy to continue to play a part in today's global brewing industry. Artisan Real Estate has a strong track record in delivering award-winning sensitive urban regeneration projects. This includes the New Waverley mixed-use development in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town and part of the World Heritage Site, as well as completing the transformation of Glasgow's historic A-Listed Custom House district into a thriving hotel quarter. Mr Westwater added: 'Artisan Real Estate is committed to delivering high quality urban living for everyone in well-connected central areas, bringing interest, investment and life back into the heart of our cities. Building high-quality, sustainable homes in sensitive and unique urban sites such as the brewery site is a lengthy, complex and expensive process – but we are confident that our comprehensive proposals will raise the UK bar for the homes-led regeneration of historically important city centre sites across the UK.' The previous operators of the brewery, Heineken UK, invited bids for the site in 2022. A spokesperson for Heineken UK said: 'The Caledonian Brewery has been an integral part of Edinburgh's brewing history and the local community for more than 150 years. We were keen that the legacy of the brewery was maintained and contributed positively to the local community. 'Having received several bids for the site, we believed that Artisan's plans to deliver a 100% residential scheme delivered the best outcome for the community as well as meeting the Council's ambitions in terms of delivering sustainable housing. We are pleased that the planning consent has now been granted for this exciting city centre neighbourhood to progress which is set to preserve the brewery's legacy for future generations.' Like this: Like Related
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Klarna used an AI avatar of its CEO to deliver earnings, it said
Sebastian Siemiatkowski is leaning all the way into the idea that his buy-now-pay-later, IPO-bound startup Klarna is an AI company. When Klarna delivered updated quarterly earnings on Monday, it was his AI avatar (pictured above) that presented the highlights, according to the company's YouTube video. Other than AI Siemiatkowski's admission, it wasn't obvious that this was AI. There were only a few subtle signs: AI Siemiatkowski didn't blink as much as most humans do. The voice sync was good, but not perfect. The AI was also wearing a brown jacket that looked a lot like the one from a widely circulated corporate photo of his human self (though the shirt was different). Klarna, which is getting ready to debut as a public company, was using the updated financials to tout AI as a driving factor for hitting 100 million users. It credited its use of AI for a fourth consecutive profitable quarter, explaining that it "streamlined its workforce by ~40%," the company said in its blog post, driving up revenue per employee to nearly $1 million. Human Siemiatkowski specified to CNBC that 'the company has shrunk from about 5,000 to now almost 3,000 employees.' He's not the first CEO to poke fun at the idea of an AI replacing a CEO. AI sales agent startup Artisan, known for its viral "stop hiring humans" ad campaign, posted an April Fool's video of its CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack being fired and replaced with an AI CEO. But maybe the idea of AIs replacing CEOs isn't a total joke. While it's certainly true that some CEOs — especially at startups — do get their hands dirty coding features or cold calling prospects, a CEO's main jobs are to set strategy, make decisions, and take responsibility for those decisions. Who better than an AI built on a SATA reasoning model to digest large swatches of company data, study gobs of successful business strategy, and use that to make decisions? In fact, research published in Harvard Business Review last year found that an AI could, mostly, outperform human CEOs, based on a model using GPT-4o. However, the AI CEO also quickly got fired by the study's virtual board. This is because it did poorly responding to "black swan events, such as market collapses during the COVID-19 pandemic," the researchers found. Still, as AI advocates like to point out, these are early days. Future AI CEOs may learn to excel at that, too. Klarna did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Klarna used an AI avatar of its CEO to deliver earnings, it said
Sebastian Siemiatkowski is leaning all the way into the idea that his buy-now-pay-later, IPO-bound startup Klarna is an AI company. When Klarna delivered updated quarterly earnings on Monday, it was his AI avatar (pictured above) that presented the highlights, according to the company's YouTube video. Other than AI Siemiatkowski's admission, it wasn't obvious that this was AI. There were only a few subtle signs: AI Siemiatkowski didn't blink as much as most humans do. The voice sync was good, but not perfect. The AI was also wearing a brown jacket that looked a lot like the one from a widely circulated corporate photo of his human self (though the shirt was different). Klarna, which is getting ready to debut as a public company, was using the updated financials to tout AI as a driving factor for hitting 100 million users. It credited its use of AI for a fourth consecutive profitable quarter, explaining that it "streamlined its workforce by ~40%," the company said in its blog post, driving up revenue per employee to nearly $1 million. Human Siemiatkowski specified to CNBC that 'the company has shrunk from about 5,000 to now almost 3,000 employees.' He's not the first CEO to poke fun at the idea of an AI replacing a CEO. AI sales agent startup Artisan, known for its viral "stop hiring humans" ad campaign, posted an April Fool's video of its CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack being fired and replaced with an AI CEO. But maybe the idea of AIs replacing CEOs isn't a total joke. While it's certainly true that some CEOs — especially at startups — do get their hands dirty coding features or cold calling prospects, a CEO's main jobs are to set strategy, make decisions, and take responsibility for those decisions. Who better than an AI built on a SATA reasoning model to digest large swatches of company data, study gobs of successful business strategy, and use that to make decisions? In fact, research published in Harvard Business Review last year found that an AI could, mostly, outperform human CEOs, based on a model using GPT-4o. However, the AI CEO also quickly got fired by the study's virtual board. This is because it did poorly responding to "black swan events, such as market collapses during the COVID-19 pandemic," the researchers found. Still, as AI advocates like to point out, these are early days. Future AI CEOs may learn to excel at that, too. Klarna did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. Sign in to access your portfolio
TechCrunch
21-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Klarna used an AI avatar of its CEO to deliver earnings, it said
Sebastian Siemiatkowski is leaning all the way into the idea that his buy-now-pay-later, IPO-bound startup Klarna is an AI company. When Klarna delivered updated quarterly earnings on Monday, it was his AI avatar (pictured above) that presented the highlights, according to the company's YouTube video. Other than AI Siemiatkowski's admission, it wasn't obvious that this was AI. There were only a few subtle signs: AI Siemiatkowski didn't blink as much as most humans do. The voice sync was good, but not perfect. The AI was also wearing a brown jacket that looked a lot like the one from a widely circulated corporate photo of his human self (though the shirt was different). Klarna, which is getting ready to debut as a public company, was using the updated financials to tout AI as a driving factor for hitting 100 million users. It credited its use of AI for a fourth consecutive profitable quarter, explaining that it 'streamlined its workforce by ~40%,' the company said in its blog post, driving up revenue per employee to nearly $1 million. Human Siemiatkowski specified to CNBC that 'the company has shrunk from about 5,000 to now almost 3,000 employees.' He's not the first CEO to poke fun at the idea of an AI replacing a CEO. AI sales agent startup Artisan, known for its viral 'stop hiring humans' ad campaign, posted an April Fool's video of its CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack being fired and replaced with an AI CEO. But maybe the idea of AIs replacing CEOs isn't a total joke. While it's certainly true that some CEOs — especially at startups — do get their hands dirty coding features or cold calling prospects, a CEO's main jobs are to set strategy, make decisions, and take responsibility for those decisions. Who better than an AI built on a SATA reasoning model to digest large swatches of company data, study gobs of successful business strategy, and use that to make decisions? In fact, research published in Harvard Business Review last year found that an AI could, mostly, outperform human CEOs, based on a model using GPT-4o. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW However, the AI CEO also quickly got fired by the study's virtual board. This is because it did poorly responding to 'black swan events, such as market collapses during the COVID-19 pandemic,' the researchers found. Still, as AI advocates like to point out, these are early days. Future AI CEOs may learn to excel at that, too. Klarna did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
