Zurich-based startup Poncho has officially launched its weather insurance platform and bagged some fresh funding to boot.Founded in 2023, the company aims to transform how the travel and hospitality industries handle unpredictable weather.Ponchos tech integrates with booking systems, allowing customers to opt for weather protection at checkout. If bad weather, such as heavy rain or wind, occurs during their scheduled event or trip, a refund is processed automatically. You dont need to file a claim.Maybe torrential rains turn your Alpine ski trip to slush or maybe youve splurged on a Mediterranean yacht adventure only to have rough seas keep you stuck at the dock sipping overpriced cocktails.Either way, it sucks. But with Poncho, at least your budget stays intact when Mother Nature doesnt play nice. Poncho uses real-time weather data and algorithms to predict conditions at specific locations and times. In this way, it can calculate a fair insurance price based on an accurate estimate of whether a certain event or activity will get cancelled or not, it said.Watch Back NowAfter months of hard work, we are thrilled to announce that Ponchos weather insurance solution is finally available! Our product allows travel and leisure businesses to seamlessly offer weather protection to their customers at the time of booking, said Omar Jerrari, founder and CEO of Poncho.Today, the startup announced it has raised 589,000 in seed funding. WeBuild Ventures, a finance-focused VC fund from Switzerland, led the round.Poncho, with a lean team of just three, will use the cash injection to refine its platform, scale operations across Europe, and build partnerships with insurers. It also plans to develop additional features, such as weather-triggered promotions.The startups initial focus is on the travel sector, where weather unpredictability often discourages bookings, but its vision extends to other industries, such as outdoor dining and events.The company says it has already signed up five leisure and travel businesses in its home stomping grounds of Switzerland. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Vertical Aerospace has been thrown a crucial lifeline, staving off potential bankruptcy at the cash-strapped air taxi startup.The UK-based company which makes electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft secured the fresh funds from its largest creditor, American debt investor Mudrick Capital.The agreement, announced Monday, includes a $50mn cash injection and a substantial debt-to-equity swap. Mudrick will invest $25mn upfront and guarantee another $25mn in future funding, offset by contributions from third-party investors.Mudrick will also convert half of its $130mn in outstanding loans into equity at $2.75 per share, taking its ownership stake in Vertical to just over 70%. This move reduces Verticals debt burden while extending the repayment date for the remaining $65mn to December 2028.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Verticals founder Stephen Fitzpatrick whose stake will shrink from 70% to around 20% is stepping back from an operational role. He will remain on the board as a non-executive director. Despite the shift in control, Vertical will continue to operate from its headquarters in Bristol.The additional equity and stronger balance sheet will enable us to fund the next phase of our development programme and deliver on our mission to bring this amazing electric aircraft to the skies, said Fitzpatrick.The rescue deal comes at a crucial moment for Vertical, which has been burning through cash in a bid to get its VX4 aircraft tested, certified, and airborne by 2028.In September, Bloomberg reported that without additional funding, Vertical would risk running out of cash by March 2025. Stuart Simpson, the startups chief executive, said that Mudricks fresh backing will now extend its cash runway to the end of 2025.eVTOL startups have drawn huge investments in recent years, driven by the promise of revolutionising urban transportation with quiet, eco-friendly flights. Optimism and a fair bit of hype fueled early funding, but many underestimated the challenges of development, certification, and scaling production.As costs rose and timelines slipped, investor confidencesteadily waned, leaving many startups grounded. One of Verticals main competitors, German startup Lilium, filed for bankruptcy this month after failing to secure new funds.Vertical, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, has lost 95% of its market value since the listing. While the bailout gives the company a lifeline for now, its future is far from certain. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Amsterdam-based startup Skytree is set to deploy its carbon-sucking machines on a newly announced carbon capture and storage project in Texas, US.Dubbed Project Concho, the $100mn Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant aims to initially vacuum up 30,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually, eventually scaling to 500,000 tonnes. This carbon will be permanently stored underground, on site.The facility is set to enter operation in 2028, a Skytree representative told TNW via email.Project Concho is masterminded by carbon capture developers Return Carbon, from the Netherlands, and Verified Carbon, from Texas. They will generate revenue from the plant by selling carbon credits to companies looking to offset their emissions. The partners have chosen Skytree to do the carbon vacuum cleaning. Founded in 2014, Skytrees technology is based on the carbon scrubbers used aboard the International Space Station, which remove the excess CO2 produced from the breath of astronauts.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Skytree makes two machines: Cumulus, for small-scale applications and an industrial-scale machine called Stratus. Project Concho will deploy dozens of these units in unison, to make one single hub.Project Concho is a first-of-its-kind collaboration that opens the door to even more ambitious and transformative carbon removal projects, said Elena Nikonova, VP of Skytrees recently opened offices in the US and Canada.The developers plan to power the hub using an onsite wind farm, built by Spanish energy firm Greenalia. This would make it the worlds first DAC project fully powered by wind energy, they said.A symbiotic relationship?Project Concho marks a rare collaboration between a DAC facility and a wind energy provider, but one that could become a blueprint for future facilities.The carbon capture plant guarantees it will consistently buy wind energy, giving the wind farm a stable customer and predictable revenue. In return, the DAC plant gets low-cost, renewable energy, which is crucial for reducing the high operational costs of large-scale carbon capture. This agreement also ensures energy price stability and flexibility, making it easier for both partners to plan and grow efficiently.Alexandre Alonso, SVP of Business Development at Greenalia, called this a game-changer for renewable energy projects.Projecto Concho comes amid a boom in carbon capture projects in the US, partly driven by generous government subsidies. Last month, the Biden-Harris Administration, announced plans to provide up to $1.8bn in funding to support DAC technologies. This builds on the 45Q tax credit laid out in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The incentive provides up to $180 per metric ton of CO2 captured and stored.The US continues to demonstrate growing demand for proven, cost-effective, scalable DAC technology driven by the needs of industry and with the backing by government, said Skytrees CEO Rob van Straten. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Candela is flying high and across the Atlantic.The Swedish startup has secured $14mn, marking the close of its Series C round at a cosy $40mn. This puts its total funding at just shy of $90mn.Candela has also sold its first P-12 ferry in the US, amid burgeoning demand for what is the worlds fastest and longest-range electric passenger vessel.FlyTahoe, the company that will operate the service, will use the P-12 to shuttle tourists and locals across Lake Tahoe. This massive freshwater lake straddles the border of California and Nevada and is best known for its clear blue waters and nearby world-class ski resorts.Watch Back NowCandelas ferry will run a north-south route across the lake at 25 knots (30 mph), halving travel times from an hour by car to just 30 minutes minus the emissions.Its ironic that while millions, myself included, drive around Lake Tahoe to admire its beauty, the road sediment we generate contributes to the largest threat to the lakes famous cobalt blue clarity, Ryan Meinzer, founder and CEO of FlyTahoe.Computer-controlled hydrofoils lift the P-12 above water, reducing drag and cutting energy use by 80% compared to regular boats. This also provides a smooth, silent ride unaffected by waves and winds.Attracting over 15 million visitors annually, Lake Tahoe suffers from road congestion, worsened in winter by heavy snow and road closures. However, since the lake never freezes over, the P-12 can operate year-round, providing a quicker, cleaner alternative to driving.Last month, Stockholm became the first city to adopt Candelas ferry as part of its public transport system. The P-12 runs a 15km route from the suburb of Eker into the City centre, cutting a 55-minute commute in half.Candela estimates 120 of its shuttles could replace Stockholms entire 35-strong fleet of diesel ferries. At $1.7mn (1.5mn) a piece, thats a big investment, but CEO Gustav Hasselskog is bullish on the returns.Unlike a lot of green technologies, the cost is lower, its cheaper to run, and cheaper to maintain, he told TNW when we visited the companys headquarters earlier this year.Powered by a fresh batch of funding, Candelas is rushing to fulfil orders from New Zealand, Berlin, Saudi Arabia and now the US, as it prepares for its biggest phase of growth yet.Our technology offers a strong economic incentive to switch to zero-emission fleets while unlocking the potential for waterways to ease road congestion and enable multi-modal urban travel. This investment comes at a critical time for the planet, said Hasselskog in a press release.SEB Private Equity, a global private equity investor, led the funding round, with participation from existing investors EQT Ventures and KanDela AB. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

London-based startup Lighthouse just raised a hefty $370mn from American investment giant KKR at a valuation of over $1bn, making it Europes latest unicorn tech company.The funding will supercharge the companys ambitions to shake up the $15bn travel tech market. Whats on the to-do list? Refining its AI tools, expanding globally, and snapping up competitors through mergers and acquisitions (it has already made four).Lighthouses platform crunches over 400 terabytes of travel data every day, using AI to turn that ocean of info into bite-sized insights that help hotels make better business decisions. It includes data like how many people are booking rooms, when theyre booking, what theyre willing to pay, and how hotels compare to others in the same area. This data helps businesses understand the market, predict trends, and make decisions to increase bookings and revenue.The startup says its tools are used by over 70,000 hospitality providers in 185 countries, including big names like Holiday Inn, Radisson, and NH Hotel Group. It has more than 700 employees worldwide.Watch Back NowCEO Sean Fitzpatrick is pumped about whats next. I couldnt be more energized by what were working towards. Were just getting started in making hospitality data and tools more powerful, accessible, and affordable, he said, adding that KKRs investment will boost AI capabilities, pull in new data sets, and push the company deeper into the global market.Gino Engels and Matthias Geeroms founded Lighthouse in 2012. The company was originally called OTA Insight and started in Ghent, Belgium, before moving its HQ to London. Now, it has raised one of the largest rounds for any startup based in the British capital.For KKR, this is another notch in a long belt of tech growth bets. Since 2010, the firm has funnelled around $23bn into the sector. Stephen Shanley, KKRs head of tech growth in Europe, called Lighthouse the leading platform in this space, praising its ability to serve everyone from boutique inns to multinational hotel chains.Back in 2021, Lighthouse raised $80mn in a Series B, with backers like Spectrum Equity and F-Prime Capital sticking around for this latest buy-in. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

UK startup Surf Security has launched a beta version of what it claims is the worlds first browser with a built-in feature designed to spot AI-generated deepfakes.The tool, available through Surfs browser or as an extension, can detect with up to 98% accuracy whether the person youre interacting with online is a real human or an AI imitation, the company said.The London-based cybersecurity upstart uses military-grade neural network technology to detect deepfakes. The system uses State Space Models, which detect AI-generated clones across languages and accents by analysing audio frames for inconsistencies.To maximise its effectiveness, we focused on accuracy and speed, said Ziv Yankowitz, Surf Securitys CTO. The tools neural network is trained using deepfakes created by the top AI voice cloning platforms, he said.Register NowThe system has an integrated background noise reduction feature to clear up audio before processing. It can spot a deepfake audio in less than 2 seconds, said Yankowitz.The new feature is available for audio files, including online videos or communication software such as WhatsApp, Slack, Zoom, or Google Meet. You just need to press a button and the system verifies if the audio recorded, or live is genuine or AI-generated. Surf said it will also add AI image detection to the browsers toolkit in the future.Deepfakes are a growing problemDeepfakes, which use AI to create convincing fake audio or video, are a rising threat.Just this week, researchers at the BBC unearthed deepfake audio clips of David Attenborough that sound indistinguishable from the famous presenters own voice. Various websites and YouTube channels are using the deepfake to get him to say things about Russia, about the US election that he never said.This is just the tip of an ugly iceberg. Deepfakes have been used to enable large-scale fraud, incite political unrest through fake news, and destroy reputations by creating false or harmful content.Surf said it launched the new deepfake detector to help protect enterprises, media organisations, police, and militaries around the world from the growing risk of AI cloning. However, battling deepfakes is a continuous battle between humans using machines for good, against other humans using machines for nefarious means.AI voice cloning software becomes more capable by the day, admitted Yankowitz. So like all of cybersecurity, we are committing to winning an ever-evolving arms race.Surf expects to release the full version of its deepfake detector early next year. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Dawn Aerospace has flown its rocket-powered aircraft past the speed of sound, the latest milestone on its path to its first commercial flights.During the test, which took place on New Zealands South Island, the startups Mk-II Aurora aircraft reached Mach 1.1 and an altitude of 25 kilometres. Dawn said this marks the first time a civil aircraft has flown supersonic since Concorde.The feat comes after Aurora hit Mach 0.92 in August, which, at the time, was three times the speed and five times the height of its previous test conducted in 2023. Dawns aircraft just keeps on getting faster. The end goal is to go hypersonic (6,17312,348 km/h) and fly over 100 km above the Earth twice in one day.Register NowAs a company, we have been working for more than seven years to design, develop, test, and deliver supersonic flight. We are now achieving this and will start commercial payload operations in the coming months, said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace.The company, headquartered in the Netherlands and New Zealand, claims that during the test last week the Aurora also broke the world record for the fastest aircraft to climb from ground level to 20 km. The spaceplane made the ascent in just 118.6 seconds, beating the previous record set in the 1970s by a highly modified F-15 fighter jet.This milestone sets the stage for Aurora to become the worlds highest and fastest-flying aircraft and paves the way for the first operational hypersonic aircraft, redefining whats possible in aviation, said Powell.Cheaper access to spaceKiwi Stefan Powell and his brother James founded Dawn Aerospace in 2016 alongside Dutchman Jeroen Wink, and the two Germans Tobias Knop and Robert Werner. The team hopes to unlock cheaper, quicker access to space for applications such as microgravity research, atmospheric science, Earth observation, and testing high-speed flight.Dawn has spent just $10mn on its flight programme to date and looks to complete it using just $20mn pennies for an aerospace company. One can assume that these low production costs will also translate into cheap flights for customers.Dawns lean approach to tech development stands out in an industry dominated by billionaire-funded startups and deep-pocketed governments. The company generates some additional revenue from its other business line, which builds low emissions propulsions systems for satellites. Nevertheless, its looking to do something quite remarkable given its limited cash runway.The startups ultimate vision is to build an orbital stage aircraft, dubbed Mk-III, that could transport satellites into low-Earth orbit, putting it in direct competition with Elon Musks SpaceX. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

For the past few months, Meta has been sending recipes to a Dutch scaleup called VSParticle (VSP). These are not food recipes theyre AI-generatedinstructions for how to make new nanoporous materials that could potentially supercharge the green transition.VSP has so far taken 525 of these recipes and synthesised them into nanomaterials called electrocatalysts. Metas algorithms predicted these electrocatalysts would be ideal for breaking down CO2 into useful products like methane or ethanol. VSP brought the machines predictions to life using a nanoprinter, a machine which vaporises materials and then deposits them as thin nanoporous films.Electrocatalysts speed up chemical reactions that involve electricity, such as splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, converting CO2 into fuels, or generating power in fuel cells. They make these processes more efficient, reducing the energy required and enabling clean energy technologies like hydrogen production and advanced batteries.The problem is that it typically takes scientists up to 15 years just to create one new nanomaterial until now.Weve synthesised, tested, and validated hundreds of nanomaterials at a scale and speed never seen before, Aaike van Vugt, co-founder and CEO of VSP, told TNW. This rapid prototyping gives researchers a quick way to validate AI predictions and discover low-cost electrocatalysts that might have taken years or even decades to find using traditional methods.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!VSP put each batch of the new materials in an envelope and shipped it to a lab at the University of Toronto for testing. The findings were then integrated into an open-source experimental database, which can now be used to train AI models to become more better at predicting new material combinations.Larry Zitnick, Research Director at Meta AI, said the research is breaking new ground in material discovery. It marks a significant leap in our ability to predict and validate materials that are critical for clean energy solutions, he said.The Alphafold of nanomaterial discovery?But to really crack the code for material discovery, AI models need to be trained on much larger datasets. Not hundreds but tens or even hundreds of thousands of tested materials.Van Vugt said that VSPs machine is the only technology available today that could synthesize such a large number of thin-film nanoporous materials in a reasonable time frame about two to three years, said the founder. This could create an AI that is the equivalent of Google Deepminds Alphafold, but for nanoporous materials, said Van Vugt. Hes referring, of course, to the breakthrough algorithm that cracked a puzzle in protein biology that had confounded scientists for centuries. If thats true, then it puts the company in a pretty sweet position. The worlds tech giants think Google, Microsoft, Meta are all racing to build bigger, better forms of artificial intelligence in a bid to find solutions to some of the worlds greatest challenges, including climate change. Ironically, these models could also think up solutions for their endless appetite for energy. For companies like Meta, investing in material discovery using AI is a win-win.VSP is working with many other organisations to build out its dataset and mature its technology. These include the Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, the San Francisco-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Materials Discovery Research Institute (MDRI) in the Chicago area, and the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER).The Dutch firm is also fine-tuning its nanoprinters to be faster and more efficient. The current machines are powered by 300 sparks per second, but the team is working on a new printer that would increase this output time to 20,000 sparks per second. This could supercharge material discovery even further. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

British scaleup Tokamak Energy has secured $125mn as it looks to harness fusion the same clean, virtually limitless energy source that powers the Sun and stars.Tokamak spun out from the UKs Atomic Energy Authority in 2009. As its name suggests, the company is building a tokamak reactor, the most common kind of fusion design, first pioneered in the 1960s. Tokamaks use giant magnets to keep plasma moving in a loop while running an electrical current through it.The funding brings the companys total raised to $335 million, comprising $280m from private investors and $60m from the UK and US governments. This makes it Europes most well-funded private fusion energy venture.Tokamak Energy said the fresh capital will help bolster its commercialisation plans. The company aims to have its first fusion power plant up and running somewhere in the 2030s.Register NowHowever, the funds will also go toward growing Tokamaks side hustle, TE Magnetics. The subsidiary develops superconducting magnets using rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) tape, enabling stronger magnetic fields to confine the plasma. Superconducting magnets are in demand not just in the fusion industry but in science, mobility, and renewable energy.East X Ventures and Lingotto Investment Management led the funding round with participation from new investors including British Patient Capital, Furukawa Electric Company, global maritime company BW Group and US-based Sabanci Climate Ventures.Our mission is to make fusion energy a reality, and we believe the only way to achieve that is through strong, global partnerships, said Tokamak Energy CEO Warrick Matthews, adding that the raise comes at a critical and exciting time for fusion development. To fulfil its ambitious timeline, Tokamak is hastily developing, testing, and validating its approach using its pilot reactor the ST40 housed at its headquarters in Oxford. The ST40 is a spherical tokamak, which is more compact than traditional donut-shaped reactors like the ITER fusion plant under construction in France. According to the company, this shape allows better confinement of the super-hot plasma where fusion occurs, making the reactor smaller, cheaper, and easier to build. In 2022, the ST40 became the first privately owned fusion reactor to reach 100 million C six times as hot as the core of our closest star. This is generally regarded as the temperature threshold whereby fusion reactions can become self-sustaining.Despite huge progress, fusion energy has always seemed to be that 20-years-away technology. But the tides might be changing. According to a poll at the International Atomic Energy Agencys (IAEA) forum in London earlier this year, 65% of insiders think fusion will generate electricity for the grid at a viable cost by 2035, and 90% by 2040.Once up and running, Tokamak intends for each of its reactors to produce around 500MW of clean electricity enough to power approximately 85,000 homes. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Two years ago, the minds behind Testing for All a Covid-era at-home testing service launched a new startup. But instead of those dreaded antigen tests that make you feel like youre trying to tickle your brain with a cotton swab, the company delivers something much more comforting: a trained nurse or doctor.The London-basedventure is called Heim Health. Itworks with the private sector and the NHS to match patients with the best practitioners in their area. Once paired, the platform uses algorithms borrowed from delivery apps to map the fastest routes and schedule the most convenient time for the appointment. Less time wasted in traffic means more patients seen per shift. And Heim even ensures any necessary equipment shows up before your nurse does.Specialist care is becoming increasingly bottlenecked, with waiting lists at an all-time high and discharge delays keeping patients in hospital longer than they need, said Kelly Klifa, co-founder and CEO at Heim Health, and former founder of Testing for All (pictured top left).Our mission with Heim Health is to build the digital infrastructure needed to change this; revitalising community-based care and moving more healthcare from the hospital into the home through scalable modes of delivery.Register NowDuring the height of the pandemic, Klifa launched Testing for All alongside James Monico. It was the UKs only not-for-profit Covid testing service, delivering more than 1 million at-home tests. In 2022, the pair teamed up with entrepreneur Sasha Tory (pictured top right) to expand the concept to at-home healthcare.Today, Heim Health announced it has raised 2.2mn (2.5m) in seed funding. The round was led by Heal Capital and joined by Form Ventures, Portfolio Ventures and Houghton Street Ventures.This fresh capital will help Heim Health to fine-tune its algorithms and support a wider range of healthcare services, including furthering its work with the NHS. The company said its long-term mission is to ease pressure on hospitals and provide patients with better care.Heim is already getting good feedback, it said. According to the company, healthcare providers have seen patient waiting slashed up to 85% by using the platform. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

German tech darling DeepL has (finally) launched a voice-to-text service. Its called DeepL Voice, and it turns audio from live or video conversations into translated text.DeepL users can now listen to people speaking a language they dont understand and automatically translate it to one they do in real-time.The new feature currently supports English, German, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Dutch, French, Turkish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Italian.What makes the launch of DeepL Voice exciting is that it runs on the same neural networks as the companys text-to-text offering, which itclaims is the worlds best AI translator.As someone whos just moved to a foreign country, Im keen to try a voice-to-text translator that actually might work. All the ones Ive tried so far arent real-time theres a lag that renders them pretty useless and the translation quality is pretty poor.Register NowFor face-to-face conversations, you can launch DeepL Voice on your mobile and place it between you and the other speaker. It then displays your conversation so each person can follow translations easily on one device.You can also integrate DeepL Voice into Microsoft Teams and video-conference across language barriers. The translated text appears on a sidebar as captions. It remains to be seen whether DeepL Voice will be available on platforms like Zoom or Google Meet anytime soon. The next frontier While this is DeepLs first such offering, its unlikely to be its last. DeepLs founder and CEO, Jarek Kutylowskicalled real-time voice translationthe next frontier for the business.DeepL is already a leader in written translation, but real-time speech translation is an entirely different story, said DeepLs founder and CEO, Jarek Kutylowski.When translating speech as it happens, youre dealing with incomplete input, pronunciation issues, latency and more, all of which can lead to inaccurate translations and poor user experience.Sowe built a solution that would take these into account from the offset and enable businesses to break down language barriers by enabling them to communicate in multiple languages as required, said Kutylowski.Quality will likely be DeepL Voices differentiating factor from the countless other providers of voice-to-text translations. From a technological perspective, DeepLs success lies in the architecture of its neural networks, the input from human editors, and the training data. But Kutylowski also believes it has a key advantage over its competitors: focus.Focus is always an important thing, Kutylowski previously told TNW. Translate isnt the core business of Google its one of the 100 side gigs. The same goes if you consider LLMs and the OpenAIs of this world as our competition; translation is only one thing of what theyre doing and their GPU is doing a tonne of different things. Were focused on one particular area.In May, the DeepL reached a $2bn valuation after securing a new investment of $300mn (277mn). It covers 32 languages and counts over 100,000 business users. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

London-based startup Gendo has secured 5.1mn amid booming demand for its generative AI software built for architects.British architectural designer George Proud and software engineer Will Jones founded Gendo in 2022. The platform transforms simple inputs like sketches, 2D drawings, or text descriptions into hypereal building designs.It works a bit like Midjourney or DALL-E, except its built by architects for architects. The tool allows you to precisely edit specific details of your design, such as colours, lighting, structural elements, or furniture. The model produces more life-like results than more general AI algorithms. Whats more, Gendo claims it can generate detailed visualisations 100 times faster than conventional software. The tool also comes at a reasonable price point 15 per month for the mid-range package.Register NowWe are huge believers in bespoke generative AI tools that are designed for specific use cases the reception to Gendo has been a huge validator of that belief, said Proud, who serves as the startups CEO.Gendo launched its platform just four months ago, after securing 1mn in pre-seed funding. Early adopters include big names such as Zaha Hadid Architects, KPF, David Chipperfield Architects, and Benoy.Gendo stands out because it makes it easy and affordable to generate professional designs, filling the gap between basic visualisation tools and time-consuming rendering software like Autodesks Forma or Spacemaker.Patrik Schumacher, principal at Zaha Hadid Architects, called Gendos platform a step-change for our discipline. Schumacher was recently appointed to Gendos board, as the startup embarks on its next phase of growth. Gendo said it will use the fresh capital to expand its AI capabilities and the development of customised workflows and licensing models aimed at big design firms.German early-stage funds PT1 and LEA Partners co-led the funding round. The UKs largest pre-seed fund Concept Ventures also chipped in, as did London-based Koro Captial. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

American wearables firm Realwear has acquired Swiss augmented reality (AR) startup Almer Technologies.Almers AR headset the Arc-2 overlays digital information onto the wearers field of view, allowing them to access real-time data, instructions, or assistance from an engineer seated anywhere in the world. The glasses are targeted specifically at industrial companies looking to help their staff maintain and repair equipment and machinery remotely.Almers innovative approach for frontline workers has enabled us to deliver industrial AR solutions that are intuitive and effortless to use, said Sebastian Beetschen, Almers co-founder and CEO.Beetschen founded Almer alongside Timon Binder in 2021 as a spin-off from a research project at the Swiss Insitute for Technology. The company has raised $8mn in funding so far. Its clients include Coca-Cola, Ford, and Samsung.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!For Realwear, the acquisition is part of its plans to become a global leader in the industrial wearables space. For Almer, the deal bolsters the budding companys ambitionsto scale at pace and expand beyond Europe.We are thrilled that the Almer team is joining forces with the American leader in the augmented reality space for frontline workers, said Olivier Laplace, managing partner at Swiss VC Vi Partners. The firm was an early back of Almer.This strategic move validates our early conviction that Almer is a technical front-runner, said Laplace, who will now join the board of directors of Realwear.The acquisition comes as the market for AR, and extended reality (XR) more broadly, consolidates.The initial hype around XR sparked a wave of startups and experimental applications, driven by excitement over immersive digital experiences. Now, as the market matures, were beginning to see where the technology adds real value.XR tech can now be found in any industry that benefits from immersive interactions. Healthtech has been one of the greatest use cases. AR is used to provide train medical professionals, enhance patient diagnostics, and even facilitate remote surgeries.Startups in transportation, manufacturing, professional training and construction are also harnessing the technology. And of course, gaming and entertainment the early targets of the XR market still make up a sizeable portion of the market.Almers buyout was financially backed by TeamViewer, a major player in enterprise AR software that owns a minority stake in both Almer and Realwear. Almer will continue to operate from its headquarters in Switzerland. The deal amount was not disclosed. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Zurich-based venture capital firm Founderful has raised $140mn in its second fund $20mn more than its target and a strong sign of investor confidence in Switzerlands flourishing tech ecosystem.First announced back in February, the fund has already invested in 15 early-stage startups. These include Chiral Nano, which develops nanomaterials for silicon chips, and 8inks, which is rejigging the lithium-ion battery.Founderful formerly Wingman Ventures was launched in 2019 by Pascal Mathis, the co-founder of local travel marketplace unicorn GetYourGuide, Eat.ch co-founder Lukas Weder and Alex Stckl, former exec at Creathor Ventures.The founder-led VC exclusively backs Swiss startups at the pre-seed or seed stage. Its vision? To transform budding Swiss ventures into global industry leaders.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!From day one, we have been relentless in our efforts to create a foothold for the Swiss tech ecosystem on the global stage, said Stckl, partner at Founderful.Fund II is evidence that we have walked the talk, and investors have taken note. This was no easy win, but we fought hard.Founderfuls new Fund II is backed by a range of institutions, family offices, and founders from unicorns such as Duolingo, Climeworks, Proton, and Scandit.Silicon alps?Stckl called the Swiss tech ecosystem a powerhouse thats only just starting to claim its place on the global stage. The Alphine nation has the highest number of unicorn companies per capita in Europe and has ranked first in the Global Innovation Index for13 years in a row.But perhaps the Swiss tech ecosystems biggest asset is its universities and research institutions. ETH Zurich, for one, now produces more university spin-outs than any other university in Europe. We profiled one of these companies, Oxyle, earlier this year in an in-depth piece about PFAS, commonly known as forever chemicals. Led by Dr. Fajer Mushtaq, Oxyle has developed a reactor that mineralises these cancer-causing compounds, breaking apart their carbon-fluorine bonds.Founderful led Oxyles pre-seed investment in 2022 under its first $90mn fund, which has since been fully deployed across 40 startups.The VC claims that these portfolio companies have since created over 1,100 jobs and secured more than $450 million in follow-on funding. Notable successes include Ethon AI, which helps factories like the Lindt chocolate factory save waste, and plastic recycling startup DePoly.Severin Hacker, CTO and co-founder at Duolingo and investor in Founderfuls Fund II called the up-and-coming VC meticulous and relentless in creating value for the founders it backs.Their approach, combined with the unfolding potential of the Swiss tech ecosystem, probably makes them one of Europes most promising VC firms, said Hacker. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

New data from LinkedIn on the most in-demand jobs on the platform in the third quarter of this year reveals that software engineering is in second place. Just pipped to the post by sales roles, it is clear that software engineering and development pros are in high demand.Additionally, full stack engineers and application developers feature in the top ten in-demand roles at places eight and ten respectively.Software roles are in such high prominence because software powers pretty much everything. According to McKinsey, these days, Every company is a software company.Traditional bricks and mortar businesses are now increasingly digital-first. Think of your bank or your supermarket, for example. The way we use these businesses has radically changed, with services increasingly offered online.5 jobs to discover this weekThe of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Media are software companies now too. Hundreds of workers at The New York Times Tech Guild went on strike the day before the US election. They include data analysts, project managers, and software developers, and make up around 600 of the publications tech employees.These workers create and maintain the back-end systems that power the New York Timesyes, including Wordle. The fact that they not only represent about 10% of the papers total workforce, but are so essential to its operations, is yet another sign of our reliance on software solutions and the people who provide them.McKinsey has established three main reasons why this is the case. Firstly, there is the accelerated adoption of digital products, observed particularly during the pandemic when we did more online than ever before.Secondly, these days, more of the value in products and services is derived from software. Thirdly, the growth of cloud computing, PaaS, low- and no-code tools, and AI-based programming platforms are growing the sector exponentially.Languages to learnIn such a dynamic sector, its no surprise that new programming languages are emerging all the time. Consider Mojo, a language designed to combine the simplicity of Python, with the efficiency of C++ or Rust.Or how about Finch, a new language from MIT thats designed to support both flexible control flow and diverse data structures.Additionally, older languages are having a resurgence, such as Go, and thats because its good for security and AI; both hot-button topics right now.Stack Overflows 2024 Developer Survey highlighted JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and Python as the top three languages respondents had used for extensive development work over the past year.Additionally, the US White House Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) issued a recent report advising that programmers should move to memory-safe languages.Given all that, it is understandable if as a developer, youre really not sure what languages you should be using, what you should learn, and what you can think about dropping.Broad v specificDoes this mean you should be aiming to become proficient in up to ten languages? A recent Reddit thread discussed just that, with one user arguing, There is absolutely no point of learning 10 languages; just pick two, pick a specific field, and become the best at it.Others agreed, with one contributor saying, people are fixated on finding the hottest new language, the hottest new tech stack, or the latest trends, but this is not gonna help you.Another user pointed out that Specialisation is good but you should have a general understanding of the type of languages and how they work, then you can learn new languages and tech stack easily.For many developers, good foundational knowledge is more important (and more valuable to their long-term career) than having a laundry list of programming languages on their CV that they may only be semi-proficient in.Learning a stack on YouTube and building toy projects is easy, pointed out another thread contributor. Building specialisation takes a lot more effort and many years of real life experience.If you do decide to specialise in a couple of languages, that should be, at least in part, influenced by what you enjoy doing most.Do what you think is good for you, says a thread contributor. Once you become really good, youll automatically stand out from the crowd by being better than 90% of the mediocre developers. Wise advice.Ready to find your next programming role? Check out The Next Web Job Board Story by Kirstie McDermott Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Content provided by Amply and TNWAlso tagged with

In 1991, Sony brought the first rechargeable lithium-ion battery to market. The unique chemistry proved a game-changer in energy storage. Today everything from EVs to smartphones depends on it, with demand skyrocketing.But lithium is rare, most of it comes from unstable markets outside Europe,and its extraction can cause extensive pollution. We need more lithium to enable the green transition and yet, currently, its use is unsustainable both environmentally and economically.Were stuck in a paradox. Munich-based startup Tozero believes that battery recycling offers a way out. Recycling batteries is far from a new concept, but the German venture claims its technology gets the job done more efficiently than existing methods and without the use of harmful acids.Tozero was founded in 2022 by serial entrepreneur Sarah Fleischer and metallurgy expert Dr. Ksenija Milicevic Neumann. When the pair first met, they were working in the space industry. Three years later they teamed up to fix a pressing issue here on Earth.Register NowBefore founding Tozero, Neumann spent years at RWTH Aachen developing a breakthrough water-based carbonation process for extracting lithium and other elements like graphite from black mass. This powdery substance is produced after shredding and processing spent batteries.Neumanns research gave Tozero a significant head-start. In just two years, the company has managed to break out of the lab and deliver its first batches of recycled lithium to customers. And today, the company announced it has raised 11mn in Series A funding as it looks to scale up at pace.Despite our limited resources as a two-year-old startup weve already made human history by being the first to ever deliver recycled lithium for end products in Europe, said Fleischer, the companys CEO.NordicNinja, a Japan-backed European VC fund, led the funding round, bringing Tozeros total raised to a cosy 17mn. Other investors include automotive giant Honda, US venture firm In-Q-Tel, and engineering group JGC.Tozero will use the fresh capital to build its first industrial deployment plant. From 2026 onwards, the company plans to process 30,000 tonnes of battery waste annually.Tozero can technically just keep on growing as long as it receives a continuous supply of old batteries. And that shouldnt be too much of an issue.Lithium-ion production is set to almost quadruple by 2030. Meanwhile, regulations like the EUs Battery Directivewhich calls for at least 80% of lithium to be recovered from batteries by 2031add much-needed incentives. This is only good news for Tozero and other recycling upstarts,including Cylib, which is currently building Europes largest recycling plant for EV batteries.However, if Europe is to secure a sustainable supply of the lithium it so desperately needs, it must expand local mining and explore new battery technologies like sodium-ion, zinc-ion, and the holy grail solid-state batteries. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Amsterdam-based startup Sympower has secured 21mn as it looks to scale its grid-balancing technology.Sympower partners with businesses that use a large amount of electricity. It gains access to some of their energy assets and can turn them on and off when the grid requires balancing a process called demand response.Sympowers software platform uses AI to analyse data and optimise when and how much power businesses can sell at any given time, making energy use adjustments more effective and profitable for all parties.Grid operators pay Sympower to stabilise the energy supply. The company passes most of that payment to participating businesses, keeping a small service fee.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The system gives energy-intensive companies an incentive to stop using electricity during times of peak demand. The more energy they save, the more money they make. The idea is to help prevent blackouts and the strain on the grid.Electricity infrastructure around the world is struggling to adapt to the influx of renewable energies like wind and solar because unlike the gas and coal that came before they produce power intermittently.The EU has identified demand response as well as energy storage technologies as key to restoring the balance. As more renewables come online and our societies electrify, its no wonder that demand for grid flexibility is surging.Founded by Simon Bushnell and Georg Rute in 2015, who studied together at Imperial College London, Sympower is a first-mover in this relatively niche industry. It has 2GW worth of energy assets under management and employs 200 people in over 10 countries. Todays funding round brings its total capital raised to a healthy 60mn.Sympower has grown tremendously in recent years, which aligns with the unprecedented demand across Europe for diversified and mature energy flexibility solutions, said Bushell, the companys CEO and co-founder.A&G Energy Transition Tech Fund (A&G ETTF) led the funding round, with direct investment from the European Investment Fund (EIF) and participation from existing investors Activate Capital, Rubio Impact Ventures, PDENH, and Expon Capital.Armed with fresh funding, the company aims to continue expanding throughout Europe, with the intent to acquire competitors in the near future. It is also expanding into the battery storage business to complement its demand response software. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Rubys creator, Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz), released the first public version of the programming language in December 1995, making Ruby just shy of its 30th birthday. It spread across Japanese-language Usenet newsgroups, a popular way of exchanging conversation and media before the World Wide Web, and then reached broader communities throughout the late 1990s.This was thanks to Rubys friendly community and, in no small part, thanks to Matz. (The community has a motto, Matz is nice, and so we are nice.) At this years annual European Ruby Konferenze EuRoKu in Sarajevo, Matz said he created Ruby because he was lazy and full of hubris.That doesnt sound like a justification for creating and maintaining a programming language for 30 years, but its a sign of his derisive humbleness that feeds Ruby and has kept it a generally welcoming community over the decades.30 years of Ruby historyThe programming language emerged when the rapid growth of web-related technologies embraced lightweight, easier-to-learn, and easier-to-run languages such as PHP and Python. While all three languages have myriad other uses, timing and external factors often propelled them into broader popularity. For Ruby, this was the Rails framework in 2004 and two books Dave Thomass Pragmatic Programmer in 1999 and WHYS (poignant) Guide to Ruby in 2005*.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!While Thomass book didnt cover Ruby in detail, it mentions it, and the author continued to promote the language for many years after publishing it. The book, in general, has been a long-term success, and contributed to increasing interest in Ruby in its early life.Sometimes, Ruby on Rails feels like a blessing and a curse for Ruby itself. To many developers, they are one and the same thing. Rails events typically have more attendees. Many of the recent features and changes in Ruby came upstream from Rails.Finally, Rails creator and founder of 37Signals, David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), is a far more recognised name in the wider programming and tech community and is a vocal presence online. One attendee at EuRoKu I spoke to stated that as much as the community doesnt want to admit it, the two projects are highly connected.Many Web 2.0 sites that emerged in the early 2000s ran on Rails, and many still do (at least in part), including Airbnb, GitHub, Twitter (now X), Netflix, and Shopify (another major Ruby contributor and sponsor). Rails introduced many features that any older developer (like myself) will remember how groundbreaking they were, and many younger developers will now take it for granted. As a Drupal PHP developer at the time, I remember looking at features such as database table creation, management, and migration with envy.While interest and search term tracking for Rails shows at a quarter of what it once was, actual usage remains reasonably close to its peak. This shows that many developers using it are at a senior level and largely know what theyre doing.The 2024 Planet Argon survey confirms this: nearly 70% of respondents had more than seven years experience and have run their applications for about the same length of time. I dont know how many new projects choose Rails, but there are enough pre-existing ones to maintain a healthy interest for a 20-year-old project.If you remove the several-year peak of Rubys interest after Rails release, then Ruby is as popular as it was 30 years ago. According to Tiobe statistics, its slightly more popular. The 2023 Stack Overflow survey puts Rubys popularity at 16 out of 50 languages, and an IEEE survey from 2024 and PYPL reports about the same.Its easy to draw negative or inaccurate statistical comparisons to an unprecedented blip, but abstract them out over time, and you see a different story.Every language with a few decades under its belt has a degree of technical or community baggage, and I felt this same impression with Ruby in general and at the EuRuKo event. The community was friendly and welcoming but full of references and name drops that meant nothing to me. Granted, all communities do this to a degree, and maybe other events support newcomers, but there were few beginner-level talks.The next 30 yearsBut enough of the distant past. What has Ruby recently added, or changed, or planned to keep the current developers interested and maybe attract new ones?Ruby is an interpreted language, meaning its converted from human-readable to machine-runnable code when run, often in a virtual machine that runs on a physical machine. One modern criticism of Ruby, and all interpreted languages, is that they are too slow for the scale of modern applications.Ruby has a default interpreter, CRuby (formerly Matzs Ruby Interpreter), that translates the code into instructions run by the Ruby virtual machine. But Ruby and the community have added alternative and more performant interpreters, especially in the past few years, including multiple just in time (JIT) compiler options, which is a popular technique for bringing compiled code speed to interpreted languages.Other programming languages, such as C, C++, and Rust, are compiled languages, turning human-readable code into machine-readable code before its run. While not primarily designed for running as a compiled language, other options make it possible with Ruby.However, compiling languages is nothing new, and as I mentioned in my KubeCon EU wrap-up, WebAssembly (WASM) is the present for some and the future for many. Principally, WASM lets you run supported languages in the browser (but also now offers much more, maybe thats a future post), bringing complex and powerful applications to the browser. Since 2022, Ruby has been able to compile to WASM. If youve used Mastodon in the browser, its a Ruby on Rails application running as WASM.When Ruby began life, monoliths were the common application architecture pattern one large codebase written in one language that handles all functionality and services. In recent years, microservices has become the more popular architectural design, at least in an ideal world.Instead of one large, multifunctional, monolingual codebase, an application is broken up into a diverse array of code bases and languages that communicate with each other. Ruby was never really designed with this architecture in mind, and you can track its decline along parallel lines with the increase in microservices.In recent years, Ruby has added features to keep up with changes that may surprise or tempt non-Ruby developers. These include asynchronous and threaded code, allowing applications to communicate simultaneously with other applications and services.Many modern languages support these features, but Rubys syntax is simpler than JavaScript. Developers at EuRuKo were excited by some of the other forthcoming features, all of which continue to add creative options for coding with the language.While many developers may now dismiss Ruby as an option to start with, it has also inspired many other languages directly and indirectly that may suit the contemporary microservices-fuelled developer.Elixir, first appearing 12 years ago, drew inspiration from Ruby, and its creator, Jos Valim, came from the Ruby community. Elixir is more optimised for high concurrency and low latency, making it well-suited for finance and telecommunications industries.Crystal, created ten years ago, also has members of the Ruby community as maintainers. Its syntax is more inspired by Ruby but adds features that make the language more stable and reliable, including running as compiled instead of interpreted.Community motivatedWhy do long-term Ruby developers still use it despite the plethora of new and shiny options they can choose from? Dave Thomas told me about how he discovered Ruby amongst dozens of other languages he played with on Usenet forums back in the 1990s. I was blown away. I played with Ruby for a day. I played with it the next day. And I kept playing with it after that, and it became my programming language of choice when I had a choice.And why does Thomas continue to use Ruby 30 years later? Ruby lets you find ways to express yourself without dictating too much. Like when you write prose and are trying to find the right phrasing and structure for your words, Ruby lets you do the same thing with code. You can experiment with nice ways to express things, not just one way.I am not likely to switch any of my current projects to Ruby, and I am unsure how many developers established using other languages would either. However, one attitude I heard over and over again when speaking with the Ruby community was freedom of creative choice.Many other programming language communities are full of advice on the right way to do things, which is, of course, different, depending on who you speak to. The Ruby community follows a different approach, providing gently opinionated tools to let you find your own way.The technical world is full of trends that come and go and people who tell you that youre wrong for your decisions. If the Ruby community is one of the few that doesnt judge, then no matter its trend or usage percentages, long may it last._______* If you havent read WHYs guide, its available for free and is in equal parts programming book, comic, and surreal journey of self-realisation. Because of this strange combination, its divisive. Some say it was the only book they ever learned programming from. Others find it an utterly confounding and confusing mess. Still, its unique style and mysterious author also increased interest in the language during its nascent days. Story by Chris Chinchilla Technology writer, podcaster, and video maker by day. Fiction, games, and music by night.chrischinchilla.com Technology writer, podcaster, and video maker by day. Fiction, games, and music by night.chrischinchilla.com Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

In the ambitious pursuit to tackle the harms from false content on social media and news websites, data scientists are getting creative.While still in their training wheels, the large language models (LLMs) used to create chatbots like ChatGPT are being recruited to spot fake news. With better detection, AI fake news checking systems may be able to warn of, and ultimately counteract, serious harms from deepfakes, propaganda, conspiracy theories and misinformation.The next level AI tools will personalise detection of false content as well as protecting us against it. For this ultimate leap into user-centered AI, data science needs to look to behavioural and neuroscience.Recent work suggests we might not always consciously know that we are encountering fake news. Neuroscience is helping to discover what is going on unconsciously. Biomarkers such as heart rate, eye movements and brain activity) appear to subtly change in response to fake and real content. In other words, these biomarkers may be tells that indicate if we have been taken in or not.For instance, when humans look at faces, eye-tracking data shows that we scan for rates of blinking and changes in skin colour caused by blood flow. If such elements seem unnatural, it can help us decide that were looking at a deepfake. This knowledge can give AI an edge we can train it to mimic what humans look for, among other things.The personalisation of an AI fake news checker takes shape by using findings from human eye movement data and electrical brain activity that shows what types of false content has the greatest impact neurally, psychologically and emotionally, and for whom.Knowing our specific interests, personality and emotional reactions, an AI fact-checking system could detect and anticipate which content would trigger the most severe reaction in us. This could help establish when people are taken in and what sort of material fools people the easiest.Counteracting harmsWhat comes next is customising the safeguards. Protecting us from the harms of fake news also requires building systems that could intervene some sort of digital countermeasure to fake news. There are several ways to do this such as warning labels, links to expert-validated credible content and even asking people to try to consider different perspectives when they read something.Our own personalised AI fake news checker could be designed to give each of us one of these countermeasures to cancel out the harms from false content online.Such technology is already being trialled. Researchers in the US have studied how people interact with a personalised AI fake news checker of social media posts. It learned to reduce the number of posts in a news feed to those it deemed true. As a proof of concept, another study using social media posts tailored additional news content to each media post to encourage users to view alternative perspectives.Accurate detection of fake newsBut whether this all sounds impressive or dystopian, before we get carried away it might be worth asking some basic questions.Much, if not all, of the work on fake news, deepfakes, disinformation and misinformation highlights the same problem that any lie detector would face.There are many types of lie detectors, not just the polygraph test. Some exclusively depend on linguistic analysis. Others are systems designed to read peoples faces to detect if they are leaking micro-emotions that give away that they are lying. By the same token, there are AI systems that are designed to detect if a face is genuine or a deep fake.Before the detection begins, we all need to agree on what a lie looks like if we are to spot it. In fact, in deception research shows it can be easier because you can instruct people when to lie and when tell the truth. And so you have some way of knowing the ground truth before you train a human or a machine to tell the difference, because they are provided with examples on which to base their judgements.Knowing how good an expert lie detector is depends on how often they call out a lie when there was one (hit). But also, that they dont frequently mistake someone as telling the truth when they were in fact lying (miss). This means they need to know what the truth is when they see it (correct rejection) and dont accuse someone of lying when they were telling the truth (false alarm). What this refers to is signal detection, and the same logic applies to fake news detection which you can see in the diagram below.For an AI system detecting fake news, to be super accurate, the hits need to be really high (say 90%) and so the misses will be very low (say 10%), and the false alarms need to stay low (say 10%) which means real news isnt called fake. If an AI fact-checking system, or a human one is recommended to us, based on signal detection, we can better understand how good it is.There are likely to be cases, as has been reported in a recent survey, where the news content may not be completely false or completely true, but partially accurate. We know this because the speed of news cycles means that what is considered accurate at one time, may later be found to be inaccurate, or vice versa. So, a fake news checking system has its work cut out.If we knew in advance what was faked and what was real news, how accurate are biomarkers at indicating unconsciously which is which? The answer is not very. Neural activity is most often the same when we come across real and fake news articles.When it comes to eye-tracking studies, it is worth knowing that there are different types of data collected from eye-tracking techniques (for example the length of time our eye fix on an object, the frequency that our eye moves across a visual scene).So depending on what is analysed, some studies show that we direct more attention when viewing false content, while others show the opposite.Are we there yet?AI fake news detection systems on the market are already using insights from behavioural science to help flag and warn us against fake news content. So it wont be a stretch for the same AI systems to start appearing in our news feeds with customised protections for our unique user profile. The problem with all this is we still have a lot of basic ground to cover in knowing what is working, but also checking whether we want this.In the worst case scenario, we only see fake news as a problem online as an excuse to solve it using AI. But false and inaccurate content is everywhere, and gets discussed offline. Not only that, we dont by default believe all fake news, some times we use it in discussions to illustrate bad ideas.In an imagined best case scenario, data science and behavioural science is confident about the scale of the various harms fake news might cause. But, even here, AI applications combined with scientific wizardry might still be very poor substitutes for less sophisticated but more effective solutions.Magda Osman, Professor of Policy Impact, University of LeedsThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

The European Space Agency has given the go-ahead for initial work on a mission to visit an asteroid called (99942) Apophis. If approved at a key meeting next year, the robotic spacecraft, known as the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses), will rendezvous with the asteroid in February 2029.Apophis is 340 metres wide, about the same as the height of the Empire State Building. If it were to hit Earth, it would cause wholesale destruction hundreds of miles from its impact site. The energy released would equal that of tens or hundreds of nuclear weapons, depending on the yield of the device.Luckily, Apophis wont hit Earth in 2029. Instead, it will pass by Earth safely at a distance of 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometres), about one-twelfth the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Nevertheless, this is a very close pass by such a big object, and Apophis will be visible with the naked eye.Nasa and the European Space Agency have seized this rare opportunity to send separate robotic spacecrafts to rendezvous with Apophis and learn more about it. Their missions could help inform efforts to deflect an asteroid that threatens Earth, should we needed it in the future.The threat from asteroidsSome 66 million years ago, an asteroid the size of a small city hit Earth. The impact of this asteroid brought about a global extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.Earth is in constant danger of being hit by asteroids, leftover debris from the formation of the Solar System 4.5 billion years ago. Located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, asteroids come in many shapes and sizes. Most are small, only 10 metres across, but the largest are hundreds of kilometres across, larger than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.Artists impression of Apophis.NasaThe asteroid belt contains 1-2 million asteroids larger than a kilometre across and millions of smaller bodies. These space rocks feel each others gravitational pull, as well as the gravitational tug of Jupiter on one side and the inner planets on the other.Because of this gravitational tug-of-war, every once in a while an asteroid is thrown out of its orbit and hurtles towards the inner Solar System. There are 35,000 such near-Earth objects (Neos). Of these, 2,300 potentially hazardous objects (PHOs) have orbits that intersect Earths and are large enough that they pose a real threat to our survival.Do not go gentle into that good nightDuring the 20th century, astronomers set up several surveys, such as Atlas, in order to detect and study hazardous asteroids. But detection is not enough; we have to find a way to defend Earth against an incoming asteroid.Blowing up an asteroid, as depicted in the movie Armageddon, is no use. The asteroid would be broken into smaller fragments, which would keep moving in much the same direction. Instead of being hit by one large asteroid, Earth would be hit by a swarm of smaller objects.The preferred solution is to deflect the incoming asteroid away from Earth so that it passes by harmlessly. To do so, we would need to apply an external force to the asteroid to nudge it away. A popular idea is to fire a projectile at the asteroid. Nasa did this in 2022, when a spacecraft called Dart collided with an asteroid. Before we do this out of necessity, we have to understand how different types of asteroids would react to such an impact.Apophis, Ramses, and Osiris-ApexApophis was discovered in 2004. The asteroid passed by Earth on December 21, 2004 at a distance of 14 million kilometres. It returned in 2021, and will swing by Earth again in 2029, 2036, and 2068.Until recently, there was a small chance that Apophis could collide with Earth in 2068. However, during Apophis approach in 2021, astronomers used radar observations to refine their knowledge of the asteroids orbit. These showed that Apophis would not hit our planet for the next 100 years.The Ramses mission will rendezvous with Apophis in February 2029, two months before its closest approach to Earth on Friday April 13. It will then accompany the asteroid as it approaches Earth. The goal is to learn how Apophiss orbit, rotation and shape will change as it passes so close to Earths gravitational field.In 2016, Nasa launched the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security Regolith Explorer (Osiris-Rex) mission to study the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. It intercepted Bennu in 2020 to collect samples of rock and soil from its surface. It dispatched the rocks in a capsule, which arrived on Earth in 2023.The spacecraft is still out there, so Nasa renamed it the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security Apophis Explorer (Osiris-Apex) and assigned it to study Apophis. Osiris-Apex will reach the asteroid just after its 2029 close encounter. It will then fly low over Apophiss surface and fire its engines, disturbing the rocks and dust that cover the asteroid to reveal the layer underneath.A close flyby of an asteroid as large as Apophis happens only once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Apophiss arrival in 2029 presents a rare opportunity to study such an asteroid up close, and seeing how it is affected by Earths gravitational pull. The information gleaned will shape the way we choose to protect Earth in the future from a real killer asteroid.Ancient Egyptian mythologyWhen Ramses and Osiris-Apex meet up with Apophis in 2029 they will inadvertently reenact a core component of ancient Egyptian cosmology. To the ancient Egyptians, the Sun was personified by several powerful gods, chief among them Re. The Suns setting in the evening was interpreted as Re dying and entering the netherworld.During his nighttime journey through the netherworld, Re was menaced by the great snake Apophis, who embodied the powers of darkness and dissolution. Only after Apophis had been defeated could Re be revitalised by Osiris, the king of the netherworld. Re could then once again be reborn in the east, rising in the sky once more.Detail from Egyptian tomb showing great cat of Re killing the giant snake Apep (Apophis).Hemro / ShutterstockTomb murals, coffins, and funerary papyri depict Apophis as a large, coiled snake threatening Re as he sails in his Solar barque (sailing ship). But Apophis is always defeated, his body pierced by a spear or riven by knives.Though the asteroid Apophis poses no danger in the near future, Ramses (named after the pharaohs of the same name, which meant born of Re) and Osiris-Apex will study it so that one day we will know how to defeat it or any of its distant brethren.Or Graur, Associate Professor of Astrophysics, University of PortsmouthThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

If youve ever seen yourself through a thermal imaging camera, youll know that your body produces lots of heat. This is in fact a waste product of our metabolism. Every square foot of the human body gives off heat equivalent to about 19 matches per hour.Unfortunately, much of this heat simply escapes into the atmosphere. Wouldnt it be great if we could harness it to produce energy? My research has shown this would indeed be possible. My colleagues and I are discovering ways of capturing and storing body heat for energy generation, using eco-friendly materials.The goal is to create a device that can both generate and store energy, acting like a built-in power bank for wearable tech. This could allow devices such as smart watches, fitness trackers, or GPS trackers to run much longer, or even indefinitely, by harnessing our body heat.The author won the editors choice award in Vitaes three minute thesis competition.It isnt just our bodies that produce waste heat. In our technologically advanced world, substantial waste heat is generated daily, from the engines of our vehicles to the machines that manufacture goods.Typically, this heat is also released into the atmosphere, representing a significant missed opportunity for energy recovery. The emerging concept of waste heat recovery seeks to address this inefficiency. By harnessing this otherwise wasted energy, industries can improve their operational efficiency and contribute to a more sustainable environment.The thermoelectric effect is a phenomenon that can help turn heat into electricity. This works by having a temperature difference produce an electric potential, as electrons flow from the hot side to the cool side, generating usable electrical energy.Conventional thermoelectric materials, however, are often made from cadmium, lead, or mercury. These come with environmental and health risks that limit their practical applications.The power of woodBut weve discovered you can also create thermoelectric materials from wood offering a safer, sustainable alternative.Wood has been integral to human civilisations for centuries, serving as a source of building materials and fuel. We are uncovering the potential of wood-derived materials to convert waste heat, often lost in industrial processes, into valuable electricity.This approach not only enhances energy efficiency, but also redefines how we view everyday materials as essential components of sustainable energy solutions.Our team at the University of Limerick, in collaboration with the University of Valencia, has developed a sustainable method to convert waste heat into electricity using Irish wood products, particularly lignin, which is a byproduct of the paper industry.Our study shows that lignin-based membranes, when soaked in a salt solution, can efficiently convert low-temperature waste heat (below 200C) into electricity. The temperature difference across the lignin membrane causes ions (charged atoms) in the salt solution to move. Positive ions drift toward the cooler side, while negative ions move toward the warmer side. This separation of charges creates an electric potential difference across the membrane, which can be harnessed as electrical energy.Since around 66% of industrial waste heat falls within this temperature range, this innovation presents a significant opportunity for eco-friendly energy solutions.This new technology has the potential to make a big difference in many areas. Industries, such as manufacturing, which produce large amounts of leftover heat, could see major benefits by turning that waste heat into electricity. This would help them save energy and lessen their impact on the environment.This technology could find use in various settings, from providing power in remote areas to powering sensors and devices in everyday applications. Its eco-friendly nature also makes it a promising solution for sustainable energy generation in buildings and infrastructure.The trouble with storageCapturing energy from waste heat is just the first step; storing it effectively is equally critical. Supercapacitors are energy storage devices that rapidly charge and discharge electricity. This makes them essential for applications requiring quick power delivery.However, their reliance on fossil fuel-derived carbon materials raises sustainability concerns, highlighting the need for renewable alternatives in their production.Our research group has discovered that lignin-based porous carbon can serve as an electrode in supercapacitors for energy storage generated from harvesting waste heat using a lignin membrane.This process allows the lignin membrane to capture and convert waste heat into electrical energy, while the porous carbon structure facilitates the rapid movement and storage of ions. By providing a green alternative that avoids harmful chemicals and reliance on fossil fuels, this approach offers a sustainable solution for energy storage from waste heat.This innovation in energy storage technology could power everything from consumer electronics, wearable technology to electric vehicles.Muhammad Muddasar, PhD candidate, School of Engineering, University of LimerickThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

About one in every 10 European startups that have raised VC investment are also backed by an EU grant of equity financing, according to a research project conducted by Dealroom and Dealflow.eu. While the full report is expected to be published later this year, the authors presented a few preliminary numbers in Warsaw last week.In financial terms, the 10% share translates into EU-backed startups having raised 70bn in VC funding since 2010, or some 11% of total funding in Europe (which in this case includes the EU, Switzerland, Norway, UK, and Israel). With some 400bn in total enterprise value (thats not including Arm), they now account for 13% of enterprise value for the entire continent.Predictably, most EU-backed startups work in what the report calls physical tech, i.e. producing tangible goods in the verticals such as spacetech, semiconductors, biotech, etc. In these industries, the share of EU-backed startups ranges from 24% to 28%.It also appears from the reports preliminary findings that EU backing improves the probability of success in further funding rounds. From Series A to Series D, EU-funded physical tech startups show a graduation rate thats 1-3 pp. higher than for the rest of the industry.Credit: DealroomSpeaking on the topic of fragmentation of the European tech ecosystem at the presentation event, Marcin Hejka, co-founder and general partner at OTB Ventures, noted that the issue is not necessarily about regulation or the internal market size.The problem is on the technology consumption level, he said. Europe as a continent is a late adopter, especially on the enterprise side. [] But when there is willingness [at a corporate] to buy from a startup, theyre looking for startups from their own countries and thats a problem.If youre a German startup, youre pretty okay selling to German enterprises. But if youre a startup from Romania or from Slovakia, or any other [smaller] country, its going to be an uphill effort.Theoretically, EU funding mechanisms should be solving this issue among others, however, most EU-backed startups are still based in Western Europe, with France, Germany, and the UK topping the rankings.The full report will be available in December you can pre-download it now. Story by Andrii Degeler Andrii is the Head of Media at TNW, with over a decade of experience in covering the European tech ecosystem. Talk to him about new and exci (show all) Andrii is the Head of Media at TNW, with over a decade of experience in covering the European tech ecosystem. Talk to him about new and exciting developments in tech, especially those involving vastly underreported industry niches and geographies. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is often held as a model for driving technology advances. For decades, it has contributed to military and economic dominance by bridging the gap between military and civilian applications. European policymakers frequently reference DARPA in discussions, as outlined in the 2024 Draghi Report, but an EU equivalent has yet to materialise. To create such an agency, the governance and management of European innovation programmes would need drastic changes.DARPA supports disruptive innovationFounded in 1958, DARPA operates under the US Department of Defense (DoD) with a straightforward mission: to fund high-risk technological programmes that could lead to radical innovation. DARPA provides support throughout the innovation process, focusing on environments where new uses for technology must be invented or adapted. Although part of the DoD, DARPA funds projects that promise technological and economic superiority whether they align with current military priorities or not. DARPA has backed projects like ARPANET, the precursor to the internet, and the GPS. Today, DARPA shows interest in autonomous vehicles for urban areas and new missile technologies.As part of its core mission, DARPA accepts high financial risks on exploration projects and makes long-term commitments to these projects. Many emblematic successes explain why DARPA is a reference agency. However, the list of failed projects is even longer. Both failures and successes feed the exploration process in emerging industrial sectors. They represent opportunities to learn together and build collective strategies in innovation ecosystems.Five key principles of DARPADARPAs success stems not just from its stability but from adhering to five organisational principles that allow it to explore deep tech in an open innovation context:Independence: DARPA operates independently from other military services, research & development centres and federal agencies, allowing it to explore options outside dominant research paradigms. While cooperation is possible, its decisions and directions are not influenced by other parts of the federal administration.Agility: The agencys flat organisational structure minimises bureaucracy. Its independent decision-making processes and streamlined contracting allow it to pivot quickly, test new concepts and collaborate with academic or private sector partners. Agility also enables DARPA to test new exploration or experimentation methods that are often based on user-centric approaches. Potential military or civilian end-users are involved very early in innovation projects to discuss potential uses and applications. This approach has recently led DARPA to absorb the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO), where officers from the different military services (Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines) and all military ranks test new technological solutions (from different maturity levels), fostering co-creation processes with military innovators and expanding the agencys impact.Sponsorship: High-ranking executives within the DoD and other federal administrations (NASA, Department of Energy) endorse, but do not commission, DARPAs projects. This sponsorship model increases a projects potential impact and allows for swift adaptation if a project fails.Community building: DARPA creates innovation communities with a mix of diverse expertise. By bringing different perspectives together, it fosters collective strategies essential for disruptive innovation.Diverse leadership: Project managers come from a range of backgrounds, including civilian experts, military officers and private-sector professionals. All have demonstrated scientific and technological expertise and a solid capability to bridge dreams and foresight with reality. All have a perfect command of risk and complexity management. Managers serve three- to four-year terms focused on driving technological disruption and building new innovation ecosystems. Their diverse expertise sets DARPA apart from other federal agencies.The challenge of a European DARPAThe Draghi Report on European competitiveness suggests that a European DARPA could help bridge technological gaps, reduce dependencies and accelerate the green transition. However, implementing this model would require a seismic shift in how European agencies operate. Creating a new agency would be ineffective without ensuring that all principles underlying the success of DARPA are implemented in Europe.Even if Europe actively promotes deep tech and devotes significant budgets to it, European public policies and ways of working prevailing in national and European agencies are hardly consistent with the DARPA model. European agencies do not have much autonomy in their decisions about the exploration of new ventures or human resource management. They clearly demonstrate an outcome-focused orientation inconsistent with DARPAs approach to risk.Two main challengesEuropean agencies often lack the stable missions, scope and ambition seen at DARPA. The European Space Agency (ESA), the European Defence Agency (EDA) and Eurocontrol highlight the difficulties in developing cohesive, cross-border innovation ecosystems. A European DARPA would require a unified ambition among EU member states, a challenging feat given the institutional and geopolitical divides within Europe. The debates around the European Defence Fund illustrate how complex it is to reach consensus on shared objectives and funding.Adopting DARPAs five organisational principles would represent a cultural revolution for European agencies in relation to EU bureaucratic norms and the budgetary controls of individual member states. Implementing these changes would also disrupt the existing power balance between countries. The DARPA model is inconsistent with the European fair returns model that refers to proportionality rules between funding, research operations and then industrial repartition during the production phase between member states in each project. The DARPA model would only focus on existing competencies, excellence, risk-taking approaches and entrepreneurial mindsets.Establishing a European DARPA would require a fundamental rethinking of public policy management in Europe. Its success would depend on whether European stakeholders are willing to adopt DARPAs core principles, including its independence, agility and willingness to accept failure. Creating an agency is one thing; ensuring it adheres to the structures that make DARPA effective is another. The question remains: Is Europe ready for this transformation?The European Academy of Management (EURAM) is a learned society founded in 2001. With over 2,000 members from 60 countries in Europe and beyond, EURAM aims at advancing the academic discipline of management in Europe.David W. Versailles, Professor, strategic management and innovation management, co-director of PSBs newPIC chair, PSB Paris School of Business and Valrie Mrindol, Enseignant chercheur en management de linnovation et de la crativit, PSB Paris School of BusinessThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

When Apples version of AI, branded as Apple Intelligence, rolls out in October to folks with the companys latest hardware, the response is likely to be a mix of delight and disappointment.The AI capabilities on their way to Apples walled-garden will bring helpful new features, such as textual summaries in email, Messages and Safari; image creation; and a more context-aware version of Siri.But as Apple Intelligences beta testing has already made clear, the power of these features falls well below what is on offer from major players like OpenAI, Google, and Meta. Apple AI wont come close to the quality of document summary, image or audio generation easily accessed from any of the frontier models.But Apple Intelligence will do something none of the flagship offerings can do: change perceptions of AI and its role in ordinary life for a large portion of users around the world.The real impact of Apple AI wont be practical but moral. It will normalize AI, make it seem less foreign or complex. It will de-associate AI from the idea of cheating or cutting corners. It will help a critical mass of users cross a threshold of doubt or mystification about AI to forge a level of comfort and acceptance of it, even a degree of reliance.Overcoming early doubtsGenerative AI has faced two problems since ChatGPT was unveiled in 2022. Many have wondered what its really for or whether its truly useful, given hallucinations and other issues that are rooted in training data. Others have doubted the ethics of using AI, seeing it as a form of cheating or copyright infringement.But as we have learned in recent months, language models are most effective when they work on our own documents and data, as with platforms like NotebookLM or GPT4o, which can now handle upwards of 50 to 100 books worth of material we upload.The output of the prompts we run in the form of article or lecture summaries, reports, slide decks and even podcasts is much more accurate and useful than what came out of earlier chatbots. Apple Intelligence capitalizes on this insight by pointing most of its AI functionality at user data, rather than data on the web.Domesticating AIWith Apple Intelligence working mainly on our own data, much of its output will likely mirror the higher quality of output were seeing with tools like NotebookLM compared to AI that works mainly on large bodies of anonymous training data, like ChatGPT in its early days.Having AI work mostly on user data and doing it frequently will forge a new association in peoples minds between generative AI and personal information, rather than miscellaneous training data. It will likely cause us to see AI as something integral to our personal routines, like reading email or the morning news.This, in turn, will make using more powerful tools like GPT4o or Claude more socially and ethically acceptable. Once were in the habit of using AI to summarize or edit our email, condense articles on the web into pithy summaries or edit images in Photos, well think less about the propriety of using NotebookLM to prepare a first draft of a memo or report, or using Dall-E to create images.AI for the rest of usApple has a long history of making complex technologies more accessible to everyday users, and that is their goal for AI.When word processors first appeared in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was similar uncertainty about the propriety of using them to help us write things a belief that something authentic or human about writing by hand would be lost.For many, computers themselves were too daunting to embrace. But Apples Macintosh personal computer helped domesticate and normalize using computers to write with its graphic user interface and WYSIWYG feature (what you see is what you get). Eventually, writing would become so closely associated with word processing that we find it hard to imagine the one without the other.Apple Intelligence could do for generative AI what the Mac or graphic user interface did for personal computers: help tame it, and make it seem ordinary and acceptable. Apples marketing team hints at this in their tagline for Apple Intelligence, AI for the rest of us.If history is any guide, Apple will play a key role in changing how we think about AI. Doing many of our basic tasks without it may soon seem unthinkable.Robert Diab, Professor, Faculty of Law, Thompson Rivers UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

While many people in the creative industries are worrying that AI is about to steal their jobs, Oscar-winning film director James Cameron is embracing the technology. Cameron is famous for making the Avatar and Terminator movies, as well as Titanic. Now he has joined the board of Stability.AI, a leading player in the world of Generative AI.In Camerons Terminator films, Skynet is an artificial general intelligence that has become self-aware and is determined to destroy the humans who are trying to deactivate it. Forty years after the first of those movies, its director appears to be changing sides and allying himself with AI. So whats behind this?Valued at around a billion dollars, Stability.AI was, until recently at least, headquartered above a chicken shop in Notting Hill. It is famous for Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image tool that creates hyperreal pictures from text requests (or prompts) by its users. Now it is moving into AI-created video.Cameron appears to see their work as a potential game changer in film visual effects: I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and Ive stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave, he commented in a media release from Stability.AI.Filmmakers supplement the live action reality that they shoot with two kinds of effects: special effects (SFX) and visual effects (VFX). They come at two different stages of film production. During the shoot, SFX are all the physical effects used to create spectacle explosions, blood squibs, vehicle crashes, prosthetics, mechanical movement of sets.During postproduction, VFX are the digital systems that add new elements to live-action filmed images computer-generated imagery (CGI), compositing, motion capture rendering. They also combine separately shot images together.James Cameron says the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave in VFX.Paul Smith-Featureflash / ShutterstockA recent development of film technology, Virtual Production, has brought some VFX techniques into the film shoot. This process uses what are known as games engines a technology developed for the creation of video games. Actors are filmed in front of sophisticated LED walls, which screen dynamic, pre-produced virtual worlds around the performer.The real-world physicality of SFX means that artificial intelligence will have very limited impact here. It is in VFX where AI may have a transformative effect. Ill be talking about the subject of deepfakes and AI in film at a public lecture on October 30, 2024: Deepfakes and AI in film and media: seeing is not believing.We are also investigating the subject through the Synthetic Media Research Network, a group that I co-lead which brings together film creatives, academic researchers and AI developers. I spoke to a member of this collective, Christian Darkin, a VFX artist who now works as Head of Creative AI for Deep Fusion Films.He sees the impact of generative AI on VFX as creating infinite choice in post-production. In future, filming the actors will be just the beginning. Youll put in the background later, youll change the camera angles, youll change the expressions, youll ramp up the emotion in the acting, youll change the voices, the costumes, the peoples faces, everything, Christian told me.One key motive for the film industrys incorporation of AI into VFX is simple: the expense of traditional VFX. If you have watched the end credits of a blockbuster movie, youll have seen the number of VFX technicians that they employ. Generative AI offers a cheaper way to achieve spectacular screen images, potentially with no loss of quality.The implication is that a lot of VFX technicians will lose their jobs as a result. However, in conversations that I have had with people working in these roles theres a sense that, being highly skilled and technologically savvy, they will probably move into new roles in emerging areas of tech.The ethics of AI technologyMedia creatives are now presented with a huge selection of generative AI Tools that offer new ways of creating images, text, voices, and music. However, a key issue related to the technology still needs to be addressed: have these AI tools been created ethically?Each generative AI tool, from ChatGPT to Midjourney to Runway, rests on a foundation model that has been exposed to vast amounts of data, often from the internet, in order to help it improve at what it does. This process is called training.AI developers build huge reservoirs of training data by using crawlers, bots that scour the internet for useful material and download trillions of files for their own use. This can include books, music, images, the spoken word, and videos, created by artists who retain copyright over their material.Stability.ai has been involved in a legal action over copyright in the UK courts. Getty Images, holder of a huge collection of pictures and photographs, is currently suing the company.A former executive at Stability.ai, Ed Newton-Rex, resigned in November 2023 over the company scraping for creative content to train the model, without payment and claiming it is fair use.Perhaps Cameron thinks that the AI developers will win the court cases against them and continue their technological trajectory. I asked Stability.ai if, before Cameron joined the company, they had scraped any of his creative material from the internet to use as training data for their foundation models and did they ask his permission?Their response was: Were not able to comment on the source of Stability AIs training data.Camerons Terminator films warned about the potential catastrophic effects of rogue AI. Yet the director now clearly thinks that he is now sitting on a winning horse.Dominic Lees, Associate Professor in Filmmaking, University of ReadingThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT, has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) system called Strawberry. It is designed not just to provide quick responses to questions, like ChatGPT, but to think or reason.This raises several major concerns. If Strawberry really is capable of some form of reasoning, could this AI system cheat and deceive humans?OpenAI can program the AI in ways that mitigate its ability to manipulate humans. But the companys own evaluations rate it as a medium risk for its ability to assist experts in the operational planning of reproducing a known biological threat in other words, a biological weapon. It was also rated as a medium risk for its ability to persuade humans to change their thinking.It remains to be seen how such a system might be used by those with bad intentions, such as con artists or hackers. Nevertheless, OpenAIs evaluation states that medium-risk systems can be released for wider use a position I believe is misguided.Strawberry is not one AI model, or program, but several known collectively as o1. These models are intended to answer complex questions and solve intricate maths problems. They are also capable of writing computer code to help you make your own website or app, for example.An apparent ability to reason might come as a surprise to some, since this is generally considered a precursor to judgment and decision making something that has often seemed a distant goal for AI. So, on the surface at least, it would seem to move artificial intelligence a step closer to human-like intelligence.When things look too good to be true, theres often a catch. Well, this set of new AI models is designed to maximise their goals. What does this mean in practice? To achieve its desired objective, the path or the strategy chosen by AI may not always necessarily be fair, or align with human values.True intentionsFor example, if you were to play chess against Strawberry, in theory, could its reasoning allow it to hack the scoring system rather than figure out the best strategies for winning the game?The AI might also be able to lie to humans about its true intentions and capabilities, which would pose a serious safety concern if it were to be deployed widely. For example, if the AI knew it was infected with malware, could it choose to conceal this fact in the knowledge that a human operator might opt to disable the whole system if they knew?Strawberry goes a step beyond the capabilities of AI chatbots.Robert Way / ShutterstockThese would be classic examples of unethical AI behaviour, where cheating or deceiving is acceptable if it leads to a desired goal. It would also be quicker for the AI, as it wouldnt have to waste any time figuring out the next best move. It may not necessarily be morally correct, however.This leads to a rather interesting yet worrying discussion. What level of reasoning is Strawberry capable of and what could its unintended consequences be? A powerful AI system thats capable of cheating humans could pose serious ethical, legal and financial risks to us.Such risks become grave in critical situations, such as designing weapons of mass destruction. OpenAI rates its own Strawberry models as medium risk for their potential to assist scientists in developing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons.OpenAI says: Our evaluations found that o1-preview and o1-mini can help experts with the operational planning of reproducing a known biological threat. But it goes on to say that experts already have significant expertise in these areas, so the risk would be limited in practice. It adds: The models do not enable non-experts to create biological threats, because creating such a threat requires hands-on laboratory skills that the models cannot replace.Powers of persuasionOpenAIs evaluation of Strawberry also investigated the risk that it could persuade humans to change their beliefs. The new o1 models were found to be more persuasive and more manipulative than ChatGPT.OpenAI also tested a mitigation system that was able to reduce the manipulative capabilities of the AI system. Overall, Strawberry was labelled a medium risk for persuasion in Open AIs tests.Strawberry was rated low risk for its ability to operate autonomously and on cybersecurity.Open AIs policy states that medium risk models can be released for wide use. In my view, this underestimates the threat. The deployment of such models could be catastrophic, especially if bad actors manipulate the technology for their own pursuits.This calls for strong checks and balances that will only be possible through AI regulation and legal frameworks, such as penalising incorrect risk assessments and the misuse of AI.The UK government stressed the need for safety, security and robustness in their 2023 AI white paper, but thats not nearly enough. There is an urgent need to prioritise human safety and devise rigid scrutiny protocols for AI models such as Strawberry.Shweta Singh, Assistant Professor, Information Systems and Management, Warwick Business School, University of WarwickThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. 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Just as calculators took over the tedious number-crunching in maths a few decades ago, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming coding. Take Kyo, an eight-year-old boy in Singapore who developed a simple platform game in just two hours, attracting over 500,000 players.Using nothing but simple instructions in English, Kyo brought his vision to life leveraging the coding app Cursor and also Claude, a general purpose AI. Although his dad is a coder, Kyo didnt get any help from him to design the game and has no formal coding education himself. He went on to build another game, an animation app, a drawing app and a chatbot, taking about two hours for each.This shows how AI is dramatically lowering the barrier to software development, bridging the gap between creativity and technical skill. Among the range of apps and platforms dedicated to this purpose, others include Googles AlphaCode 2 and Replits Ghostwriter.In another example of the power of these apps, an eight-year-old American girl called Fay built a chatbot that purported to be Harry Potter. She had it up and running in just 45 minutes, at which point it asked if she had heard the rumours about the Deathly Hallows and suggested they discuss it over a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks.For those that already know how to code, numerous AI apps have become incredibly helpful too. At the other extreme from the natural language coding apps described above, tools like Tabnine and GitHub Copilot act as intelligent assistants, predicting and autocompleting code as you type.Alternatives such as Sourcery and DeepCode go a step further, offering real-time code cleanup, suggesting improvements and fixing vulnerabilities. New tools are emerging weekly, such as OpenAIs GPT Canvas, a new GPT version designed to help with sophisticated coding. Many of these tools can also translate code from one programming language to another, say from JavaScript to Python.The productivity gains that these tools offer are revolutionising the software industry. As many as 70% of companies have already adopted the likes of GitHub Copilot, with coders reporting that AI is enabling them to write software that is more reliable and bug free.By removing the need to spend so many hours ironing out human errors, coders are able to spend more time focusing on higher value tasks such as designing system architecture and collaborating with colleagues.It is also changing the game for university educators like myself as we race to keep up. Weve been having to rethink teaching materials and also assessment methods, wrestling with how exactly to grade a students coding in situations where AI tools are doing much of the work.Todays limitationsAs exciting as all this is, AI coding is still in its infancy. At this stage it can only help non-coders to build simple applications or games. It cant yet oversee big complex IT projects by understanding the big picture in a way that a human coder would.It cant yet invent new ways to solve problems either, and is still more likely to lag in areas like, say, spacecraft navigation that require highly specialised knowledge.Many tools also dont write perfect code: a program will often work but wont be efficient or secure enough for use in the real world. Similarly, AI tools dont inherently understand the context of the data they process, so may mishandle sensitive information or perpetuate biases present in the data on which they were trained.For all these reasons, in professional situations theres still a need for a coder to make sure that everything is meeting the necessary standards. No doubt in future we may see AI coding tools designed to handle everything from security issues to highly specialised subject matter. Their ability to help non-coders to build apps will also only improve. For now at least, however, AI coding is still amplifying the skills of coders rather than replacing them altogether.How to build your own gameAll the same, its incredible what you can do with these tools as a non-coder already. Heres a quick guide to making a simple platform game:Step 1: Sign up for an AI tool: Create an account with, say, Cursor or AlphaCode 2 and follow the setup instructions. Depending on which tool you choose, you may need to do a quick install. You may also need to install a programming language such as Python, as well as a source code editor such as VS Studio Code 2 the coding platform will keep you right on this.Step 2: Start your game: Open a new project in the tool. Into the prompt, type: Create a simple platform game where the platforms are made of sweet treats.Step 3: See what its like: Click run or preview to see what youve created (depending on which system you are using, you may have to do this in the source code editor). You should see platforms made of candy or cakes.Step 4: Make some changes: Lets say we change the main character into a parrot. Simply type into the prompt: Make the avatar a green parrot.Step 5: Add features: Now type into the prompt: Let the parrot be controlled by the cursor arrows, insert some sweets for it to collect and add a score counter for how many it has collected.Step 6: Test and tweak: Click run or preview again to test the updated game. Make changes by typing things like, Insert a black crow that will chase the parrot around the screen. If the crow touches the parrot, freeze the screen and display a message in the middle of the screen saying Too Bad!!!. Keep repeating these steps until youre happy with the results.Step 7: Get it out there: You might now want to share your game with friends or online via an app store. It must be said that AI coders are not yet doing this well, so you may find this trickier without prior knowledge. One option is to deploy the game online via a free platform such as Zeabur, as explained here.Daniel Zhou Hao, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of LeicesterThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Whether youre looking to change the direction of your career or expand your skillset as a programmer, the languages you chose to learn will significantly impact your time commitment and prospects.Some languages use familiar syntax, welcome minimum code commands for heavy-duty work, and are open-source with a helpful developer community that guides users in making the most of it.Others are complicated due to complex syntax, how the code is structured and organised, and not-so-seamless onboarding experiences.5 hot roles hiring right nowYoud be forgiven for thinking that languages which are difficult to learn are better compensated. As well see, thats not always the case.The hardest programming languagesC++The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Though C is regarded as a minimalist and somewhat straightforward language, C++ is considered the opposite. C++ is challenging to learn, and this is down to its multi-paradigm structure and tricky syntax.Although it is commonly known to be especially difficult for beginners, programmers who have never worked with low-level languages before also find it difficult to learn.In return for its complexity, this language offers unparalleled performance, and can power applications like real-time simulation engines, financial trading systems, and AAA video games.C++ salaries as disclosed in Stack Overflows annual survey, arent especially thrilling. The average annual compensation, including salary, bonuses and perks (before taxes and deductions), was $64,444 for C++ developers.Yet, through the House of Talent Job Board, youll see C++ salaries reaching highs of almost a quarter of a million in the US. Keep in mind that, if you decide to upskill, youll need to allow for a significant time investment to really learn the language.WhitespaceYou dont need to be in any way technical to understand why learning Whitespace is so challenging.The language uses whitespace characters specifically spaces, tabs, and line breaks, as its sole syntax elements. This means the source code of programmes written in Whitespace is invisible.Originally created 21 years ago by Chris Morris and Edwin Brady at the University of Durham, Whitespace is more an intellectual challenge than a practical tool.Enjoyable dinner party or interview fodder for sure, but not one to bank your professional development or next career move on.CowCow is another esoteric language designed as a cerebral challenge. With 12 commands, all of which are variations of the word moo, and a contrived syntax, its extremely difficult for most programming purposes.Again, it has limited practical application and isnt used to build usable software, but its absurdist structure does create a talking point or moo-ment about language design and constraints.Easiest programming languages to learnJavascriptAn essential language for web development, JavaScript powers front-ends and modern web applications.It has an accessible syntax, immediate visual feedback, and an extensive library of documentation.And considering 84% of Stack Overflows 48,019 respondents said technical documentation was the top online resource to learn code from (83.9% of respondents), Javascripts large library is very helpful.Survey respondents also used Stack Overflow (80.3%, of course), written tutorials (68.4%), blogs (61.4%), how-to-videos (54.2%), and video-based e-courses (49.9%).Additionally, JavaScript has long been the most popular programming language in the Slack Overflow survey, with the exception of 2013 and 2014, when SQL topped the charts.The average annual salaries for JavaScript developers in 2024 is $63,694 and the language works hand-in-hand with HTML and CSS.PythonPythons syntax closely resembles natural English, and its philosophy emphasises code readability, which makes it an accessible language for beginners.Data scientists, machine learning engineers, and back-end web dev all love it, and its expansive libraries and frameworks make it versatile for a wide range of applications.Experienced developers find it the perfect tool for automating repetitive tasks. Its one of the four main languages deployed at Google, and is also used at Intel, IBM, Netflix, Facebook, and Spotify.For those strategically upskilling, Python is a smart move. Those who are proficient can expect an annual salary of $67,723, according to the same survey.RubySimilarly, Ruby is known for its simple syntax and is also used for building web applications in plain English.Its main framework, Ruby on Rails, simplifies web development by handling many repetitive tasks involved in building websites, such as setting up web pages and databases.Because of this, Ruby is often used by startups and small businesses, though just 4.7% of Slack Overflow respondents said they completed extensive development work in Ruby over the last year, compared to Node.js (40.8%), and React (39.5%).That said, Ruby commanded the fifth spot when it comes to the top-paying technologies, with an annual average compensation of $90,221, after Erlang ($100,636), Elixir ($96,000), Clojure ($95,541), and Nim ($94,924).For complete beginners, Ruby is the perfect introduction to building real projects, without getting bogged down in complicated code, and it pays well. Win-win.Ready to find your next programming role? Check out The Next Web Job Board Story by Amanda Kavanagh Amanda Kavanagh is a Dublin-based journalist and content writer with over a decade of experience writing and editing across digital, print a (show all) Amanda Kavanagh is a Dublin-based journalist and content writer with over a decade of experience writing and editing across digital, print and social. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Content provided by Amply and TNWAlso tagged with

Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry.In todays special episode, were happy to present an interview with Diana van Stijn, co-founder and chief medical officer at Lapsi Health, a Dutch startup that builds smart medical hardware starting with a digital stethoscope. Also featured in the interview is the sound of Andriis heart as captured by Lapsis first device, Keikku.Here are the links for this episode: Dutch startup targets remote patient monitoring with its smart stethoscopeKeikku launch video on YouTubeAnother great podcast to listen to on this topic: Twenty Thousand Hertz Sonic DiagnosisThe of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com. Story by Andrii Degeler Andrii is the Head of Media at TNW, with over a decade of experience in covering the European tech ecosystem. Talk to him about new and exci (show all) Andrii is the Head of Media at TNW, with over a decade of experience in covering the European tech ecosystem. Talk to him about new and exciting developments in tech, especially those involving vastly underreported industry niches and geographies. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

The walking, talking, dancing Optimus robots at the recent Tesla demonstration generated huge excitement. But this turned to disappointment as it became apparent that much of what was happening was actually being controlled remotely by humans.As much as this might still be a fascinating glimpse of the future, its not the first time that robots have turned out to be a little too good to be true.Take Sophia, for instance, the robot created by Texas-based Hanson Robotics back in 2016. She was presented by the company as essentially an intelligent being, prompting numerous tech specialists to call this out as well beyond our capabilities at the time.Similarly weve seen carefully choreographed videos of pre-scripted action sequences like Boston Dynamics Atlas gymnastics, the English-made Ameca robot waking up, and most recently Teslas Optimus in the factory. Obviously these are still impressive in different ways, but theyre nowhere near the complete sentient package. Let Optimus or Atlas loose in a random home and youd see something very different.A humanoid robot capable of working in our homes needs to be capable of doing many different tasks, using our tools, navigating our environments and communicating with us like a human. If you thought this was just a year or two away, youre going to be disappointed.Building robots able to interact and carry out complex tasks in our homes and streets is still a huge challenge. Designing them even to do one specific task well, such as opening a door, is phenomenally difficult.There are so many door handles with different shapes, weights and materials, not to mention the complexity of dealing with unforeseen circumstances such as a locked door or objects blocking the way. Developers have actually now created a door-opening robot, but robots that can deal with hundreds of everyday tasks are still some way off.Behind the curtainThe Tesla demonstrations Wizard of Oz remote operation technique is a commonly used control method in this field, giving researchers a benchmark against which to test their real advances. Known as telemetric control, this has been around for some time, and is becoming more advanced.One of the authors of this article, Carl Strathearn, was at a conference in Japan earlier this year, where a keynote speaker from one of the top robotics labs demonstrated an advanced telemetrics system. It allowed a single human to simultaneously operate many humanoid robots semi-autonomously, using pre-scripted movements, conversation prompts and computerised speech.Clearly, this is very useful technology. Telemetric systems are used to control robots working in dangerous environments, disability healthcare and even in outer space. But the reason why a human is still at the helm is because even the most advanced humanoid robots, such as Atlas, are not yet reliable enough to operate completely independently in the real world.Another major problem is what we can call social AI. Leading generative AI programs such as DeepMinds Gemini and OpenAIs GPT-4 Vision may be a foundation for creative autonomous AI systems for humanoid robots in the future. But we should not be misled into believing that such models mean that a robot is now capable of functioning well in the real world.Interpreting information and problem solving like a human requires much more than just recognising words, classifying objects and generating speech. It requires a deeper contextual understanding of people, objects and environments in other words, common sense.To explore what is currently possible, we recently completed a research project called Common Sense Enhanced Language and Vision (CiViL). We equipped a robot called Euclid with commonsense knowledge as part of a generative AI vision and language system to assist people in preparing recipes. To do this, we had to create commonsense knowledge databases using real-world problem-solving examples enacted by students.Euclid could explain complicated steps in recipes, give suggestions when things went wrong, and even point people to locations in the kitchen where utensils and tools might typically be found. Yet there were still issues, such as what to do if someone has a bad allergic reaction while cooking. The problem is that its almost impossible to handle every possible scenario, yet thats what true common sense entails.This fundamental aspect of AI has got somewhat lost in humanoid robots over the years. Generated speech, realistic facial expressions, telemetric controls, even the ability to play games such as rock paper scissors are all impressive. But the novelty soon wears off if the robots are not actually capable of doing anything useful on their own.This isnt to say that significant progress isnt being made toward autonomous humanoid robots. Theres impressive work going on into robotic nervous systems to give robots more senses for learning, for instance. Its just not usually given the same amount of press attention as the big unveilings.The data deficitAnother key challenge is the lack of real-world data to train AI systems, since online data doesnt always accurately represent the real-world conditions necessary for training our robots well enough. We have yet to find an effective way of collecting this real-world data in large enough quantities to get good results. However, this may change soon if we can access it from technologies such as Alexa and Meta Ray-Bans.Nonetheless, the reality is that were still perhaps decades away from developing multimodal humanoid robots with advanced social AI that are capable of helping around the house. Maybe in the meantime well be offered robots controlled remotely from a command centre. Will we want them, though?In the meantime, its also more important that we focus our efforts on creating robots for roles that can support people who urgently need help now. Examples would include healthcare, where there are long waiting lists and understaffed hospitals; and education, to offer a way for overanxious or severely ill children to participate in classrooms remotely. We also need better transparency, legislation and publicly available testing, so that everyone can tell fact from fiction and help build public trust for when the robots eventually do arrive.Carl Strathearn, Research Fellow, Computing, Edinburgh Napier University and Dimitra Gkatzia, Associate Professor in Computing, Edinburgh Napier UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

As is their tradition at this time of year, Apple announced a new line of iPhones last week. The promised centrepiece that would make us want to buy these new devices was AI or Apple Intelligence, as they branded it. Yet the reaction from the collective world of consumer technology has been muted.The lack of enthusiasm from consumers was so evident it immediately wiped over a hundred billion dollars off Apples share price. Even the Wired Gadget Lab podcast, enthusiasts of all new things tech, found nothing in the new capabilities that would make them want to upgrade to the iPhone 16.The only thing that did seem to generate some excitement was not the AI features, but the addition of a new camera shutter button on the side of the phone. If a button is a better selling point than the most hyped technology of the past couple of years, something is clearly amiss.The reason is that AI has now passed what tech blog The Media Copilot called its wonderment phase. Two years ago, we were amazed that ChatGPT, DALL-E and other generative AI systems were able to create coherent writing and realistic images from just a few words in a text prompt. But now, AI needs to show that it can actually be productive. Since their introduction, the models driving these experiences have become much more powerful and exponentially more expensive.Nevertheless, Google, NVidia, Microsoft and OpenAI recently met at the White House to discuss AI infrastructure, suggesting these companies are doubling down on the technology.According to Forbes, the industry is US$500 billion (375 billion) short of making back the massive investments in AI hardware and software, and the US$100 billion in AI revenue projected to be made in 2024 is not even close to this figure. But Apple still has to enthusiastically push AI features into their products for the same reason that Google, Samsung and Microsoft are doing it to give consumers a reason to buy a new device.Tough sell?Before AI, the industry was trying to create hype around virtual reality and the Metaverse, an effort that probably peaked with the introduction of the Apple Vision Pro headset in 2023 (a product that incidentally was barely even mentioned in last weeks announcement).After the Metaverse failed to take off, tech companies needed something else to drive sales, and AI has become the new shiny thing. But it remains to be seen whether consumers will take to the AI-based features included in phones such as photo-editing and writing assistants. This is not to say that current AI is not useful. AI technologies are used in billion-dollar industry applications, in everything from online advertisement to healthcare and energy optimisation.Apples Visual Intelligence allows the phone camera to be aimed at something, like a restaurant, to obtain information without doing a search.Heiko KueverlingGenerative AI has also become a useful tool for professionals in many fields. According to a survey, 97% of software developers have used AI tools to support their work. Many journalists, visual artists, musicians and filmmakers have adopted AI tools to create content more quickly and more efficiently.Yet most of us are not actually prepared to pay for a service that draws funny cartoon cats or summarises text - especially since attempts at AI-supported search have shown to be prone to errors. Apples approach to deploying artificial intelligence seems to mostly be a mishmash of existing functions, many of which are already built into popular third-party apps.Apples AI can help you create a custom emoji, transcribe a phone call, edit a photo, or write an email - neat, but no longer groundbreaking stuff. There is also something called Reduce mode that is supposed to disturb you less and only let through important notifications, but its anyones guess how well that will work in reality.The one forward-looking feature is called Visual Intelligence. It allows you to aim the camera at something in the surroundings and get information without explicitly doing a search. For instance, you might photograph a restaurant sign, and the phone will tell you the menu, show you reviews and perhaps even help you book a table.Although this is very reminiscent of the Lens in Googles Pixel phones (or ChatGPTs multimodal capabilities) it does point towards a future use of AI that is more real-time, interactive, and situated in real-world environments.In the extension, Apple Intelligence and the Reduce mode could evolve into so-called context-aware computing, which has been envisioned and demonstrated in research projects since the 1990s, but for the most part has not yet become robust enough to be a real product category.The kicker to all this is that Apple Intelligence is not yet really available for anyone to try, as the new iPhones do not yet include them. Perhaps it will turn out they are more valuable than the limited information seems to indicate. But Apple used to be known for only releasing a product when it was well and truly ready, meaning that the use-case was crystal clear and the user experience had been honed to perfection.This is what made the iPod and iPhone so much more attractive than all the MP3 players and smartphones released before them. It is anyones guess if Apples approach to AI will be able to claw back some of the lost stock price, not to mention the hundreds of billions invested by them and the rest of the tech industry. After all, AI still has amazing potential, but it may be time to slowdown a bit, and take a moment to consider where it will actually be the most useful.Lars Erik Holmquist, Professor of Design and Innovation, Nottingham Trent UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. 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In a simulation of Mars, a space rover is testing a control systemwith an unusual inspiration: insect brains.The software was created by Opteran, a startup based in the UK. But the idea originatedfrom research on bugs.Scientists at the University of Sheffield had been studying the brains of insects. They discovered remarkable neurological efficiency.A honeybees brain, for instance, only contains about 1 million neurons. A human brain, by contrast, has around 86 billion. But the bee minds tiny size belies its impressive power.Apply NowIts capable of complex navigation, obstacle avoidance, and communication. It also functions with formidable energy efficiency.The researchers believed robots could also benefit from these qualities. They decided to reverse-engineer the brainalgorithms into software for autonomous machines. They call the concept Natural Intelligence.In 2019, they founded Opteran to commercialise the research. The startup soon identified space as an ideal environment for the tech.The software harnesses over a decade of research into animal and insect vision. Credit: OpteranNatural intelligence in spaceTodays space rovers are often ponderous machines. It can take them minutes to maptheir surroundings from multiple cameras before each movement.Opterans systempromises to cut this down to milliseconds. It is uniquely able to operate with the lowest size, weight, and at ultra-low power, David Rajan, the startups CEO and co-founder, told TNW.Named Opteran Mind, the software offers zero-latency visual depth perception. After installation, vehicles cancontinuously navigate without the need for extensive data or training.The tech also minimises power consumption and eliminates heavy tools, such as gimbal-based pan-tilt cameras. As a result, rovers could drive further and at higher speeds without human intervention.These capabilities caught the eye of Airbus Defence and Space. The company is now testing the software in rovers at the Airbus Mars Yard, a simulated Martian environment.The European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency are supporting the project. After the initial tests, their focus will shift to deployment and commercialisation.For Opteran, however, space is just one frontier on the roadmap.We aim to integrate an Opteran Mindinto every machine, underground in mines, on the ground, in the air, and off-world, Rajan said, allowing them to operate as efficiently and as freely as natural creatures. Story by Thomas Macaulay Senior reporter Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on AI, cybersecurity, and government policy. Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on AI, cybersecurity, and government policy. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

The US Department of Justice may be on the verge of seeking a break-up of Google in a bid to make it less dominant. If the government goes ahead and is successful in the courts, it could mean the company being split into separate entities a search engine, an advertising company, a video website, a mapping app which would not be allowed to share data with each other.While this is still a distant prospect, it is being considered in the wake of a series of rulings in the US and the EU which suggest that regulators are becoming increasingly frustrated by the power of big tech. That power tends to be highly concentrated, whether its Googles monopoly as a search engine, Metas data gathering from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, or by small businesses becoming dependent on Amazon.But what would a breakup of these tech giants achieve for consumers? Those in favour of shaking up Silicon Valley in this way argue that it would lead to more competition and more choice. And the best-case future scenario might look something like this:The year is 2030, and you are on your way to meet a friend for a meal. You receive a message notification on WhatsApp, which was sent by your friend using her Signal messaging app. Sending and receiving messages from different apps is now so common you barely notice it.In fact, interoperability where different systems and tech work seamlessly together is everywhere. In the same way you could send an email from Gmail to Hotmail back in 2024, you can now choose from a range of social media apps alongside Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat with text, pictures and video posted on one network easily accessible via another.You choose an app because you like the way it looks or the way it filters and presents content not just because everyone else is on it.Similarly, your choice of restaurant and information on directions came from apps you have chosen from a much wider selection than the one you had access to back in 2024. You look at reviews produced by people you follow, irrespective of the platform they used to share it.Product placement and AI-generated content have practically disappeared, as the mapping app does not want to risk giving you advice you dont want. If it did, you would simply switch to a competitor which provides a superior service.This increased level of competition is central to those who argue for breaking up big tech. Instead of app developers having to pay 30% of their sales to Google or Apple, there would be numerous app stores available, all competing to offer the best apps by cutting their profit margins. The theory is that the app market and technological innovation would thrive as a result.Research also suggests that the existence of competing apps makes consumers less lazy, and forces businesses to deliver better products, and better value for money.Private browsingIn 2024, you would have had to trust the results provided to you by Google search, Google Maps, or a Google advert. And because Google owned your data, it could auction information about you to other businesses trying to reach you, without your say.You might have found Googles services useful, but most of the benefit from personalised data would have gone to Google. And another big change that could come from breaking up big tech is that you might finally become the unique owner of that data.Potentially, you would be the only one with full access to your browsing history the products you searched for, the ones you bought and the ones you almost bought. You would own the information about where you went for lunch, what you ordered, and how much you spent.Other information that would be owned by you might include how you commute to work, which video clips make you laugh, and which books you finished and the ones you abandoned immediately. The same goes for how you met your partner online, your dating history, and the health data your watch has collected about how hard you work at the gym.Your workout, your data.PeopleImages.com Yuri A/ShutterstockIn the imagined year of 2030, you would keep this data on an encrypted server, and different companies would offer apps to help you organise and manage your information. Whenever you wanted to, you could decide to use your data for your own purposes.Breaking up is hard to doSplitting up big tech companies is not without risks however. An obvious consequence is that those big companies would be less profitable.Right now, Google and Meta make (a lot of) money from advertising, and this is only possible because they own so much information about us. If they didnt, they might end up charging users for the services they provide.Interoperability and greater competition may also provide more room for scam app operators. And while more choice about apps may be fine for some, it may be problematic for those who find modern technology challenging enough already.For regulators though, the challenge of modern technology seems to be a sense of powerlessness. And if they do decide to take the radical option and break up dominant companies, it could make a big difference to the online world for all of us.Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry.In todays special episode, were happy to present an interview with Phill Robinson, founder of Boardwave a networking platform for founders and CEOs working in the European software industry.The conversation recorded by our senior editor Linnea Ahlgren focuses around Europes pathway to success. What are we doing right and wrong, compared to the other continents? Whats the future of the European software industry like? And what does AI have to do with it?The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Here are the links for this episode:The white paper: How the UK & Europe can lead the global software industry by 2034Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com. Story by Andrii Degeler Andrii is the Head of Media at TNW, with over a decade of experience in covering the European tech ecosystem. Talk to him about new and exci (show all) Andrii is the Head of Media at TNW, with over a decade of experience in covering the European tech ecosystem. Talk to him about new and exciting developments in tech, especially those involving vastly underreported industry niches and geographies. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

The artificial intelligence boom has already changed how we understand technology and the world. But developing and updating AI programs requires a lot of computing power. This relies heavily on servers in data centres, at a great cost in terms of carbon emissions and resource use.One particularly energy intensive task is training, where generative AI systems are exposed to vast amounts of data so that they improve at what they do.The development of AI-based systems has been blamed for a 48% increase in Googles greenhouse gas emissions over five years. This will make it harder for the tech giant to achieve its goal of reaching net zero by 2030.Some in the industry justify the extra energy expenditure from AI by pointing to benefits the technology could have for environmental sustainability and climate action. Improving the efficiency of solar and wind power through predicting weather patterns, smart agriculture and more efficient, electric autonomous vehicles are among the purported benefits of AI for the Earth.Its against this background that tech companies have been looking to renewables and nuclear fission to supply electricity to their data centres.Nuclear fission is the type of nuclear power thats been in use around the world for decades. It releases energy by splitting a heavy chemical element to form lighter ones. Fission is one thing, but some in Silicon Valley feel a different technology will be needed to plug the gap: nuclear fusion.Unlike fission, nuclear fusion produces energy by combining two light elements to make a heavier one. But fusion energy is an unproven solution to the sustainability challenge of AI. And the enthusiasm of tech CEOs for this technology as an AI energy supply risks sidelining the potential benefits for the planet.Beyond the conventionalGoogle recently announced that it had signed a deal to buy energy from small nuclear reactors. This is a technology, based on nuclear fission, that allows useful amounts of power to be produced from much smaller devices than the huge reactors in big nuclear power plants. Google plans to use these small reactors to generate the power needed for the rise in use of AI.This year, Microsoft announced an agreement with the company Constellation Energy, which could pave the way to restart a reactor at Pennsylvanias Three Mile Island nuclear power station, the site of the worst nuclear accident in US history.However, nuclear power produces long-lived radioactive waste, which needs to be stored securely. Nuclear fuels, such as the element uranium (which needs to be mined), are finite, so the technology is not considered renewable. Renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power suffer from intermittency, meaning they do not consistently produce energy at all hours of the day.These limitations have driven some to look to look to nuclear fusion as a solution. Most notably, Sam Altman of OpenAI has shown particular interest in Helion Energy, a fusion startup working on a relatively novel technological design.In theory, nuclear fusion offers a holy grail energy source by generating a large output of energy from small quantities of fuel, with no greenhouse gas emissions from the process and comparatively little radioactive waste. Some forms of fusion rely on a fuel called deuterium, a form of hydrogen, which can be extracted from an abundant source: seawater.In the eyes of its advocates, like Altman, these qualities make nuclear fusion well suited to meet the challenges of growing energy demand in the face of the climate crisis and to meet the vast demands of AI development.However, dig beneath the surface and the picture isnt so rosy. Despite the hopes of its proponents, fusion technologies have yet to produce sustained net energy output (more energy than is put in to run the reactor), let alone produce energy at the scale required to meet the growing demands of AI. Fusion will require many more technological developments before it can fulfil its promise of delivering power to the grid.Wealthy and powerful people, such as the CEOs of giant technology companies, can strongly influence how new technology is developed. For example, there are many different technological ways to perform nuclear fusion. But the particular route to fusion that is useful for meeting the energy demands of AI might not be the one thats ideal for meeting peoples general energy needs.AI is reliant on data centres which consume lots of energy.Dil_Ranathunga / ShutterstockThe overvaluation of innovationInnovators often take for granted that their work will produce ideal social outcomes. If fusion can be made to work at scale, it could make a valuable contribution to decarbonising our energy supplies as the world seeks to tackle the climate crisis.However, the humanitarian promises of both fusion and AI often seem to be sidelined in favour of scientific innovation and progress. Indeed, when looking at those invested in these technologies, it is worth asking who actually benefits from them.Will investment in fusion for AI purposes enable its wider take-up as a clean technology to replace polluting fossil fuels? Or will a vision for the technology propagated by powerful tech companies restrict its use for other purposes?It can sometimes feel as if innovation is itself the goal, with much less consideration of the wider impact. This vision has echoes of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerbergs motto of move fast and break things, where short-term losses are accepted in pursuit of a future vision that will later justify the means.Sophie Cogan, PhD Candidate in Politics and Environment, University of YorkThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Its now almost two years since Elon Musk concluded his takeover of Twitter (now called X) on 27 October 2022. Since then, the platform has become an increasingly polarised and divisive space.Musk promised to deal with some of the issues which had already frustrated users, particularly bots, abuse and misinformation. In 2023, he said there was less misinformation on the platform because of his efforts to tackle the bots. But others disagree, claiming that misinformation is still rife there.A potential reaction to this may be apparent in recent data highlighted by the Financial Times, which showed the number of UK users of the platform had fallen by one-third, while US users had dropped by one-fifth. The data used to reach these conclusions may be open to question, as it is hard to find out user numbers directly from X.The figures also come out against the background of a disagreement over whether Xs traffic is waning or not. But there has been a notable trend in academia for individuals and some organisations to leave for alternative platforms such as Bluesky and Threads, or to quit social media altogether.Elon Musk has claimed that X is hitting record highs in user-seconds, a measure of how long users are spending on the site. But advertising revenue is reported to have dropped sharply amid Musks controversial changes, such as his free speech approach on the platform. If so, it will be reflected in the platforms financial performance which has been dire. The platform currently has no clear pathway to profitability.Xs loss has naturally been a gain for its competitors. Despite a rather slow start due to its invite only model, Bluesky recently announced that it had topped 10 million users. This is still quite small compared to Xs 550 million users and Threads 200 million users.But there are questions with all platforms over how active users are and the proportion of bots versus human users. Threads also benefits by being connected to Instagram.The worlds richest man can afford to let X devalue from his purchase price of US$44 billion (33.7 billion). Likewise, Meta can probably afford to prop up Threads. But Bluesky will have to find inventive ways to remain viable as a platform. So is it the right time for users to try something completely different on social media?Alternatives to X have to be mindful of striking the right balance between being a viable social media platform and not developing the same issues that have turned X toxic for many users.Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022.Frederic Legrand Comeo / ShutterstockThe approach taken by Bluesky and Mastodon is to engage with their community more to deal with issues such as abuse and fake information. Moderating content is tricky, as it requires a lot of resources and support for those using the platform.But the contrast with Elon Musks approach to ownership is stark.The problem for Bluesky, and to a lesser extent Mastodon, is that once a platform gains traction it also attracts those with bad intent. Think of it as the one nice, cool bar in town that suddenly becomes popular. Once everyone hears about the bar, the troublemakers start to arrive.When that happens, the good people have to find a bar elsewhere. Once an alternative platform becomes a means to reach many millions, the people that drove users away from X may head there like moths to a light.Alternative approachesOne possible solution is a subscription model for social media alongside paid advertisements. For growing platforms, such as Bluesky, sponsored posts and adverts will come as the user base grows in numbers.But as was evident with X, that is unlikely to be enough. Xs annual revenue peaked at US$5 billion (3.8 billion) in 2021 and has been in decline ever since. This also takes into account how the platform has culled thousands of jobs in the past two years.The subscription model is not new to social media. X has its own paid-for blue checkmark and LinkedIn has a premium subscription. This alone still does not guarantee a profitable or functioning social media platform.Having a subscription-based social media platform is not exactly equitable either, as not everyone can afford to pay. The question is how much people would be willing to pay for a social media subscription that guarantees no adverts and bots, as well as proper moderation to remove abusive and fake information accounts.The trade off is that free users would have to deal with the inconvenience of adverts on their timelines. There could be other models floated where non-profit and student accounts are cheaper, but this again excludes other users. It also may not sit well with shareholders focused on profitability.As it stands, if all 10 million Bluesky users paid 5 a month to the platform, it would generate 60 million a year. That is not even close to Xs revenue of US$300 million (230 million) back in 2012.Real changePeople moving to a new social media platform will want assurances that it wont turn into another X. Organisations and individuals with large followings may also be reluctant to invest time in new platforms when they still get something out of the old. There are big, mainstream alternatives of course: Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, but Twitter offered something different.Real change could happen when the organisations leaving X due to how it has been run reaches a critical mass, though what that threshold represents is open to question. Those in the world of academia are cautious and at best hedging their bets, as I have found with my own search.Just as X increasingly fails to deal with misinformation, it is leaning further into the same headwind as right-wing platforms such as Truth Social. The newer platforms might find themselves a safer haven for now, but that is likely to change if lessons around ownership, funding and moderation are not learned.Andy Tattersall, Information Specialist, University of SheffieldThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

German startup Marvel Fusion and Colorado State University have broken ground on a $150M laser facility in a bid to commercialise fusion energy.Dubbed ATLAS, the facility will use three ultra-high intensity lasers to fire 7 petawatts of power over 5,000 times the electrical generation capacity of the US at a target roughly the width of a human hair. The blast will last approximately 100 quadrillionths of a second. However, it will produce enough heat and pressure to fuse atoms together, initiating the same reaction that powers the Sun and stars.For decades, scientists have been experimenting with lasers to create fusion reactions. A major breakthrough came in 2022, when the US governments National Ignition Facility (NIF) successfully achieved a first in the sector: a net energy gain in a fusion reaction.The The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Net energy gain essentially means that the reaction produced more energy than went into it. The feat ignited hopes that fusions promise of abundant, clean, and limitless energy may not be too far off.However, theres a huge difference between achieving net energy gain and making a commercial fusion power plant that generates continuous clean energy. For that youd need to produce these fusion blasts several times per second.But thats exactly what Marvel Fusion plans to do.Commercial fusion reactorsATLAS, located at the universitys campus in Fort Collins, will aim to repeat the laser blasts ten times per second. That will be enough to generate an ongoing fusion reaction and, hopefully, a stable supply of clean energy.The facility will be similar to NIF, but use cutting-edge technology designed to improve the lasers power and efficiency, while bringing down costs.Colorado State University will develop one of the lasers. Marvel will build the other two, in a bid to prove its core technology. The partners aim to complete the laser facility in 2026.This groundbreaking (feels that a words missing) marks an exciting new chapter in the partnership between Marvel Fusion and Colorado State University as we move forward with constructing a facility that will drive the future of fusion energy, said Heike Freund, chief operating officer at Marvel Fusion. While Marvel Fusion has established a subsidiary in Colorado to support this collaboration, the companys headquarter remains in Munich, Germany.When asked why he chose the US, Marvels CEO Moritz von der Linden previously told the Financial Times that it was the fastest, most capital-efficient way for us to move on building this facility. There is simply more funding and an appetite for this kind of technology across the pond, he said.Nevertheless, he doesnt necessarily intend on building a full-scale commercial plant in the US. It could very well, maybe hopefully, be in Europe, he said.Marvel recently secured 62.8mn in a Series B funding round, bringing its total raised to date to 100mn.Alongside fusion energy, ATLAS will also support research in medicine, semiconductors, and X-ray imaging. For instance, lasers could be used to deposit energy in a very localised region for tumour treatment.Both Colorado State University and Marvel will fund the construction of the new facility. The US government has also put $28mn toward the project. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

A warming world will and is already having a profound impact on the things we all depend on: shelter, food, water, energy, medicine. Most nations have committed to drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to dial back the planets thermostat.But true sustainability is not just about emissions. We will need to transform the way all industries operate from agriculture to transport and health to meet the SDGs.The great green transition necessitates innovation. It calls for new, clean technologies and the scaling of proven ones. It requires industry leaders, disruptive innovators, and ambitious startups to create the blueprints for a sustainable world.Sustainable societies require systems, infrastructures, and propositions that facilitate and stimulate people to take better care of themselves and their surroundings, as private individuals and as professionals, says Andy Lrling, founding partner at LUMOLabs.Register NowThe sprouts of change are already visible. Climate action is accelerating faster now than ever before. But we need to keep going. This is why weve made Sustainable Societies one of the six refreshed themes of TNW Conference 2025, taking place on June 19 and 20 in Amsterdam.The theme is for climate warriors. Its for startups, investors, innovators leading the charge in the climate, energy, health, and agrifood industries. Its also for anyone from big execs to young innovators who want to deepen their understanding of the myriad ways technology can drive the sustainability shift. I foresee that the real value of emerging and disruptive technologies such as AI, blockchain, and AR/VR, lies in their convergence, says Lrling, whos an advisory board member for the TNW Conference. Together they hold the key to structurally disrupting widespread degenerative habits and systems.We understand that sustainability requires a holistic approach, across industries. Thats why weve divided the Sustainable Societies theme into four pillars.Turning the Tide: The innovations tackling the water crisisFarm to Table: An insiders look at the future of foodHacking the Human: Building a sustainable healthcare system, from engineered proteins to cell-based therapiesWaste Not, Watt Not: Turning environmental issues into opportunitiesIf you want to hear all about these ideas, you can grab a ticket for TNW Conference now. Use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 to get 30% off your pass.See you on June 19 and 20 in Amsterdam! Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Dutch startup Skytree has opened a new HQ in Toronto, Canada and a new office in Nashville, Tennessee, as it looks to cash-in on attractive government incentives for direct carbon capture (DAC) technologies.Engineer-turned-entrepreneur Max Beaumont founded Skytree in 2014, following his work on DAC for the European Space Agency. Skytrees technology is based on the carbon scrubbers used aboard the International Space Station, which remove the excess CO2 produced from the breath of astronauts.Direct air captureDAC machines suck CO2 from the air like a giant vacuum. The CO2 they capture can be buried underground or mineralised into rock for construction. It can also be used to make anything from cleaner chemicals to sustainable aviation fuel for aircraft.Skytree is among only a few companies in the world with DAC units already operating successfully in the field, said CEO Rob van Straten. We are eager to offer industry partners a viable, economical pathway to turn atmospheric CO2 into valuable inputs or to store it safely and indefinitely underground.Register NowSkytree has built two carbon-sucking devices. One, Skytree Cumulus, produces 20kg of CO2 daily. It is targetted at small-scale applications such as vertical farming and cannabis cultivation. Farmers use the gas to boost plant growth. The other unit, Stratus, is much bigger. It captures up to 1000kg of CO2 per day. Skytree designed Stratus for industrial-scale applications, such as for large greenhouses and green cement plants or for burial underground. The Stratus units are modular, so they can be stacked together to make one, much larger machine which Skytree calls the Stratus Hub. The startup is planning to build one of these hubs at its base in Amsterdam. Once up and running, the company expects the machine to suck up 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.Developed over more than a decade, Skytree said it has achieved level 9 on the technology readiness scale, the highest possible. This means Skytree is poised for full-scale commercial deployment, a rare thing in the budding carbon capture industry.Skytrees first customers have largely been greenhouses. The company also recently announced plans to install a Stratus unit at the offices of Deep Sky, a fellow DAC company from Canada. Now its looking to scale up and into new industries including food and beverage.Cashing in on climate tech fundingSkytree said that generous government subsidies partly drove its expansion to the US.Last month, the Biden-Harris Administration, announced plans to provide up to $1.8bn in funding to support the growth of DAC technologies. This builds on the 45Q tax credit laid out in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The incentive provides up to $180 per metric ton of CO2 captured and stored.The US continues to demonstrate growing demand for proven, cost-effective, scalable DAC technology driven by the needs of industry and with the backing by government, said van Straten.Skytree said it chose Nashville for its office partly due to its close proximity to its manufacturing partner Scanfil. The Swedish firm will make the Stratus and Cumulus machines at its factory in the nearby city of Atlanta.Skytree said it chose Toronto for its North American HQ due to the citys strong climate tech ecosystem and access to talent. In addition to Deep Sky, Skytree already has a partnership with Canadian vertical farming company Fieldless Farms, which uses the captured CO2 to improve the yields from its strawberry plants.As part of Torontos passionate climate-focused tech community, I am confident that Skytree will make a meaningful impact not only here but across the globe, said Olivia Chow, Torontos mayor.Skytree expects to employ 80 people at its new HQ over the next three years. The company is also planning to set up its own manufacturing facility at an undisclosed site in Canada. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

In November 2023, violent Atlantic storm Domingos struck the northern coast of Portugal, generating record-high waves and leaving a path of destruction across much of Western Europe.People on land were grappling with flooded homes, closed roads, and landslides. But just offshore, a potentially game-changing wave energy device was happily bobbing up and down, side to side seemingly, in its element.Built by Swedish startup CorPower, the giant golden buoy turns the raw power of the ocean into a clean, reliable electricity source. CorPower claims its tech is at least five times more efficient than the previous state-of-the-art.Weve proven that our technology is both energy efficient and can survive the harshest ocean conditions two problems that have plagued the industry for decades, Patrik Mller, Corpowers co-founder and CEO, tells TNW.Register NowToday, the company announced that it has secured 32mn in funding, historys largest single investment in a wave energy startup.In an industry haunted by the ghosts of failed projects, wasted ideas, and bankrupt ventures, has wave energy finally found its golden buoy?CorPowers co-founder and CEO, Patrik Mller. Credit: CorPowerHuge source of baseload energyIn recent years, there has been a surge of interest in wave energy, driven by the need for more reliable sources of clean power.Think about wave energy as a buffer of electricity, Amin Al-Habaibeh, wave energy expert and professor of intelligent engineering systems at Nottingham Trent University, tells TNW.Energy from waves is available 90% of the time, compared with 20-30% for wind and solar power, and is easy to predict and forecast.When the wind isnt blowing or the sun isnt shining you still have waves rolling in from thousands of kilometres away, day and night. If we manage to harness this in a commercially viable way, we have a huge source of baseload energy, says Al-Habaibeh.Wave energy can be harnessed across huge swathes of the worlds coastline, where most of the worlds major cities are located. Credit: CorPowerIn theory, waves carry enough potential energy to power the entire planet. Yet, last year wave energy devices only generated about 1MW of Europes total electricity, according to Ocean Energys latest report. Thats only enough to supply around 1,000 homes.CorPower is one of a small but growing number of companies looking to bring wave energy out from the depths and into the ring with renewable heavyweights like solar, wind, and hydro. And the Swedish venture believes its technology has what it takes to do just that.Tapping the oceans rhythmThe inspiration for CorPowers technology came not from the sea, but from rhythmic beating of the human heart. This vital organ only uses energy when it contracts and pushes blood out and into the body. To suck blood back in, it simply relaxes, pumping blood in two directions from one action.In 1984, Swedish cardiologist Dr Stig Lundbck patented the Dynamic Adaptive Piston Pump, a system that replicates the dual-action of the heart. Over the years that followed, the doctor-turned-inventor schemed elaborate ways to put the pump to good use. In 2011, he teamed up with Mller, a tech entrepreneur, and founded CorPower Ocean.The C4 is a point absorber, a type of floating wave energy device that is anchored to the seafloor and converts the up and down motion of a buoy into electrical power. It measures 18 metres high, 9 metres across, and weighs about 70 tonnes.The C4 being towed out to sea. Credit: CorPowerAs the buoy moves with the waves, a Power Take-Off (PTO) mechanism a series of springs, gears, and pistons converts the vertical motion into rotational energy. This then drives a generator, producing power which is transferred to shore via a subsea cable.When a wave pushes the buoy up, a specially designed wave spring stores up pressure in a pneumatic cylinder. When the buoy goes back down, this built up pressure provides a returning force the C4 captures two forces from one action.Crucially, C4 uses algorithms to predict the motion of incoming waves, boosting the amount of energy it can harness. When waves get too rough, the AI sends a signal to the power control system telling it to enter storm survivability mode a de-tuned state comparable to when wind turbines pitch their blades during strong gales.Over the course of a six-month trial last year, the C4 achieved a maximum power output of 600KW, electricity it exported to the Portuguese grid.Mller called its first commercial-scale pilot a massive breakthrough that tackles two key issues in harnessing this huge untapped clean energy source: efficiency and survivability.A troubled pastMoored off a harbour in the Orkney islands lies the rusted wreckage of a 180 metre-long wave energy convertor built by Scottish startup Pelamis. In 2004, the giant red sea snake-looking machine became the worlds first grid-connected wave energy device.The sea snake was a wave energy attenuator, made up of five connected sections that flexed and bent in the waves. Hydraulic rams located in the joints harnessed the movement, driving electrical generators and sending power to the grid via a subsea cable. Pelamis went on to build several more of the 1,350-tonne behemoths. In 2008, three machines installed off the coast of Portugal were generating enough clean energy to power 1,500 homes.Pelamis undergoing testing at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland in 2008. Credit: Falt i det fri (Public domain)But the companys success was short-lived. High installation and maintenance costs, frequent breakdowns, poor efficiency, and a subsequent lack of funding forced Pelamis into administration in 2014. The companys remaining wave energy converters are now little more than scrap metal.Pelamis is largely symbolic of an industry that has struggled with commercial viability, says Al-Habaibeh.Frenchman Girard filed the first patent for a wave energy converter back in 1799. Since then, engineers have invented over 1,000 devices, many bearing peculiar names such as the Edinburgh duck, the wave dragon, and the oyster. Most never broke out of the lab.Thats largely because testing a wave energy device in real-world conditions is incredibly expensive. Building one that can cost-efficiently produce electricity and withstand ocean storms and saltwater corrosion? Thats never been proven over the long term.The major challenges of harnessing wave power have deterred private investors, with proven renewables like solar and wind constituting safer bets. But there are signs that the tides are turning.Wave energy investmentIn July, the US senate proposed the Marine Energy Bill, which, if passed, would make a record $1bn available for the commercialisation of ocean power technologies like wave and tidal energy converters. In a separate announcement in September, the Biden-Harris administration opened a $112.5mn funding call for wave energy tech.Europe has invested over 375mn in ocean energy R&D over the past 10 years. While the continent is still the world leader in wave energy, the US and China are catching up fast.Aside from state grants, there has been a steady trickle of private investments into wave energy startups in recent years.Finlands AW Energy has secured a total of $30.5mn (28mn) for WaveRoller, a fully submerged device that converts ocean wave energy into electricity by using underwater panels that move with the waves.Mocean Energys CEO Cameron-McNatt stands in the shadow of the companys wave energy device. Credit: Mocean EnergyMocean Energy secured 2.6mn in November from the likes of Norwegian impact investors Katapult Ocean, bringing its total raised to 13mn. The UK-based company has built a floating hinged raft that captures energy from the relative motion of the two arms as the wave passes them.Moceans CEO, Cameron McNatt told TNW that the company is mainly targeting the oil and gas industry which is looking for cleaner ways to power their offshore equipment. The startup has already completed a year-long testing phase funded by five customers, including Shell and Total Energies, focusing on micro-grid power.Other promising startups include Denmarks WavePiston, which converts wave power into electricity by using a series of moving plates, and Israeli firm EcoWave Power, whos tech attaches to man-made structures on shore, like harbour walls, instead of the seafloor.Of all of them, CorPower is the best funded, having secured a total of 95mn, mainly from VC and impact investors, since its founding in 2012. And now, armed with fresh funding off the back of a successful trial, it looks to scale fast.Scaling upCorPower now looks to replicate the success of its pilot on a much bigger scale. The startup is now building three more buoys to deploy off the coast of Portugal in 2026, with further plans signed with Irish utility ESB for 14 more devices. Once up and running, this would be the worlds first commercial wave farm. CorPowers ultimate goal is to deploy clusters of C4s that combined will produce up to 30MW of clean electricity. Thats enough to power around 30,000 homes, while optimising the power output of more variable renewables like wind and solar.CorPowers business will only become cost competitive if it can reach a scale of 600MW or more in total deployment. This is where the company predicts its buoys will be able to produce power at a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of 71/MWh what Mller calls the magic number.A 3D render of what a wave energy cluster might look like. Credit: CorPowerLCOE measures the total cost of producing energy over a projects lifetime, helping to determine how competitive it will be in the energy market. In 2024, the LCOE of utility-scale solar PV was 55/MWh.We can extract a lot of energy from a relatively small device, and thats the basis for driving down the cost very quickly, says Mller.In pursuit of the magic number, CorPower is taking a nimble, high-tech approach to manufacturing.The C4s hull is built by a robot that adds layer upon layer of metal filament to make a lightweight composite structure. CorPower has developed its own fully automated mobile factory concept that it plans to use to fabricate the hulls close to the site of each wave farm. The company wants to be able to produce a single hull in just 48 hours.The buoy is tethered to the seafloor using a specially designed UKMACK anchor thats about three times lighter than a conventional monopile. It also features a quick-connector system that allows the wave energy converter to be easily connected and disconnected, reducing maintenance costs. An inflection point in wave energy?CorPower is now looking to raise fresh funding to fuel its growth. The company is also working with off-takers and large energy consumers to achieve bankability.Richard Arnold, UK Marine Energy Council (UKMEC) policy director, compared the current position of wave energy to where floating wind was several years ago.Everyone started laughing at the early pioneers within floating wind, then suddenly some money came into it and then there were one or two demonstration projects that proved successful, he said.Then suddenly were having hundreds of gigawatts [of floating wind] in the world to develop and it happened in a very short time because governments, regulators, product developers, financiers, just agreed, okay lets do it.CorPowers tech could be the breakthrough that finally drags wave energy out from the ocean depths and into the mainstream.Mller says he believes wave energy will eventually become the worlds third largest source of energy, with wind in second, and solar in first place.Will that come to pass? Only time will tell. But if any of todays wave energy technologies has a genuine shot, its probably the C4. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with