At the beginning of the year, news readers were treated to images of German police forcefully removing climate activists from the village of Lützerath to make way for an open-air coal mine. Indeed, Germany may have averted a looming energy crisis this past winter by upping its coal consumption. While prioritising energy independence may have caused a detour from the transition to renewables, the country’s goal is to reach climate... Read more ›
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If you’ve been reading about the current state of the tech industry in traditional media reports, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the industry is trembling on a precipice, about to plunge into the inky abyss. The truth, though, is somewhat more nuanced. While sites such as layoffs.fyi, which tracks tech redundancies, are reporting that around 616 tech companies have laid off 184,101 employees so far this year, those layoffs... Read more ›
0
ChatGPT has spawned a new sector of AI chat apps — and Europe’s at its epicentre. Since the tool launched in November 2022, these apps have been downloaded 23.6 million times from the Google Play Store, according to research by App Radar. The study uncovered 40 AI chat apps with over 10,000 users that harness ChatGPT or similar tech. Europe emerged as the global leader of the nascent segment. The... Read more ›
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Much of the world may currently be fretting about how to limit the impact (lack of privacy, copyright issues, loss of jobs, world domination, etc.) of artificial intelligence. However, that does not mean that there isn’t enormous potential for AI to improve quality of life on earth. One such application is healthcare. With the ability to process big data sets, the deployment of AI could lead to significant advances in... Read more ›
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In March, Italy became the first Western country to temporarily ban access to ChatGPT within its borders. Citing concerns over “unlawful” data collection and the lack of an age verification mechanism for minors, the country’s data protection agency — Garante — blocked the service, requiring OpenAI to meet a series of demands for the suspension to be lifted. As of April 28, Italian users have regained access to the AI... Read more ›
9
The COVID-19 pandemic was a veritable gold rush for food delivery startups — as the world shut down, people ordered in. These companies promised rapid delivery of groceries from local stores using bikes and scooters, and as demand skyrocketed, investors poured cash into the booming industry. But now, amid soaring inflation and a post-pandemic downturn, the ‘quick commerce’ market is undergoing rapid consolidation with small companies being swallowed up by... Read more ›
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While the UK is being labelled as “closed for business” and Rishi Sunak is playing Unicorn Kingdom in Silicon Valley, the British chip industry risks losing some of its strongest players due to a lack of supportive policies. Based in Cambridge, UK, Pragmatic Semiconductor, funded in part by the CIA’s investment branch In-Q-Tel, has created an ultra-thin, ultra-low-cost, flexible integrated circuit (FlexIC). Instead of relying on silicon, it is made... Read more ›
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A group of over 23 VCs across Europe and the US have joined forces this week to guide startups and their early-stage investors towards net zero, in an effort to decarbonise the global economy and the venture capital industry. The Venture Climate Alliance (VCA) consists of both generalist and climate-focused firms, and its members manage a combined $62.3 billion in assets, according to Crunchbase figures. To begin with, participating VCs... Read more ›
5
Barcelona’s food tech startup Heura has unveiled its new patent-pending technology aimed at producing meat substitutes without the lengthy and sometimes off-putting ingredients list. The company says it is the first scalable technology of its kind to add “superior” nutritional value to plant-based foods. The data is abundantly clear – if we are to have any chance at halting global warming, we need to revolutionise our food systems. Approximately 14.5%... Read more ›
9
The UK’s competition regulator has blocked Microsoft’s $68.7bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the maker of world-renowned games including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it’s concerned that the deal would tamper with the future of the rapidly-growing cloud gaming market, resulting in reduced innovation and fewer choices for UK gamers. According to the CMA, Microsoft, which already accounts for an estimated 60%... Read more ›
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Netflix’s password sharing crackdown has cost it one million users in Spain during the first quarter of 2023, a new study by market research group Kantar has found. This translates to an approximately 15% decrease of its total users. The streaming platform introduced the new measures in Spain in early February, asking for a €5.99 monthly fee from users sharing their passwords with other households. According to Kantar, this is... Read more ›
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The EU’s latest crackdown on big tech is taking shape. The bloc yesterday released a list of companies that must adhere to the strictest rules of the landmark Digital Services Act (DSA). The 17 platforms and two search engines reach at least 45 million monthly active users. All of them have four months to comply with the full obligations of the DSA. The services are now mandated to mitigate their... Read more ›
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A startup claims to have launched a world-first AI speech-to-speech translation system. The tool, called Aivia, was developed by Interprefy, a Zurich-based provider of translation services. The firm focuses on interpreting meetings and events — a market being turbocharged by globalisation. As interactions spread across borders, they can become harder to understand. Although English is the language of international business, it’s only spoken by an estimated 17% of the world.... Read more ›
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A Dutch startup has been awarded a contract to install floating solar panels at an offshore wind farm in the North Sea. Oceans of Energy secured the contract from CrossWind, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco. The renewable energy startup has been tasked with building a 0.5MW floating array between wind turbines at the 750MW Hollands Kust Noord wind farm, located 18.5km off the coast of the Netherlands. According... Read more ›
5
The UK will splash an initial £100m in funding to establish a government-industry AI taskforce, dedicated to boosting the country’s sovereignty and competitiveness in the field. The taskforce will develop foundation models — systems that train on large amounts of data such as ChatGPT and Google Bard — with the aim to benefit from their applications in public services and across the UK economy. According to the government, the technology... Read more ›
23
Heavy truck manufacturer Scania and emerging EV battery powerhouse Northvolt have developed a battery for electric trucks that they say will last as long as the vehicles themselves — about 1.5 million kilometres. The lithium-ion battery is the product of a five-year partnership between the two Swedish companies that began in 2017. At the time, Scania was on the lookout for more robust, cost-efficient, and sustainable battery cells for its... Read more ›
9
Assumed remote work was here to stay? Not so fast. Three years ago, lockdowns confined everyone to their homes, eager bosses rolled out policies to support WFH-ers’ wellbeing and the office was being gleefully denounced as a relic from the past. WFH was the “new normal.” Two years ago, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon famously took issue with that: “It’s not a new normal. It’s an aberration that we are... Read more ›
0
Everyone is talking about the potential of generative AI as buzzworthy tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E make the headlines. But just what is generative AI and is there actually a use for these tools within the tourism sector? First of all, it’s important to note that, although ChatGPT is one of the most popular examples of generative AI on the market right now, there are many examples of tools employing... Read more ›
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Swedish startup H2 Green Steel has announced its plans to raise more than €1.5bn in equity funding to build steel plants that emit virtually no emissions. The startup, backed by high-profile investors such as Mercedes, Maersk, and Spotify’s chief executive, is constructing a ‘green steel’ manufacturing plant in Boden, north Sweden. Construction of the plant will be financed through more than €5bn in debt and equity. The startup said in... Read more ›
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An Irish startup has teamed with CERN to develop a new form of insulation for superconducting cables, which are designed to accelerate the green energy transition. Named SuperNode, the company has invented energy transmission cables that can transfer immense power across long distances. As the system requires less space and voltage than conventional copper-based cables, the environmental impact is reduced. These benefits derive from superconductivity. This phenomenon occurs when certain... Read more ›
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09.05.2026 19:07
Last update: 19:01 EDT.
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