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Dutch file-sharing service WeTransfer is under fire after users spotted sweeping updates to its terms of service that appeared to let the company train AI models on their uploaded files. The company has now removed the controversial language, but users remain outraged. Here’s what’s going on — and why it matters. What did WeTransfer change? WeTransfer users discovered this week that the service...
A giant cargo ship is trapping carbon from its exhaust and turning it into cement for use in onshore construction. The technology, developed by UK startup Seabound, is billed as the world’s first commercial carbon capture system for boats. It’s installed on the UBC Cork, a cement carrier owned by Germany’s Hartmann Group. “These are the systems we intend to scale across hundreds, and eventually...
“There is no stop the clock. There is no grace period. There is no pause.” So said Thomas Regnier, a spokesman for the European Commission, in response to calls for a pause on the EU’s AI Act. These landmark rules on artificial intelligence will, then, be rolled out according to the timeline specified in the legislation. The EC will ignore calls from 46 CEOs across the continent to halt the...
German startup Enerkii has launched an energy-as-a-service model that aims to cut power bills in half for industrial customers — and decarbonise them in the process. The model uses an in-house operating system (OS) to calculate the optimal solar energy configuration for any company in around 15 minutes. Then it provides the hardware stack to set it up — solar panels, battery storage, EV charging...
Dutch startup Whisper has emerged from stealth with a cybersecurity platform that promises to detect online threats before they strike. It plans to do this with what it calls a “God Mode” view of the internet. At the heart of Whisper’s approach is a massive, real-time map of global internet infrastructure. The map is built from more than 45 billion data points sourced from 18 different systems,...
London-based insurtech startup Laka has raised $10.4mn in Series B funding as it eyes profitability at the end of next year. Laka offers “collective” insurance for bikes and e-scooters, pooling claims across a community of riders. Instead of fixed, upfront premiums, customers pay a variable monthly fee based on the total number of claims across the entire user base. The fee is capped at a maximum...
Funding focus is a new series analysing cash flow into the European tech ecosystem. Last week, we looked at the largest investment rounds in the Netherlands, and now we’re honing in on Europe’s budding fusion energy sector. European fusion energy startups raised a record €290mn in the first half of this year as VCs bet big on a technology with the potential to supply virtually limitless clean...
New research has found that large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT consistently advise women to ask for lower salaries than men, even when both have identical qualifications. The study was co-authored by Ivan Yamshchikov, a professor of AI and robotics at the Technical University of Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS) in Germany. Yamshchikov, who is also the founder of Pleias, a French–German...
A new report from the University of Cambridge has warned that the UK’s push to lead in AI risks derailing its climate targets — unless urgent action is taken. According to the University’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, the unchecked growth of AI could drive a 25-fold increase in the global tech sector’s energy use by 2040, putting massive strain on power grids and accelerating...
The UK government reportedly plans to invest €163mn in French satellite firm Eutelsat as Europe pushes to back a local alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink. The investment, first reported by Reuters, follows the lead of the French state, which is set to inject €717mn into Eutelsat as part of a €1.35bn funding package to prop up the indebted satellite communications provider. The UK contribution...