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China is currently busy accumulating most of the gold medals in the table tennis events in the Paris Olympics. Meanwhile, an AI-powered robot from Google DeepMind has achieved “amateur human level performance” in the sport.  In a study published in an Arxiv paper this week, the Google artificial intelligence subsidiary outlined how the robot functions, along with footage of it taking on what we...

Pitch battles are a great way for startups to gain exposure and attract a room full of potential investors, future employees, and new customers, all in a quick-fire three minutes on-stage. But… what if you have a complicated product that solves a problem that’s unfamiliar to most of the audience? Or what if you need a PhD to actually understand the technology behind your...

Elon Musk is having a rough week. His daughter has denounced him as a fake Christian, an absent father, and a serial adulterer. He’s been in court to fight a custody battle. His ex-partner Grimes said he “‘cannot distinguish the truth.” And that’s just his personal life. Musk’s businesses are also under fire. Tesla stock has plummeted. X has repelled so many advertisers that...

Volocopter won’t be operating an air taxi service at the Paris Olympics after all, following a delay in the certification of its aircraft’s engine, AFP reports.   The setback deals a major blow to the German startup, which has been lobbying hard for several months to get its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles ready in time for the Games.   In July, French authorities...

“There comes a time when free speech can cause real-life harm and that’s when social media platforms need to react,” said former Danish PM and current chair of Meta’s Oversight Board, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, during a session at TNW Conference 2024. There’s no better example of this than what’s happening in the UK right now. As the country grapples with an eruption of violence from...

Delft-based VSParticle has raised €6.5mn to accelerate material discovery for industrial solutions, such as the production of green hydrogen. Discovering new materials in the lab typically takes years, often close to 10 or even more. VSParticle aims to change this paradigm and reduce discovery time to as little as one year. To do this, the company has tapped nanotechnology. It develops tools that can break...

A stargazing satellite called Mauve has booked a flight on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Mauve is the brainchild of British startup Blues Skies Space. The London-based company has a unique plan for the satellite. After launching into space in October 2025, Mauve will turn its onboard telescope towards the cosmos. The 13cm device will then observe hundreds of stars in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths....

 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 today’s episode, Linnea and Ioanna talk about the entry into force of the EU’s AI Act and what it means for companies, futuristic robotic surgery, meteor...

Imec, a leading semiconductor research company based in Belgium, today announced a series of chipmaking breakthroughs at its joint lab with ASML. The lab opened its doors in June with the aim to provide ecosystem partners with early access to the High NA EUV prototype scanner. The High NA machine represents the latest advancement in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems, which use light to...

A “space balloon” for tourists is set for a test flight in Saudi Arabia this September. Spanish startup Halo Space built the balloon for zero-emission trips into the stratosphere. Each ticket is expected to cost around €150,000. On each flight, Halo plans to welcome aboard eight passengers and one pilot. The balloon will then ascend to altitudes of up to 35km. From this lofty...

No one was surprised when British actor Neil Newbon won the “Best Performance” category at The Game Awards last year for his role as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3 — beating Hollywood royalty Idris Elba’s appearance in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. (However, it is safe to assume that Elba, while also British may have been offered significantly more for his role.)  Disparities in pay...

Sweden remains the leading startup ecosystem in the EU, second only to the UK in Europe as a whole. That’s according to this year’s Global Startup Ecosystem Index Report by StartupBlink. In the past decade, the Nordic nation has emerged as one of the world’s top tier startup hubs. Home to over 7,000 startups and scaleups, Sweden has also minted 41 unicorns to date....

Swiss startup Terra Quantum announced today it has landed a contract to embark on a study with the US Air Force for a network utilising post-quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution, and quantum random number generators.  Terra Quantum is the recipient of a grant from the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) fund for technologies with applications for the defence industry. The aim of the specific...

New scientific understanding and engineering techniques have always impressed and frightened. No doubt they will continue to do so. OpenAI recently announced that it anticipates “superintelligence” — AI surpassing human abilities — this decade. It is accordingly building a new team, and devoting 20% of its computing resources to ensuring that the behaviour of such AI systems will be aligned with human values. It...

UK-based Riverlane announced today it has secured $75mn in Series C funding to meet “surging global demand” for quantum error correction — and propel it on its path toward 1 million error-free quantum operations by 2026.  Quantum technologies hold the potential to forever alter the way in which we think about computation. Specifically, quantum computing can unlock a range of transformative capabilities across industries...

A new app hopes to provide a “lifeline” to the 2.5 million people in the UK with ADHD. Cog ADHD combines access to specialists with in-app treatment tools. The system is the brainchild of Dom Longford, who founded Cog ADHD after enduring his own struggles with the condition. Longford had a breakthrough when a doctor recommended a new approach. Developed by scientists at Harvard Medical...

It’s Friday, and you know what that means! That’s right — it’s time to talk about working yourself to death. It’s a fate we could all face. Take your humble writer, forced to slave away his Friday at a battered keyboard, squeezing out my last words like a lemon that’s been thrown to hordes of starving rats (love you, boss). It’s a tough life,...

A new European Citizens’ Initiative has launched to try and make it illegal for game publishers to render games useless to players. Should it succeed in getting 1 million signatures, the European Commission will have to consider making it law. One of the most frustrating things you can encounter as a gamer is when a publisher decides to kill one of your favourite games....

The thought of espionage usually conjures quirky high-end gadgets, like umbrellas that turn into lasers and x-ray glasses, misty morning clandestine meetings, or high-speed boat chases in exotic locations and elaborate disguises. Today, the reality might be much less sexy — but way more effective. State-sponsored hackers have 9-to-5 jobs, just like the rest of us. They have offices, vacations, and chit chats in...

The European Union’s AI Act entered into force yesterday. It is the world’s first comprehensive regulation for artificial intelligence. First agreed upon in December 2023, the law is applying a risk-based approach. The strictest measures only apply to “high-risk” systems, including tools related to employment and law enforcement. The regulation entirely prohibits AI systems deemed “unacceptable,” such a social scoring or police profiling. For...

Google has been accused of exploiting a regulatory gap to terminate a startup’s access to the Gmail API. London-based Gener8 said the API is “critical” to its business. The company offers people control of the data that the likes of Gmail harvest. Users can then monetise their information. Thousands of firms already harvest and sell this data. That’s how Google became the fourth most valuable company in the...

Google DeepMind announced today the release of the 2 billion (2B) parameter version of Gemma 2, the second generation of its Gemma AI models. First launched in February this year, Gemma is a family of lightweight, text-to-text open models designed for developers and researchers — and built on the technology that powers Google Gemini. DeepMind released Gemma 2 in June, in two different sizes:...

The EU has awarded €1.8mn to 15 startups to help tackle online misinformation, fraud, and fake identities with blockchain-based technologies. The grant funding is part of the NGI TrustChain initiative, which focuses on building a more decentralised, trustworthy, and user-centric internet by supporting innovations in blockchain. To date, TrustChain has provided over €4.5mn in funding to 43 companies. Among the initiative’s key targets is...

A push for single-pilot planes is a “dangerous gamble,” a leading aviation union has warned. The European Cockpit Association (ECA) sounded the alarm over plans to automate commercial flights. Aircraft makers want software to support a new single-pilot model. Known as extended minimum crew operations (eMCO), the concept removes one pilot from the flight deck during an aircraft’s cruise phase. Automation tech would take...