A weird technology has emerged as a leader in the quest for net zero. But this form of carbon capture, called Enhanced Rock Weathering (or ERW for short), still requires innovation —…
Month: April 2024
Intruders beware: New face-detecting AI security cam fires paintballs and teargas
Homeowners delight: a startup from Slovenia has created what might just be the most badass security camera ever made. The “world-first” device is called Eve, but she ain’t no saint. Eve is…
New breakthrough promises ‘entirely secure’ quantum cloud computing
Ever heard of hybrid matter-photon implementation of verifiable blind quantum computing? No? Neither had we, until today. But it could just be what will make next-generation quantum computers securely accessible to “millions…
Europe’s first pilot plant for cultivated fish opens in Germany
German startup Bluu Seafood today launched Europe’s first pilot plant for cultivated fish. The facility in Hamburg brings lab-grown seafood a step closer to the market. Bluu had previously developed the controversial food in a…
The state of open source in Europe
Open source is at a crossroads. For the past few years, venture capital has directly or indirectly paid for many of the contributors and much of the infrastructure it needed to keep…
Space tourism balloon startup unveils ‘luxury’ capsule design
A space tourism company promising stratospheric balloon rides has unveiled the vehicle’s capsule design. Halo Space is building the balloon for zero-emission commercial flights to altitudes of up to 40km. Tickets will…
‘British DARPA’ to build AI gatekeepers for ‘quantitative safety guarantees’
A British R&D unit today unveiled a futuristic vision of “quantitative safety guarantees” for AI. The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) compares the guarantees to the high safety standards in nuclear…
Green transition at the centre of EU-China tech rivalry
With the geopolitical landscape turning more unstable by the day, EU relations with China are also becoming increasingly turbulent. At the core of the rising tensions lies the quest for tech supremacy…
Max Planck spinout nets €20M to build ‘stellarator’ fusion machine
A German startup has secured new funding for a peculiar twisted-looking reactor that could prove a quicker path to clean, virtually limitless fusion energy. Proxima Fusion has raised €20mn as it looks…
Meta’s AI chief: LLMs will never reach human-level intelligence
There’s no escaping the hype around artificial general intelligence. Barely a day passes without a new headline about the concept, which envisions computer systems outperforming humans at various cognitive tasks. In the last…