A propaganda network linked to Russia has sparked alarm about a new weapon of information warfare: large language models (LLMs). The operation was unearthed by Recorded Future, a threat intelligence firm founded by two Swedish computer scientists. In early March, the company spotted a network known as CopyCop using LLMs to manipulate news from mainstream …
Reuse Brew is a classic German lager with a twist — it’s made from recycled wastewater. The beer is the result of a tie-up between the south German city of Weissenburg, American water tech company Xylem, and the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Specifically, TUM’s Brewery and Beverage Technology department (why didn’t I study there?!). …
Bottoms up: This German beer is made from recycled wastewaterLire plus »
Wayve, a London-based startup working on AI systems for autonomous vehicles, has raised $1bn. The colossal funding round marks the largest single investment in a European AI startup. Japanese conglomerate SoftBank led the funding round alongside tech giants Nvidia and Microsoft. Wayve did not disclose its valuation following the investment. Founded in Cambridge in 2017, …
UK’s Wayve raises $1B in Europe’s largest ever AI funding roundLire plus »
Estonian mobility startup Bolt has secured a €220mn credit facility as it plans to go public next year. This type of financing is a more flexible loan option, which allows a business to withdraw and repay funds as needed, on an ongoing basis. Kind of like a credit card for companies. The credit facility …
When the EU approved the European Green Deal in 2020, the bloc unveiled a plan to lead the clean energy transition. Yet it has since faced growing competition from both China — which has quickly and quietly buried Europe’s solar panel industry and is now taking aim at its EV market — and the US, …
Europe is falling behind in the race to develop space-based solar powerLire plus »
In June, Kubernetes celebrates its tenth birthday. The system is now so widely used by hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide to scale their applications to meet demand it’s hard even to remember a time before it existed. But there was a time when other options were available, and I even remember using some of …
As Kubernetes turns 10, experts predict the future of cloud-nativeLire plus »
Another Dutch tech firm has been caught in the simmering tensions between the West and China. Amid growing calls to curb Chinese access to chipmaking equipment from ASML, a Dutch minister has raised a separate alarm about the sale of Philips spinoff Anteryon. Although the digital-optics developer remains based in Eindhoven, the business was bought …
Dutch minister fears ‘national security risk’ from Chinese ownership of AnteryonLire plus »
The European Space Agency (ESA) has secured a ride for its solar wind satellite. The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer — or Smile for short — will blast into space aboard a Vega-C rocket. The launch is scheduled for late 2025 from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana. “We are delighted to be launching Smile …
Vega-C rocket to launch Europe and China’s first entirely joint space missionLire plus »
The Financial Times (full disclosure — the owners of The Next Web) have inked a deal with OpenAI. The American firm will use the British publisher’s content to train its generative AI models. The deal is the latest in a string of new partnerships between OpenAI and global news publishers like Axel Springer, Associated Press, …
OpenAI to train LLMs on Financial Times content — with permissionLire plus »
Hallo, Netherlands! Welcome to TNW’s first weekly round-up of tech news from our glorious home country. As we count down to TNW conference in Amsterdam on June 20 and 21, we’re ramping up our coverage of the Dutch IT sector. We’d also love to hear your thoughts on the local ecosystem. Drop us a line if …
