From The%20Next%20Web

  • This week in Dutch tech

    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 you want to showcase your startup, share a digital tip, or just tell us your deepest, darkest secrets. In the meantime, let’s get to the news. What we're writing Chip giant ASML...

  • Why Lithuania is a hidden gem of Europe’s startup ecosystem

    In 2022, over 20,000 Lithuanians returned to their country of birth from abroad. A high quality of life coupled with a booming entrepreneurial ecosystem and a collaborative mentality has contributed to what investors are calling a “reverse brain drain.” Many of their minds reemerge in the country's startup scene. It was on a visit to Lisbon that I first heard someone refer to Lithuania as “a hidden gem” of Europe’s startup ecosystem. A recent trip to Vilnius convinced me they were right. ...

  • DeepL launches AI writing assistant for businesses trained on its own LLM

    DeepL, which has been rivalling machine translation giants such as Google Translate and Microsoft Translator, has launched an AI writing assistant tailored for businesses. Dubbed DeepL Write Pro, the product acts as a creative assistant for use during the drafting process. It provides suggestions on word choice, phrasing, style, and tone, aiming to improve the text, while preserving the writer’s own voice. Currently available in English and German, the tool comes with customisation options...

  • Darktrace agrees £4.3B sale to US investor in blow to UK stock market

    British cybersecurity flag bearer Darktrace is set to leave London’s stock market after agreeing a £4.3bn sale to US private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Shareholders will have to approve the takeover before it's rubber-stamped. The chair of Darktrace, Gordon Hurst, said the deal represents "an attractive premium and an opportunity for shareholders." "The proposed acquisition will provide Darktrace access to a strong financial partner in Thoma Bravo, with deep software sector expertise, who...

  • To understand the risks posed by AI, follow the money

    Time and again, leading scientists, technologists, and philosophers have made spectacularly terrible guesses about the direction of innovation. Even Einstein was not immune, claiming, “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable,” just ten years before Enrico Fermi completed construction of the first fission reactor in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, the consensus switched to fears of an imminent nuclear holocaust. Similarly, today’s experts warn that an...

  • Cyberattacks on Poland surged after election of pro-Ukraine government, NetScout says

    Cyber attackers battered Poland after the country's change of government late last year. DDoS attacks at the end of 2023 were nearly quadruple the country’s average, according to cybersecurity firm NetScout's observations. The surge began when the Law and Justice party (PiS) lost its majority in last year's Polish general election. PiS had ruled the country since 2015. It was replaced by a coalition government, which reaffirmed support for Ukraine's defence against Russia's invasion. ...

  • Europe taps deep learning to make industrial robots safer colleagues

    Demand for industrial robots is rising in Europe, especially driven by the benefits of automation. However, there are ongoing challenges in ensuring seamless collaboration with humans while maintaining safety. To address this issue, a consortium of European universities, technology accelerators, and private research labs is launching the RoboSAPIENs project. The aim is to build the necessary safety mechanisms with a particular focus on adaptive industrial robots — a category of autonomous...

  • AI unicorn Synthesia launches most 'emotionally expressive' avatars on the market

    A British startup today unveiled new AI humans that blur the line between the virtual and the real. Synthesia calls the digital beings "Expressive Avatars." They promise the most realistic emotional expressions on the market. Generated by an AI model that's trained on footage of real actors, the avatars are built for video creation. Users simply enter a text prompt and the synthetic humans read them out on a screen. The photorealistic renders are certainly impressive. But what makes them...

  • 'Airbnb for cars' platform SnappCar changes hands in bid for further growth

    Dutch car-sharing platform SnappCar, which claims to be the largest of its kind in the Netherlands, has been fully acquired by AutoBinck Group — a shareholder in the scaleup since its founding in 2011. The ownership change also sees the return of SnappCar’s founder, Victor van Tol, in the role of the CEO. Van Told told local newspaper mt/sprout that the acquisition will enable faster decisions and eliminate the need for external investments. AutoBinck, which specialises in mobility and...

  • Paris startup adds 'universal compute' weapon to France's growing AI arsenal

    A startup promising “universal AI compute” has joined France’s thriving artificial intelligence sector. Paris-based FlexAI emerged from stealth today with a €28.5mn war chest and an ambitious plan to "unlock the future of machine intelligence." To pick that lock, FlexAI is rearchitecting compute infrastructure. The startup's centrepiece is an on-demand cloud service. Set to launch later this year, the product will enable developers to build and train AI applications with heterogeneous...

  • TNW Podcast: Sebastian Aristotelis on thriving in space; the future of ASML and Stability AI

    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, Ioanna and Andrii talk about the potentially good news about ASML’s future in the Netherlands, the latest developments at Stability AI, carbon capture solutions, and much more. The guest of the show is Sebastian Aristotelis, whose title is co-founder and...

  • The top programming languages to learn if you want to get into AI

    It’s safe to say that the age of generative AI is well and truly upon us, rapidly changing the world of work as we know it. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs Report, more than 75% of companies are looking to adopt technologies like AI in the next five years, so it’s no surprise that career opportunities in the space are exploding, especially for developers. But which programming language is leading the way? Python is without a doubt the most buzzed-about language for...