The internet is filled with sites and services we loathe yet it seems, to paraphrase Brokeback Mountain, we just don’t know how to quit them. Consider the evidence: Facebook was widely reviled after its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, yet it still has over 3 billion monthly active users. Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter there has been huge public outcry about his actions and decisions, but the platform remains relevant. And, most recently, Bandcamp was bought by Songtradr which swiftly laid off 50% of its staff. But guess what? It’s still by far-and-away the leader in its catego ..read more

Q-day (the day when quantum computers will successfully actually break the internet) may be some time away yet. However, that does not mean that companies — and states — shouldn’t hop on the qubit bandwagon now so as not to be left behind in the race for a technology that could potentially alter how we think about life, the Universe, and well… everything.  Spurred on by a discourse that more and more revolves around the concept of “digital sovereignty,” 11 EU member states this week signed the European Declaration on Quantum Technologies.  The signatories have agreed to align, coord ..read more

The tech world is waiting with bated breath for the results from the final negotiations in Brussels regarding the EU’s landmark AI Act. The discussions that commenced at 14:00 CET on Wednesday failed to reach a conclusion before the end of the day. However, negotiators did reportedly reach a compromise for the control of generative AI systems, such as ChatGPT.  According to sources familiar with the talks, they will now continue on the topic of the controversial use of AI for biometric surveillance — which lawmakers want to ban. As reported by Reuters, governments may have made concessio ..read more

With under 2 million people, a landmass that’s half the size of Greece, and a recent history of communist rule, Latvia doesn’t have textbook foundations for building world-leading businesses. But building a world-leading business is exactly what Latvia’s Printful did. In 2021, the on-demand printing startup was valued at over $1 billion, making it the country’s first-ever unicorn. To reach the local landmark, Printful took an international route. But rather than focus on its home continent of Europe, the company set its sights on the US. “We wanted to make something big — and to this day ..read more

Human intelligence heavily depends on acquiring knowledge from other humans — accumulated through time as part of our cultural evolution. This type of social learning, known in literature as cultural transmission, enables us to imitate actions and behaviours in real time. But can AI also develop social learning skills the same way? Imitation learning has long been a training approach for artificial intelligence, instructing the algorithms to observe humans complete a task and then try to mimic them. But usually AI tools need multiple examples and exposure to vast amounts of data to successful ..read more

As a new year approaches, you might be curious to see whether your programming skills are still in demand or whether you should consider up-skilling for the best opportunities. Hundreds of coding languages have emerged over the years; no matter what you’re hoping to create, there is no doubt a programming language out there for it. So which are standing the test of time and which are worth boning up on? Here are seven that are set to emerge or remain in demand in 2024 and beyond. Python Hailed for its versatility and dev velocity, Python has steadily climbed the… This story continues at The ..read more

It’s a question as old as the tech industry itself: can Europe compete with Silicon Valley? This reared up again in my mind for two main reasons. The first is the recent(-ish) shift of Big Tech into being media entities. And the second? That’s Spotify’s struggles as a European stalwart in this field. Let’s consider the first point. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Silicon Valley shift its strategy and start investing heavily in media. You only need to look at Apple’s launch of the Apple TV+ and Apple Music streaming services, or Amazon’s foray into movies and TV… This story continues at T ..read more

Oh, the wonderful and mind-twisting world of quantum mechanics. However, in order to harness the magic-like potential of bending qubits to one’s will, there is a whole lot of nitty gritty engineering that needs to occur.  The quantum revolution will not happen unless an entire ecosystem comes together, each part reaching the highest potential of its own expertise.  And plenty of that development is happening in the Netherlands. Just today, Dutch startup QuantaMap announced it had secured €1.4mn in funding for its quality assurance tech for the production of quantum computer chips. Q ..read more

In the world of AI image generation, tools like DALL-E and Midjourney are holding the crown — and not simply because of their high-resolution performance. The training of these models requires such substantial investment and resources that it inevitably leads to centralised services and pay-per-use access. A new AI tool developed by the University of Surrey aims to reverse this trend and democratise the technology, by opening up high-res image generation to a wider audience. Dubbed DemoFusion, the model allows users to generate high-quality images without the need to subscribe to a service, o ..read more

Shady behaviour might be part of the Grand Theft Auto DNA, but leaking video game trailers on TikTok before launch is probably not what developers had in mind. Especially not when it can be traced back to a senior Rockstar developer’s son.  The fact that fans will need to wait more than a year for the next instalment in the GTA saga (or, as one viewer close to the author expressed this morning, “2025 just means not 2024”) did not diminish the enthusiasm when Rockstar Games released the GTA VI trailer in the early hours of Tuesday CET. Our trailer… This story continues at The Next Web ..read more