News/Europe
Supersonik breaks the round barrier, raises $5M for AI that delivers instant software demos
Supersonik has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm, to develop an AI agent that delivers live, multilingual software demos on demand. The San Francisco and Barcelona-based startup aims to eliminate the typical wait times for sales demos by offering instant, personalized product walkthroughs that adapt to each prospect's needs in real time. What you should know: Supersonik's AI agent provides immediate access to live software demonstrations without requiring prospects to fill out forms or wait for human sales representatives. The AI shares its screen and guides prospects through actual...
read Sep 4, 2025AI voice tech and ambient AI help UK doctors stay ahead of schedule for first time in years
Ambient AI and voice recognition technologies are transforming healthcare workflows by automating documentation and streamlining administrative tasks for overwhelmed medical professionals. These advances are particularly impactful in UK general practice settings, where GPs can now dictate consultation summaries and referral letters directly into digital platforms, helping them stay ahead of schedule for the first time in years. The big picture: Healthcare professionals spend equal time documenting patient interactions as they do consulting with patients, contributing significantly to burnout and inefficiencies in primary care settings. How it works: Modern voice recognition systems use advanced AI to transcribe naturally spoken language in...
read Sep 4, 2025UK’s Alan Turing Institute CEO resigns amid staff revolt and £100M funding threat
Jean Innes, chief executive of the UK's Alan Turing Institute, is stepping down after facing a staff revolt and government demands for strategic change. Her resignation follows mounting pressure from employees who filed whistleblower complaints and intervention from Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, who called for new leadership to refocus the AI research body on defense and national security. What you should know: The Alan Turing Institute has been in turmoil since last year, with widespread staff discontent over organizational changes and strategic direction. A group of employees filed a whistleblower complaint to the Charity Commission last month, warning that £100...
read Sep 3, 2025AI even comes for pizza as Ooni’s new Volt 2 oven perfects indoor cooking
Ooni, a UK-based pizza oven manufacturer, has unveiled the Volt 2, an indoor pizza oven featuring "Pizza Intelligence," an AI-powered adaptive heating system that uses sensors to automatically adjust temperature and minimize cooking inconsistencies. The countertop appliance represents the company's push to bring smart automation to home pizza making, targeting enthusiasts seeking restaurant-quality results without the guesswork. What you should know: The Volt 2 combines traditional pizza oven capabilities with automated temperature control for more consistent cooking results. The oven accommodates pizzas up to 13 inches in diameter while remaining compact enough for countertop use. Pizza Intelligence uses sensor data...
read Sep 2, 2025Switzerland launches Apertus, world’s first open-source national AI model
Switzerland has launched Apertus, an open-source national Large Language Model developed by public institutions including EPFL, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre. The move positions Switzerland as the first country to offer a fully transparent AI model as public infrastructure, potentially setting a new standard for how nations approach AI development and data sovereignty. What you should know: Apertus represents a completely open approach to AI development, with full transparency across its entire training process. Users can inspect any part of the model's training, access comprehensive documentation, source code, and the datasets used to build it. The model...
read Sep 1, 2025Miss England adds AI avatar round though only 3 of 32 contestants participate
Miss England has introduced an AI round to its competition, where contestants create digital avatars of themselves to secure commercial bookings, with only three of 32 semi-finalists choosing to participate. The controversial addition reflects broader tensions in the modeling industry about AI's role in potentially replacing human workers while offering new digital opportunities. What you should know: The AI round requires contestants to work with technology company MirrorMe to create virtual avatars that can be pitched to brands and agencies. The contestant whose avatar secures the most commercial contracts advances to the final round. Models receive 10% of earnings from...
read Sep 1, 2025“Not afraid of AI”: Guillermo Del Toro’s $120M Frankenstein rejects AI metaphor at Venice premiere
Guillermo del Toro premiered his highly anticipated "Frankenstein" adaptation at the Venice Film Festival, starring Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac in a $120 million reimagining of Mary Shelley's classic tale. The Oscar-winning director explicitly rejected interpretations of the film as an AI cautionary tale, quipping "I'm not afraid of artificial intelligence. I'm afraid of natural stupidity." What you should know: Del Toro's "Frankenstein" represents a lifelong dream project that took years of preparation to achieve the right creative and financial conditions. The film follows a brilliant but egotistical scientist (Isaac) who brings a monstrous creature (Elordi) to life, leading to...
read Sep 1, 2025Open up and say “AI”: New stethoscope can detect 3 heart conditions in 15 seconds
Doctors at Imperial College London have developed an AI-powered stethoscope that can diagnose three major heart conditions—heart failure, heart valve disease, and atrial fibrillation—in just 15 seconds. The breakthrough technology represents the first major upgrade to the traditional stethoscope since its invention in 1816, potentially transforming early cardiac diagnosis by detecting subtle heart problems that human ears cannot perceive. What you should know: The AI stethoscope analyzes heartbeat patterns and blood flow while simultaneously taking an ECG, sending data to cloud-based algorithms for instant analysis. The device, about the size of a playing card and manufactured by Eko Health, a...
read Aug 29, 202560 UK lawmakers accuse Google DeepMind of breaking AI safety pledges
Sixty U.K. lawmakers have accused Google DeepMind of violating international AI safety pledges in an open letter organized by activist group PauseAI U.K. The cross-party coalition claims Google's March release of Gemini 2.5 Pro without proper safety testing details "sets a dangerous precedent" and undermines commitments to responsible AI development. What you should know: Google DeepMind failed to provide pre-deployment access to Gemini 2.5 Pro to the U.K. AI Safety Institute, breaking established safety protocols. TIME confirmed for the first time that Google DeepMind did not share the model with the U.K. AI Safety Institute before its March 25 release....
read Aug 25, 2025ARX Robotics launches Combat Gereon, first AI combat drone for Ukraine
European defense company ARX Robotics has introduced the Combat Gereon, its first AI-powered combat unmanned ground vehicle developed in partnership with Ukrainian companies. The system represents a significant step toward "first unmanned contact" warfare, designed to perform high-risk missions and reduce soldier casualties on active battlefields. What you should know: The Combat Gereon combines proven robotics with AI-enabled autonomous functions specifically adapted for real combat conditions based on Ukrainian military feedback. The vehicle can carry payloads up to 500 kilograms and operate over distances of 40 kilometers. It performs reconnaissance, route clearance, and forward observation missions in high-risk areas. The...
read Aug 25, 2025TikTok cuts hundreds of UK moderators as AI takes over content screening
TikTok is laying off hundreds more content moderators from its London-based team as part of an expanded push toward AI-powered content moderation. The move affects a significant portion of the platform's 2,500-person UK moderation team and follows similar cuts across other regions, reflecting the broader industry shift away from human moderators toward automated systems. What you should know: This represents TikTok's most significant moderation team reduction in the UK to date, though exact numbers remain undisclosed.• Over 85% of content removed from TikTok for violating guidelines is already identified and taken down by AI, according to the company.• The layoffs...
read Aug 22, 2025Student’s AI model accidentally reconstructs real 1834 London protests through adjacent historical data
A computer science student at Muhlenberg College accidentally discovered his AI model trained on Victorian-era texts could accurately reference real historical events from 1834 London, including protests related to Lord Palmerston's actions. Hayk Grigorian's TimeCapsuleLLM reconstructed these historical connections from scattered references across thousands of documents without being explicitly taught about these specific events, demonstrating how AI models can synthesize factual information from ambient patterns in training data. What you should know: Grigorian has been developing TimeCapsuleLLM over the past month, training it exclusively on texts from 1800-1875 London to capture an authentic Victorian voice. When prompted with "It was...
read Aug 22, 2025AI cameras target Somerset, UK’s deadly A361 bypass after 6 deaths
Somerset authorities will trial artificial intelligence cameras at the A361 Frome Bypass, a dangerous stretch of road where six people have died in the last five years, including four fatalities in 2023 and 2024 alone. The AI-powered traffic enforcement system represents a technological approach to addressing persistent road safety challenges at one of the county's most hazardous driving locations. How the AI cameras work: The intelligent traffic monitoring system can detect multiple dangerous driving behaviors that traditional speed cameras cannot capture.• AI cameras identify illegal mobile phone use while driving, careless driving patterns, and failure to wear seatbelts.• Drivers caught...
read Aug 21, 2025No, that’s not Brad Pitt: AI-powered romance scams cost UK victims £106M in 2024
Digital fraud has evolved far beyond the simple email scams of the early internet era. Today's cybercriminals wield sophisticated artificial intelligence tools to create convincing fake identities, manipulate emotions, and steal millions from unsuspecting victims across social media platforms. While romance scams grab headlines for their devastating emotional and financial impact, they represent just one facet of a much larger and more complex fraud ecosystem. The numbers tell a sobering story. In 2024 alone, romance scams cost victims over £106 million according to the City of London Police, a specialized unit that investigates financial crime in London's business district. Individual...
read Aug 19, 2025AI helps 4K Liverpool students boost grades across 100 schools
Liverpool's 4,000 primary school students have improved their academic grades over the past school year after using Century AI, an artificial intelligence tool designed to automate teaching tasks. The pilot program demonstrates how AI can enhance educational outcomes by freeing teachers to focus more on student relationships rather than administrative work. What you should know: Century AI handles routine educational tasks so teachers can prioritize direct student interaction and instruction. The software automates marking, lesson planning, and data gathering, allowing educators to "focus on building human relationships with students." Century Tech, the company behind the tool, developed it using data...
read Aug 19, 202599% of UK retailers now have in-house AI teams despite being cautious about full deployment
Nearly all UK retailers now have dedicated AI expertise in-house, with 61% establishing specialized AI leadership teams including Chief AI Officers, according to new research from Monday.com, a workplace management platform. However, despite this widespread adoption, retailers remain cautious about fully automating customer interactions, with 49% believing AI tools aren't yet ready to manage complete customer journeys independently. Why this matters: The retail sector is rapidly building AI capabilities while maintaining human oversight for critical decisions. 99% of UK retail decision-makers report having AI expertise within their businesses. 97% of respondents faced at least one obstacle when adopting AI despite...
read Aug 15, 2025Albanian PM proposes AI ministers to combat government corruption
There's all in, and then there's all in. Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama has proposed replacing government ministers with AI systems like ChatGPT to combat corruption and increase transparency. The suggestion, made at a July press conference, envisions voters potentially electing AI algorithms to the council of ministers, making Albania "the first to have an entire government with AI ministers and a prime minister." What they're saying: Albanian officials believe AI governance could eliminate human failings in government administration. • "One day, we might even have a ministry run entirely by AI," Rama said. "That way, there would be no...
read Aug 15, 2025UK balances AI energy demands with renewable power transition
The United Kingdom faces a critical infrastructure challenge as artificial intelligence reshapes the digital economy. AI data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity at precisely the moment when national grids are transitioning toward renewable energy sources. This creates a complex balancing act between technological advancement and environmental sustainability that could determine whether the UK achieves its ambitious AI leadership goals. The scale of this challenge is substantial. The International Energy Agency reports that a single ChatGPT query requires 2.9 watt-hours of electricity—nearly ten times more than a traditional Google search, which consumes just 0.3 watt-hours. With ChatGPT surpassing 100 million...
read Aug 15, 2025NVIDIA releases 1M-hour speech dataset for 25 European languages
NVIDIA has released Granary, an open-source multilingual speech dataset containing approximately one million hours of audio, alongside two new AI models designed for transcription and translation across 25 European languages. The release addresses a critical gap in speech AI development, as only a tiny fraction of the world's 7,000 languages are currently supported by AI language models, with particular focus on underrepresented European languages like Croatian, Estonian, and Maltese. What you should know: The Granary dataset represents a massive leap forward in multilingual speech AI training data, providing developers with ready-to-use resources for production-scale applications. The dataset includes nearly 650,000...
read Aug 15, 2025UK’s £100M Turing AI Institute faces collapse amid turn toward defense concerns
The UK's Turing AI Institute leadership has acknowledged that recent months have been "challenging" for staff amid internal turmoil over the government's directive to prioritize defense research. This comes after employees filed a whistleblowing complaint with the Charity Commission this week, warning that the £100 million government-funded organization risks collapse under Technology Secretary Peter Kyle's ultimatum to shift focus or lose funding. What you should know: The institute's leadership is attempting to balance government demands while maintaining other research priorities. Chair Dr Doug Gurr said the Turing institute would "step up at a time of national need" and has established...
read Aug 15, 2025Delete emails to help conserve water (and support data centers), England drought officials say
England's National Drought Group has advised millions of residents to delete old emails and photos to help conserve water during the country's driest six-month period since 1976. The unusual recommendation stems from the fact that data centers storing digital information require vast amounts of water to cool their systems, creating an unexpected link between digital habits and water conservation during drought conditions. What you should know: England is experiencing severe drought conditions with five areas under formal drought declarations and reservoirs averaging just 67.7% full compared to the typical 80.5% for this time of year. The affected regions include Yorkshire;...
read Aug 14, 2025Northern Data partners with Core42 to bring 10K GPUs to Europe
Northern Data, a German cloud computing company, has struck a major partnership with Core42, the cloud division of UAE-based artificial intelligence holding company G42, to dramatically expand AI computing capacity across Europe. The agreement grants Core42 access to up to 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) from Northern Data's Taiga Cloud platform, representing one of the largest AI infrastructure deals announced this year. This partnership reflects the growing global race to build "sovereign AI infrastructure"—computing resources that nations and regions can control independently rather than relying entirely on foreign cloud providers. For businesses, this means potentially faster, more reliable access to...
read Aug 12, 2025Post at your peril: UK’s HMRC uses AI to monitor social media for tax fraud investigations
HMRC has confirmed it uses artificial intelligence to monitor social media posts as part of criminal investigations into suspected tax cheats, marking a significant expansion of automated surveillance in tax enforcement. The technology enables the tax authority to streamline investigations while raising important questions about privacy, accuracy, and the role of AI in government oversight. What you should know: HMRC, the UK's tax authority, emphasizes that AI monitoring is limited to criminal investigations and includes human oversight to prevent automated decision-making. The technology is only used as part of criminal investigations, not on everyday taxpayers, according to an HMRC spokesperson....
read Aug 11, 2025Financial firms deploy AI to auto-generate fraud rules as UK losses hit $1.3B
Financial services firms are increasingly deploying AI-powered fraud detection systems that automatically generate and optimize rules based on historical data patterns, replacing traditional manual rule creation. This shift comes as fraud losses in the UK reached £1.1 billion in 2024, with confirmed fraud cases rising 14% to 3.13 million, driven by more sophisticated AI-enabled attacks including deepfakes and synthetic identities. The scale of the problem: Fraud has become the most common crime in the UK, accounting for 41% of all crime in England and Wales, with financial services firms facing particular challenges. Q1 2024 saw 8,374 consumer complaints about fraud...
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