Thanks to low corporation tax and government incentives, Dublin has hosted the European headquarters of many large US technology companies—Google, Meta, LinkedIn and Microsoft all have offices in the city’s Silicon Docks. “The big US companies operated independently of the startup world for many years,” explains Will Prendergast, partner at …
Read More »The Hottest Startups in Helsinki in 2024
Helsinki’s startup scene evolved around behemoths such as Nokia, games giant Supercell, and food delivery platform Wolt. It’s reaping the rewards with experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and engineers powering a lively scene based around the Aalto University campus and the startup festival Slush, one of the world’s largest gatherings of investors …
Read More »The Hottest Startups in Madrid in 2024
Having spent many years as second fiddle to Barcelona, Madrid surpassed its Catalan cousin in 2023 with startups securing €605 million ($672 million) investment above Barcelona’s €457 million ($507 million). “Lots of Latin American talent is arriving thanks to the recent entrepreneur visa and talent programs run by Telefonica to …
Read More »The Hottest Startups in London in 2024
In the “Start-Up, Scale-Up” review report published last year, chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to make Britain the “high-growth startup hub of the world.” Now, almost six months into the new government, entrepreneurs remain encouraged by the promises made in the Labour manifesto. “The ambition embodied in Great British Energy and …
Read More »Pilots Are Dying of Tiredness. Tech Can’t Save Them
India’s $13.9 billion aviation industry—projected to cater to over 300 million domestically by 2030—is a ticking time bomb. This July, in the sweltering heat at the Delhi High Court, additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati announced that new rules on pilot duty and rest periods would not be implemented this year …
Read More »Amid Air Strikes and Rockets, an SMS From the Enemy
At the start of September, Nour was having an ordinary evening at home in Beirut—eating pumpkin seeds and watching Netflix—when the SMS hit her device like the smartphone version of a brick through her window. The sender name appeared as eight question marks, “????? ???”, and in the message preview …
Read More »Meta Releases Llama 3.2—and Gives Its AI a Voice
Mark Zuckerberg announced today that Meta, his social-media-turned-metaverse-turned-artificial intelligence conglomerate, will upgrade its AI assistants to give them a range of celebrity voices, including those of Dame Judi Dench and John Cena. The more important upgrade for Meta’s long-term ambitions, though, is the new ability of its models to see …
Read More »OpenAI CTO Mira Murati Is Leaving the Company
OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati resigned on Wednesday, saying she wants “the time and space to do my own exploration.” Murati had been among the three executives at the very top of the company behind ChatGPT, and she was briefly its leader last year while board members wrestled with …
Read More »Trae Stephens Has Built AI Weapons and Worked for Donald Trump. As He Sees It, Jesus Would Approve
Trae Stephens’ origin story begins like the first volume of a spy thriller series. Galvanized by 9/11, he vowed as a high schooler to find a career that would let him defend his country. He applied to colleges with programs that could prep him for that heroic role. None were …
Read More »Meta Missed Out on Smartphones. Can Smart Glasses Make Up for It?
Meta has dominated online social connections for the past 20 years, but it missed out on making the smartphones that primarily delivered those connections. Now, in a multiyear, multibillion-dollar effort to position itself at the forefront of connected hardware, Meta is going all in on computers for your face. At …
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