The always-a-good-time Slush convention happened final week in Helsinki and, as all the time, it was a showcase of the rising energy of the European ecosystem. The Nordics, particularly, are having a second, led this time round by Sweden’s vibe-coding darling Lovable, usually regarded for example of the ecosystem’s rising success. Different standout, albeit older names, embody Klarna and Spotify. On this week’s Fairness, we sat down with Dennis Inexperienced-Lieber, the founding father of the AI firm Propane, to speak concerning the booming success of the Nordic ecosystem. Inexperienced-Lieber is predicated in Denmark and has been constructing within the ecosystem…
Author: Naveed Ahmad
AI purposes not often take care of one clear desk. They combine person profiles, chat logs, JSON metadata, embeddings, and generally spatial knowledge. Most groups reply this with a patchwork of an OLTP database, a vector retailer, and a search engine. OceanBase launched seekdb, an open supply AI centered database (below the Apache 2.0 license). seekdb is described as an AI native search database that unifies relational knowledge, vector knowledge, textual content, JSON, and GIS in a single engine and exposes hybrid search and in database AI workflows. What’s seekdb? seekdb is positioned because the light-weight, embedded model of the…
A minimum of three London councils are responding to an ongoing cyberattack, prompting officers to close down their networks and telephone strains and activate emergency plans. The native authorities authorities overlaying the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, which share IT techniques as a part of a joint association, stated their focus was “on defending techniques and knowledge, restoring techniques, and sustaining essential providers to the general public.” Hammersmith & Fulham council can be affected by the cyberattack, per its website. The councils, which offer public providers like housing, social providers, and garbage assortment, didn’t describe the character…
On Wednesday night at PlayGround World in Palo Alto, some very sensible people who find themselves constructing stuff you don’t perceive but will clarify what’s coming. That is the ultimate StrictlyVC occasion of 2025, and actually, the lineup is ridiculous. The collection has bounced across the globe underneath the auspices of TechCrunch. Steve Case rented a theater in D.C.; we talked to Greece’s prime minister in Athens; and Kirsten Inexperienced hosted us on the Presidio in San Francisco. The idea is at all times the identical, although: get people who find themselves engaged on genuinely essential developments in a room…
The tech layoff wave remains to be kicking in 2025. Final yr noticed greater than 150,000 job cuts throughout 549 corporations, in line with unbiased layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Up to now this yr, greater than 22,000 staff have been the sufferer of reductions throughout the tech business, with a staggering 16,084 cuts happening in February alone. We’re monitoring layoffs within the tech business in 2025 so you possibly can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and perceive the influence on innovation throughout all forms of corporations. As companies proceed to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder…
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What began as a instrument to supercharge productiveness by writing essays and code with quick textual content prompts has advanced right into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a giant 12 months for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI providing, Apple Intelligence, the discharge of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video mannequin Sora. OpenAI additionally confronted its share of inner drama, together with the notable exits of high-level execs like…
Contemporary off a $350 million increase, battery recycler and cathode-maker Redwood Supplies is reportedly chopping round 5% of its workforce, in keeping with Bloomberg News. Nevada-based Redwood staff round 1,200 staff, so the cuts have an effect on just a few dozen employees. The corporate, based in 2017 by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, initially targeted on recycling scrap from battery cell manufacturing, client electronics, and used EV batteries. The corporate extracts supplies like cobalt, nickel, and lithium from these discarded items after which sells them again to its clients, which embody Panasonic. Redwood has since added cathode manufacturing. It…
In August, dad and mom Matthew and Maria Raine sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, over their 16-year-old son Adam’s suicide, accusing the corporate of wrongful demise. On Tuesday, OpenAI responded to the lawsuit with a submitting of its personal, arguing that it shouldn’t be held chargeable for {the teenager}’s demise. OpenAI claims that over roughly 9 months of utilization, ChatGPT directed Raine to hunt assist greater than 100 instances. However in response to his dad and mom’ lawsuit, Raine was in a position to circumvent the corporate’s security options to get ChatGPT to offer him “technical specs for…
The U.S. immigration system is advanced, onerous to navigate, and costly for immigrants. The startup JustiGuide claims it may assist with that due to an AI-powered portal. The concept is to assist immigrants within the U.S. — and finally in different nations — perceive the regulation and what visas they could be eligible for, and to attach with immigration attorneys, making the entire course of cheaper and sooner. “I believe the extra we make the know-how accessible, I believe folks can be empowered to try to fill their very own types and perceive what their choices are and that they’ll…
Final 12 months was monumental for the AI business within the U.S. and past. There have been 49 startups that raised funding rounds price $100 million or extra in 2024, per our rely at TechCrunch; three firms raised a couple of “mega-round,” and 7 firms raised rounds that have been $1 billion in dimension or bigger. How will 2025 evaluate? As we enter close to the ultimate month of the 12 months, 2025 has already matched 2024 when it comes to firms elevating rounds which can be $100 million and bigger. There are additionally considerably extra firms which have raised a number of funding rounds bigger…