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Wearable devices have become a big part of modern health care, helping track a patient’s heart rate, stress levels and brain activity. These devices rely on electrodes, sensors that touch the skin to pick up electrical signals from the body. Creating these electrodes isn’t as easy as it might seem. Human skin is complex. Its properties, such as how well it conducts electricity, can change depending on how hydrated it is, how old you are or even the weather. These changes can make it hard to test how well a wearable device works. Additionally, testing electrodes often involves human volunteers,…

As China’s DeepSeek threatens to dismantle Silicon Valley’s AI monopoly, a European alliance has emerged with an alternative to tech’s global order. They call their project OpenEuroLLM. Like DeepSeek, they aim to develop next-generation open-source language models — but their agenda is very different. Their mission: forging European AI that will foster digital leaders and impactful public services across the continent. To support these objectives, OpenEuroLLM is building a family of high-performing, multilingual large language foundation models. The models will be available for commercial, industrial, and public services. Over 20 leading European research institutions, companies, and high-performance computing (HPC) centres…

A German startup plans to jumpstart European EVs with an AI-powered brain. Sphere Energy built the system to simulate battery behaviour. The company then predicts a power source’s lifetime in numerous scenarios, from driving styles to temperatures on the road.  According to Sphere, the insights shrink the battery testing cycle by at least a year. Developing a car, meanwhile, could be completed “at least” twice as quickly. Sphere envisions endless benefits: manufacturers will save millions, car prices will plummet, and innovations will increase at exponential rates. The startup’s co-founder, Lukas Lutz, said the plans are unprecedented. “Nobody right now —…

The rapid spread of artificial intelligence has people wondering: who’s most likely to embrace AI in their daily lives? Many assume it’s the tech-savvy — those who understand how AI works — who are most eager to adopt it. Surprisingly, our new research (published in the Journal of Marketing) finds the opposite. People with less knowledge about AI are actually more open to using the technology. We call this difference in adoption propensity the “lower literacy-higher receptivity” link. This link shows up across different groups, settings, and even countries. For instance, our analysis of data from market research company Ipsos…

In 1981, American physicist and Nobel Laureate, Richard Feynman, gave a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) near Boston, in which he outlined a revolutionary idea. Feynman suggested that the strange physics of quantum mechanics could be used to perform calculations. The field of quantum computing was born. In the 40-plus years since, it has become an intensive area of research in computer science. Despite years of frantic development, physicists have not yet built practical quantum computers that are well suited for everyday use and normal conditions (for example, many quantum computers operate at very low temperatures). Questions…

There are a handful of challenges that many developers like to tackle as something of a rite of passage to prove their coding worth. One is creating a compiler. That fundamental building block of many programming languages ​​​​translates the more human-understandable code into something a computer understands. Another and far more ambitious challenge is building an operating system. The scope is almost limitless. You could create a Linux distribution, which often requires less coding, but more assembling of pre-existing packages and dependencies. You could create a command line operating system that works on limited hardware or on a low-level machine.…

Shares in ASML have bounced back from the hit inflicted by DeepSeek’s AI advances. Celebrating the results, ASML predicted that the sudden emergence of low-cost models will boost demand for the firm’s semiconductor machines. The company’s stock price rose by over 10% on Wednesday after the Dutch business reported impressive orders for its chip-making equipment. The tools produce the most advanced semiconductors in the world — and ASML is the only company that manufactures them. This dominant position has made ASML the second most valuable tech firm in Europe. But the business was shaken on Monday by DeepSeek’s rapid AI…

From 2013 to 2023, the number of ICT specialists in the EU increased by 59.3% according to Eurostat. In that period, most of these tech workers were found in Germany, which provided employment for 21.5% of the EU’s ICT specialists—unsurprising when you consider the fact that the country is home to a myriad of high-tech companies and organisations such as SAP, Siemens, Bosch, and Audi. France had the second largest share at 13.8%, with Italy and Spain representing 9.9% and 9.6% respectively. While the demand for tech workers is increasing, this is happening in tandem with a worsening skills gap.…

DeepSeek sent ripples through the global tech landscape this week as it soared above ChatGPT in Apple’s app store. The meteoric rise has shifted the dynamics of US-China tech competition, shocked global tech stock valuations, and reshaped the future direction of artificial intelligence (AI) development. Among the industry buzz created by DeepSeek’s rise to prominence, one question looms large: what does this mean for the strategy of the third leading global nation for AI development – the United Kingdom? The generative AI era was kickstarted by the release of ChatGPT on November 30 2022, when large language models (LLMs) entered…

DeepSeek proves that Silicon Valley can’t monopolise AI innovation, according to a European AI entrepreneur. Muj Choudhury, the CEO and co-founder of British voice processing startup RocketPhone, welcomed DeepSeek’s rapid rise. He hopes the Chinese company signals a shift in the balance of AI power. “AI development has long been dominated by Silicon Valley’s powerful VC firms, which wield immense influence by pouring vast sums into the technology and shaping its trajectory,” he said. “In this landscape, an outsider like DeepSeek breaking through is not just impressive. It’s necessary. The industry needs challengers to drive real innovation and prevent AI’s future…