Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

A viral band on Spotify is probably AI — but there’s no label to tell you


AI slop songs are flooding Spotify — and the latest hit is by an indie rock band called The Velvet Sundown. The track’s success has intensified the ongoing debate on whether or not music streaming sites should label AI-generated songs. The group has attracted 474,341 monthly listeners on Spotify in under a month. Its top track, “Dust on the Wind” — which sounds similar to the 1977 Kansas hit “Dust in the Wind”  — has been played over 380,0006 times since its release on June 20. The Velvet Sundown was first flagged as potentially AI-generated by Reddit users, who pointed…

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The race to make AI as multilingual as Europe


The European Union has 24 official languages and dozens more unofficial ones spoken across the continent. If you add in the European countries outside the union, then that brings at least a dozen more into the mix. Add dialects, endangered languages, and languages brought by migrants to Europe, and you end up with hundreds of languages. One thing many of us in technology could agree on is that the US dominates — and that extends to online languages. There are many reasons for this, mostly due to American institutions, standards bodies, and companies defining how computers, their operating systems, and…

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Switzerland leads the world in deep tech investment, report finds


Switzerland pours more of its venture capital into deep tech than any other country, according to new data. The Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025 found that 60% of all Swiss venture funding between 2019 and 2025 went to deep tech — far surpassing any other nation. The capital represents a big bet on cutting-edge science developing into global businesses.   Startups in the sector pulled in $1.9bn in funding last year, up from $1.4bn in 2023, and are on track to hit $2.3bn in 2025. The report was produced by the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation, a non-profit backed by telecom…

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Britain’s first ‘space factory’ blasts into orbit on test mission


A British-built manufacturing satellite successfully launched into orbit on its first test mission. Cardiff-based startup Space Forge launched the probe — called ForgeStar-1 — aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-14 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Tuesday. The launch marks the first time the UK has sent a spacecraft into orbit to produce new materials in the unique conditions of space, according to the startup.  Joshua Western, CEO and co-founder of Space Forge, hailed it as the start of a “new era” for materials science and industry.   “We’ve built and launched Britain’s first manufacturing satellite, and it’s alive in…

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Helsinki turns to AI to spot e-scooter crashes before they happen


Helsinki has launched a pilot project to test e-scooters equipped with AI-powered sensors that monitor rider behaviour and flag safety risks in real time.  Backed by the European Union, the trial involves 40 shared e-scooters from Tier-Dott, one of Europe’s largest operators.  Each vehicle is fitted with sensors developed by UK-based See.Sense, which detect sudden braking, swerving, and vibrations that may signal road hazards. The data is then analysed and visualised through a mobility data platform developed by French startup Vianova. The pilot is coordinated by Forum Virium Helsinki, the city’s innovation agency, as part of the EU-funded ELABORATOR project.…

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