The EU says autoplay and infinite scroll are illegal. Meta has until it responds to disagree.
The EU says autoplay and infinite scroll are illegal. Meta has until it responds to disagree.

The European Commission issued preliminary findings on Friday accusing Meta of building Facebook and Instagram to be addictive, giving the company a formal opportunity to respond before Brussels reaches a final decision that could trigger fines of up t…

Volkswagen will halve its model range, but stays silent on the 100,000 job cuts
Volkswagen will halve its model range, but stays silent on the 100,000 job cuts

Volkswagen has announced plans to gut its sprawling product range as it fights the worst crisis in its history. The carmaker will cut its model lineup by up to half over the coming years, CNBC reports. The group will also shrink production capacity to …

Europe torched its own rulebook to please business, and business is still unhappy
Europe torched its own rulebook to please business, and business is still unhappy

Twenty months into the EU’s campaign to slash red tape, many of the businesses that demanded it are unimpressed. Firms told Politico the “simplification” drive is too slow, too costly, and too complicated. Politico spoke to 17 companies, consultancies,…

Home robots already walk. 1X’s new hands try to solve the part that actually matters
Home robots already walk. 1X’s new hands try to solve the part that actually matters

Humanoid robots learned to walk years ago. The thing still tripping them up is the hand. 1X has given its NEO home robot new hands, and they are the most interesting thing about it. A robot can stride across a stage and still be useless in a kitchen. L…

Britain is spending £2bn to train its army inside an AI war simulation
Britain is spending £2bn to train its army inside an AI war simulation

Britain is spending £2bn to train its army inside a simulation. It has handed the job to an American defence giant, with a German one taking a slice. The UK has signed a £2bn ($2.7bn) contract to train its soldiers with artificial intelligence. The dea…

Big Tech’s AI debt just hit $350bn, and Europe is about to feel it
Big Tech’s AI debt just hit $350bn, and Europe is about to feel it

Big Tech built its reputation on mountains of cash. It is building its AI empire on debt, and the bill is starting to land in Europe. The five biggest builders of AI data centres in the US have doubled their debt over five years. Together, Alphabet, Am…

From powerboat records to a $1bn war chest: meet Europe’s newest defence unicorn
From powerboat records to a $1bn war chest: meet Europe’s newest defence unicorn

First the Royal Navy shoved a robot boat out of a transport plane at 1,300 feet. Then its maker became Europe’s newest defence unicorn. Kraken Technology Group, a British maker of uncrewed surface vessels, has raised $175m (€152.9m) in a Series B round…

EU tells Meta to dismantle Facebook and Instagram’s ‘addictive’ design or face a fine
EU tells Meta to dismantle Facebook and Instagram’s ‘addictive’ design or face a fine

Brussels has decided that infinite scroll is not a feature but a hazard. On Friday, the European Commission told Meta to dismantle the design tricks that keep people glued to Facebook and Instagram, or risk a fine that could run into billions, in a fre…

The US wants to delete the steering wheel. The EU wants a camera on your face
The US wants to delete the steering wheel. The EU wants a camera on your face

This week, two of the world’s biggest car regulators looked at the same question and reached opposite answers. The question is simple. What should sit between a human and a moving vehicle? In the United States, the top auto-safety official floated pull…

A €91M bet on the diamond microscope that could be Europe’s next ASML
A €91M bet on the diamond microscope that could be Europe’s next ASML

Europe uses about a fifth of the world’s chips, but makes only a tenth of them. A three-year-old Munich startup thinks it can help close that gap, and Brussels has just backed the bet. QuantumDiamonds is a spin-out of the Technical University of Munich…