Latest news with #EuronewsNext
Euronews
6 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
The long-range weapons Ukraine could begin using against Russia
Ukraine is no longer prohibited from using long-range weapons on targets within Russia in the ongoing effort to repulse its invasion, one of its key European allies signalled on Monday. In the past, Ukraine received long-range missiles from the US, UK, Germany, and France, but was only allowed to use them against any Russian forces that were in occupied Ukrainian territory. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told journalists that the lifting of restrictions - which, he later clarified, was a decision made months ago - will make "the decisive difference in Ukraine's warfare". "A country that can only oppose an attacker on its own territory is not defending itself adequately," he said. Following Merz's comments, Euronews Next takes a look at which weapons Ukraine can now use unrestricted, and how they might impact the course of the war now in its fourth year. The Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) is a long-range surface-to-surface missile artillery weapon system that strikes targets "well beyond the range of exising Army canons," according to US manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The missiles on the system are "all-weather adaptable, stealthy firepower" against targets up to 300 km away. The missiles are fired either from the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) or MLRS M270 platforms, both produced by Lockheed Martin. The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed in November 2024 that it had shot down some of the first foreign-made long-range missiles fired directly into their territory, including six US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS). But it was not the first time Ukraine had fired them. Reports from as far back as October 2023 suggest Ukraine fired ATACMS missiles that reportedly destroyed nine helicopters at Russian bases in the eastern part of the country. The Storm Shadow, or SCALP to the French, is a long-range missile jointly manufactured between France and the UK that weighs 1,300 kg and has a range "in excess" of 250 km. European multinational manufacturer MBDA said the missile works well for pre-planned attacks against stationary targets, like hardened bunkers or key infrastructure. The missile is described by MBDA as offering a high-precision strike day or night because it combines GPS, onboard guidance systems, and terrain mapping to find its target. Once the Storm Shadow missile approaches a target, an infrared device matches an image of the target with stored pictures on its onboard hard drive to make sure the target matches its mission, MBDA said. The missile's warhead has a first charge that allows it to penetrate a bunker or clear soil, then after it lets out a fuze to control how the ordnance detonates. It's already in service with the UK, French, and Italian militaries, MBDA said. In Germany, much of the conversation has centred on supplying Ukraine with Taurus missiles. The Taurus KEPD 350, manufactured jointly by Swedish company Saab and MBDA Deutschland, is an "incomparable modular standoff missile" that can land precision strikes on stationary targets like bunkers and high-value targets like large radar stations. The Taurus flies at low terrain to penetrate thick air defenses and shoot down targets with a 481 kg warhead system called the MEPHISTO. The air-to-surface missile system has a range of over 500 km and weighs 1400 kg. Before Germany's last federal election held in February, Merz, as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, had called for the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine. Merz has now signalled that Ukraine and Germany would produce the "This will be a cooperation on an industrial level, which can take place both in Ukraine and here in Germany," Merz said. While restrictions on long-range weapons have been lifted, Merz declined to confirm if Germany would be delivering Taurus missiles to Kyiv or not. In the early morning of April 29, people in Kourou, French Guiana, were woken up by the roar of the Vega-C rocket as it carried Biomass, the latest satellite from the European Space Agency (ESA), successfully into space. The Biomass mission not only represents a leap forward in the scientific understanding of tropical forests, but its launch also marked a major step toward securing Europe's independent access to space. Euronews Tech Talks was on site in Kourou for the launch, and with this second special episode on Biomass, we bring you behind the scenes of the launch preparations. The operations on the day of the launch of a satellite, also referred to as D-Day, are just the tip of the iceberg in a long process to get it into space. In the case of Biomass, the project started more than a decade ago and involved several professionals who dedicated their competencies to building the satellite, developing the rocket, and coordinating every step up to and after April 29. Launch preparations began as early as March 7, when Biomass arrived in French Guiana after a two-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Upon arrival in Kourou, the satellite was transported to the spaceport, removed from its shipping container, and thoroughly inspected for any potential damage. Next, Biomass was fuelled and attached to the adapter that would connect it to the Vega-C rocket, enabling its journey into orbit. On April 14, Biomass was placed inside the fairing, the top part of the rocket, then transferred to the launch pad at the Tangara site. There, the fairing containing the satellite was placed on the Vega C launcher, followed by more checks and a practice run known as the dress rehearsal. With all checks completed, it was time for the first weather forecast, a crucial step in the process. "We need good weather conditions to authorise the launch," explained Jean Frédéric Alasa, launch range operations director at CNES, the French Space Agency. "The rain is not a major constraint, it's more about the wind. If the launcher were to explode, we want to make sure the debris falls far from the populated areas," he continued. Luckily, on April 29, the wind was very mild, and the satellite launch was authorised. Vega C lifted off at 6:15:52 AM local time in Kourou. This time was precisely calculated and had to be respected to bring the satellite into the correct orbit. "For all the SSO missions, there is no launch window, but just one time at which the satellite can be lifted off," Fabrizio Fabiani, head of the Vega programme at Arianespace, explained. "Each day could be a good day, but at the same instant". SSO stands for sun-synchronous orbit, a special type of orbit where the satellite maintains the same position relative to the Sun. Essentially, Biomass passes over the same location on Earth at the same time every day. This orbit is ideal for monitoring changes over time, which is why it is commonly used for several Earth observation satellites. Biomass's launch was successful and greeted with great excitement by those who worked on it for years. When the satellite and rocket fully separated, the team erupted into cheers, celebrating the mission's success. "I've indeed been working for 12 years on that mission and now, at the end of it, I would say the predominant sentiment is that I'm super grateful and humbled that I was allowed to do that job," Michael Fehringer, ESA's Biomass project manager, told Euronews. "I feel relieved... that's all we could ask for, that's the best result we could have," Justin Byrne, Airbus head of science and Mars programmes, shared with us. But while most celebrated, one team remained focused on the mission. Which team was it, and why? Listen to Euronews Tech Talks to find out the answer.
Euronews
6 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
The long-range weapons that Ukraine could begin using against Russia
Ukraine is no longer prohibited from using long-range weapons on targets within Russia in the ongoing effort to repulse its invasion, one of its key European allies signalled on Monday. In the past, Ukraine received long-range missiles from the US, UK, Germany, and France, but was only allowed to use them against any Russian forces that were in occupied Ukrainian territory. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told journalists that the lifting of restrictions - which, he later clarified, was a decision made months ago - will make "the decisive difference in Ukraine's warfare". "A country that can only oppose an attacker on its own territory is not defending itself adequately," he said. Following Merz's comments, Euronews Next takes a look at which weapons Ukraine can now use unrestricted, and how they might impact the course of the war now in its fourth year. The Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) is a long-range surface-to-surface missile artillery weapon system that strikes targets "well beyond the range of exising Army canons," according to US manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The missiles on the system are "all-weather adaptable, stealthy firepower" against targets up to 300 km away. The missiles are fired either from the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) or MLRS M270 platforms, both produced by Lockheed Martin. The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed in November 2024 that it had shot down some of the first foreign-made long-range missiles fired directly into their territory, including six US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS). But it was not the first time Ukraine had fired them. Reports from as far back as October 2023 suggest Ukraine fired ATACMS missiles that reportedly destroyed nine helicopters at Russian bases in the eastern part of the country. The Storm Shadow, or SCALP to the French, is a long-range missile jointly manufactured between France and the UK that weighs 1,300 kg and has a range "in excess" of 250 km. European multinational manufacturer MBDA said the missile works well for pre-planned attacks against stationary targets, like hardened bunkers or key infrastructure. The missile is described by MBDA as offering a high-precision strike day or night because it combines GPS, onboard guidance systems, and terrain mapping to find its target. Once the Storm Shadow missile approaches a target, an infrared device matches an image of the target with stored pictures on its onboard hard drive to make sure the target matches its mission, MBDA said. The missile's warhead has a first charge that allows it to penetrate a bunker or clear soil, then after it lets out a fuze to control how the ordnance detonates. It's already in service with the UK, French, and Italian militaries, MBDA said. In Germany, much of the conversation has centred on supplying Ukraine with Taurus missiles. The Taurus KEPD 350, manufactured jointly by Swedish company Saab and MBDA Deutschland, is an "incomparable modular standoff missile" that can land precision strikes on stationary targets like bunkers and high-value targets like large radar stations. The Taurus flies at low terrain to penetrate thick air defenses and shoot down targets with a 481 kg warhead system called the MEPHISTO. The air-to-surface missile system has a range of over 500 km and weighs 1400 kg. Before Germany's last federal election held in February, Merz, as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, had called for the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine. Merz has now signalled that Ukraine and Germany would produce the "This will be a cooperation on an industrial level, which can take place both in Ukraine and here in Germany," Merz said. While restrictions on long-range weapons have been lifted, Merz declined to confirm if Germany would be delivering Taurus missiles to Kyiv or not. In the early morning of April 29, people in Kourou, French Guiana, were woken up by the roar of the Vega-C rocket as it carried Biomass, the latest satellite from the European Space Agency (ESA), successfully into space. The Biomass mission not only represents a leap forward in the scientific understanding of tropical forests, but its launch also marked a major step toward securing Europe's independent access to space. Euronews Tech Talks was on site in Kourou for the launch, and with this second special episode on Biomass, we bring you behind the scenes of the launch preparations. The operations on the day of the launch of a satellite, also referred to as D-Day, are just the tip of the iceberg in a long process to get it into space. In the case of Biomass, the project started more than a decade ago and involved several professionals who dedicated their competencies to building the satellite, developing the rocket, and coordinating every step up to and after April 29. Launch preparations began as early as March 7, when Biomass arrived in French Guiana after a two-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Upon arrival in Kourou, the satellite was transported to the spaceport, removed from its shipping container, and thoroughly inspected for any potential damage. Next, Biomass was fuelled and attached to the adapter that would connect it to the Vega-C rocket, enabling its journey into orbit. On April 14, Biomass was placed inside the fairing, the top part of the rocket, then transferred to the launch pad at the Tangara site. There, the fairing containing the satellite was placed on the Vega C launcher, followed by more checks and a practice run known as the dress rehearsal. With all checks completed, it was time for the first weather forecast, a crucial step in the process. "We need good weather conditions to authorise the launch," explained Jean Frédéric Alasa, launch range operations director at CNES, the French Space Agency. "The rain is not a major constraint, it's more about the wind. If the launcher were to explode, we want to make sure the debris falls far from the populated areas," he continued. Luckily, on April 29, the wind was very mild, and the satellite launch was authorised. Vega C lifted off at 6:15:52 AM local time in Kourou. This time was precisely calculated and had to be respected to bring the satellite into the correct orbit. "For all the SSO missions, there is no launch window, but just one time at which the satellite can be lifted off," Fabrizio Fabiani, head of the Vega programme at Arianespace, explained. "Each day could be a good day, but at the same instant". SSO stands for sun-synchronous orbit, a special type of orbit where the satellite maintains the same position relative to the Sun. Essentially, Biomass passes over the same location on Earth at the same time every day. This orbit is ideal for monitoring changes over time, which is why it is commonly used for several Earth observation satellites. Biomass's launch was successful and greeted with great excitement by those who worked on it for years. When the satellite and rocket fully separated, the team erupted into cheers, celebrating the mission's success. "I've indeed been working for 12 years on that mission and now, at the end of it, I would say the predominant sentiment is that I'm super grateful and humbled that I was allowed to do that job," Michael Fehringer, ESA's Biomass project manager, told Euronews. "I feel relieved... that's all we could ask for, that's the best result we could have," Justin Byrne, Airbus head of science and Mars programmes, shared with us. But while most celebrated, one team remained focused on the mission. Which team was it, and why? Listen to Euronews Tech Talks to find out the answer.
Euronews
27-05-2025
- Euronews
The Danish island that lets students shed stress and study in nature
Exams are often associated with pressure, long nights of cramming, and the desperate search for a comfortable spot to study. But what if you could leave all that behind and step away from distractions? A small island off the coast of Denmark - about a 30-minute boat ride away from Copenhagen - is offering the opportunity to do exactly that. Dubbed Ungdomsøen, or "The Youth Island" in English, the former naval fortress plays host to university students who are invited for a study retreat designed to help them concentrate on their coursework - and also give them room to breathe. The island is run by Ungdomsøen Foundation, an NGO that organises the study retreat for all students in the capital wanting to flee everyday life. Mina Kjeldsen, the project manager behind this initiative, says the motivation is to offer an accessible place for a wide range of students to focus on and help each other with their studies and exam preparations. "If it's hard to finish your exam and it's stressful, it's nice to feel like you're in it together," Kjeldsen added. According to Kjeldsen, the initiative brings together 20 to 40 students at a time for a couple of days of communal living, academic work, and structured downtime. Participants arrive by boat and are encouraged to completely disconnect from city life. The 70,000 m2 artificial island offers fresh air, open space, and a quiet rhythm that contrast sharply with the pace of student life on the mainland. "I've always heard a lot of criticism about finding new spots in Copenhagen to study. You get tired of one cafe because it's too busy, and then you go to another one and you get distracted and you can't be at your school because you're there every day," Sol Rem Rasmussen, one of the event hosts and a volunteer on Ungdomsøen, told Euronews Next. "You don't have the noise, you just have sun and blue sky and some nice places to study. It's not really an option to be stressed by your everyday life. You get to go away," Rasmussen added. During the day, students work on group projects, exam papers, and thesis drafts. Some of them came by themselves, others alongside their classmates. Andreas, an English Literature student, learned about the study retreat when he was stressed about his thesis and thought it was a "perfect opportunity" to distance himself from the city's distractions. He has set himself the ambitious goal of writing 15 to 20 pages of a draft of it while he's on the island. Angelyn, a prehistoric archaeology student, came back to participate for the second time as she believes being outside during breaks helps to refresh herself. "Also, we have to wake up at the same time and everything. So it kind of keeps you focused and you're just not lying in bed too long," she explained. "It's very different from sitting in the library with all the other students, stressing out. It's nice to have a place like this," Mareike, a Social Entrepreneurship and Management student from Roskilde University, told Euronews Next. According to environmental psychologists, the isolation that an environment like this island offers can actually help with stress management and focus for students. "One important aspect of regaining focus and being able to focus more effortlessly is to reduce the number of distractions by stepping out of your routine, stepping out of your normal environments to a place where there's not so much calling for your attention," Freddie Lymeus, a researcher in environmental psychology at Uppsala University in Sweden, told Euronews Next. Alongside peer-to-peer support, the retreat also offers professional supervision. Lecturers from Roskilde University were invited to provide one-on-one guidance to students working on longer projects or theses. "We have 45-minute sessions where students tell us about their research," Mette Apollo Rasmussen, a researcher at the university, told Euronews Next. "We get a chance to sit quietly down and get a bit into depth with the different students' research," she added. Researchers say the isolation of the island actually strengthens the writing process. "As researchers, we know that focus is really, really important… Here, you can't just leave. The boat only leaves tomorrow. So you're forced to stay within your process. When you get stuck, you take a break. But you stay with it. And you move forward," Maria Duclos Lindstrøm, another researcher at Roskilde University, added. The retreat balances intense academic focus with moments of relaxation and socialising. Evenings are spent cooking together, eating around shared tables, and sometimes winding down in a seaside sauna or taking a swim. The idea is to bring students into contact not just with their work, but with one another. "When you're also cooking dinner together and talking, you take that pressure off," Rasmussen said. "You see each other in other settings, and that helps people talk about the difficulties they're having with studying," they added. Organisers of this initiative believe this informal support system can be as important as any academic feedback. They say students often arrive not knowing each other, but leave with shared experiences and new perspectives. "We just had a conversation with a group who said it's actually really nice to talk to other people about how they feel about the master thesis, because very often we don't discuss how we feel," Lindstrøm said. Participants sleep in dorms or outdoor shelters and have the option to spend most of their time outdoors while studying, walking, and resting. "What I'm looking forward to is definitely sleeping outside, but also studying at the same time," Mattias, a product development and technical integration student at Copenhagen School of Design and Technology, told Euronews Next. Lymeus says it's encouraging to see those types of initiatives. "It has to be understood from the background that university students, given their socioeconomic backgrounds and demographics, are generally much more unhealthy in a psychological sense than they should be," Lymeus said. He says contact with nature, especially combined with group activities, is one of the solutions. "A large amount of research conducted over several decades supports the idea that when we are in contact with nature, we tend to reduce stress levels, regain creativity and concentration, improve mood, creativity and openness and many other good things that will help a person perform in studies as well," he added. The retreat is organised by young volunteers who live on the island for a year, hosting visitors and developing projects aimed at young people's growth and participation. They hope that, in this setting, students not only work on their exams but also on how they relate to learning and each other. "We bring our own values," said Rasmussen. "We focus on diversity and making space for everyone to feel comfortable. That's part of the room we create here". The vision of Ungdomsøen, which receives funding from the Copenhagen municipality and Danish companies, is to 'help young people discover what they can achieve when focus, collaboration, and community come together' by creating a temporary space away from everyday life. It offers more than 20 bedrooms in a massive building that was used as accommodation for the Danish Navy. The building was renovated when the island opened to young people in Denmark in 2019. The artificial island was built in 1894 as a military fort. At the time of its completion, it was considered the largest sea fort in the world and remains the largest manmade island without an abutment. While initiatives like this study retreat are commendable, Lymeus says, it could be costly to implement for other cities and universities. "Another way of approaching it could be to work with reconstructing or reinventing the environments that we're living and working in to be generally more supportive of this type of thing," said Lymeus. "I think it's a very interesting and commendable initiative. And many universities could probably do more in terms of also using the spaces that they already have". For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above. The next phase of artificial intelligence (AI) is robots, which will help with the global labour shortage, an Nvidia executive told Euronews Next. "We are at a very interesting point in time. The promise of robotics has existed for a long time. It's been in our imaginations and science fiction," Rev Lebaredian, vice president of Omniverse and simulation technology at Nvidia, told Euronews Next at the Computex technology fair in Taiwan. He said that despite tech companies trying to build a general-purpose robot for years, the issue has been that, despite being able to build the physical robot, programming it has always been a challenge. "AI has changed all that. We now have the technology to make robots really programmable in a general-purpose way and make it so that normal people can programme them, not just specific robot programming engineers," he said. Companies such as Tesla are racing to build humanoid robots and have made strides. Last week, Elon Musk's company said its Optimus robot had learned to perform household chores. However, there is still much for robots to learn. For Nvidia, the company says robots should learn their tasks in the virtual world for safety, but also because it would take too long to train robots with humans. "The only way to actually create these robots, intelligent ones, is to employ simulation," Lebaredian said. "The fundamental problem that we have with physical AI is that AI is data hungry. You have to feed into your AI factory lots and lots of quality data to give it life experience to train from". He said that with large language models (LLMs), there is a large amount of data online to train them. But he said in physical AI, there is no such data that can be mined. "To get all of the information we need to train a robot on how to pick up an object, we have to go create it somehow," he said. "Collecting it from the real world is not possible. We can't create enough data. Even if you can, in some cases, it's dangerous, it's time-consuming, and it is expensive". What is needed is "a way to go from fossil data to renewable data sources," Lebaredian said. And the best renewable data source for physical data is a physical simulator, he added. Once your robot is tested, or has "graduated" and looks like it is working well, it can then go to its first employer. "A new college graduate is trained on a corpus of publicly available data. You study from textbooks and information that everybody has access to everywhere. And you have a generalist that enters your company, and they're useful," Lebaredian told Euronews Next. "But they're not really useful until you train them for a few years on the specific proprietary information and data in your company that's about your domain and your particular practices and how things are done," he added. In robot terms, it means that you could then specialise your robot with your own data to make it work best for you. Lebaredian did not specify a date when humanoid robots would come into our lives, but he said it would be "soon". The first use cases for them would be in factories and warehouses. "I think industrial use is going to be the first one because even if we can build a perfect robot that you can use in your home, it's not clear that all humans will want one," according to Lebaredian. "But industry, there is a great need for it. There aren't enough young people replacing the older skilled workers who are retiring in every country". Global labour shortages have reached historically high levels in the past decade, according to the OECD. Population declines, as well as ageing populations, and the fact that many people do not want the "three D" jobs, which, according to the Nvidia executive, were "jobs that are dangerous, dull, and dirty". Taiwan has jumped on this robotics need and is set to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to plug labour shortages, the government announced last week. Taiwan's population decline would strain the economy and the nation's ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, Peter Hong, who heads the National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies, was reported as saying, according to local media. Lebaredian said that after factory use, humanoid robots could help in retail, as he hears a lot of companies saying they cannot hire enough people to stack shelves. He also said they could be used in mines, nuclear reactors, or even in space. Eventually, he said they could be used to take care of the elderly if the demand is there. But just as we get excited about this next phase of AI, LLMs are still getting much wrong, which is causing them to sometimes make things up. Errors caused by a robot in the physical world could be much more dangerous. However, Lebaredian believes that just like autonomous vehicles seem like science fiction at first, people eventually get used to them, and the technology improves. "In generative AI, yes, there's still some stuff that's inaccurate, but I think you have to admit, in the last two and a half years since ChatGPT was introduced, accuracy and the quality of what it's producing have increased exponentially as well," he said. But he added that perhaps chatbots will never be quite right because we want humans to perform the tasks. "There's actually no right answer for a lot of that stuff," he said. "But for tasks that we have in industry, that is actually something that's very measurable, for example, did it accurately pick up this object and move it over here and do that safely and robustly?" He said those systems can be created, tested, and made sure they are safe before deployment. We can create these systems, test them, and make sure that they're working well before deploying them. "We have machinery and systems that we create that are quite dangerous if they're not set up right. But we've managed to create nuclear reactors and these systems, and keep them safe somehow. We can do the same with physical AI," he said.
Euronews
26-05-2025
- Science
- Euronews
Humanoid robots are the next step for AI. Here's how to train yours
The next phase of artificial intelligence (AI) is robots, which will help with the global labour shortage, an Nvidia executive told Euronews Next. "We are at a very interesting point in time. The promise of robotics has existed for a long time. It's been in our imaginations and science fiction," Rev Lebaredian, vice president of Omniverse and simulation technology at Nvidia, told Euronews Next at the Computex technology fair in Taiwan. He said that despite tech companies trying to build a general-purpose robot for years, the issue has been that, despite being able to build the physical robot, programming it has always been a challenge. "AI has changed all that. We now have the technology to make robots really programmable in a general-purpose way and make it so that normal people can programme them, not just specific robot programming engineers," he said. Companies such as Tesla are racing to build humanoid robots and have made strides. Last week, Elon Musk's company said its Optimus robot had learned to perform household chores. However, there is still much for robots to learn. For Nvidia, the company says robots should learn their tasks in the virtual world for safety, but also because it would take too long to train robots with humans. "The only way to actually create these robots, intelligent ones, is to employ simulation," Lebaredian said. "The fundamental problem that we have with physical AI is that AI is data hungry. You have to feed into your AI factory lots and lots of quality data to give it life experience to train from". He said that with large language models (LLMs), there is a large amount of data online to train them. But he said in physical AI, there is no such data that can be mined. "To get all of the information we need to train a robot on how to pick up an object, we have to go create it somehow," he said. "Collecting it from the real world is not possible. We can't create enough data. Even if you can, in some cases, it's dangerous, it's time-consuming, and it is expensive". What is needed is "a way to go from fossil data to renewable data sources," Lebaredian said. And the best renewable data source for physical data is a physical simulator, he added. Once your robot is tested, or has "graduated" and looks like it is working well, it can then go to its first employer. "A new college graduate is trained on a corpus of publicly available data. You study from textbooks and information that everybody has access to everywhere. And you have a generalist that enters your company, and they're useful," Lebaredian told Euronews Next. "But they're not really useful until you train them for a few years on the specific proprietary information and data in your company that's about your domain and your particular practices and how things are done," he added. In robot terms, it means that you could then specialise your robot with your own data to make it work best for you. Lebaredian did not specify a date when humanoid robots would come into our lives, but he said it would be "soon". The first use cases for them would be in factories and warehouses. "I think industrial use is going to be the first one because even if we can build a perfect robot that you can use in your home, it's not clear that all humans will want one," according to Lebaredian. "But industry, there is a great need for it. There aren't enough young people replacing the older skilled workers who are retiring in every country". Global labour shortages have reached historically high levels in the past decade, according to the OECD. Population declines, as well as ageing populations, and the fact that many people do not want the "three D" jobs, which, according to the Nvidia executive, were "jobs that are dangerous, dull, and dirty". Taiwan has jumped on this robotics need and is set to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to plug labour shortages, the government announced last week. Taiwan's population decline would strain the economy and the nation's ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, Peter Hong, who heads the National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies, was reported as saying, according to local media. Lebaredian said that after factory use, humanoid robots could help in retail, as he hears a lot of companies saying they cannot hire enough people to stack shelves. He also said they could be used in mines, nuclear reactors, or even in space. Eventually, he said they could be used to take care of the elderly if the demand is there. But just as we get excited about this next phase of AI, LLMs are still getting much wrong, which is causing them to sometimes make things up. Errors caused by a robot in the physical world could be much more dangerous. However, Lebaredian believes that just like autonomous vehicles seem like science fiction at first, people eventually get used to them, and the technology improves. "In generative AI, yes, there's still some stuff that's inaccurate, but I think you have to admit, in the last two and a half years since ChatGPT was introduced, accuracy and the quality of what it's producing have increased exponentially as well," he said. But he added that perhaps chatbots will never be quite right because we want humans to perform the tasks. "There's actually no right answer for a lot of that stuff," he said. "But for tasks that we have in industry, that is actually something that's very measurable, for example, did it accurately pick up this object and move it over here and do that safely and robustly?" He said those systems can be created, tested, and made sure they are safe before deployment. We can create these systems, test them, and make sure that they're working well before deploying them. "We have machinery and systems that we create that are quite dangerous if they're not set up right. But we've managed to create nuclear reactors and these systems, and keep them safe somehow. We can do the same with physical AI," he said. Women's jobs are at a higher risk of automation by artificial intelligence (AI) than those occupied by men, according to a new study from the United Nations. The recent report from the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Poland's National Research Institute of the Ministry of Digital Affairs (NASK) found that automation could replace just under 10 per cent of female-dominated positions in high-income countries compared to the 3.5 per cent it could replace for men. The biggest disparity between male and female-dominated jobs happens in high-income countries, where 41 percent of all high-income work for women could be exposed to AI, compared to 28 percent of men's jobs. In Europe and Central Asia, 39 per cent of women's jobs could be affected compared to 26 percent of men. The patterns identified by the study "reflect both occupational structures," and that AI-exposed jobs are "concentrated in higher-income countries". Overall, the ILO found that one in four workers globally work in an occupation with some AI exposure. To reach these findings, the survey was conducted with1,640 people employed in various fields in Poland, with the results analysed by a small group of international experts. Researchers then developed an AI that used this survey data alongside national job information to identify how likely 2,500 professions and over 29,000 work tasks would be automated. The study found that clerical occupations like data entry clerks, typists, word processing operators, accountants, and bookkeeping clerks are the most exposed to AI, due to some of the tasks performed in those professions, like taking meeting notes or scheduling appointments. Other professions identified with a large AI exposure are web and media developers, database specialists, financial, and software-related jobs. The study notes that these numbers reflect the "potential exposure," but that they don't reflect any actual job losses. Full replacement by AI is still "limited," the report continued, noting that human involvement is still needed to oversee certain tasks. "As most occupations consist of tasks that require human input, transformation of jobs is the most likely impact of generative AI," the report reads. What could impact the number of jobs lost or AI adoption more broadly are technological constraints, infrastructure gaps, and skills shortages, the report continued. The report asks governments, employees, and workers organisations to shape "inclusive strategies" that can help protect job quality and productivity in endangered fields. "It's easy to get lost in the AI hype," Janine Berg, senior economist at the ILO, said in a statement. "What we need is clarity and context".
Euronews
23-05-2025
- Euronews
The top 5 tech that caught our eye at Computex in Taiwan
The Computex tech fair in Taiwan's capital closes its doors on Friday after a week filled with weird and wonderful product announcements. Euronews Next spent the week trawling the exhibition to find the most practical, beautiful, and frankly, the oddest tech announcements. Here is what caught our eye on the showfloor. Gaming is a massive part of Computex, so as you would expect, there was plenty on display. One bit of tech generating a lot of buzz was MSI's upgraded Windows PC handheld device, the Claw A8 with AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme. It comes in a variety of bright colours and has a built-in front-facing camera and mic, allowing gamers the freedom not to have to use a headset. It also has a massive 80Wh battery and has a roomy screen. It also looks to be the first handheld to use the high-end chip Z2 Extreme, and it boasts plenty of RAM. No release date has been set for its launch, but it comes as the Nintendo Switch 2 is about to be released. Though split keyboards are not exactly new, one designed specifically for gamers is. Asus displayed its ROG Falcata, a wireless keyboard that connects or disconnects magnetically, at the show in Taipei. The exact point of the design is so that gamers can have more space for the mouse. The right side of the keyboard is less interesting for gamers, as the keys that are mainly used are W, A, S, and D. Or, if not used for gaming, you can just detach the two sides for a more ergonomic keyboard. A release date has been set for the summer, but the price is so far unknown. While smart rings can be on the pricey side (think Samsung's Galaxy ring, which retails around €449, or Ultrahuman's luxury 18-carat gold ring, at around €2,000), Acer has a more humble offering. The company showed off a titanium smart ring, which has a $199 (€175) price point. It also, unlike many other companies, has no subscription. The ring comes in black or rose gold, has four days of battery life. It shows health data such as heart rate, sleep quality, and blood oxygen levels. It will be available for purchase this summer. Tech giant MSI showed off a beautiful laptop lid that looks like it had been hand-painted. MSI partnered with Japanese art studio Okadayo to create a limited edition lacquered print laptop. The art can also be placed on a computer mouse. The first design is Hokusai's iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa. MSI will only produce a few hundred per month for the moment, as applying the art requires extra steps in manufacturing. One of the main highlights at Computex was the level of creativity on show - and the number of beautiful and strange PC cases was certainly one of the focal points. Many of them were colourful and themed; others also had a beer and wine tap built in. It all comes down to personal preference. EU Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné has asked member states to agree among themselves on whether to support the Commission's intention to ditch a proposal on standard essential patents (SEP). The French commissioner for the internal market has said he wants to hear back from governments in the next three weeks. Member states are divided about the way forward after the Commission said in February it intended to withdraw a plan on SEPs which it presented in 2023, arguing that it couldn't see an agreement being reached. SEPs are patents that protect the technology deemed essential in a technical standard or specification and are used in the automotive, smart energy, and payment industry. Which means that if a company wants to make a product that complies with technical standards (such as 5G or wifi), it needs to use the technology covered by SEPs. Disputes over the value of SEPs licenses are proliferating as their use increases. The Commission proposal intended to make the process of licensing SEPs more transparent, which was welcomed by patent lobby organisations who called for modernisation of the rules to make the bloc more competitive. A group of eight countries – Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain – called for other EU member states to support continued work on the file during a meeting of industry ministers in Brussels on Thursday, arguing that the rules are crucial for industry. The Spanish representative said that SEPs will be beneficial for Europe's automotive industry. Italy added that: 'We need to ensure the value chains are resilient in the current geopolitical situation.' Ireland, Finland and Sweden, by contrast, backed the Commission's assessment that since no deal is within reach it should be dropped. The Swedish representative said that the proposal had created 'major divisions in the business community', adding that 'any initiative in this field needs to encourage innovation and not create undue regulatory burden.' Finland added that the decision to withdraw is in line with the Commission's simplification plan. 'We think there are fundamental problems in the proposal, they cannot be amended with this draft.' Séjourné told lawmakers of the European Parliament's Legal Affairs (JURI) in April that the Commission scrapped the SEP proposal in a bid to reach a broader agreement on the topic. Some argue however, that the incoming US administration and the EU Commission's current strategy for deregulation killed the proposal. While the majority of the member states do not see the need to continue with the topic, lawmakers want it kept on the table. The proposed rules on SEPs were agreed by the Parliament in February 2024 - with 454 votes for, 83 against and 78 abstentions - before the Commission announced its intention to withdraw the file. German MEP Bernd Lange (EPP), who chairs the heads of the Parliamentary committees, is expected to discuss the issue with Parliament President Roberta Metsola in June. A letter signed by Lange and seen by Euronews, said that the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) – which is leading on the file – 'objects, by a large majority, to the proposed withdrawal.' 'The proposal remains highly relevant due to its impact on competitiveness, transparency, and innovation, particularly for SMEs,' the letter said. The Commission has until August to decide whether to go ahead with its intention to withdraw the plan.
