Latest news with #EuronewsNext
Euronews
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Euronews
Is this the world's fastest e-scooter ?
Move away, Tesla – there's a new speed demon with half the number of wheels. With preliminary testing results of speed exceeding 160km/h, the 'Turbo' is aiming to be the fastest e-scooter in the world. The UK-based scooter start-up, Bo, adapted the chassis from its flagship urban scooter into a high-performance prototype to demonstrate the extreme capabilities of electric propulsion on two wheels. 'We want to do something which everyone can get excited about. And for us, that means pushing the limit as to how fast these vehicles can go,' Oscar Morgan, Bo's CEO and co-founder, told Euronews Next. He says the start-up aims to break the speed record for an e-scooter this year. 'The initial aim is to get it over 100 kilometres an hour with the Guinness World Record moderators watching,' Morgan said. 'And my personal aim is I would love to see it go past 200 kilometres an hour,' he added. He also adds that the Turbo is designed purely for record-setting and is 'not made for riding to the supermarket or gym'. 'We're not expecting many people to ride the turbo. It's terrifying, and it's not very safe. But what it does do is it gives people an opportunity to think about these things and to look at what maybe these vehicles are capable of'. Acceleration close to a Tesla The company says the electric scooter is so powerful that it could outrun some of the world's fastest cars from a standstill. 'One of the things that completely caught us out when we were first taking the turbo on track was just how fast it accelerates,' Morgan said. A Tesla Model 3 Performance can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in about 3.1 seconds, according to Tesla. Most regular scooters struggle to hit less than 10 seconds. The shakedown tests are not official records, however, they were carried out by a professional scooter racer, the company says. 'We've done quite extensive testing now. The turbo has been put through its paces, and it hasn't missed a beat. So we're really confident the engineering behind it is top grade,' Morgan said. With a higher power-to-weight ratio than a Bugatti Veyron, the Turbo has a 1,800Wh battery to travel up to 240km on a single charge. That's enough energy to fast-charge around 1,500 smartphones at once, Bo says. The Turbo wasn't meant for sale, but Bo is building a small number for approved collectors or riders with a strong use case, with a starting price of €27,500. The first delivery is already scheduled for 2026, where Madrid's inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix takes place. While the Turbo is designed for record-setting, Bo's road-ready version, the 'Model-M,' will hit the market in August 2025, starting in the United States. For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.
Euronews
3 days ago
- Euronews
Estonian President Alar Karis has a plan to bring AI to schools
Schools may be closing for the summer holidays, but Estonia's teachers will be spending the break learning how to use artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to prepare a new generation to use the technology, the country's President Alar Karis told Euronews Next. Estonia is no stranger to high-tech infrastructure. For more than two decades, the country has been digitising all of its services and is ahead of many countries when it comes to cybersecurity. But Karis said that 'in a way,' AI is a new frontier. 'We try to take advantage of this technology and we start from schools, and not only from schools but from teachers, because education is of utmost importance,' he said, adding that teachers will pass on their knowledge to their students. AI could help teachers plan their lessons and give more personalised feedback to children, Karis said, but the technology, which is developing fast as competition among AI companies is fierce, also poses many ethical questions. 'The whole school system is probably going to be upside down in the coming years. But it's in a very early stage. And how and where it develops, it's very difficult to say,' he said. 'With AI, it's not the problem with technology itself, but just the speed [of development] and then people get very anxious because of the speed rather than technology,' he added. Trust in AI Concerns about AI include the technology making things up, which is known as hallucinating. Studies have also shown that using chatbots can impact people's critical thinking skills. 'It's the same with every technology. If you don't read books anymore, you start using only this chatbot, of course, you are getting dumber, but that's why we have to teach [people] how to use it smartly,' said Karis. 'And students, modern students, already know how to use ChatGPT, not only to copy-paste, but really use it'. For example, AI could be used to help students catch up after they have missed a few days at school, because teachers 'do not have the time' to do so, Karis said. But one major issue that teachers have reported is students using AI to write their essays or do their homework for them, which can be difficult for teachers to identify. 'We are dealing with this problem already,' Karis said. 'The teachers and professors should be honest if they have been using it [AI]. So it's a matter of trust'. Though Karis mentions OpenAI's ChatGPT, the Estonian government says it is considering working with several tech companies. The programme, called AI Leap, is a private-public partnership. Negotiations are underway with US AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic, the country's education minister announced in February. Karis added that as Estonia is a small country, it cannot build its own AI systems and is instead 'taking advantage' of what is already developed. However, he noted the importance of these AI chatbots being available in the Estonian language. 'Being a small country with a small language means we have to keep our language going. That means that we need to develop ourselves, these language skills for AI,' he said. 'Otherwise, young people, they switch to English and we lose a lot, and then people start already thinking in a foreign language'. The AI Leap programme will begin in September and will initially include 20,000 high schoolers and 3,000 teachers, the education ministry said. Estonia then hopes to expand to vocational schools and an additional 38,000 students and 3,000 teachers from September 2026. The hybrid war AI will soon be as central to Estonia's school curricula as cybersecurity is today, Karis said. Cybersecurity has been a focus since a 2007 cyberattack on the country that lasted weeks and took out Estonian banks, government bodies, and the media. Exactly who was behind the attacks is unknown. The cyberattacks came from Russian IP addresses, but the government has always denied any involvement. Karis said that Estonia, which borders Russia, is not immune from having a war on its doorstep. 'The whole of Europe is next door to Russia so we're not in any way exceptional, but this so-called hybrid war is going on already… and of course AI can be one of the tools' used in modern warfare. 'We have to be aware and to make sure that we develop also critical thinking, and that's why we start with schools and teachers,' he said. Despite some of the fears and unknowns of AI, Karis, who was a molecular geneticist and developmental biologist prior to entering politics, is more excited about the potential uses of AI than the risks. 'I'm not scared of anything [in AI] to be honest, it's a new technology and being a former scientist, for me, it's always very interesting to use new technologies and to build something. So everything is exciting which is new, and you shouldn't be scared of the unknown,' he said. Of course, there is also a limit for the technology. … There are also worries, and rules and regulations and all these acts will help to keep things under control'.
Euronews
4 days ago
- Business
- Euronews
Ukraine more dependent on Musk with Kyivstar-Starlink, experts say
Ukraine's largest mobile operator, Kyivstar, started testing direct-to-cell (DTC) service satellite messaging services with Elon Musk's Starlink last week. Mobile phones with 4G or LTE networks will be connected directly to Starlink satellites in orbit so they can send and receive text messages. The eventual network, to launch mid-2026, will give Ukrainians access to cell service in mountainous and rural areas of the country. Experts told Euronews Next that the partnership is 'a coherent move' for Ukraine despite deepening the country's reliance on Musk, who has threatened in the past to shut down services in the country. 'There are obviously concerns about tech sovereignty because then you will only be depending on one provider, Starlink … but sovereignty at this point becomes a second priority … priority number one is winning the war,' said Dario Garcia de Viedma, fellow of technology and digital policy at the Elcano Royal Institute think tank in Spain. 'Ukraine is definitely making sovereignty concessions to win the war and so is Europe'. An 'extreme reliance' on Starlink in Ukraine Starlink is a constellation of over 7,800 satellites that orbit roughly 550 kilometres from the Earth to deliver high-speed internet. Each transmits data like a fiber optic cable from the satellites to ground receivers, making the internet accessible in remote places where current telephone towers would be difficult to build. The advantage of Starlink in Ukraine is that the terminals that receive the signal are 'relatively small, the size of a book,' making them easy to transport, said Jan Frederik Slijkerman, senior credit sector strategist at the forecaster ING Think '[Starlink] has excellent connectivity, good portability and normal pricing for broadband,' he said. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister for digital transformation in Ukraine, appealed to Musk two days after the Russian escalation in February 2022 for Starlink terminals. The country had its first kits, comprised of the terminals, a kickstand, a router and various cables, delivered six days later. An update from Fedorov in April said 50,000 Starlink terminals in Ukraine are being used to keep the country's railways, schools and hospitals online in case the power goes out following a Russian attack. Starlink services have also been used by the Ukrainian military to communicate on the ground, such as in the 2022 Aerorozvidka mission against Russian forces that used Starlink to keep Delta online, the military's combat control and information processing system, during power outages. Garcia de Viedma said this has created an 'extreme reliance' on Starlink's satellite internet during the war that cannot be changed for a new alternative in the short term. 'Unless [Ukrainian forces] communicate with smoke or with pigeons, I think that there's no way they can win the war without communication - so the dependence is already there,' he said. In March, reports surfaced that Musk was considering turning off the Starlink terminals to force Ukraine to sign a $500 billion (€430.34 billion) deal with US President Donald Trump on rare earth minerals. Musk said at the time that he would 'never turn off [Starlink] terminals,' no matter how much he disagreed with Ukrainian policy and would never use them as 'a bargaining chip'. 'Work on alternatives' Garcia de Viedma said the Kyivstar deal could be a way to lock Musk in to prevent him from actually withdrawing the satellites. If Musk is able to tap Kyivstar's customer base to make more money in the country instead of just through military deals, Dario said it will be harder for him to justify disconnecting the satellites. Still, Garcia de Viedma and Slijkerman believe that Ukraine needs some sort of redundancy plan or diversify how it offers internet services i to continue making deals with Starlink and Musk. 'Yes that is a risk [shutting off the satellites] and I don't know if they got renewed reassurances,' Slijkerman said. 'But I believe [working] on alternatives makes sense'. One thing that can be done is restricting the Starlink-Kyivstar partnerships to hard-to-reach areas, not extending it to customers in Ukraine's cities, Garcia de Viedma said. If they do, the customers in cities would have to have a way to still connect to 4G and LTE connections 'as a backup,' he added. Another way to diversify the internet connections would be to connect with a European alternative to Starlink, like Franco-British Eutelsat or the EU's IRIS2, Slijkerman said. However, he noted that Starlink is still well ahead of its competitors on the launch model, the number of satellites in operation, and its customer base (estimated at 6 million by the company in July).
Euronews
5 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
Socrates would question AI's role in democracy, says former Greek PM
In Plato's cave, humans watch silhouettes flicker on the wall, unaware that fires just behind them are distorting reality into a shadow world – not unlike the world we find ourselves in today, aided by social media and artificial intelligence (AI), argues the former Greek prime minister George Papandreou. According to Plato's scenario, if someone escaped the cave, their eyes would be overwhelmed by the sunlight, but once adjusted, they would see the world for what it truly is. However, the escapee would not be able to rescue the others, because they would be unable to convince them to leave the cave. Though Plato wrote his cave allegory around 380 BC, he may as well have been writing today about the future of democracy and AI, according to Papandreou, who served as Greece's prime minister from 2009 to 2011 and is a current MP of the Hellenic Parliament. 'Plato is saying we can get very much stuck into these worlds and think it's a reality, and [become] very, very reactive to any kind of change that may happen,' Papandreou told Euronews Next at the United Nations' AI For Good Summit in Geneva. Despite the tech industry's push to position AI as the foundation of all human knowledge, Papandreou thinks Plato would see AI not as the sunlight outside the cave but as the shadows inside: intriguing and persuasive – but misleading, and far from the truth. That doesn't mean AI won't continue to have a major impact on the real world, though, according to Papandreou. 'AI is impacting our culture,' he said. 'It's the way we think about the world, the way that we communicate, and our culture is also, I would add, our political culture in a democracy'. Socrates' possible take on AI Plato's mentor Socrates, a staunch defender of knowledge and wisdom, called out the flaws of democracy and was ultimately killed for it. In one discussion between Socrates and the orator Giorgias – who trained young people how to debate and win arguments in order to gain power – Socrates argued that people should debate respectfully with the goal of understanding each other, rather than bully others to win arguments. There's a close parallel with today's debates on the impact AI will have on social media platforms, Papandreou said. He questioned whether social media platforms 'help for real debate or do they push polarisation? Or with our likes, our thumbs up, our thumbs down – is it trying to dominate? Is it bullying? Is it polarising?' Papandreou believes that in today's world, Socrates would interrogate AI's role in society, including its purpose, whether it will help create a just society or put power into the hands of only a few people, and whether it promotes the truth and furthers our understanding of the world. Socrates's answer, Papandreou believes, would be that today there are many paradoxes and threats to democracy – including AI. 'On the one hand we say [the] internet, and of course AI, [are] democratising, on the other hand we have it highly centralised, so who controls the algorithms, and who owns AI?' 'One of the ideas that democracy was invented was to make sure that power is not concentrated,' he added. Applying lessons of the Ancient Greeks Papandreou believes governments today should take a leaf out of Ancient Greece's book, where citizens met to debate and vote on proposals in one of the earliest examples of the democratic process. Today, that could look like a government platform for every citizen to debate issues such as AI. This would give everyone a voice, including women and migrants, to let them have a say in policy and no decision by the government would be decided without this deliberative process. In ancient Athens, there were admittedly fewer citizens, who could sit across the Acropolis and be heard. However, with today's population this becomes trickier. Given today's world population outpaces ancient Athens' by a wide margin, Papandreou said a modern version could be an online platform that allows citizens to debate issues such as AI and sends feedback to governments, giving everyone a voice in policymaking. Such tools would need to be thoroughly vetted, he said, and should be used to empower citizens – not for surveillance. But in an age of information overload and claims that AI knows everything, it's not just governments that can learn from the Greek philosophers' approach. Studies show that AI may be eroding people's critical thinking skills – which Socrates and Plato certainly would not have gotten behind, Papandreou argues. 'I think that's where we need to be, not be a brain to store information, but to be a brain that thinks about the information we're getting and understand what might be valid or may not be,' he said. Humility may be another key to using these tools effectively. In one story from Plato's Apology text, Socrates decides to investigate his reputation as the wisest person in Ancient Greece. He questions politicians and artists – only to discover that those who claim to have knowledge actually know less than they think. Plato instructs us that if we acknowledge how little we know, we have more space for questions, dialogue, and true understanding. Perhaps in the AI era, Socrates' best-known quote may be more relevant than ever: 'The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing'.
Irish Independent
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Podcast reviews: The history of the internet, falling in love with an AI bot and how Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr invented wifi
In an interview with Euronews Next last year, the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee said: 'My big push has always been for the enabling of human beings, of people,' adding that 'technology should work for you.' Long Shadow: Breaking the Internet (Apple, Spotify) robustly chronicles 30 years of web history, with the Pulitzer-finalist journalist and historian Garrett M Graff asking at the outset 'When was the last time you felt good about they internet?'. He traces how its founders' noble aim 'to democratise everything' became the opposite; an amplifier for conspiracy theories and hate speech, with big brands using algorithms 'to monetise our attention and maximise profit' and media companies (leaders, and individuals) using it to divide and conquer. Graff's critique includes intelligent vox pops from innovators, commentators and those on the receiving end of viral content, as well as solutions on how best to put manners on what fast became a monster. After devouring such a series, you might want a palate cleanser of a Sheila O'Flanagan ebook. Or continue in a similar fashion with a new Wondery offering, Flesh and Code (Apple, Spotify). Its premise of Travis falling in love with the woman of his dreams Lily Rose – an AI character – is a familiar one in the arts (in film, Her and I'm Your Man; in novels, Klara and the Sun and Machines Like Me). But it's based on a real-life attachment when Travis downloaded an AI companion app during the pandemic and the resulting fallout, revealing how shadowy figures and corporations exploit real-world loneliness for their own means. It's empathetically hosted by Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala, and touches upon why companion bots exist in the first place, why businesses are enlisting them and, from the users' point of view, their lived-experience pros as well as cons. It was 10 years ago that Karina Longworth of the You Must Remember This podcast documented Hedy Lamarr's dual role of Hollywood star and early 'inventor' of wifi, while it took Netflix until 2017 to air the brilliant documentary feature Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. Now, BBC World Service's new season of Untold Legends (Apple, BBC Sounds, Spotify) which charts how Lamarr's 'frequency hopping' concept in a patent to the US Navy in 1941 was discredited, but later developed, to become the basis of digital communications.
