Good news, cats and dogs: you can now legally eat lab-grown meat.
The milestone comes courtesy of a world-first permit for cultivated pet food. Czech startup Bene Meat Technologies received the inaugural license from the EU on Wednesday.
The company can now produce and sell the futuristic cuisine, which is made from cells taken from living animals.
After extraction, the cells are placed in a bioreactor and grown into muscle tissue. The flesh is then formed into the desired shape.
The <3 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
The process could reduce emissions and prevent animal suffering, while creating meat that’s indistinguishable from farmed produce. It could also be big business: McKinsey predicts the market could reach $25bn by 2030.
This cash is projected to come primarily from human consumption, but Bene Meat is focused on our furry friends. The company proffers several reasons for this strategy.
One is the product’s cost. Cultivated meat is notoriously expensive to develop, but Bene Meat claims that it can offer competitive costs.
“We will be targeting a similar price level as existing premium pet food ingredients,” Tomáš Kubeš, the startup’s head of strategic projects, told TNW. “This differentiates us from existing competitors.”
The lab-grown pet food could be available in 2024. Credit: Bene Meat
Bene Meat is also confident about the product demand. Pet food supply chains have been disrupted since Covid-19 shut down production and delayed shipments. Costs have also continued rising since the pandemic.
At the same time, consumers have become increasingly concerned about pet food products — which have a pretty shoddy reputation.
“Cultured meat is the perfect solution as it provides a rich source of protein which is natural for pets, while being more ethical and sustainable compared to animal-based products,” Kubeš said.
Bene Meat is also bullish about the quality of the food, although the startup is reticent to reveal exactly what it is.
Kubeš said the registered product is “cultivated cells of mammalian origin.” He adds that all the necessary details are shared with authorities and manufacturers.
The company, however, will not disclose which animal is the source of the food. For now, we can only guess.
The mystery will hopefully be revealed once the products are on shelves — which could happen soon. The precise date for the market entry will depend on deals with manufacturers, but Bene Meat is targeting next year. Samples will also soon be available, in case your pet — or you — wants to be a guinea pig.
Food waste has become a critical global issue. Almost 10% of the 8 billion people on Earth are undernourished, but nearly a third of the food on our planet is trashed before it’s eaten.
A startup called Positive Carbon has proposed a solution. The Irish company has developed a sensor-based system that tracks, traces, and reduces food waste.
According to the startup, the tech has triggered 50% reductions in waste — saving over 4,000 tonnes of food. Designed for commercial kitchens, the tech can cut costs as well as litter.
Mark Kirwan, Positive Carbon’s CEO, told TNW that hotels, hospitals, workplaces, and university campuses could all reap the benefits.
The <3 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
“Our technology is not just a tool for reducing food waste; it’s the driving force behind fostering a sustainable ecosystem that benefits businesses, the environment, and society at large,” he said.
How it works
Dashboards provide detailed data on food usage and potential savings. Credit: Positive Carbon
Positive Carbon uses both camera and lidar sensors. Perched on the ceiling above food bins, they autonomously track exactly what enters the bin.
The sensors are connected to the customer’s purchasing software. As a result, the system can monitor what a business buys and connect that information to the waste.
The data is then aggregated to generate targeted interventions. Purchasing plans can then be adjusted accordingly. That might mean buying less of a specific ingredient, preparing fewer portions of a specific dish, or simply putting less food on plates.
Future plans
Kirwan (centre) alongside Positive Carbon COO Aisling Kirwan and investor Andrew McGreal. Credit: Mark Stedman
Positive Carbon today announced that the company has secured a fresh €2.3mn in seed funding.
The cash injection is a further boost to Kirwan’s plans. He envisions the tech tracking nutritional content, suggesting real-time menu adjustments based on consumption patterns, and automating food ordering.
“Moreover, advancements in AI could enable the sensors to predict future waste patterns, thereby pre-emptively advising on procurement and portion control,” he said.
As the tech becomes more refined and cost-effective, it could even enter domestic kitchens. If that happens, we could enjoy personalised meal planning and shopping list automation. And all while saving our scarce supplies from the trash.
Britain’s biggest chip plant has been bought by US semiconductor firm Vishay for $177mn.
The Newport Wafer Fab in Wales was previously owned by Nexperia, which acquired the business in 2021. Nexperia is headquartered in the Netherlands, but the company is a subsidiary of China’s Wingtech. This ownership structure attracted intervention from UK lawmakers.
Last year, the British government ordered Nexperia to sell the majority of its stake in Newport Wafer Fab. The move was explained as an attempt to “mitigate the risk to national security.”
The end result is a new owner for the factory, which makes semiconductors for millions of products, from household equipment to smartphones. The chips are particularly prominent in the automotive sector.
Announcing the acquisition, Vishay highlighted the potential applications — and the political concerns.
“For Vishay, acquiring Newport Wafer Fab brings together our capacity expansion plans for our customers in automotive and industrial end markets as well as the UK’s strategic goal of improved supply chain resilience,” Joel Smejkal, the company’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
Nexperia, meanwhile, described the deal as the most viable option available. The company welcomed Vishay’s commitment to develop the 28-acre site, but criticised the British government’s actions.
“Nexperia would have preferred to continue the long-term strategy it implemented when it acquired the investment-starved fab in 2021 and provided for massive investments in equipment and personnel,” said Toni Versluijs, country manager for Nexperia UK.
“However, these investment plans have been cut short by the unexpected and wrongful divestment order made by the UK Government in November 2022.”
It’s been a little over five years since the GDPR came into effect and fines keep amassing — especially for social media platforms.
New research by Dutch VPN company Surfshark has found that, since 2018, five of the most popular social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Whatsapp, and X/Twitter) have been fined over €2.9bn for violating the EU’s data protection law.
Facebook alone accounts for nearly 60% of the total amount, with €1.7bn in penalties. Adding to Zuckerberg’s woes, Meta’s platforms combined have reached €2.5bn. TikTok has received the third highest amount in fines, at €360mn, while X (formerly Twitter) has only amassed €450k. Meanwhile, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, and LinkedIn have not been charged.
Most alarmingly, one-third (4 out of 13) of these fines are linked to insufficient protection of children’s data — adding up to €765mn of the total amount.
Specifically, TikTok was first fined in 2021 for failing to introduce its privacy statement in Dutch, so that minors in the Netherlands could fully understand the terms. Two more fines were issued in 2023. One was for TikTok not enforcing its own policing restricting access to children under 13. The other was for setting accounts to public by default, and for not verifying legal guardianship for adults registering as parents of child users. These fines combined resulted in a total of €360mn.
The second social media to be charged for violating children’s privacy is Instagram. The Meta platform received its one and only fine in 2022 (€405mn), when business accounts created by minors were set to public by default.
“Such penalties demonstrate the imperative to hold major social media players accountable for their data handling practices, ensuring that the privacy and safety of all users, especially children, is given the utmost consideration and care,” said Agneska Sablovskaja, lead researcher at Surfshark.
Apart from being caught in the crosshairs of GDPR enforcers, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X also need to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA). Among other requirements, the EU’s landmark content moderation rulebook prohibits the use of targeting advertising that’s based on the profiling of minors.
The latest VR entry into to the World of Darkness universe lets you loose on the streets of Venice as a bloodsucking ghoul in search of your master’s killer and a stolen relic. Although it takes cues from stealth games like Hitman and Assassin’s Creed, Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice—let’s just call it Justice for short—takes a decidedly more linear approach to missions than I thought it might from our initial preview. This isn’t a terrible thing, although it manages to also feel pared down in a few other ways that’s just unfortunate. Read on to hear my full impressions.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice Details:
Available On: Quest, PSVR 2
Release Date: November 2nd, 2023
Price: $30
Developer: Fast Travel Games
Reviewed on: Quest 3
Gameplay
It’s your job to uncover the mystery behind your sire’s murder and reclaim a stolen relic, all of which is set in the claustrophobic alleys and sprawling sewers of Venice—yes, the world-famous sewer systemof Venice. You know, the Italian island-city built on wooden stilts. With canals. And no basements. Because of the water. Ok, you’ll need to suspend disbelief only a tad more than you might normally for a fantasy world filled with vampiric factions, but not by much. After all, you can suck blood from people (and rats!), teleport around, and shoot mini-bolts formed from your own life force out of a Fisher-Price crossbow. What’s a sewer level or three? It’s all gravy.
Like pretty much all World of Darkness stuff, Justice is pretty pulpy when it comes to the narrative. If you’re not already an acolyte of the universe, the game does a pretty good job of introducing you to a few of the main vampire factions that come to a head. Still, you won’t need to absorb much of it, as it leads you by the hand through some pretty well-trodden territory which will probably feel like home for anyone who’s a fan of the gothic-punk vibe in general. That said, the suitably schlocky narrative spends a little too much time in the foreground for my tastes, especially considering it’s such a cookie-cutter tale with some pretty interchangeable villains and objectives.
For a game that mostly nails the ethereal feel of apparating onto the ledge of a building and blasting through an unsuspecting bad guy, I was really hoping it would provide me with a sort of Hitman-esque challenge of solving missions with my own creativity. Instead, it all feels a little hemmed in. Levels are typically large, although missions are entirely linear, meaning you’ll have to complete specific objectives that are force-fed to you by Pietro, your vampire pal and chief quest-giver. Don’t let that dialogue box fool you. You’re doing whatever Pietro says, even if you decide to be a little snotty about it. Anyway, that’s how it is with everyone you talk to in the game though, so it’s fine I guess?
Image captured by Road to VR
The game is pretty intent on taking you by the hand to do most everything. By default, objectives are highlighted automatically, providing you with a far-off direction to point towards as you navigate through whoever and whatever is your way. You can see the little yellow geometric icon through the walls, which is more convenient than having to constantly refer to a map, but significantly less satisfying since it comes at the cost of exploration. I know that’s a thing in traditional gaming, but it feels just a little too abstracted in VR without giving me some sort of reason. Some cool AR glasses maybe? Nope. Vampires can just see objective markers.
Additionally, you can also activate a vampiric sense that gives you a whispy trail towards intermediary objectives, which most often times are keys to open doors. You can abuse it as much as you want, which is a clear temptation when you’re just looking to get to the ‘Mission Complete’ screen.
Image captured by Road to VR
That said, the game’s combat is a high point, offering you several ways to dispatch baddies. Kills feel iconic and fun, although the skill difficulty is almost comically low since bad guys just never look up—not even if you call attention to yourself by dropping a brick or beer bottle. You can saunter around ledges and scurry up drainpipes to your heart’s content, never being in any danger, save the two or three times in the game when there’s a sniper.
And yes, the game’s singular way of getting from ledge to ledge is teleporting, which may disappoint anyone who was looking for a parkour experience. Still, it feels right here since it’s actually a vampire superpower, although I can see why some people may miss hitting ‘A’ for jump.
Image courtesy Fast Travel Games
It’s not all rooftop-trawling at midnight though. When you need to move among them at street level, you really have one of two real options: go ham and kill before you catch two or three bullets, putting you back to your last automatic save point, or use some of your life force by turning invisible and walking right on by. Enemies seem to have radios, but it doesn’t appear they know how to use them very well, as you’ll kill a dude, his friend will come over and be like “oh no!” and then he’ll wander away eventually because you’re sitting on a ledge just above his head.
You can also always see where baddies are in level, since your vampire abilities not only provide a yellow highlighted heart icon, but also a cone that indicates which way they’re looking at any given time. Basically, the only way to be caught off guard is to close your eyes.
These aren’t the only ways to skin a cat, although you’ll probably land on your favorite method pretty quickly, as all enemies are basically the same, save three bosses you have to contend with. Different powers can be purchased in-game via XP, which includes things like that invisibility cloak ability, but also powerful and noisy attacks that boil the blood of victims until they explode. You can also set a something called a Shadow Trap that opens a pit to hell, but I found my own method pretty much the only real tactic for quick and easy kills. Using the crossbow, you can fire sleep-inducing bolts into everyone but bosses, and either knock them out to sneak by, or keep them still so you can suck their blood. It’s a pretty handy little device that feels well designed in terms of VR interactions, as it requires you to craft bolts, load individually, and cock back manually. You really don’t need anything else to beat the game, which took me about eight hours.
In the end, Justice has some really solid footing in terms of combat and level design, but it doesn’t really know how to leverage both of these things to make enemy encounters continuously feel fresh and engaging since baddies are fairly dumb and easy to kill. Besides some environmental puzzles, there aren’t a lot of objectives out there that I really used my brain to complete, as most of it’s a breadcrumb trail to the next thing and some dudes in the way.
Immersion
Justice feels like it wants to be an open-world game, but as we all know, that’s an order of magnitude more costly to build, which just isn’t in the cards for this decidedly more cheap and cheerful $30 adventure. While there is an ‘over world’ that you can freely prowl around, simply called ‘The Streets’, it really only serves as an intermediate area between you and the actual mission at hand. You can kill a dude to get some health before heading in, but there’s really not much going on.
Image courtesy Fast Travel Games
That honestly doesn’t bother me, since the game never promised that. What does bother me though is unreliable object interaction. Like we noted in our preview earlier this year, object interaction feels flighty and not nearly as solid as it should be. Manipulating levers and other puzzle elements is a crapshoot, and picking up a rat-sized snack is basically like doing surgery with mittens. This does a great deal to hamper immersion, as it feels like the game really isn’t at home with up close interactions, preferring instead to relegate most of its interactions to superpower moves, crossbow shooting, and force-grabbing.
While a little rough around the edges, its set pieces and level design are both very good, providing a constantly changing environment that feels like it’s modeled after the real-world Venice (save the sewers). Justice is mostly awesome-looking, and I only wish there were more of it to explore and interact with, as it does an excellent job of creating a believable underworld in a fantasy version of Venice.
Comfort
You’ll be zipping around a lot in Justice, although since it entirely relies on teleportation to move from plane to plane, it does a lot to mitigate confort issues. Playing for hours on end wasn’t an issue for me, and that’s coming from someone who never uses smooth turning as an option for the fear of the dreaded flop sweats. Both lateral and forward motion can be mitigated by variable vignettes, which is a neat little extra that will make sure most anyone can play Justice from start to finish without issue.
‘Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice’ Comfort Settings – October 31st, 2023
Turning
Artificial turning
Snap-turn
Quick-turn
Smooth-turn
Movement
Artificial movement
Teleport-move
Dash-move
Smooth-move
Blinders
Head-based
Controller-based
Swappable movement hand
Posture
Standing mode
Seated mode
Artificial crouch
Real crouch
Accessibility
Subtitles
Languages
English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese
World leaders and tech titans are currently descending on southern England for an AI safety summit, but the flashy event isn’t impressing everyone.
Over the next two days, around 100 bigwigs will attend the event at the historic Bletchley Park, a country estate around 90km north of London. During World War Two, the site was home to the codebreakers who cracked Nazi Germany’s notorious Enigma encryption device. Some 80 years later, the British government wants to show that the UK is still a tech superpower — but the plans have caused alarm.
Critics have various concerns. They worry that the summit organisers are spellbound by “frontier AI,” famous names, and far-flung fears, while overlooking more pressing and inclusive issues.
A show-stealing late addition to the schedule elevated their suspicions. On Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak revealed that he will be “in conversation” with Elon Musk on X.
Musk adds further lustre to a star-studded guest list.
Among the invitees are several political heavyweights, including US Vice President Kamala Harris, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Chinese Vice Minister Wu Zhaohui.
Also in attendance are various tech titans, such as Microsoft President Brad Smith, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Meta AI chief Yann LeCun. But the event is not for everyone.
“My fear is that the summit will focus on headline-grabbing existential threats.
Much of the tech sector feels that only industry giants and political leaders will be seated at Sunak’s conference table.
Dr Hector Zenil, the founder of healthcare startup Oxford Immune Algorithmics, is worried that the event will be dominated by generative AI and big tech. He has called on Sunak to involve a greater balance of commercial and academic representation.
“If the AI Safety Summit is to be judged a success — or at least on the right path to creating consensus on AI safety, regulation, and ethics — then the UK government must strive to create an even playing field for all parties to discuss the future use cases for the technology,” Zenil said.
“The Summit cannot be dominated by those corporations with a specific agenda and narrative around their commercial interests, otherwise this week’s activities will be seen as an expensive and misleading marketing exercise.”
Zenil’s views are common across the sector. Among the industry insiders who share his unease is Victor Botev, the CTO and co-founder of Iris.ai, an Oslo-based startup.
A former AI researcher at Chalmers University and now a business leader, Botev wants broader representation from both academia and industry at the meeting.
“It is vital for any consultation on AI regulation to include perspectives beyond just the tech giants,” he said. “Smaller AI firms and open-source developers often pioneer new innovations, yet their voices on regulation go unheard. The summit missed a great opportunity by only including 100 guests, who are primarily made up of world leaders and big tech companies.”
Venture capitalists have raised similar concerns.
“Going forward, we also must have more voices for startups themselves. The AI safety summit’s focus on big tech, and shutting out of many in the AI startup community, is disappointing,” said Ekaterina Almasque, General Partner at European VC OpenOcean.
“It is vital that industry voices are included when shaping regulations that will directly impact technological development.”
Frontier AI apocalypses
The glitzy guestlist has been accompanied by a fittingly dramatic agenda. This combination, critics say, is a distraction from more pressing concerns.
They note that the programme will exclusively focus on “frontier” AI systems — a hazy term for advanced, general-purpose AI models. In a recent government report, the term “frontier AI” was applied almost entirely to large language models (LLMs) — particularly OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Zenil suspects the focus has been influenced by CEOs who are invested in this field. He wants the government to take a broader view.
“It is absolutely critical that the UK has a coherent strategy for AI that encompasses all aspects of the technology and different models. Above all, this is important because no one approach will become the ‘silver bullet’ for AI adoption,” he said.
“If the AI Summit at Bletchley Park and the AI advisory committee are dominated by individuals with a particular research or commercial focus for AI, then it will make it harder to develop regulatory frameworks which reflect all the potential use cases.”
Zenil has also worked as a senior researcher for the government-funded Alan Turing Institute. Credit: Oxford Immune Algorithmics
Another cause of consternation is the summit’s focus on “extreme” hypothetical threats and doomsday scenarios. Sunak has personally highlighted these cataclysmic possibilities.
“In the most unlikely but extreme cases, there is even the risk that humanity could lose control of AI completely through the kind of AI sometimes referred to as super intelligence,” he said last week.
Such apocalyptic prospects, critics argue, are dramatically overblown. Some blame the media for inflating the dangers, while others argue that tech bosses exaggerate the risks to conceal the real and present problems that they’re creating.
They are more concerned about the tangible threats of climate change, biases against marginalised groups, and cyber-attacks. They note, for instance, that a recent study found that Google’s AI could soon consume as much electricity as Ireland.
Almasque, from VC firm OpenOcean, fears the summit’s priorities are skewed.
“It looks likely to focus mostly on bigger, long-term risks from AI, and far less on what needs to be done, today, to build a thriving AI ecosystem,” she said. “It’s like a startup worrying about its IPO price before it’s raised seed funding.”
These concerns are shared by Natalie Cramp, CEO of data company Profusion, which has previously advised the UK government. She is wary of the fixation on an imaginary future.
“My fear is that the AI safety summit will focus on headline-grabbing existential threats at the expense of the more mundane problems that have the capacity to do a lot of damage right now,” Cramp said.
Natalie Cramp, CEO at data company Profusion.
The build-up to the summit has amplified the dissent. Ahead of the event, Sunak revealed a core component of his plan will be a new “world-first” AI safety institute.
Dr Asress Gikay, a senior lecturer in AI at Brunel University London, was unimpressed by the announcement. Gikay is dismissive of the institute’s aim to prompt international agreements. She suspects that Sunak has ulterior motivations.
“The Prime Minister seems more focused on making political statements by unrealistic and unachievable agendas rather than addressing more pressing and attainable issues, such as domestic AI investment and the development of a robust policy and regulatory framework for responsible AI at the national level,” she said.
Taking chances
Amid the scepticism, there is also optimism about the AI summit’s potential. The big-name attendees and international media attention suggest the UK can be a key player in global developments.
The country’s thriving AI sector adds credibility to the event, while its pro-innovation approach to regulation provides a point of differentiation from European Union governance. Britain’s unique international position could also provide a bridge between the US, EU, and China.
Emad Mostaque, CEO of Stability AI —which develops the Stable Diffusion text-to-image model — is among the high-profile supporters of the summit.
“The UK has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to become an AI superpower and ensure that AI benefits all, not just big tech,” he said.
Botev, the co-founder of Iris.ai, is more cautiously hopeful. He is upbeat about the summit’s potential, but worried that the government may make a rash decision for a front-page news story.
“With the global AI community watching, the UK should resist this urge,” he said. “The summit is a chance for the UK to chart a global direction on AI governance, ensuring progress without compromising safety. With care and wisdom, the UK can develop forward-thinking regulations that promote innovation while establishing trust.”
Climate change is here. Along with it, catastrophic floods are becoming alarmingly more and more common. Adapting to a new climate reality is no easy task, but technological advancements offer a ray of hope.
Among the industry players tackling this challenge is quantum software company Multiverse Computing. The Spanish startup has won £100,056 in funding from Innovate UK to improve flood risk assessment using quantum technology.
To achieve this goal, Multiverse Computing will collaborate with UK-based Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) and US-based Moody’s Analytics. Together, the trio will use quantum computing to address the computational challenges in existing large-scale flood modelling, and develop new prediction models that assess risks more accurately and efficiently.
Current methods have been limited by the increased computational cost of running sophisticated simulations over large areas in high-resolution. But according to Sergio Gago, Moody’s Managing Director of Quantum and GenAI, the emergence of new technologies, such as quantum computing, presents significant opportunities for advancement.
“Specifically, there is promising potential in the application of quantum machine learning (QML) to develop emulators as alternatives to traditional physics-based models,” Gago said. Similarly, Enrique Lizaso Olmos, founder and CEO of Multiverse Computing, believes that the improved accuracy and effectiveness of a quantum approach could contribute to climate change adaptation efforts.
The Spanish startup is the lead contractor of the project and will be behind the software and quantum algorithm development. OQC will provide the necessary quantum hardware, while Moody’s will contribute industry, data, and computational efficiency insights.
The project has won a place in Phase 1 of the Quantum Catalyst Fund competition, backed by Innovate UK. If successful, it will move to Phase 2 next year, and the budget will amount to £1.2mn.
The UK Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs will be the first customer to try the solution, seeking to better adapt to extreme weather events resulting from climate change. According to Moody’s estimates the UK is facing over £700mn in losses due to inland flooding per year.
Sadly, examples of the phenomenon’s devastating impact are far too many. In 2021, floods in Germany and Belgium claimed the lives of 209 people and cost over €30bn in damages. This year, torrential rain paralysed central Greece. Leveraging advanced technologies, such as AI and quantum computing, to mitigate and even prevent the consequences is now more crucial than ever.
Development of cultivated meat, i.e. actual animal meat that’s grown in bioreactors from stem cells, has been gaining traction in recent years. That’s because it can provide a more sustainable and ethical alternative that doesn’t only mitigate animal slaughter, but also uses far less natural resources than traditional livestock farming. Notably, it also shows potential to sustain life in space.
Over the past year, the European Space Agency (ESA) has been exploring whether cultivated meat can be a viable food option in space, used as a protein source that can be produced in situ.
“The focus is to provide astronauts with nutritious food during long-term missions far from Earth, overcoming the typical two-year shelf-life of traditional packaged supplies,” explained ESA engineer Paolo Corradi. “Given the limited resources in space, growing fresh food in situ would be necessary to increase the resilience and self-sufficiency of a mission, and could also provide psychological support to the crew.”
To test the meat production alternative, ESA funded two independent research projects — one run by Germany’s space biotech startup Yuri and Reutlingen University; and the other conducted by a trio of UK companies, Kayser Space, Cellular Agriculture, and Campden BRI.
The two teams compared the nutritional value of cultivated meat to current protein sources studied in space, including plants and algae. They suggested different meat production methods and bioreactor technologies.
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst works on the Space Algae experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). Credit: ESA/NASA
Their results, published on Monday, show that the technology is promising, even though it still requires significant research and work before space cultivated meat can reach astronauts’ palates.
To support this, ESA has proposed a roadmap outlining necessary technologies and knowledge gaps, such as understanding how cells adapt to altered gravity and radiation. It will also begin experiments at its facilities.
How cultivated meat production in space would work. Credit: ESA
The space agency hopes that further development of cultivated meat will speed up its adoption on Earth as well. “The feeling is that we are at the beginning of a process that could transform the industry, making the conventional meat production model obsolete,” said Corradi.
“Developed countries have the historical opportunity to move away from farming and killing animals, being a very inefficient process to produce food, unsustainable for the planet, dangerous for our health, and raising more and more ethical concerns among the population,” he added.
To put this into perspective, research firm CE Delft estimates that cultivated meat could cause 92% less global warming and 93% less air pollution — while using 95% less land and 78% less water.
Europe already houses a significant number of startups working on the tech, including Meatable, 3D Bio-Tissues, and Uncommon. The Netherlands is the first (and only for now) country in the region to have approved lab-grown meat tastings, following the example of Singapore and the US.
The NBA announced it’s expanding the number of games it’s recording for Quest headsets by a wide margin, bringing a ton of 180-degree immersive games to NBA League Pass holders.
Games will be available in both through the Xtadiumapp on Quest and Meta Horizon Worlds—both of which require the NBA League Pass subscription viewing service to access. Games on Xtadium have already begun, while games on Horizon Worlds kick off November 17th.
Note: Xtadium and NBA League Pass VR games are only available in the US.
Each app has it own perks. Xtadium lets you do a ‘Watch Party’, where you can invite friends to join you in your own private party room and catch the game together in VR as avatars. It also lets you watch games on-demand, watch up to eight games in 2D simultaneously, and watch games in mixed reality mode.
The NBA Arena in Horizon Worlds is set to include interactive games like the Slam Dunk Jam and Basket Blitz. There’s also set to be plenty of opportunities to mess around in a stadium environment, unlock stickers, emotes, exclusive avatar wearables, and access to the VIP Lounge by attending immersive games or playing mini-games in NBA Arena. You’ll even be able to buy your avatar NBA or WNBA team apparel, which you can wear in VR as well as on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram.
As always, the standard set of NBA League Pass geo-restrictions apply, which means some games may not be available in all regions, and viewers located near the physical event may be unable to view it based on localized restrictions.
Here’s the full schedule:
October 25 // Atlanta Hawks vs. Charlotte Hornets // 4: 00 pm PT
October 28 // Memphis Grizzlies vs. Washington Wizards // 4: 00 pm PT
October 30 // Miami Heat vs. Milwaukee Bucks // 5: 00 pm PT
November 3 // Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder // 5: 00 pm PT
November 6 // San Antonio Spurs vs. Indiana Pacers // 4: 00 pm PT
November 10 // Minnesota Timberwolves vs. San Antonio Spurs // 5: 00 pm PT
November 14 // Dallas Mavericks vs. New Orleans Pelicans // 5: 00 pm PT
November 17 // Philadelphia 76ers vs. Atlanta Hawks // 4: 30 pm PT
November 18 // New York Knicks vs. Charlotte Hornets // 3: 00 pm PT
November 21 // Toronto Raptors vs. Orlando Magic // 4: 00 pm PT
November 24 // Detroit Pistons vs. Indiana Pacers // 5: 00 pm PT
November 25 // Los Angeles Lakers vs. Cleveland Cavaliers // 4: 30 pm PT
November 28 // Chicago Bulls vs. Boston Celtics // 4: 30 pm PT
December 2 // Indiana Pacers vs. Miami Heat // 5: 00 pm PT
December 11 // Denver Nuggets vs. Atlanta Hawks // 4: 30 pm PT
December 14 // Chicago Bulls vs. Miami Heat // 4: 30 pm PT
December 16 // Philadelphia 76ers vs. Charlotte Hornets // 4: 00 pm PT
December 18 // LA Clippers vs. Indiana Pacers // 4: 00 pm PT
December 20 // Los Angeles Lakers vs. Chicago Bulls // 5: 00 pm PT
December 21 // San Antonio Spurs vs. Chicago Bulls // 5: 00 pm PT
December 23 // San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks // 5: 30 pm PT
December 27 // New York Knicks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder // 5: 00 pm PT
December 30 // Los Angeles Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves // 5: 00 pm PT
January 2 // Boston Celtics vs. Oklahoma City Thunder vs. 5: 00 pm PT
January 6 // Utah Jazz vs. Philadelphia 76ers // 4: 30 pm PT
January 8 // Boston Celtics vs. Indiana Pacers // 4: 00 pm PT
January 9 // Portland Trail Blazers vs. New York Knicks // 4: 30 pm PT
January 13 // New York Knicks vs. Memphis Grizzlies // 5: 00 pm PT
January 15 // Indiana Pacers vs. Utah Jazz // 6: 00 pm PT
January 20 // San Antonio Spurs vs. Washington Wizards // 4: 00 pm PT
January 21 // Denver Nuggets vs. Washington Wizards // 3: 00 pm PT
January 26 // Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Milwaukee Bucks // 5: 00 pm PT
January 28 // Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Detroit Pistons // 3: 00 pm PT
January 29 // New Orleans Pelicans vs. Boston Celtics // 4: 30 pm PT
February 2 // Miami Heat vs. Washington Wizards // 4: 00 pm PT
February 3 // Brooklyn Nets vs. Philadelphia 76ers // 3: 00 pm PT
February 5 // Dallas Mavericks vs. Philadelphia 76ers // 4: 00 pm PT
February 9 // Charlotte Hornets vs. Milwaukee Bucks // 5: 00 pm PT
February 12 // Denver Nuggets vs. Milwaukee Bucks // 5: 00 pm PT
February 26 // Brooklyn Nets vs. Memphis Grizzlies // 5: 00 pm PT
March 1 // Indiana Pacers vs. New Orleans Pelicans // 5: 00 pm PT
March 4 // Portland Trail Blazers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves // 5: 00 pm PT
March 11 // Phoenix Suns vs. Cleveland Cavaliers // 4: 30 pm PT
March 15 // Denver Nuggets vs. San Antonio Spurs // 5: 30 pm PT
March 16 // Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Houston Rockets // 2: 00 pm PT
March 21 // Utah Jazz vs. Dallas Mavericks // 5: 30 pm PT
March 24 // Golden State Warriors vs. Minnesota Timberwolves // 4: 00 pm PT
March 29 // Phoenix Suns vs. Oklahoma City Thunder // 5: 00 pm PT
March 31 // Los Angeles Lakers vs. Brooklyn Nets // 3: 00 pm PT
April 5 // New York Knicks vs. Chicago Bulls // 5: 00 pm PT
April 7 // Sacramento Kings vs. Brooklyn Nets // 4: 30 pm PT
April 12 // Orlando Magic vs. Philadelphia 76ers // 4: 00 pm PT
Vertigo Games finally revealed the release date for its upcoming sequel to Arizona Sunshine (2016), which is set to bring us back to the dusty post-apocalyptic desert for another tango with the undead hordes. Also: the first gameplay trailer.
Arizona Sunshine 2 is slated to launch on all major VR headsets on December 7th, which the studio has confirmed will include a co-op mode as well as single player campaign at launch.
We’ve also got our first look at actual gameplay, which admittedly doesn’t look terribly far off from the previous CG trailer released back in May. There seems to be plenty of opportunities to blow up, dismember, and roast the hell out of the shambolic enemies—all in the search of ‘Patient Zero’, which is supposedly the game’s main objective.
Coming to Quest 2/3/Pro, PSVR 2, Pico and SteamVR headsets, you’ll find Arizona Sunshine 2 is also now available for pre-order as a Standard Edition and Deluxe Edition, with each edition including exclusive digital items. Here’s the breakdown:
Standard Edition ($50): Pre-orders include the Biker Bark Vest, Worker Watch, and Ducky Weapon Charm in-game exclusive bonuses.
Deluxe Edition ($60): Available at a 10% pre-order discount. Includes everything in the Standard Edition, plus the Freddy Hands Skin, Doggy Weapon Charm, and Undead Buddy—turning your loyal four-legged friend into an undead killing machine.
Today, the Netherlands officially began constructing a 1,200km-long hydrogen pipeline — amid a continent-wide push to wean Europe off natural gas.
The first section of the pipeline will run from the Maasvlakte — a massive man-made extension of the Europoort in Rotterdam (Europe’s largest port) — some 30 kilometres inland to a gas refinery in Pernis, run by petrochemical giant Shell. This phase is scheduled to open in 2025 at a cost of €100mn.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by the country’s King Willem-Alexander, the minister for climate and energy policy, Rob Jetten, and Han Fennema, CEO of state-run energy company Gasunie.
“The start of the construction of the hydrogen network today is an important milestone,” said Jetten earlier today. “Hydrogen is ideally suited to making our industry more sustainable and offers economic opportunities for the Netherlands as an important link in Northwestern Europe. I am proud that we are the first country to start building a national network.”
From 2030, the wider 1,200km network will connect import terminals and hydrogen production facilities with major industrial clusters in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. A large chunk of the network will be made up of repurposed gas pipelines, many of which are set to become redundant as the country looks to reduce its reliance on the fossil fuel. The megaproject will cost about €1.5bn.
The Dutch are building a country-wide hydrogen network that will link places of production with places of consumption, both within the country and beyond its borders. Credit: Gasunie/S&P Global Commodity Insights
The plans tie into the European Hydrogen Backbone initiative, which aims to build a network of 28,000km of dedicated hydrogen pipelines by 2030, expanding to 53,000km across 28 European countries by 2040. The initiative is backed by a group of 31 energy infrastructure operators.
In 2022, hydrogen accounted for less than 2% of Europe’s energy consumption and was primarily used to produce chemical products, such as plastics and fertilisers. Some 96% of this hydrogen was produced with natural gas, resulting in significant amounts of CO2 emissions.
However, hydrogen — especially the ‘green’ variety produced by the electrolysis of water powered by renewable energy — has been identified by the EU as a key component of the bloc’s future energy mix. The Union plans to produce and import a total of 20 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen a year by 2030. (For context, one kilogram of hydrogen is the energy equivalent of one gallon (3.78 litres) of petrol). Proponents say this will help replace natural gas, powering vehicles and generating electricity.
You see, some sectors like heavy industry and transportation are almost impossible to decarbonise by electrification alone — they require an easily transferable fuel. And hydrogen, which can be used in existing natural gas networks and emits only water vapour when combusted, is the perfect candidate.
While the Netherlands and many others are furiously building new infrastructure to transport the fuel, their efforts will be futile unless the production of green hydrogen is scaled up in parallel. Currently, green hydrogen accounts for only about 1% of global hydrogen production. It is also about three times as expensive as its grey counterpart, produced from fossil fuel sources.
One solution showing great promise is wind-to-hydrogen technology, which harnesses the power of offshore wind and vast quantities of water (aka the ocean) to produce fossil-free hydrogen. The first plant of this type was opened in September off the coast of Le Croisic, France. Today it produces half a tonne of hydrogen per day. Only a fraction of what’s needed, but a notable start.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has unveiled a dedicated AI advisory body with a mandate to harness the technology’s power for good and mitigate its risks through international collaboration and governance.
“AI could power extraordinary progress for humanity,” Guterres said, pointing to a plethora of benefits — from health and education to the digitalisation of developing economies. In addition, “it could supercharge climate action and efforts to achieve the [UN’s] 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030,” he added.
However, Guterres cautioned that AI expertise is currently “concentrated in a handful of companies and countries.” This could heighten global inequalities, increase the spread of disinformation and bias, enable surveillance and invasion of privacy — and, overall, lead to the violation of human rights.
“Without entering into a host of doomsday scenarios, it is already clear that the malicious use of AI could undermine trust in institutions, weaken social cohesion, and threaten democracy itself,” noted the Secretary General. “For all these reasons, I have called for a global, multidisciplinary, multistakeholder conversation on the governance of AI so that its benefits to humanity — all of humanity — are maximised, and the risks contained are diminished.”
By the end of this year, UN’s AI advisory body will make preliminary recommendations for three specific areas. These cover international governance of artificial intelligence; a shared understanding of risks and challenges; and key opportunities and enablers for the organisation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
These recommendations will be used for the preparation of the UN’s Summit for the Future in 2024, and will specifically form part of the proposed Global Digital Compact. The initiative aims to outline shared principles for “an open, free, and secure digital future” for all humanity.
The 39-member body hails from a wide range of countries and sectors, such as private companies, academia, governments, and civil society organisations.
Similar global initiatives to ensure the responsible use of artificial intelligence include the G7 AI code of conduct and the upcoming AI Safety Summit in London.
