Blogs

According to the European Commission, the construction industry in Europe provides 18 million direct jobs and accounts for about 9% of the bloc’s GDP.

It also produces roughly 250 million tonnes of carbon per year. That’s more than the entire emissions of France in 2023 (216.7 million tonnes).

With the EU Clean Deal’s pledge to slash emissions by 90% by 2040, but the need for continued construction ever present, something needs to change.

Concrete is the most widely-used material in the world, after water. So when deciding how to apply their innovative technology, despite it being applicable to bioplastics, regular plastics and paper, Paebbl opted to focus on concrete for maximum effect.

In this episode of The Big Question, Angela Barnes sits down with Marta Sjögren, co-founder & co-CEO of Paebbl to discuss their technology which helps to trap carbon dioxide in concrete.

In a Tuesday interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said cybersecurity is in a pivotal moment as more companies incorporate artificial intelligence into business.

"I think this is a perfect time for security companies to be out there working with our customers to make sure, as we say, 'deploy AI bravely,' and it's going to be an inflection point," he said.

According to Arora, even "naysayers" of AI are now trying to move data to the cloud in order to keep up with competitors. New AI models require the cloud, he said, claiming that businesses will be left behind if they don't move their company to the platform. He pointed out that tech megacaps are set to spend more than $300 billion on data centers this year, and companies must make sure their technology is secure.

Arora also touched on the future of agentic AI, suggesting that, "eventually, you're going to have to give these agents true agency." He explained that agents will be able

Australian telco Vodafone is alleging that competitor Telstra has been falsely claiming their network is larger than it is for average consumers and that they have been misleading Australians for over a decade.

Vodafone, owned by TPG Telecom, is alleging misleading and deceptive conduct by Telstra over 15 years and has made a complaint to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

It all stems from Telstra's use of an "external antenna" to measure where they do and don't have coverage.

Vodafone suggests that by using such an antenna, they may be overstating the geographic reach of the Telstra mobile network by as much as 40 per cent.

"This is alarming. It appears Telstra has tricked Australians into paying top dollar for coverage they simply can't get on a regular mobile phone," Kieren Cooney from TPG Telecom said.

"We are shocked that Telstra appears to have been overstating its coverage by so much for so long and we are calling on them

A major Australian energy company has acknowledged that carbon offsets do not prevent or undo damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions and apologised to its customers for allegedly misleading marketing.

More than 400,000 Australians had signed up to Energy Australia’s “go neutral” carbon offset program that since 2016 had promised to offset emissions released due to their electricity and gas consumption.

The advocacy group Parents for Climate launched legal action in the federal court in 2023 alleging the company had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by claiming it was reducing emissions on behalf of its customers, including by buying international carbon offsets.

The case, which was the first time a large Australian energy company had faced legal action for alleged greenwashing, was set to begin last week but the parties agreed to a settlement instead.

In a statement on Monday, Energy Australia said it acknowledged that carbon offsetting was “not

Right now, in the tech industry paddock, there are 372 AI unicorns, according to PitchBook.

How did you react to that number? Did you double-take? Did you recoil slightly, finding it shockingly high? Far too low? Or did you shrug as if to say "that tracks"?

I don’t think there’s a right or wrong response here—my point, rather, is that it’s likely you’ll have some kind of reaction to that number. And that’s representative of the extent to which the AI boom has created so many undercurrents of optimism and skepticism. 

"The AI investing landscape is very competitive at the moment," said Kyle Stanford, PitchBook director of research for U.S. venture, via email. "We are seeing around 1/3rd of completed deals go to companies in the AI space across all industries, so that encompasses much more of the market than just the handful of unicorns that dominate the headlines."

It’s worth breaking down the list. Though I expect it will look different in a year, it’s

Researchers at the AI company Anthropic say they have made a fundamental breakthrough in our understanding of exactly how large language models, the type of AI responsible for the current boom, work. The breakthrough has important implications for how we may be able to make AI models safer, more secure, and more reliable in the future.

One of the problems with today’s powerful AI that is based around large language models (LLMs) is that the models are black boxes. We can know what prompts we feed them and what output they produce, but exactly how they arrive at any particular response is a mystery, even to the AI researchers who build them.

This inscrutability creates all kinds of issues. It makes it difficult to predict when a model is likely to “hallucinate,” or confidently spew erroneous information. We know these large AI models are susceptible to various jailbreaks where they can be tricked into jumping guardrails (the limits the AI model developers try to put around

Software major Microsoft announced on March 25 its six new Agentic Artificial intelligence (AI) agents designed to autonomously assist with critical areas such as phishing, data security, and identity management.

This is important as the company now processes 84 trillion signals daily, including 7,000 password attacks per second. Scaling cyber defenses through AI agents is now imperative to keep pace with this threat landscape.

"We are expanding Security Copilot with six security agents built by Microsoft and five security agents built by our partners—available for preview in April 2025. The relentless pace and complexity of cyberattacks have surpassed human capacity and establishing AI agents is a necessity for modern security," the company said in a release.
Microsoft launched its earlier version of Security Copilot a year ago to empower defenders to detect, investigate, and respond to security incidents swiftly and accurately.

Between January and December 2024,

World leaders and tech figures are meeting in Paris for a two-day artificial intelligence summit on Monday, aiming to discuss and determine the future direction of the rapidly developing industry.

Hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, the AI Action Summit will welcome OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, US Vice President JD Vance and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.

France and Europe must seize the “opportunity” because AI "will enable us to live better, learn better, work better, care better and it’s up to us to put this artificial intelligence at the service of human beings,” he said.

The summit, which gathers major players such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, aims at fostering AI advances in sectors like health, education, environment and culture.

A global public-private partnership named “Current AI” is to be launched to support large-scale initiatives that serve the general interest.

The Paris summit “is the first time we’ll have had such a broad

Google CEO Sundar Pichai calls AI a “golden age of innovation,” emphasizing its transformative impact despite being in its early days. Speaking at the Paris AI Summit, he warned that failing to embrace AI is the biggest risk. As Google invests $75 billion in AI-driven growth, he outlined four key priorities: innovation, infrastructure, workforce readiness, and responsible development. While optimistic, he urged global leaders to address AI challenges like accuracy and the digital divide.

AI’s Potential and Challenges

Pichai emphasized that AI adoption must be guided by responsible policies to benefit everyone. He acknowledged concerns about misinformation, misuse, and inequality in access. He urged governments to develop strategies that balance innovation with regulation through investments in infrastructure and training.

U.S. officials are flaunting the idea of an outright ban on the sales of a popular Chinese-made internet router – a device that is sitting in many homes.

The investigation comes as concerns have mounted over cybersecurity risks connected with router manufacturer TP-Link Technology Co. The device is listed as a best seller on Amazon, with prices ranging from $50 to $100 for most models.

Established in China, but sourced from a California unit, the TP-Link router use has sparked several probes into possible Chinese interference through cyberattacks launched from the devices.

Several federal agencies, such as the Commerce, Defense, and Justice departments, are investigating the product and the company behind it. All are looking at if the devices pose a security risk and could suggest a ban as soon as 2025, company sources recently