Belgium has a semiconductor research institute the whole industry depends on, and almost nobody outside the industry has heard of it.
imec, in Leuven, is where the process technology behind advanced chips gets developed and tested before anyone manufactures at scale, and its partners are every name in the sector. Around it sits a genuine research cluster: KU Leuven and Ghent spinouts in biotech and materials, a photonics and imaging specialism, and a startup scene that is small, well-funded per head, and rarely covered in English at all.
The other half of Belgian tech news is not Belgian in origin but is written here. Brussels is where EU digital regulation happens — the rules on platforms, AI, data and privacy that end up applying to companies on three continents — and enforcement decisions and court rulings that shape the global internet get made a tram ride from the city centre.
We summarise both to 60 words in English: funding rounds, product and research news, regulatory decisions, outages and breaches that affect people here.
Where a story is a company announcement, it is labelled as one, and where a regulatory story is a proposal rather than a law, the brief says which.
Apple has announced a major event for September 9, fueling speculation that it will unveil a foldable iPhone. Rumors of such a model have circulated for several years, while recent leaks preceded the …
In Perpignan, the Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival puts artificial intelligence at the center of debates about image reliability. A presentation showcases an authentication system built into…
At the Émergences Days, devoted this year to friendship, Jean-Lou Fourquet explores the possibility of friendships with artificial intelligences. An engineer, entrepreneur and speaker, he co-authored …
A security flaw has affected Polarsteps, a Dutch journey-sharing app. Investigative platform Follow the Money says data from around 23 million users was leaked and freely accessible. Nearly one millio…
Dutch company PAL-V has received permission from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to produce its flying car. The vehicle has three wheels and three folding rotor blades and resembles a…
The Dutch travel app Polarsteps made data from around 23 million users accessible, investigative platform Follow the Money found. They included nearly one million Belgian profiles. The app is used to …
OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-6 Astra, completed the puzzle game Portal entirely on its own. It took the AI nearly 24 hours and cost $571.18 in computing power. The achievement shows that the system can …
A US judge has provisionally barred startup Operation Bluebird from using the name Twitter.now for a competitor to X. The platform may, for now, continue using the word ‘tweet’ and a blue bird as its …
A buying guide compares more than 100 gaming monitors based on their performance. The selection includes screens that display motion quickly and sharply, suited to different game types and budgets. It…
On Vinted, more and more sellers are using AI-generated models to present second-hand clothing more attractively. The images look polished and often make the clothes appear brand-new, bringing sellers…
In Sluiskil, near the Belgian border, Europe's largest CO2 capture facility has been officially inaugurated. Norwegian fertilizer producer Yara built the facility to capture CO2 emissions before they …
Around thirty robots demonstrated outside Poland’s Ministry of Digital Affairs on Monday. The protesters called for better regulation and guidance for artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace.
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urges countries to swiftly introduce clear rules for artificial intelligence. He warns that advanced AI could, in his view, pose an existential …
Launched by Facebook 20 years ago, the news feed sparked fierce controversy. Yet it became a standard feature of social media. Some 700,000 people protested when it was introduced. Mark Zuckerberg now…
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