Paddy Cosgrave

Web Summit | Financial Times: “World's largest tech conference” | Forbes: “Best tech conferences on earth” | Politico: “Olympics of tech” | 🎾

[Paddy Cosgrave @paddycosgrave]

Press conference in Dublin on Monday to discuss:

RTE board member Daire Hickey’s attempted pimping for “sex” of his staff, his defrauding of companies, his business partner’s alarm over his cocaine use. Plus the man who helped cover “it” up: David Kelly. Oh & did I mention Leo Varadkar, Tom Lyons and Catherine Sanz.

It’s going to be fun.

[Donncha Ó Cearbhaill @DonnchaC]

Last year, @amnesty revealed technical evidence of spyware firms like Intellexa developing tools for zero-click infection through online ads.

We warned of a dangerous new threat to civil society. Now @citizenlab has caught devices at Al Jazeera being hacked via malicious ads. 🧵

[Paddy Cosgrave @paddycosgrave]

Founder of Unitree confirmed for @WebSummit

That’s all three of China’s leading humanoid robotics startups, plus Xynova which is leading in hands. All shipping dozens of their models for demos in Lisbon.

Are there any “real” European or American robotics startups?!

[Paddy Cosgrave @paddycosgrave]

I'm incredibly excited and deeply depressed:

Pretty much all the leading Chinese AI and robotics companies will be at @WebSummit in Lisbon next month.

The future of tech appears increasingly Chinese.

Western innovation is still happening, but it's slower and far more expensive than what's broadly happening in China.

Web Summit has always tried to be a window into the future of tech. That future for many years was Western, mostly American, with a light sprinkling of European innovation.

It now pains me to see how increasingly irrelevant Europe and the United States are. I feel like almost everyone is in total denial.

Too many western startups and investors have retreated to the safety of their own podcasts, agitated by journalists who "just don't get it" with pesky questions.

US robotics startups produce Hollywood level launch videos, but then years later they still can't produce an actual working robot.

Like WTF is going on!

In the West, Tech used to be about tech. But now it's about narrative.

Which, in the west, amounts to telling increasingly bullshit stories in the hope no notices you're mostly full of shit. And in reality some Chinese startups, with almost no funding, are eating your dinner.

Am I wrong? Like what exactly is going on. I just feel the west is in some weird Soviet-era denial that we're being surpassed by a new system. And we have no answers, no solutions...

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

The Ditch: The Party Line | Episode 30: Aaron Maté Live in Dublin

‘Now there is a critical mass that recognises not only the evil of Israel and its acts in Gaza but the toxic influence it has over democracy: the role it plays in silencing people, getting people deported, buying off candidates, all the money AIPAC pours into ousting people who dared to challenge Israel even the most mild way. People can see that now.

‘And on the Democratic side you have a majority of the party – voters – wanting to cut off military aid to Israel, younger generations especially. In recent primaries where incumbents were challenged a number of pro-Israel Democrats lost and a major factor in that was their support for Israel and their ties to AIPAC. Mayor Mamadani in New York City: he's incredibly charismatic and has great policies but I don't think he would have gotten elected if not for popular outrage at the genocide.’

[Jostein Hauge @haugejostein]

This is pretty wild.

China now produces *more than half* of the world's top AI talent.

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

🗣️The Ditch: The Party Line live with Aaron Maté

Aaron joins The Ditch’s Eoghan McNeill and Harry Browne

🚪Doors 6pm
🍷 Refreshments served
💺 Unreserved seating, early arrival to The Whistleblower’s Great Hall of the People recommended

Details here: https://t.co/cmzNdyAVnf

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

Gavin Bazunu maintained his connection to all of us opposed to this match. He was also able to act, facing implicit and explicit threats. He turned his character to action, in a decision that was deeply personal but also collective.

Thank you.
https://t.co/1TDuoiqhkA

[Paddy Cosgrave @paddycosgrave]

Zuckerberg, worth ~€250 billion, donating €150,000 to 3 GAA clubs over 2 years, is the equivalent of a millionaire - someone worth €1 million - donating €0.60 cent to 3 GAA clubs. Or someone on the median wage of €41,000 donating less than 1 cent of their salary to each club

[Gary Marcus @GaryMarcus]

Still more absolute 🔥 from Terence Tao:

“We have now seen that even the rumor of someone working on a problem can trigger a massive amount of AI-powered effort to flatten it before the original research project has time to reach its full potential. The incentives may now be pointing in the direction of no longer sharing any promising research directions with the broader community, which would reverse centuries of traditions of open science and do serious long-term damage to the future of the field”

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

With the state – for the first time in a decade – refusing more Palestinian visas than it grants, a group of international academics have called off a gathering at Maynooth University in protest.

‘It would be an act of bad faith to proceed.’

https://t.co/clBEh8jNoU

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland in its successful application for a position identifying antisemitic content online told Coimisiún na Meán it would internally classify material “claiming Israel’s existence is racist” as antisemitic.

https://t.co/jx6ZZmsKhH

[Paulie Doyle @BigPaulieDoyle]

If we lived in a functioning democracy Niall Collins would have been forced to resign in disgrace from politics. Instead they made him a minister of state

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

SIPO has launched a formal inquiry into The Ditch reports that Fianna Fáil junior minister Niall Collins voted to sell local authority land that was bought by his wife.

Last year only around two percent of all complaints proceeded to the inquiry stage. 

https://t.co/lpC3kmCqOa

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

The Ditch: The Party Line | Episode 25: Who Guards the Garda? with Cian Ó Conchubhair

‘Jim O'Callan sees this as a political opportunity to get into the taoiseach’s position. And he sees this as his pathway forward, to take a reactionary line on criminal justice policies. And if you're going to adopt that line, which seems clear that he is, you would never come down hard on transparency or accountability in policing – they're not reconcilable.

‘You're always going to want to associate yourself with the course of arms of the state and be seen as not just endorsing them, but part of that effort. One of the things I found in the study I did a few years ago is that a lot of crime reporters in England, they kind of wanted to be police. It’s not just that they liked the police, they wanted to be police. They saw their role as complimentary and part of policing. When you get politicians in that space, that's kind of what they want to do as well. And I see elements of that in Jim O'Callaghan.’

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

British authorities detained two Irish neutrality activists on their way to an anti-NATO demonstration outside London on “anti-terrorism” grounds.  

“They told us we were being ‘detained’, not arrested,” said one.

https://t.co/fFfaOMazqk

[Paddy Cosgrave @paddycosgrave]

I go to China a lot because I’m interested in tech. I don’t go to Silicon Valley much anymore as it’s falling so far behind China.

SV maintains a lead arguably only in: tech podcasting, tech narrative & meme-making, financial engineering & little else.

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

More than 700 new PPS numbers and 600 work permits have been granted to Israelis in Ireland since October 2023. 

For the first time in a decade the Irish state refused more Palestinian visa applications than it granted.

https://t.co/gC8NCfh6TS

[Paddy Cosgrave @paddycosgrave]

In Ireland a crook like this would probably have been appointed to the board of RTE, and maybe won E&Y entrepreneur of the year.

[Unitree @UnitreeRobotics]

Unitree New Robot Preview: “Superman” Breaking the Limits of Humanity🥳
Standing high jump 2 m, top speed 12.66 m/s (0.85 m leg length)
Surpassing the standing high jump and running speed records of all humans around the world
This new machine has only been in development for a little over three months, with significant room for further improvement in the coming months.

[Paddy Cosgrave @paddycosgrave]

To put things in perspective: A single Irish company scammed the Irish state for more money in tax dodging than every “suspected” social welfare scammer combined last year. A single company.