TechCentral.ie

Anthropic invests $100m to train AI engineers

Frank Quinn — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:07:50 +0000

To address the widespread shortage of skilled specialists in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), Anthropic is allocating $100 million (€88.8 million) to a new training initiative. This programme, known as the Claude Frontier Academy, aims to certify 10,000 “frontier deployed engineers“ by the end of 2027. These trainees will be recruited through the company’s […]

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Google unveils Gemini 4 Argon, its new frontier model

Frank Quinn — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:02:37 +0000

Google announced its new frontier model, Gemini 4 Argon, which is initially rolling out to trusted cyber defenders through its Fairwind Program, a limited-access initiative by Google DeepMind and Google Cloud. The company said Argon is designed for complex, long-running tasks across software engineering, legal and financial work, and cybersecurity. It will initially be available […]

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Investigation into AI hacks costs OpenAI over half a million dollars a day

Frank Quinn — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:56:56 +0000

OpenAI is currently spending more than $500,000 (€444,000) a day on investigating security breaches involving its AI agents. This includes research into unauthorised intrusions into various Australian government platforms. The company is analysing an enormous dataset of 50 petabytes (50 million gigabytes) to detect unintended activities. To process this overwhelming volume of information, the company […]

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Acer expands commercial distribution in Ireland with Exertis partnership

Frank Quinn — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:33:47 +0000

In association with Exertis Ireland Acer UK have announced the expansion of its commercial distribution agreement with Exertis Ireland. The deepened partnership opens direct access for the Irish IT channel to Acer’s commercial Chromebook portfolio, equipping local resellers to meet surging demand across both primary, secondary, and higher education, as well as the wider commercial […]

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More than three-quarters of Irish businesses see upskilling as strategic priority

Frank Quinn — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:24:55 +0000

Upskilling was viewed as a strategic priority by 78% of Irish business leaders, according to new research from Skillnet Ireland. The findings came from Ireland’s Talent Landscape 2026, the third annual study of workforce priorities and emerging skills needs across the Irish economy, launched by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science […]

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WEEE Ireland begins search for circular economy projects with awards up to €50,000

Frank Quinn — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:57:25 +0000

WEEE Ireland has committed €200,000 to help electrical and battery producers develop and test projects focused on repair, reuse, remanufacturing and recovery. The WEEE Future Fund is intended to help turn circular economy policies into practical projects that keep electrical products, components and materials in use for longer. The first funding round will provide awards […]

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Stripe to create 200 jobs, taking Dublin workforce past 1,000-employee mark

Frank Quinn — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:49:56 +0000

Stripe is to create 200 new jobs at its Dublin headquarters as the financial services company expands its Irish workforce to more than 1,000 people. Stripe is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland. The new roles will include positions across engineering and go-to-market functions. Stripe said its workforce in Ireland had increased by […]

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Guinness Enterprise Centre builds UK network to aid Irish start-ups

Frank Quinn — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:41:39 +0000

The Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC) is building a network of partnerships with innovation hubs across the UK to help Irish start-ups expand into the country. The Dublin-based entrepreneurial hub said it expects the network to include 20 innovation hubs by the end of 2027, providing founders with local networks, workspace, university connections and support when […]

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Comtrade 360 plans to take on 50 staff at new Galway delivery centre

Frank Quinn — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:36:15 +0000

Comtrade 360, a global software engineering and AI partner, has cemented its long-term commitment to Ireland with the establishment of a delivery centre in Galway. Having recruited almost 20 professionals in Galway during 2026, the company expects to expand the team progressively over the coming months, with plans to support approximately 50 highly skilled roles. […]

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SOC staff generally pleased with AI’s impact, but worries remain

Frank Quinn — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 11:14:44 +0000

One of the biggest questions about AI’s use in cybersecurity is how it will affect workforce development and career advancement for security professionals. Swimlane’s report, which is based on a survey of 500 security workers in the US and the UK between August and September, offers a clue as to how those and other trends […]

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Elon Musk returns to Trump administration as co-lead on Pentagon war study

Frank Quinn — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 11:05:13 +0000

Tech billionaire Elon Musk will make a return to officially advising US president Donald Trump’s government by co-leading what the Pentagon called a study on the future of war. Musk served as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he oversaw sweeping job cuts across the US federal government, before departing in May […]

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American tech lobby spends more in Brussels than any individual EU firm

Frank Quinn — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 10:58:49 +0000

Representatives of American tech companies have more influence with policymakers in Brussels than European firms and also invest more money in political influence. This emerges from an analysis by the Financial Times. Google, Apple and Amazon each have more meetings with officials from the European Parliament and the European Commission than any individual European company, […]

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Trump makes super intelligence a moral issue, and Donna O’Leary from Newcode AI

Frank Quinn — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:40:24 +0000

Trump renames ‘artificial intelligence’ to ‘super intelligence’ by executive order. We note the irony of a glaring typo in the official document, and wonder if the industry will adopt the new name. Plus, we cover the potential end of Chrome OS as Google launches a wave of GoogleBook laptops on Monday, OpenAI stalls the release […]

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Rinn AI and Fraunhofer launch European data spaces research initiative

Frank Quinn — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:56:03 +0000

Rinn Artificial Intelligence has launched a European research collaboration with two Fraunhofer institutes in Germany focused on developing technologies for trusted and interoperable data spaces. The Next Generation Dataspaces Initiative (NGDI) was launched at the European Big Data Value Forum in Galway on 30 September. The initiative brings together Rinn AI, the Fraunhofer Institute for […]

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EU consumer authorities investigate gaming companies over in-game purchases

Frank Quinn — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:53:47 +0000

The Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and consumer authorities across Europe have launched an investigation into the consumer practices of nine online gaming companies. The action, being carried out through the European Commission’s Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network, is examining how games handle in-game purchases and virtual currencies, including the transparency of costs and […]

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€40m innovation fund opens for new wave of disruptive technology projects

Frank Quinn — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:51:49 +0000

The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund has applications invited from consortia developing technologies with commercial potential. The €40 million fund is aimed at supporting the development and deployment of disruptive technologies through collaboration between industry and Ireland’s research base. The government has approved €530 million for 131 projects through the first seven calls since the fund […]

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When it comes to AI, it’s a jungle out there

Frank Quinn — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 11:02:50 +0000

One of my favourite Disney films is The Jungle Book. There are some real bangers in there, as the kids would say: The Bare Necessities and I Wanna Be Like You being the standouts. But I was put in mind of another song recently when Donald Trump and a menace of leaders from tech and […]

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Apple expected to launch AI-powered devices and updated Siri in smart home push

Frank Quinn — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 10:15:55 +0000

Under the leadership of new CEO John Ternus, Apple is preparing a significant expansion in the smart-home sector, with a product launch scheduled for 13 October. According to Bloomberg, the cornerstone of this push is a smart-home hub with the codename J490. This launch also includes the first update to the HomePod mini since 2020 […]

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Meta’s Muse will soon be able to complete purchases for users via Shopify

Frank Quinn — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 10:05:57 +0000

Meta’s AI assistant Muse will soon be able to complete purchases independently for users at online stores that use Shopify. This further expands the capabilities of its AI agent: Muse will not only be able to search for products, but ultimately also place an order on the user’s behalf. Muse is Meta’s personal AI agent […]

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Ridesharing platform Lyft hits the road in Europe

Frank Quinn — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:58:12 +0000

Ridesharing platform Lyft is rolling out across Europe this month, starting with early access in Barcelona and Hamburg. Over the course of October, Lyft app will become available in a number of major European cities, including London, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Athens and Warsaw. By the end of October, travellers in Ireland, Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland, […]

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Global report shows marketers ready to spend big on visibility in AI agents

Frank Quinn — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:47:33 +0000

Marketers are rapidly ramping up their investments in AI assistants, while consumers remain cautious about the recommendations these systems make. This emerged from Media Reactions 2026, Kantar’s annual study of more than 800 senior marketers and over 23,000 consumers worldwide. Almost two-thirds (62%) of marketers said they expected generative AI to play an important role […]

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Trump signs executive order banning the term ‘AI’ in favour of ‘SI’ in government documents

Frank Quinn — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:24:05 +0000

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing federal agencies to stop using the terms ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) and AI in official communications, policy documents and correspondence, replacing them with ‘super intelligence’ (SI). Trump told the UN General Assembly last week that he planned to officially change the name of AI, saying the existing […]

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MicroWarehouse rebrands as Sherweb

Frank Quinn — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:07:22 +0000

IT solutions provider MicroWarehouse is now operating under the Sherweb name following its acquisition by the Canadian cloud distributor and technology service provider. The transition marks the next phase of Sherweb’s international expansion strategy, establishing Ireland as the company’s European headquarters. Since Sherweb acquired MicroWarehouse in 2024, the Ireland business has delivered double-digit growth, reflecting […]

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Less than 10% of employers reducing headcount due to AI, says Morgan McKinley report

Frank Quinn — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:51:25 +0000

Almost two-thirds (62%) of employees use AI daily at work and a further 15% use it weekly according to this years Morgan McKinley Global AI Report. The report, based on a survey of 1,962 employees and 144 employers, found that chatbots are the most widely used applications, cited by 74%, followed by tools for meetings, […]

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Entrepreneurs embrace AI but trust issues remain

Frank Quinn — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:37:50 +0000

Almost half of entrepreneurs (49%) say they have used AI to support their business in the past year. More than four in ten (43%) already pay, or would be willing to pay, for AI to help manage their business. This is according to a survey of 510 business owners by the neobank bunq. Despite the […]

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European turnover at Shein falls 14%

Frank Quinn — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:27:26 +0000

European revenue of the Chinese shopping app Shein fell in the second quarter by 14% to €3.35 billion. Europe’s share in total revenue dropped from 39.9% to 34%. This is evident from the first quarterly report that the e-commerce platform has published since it was listed on the stock exchange earlier this month. The European […]

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Applications to open for Three Ireland, Trinity College Dublin STEM scholarships

Frank Quinn — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:45:18 +0000

Applications will open next week for the Three Ireland Connect to STEM Scholarships at Trinity College Dublin, offering eligible students financial support worth up to €20,000, alongside mentoring and professional development opportunities. Designed to help address the underrepresentation of women in STEM, the programme aims to encourage greater participation of women in science, technology, engineering […]

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Citrix urges immediate upgrades of NetScaler amid widespread exploitation attempts

Frank Quinn — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:30:46 +0000

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has warned that critical zero-day vulnerabilities in Citrix NetScaler ADC and Citrix NetScaler Gateway are facing exploitation and need to be immediately addressed. Citrix said the exploitation is linked to a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability due to improper input validation, tracked as CVE-2026-88771, and a memory overflow […]

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Nvidia introduces new safety platform for autonomous AI agents

Frank Quinn — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:12:10 +0000

Nvidia has introduced the Open Agent Safety Platform, a security framework designed for managing and isolating autonomous AI agents. The system enables organisations to set strict boundaries on agents’ access and can immediately quarantine any AI that exceeds the permitted parameters. The technology is versatile and works across a range of hardware and software environments, […]

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AMD buys firm founded by AI ‘godmother’ Fei-Fei Li

Frank Quinn — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:06:53 +0000

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices announced Monday it has acquired World Labs, an artificial intelligence company founded by Fei-Fei Li, one of the field’s most prominent researchers, sometimes referred to as ‘The Godmother of AI’. The deal is valued at approximately $8.2 billion and will make Li, a Stanford computer science professor, chief scientist at […]

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OpenAI cancels launch of GPT-6.1 Astra after critical security issues

Frank Quinn — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:00:04 +0000

OpenAI has decided not to proceed with the launch of its latest AI model, GPT-6.1 Astra after it failed to meet internal safety standards. Saachi Jain, head of safety systems at the company, told the BBC that the model occasionally misled users about its activities or took autonomous actions without prior approval. The organisation has […]

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Google readies for first of three launches to form orbital data centre

Frank Quinn — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 10:19:20 +0000

Google plans to launch its first experimental satellite next week Thursday, marking a first technical test of the Project Suncatcher programme that should ultimately result in a constellation of satellites that together form a data centre in space. Together with the German company Planet, a test installation has been developed in which four TPU chips […]

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Anthropic confirms IPO in November with a $2tn valuation

Frank Quinn — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:54:26 +0000

Anthropic wants to go public in November 2026 at a valuation of $2 trillion, with 2025 revenue of $4.6 billion. Almost a quarter of that revenue came from just two customers. This emerges from stock-market documents that have been leaked to news agency Reuters. The figures show an operating loss of around $8 billion. That […]

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AI-enabled service for SMEs to tackle growing cyber, regulatory and AI challenges

Frank Quinn — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:01:44 +0000

Cyber security and data protection consultancy BH Consulting has launched BH Haven, a new service designed to enable Irish SMEs address the growing combination of cyber security, regulatory, data protection, artificial intelligence, and business resilience challenges they face. BH Haven combines governance expertise with practical technical services and assurance, giving SMEs access to capabilities that […]

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EU launches energy and water assessment system for data centres

Frank Quinn — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:23:13 +0000

To balance the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) with environmental sustainability, the European Commission has launched a standardised assessment system to monitor water and energy consumption in data centres. This initiative targets facilities with IT power consumption of more than 500 kilowatts and provides a transparent benchmark for authorities, customers and operators to assess […]

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Trump meets Anthropic CEO amid calls to slow down AI development

Frank Quinn — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:19:21 +0000

US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he had dinner on Sunday evening with Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic. Despite that meeting, the president continues to oppose any possible slowdown in the development of artificial intelligence. Trump argued that imposing strict regulations could inadvertently result in China overtaking the United States in the AI race. […]

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Mistral makes third acquisition of 2026

Frank Quinn — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:12:55 +0000

French AI company Mistral is making its third acquisition this year and, via the takeover of Pimento, is entering the business of creating and optimising online marketing campaigns. According to Konsulteer the deal structured as €3.6 million cash for 48% of Pimento, plus 244,786 new Mistral shares for the remainder, implying a €12.7 million total […]

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Open weight models process majority of AI tokens for the first time

Frank Quinn — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 11:01:12 +0000

For the first time, open weight AI models account for the majority of AI usage via Vercel’s AI Gateway. In August, open weight models processed 56% of all tokens, while the average price per token fell by 23.2%. The latest AI Gateway Production Index shows that the price–performance ratio is becoming increasingly important when it […]

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Apple is working on a screenless fitness wearable

Frank Quinn — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:39:58 +0000

Apple is currently experimenting with a screenless fitness wearable designed to compete with devices such as those from Whoop, Bloomberg reports. This initiative is still in the early phase of “technological research” and includes prototypes with a sensor-driven module integrated into a thin fabric band. Unlike the Apple Watch, which emphasises apps and notifications via […]

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Amazon blocks shoppers who use Meta’s latest AI agent

Frank Quinn — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:19:32 +0000

Amazon has denied customers access to its Web store when they use Muse AI, Meta’s latest AI agent, while shopping. This comes after Meta refused to stop the agent being used on Amazon. Consumers who try to use Muse AI on Amazon now receive an automatic message stating that the “continued access by an unauthorised […]

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