💼Anyone know someone good at AI?🤖

In biggest non story, story of the week, we've seen, UK tech news reported that "AI becomes the UK’s fastest growing skills gap"

Good thing we've got some training coming up so watch for next week's newsletter👀

AI has jumped from the fifth most scarce technological skill in the UK to the top in just 18 months, according to the Nash Squared/Harvey Nash report. 

The report’s survey of UK tech leaders found that over half (52%) reported that they are suffering an AI skills shortage, up from 20% in the group’s previous report. 

You can read more here

📉You can't deepfake that!📉 

In a rare bipartisan moment (yes, really), President Trump signed the Take It Down Act into law this week—a sweeping new federal measure targeting nonconsensual explicit imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes and revenge porn. It’s the first time the U.S. government has passed a law holding platforms legally accountable for not removing this kind of content.😮

Here’s what it does:

• 👮🏾Makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish or threaten to share someone’s intimate images without their consent—whether real or AI-generated.

• 🚫Requires platforms to remove flagged content within 48 hours of being notified by a victim.

• 👋🏽Forces platforms to take proactive steps to remove duplicates.

• ⚠️Empowers the FTC to enforce and issue penalties.

Backed by Senator. Ted Cruz and Amy Klobuchar, and championed by First Lady Melania Trump, the bill passed 409–2 in the House and was signed in a Rose Garden ceremony where Trump declared, “We’re making it totally illegal.”🙅

The law arrives just as AI tools are increasingly being weaponized, especially against women, minors, and public figures. Tools like Midjourney and Sora make it trivial to create realistic fake porn. A recent case cited by Cruz involved a deepfake of a 14-year-old girl that took Snapchat nearly a year to take down. That’s the kind of systemic failure this law targets.😐

💬 But not everyone's cheering. Free speech advocates argue it could go too far—potentially sweeping up legal porn or LGBTQ content, and giving the government new powers over online expression. Others worry about vague definitions and how platforms will enforce takedowns without over-policing🤔.

💡 So What?
This law is part of a growing wave of regulation as governments scramble to catch up with how generative AI is being misused. While tech giants call for “responsible AI,” victims of deepfake abuse have long been left with zero recourse. Now, at least, there’s a starting point.

📖 Read more via:

• TechCrunch

• Politico

• The Guardian

👈AI is coming for you👉🏾

Remember last year when Klarna, fintech’s high-gloss Swedish darling, bragged that its shiny new OpenAI-powered chatbot could do the work of 700 humans? They even dumped Salesforce, froze hiring, and slashed their customer service team like a startup on a juice cleanse😅

Well, plot twist: they’re hiring people again. Yep—after getting dragged by customer complaints, Klarna now says it's piloting a return to human agents to "enhance service quality." CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted that prioritising cost over experience might’ve been a slight misstep: “What you end up having is lower quality.” Who could’ve guessed AI isn't fully there?🤔

🪞 Klarna’s latest plan? An Uber-style setup where remote gig workers—students, rural folks, and anyone with a laptop—field customer queries from home. Just don’t call it a reversal. Klarna insists AI is still the future, pointing out their assistant now "does the work of 800 full-time roles."🏢

AI isn’t magic. It can scale, sure. But empathy, nuance, and not making people want to smash their laptops? That still requires humans. Klarna’s U-turn is a textbook example of why “efficiency” doesn’t always equal “experience”—and why AI adoption without accountability can backfire fast🧠 

🗞 Sources: Futurism | TechCrunch | Forbes | Gizmodo

💡 So What?

Klarna’s AI U-turn doesn’t mean the robots are getting fired—but it does raise a flag. For businesses betting big on automation, it’s a reminder that efficiency gains can’t come at the expense of trust, experience, or customer patience. AI might support great service, but it’s not always ready to be the service. Especially in industries where empathy, nuance, or just plain common sense still matter (read: most of them).

Bottom line? This isn’t a call to ditch AI—just a nudge to think twice before replacing humans wholesale. The cost savings might look great in a spreadsheet… until your brand is trending on Reddit for all the wrong reasons.

🤳🏾Etoro IPO🤖

After ghosting the public markets for years (and cancelling a 2022 SPAC like it was a bad Tinder date), eToro has finally sealed the deal. The Israeli fintech and crypto trading platform made its Nasdaq debut under the ticker ETOR — and it didn’t just show up, it soared up.📈

The IPO was priced at $52 per share — above the initial $46–$50 range — and closed its first day up 29% at $67. That’s about $620M raised and some serious “revenge glow-up” energy for a company once left at the altar by the SPAC market. 💅

👨‍💻 CEO Yoni Assia’s pitch? This time it’s not hype — it’s profitability. After clocking $192M in net income last year on over $12B in revenue, eToro wanted investors to know it’s done playing like a meme stock.

🪙 About 25% of its trades are crypto — which, in a market where Webull, Robinhood, and Kraken are all circling the IPO runway — makes this debut even more closely watched.

“Some fintech companies went public a bit too early in 2021 when valuations were very high and not based on profitability,” said Assia. (We see you, SPAC season.)

💡 So What?

This isn’t just a win for eToro — it’s a temperature check for IPO appetite in a jittery, post-tariff, AI-overhyped market. If you’re building in fintech or crypto, this debut shows investors are warming back up — but only if your balance sheet is glowing and your narrative is tighter than a Silicon Valley founder’s LinkedIn post.

💸Uber launches a bus💸

Some weeks tech moves forward. This week? Well... We’re looping back around the block. Uber has launched Route Share—a cheaper, fixed-route service that makes you walk to a pickup spot, wait 20 minutes, ride with strangers, and walk again to your destination. Aka: a bus🚌.

Sure, Uber insists it’s not a public transport clone, but a “complement” to it. Which sounds a lot like when someone says they “don’t believe in labels” after ghosting your third Hinge date.😅

 We’ve seen this ride before—remember UberPool? Well Covid trashed that, but there was something novel about being sat next to a stranger on the way home.😒

This time the spin is affordability, with Route Share priced at up to 50% less than UberX. The Market? They're aiming it at shift workers and commuters already squeezed by cost-of-living pressures but boojie enough to not want the Public transport alternative💸

So what? Route Share will be informed by them understanding the post popular request points and profitable ways to do it. Sort of an earlier vision of what Citymapper wanted to do😲

It also hints at Uber’s ambitions to become a super app—taxis, groceries, trains, and now… buses. What next? Delivery, Post, etc.🚗

Meanwhile at Airbnb, Brian Chesky is deep in his founder era. Possibly inspired by Sam Altman’s OpenAI soap opera, he’s gone full manifesto mode and rewritten Airbnb’s identity—from booking a place to crash to offering curated “experiences” and services (spa, chefs, personal trainers). They’ve relaunched the app as a concierge-style platform that wants to be your travel agent, credential provider, and lifestyle assistant all at once. You can even book a lucha libre wrestling session or get a “Train with Steve Jordan, Trainer to the Stars” workout. It’s giving… midlife reinvention🏡

Airbnb isn’t the first startup to pivot hard when the core growth slows—but unlike Uber, it’s trying to become everything, everywhere, all at once. The bigger question: can one app really do it all? The model is there from China (WeChat etc) but are you ready to let uber's autonomous vehicles do the school run and order that pint of milk whilst Airbnb books your next pedi before ordering a cleaner to you home💁

🔗 Uber’s “Route Share” story – The Verge
🔗 Airbnb’s reinvention – Wired
🔗 Airbnb’s new services app – CNBC

💡 So What?

At a time when most billionaires are focused on yachts, space tourism, or building AI that may or may not accidentally end humanity, Gates is betting big on legacy by impact — not influence. The real kicker? He’s trying to outpace global crises with a countdown clock on his wealth.

📈 The tools behind the tech📉

📦Product📦

• Google makes Gemini more accessible

📏Design📏 

• The glitch gallery

👩🏿‍💻Code👩🏿‍💻

• The official repository of Mozilla's Firefox web browser
  

🏢The business behind the tech🏢

• Templates for tech

🇩🇪New In-Person Networking Event in Berlin with Netflix🇩🇪

Lights, Camera, ACTION! On June 3rd, Netflix is teaming up for round two with Colorintech to host an exclusive in-person networking event focusing on hiring in:

• Media / Ad Sales (6+ years experience);

• Advertising Account Management (3+ years experience);

• Measurement Specialists (3+ years experience);  

• Brand Partnership Marketing (5+ years experience). 

This is your opportunity to meet and network with the fantastic team at Netflix including the recruitment team who are happy to answer your questions, whilst enjoying some tasty food and drink. 

Check out the key details below: 

Date: Tuesday 3rd June 2025

Time: 18:00 - 21:00

Where: Berlin, Germany.

As this event has limited spaces, we'll need you to register your interest to attend using our application form below: 

https://form.typeform.com/to/YJa7CbzA 

After applying, Catherine will reach out to you if Netflix have chosen you to attend the event and will provide you with the next steps!

Canva

Design company Canva are launching Rise, specifically for start ups and scale ups. It's designed to help ambitious high-growth companies rise through smarter branding, engaging content and sharper communication. All sessions will be hosted in our London office, in Shoreditch. 

Here is the link as you are one of the first to know

Canva

Ladies Who Launch–the global non-profit focused on helping women and non-binary entrepreneurs thrive–is hosting an event on the evening of 12th June 2025 titled Funded and Fearless: AI-Powered Marketing and Fundraising for Small Business. The goal of Funded and Fearless is to help attendees better understand the funding landscape available to them in the UK, and also help demystify and reduce fear around using AI-enabled technology. 

In addition, attendees will:

• Hear from an inspiring business operators, including Mireia Llusia-Lindh, Founder of DeMellier of London, and Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI

• Learn from financial and business industry experts, including Mary McKenna of Awaken Angels, and Emma Jones, CBE of Enterprise Nation

• Experience live product training demos from OpenAI and Canva

• Connect with fellow founders and small business owners over delicious food and drinks after the core programming

The event is free to attend, as Ladies Who Launch believes that access to finances should never be a barrier to education. Find more details, and register directly at: https://bit.ly/FundedandFearless.

 New AI Practical Event for Founders

Following our successful Investment Insights event, we're launching our next founders event on using AI to positively impact and scale your business with Google Cloud!

Similarly to fundraising insights, our community survey told us that growth and using tech solutions like AI scored highly (15.91%) as a topic for support. So, with that in mind, we've put together an interactive event which has three key parts: 

A short panel discussion on how exceptional founders André Skepple and Elaf Deyab are currently using AI to growth theirs (and others) businesses; 

An activity where you'll be working with other founders to come up with ways to use AI to solve the challenges you're all facing; 

Network with the Google Cloud team about the benefits they can offer to startups. 

Key Details: 

Date: 28th May 2025

Time: 17:00 - 20:30 BST

Location: Google Cloud - London Office

 Sign Up Link: https://lu.ma/Ignite-AI-Tools

If you're a founder interested in finding out how AI tools can be used to help drive growth in their startups, then be sure to get a ticket and come along!

Roles at ARM

HSBC is partnering with Project Nemo to launch a training programme designed to embed accessibility into every stage of product development, from UX to QA and everything in between.

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all webinar. It’s role-based, hands-on, and led by digital accessibility experts who understand your day-to-day.

Whether you’re a web developer, content author, QA tester, or product manager, you’ll leave with practical skills to build better, more inclusive digital experiences, without the guesswork.

Find out more about each of the sessions and sign up here: https://grp.hsbc/6048NpEOE

Build agentic AI

Register for Google Cloud's Startup School: Agentic AI, where industry leaders and Google Cloud experts lead virtual classes designed to help startups adapt and scale AI agents across their organizations. 

Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect:

Unlock Your Potential – Discover why agents are transformative, their core capabilities, and why there’s never a better time to utilize them

Build Smarter with AI – Learn how to implement our pre-trained APIs and build your own ML models.

Get Expert Support - Receive guidance from our Google Cloud and AI experts to help you scale.

Connect & Collaborate - Network with industry leaders in our Partner Ecosystem and explore even more AI 

Register and join the sessions, starting June 10th!

🎓Depop roles🎓

Depop have loads of roles that could interest both tech and non tech

💼Finance Business Partner

❤️Senior DEI Manager

🛍️Marketing & Audience Researcher

📲Engineering Managers both in Platforms or Android

🤖Data science

💻Web Engineers

🙌🏾Loads of developer roles

MAKE SURE IN the disclosures you flag you came through Colorintech so the team know who you are!

Check out the below for London roles

https://depopcareers.com/careers?location=Depop+-+London

😃What we are consuming😃

🤖Google's latest product to write code

📲Notebook LM has an app

🖱️Are LLM's making you dumber?

🖥️Stackoverflow is pretty much dead

💻Internet artefacts

📱TikTok broke the rules

💰Vinted ventures