Most large European enterprises have no shortage of AI ambition, but they lack the data foundation to support it. Fragmented legacy systems, strict GDPR obligations, and anxiety about handing sensitive data to foreign cloud infrastructure have left many IT leaders running the same modernization projects on a loop, stuck in AI pilot purgatory before they reach production. Onix, a leading services-as-software data and AI specialist, thinks it has the answer. The outfit is rolling out Wingspan across the UK and Europe this summer, built around a proprietary technology it calls the Semantic Twin: a continuously updated intelligence layer that maps an organization's entire data landscape, system relationships, and business context, then uses that foundation to give AI agents the grounding they need to work. To find out what that means in practice, Onix's EMEA managing director, Vittorio Sanvito, answers IT and compliance leaders' most pressing questions. Q: With Google Cloud seeing significant, high-growth demand, why is now the critical moment for Onix to make this unified push across the continent? A: The European tech sector is at a pivotal moment. Market demand is undeniable: Google Cloud has a substantial backlog going into the coming year and continues to grow at pace, which reflects strong AI demand across every industry. Yet large enterprises in Europe are struggling to execute because they lack the proper data foundation, stuck in perpetual data modernization cycles that prevent them from scaling. We're at the major Google Cloud Summits across Europe this summer with a single message: you don't have to stay trapped in pilot purgatory. The Wingspan rollout across Europe and our expanded strategic collaboration with Google Cloud, which is expected to drive over $500 million in cloud consumption, together reflect the scale of what we're trying to do here. We want to make clear that Onix is the execution engine for enterprises that want to turn their AI ambitions into measurable impact. Q: When enterprise leaders speak about what keeps them up at night, data privacy and security are almost always at the top of the list. There are concerns that using advanced AI means sacrificing control over localized, sensitive data. How are Onix and Wingspan directly addressing this while keeping organizations compliant? A: It's a valid concern, and the exact reason we built a localized, customer-first approach into the core of Wingspan. European businesses shouldn't be forced to choose between maintaining their digital sovereignty and remaining economically competitive on a global scale. Wingspan is designed as what we call an Enterprise Intelligence Fabric. It activates data locally and securely, supports complex multi-country deployments, and complies with GDPR and regional data residency requirements by design rather than bolted on afterward. It operates across hybrid and multi-cloud environments without creating vendor lock-in. The Semantic Twin is central to all of this: because it maps your data landscape internally and continuously, you never push unverified or unstructured data outside your governance boundary to make AI work. Q: How does Semantic Twin technology work under the hood to alleviate fears about the AI "black-box"? A: A modern AI agent might be born today and put to work tomorrow, but it doesn't know how to execute tasks because it lacks instruction on standard operational steps. Traditional AI initiatives usually fail because they lack this deep business context. The Semantic Twin solves this by acting as a living intelligence layer that continuously maps an organization's entire data landscape, system relationships, and operational dependencies directly to KPI levels. By providing this connective tissue up front, the Semantic Twin grounds AI agents in real enterprise data with built-in guardrails, so they operate with 99.9 percent data validation accuracy. From a compliance perspective, this eliminates the AI black-box. The Semantic Twin enables full lineage tracking and governance-aware orchestration, so AI outcomes are grounded in corporate data, fully auditable, and explainable. This strict data grounding minimizes the hallucination risks that keep compliance teams awake at night. Q: That level of governance-aware orchestration is mission-critical for highly regulated and data-intensive industries like financial services, healthcare, and the public sector. But beyond compliance, what does the operational impact look like for a customer who's deployed this? A: Because the Semantic Twin provides the true enterprise context and meaning behind the data, our AI agents can move beyond simple, static automation and advance toward autonomous, high-accuracy decision-making. We're helping customers create a new AI operating model that will replace standard SDLC models. This translates to faster time-to-value. By combining agentic AI with this enterprise context, we help organizations orchestrate data modernization and AI operations within a single framework. This accelerates modernization by 3x, moves data into an "AI-ready" state in a matter of weeks rather than years, and delivers a 50 percent to 80 percent reduction in manual effort. Beyond the platform itself, we've also changed how we structure engagements. We're shifting away from traditional, bloated consulting models that rely on endless time-and-materials billing. About 75 percent of our engagements are now set up as outcome-based, with fixed-milestone projects. We guarantee exponential ROI by using AI-assisted delivery pods to execute these transformations rapidly. Q: What does success look like for Onix in Europe over the next 12 months? A: Success looks like the enterprises that came to us running consecutive AI pilots finally having something in production: governed, measurable, and connected to business outcomes rather than sitting in a sandbox. Europe has been cautious about AI for good reasons, and GDPR exists for good reasons. What we want to prove is that caution and ambition aren't mutually exclusive. The Semantic Twin is how we make that case technically; the rest is execution. Contributed by Onix.

In the statement for Annalise Gratovich’s solo exhibition, Carrying Things From Home, the gallery poses a couple of questions: “When war, displacement, and migration sever familial and cultural ties, how do we sustain a sense of self and ancestral connection? How do we hybridize in a new homeland?” For the artist, who is based in Austin and runs High Low Print Co., her family’s history informs a printmaking practice that explores deeply personal and even spiritual links to land, home, and a sense of belonging.

Hecho a Mano presents eight large-scale, hand-carved woodblock prints in Carrying Things From Home, which have been painstakingly created between 2014 and 2025. Gratovich meticulously carves totemic, matryoshka-like figures that stand nearly life-size with headdresses of flora and fauna and garments that resemble embroidered Ukrainian textiles.

The series taps into Gratovich’s ancestral history, nodding to the tumult of World War II when her grandparents fled Ukraine in the cover of night with their son—the artist’s father—and could only take what they could physically carry. “What was lost or left behind has become a source of mystery and mythology, and through printmaking, I investigate how this absence influences my sense of self and how I value materiality,” she says.

The blocks themselves can take up to six months to carve, and then working with her team, Gratovich adds thin pieces of colorful paper through chine collé. “For my most recent works in the series, ‘The Healer’ and ‘The Fool,’ I prepared close to 2,000 pieces of paper,” she says. “They have 69 and 70 pieces of hand dyed paper coloring each woodcut, respectively.”

Gratovich’s serene figures coalesce with nature and symbolic objects, such as musical instruments and animals, reflected in titles like “The Builder,” who holds a raptor, and “The Healer,” who balances a swirling, cosmic flow of energy. And from carved block to expansive print, the process requires precision and a few helping hands. “There’s a community aspect that’s engaging and fun—my big woodcuts require a team of four people to print,” the artist tells Colossal. “We use a printing press that is over four by eight feet, and everyone is integral in the printing process.”

Carrying Things From Home continues through June 28 in Santa Fe. Gratovich is also preparing for a residency at Hello Print Friend Studios in Chang Mai, Thailand, after which she’ll be the keynote speaker at the Guild of Bookworkers’ Standards of Excellence 2026 conference. That takes place in Austin, where she also has a studio at the Canopy Austin complex, which is open by appointment. See more on the artist’s Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Annalise Gratovich’s Life-Size Woodcuts Meld Nature, Memory, and Ukrainian Heritage appeared first on Colossal.

Weer is Libanon een heet hangijzer in het aanstaande Amerikaans-Iraanse akkoord. Israël voelt zich door de Amerikaanse president Trump aan de kant gezet, en probeert via het strijdtoneel in Libanon een akkoord te saboteren.

Wie het nieuws volgt, krijgt al maanden hetzelfde beeld: technologie‑ en AI‑aandelen breken record na record, terwijl een handvol megabedrijven een groot deel van de beursstijging draagt. Veel particuliere beleggers hebben het gevoel dat ze iets missen. Ben ik te laat? Moet ik nu nog instappen – en hoe dan zonder mijn hele vermogen aan één hype uit te leveren? In dit stuk lees je hoe je wél kunt profiteren van de AI‑trend, zonder te gokken op de volgende loterijwinnaar.

Wat bedoelen we eigenlijk met de “AI‑hype”?

De term AI‑hype gaat over meer dan alleen “slimme robots”. Het gaat om een brede golf van bedrijven die verdienen aan kunstmatige intelligentie: van chipfabrikanten en datacenters tot cloudplatforms en softwarebedrijven die AI in hun producten verweven. Koersen stijgen niet alleen omdat winsten groeien, maar ook doordat beleggers toekomstige groei extreem hoog inschatten. Dat is precies waar het gevaar zit: verwachtingen kunnen sneller stijgen dan wat bedrijven in de praktijk waarmaken.

De FOMO‑valkuil: hoe je brein je geld kost

De grootste vijand in een hype is bijna nooit de markt – het is je eigen brein. FOMO (fear of missing out) zorgt ervoor dat je pas geïnteresseerd raakt als iedereen het erover heeft en koersen al hard zijn opgelopen. Je ziet grafieken met steile lijnen omhoog, experts die “nieuwe tijdperken” uitroepen en vrienden die opscheppen over winsten. Dat triggert hebzucht en angst tegelijk: je wilt meedoen én je bent bang de boot te missen. Het resultaat is vaak hetzelfde: je stapt in ná een forse stijging, en bent verrast als de eerste serieuze correctie pijn doet.

Stap 1: Scheid technologie van speculatie

Niet elk AI‑aandeel is per definitie een bubbel, maar in elke hype zit een mix van solide bedrijven én pure lucht. Probeer daarom eerst dit onderscheid te maken:

• Verdienmodel nu vs. ooit: genereert het bedrijf vandaag al omzet en winst met AI, of is het vooral “visie” en “potentieel”?
• Cashflow vs. verhaaltjes: sterkere balans, duidelijke cashflow en bewezen klanten zijn belangrijker dan flitsende presentaties over “disruptie”.
• Prijs vs. groei: een stevig gewaardeerd aandeel is niet automatisch slecht, maar als koers en winstgroei totaal los van elkaar raken, neemt je risico exponentieel toe.

Door die filters te gebruiken, verschuif je van “ik koop omdat iedereen het doet” naar “ik beleg in bedrijven die ook zonder hype overeind blijven”.

Stap 2: Gebruik de index in plaats van het loterijbriefje

Als je bang bent te laat in te stappen, is de verleiding groot om te zoeken naar “de volgende grote AI‑winnaar”. Het probleem: die is achteraf heel makkelijk aan te wijzen, maar vooraf bijna onmogelijk te selecteren. Een simpel alternatief is beleggen via brede index‑ETF’s waarin de grote AI‑spelers automatisch zijn opgenomen.

Met een wereldwijde index of een brede technologiefonds pak je de algemene trend mee, zonder all‑in te gaan op één of twee hype‑namen. Wordt een AI‑bedrijf echt dominant, dan groeit het automatisch in gewicht binnen de index. Verliest een bedrijf terrein, dan krimpt zijn gewicht of verdwijnt het zelfs uit de index. Dat is een ingebouwd selectie‑mechanisme waar je als particuliere belegger nauwelijks tegenop kunt stockpicken.

Stap 3: Bepaal vóórdat je instapt je maximale AI‑blootstelling

De meeste mensen voelen zich “te laat” omdat ze geen strategie hebben; ze rennen mee met het sentiment. Draai dat om: bepaal eerst hoeveel van je totale portefeuille je aan AI en technologie wilt blootstellen. Bijvoorbeeld:

• 60–80% in breed gespreide wereldwijde aandelen en/of obligaties
• 10–30% in technologie, waarvan een deel in brede tech‑ETF’s
• 0–10% in individuele AI‑aandelen als “satellieten” om mee te spelen

Zodra je dat kader hebt, is de vraag niet meer “Ben ik te laat?”, maar “Past deze aankoop nog binnen mijn plan?”. Dat dempt impulsieve beslissingen en maakt een correctie beter verteerbaar, omdat je weet dat AI maar een deel van je totale vermogen is.

Stap 4: Spreid je instapmomenten (en je stress)

Te laat instappen is meestal een timingprobleem, en timing is notoriously moeilijk. Een praktische oplossing is periodiek spreiden:

• Kies een totaalbedrag dat je in AI/tech wilt investeren.
• Deel dit op in meerdere gelijke tranches (bijvoorbeeld maandelijks of per kwartaal).
• Koop consequent, ongeacht het sentiment – ook als de koersen net wat lager staan.

Door gespreid in te stappen, vermijd je dat één verkeerde dag je hele rendement bepaalt. Bovendien helpt het psychologisch: dalende koersen voelen minder bedreigend als je weet dat je later goedkoper kunt bijkopen.

Stap 5: Bescherm jezelf tegen je eigen verwachtingen

De kern van “te laat zijn” is vaak een denkfout: we projecteren recente rendementen door naar de toekomst. Een aandeel dat in een jaar verdubbelt, lijkt dat vanzelf nog eens te kunnen doen. Maar naarmate waarderingen hoger worden, moet een bedrijf steeds meer waarmaken om zijn koers te rechtvaardigen.

Bescherm jezelf door expliciet op te schrijven:

• Wat verwacht je dat het bedrijf/ETF de komende 5–10 jaar ongeveer kan opleveren?
• Welke cijfers (omzetgroei, winstgroei, marges) moeten daarvoor kloppen?
• Wanneer zou je zeggen: “Mijn verhaal blijkt niet te kloppen, ik evalueer mijn positie”?

Door verwachtingen expliciet te maken, voorkom je dat je achteraf alles rechtpraat wat tegenvalt.

Stap 6: Vergeet de andere kansen niet

In elke hype verschuift enorme aandacht én kapitaal naar één hoek van de markt. Dat betekent vaak dat elders kansen ontstaan: sectoren of regio’s die minder sexy zijn, maar wél aantrekkelijk geprijsd. Denk aan dividendwaardige bedrijven, bepaalde opkomende markten, of sectoren als gezondheidszorg en basisconsumptiegoederen.

Voor je langetermijnrendement is het vaak gunstiger om een deel van je geld te parkeren in degelijk geprijsde, minder populaire segmenten, terwijl je een beheersbaar stuk in de hype‑sector houdt. Zo voorkom je dat je hele vermogen mee op en neer danst met één trend.

Praktische checklist voordat je in AI stapt

Gebruik deze korte checklist voor je de koopknop indrukt:

• Heb ik een totaalplan voor mijn portefeuille, inclusief AI‑maximaal?
• Koop ik een brede ETF of een individueel hype‑aandeel – en waarom?
• Beleg ik geld dat ik minstens 5–10 jaar kan missen?
• Begrijp ik globaal hoe dit bedrijf/fonds geld verdient aan AI?
• Heb ik besloten wanneer ik evalueer, en wanneer ik juist níet paniekverkopen wil doen?

Als je op meerdere punten “nee” moet beantwoorden, is dat geen teken dat je te laat bent – maar dat je nog niet klaar bent om in te stappen.

A federal judge has rejected Meta’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit from Strike 3 Holdings, the company that owns popular sites like Blacked, Vixen, and Tushy, for scraping its porn videos. 

The decision shows Meta’s nonsensical justification for scraping massive amounts of copyrighted material from the internet in order to train its AI models, and is notable for adult content creators, who have been scraped for model training data long before the current generative AI boom.

Strike 3 Holding first filed its lawsuit almost a year ago after internal Meta emails revealed in a different lawsuit showed that the company downloaded over 81 terabytes of data by scraping Anna’s Archive, a massive open search search engine for torrenting copyrighted material including books, movies, TV shows, and porn. A Strike 3 Holding investigation found that 47 IP addresses belonging to Meta were used to torrent 2,396 of its videos a total of 6,008 times between 2018 and 2025. On Thursday, Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Judge Eumi K. Lee rejected Meta’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit, allowing it to move forward. 

Meta argued that Strike 3 Holdings failed to show that Meta actually intended to use Strike 3 Holdings’ videos to train its AI models and that Meta, the company, was actually responsible for downloading the videos, as opposed to rogue employees downloading porn on company time from company IP addresses. 

According to the judge’s ruling, Strike 3 Holdings’ investigation showed coordination across Meta’s IP addresses that proved “a coordinated effort to gather data,” as opposed to the action of random employees. Specifically, Strike 3 Holdings showed that Meta’s IP addresses torrented files with similar file names on the same day, ranging from porn to cartoons and sitcoms, suggesting the company was downloading files based on key terms. 

“For example, IP Ranges A and F torrented the following files on December 15, 2022: ‘Teen Sex Sessions 2 (2012),’ ‘Teen Titans Go to the Movies (2018),’ ‘Teens Love Tats XXX,’ ‘TeensLoveAnal.16.09.30.Amara,’ ‘Teenfidelity Pics,’ ‘TeensLoveAnal.16.06.10.Casey,’ ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987-1996),’ ‘Teen Mom Girls Night In S02E08,’ ‘TeenyTaboo.22.12.07.Kiana,’ and ‘TeenageDelinquents.Maryjane,’” the decision says. “On the same day, a Corporate IP Address was used to torrent ‘TeenCurves.22.12.09.Willow.’ The connection between these files is plain: The word ‘teen’ appears in every file name.”

The judge said that Meta suggesting that its IP addresses downloading all these files at the same time was the work of different individual Meta employees acting independently “strains credulity.”

The judge also explained that whether Meta actually used Strike 3 Holdings’ videos to train its AI models is irrelevant because Meta violated Strike 3 Holdings’s copyright when it torrented its videos. It illegally downloaded the files and also “seeded” them, meaning they distributed the pirated to other users.

“In sum, Plaintiffs [Strike 3 Holdings] have plausibly alleged that Defendant [Meta] is liable for direct, vicarious, and contributory copyright infringement based on the torrenting of their films,” the decision said. “Defendant’s motion to dismiss is therefore DENIED.”

Import and export figures come as European leaders prepare to meet this week to address growing imbalance

The EU’s trade deficit with China has reached a record €1bn (£0.8bn) a day, according to official trade data, fuelling concerns over the future of Europe’s “industrial backbone”.

The gap between the EU’s imports from China and exports to China amounted to €31.9bn in April, according to the latest import and export data from the EU statistics body Eurostat.

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If there were a shift in world football power, it may look something like the impressive results from South Korea, Japan, Qatar and Australia

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Daichi Kamada’s late equaliser for Japan against the Netherlands on Sunday did not merely mean that the scoreline more accurately reflected the game. It also extended to four the unbeaten run of teams from the Asian confederation against Europe at this tournament. There is a degree of contingency to that record, and nobody should draw definitive conclusions from the first week of a World Cup, but equally if there were a shift in the power dynamics of world football, it might look a bit like this.

The tone was set on day one with South Korea’s victory over Czech Republic. It perhaps shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anybody who saw their qualifying playoff semi-final against Ireland that the Czechs would be so ponderous and lumbering, a side that understood the value of dead balls and long throws and little else. But still, the ease with which South Korea passed their way around them was striking. If Son Heung-min had been the player he was three or four years ago, the Korean victory would have been far more emphatic.

This is an extract from Soccer Desk: World Cup edition, a newsletter from the Guardian US that will run regularly during the tournament. Subscribe for free here.

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Ook deze week wordt weer gewerkt aan de weg. Rijkswaterstaat meldt werkzaamheden op de A4, A13, A15, A16 en A20. Deze snelwegen zijn meerdere nachten gedeeltelijk afgesloten.

Ook deze week wordt weer gewerkt aan de weg. Rijkswaterstaat meldt werkzaamheden op de A4, A13, A15, A16 en A20. Deze snelwegen zijn meerdere nachten gedeeltelijk afgesloten.