Good morning Sifted reader,

The tech sector’s thirst for AI talent is real. New data from employment platform Deel shows that the number of AI job roles hired through its platform have increased more than 700% between the start of 2021 and the summer of 2023. Meanwhile, job posts mentioning AI or generative AI have more than doubled in the UK in the last two years, according to LinkedIn numbers.

It sounds like a recruiter’s dream — but, industry folk say, it isn’t quite the goldmine it seems. One founder of a well-known European GenAI company recently told me that “90%” of recruiters are “pretending” to specialise in AI talent, but that many don’t really understand the sector.

Instead, they told me, startups are finding talent via their former colleagues and industry pals.

For those recruiters who can get their head around this sector, the commission is likely to be pretty high. Speaking on Startup Europe — the Sifted Podcast, Sachin Dev Duggal, founder of Builder.ai, recently said that senior AI talent in the US “won’t get out of bed” for less than $500k a year, while Entrepreneur First CEO Matt Clifford said seven-figure salaries are becoming commonplace.

Time to retrain as an ML engineer, everyone?

– Tim Smith, senior reporter

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The University of Edinburgh will build a new supercomputer, funded by the UK government. Details are thin on the ground, however — the government isn’t sure when the supercomputer will go live, it told Sifted, as discussions with suppliers are ongoing.

🚗 Google has invested in British driverless car company Oxa (previously Oxbotica). According to company filings, Google has taken a 3.5% stake in the business. The news was first reported by the Telegraph.

🇯🇵 Japan weighs in on GenAI guideline debate. Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida plans to invite his fellow G7 leaders to discuss a package of international guidelines and a code of conduct for AI developers, he said in a speech on Monday.

The EU sees “a lot of convergence” between the EU’s and Japan’s thinking on how to regulate GenAI, European Commission vice president for values and transparency Věra Jourová told Reuters.
Discussions are on track to launch consultations on a framework for AI but a code of conduct for companies involved in AI needs further work, she added.
The guidelines approved at the G7 are expected to filter down to the domestic level, setting the framework for the rules that startups in those countries will have to comply with.

🎓 The UK’s Labour party promises more support for university spinouts at party conference.

Labour’s shadow science secretary Peter Kyle said on Monday that a Labour government would seek “to increase the number of our university spinouts”.
It will do so by creating a new founders’ track “giving more flexibility to people who want to establish spinouts and want to keep a higher stake of the equity”, he said.
A Labour government would also publish annual data on the performance of university spinout support, reduce red tape and tackle innovators’ funding uncertainty by setting out 10-year research and development budgets — which at the moment only cover a three-year horizon.
“This will allow the relationships with industry to build and long-term partnerships to form that leads to investment in new technology and the infrastructure that underpins it. That’s enough time not only to invent but also to invest and implement,” Kyle said.

A lawsuit brought against Berlin-based VC firm Target Global claims it concealed the Russian citizenship of the directors of an associated company as western sanctions against Kremlin-linked individuals began to bite.

The case comes as more startups are beginning to ask questions about their investors — and where their money comes from — amid heightened geopolitical tensions.

Target Global — one of Europe’s biggest VC firms — told Sifted that it had implemented controls to ensure compliance with sanctions and that none of its directors were Russian citizens.

🧪 Not all AI models are trained on human language. Some, like Orbital Materials — founded by a former senior research engineer at DeepMind — are training AI models on raw scientific information.

Orbital’s model can be prompted to create new material designs, rather than poetry — and the startup plans to bring these products to market eventually.
It’s particularly focused on inventing products that can help with the climate crisis, like carbon capture machines.

🥼 Meet Europe’s 20 top cancer-fighting tech startups. After scouting hundreds of early-stage startups, we handpicked the region’s most promising — taking factors like momentum, team strength, product differentiation and other growth signals into account — for our latest ranking. We also learnt that:

AI-driven tools for imaging and diagnostics are popular among investors
Clinical trial and data management software are also hot stuff
But late-stage funding for cancer tech has taken a hit

🔥🔥

Lottie, a UK-based elderly care marketplace, raised a $21m Series A led by Accel, with participation from General Catalyst, bringing total funding to $31m.
Swedish electric aircraft startup Jetson closed a $15m seed. New investors include will.i.am, who will become one of the first Jetson pilots.

🔥

London-based DeFi startup Ostium Labs has raised a $3.5m seed round led by General Catalyst and LocalGlobe.
Italian aquaponic startup The Circle has raised €2.1m to build two new production facilities in Rome and Milan.
Valencia-based HUNTY, which helps customers organise hunts and has close to 50k hunters registered on its platform, has raised a €1.2m seed.
Previsico, a Loughborough University spinout that specialises in flood prediction and prevention software, has raised £1.75m.

🐛 Afflicted by the Paris bed bugs? Never fear, there's a startup to help you.

There are plenty of ways to get your fix.

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