Mike Butcher
@mikebutcher.bsky.social
13K followers 210 following 420 posts
Founder & Editor, @pathfounders.bsky.social | Formerly @TechCrunch | [email protected] | Signal: mikebutcher.04 | Pathfounders.com | linkedin.com/in/mikebutcher | Speaker / Moderator | Founder: TheEuropas, Techfugees, TechVets | (MBE)
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Reposted by Mike Butcher
ivospigel.bsky.social
Super delighted and excited to see the (soft) launch of @mikebutcher.bsky.social pwrd @pathfounders.bsky.social !
Everybody follow, great things are definitely on the way!
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Today, I am soft-launching @pathfounders.bsky.social, a new tech media brand to offer informed reporting, analysis, and opinion on the top tech startups and VC firms across Europe, Silicon Valley, and globally.
Read more here:
pathfounders.com/p/welcome-to...
Welcome to Pathfounders
It's high time we had a new tech media brand.
pathfounders.com
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Plenty of investors wanting to jump on the AI bandwagon, that’s who! 🤣
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Geez, there are SO MANY Michael Jackson Sora / AI deepfake videos now. I should think his estate must be planning a several billion-dollar law suit.
mikebutcher.bsky.social
The wind is in their sails…
mikebutcher.bsky.social
While ya’ll get excited about Meta’s new Glasses: “One mother said her Instagram account was set to private, but the posts were automatically cross-posting to Threads where they were visible.”

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man
Exclusive: Instagram pictures of girls as young as 13 were posted to promote Threads site ‘as bait’, campaigner says
www.theguardian.com
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Today’s defection to Reform is Danny Kruger, that former Tory MP who is a bastion of anti-establishmentarianism!

“Education: University of Oxford (2000), University of Oxford, The University of Edinburgh, Eton College”
Reposted by Mike Butcher
robblackie.bsky.social
Anthropic are doing something very smart: Employing their own team to test how their technology might be misused.

This is in a huge contrast to many large tech companies that simply hope they can get away with never being regulated - and so don't bother with ...

fortune.com/2025/09/04/a...
Inside Anthropic’s ‘Red Team’—ensuring Claude is safe, and that Anthropic is heard in the corridors of power | Fortune
Unique among AI labs, Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team reports to its policy chief and has a mandate to publicize the dangers it finds.
fortune.com
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Today’s Big Story: Mistral is on fire
• There’s been lots of speculation about Mistral’s upcoming fund-raise. Today it's been confirmed that it’s raised a €1.7B Series C round ($1.99 billion) led by ASML. Most of the major tech news outlets have the story, except for TechCrunch. (I wonder why?!).
mikebutcher.bsky.social
They are the same as they were before. For years. Please keep up.
Reposted by Mike Butcher
ftm.eu
You probably have never heard of him, but he’s one of Europe’s most influential billionaires: Daniel Křetínský, a Czech businessman who built his fortune on coal – all the while receiving hundreds of millions of euros for green subsidies. In this episode, our journalists unpick his vast empire.
Podcast | A billionaire’s hidden empire built on coal and post cards
You probably have never heard of him, but he’s one of Europe’s most influential billionaires: Daniel Křetínský, a Czech businessman who built his fortune on coal – all the while receiving hundreds of ...
www.ftm.eu
mikebutcher.bsky.social
It’s not going to be the total end of human moderation. The AI will simply flag to human moderators the content it can’t make a decision about. But yes, overall this is a good development.
jburnmurdoch.ft.com
AI replacing jobs is generally (and understandably) framed as a bad thing, but if LLMs mean huge numbers of poorly-paid people no longer have to spend their days watching the most abusive, graphic and violent content the world has to offer, that feels like a good thing

www.ft.com/content/d277...
TikTok to lay off hundreds of UK moderators as it shifts to AI
Moves comes despite Online Safety Act requirements on dangerous material
www.ft.com
Reposted by Mike Butcher
ftm.eu
The former president of the European Commission still holds office at his old headquarters, where he regularly receives prominent guests. According to the Kazakh government, he also offered help as go-between. Jean-Claude Juncker himself denies this, claiming that he is “immune” to influence.
Former EU boss keeps office in von der Leyen’s building – and allows his guests to lobby in secret
Years after stepping down as head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker still meets with lobbyists and foreign diplomats in the Berlaymont, the EU executive’s seat in Brussels. He holds regu...
www.ftm.eu
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Completely missed in this story is that Northern Data is one of Europe’s very few sovereign cloud data centre players. That it could be sold to a US company should ring alarm bells amongst those interested in European resilience.

siliconcanals.com/rumble-propo...
US-based Rumble, backed by Tether, proposes $1.17B acquisition of German AI cloud company Northern Data - Silicon Canals
Rumble announces its intention for a share swap with this company backed by Tether, which could potentially reshape AI cloud ambitions.
siliconcanals.com
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Good time to do a UK/European version of the Internet Archive before it all gets deleted by the Whitehouse.
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Any European startups need this data? It’s about to go up in smoke.
davidrvetter.bsky.social
Head of NASA Sean Duffy intends to destroy a satellite that collects key data on carbon dioxide and plant health, by causing it to burn up in the atmosphere. The U.S. Dept of Agriculture and private agriculture firms use the data to forecast crop yield, drought conditions and more.
Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose
The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.
www.npr.org
mikebutcher.bsky.social
The revenge of the working classes? 🤣🤷‍♂️
financialtimes.com
Prices for hotels and Airbnbs in Edinburgh have soared as a run of sold-out Oasis concerts coincides with the annual Fringe arts festival, heaping pressure on the Scottish capital’s strained accommodation market. on.ft.com/45qv4Q6
mikebutcher.bsky.social
I have a feeling you didn’t read the post.
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Why would you not just do a quote post so you have your “take” on your own timeline with the context of the thing you are responding to?
mikebutcher.bsky.social
Wealth of five richest men doubles since 2020 as five billion people made poorer in "decade of division," says Oxfam www.oxfam.org/en/press-rel...