Europe on Edge

Looking for a European AI success story? Here’s one. Noah Hollmann left medical school one year before becoming a doctor to co-found Prior Labs, which builds foundation models for tabular data. SAP recently acquired Prior Labs and committed more than €1 billion to turn it into a frontier AI lab in Europe. We discuss why deep learning struggled with tables, how training on synthetic data made TabPFN work, and why building in the open turned the research community into their test bench. We also explore what comes after prediction (causality), why there’s no magic in Silicon Valley that Europe can’t match, and how regulatory uncertainty hurts European startups. His advice: most decisions are reversible, so take the leap.Thank you for listening!GUESTPrior Labs: https://priorlabs.ai/TabPFN on GitHub: https://github.com/PriorLabs/TabPFNNoah Hollmann on X: https://x.com/noahhollSPONSORSETH Juniors: https://ethjuniors.ch/ETH Student Project House: https://sph.ethz.ch/PODCAST LINKSEurope on Edge: https://www.europeonedge.com/Europe on Edge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/europeonedge/SOCIALX: https://x.com/fbar3000LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipe-barata/CHAPTERS00:00 Moore's Law Surprise01:05 Podcast Intro Noah02:06 Medical Data Frustration03:49 Transformer Breakthrough06:36 Twitter Buzz Doubts08:44 From Paper to Startup12:18 Founder Confidence Journey14:09 Why Tabular Is Hard21:17 Synthetic Data Strategy27:09 Priors and Naming30:37 Early Real World Uses33:18 Open Weights Approach36:53 Community Accelerates Research39:31 Benchmark Feedback Loop40:16 Why SAP Bought Prior Labs42:10 SAP Use Cases Preview44:11 Staying Open After Acquisition47:26 Next Wave Tabular Models49:40 From Prediction To Causality54:21 Foundation Systems Future58:06 Life Beyond ML Work01:00:15 AI Safety And Trust01:05:39 Europe Startup Playbook01:13:27 Sponsor Break ETH Juniors01:14:15 Advice For New Founders01:17:01 Doctor Workflow Vision01:19:45 Final Thoughts And Call

AI agents now let anyone with an idea build software. Thomas Dohmke, former CEO of GitHub and founder of Entire, explains why he left GitHub to build for a world where humans and agents create software together. We discuss why you still need to understand code, why “the code is the what, the log is the why,” and where a developer’s pride goes when AI does the hard work. We also explore why so many European startups become American companies, what Europe must fix, and when Europe will have a frontier AI lab. His verdict: we are all builders now. Thank you for listening! GUEST Entire: entire.io Thomas Dohmke on X: @ashtom SPONSORS ETH Juniors: ethjuniors.ch ETH Student Project House: sph.ethz.ch PODCAST LINKS Europe on Edge: europeonedge.com Europe on Edge on LinkedIn: Europe on Edge SOCIAL X: @fbar3000 LinkedIn: Filipe Barata

PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals, are everywhere: in our pans, our cosmetics, our water, and our soil. Estelle Clerc, Co-Founder and CEO of CellX Biosolutions, explains how her team finds natural bacteria that can break them down, going against the conventional wisdom that PFAS is not biodegradable. We discuss her “microfluidic fishing rod” for catching the right bacteria, why natural bacterial teams beat genetic engineering, scaling from lab pilots to treating industrial wastewater and polluted soil, and whether bacteria are safe to release. We also explore turning an ETH PhD into a startup, Zurich’s growing innovation hub, and why she believes Europe’s strict pollution rules are an enabler: you cannot produce if you cannot clean. Thank you for listening! GUEST CellX Biosolutions: cellx.ch SPONSORS ETH Juniors: ethjuniors.ch ETH Student Project House: sph.ethz.ch PODCAST LINKS Europe on Edge: europeonedge.com Europe on Edge on LinkedIn: Europe on Edge SOCIAL X: @fbar3000 LinkedIn: Filipe Barata

Can AI make the next great scientific discovery? Francesco Pappone, Co-Founder and CEO of Paradigma, explains his mission to automate scientific research—from building AI “mad scientists” to creating factories for discovery. We discuss why today’s models lack research intuition, how Flywheel helps humans and agents collaborate, and his prediction that the Riemann hypothesis won’t be solved by a human. We also explore founding an ambitious startup in Rome, the SPRIND Frontier AI Challenge, and why he believes culture is Europe’s biggest AI bottleneck.Thank you for listening!GUEST Paradigma: paradigma.inc Try Flywheel: flywheel.paradigma.inc Contact Paradigma: [email protected] ETH Juniors: ethjuniors.ch ETH Student Project House: sph.ethz.chPODCAST LINKS Europe on Edge: europeonedge.com Europe on Edge on LinkedIn: Europe on EdgeSOCIAL X: @fbar3000 LinkedIn: Filipe Barata

Is AI approaching a compute and energy wall? Max Welling, Professor at the University of Amsterdam and Co-Founder and CTO of CuspAI, explains why physics could help unlock more efficient intelligence. We discuss discovering new materials with AI, turning predictions into real-world applications, and why Europe needs to make more room for bold research and entrepreneurship.Thank you for listening!GUEST Max Welling on LinkedIn: Max Welling CuspAI: cusp.aiSPONSORS ETH Juniors: ethjuniors.ch ETH Student Project House: sph.ethz.chPODCAST LINKS Europe on Edge: europeonedge.com Europe on Edge on LinkedIn: Europe on EdgeSOCIAL X: @fbar3000 LinkedIn: Filipe Barata

Marcel Salathé, Professor at EPFL and Co-Director of the EPFL AI Center, argues that AI is our generation's steam engine and that ignoring it is becoming career sabotage. We discuss Europe's fear narrative around AI, why models must be aligned with our values from day zero, the case for open AI models as public infrastructure, and what Europe needs to become a continent of risk-takers again.Thank you for listening!GUESTMarcel Salathé on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salathe/The Framework App: https://www.theframeworkapp.comSPONSORSETH Juniors: https://ethjuniors.ch/ETH Student Project House: https://sph.ethz.ch/PODCAST LINKSEurope on Edge: https://www.europeonedge.com/Europe on Edge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/europeonedge/SOCIALX: https://x.com/fbar3000LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipe-barata/

Michael Siegenthaler, Professor at ETH Zurich and Head of Swiss Labour Market Research at KOF, explores what the data says about AI and jobs, who risks being left behind, and how Europe can adapt to a changing labour market.Thank you for listening!SPONSORS ETH Juniors: https://ethjuniors.ch/ ETH Student Project House: https://sph.ethz.ch/PODCAST LINKS Europe on Edge: https://www.europeonedge.com/ Europe on Edge on LinkedIn: /europeonedgeSOCIAL X: https://x.com/fbar3000 LinkedIn: /filipe-barata

Edouard Tricani, Partner at Founderful, explains what VCs look for in great founders, how AI is reshaping startups, and why Europe can build globally important technology companies.Thank you for listening!SPONSORS ETH Juniors: https://ethjuniors.ch/ ETH Student Project House: https://sph.ethz.ch/ PODCAST LINKS Europe on Edge: https://www.europeonedge.com/ Europe on Edge on LinkedIn: LinkedIn SOCIAL X: https://x.com/fbar3000 LinkedIn: Filipe Barata

How do you build an AI startup while still at university? ETH Zurich students Pascal Bertrand and Atoof Shakir, cofounders of Seldon Technologies, discuss finding a cofounder, raising angel funding without a pitch deck, and teaching AI to understand video and audio.Thank you for listening!SPONSORSETH JuniorsETH Student Project HousePODCAST LINKSEurope on EdgeEurope on Edge on LinkedInSOCIALXLinkedIn

Jürgen Schmidhuber, one of the pioneers of modern AI, explains what today’s AI systems are still missing, why AGI may require machines to master the physical world, and why he believes current spending on GPUs could be part of a temporary AI bubble. We also discuss the origins of deep learning, self-improving AI, robotics, and the future of artificial intelligence.Thank you for listening!SPONSORSETH JuniorsETH Student Project HousePODCAST LINKSEurope on EdgeEurope on Edge on LinkedInSOCIALXLinkedIn