Hugo Pellegrin

💻 In 2022, France's digital sector had a carbon footprint of 29.5 MtCO2e, with data centers responsible for 46% of emissions, 4.4% of the country's total carbon footprint. The Shift Project highlights uncertainties in measuring AI's carbon-energy footprint. Regarding energy, digital consumption was 11% of France's electrical consumption, but estimates vary widely, from 3 TWh by RTE to 12 TWh by ADEME & Arcep. Transparency issues also affect the impact of AI generative models, with no data shared by NVIDIA or TSMC, controlling 80% and as the leading semiconductor supplier, respectively. Meta's communications on its Llama models' carbon footprint are considered narrow by Carbone 4, which also notes a 50% carbon emission increase over three years for Meta and Google. Ten daily queries to a LLM can add 100 kgCO2e to a user's annual personal emissions.

🚀 Joby Aviation partners with Virgin Atlantic to launch electric flying taxis in the UK, targeting regional connections and airport links. Flying taxis will reduce travel time from central London to Heathrow from 80 minutes by car to just 8 minutes. The electric vehicle can carry 4 passengers and a pilot, with a top speed of 321 km/h and a range of 160 kilometers. Virgin Atlantic offers its booking channels, including a mobile app, to promote zero-emission short-haul mobility; no launch date specified. Joby Aviation has completed thousands of test flights and showcased in New York, Japan, and Korea.

💻 Ditto, a startup specializing in edge computing, raises over €75 million ($82 million) in a Series B funding round led by Top Tier Capital Partners and Acrew Capital. The round includes participation from USIT (Thomas Tull), True Ventures, Amity Ventures, Fundrise, Friends & Family Capital, Advance Venture Partners, and IIJ. Following a 250% increase in annual recurring revenue and doubling its customer base, Ditto's valuation approaches €423 million ($462 million). The funds will enhance international growth and deepen partnerships with cloud database providers like MongoDB. Ditto also secured a contract with the U.S. Air Force and serves clients like Japan Airlines, Delta, and Lufthansa.

🏠 Cédric Lefort, Head of Corporate Travel de Sabre France, discussed overcoming travel content fragmentation with AI at the Future of Travel Distribution event by Eventiz. Emphasizing collaboration among airlines, agencies, and travel providers, he highlighted the importance of common standards and real-time information sharing through modern APIs. AI contributes to personalizing travel offers, dynamic pricing, and customer service automation while respecting legal constraints like GDPR. He sees AI as a tool for hyper-personalization and predictive analytics in travel distribution, not a replacement for human agents. Physical travel agency bookings increased by 4.5%, while e-commerce and call centers saw a 9.6% decline, reflecting the continued relevance of human touch in the industry.

🚬 Since December 2024, hoteliers associated with Booking.com have been targeted by a phishing campaign orchestrated by Storm-1865 aiming to steal credentials and financial information. Microsoft Threat Intelligence has reported that the operation is ongoing as of February 2025, using fraudulent emails to redirect victims to a fake Booking.com site to install malware. Attackers impersonate Booking.com with various email topics like negative reviews, reservation requests, promotions, and account verifications, across North America, Oceania, South and Southeast Asia, and Europe. Microsoft advises hoteliers to verify sender addresses, avoid clicking links, and directly visit the official Booking.com site for safety.

📌 Cyril Guiraud and André-Louis Rochet, co-founders of Theta Travel Tech and TW3 Partners respectively, presented a natural language model at the Future Of Travel Distribution event that queries travel distributor APIs directly. The AI translates natural user requests into computer language, refines proposals based on past preferences for existing clients, and integrates with booking systems to display options. A pilot for flight searches on a major travel distributor's website is imminent, with expansion to packaged travel searches by summer. This AI disrupts traditional travel agency and OTA models by providing personalized offers, potentially assisting agents, and shifting the focus to value-added advice. Concerns about AI replacing human decisions are mitigated by emphasizing augmentation over replacement, addressing sovereignty and the need for travel-specific AI models.

💰 Damien Patureaux, CEO of Lyzi, reported that between June 2022 and the present, they have integrated over 1500 merchants accepting crypto payments across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the UK. Lyzi's partnerships could potentially cover 400,000 sales points. The company accepts over 500 cryptocurrencies and wallets, with most payments made in BTC, ETH, and USDC. Lyzi aims for significant transaction volume growth and to become an international solution by 2025, with aspirations to lead in physical point-of-sale payment acceptance in Europe and expand to the Middle East and the USA.