Issue #295: Could Literal Labs put Newcastle on AI's world stage?
Today we talk about uni spinout innovation, share some notes from the road and celebrate the winners from last night's Tees Tech Awards
Good morning! You find me rather chipper today, dear reader. No, no I’ve not reached for my emergency morphine supply (this kid only deals in wicked-cool tech news, right?) rather, I’m continuing to plod along the North East tech beat right now and it’s making me feel good.
But you don’t come to this revered newsletter to learn about how many empty steak bake wrappers I have in the front seat of my car, do ya? God no. You’re chomping at the bit to hear about the ecosystem’s latest tech developments, of course!
Literals Labs
So, top story this week comes by way of Literal Labs. Usually, reader, I choose our top story. However, this week, 11 (Yes! ELEVEN) people messaged me about this story to get it on my radar. I’m finally reaching the dizzy heights of Robert Peston and Sir Trevor McDonald with tip-offs in abundance. Twitt-twoo.
Yes, Literal Labs. I wrote about this Newcastle Uni spinout when it was first getting off the ground. I think many of us fancied this could be a rather special one. Turns out activity is ramping up, with the news breaking this week that it’s raised almost £5m in pre-seeing investment to grow its engineering team and bring its first commercial product to market later this year.
So what does the company do? As many media titles have reported, the startup is developing logic-based AI models that aim to be faster and more energy efficient than modern neural networks. Er, Jamie mate, what the heck does that mean?
Why AI man
Most AI systems today (like the ones behind ChatGPT or image recognition) use something called neural networks. These are inspired by the brain and involve a lot of number crunching—processing tons of data to "learn" patterns. But they use a lot of computing power and electricity, which makes them slow and energy-hungry.
Wor Newcastle startup is doing something different. Instead of copying the brain, they're using logic—like old-school reasoning and rules (think “if this, then that”) to make decisions. This is more like how a person might solve a puzzle or follow instructions.
Because logic models don’t need as much raw computing power or data, they can be faster and use less energy. That could make AI better for things like phones, robots, or satellites—where power and speed really matter.
Get it? Sorry mate, I lost you at steak bake.
Notes from the road
This week I’ve been driving the mean streets of Sunderland and Teesside, as well as popping into hubs in South and North Tyneside.
On wednesday I met up with folks at Northstar Ventures to support a panel about Sunderland tech startup growth. This was led by the excellent Naomi Allen Seales. It was a pleasure to extrapolate insights from exited founder at Clixifix and budding founders at One Click Comply and Polybox.
I’ll not repeat what’s already been eloquently covered on LinkedIn, so if you fancy getting the DL on what went down you can read more from Northstar here.
Last night I was in Redcar for the sixth annual Tees Tech Awards. I am writing a piece about this for the Teesside Lead over the weekend, contextualising Teesside’s rise as a really tightly-knit and credible ecosystem. In short, I was genuinely inspired at the awards last night. The ecosystem has come a long way. Again if you fancy reading more about what it’s all about, I jotted down some thoughts on LinkedIn earlier this morning. Check ‘em out here if you like.
Finally before I wrap up today I want to share a sincere congrats to our pals at Your Film. The creative video agency this week turned 20 years old. The guys have been long-time supporters of the wider digital community we have in the North East and I really do think Matt and the team do a consistently excellent job. Congrats guys!
Have a lovely weekend, all. Hopefully I see many of our readers the week after next at our annual North East tech festival, TechNExt. Check oot the programme here.
Stay wicked-cool and tech-enthused, Jamie
This weeks news
Newcastle AI firm led by ex-Arm exec scores £4.6m investment
Precursor Technology Group to create new jobs following soaring demand
Tyneside cyber security specialist Melius CyberSafe secures £250k investment
Newcastle agency Drummond bags deal with Jack Daniels
Features
Game-changing night for Tees Tech Awards
Digital agency Cargo rebrand Alan Shearer Foundation
Post of the Week
Well done Rich and Karl carving out space for early-stage companies and builders to cowork in Newcastle. Fancy knowing more? Check out Rich’s post below.
