AI Insights
Should we be letting flies eat our food waste?
Technology Reporter
Most people are inclined to shoo flies away from food, and the thought of maggots in your bins is enough to make anyone’s stomach turn.
But a handful of city councils have embraced maggots – more formally known as fly larvae – and their taste for rotting food.
In Vilnius, capital of the Baltic state of Lithuania, fly larvae have officially been given the job of processing the 2,700 tonnes of food waste the city’s 607,000 residents put out for collection each year, alongside that of the six neighbouring councils.
Energesman, the waste management company that began relieving Vilnius of its food waste earlier this year, doesn’t actually charge the city for this service.
That is saving the city up to €2m (£1.7m; $2.3m) per year, based on a target of processing 12,000 tonnes in 2026 says the company’s chief executive, Algirda Blazgys.
Energesman has rolled out new orange food waste bags to residents, alongside an influencer marketing campaign to encourage more Vilniečiai to separate their food waste, as the 2,700 tonnes collected is only a fraction of the 40,000 tonnes of household waste the city is thought to generate.
Last year it become mandatory for councils to collect food waste, so the city needs to find ways to deal with it.
Energesman, meanwhile, has plans to turn the fattened fly larvae into a new income stream.
It houses around six million flies in a special zone within its Vilnius plant, who mate around every six hours, according to CEO Algirdas Blazgys.
A female fly can lay around 500 eggs in her average 21-day lifespan, so Mr Blazgys and his team are dealing with more than three million larvae a month, who can consume more than 11 tonnes of food waste in the first, hungriest days of their lives.
It’s the huge appetites of these tiny creatures that make them such excellent candidates for food waste processing. This study shows a swarm of them demolishing a 16 inch pizza in just two hours.
The trick is to cull them before they transform into mature flies. That way the protein rich fly larvae can be converted into protein products for use in animal feed or industrial use, for example as an ingredient in paint, glue, lamp shades and furniture covers.
Also, their manure, known as frass, can be used as fertiliser.
Energesman has already set up supply trials with partners in the paint, glue and furniture industries, but Mr Blazgys acknowledges it’s proving more complicated than he anticipated.
The sample paint produced using Energesman-reared fly larvae didn’t quite come out in the right colour, but the lamp shades created look promising.
He also has university partnerships in place to supply fly larvae for research purposes and for feeding bacteria. And of course, the larvae are in demand from the local fishing industry to use as bait.
But EU health and safety regulations mean fly larvae fed with kitchen waste can’t be used in edible insect products for human consumption, as there could be cross contamination from meat and fish scraps.
“We came up with some crazy ideas, then we started looking for other people that could also come with some crazy ideas about what we could do,” says Mr Blazgys.
“As it’s still very new, some people are still looking to see if we’re going to fail, so they don’t want to brag about it yet. But I think we’re going to come up with something good.”
While there are numerous cases around the world of fly larvae being used in food waste management, and being harvested as a protein ingredient, it’s largely on a commercial basis, for example, a private contract between a hotel or apartment building owner and a fly larvae rearer.
In Kenya, Project Mila is a social enterprise using fly larvae to tackle Mombasa’s mounting food waste problem, while also supplying frass as fertiliser to local farmers.
Yet there are just a handful of city councils that have adopted this way of processing food waste.
Goterra in Australia has used fly larvae to help Sydney get through its food waste, as part of a limited trial which began this year.
For the past three years, Goterra has also been working with three townships that are part of the neighbouring Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council, recycling around 10 tonnes of food waste.
Whether we will see UK councils start shipping in millions of flies, so their larvae can munch through the 6.4 million tonnes of household food waste produced here yearly, is only a matter of time.
That’s the optimistic view of Larry Kotch. He’s the CEO and co-founder of insect waste management company Flybox, which he says builds more insect waste processing sites than any other company in the UK, which then work largely with private food manufacturers and supermarkets.
Flybox is also a founding member of the Insect Bioconversion Association, an industry body representing companies in the space.
UK councils are interested, Mr Kotch believes, especially because weekly household food waste collections will become mandatory in England from March 2026.
Around 148 of England’s 317 local authorities still don’t offer this, according to the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee.
But regulations set by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) are currently barring councils from using fly larvae to process food waste.
If regulation could move in line with science, Mr Kotch argues that “the UK could see its first council-contracted insect plant within two years”.
“Unfortunately, with government it’s always safer to say no… Everyone we’ve spoken to in UK councils are very excited about insect protein and would much rather work with insect farms than alternative technologies.”
DEFRA confirmed to the BBC that the Animal By-Product Regulations restrict insects from being used to process organic waste streams.
It says there are currently no plans to review these regulations. “Our waste management regulations play a crucial role in protecting UK biosecurity and reducing the risk of disease,” the spokesperson said.
The current alternative for sending food waste to landfill is anaerobic digestion (AD), a breakdown process which creates biogas.
However, Mr Kotch says current AD plants aren’t enough to cope with the anticipated influx of household food waste.
“Globally, over 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year. We believe up to 40% of that could be upcycled using insect waste management. And not only does it avoid disposal costs and methane emissions, but it also produces valuable protein and organic fertiliser,” says Mr Kotch.
AI Insights
Intro robotics students build AI-powered robot dogs from scratch
Equipped with a starter robot hardware kit and cutting-edge lessons in artificial intelligence, students in CS 123: A Hands-On Introduction to Building AI-Enabled Robots are mastering the full spectrum of robotics – from motor control to machine learning. Now in its third year, the course has students build and enhance an adorable quadruped robot, Pupper, programming it to walk, navigate, respond to human commands, and perform a specialized task that they showcase in their final presentations.
The course, which evolved from an independent study project led by Stanford’s robotics club, is now taught by Karen Liu, professor of computer science in the School of Engineering, in addition to Jie Tan from Google DeepMind and Stuart Bowers from Apple and Hands-On Robotics. Throughout the 10-week course, students delve into core robotics concepts, such as movement and motor control, while connecting them to advanced AI topics.
“We believe that the best way to help and inspire students to become robotics experts is to have them build a robot from scratch,” Liu said. “That’s why we use this specific quadruped design. It’s the perfect introductory platform for beginners to dive into robotics, yet powerful enough to support the development of cutting-edge AI algorithms.”
What makes the course especially approachable is its low barrier to entry – students need only basic programming skills to get started. From there, the students build up the knowledge and confidence to tackle complex robotics and AI challenges.
Robot creation goes mainstream
Pupper evolved from Doggo, built by the Stanford Student Robotics club to offer people a way to create and design a four-legged robot on a budget. When the team saw the cute quadruped’s potential to make robotics both approachable and fun, they pitched the idea to Bowers, hoping to turn their passion project into a hands-on course for future roboticists.
“We wanted students who were still early enough in their education to explore and experience what we felt like the future of AI robotics was going to be,” Bowers said.
This current version of Pupper is more powerful and refined than its predecessors. It’s also irresistibly adorable and easier than ever for students to build and interact with.
“We’ve come a long way in making the hardware better and more capable,” said Ankush Kundan Dhawan, one of the first students to take the Pupper course in the fall of 2021 before becoming its head teaching assistant. “What really stuck with me was the passion that instructors had to help students get hands-on with real robots. That kind of dedication is very powerful.”
Code come to life
Building a Pupper from a starter hardware kit blends different types of engineering, including electrical work, hardware construction, coding, and machine learning. Some students even produced custom parts for their final Pupper projects. The course pairs weekly lectures with hands-on labs. Lab titles like Wiggle Your Big Toe and Do What I Say keep things playful while building real skills.
CS 123 students ready to show off their Pupper’s tricks. | Harry Gregory
Over the initial five weeks, students are taught the basics of robotics, including how motors work and how robots can move. In the next phase of the course, students add a layer of sophistication with AI. Using neural networks to improve how the robot walks, sees, and responds to the environment, they get a glimpse of state-of-the-art robotics in action. Many students also use AI in other ways for their final projects.
“We want them to actually train a neural network and control it,” Bowers said. “We want to see this code come to life.”
By the end of the quarter this spring, students were ready for their capstone project, called the “Dog and Pony Show,” where guests from NVIDIA and Google were present. Six teams had Pupper perform creative tasks – including navigating a maze and fighting a (pretend) fire with a water pick – surrounded by the best minds in the industry.
“At this point, students know all the essential foundations – locomotion, computer vision, language – and they can start combining them and developing state-of-the-art physical intelligence on Pupper,” Liu said.
“This course gives them an overview of all the key pieces,” said Tan. “By the end of the quarter, the Pupper that each student team builds and programs from scratch mirrors the technology used by cutting-edge research labs and industry teams today.”
All ready for the robotics boom
The instructors believe the field of AI robotics is still gaining momentum, and they’ve made sure the course stays current by integrating new lessons and technology advances nearly every quarter.
This Pupper was mounted with a small water jet to put out a pretend fire. | Harry Gregory
Students have responded to the course with resounding enthusiasm and the instructors expect interest in robotics – at Stanford and in general – will continue to grow. They hope to be able to expand the course, and that the community they’ve fostered through CS 123 can contribute to this engaging and important discipline.
“The hope is that many CS 123 students will be inspired to become future innovators and leaders in this exciting, ever-changing field,” said Tan.
“We strongly believe that now is the time to make the integration of AI and robotics accessible to more students,” Bowers said. “And that effort starts here at Stanford and we hope to see it grow beyond campus, too.”
AI Insights
Why Infuse Asset Management’s Q2 2025 Letter Signals a Shift to Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity Plays
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and the escalating complexity of cybersecurity threats have positioned these sectors as the next frontier of investment opportunity. Infuse Asset Management’s Q2 2025 letter underscores this shift, emphasizing AI’s transformative potential and the urgent need for robust cybersecurity infrastructure to mitigate risks. Below, we dissect the macroeconomic forces, sector-specific tailwinds, and portfolio reallocation strategies investors should consider in this new paradigm.
The AI Uprising: Macro Drivers of a Paradigm Shift
The AI revolution is accelerating at a pace that dwarfs historical technological booms. Take ChatGPT, which reached 800 million weekly active users by April 2025—a milestone achieved in just two years. This breakneck adoption is straining existing cybersecurity frameworks, creating a critical gap between innovation and defense.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-China AI rivalry is fueling a global arms race. China’s industrial robot installations surged from 50,000 in 2014 to 290,000 in 2023, outpacing U.S. adoption. This competition isn’t just about economic dominance—it’s a geopolitical chess match where data sovereignty, espionage, and AI-driven cyberattacks now loom large. The concept of “Mutually Assured AI Malfunction (MAIM)” highlights how even a single vulnerability could destabilize critical systems, much like nuclear deterrence but with far less predictability.
Cybersecurity: The New Infrastructure for an AI World
As AI systems expand into physical domains—think autonomous taxis or industrial robots—so do their vulnerabilities. In San Francisco, autonomous taxi providers now command 27% market share, yet their software is a prime target for cyberattacks. The decline in AI inference costs (outpacing historical declines in electricity and memory) has made it cheaper to deploy AI, but it also lowers the barrier for malicious actors to weaponize it.
Tech giants are pouring capital into AI infrastructure—NVIDIA and Microsoft alone increased CapEx from $33 billion to $212 billion between 2014 and 2024. This influx creates a vast, interconnected attack surface. Investors should prioritize cybersecurity firms that specialize in quantum-resistant encryption, AI-driven threat detection, and real-time infrastructure protection.
The Human Element: Skills Gaps and Strategic Shifts
The demand for AI expertise is soaring, but the workforce is struggling to keep pace. U.S. AI-related IT job postings have surged 448% since 2018, while non-AI IT roles have declined by 9%. This bifurcation signals two realities:
1. Cybersecurity skills are now mission-critical for safeguarding AI systems.
2. Ethical AI development and governance are emerging as compliance priorities, particularly in regulated industries.
The data will likely show a stark divergence, reinforcing the need for investors to back training platforms and cybersecurity firms bridging this skills gap.
Portfolio Reallocation: Where to Deploy Capital
Infuse’s insights suggest three actionable strategies:
-
Core Holdings in Cybersecurity Leaders:
Target firms like CrowdStrike (CRWD) and Palo Alto Networks (PANW), which excel in AI-powered threat detection and endpoint security. -
Geopolitical Plays:
Invest in companies addressing data sovereignty and cross-border compliance, such as Palantir (PLTR) or Cloudflare (NET), which offer hybrid cloud solutions. -
Emerging Sectors:
Look to quantum computing security (e.g., Rigetti Computing (RGTI)) and AI governance platforms like DataRobot (NASDAQ: MGNI), which help enterprises audit and validate AI models.
The Bottom Line: AI’s Growth Requires a Security Foundation
The “productivity paradox” of AI—where speculative valuations outstrip tangible ROI—is real. Yet, cybersecurity is one area where returns are measurable: breaches cost companies millions, and defenses reduce risk. Investors should treat cybersecurity as the bedrock of their AI investments.
As Infuse’s letter implies, the next decade will belong to those who balance AI’s promise with ironclad security. Position portfolios accordingly.
JR Research
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