Warhorse Studios Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has been immensely successful for the studio, selling two million copies in less than two weeks. However, its also an immense technical triumph with how well it runs on all platforms. Unfortunately, those hoping to see any improvements make their way to the previous game in a remaster shouldnt hold their breath.In an interview with SxyBiscuit on YouTube, Warhorses global public relations manager Tobias Stolz-Zwilling said, We are not planning to go back to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 in any form or shape. Of course, hardcore fans would love that, absolutely. Im absolutely aware of that, but in all honesty, I dont seeUnless someone is coming like Saber Interactive back in the day, saying, Hey lets do the Switch version port thing. Unless someone like that is coming to us actively, then I dont really see Warhorse doing it.With some areas like Rattay not offering the best performance, its somewhat disappointing. It would have also been nice to have a patch for the Xbox One and PS4 versions to run at 60 FPS on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Nevertheless, considering patch 1.2 recently released and offered extensive fixes, free features like Barber Mode, and upcoming DLC, Warhorse is definitely keeping busy.Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out our review, where we gave it a nine out of ten. You can also read the roadmap for more details on upcoming DLC.

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have revolutionized computer vision with great performance, but their black-box nature creates significant challenges in domains requiring transparency, accountability, and regulatory compliance. The opacity of these systems hampers their adoption in critical applications where understanding decision-making processes is essential. Scientists are curious to understand these models internal mechanisms and want to utilize these insights for effective debugging, model improvement, and exploring potential parallels with neuroscience. These factors have catalyzed the rapid development of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) as a dedicated field. It focuses on the interpretability of ANNs, bridging the gap between machine intelligence and human understanding.Concept-based methods are powerful frameworks among XAI approaches for revealing intelligible visual concepts within ANNs complex activation patterns. Recent research characterizes concept extraction as dictionary learning problems, where activations map to a higher-dimensional, sparse concept space that is more interpretable. Techniques like Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) and K-Means are used to accurately reconstruct original activations, while Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) have recently gained prominence as powerful alternatives. SAEs achieve an impressive balance between sparsity and reconstruction quality but suffer from instability. Training identical SAEs on the same data can produce different concept dictionaries, limiting their reliability and interpretability for meaningful analysis.Researchers from Harvard University, York University, CNRS, and Google DeepMind have proposed two novel variants of Sparse Autoencoders to address the instability issues: Archetypal-SAE (A-SAE) and its relaxed counterpart (RA-SAE). These approaches build upon archetypal analysis to enhance stability and consistency in concept extraction. The A-SAE model constrains each dictionary atom to reside strictly within the convex hull of the training data, which imposes a geometric constraint that improves stability across different training runs. The RA-SAE extends this framework further by incorporating a small relaxation term, allowing for slight deviations from the convex hull to enhance modeling flexibility while maintaining stability.The researchers evaluate their approach using five vision models: DINOv2, SigLip, ViT, ConvNeXt, and ResNet50, all obtained from the timm library. They construct overcomplete dictionaries with sizes five times the feature dimension (e.g., 7685 for DINOv2 and 20485 for ConvNeXt), providing sufficient capacity for concept representation. The models undergo training on the entire ImageNet dataset, processing approximately 1.28 million images that generate over 60 million tokens per epoch for ConvNeXt and more than 250 million tokens for DINOv2, continuing for 50 epochs. Moreover, RA-SAE builds upon a TopK SAE architecture to maintain consistent sparsity levels across experiments. The computation of a matrix involves K-Means clustering of the entire dataset into 32,000 centroids.The results demonstrate significant performance differences between traditional approaches and the proposed methods. Classical dictionary learning algorithms and standard SAEs show comparable performance but struggle to recover true generative factors in the tested datasets accurately. In contrast, RA-SAE achieves higher accuracy in recovering underlying object classes across all synthetic datasets used in the evaluation. In qualitative results, RA-SAE uncovers meaningful concepts, including shadow-based features linked to depth reasoning, context-dependent concepts like barber, and fine-grained edge detection capabilities in flower petals. Moreover, it learns more structured within-class distinctions than TopK-SAEs, separating features like rabbit ears, faces, and paws into distinct concepts rather than mixing them.In conclusion, researchers have introduced two variants of Sparse Autoencoders: A-SAE and its relaxed counterpart RA-SAE. A-SAE constrains dictionary atoms to the convex hull of the training data and enhances stability while preserving expressive power. Then, RA-SAE effectively balances reconstruction quality with meaningful concept discovery in large-scale vision models. To evaluate these approaches, the team developed novel metrics and benchmarks inspired by identifiability theory, providing a systematic framework for measuring dictionary quality and concept disentanglement. Beyond computer vision, A-SAE establishes a foundation for more reliable concept discovery across broader modalities, including LLMs and other structured data domains.Check outthe Paper.All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,feel free to follow us onTwitterand dont forget to join our80k+ ML SubReddit.The post Archetypal SAE: Adaptive and Stable Dictionary Learning for Concept Extraction in Large Vision Models appeared first on MarkTechPost.

Stereo depth estimation plays a crucial role in computer vision by allowing machines to infer depth from two images. This capability is vital for autonomous driving, robotics, and augmented reality applications. Despite advancements in deep learning, many existing stereo-matching models require domain-specific fine-tuning to achieve high accuracy. The challenge lies in developing a model that can be generalized across different environments without additional training.One of the key problems in stereo depth estimation is the domain gap between training and real-world data. Many current approaches depend on small, specific datasets that fail to capture the complexity of natural environments. This limitation results in models that perform well on controlled benchmarks but fail in diverse scenarios. Furthermore, fine-tuning these models for new domains is computationally expensive and impractical for real-time applications. Overcoming these challenges requires a more robust approach that eliminates the need for domain-specific training.Traditional stereo depth estimation methods rely on constructing cost volumes, which encode the disparity between image pairs. These methods utilize 3D convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for cost filtering but struggle with generalization beyond their training data. Iterative refinement techniques attempt to enhance accuracy by progressively improving disparity predictions. However, these approaches are limited by their reliance on recurrent modules, which increase computational costs. Some recent methods have explored transformer-based architectures but have faced challenges in effectively handling the disparity search space while maintaining efficiency.Researchers at NVIDIA introduced FoundationStereo, a foundation model designed to address these limitations and achieve strong zero-shot generalization. To build this model, the research team created a large-scale synthetic training dataset containing one million stereo-image pairs with high photorealism and diverse scenarios. An automated self-curation pipeline was developed to filter out ambiguous samples, ensuring high-quality training data. Further, the model incorporates a side-tuning feature backbone, which leverages monocular priors from existing vision foundation models. This adaptation bridges the gap between synthetic and real-world data, improving generalization without requiring per-domain fine-tuning.The methodology behind FoundationStereo integrates several innovative components. The Attentive Hybrid Cost Volume (AHCF) module is a key element that enhances disparity estimation by combining 3D Axial-Planar Convolution and a Disparity Transformer. The 3D Axial-Planar Convolution refines cost volume filtering by separating spatial and disparity information, leading to improved feature aggregation. Meanwhile, the Disparity Transformer introduces long-range context reasoning, allowing the model to process complex depth structures effectively. Moreover, FoundationStereo employs a hybrid approach, integrating a CNN with a Vision Transformer (ViT) to adapt monocular depth priors into the stereo framework. Combining these techniques ensures a more precise initial disparity estimation, which is further refined through iterative processing.Performance evaluation of FoundationStereo demonstrates its superiority over existing methods. To assess its zero-shot generalization capabilities, the model was tested on multiple datasets, including Middlebury, KITTI, and ETH3D. When trained solely on Scene Flow, FoundationStereo significantly reduced error rates compared to previous models. For instance, the Middlebury dataset recorded a BP-2 error of 4.4%, outperforming prior state-of-the-art methods. On ETH3D, it achieved a BP-1 error of 1.1%, further establishing its robustness. In KITTI-15, the model attained a D1 error rate of 2.3%, marking a significant improvement over previous benchmarks. Qualitative comparisons of in-the-wild images revealed its ability to handle challenging scenarios, including reflections, textureless surfaces, and complex lighting conditions. These results highlight the effectiveness of FoundationStereos architecture in achieving reliable depth estimation without fine-tuning.The research presents a major advancement in stereo-depth estimation by addressing generalization challenges and computational efficiency. By leveraging a large-scale synthetic dataset and integrating monocular priors with innovative cost-filtering techniques, FoundationStereo eliminates the need for domain-specific training while maintaining high accuracy across different environments. The findings demonstrate how the proposed methodology sets a new benchmark for zero-shot stereo-matching models and paves the way for more versatile applications in real-world settings.Check outthe Paper and GitHub Page.All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,feel free to follow us onTwitterand dont forget to join our80k+ ML SubReddit. NikhilNikhil is an intern consultant at Marktechpost. He is pursuing an integrated dual degree in Materials at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Nikhil is an AI/ML enthusiast who is always researching applications in fields like biomaterials and biomedical science. With a strong background in Material Science, he is exploring new advancements and creating opportunities to contribute.Nikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/This AI Paper Introduces BD3-LMs: A Hybrid Approach Combining Autoregressive and Diffusion Models for Scalable and Efficient Text GenerationNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/This AI Paper Introduces R1-Searcher: A Reinforcement Learning-Based Framework for Enhancing LLM Search CapabilitiesNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/This AI Paper Introduces RL-Enhanced QWEN 2.5-32B: A Reinforcement Learning Framework for Structured LLM Reasoning and Tool ManipulationNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/Visual Studio Code Setup Guide

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"British-Iranian architect, educator and writer Farshid Moussavi, founder of London-based architecture practice Farshid Moussavi Architecture, has been awarded the the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.The annual award is given to "architects of any nationality who have made a significant contribution to architecture as an art", with a prize of $20,000.The five winners of the American Academy of Arts and Letters' 2025 Awards in Architecture, which recognize both active architects and those who have made contributions to the field through other forms of expression, have been announced.Ismaili Center Houston, designed by Farshid Moussavi. Image courtesy of FMAFarshid Moussavi is a Honorary Member of World Architecture Community since 2008. She was a co-founder of Foreign Office Architects, known for the Yokohama International Ferry Terminal which opened in 2002. In 2011, Moussavi founded Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA) in London. The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, a curvaceous La Folie Divine tower in Montpellier, a multi-tenure residential complex in the La Dfense district of Paris, flagship stores for Victoria Beckham in London and Hong Kong are among key projects of FMA.With the establishment of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in 1955, Arts and Letters launched its annual architecture awards program, which has now grown to encompass four Arts and Letters Awards.The Arts and Letters members recommended a number of people and practices from which this year's honorees were selected. Meejin Yoon, who served as chair, Elizabeth Diller, Michael Maltzan, Toshiko Mori, Annabelle Selldorf, and Nader Tehrani were on this year's selection committee.Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, Neri&hu Design and Research Office. Image Jiaxi Yang & Zhu ZheTo honor American architects whose work exhibits a strong sense of personal direction, Andrs Jaque, Neri&Hu, and Young and Ayata will each receive a $10,000 Arts and Letters Award.Shanghai-based Neri&hu Design and Research Office is an interdisciplinary architectural design firm that was founded in 2004 by partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu. Master planning, architecture, interior design, furniture, product, branding, and graphic design are among the commissions in the practice's expanding worldwide portfolio.Recently, Neri&Hu created "a journey of surprise and discovery" for the interiors of Artyzen New Bund 31 Hotel in Shanghai. In addition, the firm brought a "museum-like quality" into the interior of the New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center in Shanghai. Moreover, the studio built a residential apartment that brings "a timeless aesthetic" to a Taipei neighborhood in Taiwan.Andrs Jaque. Image Miguel de Guzman via Columbia GSAPPAndrs Jaque, an architect, curator, and artist, is the dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). He is the founding principle of the Office for Political Innovation (OFFPOLINN).He established the Office for Political Innovation, a global architectural firm with offices in Madrid and New York, in 2003. For projects spanning a wide range of media and scales, he has won prizes.Office for Political Innovation's Run Run Run, a colorful intervention where its interiors contain suspended gardens, colorful bar stools, straw-looking ceiling and play areas. Image Jos HeviaJaque's practice is known for its "transectional" approach to architectural design in which he sees architecture "as the intervention on complex composites of relationships, where its agency is negotiated with the agency unfold by other entities."Professor Jaque's work has been displayed in galleries all over the world and is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.Mark Wigley, an architect and professor, will be honored with a $10,000 Arts and Letters Award, which honors individuals who use any form of expression to investigate architectural concepts.The annual ceremony of Arts and Letters in May will include the presentation of the architecture honors in addition to the art, literature, and music awards.An honor organization for writers, composers, architects, and artists, the American Academy of Arts and Letters encourages and fosters interest in the arts. Its 300 members present exhibitions, public talks, and events at our historic buildings in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City; fund concerts and new musical theater productions; buy and commission contemporary art to donate to museums nationwide; and distribute more than 70 awards each year.In 2017, socially-minded Burkinese architect Dibdo Francis Kr, founder of Kr Architecture, was awarded with the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2016, Phyllis Lambert was named as the winner of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.The top image in the article: Farshid Moussavi. Image Paul Phung.> via The American Academy of Arts and LettersFarshid Moussavi

Brief includes cost estimating and construction management for 2028 eventAecom has been appointed infrastructure partner for the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028.The firm will be in charge of the infrastructure programme for the games, which will see temporary venues and temporary overlays on existing permanent venues.The firms brief will include the architecture and engineering to deliver LA28 venues, as well as the programme management of their delivery.Source: ShutterstockThe Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which hosted the 1932 and 1984 Olympics, will again host track and field events and the opening ceremony for the 2028 gamesIts Aecom Hunt business will oversee the procurement process, cost estimating, scheduling and construction management of the venue infrastructure, the company added.Hunt is a US construction management business that was bought by Aecom in 2014 and whose roster of stadium jobs in the US includes the SoFi stadium in Los Angeles as well as several baseball stadia in Phoenix, Seattle and St Louis.Aecom has previously worked on the Tokyo, Rio and London Olympic games.

Scheme includes residential, commercial, and leisure spacesSource: Zaha Hadid Architects / negativSource: Zaha Hadid Architects / negativSource: Zaha Hadid Architects / negativSource: Zaha Hadid Architects / negativ1/4show captionZaha Hadid Architects has revealed its design for Cityzen Tower, its first project in Georgia.The 42-storey scheme in Tbilisis Saburtalo district will deliver a mix of residential apartments, as well as commercial and leisure space, as part of the wider Cityzen development.Located at the intersection of Mikheil Tamarashvili and University streets, the development sits on the site of the former Soviet military headquarters for central and south Caucasus. It forms part of a growing district that includes university, commercial and residential buildings.According to the practice, the design of Cityzen Tower is informed by the natural landscape of Tbilisi, referencing the citys rolling hills and river valleys. The towers composition features a series of cascading landscaped terraces that extend towards the adjacent 36-hectare Central Park.Source: Zaha Hadid Architects / negativThe building transitions from larger commercial floor plates at the base to a more compact residential plan above. Its external louvres are designed to reduce solar gain in summer while increasing solar exposure in winter to improve energy efficiency.The 57,000m development is designed to achieve LEED Gold certification. Cityzen Tower will also incorporate rainwater collection and reuse through an on-site reservoir, while landscaping across the development will use native plant species.The project is scheduled for completion in 2028.>> Also read:ZHA unveils one of Zaha Hadids last projects>> Also read:Zaha Hadid Architects profit jumps 38% as Middle East revenue more than doubles

A broad coalition drawn from across the ranks of Europes tech industry is calling for radical action from European Union lawmakers to shrink reliance on foreign-owned digital infrastructure and services to bolster the blocs economic prospects, resilience, and security in increasingly fraught geopolitical times.In an open letter to European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the EUs digital chief, Henna Virkkunen, which TechCrunch reviewed ahead of publication, more than 80 signatories (representing around 100 organizations) said they want regional lawmakers to rethink current support efforts so that they are centered on fostering uptake of homegrown alternatives with the strongest commercial potential from apps, platforms, and AI models to chips, computing, storage, and connectivity.Companies spanning areas including cloud, telecoms, defence, along with several regional business and startup associations, have put their names to the letter which was sent to the Commission on Sunday urging the bloc to switch its tech strategy onto a quasi-war footing by committing to support sovereign digital infrastructure.The plan pushes for reducing reliance on foreign-owned Big Tech by actively fostering development of a so-called Euro stack. The European digital infrastructure pitch is not coming out of thin air a Euro Stack paper written by, among others, the competition economist Cristina Caffarra was published in January fleshing out the strategy in some detail.There has also been, over the last half year or so, a smattering of conference chatter turning over the potential for enterprising Europeans to seize a geopolitically fraught moment to press the case for the EU to adopt a digital industrial strategy thats squarely focused on favoring local innovation. The rallying call to put European tech first backed by companies including Airbus, Element, OVHCloud, Murena, Nextcloud, and Proton, to name a few follows the shock of the Munich security conference, where U.S. Vice President JD Vance tore into Europe like an attack dog, leaving delegates in no doubt that the post-War international order is in tatters and all bets are off when it comes to what the U.S. might do under President Donald Trump.Key tech infrastructure thats owned and operated by U.S. companies doesnt look like such a solid buy, from a European perspective, if a presidential executive order can be issued forcing U.S. firms to switch off service provision or terminate a supply chain at a pen stroke.Imagine Europe withoutinternet search, email, or office software. It would mean the complete breakdown of our society. Sounds unrealistic? Well, something similar just happened to Ukraine, Wolfgang Oels, COO of the Berlin-based, tree-planting search engine Ecosia one signatory to the letter that was already taking steps aimed at reducing its dependency on U.S. Big Tech suppliers tells TechCrunch.Trump switched off access to vital infrastructures becauseUkraine was not ready to cede its land and hand over its minerals, Oels said. Europeans needsovereigntyin critical infrastructures and those do not only consist of energy and health, but certainly also digital ones.Vances recent turn in Paris, at the AI Action summit, also saw the U.S. vice president lay into European lawmaking as a barrier to innovation, and a barrier to U.S. tech supremacy. His message boiled down to do what we say or else as the Trump administration made it loud and clear its hell bent on retaining digital dominance as the world moves into an AI-accelerated era.The industry letter isnt only responding to external threats, though. It follows (and references) the 2024 Draghi report on EU competitiveness which has caused much hand-wringing in European capitals over what to do about slowing regional growth, but less clearly tangible action. (Hence its authors exasperated cry to lawmakers in the European Parliament just a few weeks ago to do something.)The coalitions missive offers a European tech industry first stab prescription for action, combined with a stark warning of the perils of the bloc continuing as is. Without urgent action to foster demand for European-made technologies ,theres a risk that U.S. hyperscalers takeover of critical digital infrastructure provision in areas like cloud computing will be complete, Euro Stack backers suggest explicitly predicting that: Europe will lose out on digital innovation and productivity growth without sweeping and urgent change.Our reliance on non-European technologies will become almost complete in less than three years at current rates, they go on to warn. So what is the specific something that this tech industry coalition is advocating for the EU to do?Buy EuropeanThe letter suggests the bloc could help stoke demand and unlock investment by adopting public procurement requirements that would require at least a portion of public bodies digital requirements to come from local providers (aka a Buy European mandate favoring European-led and assembled solutions).Industry will invest if there are adequate demand prospects, the letter writers say, going on to suggest, Prioritising areas where Europe can already deliver will be key to shifting resources fast to European suppliers, creating value and market in a virtuous circle.The aim is not to exclude non-European players, but to create space where European suppliers can legitimately compete (and justify investment), they add. Caffarra dubs procurement requirements a no brainer.We need the public sector to be told to buy European, or mostly European, she tells TechCrunch. Whats so bad about that? Americans do buy American, Chinese buy Chinese and we European say, oh, buy everything by all means.The argument is that in an America First world, where the worlds most powerful country cant be counted upon to have Europes back anymore, the EUs studious neutrality vis-a-vis where it invests its resources looks like a idealistic relic of a gentler age.While the public sector could be given Buy European mandates, for private sector buyers, Caffarra says a Euro Stack plan could include inducements to switch to homegrown providers whether through vouchers or some other support mechanism. Yes, they need to be subsidized, in some sense but were not talking about enormous, enormous sums, she suggests.Pooling and federatingOther recommendations set out in the letter include the EU taking steps to enable viable supply by encouraging European technologists to adopt a pooling and federating approach, including the development of common standards as a strategy to accelerate scaling of homegrown digital infrastructure.By working together on aligned approaches, the aim is to dial up European providers ability to compete against the likes of U.S. hyperscalers, such as in the case of cloud computing.This means again working with industry to inventory resources fast, supporting open source solutions and interoperability (both technically and commercially), aggregating best of breed existing assets, supporting onboarding with integration platforms and low compliance barriers while meeting localization and security imperatives, the letter suggests advocating for priority be given to projects that address basic infrastructural needs, such as hardware autonomy and sovereign cloud and platforms.While there have been past attempts in this direction notable, the Gaia-X effort launched back in 2020 which was aimed at powering up a European cloud to rival U.S. and Chinese providers that digital sovereignty push was effectively defanged once U.S. hyperscalers got let in.When AWS and Microsoft in particular, and Google, got into Gaia-X, they blew it up from inside, notes Caffarra.The letter also takes a stab at articulating why its so self-defeating for Europe to roll out the welcome mat to foreign hyperscalers whose expansionist, proprietary playbook is all about maximizing customer lock-in and rent extraction. With non-European corporations extracting value and concentrating power through proprietary technologies, openness (open science, standards, data) should be a pillar of Europes digital sovereign strategy, it contends.Signatories are also pushing the EU to support the development of harmonized requirements for public/private cloud users to opt to use sovereign cloud services for storing their sensitive data (such as a certification scheme) which is also framed as a security measure to guard against non-EU extraterritorial laws that might pose a risk to European data.They also want the bloc to review its existing EU Digital Decade strategy and, where necessary, repurpose existing plans to ensure funding is going to tangible, market relevant, result-oriented projects, as they put it.Furthermore, the letter calls for the EU to assess projects for potential funding through a business outcomes lens e.g. by using key performance indicators, critical success factors etc in order to ensure that EU funds go to services with strong adoption prospects.Redirecting and concentrating EU support on homegrown tech infrastructure that has the strongest potential to scale is core to the plan. Sovereign infrastructure fundOn funding, the letter makes a call for the EU to set up a Sovereign Infrastructure Fund to support public investments in European digital infrastructure especially in capital intensive areas of the tech value chain (such as chips and quantum computing).Caffarra argues that such a fund wouldnt require huge amounts of money smaller amounts could be strategically targeted, she suggests, such as towards maintaining open source infrastructure. The open source community in Europe is enormous and incredibly, incredibly capable, she argues. She also dismisses suggestions that there would be eye-wateringly high costs for implementing Euro Stack overall such as the 5 trillion+ price-tag thats been floated by U.S. trade group, Chamber of Progress, which counts several U.S. tech giants as members emphasizing that this isnt a call to rip out and replace everything. Rather its a plea to Europe to get on the same page and work collectively on a joined-up digital industrial strategy with the goal of increasing local capacity by building demand for foundational technologies that European companies are already able to provide.By locking in future demand, the Euro Stack pitch is that this will foster more local tech industry growth and innovation while helping the bloc chart a course towards greater autonomy in critical digital infrastructure.Still, on investment Caffarra concedes that there are other things that need to be done pointing to how many European entrepreneurs end up crossing the pond to look for VC funding, for example.A sovereign fund that invests in European startups? Heck yeah, we should have that, she adds, while still arguing that the sums involved can be relatively small, such as by focusing on early stage startups (vs showering helicopter money on established companies).Rethinking who leadsWhile the EU has been talking some of the talk on digital sovereignty under von der Leyens presidency, the Euro Stack coalition is essentially dismissing current efforts in this direction as poorly directed and, ultimately, wasted. Too much funding is flowing towards academia and experimental R&D in their analysis vs tangible commercial efforts which, given the right support to scale, could actually achieve the goal of strategic autonomy in digital infrastructure, is the suggestion. Hence why the letter is pushing the EU hard to accept an industry-led effort to turn this tanker vs continuing with top-down policymaking business as usual.Caffarras assessment of the EUs record on digital sovereignty is particularly withering she dubs its approach useless and argues that, for example, the EUs recent push to set up so called AI factories, as an AI ecosystem-building measure, is too reliant on academic consortia to deliver anything thats commercially valuable.The letter is a little less plain-speaking. But its essentially making the same appeal for the blocs lawmakers to get out of the way when it comes to critical decision-making in relation to Europes dwindling digital infrastructure prospects and instead lean into their convening powers to mobilise industry to actively help coordinate and validate a continent-wide strategy to power a European digital sovereign effort, as it puts it.To support Europe in this acute moment of crisis for our security and strategic autonomy, the Commission must urgently form and convene working groups with industry to transform its tech sovereignty ambition into concrete actions, the industry coalition suggests.TechCrunch reached out to the European Commission for a response to the Euro Stack pitch paper but at the time of writing it had not responded.Industry voicesA full list of signatories is included at the bottom of the letter but Caffarra sums up the collective ink as practically all of Europes cloud, telcos, software, open source etc, plus industrial giants like Airbus and defence like Dassault Systemes.She expects more companies to join as backers in the coming days (including from Europes AI ecosystem), but also claims that some that wanted to back the call didnt sign as theyre worried about retaliation from Big Tech since they are also their customers. (And its worth noting that French AI giant Mistral, which isnt currently a signatory to the letter, recently made its own plea for shrinking dependency on U.S. suppliers by buying European even as CEO and founder Arthur Mensch said pragmatism is needed as some digital infrastructure cant be acquired any other way).As well as tech companies, a range of regional business associations have put their name to the letter including the likes of Connect Europe (representing telcos), the OSBA (Open Source Business Alliance), European Digital SME Alliance, European Startup Network, and France Digitale to name a few.On startups Caffarra agrees that for some European entrepreneurs and their investors achieving an exit to U.S.-owned Big Tech is the endgame which could create some tension when it comes to supporting a strategy thats explicitly pulling in the other direction. (She name-checked one startup association that didnt sign as she said its members were open about their hopes to get in bed with Big Tech but well spare their blushes.)Thats one way out, she adds of this Big Tech exit playbook. Im not preventing that Im saying that there needs to be European alternatives to it.Europe first?Discussing why hes backing the Euro Stack proposal, Johan Christenson, founder of European cloud provider Cleura (formerly City Network) and now head of technology at the Swedish cloud provider Iver (another signatory), which acquired City Network in 2020 tells TechCrunch: The changes needed are so foundational I think Europe needs a new Airbus-like project around digital to stand a chance.While protectionism is growing in various places I think Europe needs to think different. By setting requirements such as use of open source or that a chat tool or video conference system need to be interoperable with all others, he goes on. Or making sure extensions in productivity tools adhere to standards approved by Europe so Libre office always will work great with Word or Power Point for instance.There needs to be some element of public procurement requirement as well.Any Yen, founder of Switzerland-based privacy tools maker Proton another signatory to the letter also says a big shift of mindset is needed.Historically the idea of thinking Europe First has been taboo, looked down on as being unseemly. And while the impulse to set a global example and play fair is admirable, its naive and has left Europe at a disadvantage, he warns, adding: America and China have always been America First and China First, Europe needs to do the same. European tech hasnt fallen behind due to a lack of skill, talent or creativity. Its fallen behind because of a lack of demand. For 30 years, European governments and companies have made the shortsighted decision to procure technology from the U.S. and China for short term cost savings, rather than making the strategic choice of investing in developing European capabilities. Fixing this demand problem is most easily done by requiring that European public sector buy European, creating the impetus for the development of Europes tech sector.Yen says the demand situation is so critical Europe needs not to level the playing field but actively tilt it in favor of homegrown tech. This is most easily done by fixing the demand problem by requiring public procurement (and perhaps even private procurement) to buy European, he suggests.Asked about the impact of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) the blocs flagship competition reform thats been up and running since March 2024. aiming to drive market contestability on Big Tech dominance Yen says he does not think the regulation is sufficient on its own. Hence Proton backing the Euro Stack call for more radical action.We see that now one year after the introduction of DMA, where nothing has materially changed and the marketshare of Big Tech in Europe is also unchanged, he tells TechCrunch. Simply put, even if DMA can shave a point off of American GDP through fines, it will do little to grow European GDP as it does not fundamentally create the demand necessary for GDP growth.He also doesnt mince his words in assessment the performance of the Commission arguing its prioritizing the Europe of the past instead of looking towards the Europe of the future.Successive generations of European entrepreneurs with the vision of what has to be done have come and gone and have been saying the same thing for decades perhaps now is the time to start listening to them, Yen adds.Frank Karlitschek, CEO and founder of German cloud services player Nextcloud another letter signatory emails a long list of answers when asked why he believes Europe needs a new approach and what are the risks of just doing more of the same, flagging a raft of data security and privacy risks, along with the looming threat of economic blackmail under the boot of an America First U.S. administration.The U.S. executive right now is showing they have no qualms using executive power, from tariffs to sanctions, to achieve completely unrelated goals, he notes, adding: More than ever before, U.S. cloud services can be a chokehold for political, economic or other reasons. And organizations are looking for better options.Changing European procurement rules to, for example, set a requirement that critical infrastructure must be 50-80% open source in a year or two would not cost the tax payer anything, Karlitschek suggests, but would create an explosion of new startups and innovation since European tech firms are better positioned to capitalize vs U.S. counterparts (which skew towards proprietary, rather than open source).More government contracts must be awarded to European open source companies, he also suggests, noting recent moves by the German government in this direction, and arguing: Digital sovereignty can only be achieved with open source software.Karlitschek also lauds efforts to agree standards that make it easier to move work loads from one cloud provider to another. One example is the recently launched open cloud industry standard API specification SECA which allows to deploy and run workloads seamlessly across different cloud environments, he notes. This enables the many European service providers to collectively form a network with greater scalability and continuity than each can provide individually.Similarly, smaller vendors can and should be encouraged to pool resources together into joint offerings, giving the public sector and large businesses more certainty in terms of continuity.In further remarks, Karlitschek calls for the EU to properly enforce its existing suite of digital regulations against Big Tech from privacy to antitrust rules suggesting robust action on compliance could help move the needle. The Big Tech firms are not facing many consequences for their gatekeeping and some fundamental issues around privacy are not addressed, he points out.However Caffarra has no truck with such fiddling sideshows. Shes convinced that a far bigger shift of mindset is needed; one that demands the EU get the heck out of its regulatory comfort zone. They are regulating the top [of the stack] search, social networks, e-commerce and app stores; these are the things that the DMA is focused on. These are the products, she emphasizes, when asked why the EU robustly enforcing its existing rules isnt the answer to digital autonomy. We are talking about infrastructure that lies below it so compute, cloud, connectivity, chips. So the DMA is not bothered with that.The key point that the regions lawmakers must grok and fast is that almost all tech infrastructure is now outside European control, warns Caffarra and that calls for a radical new survival strategy, not a tweak of the dial.

For Ashleigh Killa, co-founder of The MAAK in South Africa, buildings are an expression of care and engagementAshleigh Killa is shortlisted in the 2025 Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture, part of the W Awards. Read the full announcementMost of the Western Capes sprawling Winelands towns have two stories to tell: one of idyllic luxury destinations; and the other, visible just as you take the next corner, of the lives of seasonal farmworkers and manual labourers who service that luxury. The littleknown town of RiebeekKasteel, about an hour outside Cape Town along its West Coast Way, is no exception.A few minutes drive from RiebeekKasteel is a remnant of apartheid spatial planning which today remains a lowincome, coloured community. This suburb has been extended in the last five years, with the municipality providing serviced plots to the community, but no built structures. As a result, a whole new area of selfbuilt zinc homes New Rest Valley has developed. It is among these homes that the New Rest Valley Crche raises its head, at once a remarkable sight, and a beacon of hope not just for the families it services, but for the community at large. The only built infrastructure in the area, it was completed in 2023 on a narrow plot of land, sitting flush against selfbuilt homes at one end, while adjacent to vacant land earmarked for a public park on the other. That this land has remained vacant throughout the design, build and opening of the crche is telling. Government projects take a long time to come into fruition here, if indeed at all. New Rest Valley Crche was realised thanks to donor funding coordinated through the local volunteering organisation Rotary Club of Newlands, while the sustained management and maintenance of the facility is assured through the Vuya Foundation, a nonprofit organisation working in the province.With its clean lines, simple materiality and subtle detailing, the building is made to service around 90 children in three classrooms. The playground area runs along these classrooms, shaded by a wall of perforated blocks. Large openings in the roof sheltering the playground welcome in light, as well as allow the growth of wild pear trees, which aid in ventilation and cooling. Jutting out to the skies, these trees are as much an aesthetic detail as they are functional.The first floor of the building is designed as a caretakers quarters, with two rooms currently used as storage and a bathroom. This area is spacious enough to potentially function as an overflow classroom, though there has not yet been a need for this. The northfacing porthole windows on this level are a defining feature of the building, and provide a vantage point not just of the playground, but of the greater area.Pops of colour are thoughtfully used and appear throughout the crche, which is fitting given the little end users, who range in age from two to five years. These pops extend to the rubber surface of the playground. During the building process, architects The MAAK arranged a play day for children from the community, giving them the space to share the kinds of games they ordinarily play on the street. These games informed the shapes and patterns imprinted on the rubber, and send the crucial message that these childrens voices matter. As The MAAK co-founder Ashleigh Killa observes, we are not the experts in play any more. This gesture of carefully engaging with the people who will occupy the building is something the practice incorporates in all their projects. Killa favours an approach that is built on empathy, which she says can only truly be achieved by keeping quiet to make room for listening.The MAAK was founded by Killa and Max Melvill in 2016, with the goal of making social impact architecture an idealistic endeavour at the time. Her vision for this kind of work became clear after a stint at a Cape Townbased firm where Killa was designing extravagant homes for the 1 per cent in between her undergrad and postgrad years. It took being in that space to know where and how she wanted to focus her own practice. The MAAKs establishment was propelled by the commission to design a significant public building for the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, a nonprofit in the Cape Town township of Masiphumelele. Being exposed to a project of this scale in the very early days of the practice meant that they had the freedom to carve out their own rules and methods of working, alongside the guidance of mentors. It taught Killa the importance of knowing that you dont know.Killa is part of a generation of South Africans who came of age in the postapartheid Rainbow Nation, where the need for change was very real and urgent. As a result, she was set on an architecture that could effect change, even if that meant merely chipping at the surface. She believes that change can happen slowly and incrementally, and through small initiatives that probe bigger issues. For example, The MAAKs Follies in the Veld programme, which has taken place every year since the practices inception, offers a space for learning through collaboration. Comprising up to 20 volunteer participants from various backgrounds, each edition is themed around a different material, and concludes with a largescale installation, often in lowincome or rural settings. It provides an opportunity for experimentation and prototyping not just with design and materiality but exploring what can be achieved by building in community with each other.The MAAKs approach is strongly influenced by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamaras Freespace Manifesto, which was issued in 2018 when the pair curated the Venice Architecture Biennale. The manifesto encourages designers to think beyond form and function in favour of a more peoplecentred, socially conscious approach to architecture. Freespace encompasses freedom to imagine, the free space of time and memory, binding past, present and future together, building on inherited cultural layers, weaving the archaic with the contemporary, reads the concluding line of the manifesto.One can see how this manifesto has been formative in Killas practice, and continues to inform The MAAKs projects. For the recently completed Rahmaniyeh Primary School Library in Cape Towns District Six, the practice thought carefully about the conditions of the site as a social space. Once more, The MAAK consulted learners in a series of workshops to get a better understanding from the expert end users themselves. For example, for the design of a bookshelf, learners were prompted to draw and make models of the space in which they felt the books should live. At the time of writing, these ideas were in the process of being built by local designers Pedersen + Lennard. It was in these workshops, too, that The MAAK were reminded of the ways in which the children best engage with books lying on their tummies in a calm, quiet space was the preference, and as a result, the library is fitted with soft finishings and various spaces for lying down and sitting. Childrens imaginations are so untamed, its a joy to tap into them to free us from our practical and compliant constraints, says Killa.Like New Rest Valley Crche, this project was funded by the Rotary Club of Newlands, while its operations are supported by the nonprofit Otto Foundation, which champions early literacy by encouraging reading for enjoyment. The foundation has an excellent track record with similar projects, and the architects worked very closely with the childcentred design specialist on the Otto team, Xanel Purn.In addition, the practice collaborated with land activist and artist Zayaan Khan to fire bricks containing rubble of the areas tragically demolished buildings to build the structure. In the 1960s, District Six was declared a whitesonly area under South Africas Group Areas Act. As a result, the vibrant and diverse communities of District Six were forcibly removed; its homes, places of gathering and all infrastructure demolished, leaving in its wake a trauma that the victims and their families are still grappling with today. This intervention by The MAAK and Khan (herself a descendant of evictees) is a sensitive acknowledgement of the deep and troubled context within which they are working.The MAAK has recently completed a new library for the Rahmaniyeh Primary School in CapeTowns District Six.Working alongside child-centred design specialist Xanel Purn, aswell as the children themselves, the architects arrived at a design for theinterior which will encourage the young endusers to read in variousways, both seatedand lying downCredit:The MAAKThe principles of the practices ethos are also being applied to a current public work in progress in Stellenbosch, the Kayamandi MultiSport Community Facility commissioned by the Open Play Foundation. With a brief to design a sports facilities hub for the benefit of the community, The MAAK are reimagining the space as a precinct that encompasses the surrounding activity and behaviours, with the potential to bring together people from both sides of the Stellenbosch privileged/underprivileged divide.The MAAKs projects are threaded with their capacity for empathy and listening, which Killa says is what architecture needs now. But such projects need better financing. At the moment architecture is reserved for people who can afford it, she says, but finding the projects that are delivering to anyone and everyone is really important otherwise we are obsolete. That is not to say things are at the same place they were when The MAAK founded their practice. Killa is confident that their work in this space is being recognised and understood. Corporate social investment and social impact partnerships are finally recognising these kinds of projects, says Killa, in ways that are incentivised, supportive and generative.2025-03-17Reuben J BrownShare AR March 2025W AwardsBuy Now

Generative AI tools are transforming professional writing, but most users aren't maximizing their ... [+] potential.Adobe StockGenerative AI tools like ChatGPT are changing the way people write. This is both exciting and scary for professionals and those who simply enjoy reading and writing.The concept of AI taking on what is to us a very simple but intrinsically human task like writing does have big implications. How will it affect human creativity? Will all writing start to sound the same?I dont think AI is going to replace good human writers. No one wants to read robotic, generic text that reads like algorithms assembled it.On the other hand, it can be a powerful tool to help writers organize ideas, structure work, critically assess their own output, and ultimately hone their writing skills.The difference between getting tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to write for you and using them to improve your own writing is all in the prompts (the natural language instructions telling the AI what you want.)As with any instructions, more detail means more likely to hit the mark. So here are some prompts designed to help writers, editors and anyone who enjoys communicating and expressing their ideas in writing.These were written for ChatGPT but should work fine with other chatbots like Google Gemini or Claude.1. Critically Assess Your WritingOne of the most powerful features of ChatGPT (and the other language-based chatbots out there) is its ability to review work and suggest ways it can be improved. You can cut and paste your writing into the chatbot after the prompt or upload it as a file.Prompt: Critically assess this texts clarity, logic, and factual accuracy. Evaluate how successfully it communicates its core message and addresses reader interest. Check for completeness and that no important aspect of the subject has been overlooked, bearing in mind the length and scope of the text. Provide a report giving steps that can be taken to improve it, for example, further research or more data.2. When You Just Cant Remember That WordEvery writer has that moment when the perfect word eludes them. Just replace the stand-in with the word that comes closest in meaning to the one you want to use!Prompt: Please study this text and give me 10 options for replacing the word <stand-in> with a better word:3. Smash Through Writers BlockAnother problem that affects every writer at some point. Some writers say the best way to deal with it is just to write through it. This prompt generates writing exercises that might help you do that (they work for me anyway).Prompt: Please generate 5 short writing exercises targeted at helping me overcome writers block. My goal is to write a (blog post/novel/speech etc). Ideas or subjects I am interested in writing about include <insert ideas, subjects and topics>. The exercises should all be aimed at inspiring me to work towards my goal.4. Proofreading And EditingEssential steps that are easily rushed or overlooked. Proofreading should obviously never be left entirely to AI. But it can save a lot of time by giving your writing a first read-through and pointing out easy improvements.Prompt: Proofread this text, checking for factual errors, grammatical accuracy, spelling and punctuation mistakes, or typographical errors. Then, edit the text for consistency of writing style, clarity of language, readability, and structure. Provide me with a summary of the changes made during these processes, as well as an edited version of the text.5. Persuade Your AudienceWriting persuasively is a valuable skill in many aspects of life, from persuading someone to give you a job interview to appealing a parking fine. This prompt analyzes a piece of text to understand how persuasive it is and to provide tips to make it more so:Prompt: The purpose of this text is to persuade the reader that <what?>. Please analyze the content, tone and structure to assess how persuasive it is, and provide a list of tips for improving its persuasiveness.Building Better PromptsThe term writing covers a huge spectrum of human activity and many disciplines, from drafting technical instruction manuals to novels and plays to the copy we see on every piece of product packaging. Whatever flavor of wordsmith you are, though, its likely you can find a way to use AI to make you more efficient, productive, thorough and polished.Will some writers lose their jobs to AIs? Yes, and I believe the evidence suggests some already have. But those who are willing to adapt to new ways of working and adopt new technologies, like generative AI in their toolkit, wont find themselves short of opportunities.