When OpenAI debuted its image-generation feature in ChatGPT last week, social media exploded when users realized that they could make AI-generated images that looked like something out of an animated film from Studio Ghibli. Fans hoped that Studio Ghibli mastermind Hayao Miyazaki would take a stand, but the 84-year-old animator has remained silent. In the Ghibli fan subreddit, however, fans are enforcing a long-standing ban against AI art.I just noticed about a dozen different BAN AI NOW posts here seemingly spurred on by an influx of AI Ghibli art on other sites, a moderator posted to the Ghibli subreddit last week. We dont allow AI art. We havent allowed it basically since it became a thing.These fans dont see the AI-generated copies as an homage to the iconic artist. Rather, these generative AI models are trained on copyrighted images from artists like Miyazaki, who never gave OpenAI or any of its competitors permission to use their work as such.This issue is one thats impacted other creators and writers, too. The New York Times and other publishers have sued OpenAI, alleging that the company used its copyrighted materials to train its models without payment or consent. Similar complaints have been filed against Meta and Midjourney.The Ghibli situation struck a particularly strong nerve among fans since the studios mastermind, Hayao Miyazaki, has been vocal about his hatred for AI-generated artwork.I cant watch this stuff and find it interesting, Miyazaki said in documentary footage from 2016 in which he was shown AI-generated 3D animation. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted.People have also generated portraits in the style of Pixar movies or Dr. Seuss illustrations. Even the White Houses X account posted a Ghibli-style image, crudely mocking a woman for crying while being handcuffed by ICE.As more Ghiblified images spread across the internet, fans of the legendary 84-year-old animator resurfaced his commentary to discourage others from imitating his work, but the damage had already been done. Of course, not all of these are Ghibli-style images, but the popularity of these images has stretched the AI companys capacity.OpenAIs Brad Lightcap, who oversees day-to-day operations at the company, said that over 130 million users have generated more than 700 million images with this new ChatGPT feature. The range of visual creativity has been extremely inspiring, Lightcap wrote.

RADiCAL, which specializes in AI-powered motion capture and real-time 3D content creation, has launched RADiCAL 4.0. The update to their signature toolset comes with improvements to motion realism, a virtual cinematography tool, mobile optimization, and a new flexible subscription plan.RADiCAL 4.0 isnt just an upgrade its a major expansion of our toolset, said CEO Gavan Gravesen. With our most advanced AI yet, were delivering greater realism, enhanced cinematography, and more creative possibilities for end-to-end 3D content creation. Now, creators can access it all in real time, collaboratively - directly through the web.At the core of RADiCAL 4.0 is its latest AI model, built to understand human motion; the footlock feature aims to ensure more natural, grounded movement.Our latest AI model has been trained to understand the concept of footlock deeper than ever before, said CTO Matteo Giuberti. This has been and will continue to be a top priority for us. Achieving high-quality footlock is one of the most time-consuming and crucial tasks for 3D character animators, as sharp and organic footlock is an essential trait of believable human motion.RADiCAL also offers RADiCAL VCam, a virtual camera allowing filmmakers to pilot their shots inside of their RADiCAL scenes using a mobile device or tablet (iOS & Android). RADiCAL VCam gives full control over virtual cinematography with industry-standard sensor size, crop factor, and lens configurations, plus a custom depth-of-field simulation that mirrors real-world camera setups. Released in Beta, additional functionality will be added to RADiCAL VCam.RADiCAL 4.0 also introduces mobile optimization to access, review, and share RADiCAL projects on the go.To make RADiCAL accessible for all use cases, users can now subscribe with a monthly payment plan, eliminating the upfront annual commitment.RADiCAL 4.0 is available now. Visit RADiCAL for a free account.Source: RADiCAL Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologistL'Wrenbrings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.

Visitors encounter community spaces enlivened with colorful artwork from murals to a covered events plaza before even entering Portland, Oregons renovated and expanded Midland Library by Colloqate and Bora Architecture & Interiors. Near the entrance are a series of orange and pink hexagonal sculptures resembling childrens building blocks, by the artist team HYBYCOZO. A new entry canopy provides a covered space for farmers markets, fairs, and other events. The canopys underside is festooned with a vibrant collage in tropical colors of people, flora, and fauna by artists Lillyanne Pham and Paola De La Cruz. Its metal overhang and adjacent facade panels are inscribed with symbols of stars, mountains, suns, and rippling water, drawn from the cultures of people who live in the surrounding neighborhoods. Inside, where a security checkpoint has been removed, the foyer offers information about upcoming events: a teen council, a graphic novel book club, and drop-in violin lessons. In the nearby double-height central space, beneath a ceiling mural depicting the nearby Columbia River, shelves are lined with books in not only English but Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, and Spanish.The library is a double-height space, with a ceiling mural depicting the nearby Columbia River. (Josh Partee)Though books are a librarys reason for being, the Midland building itself, through its interwoven artwork, interactive and community spaces, and an overall welcoming spirit, is like a collection of stories. I cant overemphasize how central that is to the work that we do, because people live their lives and recount their lives through stories, Karim Hassanein, codirector of New Orleansbased Colloqates Portland office, told AN. The art and the architecture are not separate when it comes to creating a sense of place and reflecting culture. They have to work together. Midland is among the first projects completed in a multiyear, $387 million bond-funded campaign to renovate and replace eight Multnomah County Library (MCL) branches, most of which are several miles east of Portlands downtown, a part of the city where the patron base is demographically diverse. We have so many different communities and cultures represented, so many age groups from very young to very old, which for me is the leading edge of library service, said Midland Library administrator Greta Gutierrez.The existing Midland branch, completed in 1996 and designed by Portlands Hacker Architects (replacing the circa 1958 original), established the axial, natural-light-filled space that remains today. But the library lacked community meeting spaces. Its entrance, at the buildings southeast corner beside a busy thoroughfare, also presented some challenges to creating that neighborhood feel, Gutierrez said.The librarys interwoven artwork and community spaces reflect a desire to connect to the buildings raison dtre: storytelling. (Josh Partee)Colloqate and Boras redesign added 6,000 square feet, and now Midland is fronted by glass-walled community rooms and an art gallery. Because the entrance was relocated from the southeast corner to the midpoint of the buildings south facade, near these new spaces and with a larger foyer, it becomes more of a social space and a crossroads rather than a pass-through area. We have a better ability to see people coming in and help them, Gutierrez explained.Colloqate and Portlands Bora, the design architect and architect of record, respectively, deliberately blurred those roles in an equal exchange of ideas. Since its 2017 founding by Bryan Lee, Jr., the nonprofit Colloqate has become a leader in the burgeoning design justice movement. Its framework prioritizes the input of marginalized communities throughout the design process. Still, Lee, a Harvard University Graduate School of Design visiting critic and the current president of the National Organization of Minority Architects, became wary of Colloqate being pigeonholed as an engagement firm, he explained. The whole point of design justice is that engagement and design are not distinctly different processes. Its one process. So our ability to have conversations that influence a design is necessarily the next evolution of what this type of work should be, specifically in civic, cultural, and community spaces.The librarys redesign maintained the light-filled spaces and included subtle changes, such as lowering the height of bookshelves to improve visibility. (Josh Partee)Colloqate and Bora first partnered on a workforce training center for Portland Community College in 2023 and have collaborated on renovations for an additional MCL branch and (with LEVER Architecture) Portlands Jefferson High School. After Hassanein and architect Sophia Xiao-fan Austrins decided to leave Bora to open their own design justicefocused firm, Lee invited them to instead cofound Colloqates first office outside New Orleans.As one of Boras first city library projects, Midlands design drew from the firms portfolio of performing arts facilities, which, like libraries, increasingly accommodate myriad activities from morning to evening. The traditional model of a library, you have a majority of spaces used for the collection. In this new model we worked with MCL to turn it into three buckets, said Bora principal Jeanie Lai. One is tables and seating where people can hang out. One is the collection. And then one is meeting spaces. We tried to make them all equal in the use of space: a community-centric library for modern times. Thanks to a separate operations center and warehouse nearby, Midland can offer a rotating curation of books based on whats popular. Plus the height of bookshelves lining the librarys main space was deliberately lowered in the new design for better visibility. For staff, its easier now to track whats going on from one end to the other without running around, Lai explained.Just beyond the bookstacks is the gathering circle, a multiuse space formed by curving benches and seating, inspired by Indigenous gathering circles and Black story circles, framed by a Kanani Miyamoto mural. An adjacent childrens area includes interactive play features and books in several languages; teen spaces and sensory rooms are also available. An outdoor interactive childrens garden, designed by Portland landscape architecture firm Place, is accessible through a nearby glass door.Curving benches and seating were inspired by Indigenous gathering circles and Black story circles. (Josh Partee)A combination of community meetings and engagement programs with paid facilitators guided public input into a variety of design choices, from the interior color palette to the exterior canopy. Ive worked in libraries since the 90s, including a brand-new library opening. Ive never seen a process like this before, with such free-flowing ideas, Gutierrez said.Midlands community engagement has continued well past the design stage, to establish a continuing feedback loop that may lead to additional changes over time. The hope is that this dialogue will also expose the design profession to new voices.Hopefully some kid that we involved actually looks into architecture because they were like, This is kind of fun. I want to do this, and it feels possible, Hassanein said. Thats how were going to change and diversify the profession.Brian Libby is an architecture and arts journalist based in Portland.

After a successful 16th season, Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF) is now looking ahead to its 20252026 programming. The film festival centers the creative spirit of all things connected to architecture and design from around the world.In this last season, ADFF added two new stops to its lineup, hosting screenings at Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut, and in Mumbai, India. Both locations will now be included in its annual cycle, ADFF shared. Dates for the 20252026 season:ADFF:NY October 1418ADFF:LA October 2125ADFF:Vancouver November 59ADFF:Toronto November 1215ADFF:Mumbai January 2026Humanity in Architecture at Grace Farms January 30 and 31, 2026ADFF:Chicago February 2026Looking back at the close to its 20242025 season, for ADFFs Mumbai event in January, the festival partnered with media agency STIR. A series of programming accompanied the screenings: Talks, music performances, games, workshops, and dance were part of a themed program under the moniker ~log(ue).Samta Nadeem curated ~log(ue) at ADFF:Mumbai, which brought talks, performance, and more to the film festival programming. (Courtesy ADFF)The multifaceted curation of the ~log(ue) programme was aimed at instigating the much-needed interdisciplinary conversations within the creative community and fostering intelligible dialogues between practitioners and the wider public, said Samta Nadeem, who curated ~log(ue) at ADFF:Mumbai and is curatorial director at STIR. ADFF:Mumbai also hosted the Pavilion Park, an initiative that brought ten site-specific pavilions designed by architects, from India and elsewhere, to the open-air plaza at the National Center for the Performance Arts.Also returning for the 20252026 season will be screenings and talks presented in partnership with cultural and humanitarian center Grace Farms.In January, ADFF partnered with the nonprofit for a two-day event on the expansive SANAAdesigned campus. The theme of the programming centered the idea of Humanity in Architecture; this will be the focus again next year.

The Altair 8800, the first commercially successful personal computing device. Boston Globe/Getty ImagesHave I told you the story about Bill Gates and me in those early days of personal computing?To be clear: Bill Gates is older than I am. In 1975, as Bill was leaving Harvard to start Microsoft, I had just skipped my last year of high school and started college. I was the youngest student in engineering school that first year -- the same year Bill and I were using the same computer technology: the Altair 8800 and the Digital Equipment PDP-10.My high school computing experience -- like Bill's -- was formative. However, I never wanted to be a computer scientist. I wanted to build nuclear reactors.Also: Microsoft at 50: Its incredible rise, 15 lost years, and stunning comeback - in 4 chartsIn high school, I was still grappling with being a teenager, convincing the adults that I needed to be in engineering school instead of coasting through senior year, trying to persuade Amy Katz to let me buy her ice cream, failing the high school's mandatory typing class, and wondering how I was supposed to deal with the teletype that was initially the sole component of our computer "lab." From nukes to PCsHere's what broke me and sent me on this wacky course I call my career. I sat down at that teletype and pressed the Return key. It responded with "READY." You need to put this in a 1970s perspective. Today, we talk to ChatGPT and get Star Trek computer-like responses. But back then, machines were not interactive. So when that teletype responded with "READY," it rewired my brain forever. It was interactive. It was different. It changed everything about what my relationship with machines could be.But let's take a moment and return to when Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft. I mentioned the Altair 8800 because that machine was the first commercially successful personal computing device. Before Ed Roberts started MITS (the company that made the Altair), computers were big -- room-scale, gymnasium-size big. The idea of a personal computer was pure science fiction. Then, in 1974, Roberts introduced the Altair 8800 through an article in Popular Electronics. Roberts and the magazine editors were offering regular people the opportunity to own and use a computer.As the story goes, the Altair didn't come with any software. Geeks could tinker with it and toggle programs on the front panel, but there wasn't any real programming language beyond the Intel 8080 assembly language. Gates and Allen saw the opportunity to produce a BASIC interpreter for the machine and pitched it to Roberts. According to legend, no code had been written when they originally spoke to MITS about their programming language. It was only once they were invited to show the code to Roberts and his team that Gates and Allen got to coding. The full story of that experience is chronicled in a 50th Anniversary blog post by Gates published this week. I recommend you read it. I mentioned our mutual use of the DEC PDP-10 computer. Well, Gates and Allen wrote the original basic on Harvard's PDP-10, before bringing it down to Albuquerque-based MITS to demonstrate. Building my own Altair 8800 Until I built my first Altair 8800, I lived in my engineering school's computer center, typing code into our PDP-10 until the wee hours of the night (and often through the night and into the next day). I couldn't afford the $1,500 or so that the original fully assembled Altair 8800 cost back then, which would be more than $7,000 now. So I waited a few years until people started to get tired of their Altairs or failed to make them work. I bought parts at swap meets at very steep discounts and horse-traded my way to having enough components to build a full machine. Over the course of a summer at my parent's home, I built the machine, hand-soldered the hundreds of wires to the front panel, and even toggled in a bootloader that enabled BASIC to be loaded into the machine.After about a week toggling all that code in, one byte at a time, my Dad decided to work on a circuit somewhere in the house and shut off the power to my room. I had to spend another week doing it all over again, but I eventually got a working computer.We also need to put Microsoft's BASIC language into perspective. Programming languages are often described as "higher-level languages." That's because the native language of the machine, called machine language or assembly language, is both very tied to a given machine's architecture and very granular. You don't add two numbers together. You move bits around -- bit-by-bit -- until some set of combinatorial operations results in a sum. Higher-level languages are written with more functionality per statement. The code is compiled (converted all at once) or interpreted (converted statement by statement) into something the machine can understand. Gates and Allen first wrote a program on the PDP-10 that emulated the machine code of the Intel 8080; then they wrote an interpreter that translated BASIC code dynamically and interactively into 8080 code the processor could run. Also:It's back! Microsoft and IBM open source MS-DOS 4.0Writing in BASIC was fun, creative, and empowering. Writing in machine code or its related assembler language was tedious and incredibly time-consuming. So, without a BASIC programming language for the Altair (and later for Apple machines), the personal computer industry wouldn't have taken off. Individual computers would have been too painful to use and likely would have seen service only in labs and industrial uses.The brilliance of BASICAlso, don't discount the feat of coder brilliance that Allen and Gates pulled off. It was impressive as hell to code an 8080 emulator and an entire BASIC interpreter in those days. If you look through that first code that they produced, you can see the care they took to make it both functional and maintainable. Yes, I said, "If you look through that first code." That's because, concurrent with Bill's blog entry celebrating 50 years, he's also releasing a PDF of that first BASIC source code. I haven't read through all 157 pages of tractor-feed fan-fold paper, but I have had the pleasure of scanning several pages. This is some seriously old-school, hard-core stuff right there.Young Bill and Paul had some serious chops. I met Bill only once. I had dinner with him about a dozen years after Microsoft was formed. He was well on his way to making his first billion, and I had just started my first software company. MS-DOS was dominant on PCs, and Windows was still mostly a concept prototype. Also:Dell turns 40: How a teenager transformed $1,000 worth of PC parts into a tech giantWe met because he was the guest speaker -- and I was on the board of directors -- for Silicon Valley's Software Entrepreneurs' Forum. One of the perks of board membership was sharing the head table with our guest speakers each month. I made it my business to sit right across from each of the luminaries at each event. Not only did I get to meet them, I got to talk to them and learn from them. Bill's unexpected adviceI asked Bill what advice he had for a newly minted software startup founder. I expected some wisdom about software lifecycles or hiring good engineers. Instead, he told me to mind my cash flow. "Cash flow is everything," he said. Yes, the advice I got from the guy who would become the richest man in the world (at least until recently) was about minding my cash flow. I took that lesson to heart and my businesses did pretty well. Not millionaire or billionaire well, but they did well enough to support my family and those of the people who worked for me. Thinking back on that BASIC implementation and the Bill and Paul of 50 years ago, it's clear that my career as a whole benefited from their work. While no longer a popular language, BASIC was easy to learn and use. It's fallen out of favor because it's not that easy to maintain and doesn't scale as well as modern languages. But it was a gateway drug for a lot of early PC programmers. Also:Dell turns 40: How a teenager transformed $1,000 worth of PC parts into a tech giantWhen I was in engineering school, I used big iron. But it was PCs that sparked my imagination. It turned out I was very good at operating system design, language design, and overall computer science. Unfortunately, despite my desire to go into nuclear engineering, I was far from a star nuke student. By sophomore year, I'd used up all the college's computing curricula and started taking (and then teaching) graduate school computer science courses. I was still barely making it through the first few physics classes required for nuclear engineering. My academic advisor, who knew of my Altair build and my affinity for these new personal computers, strongly advocated I move out of the nuclear engineering program and fully embrace computer science. I don't know if I'd have had that affinity for PCs if Microsoft's BASIC didn't run on them. I never liked assembly language programming. I wonder whether I would have been stuck underground, getting my body parts irradiated, and living on the edge of civilization as a barely adequate nuclear engineer had I not developed an affinity for PCs -- an affinity that BASIC made possible in my very early formative years. As one does, I eventually moved on to other languages -- and, in fact, to many other languages. But BASIC, and particularly that BASIC for that Altair 8800 machine, still holds a special place in my heart. Also:The Mac turns 40: How Apple's rebel PC almost failed again and againSo, on behalf of all the middle-aged programming geeks worldwide who cut their teeth on Microsoft BASIC, I raise my cup of Kirkland Pacific Bold to Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Ed Roberts, and all the early ones -- yes, that includes Steve and Steve from Apple -- who brought personal computing to the rest of us. What about you? Did you get your start in computing with BASIC, or maybe even on an Altair or PDP-10? Were you around when Microsoft first entered the scene -- or did you come in later and discover the magic of early personal computing secondhand? How did you first get hooked on programming, and what role did Microsoft's early software play, if any? Let us know in the comments below. You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly update newsletter, and follow me on Twitter/X at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, on Bluesky at @DavidGewirtz.com, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.Get the biggest stories in tech every Friday with ZDNET's Week in Review newsletter.More Microsoft

If you're looking for headphones with sonic clarity and brilliant EQ, the Dali IO-8 will transport you to audio nirvana.

Samsung's new Galaxy Tab S10 FE. Samsunggiving away free wearables to smartphone buyers, Samsungs new Galaxy Tab S10 FE has landed with a fresh 10% voucher code to offset the unexpected $50 price hike.The new mid-range tablet now starts at $499 for the base model and $649.99 for the Plus option, both $50 more than last years Galaxy Tab S9 FE range. The Korean company has tried to soften this blow with freebies, store credit and a new voucher code.Lets start with the voucher code TABFE10, which only works in the Samsung Shop app and knocks 10% off the total price. This worked for me in the U.K. app and brought the price down to the launch price of the base Galaxy Tab S9 FE when it was released last year (449). Let me know if the app code worked for you in the U.S. or other countries.It seems that the price hike and subsequent 10% off code is essentially a marketing gimmick to get people to download and use the Samsung Shop app, because it brings the price down to the same as the previous generation. Unfortunately, Samsungs long-running APP5 code, which knocks 5% off all items for first-time app users, cant be stacked alongside the new voucher.For serious deal hunters, its worth adding random products to your basket in the Samsung Shop app, because Samsung runs so many concurrent promotions that you might get a free wearable or discover a random bundle discount. While testing to see if the TABFE10 code worked on other devices, I discovered that the Korean company is giving away a free pair of Galaxy Buds 3Pro with Galaxy S25 purchases.Samsung Stacks Galaxy Tab S10 FE DiscountsElsewhere, Samsung is offering a $50 store credit in exchange for your email address. Samsung often runs this promotion before the launch of a major new device, as it did with the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S24 before that. The $50 credit cant be used on the Galaxy Tab 10FE itself, instead, it has to be applied to additional eligible products as the terms and conditions state. Typically this means a case, which will likely be priced at exactly $50.Samsung is also promising up to $350 trade-in credit when buying the Galaxy Tab S10 FE, which includes a minimum $100 trade-in for any tablet. We will have to wait until the device launches on April 10th to see how much your old tech is worth, but experience tells us that the $350 is reserved for unrealistic trade-ins, such as gadgets released in the last two years. There is a sweet spot for older devices that fetch high prices, however. Check out my story on how you can use Samsungs generous trade-in pricing to your advantage here. Dont forget to hit the follow button below for the latest deals and tech news.

Space Intelligence's co-founders, Chief Scientist, Professor Ed Mitchard (l), and CEO, Dr. Murray ... More Collins (r). Photo taken in route to measure the carbon sequestration potential of tree for a project to develop carbon credits.Space IntelligenceForest-based carbon credits have been met with widespread skepticism over the past few years, with media reports claiming that most of these projects are worthless. Maximizing the atmospheric carbon emissions sequestered by our planet requires that we overcome such doubt, stop deforestation and engage in intelligent reforestation projects.Realizing the importance of preserving forested ecosystems, I was overjoyed to learn of the work of UK-based Space Intelligence and meet the firms co-founder and Chief Scientist, Professor Ed Mitchard.Many share my enthusiasmthe company raised $7 million in a second round of venture funding from smart-money investors and sealed a deal with a major financial exchange to provide data to underpin billions of dollars worth of commodity contracts.Mitchard and his co-founder, Dr. Murray Collins (who serves as the companys CEO), met in 2009 while doing scientific fieldwork to quantify the carbon stored by dense tropical forests in Africa.The legacy technology used in making estimates for carbon credits is terribly inefficientFor years, the only way to estimate the sequestration potential of different ecosystems was to catalog the number and species of trees and measure their girths and heights with tape measures and hand counters, sometimes in remote and dangerous survey areas. Mitchard and Collins guess they have used this method to measure over 25,000 trees during their time in the field.One of Space Intelligence's scientists on a field trip to Ivory Coast. Space Intelligence's Chief ... More Scientist, Ed Mitchard, believes that his team's combination of data science skills and ecological fieldwork expertise is what's sets his firm apart when serving developers or buyers of carbon credits.Space IntelligenceThe enormous expense of manually auditing forest-based carbon credit projects is a main reason why many legacy forest-based carbon credits end up being worth so little, and why financial markets tend to be reluctant to list and trade them.Mitchards solution to this problem was to survey forested areas using satellite image data. He was awarded a doctorate for this novel solution, then hired as a post-doctoral researcher and made a professor at the University of Edinburgh.A space-age revolution in carbon creditsAfter the launch of several cutting-edge satellite systems that gather data using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology in the twenty-teens, Mitchard had all the data he needed to realize his remote sensing vision.Mitchard and Collins founded Space Intelligence in 2017 and have been on the leading edge of the aggregation and analysis of the newest generation of satellites remote sensing data ever since.The data Space Intelligence uses is in the public domain, making it relatively cheap. Thats good for Mitchard and Collinss firm, but also lowers the barrier for competitive entrants, so it isnt hard to find other firms assessing carbon sequestration potential based on the same data.Space Intelligence implements its satellite and AI-powered system via a web application. Here, you ... More can see the proposed area of a mangrove forest (solid white line, center) and a reference area around it (dotted white line, center).Space IntelligenceSpace Intelligence, like its competitors, interprets satellite imagery and estimates carbon sequestration potential by applying machine learning algorithms to standard models for forest-based carbon storage.Despite the competition, Mitchard believes that he and his colleagues long experience analyzing satellite data, paired with a comprehensive understanding of ecological models from years of fieldwork, give his firm a comparative advantage.Interest from carbon credit buyers and other players in the supply chainLarge companies interested in buying high-quality nature-based carbon credits backed by rigorous verification are showing strong demand for Space Intelligences services. Space Intelligence works with clients to remotely map areas against which carbon credits will be sold, together with appropriate reference areas, which are similar in terrain and other ecosystem characteristics but are not protected by deforestation programs.Space Intelligence then monitors both credit and reference areas and provides buyers with quantitatively rigorous carbon impact valuations of the credits they purchased or are considering for purchase.The company has also been hired by carbon credit registriesthe organizations that specify rules about credit generation, review certification and audit programs, and issue credits to project developers. An important part of this work is the development of baseline data for a given country.To assess the effects of carbon credit projects, registries must compare the current condition of forested areas to historical baselines. Space Intelligence uses satellite data, which goes back decades, to create baselines against which credit development projects are judged. Space Intelligence has produced baseline data for prominent countries in the carbon credit world, such as Tanzania, Kenya, Indonesia, and Argentina.I was very excited by Space Intelligences recently announced collaboration with Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE). In less than a year, the EU will be implementing deforestation regulations known as EUDR that aim to prevent the import of commodities linked to deforestation.ICE management wants its internal system to be in a strong competitive position for EUDR compliance testing in soft commodities like cocoa and coffee by the time these regulations come into effect. This requires information about baseline forest coverage and changes over time, which Space Intelligence won a competitive tender to supply.Why carbon credits matterTropical forests store over half the worlds above-ground carbon in their vines, trunks, and leaves, representing a massive carbon sink in the terrestrial carbon cycle which must be protected in order to rebalance the planets natural carbon system.You might not think that the 1.5% per year decrease in forested area typical for many African countries is cause for alarm but consider that such a modest deforestation rate would destroy 15% of forest biomass in 10 years!Convincing financial markets of the value of carbon credits could protect forested ecosystems, which are vital to our planets carbon cycle and contribute so much to the variety and wonder of life on this lonely blue rock. Space Intelligence is on the leading edge of this essential endeavor. Intelligent investors take note.

The big picture: The AI boom is significantly changing the enterprise and data center market. Arm predicts that chips based on its designs will soon amount to around 50% of CPUs used in data centers. According to Arm Senior VP Mohamed Awad, the company's market share in this sector will grow by 15 percent over 2024. Chips based on the Arm architecture used to play a marginal role in the data center business. However, things are changing fast and Arm expects substantial financial rewards thanks to the company's key partners in the market.Arm struggled to compete against the x86 enterprise leadership for nearly 20 years due to significant hardware infrastructure changes and the associated costs. Reuters notes that Arm CPUs have increased in popularity in data centers thanks to their lower power consumption levels compared to x86 chips made by Intel and AMD.Compounding the problem are the growing energy requirements of AI processing. Cloud computing providers desperately seek alternatives, and software solutions are helpful. "We've gotten to the point where software is actually being developed for Arm first and foremost," Awad said.Nvidia is another major factor in this significant market evolution, as the GPU maker heavily relies on Arm's chip architecture and IP. The Grace CPU is a custom-built solution that fully exploits the computing capabilities of the Blackwell framework.Nvidia Grace's features and benefits include better energy efficiency, ECC LPDDR5X memory for improved reliability, and a "tightly coupled" CPU and GPU system architecture. // Related StoriesAwad explained that chips designed for data centers must achieve higher complexity and efficiency to compete since Arm's business model is primarily licensing-based. The company typically receives much greater aggregate royalty rates on higher-level designs than microchips for simpler devices and low-level consumer electronics.The data center market is one of Arm's key investments for the future. The Japanese-British chip designer had begun a substantial effort to differentiate its business, with management considering direct chip manufacturing as one solution. Arm is also in an antitrust legal battle with former business partner Qualcomm, though a victory is anything but guaranteed.

A hot potato: President Donald Trump has dropped what experts are calling a "nuclear bomb" on international trade. On Wednesday, he confirmed sweeping new tariffs of at least 10% on all imports into the United States with significantly higher duties targeting both allies like the European Union and economic rivals like China. Most trade experts believe the move will provoke further tit-for-tat tariffs, fueling a potentially devastating and deflationary global trade war with no clear winners. This aggressive escalation of Trump's trade wars could mean higher prices on virtually every product Americans purchase from overseas. Worse, analysts predict the tariffs could trigger recessions in multiple countries within the next year. "He just dropped a nuclear bomb on the global trading system," declared Ken Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, in an interview with the BBC.As a reaction to the announcement, technology stocks plunged Thursday (figures above reflect early morning trading). Apple so far is leading the decline among Big Tech enterprises sinking nearly 9% its steepest drop since 2020 due to its reliance on overseas manufacturing.The Nasdaq Composite index dropped over 5%, on track for its worst single-day performance in more than five years, and is now down 14% year to date. Other major tech names also suffered: Meta and Amazon each fell more than 7%, while Nvidia and Tesla declined over 5%. Microsoft and Alphabet each slipped around 2%.Even though certain categories like computer chips, copper, and medicine are excluded from the new tariffs a special tax on semiconductors is expected to come at a later date chipmakers were hit hard as well. Marvell, Arm, and Micron Technology all plunged more than 8%. Broadcom and Lam Research dropped 6%, and AMD slid over 4%. PC makers Dell and HP suffered the most, with both stocks crashing more than 16%.Under the plan, a baseline 10% tariff will be imposed on all imports starting April 5. However, goods from roughly 60 countries labeled by the White House as the "worst offenders" on trade will face steeper penalties just a few days later, on April 9.These countries will be hit with what Trump described as "reciprocal" tariff rates, matching the higher duties and taxes those nations currently impose on U.S. exports. For example, the EU's 20% tariffs will be met with a new 20% U.S. tax on European goods. China, whose exports were already heavily taxed under Trump's previous trade actions, now faces a staggering total duty rate of 54%. // Related StoriesWhile neighboring Canada and Mexico avoided Trump's wrath this time, nearly every other U.S. trade partner was affected including long-time allies such as the UK (10% tariff) and Japan (24%). Some of the highest tariffs are aimed at countries like Vietnam (46%) and Cambodia (49%), which have experienced investment booms in recent years as companies shifted manufacturing from China to avoid earlier tariffs.However, many questions remain unanswered, including whether these new tariffs will actually create more U.S. factory jobs, as Trump claims.It's also worth noting that Apple and other tech giants that have been diversifying away from China could now get hit with high tariffs regardless of which country they use for manufacturing products sold in the U.S.Economists had previously warned that tariffs would lead to higher prices on imports, including electronic products such as laptops, smartphones, monitors, computers, and TVs, most of which are primarily manufactured in China.Retailers like Amazon, which rely on ultra-cheap goods shipped tariff-free in small packages, were also hit hard. Trump has moved to reinstate plans to kill a long-standing exemption that allowed items valued under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. The change could take effect in May.Unsurprisingly, both China and the EU have threatened retaliation. However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has urged against it, insisting the new tariffs represent the "high water mark" that other nations should simply accept.