Proposals drawn up by the two practices to improve the energy performance of the estate through renovation and the addition of a new tower-like building designed to harvest energy from the River Cam were given the go-ahead by Cambridge City Councils planning committee on Wednesday (2 April).Caruso St John's proposals include upgrades to the existing building fabric of the colleges Hermitage building, Newnham Grange, Stevenson Building, Rayne Building and Dining Hall, a Grade II-listed building designed by Howell, Killick, Partridge & Amis in 1966.The works include new glazing and insulation as well as other upgrades to thermal performance of the estate to facilitate connection to a low-carbon heat network. Caruso St John said the upgrades would be sensitively incorporated into the historic fabric of Darwins estate.AdvertisementThe London and Zurich-based practice has also delivered designs for a new social space, dubbed the Garden Room, beneath the existing Dining Hall, which the college says will deliver a space for meetings with views of the colleges gardens.Caruso St John's Darwin College Cambridge upgrade project (approved 2025) - site plan5th Studio's work includes the erection of a new 11.2m-high pumphouse building for river-source energy generation from the River Cam, proving heating and hot water for the majority of the Colleges central Cambridge estate. It is expected to be the first river-source heat pump at this scale planned for the university and city.ThePumpHouse will house heat pumps, circulationpumps, filtration equipment, thermal stores, expansion equipment and ancillaries to form a fully operational central heating system, 5th Studio says.The practice says the design of the was inspired by surrounding buildings and the industrial heritage of the site, while raising the profile of sustainable solutions.The project also includes biodiversity upgrades through the integration of habitats for swifts and bats within its shingle cladding.AdvertisementNicola Blake, project architect at 5th Studio, said the pumphouse not only enables the reduction of operational carbon, but minimises embodied carbon in its own construction with steel reclaimed from the gas industry and low-carbon concrete, potentially using the locally invented Cambridge Electric Cement.A timeline for completion is not known.

This project is latest in a series of remodelling works on a semi-detached house. It takes the form of a modest extension, which is only 1.4m deep in order to preserve the volume of the garden.Rather than creating a whole new room, the volume of the extension opens up the circulation and connection between the living and dining areas of the house.Structurally it is formed around a cantilevered, T-shaped concrete frame wrapped in a glazed envelope. There is extensive use of timber in the interiors, on which the practice worked closely with the interior design firm Black & Milk. There are exposed timber joists to the ceiling and joinery elements form the kitchen, the dining space and the snug.AdvertisementArchitects viewMore than an extension, the intervention reads as a tectonically autonomous piece, formed by a cantilevered concrete frame on a single support over a diaphanous glazed envelope. This concrete frame is then revealed as extending into the middle of the house, acting as the main support around which the kitchen, dining and family snug revolve.The last key element is the joinery, involving the whole floor and gradually shifting in form and texture to form the kitchen, dining and snug, effectively resulting in one continuous atmosphere. Sliding antes on the central threshold permit temporary isolation of the different areas while acting as a bench when fully open. The new roof is also part of this arrangement, adopting the walnut of the dining table and emphasising its accessory role through its exposed construction.Looking back into the house from the patio, the flat roof is revealed as a vivid garden, changing in texture and colour with the seasons, offsetting the lost open space.Diego Calderon, director, DF_DCClients viewOur goal was to open up a kitchen/dining/family-room floor thathad previously been divided into two rooms. Mainly this was to introduce more light into the room, and also improve the flow and functionality of a floor much-used by the family. We wanted to maintain some functional divisions betweenthe spaces, ie for sitting versus dining, but also be able to see each other from anywhere in the room.Meeting the brief required an extension in the back garden. We specifically wanted this extension to be as minimal as possible, because we did not want to eat in to the footprint of a patio-garden that is also much-used by the family, and is beautifully landscaped. So the project became a balancing act between minimising the footprint of a back-extension, while maximising the functionality of the extension for living space.AdvertisementThe solution presented by DF-DC, working with Black & Milk on the interior design, was ingenious. We now live in a floor that is actually not much bigger than it was before, but with transformed functionality. It is elegantly modern and daring in its design, while also being practical for the day-to-day life of a family with children. Source:DF_DCProject dataLocation Primrose Hill, LondonStart on site October 2023CompletionNovember 2024Gross internal floor area 87m2Gross (internal + external) floor area 226m2Form of contract JCT intermediate contract 2016Construction cost UndisclosedConstruction cost per m2 UndisclosedArchitect DF_DCClient PrivateStructural engineer Blue Structural EngineersInterior designer Black & MilkGlazing Panoramah!Joinery Shape LondonPrincipal designer DF_DCCDM co-ordinatorApproved building inspector London Building ControlMain contractor CMRCAD software used AutoCAD

Bad news: Mario Kart World will cost $80. Good news: These classic games will get free revamped versions for Switch 2.

Fans faced a bit of sticker shock today when Nintendo revealed the Switch 2 would cost $450, especially with some new physical games set to cost as much as $90. But the price of upgrading to the Mario makers next console generation is set to get even worse after President Donald Trump announced a new wave of shockingly high tariffs that could push the price of a Switch 2 in the U.S. to over $600. Suggested ReadingThe Best Reveals From The Game Awards 2023Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingThe Best Reveals From The Game Awards 2023Share SubtitlesOffEnglishThe Best Reveals From The Game Awards 2023The Trump administration revealed a new 10 percent across-the-board tariff for all foreign imports as well as a bevy of reciprocal tariffs aimed at individual countries the president claims are unfairly undercutting the U.S. when it comes to trade. Those include tariffs of 34 percent on China and up to 46 percent on Vietnam, where much of the manufacturing for the Switch 2 takes place. Cambodia, another country Nintendo sources from, would face a 49 percent tariff. The new tax hikes are set to go into effect on April 5. Tariffs are taxes charged on products when they enter the country. Most companies choose to pass on much or all of the tax in the form of price hikes that then show up on the shelves at stores like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target. Many of the original Switch consoles were manufactured in China, but Nintendo began sourcing from countries like Vietnam and elsewhere after trade war threats during Trumps first term, seemingly to avoid precisely this scenario.Switch production has been shifting to Vietnam and is around 50:50 versus China currently, MST Financial analyst David Gibson told Kotaku last fall. Expect more production to shift to Vietnam with Switch 2, but it takes 6 months (or more) to gear up. If the mix does not change then prices go up 35%+ for U.S. consumers. He suggested one result is that more U.S. consumers could start trying to import consoles sold from Europe instead. The Consumer Technology Association had previously estimated price increases of hundreds of dollars for video game consoles in the U.S., but the new tariffs being signed into law would lead to even more drastic hikes, and not just for the Switch 2. Almost everything about gaming would get more expensive, from PC gaming handhelds to other consoles like the PS5, as well as physical discs and accessories, not to mention necessities like food, energy, and clothing.President Trumps sweeping global and reciprocal tariffs are massive tax hikes on Americans that will drive inflation, kill jobs on Main Street, and may cause a recession for the U.S. economy, Gary Shapiro, the groups CEO, said in a press release today. These tariffs will raise consumer prices and will force our trade partners to retaliate. As with everything Trump does, its hard to know if the latest tariff rollout will stick or is just another stunt aimed at exacting concessions for trade partners. Its also possible that part of the Switch 2's $450 price tag built in some extra room for Nintendo to eat potential tariff costs before passing them onto fans. The company was reportedly trying to ship as many Switch 2 consoles into the U.S. as possible earlier this year in an attempt to bypass the worst impacts of an escalating trade war. But that was seemingly less than a million units or so. The Switch 2 is forecast to sell 14.7 million units globally in its first year.I think two things are true at the same time: 1. It is likely that Nintendo did not expect the tariff on Vietnam to be 46 percent, Duke University associate economics professor Felix Tintelnot told 404 Media. 2. It is costly for firms to change prices, particularly after publicly announcing one. So I would think it is somewhat uncertain what they will do. One possibility would be for the price to remain unchanged, but the price of complementary goods to increase, such as games. Update 4/3/2025 9:00 a.m. ET: Added more context about impact of tariffs. Update 4/3/2025 12:15 p.m. ET: Added analysis from Felix Tintelnot and Daniel Ahmad. .

StrictlyVC is crossing the Atlantic! On 13 May, London will play host to an exclusive StrictlyVC evening, delivering the same high-caliber VC insider content that has made these events a must-attend for investors and startup leaders alike.If youre a venture capitalist or founder looking to exchange insights with peers and dive into powerful, no-filter conversations over wine and canaps, this event is for you. StrictlyVC is known for hosting in-depth discussions with some of the biggest names in venture, tech, and entrepreneurship including past guest speakers like:Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAIMarc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen HorowitzKatie Haun, founder of Haun VenturesHans Tung, managing partner of GGV CapitalDavid Krane, CEO and managing partner of GVAnd many moreIn partnership with Paladin, a global investor backing the worlds most innovative cyber companies, this event will feature exclusive VC insights and meaningful networking opportunities. If youre serious about venture and scaling, 13 May in London is where you need to be. Seats are limited grab your ticket now.Image Credits:Slava Blazer / TechCrunchImage Credits:Slava Blazer Photography

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETThe artificial intelligence (AI) boom is transforming industries and reshaping work. Now, it's setting its sights on a long-overlooked tool: your work laptop.The reach and capabilities of AI models go far beyond what people have seen from tinkering around with ChatGPT, which, although a great tool for proofreading or debugging code, only gives a brief glimpse into what large language models (LLMs), the technology powering tools like the chatbot, can do.Also: What is an AI PC exactly? And should you buy one in 2025?For instance, HCLTech, a consulting firm, worked with one of the largest end-to-end healthcare providers in the US to help implement a user-friendly, compliant AI clinical advisor. The clinical advisor, trained using one of the world's largest clinical libraries, allows medical professionals to conversationally ask for the information they need to consult without wasting time digging for it.According to Alan Flower, EVP and head of AI & Cloud Native Labs at HCLTech, running the models locally on the device was key to effectively implementing this model.Also: Nvidia dominates in gen AI benchmarks, clobbering 2 rival AI chips"By using the clinician's laptop, it frees up clinician time whilst also ensuring the privacy and security of the patient's information," said Flower. "It has that secondary advantage -- it reduces the cost to run the solution since we're not consuming expensive cloud tokens when we can use the neural processing unit on an AI PC, effectively, for free."Flower said that since implementing the AI clinical advisor, within a typical 20-minute consultation with a doctor, the AI clinical advisor has freed up three minutes from the appointment, time the doctor can spend researching and focusing on the patient's care.Also:With AI models clobbering every benchmark, it's time for human evaluationCompanies are discovering that if they want to take full advantage of AI and run models locally, they need to upgrade their employees' laptops. This realization has introduced a hardware revolution, with the desire to update tech shifting from an afterthought to a priority and attracting significant investment from companies.This trend is reflected in the numbers. Researcher IDC predicts that AI PCs designed to run generative AI tasks locally will grow from nearly 50 million units in 2024 to over 167 million by 2027, eventually accounting for almost 60% of all PC shipments worldwide. The latest data from analyst firm Gartner suggests 63% of all PCs will be AI-enabled by the end of 2026.This acceleration in PC investment aligns with a decade-long trend, where factors, such as improved design, exemplified by the shift from bulky laptops to ultraslim notebooks, have steadily driven up the average selling price of PCs, an indicator of shifting consumer preferences and market trends, according to Linn Huang, research vice president of devices and displays at IDC.The industry has seen selling prices "steadily climb over the past decade," said Huang. "AI PCs will undoubtedly accelerate this trend in the coming years as new AI-enabled workloads, use cases, and features enter the market."This new category of AI PCs is differentiated from legacy PCs by having an NPU, or neural processing unit, which is designed to turbocharge AI tasks and allow models to run right on the device. The benefits of running locally include cost, privacy, and security.Also:ChatGPT's new image generator shattered my expectations - and now it's free to tryMost AI products, like ChatGPT, send information to the cloud to be processed. This information is then sent back to the device, which allows for the potential for the data to be hacked, leaked, or mishandled in transit.Instead, running models locally gives organizations more control over their information and reduces reliance on third-party services. That setup is crucial for companies in financial services, healthcare, and other industries where privacy is a big concern or a regulatory requirement."For them, on-device AI computer, it's not a nice to have; it's a need to have for fiduciary and HIPAA reasons, respectively," said Mike Bechtel, managing director and the chief futurist at Deloitte Consulting LLP.Another advantage is that local running reduces lag and creates a smoother user experience, which is especially valuable for optimizing business applications. That speed is key because the appeal of AI solutions, like chatbots, is that they can respond at the touch of a button.Device manufacturers are already seeing this growing interest in AI PCs. Microsoft, a major player in the AI market, a key partner of model specialist OpenAI, and the creator of AI tools like Copilot, has introduced a new hardware category called Copilot+PCs, developed with partners such as HP, Dell, and Lenovo.Also:Anthropic launches Claude for Education, an AI to help students think criticallyMark Linton, vice president of device partner sales at Microsoft, said business leaders have shown strong interest in purchasing and trialing these new devices."Leaders are particularly focused on integrating on-device AI capabilities into their broader AI business and technology strategies," said Linton. "This interest is reflected in adoption rates -- 20 times faster than touch PC adoption -- demonstrating the urgency with which organizations are approaching this transformation."The benefits of AI PCs go beyond running AI models on devices. For example, a PC can overheat when it uses a power-intensive application, and the fan may start blowing and the device might begin running slowly. That situation can occur partially because the excessive workload is offloaded to the CPU or GPU, other key components of PCs.AI PCs use NPUs to handle AI tasks more efficiently, reducing the load on the CPU and improving overall system performance. This capability covers non-AI tasks that are compute-intensive, such as editing video or even having a video call.Also:What is Enterprise General Intelligence? How the next stage of AI affects you"AI PCs deliver significant performance improvements for the apps users already use, leveraging new CPU, GPU, and NPU architectures," said Alex Thatcher, senior director of AI experiences, business personal systems, at HP Inc. "AI PCs also deliver significant improvements in battery life due to the inclusion of small cores and highly power efficient NPUs."As the refresh cycle for many businesses' hardware approaches, and its advance is accelerated by other external factors, such as Microsoft's end of support for Windows 10, many organizations are forced to purchase new devices. This leaves one question: should businesses go for legacy or AI-capable devices?Because of the productivity advantages, most industry experts, including Flower or Bechtel, who are in positions to advise clients on the next steps, agree that upgrading to AI-capable PCs is the obvious choice."It's a big brainer: make sure that your next wave of capital expenditure has the set of bells or whistles, else you're going to be considering an extra refresh in the next couple of years," said Bechtel.Also:Microsoft's new AI agents aim to help security pros combat the latest threatsAs more companies get in on the action and AI-capable computers become ubiquitous, the premium price of AI PCs will continue to drop. Furthermore, Flower said the potential gains in performance offset any price differences."In those high-value professions, the productivity gain is so significant that whatever small premium you're paying for that AI-enhanced device, the payback will be nearly immediate," said Flower.Upgrading technology keeps companies at the forefront of innovation, giving them the flexibility to invest in AI applications, whether they're ready to dive in now or not. As more companies opt for AI-capable PCs, this shift paves the way for deeper AI integration into business processes.The result of this investment is an ecosystem where the promise of AI applications drives hardware upgrades, and the upgraded hardware, in turn, accelerates AI adoption in the workforce, rapidly transforming industries and reshaping how professionals work.Artificial Intelligence Editorial standards

Explore how AI is reshaping the entrepreneur's classic dilemma between bootstrapping and raising venture capital, featuring insights from Abacum CEO Julio Martinez

A Russian Lancet attack drone seconds before Butcher's interceptor drone brought it down Ukrainian MoDA Canadian recently celebrated becoming the first foreigner to take down a Russian Lancet loitering munition.The drone pilot, who goes by the callsign Butcher (Myasnyk or in Ukrainian) belongs to an elite interceptor unit, fighting a new type of war in the sky. Many have compared it to the early days of combat aviation during WW1, when pilots used improvised weapons and tactics in a rapidly developing struggle for supremacy. You never know what your opponent will come up with next, and aircraft and pilots are pushed to the edge of their ability.At the moment it is, hands down, the most challenging work in terms of drones in Ukraine, Butcher told me.There Is No Career Path For ThisHis fearsome-sounding nickname actually comes from the fact that he used to be a butcher back home. This Canadian has come a long way, travelling to Ukraine in 2023 for an NGO doing humanitarian work. But he soon decided this was not enough.Drone interceptor pilot 'Butcher' Murray Wegeler @murray.wgHumanitarian work is critically important but will not end the war, says Butcher. I made the decision to switch to fighting the war.In his forties and with bad knees, Butcher was not cut out to be an infantryman. But a new combat specialty was in demand: drone operator. He volunteered with the nonprofit group Wild Hornets, who turn donations into lethal drone hardware and who introduced him to a whole new world.Wild Hornets taught me to build, maintain and fly drones, says Butcher. I got in a lot of flying practice.Butcher the joined the 25th Air Assault Brigade with the intention of operating strike drones hunting tanks. The commander asked if he was interested in working in air defence, and he jumped at the chance. It would be the fulfilment of a boyhood dream.Butcher had always wanted to be a fighter pilot, an ambition thwarted by poor eyesight. No surprise that he played a lot of video games as a teen, including plenty of air-to-air combat games and countless hours on MS Flight Simulator.I would say being a gamer has definitely helped, says Butcher. You develop hand-eye coordination, reflexes, and you can see small changes on a monitor.But he notes that gaming skills are not essential. His unit commander, a four-time ace at downing drones, never even played video games.It takes a lot of different factors, and different people bring different assets to the table, says Butcher. There is no career path for this.Battling In The SkiesThe interceptors stand between Ukrainian forces and Russian drones, including reconnaissance drones which call down artillery and rocket fire and attack drones.Murray Wegeler @murray.wgButcher's team prepare an interceptor for launch We are out in position 24/7, very much like WWII fighter pilots waiting for the call to scramble, says Butcher. At other times we are already up in the air and just jump from target to target or area to area, guarding the skies in a particular sector.Multiple teams cover a sector, and Butcher says close co-ordination and team work is essential. His recipe for success is Patience, strategy, teamwork, skill, communication -- and a dose of luck.As Butcher sees it the FPV operators going after Russian tanks have it easy. Their target stays more or less in one place, is always at the same altitude and is usually obvious. Strike missions on the ground are a matter of flying in a straight line to a location, identifying the target there and engaging it.Intercepting drones in the air is harder.We get intel on targets, and we go searching for those targets, and once weve found them we get up close and detonate our drone, says Butcher. Whats complicated is what happens in the air.Video gaming skills are useful but not essential Murray Wegeler @murray.wgFinding drones is challenging when you do not know exactly where they are or at what altitude. Unlike crewed aircraft, Butchers interceptor does not have radar, so he relies on visually spotting drones which may have a wingspan of just a few feet. Some, like the flat flying wing Supercam are virtually invisible seen edge-on.Its very, very difficult to sight in, to get visual on the target, says Butcher. Intel is not always super-accurate, so we have to use our brains and intuition -- like understanding what they might be searching for in order to find them.Interceptors try to approach from above and behind where they will not be spotted by the Russian drone operator. If they can get close then the job may be a quick one.Once an interceptor gets into this position, the target is in trouble. But getting there is not easyUkraine MoDBut increasingly Russian reconnaissance drones are fitted with rear-facing cameras. When it spots something coming, the camera triggers a series of automatic evasive maneuvers, a system known as Ukhylyant (Evader, but also draft dodger).Were flying all over the place chasing targets, doing maneuvers. Its very much like dogfighting, says Butcher.The interceptor is armed with an explosive charge, so the pilot has just one chance to get in close enough and trigger it. But the success rate is high.Once we get eyes on a target, it's usually going down, says Butcher. I'd say roughly 75% of the time this is the case.The Lancet kill was a notable success, because while Russian scout drones orbit in an area for several hours, the Lancet flies directly to its target.It requires a greater sense of urgency, says Butcher. Both because of the limited time it's in the air, and because of its intended use.Knocking one down means that the Lancet one of Russias most effective weapons will never reach its target. Intercepting saves lives.Remote War, Danger CloseFlying a drone might seem less risky than being in the air. But the Russians are constantly locating and targeting Ukrainian drone teams, who are considered high value targets.We're under fire pretty much every day, says Butcher. Artillery, KABs [Russian glide bombs], FPVs, and MLRS [multiple launch rocket systems] are launched all the time. We have plenty of close calls. It's just that some days are closer than others.Meanwhile drone combat is changing fast. Video has emerged of new Ukrainian interceptors armed with shotguns and netguns, and devices (presumably jammers) that can bring down drones without contact. Similarly, the Russian reconnaissance drones are currently unarmed, though there has been much discussion on Russian Telegram channels of fitting rear-firing weapons.Luckily the Ukrainians are good at adapting swiftly to new demands.In Ukraine, we have a sort of direct-to-consumer model happening where we on the front are able to directly communicate with and procure drone technology from companies," says Butcher. We can get a new prototype on a Sunday, test it, and provide feedback on Monday. The company will make changes over the next couple of days, and by Friday, we could have the next generation in our hands.A shipment of new fixed-wing interceptorsArmy of DronesThe interceptors themselves are evolving. The originals were simply modified FPVs like those hitting ground targets. Now there are various bullet-shaped types with improved aerodynamics capable of much greater speeds as well as fixed wings. In sufficient numbers, a network of interceptors may one day protect Ukraine from the nightly waves of Shahed drones, which are not often seen in Butchers zone.They [Shaheds] are rarely in our AO [Area of Operations], so we don't get many opportunities to go after them, says Butcher They tend to be used to strike cities and civilian targets in the rear as opposed to front-line work. They're tools of terror as opposed to tactical weapons, in my opinion.Daily OperationsThe interceptor pilots maintain their vigil, sometimes flying twenty sorties a day. Unlike other teams who have safe houses at the rear and who rotate out every three or four days, their work is continuous.One day this will all be over. Some people might have had enough flying, but Butcher wants to carry on being a drone operator after the war.I plan to continue working with drones in some capacity, says Butcher. That was part of my motivation for getting into drones. I figured if I survived the war, it would be good to come out of it with an employable skill.He already has a combat record in drone warfare that few non-Ukrainians can match. If NATO militaries want to learn about how to fight the wars of the future, Butchers knowledge is likely to be in high demand.(Butchers Paypal is UAMyasnyk@gmail.com for direct donations to his work. One interceptor drone costs less than $1,000 and can bring down a Russian drone costing more than a hundred times as much - and, more importantly, save lives,Special thanks to Murray Wegeler for permission to use images).

Leaders around the world have responded to U.S. President Donald Trumps shocking new tariffs that threaten to upend the global economy with stern words and denunciations. But Chinese state media have offered a different approach.Liberation Day, you promised us the stars, sings a female-sounding voice over images of Trump. But tariffs killed our cheap Chinese cars.A 2-minute, 42-second music videotitled Look What You Taxed Us Through (An AI-Generated Song. A Life-Choking Reality)was published on April 3 by the Chinese state news network CGTN.For many Americans, Liberation Day hailed by Trump administration will mean shrinking paychecks and rising costs. Tariffs hit, wallets quit: low-income families take the hardest blow. As the market holds its breath, the toll is already undeniable. Numbers dont lie. Neither does the cost of this so-called fairness, CGTN captioned the video on its website. Warning: Track is AI-generated. The debt crisis? 100 percent human-made.The lyrics, displayed in English and Chinese, appear to rebuke Trumps tariffs from the point of view of the American consumer, and its addressed directly to the U.S. President. Groceries cost a kidney, gas a lung. Your deals? Just hot air from your tongue, the opening verse continues. Thanks for the tariffs, and the mess you made, the song ends, before the music video displays quotes from reports by the Yale Budget Lab and the Economist lambasting Trumps tariffs.Experts have warned that American consumers will bear much of the costs of Trumps tariffs, which are taxes on imports, and U.S. recession indicators have risen since the White Houses April 2 reciprocal tariff rollout. At the same time, global markets have been shocked at a level not seen since the pandemic.CGTN isnt the only state media outlet to use AI to slam Trumps trade policy. New China TV, the English-language social-media-focused brand of Chinas official state news service Xinhua, also published on April 3 a three-minute, 18-second sci-fi short called T.A.R.I.F.F.The film follows a robot named Technical Artificial Robot for International Fiscal Functions. This is the story of T.A.R.I.F.F., an AIGC [artificial-intelligence-generated content] sci-fi thriller about the relentless weaponization of #Tariffs by the United States, and the psychological journey of a humanoid towards its eventual self-destruction. Please watch, reads the videos description on YouTube.In the film, T.A.R.I.F.F. is booted up by what appears to be a nefarious U.S. government official named Dr. Mallory. T.A.R.I.F.F. identifies himself, saying: My existence is defined by the execution of international fiscal actions, with the primary directive being the imposition of tax on foreign imports. When asked what his ultimate purpose is, T.A.R.I.F.F. responds: To protect the interests of the American people.Exactly, says Dr. Mallory. We need you as a weapon to protect us, now more than ever.As the film goes on, T.A.R.I.F.F. implements moderate tariffs and finds initial positive results: Industrial production up. But when Dr. Mallory pushes the robot to rev it up, T.A.R.I.F.F. implements aggressive tariffs. The results: unemployment rates rising, costs of living increasing, disruption of trade.You are protecting us. This is what we need, Dr. Mallory says. T.A.R.I.F.F. responds, understanding: Protection through disruption. Taxation as weapon.Yes, tariffs are a tool of power. You will protect our industries, our jobs, our economy, Dr. Mallory says, appearing increasingly agitated. But I can see the consequences of my actions, says the robot. The trade wars. The unrest. The people who suffer. And the retaliation.Spoiler alert: T.A.R.I.F.F. and the evil doctor argue about the greater goodWith my AI economic inference system, T.A.R.I.F.F. asserts, I can see I have become the beginning of a chain reaction that will harm the very people I was meant to safeguardand the robot ultimately chooses to self-destruct, taking Dr. Mallory along with it.On April 3, following Trumps latest tariffs announcement, Chinas Ministry for Foreign Affairs posted on social media a video featuring a mix of seemingly AI-generated images and real ones, to the soundtrack of John Lennons Imagine and USA for Africas We Are the World. It asked the question: What kind of world do you want to live in? offering the choice between our imperfect world with things like greed and tariffs and an alternative utopia with shared prosperity and global solidarity.To be sure, the latter is certainly not the reality in China. And for now, it appears far from possible for the world.Beijing has made its displeasure with Trumps tariffswhich began targeting China in his first termwell known. The latest reciprocal rate of 34% comes on top of 20% levies announced earlier this year. Beijing has over the years implemented tit-for-tat countermeasures and has vowed to continue as long as the trade war persists, warning earlier this year: If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, were ready to fight until the end.

The big picture: The future of computer programming is facing a seismic shift driven by advances in artificial intelligence. Industry leaders have contrasting perspectives on how AI will reshape software development, with predictions ranging from transformative to cautious. One Microsoft executive has a more optimistic outlook, forecasting AI's dominance in coding within the next five years. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott predicted that 95 percent of programming code will be AI-generated by 2030. However, he quickly clarified that this does not signal the end of human involvement in software engineering."It doesn't mean that the AI is doing the software engineering job ... authorship is still going to be human," Scott explained. "It creates another layer of abstraction [as] we go from being an input master (programming languages) to a prompt master (AI orchestrator)."He doesn't believe AI will replace developers, but it will fundamentally change their workflows. Instead of painstakingly writing every line of code, engineers will increasingly rely on AI tools to generate code based on prompts and instructions. In this new paradigm, developers will focus on guiding AI systems rather than programming computers manually. By articulating their needs through prompts, engineers will allow AI to handle much of the repetitive work, freeing them to concentrate on higher-level tasks like design and problem-solving.Despite its promise, current AI systems have significant limitations particularly their ability to retain memory. Scott acknowledged that today's AI assistants are "awfully transactional," meaning they struggle to recall past interactions or adapt to user preferences over time.However, he believes this is a temporary issue. Scott predicts that future AI tools will offer more personalized and context-aware assistance as they learn from previous interactions. // Related Stories"In the places where agents have memory it is limited," the CTO said. "Memory is going to get a lot better over the next year."A debate over AI's role in programming is occurring throughout the industry. Recently, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna weighed in at the SXSW conference with a more measured outlook. Krishna argued that AI will enhance productivity rather than replace programmers outright. He estimated that AI would handle about 20 to 30 percent of coding tasks but emphasized its limitations in tackling more complex challenges."If you can produce 30 percent more code with the same number of people, are you going to get more code written or less?" Krishna rhetorically posed, suggesting that increased efficiency would stimulate innovation and market growth rather than job losses.Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff agrees with Krishna on reskilling workers for an AI-driven future. Benioff has suggested that his company may stop hiring traditional engineers in 2025 due to productivity gains enabled by AI tools but stressed the importance of human expertise in collaborating with these technologies.Meanwhile, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has offered a prediction similar to Scott's but with a far more aggressive timeline. He believes AI could generate up to 90 percent of code within six months a speed that underscores how rapidly these tools are advancing.