Anadu Pine Villa | © Seth Powers Tucked away in a secluded valley two hours from Shanghai, Anadu Pine Villa is not simply a boutique retreat but a spatial manifesto on restraint, sensory immersion, and landscape choreography. Designed by STUDIO8 Architects, the estate consists of three guest villas and a reception pavilion embedded within a pine and bamboo forest. Eschewing the expectations of overt luxury or architectural spectacle, the project explores how architecture can act as a quiet mediator between the human body and the natural world. Anadu Pine Villa Technical Information Architects1-6: STUDIO8 Architects Location: Changxing, Zhejiang Province, China Area: 4,960 m2 | 53,400 Sq. Ft. Completion Year: 2021-2024 Photographs: © Seth Powers We believe that when the structure, density, and scale of a building are carefully considered—the ‘bone structure’—the quality of the interior space will naturally reveal its lasting value, without the need for excessive decorations. – STUDIO8 Architects Anadu Pine Villa Photographs Aerial View | © Seth Powers Aerial View | © Seth Powers Aerial View | © Seth Powers Courtyard | © Seth Powers © Seth Powers © Seth Powers © Seth Powers Entrance | © Seth Powers Facade | © Seth Powers Interior | © Seth Powers Dining Area | © Seth Powers Bedroom | © Seth Powers Bedroom | © Seth Powers From Philosophy to Form: A Site-Responsive Approach The architectural premise of Anadu Pine Villa begins with an ethos rather than a typology: “Find yourself in nature.” Rather than imposing a formal vocabulary onto the site, the design is articulated as a response to topographic rhythms and ecological patterns. The three guest units are positioned along the valley’s contours, each volume slightly rotated to frame unique views and minimize visual overlap, fostering a sense of solitude without isolation. The project also navigates historical memory. Where an old rural house once stood, the wine and cigar bar now rises. Yet instead of erasing the past, the new structure subtly echoes it: a reinterpretation of the gabled roof becomes a four-sloped volume, transforming the familiar into the abstract. This gesture—a blend of reverence and revision—anchors the estate to place and time. The overall composition of the estate reflects a non-hierarchical, anti-axial layout that privileges landscape over symmetry. The winding arrival sequence, the curved bamboo-textured walls, and the gravel transitions all contribute to a slow unfolding of space that foregrounds experience over image. Spatial Choreography: Enclosure, Exposure, and Transition A key strength of the project lies in its carefully curated spatial transitions. The journey begins at the threshold—a modest L-shaped gate clad in charred timber and bamboo-textured concrete—before extending along a pine-lined drive. The architectural language resists monumentality here, favoring low, grounded gestures that defer to the forest canopy. The wine house explores spatial dualities through massing: the enclosed cigar lounge sits tightly under a descending roof plane. At the same time, the reception area opens upward and outward, the ceiling appearing to levitate. The double-edged eaves become subtle instruments of light control and weather mitigation, but more significantly, they soften the building’s geometry, offering a moment of quiet formal ambiguity. The villas themselves intensify this dialogue. Upon entering, guests encounter a dramatic spatial release—two concrete slabs frame the forest without obstruction, offering a full 270-degree panorama. This strategy of compression and release recalls classical architectural promenade sequences, yet here it is filtered through a language of minimal materiality and maximal view. The plan dissolves traditional spatial boundaries: living, bathing, sleeping, and cooking zones flow into one another, delineated more by furniture and floor treatments than walls. This open, continuous interior reinforces the project’s central ambition—to minimize the distance between architecture and its setting. Materiality as Structure and Atmosphere Material decisions throughout Anadu Pine Villa reflect a commitment to structural clarity and sensory nuance. Exposed concrete forms the architectural skeleton, poured with integrated piping and structural beams to eliminate the need for surface-mounted systems. This infrastructural honesty allows the slabs to express weight and weightlessness—hovering above the terrain while anchoring the space. Yet concrete alone would risk austerity. STUDIO8 tempers this with a palette of natural materials that are locally informed and tactically deployed: reclaimed wood supports span small distances, carry mechanical systems, and lend warmth to key touchpoints; charred timber and textured concrete respond to traditional Chinese building techniques without defaulting to pastiche. The interiors are defined by custom wooden furniture, soft walnut finishes, and handcrafted brick vanity walls that fold through the bathroom corners. Rather than decorative flourishes, these elements are architectural—responsive to scale, proportion, and the rhythms of occupation. Lighting, too, is treated with nuance. From recessed cove lights to pendant and table lamps, illumination is layered to foster intimacy rather than spectacle. The effect is quiet modulation, aligned with the daily sunlight shifts through skylights and full-height glazing. Anadu Pine Villa Broader Significance Anadu Pine Villa challenges conventional hospitality models by embracing micro-scale and narrative spatiality. By resisting density and rejecting programmatic excess, the project reframes what it means to design for luxury, not as accumulation but as intentional reduction. Its significance extends beyond its footprint. As architecture increasingly contends with environmental and psychological crises, projects like Anadu offer an alternative: a design practice rooted in observation, slowness, and patient calibration of form to context. Moreover, STUDIO8’s emphasis on the “bone structure”—the fundamental spatial and structural integrity of a building—invites a reconsideration of architectural longevity. Here, the quality of space is not achieved through surface embellishment, but through measuring mass, void, light, and material. It is an architecture that does not demand attention, but quietly rewards it. By receding into the forest while heightening our experience, Anadu Pine Villa reminds us that architecture’s highest ambition may not be to express, but to reveal—to serve as a lens through which nature, time, and human presence can coalesce. Anadu Pine Villa Plans Site Plan | © Studio8 Architects Floor Plan | © Studio8 Architects Section | © Studio8 Architects Detail | © Studio8 Architects Anadu Pine Villa Image Gallery About STUDIO8 Architects STUDIO8 Architects is a Shanghai-based multidisciplinary design studio integrating architecture, interior design, landscape, and branding into cohesive spatial experiences. Guided by the philosophy “Time is the only expression,” the studio emphasizes contextual sensitivity, material honesty, and the seamless blending of Eastern and Western influences to create timeless, site-responsive architecture. Credits and Additional Notes Client: Anadu Chief Architects: Shirley Dong, Matteo Piotti, Andrea Maira Design Scope: Planning, Architecture, Interior, Landscape Total Building Area: 608 m² | 6,544 sq ft Wine & Cigar Bar (Reception): 234 m² Guest Villas: 374 m

close 'CyberGuy': Save loved ones' voicemails with Android Preserving voicemails securely on Android: Tech expert Kurt Knutsson reveals easy methods to keep memories alive forever. Losing a loved one is never easy, and dealing with their digital life can add another layer of stress during an already difficult time.John from Northampton, Pennsylvania, reached out with a question that many people face but few know how to handle: "Please explain how to remove a deceased person’s Facebook account."John, we're very sorry for your loss, and you're not alone in wondering what to do next. Managing a deceased person’s Facebook presence can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re not sure where to start. Facebook does offer a few options depending on whether you'd like to preserve their account as a memorial or have it removed entirely. Here's what you need to know, along with how to protect their digital legacy from misuse.STAY PROTECTED & INFORMED! GET SECURITY ALERTS & EXPERT TECH TIPS – SIGN UP FOR KURT’S ‘THE CYBERGUY REPORT’ NOW A woman scrolling on Facebook (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)What is a memorialized Facebook account?When Facebook is made aware that someone has passed away, their policy is to memorialize the account. This turns the profile into a digital tribute, serving as a space where friends and family can gather, share memories and view photos and posts. A memorialized account:Displays the word "Remembering" next to the person’s namePreserves content they posted during their lifetimePrevents anyone from logging into the accountCan only be managed by a legacy contact (if one was assigned)Memorializing an account not only honors the person’s memory but also adds a layer of security by locking the account from unauthorized access. Anyone can request a Facebook account be memorialized if they believe the user has passed away, but only verified immediate family or a legacy contact can manage the account afterward.Option 1: Request memorializationIf Facebook hasn’t already memorialized the account, you can request it yourself. While anyone can submit a memorialization request, Facebook may require proof if you're not a close family member. Here's how to request memorialization:Provide the deceased’s full name and date of deathUpload proof of death (like an obituary, death certificate or memorial card)Submit the form and wait for Facebook to review and process the requestIf a legacy contact was assigned by the deceased before they passed, that person will be notified and may be able to manage the memorialized profile.If you're unsure what a legacy contact is or how to set one up for your own account, go to Facebook > Settings > Memorialization Settings and choose someone you trust.For more on legacy contacts and digital legacy planning, check out: One day you’ll leave this Earth, but your data will live on in a messy future.Option 2: Request account removalIf you'd prefer to have the account permanently deleted rather than memorialized, Facebook provides a separate process for that, but only for immediate family members or legal representatives. Here are the steps to remove the account:Select the option: Please remove this accountUpload documentation, including a copy of the deceased’s death certificate and proof that you’re a close family member or have legal authority to act on their behalfNote: Even if you know the person’s login information, Facebook’s terms prohibit logging into someone else’s account, even after death. In cases where the deceased did not use their legal name on Facebook or was a minor, Facebook may request additional documentation to verify their identity. Facebook app on a smartphone (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Check for a legacy contactFacebook allows users to assign a legacy contact, someone they trust to manage their memorialized profile. If your loved one set this up before passing, their legacy contact may be able to:Accept new friend requestsPin tribute postsUpdate the profile or cover photoRequest account deletionHowever, they cannot log into the account, read messages or make posts as the deceased. To assign a legacy contact on your own profile, go to your Facebook settings, then choose "Memorialization Settings." From there, you can select a trusted contact to manage your memorialized account when the time comes. To learn more about how to check or assign a legacy contact, see: How to be remembered forever on Facebook.Other Facebook options you should know aboutIn addition to memorializing or removing an account, Facebook offers a few other tools for handling a deceased person’s profile.Request a copy of content: Verified family members or legal representatives can request content such as photos or messages. Note: While Facebook does not grant full access, in some cases it allows you to request a download of shared content like photos, posts and videos.Report an account that should be memorialized: Even if you’re not immediate family, you can report an account if you believe it belongs to someone who has passed.Can't access or log into a memorialized account?: Facebook doesn’t allow login to memorialized profiles, even with credentials. If you’re running into access issues, they’re likely related to this restriction.Why it's important to take actionUnfortunately, the digital world doesn’t stop after someone passes away. Unattended accounts can become vulnerable to ghost hacking, a type of cybercrime that targets the deceased. Scammers have been known to impersonate the deceased to exploit grieving friends and family.And beware of scam artists who target families with fake funeral-related schemes: How impostors try to exploit your grief and wallet in new funeral scam. An online scammer (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Protecting your loved one’s digital legacy: Essential steps to takeManaging a deceased person’s Facebook account is just one part of safeguarding their digital presence. To ensure their online life remains secure and respected, here are five important steps you can take to protect passwords, accounts and personal information after a loved one passes away.1) Use a password manager: Use a password manager to generate and store complex passwords. Use one that offers emergency access features and designate a trusted contact who can request access to your accounts after a waiting period, ensuring your passwords remain secure but accessible to the right person when needed. Get more details about my best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 here.2) Enable multifactor authentication: Enable multifactor authentication on all important accounts and provide your emergency contact with backup codes or alternative authentication methods to prevent lockouts while maintaining strong security.3) Assign legacy contacts: Assign legacy contacts not only on Facebook but also on other major platforms such as Google, Apple and Microsoft, so your trusted person can manage or retrieve your digital data according to your wishes after your passing.4) Maintain an updated account list: Keep an updated and encrypted list of all critical accounts, including financial services, subscriptions, email and social media credentials, along with instructions on how to handle each one and store them securely, either digitally or physically.5) Regularly review and communicate: Review and update your digital legacy plan regularly, at least once a year, and communicate clearly with your designated contacts to ensure they understand how to access and manage your accounts when the time comes.Kurt's key takeawaysHandling a loved one’s Facebook account after they’ve passed can feel overwhelming, but you don’t have to go through it alone. Whether you choose to preserve their memory through a memorialized page or remove the account entirely, Facebook has clear steps in place to help you do it respectfully and securely.How do you think social media platforms should handle accounts of deceased users? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

SDesk is an open-source alternative to Windows with a lightweight and familiar look, making it a solid option for new users getting their bearings in Linux.

In the end, AI-driven digital legacies are about preserving what makes us human.

In brief: AI video generation may soon no longer be limited to expensive subscriptions or high-powered servers. Thanks to a recent breakthrough, even a gaming laptop could generate full-length AI videos. The breakthrough comes from Lvmin Zhang of GitHub and Maneesh Agrawala of Stanford University. The duo developed FramePack, a neural network architecture that enables high-quality video diffusion with as little as 6GB of VRAM. This is a significant achievement, especially given the model's size – 13 billion parameters – which allows it to generate full 60-second clips at 30 FPS using only a mid-range GPU. The key lies in how FramePack operates. Traditional video diffusion models rely on previously generated frames to predict the next one. As the video length increases, so does the "temporal context" – the number of past frames the model must consider – resulting in higher memory demands. This is why most models require 12GB of VRAM or more to run efficiently. FramePack flips that on its head. Instead of letting memory usage balloon with longer clips, it compresses input frames based on importance into a fixed-length context, keeping the memory footprint compact and consistent regardless of video duration. This innovation allows the model to process thousands of frames, even with large architectures, on laptop-grade GPUs. It also enables training with batch sizes comparable to those used in image diffusion models. But FramePack doesn't just reduce memory demands, it also addresses drifting – a common issue where video quality degrades over time. By using intelligent compression patterns and scheduling techniques, FramePack helps maintain visual consistency from beginning to end. // Related Stories To top it off, the model includes a user-friendly GUI. Users can upload images, enter text prompts, and view a live preview as frames are generated. On an RTX 4090, optimized generation speeds reach up to 0.6 frames per second. Naturally, performance is lower on less powerful GPUs, but even an RTX 3060 can handle it. Currently, FramePack supports Nvidia's RTX 30, 40, and the new 50 series GPUs, provided they support FP16 or BF16 data formats. There's no confirmed support yet for AMD or Intel GPUs, but the model works across multiple operating systems, including Linux. You can find full model details and source code on GitHub.

Table of Contents Table of Contents Technology crossover Market expansion strategy Competitive landscape Timeline and implementation According to industry sources, Samsung Display is reportedly looking to adapt technology similar to that used in Apple’s iPad displays for implementation in automotive OLED screens. This strategic move signals Samsung’s continued push into the growing market for high-end vehicle displays. As noted by SamMobile, the South Korean tech giant aims to leverage tandem OLED technology—currently found in premium tablets like the iPad Pro—to create more durable and power-efficient displays specifically designed for automotive applications. These displays would offer several advantages over current in-car screen technology: Enhanced brightness for better visibility in direct sunlight Improved energy efficiency to minimize battery drain Extended lifespan to match the longer usage cycles of vehicles Superior color accuracy and contrast ratios Recommended Videos This initiative represents part of Samsung’s broader strategy to diversify its OLED business beyond smartphones and consumer electronics. The automotive display market is projected to grow significantly over the next decade, with premium vehicles increasingly featuring multiple large-format screens. Industry analysts note that Samsung Display is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend, given its established expertise in OLED manufacturing and existing relationships with global automakers. Samsung’s move comes as competition in the automotive display sector intensifies, with LG Display and BOE also making significant investments in this space. The adaptation of iPad-class display technology could potentially give Samsung a competitive edge in securing contracts with luxury automakers. While specific timeline details remain undisclosed, sources suggest that Samsung could begin pilot production of these automotive-focused tandem OLED displays within the next 12-18 months, with mass production potentially starting by 2027. The technology is expected to first appear in high-end electric vehicles before potentially becoming standard across broader market segments. It will be interesting to see where things go from here and especially which manufacturers will continue using Samsung’s OLED technology in future automobiles.

Not just Neuralink Neuroscientists are racing to turn brain waves into speech AI and brain implants are being leveraged to create voice neuroprostheses. Michael Peel, Clive Cookson, and Richard Waters, Financial Times – Apr 21, 2025 10:33 am | 0 Credit: Getty Images/UC Davis Health/YouTube Credit: Getty Images/UC Davis Health/YouTube Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Neuroscientists are striving to give a voice to people unable to speak in a fast-advancing quest to harness brainwaves to restore or enhance physical abilities. Researchers at universities across California and companies, such as New York-based Precision Neuroscience, are among those making headway towards generating naturalistic speech through a combination of brain implants and artificial intelligence. Investment and attention have long been focused on implants that enable severely disabled people to operate computer keyboards, control robotic arms or regain some use of their own paralysed limbs. But some labs are making strides by concentrating on technology that converts thought patterns into speech. “We are making great progress—and making brain-to-synthetic voice as fluent as chat between two speaking people is a major goal,” said Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco. “The AI algorithms we are using are getting faster and we are learning with every new participant in our studies.” Chang and colleagues, including from the University of California, Berkeley last month published a paper in Nature Neuroscience detailing their work with a woman with quadriplegia, or paralysis of the limbs and torso, who had not been able to speak for 18 years after suffering a stroke. She trained a deep-learning neural network by silently attempting to say sentences composed using 1,024 different words. The audio of her voice was created by streaming her neural data to a joint speech synthesis and text-decoding model. The technique reduced the lag between the patient’s brain signals and the resultant audio from the eight seconds the group had achieved previously to one second. This is much closer to the 100-200 millisecond time gap in normal speech. The system’s median decoding speed was 47.5 words per minute, or about a third the rate of normal conversation. Many thousands of people a year could benefit from so-called voice prosthesis. Their cognitive functions remain more or less intact but they have suffered speech loss due to stroke, the neurodegenerative disorder ALS and other brain conditions. If successful, researchers hope the technique could be extended to help people who have difficulty vocalising because of conditions such as cerebral palsy or autism. The potential of voice neuroprosthesis is beginning to trigger interest among businesses. Precision Neuroscience claims to be capturing higher resolution brain signals than academic researchers, since the electrodes of its implants are more densely packed. The company has worked with 31 patients and plans soon to collect data from more, providing a potential pathway to commercialisation. Precision received regulatory clearance on April 17 to leave its sensors implanted for up to 30 days at a time. That would enable its scientists to train their system with what could within a year be the “largest repository of high resolution neural data that exists on planet Earth,” said chief executive Michael Mager. The next step would be to “miniaturise the components and put them in hermetically sealed packages that are biocompatible so they can be planted in the body forever,” Mager said. Elon Musk’s Neuralink, the best-known brain-computer interface (BCI) company, has focused on enabling people with paralysis to control computers rather than giving them a synthetic voice. An important obstacle to the development of brain-to-voice technology is the time patients take to learn how to use the system. A key unanswered question is how much the response patterns in the motor cortex—the part of the brain that controls voluntary actions, including speech—vary between people. If they remained very similar, machine learning models trained on previous individuals could be used for new patients, said Nick Ramsey, a BCI researcher at University Medical Centre Utrecht. That would accelerate a process that today takes “tens or hundreds of hours generating enough data by showing a participant text and asking them to try to speak it.” Ramsey said all brain-to-voice research focused on the motor cortex where neurons activate the muscles involved in speaking, with no evidence that speech could be generated from other brain areas or by decoding inner thoughts. “Even if you could, you wouldn’t want people to hear your inner speech,” he added. “There are a lot of things I don’t say out loud because they wouldn’t be to my benefit or they might hurt people.” The development of a synthetic voice as good as healthy speech could still be “quite a ways away,” said Sergey Stavisky, co-director of the neuroprosthetics lab at University of California, Davis. His lab had demonstrated it could decode what someone was trying to say with about 98 percent accuracy, he said. But the voice output isn’t instantaneous and it doesn’t capture important speech qualities such as tone. It was unclear if the recording hardware—electrodes—being used could enable the synthesis to match a healthy human voice, he added. Scientists needed to develop a deeper understanding of how the brain encodes speech production and better algorithms to translate neural activity into vocal outputs, Stavisky added. He said: “Ultimately a voice neuroprosthesis should provide the full expressive range of the human voice, so that for example they can precisely control their pitch and timing and do things like sing.” © 2025 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way. Michael Peel, Clive Cookson, and Richard Waters, Financial Times Michael Peel, Clive Cookson, and Richard Waters, Financial Times 0 Comments

Research and advisory firm Gartner predicts that agentic AI will be in 33% of enterprise software applications and enable autonomous decision making for 15% of day-to-day work by 2028. As enterprises work toward that future, leaders must consider whether existing cloud infrastructure is ready for that influx of AI agents.  “Ultimately, they are run, hosted, and are accessed across hybrid cloud environments,” says Nataraj Nagaratnam, IBM fellow and CTO of cloud security at technology and consulting company IBM. “You can protect your agentic [AI], but if you leave your front door open at the infrastructure level, whether it is on-prem, private cloud, or public cloud … the threat and risk increases.” InformationWeek spoke with Nagaratnam and two other experts in cloud security and AI to understand why a secure cloud infrastructure matters and what enterprises can be doing to ensure they have that foundation in place as agentic AI use cases ramp up.  Security and Risk Considerations  The security and risk concerns of adopting agentic AI are not entirely unfamiliar to organizations. When organizations first looked at moving to the cloud, security, legacy tech debt, and potential data leakage were big pieces of the puzzle.  “All the same principles end up being true, just when you move to an agentic-based environment, every possible exposure or weakness in that infrastructure becomes more vivid,” Matt Hobbs, cloud, engineering, data, and AI leader at professional services network PwC, tells InformationWeek.  Related:For as novel and exciting as agentic AI feels, security and risk management of this technology starts with the basics. “Have you done the basic hygiene?” Nagaratnam asks. “Do you have enough authentication in place?” Data is everything in the world of AI. It fuels AI agents, and it is a precious enterprise resource that carries a lot of risk. That risk isn’t new, but it does grow with agentic AI.  “It's not only the structured data that traditionally we have dealt with but [also] the explosion of unstructured data and content that GenAI and therefore the agentic era is able to tap into,” Nagaratnam points out.  AI agents add not only the risk of exposing that data, but also the potential for malicious action. “Can I get this agent to reveal information it's not supposed to reveal? Can I compromise it? Can I take advantage or inject malicious code?” Nagaratnam asks. Enterprise leaders also need to think about the compliance dimensions of introducing agentic AI. “The agents and the system need to be compliant, but you inherit the compliance of that underlying … cloud infrastructure,” Nagaratnam says.  Related:The Right Stakeholders Any organization that has embarked on its AI journey likely already realizes the necessity of involving multiple stakeholders from across the business. CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs -- people already immersed in cloud security -- are natural leaders for the adoption of agentic AI. Legal and regulatory experts also have a place in these internal conversations around cloud infrastructure and embracing AI.  With the advent of agentic AI, it can also be helpful to involve the people who would be working with AI agents. “I would actually grab the people that are in the weeds right now doing the job that you're trying to create some automation around,” says Alexander Hogancamp, director of AI and automation at RTS Labs, an enterprise AI consulting company.  Involving these people can help enterprises identify use cases, recognize potential risks, and better understand how agentic AI can improve and automate workflows.  The AI space moves at a rapid clip -- as fast as a tidal wave, racehorse, rocket ship, choose your simile -- and just keeping up with the onslaught of developments is its own challenge. Setting up an AI working group can empower organizations to stay abreast of everything happening in AI. They can dedicate working hours to exploring advancements in AI and regularly meet to talk about what this means for their teams, their infrastructure, and their business overall.  Related:“These are hobbyists, people with passion,” says Hogancamp. “Identifying those resources early is really, really valuable.” Building an internal team is critical, but no enterprise is an island in the world of agentic AI. Almost certainly, companies will be working with external vendors that need to be a part of the conversation.  Cloud providers, AI model providers, and AI platform providers are all involved in an enterprise’s agentic AI journey. Each of these players needs to undergo third-party risk assessment. What data do they have access to? How are their models trained? What security protocols and frameworks are in place? What potential compliance risks do they introduce?  Getting Ready for Agentic AI  The speed at which AI is moving is challenging for businesses. How can they keep up while still managing the security risks? Striking that balance is hard, but Hobbs encourages businesses to find a path forward rather than waiting indefinitely. “If you froze all innovation right now and said, ‘What we have is what we're going to have for the next 10 years,’ you'd still spend the next 10 years ingesting, adopting, retrofitting your business, he says.  Rather than waiting indefinitely, organizations can accept that there will be a learning curve for agentic AI.  Each company will have to determine its own level of readiness for agentic AI. And cloud native organizations may have a leg up.  “If you think of cloud native organizations that started with a modern infrastructure for how they host things, they then built a modern data environment on top of it. They built role-based security in and around API access,” Hobbs explains. “You're in a lot more prepared spot because you know how to extend that modern infrastructure into an agentic infrastructure. Organizations that are largely operating with an on-prem infrastructure and haven’t tackled modernizing cloud infrastructure likely have more work ahead of adopting agentic AI.  As enterprise teams assess their infrastructure ahead of agentic AI deployment, technical debt will be an important consideration. “If you haven’t addressed the technical debt that exists within the environment you're going to be moving very, very slow in comparison,” Hobbs warns.  So, you feel that you are ready to start capturing the value of agentic AI. Where do you begin?  “Don't start with a multi-agent network on your first use case,” Hogancamp recommends. “If you try to jump right into agents do everything now and not do anything different, then you're probably going to have a bad time.” Enterprises need to develop the ability to observe and audit AI agents. “The more you allow the agent to do, the more substantially complex the decision tree can really be,” says Hogancamp.  As AI agents become more capable, enterprise leaders need to think of them like they would an employee.  “You'd have to look at it as just the same as if you had an employee in your organization without the appropriate guidance, parameters, policy approaches, good judgment considerations,” says Hobbs. “If you have things that are exposed internally and you start to build agents that go and interrogate within your environment and leverage data that they should not be, you could be violating regulation. You're certainly violating your own policies. You could be violating the agreement that you have with your customers.” Once enterprises find success with monitoring, testing, and validating a single agent, they can begin to add more.  Robust logging, tracing, and monitoring are essential as AI agents act autonomously, making decisions that impact business outcomes. And as more and more agents are integrated into enterprise workflows -- ingesting sensitive data as they work -- enterprise leaders will need increasingly automated security to continuously monitor them in their cloud infrastructure.  “Gone are the days where a CISO gives us a set of policies and controls and says [you] should do it. Because it becomes hard for developers to even understand and interpret. So, security automation is at the core of solving this,” says Nagaratnam.  As agentic AI use cases take off, executives and boards are going to want to see its value, and Hobbs is seeing a spike in conversations around measuring that ROI.  “Is it efficiency in a process and reducing cost and pushing it to more AI? That's a different set of measurements. Is it general productivity? That's a different set of measurement,” he says.  Without a secure cloud foundation, enterprises will likely struggle to capture the ROI they are chasing. “We need to modernize data platforms. We need to modernize our security landscape. We need understand how we're doing master data management better so that [we] can take advantage and drive faster speed in the adoption of an agentic workforce or any AI trajectory,” says Hobbs.  

This year has been rough for climate technology: Companies have canceled, downsized, or shut down at least 16 large-scale projects worth $8 billion in total in the first quarter of 2025, according to a new report. That’s far more cancellations than have typically occurred in recent years, according to a new report from E2, a nonpartisan policy group. The trend is due to a variety of reasons, including drastically revised federal policies. In recent months, the White House has worked to claw back federal investments, including some of those promised under the Inflation Reduction Act. New tariffs on imported goods, including those from China (which dominates supply chains for batteries and other energy technologies), are also contributing to the precarious environment. And demand for some technologies, like EVs, is lagging behind expectations.  E2, which has been tracking new investments in manufacturing and large-scale energy projects, is now expanding its regular reports to include project cancellations, shutdowns, and downsizings as well.  From August 2022 to the end of 2024, 18 projects were canceled, closed, or downsized, according to E2’s data. The first three months of 2025 have already seen 16 projects canceled. “I wasn’t sure it was going to be this clear,” says Michael Timberlake, communications director of E2. “What you’re really seeing is that there’s a lot of market uncertainty.” Despite the big number, it is not comprehensive. The group only tracks large-scale investments, not smaller announcements that can be more difficult to follow. The list also leaves out projects that companies have paused. “The incredible uncertainty in the clean energy sector is leading to a lot of projects being canceled or downsized, or just slowed down,” says Jay Turner, a professor of environmental studies at Wellesley College. Turner leads a team that also tracks the supply chain for clean energy in the US in a database called the Big Green Machine. Some turnover is normal, and there have been a lot of projects announced since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022—so there are more in the pipeline to potentially be canceled, Turner says. So many battery and EV projects were announced that supply would have exceeded demand “even in a best-case scenario,” Turner says. So some of the project cancellations are a result of right-sizing, or getting supply and demand in sync. Other projects are still moving forward, with hundreds of manufacturing facilities under construction or operational. But it’s not as many as we’d see in a more stable policy landscape, Turner says. The cancellations include a factory in Georgia from Aspen Aerogels, which received a $670 million loan commitment from the US Department of Energy in October. The facility would have made materials that can help prevent or slow fires in battery packs. In a February earnings call, executives said the company plans to focus on an existing Rhode Island facility and projects in other countries, including China and Mexico. Aspen Aerogels didn’t respond to a request for further comment.  Hundreds of projects that have been announced in just the last few years are under construction or operational despite the wave of cancellations. But it is an early sign of growing uncertainty for climate technology.   “You’re seeing a business environment that’s just unsure what’s next and is hesitant to commit one way or another,” Timberlake says.

We spent a lot of money renovating our basement, living space, and mudroom, and I have regrets about the flooring we chose for all three areas. Victor Arango 2025-04-21T14:22:25Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? My husband and I renovated three areas in our home, and we regret our flooring choices in each. Our basement's vinyl-plank flooring seemed like a smart choice, but the space doesn't feel cozy. The light carpet in the front room isn't going to hold up against our kids and dog for very long. In the summer of 2021, my husband and I purchased the home next door to my mom and stepdad.Never in a million years did I imagine that I would raise my own family on the street where I grew up, in the heart of suburban Centennial, Colorado.Yet, with two young kids, who spend the bulk of their after-school time and random school days off with their grandparents, the move toward the 'burbs began to make sense.The decades-old home had great bones, but very little had been updated by the original owner. We were open to making the place our own through a renovation, so we didn't mind the wood-paneled family room, unfinished basement, or the brown carpet.After a year of planning, a year of renovating, and a year of living in our home, I'm largely thrilled with our space, but I regret the flooring choices in three critical areas of our house.The basement feels uninviting without carpet I tried adding a rug to make the space cozier, but it hasn't done much. Amanda Schwartz Reflecting on the amount of time my husband and I spent in our basements growing up, we knew we wanted to turn ours into a great gathering space for our kids.I also swore never again to have a carpeted basement after our first home's basement flooded with sewage.So, we selected a light-colored, wide luxury vinyl-plank floor. It's gorgeous. But without carpet, the basement feels cold and unwelcoming. Our children hardly ever play downstairs.Instead, the basement has largely become where I put the kids' toys before they relocate them to the front room of the house, where they prefer to play.An added problem is that our anxious dog, Winnie the Poodle, is terrified of the vinyl-plank flooring. Our dog is scared of the basement flooring. Amanda Schwartz In the rare instances that we go down to the basement, Winnie refuses to leave the carpeted steps and join us. Our front room has become the playroom, and its carpet is susceptible to many stains The front room's soft carpet has been a hit with my kids. Victor Arango One of the many things I learned — unfortunately, too late in our renovation — was that our contractor was almost always correct.He recommended putting wood floors in our front room to match the majority of the first floor and current trends. Instead, we installed a soft, gray carpet.The room now offers such an inviting feel that our kids have taken over the space. At present, the coffee table is covered in Lego bricks, and the floor is barely navigable due to a flying boat made of blankets. Our kids have slowly taken over this space. Amanda Schwartz Initially, I was constantly on alert, trying to intercept markers and crayons from the light-colored carpet before they created stains.At this point, I've lost my resolve. Given that this room is also Winnie's favorite room, the carpet already bears the scars from his anxiety-induced vomiting anyway.We'll likely have to get it replaced in the next few years.The mudroom would be even better with heated floors Our mudroom floor can get quite cold. Amanda Schwartz When people visit our home, they "ooh" and "ahh" over our mudroom/laundry room, an enormous space with great light and excellent storage. Prior to our renovation, this space was just a tiny dining room.We spend a lot of time on this room's tiled floors in bare feet, either doing laundry or getting into or out of shoes. It can be a little unpleasant during colder months.After experiencing the luxuries of a heated bathroom floor in our primary suite, I wish we had thought to heat these floors as well.Our renovation taught me a few lessonsLooking back, it might've been helpful to live in our home for a bit before making our flooring choices.However, it wasn't feasible with the scope of our renovations, and we had no way of knowing just how much one flooring choice could impact how our family (and dog) use a space.Once our bank account recovers from the reno, I'll be purchasing a lot of rugs for our basement to try to make it cozier.We'll also probably start putting aside money to replace the flooring in our front room. Given that the room is so unexpectedly popular with our dog and kids, the light carpet doesn't seem like it's going to hold up for long.Maybe one day we'll even retrofit our mudroom with the heated floors we now know we love so much. Recommended video