Ben Zhao remembers well the moment he officially jumped into the fight between artists and generative AI: when one artist asked for AI bananas. A computer security researcher at the University of Chicago, Zhao had made a name for himself by building tools to protect images from facial recognition technology. It was this work that caught the attention of Kim Van Deun, a fantasy illustrator who invited him to a Zoom call in November 2022 hosted by the Concept Art Association, an advocacy organization for artists working in commercial media. On the call, artists shared details of how they had been hurt by the generative AI boom, which was then brand new. At that moment, AI was suddenly everywhere. The tech community was buzzing over image-generating AI models, such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and OpenAIs DALL-E 2, which could follow simple word prompts to depict fantasylands or whimsical chairs made of avocados. But these artists saw this technological wonder as a new kind of theft. They felt the models were effectively stealing and replacing their work. Some had found that their art had been scraped off the internet and used to train the models, while others had discovered that their own names had become prompts, causing their work to be drowned out online by AI knockoffs. Zhao remembers being shocked by what he heard. People are literally telling you theyre losing their livelihoods, he told me one afternoon this spring, sitting in his Chicago living room. Thats something that you just cant ignore. So on the Zoom, he made a proposal: What if, hypothetically, it was possible to build a mechanism that would help mask their art to interfere with AI scraping? I would love a tool that if someone wrote my name and made a prompt, like, garbage came out, responded Karla Ortiz, a prominent digital artist. Just, like, bananas or some weird stuff. That was all the convincing Zhao neededthe moment he joined the cause. Fast-forward to today, and millions of artists have deployed two tools born from that Zoom: Glaze and Nightshade, which were developed by Zhao and the University of Chicagos SAND Lab (an acronym for security, algorithms, networking, and data). Arguably the most prominent weapons in an artists arsenal against nonconsensual AI scraping, Glaze and Nightshade work in similar ways: by adding what the researchers call barely perceptible perturbations to an images pixels so that machine-learning models cannot read them properly. Glaze, which has been downloaded more than 6 million times since it launched in March 2023, adds whats effectively a secret cloak to images that prevents AI algorithms from picking up on and copying an artists style. Nightshade, which I wrote about when it was released almost exactly a year ago this fall, cranks up the offensive against AI companies by adding an invisible layer of poison to images, which can break AI models; it has been downloaded more than 1.6 million times. Thanks to the tools, Im able to post my work online, Ortiz says, and thats pretty huge. For artists like her, being seen online is crucial to getting more work. If they are uncomfortable about ending up in a massive for-profit AI model without compensation, the only option is to delete their work from the internet. That would mean career suicide. Its really dire for us, adds Ortiz, who has become one of the most vocal advocates for fellow artists and is part of a class action lawsuit against AI companies, including Stability AI, over copyright infringement. But Zhao hopes that the tools will do more than empower individual artists. Glaze and Nightshade are part of what he sees as a battle to slowly tilt the balance of power from large corporations back to individual creators. It is just incredibly frustrating to see human life be valued so little, he says with a disdain that Ive come to see as pretty typical for him, particularly when hes talking about Big Tech. And to see that repeated over and over, this prioritization of profit over humanity it is just incredibly frustrating and maddening. As the tools are adopted more widely, his lofty goal is being put to the test. Can Glaze and Nightshade make genuine security accessible for creatorsor will they inadvertently lull artists into believing their work is safe, even as the tools themselves become targets for haters and hackers? While experts largely agree that the approach is effective and Nightshade could prove to be powerful poison, other researchers claim theyve already poked holes in the protections offered by Glaze and that trusting these tools is risky. But Neil Turkewitz, a copyright lawyer who used to work at the Poking the bear The SAND Lab is tight knit, encompassing a dozen or so researchers crammed into a corner of the University of Chicagos computer science building. That space has accumulated somewhat typical workplace detritusa Meta Quest headset here, silly photos of dress-up from Halloween parties there. But the walls are also covered in original art pieces, including a framed painting by Ortiz. Years before fighting alongside artists like Ortiz against AI bros (to use Zhaos words), Zhao and the labs co-leader, Heather Zheng, who is also his wife, had built a record of combating harms posed by new tech. When I visited the SAND Lab in Chicago, I saw how tight knit the group was. Alongside the typical workplace stuff were funny Halloween photos like this one. (Front row: Ronik Bhaskar, Josephine Passananti, Anna YJ Ha, Zhuolin Yang, Ben Zhao, Heather Zheng. Back row: Cathy Yuanchen Li, Wenxin Ding, Stanley Wu, and Shawn Shan.)COURTESY OF SAND LAB Though both earned spots on MIT Technology Reviews 35 Innovators Under 35 list for other work nearly two decades ago, when they were at the University of California, Santa Barbara (Zheng in 2005 for cognitive radios and Zhao a year later for peer-to-peer networks), their primary research focus has become security and privacy. The pair left Santa Barbara in 2017, after they were poached by the new co-director of the University of Chicagos Data Science Institute, Michael Franklin. All eight PhD students from their UC Santa Barbara lab decided to follow them to Chicago too. Since then, the group has developed a bracelet of silence that jams the microphones in AI voice assistants like the Amazon Echo. It has also created a tool called Fawkesprivacy armor, as Zhao put it in a 2020 interview with the New York Timesthat people can apply to their photos to protect them from facial recognition software. Theyve also studied how hackers might steal sensitive information through stealth attacks on virtual-reality headsets, and how to distinguish human art from AI-generated images. Ben and Heather and their group are kind of unique because theyre actually trying to build technology that hits right at some key questions about AI and how it is used, Franklin tells me. Theyre doing it not just by asking those questions, but by actually building technology that forces those questions to the forefront. It was Fawkes that intrigued Van Deun, the fantasy illustrator, two years ago; she hoped something similar might work as protection against generative AI, which is why she extended that fateful invite to the Concept Art Associations Zoom call. That call started something of a mad rush in the weeks that followed. Though Zhao and Zheng collaborate on all the labs projects, they each lead individual initiatives; Zhao took on what would become Glaze, with PhD student Shawn Shan (who was on this years Innovators Under 35 list) spearheading the development of the programs algorithm. In parallel to Shans coding, PhD students Jenna Cryan and Emily Wenger sought to learn more about the views and needs of the artists themselves. They created a user survey that the team distributed to artists with the help of Ortiz. In replies from more than 1,200 artistsfar more than the average number of responses to user studies in computer sciencethe team found that the vast majority of creators had read about art being used to train models, and 97% expected AI to decrease some artists job security. A quarter said AI art had already affected their jobs. Almost all artists also said they posted their work online, and more than half said they anticipated reducing or removing that online work, if they hadnt alreadyno matter the professional and financial consequences. The first scrappy version of Glaze was developed in just a month, at which point Ortiz gave the team her entire catalogue of work to test the model on. At the most basic level, Glaze acts as a defensive shield. Its algorithm identifies features from the image that make up an artist's individual style and adds subtle changes to them. When an AI model is trained on images protected with Glaze, the model will not be able to reproduce styles similar to the original image. A painting from Ortiz later became the first image publicly released with Glaze on it: a young woman, surrounded by flying eagles, holding up a wreath. Its title is Musa Victoriosa, victorious muse. Its the one currently hanging on the SAND Labs walls. Despite many artists initial enthusiasm, Zhao says, Glazes launch caused significant backlash. Some artists were skeptical because they were worried this was a scam or yet another data-harvesting campaign. The lab had to take several steps to build trust, such as offering the option to download the Glaze app so that it adds the protective layer offline, which meant no data was being transferred anywhere. (The images are then shielded when artists upload them.) Soon after Glazes launch, Shan also led the development of the second tool, Nightshade. Where Glaze is a defensive mechanism, Nightshade was designed to act as an offensive deterrent to nonconsensual training. It works by changing the pixels of images in ways that are not noticeable to the human eye but manipulate machine-learning models so they interpret the image as something different from what it actually shows. If poisoned samples are scraped into AI training sets, these samples trick the AI models: Dogs become cats, handbags become toasters. The researchers say only a relatively few examples are enough to permanently damage the way a generative AI model produces images. Currently, both tools are available as free apps or can be applied through the projects website. The lab has also recently expanded its reach by offering integration with the new artist-supported social network Cara, which was born out of a backlash to exploitative AI training and forbids AI-produced content. In dozens of conversations with Zhao and the labs researchers, as well as a handful of their artist-collaborators, its become clear that both groups now feel they are aligned in one mission. I never expected to become friends with scientists in Chicago, says Eva Toorenent, a Dutch artist who worked closely with the team on Nightshade. Im just so happy to have met these people during this collective battle. Images online of Toorenent's Belladonna have been treated with the SAND Lab's Nightshade tool.EVA TOORENENT Her painting Belladonna, which is also another name for the nightshade plant, was the first image with Nightshades poison on it. Its so symbolic, she says. People taking our work without our consent, and then taking our work without consent can ruin their models. Its just poetic justice. No perfect solution The reception of the SAND Labs work has been less harmonious across the AI community. After Glaze was made available to the public, Zhao tells me, someone reported it to sites like VirusTotal, which tracks malware, so that it was flagged by antivirus programs. Several people also started claiming on social media that the tool had quickly been broken. Nightshade similarly got a fair share of criticism when it launched; as TechCrunch reported in January, some called it a virus and, as the story explains, another Reddit user who inadvertently went viral on X questioned Nightshades legality, comparing it to hacking a vulnerable computer system to disrupt its operation. We had no idea what we were up against, Zhao tells me. Not knowing who or what the other side could be meant that every single new buzzing of the phone meant that maybe someone did break Glaze. Both tools, though, have gone through rigorous academic peer review and have won recognition from the computer security community. Nightshade was accepted at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, and Glaze received a distinguished paper award and the 2023 Internet Defense Prize at the Usenix Security Symposium, a top conference in the field. In my experience working with poison, I think [Nightshade is] pretty effective, says Nathalie Baracaldo, who leads the AI security and privacy solutions team at IBM and has studied data poisoning. I have not seen anything yetand the word yet is important herethat breaks that type of defense that Ben is proposing. And the fact that the team has released the source code for Nightshade for others to probe, and it hasnt been broken, also suggests its quite secure, she adds. At the same time, at least one team of researchers does claim to have penetrated the protections of Glaze, or at least an old version of it. As researchers from Google DeepMind and ETH Zurich detailed in a paper published in June, they found various ways Glaze (as well as similar but less popular protection tools, such as Mist and Anti-DreamBooth) could be circumvented using off-the-shelf techniques that anyone could accesssuch as image upscaling, meaning filling in pixels to increase the resolution of an image as its enlarged. The researchers write that their work shows the brittleness of existing protections and warn that artists may believe they are effective. But our experiments show they are not. Florian Tramr, an associate professor at ETH Zurich who was part of the study, acknowledges that it is very hard to come up with a strong technical solution that ends up really making a difference here. Rather than any individual tool, he ultimately advocates for an almost certainly unrealistic ideal: stronger policies and laws to help create an environment in which people commit to buying only human-created art. What happened here is common in security research, notes Baracaldo: A defense is proposed, an adversary breaks it, andideallythe defender learns from the adversary and makes the defense better. Its important to have both ethical attackers and defenders working together to make our AI systems safer, she says, adding that ideally, all defenses should be publicly available for scrutiny, which would both allow for transparency and help avoid creating a false sense of security. (Zhao, though, tells me the researchers have no intention to release Glazes source code.) Still, even as all these researchers claim to support artists and their art, such tests hit a nerve for Zhao. In Discord chats that were later leaked, he claimed that one of the researchers from the ETH ZurichGoogle DeepMind team doesnt give a shit about people. (That researcher did not respond to a request for comment, but in a blog post he said it was important to break defenses in order to know how to fix them. Zhao says his words were taken out of context.) Zhao also emphasizes to me that the papers authors mainly evaluated an earlier version of Glaze; he says its new update is more resistant to tampering. Messing with images that have current Glaze protections would harm the very style that is being copied, he says, making such an attack useless. This back-and-forth reflects a significant tension in the computer security community and, more broadly, the often adversarial relationship between different groups in AI. Is it wrong to give people the feeling of security when the protections youve offered might break? Or is it better to have some level of protectionone that raises the threshold for an attacker to inflict harmthan nothing at all? Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, an associate professor of applied mathematics and computer science at Imperial College London, says there are plenty of examples where similar technical protections have failed to be bulletproof. For example, in 2023, de Montjoye and his team probed a digital mask for facial recognition algorithms, which was meant to protect the privacy of medical patients facial images; they were able to break the protections by tweaking just one thing in the programs algorithm (which was open source). Using such defenses is still sending a message, he says, and adding some friction to data profiling. Tools such as TrackMeNotwhich protects users from data profilinghave been presented as a way to protest; as a way to say I do not consent. But at the same time, he argues, we need to be very clear with artists that it is removable and might not protect against future algorithms. While Zhao will admit that the researchers pointed out some of Glazes weak spots, he unsurprisingly remains confident that Glaze and Nightshade are worth deploying, given that security tools are never perfect. Indeed, as Baracaldo points out, the Google DeepMind and ETH Zurich researchers showed how a highly motivated and sophisticated adversary will almost certainly always find a way in. Yet it is simplistic to think that if you have a real security problem in the wild and youre trying to design a protection tool, the answer should be it either works perfectly or dont deploy it, Zhao says, citing spam filters and firewalls as examples. Defense is a constant cat-and-mouse game. And he believes most artists are savvy enough to understand the risk. Offering hope The fight between creators and AI companies is fierce. The current paradigm in AI is to build bigger and bigger models, and there is, at least currently, no getting around the fact that they require vast data sets hoovered from the internet to train on. Tech companies argue that anything on the public internet is fair game, and that it is impossible to build advanced AI tools without copyrighted material; many artists argue that tech companies have stolen their intellectual property So far, the creatives arent exactly winning. A number of companies have already replaced designers, copywriters, and illustrators with AI systems. In one high-profile case, Marvel Studios used AI-generated imagery instead of human-created art in the title sequence of its 2023 TV series Secret Invasion. In another, a radio station fired its human presenters and replaced them with AI. The technology has become a major bone of contention between unions and film, TV, and creative studios, most recently leading to a strike by video-game performers. There are numerous ongoing lawsuits by artists, writers, publishers, and record labels against AI companies. It will likely take years until there is a clear-cut legal resolution. But even a court ruling wont necessarily untangle the difficult ethical questions created by generative AI. Thats why Zhao and Zheng see Glaze and Nightshade as necessary interventionstools to defend original work, attack those who would help themselves to it, and, at the very least, buy artists some time. Having a perfect solution is not really the point. The researchers need to offer something now because the AI sector moves at breakneck speed, Zheng says, means that companies are ignoring very real harms to humans. This is probably the first time in our entire technology careers that we actually see this much conflict, she adds. On a much grander scale, she and Zhao tell me they hope that Glaze and Nightshade will eventually have the power to overhaul how AI companies use art and how their products produce it. It is eye-wateringly expensive to train AI models, and its extremely laborious for engineers to find and purge poisoned samples in a data set of billions of images. Theoretically, if there are enough Nightshaded images on the internet and tech companies see their models breaking as a result, it could push developers to the negotiating table to bargain over licensing and fair compensation. Thats, of course, still a big if. MIT Technology Review reached out to several AI companies, such as Midjourney and Stability AI, which did not reply to requests for comment. A spokesperson for OpenAI, meanwhile, did not confirm any details about encountering data poison but said the company takes the safety of its products seriously and is continually improving its safety measures: We are always working on how we can make our systems more robust against this type of abuse. In the meantime, the SAND Lab is moving ahead and looking into funding from foundations and nonprofits to keep the project going. They also say there has also been interest from major companies looking to protect their intellectual property (though they decline to say which), and Zhao and Zheng are exploring how the tools could be applied in other industries, such as gaming, videos, or music. In the meantime, they plan to keep updating Glaze and Nightshade to be as robust as possible, working closely with the students in the Chicago labwhere, on another wall, hangs Toorenents Belladonna. The painting has a heart-shaped note stuck to the bottom right corner: Thank you! You have given hope to us artists. This story has been updated with the latest download figures for Glaze and Nightshade.

Teaching robots to navigate new environments is tough. You can train them on physical, real-world data taken from recordings made by humans, but thats scarce and expensive to collect. Digital simulations are a rapid, scalable way to teach them to do new things, but the robots often fail when theyre pulled out of virtual worlds and asked to do the same tasks in the real one. Now theres a potentially better option: a new system that uses generative AI models Researchers used the system, called LucidSim, to train a robot dog in parkour, getting it to scramble over a box and climb stairs even though it had never seen any real-world data. The approach demonstrates how helpful generative AI could be when it comes to teaching robots to do challenging tasks. It also raises the possibility that we could ultimately train them in entirely virtual worlds. The research was presented at the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) last week. Were in the middle of an industrial revolution for robotics, says Ge Yang, a postdoc at MITs Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who worked on the project. This is our attempt at understanding the impact of these [generative AI] models outside of their original intended purposes, with the hope that it will lead us to the next generation of tools and models. LucidSim uses a combination of generative AI models to create the visual training data. First the researchers generated thousands of prompts for ChatGPT, getting it to create descriptions of a range of environments that represent the conditions the robot would encounter in the real world, including different types of weather, times of day, and lighting conditions. These included an ancient alley lined with tea houses and small, quaint shops, each displaying traditional ornaments and calligraphy and the sun illuminates a somewhat unkempt lawn dotted with dry patches. These descriptions were fed into a system that maps 3D geometry and physics data onto AI-generated images, creating short videos mapping a trajectory for the robot to follow. The robot draws on this information to work out the height, width, and depth of the things it has to navigatea box or a set of stairs, for example. The researchers tested LucidSim by instructing a four-legged robot equipped with a webcam to complete several tasks, including locating a traffic cone or soccer ball, climbing over a box, and walking up and down stairs. The robot performed consistently better than when it ran a system trained on traditional simulations. In 20 trials to locate the cone, LucidSim had a 100% success rate, versus 70% for systems trained on standard simulations. Similarly, LucidSim reached the soccer ball in another 20 trials 85% of the time, and just 35% for the other system. Finally, when the robot was running LucidSim, it successfully completed all 10 stair-climbing trials, compared with just 50% for the other system. From left: Phillip Isola, Ge Yang, and Alan YuCOURTESY OF MIT CSAIL These results are likely to improve even further in the future if LucidSim draws directly from sophisticated generative video models rather than a rigged-together combination of language, image, and physics models, says Phillip Isola, an associate professor at MIT who worked on the research. The researchers approach to using generative AI is a novel one that will pave the way for more interesting new research, says Mahi Shafiullah, a PhD student at New York University who is using AI models to train robots. He did not work on the project. The more interesting direction I see personally is a mix of both real and realistic imagined data that can help our current data-hungry methods scale quicker and better, he says. The ability to train a robot from scratch purely on AI-generated situations and scenarios is a significant achievement and could extend beyond machines to more generalized AI agents, says Zafeirios Fountas, a senior research scientist at Huawei specializing in braininspired AI. The term robots here is used very generally; were talking about some sort of AI that interacts with the real world, he says. I can imagine this being used to control any sort of visual information, from robots and self-driving cars up to controlling your computer screen or smartphone. In terms of next steps, the authors are interested in trying to train a humanoid robot using wholly synthetic datawhich they acknowledge is an ambitious goal, as bipedal robots are typically less stable than their four-legged counterparts. Theyre also turning their attention to another new challenge: using LucidSim to train the kinds of robotic arms that work in factories and kitchens. The tasks they have to perform require a lot more dexterity and physical understanding than running around a landscape. To actually pick up a cup of coffee and pour it is a very hard, open problem, says Isola. If we could take a simulation that's been augmented with generative AI to create a lot of diversity and train a very robust agent that can operate in a caf, I think that would be very cool.

With over 25 years of experience in corporate strategy, finance, and consulting, Linda Meade has been avital member of theStudio Pacific Architecture Board of Directors since 2019, says thepractice.Board ChairHelen Anderson reflected on Meades contributions,saying:Linda has brought a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective that has been invaluable to the board. Her leadership, guidance, and commitment to cultivating future leadership have been instrumental in positioning Studio Pacific for the years ahead. On behalf of the board, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Linda for her dedication andcontributions.Taking on the role of Independent Director is Leopino (Leo)Foliaki. Foliaki has more than30 years commercial experience ataleading New Zealand corporate consulting company,with interest in sustainability and the community impacts ofdesign.Nick Barratt-Boyes, Managing Director of Studio Pacific, commented on the changes, Lindas contributions have been crucial in supporting our long-term vision. She has helped steer us through both challenges and opportunities, and her departure leaves big shoes to fill. That said, we are also excited to welcome Leo to the board. His diverse experience, forward-thinking approach, Tmaki Makaurau presence, and knowledge of the industry will be instrumental in helping us build on the strong foundation we havecreated.Meade who will be focusing on other projects such as her role as Founding Director of the Wellington-based consulting and advisory group,Kalimena said, Its hard to believe my time at Studio Pacific Architecture is coming to an end. As I stood in the Studio last week after my final board meeting, I felt a mixture of gratitude, and excitement for whats still to come for the incredble team atSPA.

Planning approval granted for co-living project with affordable housing, commercial, and community spaces on Woolwichs historic Island SiteSource: BB PartnershipBB Partnership has received planning approval and listed building consent for a 485-unit co-living development on the Island Site in Woolwich, southeast London. The scheme, approved by the Royal Borough of Greenwich on 12 November, involves a substantial mixed-use redevelopment across a 1.11-hectare area bordered by Wellington Street, Polytechnic Street, and Thomas Street, featuring residential units, commercial spaces, and conservation of listed buildings.The development, commissioned by Woolwich Island Limited, includes 485 co-living units, 20 affordable residential units, and over 3,000 square metres of flexible commercial and community space.The project emphasises the conservation and adaptive reuse of heritage assets, notably the Grade II-listed former University of Greenwich building, which will be repurposed for residential and communal use.Source: BB PartnershipThe design retains several other listed and locally listed structures within the Bathway Quarter of the Woolwich Conservation Area, aligning the developments height and massing to a six-storey limit to safeguard views of the Grade II* listed former Town Hall from General Gordon Square.In collaboration with the Royal Borough of Greenwich and other stakeholders, including Historic England and the Greater London Authority (GLA), BB Partnership has refined the scheme through a Planning Performance Agreement, incorporating feedback from multiple consultations to address local concerns.Source: BB PartnershipBB Partnerships design aims to connect new public and private amenity spaces with a landscaped central square, accessible from multiple points around the site.The schemes approach to sustainability includes a projected 55% reduction in carbon emissions against Building Regulations and a reported biodiversity net gain of 435%. The design aligns with the GLAs circular economy and lifecycle carbon goals.

The concept design for the 12-storey scheme was developed by Hawkins\Brown, with delivery overseen by CPMG ArchitectsSource: CPMG ArchitectsSource: CPMG ArchitectsSource: CPMG ArchitectsSource: CPMG ArchitectsSource: CPMG ArchitectsSource: CPMG Architects1/6show captionThe 45 million Design and Digital Arts building at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has completed, with design delivery led by Nottingham-based CPMG Architects. Originally conceived by Hawkins\Brown, the 12-storey building aims to position NTU as a leader in digital arts and filmmaking education.Opened to students in September, the building houses advanced facilities including editing suites, a performance capture studio, and virtual production resources. Aimed at fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, the building is designed to support courses in fields such as film, television, animation, UX design, games design, and graphic design.Michael Marsden, executive dean of NTUs Nottingham School of Art & Design, highlighted its potential impact, stating, This new building pushes the boundaries, not only through the architecture and technologies used to create it, but through the courses on offer, the opportunity for collaboration, and the graduates it will produce.CPMG Architects, appointed in December 2021, collaborated closely with main contractor Bowmer + Kirkland to refine and implement the concept, focusing on interior redesigns to support NTUs emphasis on digital arts.According to Alex Walker, project lead at CPMG, the project underscores the firms commitment to high-quality design and collaboration: Collaborating with a local design team to deliver an important project in our home city has been a richly rewarding experience especially as it creates a hub of creativity for the digital leaders of the future.Source: CPMG ArchitectsMichael Marsden, executive dean of the Nottingham School of Art & Design at Nottingham Trent University, said: This new building pushes the boundaries, not only through the architecture and technologies used to create it, but through the courses on offer, the opportunity for collaboration, and the graduates it will produce. It will enable NTU to become a global leader in digital arts and filmmaking education, creating a rich talent pool of young creatives who will graduate with sector-leading expertise and hands-on industry experience, and help position us, and the city as a whole, as the most innovative hotbed for digital art and design talent in the UK.In addition to CPMG and Bowmer + Kirkland, the project team included MEP contractor Derry Building Services, structural engineer ARUP, and facade contractor KeyClad, among others.

The holidays are upon us, and it's getting chilly outside. That means it's the perfect time to stay inside and play a game by the fire. Luckily, Apple Arcade is set to add over a dozen games to the service, including three Final Fantasy games.Apple Arcade is filled with familiar and classic games, alongside exclusive titles, that you can play for $7 per month (7, AU$10). You can find many of these games in the App Store, but they have paywalls and ads that might hinder your gaming experience. Using an Apple Arcade subscription, you can play each game without paywalls and ads, a feature usually denoted by "Plus" in the game's name.Here are all the games coming to Apple Arcade in December and January.Arriving on Dec. 5Talking Tom Blast ParkDeveloper: Outfit7 AppleThe adventurous cat Talking Tom is back, and this time he has to save Blast Park. The mischievous Rakoonz are out to trash the park, so it's up to you and your friends to blast them away with quirky guns -- like the Duckinator -- to save the day.Pac-Man 256 PlusDeveloper: Bandai Namco and Hipster Whale ApplePac-Man is back in this new twist on an old classic. You still have to collect dots while evading ghosts in the familiar maze, but the maze doesn't end. There are also new powerups, new ghosts -- named Sue, Funky and Spunky -- and a new super villain called the Glitch. Otherwise, you're out to get the highest score possible, just like the old days.Other games coming to Apple Arcade thenBoggle: Arcade Edition by ZyngaHot Wheels: Race Off Plus by Hutch GamesBarbie Color Creations Plus by StoryToysArriving on Dec. 9Final Fantasy 4 (3D Remake) PlusDeveloper: Square Enix AppleThis early entry in the iconic Final Fantasy series has been revived with updated graphics, improved gameplay and voice acting in event scenes. You play as the dark knight Cecil as he tries to stop the sorcerer Golbez from destroying the world. Throughout your travels you'll meet new allies, uncover secrets and see who your true friends are.Final Fantasy 4: The After Years PlusDeveloper: Square Enix AppleIf you enjoyed Final Fantasy 4, give this sequel a try next. This game is set years after the events of the original and introduces new characters and villains. Another moon has appeared over your home planet and unchanging crystals from the first game have begun to glow. You have to discover what's causing these changes and how to set things right.Arriving on Jan. 9Final Fantasy PlusDeveloper: Square Enix AppleThis is the game that started it all. Join the Warriors of Light on a journey to restore power to the Crystals and save their home world. The remastered version of this game brings improved gameplay features, like auto-battle and more to your fingers.Skate City: New YorkDeveloper: Snowman and Agens AppleThe Skate City franchise takes on the Big Apple in this installment of the skateboarding series. Skate real-world areas, like New York's subways and waterfronts, while you master different tricks. You can face new challenges with each run or relax in the Free Skate mode while listening to an original soundtrack.Other games coming to Apple Arcade thenThree Kingdoms Heroes by Koei TecmoTrials of Mana Plus by Square EnixRodeo Stampede Plus by Featherweight GamesIt's Literally Just Mowing Plus by Protostar You can access these games in Apple Arcade in December and January, but there are plenty of other games to play on the service now for $7 per month or $50 annually. You can also try Apple Arcade for free for one month with your first sign-up, or you can get a three-month free trial when you buy a new Apple device. To access Apple Arcade, open the App Store on your iOS or iPadOS device and tap the joystick in the menu bar. Watch this: Breaking the iPhone Cycle: Lessons Apple Can Learn From Nintendo 07:07

Looking forthe most recentMini Crossword answer?Click here for today's Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands and Connections puzzles.TheNew York Times Crossword Puzzleis legendary. But if you don't have that much time, theMini Crosswordis an entertaining substitute. The Mini Crossword is much easier than the old-school NYT Crossword, and you probably can complete it in a couple of minutes. But if you're stuck, we've got the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times' games collection. If you're looking for today's Wordle, Connections and Strands answers, you can visitCNET's NYT puzzle hints page.Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini CrosswordLet's get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers. The completed NYT Mini Crossword for Nov. 14, 2024. NYT/Screenshot by CNETMini across clues and answers1A clue: One of 1,077 in the first single-volume edition of "The Lord of the Rings"Answer: PAGE5A clue: Clickable symbolAnswer: ICON6A clue: With 3-Down, slangy aspirations for a group of friendsAnswer: SQUAD7A clue: Throws hardAnswer: HURLS8A clue: Voting counterparts of naysAnswer: YEASMini down clues and answers1D clue: Arouse, as interestAnswer: PIQUE2D clue: Maker of car models like the MDX and TLXAnswer: ACURA3D clue: See 6-AcrossAnswer: GOALS4D clue: "All's well that ___ well"Answer: ENDS6D clue: Like a kindergartner on the first day of school, maybeAnswer: SHYHow to play more Mini CrosswordsThe New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day's Mini Crossword for free, but you'll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

OpinionNovember 13, 20245 min readHow I Overcame SolastalgiaDamage to your environment can bring a profound sense of loss; that feeling, called solastalgia, can also provide inspirationBy Queen Essang Overearth/Getty ImagesAs I sit in my backyard in Abuja, Nigeria, looking out at the open landscape around me, I cant help but feel a deep sense of loss. The rolling hills that were once vibrant with a rich carpet of wild ferns, daisies, lupines and goldenrods are now dotted with invasive species that have choked out the native flora. The river that once flowed crystal clear, reflecting the azure sky and teeming with darting fish and dragonflies gliding gracefully by, is now muddied by sediments and pollutants from nearby construction and agriculture.This feeling of loss and dislocation, a combination of nostalgia for what once was and a profound sadness for what has been irretrievably altered, has a name: solastalgia. Coined by philosopher Glenn Albrecht, solastalgia describes the emotional distress caused by environmental change, particularly when it affects the place we call home. Essentially, it is the feeling of being homesick while at home.But despite this feeling, there is hope. Solastalgia has inspired me. It serves as a strong motivator to push for the protection and rejuvenation of our environments. It reminds us of the intrinsic value of nature and the importance of stewardship. When we acknowledge our grief and channel it into positive action, we empower ourselves to fight for the landscapes we love and to safeguard biodiversity, transforming our sorrow into tangible steps for change. Our bonds with nature are resilient and worth nurturing for future generations.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Growing up, I spent countless hours in the woods behind my childhood home surrounded by majestic oaks with their sprawling canopies, towering pines reaching for the heavens and graceful willows swaying gently by the rivers edge. I would often find myself in the embrace of the ancient pines, their earthly scent grounding me as I wandered beneath their branches. The woods were my sanctuary. Each tree had a story, a memory attached to it. I remember the laughter of friends echoing throughout the canopy as we played hide and seek, the sun filtering through the foliage, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor, and the quiet moments spent sitting up against a tree trunk, feeling at one with nature.When I returned home after five years in college, I was struck by how much the ecosystem had changed. As climate change accelerates and development encroaches on familiar spaces, I find myself grappling with an unsettling reality. The vibrant tapestry of my childhood is unraveling. In its place lies a landscape marked by changechange that feels invasive and alien.Today, in my backyard, I find myself thinking about the day years ago that I encountered a friendly female waterbuck while wandering through the lush Stubbs Creeks forests. The forest was alive with playful squirrels, the occasional fox darting through the underbrush. Chirping robins and warblers and buzzing insects created a symphony that felt like home. Now I realize many of those trees had been felled, replaced by sterile housing developments devoid of the life and character.Nestled within this vibrant landscape was Ibeno Lake. I had taken pride in its clear water, where families of ducks and geese often swam gracefully by. The lake was joy: a place for summer swims, lazy afternoons spent floating on rafts, evenings filled with the laughter of friends gathered around bonfires. It was here that I learned the rhythm of nature. Now I watch in dismay as algae blooms choke the water, turning it murky green.The emotional turmoil is not mine alone; it resonates with many people who are witnessing similar transformations in their environments. The deep sense of solastalgia manifests as a grief that is often overlookeda sorrow not for a person but for a place. It is a longing for a connection that feels increasingly out of reach, as the landscapes we once knew and loved are irrevocably altered.Every time I see a familiar landmark disappear or a beloved habitat shrink, I can't help but reflect on how a once-vivid tapestry of biodiversity is transforming into a homogenized landscape. This transformation induces a precarious tipping of natures equilibrium. Climate change is a fundamental cause, but pollution from nearby industrial complexes has contributed significantly to the degradation of the natural environment. Deforestation spurred by the relentless pursuit of urban development continues to erode extensive forestland, and unsustainable resource extraction has stripped the land of its natural resources, leaving scars that are slow to heal.I cannot stand idly by. I began to educate myself about conservation efforts shortly after I returned home, driven by the changes I witnessed in my environment. I have joined local conservation groups, participating in tree-planting initiatives to restore native species and combat the invasion of nonnative flora. I have also engaged in cleanup efforts at Ibeno Lake, rallying friends and family to help remove litter and debris from the shorelines, to help restore its natural beauty. Education is vital, too; I strive to raise awareness in my community about the importance of preserving our natural spaces.In my conversations with family and friends, I find that solastalgia is a common experience. We often reminisce about the landscapes of our youth, remembering the places that influenced our lives. There is a somber tone in these discussions, as we realize that our memories are becoming more associated with what we are losing rather than what is left. The world is changing, and as a result, so are we.As I reflect on my journey with solastalgia, I realize that it is not merely a feeling of loss but also a call to reconnect. It urges us to find new ways to engage with our surroundings, to create memories in the face of change and to honor the beauty that still exists, despite the challenges. Although the landscape may shift, our appreciation for it can remain steadfast, reminding us that our bond with nature is resilient and worth nurturing for future generations.In an era where environmental challenges loom large, solastalgia serves as a poignant reminder of the stakes involved. It is an invitation to cherish our homes, to advocate for their protection and to cultivate a deep-rooted sense of responsibility for the world we inhabit. As we confront the realities of a changing climate, may we find solace not only in our memories but also in our collective capacity to create a thriving future for both people and the planet, in a harmonious balance that nurtures the vibrant tapestry of life.This is an opinion article; the views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

OpinionNovember 13, 20245 min readThe Mathematical Mind Offers Neuroscientists a Master Class in ConcentrationExpertise bulks up the brains ability to think deeply, a skill that may generalize across tasksBy Hanna Poikonen Malte Mueller/Getty ImagesThink of the last time you concentrated deeply to solve a challenging problem. To solve a math puzzle or determine a chess move, for example, you might have had to screen through multiple strategies and approaches. But little by little, the conundrum would have come into focus. Numbers and symbols may have fallen into place. It might have even felt, at some point, like your problem effortlessly resolved itself on the blackboard of your mind.In recent research, my colleagues and I set out to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying these experiences. Specifically, we wanted to understand what happens in the brain while a person engages in abstract and demanding thoughtso we designed a study involving math expertise.Mathematics relies on an ancient brain network located in the parietal regions at the top and center of the brains outer folded cortex. That network helps us process space, time and numbers. Past studies on neurocognition in mathematics have focused on brain activity while considering problems that take a few seconds to solve. These studies have helped illuminate brain activity that supports focused attention and a special form of recall called working memory, which helps people keep numbers and other details top of mind in the short term.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.But our study used longer, more complex math challenges that involve multiple steps to solve. These problems are more akin to the tricky puzzles that mathematicians must tackle regularly. We found that people with more experience in mathematics enter a special state of deep concentration when thinking about challenging math problems. Understanding that state could help scientists to someday understand the power of concentration more broadly, as well as the possible trade-offs of off-loading our problem-solving to our devices.For our experiment, we recruited 22 university studentsat both the graduate and undergraduate levelwho were in math and math-related programs, such as physics or engineering, along with 22 fellow students in disciplines with minimal to no quantitative emphasis, such as physiotherapy and arts. We determined each students verbal, spatial and numerical intelligence quotient (IQ), as well as their level of math anxiety.We asked the students to watch step-by-step presentations that explained how to solve several challenging math problemssuch as proving a Fibonacci identity. Throughout this demonstration, students wore a cap covered with electrodes so that we could noninvasively track electrical activity in their brain. After each presentation, they had to report whether they thought they had understood the demonstrations and how engaged they felt during this experience. We also encouraged the participants to watch the demos carefully by telling them that they would have to explain the problem afterward.We found that the students with greater math expertise showed markedly different brain activity than those with less. For example, the students whose coursework involved little mathematics showed more signs of complex activity in the prefrontal cortex, an area just behind the forehead that is engaged in all kinds of cognitive efforts. This finding may reflect how hard they were working to understand the various steps of the complex math demonstrations.But things really got interesting when we turned to students who engaged in quantitative thinking regularly. We noted significant activity that appeared to link the frontal and parietal regions of their brain. More specifically, these areas exhibited a pattern of activity that neuroscientists describe as delta waves. These are very slow waves of electrical activity that are typically associated with states such as deep sleep. Of course, these students were wide awake and deeply engagedso what was going on?Some recent research suggests that these sleepy slower delta waves may play a crucial role in the cognitive processing that supports deep internal concentration and information transfer between distant brain regions. For example, recent studies show that large-scale delta oscillation emerges among experienced meditators when they enter meditative states. One reason that meditation, mathematical problem-solving and sleep resemble one another might be that, in each case, the brain needs to suppress irrelevant external information and unneeded thoughts to really focus and concentrate on the task at hand. (Indeed, even sleep can be a busy time for the brain. Sleep research has revealed deep sleeps irreplaceable role in memory consolidation; slow-wave sleep retracts the neural patterns that were previously activated during a learning task.)In fact, we suspect that the long-distance delta oscillation we observed may play a central role whenever people are immersed in contextual and complex problem-solving. For instance, we have found that dancers and musicians show similar delta waves when watching dance or listening to music. This suggests engaging brain networks in this way could be useful for many tasks involving concentration. Its likely that when people who have extensive experience in a task are deeply engaged in that effort, these same slow delta waves are involved, even as the specific brain networks vary. Its also possiblethough well need to investigate further to be surethat this state of deep concentration is generalizable: develop this way of thinking in one domain, whether its tackling trigonometry or playing the violin, and it could help you in others.Though our experiments involved students and not, say, champion mathematicians or Nobel laureates, the differences in brain activity that we observed are still a testament to the power of practice in expertise. Our student participants did not significantly differ in their IQ or level of math anxiety, for example. Rather repetition and deliberate or intentional study helped some of these graduate and undergraduate students become more efficient masters of quantitative thinking.By the same logic, these findings hint at a trade-off that people should keep in mindparticularly as artificial intelligence and other tools offer tantalizing shortcuts for various forms of problem-solving. Each time we off-load a problem to a calculator or ask ChatGPT to summarize an essay, we are losing an opportunity to improve our own skills and practice deep concentration for ourselves. To be clear, technologies can boost our efficiency in important ways, but the seemingly inefficient hard work we do can be powerful, too.When I consider how frenetically we switch between tasks and how eagerly we externalize creativity and complex problem-solving to artificial intelligence in our high-speed society, I personally am left with a question: What happens to our human ability to solve complex problems in the future if we teach ourselves not to use deep concentration? After all, we may need that mode of thought more than ever today to solve increasingly complex technological, environmental and political problems.Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about for Mind Matters? Please send suggestions to Scientific Americans Mind Matters editor Daisy Yuhas at dyuhas@sciam.com.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

Blizzard's Warcraft 1 & 2 remasters are official and out now on PCPlus, Warcraft 3: Reforged gets 2.0 update.Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on Nov. 13, 2024 Almost exactly eight years since Blizzard said it wasn't planning to remaster Warcraft 1 & 2 because they're "just not that fun any more", the studio has announced it's doing just that - and both spruce-ups are available today as part of Warcraft's 30th anniversary celebrations.The original Warcraft helped catapult Blizzard into the big leagues when it launched back in 1994, with Warcraft 2 quickly emerging to sate its growing fanbase the following year. And the studio's newly announced remasters promise a range of enhancements to the games' classic real-time strategy action, starting with new hand-drawn visuals - said to capture the originals' art style - which can be toggled on and off in real-time.As for Warcraft 1 specifically, Blizzard has added "modern controls", including right-click move, bounding box select, and a faster game speed. That's on top of the UI and UX improvements - including tool tips, health bars, mission select screens, and increased unit select - that've been implemented across both titles. Additionally, Warcraft 2 Remastered retains the original's multiplayer, and all legacy custom maps are fully compatible and playable in the new version.Warcraft Remastered Battle Chest trailer.Watch on YouTubeWarcraft 1 Remastered and Warcraft 2 Remastered are available for PC via Battle.net right now (there's no word on whether they might eventually show up on other stores), costing $9.99 and $14.99 respectively. Additionally, there's a Battle Chest bundle, priced at $39.99, featuring the new remasters and Blizzard's much-maligned Warcraft 3: Reforged. Despite the latter's terrible launch reception, Blizzard has continued to improve the title since its arrival in 2020, with today bringing a new 2.0 update for all players. This includes overhauled environments and lighting, a revamped UI, up-rezzed HD versions of all classic Warcraft assets, plus a range of quality of life improvements - in-game hockey customisation and revamped ladder were mentioned - and "much, much more".