Shane Snider, Senior Writer, InformationWeekFebruary 4, 20256 Min ReadTithi Luadthong via Alamy StockDuring many major tech conferences and events in 2024, talk of implementing artificial intelligence was a common theme as IT leaders are tasked with creating new GenAI tools for business. But a common refrain was the need to prepare data for machine learning.That need for clean data may slow AI launch efforts and add to costs.A recent Salesforce report found CIOs are spending a median of 20% of their budgets on data infrastructure and management and only 5% on AI. A lack of trusted data ranked high on the list of CIOs' main AI fears. In another report, research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) says worldwide spending on AI will reach $632 Billion in 2028.The industry was caught off guard as OpenAIs ChatGPT quickly launched the GenAI arms race two years ago -- many companies are faced with juggling data needs with getting that data AI-ready. Spending on data preparation could be a significant upstart cost for AI, varying with the size and maturity of different businesses and organizations.Preparing data for AI is a tricky and potentially costly task. IT leaders must consider several factors, including quality, volume, complexity of data, along with preparing for costs associated with data collection, cleaning, labeling, and conversion suitable for an AI model. When added on top of needs for new hardware, software, and labor costs associated with GenAI adoption, and the bills add up quickly.Related:CIOs and other tech leaders are faced with presenting AI as a potential value creator and possible revenue generator. But many companies face an uphill battle when it comes to ROI on new GenAI programs, the time and cost to prepare data often doesnt lead to immediate returns.Spending Money on Data to Make Money with AIBarb Wixom, author and principal research scientist at MITs Center for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR), says leaders can point to specific successes at other companies that have more mature AI rollouts. Those companies, she says, have built strong data value through forward-looking governance.AI has to be viewed, not as AI, but as a part of the data value creation or data realization, she tells InformationWeek in a phone interview. I call it data monetization converting data to money. If organizations and especially leaders just consistently think about AI in that context, you wont have a problem if an organization is trying to reduce its cost structure by a certain percentage, or trying to increase sales in some way, or increase service growth -- whatever the objective is -- thats often big money. Even if you have an extraordinary investment in AI, the outcome could be orders of magnitude greater.Related:With tech budgets tightening in the face of macroeconomic woes, IT leaders need to convince non-technical members of the C-suite that data preparation is a worthwhile investment. Wixom points to success stories in the financial services industry where IT leaders had strong credibility within their executive team. One such leader, she says, used an internal consulting group to accumulate use cases to present a more traditional business plan to executives. They road-mapped how they were going to build out over four years -- they were able to deliver that, Wixom says.But other organizations may not be as mature in their data governance as a major financial institution. In those cases, an incremental, bottom-up approach can be effective as well. You dont have to start with the vision of all thats going to be done but by taking an incremental approach that builds capability, where you learn along the way and establish not silos, but a growing enterprise resource.The next step: Finding the right architecture to align with your AI goals. Data mesh and data fabric are two competing modern data architecture frontrunners that are similar but have key differences.Related:Mesh or Fabric? Modern Data ArchitecturesIn the pre-GenAI era, data governance was relatively straightforward. Many companies pooled data into data lakes that stored large amounts of raw data. For AI use, that generalized architecture can create bottlenecks that hinder productivity. Data fabric and data mesh architectures are becoming the new industry standards when it comes to GenAI implementation. Thats because these modern architectures integrate data from multiple sources into a unified view, simplifying data maintenance, and reducing time and costs.Data Mesh:Using a data mesh architecture can be a good option for those looking to empower separate business units with data ownership.Data Fabric:Data fabric offers centralized architecture, integrating data across an organization. This method allows a unified data structure with a central governance.But those new architectures come with a price. Higher startup costs and ongoing maintenance fees can pose significant barriers to entries for some enterprises, depending on the size and current state of data governance. Data mesh will likely have higher up front costs. Data fabric has lower implementation costs but will likely cost more to maintain.So, its important to understand potential use cases to justify the spend and to understand which architecture is right for your organization, experts say.Inna Tokarev Sela, chief executive officer and founder of data fabric firm Illumex, points to specific use cases that can most benefit from modern data architectures. She says organizations that can most benefit from data fabric include those which aspire to create a degree of automation, self-service access to data analytics by business users, workflow automation, and process automation. She says businesses with disparate teams who need to use data to build analytics and collaborate can benefit from a data fabric architecture.Data fabric and data mesh are like the Montagues and Capulets, or the Hatfields and McCoys, says Kendall Clark, co-founder and CEO of data firm Stardog. Its like a frenemy rivalry they are so similar that nobody can tell them apart, but its the small differences.Because data fabric is so similar, Clark says clients will request data fabric but what they are really describing is data mesh architecture. So, its more important to have a strong understanding of your businesses unique data needs. The labels really arent that important.Where to Start? Finding the 'Rallying Point'You dont have to get the decision right, you just have to choose, Clark says of picking a new data architecture for GenAI implementation. I would start by picking a super critical, important problem that will make a real difference for your organization. Something that will make your business save more money, manage risk, make more money, make people more productive -- those are the keys to driving the business forward. You need to pick one as your rallying point.No matter your starting point, a successful switch to any data architecture requires clean, well-governed data, MIT CISRs Wixom contends. It doesnt matter if its data mesh or data fabric, if we just do the practices the way we really should for instance, like using good metadata, all of the sudden, you have interoperability because you have consistency and standards. The problem is that most organizations are silos and spaghetti -- they havent followed the textbook rules to begin with so theyre in remediation mode.About the AuthorShane SniderSenior Writer, InformationWeekShane Snider is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of industry experience. He started his career as a general assignment reporter and has covered government, business, education, technology and much more. He was a reporter for the Triangle Business Journal, Raleigh News and Observer and most recently a tech reporter for CRN. He was also a top wedding photographer for many years, traveling across the country and around the world. He lives in Raleigh with his wife and two children.See more from Shane SniderNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

The meteoric rise of DeepSeekthe Chinese AI startup now challenging global giantshas stunned observers and put the spotlight on Chinas AI sector. Since ChatGPTs debut in 2022, the countrys tech ecosystem has been in relentless pursuit of homegrown alternatives, giving rise to a wave of startups and billion-dollar bets. Today, the race is dominated by tech titans like Alibaba and ByteDance, alongside well-funded rivals backed by heavyweight investors. But two years into Chinas generative AI boom we are seeing a shift: Smaller innovators have to carve out their own niches or risk missing out. What began as a sprint has become a high-stakes marathonChinas AI ambitions have never been higher. An elite group of companies known as the Six TigersStepfun, Zhipu, Minimax, Moonshot, 01.AI, and Baichuanare generally considered to be at the forefront of Chinas AI sector. But alongside them, research-focused firms like DeepSeek and ModelBest continue to grow in influence. Some, such as Minimax and Moonshot, are giving up on costly foundational model training to hone in on building consumer-facing applications on top of others models. Others, like Stepfun and Infinigence AI, are doubling down on research, driven in part by US semiconductor restrictions. We have identified these four Chinese AI companies as the ones to watch. Stepfun Founded in April 2023 by former Microsoft senior vice president Jiang Daxin, Stepfun emerged relatively late onto the AI startup scene, but it has quickly become a contender thanks to its portfolio of foundational models. It is also committed to building artificial general intelligence (AGI), a mission a lot of Chinese startups have given up on. With backing from investors like Tencent and funding from Shanghais government, the firm released 11 foundational AI models last yearspanning language, visual, video, audio, and multimodal systems. Its biggest language model so far, Step-2, has over 1 trillion parameters (GPT-4 has about 1.8 trillion). It is currently ranked behind only ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Claude, and Geminis models on LiveBench, a third-party benchmark site that evaluates the capabilities of large language models. Stepfuns multimodal model, Step-1V, is also highly ranked for its ability to understand visual inputs on Chatbot Arena, a crowdsource platform where users can compare and rank AI models performance. This company is now working with AI application developers, who are building on top of its models. According to Chinese media outlet 36Kr, demand from external developers to use Stepfuns multimodal API surged over 45-fold in the second half of 2024. ModelBest Researchers at the prestigious Tsinghua University founded ModelBest in 2022 in Beijings Haidian district. Since then, the company has distinguished itself by leaning into efficiency and embracing the trend of small language models. Its MiniCPM seriesoften dubbed Little Powerhouses in Chineseis engineered for on-device, real-time processing on smartphones, PCs, automotive systems, smart home devices, and even robots. Its pitch to customers is that this combination of smaller models and local data processing cuts costs and enhances privacy. ModelBests newest model, MiniCPM 3.0, has only 4 billion parameters but matches the performance of GPT-3.5 on various benchmarks. On GitHub and Hugging Face, the companys models can be found under the profile of OpenBMB (Open Lab for Big Model Base), its open-source research lab. Investors have taken note: In December 2024, the company announced a new, third round of funding worth tens of millions of dollars. Zhipu Also originating at Tsinghua University, Zhipu AI has grown into a company with strong ties to government and academia. The firm is developing foundational models as well as AI products based on them, including ChatGLM, a conversational model, and a video generator called Ying, which is akin to OpenAIs Sora system. GLM-4-Plus, the companys most advanced large language model to date, is trained on high-quality synthetic data, which reduces training costs, but has still matched the performance of GPT-4. The company has also developed GLM-4V-Plus, a vision model capable of interpreting web pages and videos, which represents a step toward AI with more agentic capabilities. Among the cohort of new Chinese AI startups, Zhipu is the first to get on the US governments radar. On January 15, the Biden administration revised its export control regulations, adding over 20 Chinese entitiesincluding 10 subsidiaries of Zhipu AIto its restricted trade list, restricting them from receiving US goods or technology for national interest reasons. The US claims Zhipus technology is helping Chinas military, which the company denies. Valued at over $2 billion, Zhipu is currently one of the biggest AI startups in China and is reportedly soon planning an IPO. The companys investors include Beijing city government-affiliated funds and various prestigious VCs. Infinigence AI Founded in 2023, Infinigence AI is smaller than other companies on this list, though it has still attracted $140 million in funding so far. The company focuses on infrastructure instead of model development. Its main selling point is its ability to combine chips from lots of different brands successfully to execute AI tasks, forming whats dubbed a heterogeneous computing cluster. This is a unique challenge Chinese AI companies face due to US chip sanctions. Infinigence AI claims its system could increase the effectiveness of AI training by streamlining how different chip architecturesincluding various models from AMD, Huawei, and Nvidiawork in synchronization. In addition, Infinigence AI has launched its Infini-AI cloud platform, which combines multiple vendors products to develop and deploy models. The company says it wants to build an effective compute utilization solution with Chinese characteristics, and native to AI training. It claims that its training system HetHub could reduce AI models training time by 30% by optimizing the heterogeneous computing clusters Chinese companies often have. Honorable mentions Baichuan While many of its competitors chase scale and expansive application ranges, Baichuan AI, founded by industry veteran Wang Xiaochuan (the founder of Sogou) in April 2023, is focused on the domestic Chinese market, targeting sectors like medical assistance and health care. With a valuation over $2 billion after its newest round of fundraising, Baichuan is currently among the biggest AI startups in China. Minimax Founded by AI veteran Yan Junjie, Minimax is best known for its product Talkie, a companion chatbot available around the world. The platform provides various characters users can chat with for emotional support or entertainment, and it had even more downloads last year than leading competitor chatbot platform Character.ai. Chinese media outlet 36Kr reported that Minimaxs revenue in 2024 was around $70 million, making it one of the most successful consumer-facing Chinese AI startups in the global market. Moonshot Moonshot is best known for building Kimi, the second-most-popular AI chatbot in China, just after ByteDances Doubao, with over 13 million users. Released in 2023, Kimi supports input lengths of over 200,000 characters, making it a popular choice among students, white-collar workers, and others who routinely have to work with long chunks of text. Founded by Yang Zhilin, a renowned AI researcher who studied at Tsinghua University and Carnegie Mellon University, Moonshot is backed by big tech companies, including Alibaba, and top venture capital firms. The company is valued at around $3 billion but is reportedly scaling back on its foundational model research as well as overseas product development plans, as key people leave the company.

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. How the Rubin Observatory will help us understand dark matter and dark energy We can put a good figure on how much we know about the universe: 5%. Thats how much of whats floating about in the cosmos is ordinary matterplanets and stars and galaxies and the dust and gas between them. The other 95% is dark matter and dark energy, two mysterious entities aptly named for our inability to shed light on their true nature. Previous work has begun pulling apart these dueling forces, but dark matter and dark energy remain shrouded in a blanket of questionscritically, what exactly are they? Enter the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, one of our 10 breakthrough technologies for 2025. Boasting the largest digital camera ever created, Rubin is expected to study the cosmos in the highest resolution yet once it begins observations later this year. And with a better window on the cosmic battle between dark matter and dark energy, Rubin might narrow down existing theories on what they are made of. Heres a look at how.Jenna Ahart This story is part of MIT Technology Review Explains, our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand whats coming next. You can read more from the series here. Anthropic has a new way to protect large language models against jailbreaks Whats new? AI firm Anthropic has developed a new line of defense against a common kind of attack called a jailbreak. A jailbreak tricks large language models (LLMs) into doing something they have been trained not to, such as help somebody create a weapon. And Anthropics new approach could be the strongest shield against the attacks yet. How they did it: Jailbreaks are a kind of adversarial attack: input passed to a model that makes it produce an unexpected output. Despite a decade of research there is still no way to build a model that isnt vulnerable. But, instead of trying to fix its models, Anthropic has developed a barrier that stops attempted jailbreaks from getting through and unwanted responses from the model getting out. Read the full story. Will Douglas Heaven Three things to know as the dust settles from DeepSeek The launch of a single new AI model does not normally cause much of a stir outside tech circles, nor does it typically spook investors enough to wipe out $1 trillion in the stock market. Now, a couple of weeks since DeepSeeks big moment, the dust has settled a bit. Within AI, though, what impact is DeepSeek likely to have in the longer term? Here are three seeds DeepSeek has planted that will grow even as the initial hype fades.James ODonnell This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. If youre interested in learning more about what DeepSeeks breakout success means for the future of AI, watch this conversation between our news editor Charlotte Jee, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and China reporter Caiwei Chen. It was held at noon ET yesterday as part of our subscriber-only Roundtables seriescheck it out! The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Elon Musk's government allies are weighing up using AI to cut costs As part of Musks plans to gut federal contracts across the board. (NYT $)+ A 25-year old engineer now has access to the USs top secret systems. (Wired $)+ Staffers for the US agency that sends aid to the worlds neediest have been locked out of their email accounts. (NY Mag $)+ Such measures would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago. (Vox)+ Palantir CEO Alex Karp is a fan of DOGE. (Insider $)2 China has announced its own tariffs on US importsSparking new fears of a full-blown trade war. (FT $) + The days of cheap Chinese shopping in the US could be coming to an end. (NY Mag $)+ Heres what Trumps tariffs mean for the likes of Temu and Shein. (The Information $)3 US senators blame Silicon Valley for DeepSeeks runaway success Big Techs lobbying for softer export controls created corporate loopholes, they claim. (WP $)+ The rise of DeepSeek doesnt mean the controls have failed, according to ASML. (WSJ $)+ How a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions. (MIT Technology Review)4 Meta says it wont release AI systems it deems too risky But how that risk is measured is up to Meta. (TechCrunch)+ A new public database lists all the ways AI could go wrong. (MIT Technology Review)5 Gender affirming care is under major threat in the US Advocates fear Trumps executive order will prevent many people from accessing lifesaving treatments. (Undark)+ Many hospitals are continuing to offer their services, though. (Axios)+ New Yorks Attorney General says pausing such care could violate state law. (The Hill)6 The App Store is now hosting its first porn appAnd Apple is not happy about it. (Reuters) + The company has an EU antitrust law to thank. (WP $)7 The Doomsday Clock has been given a makeover We are now 89 seconds away from the end of the world. (Fast Company $) 8 Meet the UKs AI grandmother wasting scammers timeFraudsters have been left frustrated by the bots dithering. (The Guardian) + The people using humour to troll their spam texts. (MIT Technology Review)9 We still dont know much about Mars moons But a new mission could change that. (New Scientist $)10 Mark Zuckerbergs famous hoodie is up for auction If youre so inclined to want to own a piece of nerd history. (Insider $)Quote of the day Itll scare people, itll make people think that the industry is a scam. Anthony Scaramucci, Donald Trumps former communications director, doesnt think much of his former bosss memecoin, he tells the Financial Times. The big story The open-source AI boom is built on Big Techs handouts. How long will it last? May 2023 In May 2023 a leaked memo reported to have been written by Luke Sernau, a senior engineer at Google, said out loud what many in Silicon Valley must have been whispering for weeks: an open-source free-for-all is threatening Big Techs grip on AI.New open-source large language modelsalternatives to Googles Bard or OpenAIs ChatGPT that researchers and app developers can study, build on, and modifyare dropping like candy from a piata. These are smaller, cheaper versions of the best-in-class AI models created by the big firms that (almost) match them in performanceand theyre shared for free.In many ways, thats a good thing. AI won't thrive if just a few mega-rich companies get to gatekeep this technology or decide how it is used. But this open-source boom is precarious, and if Big Tech decides to shut up shop, a boomtown could become a backwater. Read the full story.Will Douglas Heaven We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.)+ Today would have been the 112th birthday of Rosa Parks, the civil activist who changed the course of history.+ If youre planning a spring break, consider this well-timed inspiration.+ A Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot is reportedly in the works.+ Rise up, daughters of grunge!

Four nuclear startups plan to build power plants at Texas A&M University.Texas officials see nuclear as a way to meet skyrocketing electricity demand from AI data centers.The university is seeking $200 million from state legislators to help finance the nuclear projects.Texas' largest university plans to be a test bed for small nuclear reactors that could help meet the state's skyrocketing electricity demand from data centers, population growth, and extreme weather.The Texas A&M University System on Tuesday said it's leasing land to four nuclear startups that specialize in small modular reactors, or SMRs, which are about one-third of the size of traditional nuclear power plants. The startups aim to build commercial reactors that can provide power for the university and the Texas power grid, officials said.To date, no commercial SMR has been built in the US and only a few exist in Russia and China. Development is picking up speed, especially as tech giants search for low-carbon, around-the-clock electricity for data centers with the computing power for artificial intelligence. But it's unclear when the first SMR might come online in the US, with forecasts ranging from five to 15 years."Hopefully we're the first of many places that have a proving ground for new energy technologies," Joe Labd, vice chancellor for research at Texas A&M, told Business Insider. "Energy demand, not just in the state of Texas, but across the nation and globally, is rising at a very fast pace, particularly as companies construct data centers."Texas' main grid operator forecast that power demand will nearly double by 2030, driven mainly by requests to plug into the grid from data centers and crypto-mining facilities. A similar trend is playing out in states like Virginia, Arizona, and Nebraska.The arrival of the Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek which promised to be a cheaper and more energy-efficient model cast some doubt about AI-driven electricity demand and sent nuclear stocks plunging on January 27. They've since recovered, buoyed by President Donald Trump's formation of Stargate, a joint venture between Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank to build AI data centers, including in Texas.Even before the announcement of Stargate, Texas was already dealing with a stressed power grid. Its vulnerabilities were exposed during a 2021 winter storm that froze gas production, power plants, and wind turbines and left millions of people without heat and power for days. At least 200 people died.The promise of small nuclearSince then, Texas officials have been trying to shore up the grid including by making the state a leader in advanced nuclear power. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in November outlined a strategy with seven recommendations, including a new state office and energy fund dedicated to supporting advanced nuclear projects. A rendering of the SMR test site at Texas A&M University campus. The Texas A&M University System Proponents of SMRs argue that they could be a source of 24/7 power without producing greenhouse gas emissions, unlike gas plants that at least in the short term are going to be built to power data centers. Smaller reactors could be deployed faster and cheaper than traditional nuclear power plants, which have been plagued by cost overruns and delays. The country's most recent large nuclear plant, built by Georgia Power, arrived seven years late and $17 billion over budget.However, some academic critics worry that SMRs will have a similar fate and leave taxpayers on the hook. In 2023, the startup Nuscale canceled what was set to be the first commercial SMR project in the US after utility customers backed away due to rising costs and delays. The project was backed by a $1.4 billion cost-share deal with the federal government. Environmental groups are also concerned about the radioactive waste that nuclear power produces and where it will be stored.For its part, Texas A&M is partnering with four other nuclear startups: Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Terrestrial Energy, and Aalo Atomics. The university has asked Texas legislators for $200 million for its new energy proving ground.The proposed site at Texas A&M is large enough to accommodate multiple SMRs with a combined output of more than one gigwatt, university officials said. That is enough to power about 200,000 homes. Until now, there hasn't been a suitable site for building clusters of nuclear reactors that can supply the power needed for AI innovation and other projects, officials said.Mike Laufer, co-founder and CEO of Kairos Power, told Business Insider the company is still evaluating how many reactors it might build at the Texas A&M site. In October, Kairos also struck a deal with Google, which said it plans to buy power from multiple SMRs.Douglass Robison, founder and President of Natura Resources, said the company plans to build one commercial reactor."We need to demonstrate that you can license an advance reactor," Robison said. "That's been one of the big concerns, particularly from the investment community."Both Kairos and Natura have received construction permits from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for demonstration SMRs, but not commercial-scale plants.

The necropolis is located right near the entrance.Tombs and other burial markers can be found along the road through the necropolis. Sarah May Grunwald Located at the park's entrance, just outside the city walls, the necropolis shows how Romans used to celebrate the dead.Elaborate tombs honor the dead, and mosaics depict the underworld.There are also tombs with banquet tables where the living would celebrate the life of the deceased.At the center of the ancient city, you'll find the forum.There are remains of temples and central buildings in the forum. DEA / M. BORCHI / Contributor/Getty Images The main square, known as the forum, was the center of the city's political and social life. The remains of the Capitolium and the Temple of Rome and Augustus can be seen nearby.From the forum, you can also observe how Roman cities were essentially built in a grid.The thermopolium was almost like an ancient fast-food chain.You can still see faint images of the menu on the walls. Sarah May Grunwald The thermopolium, essentially an ancient fast-food restaurant, served hot food and drinks to locals and travelers.The remains of the service counter and frescoes depicting the menu are still visible.Wealthy residents used to live in the House of Diana.There's a mosaic of the goddess Diana on the building. Sarah May Grunwald The House of Diana is a well-preserved residence that belonged to a wealthy merchant in Ostia Antica.It was decorated with fine mosaics and frescoes, and the house takes its name from a mosaic depicting the goddess Diana.Public baths were commonplace in ancient Rome.There were typically public and private bathhouses in a Roman city. Sarah May Grunwald The Roman Empire was known for its public bathhouses, which were equipped with hot and cold pools, saunas, and massage rooms.Public bathing was an art form in ancient Rome. Baths served as a place for socialization, relaxation, and personal hygiene for all classes of society.There are several public and private baths in Ostia Antica.The public Baths of NeptuneIn contrast, the private Baths of the Seven Sages are much smaller and would've been used by residents of nearby buildings. Its circular frigidarium (room for the cold bath) is paved with an incredible mosaic depicting hunting scenes and plants.One of the most social spots in town was the public latrines.The public toilets served as a gathering space. Massimo Salesi/Shutterstock The various public latrines (toilets) are where ancient Roma comes to life.Romans would come in with a stick, and the attendant would give them a clean sponge to attach to the end of it so they could wipe.It was common for people to sit on the latrines while chatting and gossiping using the toilets was a social activity.You can still catch a show at the ancient theater.The stone structure has been in use for thousands of years. Sarah May Grunwald The theater at Ostia Antica is one of the best-preserved in Italy and seats up to 3,000 people.In ancient times, it was primarily used for plays, music performances, and gladiatorial games.Today, it still hosts summer performances of contemporary and classical music, ballet, and more. That means the theater has been in use for about 2,000 years.If you want to dive deeper into the culture, check out the Ostia Antica Museum.Copy of a statue at Ostia Antica the original is in the museum. Sarah May Grunwald The Ostia Antica Museum displays artifacts found during excavations of the ancient port city, including statues, pottery, and jewelry.These smaller, site-specific museums are often full of little-known treasures. It's definitely worth a visit.This story was originally published in February 2024 and most recently updated on February 4, 2025.

One analyst has claimed Nintendo may have "overestimated" the Switch's popularity this late into the life cycle, as fans have been waiting for Switch 2

Looking for a gift for you fitness-focused Valentine? Find something that tells your partner you love them, whether they are a runner, rock climber, or regular gym goer. As part of a limited time deal, you can save 20% on the Fitbit Inspire 3 fitness smartwatch. Normally the watch goes for $100, but after the discount, you can get it for just $80 over at Amazon. Thats a savings of $20.The Fitbit Inspire 3 is your fitness friend and coach, be it running on the road or hitting the gym. There are over 20 different exercise modes to take part in, and exercise tracking starts up automatically when the watch detects a workout. You can see your stats whether youre lifting at the gym, kayaking, you name it. It can connect to your smartphones GPS for use during outdoor workouts to track mileage and running pace.See at AmazonMonitor your heart rate 24/7 to measure the intensity of your workouts. Itll let you know when fat burn, cardio or peak zones so you can adjust your effort to match your goals. Heart rate monitoring can also be used to keep an eye on your health. You can check for signs of irregular heart rhythm which could be caused by atrial fibrillation (AFib). Other health metrics it will take a look at are your blood oxygen levels, skin temperature, and more.Ready to Take on the DayEnjoy more restful nights and feel reenergized when youre woken up in the morning. The watch can be set to vibrate during the optimal sleep stage to leave you refreshed as you open your eyes. Youll be assigned a sleep score and be ale to track your light, deep, and REM sleep along with sleeping heart rate so you can measure how consistent your sleep is.The Fitbit Inspire 3 can motivate you to get active during the day. Been sitting around too long? You wrist will buzz with a notification letting you know its time to get up and go for a walk.Youll also have access to a handful of stress management tools. The Fitbit Inspire 3 can give you a full breakdown of your stress management score based on heart rate and other factors, and provide you with guided breathing sessions which can help foster healthier ways to handle it.Right now,Amazon has the Fitbit Inspire 3 for the low price of just $80. Its currently going for a full 20% off, amounting to $20 in savings. Get it now for yourself or as a gift this Valentines Day.See at Amazon

By Matthew Gault Published February 4, 2025 | Comments (0) | The hole left behind after Treyarch's co-founder crashed a drone into a firefighting plane. FBI photo. Peter T. Akemann, the co-founder of the Treyarch video game studio, has pleaded guilty to recklessly flying a drone during the California wildfire. According to his own admission, the video game exec launched a DJI drone during the fires last month and it crashed into a firefighting plane. Hell pay $65,169 to repair the plane and do 150 hours of community service related to wildfire relief. Akemann is a 56-year-old gaming veteran with a long history in the industry. Treyarch, the studio he co-founded, is responsible for the Tony Hawks Pro Skater franchise and the Black Ops run of Call of Duty games. On January 9, as wildfires raged across California, Akemann drove to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. He went to the top floor of a parking lot there and launched a DJI Mini 3 Pro towards the Pacific Palisades with the goal of surveilling the fire. Defendant flew the Drone at least 2500 meters away from its launch point and lost visual sight of the Drone while flying it, according to court records. Then the DJI drone crashed into a Super Scooper firefighting plane that was on hand to dump water onto the fires. The crash tore a 3-inch by 6-inch hole in the left wing and it had to land. According to local news, the crash delayed firefighting efforts by a half-hour. The reaction to the crash was swift. The FBI recovered pieces of the drone and set up a website the same day as the crash to help them find the drones owner. Photos on its Most Wanted website show the hole torn in the left wing as well as the remnants of the DJI drone. People arent supposed to fly drones around during a natural disaster like this, but it happens all the time. The DJI app communicates with ADS-B and FAA systems to alert drone operators of nearby aircraft, flying limits, and other restrictions. But those warnings can be bypassed. At the time, the Federal Aviation Administration had issued Temporary Flight Restrictions that prohibited drone operations near the Southern California wildfires, including the Palisades Fire, court records said.DJI also has the ability to use geo-fencing to restrict drone access to certain areas and those geo-fencing restrictions were in place for some of the fires. Despite that, Californias state fire department reported 168 drone incursions into restricted airspace during the wildfires. DJI also took the odd step of eliminating its geo-fencing policy altogether with a software update on January 13. The drone crash had happened four days before. DJI said that this update was made to comply with European and U.S. regulations. In these zones, in-app alerts will notify operators flying near FAA designated controlled airspace, placing control back in the hands of the drone operators, in line with regulatory principles of the operator bearing final responsibility, it said in a press release about the changes. At the end of the day, the drone operator is responsible for following the rules. We put this in place about 12 years ago. Regulators have had time to catch up, and none of them have chosen to mandate geo-fencing, Adam Welsh, DJIs Global Head for Public Policy told NBC News 7 in California. In effect, geo-fencing wouldnt stop those bad actors in the first place. If youre a person of bad intent, you would have disabled the geo-fencing anyway.Welsh is a corporate head of a major tech manufacturer, but hes also not wrong. Akemann flew his DJI Min 3 Pro into a wildfire. Its possible to bypass geo-fencing on a consumer drone, fly it beyond your line of sight, and break all kinds of other laws. The ultimate responsibility is on the person flying the drone. Akemann, at least, admitted that he screwed up in a court of law and came forward to face the consequences. Public officials were harsh in their ritual scolding of Akemann in the DOJ press release about his guilty plea. Lack of common sense and ignorance of your duty as a drone pilot will not shield you from criminal charges, Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office said. Please respect the law, respect the FAAs rules and respect our firefighters and the residents they are protecting by keeping your drone at home during wildfires.This defendant recklessly flew an aircraft into airspace where first responders were risking their lives in an attempt to protect lives and property, Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally said. This damage caused to the Super Scooper is a stark reminder that flying drones during times of emergency poses an extreme threat to personnel trying to help people and compromises the overall ability of police and fire to conduct operations.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Isaac Schultz Published February 3, 2025 By Isaac Schultz Published January 31, 2025 By Lucas Ropek Published January 28, 2025 By Matt Novak Published January 27, 2025 By Matthew Gault Published January 16, 2025 By Matt Novak Published January 15, 2025

Falkland Road / Studio 163 ArchitectsSave this picture! Lorenzo ZandriArchitects: Studio 163 ArchitectsYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2022 PhotographsPhotographs:Lorenzo ZandriManufacturersBrands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: Havwoods, Inglish Hall, Lazenby Lead Architects: Lea Grange Construction: North Pole, North Pole / Andrew Pool More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. When Studio 163 were approached by the clients, a couple with a design background with two young children, the three-storey terrace in Kentish Town Conservation Area had a narrow ground floor which was lacking in daylight, head height, storage and living space for a growing family. By providing a full-width rear extension and whole house refurbishment, the project looked to maximise the opportunities for light while creating different atmospheres and spaces which feel intimate yet expansive. The material palette was deliberately limited and natural to create a minimal, but tonal and warm interior.Save this picture!The rear extension was excavated to increase the ceiling height and create a change of level between the front living room and the kitchen/dining area. The original level of the house has been expressed by a change of materiality, with a beige polished concrete datum line. The continuous concrete floor runs from the living space to the patio and forms the planters to make the space feel more expansive.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Bathed in natural light from two expansive roof lights, the new large open-plan kitchen with an adjacent dining area benefits from framed views of the garden and the different ceiling heights help to add a different atmosphere within the same space. Fins were added to one of the roof lights for privacy and to allow the clients to appreciate the changing shadows throughout the day as they cast on the extension walls. A new opening was created to make a better flow between the two parts of the ground floor and the oak threshold with hidden cupboards marks the junction between the existing and the new.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Custom-built joinery was designed throughout to provide ample storage and retain and clean and open feel. The kitchen cabinets and fronts are built in oak, in the continuity of the threshold and the full-height cupboards have been purposely cladded in a more neutral colour to blend with their surroundings.Save this picture!Externally, being conscious of reusing existing materials wherever possible, reclaimed bricks and timber were used for the walls and patio deck. The glazed doors are particularly tall to bring as much natural light as possible internally and the minimal frames provide a stronger connection to the garden. The coping and rainwater pipe are bespoke to match the colour of the window frames. The existing rear facade has been re-rendered and left unpainted with the natural buff colour of the render matching the surrounding London stock bricks.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officeStudio 163 ArchitectsOfficeMaterialBrickMaterials and TagsPublished on February 04, 2025Cite: "Falkland Road / Studio 163 Architects" 04 Feb 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1026377/falkland-road-studio-163-architects&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Villejuif Gustave Roussy Station / Dominique Perrault ArchitectureSave this picture! Michel DenancArchitects: Dominique Perrault ArchitectureAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:15364 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Michel Denanc Special Structures: TESSRoofing: TESSMore SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The Villejuif-Gustave Roussy Station aims to erase the threshold between the open public space and the closed space of the station by blurring the limits of the city. Its helicoidal architecture on the surface exerts a centripetal force on the urban fabric which draws it towards the space that has been completed underground. The large concrete cylinder with its molded wall, flooded with light, is traversed, and enlivened by footbridges and escalators. Here, the sky of this inverted skyscraper is simply the ground level of the city. Natural light pours all the way down to the platforms located some fifty meters below. The sky is above the railways. This exposed infrastructure is given maximum visibility and incorporates the logic of construction. The architectural layout is part of the urban cityscape. By erasing in the ground and prolonging uses and views between the surface and the subterranean domain, it unifies the vertical dynamics of access to the transport network. The architectural treatment transfigures this infrastructure now become architecture. Without walls or faade, the architecture of this station sunken into the ground is not in opposition to the city or anything else. It frees the horizon and disappears from the urban silhouette, swallowing up with it then bit of sky. - Dominique Perrault, 2024Save this picture!The Groundscape and the Territory - Today, the Grand Paris Express is the largest project of civil engineering in Europe including over 200 km of automated lines and 68 new stations. It involves first and foremost a territorial project and the making of a new city in sync with the collective aspirations for a new urban experience. The Grand Paris Express is a major piece of this major bet of the metropolis. A new territory is taking shape before our eyes, made available to the greatest number. The objective is not merely to ensure access to the capital for all inhabitants of the region but also to develop new zones of life and activity across the entire metropolitan region. The development of the districts surrounding the new stations of the Grand Paris Express is, in that sense, a challenge of urbanity inherent to the territory's program of metropolization. Their perimeters, defined as a circle of 800m in circumference, will represent nothing less than one and a half times the size of Paris proper and more than twenty percent of the population of the new metropolis. What are the challenges facing Grand Paris? Increasing the hospitality of cities, exurban and rural zones, rectifying spatial segregation and relegation of every type, encouraging social diversity without further weakening the most disadvantaged citizens, promoting housing and new modes of habitat, optimizing mobility, intensifying the connections between urban centers, contribute to the boosting labor markets, and, finally, to the emergence of the sustainable metropolis facing the challenge of climate change.Save this picture!The Socit des grands projets is one of France's leading project developers. It was created in June 2010, initially under the name Socit du Grand Paris, to manage the construction of the Grand Paris Express and support the transformation of the metropolis through urban development and real estate projects around the stations. 200 km of automated metro and 68 stations by 2030. The Grand Paris Express is the most important urban development project in Europe, in terms of the breadth of its future network of 200 km of metro, the innovation of its 68 stations, the urban impact of its 140 km2 across the territories of Grand Paris, and the ambition f its artistic and cultural approach along its entire length. Like all 68 new stations on the Grand Paris Express, the Villejuif - Gustave Roussy station has its own unique architecture. From the outset, the Socit des Grands projects wanted each of the new stations to go beyond its functional framework, leaving an urban and architectural legacy for the area it serves. All the stations have been designed in collaboration with renowned architects, making some of them among the most aesthetically pleasing in the world. The aim of Socit des grands projets is to make travel as pleasant as possible, with aesthetic, practical and comfortable passenger buildings that contribute to the urban and social transformation of the territory. A project for transforming the city, Line 14 is extended to the north and south of Paris. 4 new automated metro lines, serve the inner and outer rings of suburbs. 68 stations, all accessible, designed for the comfort of passengers, and open to the city. 80% of the stations, are connected to the existing network: Metro, RER, Transilien, and Tramway. 2 to 3 mn, between each train, with an average speed of between 55 and 65 km/h. 3 million voyagers transported each day. The Grand Paris Express will relieve the pressure on the existing network.Save this picture!Save this picture!A Metropolitan Station - Located on the highest point of the Longboyau Plateau, in the departmental park of the Hautes Bruyres, the Villejuif-Gustave Roussy Station, with a depth of some 50 meters separating the street level from one of the platforms, will be one of the deepest transport infrastructures in France. Located on line 15 South, which links Pont de Svres with Noisy-Champs, the future Villejuif Institut Gustave-Roussy will create the interconnection with the extended line 14 and will welcome some 100,000 passengers every day from January 2025. It will serve the ZAC Campus Grand Parc and the Institut Gustave-Roussy, the leading cancer treatment center in Europe. An emblematic station of the Rseau du Grand Paris Express, owing as much to the role of infrastructure in developing the territory, as to the interconnection it will ensure between two metro lines, the architecture for the future station expresses the determination of the project to place in dialogue, unite, and federate these spaces.Save this picture!Extending the City Underground - There is no formal demonstrativeness or eccentricity from the design point of view. Essentially developed below ground, on the surface takes the appearance of a pavilion, and blends the outside with the inside, the infrastructural and the urban. It structures the emergence of new territory of the Grand Paris and contributes to the transformation of the city into a metropolis, and the suburbs into a city. It involves placing the hospital center in a network and transforming its surrounding district onto a campus. The station as an element of this system, is a "place of exchange", a central element of the interconnections between the major hospital, future office and housing buildings, and the large park. It will also create a link between the urban and landscape places, by extending the uses and the views between above and below.A generous space, the station stretches, loosens, and infiltrates the underground, like an extension of the city below ground. Its architecture is designed in the continuity of the surrounding public space. It does not oppose the city, stand against it, raise any sort of faade, no wall. This station must be grasped as a connector of the world below with the world above, and vice versa. It is a great cylinder, open, and empty, with a diameter of 70 meters. An emptied 30 meters inside the cylinder, surrounded by galleries and balconies, welcomes the great escalators. The engineering studies were developed in a way that the design of the infrastructure corresponds to the design of the station: light and readable architecture that accompanies flows as naturally as possible.Save this picture!Connecting the Gustave Roussy Hospital with the Larger Network - On the level of the square, the forecourt leads naturally towards the first balcony overlooking the central void. Little kiosks house a range of services and punctuate the periphery of the station. Walls draped with metal mesh enable the closure of the station. These elements are a light form of limited offering a view of the city and the park. Open access (i.e., without a ticket) is possible down to level -2. The first two levels of balcony galleries house shops and services, accentuating the continuity of the station with the public space above. The project facilitates easy comprehension of the space and the circulations. When leaving the platforms, directly linked to the vast central void, users easily find their bearings and directions. From the two levels of platforms the two metro lines being located in two perpendicularly superimposed tunnels - monumental escalators lead to the surface, guided by natural light.Save this picture!Save this picture!An Open-Air Station - The station benefits from natural light and ventilation. In direct contact with the platforms, the vast central void and the various balcony circulations are bathed in natural light and open air. This principle is what makes one of the forms of the prowess of this infrastructure possible, i.e., the one eliminating the need for smoke extractors in its central part (the well). Travelers will also be in contact with the ambient temperature, which is more temperate at this depth than on the surface, without reliance on additional heating. The roof over the station is composed of three layers. A central transparent circular one protects from rain while allowing outside air to circulate laterally. This roof consists of one peripheral beam on which all the tie rods and cables are linked with the central hub, the "eye" of the station. Stretched over the cables are elements made of ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene), the material chosen for its high quality of transparency, lightness, resistance, and great fineness. Two other roofs, non -concentric disks placed at two different heights, cover the station. Like two great marquees, they radiate over the forecourt and signal the presence of the station whilst also ensuring user protection from the sun, like sunshades over the public space. They are composed of strips of stainless-steel spiraled metal mesh, stretched between the radial rafters.Save this picture!Resilience - Resilience is a word of our times. A programming word, capable of creating a system given that it predicts the future of human societies facing planet-wide climatic shock, along with these watch words: assimilate, endure, react, subsist. By resilience, one designates the ability of materials to resist forces of rupture and weather. By choosing concrete for the structure and glass and stainless steel for cladding, the station is anchored in the determination of solidity and durability. The overall composition is minimal and all the elements have a function, whether structural or technical. By employing natural resources available underground, the station is as delicately integrated as possible in its environment, which enables, among other advantages, to insulate the interior from the exterior earth and to maintain a constant temperature by using the surrounding earth, thereby eliminating the need for additional heating, air-conditioning, or smoke extraction. This ensures important cost savings, sustainability, and comfort of users.Save this picture!Save this picture!The "Sous-Terrestre" - The world underground is often synonymous with discomfort, cold, mystery, and obscurity. The station being anchored in the deep whilst allowing light and air to pour in, offers users the opposite experience. As users penetrate this space, they understand that the ground is no longer anxiety-provoking, closed, and damp, but rather that it offers comfort and an experience engaging all the senses. The central well makes it possible to gather in the heart of this innovative facility all travelers who, though in transit, are in contact with what is happening inside. By confusing the public space and the station, the project transgresses the traditional terminology of buried works to become a fully public facility. It is in this sense that the station is the extension of the city in that we encounter the same ambiance whether we are above or below. The station is no longer merely a work of transport infrastructure, and a place of circulation, but now it has become a lively place of exchange offering users, beyond simply a concentration of services, new forms of urban living, between individual pathways and the public space. Places in the fullest sense of the term, endowed with qualities, able to host uses that exceed transport.Save this picture!Materiality, Light, Acoustics - Galle Lauriot-Prvost, an associate of the Dominique Perrault Architecture firm, designed the interior layouts, lighting, and acoustics. The materiality of the project makes use of stainless steel in a range of textures: smooth, mesh, perforated, mirror polish, and satiny. These finishings create different ambiances, whilst also favoring the propagation of light, through the play of reflections, brilliances, and filters. Des disks with a surface area of 3,273 m, composed of swaths of spiraled stainless-steel mesh, stretched between radial beams, structure the exterior roof. Inside, 1,808 m of silvery aluminum wire clad the great well, thus electrifying the heart of the station. Originally an industrial product, previously considered as cold and rigid, metal mesh is assigned a new function: neither wall nor structure, it is used to rethink the notion of protection, and acoustics, dematerialize volumes, introduce the play with lighting and reflection, and to clad here and there the station and its facilities. On the ceiling, light fixtures and acoustic baffles alternate, giving the station a regular rhythm. Light from the industrial light fixtures blends with daylight and is reflected by the metal surfaces, immersing travelers in a genuine light show.Save this picture!Save this picture!Artistic Commission - The Socit des Grands Projets early on decided to dedicate one per one thousand of its budgetary resources, some thirty-five million euros, for the inclusion of contemporary art in the spaces and the architecture of the 68 new stations, designed as full-fledged living areas and places of discovery. A vast museum visited by everyone with a transport ticket. A Subterranean Vault of Heaven - "Evolve the frontiers that separate interior spaces of the station towards infinite architectural orientations." Such was the ambition of the Chilean artist Ivan Navarro for his project in the heart of the Villejuif station. The artist became an astronomer and a bit of magician to cause to appear, in the location of the circular ceiling of level -9 a sky studded with neon tubes and mirrors, creating the sensation of infinite depth. The names of stars have been engraved on the 58 light boxes of which it is composed. This work offers a cosmic visual experience to all passengers. Cadran Solaire by Ivan Navarro - Ceiling Level -9, LED tubes, mirrors made of Dibond without silvering, aluminum, sand-covered lettering, 58 trapezoidal boxes 1.9 m long, 39 cm and 43 cm wide and 30 cm in height.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Villejuif, FranceLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeMaterialsGlassSteelMaterials and TagsPublished on February 04, 2025Cite: "Villejuif Gustave Roussy Station / Dominique Perrault Architecture" 04 Feb 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1026376/villejuif-gustave-roussy-station-dominique-perrault-architecture&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream