Glistening interiors feature in our latest lookbook, which spotlights eight kitchens and dining rooms lined with glazed concrete floors.Aside from their seamless appearance, polished concrete floors are a durable option for cooking and eating spaces within the home, where surfaces are prone to mess and spillage.Often neutrally-toned, concrete floors also offer versatility serving as a backdrop that can complement a range of materials, hues and finishes.Highlighted among this list of projects is a home renovation finished with green-toned concrete floors in Belgium and an almost entirely concrete home with a pared-back interior in the Czech Republic.This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring living rooms that use Ligne Roset's iconic Togo sofa, dental clinics with inviting interiors and homes with stylish shelves for book lovers.Photo by Nick DeardenConcrete Plinth House, UK, by DGN StudioDGN Studio introduced a sunken concrete floor to maximise the ground-floor ceiling height of this Victorian terrace house in London.Named Concrete Plinth House, the extension sought to create a bright, open kitchen and dining space, which is complete with polished concrete floors and a neutral colour scheme.Find out more about Concrete Plinth House Photo by Alex Shoots BuildingsHouse of Seven Floors, Czech Republic, by Mal ChmelExposed surfaces feature throughout this home in the Czech Republic composed of staggered concrete floors.Completed by local studio Mal Chmel, the home's ground floor living, dining and kitchen areas share a polished concrete floor and a pared-back finish.Find out more about House of Seven Floors Photo by EvenbeeldHouse Y&A, Belgium, by Memo ArchitectuurGreen-hued polished concrete flooring unites the ground floor of this home in Moetsel, Belgium, renovated by local studio Memo Architectuur.Raw concrete and wooden furniture bring cool tones to the home's interior, which is set off by colourful accents and leafy plants.Find out more about House Y&A Photo by Ariadna PuigdomenechCampo Atelier, Spain, by Ibiza InteriorsLocal studio Ibiza Interiors renovated and converted the 200-year-old building of Campo Atelier into a vacation home in Ibiza.Renewed as part of a group of rentable guesthouses, the single-storey structure was finished with wood-panelled cupboards and a polished concrete floor that extends from an external patio to the interior spaces.Find out more about Campo Atelier Photo by James RetiefDatum House, UK, by DHausThe extension of this Victorian maisonette in London saw the expansion of its ground floor and the addition of a full-width skylight to draw light into the space.Architecture studio DHaus used polished concrete flooring throughout the interior, which is wrapped with oak panelling.Find out more about Datum House Photo by French + TyeQueen's Park House, UK, by Rise Design StudioAlso in London, local practice Rise Design Studio completed side and rear extensions to this Victorian house in Queen's Park.Illuminated by large windows, the design saw the addition of an open-plan kitchen and dining room, which sit against a backdrop of polished concrete floors and bricks.Find out more about Queen's Park House Photo by Olmo PeetersSofie, Belgium, by Madam ArchitectuurBrussel-based studio Madam Architectuur used green-pigmented concrete to create the base for a green-tiled extension to a home in Dilbeek, Belgium.In contrast to the existing white house, the polished concrete base forms both the flooring for the home's dining space and an external terrace.Find out more about Sofie Photo by Richard ChiversHoj House, UK, by Studio MerlinScandinavian design informed the design of this concrete home extension completed by architecture practice Studio Merlin.Connecting the extension to the garden, polished concrete flooring extends from an external patio into the dining space, which is illuminated by a large roof opening.Find out more about Hoj House This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring living rooms that use Ligne Roset's iconic Togo sofa, dental clinics with inviting interiors and homes with stylish shelves for book lovers.The post Eight kitchens with shiny polished concrete floors appeared first on Dezeen.

And how designers can adapt.

Since the Saharan Gold Rush in the 1990s, one researcher has been fighting for the North African countrys contributions to science to be recognized.

After helping President Trump get elected, Elon Musk was poised to dominate the countrys A.I. policies. Then Mr. Altman sneaked into the White House.

Other big technology companies have been boisterous in their courtship of the new administration. But Nvidia and Microsoft have avoided the Washington spotlight.

After the success of large language models (LLMs), the current research extends beyond text-based understanding to multimodal reasoning tasks. These tasks integrate vision and language, which is essential for artificial general intelligence (AGI). Cognitive benchmarks such as PuzzleVQA and AlgoPuzzleVQA evaluate AIs ability to process abstract visual information and algorithmic reasoning. Even with advancements, LLMs struggle with multimodal reasoning, particularly pattern recognition and spatial problem-solving. High computational costs compound these challenges.Prior evaluations relied on symbolic benchmarks such as ARC-AGI and visual assessments like Ravens Progressive Matrices. However, these do not adequately challenge AIs ability to process multimodal inputs. Recently, datasets like PuzzleVQA and AlgoPuzzleVQA have been introduced to assess abstract visual reasoning and algorithmic problem-solving. These datasets require models integrating visual perception, logical deduction, and structured reasoning. While previous models, such as GPT-4-Turbo and GPT-4o, demonstrated improvements, they still faced limitations in abstract reasoning and multimodal interpretation.Researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) introduced a systematic evaluation of OpenAIs GPT-[n] and o-[n] model series on multimodal puzzle-solving tasks. Their study examined how reasoning capabilities evolved across different model generations. The research aimed to identify gaps in AIs perception, abstract reasoning, and problem-solving skills. The team compared the performance of models such as GPT-4-Turbo, GPT-4o, and o1 on PuzzleVQA and AlgoPuzzleVQA datasets, including abstract visual puzzles and algorithmic reasoning challenges.The researchers conducted a structured evaluation using two primary datasets:PuzzleVQA: PuzzleVQA focuses on abstract visual reasoning and requires models to recognize patterns in numbers, shapes, colors, and sizes.AlgoPuzzleVQA: AlgoPuzzleVQA presents algorithmic problem-solving tasks that demand logical deduction and computational reasoning.The evaluation was carried out using both multiple-choice and open-ended question formats. The study employed a zero-shot Chain of Thought (CoT) prompting for reasoning and analyzed the performance drop when switching from multiple-choice to open-ended responses. The models were also tested under conditions where visual perception and inductive reasoning were separately provided to diagnose specific weaknesses.The study observed steady improvements in reasoning capabilities across different model generations. GPT-4o showed better performance than GPT-4-Turbo, while o1 achieved the most notable advancements, particularly in algorithmic reasoning tasks. However, these gains came with a sharp increase in computational cost. Despite overall progress, AI models still struggled with tasks that required precise visual interpretation, such as recognizing missing shapes or deciphering abstract patterns. While o1 performed well in numerical reasoning, it had difficulty handling shape-based puzzles. The difference in accuracy between multiple-choice and open-ended tasks indicated a strong dependence on answer prompts. Also, perception remained a major challenge across all models, with accuracy improving significantly when explicit visual details were provided.In a quick recap, the work can be summarized in a few detailed points:The study observed a significant upward trend in reasoning capabilities from GPT-4-Turbo to GPT-4o and o1. While GPT-4o showed moderate gains, the transition to o1 resulted in notable improvements but came at a 750x increase in computational cost compared to GPT-4o.Across PuzzleVQA, o1 achieved an average accuracy of 79.2% in multiple-choice settings, surpassing GPT-4os 60.6% and GPT-4-Turbos 54.2%. However, in open-ended tasks, all models exhibited performance drops, with o1 scoring 66.3%, GPT-4o at 46.8%, and GPT-4-Turbo at 38.6%.In AlgoPuzzleVQA, o1 substantially improved over previous models, particularly in puzzles requiring numerical and spatial deduction. o1 scored 55.3%, compared to GPT-4os 43.6% and GPT-4-Turbos 36.5% in multiple-choice tasks. However, its accuracy declined by 23.1% in open-ended tasks.The study identified perception as the primary limitation across all models. Injecting explicit visual details improved accuracy by 22%30%, indicating a reliance on external perception aids. Inductive reasoning guidance further boosted performance by 6%19%, particularly in numerical and spatial pattern recognition.o1 excelled in numerical reasoning but struggled with shape-based puzzles, showing a 4.5% drop compared to GPT-4o in shape recognition tasks. Also, it performed well in structured problem-solving but faced challenges in open-ended scenarios requiring independent deduction.Check outthePaper and GitHub Page.All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitterand join ourTelegram ChannelandLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our75k+ ML SubReddit. Sana HassanSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions.Sana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Optimizing Large Model Inference with Ladder Residual: Enhancing Tensor Parallelism through Communication-Computing OverlapSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Microsoft AI Researchers Introduce Advanced Low-Bit Quantization Techniques to Enable Efficient LLM Deployment on Edge Devices without High Computational CostsSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Google DeepMind Achieves State-of-the-Art Data-Efficient Reinforcement Learning RL with Improved Transformer World ModelsSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Deep Agent Released R1-V: Reinforcing Super Generalization in Vision-Language Models with Cost-Effective Reinforcement Learning to Outperform Larger Models [Recommended] Join Our Telegram Channel

Every week, hundreds of artists share their work on the Blender Artists forum. I'm putting some of the best work in the spotlight in a weekly post here on BlenderNation.Source

A simple tutorial to learn how to add image textures to your models. Aimed at beginners.Source

Our-PGSobering sales, analyst angst, obvious answerProbably. Possibly.Jim used Reminisce!Ollie Reynolds, Staff WriterI'm still tinkering around with Metroid at the moment. I'm jumping between Super Metroid and Metroid Prime Remastered. The more I play the former, the more convinced I am that its reputation as one of the very best SNES games is well-deserved. It's remarkable.Over on the PS5, meanwhile, I've hopped back into Hitman: World of Assassination. Now that's a game I can easily get lost in for hours on end. Replaying each mission over and over to either improve my rating or simply mess about invokes a sense of joy that few other games can match.Oh, and I'm also playing through Halo 3 on Legendary.Kate Gray, ContributorGuess who's going to Japan on Monday? That's right, this me! That means this weekend is largely taken up with packing and panicking, but also downloading games on my Switch and Steam Deck. I'm not sure which games, though.Should probably play through my backlog, but I have copies of Citizen Sleeper 1 and 2, so I think that's what I'll do!Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube795kWatch on YouTube Oliver Revolta, ContributorTrying to make the most of the lull before the Switch 2, Ive gone into complete-unfinished-games overdrive.So this weekend, its time to complete the story and end my five-year love affair with Skyrim. The thing is, my in-world dog Barbas seems to be breaking the game. Hes distracting this dragon that I have to(OK no spoilers).I think the end is nigh once I can sort this dog out.Gonalo Lopes, ContributorTime for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom endgame. I will miss this entry; very clever dungeon design and using a mob of moblins to unleash heck on your foes never gets old. I think Im also near the finishing line for The Lord of The Ring: War in the North which I am enjoying quite a lot. Its back to Russia in Smugglers Run: Warzones but now everything is covered in a white mantle of Winter. Its not all couch gaming mind, good discipline means I recently blasted past day sixty in Fitness Boxing 3.Game of the week is Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. The first major update of the year dropped and a lot of new stuff has been added while a lot of old stuff has been tinkered with. But the most important thing of all is now readily available: Emotes! There are few thrills quite like extending your hand out for your nearest battle brother to shake on just as the Hive Tyrant is about to trample both.Put this game on Switch 2 please!Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube795kGavin Lane, editorI've been getting back into Tears of the Kingdom the last week or so - there's still so much I left undone in that game. Beyond that, I'll be looking to polish off the excellent Arco and I need to sit down with Metal Gear Solid ahead of our next Catch-Up Crew.The recent wave of Metroidvanias has me eyeing my backlog, too. Is now the time to finally start Hollow Knight? Possibly, although I've got about 30 others to choose from.Have a good one, folks.That's what we have planned for the weekend, but what about you? Let us know in the following poll which games you're planning on booting up over the next couple of days.What are you playing this weekend (8th/9th February)? (19 votes)Trinity Trigger (Switch)1Related GamesSee Also