Major world leaders are meeting for an AI summit in Paris, where challenging diplomatic talks are expected as tech titans fight for dominance in the fast-moving technology industry.Heads of state, top government officials, CEOs and scientists from around 100 countries are participating in the two-day international summit from Monday.High-profile attendees include U.S. Vice President JD Vance, on his first overseas trip since taking office, and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.Were living a technology and scientific revolution weve rarely seen, French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday on national television France 2.France and Europe must seize the opportunity because AI will enable us to live better, learn better, work better, care better, and its up to us to put this artificial intelligence at the service of human beings, he said.Vances debut abroadThe summit will give some European leaders a chance to meet Vance for the first time. The 40-year-old vice president was just 18 months into his time as Ohios junior senator when Donald Trump picked him as his running mate.Vance was joined by his wife Usha and their three childrenEwan, Vivek, and Mirabelfor the trip to Europe. They were greeted in France on Monday morning by Manuel Valls, the minister for Overseas France, and the U.S. Embassys charge daffaires, David McCawley.Before the trip, Vance made it clear that he intended to use the opportunity for frank discussions with European allies.At the AI Summit, the main reason Im going is actually to have some private conversations with the world leaders who are also going to be there, Vance told Breitbart News. I think theres a lot that some of the leaders who are present at the AI summit could do to, franklybring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a close, help us diplomatically thereand so were going to be focused on those meetings in France.On Tuesday, Vance will have a working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron, with discussions on Ukraine and the Middle East on the agenda. Vance, like the U.S. president, has questioned U.S. spending on Ukraine and the broader approach to isolating Russian President Vladimir Putin. Within six months of taking office, Trump promised to end the fighting.Vance also addressed what he views as a concerning trend in Europe regarding free speech, a topic he raised last year during his attendance at the Munich Security Conference.Unfortunately, youve seen in Europe a really significant, and I think, frankly, an evil trend towards censorship, he said. And you hear a lot about Americas moral leadership. One of the things that Americas moral leadership is going to be about during President Trumps term is free speech. We want people to be able to speak their minds, and we believe that free and open debate is actually a good thing. Unfortunately, a lot of our European friends have gone the wrong direction there.Later this week, Vance will attend the Munich Security Conference again, where he may meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He plans to revisit themes he raised last year, including the need for NATO allies to take on a greater share of responsibility.Leaders in Europe have been carefully watching Trumps recent statements on threats to impose tariffs on the European Union, take control of Greenland and his suggestion that Palestinians clear out of Gaza once the fighting in the Israel-Hamas conflict endsan idea thats been flatly rejected by Arab allies.Fostering AI advancesThe summit, which gathers major players such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, aims at fostering AI advances in sectors like health, education, environment, and culture.A global public-private partnership named Current AI will be launched to support large-scale initiatives that serve the general interest.The Paris summit is the first time well have had such a broad international discussion in one place on the future of AI, said Linda Griffin, vice president of public policy at Mozilla. I see it as a norm-setting moment.Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group, noted an opportunity to shape AI governance in a new direction by moving away from this concentration of power amongst a handful of private actors and building this public interest AI instead.However, it remains unclear if the United States will support such initiatives.Theres a lot of complicated questions to resolve around issues like the ability to control AI systems, Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis, founder of Googles DeepMind research lab, said. But also I think even more complicated are maybe the geopolitical questions about things like regulation.French organizers are also looking for the summit to ignite major investment announcements in Europe, positioning the region as a viable contender in an industry increasingly shaped by a growing U.S.-China rivalry.France plans to announce AI private investments worth a total of 109 billion euros ($113 billion) over the coming years, Macron said, presenting it as the equivalent of Trumps Stargate AI data centers project.In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun expressed opposition Monday to any moves to restrict access to AI tools. The release of DeepSeek has prompted calls in the U.S. Congress to limit its use for security reasons.We oppose drawing ideological lines and oppose overstretching national security concepts and politicizing economic and trade issues, Guo said.He said that China advocates for open-source AI technology and promotes the accessibility of AI services to share the benefits of artificial intelligence with all countries.Indias Modi is cohosting the summitModi is cohosting the summit with Macron in an effort to involve more global actors in AI development and prevent the sector from becoming a U.S.-China battle.Indias foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, stressed the need for equitable access to AI to avoid perpetuating a digital divide that is already existing across the world.Macron will also travel on Wednesday with Modi to the southern French port city of Marseille to inaugurate an Indian Consulate there and visit the ITER nuclear research site.France has become a key defense partner for India, with talks underway on New Delhi purchasing 26 Rafale fighter jets and three Scorpene submarines. Officials in India said that discussions are at the final phase and the deal could be inked in a few weeks.Kelvin Chan in Paris, Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, and Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi, contributed to this report.Sylvie Corbet and Aamer Madhani, Associated Press

Swedish studio MatssonMarnell invited Stockholm Design Week visitors to the home of co-founder Magda Marnell, where local designers showcased beeswax candles, sculptural chairs and hairy lamps.The design duo, which works in interior design as well as creating collectible objects and furniture pieces, chose Marnell's flat as its exhibition space because they thought it represented their aesthetic well.The One Day Exhibition featured pieces by contemporary designers"We realised that this piece of art that we're standing in represents our practice pretty well and shows a part of the Stockholm design scene that we really love," co-founder Katarina Matsson told visitors at the Stockholm Design Week event.Each room in the flat featured art and design pieces by 15 designers and artists alongside botanical installations by local firm Stockholm Slow Flowers.Wooden tables by MatssonMarnell were on display in the living roomIn the living room, MatssonMarnell's own wooden tables kept rough and organic to evoke the forest were at the centre."In here, the idea was to not really know what is the home and what is the exhibition," Matsson said. "We have so many of our favourite designers represented here.""Even though it's quite a broad collection of designers and artists and brands, they all come together very naturally here," co-founder Magda Marnell added.The bedroom featured a purple lamp by Gnilmyd KcabIn the same room, the duo showcased other pieces including a spiky ashtray by Gnilmyd Kcab and Hyfer Objects' undulating armchair Eel Lounge.The designers underlined that the exhibition space wasn't an art gallery or a museum, encouraging visitors to touch and feel the objects on show.A wood-branch beeswax candle was designed by BjrnlundaarvetIn the bedroom of the apartment, recently renovated by local studio Norell/Rodhe, visitors could admire Gnilmyd Kcab's Standing Lampshade Lamp adorned with a lilac wig.It jostled for attention with Bjrnlundaarvet's sculptural beeswax candle, melted onto a tree branch to create a light installation with a pagan feel.Read: Swedish designers doing things that have "never been done before"One of the kids' rooms was decorated with wooden mobiles by designer Michelle Eismann, who also made artful mirrors that were dotted around the apartment.The idea to create a house show, which isn't very common at Stockholm Design Week, came from historical precedents, according to MatssonMarnell."We've always both had a dream of the French salon in the 1910s, like Gertrude Stein," Matsson said.In one of the kids' bedrooms, wooden mobiles hung from the ceilingOnce the concept was decided, finding the collaborators proved easy as many of their designs were already represented in the home."We looked at 'who do we have in our network?'" Marnell said. "Both of us want to have a personal connection when choosing objects, to choose objects that say something and come with a meaning.""Many of them had a lot of pieces and we could choose what we wanted to use," Matsson added.The family cat enjoyed a stroll among the floral installations in the hallwayWhile many exhibitions this Stockholm Design Week were dominated by male designers, MatssonMarnell's One Day Exhibition so-called because it was only on for one day featured a majority of works by women, though this wasn't a conscious choice by the designers."I've chosen objects and art from women for a long time," Marnell said."I think it was a subconscious choice," Matsson added.In the main bedroom, a mirror shaped like a woman decorated one wallOther pieces on show at the exhibition included glass vases and marble windowsills by local firm Public Studio, a paper holder by designer Alfred Sahln and sculptures by artist Kajsa Melchior.The photography is by Caroline Borg.Stockholm Design Week 2025 took place at various locations around the city from 3 to 9 February. SeeDezeen Events Guidefor an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.The post One Day Exhibition showcases private flat filled with unusual design pieces appeared first on Dezeen.

For the foreseeable future, we're simply not going to stop building with concrete and the steel necessary to reinforce it, despite the carbon emissions producing those materials requires. So it would be better if we could do more with less.Thanks to research done by Lotte Scheder-Bieschin, a PhD student of Architecture at ETH Zurich, we can. Scheder-Bieschin developed the "Unfold Form," a reusable formwork system for making vaulted concrete structures. Her method yields a vaulted form that is as strong as a conventionally-built variant and uses less concrete and far less steel.Even more impressive is that Scheder-Bieschin also designed the formwork to be less wasteful. Creating forms for large, complicated concrete geometry often involves Styrofoam, and the forms are single-use. Scheder-Bieschin designed an origami-inspired reusable form that is easy to transport, as it folds down. It consists of flexible plywood strips joined by nothing more than textile hinges and staples. Each form weighs just 24kg, but can support a literal ton of concrete. And they're easy to move. "I was looking for a solution that would allow me to use strength through geometry, not only to optimise the final structure but also the formwork itself," says Scheder-Bieschin. "This approach reduces material usage and makes the entire process more environmentally friendly." The formwork's distinctive geometric structure allows for reductions of up to 60 percent in concrete and 90 percent in reinforcement steel. "The Unfold Form formwork can be produced and assembled without specialised knowledge or high-tech equipment," notes Scheder-Bieschin. One of her aims was to create a simple and robust system that could be used worldwide, even with limited resources. Currently, formwork for non-standard concrete shapes typically requires digital fabrication. "This creates barriers for sustainable concrete construction in developing countries, where the need for new buildings is especially high," she says. The formwork can be produced cheaply. "The only things needed in addition to the materials are a template for the shape and a stapler," adds Scheder-Bieschin. The materials for the prototype cost only 650 Swiss francs in total. The individual components are light and compact enough to transport easily. Scheder-Bieschin demonstrated the system's simplicity by assembling it herself during her pregnancy. "I wanted to ensure my design was simple enough for anyone to build, regardless of their circumstances," she says.Thus far two structures have been built using the Unfold Form, one at ETH Zurich, the other in South Africa. Once Scheder-Bieschin has gained her doctorate later this year, she plans to bring the product to market.

Apple has a Machine Learning Research department, and it's yielded ELEGNT, a robotic desk lamp clearly inspired by Pixar. The lamp can be operated by both voice and gesture, and the researchers gave it two modes of doing things: "Expressive," and "functional."In the expressive mode it acts, well, cute, borrowing body language from dogs in order "to interact more naturally with humans. In the functional mode, the lamp simply does what you ask it to do (change the direction of the lighting, for instance) without the theatrics. This will make more sense once you see the demo video:I like the gesture control and tracking ability, and the projected homework assistance is an interesting feature. But if I owned one of these as a product, I'd only ever set it to functional.There's a reason for that. Previously, we looked at Disney Research's work in designing cute, expressive robots. Their goal was also to enhance human-robot interactions.Last year I felt this was a promising direction of research, but I've rethought that position, giving the way things are going in the world. If right now you were to log onto any forumdiscussing politics, truck accessories, gardening techniques, sci-fi books, dog training, whateverand write a post disagreeing with or questioning a popular opinion, watch how quickly it devolves. It is very easy to get humans to behave rudely. Creating a future where robots are always nice, lulling people to form attachments to them while human-to-human interactions continue to unravel, may not be wise.

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On this episode of the HomeKit Insider Podcast, Jennifer Tuohy stops by to discuss the rumored Sonos streaming box, Amazon's big media event, and more.HomeKit Insider PodcastHot off its launch of the excellent Arc Ultra, Sonos is gearing up for another new product. It's rumored to be launching an Apple TV competitor, priced between $200 and $400.Fan-fave of the show, The Verge's Jennifer Tuohy, joins to talk about this new box and what it needs to do to be successful in a crowded market. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

AirPods Max, MacBook Air models and iPads are all on sale at Amazon for the week of February 10, making it a great time to pick up a last-minute Valentine's Day gift.Deals on Apple products make great Valentine's Day gifts - Image credit: AppleApple's MacBook Air line is on sale leading up to Valentine's Day, with the M2 model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage ringing in at $799 on Amazon thanks to a $200 instant rebate. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums