In BriefPosted:10:38 AM PST March 6, 2025Image Credits:SENRYU / Getty ImagesChristies AI art auction reportedly exceeds expectationsNearly 6,500 artists demanded in an open letter that fine art auction house Christies cancel its first show dedicated solely to works created with AI. Yet, the show, Augmented Intelligence, went on and reportedly exceeded expectations.According to Christies, the show brought in more than $700,000, with many lots reaching beyond their high estimates. The top sale was Refik Anadols Machine Hallucinations ISS Dreams A, a dynamic painting that algorithmically reimagines data from the International Space Station and satellites. It fetched $277,200.Christies VP and director of digital art sales, Nicole Sales Giles, told Artnet that the shows success confirmed that collectors recognize creative voices pushing the boundaries of art.Many artists dont feel that way. In the aforementioned letter, the undersigned accused Christies of featuring artwork created using AI models known to be trained on copyrighted work without a license that exploit human artists using their work without permission to build products that compete with them.Topics

Uncovering false narratives and institutionalized deceptions is critical to building a responsible and informed, energy and built environment future. Policies and practices must be based on facts and datanot fearmongering, corrupt quid pro quo politics, or hollow posturing. The reality is that there is no national energy emergency as suggested by an executive order signed by Donald Trump, nor inadequate electric generating capacity or reliance on foreign energy. The energy emergency executive order, based on fossil fuel lobbying and media-driven claims, crumbles when faced with actual data.The Facts Speak for ThemselvesContrary to allegations of impending energy scarcity driving higher energy costs, threats to energy security, and the drill baby drill narrative, the data paints a very different picture:The U.S. produces more energy than it consumes. Year after year, the United States maintains a surplus in energy production.The U.S. is the worlds largest oil producer, surpassing oil giants like Saudi Arabia.The U.S. is the worlds largest natural gas producer, with production levels double that of Russia, the second-largest producer.The U.S. dominates in global energy exports, ranking as the leading exporter of gasoline and natural gas, while also ranking fourth in coal exports.These facts dismantle the illusion of an energy crisis. The scare tactics surrounding scarcity, security, and rising prices collapse under the weight of verifiable realities. Fossil Fuels Grip on Energy PolicyRecent revelations highlight the outsized influence of Big Oil and Gas in shaping global energy policies, using American fossil-fuel exports as tools of political and economic leverage. This influence often operates under the guise of energy security while masking coercive tactics that prioritize corporate profits over genuine need.Countries like Japan, Taiwan, India, and others have been pressured into increasing purchases of U.S. fossil-fuels, often framed as efforts to strengthen relations or enhance their energy security. While companies portray such deals as evidence of rising global demand, the reality is these countries are being coerced into compliancenot because they genuinely need or want these polluting energy resources. This influence is rooted in systemic corruption, where powerful fossil fuel companies influence policy to maintain their dominance. Rather than perpetuating the industrys manufactured crises, urgent action is needed to address pollution and climate disasters. The path forward lies in embracing innovation and accelerating the transition to a carbon-free, affordable, and secure energy future.The Role of Technology and Diverse Energy SourcesDespite the fossil fuel industrys longstanding grip on U.S. federal policy, technological innovation and the rapid expansion of renewable energy are delivering unprecedented energy stability, security, and cost savings. Both domestically and globally, the trend is unmistakable: a decisive shift away from fossil fuel dependence. Consider the following:85 percent of global new electricity generation in 2023 came from renewables, with even higher numbers expected in 2024.Global investments in clean energy are far outpacing fossil fuels, signaling a transformational move toward sustainability.Record growth in renewables is driving down costs, making low-cost renewable energy a powerful incentive to meet the ambitious goal of tripling global renewable power capacity by 2030 outlined in the COP28 Consensus.96 percent of all new U.S. grid capacity in 2024 will be carbon-free. The U.S. is set to add 55 percentmore power capacity to the grid than it did in 2023the largest annual increase since 2003. And, according to the EIA, the U.S. added 1,766 new power industry renewable energy plants from 2020 through 2023.(Courtesy U.S. Energy Information Administration)In 2024, 41.5 percent of all U.S. electricity generation was carbon-free, up from 33 percent in 2010, with EIA projections forecasting 68% carbon-free electricity by 2030.All this terrifies the fossil fuel industry, which poured massive amounts of money into the current U.S. election to maintain and expand its global influence and profits. As fracking billionaire Harold Hamm bluntly stated, Weve got to do this because its the most important election in our lifetime. The Building Sector: Efficiency, Carbon Reductions, and Substantial Cost SavingsOne of the clearest examples of energy and emissions progress and significant cost savings can be found in the U.S. building sector, which consumes 73 percents of all electricity produced in the country. Despite its large share of electricity use, the building sector has made remarkable strides in reducing energy consumption, consumer costs, and carbon emissions:Energy use has declined despite growth. From 2005 to 2023, total energy use in residential and commercial buildings fell by 3.84 percent, even as over 65 billion square feet of new construction was added.Electricity use has decreased. Building sector electricity consumption in 2023 was 7.7 percent lower than it was in 2005.Massive cost savings for consumers. Residential and commercial energy consumers saved over $1.5 trillion between 2005 and 2023compared to 2005 projectionsdue to building and systems efficiency improvements, renovation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings, and incorporating passive heating, cooling, and daylighting design strategies. In 2023 alone, these savings amounted to $198 billion.Energy consumption by building sector (Courtesy Architecture 2030)Significant reductions in carbon emissions: From 2005 to 2023, building emissions intensity dropped 39.5 percent in residential, 47.9 percent in commercial, and overall building emissions fell about 32 percent.These achievements underscore the power of design, planning, technological innovation and advances in addressing energy, economics, and climatic challenges regardless of politics and without relying on fear-driven policies or misinformation.The Built Environment: Moving Beyond Manufactured CrisesBeyond building operations, the built environmentbuildings, landscapes, and infrastructureoffers another significant opportunity to reduce both consumer costs and environmental impacts. Professionals in architecture, planning, design, and construction are increasingly focusing on reducing embodied energy and carbonthe energy use and emissions associated with construction and the creation, transportation, and production of building and infrastructure materials. This shift marks a critical next step, moving beyond operational energy efficiency to address the full lifecycle emissions of construction. Strategies such as building renovation, restoration and adaptive reuse, infill development, carbon-sequestering landscapes, material reuse, nature-based systems and materials, and cleaner energy transitions are currently driving this progress. As a result, the U.S. industrial sector has achieved a 9.7 percent reduction in carbon emissions from 2010 levels as of 2023, with EIA projections forecasting an 18.6 percent reduction by 2030. Construction carbon emissions are expected to drop 13 percent from todays levels by 2030.A Future Powered by Facts, Not FearThe narrative of a national energy emergency is a manufactured crisis designed to serve the interests of the fossil fuel industry. However, the data tells a different story: the U.S. enjoys energy abundance and is steadily transitioning toward a cleaner, more secure energy future.The remarkable progress and innovation within the U.S. and global built environment highlight the transformative impact of architecture, planning, and design in creating resilient, thriving communities, reducing energy consumption and costs, and mitigating climate impacts.Dont buy the hype. Instead, focus on making the world a better place. Your design expertise and skills are more important now than ever beforeand they are making a real difference.Edward Mazria is founder of the nonprofit Architecture 2030and an internationally recognized architect, author, researcher, and educator. Over the past five decades, his seminal research into the sustainability, resilience, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions of the built environment has redefined the role of architecture, planning, design, and building in reshaping our world. He was awarded the2021 AIA Gold Medalfor his unwavering voice and leadership in the fight against climate change.

Smithsonian Design TriennialCooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum2 East 91st StreetNew YorkOn view through August 10Triennials have to cover a lot of ground. They only happen every three years, so the pressure is on. They attempt to distill the mood and happenings of the time into something digestible, and they must say something about whats to come. When they resonate, whatever they proclaim is often taken as a trustworthy prediction. Curators are aware of themselves as readers who encapsulate a moment, so exhibition themes are chosen with these dynamics in mind as much as anything else. At Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Making Home, though its initial conception began prepandemic, seems to draw from our cooped-up recent past. We are still reckoning with the sense that weve all spent much more time at home in the last three years than we did before or will in the future and that this has scrambled our relationship to home itself, and to ourselves. As a premise, this is amply resonantI was captivated before I even walked in. Of course, Cooper Hewitt occupies the Andrew and Louise Carnegie Mansion, so when I arrived, I entered what was once a home, though one decidedly different from any Ive ever lived in. (Walking up the stairs I couldnt help thinking they took up more space than my entire living room.) The triennial, curated by Alexandra Cunningham Cameron and Christina L. De Len of Cooper Hewitt, and Michelle Joan Wilkinson of the National Museum of African American History, is divided into three sections: Going Home on the ground and first floors, Seeking Home on the second floor, and Building Home on the third floor.Making HomeSmithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Exhibition design by Johnston Marklee. Graphic design by Office Ben Ganz. (Elliot Goldstein Smithsonian Institution)Installation of Welcome to Territory by Lenape Center with Joe Baker in Making HomeSmithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. (Ann Sunwoo Smithsonian Institution)In the first of these three, artists took advantage of the subtle disorientation created by the enormous mansionboth hemmed in and emphasized by Johnston Marklees exhibition design, which brought contributions into transitional spaces like stairs and hallway ceilings and opened the typically closed windows to allow natural light into the galleriesto varied, and mostly fascinating, effects. For example: Upon entering, visitors will find Joe Baker and the Lenape Centers Welcome to Territory, a set of three feather capes hanging from the ceiling and facing the main entrance, a stirring evocation of the specter of colonization. The rooms along this row contain an embarrassment of riches. In the next room, Living Room, Orlean, Virginia, by Davne Tines, Hugh Hayden, and Zack Winokur, sets Tiness grandparents living room furniture arrangement, low-pile beige carpet included, on a rocking plinth and pipes in the sounds of home: a humming grandmother, sizzling bacon, doors opening and closing. Photo frames that appear inlaid with silver paper actually contain images that can only be discovered when viewed at the right angle and suggest impermanence, the impossibility of returning home, and the fleeting, imperfect nature of its memory. Other rooms conjure similarly huge ideas. Ebb + Flow, at the easternmost end of the enfilade and organized by Artists in Residence in Everglades, plays through headphones into an otherwise empty and quiet glass-enclosed roomand a cold one, on the days I visited, which created an interesting contrast. Oral histories of the area, deftly incorporating the enormity of climate-change catastrophe with its effects on individual lives, filled my ears. In the other direction, Vues/Views, by multimedia artist Amie Siegel, explores the legacy of 19th-century French panoramic wallpapers, popular in homes belonging to members of the U.S. ruling class, that depicted scenic tableaux to exoticizing and voyeuristic effects. Vues/Views is a double work shown on the same medium: On one side of a hanging projection screen, a film explores the uses of panoramic wallpaperit takes viewers, for example, into Andrew Jacksons Hermitage homeand on the other, Siegel has assembled a composition from found rolls of the paper whose gaps highlight the inherently mythologizing nature of the decorative material. The film side of the screen faces a blind wall, and the room is kept darksmart curatorial choices that allow for full immersion in the work.Installation of Vues/Views by Amie Siegel in Making Home Smithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. (Elliot Goldstein Smithsonian Institution)On the other side of that blind wall, Liam Lee and Tommy Mishimas Game Room traces the many influences of Andrew Carnegie on nearly every facet of American life via a series of obsessive flowcharts by Mishima connecting Carnegies philanthropies to universities, banks, foundations, and other similarly society-shaping institutions. In the center of the room, a game derived from Monopoly turns these connections into clever entertainment, and around the perimeter, Lees pieces of meticulously needle-felted furniture in near neon shades of lavender, lime green, and hot pink draw a stark formal contrast with the rooms deep, rich shades of wood, producing an unsettling effect befitting the rooms themes.Installation of So That You All Wont Forget: Speculations on a Black Home in Rural Virginia by Curry J. Hackett, Wayside Studio in Making HomeSmithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. (Elliot Goldstein Smithsonian Institution)Walking out of Game Room, I felt I had seen enough. There was substantive critique and self-awareness of the fact and implications of the Carnegie connection; there were nontokenizing contributions by artists from historically marginalized communities; but most of all, there was a sense of the complex and unfinished nature of home, the way that it draws us in only for us to take flight, the impossibility of both return and remembrance, andbecause this is Cooper Hewitt, after allhow design complicates all of the above. I couldnt escape a sense of disappointment, then, walking through the second and third floors and feeling like those ideas were starting to become diluted. In Curry J. Hackett and Wayside Studios So That You All Wont Forget: Speculations on a Black Home in Rural Virginia, I felt pleasantly assaulted by the smell of dried tobacco hanging from the walls of the small room and then unpleasantly assaulted by the AIgenerated videos looped on a small TV mounted among the leaves: I couldnt shake the feeling of an unwelcome inhuman presence within a highly personal work. The second floor also houses perhaps the most ambitious and research-informed works in the show. Patterns of Life, by Mona Chalabi and SITU Research, consists of models of homes destroyed by domicide using U.S.-manufactured weapons in Manbij, Syria; Mosul, Iraq; and Gaza, Palestine. They were developed in collaboration with the people forcibly displaced from these homes. Birthing in Alabama: Designing Spaces for Reproduction, by Lori A. Brown, Trish Cafferky, and Dr. Yashica Robinson, presents exhaustive histories of birth in Alabama as well as design proposals for improving the experience. The sprawling Unruly Subjects, assembled by Sofa Gallis Muriente, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, and Carlos J. Soto, brings together video, archival materials, and archaeological artifacts to question and reimagine the role of the Smithsonian Institution as a home for Puerto Rican cultural heritage. And Heather Dewey-Hagborgs Is a Biobank a Home?, with its rows upon countless rows of vials of unconvincing fake blood, dares to ask, though not necessarily answer, its huge titular question.Installation of Patterns of Life by Mona Chalabi and SITU Research in Making HomeSmithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. (Elliot Goldstein Smithsonian Institution)Birthing in Alabama: Designing Spaces for Reproduction by Lori A. Brown, Trish Cafferky and Dr. Yashica Robinson in Making HomeSmithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. (Ann Sunwoo Smithsonian Institution)There is so much here, and even more as one scales the last set of stairs to witness works addressing reentry from incarceration, sustainable desert living, and agingthe latter felt more like an advertisement for a living arrangement for my parents or, sometime down the line, for myself. I noticed that I couldnt find mention of refugees or homeless people, nor of the issue of housing affordability. The fact of these omissions, amid such thematic abundance, leaves the curators vulnerable to critique: The inclusion of these topics wouldnt have necessarily made Making Home better, but the sheer volume of pieces lends a sense of diffused attention and also raises questions about why certain topics are missing.Still, this triennials vastness manages to help it capture something ephemeral: the simultaneous specificity and universality of the idea of home, a sense of excess tangled up perfectly and inextricably with one of insufficiency.Marianela DAprile is a writer in Brooklyn.

Britains National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has secretly censored detailed public computer security guidance provided to barristers, solicitors and legal firms without explanation or announcement.The guidance, a web page and a seven-page PDF report called Cyber Security Tips for barristers, solicitors, and legal professionals, was removed from the Centres public website two weeks ago on 24 February.NCSC refused to respond to questions from CW asking if they knew that the deleted web page and booklet had automatically been archived by The National Archives, multiple times, and so were all still online.On the NCSC website, requests for the legal advice web page are now redirected to an incorrect page on the same site. The deleted booklet link returns a 404 http not found error page stating sorry - the page you're looking for isn't here. Embarrassingly for NCSC, the not found error page then suggests that The National Archive might have archived versions of the removed file. It does.Cyber criminals are not fussy about who they attack, the censored NCSC booklet had warned, which means law practices of all sizes are at risk. The booklet lists 37 steps lawyers and legal firms should take to help them to reduce the likelihood of becoming victims of a cyber-attack.The booklet was published on 11 October 2024, following a special 2023 NSCS Cyber Threat report for the UK legal sector. The Cyber Threat report, published with the assistance of the Bar Council, noted that by 2020 three quarters of UK legal firms had reported cyber-attacks.According to the Bar Council, barristers in England and Wales face threats, harassment, and intimidation at the hands of state and non-state actors from around the world. The Bar Council is concerned by the rising reports from members who have faced different forms of attack and threats because of their international legal work.Targeted attacks reported to the Bar Council have included physical as well as cyber surveillance, cyber harassment including threatening or impersonating emails, repeated and sustained hacking attempts, death threats and rape threats, threats to family members via email or social media, and 'privilege phishing' which attempts to seek to persuade those who are targeted to divulge sensitive information.These threats are not just an attack on the legal profession, they also have a chilling effect on access to justice and the rule of law, it said.NCSCs advice to lawyers was removed one month after these grave warnings from the Bar Councils and on the weekend after Apple had indicated it would refuse to comply with a UK Home Office Technical Capability Notice (TCN) requiring it to disable its high security end-to-end encrypted Advance Data Protection (ADP) system used on iCloud. The ADP system causes the encryption keys for users iCloud files to be stored only on devices, so improving security for legal data from outside attackers.This looks like clumsy Home Office political censorship, according to cybersecurity expert Dr Ian Brown. This kind of politicisation by GCHQ [which runs NCSC] is a hazard to security, because of the risk of subordinating protective security to surveillance, he said. Brown and other security experts warned when NCSC was set up it should be run separately from GCHQ to avoid conflict and embarrassment.Cambridge University Professor of Communications Systems John Crowcroft, commenting on the move against Apple, said The UK now is in a weaker state of protection. The attraction to the bad guys is increased here massively above other countriesOur government has painted a target on us, and explicitly on all the us that are not engaged in anything other than everyday commerce and discourse. The UK weakened position now recommended by NCSC now fails to refer to the critical need for end-to-end encryption, except for one isolated and obscure document. The incorrect page that lawyers are now linked to does not refer to encryption at all.In contrast, and in the face of an onslaught of suspected Chinese led attacks against multiple high-value targets, the US equivalent cyber defence agency, CISA, has recently stipulated that highly targeted individuals [should] immediately review and apply the best practices provided including consistent use of end-to-end encryption.Highly targeted individuals should assume that all communications between mobile devicesincluding government and personal devicesand internet services are at risk of interception or manipulation, CISAs advice states.NCSC refused this week to answer any questions from CW and referred enquiries to the Home Office, who also refuse to respond. The still unanswered questions included who ordered the takedown, why, and why partner legal organisations were not notified or consulted in advance of the tampering. NCSC also refused to say whether it would now seek to have government archive copies erased and consigned to a memory hole - a reference to technique adopted by the Ministry of Truth in Orwells 1984; or whether they would put the censored pages back.Until the secret takedown, the NCSC booklet included the instruction to lawyers to turn on encryption. It advised, Turn on the free encryption products included with your Windows or Apple devices, so cyber attackers cant access your sensitive data if your device is lost or stolen. Make sure encryption is enabled on your mobile device (this is done automatically on modern Android/Apple devices).For iOS devices, users were told to enable Advanced Data Protection for iCloud. This advice had become impossible for UK users because of Apples reaction to the Home Office notice. All the other cybersecurity guidance in the booklet remained validThe escalating row between Apple and the Home Office has also flushed out more serious concerns about the use of far-reaching powers to impose controls on telecommunications companies, by issuing National Security Notices. The vague terms of National Security Notices require telecommunications operators to take specific steps that the Secretary of State considers necessary in the interests of national security. Parliament was led to believe that this power applied only to technical facilities such as interception arrangements. Multiple industry sources say that since 2016, NSNs have been used to require telecommunications company boards, including Apple, to delegate Board authority to secret Home Office controlled and selected internal National Security Committees, all of whose members and staff, and any lawyers they hire, must be approved for Developed Vetting (DV) checks. The arrangement means that companies may be ordered to implement security breaches that directors and engineering staff do now know about.Notoriously, after the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act came into effect, the Home Office and intelligence agencies used the Developed Vetting Process to block the newly appointed Investigatory Powers Commissioner, Lord Justice Adrian Fulford, from appointing the Commissions chosen Head of Investigations, lecturer in surveillance law Eric Kind. Although initially approved by a Vetting Offices, Kind was told that DV security clearance had been rejected after the intervention of the Security Service, MI5.As reported earlier, Apple has now appealed against the ADP instruction to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. All eleven members of the IPT are senior barristers who have serves as Judges. After checking, the Bar Council told Computer Weekly that it was not notified of the takedown of this document by the NCSC. We will contact the NCSC and make enquiries about the status of the document and its removal. A Bar Counsel Spokesperson added that the Council would consider linking to a National Archive copy of the removed page and document after speaking to our IT panel and raising it with the NCSC.Read more about the Home Offices battle with AppleApple IPT appeal against backdoor encryption order is test case for bigger targetsUS intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard probes UK demand for Apples encrypted dataApple withdraws encrypted iCloud storage from UK after government demands back door accessTop cryptography experts join calls for UK to drop plans to snoop on Apples encrypted dataUK accused of political foreign cyber attack on US after serving secret snooping order on AppleApple: British techies to advise on devastating UK global crypto power grabTech companies brace after UK demands back door access to Apple cloud

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Forterra demonstrated a fast trailer-connect apparatus for their AutoDrive autonomous yard truck ... [+] product at Manifest.ForterraLast months Manifest conference in Las Vegas aimed at bringing together a spectrum of global supply chain executives, logistics service providers, innovators, and investors at the forefront of logistics tech. This fourth iteration of the conference attracted over 6,000 attendees from around the world.Automation for every imaginable human task in logistics was represented, both indoor and outdoor. Among 100 or so exhibitors, there were three focused on autonomous trucks: Forterra, Bot Auto, and Torc Robotics . Other companies in the AV trucking space sent delegates, including Fernride, HubPilot, ISEE, Plus, Outrider, Stack, and Waabi.The first Manifest in 2022 saw intense interest from virtually every truck autonomy player, with the back of the exhibit hall showing a long line of prototype robo-trucks. Several of the companies have left the autonomy space by acquisition, re-focusing, and/or, in some cases, bankruptcy. TuSimple and Embark are no longer in the mix, while Einride is focusing on both EV trucking and autonomy. Between then and now, the number of AV companies in the exhibit hall has gradually reduced, even while the promise of launching autonomous operations comes more into focus. This is not surprising. As an Automated Driving System developer moves closer to launch, there is less need to seek attention because the company is already getting lots of attention from their deployment plans or in the case of Kodiak their first launch of commercial driverless operations in an off-road environment.Of the dozens of sessions at Manifest, two panels focused directly on truck autonomy. The speakers, longtime leaders in their fields, provided intriguing viewpoints on how autonomy fits into the on-road aspects of supply chain operations.The first panel, titled Autonomous Trucking: On the Cusp of Commercial Driverless Operations, was moderated by myself and consisted of Peter Schmidt, CEO Torc Robotics; Josh Araujo, CEO, Forterra; Paul Enos, CEO, Nevada Trucking Association; and Dustin Koehl, COO, Covenant Logistics.The second panel, titled Accelerating Autonomous Solutions, was moderated by Lee White of LM White Consulting and consisted of Bob Hall, COO Outrider; Xiaodi Hou, CEO and Founder BotAuto; and Hendrik Kramer, CEO and Co-Founder Fernride.The ADS developers represented in these panels covered both over-the-road trucking and yard truck operations. More than a few of the comments were quite striking and insightful. Ive amalgamated the key perspectives in the following sections.Autonomous Over the Road TruckingBotAuto is the newest player in the ADS trucking scene, coming out of stealth last year. Mr. Hou offered a fresh perspective on what this space is all about, saying We are not a tech company, we are a trucking company. What matters is cost per mile. AV players must deliver capacity. Compared to the early ADS developers, he projected a fast deployment cycle, saying BotAuto will launch driverless operations on the roads in Texas later this year. He emphasized that the development of a self-driving machine is much faster than in the past, because a foundation AI model can quickly learn how to take care of most of the driving. For BotAuto, using one AI model, in one or two months we got a pretty amazing model. That said, he cautioned that I am a big antagonist about end-to-end AI. You should not rely on the neural nets for rules of the road and Newtonian physics; these need to be added separately as another layer.Regarding AI, whats different before and after ChatGPT? A new way has emerged. You dont need millions of miles to develop the self-driving capability, he said.Mr. Hou elaborated further on his approach. Once you do safety, what about efficiency of computing? We can use inefficent but safe solutions for simpler situations, making sure we dont compromise safety. We transform all safety problems into efficiency headaches. Were growing our efficiency step by step. When our efficiency goes beyond human capability, thats a good product.While BotAuto is in the early stages of bringing a product to market, Torc Robotics is at an advanced stage. In just two years from now, the company plans to enter the market via their OEM partner Daimler Trucks. I am super excited about the next three years. Its really all about software testing and operations to deliver a commercially ready autonomous platform, said CEO Peter Schmidt. Now, it's really about building a product and building a real business, which is safe and which can scale.An audience member asked the question that is probably on the minds of a significant portion of any audience that I and these panelists ever addressed: How can we trust autonomous vehicles to perform safely when our laptops, phones, and other tech are frequently having glitches? Mr. Schmidts response was one of the most robust Ive ever heard, emphasizing the need for AVs to have extensive redundancy. I can lose 50% of my entire sensor suite and it still can drive. Its the same with compute, he said. So even if a compute function goes off, your brain is there, you still have 50% of computing power. And that's a lot of redundancy in all systems, not only braking and steering. You need redundancy in your sensor suite, your algorithms, and your compute and that's driving cost. These concerns are valid. You need to design it into your architecture early on; if you try later on, thats tough.Autonomous Yard Tractors in Distribution Yards and PortsOver the years, Manifest delegates have witnessed a procession of autonomous yard truck developers showing capability not only in driving but also in efficiently connecting / disconnecting trailer hoses to and from the tractor. These connections are essential in pulling a trailer in a logistics yard.This space has matured significantly over the last couple of years and limited scale autonomous yard operations have been launched.At this years Manifest exhibit space, Forterra displayed a Kalmar Ottawa T2 Terminal Tractor equipped with Forterras AutoDrive autonomous driving system. AutoDrive is currently deployed on more than a dozen vehicle platforms across industrial and defense verticals. The vehicle was connected to a trailer mockup, enabling Forterra to demonstrate end to end auto-coupling with technology partners Electrans and Stoughton.Customers demand that the trailer-connect operation take no more time than a human does in doing the same job. The auto-coupling tech performed the task in a flash, to my eyes faster than even a seasoned truck driver could do. Check out a video of this operation here.In the panel discussion, Forterras CEO Josh Araujo explained their multi-faceted approach to ground autonomy. We are deploying autonomous systems for military applications, both combat and logistics environments. And then were also working in industrial applications, ports, and distribution centers. So we're looking at use cases that are off highway, off road, in ruggedized environments, adapting military solutions to similar industrial applications that can benefit from the technology.I asked Mr. Araujo to further explain advantages of the combined military-commercial focus. Theres some definite benefits to operating in both environments. There are mutual synergies in the data, the experience in the field, and running edge cases in the military that you're definitely going to see on the commercial side and vice versa, he said. From the military side, you typically don't have the type of competitive pressure in defense acquisitions that you do in the commercial market. The size of the commercial market results in cost-efficient approaches, therefore providing much lower cost and higher capability systems to war fighters.How does this impact supply chain more broadly? When it comes to supply chain factors, we look at really unlocking that value of supply chain visibility and planning. Having full end to end connected distributed systems that are autonomy-enabled is really how you do it, he said. Thats where we're focused: inside that dock, inside that warehouse, and inside of the distribution center, providing that connection between the on-road leg of the haul to getting that trailer to the correct dock or moving it from the dock to the manufacturing plant or moving it from the ship side over to the stack side of the containers.Founded in 2018, Outrider was one of the first players in yard truck autonomy. Mr. Hall said the company aims to accelerate deployment by putting little mental load on companies. This means, from the beginning, minimize changes for a customer to adopt autonomy. He continued, noting that the most important thing in logistics is throughput. The logistics yard is like a heartbeat, pumping freight out the way the heart pushes blood. We want to implement automated vehicles piece by piece, not as a single heavy lift. Our trucks can be introduced one by one, working side by side with human operated trucks. Over time, the number of AV trucks can increase. A big capital investment all at once is not required.In response to a question about the impacts of AI, Mr. Hall described Outriders journey. Based on years and years of pilot deployments in large facilities, Outrider has accumulated millions of hours of data. Now we seed this into propriety reinforcement learning models. The rate of improvement and learning has been amazing. Over the past year, we overhauled the Outrider stack to incorporate AI models. This has allowed us to speed up the process of learning to adapt to new environments on the east coast and in northern environments.Later, as the panel discussed safety aspects of autonomy, Mr. Hall noted that in North America there are no safety standards for yard operations. We pulled from existing standards to create our own safety case for yards. But to the customer, what is prove-able safety in the yard? Its reliable and boring industrial operations. Just like you don't sit and watch your dishwasher or toaster operate, you want to turn it on and let it do its thing. You want to have proven that its safe, even when youre not looking, he replied.Based in Munich, Fernride is the only automated yard truck developer addressing the European market. The companys initial product deployments have utilized tele-operation of yard trucks. Autonomy is on the horizon. How are they using the new AI tools? Mr. Kramer noted that human-assisted autonomy can co-exist with full autonomy. As much as AI is needed, 95% of operations can be done autonomously, with maybe five percent requiring teleoperation. Having both options provides maximum reliability and flexibility in the business case, he said.He framed Fernrides near-term priorities as follows: The focus now is proving the safety case, i.e. verified and validated, to obtain the compliance with the European regulations in 2025. The focus in the next few years shifts from technology to operations. Its not only about day one problems, but how are systems maintained and serviced for the long run. The key is to create value for customers.Voice of the End User Not surprisingly, the tech developers had plenty to say. How does all this activity add up when viewed through the eyes of end users, i.e. trucking fleets?Dustin Koehl provided a long view based on his many years interacting with the autonomous truck developers. No longer is automated trucking just a science experiment, the developers are getting closer to commercialization, he said. Covenant Logistics operates 2,500 trucks providing expedited freight services. For their operations, I asked Mr. Koehl what does it mean for a fleet to deploy autonomous? Nothing changes? Everything changes?A lot changes, he said. I spent almost two years working with a developer, where I gained a perspective of the investments that are being made on that side. And based on 18 years in the fleet world, I bring the fleet perspective. Mr. Koehl framed the space in this way: Theres two business models in play here. So you have the driver as a service model, in which the autonomy developer delivers the truck to the fleet and says, Here you go, well support you as needed. But then also you have the transportation as a service model. With TaaS, a traditional fleet outsources freight to an ADS developer who is fully responsible for delivering the load.He bottom-lined this by saying, Covenant hauls anything from live haul to eggs to bombs and ammunition; because of this theres just always going to be a need for a truck driver there. While we stay close to autonomy developments, weve seen LTL and freight forwarders, even drayage fleets, getting ready for this, spending significant money to optimize their networks for the autonomous future. We stay close to it because of the unit economics of autonomous operations. If you can get 16 to 18 hours of utility on an autonomous truck, we have a responsibility to really understand the benefits of that, not just for us, but for our customers too.For Paul Enos of the Nevada Trucking Association, the most compelling thing about autonomous trucks is stopping accidents. He painted a vivid picture of the crushing liability burdens that on-road freight carriers face. This is exacerbated by aggressive plaintiff attorneys, even in cases where the truckers rig wasnt at fault. Liability is always first and foremost in my brain, said Mr. Enos. How do you insure these things? Who is the company that is responsible for an accident that occurs with an autonomous truck? When we passed our regulations allowing autonomous trucks in Nevada, trial lawyers called for a $25M minimum insurance policy on autonomous trucks. So, I think all of this needs to be worked out.Building on Mr. Enoss comments, Mr. Koehl pointed out what still needs to happen. Quite frankly, in spite of the nuclear verdicts and the risk, some of the insurance companies dont really have products formalized for autonomous trucking yet. We know that fleets are not going to take this risk and liability on their own.Labor ViewpointsEven though the rise of software, expert systems, and the like have been making a wide range of jobs obsolete for decades, when it comes to autonomous trucking the outcry about the fate of truck drivers has been at a fever pitch. A range of viewpoints across both panels painted an intriguing picture.Mr. Enos spoke to the trucking world of today. One of the biggest issues that our member companies have is hiring qualified drivers. They say, Hey, we're putting these guys out on the road with an 80,000 pound missile. This kind of stuff keeps the CEO, the safety director, anybody whose head is on the line, it keeps 'em awake at night. So I think having these driver assisted technologies that are available now are going to provide that safety cushion that makes it better for our industry, that makes it better for the drivers, even enhancing training.The key question he raised was, How do we make sure that the folks that are coming into our industry, that we do need in our industry today, are not looking at the technology necessarily as a replacement for drivers in every application, but as that safety cushion that is going to enhance everybodys experience on road.Mr. Koelh noted that youve got this trillion dollar marketplace of truckers which is very segmented, and that's not going away. As challenging as the truck driver job is, autonomy is not going to eliminate a lot of jobs. I was responsible for a budget of $50M a year to attract truck drivers to come work for our fleet. Its not a glamorous job. These drivers sacrifice a lot, its one of the most challenging jobs in America.Mr. Araujo provided an interesting contrast between truck driving in the military versus the civilian sector. On the commercial side for autonomy, the pushback is around unions and labor issues. The military is going to experience this exact same thing. Theyre going to recruit, and they already started to recruit fewer truck drivers. But they have this current workforce. What the military has right now is an organic captive vocational training system that's probably second to none, where they can take an entire workforce of drivers and retrain them in technical skill sets that can either support autonomy or do different value-added things on the battlefield. So, instead of having somebody behind the wheel of a truck, you have somebody that's maintaining that autonomous system or a mechanic or command and controlling fleets of vehicles. And so that's something I think the commercial markets can look at and say, I have this amazing workforce that I can now retrain to do different tasks as they adopt their operations around autonomy.From the Outrider perspective, Mr. Hall sees humans and robots working side by side. This is how AV gets deployed: enabling human teams. It is hard to find people who are willing to do these jobs. Our Forture 100 customers find it harder and harder to recruit and retain drivers.And from the European perspective, Mr. Kramer described their ongoing operations. We successfully operate in unionized environments in Europe. Unions in ports are friendly toward automated vehicles, because they cant keep up operations due to lack of workers. They need AVs as fast as possible. Weve been successful proving to customers the autonomous tech works; theyre ready to roll out the solutions.This is happening.Its clear from the discussions at Manifest that the coming years promise to be significant inflection points for commercial operations of autonomous trucks.In contrast to discussions at Manifest in earlier years, there was not a single mention from these well-informed experts regarding whether the technology is ready. Instead, the clear vibe was This is happening and Were on the home stretch for commercial operations of autonomous trucks. And for shippers, as Lee White put it, Its coming and youre gonna be impacted.Disclosure: Richard Bishop is an Advisor to and/or equity holder with the following companies mentioned in this article: Forterra, Plus, Outrider.

'Sorry We're Closed' is a real must-play indie experience for 2025.a la mode gamesWhen it landed on PC in October 2024, Sorry Were Closed completely passed me by. After finally catching up with it ahead of this months release on Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch, Ill never forget it even though the honor comes a year later than it should, its a real indie GOTY contender.Sorry Were Closed is one of the most unique titles of the last five years, and another example of British studio success one that follows in the footsteps of the oppositely named Thank Goodness Youre Here! with another eccentric and idiosyncratic (and sometimes very funny) experience. Its also among the best modern send-ups of survival horrors from the fifth and sixth console generations, without ever being anything but itself.Its surprising but understandable that something so brilliant yet quirky is a debut game for its studio, la mode games: indie duo Tom and C.B. Bennett, who met through Phantasy Star Online in 2006 before finally experimenting with game development during the pandemic, leading to this mindboggling escapade.From dream to nightmareSorry Were Closed begins as a story within a story a TV show called Dying Petals plays out high drama between lovers Epiphany Oxblood and Canary Rouge. You break away from the action to reveal that you, Michelle, are an unlucky-in-love convenience store worker. Whats more, one of the actors in Dying Petals is your ex-girlfriend. Womp womp.Dying Petals sets itself up as a sub-story to the broader tale, like Watchmens Tales of the Black Freighter, and thats just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Sorry Were Closeds bafflingly compelling narrative, which only gets weirder and more complex with every turn. Even your grimy London suburb feels unsettling, but then again, its plagued by spooky goings-on: disappearances, violence, and wayward theories (specifically from your friend Marty) that theres a demonic element to it all.Of course, this proves to be absolutely the case when, in your sleep, youre visited by a weird, gangly, sexualized, and horrific-looking neon creature. Shes an obsessive stalker and wants unending love. From you.NOPEa la mode gamesLuckily, your friend Robyn, who you never knew until now was a demon, has committed to saving you from her inevitable grasp and near-certain death. What first seems like a fever dream suddenly turns into a very real nightmare thats a cross between Killer7, Silent Hill, and Eternal Darkness, if it was produced by David Lynch.So begins your three-night tale in which you have to escape from her clutches, but also explore relationships with other key players: angels, demons, and regular folk, navigating themes of love, greed, fixation, heartbreak, and self-loathing. Each character has their own goal, shaping the story to one of four distinct endings, and its up to you to make what you believe to be the right decisions not an easy task, considering the rapid normalization of horror fantasy taking place around you.Using your minds eyeThere are two levels you deal through: normal reality, and the strange one granted by your third eye, which is given to you by The Duchess. This is the common addition your doting demon gives to all of her potential love interests, and by clicking your fingers, you can see another world in a small radius around you.Using your Third Eye is a blast from the past.a la mode gamesIt works in a lot of weird and wonderful ways. For exploration, it shows you a glimpse of the past, when things were nicer a reverse take on Silent Hills Otherworld but also allows you to navigate past blockages or access interactive elements from the other side, like a simpler version of Effect and Cause from Titanfall 2.Then theres the social element, in which using it reveals hidden demons, or shows you the real personas of apparent humans around you. A particularly wonderful use of this is with Cerberus, a trio of heavies, who act like regular tough guys in their usual form but are revealed to be humanoid dogs in your demon vision, with different (canine-centric) dialog to boot.Still, the Third Eye is central to the games incredibly inventive combat system, which subverts the limitations of old-school survival horror with a modern twist.Third-person adventure, first-person shooterFor the most part, exploration takes place through classic fixed cameras or the occasional hovering view, which tracks you down, say, a long corridor. However, your Third Eye view allows you to look at absolutely anything from first-person perspective the only caveat being that you cant move as you do so.Sorry Were Closed combines this with aplomb with its combat system. You start with an ax, before later getting a pistol and shotgun. As enemies slowly advance, you can switch to first-person mode.The heart-shooting combat mechanic is tricky at first, but a really unique idea.a la mode gamesYou can just shoot them until they die wasteful and less harming, but sometimes necessary in a pinch or use your Third Eye to temporarily stun your foe and unveil glowing hearts inside them. Shooting these does maximum damage, like the Infrared Scope used to kill Regenerators in Resi 4. The tougher the enemy, the more you need to shoot, and in succession.Often, its about reading the room before planning your line of attack. You even get a superpower relatively early on which can be a real boon in a pinch. The whole combat element takes some getting used to, but once it clicks, it feels incredibly satisfying.The gift of sound and visionSorry Were Closed is a beautiful game that manages to squeeze everything out of its low-poly aesthetic, simultaneously making enemy designs, Otherworld landscapes, and focal cutscenes both unsettling and mesmerizing. The art direction evolves at a rapid pace, meaning each new day brings a whole different experience.I'd be lying if I said this meat grinder/lift combo is as weird as it gets.a la mode gamesThis is coupled with a superb array of sound effects. The characters are non-verbal, but their dialog is accompanied with just the right amount of emotion from gasps, grumbles, and giggles to set the mood. Demons have extra depth from noises that range between tortured and mournful. The developers even sourced the perfect atmospheric noises, including the likes of London Underground trains, which add way more atmosphere than youd expect. Then there are the goofier SFX you dont expect but love to hear my personal fave being the pistols reload noise, which combines a cash register bell and a growling dog.Finally, the soundtrack is perfectly balanced a mixture of tried-and-tested lo-fi mood music, choral, dramatic classical tunes, carefully executed pockets of silence, and boss battles underpinned by Okumura, a stupidly talented game-loving hip-hop band with a love of gaming (who also performed on the equally barmy No More Heroes 3).Thankfully, were openThere are a couple of things that Sorry Were Closed fumbles. Many people wont like the combat, and a couple of the boss fights are a little clunky. These gameplay issues feel planned by the developer as a feature rather than a bug as a send-up to the past but some sections can rely on lightning-quick reflexes, or a bit of luck.Sorry Were Closed also has a narrative pacing problem that affects certain sections and characters, meaning you struggle to make connections with people or feel the need to help them, simply because you dont know why you should (or, occasionally, who they are). Chamuel, Clarissa, and Lucy, in particular, are remarkably difficult to read.Maybe I... will?a la mode gamesStill, thats where a la mode games plays a blinder. Once everythings said and done my first playthrough came in at just over six hours youre offered a New Game + mode, carrying over your purchases, discoveries, and upgrades. By this point, youve already totaled up the number of missed opportunities and forgotten corners to explore, as well as collectibles, bugs to squish, and a good handful of the 60+ achievements still left on offer. Having digested the madness that came before, youll be raring to go for another playthrough and explore these routes, knowing what you know.That said, theres a good chance you still wont know what the hell happened. Sorry Were Closed will be interpreted by fans for weeks and months after they finish it, however many times they complete it. At least theres one constant: the world has a new icon of thirst with The Duchess, a femme fatale even more alluringly deadly than Resident Evil Villages Lady Alcina Dimitrescu.

In a nutshell: Sony has introduced a console rental service in the UK that allows gamers to lease a PlayStation 5, PlayStation VR 2 headset, or a PlayStation Portal. Customers can choose from 12-, 24-, or 36-month terms for cheaper rates or go with a monthly rolling plan that can be canceled at any time. Pricing starts at 6.49 ($8.37) per month for a PlayStation Portal remote player and scales up to 18.98 ($24.43) for a PS5 Pro. The PlayStation VR2, which recently dropped from $549 down to $399, can come home for 18.49 ($23.84) per month.Note that these rates only apply to 36-month leases, and you will pay more per month when opting for 12- or 24-month plans. The month-to-month option is even more expensive: 35.59 ($45.89) a month for the PS5 Pro, for example.At the end of the lease, you can either return the hardware to end the contract or keep paying monthly to hang on to it.Customers pay nothing out of pocket up front and are free to return their hardware within 14 days if not happy. Orders are shipped overnight and should arrive the next day at no extra cost. All leases are managed by UK rental agency Raylo, and applying will not impact your credit rating.You'll no doubt want to crunch the numbers before committing to ensure a rental makes financial success as there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to something like this. // Related StoriesFor example, maybe you are a grandparent and plan to have your grandchild spend the summer with you. In that instance, renting a PS5 for a few months would be cheaper than buying one outright only for it to collect dust starting in the fall. Conversely, a diehard gamer that plans to build a serious library of PS5 titles would likely come out ahead by owning rather than renting a console.A similar service from one of Japan's largest video game retailers has already reached capacity.Image credit: Charles Sims

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is one of the most popular and powerful 4K streaming devices on the market. Designed for simple plug-and-play operation, this award-winning streamer has a $60 MSRP, but every once in a while, Amazon and other retailers will have discounts on the device. As luck would have it, that day is today!Right now, when you purchase the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max at Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and a handful of other retailers, youll only pay $40 at checkout. That $20 discount can go toward one of the best soundbar deals weve been raving about (its just a suggestion). We reviewed the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and it scored 4 out of 5 stars!Engineered for Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is Amazons fastest and most powerful stick streamer and is only outperformed by the Fire TV Cube. Featuring a quad-core 2.0GHz processor, you can expect minimal buffering, even when streaming 4K HDR movies from platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The Fire TV OS has hundreds of other apps to vet through, too, along with hundreds of free live TV channels.RelatedAs far as picture and sound quality is concerned, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max supports all HDR formats and all Dolby surround formats. Get ready for some of the best movie and TV show-watching your eyes have ever experienced.The included Alexa Voice Remote Enhanced lets you use the Amazon assistant to search for content, ask questions, control smart home devices, and more. Were also big fans of the fact that Fire TV OS lets you use Xbox Game Pass, as well as Ambient Mode, which lets you showcase artwork when your TV isnt being used.Score the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max while its marked down to $40. We also recommend taking a look at our lists of the best TV deals, best Amazon deals, and top Best Buy deals for additional discounts on top streaming hardware!Editors Recommendations