Former Apple design chief Jony Ive sold his hardware startup io to OpenAI for nearly billion. BI Illustration 2025-05-23T20:39:35Z d Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are building a mystery ChatGPT device. The interwebs have come alive with gadget guesses, renders, and memes. OpenAI is trying to challenge Apple and Google by redefining AI interaction with new hardware. Let's get something out of the way first: nobody really knows what former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are building.That hasn't stopped the internet from bursting at the seams with wild guesses, gorgeous renders, speculative hot takes, and a healthy dose of meme-fueled imagination.So, what is this mystery device that Ive is cooking up for OpenAI's ChatGPT? A screenless wearable? A next-gen smart assistant? A pocketable AI oracle? A glorified paperweight?Here's our roundup of the best guesses — serious, speculative, satirical, and everything in between. Thank you to my Business Insider colleagues for contributing to this Friday's fun.Serious Guesses: Industry Analyst Weighs InOK fine. We'll start with some serious ideas.TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is a credible source in the tech hardware and supply-chain space, especially when it comes to Apple. His take on the Ive-OpenAI gadget is valuable:Form Factor: Think small. Maybe iPod Shuffle-sized. Portable, minimal, and delightfully Ive-ish.Wearable: One of the use cases includes wearing it around your neck. Shades of sci-fi, Star Trek, or perhaps a Tamagotchi on steroids?No Screen: It will have cameras and mics for environmental awareness but no display. The idea is to not add another screen to our lives.Companion Device: It will connect to your smartphone or laptop for processing and visual output.Production Timeline: Mass production is expected in 2027, giving us plenty of time for more leaks, renders, and conspiracy theories.Kuo suggested on X that the announcement was timed to shift attention away from Google I/O. OpenAI positioned this as a new hardware-software narrative, riding the trend of "physical AI."He also referenced a great quote from former Apple fellow Alan Kay: "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." That's exactly what Altman and OpenAI are trying to do here.Clues from Altman and WSJ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Kim Hong-Ji/REUTERS The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Altman offered OpenAI staff a preview of the devices he's building with Ive:The device was described as an AI "companion." Altman wants to ship 100 million of them on day one.It will be aware of its surroundings and fit in your pocket or sit on your desk.It's not a phone or smart glasses. Ive reportedly wasn't keen on a wearable, though the final design may still flirt with that concept.Altman said the device should be the third major object on your desk, alongside a MacBook and iPhone.There will be a "family of devices," and Altman even floated the idea of mailing subscribers new ChatGPT-powered computers.They aim to shift away from screen-based interaction and rethink what AI companionship really means in a day-to-day human context.Renders, memes, and vibesThe brilliant designer Ben Geskin imagined several cool form factors on X, including this circular disc. Geskin's ideas blend Apple-grade minimalism with futuristic whimsy, perfectly on brand for Jony Ive.Some smart glasses, because of course.A dangly dongle, equal parts techie and jewelry.Square/rectangular objects with eerie elegance.Echoing Geskin, another user on X proposed a disc-shaped device, sleek enough to pass as a high-end coaster or futuristic hockey puck. Think of it as an AI desk companion, quietly listening and gently glowing.One BI colleague mentioned a smart ChatGPT lamp, possibly inspired by "The Sopranos" episode where the FBI bugs Tony's basement. Funny, but not impossible. After all, a lamp fits Altman's desk-friendly criteria. Tony Soprano in HBO's long-running mob drama "The Sopranos." Anthony Neste/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images Another X user joked that the device could resemble those emergency pendants worn by older adults — "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" — but with ChatGPT instead of a nurse. A brutal meme, but it raises a valid point: If the device is meant to be always-on, context-aware, and worn, why not market it to older users, too?Although, if this is for the olds, should it use Google Gemini instead? Burn!X user Peter Hu proposed an AI-powered nail clipper. Yes, it's absurd, and no, it doesn't make sense. But the design? Low-key fire.Here's mocked up a vape pen with a ChatGPT twist. Inhale wisdom, exhale existential dread.Some of the most surreal concepts look like direct plugs into your skull. There's a "Matrix" or "Severance" vibe here, suggesting a future where ChatGPT lives in your head like a helpful parasite.This one also looks painful in a different way.This one below is cute!I asked ChatGPT to take a guess. The answer was not impressive. No wonder OpenAI paid billion for Ive's hardware design startup. ChatGPT guesses what device Ive is designing for OpenAI. Alistair Barr/ChatGPT This last one is a Silicon Valley insider joke. It's also a warning that it's extremely hard to replace smartphones as the go-to tech gadget. It's a riff on the Humane pin, an AI device that bombed already.Can OpenAI compete with Apple and Google?This device matters beyond its shape because of what it represents. Right now, Apple and Google dominate the interface layer of computing through iOS and Android devices. If OpenAI wants to define how people interact with ChatGPT, it needs a hardware beachhead.Humane's AI pin tried and failed. The Rabbit R1 got roasted. The jury's still out on Meta's Ray-Bans. Can Ive and Altman actually crack the code?Knowing Ive, we'll probably be surprised no matter what. The real product could be something no one predicted.The race to define the next major computing interface is officially on. With Ive and Altman teaming up, OpenAI makes a major bet that how we interact with AI is just as important as what AI can do.When the curtain lifts, and Ive whispers "aluminium" in a design video, jaws will probably drop, and competitors will scramble.Until then, keep your renders weird, your guesses wild, and your brain tuned in to BI. We'll be here to cover every hilarious, ambitious, and brilliant twist along the way.See you in 2027. #what #will #jony #ive039s #chatgpt

Kerry Wan/ZDNETSoundbars are gaining in popularity because of their sleek design and ability to provide an ample boost in audio quality compared to built-in TV speakers. Even with their plug-and-play nature, you can make a few modifications to help unleash the best possible sound quality. Also: This Amazon Fire TV soundbar upgraded my home entertainment without breaking the bankWhether you're new to soundbar setups or a self-proclaimed audiophile, familiarizing yourself with some key settings can take your viewing and listening experience to new heights. Read on for five pointers on how to optimize your soundbar's performance. 1. Placement and acoustics It may sound obvious, but where you place your soundbar is a major factor. For the most balanced sound, position the soundbar directly below your TV, centered and parallel to the screen. Mounting a soundbar above your screen is also an option, but the ideal height placement for ultimate clarity is at or near ear level. Make sure your soundbar isn't obstructed by furniture or even decorative items that can block sound waves. Also: I changed 3 settings on my PS5 to significantly improve the performanceEach room has unique acoustics. Does your room have high ceilings or large windows? Are your floors hardwood or tile? If so, consider adding soft furnishings such as rugs and curtains to reduce reflections. You could also take it a step further by adding acoustic panels or diffusers to your area. Acoustic panels or diffusers can help manage sound reflections and create a more balanced audio environment.As noted by ZDNET contributor Artie Beaty, advanced soundbars like LG's S95TR go through a tuning process specific to the layout of your viewing area by using an AI room calibration feature. If your soundbar lacks such a feature, do some experimenting to find the sweet spot.Remember that most soundbars are designed to project sound directly toward the audience, so make sure the device is angled for optimal sound dispersion across all seating positions. Moving the soundbar a foot or so from your listening area or adjusting the angle just a few inches can noticeably improve or degrade the output. 2. Subwoofer location means everything Kerry Wan/ZDNETIf your soundbar has a subwoofer, place it on the floor, preferably in a corner or along a wall, to enhance bass response. The aim is to create a seamless blend between low-frequency effects and the rest of the audio spectrum. I've read about a music producer who would do a "crawling test" to pinpoint the best location. This involves playing some bass-heavy content and literally crawling around the room to find the spot with the most balanced bass output. Voila -- there's the best place to put your subwoofer. Also: What is spatial audio? Here's everything you need to knowSome soundbars come with a built-in subwoofer, and others allow you to connect an external subwoofer wirelessly or via a wired connection.In the absence of a subwoofer, and if it's in your budget, consider adding a unit like the SVS SB-1000 Pro. A more affordable option is the Klipsch Reference R-120SW. Hooking up a subwoofer can significantly enhance your audio experience with deeper, more impactful low-frequency effects, making you feel like you're part of the onscreen action. 3. Customizing your soundbar's equalizer and audio settings As I mentioned earlier, some soundbars feature automatic calibration systems that use a microphone to measure and adjust sound settings for your specific room. Many more of them come with various audio presets or EQ settings that you can adjust according to your tastes. Certain soundbars offer the flexibility to tailor audio settings for individual inputs, allowing you to fine-tune the sound quality based on whether you're watching shows, listening to music, or gaming. In any case, adjusting bass, treble, and other parameters can greatly improve audio quality based on your room's acoustics and your listening habits. Also, make sure to experiment with any advanced features, such as Virtual Surround Sound, Dialogue Enhancement, or Bass Boost, if available. Increasing the bass can add depth and power to action scenes, making explosions and other intense moments more dramatic and engaging. Raising the dialogue levels puts a focus on the center channel and midfrequencies, making vocals more distinct and easier to comprehend -- so you can actually understand what Yennefer of Vengerberg is whispering in The Witcher. Along those lines, check to see if your soundbar has a volume leveler. This featurelets you listen to content with greater consistency. You'll be reaching for the volume button on your remote much less frequently with volume leveling. 4. Check yourconnection Michael Gariffo/ZDNETYour soundbar is likely connected to your TV via an HDMI ARCor eARCport. This technology supports advanced 3D audio formats such as Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Sony 360 Reality Audio for a super-immersive surround-sound experience. Ideally, your soundbar will support HDMI-CECconnectivity, which lets you command devices connected through HDMI by using only one remote control. In this scenario, you can use your TV's remote to control the soundbar and, for instance, an added Blu-ray player. Also: What is EQ and why is it an important factor in improving sound?Integrating the operation of multiple devices into one is certainly my preference. Who wants three separate remotes sitting on their coffee table? Having all your devices plugged into the soundbar reduces clutter and avoids having to install a switch box. You can then easily switch between audio sources by changing the soundbar's input mode using your single remote. OK, this doesn't pertain to maximizing audio quality, but here's something that does. Compared with connecting your soundbar via Bluetooth, a wired connection remains the best method for transferring sound. Opting for a wired connection, such as HDMI or optical cables, guarantees a stable and lossless audio transmission. This allows the audio content to be heard as it was intended, without any degradation or disruptions caused by wireless signal interference or compression. Also, keep in mind that not all cables are created equal. Be sure to use a cable that supports high-res formats and has a higher bandwidth that can process more channels to support extra bass and tweeter speakers. 5. Updates are essential This one is short and sweet: check for software and firmware updates!Manufacturers often release updates that can improve your soundbar's performance and add new features. Regularly installing updates ensures your soundbar benefits from the latest enhancements and fixes, and squashes bugs that can corrupt sound quality. Also: Your TV's USB port has hidden superpowers: 5 benefits you're not taking advantage ofWith these simple tips, you can maximize your soundbar's performance and enjoy a richer, more immersive audio experience. Proper placement, room acoustics optimization, and thoughtfully adjusting your settings will surely elevate your listening experience for streaming. Whether you're watching action-packed blockbusters or rocking out to your favorite tunes, your soundbar will be ready to deliver exceptional audio quality. This article was originally published on April 28, 2025, and was updated on May 23, 2025.Looking for the next best product? Get expert reviews and editor favorites with ZDNET Recommends.Featured reviews #easy #ways #instantly #improve #your

Breakdown & Showreels Wicked: Shiz University – VFX Breakdown by Framestore By Vincent Frei - 23/05/2025 How do you create a university fit for witches and wonders? Framestore lifts the curtain on their VFX work for Shiz University in Wicked. Enchanting environments and seamless digital artistry await. Explore the magic behind the scenes! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Framestore: Dedicated page about Wicked on Framestore website.Jonathan Fawkner: Here’s my interview of VFX Supervisor Jonathan Fawkner at Framestore. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025 #wicked #shiz #university #vfx #breakdown

Synthetic data in Unity now includes synthetic humans and homes in this major release of our open-source tools.The success of increasingly ambitious machine learning-driven computer visionsystems depends on high volumes of richly annotated data. Since performance of these systems depends so much on the data, gathering better data is often the best way to improve model performance. Collecting and annotating real data is so expensive and time consuming, however, that a data-centric approach is not feasible for many projects. To that end, thousands of teams have turned to Unity for building synthetic data for computer vision.Today we are making a big leap forward in synthetic data with a major update to our open-source tools for building synthetic data, which we are calling Perception 1.0. A new Synthetic Humans package gives you diverse, poseable, randomizable, and deterministic 3D humans. The new Synthetic Homes dataset generator provides photorealistic home interior data for scene understanding and object detection. Additionally, the Perception package has been updated with depth and normal outputs, path tracing support, and Python visualization and analysis tools.With this expanded suite of tools, we want to enable you to build high-quality synthetic data faster than ever.We are excited to announce the release of Unity Synthetic Humans, a 3D person generator built from the ground up for human-centric CV synthetic data. Thousands of hours went into creating the content using a mix of scanning, simulation, and 3D artistry. Today, we are sharing all of this work for free under an academic use open-source license.Unlike other digital humans, which provide small variations on a handful of base character models, Synthetic Humans create massive diversity by combining libraries of hair styles, fully anonymized facial and ethnic generation, body models, and clothing. As a result, each generated human is anonymous and unique – instead of generating a specific person, you control the sampling distributions on axes of randomization, including ethnicity, height, weight, and age. For example, a dataset with 20% teenagers, 45% young adults, and 35% middle-aged and older, can be specified in the generation parameters.Key features:Wide range of diversity in age, body type, and skin toneRich labeling, including body keypoints and clothing segmentationFully rigged and skinned bodies and clothes compatible with the Unity Animation SystemPlacement randomization in 3D environments with collision avoidanceWe are also releasing Synthetic Homes, a large-scale dataset of synthetic home interiors, and the associated dataset generator. Use cases for in-home CV are innumerable, but gathering diverse home interior data in the real world is notoriously difficult due to privacy concerns and data collection restrictions. Synthetic Homes aims to accelerate model training for such applications by providing a large dataset of varied home interiors with accurate and rich labeling, as well as a configurable dataset generator.We include a variety of randomizations to maximize diversity. These include materials, furniture type and configuration, sunlight angle and temperature, day/night switching, interior lighting temperature, camera angles, clutter, skybox, door and curtain animations, and more. The dataset generator gives you control over many of these elements, enabling you to tune them to your liking.Interior lighting in homes is complex and intentional, making photorealism especially important. We used Unity’s multi-bounce path tracing to accomplish physically accurate global illumination and reflections. This accuracy can help bridge the so called “Sim2Real gap”, improving a model’s ability to perform well in the real world after training on synthetic data.The Synthetic Homes project includes a 100,000 image dataset, a configurable dataset generator, and a notebook for data analysis. The dataset includes rich labels for semantic and instance segmentation, bounding boxes, depth, and normals. It also includes environmental information like occlusion percentage and camera position. To enable you to iterate on the data we also provide the dataset generator, where you can tweak parameters like camera positioning, blur randomization, and image size.The Perception package powers synthetic data in the Unity Editor. We are broadly expanding the package in this release to support new CV tasks, increase quality, and speed up dataset development. New Perception features include:A conveyor belt sample illustrates the capture of video datasets with randomized object spawning and physics.Ray tracing integration provides highly photorealistic images using physically-based multi-bounce lighting with minimal setup.Occlusion labeler calculates how much of an object is occluded by other parts of the scene and how much is offscreen. This information makes it possible to filter out annotations on highly occluded objects.Depth and normal labelers capture rendering layers that can be used for new tasks or give models additional information to perform better predictions.Transparency and two-sided geometry support enables pixel perfect labeling of plants in agriculture and outdoor environments.We also want to give the community more impact on Perception, so alongside this release we are also opening up the package to accept contributions from the community.Data exploration and analysis are critical to iterating quickly on synthetic data, and we want to make that as easy as possible. With this update we are introducing a new dataset format called SOLO, designed for large-scale image datasets extensible to new types of annotations and metrics. SOLO datasets are separated on disk by frame, enabling distributed dataset generation and processing.In tandem with the SOLO format we are releasing pysolotools, a new open-source python package that provides utilities to work with the SOLO format. The pysolotools Python package provides an iterator interface that allows you to easily work with SOLO data on a frame-by-frame basis. It also includes a framework to easily retrieve common dataset statistics universal to most CV problems such as object counts, size distributions, and heatmaps. Finally, with pysolotools it is easy to write custom scripts to convert from SOLO into your needed data format. Even easier, pysolotools comes with pre-built converters to some popular formats, including COCO.Finally, we recognize that it is important to be able to visually verify the data that was created. pysolotools-fiftyone is an integration with the Voxel FiftyOne viewer to allow you to visually inspect SOLO datasets.You can learn more about building synthetic data on Unity’s Computer Vision hub, including tutorials, case studies, and links to all of the content and examples.Synthetic data for machine learning is a growing, fast-moving field. Connect with the community and with us on the Computer Vision forums, where you can share questions and ideas. #perception #expanding #toolbox #synthetic #data

io9 is proud to present fiction from Lightspeed Magazine. Once a month, we feature a story from Lightspeed’s current issue. This month’s selection is “Through the Machine” by P.A. Cornell. Enjoy! Through the Machine by P.A. Cornell “Steve, over here! Turn to your right. Can we get a smile?” He falls back on his training easily enough, turns to the cameras, gives them his famous crooked smile, tilts his head just so as the flashes go off so they can capture the smoulder that highlights his cheekbones. The one he’s practiced countless times with his manager, Ethel. The red carpet extends before him, and up ahead he sees the actress he’s been paired with in this film. His co-star and onscreen love interest but in reality, a total stranger. He only knows her name because the photographers keep shouting it, asking her to turn so they can capture her svelte profile. She tilts her head obligingly, long blonde hair falling seductively over one eye, teasing the lenses and through them the millions of fans who’ll one day see these images. She’s a pro, like him. She’s clearly had the same kind of training he’s had. She’s been through the machine. It’s a phrase he heard years ago from a late-night talk show host. It refers to the way Hollywood turns you into a product. You start out this average person, just trying to make it as an actor, then as your success grows, more and more people come into your life to turn you into something else. A movie star. A fairy tale ideal of celebrity perfection. He’d told himself that would never be him. He was in it for the art, not the fame and fortune. But here he is. “Steve! Daphne! Can we get some shots of the two of you together?” The blonde up ahead reaches a hand toward him as if beckoning a good friend, though this is the first time they’ve met. She smiles at him in a way that almost looks genuine. He returns his best leading man grin, flashing the expensive set of pearly white teeth his manager arranged for in the earliest days of their partnership. He puts an arm around Daphne. They both pose, turn, look at each other and smile, over and over. Then both look serious, then smile once more. Then she leans in for a peck on the cheek as instructed by the shouting crowd, just before they’re both ushered off to find their places inside, where the film will be screened. Once they’re away from the cameras, he extends his hand to Daphne. “Hi. Steve Randall.” “Nice to meet you,” she laughs. “Daphne Everheart.” “You seen any of it yet?” “Not even the trailer,” she admits. “Did they send you the screenplay?” He shakes his head. Someone in her entourage grabs her by the arm. She gives him a small wave as they lead her off. He wonders if he’ll even see her again after this premiere. Maybe. If the film does well opening weekend, there could be a sequel. They could find themselves at another premiere for a movie they appear in together, but that neither of them has acted in. Steve lets his own people show him past curtains and cocktails to a theater with plush red seating. He takes his place staring up at the screen, trying to conjure up some of the excitement he once felt as a kid about to watch his favorite actors. But the excitement feels more akin to anxiety as the opening credits appear. He sees his own name—or the one his manager gave him, anyway. That’s when he appears. Seeing himself like this is unsettling, to say the least. He turns to the people seated around him and they’re all looking up at this face that resembles him but isn’t him. Do they not see it? Do they not feel that uncanny valley sickness in the pit of their stomachs that weighs his down as the thing on screen billed as Steve Randall starts to speak? It’s his voice, but he’s never said these words. Never read the script they came from. Who wrote this, anyway? He wonders. Or rather, what wrote this? The film’s runtime is ninety-five minutes. It’s a romantic comedy, but the word “comedy” is generous. Steve doesn’t so much as crack a smile. He watches this AI-generated doppelganger and his equally digitized scene partner as they traverse the uneven landscape of the disjointed plot—flimsy even for this genre. They flash smile after smile, kiss with ever-deepening passion—if you can call it that—and ultimately, after a series of contrived misunderstandings, they get their Hollywood ending. All set to an AI-generated score bereft of any feeling that might conjure atmosphere or elicit an emotional response from the viewer. As the lights come up and people start to clap, Steve glances down the row of seats at his co-star. Daphne, seeming to sense his stare, glances back. She looks as though she’s about to be sick but gives him a brave smile—a trained smile—and starts to clap along with everyone else. He does the same. This is his job now, after all. The scan was taken a couple of years ago, during pre-production on a movie in which he played an astronaut. They had to scan him for proper fit of the spacesuit they were having made, as well as for some of the more intricate effects. The voice they came by even more easily. From all the ADR he’d done, voicework on some animated stuff, and of course countless interviews already accessible online. He hadn’t given the scan much thought, at the time. It had made sense for the work they were doing. He’d never imagined it would lead to this. There’s an afterparty and people keep coming up and congratulating him on the movie. He says what he’s been trained to say, graciously thanking them for their praise, taking pictures with people for magazines and entertainment shows. Evidence that he is in fact still a real person that exists in the world, even though it’s not him on screen. Not in this movie and not in a handful of others, several of which he hasn’t even seen. If Hollywood could turn you into a product before, this is on another level. His career has become, almost exclusively, one of public appearances. His L.A. agent has him booked for a store opening tomorrow, and a series of meet-and-greets at conventions sometime in the spring. The sorts of gigs that used to be thought of as “has-been” work, but Steve, by all accounts, is still a bona fide movie star. He was People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” just last year. Fans still somehow manage to find out what hotel he’s staying at in any given city all over the world, just so they can catch a glimpse of him walking in and out. How has it come to this? At the end of the night someone pushes him into a shiny black town car and the spectacle of this farce fades away in the car’s rear lights. He exhales, trying to get the image of the thing on screen out of his head. It’s not so bad, he tells himself. SAG made sure he’d get paid for the use of his image. It’s not as much as he might’ve liked, maybe, but it’s decent, and they use it often enough that the cheques enable him to maintain his standard of living. The public appearances add to that. He can’t really complain. But the sick feeling in his stomach remains. • • • When he’s back in New York, he calls his manager. “It was fucking weird, Ethel.” He tells her. “Seeing myself in a film I wasn’t actually in. No chemistry between me and my co-star because, well . . . neither of us was actually there to do any acting. This isn’t what I signed up for.” “Sweet boy,” she says, using her years’ old term of endearment for him, though he hasn’t been a boy in quite some time. “I know. But this is how it works with the studio films these days. Be glad your image is still worth something.” Steve sighs deeply. “I know. It’s just . . . I worked so hard to get here. We both did. The work mattered to me. I miss challenging myself, figuring out who my character is and how to best convey that through my performance. I miss being able to disappear into all those people and live their lives for a time.” “Of course, of course,” says Ethel. “That’s one of the reasons I took you on as a client. Even at sixteen, you had such passion. You loved the art of it. But what’s the alternative, Stefan?” She only ever uses his original name when she’s serious. He knows her hands are as tied as his. It’s this or give up the business altogether. • • • Over drinks with a friend the next night, he airs his frustrations, his tongue loosened by more than a few shots with beer chasers. “I’m bored,” he tells Frank, who doubled for him in an action film franchise that now continues without need of either of them. “I miss acting. It’s like all they left me with are the worst parts of fame. The parts where I still can’t walk down the street in peace without some paparazzo shoving a lens in my face, and where I can still get cancelled online for any stupid shit I might say without thinking. But the good parts, they’ve all been taken over by some digital version of me that frankly gives me the creeps.” “I hear ya, Steve,” Frank says, raising his beer. “It’s not just you though, brother. At least you still have a marketable presence. Companies still send you free clothes and shit so you can be spotted using it.” “Sure,” he tells Frank. “But all that amounts to is that I’m now pretty much just this human billboard. I’m not even an actor anymore.” “You’re breaking my heart, man. But think about guys like me. We were getting your crumbs even in the good times. If you think things have gotten rough for you, imagine what’s left for us. I haven’t been called for a stunt gig in months. And that last one ended up cancelled last minute when they decided it was cheaper to use AI. I’ve got a family to support, and all three kids are gonna need braces. Not to mention the first wife who’s on my back if I’m even half a second late with her alimony. What I wouldn’t give for my ugly mug to be in demand.” Steve knows he’s right and feels bad for whining. Things could be so much worse. Whatever jobs he’s lost to AI, there are countless more jobs lost by less famous actors, crew, and other support personnel like PA’s and craft services. He can’t begin to imagine how they’re all making ends meet these days. Many of the ones he’s still close with, like Frank, work multiple jobs, even outside the industry, just to cover what their once stable careers did. “Drinks are on me tonight, by the way,” he tells Frank. “You’ll get no argument here, pal.” • • • Later, in the privacy of his loft, Steve allows himself the luxury of self-pity. He can’t help thinking of the kid he once was. The chubby little dork with the accent. Too shy to talk to girls. Pushed around by the guys he so wanted to be. Acting freed him from all that. It had allowed this kid who didn’t feel comfortable in his own skin to become someone else. In time, it had given him confidence, and as he continued to hone his craft, it had brought him the attention he’d craved and opportunities he’d never imagined. It hasn’t always been easy. There’d been plenty of lean years before his big breakout role turned him into a household name. Years during which covering rent had been a struggle, and meals had often consisted of half-eaten scraps left by patrons of the restaurants in which he’d waited tables. But he’d loved acting enough to stick with it, and he’d thought it worth all the sacrifices. He gave up his very name for this profession. He lost the accent and the baby fat. He’s spent a sizeable portion of his income on fixing his teeth, and on five-hundred-dollar haircuts sometimes paired with a treatment to achieve that perfect shade of chestnut brown or a shave that still left enough stubble to keep him looking “manly” in a marketable way. He’s gotten regular tans to conceal his naturally pale complexion—a condition the L.A. agent refers to as his “vampire” look. He’s hired a stylist, a personal trainer, and a dietitian to help him maintain what the grueling workouts have chiselled him into. He’s had more hours of media training than he’s had acting classes. Hell, at times he’s even dated women he’s been told to date. All of it to create this perfect image of Hollywood glamour intended to seduce audiences into filling theater seats. He’s been put through the machine—and willingly let it happen—just so he can go on doing what he loves. He hadn’t realized this image wasn’t him. It was just a product. Something that could be sold, and then re-sold again and again, with little if any say from him as to how it might be used. Feeling down about his situation, Steve turns to Instagram. He doesn’t follow any fan accounts but now and then, when he’s alone, he looks up the hashtag that bears his name. The fans have a way of making him feel better about himself. Their comments on his pictures—especially the shirtless ones—always make his day. Their support for the charities he’s championed over the years warms his heart. Sure, there are always trolls, but those are in the minority and easy enough to block. He scrolls through his feed and finds the People photo shoot. His feelings about the shoot are a mix of pride and embarrassment. Pride that the chubby kid with the Polish accent showed his high school bullies up, but a little shame at the fact that he still cares so much about what they might think. Still, a few of the pictures from the shoot are really good. He recalls how the photographer’s great sense of humor put him at ease, and how welcoming the magazine staff were. Continuing to scroll, he comes across a picture of himself he never took. This isn’t one of those amazing fan art images he’s seen over the years made by outstandingly talented artists that managed to capture not just his appearance, but his essence. This is some kind of Frankenimage, clearly AI-generated. His hair is a honey blonde he’s never sported, not even on screen. The cheekbones are oddly exaggerated and too narrow, giving him an almost gaunt appearance. In the picture he holds an infant, staring down at it like a proud father. It hurts him to see it. He’s always wanted a family, but this hasn’t happened for him in real life. Steve scrolls some more and comes across another AI image. In this one he’s dressed in a patent leather getup; cut to reveal tattoos he doesn’t have. A red blindfold covers his eyes. His arms are cuffed behind his back. His expression is one of ecstasy. Behind him stands another known actor who holds the handle of a whip against his chest as he leans in to lick the side of Steve’s face. The actor is a good friend. They’ve worked together a few times but never as onscreen lovers. Fans have imagined their characters as a couple for years, which seemed harmless enough, but seeing this is something else. Against his better judgment, he reads the comments. “I ship them.” “Gorgeous art. Love this.” “Yes, please.” And so on. “I wanna see them getting down in a movie together,” someone’s written. There’s a response to this last comment from someone who’s handle indicates they work for a major studio. “Don’t worry. You won’t have to wait much longer for that. And let’s just say this one’s not going to be the family-friendly fare you’re used to seeing these guys in.” Steve isn’t homophobic. He’s played gay characters more than once and has been fine with kissing or even simulating sex with other male actors. But there’s something about being paired with a close friend in this way without so much as a heads up, that seems like a violation. It’s one thing to work with another actor that you’ve built trust with and talk through a scene to make sure you’re both comfortable depicting something intimate that everyone can be proud of in the end. It’s quite another thing when your image is used to quell strangers’ salacious appetites, in a way you didn’t consent to. Steve feels sick. He takes screenshots of both the AI image and the comment about the movie and texts them to his friend. He follows that up with the message: Did you know about this? The reply comes almost immediately. Fuck. Are you kidding me? Wish I was. Damn man. I love you, but not like that. At least not without the kind of money we used to get for our movies. Steve smiles in spite of himself. At least his friends can still have a sense of humor about these things. I feel like we need to push back on this, he tells his friend. Yeah, I get it man, but we signed the contract. I know we didn’t have much choice, but the law doesn’t care. We agreed to this. Pretty sure it’s too late to stop them. The fans don’t even seem to care it’s not really us, Steve types. Why would they? His friend replies. They don’t even really need us anymore. We just get in the way of their fantasies. Steve doesn’t respond to that. He deletes his Instagram account. He shudders to think of what they’re doing with his image on TikTok. Or worse, on the dark web. • • • “This sucks, Ethel.” Steve puts the phone on speaker and sets it down on the kitchen counter to pour a bowl of cereal. “I’m going stir-crazy here. I need something to challenge my creativity again.” “Well, I heard about one thing, but I’m not sure it’s really for you, so I hadn’t mentioned it,” she says. “What? Tell me?” He opens the fridge and reaches for the almond milk then thinks, screw it, and grabs the whole milk he bought yesterday instead. “There’s this Broadway musical. I know one of the producers, but you’d have to audition.” “That’s exactly what I need right now,” he tells her, over mouthfuls of Frosted Flakes. “It’ll be good for me to go back to my theater roots. It’s been too long since I’ve performed in front of an audience.” He pushes the thought that it’s a musical to the back of his mind. He’s never been known for his singing, but he can work with a voice coach or something. At this point, he’ll do anything to perform again. “It’s been a long time since you’ve had to audition, let alone for live theater,” Ethel says. “Just tell me where and when. I’ve got this.” • • • When he gets the lead in the musical, Steve’s thrilled, but also mildly surprised. He’d felt good about the audition, but he’d heard some of the other actors sing and they were clearly better than he is. He figures they must’ve seen something in him—an intangible quality that suits the part. Why overthink it? His illusions come crashing down early on in rehearsals. During a break, he talks with one of the stagehands. An older guy named Bill. Steve vents a bit about how he can’t really act in the film industry anymore. “Thank god for Broadway. The last refuge for actors like me.” “Yeah. For actors like you,” Bill agrees. Steve isn’t sure what he means by that and says so. “Look, you seem like a decent enough guy,” Bill says, “so don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re here because you’re a name. They need something to put on the billboards that’ll draw a crowd, is all. It ain’t about talent no more.” Steve is taken aback, and his expression must show it. “Don’t get me wrong,” Bill continues. “You’re good. Up there on the big screen, you were a real standout. But this is a whole different animal. All I’m saying is there’s actors more cut out for the stage than you that can’t get hired anymore because the guys who used to work the screen are taking their roles.” Steve’s about to respond when Bill points to a group of actors sitting together talking. “See the guy in the collared shirt?” Bill says. “That’s Wayne Garnet.” Steve knows Wayne from rehearsals. Nice guy. He has a small part but gives it his all. “Wayne’s a Tony-winner. Used to be his name on the marquee. Now even he has to settle for bit parts since AI started taking chunks out of the film industry.” Later Steve Googles Wayne Garnet and finds he’s actually won two Tonys. He’s also known for his singing voice, which he loaned to several animated films before they started digitally recreating it. Steve feels sick. He approaches Wayne during the next rehearsal and offers to bow out to make room for him. Wayne is gracious and tells him not to. “There’s no point, Steve. They’d just get another big name movie star to replace you. My days as the lead are done. I’m just happy I still get to be on stage at all. At least for now.” “What do you mean?” Steve asks. “AI’s coming for all of us,” Wayne says. “It’s not just the film industry. This crap is spreading like a virus throughout the arts. There’s already talk of a new play, AI-written, of course, where instead of live actors they’re projecting digital performers onto the stage. It’s strictly off-Broadway for now, but give it time.” Steve is appalled. Doesn’t know what to say. Wayne continues. “I’ll take whatever I can get these days. You know what they say, ‘There are no small parts.’ I just hope that when the roles run out, someone will want to scan me to use in a projection so I can at least cash a cheque now and then.” • • • At home one night, after the play’s run has ended, Steve settles in to watch TV. He scans his options, stumbling upon one of his early roles. A serious drama in which he played a depressed teen, struggling with his parents’ divorce and his older brother’s untimely death. Even all these years later, the dialogue comes back as he watches one of the more emotional scenes. “It’s not like I don’t want to talk about Tommy,” he mouths along with his younger self. “I do. It’s just that . . .” Young Steve can’t finish because he’s started to cry. Present day Steve remembers shooting the scene—his first time crying on cue. He remembers harnessing all those emotions and tapping into all the pain he’d ever felt, and all of it somehow pouring out of him in that moment. He remembers the director taking him aside later and saying, “You nailed it, kid.” He smiles thinking of this now, but then he’s sad again, missing the sense of accomplishment of pulling off a scene like this. The exhilaration of seeing an audience respond to it later. He watches the remainder of the movie while eating peanut butter by the spoonful right out of the jar. Halfway through he crumbles in an entire Kit-kat bar like he used to do when he was a kid. By the time the credits roll, the jar is empty. • • • Steve’s personal trainer leaves frequent voicemail messages asking when he’s coming back to the gym. He knows he should, but it’s tough to get motivated for a workout when he feels like all anyone’s going to see is his AI clone. Still, it’s in his contract to try to resemble the digital version of himself as much as possible. He knows his skin could use a bit more color these days too, and his hair’s starting to show some gray he hadn’t even realized he had. He makes a mental note to focus more on his appearance. All that can wait until after he returns from the convention though. He’s surprised to find he’s actually looking forward to connecting with his fans again and maybe seeing some of the ones that have become familiar faces over time. The energy at the con is intense, and Steve feels electrified, like he did during his stint on Broadway. One by one he greets his fans as warmly as he possibly can. He makes time to speak with them in the few minutes he has while they take pictures with him. He gives them not his practiced smile, but his real one, and makes sure to thank each one for their continued support. Things get a little weird during the signing. Much of it is what he’s used to, with fans handing him old headshots or pictures from his older films to sign, and in some cases art they’ve made themselves. But he’s also handed quite a few more AI-generated images than he’s used to. He feels like a fraud signing them. Like he’s putting his autograph on someone else’s headshot. Still, he tries to be gracious and humble with the fans. They’ve been there for him through his rise to fame. It’s the least he can do. By the time it’s all over and he’s on his way back to the hotel, Steve’s feeling good about the event. So good, in fact, that he revives his Instagram account to see what fans have been posting. He smiles at the pictures they took with him earlier in the day. Many of the fans are dressed like his characters. Some of the props and signs they’ve brought are so creative, they bring a smile to his face. But soon he notices that not all the comments under the pictures are kind. “Is it just me or is Steve rockin’ the dad bod these days?” someone asks. “Yeah. I hate to say it, but I was a bit disappointed that he didn’t look as hot as he does in Burning Brand II,” replies the account holder. “He’s looking older too. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he was nice and all, I just wish the picture was better.” “Just fix it so he looks hot,” someone else suggests. “Yeah, I probably will.” Steve doesn’t even know what Burning Brand II is. Another of his films he hasn’t seen—or acted in—he assumes. He closes the app and wonders why he even bothers. If the fans don’t care what’s real and what isn’t, why is he even doing this? • • • He goes for a run the next morning. It’s been a while, but he soon finds his rhythm. It’s early in the day and the streets are quiet. He likes this time of day. It’s peaceful. Gives him a chance to clear his head. When he stops for a rest, he notices a small theater. A sign over the door proclaims that the theater shows only movies made by and starring living human beings. The acronym “AI” is painted on one of the windows with a red slash cut diagonally through it. But what really gets Steve’s attention is the man changing the posters. He replaces one with another that features a pensive-looking Daphne Everheart. His former co-star, if you can call her that, looks younger in this poster. He’s never seen her act before and he’s curious. He decides to return later in the day when the theater opens. • • • The film’s called Grace. In it, Daphne plays a young woman trying to convince her wealthy parents to take her seriously as an inventor. The story is moving, as Daphne’s character struggles against societal expectations to achieve her dreams. Steve likes the score too, and decides he’ll stay to read through the credits to see who composed it. He also enjoys the style the director has brought to the project. But what he likes most is Daphne’s performance. She’s good. It kills him to think that someone who was clearly a rising star is now relegated to appearing only as a digital ghost of herself in half-baked movies that would’ve been an embarrassment at another time. How many other talented actors have been forced out of the industry altogether? And what of everyone else whose jobs have been made irrelevant? Steve feels the tears well up, in part because of the movie, but also because of his thoughts. He blinks them away and looks around to see if other people are equally moved. That’s when he notices that nearly every seat in the theater has someone in it. He watches their expressions as they react to Daphne’s performance. He sees the story affect them, and by the end he understands that there are people for whom this art still has meaning. • • • After the movie lets out, he calls Ethel. “I’m thinking of doing something a bit different,” he tells her. “I want to start a production company. Make movies the old way. I have a whole list of people I can call who’d jump at the chance to collaborate on something real again.” “That sounds wonderful, sweet boy. It’s nice to hear some excitement in your voice again.” “I was calling to ask you something,” he tells her. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to get in touch with Daphne Everheart, would you? I don’t have a project yet, but I’d like to gauge her level of interest. I’m sure we’ll find something for her. The world deserves to see how good she actually is at this.” About the Author P.A. Cornell is a Chilean-Canadian speculative fiction writer. A graduate of the Odyssey workshop, her stories have been published or are forthcoming in over fifty magazines and anthologies, including Lightspeed, Apex, and three “Best of” anthologies. In addition to becoming the first Chilean Nebula finalist in 2024, Cornell has been a finalist for the Aurora and World Fantasy Awards, was longlisted for the BSFA Awards, and won Canada’s Short Works Prize. When not writing, she can be found assembling intricate Lego builds or drinking ridiculous quantities of tea. Sometimes both. For more on the author and her work, visit her website pacornell.com. © Adamant Press Please visit Lightspeed Magazine to read more great science fiction and fantasy. This story first appeared in the May 2025 issue, which also features short fiction by R. P. Sand, Gene Doucette, Martin Cahill, Russell Nichols, Meg Elison, Jonathan Olfert, Nancy Kress, and more. You can wait for this month’s contents to be serialized online, or you can buy the whole issue right now in convenient ebook format for just or subscribe to the ebook edition here. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #movie #star #endures #hollywoods #dystopian

It’s only fitting that Austin-based hospitality group Bunkhouse Hotels should dub its new Houston locale, Hotel Saint Augustine, after Saint Augustine. The fourth-century theologian was canonized as the patron saint of printing because of his extensive writings on and early dissemination of the catholic faith. The new locale situates near the Menil Drawing Institute. Augustus Chapman Allen was one of the founders of the Texas metropolis in which there’s an abundance of Saint Augustine grass. Though references to surrounding history and ecology abound, the hotel forms as an inward-facing urban retreat, tastefully outfitted with near monastery-like qualities juxtaposed by pops of contemporary color and texture. Award-winning local architecture firm Lake Flato programmed Hotel Saint Augustine as a cluster of five two-story structures that reflect the proportioning of the neighborhood but that also delineate a series of cloistral courtyards. The open air porches that connect these decidedly modernist buildings imbue the destination with a residential feel. Lushly planted gardens emerge from these voids as they give way to meandering pathways. Fellow Texas firm Ten Eyck teamed up with the John Fairey Garden to cultivate a series of complementary plants for the site: eyelash sage, dwarf rock palm, and blue rabbit’s foot fern. New York and Wyoming-based interiors practice Post Company – in collaboration with Bunkhouse’s internal design team – outfitted the interiors with the same duality in mind. Drawing inspiration from the notable art museums – mostly named for the influential de Menil family – the scheme champions a clever yet not bombastic intermixing of old and new elements; a touch of surrealism. Tying together a carefully sourced selection of distinctive furnishings is a tightly curated program of minimalist artworks. With different lounge and retail display vignettes demarcated by soaring sheer curtains, the main lobby takes on the appearance of what one might imagine as a collector’s home. A burled walnut and Calacatta Viola marble reception desk plays off of bright red lacquered shelves with glowing back-lit panels. Deep blue walls and ceilings, as well as dark black glazed ceramic tile floors in the adjoining bar, helps hotel guests and hospitality visitors escape the bustling city right outside. Antique mirror panels help extend the verdant greenery of the internal gardens indoors. When it comes to dining and drinking options, Augustine Lounge and Listening Room are joined by the Michelin Guide-recommended Bar Bludorn. Premiere all-day restaurant, Perseid – named in honor of Houston’s long history as an epicenter of space exploration – is a quintessential neighborhood bistro. Throughout this offering, ombre dipped wall treatments and hand painted, texturally abstracted murals help to scale down the space. Art Deco inspired pendants hang above. The 71 suites comprise a diverse range of accommodations: from the compact 200-square-foot Petite Queen guest rooms to the Ateliers with private outdoor spaces. Monochromatic blues, deep reds, sages, and mustards delimit the bed while the same approach to furnishings found in the public areas carries through. The difference: much richer velvet drapes juxtapose dark ebonized wood oak flooring. Oversized sculptural luminaires skew the more intimate scale of these suites. “Honoring Houston’s artistic and cultural heritage, Saint Augustine alludes to the legacy of John and Dominique de Menil, who were tastemakers, art collectors, and human rights activists that shaped the city into the cultural nexus it is today,” says Tenaya Hills, Bunkhouse Hotels’ senior vice president of design and development. “In line with our ethos of creating community-driven experiences, Hotel Saint Augustine will also celebrate Houston’s history of unexpected pairings and cutting-edge culture through programming and partnerships, and plans to partner with neighboring non-profits to build lasting relationships with organizations working to further responsible growth in Houston,” says Hills. What: Hotel Saint Augustine Where: Houston, Texas How much: Rooms start at Design draws: An urban retreat made up of separate buildings with cloister-like courtyards and lush greenery. Eclectic yet cohesive interiors that at once honor the cultural clout of the surroundings and allow guests to retreat for a while. Book it: Hotel Saint Augustine Go virtually on vacation with more design destinations right here. Photography by Nicole Franzen and Julie Soefer. #hotel #saint #augustine #new #urban

The 1600UT SS Curtain Wall System has been expertly designed to meet the building and construction industry’s evolving curtain wall needs. The 1600UT SS Curtain Wall System unites the high thermal performance of the 1600UT SystemTM 1 Curtain Wall with the screw spline system of the 1600 SS Curtain Wall System. Delivering ultra-thermal performance with easy installation, the 1600UT SS Curtain Wall System brings the benefits of a semi-unitized frame construction and has been tested to meet the latest seismic requirements. Attractive Aesthetics With a 2.5 inchsightline, the 1600UT SS Curtain Wall System’s screw spline concealed fastener joinery helps create a smooth, monolithic appearance on the facade. The system also features a dual finish option, anodized finish options and painted finishes in standard and custom options.Simple Installation Offered with inside or outside glazed framing options, the 1600UT SS Curtain Wall System is a ladder construction system that allows for screw spline fabrication. The 1600UT SS Curtain Wall System delivers the benefits of a semi-unitized frame construction. The vertical mullions can easily span two floors to maximize efficiency and minimize installation cost. The interlocking mullion design also helps eliminate the need for anti-buckling clips. The 1600UT SS Curtain Wall System is available in four-sided captured and two-sided structural silicone glazed—vertical and or horizontal. The product features a standard 7.75 inchdepth system, with a 6.25 inchdepth system also available. Standard infill options include 1-inch, 1.25-inchand 1.3125-inch. This product provides additional standard infill options to meet acoustic requirements. Exceptional Thermal Performance Setting new standards in curtain wall system design, the thermally broken, high-performance 1600UT SS Curtain Wall System offers an overall frame U-factor of 0.29 while using standard 1-inch glass/COG0.24. For markets with additional thermal needs, the system can achieve an overall frame U-factor of 0.24 while using 1-inch glass/COG 0.20. The system can be seamlessly combined incorporated with our GLASSvent® UT and Insulpour® Thermal Entrances, making Kawneer the single-source solution for your ultra-thermal system needs. Key Product Benefits Screw spline fabrication Tested to meet the latest seismic requirements Overall system U-factor of 0.24 with 1-inch glass/COG 0.20 Inside or outside glazed framing options Smooth appearance on the facade, with a 2.5 inchsightlineSilicone-compatible glazing materials for long-lasting seals Standard 7.75 inchdepth system with a 6.25 inchdepth system also available Three standard infill options provided to meet additional acoustical requirements Sustainability Developed with a focus on sustainable facade design, the 1600UT SS Curtain Wall System is available using low-carbon aluminum, which has a minimum 50 percent mixed pre- and post-consumer recycled content, with the remaining primary aluminum sourced from a hydroelectric smelter. The system provides the sustainability documentation you need, including the material transparency summary, Declare label and more. Our BALANCE philosophy of holistic sustainability is at the heart of Kawneer, as we focus on mindfully balancing our business strategy with corporate responsibility. #kawneers #1600ut #curtain #wall #powerfully

Architizer’s Vision Awards are back! The global awards program honors the world’s best architectural concepts, ideas and imagery. Submit your work ahead of the Main Entry deadline on June 6th! Cities can integrate play and participation into their urban planning activities by creating playable spaces, incorporating playful design elements, and promoting citizen participation. Urban spaces have the potential for children to learn through play, enabling them to develop critical social, cognitive and emotional skills in an engaging environment. Moreover, play and participation in public spaces are essential for creating dynamic and inclusive communities where individuals of all ages can connect, interact, and share experiences. Playful interventions, such as interactive installations, art projects and play zones, alongside participatory design processes, empower citizens by giving them a voice and encouraging collaboration in the development of their surroundings. This collaborative approach not only fosters a sense of ownership but also helps to identify and address the unique needs of diverse communities. Lately, designers have been exploring innovative methods to create more inclusive and playful public spaces by using unconventional and sustainable materials. One example is the use of rope-based structures, which offer flexible, tactile, and visually engaging environments that encourage climbing, swinging, and imaginative exploration. These designs often incorporate recycled or locally sourced materials, reinforcing environmental consciousness while promoting accessibility and creativity. Let’s see a few examples. Soft Civic By Bryony Roberts Studio, Columbus, Indiana Soft Civic was a site-specific architectural installation built in 2019 that responded to the architectural geometry of the historic Columbus City Hall. It featured custom-fabricated structures adorned with colorful woven surfaces, enhancing the aesthetic appeal and evoking a sense of engagement and curiosity among viewers. The primary vision of this installation was to create an environment for play, performance, and active participation, encouraging community members to immerse themselves in the space. Additionally, Soft Civic served as a vibrant venue for various community-driven events centered around significant themes such as democracy and leadership. Netscape By Oyler Wu Collaborative, Los Angeles, California Netscape, which consists of 45,000 linear feet of knitted rope, 6000 linear feet of tube steel, and 3000 square feet of fabric shade louvers, creates a sail-like canopy of rope and fabric that floats above the audience. It used a double layer of netting in varying configurations to form a three-dimensional field of billowing shade louvers. Based on a conventional knitting technique, similar to that used in making a sweater, the pavilion exploits the malleability of this method as it stretches to conform to the three-dimensional shape of the structure. The Rope Factory By icecream architecture, Glasgow, United Kingdom The Rope Factory was a large, three-day installation in the heart of Glasgow, installed in 2013. The concept behind our submission was to utilise different colours of rope to represent the different countries of the Commonwealth. This installation will be located on Brunswick Street in Glasgow’s Merchant City. The precursor to the event was a series of activities that brought local communities together to share stories and weave a net from rope. PlayDome Bristol By Arc2 architecten, Bristol, United Kingdom PlayDome was an installation that contained jungle bridges, net tunnels, rope ladders, slides and lianas for Hengrove Playpark in Bristol, UK. Built in 2002, The geodesic dome, diameter 25 metres, is constructed of Azobé hardwood timbers. Beneath the dome, children can safely indulge in vigorous play activities such as climbing, running and sliding. The Floating Island By OBBA, Bruges, Belgium The Floating Island, designed in 2018 and installed as part of Triennale Brugge 2018, is situated near the canal. The pavilion takes on a long, streamlined shape that floats on the water and guides people to the water’s edge. It consists of pontoons on the water, metal frames, deck plates, metal pillars, upper metal rails connecting the pillars, and rope curtains embracing the rails. The rope curtains and their shadows create ambiguous spaces that seem to be both open and closed at the same time. Additionally, the curtains and shadows react to the light and wind, blurring boundaries, repeatedly opening and closing visitors’ views, and refreshing familiar landscapes. Architizer’s Vision Awards are back! The global awards program honors the world’s best architectural concepts, ideas and imagery. Submit your work ahead of the Main Entry deadline on June 6th! The post Knot Your Average Playground: How Rope Became Urban Design’s New Thread appeared first on Journal. #knot #your #average #playground #how

In 2025, one interior design trend is standing out not just for its visual appeal, but for the sense of peace and purpose it brings into the home: Zen Japanese Interior Design. As our lives become increasingly busy and digitized, people are seeking refuge in spaces that calm the mind, soothe the senses, and promote intentional living. Zen Japanese design, rooted in centuries-old traditions of simplicity, nature integration, and mindfulness, offers a lifestyle as much as an aesthetic. This design philosophy embraces natural materials, neutral tones, open spaces, and a “less is more” approach to decorating. In the following sections, we explore 20 compelling reasons why this design approach is not only trending, but transforming how people live, feel, and connect within their homes. 1. Minimalism with Warmth Image Source: Home Designing Unlike the often sterile vibe of Western minimalism, Zen Japanese Interior Design offers a softer, more livable approach to minimalism. It eliminates excess without sacrificing comfort. Natural materials, earthy colors, and soft lighting bring warmth and depth to a room. To apply this, consider removing overly decorative items and replacing them with one or two handcrafted pieces. Use neutral wall paint, avoid over-accessorizing, and integrate simple wooden or ceramic items that serve both aesthetic and practical purposes. This way, your space feels minimal yet full of life and intention. 2. Open and Airy Layouts Image Source: Lena Monroe Zen design principles emphasize the importance of spatial flow and openness. In 2025, many homes are shifting toward open-concept layouts that prioritize movement and air circulation. Zen Japanese Interior Design naturally fits into this evolution, as it values unobstructed spaces that feel light and breathable. To recreate this in your home, start by removing unnecessary partitions or bulky furniture that blocks light.  Use low-profile furniture like floor cushions and coffee tables, and leave walkways clear. Mirrors can help reflect light and make a space feel larger. Consider using light-colored rugs or tatami mats to define areas without cluttering them. 3. Seamless Connection with Nature Image Source: Awedeco Zen Japanese Interior Design deeply values harmony with the natural world. This is achieved through the thoughtful use of materials like bamboo, raw wood, stone, and linen, and through the incorporation of natural light and indoor greenery. In today’s urban environments, where daily interaction with nature is limited, this style helps bridge that gap.  Practically, you can bring nature inside with potted plants like bonsai, ferns, or snake plants. Use furniture made of raw or reclaimed wood, and keep windows uncovered or lightly draped to allow in natural light. Consider installing a small indoor water feature or pebble tray to evoke the soothing sounds and visuals of nature. 4. Soft, Neutral Color Palettes Image Source: Amelia Hallsworth In 2025, bold colors and loud patterns are giving way to the calming embrace of neutral tones. Zen Japanese Interior Design uses a soft, harmonious color palette to create tranquil environments that soothe the senses. Practically speaking, you can adopt this by repainting your walls in shades like ivory, warm beige, or muted gray.  Use textiles such as taupe curtains, off-white bedding, and linen or cotton throws in subdued colors. Avoid glossy or flashy finishes, and opt instead for matte textures and natural surfaces. Even your choice of art should reflect this palette, consider watercolor prints, minimalist ink paintings, or pressed botanical artwork. 5. Shoji Screens and Tatami Mats Image Source: J-Life International Traditional Japanese architectural elements like shoji screens and tatami mats add more than aesthetic charm, they contribute to the function and feel of a space. Shoji screens, often made of wood and rice paper, allow for light diffusion and flexible space separation.  Tatami mats, made from woven straw, provide comfort underfoot and a grounding connection to the earth. To use them in your home, consider replacing doors with sliding panels or using freestanding shoji screens to section off areas. Add tatami mats in reading corners or bedrooms. These features are not just culturally rich, they are practical, lightweight, and perfect for minimalist homes. 6. Understand the Significance of Lighting Image Source: Home Designing Lighting plays a key role in Zen Japanese Interior Design. The goal is to create soft, ambient lighting that promotes relaxation and presence. Instead of harsh overhead lights, use paper lanterns, floor lamps with linen shades, and wall sconces that diffuse warm light.  Natural light should be maximized during the day with sheer curtains or bamboo blinds. At night, use dimmable bulbs and indirect lighting to maintain a peaceful atmosphere. You can even incorporate candles or LED lights that mimic candlelight for added tranquility. The right lighting enhances the minimalist aesthetic and helps shift the mood of your space from stimulating to serene. 7. Select Furniture with Sleek Lines Image Source: Decorilla Furniture in Zen Japanese Interior Design is known for its clean, understated lines and low-profile form. Pieces are designed to blend seamlessly into the space rather than dominate it. To incorporate this, look for sofas, chairs, and tables with simple shapes and minimal ornamentation.  Avoid bulky, ornate furniture in favor of pieces with natural wood finishes or light upholstery in neutral tones. Low seating options like floor cushions or platform beds help foster a closer connection to the earth, which is central to the Zen philosophy. Functional and modest, this furniture style supports a clutter-free and peaceful environment. 8. Sustainable & Vintage-Inspired Elements Image Source: Ana Maria Design Sustainability continues to be a major influence on interior design trends in 2025. Zen Japanese interiors naturally align with this ethos by emphasizing longevity and craftsmanship. Integrating vintage or second-hand pieces not only reduces waste but also adds character and soul to your space.  Look for refurbished wooden benches, antique chests, or heirloom ceramics that match your neutral palette. Choose furniture made from sustainable sources like bamboo, rattan, or reclaimed wood. Mixing the old with the eco-friendly gives your home depth without disrupting its serene essence. 9. Keep Technology Discreet Image Source: Decorilla In 2025, technology is everywhere, but Zen Japanese Interior Design encourages us to keep it behind the scenes. Visible wires, bulky electronics, and flashing lights disrupt the calming ambiance. Instead, look for minimalist tech solutions: Bluetooth speakers that double as art pieces, wall-mounted televisions that disappear into a panel, or hidden cable systems for desks and entertainment areas. Keep smart home devices tucked away or integrated into natural materials. This approach helps your space maintain its serene look while offering all the functionality of a modern home. 10. Embrace Asymmetry and Irregularity Image Source: Decorilla Zen Japanese Interior Design values asymmetry and irregularity as part of its wabi-sabi philosophy. This aesthetic finds beauty in imperfection and avoids forced symmetry. You can integrate this by selecting decor and arrangements that aren’t perfectly aligned or balanced.  Try placing an uneven group of vases on a table, using mismatched ceramic cups, or hanging art slightly off-center to create visual interest. Asymmetry brings a natural and relaxed feel, mirroring the way things appear in nature. In 2025, when overly curated and symmetrical spaces can feel artificial, embracing irregularity offers a refreshing and humanizing touch to interiors. 11. Textured Surfaces for Depth and Warmth Image Source: Vogue Texture plays a significant role in making Zen-inspired spaces feel welcoming and layered. Instead of relying on color or pattern, use texture to create visual and tactile richness. You can achieve this through woven textiles, rough plaster walls, untreated wood furniture, and handmade pottery.  Choose fabrics like linen, cotton, or wool, and incorporate elements such as tatami mats, rattan baskets, or bamboo panels. Mixing these textures subtly ensures a space that feels natural and inviting without appearing busy. 12. Use Water Features for Serenity Image Source: Japandidecor Incorporating water into your Zen-inspired home enhances tranquility and introduces a meditative sensory element. Water is symbolic of renewal and purity in Japanese design. Practical ways to include water features include tabletop fountains, indoor ponds, or stone water basins in entryways or gardens. The sound of flowing water masks background noise and promotes relaxation. Choose minimalist designs that blend with your decor, using natural materials like stone or ceramic. In compact apartments, even a small fountain on a shelf can have a calming effect. 13. Create a Zen Meditation Space Image Source: Indonesiandesign In 2025, many people are seeking ways to integrate wellness into their daily routines. A dedicated Zen meditation space is a practical and transformative addition to your home. Start by selecting a quiet corner with natural light. Add a tatami mat or meditation cushion, a low wooden table for incense or a small sculpture, and soft lighting.  Keep the area free of distractions and visual clutter. Include calming elements like a plant, a stone bowl, or a small bamboo fountain. This minimal setup supports regular mindfulness practice and encourages stillness, making your home a place for both rest and self-discovery. 14. Simple and Functional Storage Solutions Image Source: Making a Green Life By Lily Storage in Zen Japanese Interior Design is subtle, seamless, and always purposeful. Clutter disrupts the flow and calm of a room, so the goal is to keep belongings hidden but accessible. Choose furniture with built-in storage like benches, low cabinets, or under-bed drawers.  Use natural materials such as wood or rattan for storage baskets, and avoid plastic or overly decorative containers. Labeling or color-coding isn’t necessary; simplicity is key. Shoji-style closets or sliding doors are ideal for small spaces, and folding screens can conceal shelves or workspaces. 15. Incorporate Japanese Art and Calligraphy Image Source: Lena Monroe Art in Zen Japanese Interior Design is minimal, meaningful, and often steeped in cultural heritage. Japanese calligraphyor sumi-e ink paintings are perfect for bringing intentional beauty into your space. Choose one or two pieces that resonate with a personal value or emotional message.  You can display them in entryways, meditation areas, or above low furniture like benches or consoles. Use traditional hanging scrolls or frame them with natural wood for authenticity. This form of art adds a cultural and spiritual layer to your interiors, reminding you to embrace simplicity, grace, and mindfulness in your daily life. Final Thoughts: Bringing Zen into Your Home Zen Japanese Interior Design is more than an aesthetic, it’s a way of living that brings clarity, calm, and connection into our everyday environments. In today’s fast-paced world, designing a home isn’t just about choosing furniture or color palettes; it’s about creating a space that supports your well-being, reflects your values, and enhances your lifestyle. Home Designing is dedicated to making design both inspiring and accessible. Our platform shares ideas that help you visualize your space, discover new products, and turn inspiration into action, making it easier to create a home that truly reflects you. #zen #japanese #interior #design #why

On a week like this, it’s hard not to feel like you’re living in dueling realities. On one side, you’ve got the futuristic vision Google is telling you about at its annual developer event, Google I/O. The company waxed on for nearly two hours about how its Gemini generative AI assistant will help provide even more complex answers from the web, make purchases and complete bookings on your behalf, and generally just do all the Gemini stuff it does now faster and better.If you believe what these companies are saying, we’re living in an era where artificial intelligence is always on the brink of a life-changing breakthrough. What’s especially wild is that none of this is even that big of a leap from what these same sorts of systems have already been promising and the way they’ve been framed for months — for casual individual use, sure, and also for serious company business. And that, my friend, is an ever-increasing liability for anyone who still cares about getting things right.Behind the generative AI curtains Let’s back up for a second and talk about what all of these generative AI tools actually are — and aren’t. The real issue here isn’t that this type of technology isn’t in any way valid or useful — far from it. It’s just that it isn’t designed to do or currently even capable of doing what nearly every tech company out there is breathlessly telling us it can handle in our personal and professional lives. At their core, Gemini, ChatGPT, and other such systems are powered by a type of technology known as a large language model — or LLM, for short. In the simplest possible terms, an LLM looks at massive amounts of real-world language data and then uses that to learn patterns and predict the most likely next word over and over, in response to any prompt it’s given. In other words, these engines don’t truly understand context or “think” about the answers they’re giving you in any human-like sense. They merely predict words, based on patterns observed in sprawling sets of human-created data, and then string those words together to form sentences and, eventually, entire paragraphs and documents whenever they’re summoned and given a task. Somehow, that’s translated into tech companies plastering them into every possible place and presenting them as the end-all answers for every possible purpose — everything from replacements for search to replacements for writing in Gmail, Google Docs, and other such places.And we don’t need to rely on theoretical examples to see just how dangerous of a situation this can create. Artificial intelligence, genuine jeopardy The reality of these systems’ limitations has been showing itself time and time again for quite a while now, in scenarios that are all too real and should serve as a serious wake-up call for any company — or even individual — buying into the hype. Plain and simple, these things don’t know what they’re saying. They string together characters that sometimes make sense but are also extremely likely to include errors and often even flat-out fabricated nonsense. When they do get something right, it’s mostly just by chance. And you, as the user, have no way of immediately detecting the difference. For instance, across the broader genAI landscape — with the exact same foundational limitations affecting Gemini and all these other similar systems: Just last week, Anthropic — the company behind the business-popular genAI chatbot Claude — had to apologize in court after learning its system completely made up a legal citation the company’s lawyer used as part of an ongoing copyright case.Days earlier, a California judge discovered “numerous false, inaccurate, and misleading legal citations and quotations” in a submitted brief apparently created with the aid of AI. Last month, a company relying on an AI “support agent” was forced to apologize when it learned said agent was making up nonexistent policies while interacting with customers. In an experiment, Carnegie Mellon University created a simulation in which AI agents were tasked with handling low-level chores at a realistically structured software company — performing the same sorts of feats at which these systems are promised to be proficient. They failed miserably. In the oft-cited area of genAI coding expertise, researchers are finding case after case where the systems invent package names that don’t exist and lead to all sorts of time- and money-wasting errors — not to mention troubling security vulnerabilities. The Columbia Journalism Review tested eight different genAI search engines and found they got all sorts of information wildly wrong — offering incorrect and fabricated info and even nonexistent citations — and, worse yet, they served up those inaccuracies with an astonishing amount of confidence. Lest you think this is an artifact of long-dated early versions of these engines, the instances above are all from the past few months.Worse, as reported in The New York Times earlier this month, the act of “AI hallucination” — a fancy euphemism for “their tendency to serve up lies and inaccuracies” — only seems to be getting worse as the systems get more powerful. Yet somehow, hardly anyone seems to be taking notice — or letting that reality get in the way of the much more enticing vision the tech industry is desperate to sell us. Just this week, a new report revealed that a whopping half of tech execs expect these very same sorts of error-prone AI agents to function autonomously in their companies within the next two years — which, translated out of corporate geek-speak, essentially means they’ll be replacing human workers and operating with little to no supervision. Crikey. How long will it take for everyone to wake up? Time for a generative AI reset Google and all the other companies behind these tools — along with the corporate number-crunchers, clout-chasing LinkedIn bros, and mainstream media outlets blindly buying into the hype — like to pretend that all the stuff we just went over somehow isn’t a serious and immediately disqualifying issue for these systems. But no matter what sorts of impressive demos and over-the-top marketing materials they sling at us, the reality here in the real world is that these large-language model chatbots simply aren’t reliable when it comes to providing accurate answers and information. So, sure:  They’re incredibly handy as “legal advisors” — until you realize how the technology actually works and how likely it is toget information wildly wrong andflat-out make up facts along the way. They’re fantastic as “search engines” — until it dawns on you that 20% of what they tell you is likely to be inaccurate. And they’re wonderfully useful as “coding assistants” and “customer service agents” — if you conveniently look past the constant instances of them screwing stuff up and costing you business. What’s especially troubling is the justification that these generative AI helpers are at least getting better and growing less likely to get stuff wrong. Even if you set aside the aforementioned data challenging that notion, a system getting something wrong 5%, 10%, or even 20% of the time is arguably worse than one that gets stuff wrong half the time. Think about it: If something’s wrong constantly, people are at least likely to notice and realize that it’s useless as an info-providing tool. But when it’s wrong only once or twice out of every 10 or 20 uses, it’s especially dangerous — as users will be lulled into a false sense of security and less likely to be watching for those errors. Now, again, all of this isn’t to say these genAI systems aren’t at all useful or worth using. They can be quite helpful — if you think of them in the right way. The problem is mostly that that reality doesn’t align with the much broader vision that tech companies are trying to peddle. But if you think of these systems as narrowly limited starting points for certain types of specific tasks, they can actually save you time and make your life easier. With that in mind: No, Gemini and other such generative AI services aren’t instant answer engines, nor are they digital lawyers or even coders. But they can be useful note-takers and info-organizers. They can be quite helpful as image analyzers and manipulators. They can work wonders when it comes to creating polished presentations without all the usual effort, too — or creating calendar events without the typical clunkiness. They can even be valuable brainstorming partners, in a sense, or deep-dive research assistants. But, critically, it’s up to you to think about how you’re using ’em and to treat their offerings as simple starting points — ways to save you the early steps of seeking out sources and stumbling onto ideas as opposed to a single-step replacement for critical human thinking. At the end of the day, one lucky instance doesn’t discount the very real and completely unpredictable risk of random fabrications and inaccuracies. And, clearly, it’s entirely on us to use these tools wisely and take ’em for what they are: word prediction engines that can be helpful in certain limited, specific scenarios — not the all-purpose magic answer machines some companies desperately want them to be. Ready for more no-nonsense Googley insights? Join my free Android Intelligence newsletter to cut through the hype and get plain-English perspective on the news that matters. #great #google #gemini #deceit