As AI reshapes language, even the human voice becomes a pattern to be predicted, not a meaning to be ... More understood.getty Language is the foundation of business, culture, and consciousness. But AI isn’t just using our words—it’s reshaping them. Quietly, subtly, it’s dismantling the architecture of thought by eroding what we used to think: nouns. We used to believe that naming something gave it power. Giving a thing a noun means tethering it to meaning, identity, and memory. But in the age of AI, nouns are dissolving—not banned, not erased—but rendered functionally obsolete. And with them, our grasp on reality is starting to fray. AI and the Architecture of Thought AI doesn’t see the world in things. It sees the world in patterns—actions, probabilities, and prompts. A chair is no longer an object; it’s “something to sit on.” A self is no longer an identity; it’s “a collection of behaviors and preferences.” Even brands, once nouns wrapped in mythology, are being reconstituted as verbs. You don’t have a brand. You do a brand. This linguistic shift isn’t neutral. It’s a collapse of conceptual anchors. In generative systems, nouns aren’t centers of gravity. They’re scaffolding for action. This reflects a broader trend in how generative AI is reshaping communication across every industry. Recent research supports this trend. A study titled Playing with Words: Comparing the Vocabulary and Lexical Richness of ChatGPT and Humans found that ChatGPT’s outputs exhibit significantly lower lexical diversity than human writing. In particular, nouns and specific, stylistic words are often underused, suggesting that generative systems prioritize predictable, commonly used language while deprioritizing less frequent terms. Further analysis of 14 million PubMed abstracts revealed a measurable shift in word frequency post-AI adoption. Words like “delves” and “showcasing” surged, while others faded—showing that large language models are already reshaping vocabulary patterns at scale. Sound familiar? It should. AI’s Philosophical Ancestors: Orwell, Huxley, and the Future They Warned Us About To understand their relevance, it helps to recall what George Orwell and Aldous Huxley are most famous for. Orwell authored 1984, a bleak vision of the future where an authoritarian regime weaponizes language to suppress independent thought and rewrite history. His concept of Newspeak—a restricted, simplified language designed to make dissent unthinkable—has become a cultural shorthand for manipulative control. On the other hand, Huxley wrote Brave New World, which envisioned a society not characterized by overt oppression, but rather by engineered pleasure, distraction, and passive conformity. In his world, people are conditioned into compliance not through violence but through comfort, entertainment, and chemical sedation. Both men anticipated futures in which language and meaning are compromised, but in radically different ways. Together, they map the two poles of how reality can be reconditioned: by force or indulgence. Few realize that George Orwell was once a student of Aldous Huxley. In the late 1910s, while Orwellstudied at Eton, Huxley taught him French. Their relationship was brief but prophetic. Decades later, each would author the defining visions of dystopia—1984 and Brave New World. After reading 1984, Huxley wrote to Orwell with a haunting message: Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful… The future will be controlled by inflicting pleasure, not pain. And that’s precisely where we are now. Orwell feared control through surveillance and terror. Huxley feared control through indulgence and distraction. Generative AI, cloaked in helpfulness, embodies both. It doesn’t censor. It seduces. It doesn’t need Newspeak to delete ideas. It replaces them with prediction. In 1984, language was weaponized by force. In our world, it’s being reshaped by suggestion. What we have is not Artificial Intelligence—it’s Artificial Inference: trained not to understand but to remix, not to reason but to simulate. And this simulation brings us to a more profound loss: intersubjectivity. AI and the Loss of Intersubjectivity Humans learn, grow, and build reality through intersubjectivity—the shared context that gives language its weight. It allows us to share meaning, to agree on what a word represents, and to build mutual understanding through shared experiences. Without it, words float. AI doesn’t participate in intersubjectivity. It doesn’t share meaning—it predicts output. And yet, when someone asks an AI a question, they often believe the answer reflects their framing. It doesn’t. It reflects the average of averages, the statistical ghost of comprehension. The illusion of understanding is precise, polite, and utterly hollow. This is how AI reconditions reality at scale—not by force, but by imitation. The result? A slow, silent attrition of originality. Nouns lose their edges. Ideas lose their anchors. Authorship bleeds into prompting. And truth becomes whatever the model says most often. AI and Accountability: A Case Study in Trust and Miscommunication In one recent public example, Air Canada deployed an AI-powered chatbot to handle customer service inquiries. When a customer asked about bereavement fare discounts, the chatbot confidently invented a policy that didn’t exist. The airline initially tried to avoid responsibility, but the court disagreed. In February 2024, a tribunal ruled that Air Canada was liable for the misinformation provided by its chatbot. This wasn’t just a technical glitch—it was a trust failure. The AI-generated text sounded plausible, helpful, and human, but it lacked grounding in policy, context, or shared understanding. In effect, the airline’s brand spoke out of both sides of its mouth and cost them. This is the risk when language is generated without intersubjectivity, oversight, or friction. The Linguistic Drift of AI: What the Data Tells Us About Language Decay It’s not just theory—research is now quantifying how generative AI systems are shifting the landscape of language itself. A study titled Playing with Words: Comparing the Vocabulary and Lexical Richness of ChatGPT and Humans found that AI-generated outputs consistently use a narrower vocabulary, with significantly fewer nouns and stylistic words than human writing. Building on this, an analysis of over 14 million PubMed abstracts revealed measurable shifts in word frequency following the rise of LLM use. While many precise, technical nouns faded, terms like “delves” and “showcasing” surged. The shift is not random; it’s a statistically driven flattening of language, where standard, action-oriented, or stylistic terms are promoted, and specificity is sidelined. Some researchers link this to a broader problem known as “model collapse.” As AI models are increasingly trained on synthetic data, including their outputs, they may degrade over time. This leads to a feedback loop where less diverse, less semantically rich language becomes the norm. The result is a measurable reduction in lexical, syntactic, and semantic diversity—the very fabric of meaning and precision. The implications are vast. If AI systems are deprioritizing nouns at scale, then the structures we use to hold ideas—people, places, identities, and concepts—are being eroded. In real time, we are watching the grammatical infrastructure of human thought being reweighted by machines that do not think. What AI’s Language Shift Means for Brands and Business Strategy The erosion of language precision has significant implications for businesses, particularly those that rely on storytelling, branding, and effective communication. Brands are built on narrative consistency, anchored by nouns, identities, and associations that accumulate cultural weight over time. However, as AI systems normalize probabilistic language and predictive phrasing, even brand voice becomes a casualty of convergence. Differentiation erodes—messaging blurs. Trust becomes more complicated to earn and more uncomplicated to mimic. As this Forbes piece outlines, there are serious reasons why brands must be cautious with generative AI when it comes to preserving authenticity and voice. Moreover, AI-powered content platforms optimize for engagement, not meaning. Businesses relying on LLMs to generate customer-facing content risk flattening their uniqueness in favor of what’s statistically safe. Without human oversight, brand language may drift toward the generic, the probable, and the forgettable. How To Safeguard Meaning in the Age of AI Resist the flattening. Businesses and individuals alike must reclaim intentionality in language. Here’s how—and why it matters: If you don’t define your brand voice, AI will average it. If you don’t protect the language of your contracts, AI will remix it. If you don’t curate your culture, AI will feed it back to you—statistically safe but spiritually hollow. Double down on human authorship: Don’t outsource your voice to a model. Use AI for augmentation, not substitution. Protect linguistic originality: Encourage specificity, metaphor, and vocabulary diversity in your communication. Nouns matter. Audit your outputs: Periodically review AI-generated materials. Look for signs of drift—has your language lost its edge? Invest in language guardianship: Treat your brand’s lexicon like intellectual property. Define it. Defend it. Champion intersubjectivity: Allow shared context in both personal and professional communication. AI can simulate, but only humans can mean. The Necessity of Friction: Why Human Involvement Must Temper AI Friction isn’t a flaw in human systems—it’s a feature. It’s where meaning is made, thought is tested, and creativity wrestles with uncertainty. Automation is a powerful economic accelerant, but without deliberate pauses—without a human in the loop—we risk stripping away the qualities that make us human. Language is one of those qualities. Every hesitation, nuance, and word choice reflects cognition, culture, and care. Remove the friction, and you remove the humanity. AI can offer speed, fluency, and pattern-matching, but it can’t provide presence, and presence is where meaning lives. AI’s Closing Refrain: A Call to Remember Meaning Emily M. Bender, a professor of computational linguistics at the University of Washington, has emerged as one of the most principled and prescient critics of large language models. In her now-famous co-authored paper, "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots," she argues that these systems don’t understand language—they merely remix it. They are, in her words, “stochastic parrots”: machines that generate plausible-sounding language without comprehension or intent. Yet we’re letting those parrots draft our emails, write our ads, and even shape our laws. We’re allowing models trained on approximations to become arbiters of communication, culture, and identity. This is not language—it’s mimicry at scale. And mimicry, unchecked, becomes a distortion. When AI outputs are mistaken for understanding, the baseline of meaning erodes. The problem isn’t just that AI might be wrong. It’s that it sounds so right, we stop questioning it. In the name of optimization, we risk erasing the texture of human communication. Our metaphors, our double meanings, our moments of productive ambiguity—these are what make language alive. Remove that, and a stream of consensus-safe, risk-averse echo remains. Functional? Yes. Meaningful? Not really. The stakes aren’t just literary—they’re existential. If language is the connective tissue between thought and reality, and if that tissue is replaced with statistical scaffolding, thinking becomes outsourced. Once sharpened by friction, our voices become blurred in a sea of plausible phrasings. Without intersubjectivity, friction, or nouns, we are scripting ourselves out of the story, one autocomplete at a time We are not being silenced. We are being auto-completed. And the most dangerous part? We asked for it. Before we ask what AI can say next, we should ask: What has already gone unsaid? In this quiet war, we don’t lose language all at once. We lose it word by word—until we forget we ever had something to say. I asked brand strategist and storyteller Michelle Garside, whose work spans billion-dollar brands and purpose-driven founders, to share her perspective on what’s at risk as automation flattened language. Her response was both precise and profound: If language is being flattened, we need more people doing the opposite: excavating. Listening for what’s buried beneath the noise. Uncovering the phrase that unlocks the person. That’s not a prompt—it’s a process. And it’s a deeply human one. When someone says something that lands—not because it sounds good, but because it’s true. You can see it in their body. You can feel it in the silence that follows. No algorithm can replicate that because that moment isn’t statistical. It’s sacred. The risk isn’t just that AI will get things wrong. It’s that it will sound just right enough to stop us from looking deeper. To stop us from asking what’s real. To stop us from finding the words only we could say. We don’t need more words. We need more meaning. And meaning isn’t generated. It’s remembered. When it comes to language and AI, that’s the line to carry forward—not just because it sounds good, but because it’s true. #rewriting #reality #one #word #time

Figma announced 'Sites' at Config 2025, which lets users create simple static websites from designs. Imagine a website generator like Framer or Webflow, but embedded inside Figma.The buzz is serious. Sites could become the de facto tool for quick marketing campaigns or small personal websites. But what if you need Sites to integrate with your existing design systems, custom components, and production code?Figma SitesFigma Sites is a visual developer tool similar to Webflow or Framer. It's focused on letting designers build websites without coding or leaving Figma.Its greatest strength is its integration with the Figma ecosystem. For designers already comfortable with the platform, Sites offers a path to deploy a design as a live website quickly.Easy interactivity and AI-enhanced codeFigma Sites includes numerous presets for everyday website interactions and effects. For instance, you can add a hover effect to a button or a typewriter effect to a text block.A future version of Sites will also include an AI tool for generating code.Responsive design and hands-off infrastructureFigma Sites can also display your design in desktop, tablet, and mobile layouts side by side. The preview versionand the published version are both fully responsive websites.Press the Publish button in the top-left corner once you’re ready to deploy the design into a working website. After some quick validations, Figma Sites will deploy your project to a generated URL. For a fee, you can wire up a custom domain.Coming soon: CMS and Code LayersRight now, Figma Sites translates your design into HTML and CSS. The team's future improvement, "Code Layers,” will take a user prompt and transform it into React and Tailwind CSS.Another future improvement is a CMS feature inside Figma Sites. This would allow users to manage their website content more efficiently. The idea of a fully integrated design-to-publish tool with an internal CMS is very appealing.Going from Figma to website to complete applicationSimple site builders are great for getting something online, but aren’t great at creating fully integrated applications that mesh with an existing codebase. This is a familiar problem.The challenge lies in moving beyond a static page built with HTML and CSS. What happens if you need this new site to use the Next.js framework and the App Router patterns that your team has adopted? Can you leverage your company's custom components? Is there a way to add complex user interactions? These limitations become significant hurdles for any product beyond a basic landing page or marketing campaign.Visual Editor: stepping beyond simple sitesBuilder.io's Visual Editor satisfies this larger need. Figma Sites gets you something fast without ever leaving the Figma ecosystem. Visual Editor gets you something nearly as fast, but it connects designs directly to your production codebase on one canvas.The core idea is different. Visual Editor is for feature-rich applications where your existing production codebase and design systems are first-class citizens.Figma Sites was engineered to transform a Figma design into a static site using no third-party tools and the most minimal toolchain possible. Visual Editor was engineered to transform designs into production applications at the enterprise scale:Figma-like precisionVisual Editor gives you a familiar, precise visual editing experience, but you're building interactive applications, not just static mockups. Use prompts to generate UI, then fine-tune it visually. The output isn't just a picture; it's code that works.Solving handoffsImport Figma designs with a click, and Builder translates them into interactive code using your component library. The CLI deeply integrates with your specific framework and codebase patterns, generating clean, maintainable code that developers want to work with. It respects your tech stack.On-brand generation, every timeStop worrying about brand drift. Because Builder understands your codebase, it uses your actual design system context—your colors, typography, spacing, and components—automatically ensuring everything generated is consistent and on-brand. No more manual checking.Dual workflowsBuilder offers flexibility. Developers can use it to build new UIs that integrate directly with application code. Marketers or designers can use the 'Publish' workflow to create and update content visually using pre-built components, without needing a developer or a new deployment. This addresses the content bottleneck, too.Smashing workflow silosVisual Editor provides a unified canvas for design, development, and content updates. It fits into existing developer workflowsrather than trying to replace them, enabling better collaboration across the entire digital team.Getting started with Visual EditorReady to see the difference? You can try Visual Editor and experience how it connects to a real codebase.Open the Visual Copilot Figma plugin. Install it from the Figma Community if you haven't already.Select a layer or design in your Figma file that you want to bring into Builder.io.Click the "Export Design" button within the plugin.Click the "View Code in Builder" button. This will open your design directly in the Builder.io Visual Editor.Enhance in the Visual Editor: Use AI prompts or manual controls to add interactivity, connect data, or refine the design within Builder.Generate code with the CLI: Copy the provided CLI command from Builder.io and run it in your local project's terminal. The CLI will analyze your codebase and generate the integrated, production-ready code components.The best way to understand the power of Visual Editor is to experience how it generates code that uses your components and fits your workflow.ConclusionFigma Sites is a big step forward for Figma. If you already work with the platform, you get all your favorite Figma features and a near-frictionless path to simple, real websites.Sites fills an essential market need. But you might find the tool underpowered if your team faces the challenges of integrating designs with a complex codebase, maintaining brand consistency across an extensive application, or enabling collaboration between large, diverse teams. In those cases, Builder's Visual Editor is the enterprise-grade solution. It provides a robust, integrated visual development environment that respects your code and scales with your product.Further reading Introducing Visual Copilot: convert Figma designs to high quality code in a single click.Try Visual CopilotGet a demo #figma #sites #builtin #website #tool

In an industry where typefaces are designed to be used by thousands, a radical new concept has emerged that turns conventional type distribution on its head. David Březina, managing director at Rosetta Type, has created a typographic experiment called Only Yours: a typeface system that generates unique variants available exclusively to individual customers. The premise is brilliantly simple yet revolutionary: nine new variants of the typeface are released every day. Once purchased, a variant is permanently removed from circulation, ensuring that no one else will ever own that specific design. "The idea for a typeface that would be different for each customer has been on my mind for a few years," explains David. "According to surveys, most designers do not know how to use OpenType features and hence letter alternates. I'd been working on a still-unreleased typeface called Sacco, and at some point, it was so easy to create more and more letter alternates that it seemed like a shame to keep them tucked away somewhere in the font where no one would look." This observation sparked a more profound question: what if instead of hiding alternates within a font's features, the alternates themselves became the foundation for entirely unique typeface variants? Inspired by Dylan The concept lay dormant, though, until a surprising moment of inspiration. "I sat on it for a few years," recalls David. "The project seemed intimidating in scope, and I didn't really see a good reason to do it. "Then I went to see Bob Dylan, who's known for constantly rewriting his songs, in concert. It occurred to me that having so many perceivably different variants would bring more authenticity to the users. They could each have a unique font, in the same way concert-goers can attend a unique performance." This parallel between the legendary musician's ever-evolving performances and the notion of typographic uniqueness crystallised the concept. What began as design work in December 2025 led to a soft launch at the Automatic Type Design conference in Nancy, France, in February 2025. Science behind the system Only Yours isn't merely a stylistic exercise; it's grounded in David's PhD research on letter similarity perception. "I studied how they are clearly different, yet, in a well-designed font, they also look visually coherent," he explains. Technical implementation is where things become fascinatingly complex. Rather than designing alternative letters, David took a more fundamental approach. "Similarity perception is explained in terms of distinctive visual features that are shared by some of the letters, but not necessarily all of them," he explains. "More shared features mean stronger perceived similarity between the letters. It occurred to me that I could hack into this system and design alternates, not for the letters as we're used to from contemporary fonts, but for the individual features." While keeping some aspects of the generation process proprietary, David confirms that this feature-based approach allows for remarkable diversity while maintaining design coherence. "Using a reverse-contrast design remotely related to Antique Olive also helped to incorporate some rectangular elements more easily. The coherence does not need to be perfect, after all. Some of my favourite variants come from unexpected violations of the overall coherence." Scarcity as a feature, not a bug In an era of unlimited digital reproduction, Only Yours deliberately introduces scarcity. With over a million variants, the decision to release just nine per day transforms typography selection into something akin to a daily treasure hunt. "We didn't want to design a system for users to pick and choose," David notes. "The value of the project is not in providing all the options. It is in exclusivity. "Originally, I wanted the variant to be chosen randomly for the customers," he added. "But that did not seem right, so we settled on a compromise: offering nine new variants every day, which also turns it into a game. They're never shown again, so if you like one, you better get it." This approach creates a fascinating tension between the digital nature of typefaces and the artificial scarcity that makes each variant valuable. Once a customer purchases a weight from a variant, all weights within that variant become exclusive to them, preventing anyone else from fragmenting their unique typographic identity. Redefining typographic identity When sharing his concept with fellow designers before launch, David received some scepticism. "When I tried to discuss this idea with some friends, graphic designers, in November, they told me that it would be 'totally useless for branding'," he recalls with amusement. I disagree: since every variant is exclusive, it is perfect for branding!" Far from being an obstacle to professional use, the consistency within each variant across weights ensures practical usability while maintaining uniqueness. "Each variant of Only Yours is consistent across multiple weights, so it should work just fine in professional contexts," he asserts. The potential applications extend beyond individual designers. "Creating unique experiences in branding is not new. There is Freitag with their bags, each original, or even Coca-Cola with their named cans, which is a step in that direction," David points out. "Perhaps Only Yours could make it easier in some cases. We could, theoretically, generate thousands of unique variants for someone to licence as a bulk. Or a magazine could get a new variant for each issue." Looking to the future: Softly Yours Building on the success of Only Yours, Rosetta Type has already announced plans for Softly Yours, a rounded version using the same generative framework. "We set the price quite affordable to be more flexible," David adds. "We do have customers who already purchased multiple variants." Overall, this project represents a fascinating intersection of typographic design, computational creativity and exclusivity marketing. In a world increasingly concerned with digital ownership and authenticity, Rosetta Type has created something that feels almost paradoxical: a digital asset that can't be perfectly duplicated. For graphic designers and branding specialists, Rosetta Type offers something truly novel: the guarantee that your typographic voice won't be inadvertently duplicated by competitors. In an industry constantly searching for uniqueness, David has engineered it directly into the fabric of his typeface. As the nine variants change daily and customers claim their exclusive pieces of typographic history, Only Yours and Softly Yours aren't just new fonts. They represent a new relationship between designers and their tools, where scarcity, exclusivity and personal connection have been reintroduced to the digital realm. #only #yours #bold #new #approach

A team led by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago and UC Davis has developed a method to 3D bioprint tissue-specific, high cell-density bioinks capable of forming complex multiphase constructs. Published in Materials Today, the study introduces a platform that combines individual or aggregate-based stem cell bioinks with localized growth factor delivery, offering precise control over spatial differentiation and tissue development. Using a shear-thinning, photocrosslinkable alginate microgel supporting bath, the research team successfully printed structures with high shape fidelity and tunable degradation. These constructs enable self-assembly through cellular condensation and localized differentiation into distinct tissues such as cartilage and bone. After four weeks of culture, the bioprinted structures maintained their original geometry and exhibited clear phase separation between chondrogenic and osteogenic regions. A new approach to bioink precision Conventional bioprinting approaches often rely on biomaterial-laden inks that can interfere with direct cell–cell interactions and degrade unpredictably. To overcome these limitations, the researchers developed bioinks containing either individual stem cells or multicellular aggregates, combined with gelatin microparticlesloaded with growth factors such as TGF-β1 and BMP-2.These formulations demonstrated favorable rheological properties, shear-thinning, self-healing, and low yield stress, making them well-suited for extrusion-based bioprinting. Critically, the growth factor-loaded GMs allowed for spatially controlled, sustained biochemical signaling without requiring external supplementation.Following 3D printing and stabilization of the supporting bath, stem cells underwent lineage-specific differentiation, resulting in stable osteochondral constructs. Histological and biochemical analyses confirmed targeted extracellular matrix deposition and distinct tissue boundaries at the cartilage–bone interface.3D printing of the tissue specific high cell-density bioinks within the OMA microgel supporting bath, which fluidizes via its shear-thinning property. When the printing needle fluidizes the mechanical stable OMA microgels, tissue specific high cell-density bioinks can fill the shear-thinning region. After the needle passes, the OMA microgel bath can be stabilized by its self-healing propertyto firmly hold the printed bioinks. Image via Jeon et al., Materials Today. From biomaterials to biofunction While 3D bioprinting has long promised the recreation of complex biological architectures, printing functional, multicellular, multi-tissue constructs remains a key challenge. Cell-only bioinks often require preformed strands or aggregates, limiting resolution and design flexibility. The approach developed by Jeon et al. addresses this gap, enabling high-resolution deposition of cell-dense bioinks that self-organize into biologically relevant structures. Characterization of resolution and shape fidelity and chondrogenic differentiation of 3D bioprinted constructs.Photomicrographs of the 3D printed individual cell-based tissue specific bioink filamentsinto OMA microgel supporting baths with a 22G printing needle andquantification of their mean diameters, demonstrating the capability of high-resolution printing with narrow filament diameter distribution. Scale bars indicate 500 μm. N.S.: Not significant.Digital images andphotographs of the 3D printed structures, demonstrating high shape fidelity. The scale bars indicate 5 mm.Photomicrographs of Saf-O/Fast Green stained construct sections cultured in BPMand CPM. The scale bars indicate 500 μm.Quantification of GAG/DNA in the chondrogenically differentiated 3D printed constructs. These demonstrate hMSC differentiation and deposition of chondrogenic extracellular matrixin the individual cell-based tissue specific bioink printed constructs. N.S.: Not significant. Image via Jeon et al., Materials Today. Recent innovations have similarly advanced bioink design and tissue engineering. Researchers at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, developed a  SCOBY-derived bioink to 3D print cellulose scaffolds for direct tissue repair, while another team created a personalized heart-on-a-chip using photopolymerizable, patient-specific bioinks. Bio INX and Readily3D launched a ready-to-use bioink for volumetric bioprinting, and Texas A&M engineered a specialized vascular-specific bioink tailored for blood vessel formation. Elsewhere, studies have demonstrated functional brain tissue constructs with active neural networks, and Frontier Bio received a 2024 3DPI Award for developing lung-like tissue in vitro. Jeon et al.’s work builds on these efforts by integrating localized growth factor delivery into high cell-density bioinks, enabling the fabrication of multiphase tissues with fine spatial control and biological fidelity.By controlling the spatial presentation of bioactive cues within densely cellular environments, the platform holds promise for regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and drug screening. Future research will aim to enhance tissue maturation and incorporate vascularization to improve functionality and translational potential. What 3D printing trends should you watch out for in 2025? How is the future of 3D printing shaping up? Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news.You can also follow us onLinkedIn and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content. #researchers #bioprint #engineered #tissues #using

May 14, 2025Ravie LakshmananCyber Espionage / Malware A cyber espionage group known as Earth Ammit has been linked to two related but distinct campaigns from 2023 to 2024 targeting various entities in Taiwan and South Korea, including military, satellite, heavy industry, media, technology, software services, and healthcare sectors. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro said the first wave, codenamed VENOM, mainly targeted software service providers, while the second wave, referred to as TIDRONE, singled out the military industry. Earth Ammit is assessed to be connected to Chinese-speaking nation-state groups. "In its VENOM campaign, Earth Ammit's approach involved penetrating the upstream segment of the drone supply chain," security researchers Pierre Lee, Vickie Su, and Philip Chen said. "Earth Ammit's long-term goal is to compromise trusted networks via supply chain attacks, allowing them to target high-value entities downstream and amplify their reach." The TIDRONE campaign was first exposed by Trend Micro last year, detailing the cluster's attacks on drone manufacturers in Taiwan to deliver custom malware such as CXCLNT and CLNTEND. A subsequent report from AhnLab in December 2024 detailed the use of CLNTEND against South Korean companies. The attacks are noteworthy for targeting the drone supply chain, leveraging enterprise resource planningsoftware to breach the military and satellite industries. Select incidents have also involved the use of trusted communication channels – such as remote monitoring or IT management tools – to distribute the malicious payloads. The VENOM campaign, per Trend Micro, is characterized by the exploitation of web server vulnerabilities to drop web shells, and then weaponize the access to install remote access toolsfor persistent access to the compromised hosts. The use of open-source tools like REVSOCK and Sliver in the attacks is seen as a deliberate attempt to cloud attribution efforts. The only bespoke malware observed in the VENOM campaign is VENFRPC, a customized version of FRPC, which, in itself, is a modified version of the open-source fast reverse proxytool. The end goal of the campaign is to harvest credentials from the breached environments and use the stolen information as a stepping stone to inform the next phase, TIDRONE, aimed at downstream customers. The TIDRONE campaign is spread over three stages - Initial access, which mirrors the VENOM campaign by targeting service providers to inject malicious code and distribute malware to downstream customers Command-and-control, which makes use of a DLL loader to drop CXCLNT and CLNTEND backdoors Post-exploitation, which involves setting up persistence, escalating privileges, disabling antivirus software using TrueSightKiller, and installing a screenshot-capturing tool dubbed SCREENCAP using CLNTEND "CXCLNT's core functionality is dependent on a modular plugin system. Upon execution, it retrieves additional plugins from its C&C server to extend its capabilities dynamically," Trend Micro said. "This architecture not only obscures the backdoor's true purpose during static analysis but also enables flexible, on-demand operations based on the attacker's objectives." CXCLNT is said to have been put to use in attacks since at least 2022. CLNTEND, first detected in 2024, is its successor and comes with an expanded set of features to sidestep detection. The connection between VENOM and TIDRONE stems from shared victims and service providers and overlapping command-and-control infrastructure, indicating that a common threat actor is behind both campaigns. Trend Micro said the hacking crew's tactics, techniques, and proceduresresemble those used by another Chinese nation-state hacking group tracked as Dalbit, suggestive of a shared toolkit. "This progression underscores a deliberate strategy: start broad with low-cost, low-risk tools to establish access, then pivot to tailored capabilities for more targeted and impactful intrusions," the researchers said. "Understanding this operational pattern will be critical in predicting and defending against future threats from this actor." Japan and Taiwan Targeted by Swan Vector The disclosure comes as Seqrite Labs disclosed details of a cyber espionage campaign dubbed Swan Vector that has targeted educational institutes and the mechanical engineering industry in Taiwan and Japan with fake resume lures distributed via spear-phishing emails to deliver a DLL implant called Pterois, which is then used to download the Cobalt Strike shellcode. Pterois is also engineered to download from Google Drive another malware referred to as Isurus that's then responsible for executing the Cobalt Strike post-exploitation framework. The campaign has been attributed to an East Asian threat actor with medium confidence. "The threat actor is based out of East Asia and has been active since December 2024 targeting multiple hiring-based entities across Taiwan and Japan," security researcher Subhajeet Singha said. "The threat actor relies on custom development of implants comprising of downloader, shellcode-loaders, and Cobalt Strike as their key tools with heavily relying on multiple evasion techniques like API hashing, direct-syscalls, function callback, DLL side-loading, and self-deletion to avoid leaving any sort of traces on the target machine." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE     #earth #ammit #breached #drone #supply

Lexi and Diego Newkirk had big plans for the sprawling piece of Texas land they bought in October 2023.The Newkirks dreamed of filling their 12.5-acre property with homes made of shipping containers, a more whimsical alternative to the traditional tiny home to appeal to adventurous travelers.When a dispute with a neighbor put a wrench in their plans, Lexi Newkirk, 25, and Diego Newkirk, 26, decided to just build one shipping container home for themselves instead, investing $100,000 in a space they plan to live in for the short term and rent out down the line. Lexi and Diego Newkirk bought land in Texas Hill Country in October 2023 with big plans to create a rental community. Lexi and Diego Newkirk. Lexi Newkirk Lexi Newkirk, a digital marketer, and Diego Newkirk, who works in home restoration, bought their 12.5 acres of land in October 2023 for $180,000. Their property is about an hour from Austin.Lexi Newkirk told Business Insider they envisioned creating a community of tiny homes people could rent for short-term stays on the property. Specifically, they pictured homes made out of shipping containers."People would much rather stay in a shipping container versus a traditional little tiny house out here," she said. "It would also rent for a lot more."The couple decided to make their dream a reality, buying two containers for their Texas property in November 2023. They opted for single-use containers, which are pricier because they have less wear and tear than containers used multiple times. They cost $5,500 each. The Newkirks had to pivot their plans after buying two containers. The couple on their land. Lexi Newkirk Just as the couple was about to break ground in November 2023, one of their neighbors approached them with concerns about their plans for a tiny-home community."We got a call from our neighbor basically asking us what the heck we're doing," Lexi Newkirk said, adding that the neighbor, who threatened to sue, took issue with the fact that the tiny homes would be visible from the road on the Newkirks' property, which sits at the front of the neighborhood.The couple didn't want to end up in a lawsuit, so they decided to shift their plans. They moved the two storage containers they had already purchased to the center of their property and decided to build one slightly larger home with them.They started construction in January 2024 and wrapped the interior in April 2025. During construction, they lived in an RV. Now that they've moved into the shipping container home, they plan to stay for a year or two before turning it into an Airbnb. They designed the home to have two floors, plus a basement. The shipping container home. Lexi Newkirk The couple thought two containers made the most sense for the house, as they would have additional space without building a separate roof.Together, the containers are 640 square feet, and the Newkirks also built a basement for the space."My husband and I did the layout together," Lexi Newkirk said of the design process. "We didn't hire anyone. We built it ourselves." Diego Newkirk built as much of the house as he could. Diego Newkirk building the home's basement. Lexi Newkirk "He did most of the construction himself," Lexi Newkirk told BI of her husband. "He did all the stacking of the containers, all the welding."Sometimes, he hired workers to help with larger projects, and the couple outsourced their plumbing and electrical work. Still, having him take on much of the work saved them money. The main floor features a spacious kitchen. The kitchen. Lexi Newkirk Lexi Newkirk said she and her husband love to cook, so they wanted to use more of their square footage for the kitchen, particularly after only having an RV-sized kitchen for a year.Details like butcher block countertops and a tiled backsplash, as well as the full-sized appliances, make the kitchen feel homey.The main floor also features a washer and dryer so the Newkirks can do laundry at home. The living area has ample natural light. The living area. Lexi Newkirk The Newkirks have a small living room that sits just off the kitchen.It has room for a small recliner couch and is full of light because it's next to a sliding glass door.Hardwood floors also add to the house's cozy feeling. The main floor has a half-bathroom. The home has a half bathroom. Lexi Newkirk The house runs on a water tank since it's in a remote area. The Newkirks get water delivered each month so they can use their toilets and other water-based appliances. A spiral staircase connects the two floors. The spiral staircase under construction. Lexi Newkirk The staircase leads to the center of the second story, adding a touch of whimsy to the space.There's a small desk and work area at the top of the stairs. A large primary bathroom was also a priority for the Newkirks. The primary bathroom. Lexi Newkirk Much like the kitchen, the Newkirks didn't want to feel cramped in their bathroom like they did in their RV.They decided to make their bathroom spacious, complete with a double vanity, walk-in shower, and a standing tub with a view of the property through a large window."The bathtub faces the sunset, so you can take a bath watching the sunset or shower," Lexi Newkirk said. A glass window covers nearly an entire wall in the couple's bedroom, allowing them to wake up with the sunrise each morning. The sunrise is visible from the bedroom. Lexi Newkirk "The way we engineered and built the house, the bedroom wakes up to the sunrise," Lexi Newkirk said. "And there's a huge window, so you can see all the stars and the moon."Although the bedroom stands out to her, she said she loves every inch of the home because she and her husband designed it."We kind of poured our hearts into it," she said.The couple is building out deck space to increase the home's square footage and allow them to enjoy outdoor living, but the house is complete otherwise. They estimate that they invested $100,000 in their dream shipping container home. The house took a year to build. Lexi Newkirk Building the house itself was expensive, but Lexi Newkirk said the remote nature of their property made the construction even more costly."For example, our electricity pole was 300 feet down, so we had to have a 300-foot trench," she said. Getting water delivered monthly is also costly, and their electricity costs are high.They hope to eventually use solar power on the property, but it will take some time to build it out.Although the build was pricey, the couple still saved money by living in an RV on their property during construction.Doing much of the work themselves and not taking out a loan for the project also helped, as they don't have a mortgage payment, though it did make construction take longer than it would have otherwise. The Newkirks plan to turn their property into a homestead with a barndominium. They have big plans for the home. Lexi Newkirk Now that the shipping container house is complete, the Newkirks are already starting to fulfill their next dreams for the property: making it into a homestead.They already have 20 chickens and plan to bring some cows onto the property in the next few years. They also want to build a garden and mostly live off their own property. They'll also build a barndominium for themselves in the not-too-distant future, moving into the bigger house so they can rent the shipping container home. For now, though, the tiny home is perfect for the couple."Everything in our house is super custom because of the size," Lexi Newkirk said. "The tiny house is only 640 square feet, but it has everything we need." Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/couple-built-shipping-container-home-short-term-rental-2025-5 #couple #invested #into #shipping #container #home #that #they #plan #turn #rental #property

Nobody expected lunar mining to begin with a robot that looks like a cross between a road trencher and a sandbox toy, but that’s what Interlune and Vermeer have built. Designed to dig up moon dust and extract helium-3, this machine isn’t a sketch on a napkin. It’s a functional prototype being tested on Earth right now, aiming to harvest a gas that could change both energy and computing as we know them. Helium-3 is rare on Earth but relatively abundant on the moon. That’s thanks to billions of years of solar wind bombarding the lunar surface, which lacks a magnetic field to deflect particles. Interlune’s machine drills down about three meters into the regolith, the loose soil covering the moon, where concentrations of helium-3 are likely highest. It can process up to 100 metric tons of regolith per hour and extract helium-3 using a chemical separation system engineered for lunar conditions. Designer: Interlune The payoff is steep. Each kilogram of helium-3 is expected to fetch $20 million. That’s partly because it could fuel advanced nuclear fusion reactors without producing radioactive waste. It also plays a key role in cooling quantum computers to ultra-low temperatures, using dilution refrigeration that only works with helium-3. As the quantum industry grows, the demand for this gas will only rise. Interlune has already secured two major clients. One is the U.S. Department of Energy. The other is Maybell Quantum, a company that sees helium-3 as critical to scaling quantum computing infrastructure. Maybell’s CEO has said every quantum system they deploy needs to get extremely cold, and helium-3 is the only way to do that reliably. The company’s plan rolls out in three stages. First comes Crescent Moon, a mission launching later this year to scan the lunar south pole for helium-3-rich regions using hyperspectral imaging. Then Prospect Moon will land a prototype on-site to confirm those deposits and test extraction tech. The final step, Harvest Moon, aims to complete full-scale operations and return the extracted gas to Earth by 2029. Interlune won’t be shipping rocks back home. Only the refined helium-3 will make the trip, which keeps launch costs in check and makes the business model viable. The concept is elegant in its simplicity, grounded in heavy machinery and actual contracts rather than theoretical promise.The post Lunar Harvester plans to tap into the Moon’s Helium-3 Reserves to accelerate Quantum Computing first appeared on Yanko Design. Source: https://www.yankodesign.com/2025/05/13/lunar-harvester-plans-to-tap-into-the-moons-helium-3-reserves-to-accelerate-quantum-computing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lunar-harvester-plans-to-tap-into-the-moons-helium-3-reserves-to-accelerate-quantum-computing #lunar #harvester #plans #tap #into #the #moons #helium3 #reserves #accelerate #quantum #computing

SanDisk has officially introduced the WD Black SN8100, its latest high-end PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD targeting PC enthusiasts, gamers, and professional users. With sequential read speeds of up to 14,900 MB/s and write speeds of 14,000 MB/s, the drive sets a new bar for consumer SSD performance, surpassing some of the best NVMe SSDs currently on the market, including the Crucial T705.  The SN8100 uses a standard M.2 2280 form factor and is available in capacities of 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB. It’s worth noting that the 1TB model offers lower write speeds, up to 11,000 MB/s, compared to the higher-capacity versions, which reach up to 14,000 MB/s.  Recommended Videos According to SanDisk, the drive is designed for applications ranging from gaming and content creation to AI workflows, where rapid data access and transfer are critical. The SN8100 uses SanDisk’s BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA NAND, which is engineered for a smaller footprint thereby improving thermal performance. SanDisk also states that the Gen 5.0 model is twice as power efficient as its PCIe Gen 4.0 predecessor, averaging just 7W of power consumption. Comparing the new WD Black SN8100 with the Crucial T705, which is currently one of the fastest consumer NVMe SSDs, it has some clear advantages. It’s marginally faster in read speeds (14,900 MB/s vs. 14,500 MB/s) but noticeably faster in write speeds (14,000 MB/s vs. 12,700 MB/s). It also delivers much better random performance, with 2.3 million IOPS for both reads and writes, compared to 1.5 million on the T705. While these are just numbers, in the practical world such small differences shouldn’t matter for the average consumer. FeatureWD Black SN8100Crucial T705InterfacePCIe Gen 5.0PCIe Gen 5.0Sequential Read (MB/s)14,90014,500Sequential Write (MB/s)14,00012,700Random IOPS (Read/Write)2.3M / 2.3M1.5M / 1.5MPower Draw (Avg)7W~11WForm FactorM.2 2280M.2 2280Max Capacity8TB4TB More importantly, the SN8100 is more power efficient. As mentioned, the drive is listed to draw an average of just 7W of power draw, while the T705 uses around 11W. That should potentially mean less heat and better performance in tight spaces. The WD Black SN8100 is available now through SanDisk.com and major retailers, with U.S. MSRPs set at $179.99 for 1TB, $279.99 for 2TB, and $549.99 for 4TB. The top-tier 8TB version of the SN8100 is expected to release later in the year. Additionally, a heatsink-equipped variant is also expected to launch this fall for all current capacities, priced at a $20 premium. These models will feature a newly designed passive aluminum heatsink with a low-profile form factor and customizable RGB lighting.  Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/sandisks-latest-drive-sets-a-new-benchmark-for-consumer-nvme-ssds/ #sandisks #latest #drive #sets #new #benchmark #for #consumer #nvme #ssds

COFCO Qianhai Innovation Center Office / Goettsch PartnersSave this picture!Courtesy COFCO. Image © CreatAROffice Buildings•Shenzhen, China Architects: Goettsch Partners Area Area of this architecture project Area:  190000 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:CreatAR Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  SYP Glass MEP Engineers: WSP Norge, WSP Lighting Consultants: HDA More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. The COFCO Qianhai Innovation Center is a state-of-the-art headquarters and multi-tenant office complex located in Shenzhen, China. This 190,000-square-meter development is defined by two nearly identical towers, each crowned with a large, glass-enclosed atrium. These atria provide unique identities in the skyline for the headquarters of two related companies: COFCO Group and Aviva-COFCO Life Insurance. The respective 200- and 180-meter towers are composed of three slender masses where the upper levels are carved back and exposed to reveal the open atrium and separate outdoor sky terrace that connect to the surrounding cityscape. Sited next to an urban green belt and local park, the towers are oriented to address this context and integrate closely with the natural environment. The buildings are rectangular in plan, with one side tapered to expand views toward Qianhai Bay.Save this picture!The design of the COFCO Qianhai complex is a reflection of Shenzhen's rapid growth from a fishing village into a megacity of 17 million people. Inspired by the organic development of Shenzhen's urban villages—where dwelling units stacked over time have shaped the streetscape—the complex's design features headquarters spaces that function like a connected village in the sky.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The atrium at the top of each tower serves as a dynamic, flexible space that unifies the building's headquarters floors. These atria feature interconnecting stairs, open corridors, and meeting rooms that encourage formal and informal collaboration among employees. The grand spaces can also host large company-wide events. Each atrium is entirely clad in a highly transparent cable wall, blurring interior and exterior space, and visually linking the sky villages to the traditional urban villages at the street level.Save this picture!Save this picture!"The COFCO Qianhai complex sets a new standard for urban headquarters, especially in China," said James Zheng, AIA, LEED AP, CEO and president of GP. "The design pays tribute to Shenzhen's origins while reinforcing its global ambitions with a strong visual identity."Save this picture!The cable walls are a key engineering innovation, offering a dynamic component that adapts to external forces and internal stresses. Unlike conventional static facades, the cable system uses outward-angled columns to support horizontal cables, which are reinforced by each floor slab back to the core. The vertical cables are engineered to flex, absorbing and distributing loads, ensuring stability under varying conditions—including seismic events.Save this picture!Save this picture!The towers feature operable windows for natural ventilation, reducing the need for mechanical cooling systems. Double-laminated low-E glass, combined with ceramic frit coatings, minimizes solar heat gain and enhances energy efficiency. Additionally, the air circulation system within the atria draws cool air from the ground level and channels it upward, creating a passive cooling effect that helps maintain a comfortable indoor environment, even in Shenzhen's warm, humid climate.Save this picture!"The facades strike a balance between aesthetics and functionality, a crucial consideration given Shenzhen's subtropical climate," said Travis Soberg, AIA, LEED AP, principal and director of sustainable design at GP. "The elegance of the design was made possible by a team of designers and engineers working in close collaboration to deliver both beauty and performance."Save this picture!The complex's ground level incorporates sustainable features, designed as a "sponge city" to absorb rainfall. Permeable surfaces and strategic landscaping help manage stormwater, reducing urban runoff and minimizing flood risk. A sunken garden and pedestrian-level greenery further connect the development to its natural surroundings.Save this picture!By combining innovative design, sustainable practices and cutting-edge engineering, the COFCO Qianhai complex establishes a new paradigm for modern Shenzhen. Its "sky village" concept promotes community and connectivity, transforming the high-rise workplace into a more human-centric environment. This development supports Shenzhen's vision to become a global leader, inspiring future projects that prioritize community, sustainability and technological advancement.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Shenzhen, ChinaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeGoettsch PartnersOffice••• MaterialGlassMaterials and TagsPublished on May 14, 2025Cite: "COFCO Qianhai Innovation Center Office / Goettsch Partners" 14 May 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030007/cofco-qianhai-innovation-center-office-goettsch-partners&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream Source: https://www.archdaily.com/1030007/cofco-qianhai-innovation-center-office-goettsch-partners #cofco #qianhai #innovation #center #office #goettsch #partners