There has been a new update to the ongoing Stratasys v. Bambu Lab patent infringement lawsuit.  Both parties have agreed to consolidate the lead and member cases (2:24-CV-00644-JRG and 2:24-CV-00645-JRG) into a single case under Case No. 2:25-cv-00465-JRG.  Industrial 3D printing OEM Stratasys filed the request late last month. According to an official court document, Shenzhen-based Bambu Lab did not oppose the motion. Stratasys argued that this non-opposition amounted to the defendants waiving their right to challenge the request under U.S. patent law 35 U.S.C. § 299(a). On June 2, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, ordered Bambu Lab to confirm in writing whether it agreed to the proposed case consolidation. The court took this step out of an “abundance of caution” to ensure both parties consented to the procedure before moving forward. Bambu Lab submitted its response on June 12, agreeing to the consolidation. The company, along with co-defendants Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Lunkuo Technology Co., Ltd., and Tuozhu Technology Limited, waived its rights under 35 U.S.C. § 299(a). The court will now decide whether to merge the cases. This followed U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap’s decision last month to deny Bambu Lab’s motion to dismiss the lawsuits.  The Chinese desktop 3D printer manufacturer filed the motion in February 2025, arguing the cases were invalid because its US-based subsidiary, Bambu Lab USA, was not named in the original litigation. However, it agreed that the lawsuit could continue in the Austin division of the Western District of Texas, where a parallel case was filed last year.  Judge Gilstrap denied the motion, ruling that the cases properly target the named defendants. He concluded that Bambu Lab USA isn’t essential to the dispute, and that any misnaming should be addressed in summary judgment, not dismissal.        A Stratasys Fortus 450mc (left) and a Bambu Lab X1C (right). Image by 3D Printing industry. Another twist in the Stratasys v. Bambu Lab lawsuit  Stratasys filed the two lawsuits against Bambu Lab in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, in August 2024. The company claims that Bambu Lab’s X1C, X1E, P1S, P1P, A1, and A1 mini 3D printers violate ten of its patents. These patents cover common 3D printing features, including purge towers, heated build plates, tool head force detection, and networking capabilities. Stratasys has requested a jury trial. It is seeking a ruling that Bambu Lab infringed its patents, along with financial damages and an injunction to stop Bambu from selling the allegedly infringing 3D printers. Last October, Stratasys dropped charges against two of the originally named defendants in the dispute. Court documents showed that Beijing Tiertime Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Yinhua Laser Rapid Prototyping and Mould Technology Co., Ltd were removed. Both defendants represent the company Tiertime, China’s first 3D printer manufacturer. The District Court accepted the dismissal, with all claims dropped without prejudice. It’s unclear why Stratasys named Beijing-based Tiertime as a defendant in the first place, given the lack of an obvious connection to Bambu Lab.  Tiertime and Stratasys have a history of legal disputes over patent issues. In 2013, Stratasys sued Afinia, Tiertime’s U.S. distributor and partner, for patent infringement. Afinia responded by suing uCRobotics, the Chinese distributor of MakerBot 3D printers, also alleging patent violations. Stratasys acquired MakerBot in June 2013. The company later merged with Ultimaker in 2022. In February 2025, Bambu Lab filed a motion to dismiss the original lawsuits. The company argued that Stratasys’ claims, focused on the sale, importation, and distribution of 3D printers in the United States, do not apply to the Shenzhen-based parent company. Bambu Lab contended that the allegations concern its American subsidiary, Bambu Lab USA, which was not named in the complaint filed in the Eastern District of Texas. Bambu Lab filed a motion to dismiss, claiming the case is invalid under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19. It argued that any party considered a “primary participant” in the allegations must be included as a defendant.    The court denied the motion on May 29, 2025. In the ruling, Judge Gilstrap explained that Stratasys’ allegations focus on the actions of the named defendants, not Bambu Lab USA. As a result, the official court document called Bambu Lab’s argument “unavailing.” Additionally, the Judge stated that, since Bambu Lab USA and Bambu Lab are both owned by Shenzhen Tuozhu, “the interest of these two entities align,” meaning the original cases are valid.   In the official court document, Judge Gilstrap emphasized that Stratasys can win or lose the lawsuits based solely on the actions of the current defendants, regardless of Bambu Lab USA’s involvement. He added that any potential risk to Bambu Lab USA’s business is too vague or hypothetical to justify making it a required party. Finally, the court noted that even if Stratasys named the wrong defendant, this does not justify dismissal under Rule 12(b)(7). Instead, the judge stated it would be more appropriate for the defendants to raise that argument in a motion for summary judgment. The Bambu Lab X1C 3D printer. Image via Bambu Lab. 3D printing patent battles  The 3D printing industry has seen its fair share of patent infringement disputes over recent months. In May 2025, 3D printer hotend developer Slice Engineering reached an agreement with Creality over a patent non-infringement lawsuit.  The Chinese 3D printer OEM filed the lawsuit in July 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Gainesville Division. The company claimed that Slice Engineering had falsely accused it of infringing two hotend patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 10,875,244 and 11,660,810. These cover mechanical and thermal features of Slice’s Mosquito 3D printer hotend. Creality requested a jury trial and sought a ruling confirming it had not infringed either patent. Court documents show that Slice Engineering filed a countersuit in December 2024. The Gainesville-based company maintained that Creaility “has infringed and continues to infringe” on both patents. In the filing, the company also denied allegations that it had harassed Creality’s partners, distributors, and customers, and claimed that Creality had refused to negotiate a resolution.   The Creality v. Slice Engineering lawsuit has since been dropped following a mutual resolution. Court documents show that both parties have permanently dismissed all claims and counterclaims, agreeing to cover their own legal fees and costs.  In other news, large-format resin 3D printer manufacturer Intrepid Automation sued 3D Systems over alleged patent infringement. The lawsuit, filed in February 2025, accused 3D Systems of using patented technology in its PSLA 270 industrial resin 3D printer. The filing called the PSLA 270 a “blatant knock off” of Intrepid’s DLP multi-projection “Range” 3D printer.   San Diego-based Intrepid Automation called this alleged infringement the “latest chapter of 3DS’s brazen, anticompetitive scheme to drive a smaller competitor with more advanced technology out of the marketplace.” The lawsuit also accused 3D Systems of corporate espionage, claiming one of its employees stole confidential trade secrets that were later used to develop the PSLA 270 printer. 3D Systems denied the allegations and filed a motion to dismiss the case. The company called the lawsuit “a desperate attempt” by Intrepid to distract from its own alleged theft of 3D Systems’ trade secrets. Who won the 2024 3D Printing Industry Awards? Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news.You can also follow us on LinkedIn, and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content.Featured image shows a Stratasys Fortus 450mc (left) and a Bambu Lab X1C (right). Image by 3D Printing industry.

Ryan King Art writes: In this Blender tutorial we will create this Futuristic Stylized Ringed Planet. Source

Version 1.0.0 By Robert Jan van Pelt (Park Books, 2025) The largest artifact in the touring exhibition Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away., currently on display at the ROM in Toronto, is a wooden barracks building. It’s from the Auschwitz-Monowitz camp, a satellite to Auschwitz created to provide slave labour to the IG Farben corporation for the construction of a synthetic rubber factory.  The discovery of a sister building, back in 2012, led exhibition chief curator and architectural historian Robert Jan van Pelt, University Professor at the Waterloo School of Architecture, on a research journey to write a comprehensive history of the barracks—temporary buildings that have not only housed prisoners, but also provided shelter for military servicemen and women, refugees, and natural disaster survivors. “Many people have experienced, for shorter or longer time periods, life in a barrack, and for all of them it represented life on the edge, for better or worse,” writes Van Pelt. Worm’s eye axonometric of Renkioi Hospital Barrack, a prefabricated hospital designed by Ismabard Kingdom Brunel for a site in Turkey, 1857. Van Pelt’s book criss-crosses with ease through architectural history, military history, and the history of medicine—all of which played crucial roles in the evolving development of this seemingly simple building type. The book is arranged in a dozen episodes, with the barrack at the centre of each, serving as an anchor point for unfolding the rich intellectual and historical context shaping the way these structures were developed and deployed. The book is richly illustrated with archival materials—a feat in itself, given that the documentation for temporary buildings, particularly before 1900, is scarce. These drawings, photos, and paintings are supplemented with 20 worm’s eye views of key buildings, carefully composed by a team of Waterloo architecture school students and alumni.  Thomas Thomaszoon, View of the headquarters of the Spanish in the Huis tea Kleef during the siege of Haarlem, 1572-73. Collection of Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem; courtesy Robert Jan van Pelt Like many vernacular buildings, temporary structures larger than a tent, designed to house soldiers in the field, have existed at least since Ancient Rome. One of the first visual accounts of barracks came centuries later, in the winter of 1572, when the Spanish laid siege to the Dutch city of Haarlem, and cartographer Thomas Thomaszoon sketched the position of dozens of Spain’s wood-and-straw structures outside the city. The siege was successful, but only a few years later, the Dutch Republic gained the upper hand. As part of the creation of a standing army, they began to develop more precise instructions for the layout of camps, including the construction of temporary barracks. Antoine-François Omet des Foucaux, Barrack constructed in Hendaye, France, 1793. From Jean-Charles Krafft, Plans, coupes et élévations de diverses productions de l’art de la charpente, 1805. Collection of Bilbliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. Courtesy Robert Jan van Pelt The Napoleonic army made use of barracks in both military camps and training camps; by the mid-1800s, the construction of various barrack types was detailed in field construction manuals issued to officers in many European armies. During the Crimean War (1853-56), over 3,500 prefabricated barracks were manufactured in a Gloucester factory, as a solution to the appalling conditions at the front. But when the structures arrived at port, British forces were not able to unload and erect them—the materials for a single building weighed more than two tons, and each would require 60 horses (or 150 men) to transport to camp on the muddy roads.  The US (Union) Army’s Lincoln Hospital, Washington, DC, 1865. Collection of Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Courtesy Robert Jan van Pelt Prefabrication was also used, with somewhat more success, towards the end of the conflict to erect field hospitals designed by British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel with a priority on cross-ventilation to limit the spread of disease. Low mortality rates from similar structures led to a continued preference for “barrack hospitals” based on groupings of low-slung, well-ventilated pavilions, rather than conceived as single grand structures. The model was further refined with the addition of primitive underfloor heating and ridge ventilation by former surgeon William A. Hammond for the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-65).  Barrack hospitals were constructed for civilian use, as well. Following the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71), such designs were built to house patients with infectious diseases in Berlin and proposed as a means to bring professional medical care to Germany’s rural areas. A barracks-inspired hospital was built in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1889, and continues to be operational.  If the barrack as an accommodation for the sick is a progressive tale, the 19th-century history of the barrack is equally checkered by the building type’s use for prisoner accommodation, including in the penal colonies of Australia and French Guiana. In North America, barracks were used in an internment camp for Native American Dakotas, and Civil War-era Union barracks at Camp Douglas were used to house Confederate prisoners. The oldest preserved barrack in the world may be in Canada, at Grosse Isle national park. Here, barrack-style quarantine sheds were used to detain thousands of Irish immigrant families during the typhoid fever epidemic of 1846-47, and their damp, fetid conditions contributed to many deaths—an episode Van Pelt describes as a “blot on the national consciousness of Canada.” A single Doecker Hut contains an operation room, pharmacy and hospital management office. The prefabricated, portable hospitals were developed in 1885, and used around the world, including in the First World War. In America, they were marketed for managing epidemics in the wake of the 1892 typhus fever outbreak in New York. Courtesy Berlin State Library and Robert Jan van Pelt   At the turn of the 19th century, the prefabricated portable barrack came to the fore with the manufacturing of the Doecker barracks, by Christoph & Unmack, a firm based in Copenhagen and Germany. Developed by a former military officer-turned-tentmaker, the technically sophisticated model used large rectangular frames that could be clipped together, and covered with “felt-cardboard”—dense felt pressed onto canvas and impregnated with linseed oil. The self-supporting structures proved easy to set up, dismount, and transport, making them suitable for both military applications—and, with little modification, for humanitarian aid. The Red Cross deployed Doecker barracks for use as field hospitals in Manchuria and Yokohama during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05).  The Barrack, 1572-1914 wraps up in in the early 20th century, but with the note that in the ensuing decades until 1945, millions of barracks were produced by many of the world’s major nations—and that most of these were erected in barbed-wire-ringed compounds. “This is the period in which tens if not hundreds of millions of people, many of whom were civilians, were forced to live in barracks, as refugees, as expellees, as civilian internees, as forced laborers, as prisoners or war, as concentration camp prisoners, and as people made homeless by the destruction wrought by war,” writes Van Pelt. Up until 1914, he notes, this building type largely carried a sense of achievement—an image that would change sharply with the Age of the Camps. But although a WWII barrack was responsible for instigating Van Pelt’s initial investigation, that time period will need to await a second volume on this simple building type with a rich, complex, and complicated history.   As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine  The post Book Review: The Barrack, 1572-1914—Chapters in the History of Emergency Architecture appeared first on Canadian Architect.

DeepSeek's R1 update, plus the rest of the AI news this week. Credit: Thomas Fuller / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images This week, DeepSeek released an updated version of its R1 model on HuggingFace, reigniting the open-source versus closed-source competition. The updated version, called DeekSeek-R1-0528, has 685 billion parameters, an upgrade from January's version, which had 671 billion. Unlike OpenAI and Google's models, which are famously closed-source, DeepSeek's model weights are publicly available. According to the benchmarks, the R1-0528 update has improved reasoning and inference capabilities and is closing the gap with OpenAI's o3 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro. DeepSeek also introduced a distilled version of R1-0528 using Alibaba's Qwen3 8B model. This is an example of a lightweight model that is less capable but also requires less computing power. DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B outperforms both Google's latest lightweight model Gemini-2.5-Flash-Thinking-0520 and OpenAI's o3-mini in certain benchmarks. But the bigger deal is that DeekSeek's distilled model can reportedly run on a single GPU, according to TechCrunch. You May Also Like To… distill all this information, the Chinese rival is catching up to its U.S. competitors with an open-weight approach that's cheaper and more accessible. Plus, DeepSeek continues to prove that AI models may not require as much computing power as OpenAI, Google, and other AI heavyweights currently use. Suffice to say, watch this space.That said, DeepSeek's models also have their drawbacks. According to one AI developer (via TechCrunch), the new DeepSeek update is even more censored than its previous version when it comes to criticism of the Chinese government. Of course, a lot more happened in the AI world over the past few days. After last week's parade of AI events from Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft, this week was lighter on product and feature news. That's one reason DeepSeek's R1 update captured the AI world's attention this week. In other AI news, Anthropic finally gets voice mode, AI influencers go viral, Anthropic's CEO warns of mass layoffs, and an AI-generated kangaroo. Google's Veo 3 takes the internet by stormOn virtually every social media platform, users are freaking out about the new Veo 3, Google's new AI video model. The results are impressive, and we're already seeing short films made entirely with Veo 3. Not bad for a product that came out 11 days ago. Not to be outdone by AI video artists, a reporter from The Wall Street Journal made a short film about herself and a robot using Veo 3.Mashable's Tech Editor Timothy Werth recapped Veo's big week and had a simple conclusion: We're so cooked.More AI product news: Claude's new voice mode and the beginning of the agentic browser eraAfter last week's barrage, this week was lighter on the volume of AI news. But what was announced this week is no less significant.  Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Anthropic finally introduced its own voice mode for Claude to compete with ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini. The feature is currently in beta on mobile for the Claude app and will even be available to free plans with a limit of 20 to 30 voice conversations per day. Anthropic says you can ask Claude to summarize your calendar or read documents out loud. Paying subscribers can connect to Google Workspace for Calendar, Gmail, and Docs access. OpenAI is exploring the ability to sign into third-party apps with ChatGPT. We don't know much yet, but the company posted an interest form on its site for developers using Codex, its engineering agent, to add this capability to their own apps. It may not sound like a big deal, but it basically means users could easily link their personalized ChatGPT memories and settings to third-party apps, much like the way it works when you sign into a new app with your Google account.Opera announced a new agentic AI browser called Neon. "Much more than a place to view web pages, Neon can browse with you or for you, take action, and help you get things done," the announcement read. That includes a chatbot interface within the browser and the ability to fill in web forms for tasks like booking trips and shopping. The announcement, which included a promo video of a humanoid robot browsing the robot, which is scant on details but says Neon will be a "premium subscription product" and has a waitlist to sign up.The browser has suddenly become a new frontier for agentic AI, now that it's capable of automating web search tasks. Perplexity is working on a similar tool called Comet, and The Browser Company pivoted from its Arc browser to a more AI-centric browser called Dia. All of this is happening while Google might be forced to sell off Chrome, which OpenAI has kindly offered to take off its hands. Dario Amodei's prediction about AI replacing entry-level jobs is already starting to happenAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in an interview with Axios that AI could "wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs." Amodei's predictions might be spot on because a new study from VC firm SignalFire found that hiring for entry-level jobs is down to 7 percent from 25 percent in the previous year. Some of that is due to changes in the economic climate, but AI is definitely a factor since firms are opting to automate the less-technical aspects of work that would've been taken on by new hires.  Related Stories The latest in AI culture: That AI-generated kangaroo, Judge Judy, and everything elseGoogle wants you to know its AI overviews reach 1.5 billion people a month. They probably don't want you to know AI Overviews still struggles to count, spell, and know what year it is. As Mashable's Tim Marcin put it, would AI Overviews pass concussion protocol?The proposal of a 10-year ban on states regulating AI is pretty unpopular, according to a poll from Common Sense Media. The survey found that 57 percent of respondents opposed the moratorium, including half of the Republican respondents. As Mashable's Rebecca Ruiz reported, "the vast majority of respondents, regardless of their political affiliation, agreed that Congress shouldn't ban states from enacting or enforcing their own youth online safety and privacy laws."In the private sector, The New York Times signed a licensing deal with Amazon to allow their editorial content to be used for Amazon's AI models. The details are unclear, but from the outside, this seems like a change of tune from the Times, which is currently suing OpenAI for copyright infringement for allegedly using its content to train its models. That viral video of an emotional support kangaroo holding a plane ticket and being denied boarding? It's AI-generated, of course. Slightly more obvious, but no less creepy is another viral trend of using AI to turn public figures like Emmanuel Macron and Judge Judy into babies. These are strange AI-slop-infested times we're living in. AI has some positive uses too. This week, we learned about a new humanoid robot from HuggingFace called HopeJr (with engineering by The Robot Studio), which could be available for sale later this year for just $3,000.And to end this recap on a high note, the nonprofit Colossal Foundation has developed an AI algorithm to detect the bird calls of the near-extinct tooth-billed pigeon. Also known as the "little dodo," the tooth-billed pigeon is Samoa's national bird, and scientists are using the bioacoustic algorithm to locate and protect them. Want to get the latest AI news, from new product features to viral trends? Check back next week for another AI news recap, and in the meantime, follow @cecily_mauran and @mashable for more news.Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems. Topics OpenAI DeepSeek Cecily Mauran Tech Reporter Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on X at @cecily_mauran.

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! It might have been a short week, but there was still plenty of news, including another Zoox recall, an update on the Stellantis-Amazon partnership, and a few startup-funding deals.  One item of note: This week, I wrote about Carma Technology and its patent infringement lawsuit against Uber. This isn’t a patent troll situation, and the IP attorneys I have spoken with say it will be a challenging case for Uber.  The gist? Carma, which was formed in 2007 by serial entrepreneur and SOSV Ventures founder Sean O’Sullivan, filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Uber, alleging the company infringed on five of its patents that are related to the system of matching riders (or packages) with capacity in vehicles. In other words, ride-sharing. IP attorney Larry Ashery provided the money quote that explains why this is such a complicated and challenging case.  “What’s important to understand here is, Carma isn’t just asserting five patents. They have had a very sophisticated strategy of patent procurement that they’ve been working on for the past 18 years.” Carma’s five patents are part of a 30-patent family that are all related and connected to the original filing date. That matters because each of the five asserted patents contains multiple patent claims, which define the legal boundaries of the invention. These individual claims — not just the patents as a whole — are what Carma is asserting against Uber.That means Uber will have to address and defend against each asserted claim, making the litigation more complex and difficult to defeat, Ashery noted.  Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Let’s get into the rest of the news.  A little bird Image Credits:Bryce Durbin A few little birds have been chirping at us for months now about a new autonomous vehicle technology startup that has been quietly plugging along for a year. The interesting nugget about this startup — which is called Bedrock Robotics — is who is behind it: Boris Sofman, who led Waymo’s self-driving trucks program and previously co-founded and led the popular consumer robotics company Anki.  The San Francisco-based startup is still in stealth, but my sources tell me it has raised considerable venture funds. Bedrock Robotics is working on a self-driving kit that retrofits onto construction equipment and other heavy machinery, according to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com, or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop. Deals! Image Credits:Bryce Durbin Firefly Aerospace received a $50 million investment from Northrop Grumman as part of its Series D round. This investment will further advance production of the startup’s  co-developed medium launch vehicle, now known as Eclipse. Pallet, a warehouse logistics software startup based in Fremont, California, raised $27 million in a Series B funding round led by General Catalyst. Bain Capital Ventures, Activant Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated. Volteras, a London-based startup building virtual connective tissue that will allow plugged-in EVs to offer their batteries to support the grid, closed an $11.1 million Series A led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from Edenred, Exor, Long Journey Ventures, and Wex. Way Data Technologies, a fleet management startup founded by veterans of Lucid Motors and Wolt, raised €2.6 million ($2.95 million) in pre-seed funding led by Pale Blue Dot, with participation from 10x Founders and Greens Ventures.  Notable reads and other tidbits Image Credits:Bryce Durbin Autonomous vehicles Rivr’s four-wheeled, stair-climbing delivery robot — which its CEO and founder, Marko Bjelonic, describes as a dog on roller skates — will ferry packages from Veho vans directly to customers’ front doors as part of a pilot program in Austin, Texas. Both companies see this small pilot as a critical step toward solving a unique slice of the end-to-end autonomous delivery journey.   TuSimple (now CreateAI) sent a trove of sensitive data — effectively the blueprint of an American-made autonomous vehicle system — to a Beijing-owned firm after committing to the U.S. government that it would cease such transfers under a national security agreement. The revelation, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, prompted numerous “not surprised” responses from several readers and sources within the industry. Zoox issued its second voluntary software recall in a month, following a collision between one of its robotaxis and an e-scooter rider in San Francisco on May 8. The incident is notable, largely for what happened after the unoccupied Zoox vehicle operating at low speed was struck by the e-scooter after braking to yield at an intersection.  According to Zoox, the e-scooterist fell to the ground directly next to the vehicle and the “robotaxi began to move and stopped after completing the turn, but did not make further contact with the e-scooterist.” In other Zoox news, the company announced it was the “official robotaxi partner of Resorts World Las Vegas.” As part of the deal, there will be a dedicated and Zoox-branded robotaxi pickup and drop-off location at Resorts World Las Vegas.  Electric vehicles, charging, & batteries The Tesla Cybertruck is having a rough time. Dozens of unsold Tesla Cybertrucks are piling up at a Detroit shopping center parking lot. And while Cybertruck owners are now allowed by Tesla to trade in their vehicles for the first time since they hit the market, they’ll face a steep depreciation hit. CarGurus recently showed depreciation rates of up to 45%. Meanwhile, Tesla sales in Europe and the U.K. have fallen by nearly half, according to data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.  The Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal of 2015 rippled through the automotive sector and prompted the company (and later followed by others) to shift away from diesel and toward hybrids and electric vehicles. Now, four former Volkswagen executives have received prison sentences for their role. In-car tech Amazon is no longer working with Stellantis to create in-car software for the automaker’s vehicles. The partnership, first announced in January 2022, was part of Stellantis’ plan to generate $22.5 billion annually from software. Stellantis told TechCrunch it would be pivoting to an Android-based system.

1. Irregular Sleep Pattern Glasgow-based Irregular Sleep Pattern takes textiles to a whole new geometric level. Launched in 2020 by wife & husband team Jolene Crawford and Mil Stricevic, the duo grew tired of not finding cool bedding and sleepwear in bold patterns and fun colors that aligned with their aesthetic. Eschewing the typical nature of the fashion business which can produce excess and unnecessary waste, the pair follow their own path and add prints and products as they desire and not according to the seasonal fashion calendar. From mix and match pajamas to robes (and even eye masks), to duvet covers, sheets, and throws, Irregular Sleep Pattern will elevate not only your sleep game, but your home’s decor too. 2. Ippei Tsujio’s Bread Wrapping Paper Japanese graphic designer Ippei Tsujio has created wrapping paper that will turn any gift into something that looks good enough to eat. The tasty trio of realistic paper comes in a baguette, loaf, and ciabatta design that’s been making the rounds on Instagram lately. And while they aren’t yet available, Tsujio states on IG that they will be selling the no-carb designs soon. 3. Stella McCartney x Hydefy Fungi Crossbody Bag Stella McCartney’s groundbreaking Stella McCartney x Hydefy Fungi Crossbody Bag marks a bold leap forward in sustainable luxury. Debuting on the Spring/Summer 2025 runway, the Stella Ryder – crafted from Hydefy’s innovative fungi-based material – is the brand’s most sophisticated vegan handbag to date. With a sculptural design inspired by a horse’s back and a striking silver metallic finish, the bag shows how high fashion can embrace environmental responsibility without compromising elegance or durability. Hydefy’s cutting-edge material offers a refined, high-performance alternative to leather, ushering in a new era of eco-conscious design for luxury accessories and beyond. 4. Giant Agua Beach Towel by Volver Bring the sunshine with you wherever you go this summer with Volver’s vibrant and oversized Agua beach towel. Designed in Portugal, these super fun towels radiate pure vacation energy with playful blush pink and sunflower yellow shades woven in a graphic pattern. Made from 100% Oeko Tex certified cotton, it’s soft, absorbent, and lightweight – perfect for beach days, pool lounging, or sunny park visits. With its square(ish) 79″ x 83″ shape, fringed edges, and branded details, the Agua towel is big enough to share and stylish enough to stand out. Volver also makes smaller beach towels in other other colors if you’d rather not share ;) 5. Le Corbusier: Le Grand book from Phaidon Coming October 2025 from Phaidon, the new edition of Le Corbusier: Le Grand is a landmark visual biography celebrating one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century. Richly illustrated with sketches, photographs, and personal correspondences, this monumental book offers an intimate and comprehensive look at Le Corbusier’s groundbreaking work and complex persona. Spanning his prolific career across architecture, design, and urban planning, the book reveals the depth of his creative vision and enduring impact on the built environment. A must-have for architecture enthusiasts and design aficionados alike!

There's no escaping spreadsheets. Tools like Excel and Google Sheets are ubiquitous these days, and learning how to use them more effectively will quickly enhance your daily work. But spreadsheets aren't always the easiest thing to work with. Grids of numbers, obscure menus, arcane formula syntax—it can leave you feeling lost and overwhelmed. That's the bad news.The good news? I've figured out how to harness AI to make Excel and Google Sheets much easier to work with. And I'm not talking about specialized plug-ins or spreadsheet-specific apps. Standard (and free) AI tools can give you a major leg up. I've been using my newfound spreadsheet superpowers to do everything from planning birthday dinners to automating work tasks and diving deeper into advanced features in Google Sheets.Here are my three favorite basic ways to level up your spreadsheet game with ChatGPT. You can use basic chatbots to effortlessly get structured data from almost any source, use AI as your personal formula generator, and even get personalized tutorials and guidance for mastering advanced features.Choosing Your AI Spreadsheet AssistantFor this project I'm using Google Sheets for my spreadsheet work and ChatGPT for AI assistance. But I regularly use other tools, like Google Gemini, and the same techniques apply. In fact, these tips will also work with other Anthropic's Claude, DeepSeek, Perplexity, and others.This guide also isn't limited to Google Sheets, since the same general approach works for Microsoft Excel and even more specialized tools like Microsoft Access.While sophisticated, purpose-built AI tools and even integrated AI features within Excel and Google Sheets exist (topics for another time), it's impressive how even these free chatbots can really elevate your everyday spreadsheet use. Right now, I'm using ChatGPT because it's the most popular AI tool out there, but you can get even more out of your spreadsheets when used synergistically with the right chatbot: If you're an Excel user, Microsoft Copilot delivers even more capability, while Google's Gemini is the best tool for enhancing Google Sheets. We'll address those specific tools in future articles but know that what we're looking at here is just scratching the surface.Stepping Up My Spreadsheet Game With Google Sheets and ChatGPTWhile I do not do financial analysis or data science as a writer for PCMag, I do deal with a fair amount of data. From test results to traffic reports—not to mention researching new stories and staying up to date on academic studies around AI and other tech topics—it's not unusual for me to have to dig through some numbers now and then.I've also found ways to speed up my data entry with a couple of handy automations that pull specific bits of information from a website or parse extra-long URLs to let me quickly grab product photos from an article when I need to reuse them elsewhere. But all of those tools require complex functions that, in all honesty, I don't want to figure out from scratch.AI has enhanced all of that, so let's explore the three most basic ways ChatGPT can help you do more with spreadsheets.1. Get Structured Data From Any SourceOne of my favorite uses for tools like ChatGPT is to take data from one source and turn it into a structured table or list. That sort of data manipulation can be grueling when done manually, but AI can do it quickly and accurately, letting you automate data entry and skip that step entirely.For example, I recently planned a birthday dinner for someone who loves sushi. But as anyone who knows their sashimi from their wasabi can tell you, bites of fish and rice get pricey. Putting the sushi selection and pricing details into a spreadsheet could make it easier to track who wanted what, how much, and what it would all cost. But first, I'd need to get all of that delicious data into spreadsheet format. I don't love sushi (or spreadsheets) enough to do all of that manually. Thankfully, ChatGPT is pretty great at taking data from one format (be it plaintext or a PDF) and outputting it as another. In this example, all I had to do was download the menu from the restaurant's website, upload it to ChatGPT, and specifically ask for a table that included all of the items on the sushi menu, with price information.(Credit: OpenAI / Brian Westover)It took a little tweaking to get things just how I wanted them, including details like whether it was priced per roll or per piece, but in short order, I had a nicely formatted table of menu items and prices. (Credit: OpenAI / Brian Westover)Copying and pasting into Google Sheets was a cinch. And here's a bonus tip: Pasting with CTRL+V might result in some funky data formatting. Instead, use CTRL+Shift+V to get tables to paste cleanly. (And for a real upgrade, you can do all of this with Google Gemini, and then output the resulting table directly to your Drive as a Google Sheet.)This works for more than just semi-structured restaurant menus and PDF files. You can do the same thing for plaintext lists, photos of whiteboards, scans of old book pages, almost anything. The output format can be as simple or complex as you want. You can output as a table or CSV or use structured formats like JSON or XML. In this case, while copy and paste would do the job just fine, I also wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to output something to a CSV file. (Credit: OpenAI / Brian Westover)If you're unfamiliar, CSV stands for "Comma-separated values" and is a plaintext file format for storing tabular data—literally tables of text and numbers. II's a file format that's supported by both Excel and Google Sheets, so even huge reports can be opened as a clean spreadsheet.(Credit: OpenAI / Brian Westover)As for the data in CSV format, just copy and paste the resulting text into a text file and change the file extension from .txt to .csv. Now, it can be easily opened in Excel or Google Sheets with proper table formatting, ready to be used however you need.2. The Three Fs: Formulas, Formatting, and FeaturesOnce you have your data, AI can also help you wrangle it. While you can use AI to do some data analysis, I find it's much better to just let AI assist me with building out my spreadsheets the way I want, using ChatGPT as an AI Excel formula generator.Recommended by Our EditorsExcel and Google Sheets formulas hit a sweet spot for tools like ChatGPT, where there's a ton of consistent and helpful instructional material on the topic in their training data. It's a mix of language and straightforward logic, making it easy for the AI to understand the tools and the syntax that often leaves human users scratching their heads. The result is even better: instant, copy-and-paste solutions.There are a ton of different ways to leverage this faculty with formulas. Here are just a few examples of the prompts I've found useful in my own work, starting with simple formulas.(Credit: OpenAI / Brian Westover)As you can see, these formulas work for handling math and logic, but also extracting information, whether it's grabbing domain names from email addresses or sifting through text for numbers.That same formula-writing capability is great for setting up more sophisticated conditional formatting rules:(Credit: OpenAI / Brian Westover)All you need to do is explain what you want the rule to do, and ChatGPT can figure out the formatting rule formulas for you, and even walk you through how to set up your custom formatting.And it goes the other direction, too. Not only can ChatGPT write formulas based on your plain English explanation of what you want it to do, but it can also break down what a complex formula does and walk you through the individual functions and variables. It's a great resource for learning formula syntax, but also for troubleshooting a formula that isn't working.(Credit: OpenAI / Brian Westover)Whether you need it for writing formulas, crafting rules for conditional formatting, explaining a formula you might not understand, or debugging a formula that's causing trouble, ChatGPT becomes your AI spreadsheet wingman.3. Learn Excel With AI: Your Personal VLOOKUP Tutorial and MoreChatGPT is also super-effective as a tutor for learning advanced features in Google Sheets and Excel. For all the same reasons that an AI chatbot is great at writing formulas, they're also well-equipped to teach you how to do things in your favorite spreadsheet app.What's the feature you've always thought would be useful but never really understood? Maybe it's Excel Macros or Google Sheets App Script. Maybe you feel intimidated by Regex, pivot tables, or VLOOKUP. Whatever it is, your AI tool of choice can probably help you learn it, and quickly.Now, you always have the option of looking up tutorial videos or digging through FAQs and help forums. There are even Excel tutors and courses that offer premium instruction on any aspect of the app you want to learn.But ChatGPT is also pretty great, and can do it for free. And it will do more than just regurgitate information; you can ask questions, get clarifications, and ask for step-by-step instructions when needed. You can also use it to create custom learning plans, make tutorials that solve your real-world problems and projects, and answer your questions over and over and over again. Unlike a human, AI won't grow impatient when you get stuck.Honestly, the best feature of using AI for learning is that it's endlessly patient and flexible. You can ask it anything, no matter how simple, complex, or specific to your exact use.For example, I needed to brush up on Google Sheets' ImportXML function to update several tools I use to grab product data as part of my work. So I used an extremely simple prompt to go over the basics:(Credit: OpenAI / Brian Westover)In response, ChatGPT walked me through the essential information about how ImportXML functions work, the nuances of Xpath usage, and the syntax of the formula structure used.(Credit: OpenAI / Brian Westover)And this isn't limited to any one function or feature. You can rinse and repeat to learn any aspect of Google Sheets or Excel, or all of them. You can even ask ChatGPT to put together a learning plan to boost your spreadsheet knowledge across the board.Smarter Spreadsheets for Your Daily LifeThese same uses can help you level up your own daily work in all sorts of ways. Whether you're assembling data for a weekly report, analyzing information to find actionable insights, or mining old content for new data, your use of spreadsheet tools can be simpler, faster, and more insightful.And we've only scratched the surface. Consider experimenting with using AI to go beyond basic formulas. The ability to use natural, conversational language to write complex formulas and fine-tune the more advanced features of modern spreadsheets is powerful. Even casually including your preferred chatbot in your daily work leverages AI productivity to make you faster and more efficient and unlock new ways to explore data for unexpected insights.But that doesn't mean that these lessons need to stay office-bound. AI can make Excel and Google Sheets so much more accessible, and you can leverage that in your daily life in creative ways:Grocery inventory and needs tracker to automate making grocery listsSchoolwork project and assignment tracker to keep you on course all semester longDIY Project materials calculator to keep your next project under budgetFantasy football draft and league tracking, so you can enjoy the gameAnd the broader lessons from these tips apply elsewhere. The same AI that can explain Excel formulas and teach you advanced features can be used to troubleshoot a Python script or quickly master the shortcuts in Adobe Photoshop.Personalized tutoring on things like Pivot Tables and ImportXML functions can also be applied to other subjects and skills. AI like ChatGPT is a hugely powerful learning tool and one that can be tailored to you, your projects, and your needs in any combination.Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

AI uses a whole lot of energy. Credit: Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images You've probably heard that statistic that every search on ChatGPT uses the equivalent of a bottle of water. And while that's technically true, it misses some of the nuance. The MIT Technology Review dropped a massive report that reveals how the artificial intelligence industry uses energy — and exactly how much energy it costs to use a service like ChatGPT. The report determined that the energy cost of large-language models like ChatGPT cost anywhere from 114 joules per response to 6,706 joules per response — that's the difference between running a microwave for one-tenth of a second to running a microwave for eight seconds. The lower-energy models, according to the report, use less energy because they uses fewer parameters, which also means the answers tend to be less accurate. You May Also Like It makes sense, then, that AI-produced video takes a whole lot more energy. According to the MIT Technology Report's investigation, to create a five-second video, a newer AI model uses "about 3.4 million joules, more than 700 times the energy required to generate a high-quality image". That's the equivalent of running a microwave for over an hour. Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! The researchers tallied up the amount of energy it would cost if someone, hypothetically, asked an AI chatbot 15 questions, asked for 10 images, and three five-second videos. The answer? Roughly 2.9 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is the equivalent of running a microwave for over 3.5 hours.The investigation also examined the rising energy costs of the data centers that power the AI industry. The report found that prior to the advent of AI, the electricity usage of data centers was largely flat thanks to increased efficiency. However, due to energy-intensive AI technology, the energy consumed by data centers in the United States has doubled since 2017. And according to government data, half the electricity used by data centers will go toward powering AI tools by 2028.This report arrives at a time in which people are using generative AI for absolutely everything. Google announced at its annual I/O event that it's leaning into AI with fervor. Google Search, Gmail, Docs, and Meet are all seeing AI integrations. People are using AI to lead job interviews, create deepfakes of OnlyFans models, and cheat in college. And all of that, according to this in-depth new report, comes at a pretty high cost.Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems. Topics Artificial Intelligence Christianna Silva Senior Culture Reporter Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism. Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.