Saudi Arabia’s new state subsidiary, HUMAIN, is collaborating with NVIDIA to build AI infrastructure, nurture talent, and launch large-scale digital systems.The effort includes plans to set up AI “factories” powered by up to 500 megawatts of energy. The sites will be filled with NVIDIA GPUs, including the Grace Blackwell GB300 supercomputers connected via NVIDIA’s InfiniBand network. The goal is to create a base for training models, running simulations, and managing complex AI deployments.A major part of the push is about control. Saudi Arabia wants to build sovereign AI – models trained using local data, language, and systems. By building its own infrastructure, it avoids relying on foreign cloud providers. The shift aligns with a broader trend, as governments around the world start to question how AI tools are built, where data goes, and who controls it.HUMAIN is meant to give Saudi Arabia more say in that process. While other countries have launched national AI strategies, HUMAIN stands out for its structure. It’s not just a policy office or research fund; instead, it operates across the full AI value chain – building data centres, managing data, training models, and deploying applications. Few countries have a single body doing likewise with such a broad remit.Singapore’s NAIS 2.0, for example, focuses on public sector use cases and talent development, and the UAE’s approach, which emphasises frameworks and governance. China has set up AI labs in several cities, but they tend to work in silos. HUMAIN brings elements together with a central goal: make Saudi Arabia a producer, not just a user, of AI.The ambition is clear, but it comes with trade-offs. Running GPU-heavy data centres on this scale will use a lot of power. The 500-megawatt figure is far beyond typical enterprise deployments. Globally, the environmental cost of AI has become a growing concern. Microsoft and Google have both reported rising emissions from AI-related infrastructure. Saudi Arabia will need to explain how its AI factories will be powered – especially if it wants to align with its own sustainability targets under Vision 2030.The partnership with NVIDIA isn’t just about machines, it also includes training for people. HUMAIN and NVIDIA say they will run large-scale education programmes to help thousands of Saudi developers gain skills in AI, robotics, simulation, and digital twins. Building local talent is a core part of the effort, and without it, infrastructure likely won’t get used to its full potential.“AI, like electricity and internet, is essential infrastructure for every nation,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Together with HUMAIN, we are building AI infrastructure for the people and companies of Saudi Arabia to realise the bold vision of the Kingdom.”One of the tools HUMAIN plans to deploy is NVIDIA Omniverse, to be used as a multi-tenant platform for industries like logistics, manufacturing, and energy. These sectors could create digital twins – virtual versions of real systems – to test, monitor, and improve operations. The idea is simple: simulate before you build, or run stress tests in digital form to save time and money later.This type of simulation and optimisation supports Saudi Arabia’s broader push into automation and smart industry. It fits in a wider narrative of transitioning from oil to advanced tech as a core pillar of the economy.The deal fits into NVIDIA’s global strategy, and the company has similar partnerships in India, the UAE, and Europe. Saudi Arabia offers strong government support, deep funding, and the promise to become a new AI hub in the Middle East. In return, NVIDIA provides the technical backbone – GPUs, software platforms, and the know-how to run them.The partnership helps both sides. Saudi Arabia gets the tools to build AI from the ground up and build a new economic version of itself, while NVIDIA gains a long-term customer and a foothold in a growing market.There are still gaps to watch. How will HUMAIN govern the use of its models? Will they be open for researchers and startups, or tightly controlled by the state? What role will local universities or private companies play? And can workforce development keep pace with the rapid buildout of infrastructure?HUMAIN isn’t just building for now. The structure suggests a long-term bet – one that links compute power, national priorities, and a shift in how AI is developed and deployed. Saudi Arabia wants more than access. It wants influence. And HUMAIN, in partnership with NVIDIA, is the engine it’s building to get there.(Photo by Mariia Shalabaieva)See also: Huawei’s AI hardware breakthrough challenges Nvidia’s dominanceWant to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including Intelligent Automation Conference, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

A digital-only PlayStation might be the only option soon (Sony Interactive Entertainment) As the physical games market continues to dwindle, new figures from Sony highlight how PlayStation players are continuing to shift towards digital purchases. The decline of physical games has been an ongoing story for years, with retailers like GAME being gradually chased off the high street, as more people opt for the convenience of digital. We’re now seeing companies like Nintendo try to deter people away from buying physical games, with higher prices and the introduction of half-digital measures like Game-Key cards. Microsoft’s entire strategy, with its emphasis on its Game Pass subscription service, has also downplayed the need for physical games. In its latest financial report, Sony has revealed just how much of the PlayStation audience is buying physical media and it’s sadly (but unsurprisingly) a dwindling small number. As noted in Sony’s earnings report for Q4 2024, which ended March 31, 2025, 80% of all worldwide software sales across PlayStation 4 and 5 worldwide were digital, up 3% over the same period last year. Most notably, 76% of all sales were digital over the entire 2024 financial year, which is a 6% increase from last year’s total. While this figure might be slightly skewed, as it appears to include digital-only games as well as those with physical versions, the sharp increase is still a worrying sign for anyone still clinging onto the joys of a physical box. More Trending It’s long been understood that Xbox fans are even more likely to buy digital than PlayStation, with a GamesIndustry.biz report revealing that just 19% of Xbox game sales in 2024 were via retail stores. This was down from 26% in 2023. This increase also tracks with prior reports. As noted by The Game Business, 64% of all PlayStation 5 games sold in Europe in 2024 were downloaded (however, this only counts games released digitally and physically, and in one specific region). According to GSD data, meanwhile, the physical games market in Europe dropped 22% in 2024, while UK physical unit sales fell 26%. Nintendo is still the company with the biggest presence at retail, as it’s more targeted towards families (according to reports, sales of Switch games are still around 80% physical in Europe), so while physical copies might stick around for a while there, it feels like the next gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft will inevitably prioritise digital even further. Will the next PlayStation even have a disc drive? (Sony Interactive Entertainment) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

GTA 6 is a year away, but these are the most visually impressive games you can play on your PlayStation 5 Pro in the meantime, including exclusives and even a surprise Xbox entryTech15:56, 14 May 2025Demon Souls can tide you over until GTA6Sony’s PS5 Pro had a fair mountain to climb to convince players it was worth the eye-wateringly high price of £699 when it launched in November of last year.Lacking the easily describable “the same but 4K” focus of the PS4 Pro, it’s slowly come into its own as more and more games have launched with Pro features, or had them added retroactively.‌While we put together a list of the best games to show off the console, a lot has changed since then, so we’re running it back with a fresh, expanded list.‌Here are some of the best PS5 Pro games you can play right now to help the wait for GTA 6, which could end up being the best showcase of the console.Baldur's Gate 3 is even better on PS5 Pro(Image: Steam)Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the best games of the last decade, and while its isometric perspective might have you thinking it’s not the ideal technical showcase, it really does look wonderful on PS5 Pro.Article continues belowNotably, co-op is drastically smoother on the PS5 Pro than on the base console, with a 60fps frame rate that makes it infinitely better for playing with a friend or partner.You can also hit a locked 30 FPS in Quality mode, or run it at 4K resolution and 60 FPS in Performance mode.Agent 47 has never looked better‌Hitman’s 2016 reboot and subsequent entries already looked great, even on PS4, but it’s reached new heights with PS5 Pro.The console runs IO Interactive’s huge, interconnected trilogy at 60fps with PSSR upscaling to 4K, and that makes spotting subtle details or smaller items that you can use to your advantage just a little bit easier.And, while we’re here, we’d just like to point out that considering this package contains three full games, interstitial DLC chunks, and a roguelike mode, this might be one of the most content-rich titles out there.‌Shadows is frequently stunningWe loved Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and a big part of that appeal was just how fantastic it looks at all times.On PS5, it’s a looker, but it’s on PS5 Pro where you can really see the incredible detail. The more powerful console enables ray-tracing to be enabled, while still running at a smooth 60fps.‌Considering the sheer breadth of its world, the fact it all looks so good is very impressive indeed, and shows how the PS5 Pro means developers no longer need to decide between frame rate and resolution.With the buff in resolution, you can see more projectilesA recently updated PS5 classic that got the Pro treatment four years after launch (no, we can’t believe it either), Returnal is well worth jumping back into and still marks one of PlayStation’s weirdest, most unusual exclusives.‌Selene’s roguelike adventure sees her exploring an unsettling alien world and constantly returning back to the start when she dies, and developer Housemarque has somehow managed to wring out even more pixels on PS5 Pro.In fact, it offers two-and-a-half times the resolution boost, while maintaining a frame rate that predominantly sticks to 60fps with some 55fps drops. In fact, just writing about it has me installing it again.Monster Hunter Wilds has been a huge success for publisher Capcom(Image: Capcom)‌One of 2025’s biggest commercial and critical hits so far, Monster Hunter: Wilds was, in many ways, the game I picked up a PS5 Pro for.The PS5 version is solid, but the ray-tracing and PSSR of the PS5 Pro make a huge difference to image quality. It’s pretty much the best way to play the game, too, with issues on PC.Not only that, but the PS5 Pro will hit a consistent 60 FPS which makes a huge difference when you’re tackling one of the game’s tougher monsters.‌The whole gang's here, and in an open world this time(Image: Square Enix / Creative Business Unit I)We know, we’re ready for Part 3, too, but if you’ve not played Rebirth yet and don’t have a powerful PC for it, PS5 Pro is a great choice.The magic of the PS5 Pro version is the Versatility Mode, which basically takes the Graphics Mode and ramps it up to 60fps.‌The result is a slicker, sharper version than you’d get in Performance Mode, while also being much more playable thanks to the improved frame rate.Spider-Man 2 offers double the fun with both Peter Parker and Miles Morales playable(Image: Insomniac Games/Sony)Insomniac Games sure knows how to wring every last bit of power out of Sony’s hardware, and after PS4 Pro was used to highlight how good the original Marvel’s Spider-Man could look, its sequel is one of the crown jewels of PS5 Pro.‌The Performance Pro mode aims for 60fps at 4K by using PSSR, and while we do love the fluidity, it’s hard not to be impressed by the Fidelity Pro mode.The idea of the latter is that it hits a consistent 30fps but with a huge amount of detail in reflections in puddles, windows, and even Spidey’s goggles. While the 4K 60fps Performance Pro mode is more fluid, you’ll struggle to find a better-looking game than the Fidelity Pro option.Forza Horizon 5 might actually look even better on PS5‌An Xbox game? On a PlayStation list? Yep, we get it, it still just feels… wrong somehow, but thankfully, Forza Horizon 5 is a stunning showcase of the PS5 Pro.It’s absolutely stunning in motion on any console, but the PS5 Pro adds much more foliage in Performance mode. That sounds like a small detail, but when you factor in that additional detail and the 4K resolution, it’s the best way to play–even over the Xbox Series X original.And that’s before we touch on the player’s cars offering ray-traced reflections. Seriously, play the game’s opening and prepare to be wowed.‌Demon's Souls remains one of the best-looking PS5 games aroundIf there’s one genre that you want high frame rates in, it’s the Soulslike. When even the slightest miscalculation can cost you dearly, you’ll want the PS5 Pro in your corner.In Demon’s Souls, the 2020 remake of the PS3 original, Bluepoint Games has somehow achieved what felt impossible when the PS5 version launched–it runs at 60fps, while also maintaining a 4K resolution.‌That means there is literally zero downside, and the team even managed to add in improved shadows, too. A must-play for action game fans on Sony’s Pro console.Alan Wake 2 is scarily pretty (get it?)Alan Wake 2 is one of the most impressive-looking games of the last few years, and Remedy continues to update it to incorporate new features.‌The survival horror game reaches new heights on PS5 Pro, though, adding in ray-traced lighting and reflections that make it feel even more at the bleeding edge of gaming visuals.You can also turn off ray-tracing and just enjoy a fantastic 60fps experience instead, which still looks even prettier than the PS5 version.Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a true showcase of the PS5 Pro(Image: Warhorse Studios)Article continues belowAnother heavy-hitter from 2025, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is absolutely massive in scale, offering two huge open-world maps, a whole host of NPCs and overlapping game systems.While PS5’s Quality Mode hits 4K resolution, it can only do so at 30fps. As you’d probably guess from this list, PS5 Pro doubles that to 60fps at 4K, which is no mean feat given how much of the game there is here.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌

It’s no surprise to me that financial services organisations missed the 17 January2025 deadline to be in compliance with the European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). I personally have not met a CIO or CISO who thought this deadline was realistic. Even back in January, research from Orange Cyberdefense saw 43% of respondents in the industry admit they would not be compliant by the deadline. In March, Clear Junction revealed 86% of financial services organisations were not fully compliant and more worryingly Skillcast’s DORA readiness report showed huge variation in the resilience of these institutions’ IT infrastructures. The banking and lending subsector stood out as the least prepared for compliance while the financial transaction processing subsector was the most vulnerable to cyber threats. Given we have known this deadline was coming, why such inconsistency when it comes to readiness? The reality is that cyber security strategies are always dealing with moving targets. Today, your organisation could feel secure and in compliance with DORA, but tomorrow the vulnerability landscape could change. New threats are introduced all the time. For example, you could implement a new supplier technology which could create new vulnerabilities in the supply chain, or the regulations themselves could change. In the UK, we are still expecting the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill at some point this year. The Government has announced its proposals but it is still to be confirmed when it will come into effect. The reality is that many companies are still unsure what measures they need to take to establish DORA compliance, and it requires a significant amount of vigilance across IT infrastructures to understand your exposure. One area commonly overlooked or discounted is the Java environment. Given Java comprises 51% of the software code in the financial sector, companies should make sure to give their Java applications the appropriate consideration as this is where many compliance and security risks lie dormant. Azul’s 2025 State of Java Survey & Report revealed that 41% of respondents encounter critical production security issues within their Java ecosystems on a weekly or daily basis. While three years after the Log4j incident, 49% are still experiencing security weaknesses in production from the remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability. Financial institutions must ensure their Java footprint, and that of their third-party providers or services, complies with DORA regulations. As a result, investing in detection tools and post-breach response preparedness can help significantly reduce breach costs for financial firms and their customers. Together, they will have to take an inventory of the risks associated with their applications to ensure compliance and security. That risk could be amplified if organisations use unsupported versions of Java (and the underlying open source project for the Java programming language called Open Java Development Kit (or OpenJDK for short). In highly regulated industries, like financial services, where systems run on Java are supporting mission-critical applications, not ensuring your core systems are supported is highly risky, particularly as it exposes you to non-compliance with regulations like DORA. Read more about DORA We look at the new EU regulation for cyber resiliency, the role of IT asset management in auditing and third-party risks. Compliance regulations come into force on 17 January, but many in the financial services community are not ready. To guarantee compliance, players in the financial services industry must address these five pillars: Guarantee ICT risk management: Unsupported OpenJDK distributions can expose financial institutions to significant risks, such as unpatched security vulnerabilities and performance issues. It is necessary to have an OpenJDK distribution capable of providing security patches to ensure Java applications remain resilient and compliant with management requirements. Report incidents quickly: Not all OpenJDK distributions provide security updates and critical patch updates (CPU’s) at the same time leading to unreported and unnoticed incidents that can lead to non-compliance. Industry players must equip themselves with tools capable of providing continuous monitoring for vulnerabilities and unused or dead code in production. This allows organisations to quickly and accurately detect, report and remediate vulnerabilities. Carry out regular and rigorous penetration and security tests: Using outdated or vulnerable updates of Java may not accurately reflect production environments, leading to false security assumptions. It is therefore important to have up-to-date and tested Java distributions, including legacy versions like Java 6 and 7 and architectures like Windows x86 32-bit, enabling reliable and accurate testing environments for financial institutions. Strengthen third-party risk management. Affiliating with unsupported OpenJDK distributions by third parties increases the risk of security vulnerabilities and operational failures. It is necessary to ensure that third-party applications and services based on Java meet the highest security and performance standards, thereby reducing third-party risks. Participate in sharing information on cyber threats.  Using unsupported OpenJDK distributions may result in a lack of awareness about updates and security patches, relegating these applications and services to becoming a weak link in the information sharing chain. Organisations must ensure they are aware of the latest vulnerabilities and can share relevant threat intelligence with other entities to improve collective cyber security resiliency. Cyber security is essential for stable and high-performance business operations today. By ensuring a secure Java distribution, promptly addressing vulnerabilities, and continuously monitoring their Java environment, companies can make a large portion of their IT assets DORA-compliant and strengthen their resilience against cyberattacks. James Johnston is vice president of EMEA at Java specialist Azul. He is responsible for growing Azul's software revenues across EMEA. Prior to joining Azul, James has held a number of leadership positions with Cloudera, Fujitsu and HPE.  James has an honours degree in business studies from UWE.

Image: The Pokémon CompanyThe Pokémon Company has revealed that the Pokémon Fossil Museum, a travelling exhibit of Pokémon skeletons and fossils for pudding paleontologists, will be leaving Japan for the first time in 2026. The first exhibit to debut outside of Japan will be at Chicago's Field Museum in Illinois, and is due to open on 22nd May 2026. That gives you a full year to start saving up to visit. The exhibit is a mix of real, "life-size" replicas of Pokémon skeletons and comparisons to real fossils. It'll be up to aspiring researchers to spot similarities and differences between the likes of SUE the T.rex and Tyrantrum or the Archaeopteryx and Archeops. In other words, it's a great way to see how real animals, alive and extinct, serve as inspirations for our favourite Pokémon.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube812kWatch on YouTube The exhibit has been going since 2021 and has been travelling all across Japan since its debut, so it's fantastic to see it finally heading abroad. No end date has been announced yet, but in Japan, the exhibit typically stays around between 1-4 months. If you want to get a sense of what it will look like, you can check out a virtual recreation of the exhibit at Matterport Discover (via Serebii). Or you can watch the below video from PkmnKuriru, who got to visit one of the exhibits in 2022. Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube812k It's worth noting that every single exhibit has some slight differences, so what you see in Chicago next year could be pretty different to what was on display in the Hofu Science Museum "Solar" or the Niigata Science Museum. In Japan, at least, there was a lot of exclusive merchandise to pick up while the exhibit was ongoing, so we'll have to wait and see if the North American version will have the same. Will you be planning a trip to Chicago next May? Let us know if you've managed to visit any of the exhibits in Japan in the comments. Life, uh... finds a way [source pokemon.com] See Also Share:0 1 Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment... Related Articles PSA: My Nintendo Store Switch 2 Invites Are Starting To Roll Out Refresh that inbox Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Is Now The Second-Best Selling Game In The Series Overtaking Sword & Shield Nintendo's New Store Will Stock Mini Sculpture Replicas "Bring a piece of Nintendo San Francisco home with you" PSA: Mix And Match Your Switch OLED At Nintendo's New Store (US) Decide how you want your Switch to look Nintendo Music Adds More Than 100 Pokémon Songs In The Latest Update I choose you, Sword and Shield

May 14, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Malware Samsung has released software updates to address a critical security flaw in MagicINFO 9 Server that has been actively exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-4632 (CVSS score: 9.8), has been described as a path traversal flaw. "Improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory vulnerability in Samsung MagicINFO 9 Server version before 21.1052 allows attackers to write arbitrary files as system authority," according to an advisory for the flaw. It's worth noting that CVE-2025-4632 is a patch bypass for CVE-2024-7399, another path traversal flaw in the same product that was patched by Samsung in August 2024. CVE-2025-4632 has since been exploited in the wild shortly after the release of a proof-of-concept (PoC) by SSD Disclosure on April 30, 2025, in some instances to even deploy the Mirai botnet. While it was initially assumed that the attacks were targeting CVE-2024-7399, cybersecurity company Huntress first revealed the existence of an unpatched vulnerability last week after finding signs of exploitation even on MagicINFO 9 Server instances running the latest version (21.1050). In a follow-up report published on May 9, Huntress revealed that three separate incidents that involved the exploitation of CVE-2025-4632, with unidentified actors running an identical set of commands to download additional payloads like "srvany.exe" and "services.exe" on two hosts and executing reconnaissance commands on the third. Users of the Samsung MagicINFO 9 Server are recommended to apply the latest fixes as soon as possible to safeguard against potential threats. "We have verified that MagicINFO 9 21.1052.0 does mitigate the original issue raised in CVE-2025-4632," Jamie Levy, director of adversary tactics at Huntress, told The Hacker News. "Any machine that has versions v8 - v9 21.1050.0 will still be affected by this vulnerability. We've also discovered that upgrading from MagicINFO v8 to v9 21.1052.0 is not as straightforward since you have to first upgrade to 21.1050.0 before applying the final patch." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

Sony has announced the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog additions for May 2025, unveiling a list of titles that includes newcomers such as Sand Land, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy, Battlefield 5, and more.The full lineup of titles coming to its gaming subscription service was revealed in a PlayStation.Blog post today. It’s a collection of six games for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers that will all drop come May 20, delivering a variety of experiences for fans of different genres and eras of gaming.Those starting at the Extra tier can take advantage of a whopping nine new titles coming to the Game Catalog for May 2025. Headlining the list of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games is Sand Land, an action RPG adaptation of the Akira Toriyama manga of the same name.PlayOther PS4 and PS5 highlights include Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted – Full Time Edition and the three-in-one S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy. An enhanced version of the latter was announced for PS5 (as well as PC and Xbox Series X | S) just this morning and is also set to arrive May 20. Developer GSC Game World says those who own the original trilogy release on console will receive the Enhanced Edition for free, though it's unclear if this same offer is extended to those who play on PlayStation Plus.PlayStation Plus Premium members, meanwhile, get one new classic title in the form of Battle Engine Aquila. Available on PS4 and PS5, this sci-fi action game puts players in the cockpit of a mobile war vehicle that can fight off enemies from both the air and on the ground. You can see the full list of May 2025 PlayStation Plus Game Catalog titles below.PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium Game Catalog Additions – May 2025Sand Land | PS4, PS5 Soul Hackers 2 | PS5 Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted – Full Time Edition | PS4, PS5 Battlefield 5 | PS4 S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy | PS4, PS5 Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising | PS4, PS5 Humankind | PS4, PS5 Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life | PS5Gloomhaven Mercenaries Edition | PS4, PS5PlayStation Plus Premium Game Catalog Additions – May 2025Battle Engine Aquila | PS4, PS5While we wait to dive into this month’s PlayStation Plus additions, you can read up on which games joined the Essential tier’s monthly games for May 2025. You can also see Sony’s list of April 2025 Game Catalog additions here.Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

As machine learning systems become integral to various applications, from recommendation engines to autonomous systems, there’s a growing need to address their environmental sustainability. These systems require extensive computational resources, often running on custom-designed hardware accelerators. Their energy demands are substantial during training and inference phases, contributing to operational carbon emissions. Also, the hardware that powers these models carries its environmental burden, called embodied carbon, from manufacturing, materials, and life-cycle operations. Addressing these dual carbon sources is essential for reducing the ecological impact of machine learning technologies, especially as global adoption continues to accelerate across industries and use cases. Despite increasing awareness, current strategies for mitigating the carbon impact of machine learning systems remain fragmented. Most methods focus on operational efficiency, reducing energy consumption during training and inference, or improving hardware utilization. However, few approaches consider both sides of the equation: the carbon emitted during hardware operation and that embedded in the hardware’s design and manufacturing process. This split perspective overlooks how decisions made at the model design stage influence hardware efficiency and vice versa. Multi-modal models, which integrate visual and textual data, exacerbate this issue due to their inherently complex and heterogeneous computing requirements. Several techniques currently employed to enhance AI model efficiency, including pruning and distillation, aim to maintain accuracy while decreasing inference time or energy use. Hardware-aware neural architecture search (NAS) methods further explore architectural variants to fine-tune performance, typically favoring latency or energy minimization. Despite their sophistication, these methods often fail to account for embodied carbon, the emissions tied to the physical hardware’s construction and lifetime. Frameworks such as ACT, IMEC.netzero, and LLMCarbon have recently started modeling embodied carbon independently, but they lack the integration necessary for holistic optimization. Similarly, adaptations of CLIP for edge use cases, including TinyCLIP and ViT-based models, prioritize deployment feasibility and speed, overlooking total carbon output. These approaches provide partial solutions that are effective within their scope but insufficient for meaningful environmental mitigation. Researchers from FAIR at Meta and Georgia Institute of Technology developed CATransformers, a framework that introduces carbon as a primary design consideration. This innovation allows researchers to co-optimize model architectures and hardware accelerators by jointly evaluating their performance against carbon metrics. The solution targets devices for edge inference, where both embodied and operational emissions must be controlled due to hardware constraints. Unlike traditional methods, CATransformers enables early design space exploration using a multi-objective Bayesian optimization engine that evaluates trade-offs among latency, energy consumption, accuracy, and total carbon footprint. This dual consideration enables model configurations that reduce emissions without sacrificing the quality or responsiveness of the models, offering a meaningful step toward sustainable AI systems. The core functionality of CATransformers lies in its three-module architecture:  A multi-objective optimizer An ML model evaluator A hardware estimator The model evaluator generates model variants by pruning a large base CLIP model, altering dimensions such as the number of layers, feedforward network size, attention heads, and embedding width. These pruned versions are then passed to the hardware estimator, which uses profiling tools to estimate each configuration’s latency, energy usage, and total carbon emissions. The optimizer then selects the best-performing setups by balancing all metrics. This structure allows rapid evaluation of the interdependencies between model design and hardware deployment, offering precise insight into how architectural choices affect total emissions and performance outcomes. The practical output of CATransformers is the CarbonCLIP family of models, which delivers substantial gains over existing small-scale CLIP baselines. CarbonCLIP-S achieves the same accuracy as TinyCLIP-39M but reduces total carbon emissions by 17% and maintains latency under 15 milliseconds. CarbonCLIP-XS, a more compact version, offers 8% better accuracy than TinyCLIP-8M while reducing emissions by 3% and ensuring latency remains below 10 milliseconds. Notably, when comparing configurations optimized solely for latency, the hardware requirements often doubled, leading to significantly higher embodied carbon. In contrast, configurations optimized for carbon and latency achieved a 19-20% reduction in total emissions with minimal latency trade-offs. These findings underscore the importance of integrated carbon-aware design. Several Key Takeaways from the Research on CATransformers include: CATransformers introduces carbon-aware co-optimization for machine learning systems by evaluating operational and embodied carbon emissions. The framework applies multi-objective Bayesian optimization, integrating accuracy, latency, energy, and carbon footprint into the search process. A family of CLIP-based models, CarbonCLIP-S and CarbonCLIP-XS, was developed using this method. CarbonCLIP-S achieves a 17% reduction in emissions compared to TinyCLIP-39M, with similar accuracy and <15 ms latency. CarbonCLIP-XS offers 8% improved accuracy over TinyCLIP-8M while reducing carbon by 3% and achieving <10 ms latency. Designs optimized only for latency led to an increase of up to 2.4× in embodied carbon, showing the risk of ignoring sustainability. Combined optimization strategies provided 19-20% carbon reductions with minimal latency increases, demonstrating a practical trade-off path. The framework includes pruning strategies, hardware estimation, and architectural simulation based on real-world hardware templates. This research lays the groundwork for sustainable ML system design by embedding environmental metrics into the optimization pipeline. In conclusion, this research sheds light on a practical path toward building environmentally responsible AI systems. By aligning model design with hardware capabilities from the outset and factoring in carbon impact, the researchers demonstrate that it’s possible to make smarter choices that don’t just chase speed or energy savings but genuinely reduce emissions. The results highlight that conventional methods can unintentionally lead to higher carbon costs when optimized for narrow goals like latency. With CATransformers, developers have a tool to rethink how performance and sustainability can go hand in hand, especially as AI continues to scale across industries. Check out the Paper and GitHub Page. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 90k+ ML SubReddit. The post Meta AI Introduces CATransformers: A Carbon-Aware Machine Learning Framework to Co-Optimize AI Models and Hardware for Sustainable Edge Deployment appeared first on MarkTechPost.

The Pokémon Fossil Museum, a Japanese exhibition that pairs man-made Pokémon fossils with real-world ancient life forms, will make its international debut at Chicago’s Field Museum in 2026, the museum and The Pokémon Company International announced Wednesday. Younger fans who started their adventure in Paldea and OG Kanto fans alike can view real dinosaurs and ancient life forms alongside their Pokémon equivalents. Attendees will discover how Field Museum icons like SUE the T. Rex and the Chicago Archaeopteryx compare to Pokémon such as Tyrantrum and Archeops, while exploring how fossils are uncovered and studied in both the Pokémon universe and the real world. The exhibition features Pokémon “Professors,” the ever-adorable Excavator Pikachu complete with a cowboy hat, and Field scientists exploring fossils from both worlds. “Aligned with the Field Museum’s mission to connect us to the natural world, the Pokémon Fossil Museum will inspire visitors to make new discoveries about some of their favorite Pokémon while offering a pathway to science,” said Jaap Hoogstraten, head of exhibitions at the Field Museum, in a news release, “especially budding paleontologists.” You can see a Japanese-language tour of the Pokémon Fossil Museum exhibition in the video below for a sneak peek at what to expect. Created by Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science and The Pokémon Company, Pokémon Fossil Museum is a traveling exhibition usually scheduled in museums throughout Japan. This year, Pokémon Fossil Museum is currently located at Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum until May 25. It will then move to Nagasaki City’s Dinosaur Museum from June 7 until Sept. 21. Its last stop will be the Tokushima Prefectural Museum in October. Pokémon Fossil Museum will open at the Field Museum on May 22, 2026. We asked the Field Museum when tickets will go on sale, and a representative told Polygon, “We have not yet announced when tickets will be available. Anyone interested in being the first to buy tickets can sign up for email updates on our website.” If interest in the Pokémon Fossil Museum is anything like the fervor associated with the Pokémon exhibition at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, which prompted some very bad behavior when scalpers realized they could sell museum-exclusive merchandise to hardcore Pokémon fans, you’ll want to make a plan to visit sooner rather than later. Let’s hope the Field Museum and The Pokémon Company have learned a few lessons since then, because the Japanese versions of the exhibit have some extremely cool merch.