AI is creating value for everyone — from researchers in drug discovery to quantitative analysts navigating financial market changes. The faster an AI system can produce tokens, a unit of data used to string together outputs, the greater its impact. That’s why AI factories are key, providing the most efficient path from “time to first token” to “time to first value.” AI factories are redefining the economics of modern infrastructure. They produce intelligence by transforming data into valuable outputs — whether tokens, predictions, images, proteins or other forms — at massive scale. They help enhance three key aspects of the AI journey — data ingestion, model training and high-volume inference. AI factories are being built to generate tokens faster and more accurately, using three critical technology stacks: AI models, accelerated computing infrastructure and enterprise-grade software. Read on to learn how AI factories are helping enterprises and organizations around the world convert the most valuable digital commodity — data — into revenue potential. From Inference Economics to Value Creation Before building an AI factory, it’s important to understand the economics of inference — how to balance costs, energy efficiency and an increasing demand for AI. Throughput refers to the volume of tokens that a model can produce. Latency is the amount of tokens that the model can output in a specific amount of time, which is often measured in time to first token — how long it takes before the first output appears — and time per output token, or how fast each additional token comes out. Goodput is a newer metric, measuring how much useful output a system can deliver while hitting key latency targets. User experience is key for any software application, and the same goes for AI factories. High throughput means smarter AI, and lower latency ensures timely responses. When both of these measures are balanced properly, AI factories can provide engaging user experiences by quickly delivering helpful outputs. For example, an AI-powered customer service agent that responds in half a second is far more engaging and valuable than one that responds in five seconds, even if both ultimately generate the same number of tokens in the answer. Companies can take the opportunity to place competitive prices on their inference output, resulting in more revenue potential per token. Measuring and visualizing this balance can be difficult — which is where the concept of a Pareto frontier comes in. AI Factory Output: The Value of Efficient Tokens The Pareto frontier, represented in the figure below, helps visualize the most optimal ways to balance trade-offs between competing goals — like faster responses vs. serving more users simultaneously — when deploying AI at scale. The vertical axis represents throughput efficiency, measured in tokens per second (TPS), for a given amount of energy used. The higher this number, the more requests an AI factory can handle concurrently. The horizontal axis represents the TPS for a single user, representing how long it takes for a model to give a user the first answer to a prompt. The higher the value, the better the expected user experience. Lower latency and faster response times are generally desirable for interactive applications like chatbots and real-time analysis tools. The Pareto frontier’s maximum value — shown as the top value of the curve — represents the best output for given sets of operating configurations. The goal is to find the optimal balance between throughput and user experience for different AI workloads and applications. The best AI factories use accelerated computing to increase tokens per watt — optimizing AI performance while dramatically increasing energy efficiency across AI factories and applications. The animation above compares user experience when running on NVIDIA H100 GPUs configured to run at 32 tokens per second per user, versus NVIDIA B300 GPUs running at 344 tokens per second per user. At the configured user experience, Blackwell Ultra delivers over a 10x better experience and almost 5x higher throughput, enabling up to 50x higher revenue potential. How an AI Factory Works in Practice An AI factory is a system of components that come together to turn data into intelligence. It doesn’t necessarily take the form of a high-end, on-premises data center, but could be an AI-dedicated cloud or hybrid model running on accelerated compute infrastructure. Or it could be a telecom infrastructure that can both optimize the network and perform inference at the edge. Any dedicated accelerated computing infrastructure paired with software turning data into intelligence through AI is, in practice, an AI factory. The components include accelerated computing, networking, software, storage, systems, and tools and services. When a person prompts an AI system, the full stack of the AI factory goes to work. The factory tokenizes the prompt, turning data into small units of meaning — like fragments of images, sounds and words. Each token is put through a GPU-powered AI model, which performs compute-intensive reasoning on the AI model to generate the best response. Each GPU performs parallel processing — enabled by high-speed networking and interconnects — to crunch data simultaneously. An AI factory will run this process for different prompts from users across the globe. This is real-time inference, producing intelligence at industrial scale. Because AI factories unify the full AI lifecycle, this system is continuously improving: inference is logged, edge cases are flagged for retraining and optimization loops tighten over time — all without manual intervention, an example of goodput in action. Leading global security technology company Lockheed Martin has built its own AI factory to support diverse uses across its business. Through its Lockheed Martin AI Center, the company centralized its generative AI workloads on the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD to train and customize AI models, use the full power of specialized infrastructure and reduce the overhead costs of cloud environments. “With our on-premises AI factory, we handle tokenization, training and deployment in house,” said Greg Forrest, director of AI foundations at Lockheed Martin. “Our DGX SuperPOD helps us process over 1 billion tokens per week, enabling fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation or inference on our large language models. This solution avoids the escalating costs and significant limitations of fees based on token usage.” NVIDIA Full-Stack Technologies for AI Factory An AI factory transforms AI from a series of isolated experiments into a scalable, repeatable and reliable engine for innovation and business value. NVIDIA provides all the components needed to build AI factories, including accelerated computing, high-performance GPUs, high-bandwidth networking and optimized software. NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, for example, can be connected via networking, liquid-cooled for energy efficiency and orchestrated with AI software. The NVIDIA Dynamo open-source inference platform offers an operating system for AI factories. It’s built to accelerate and scale AI with maximum efficiency and minimum cost. By intelligently routing, scheduling and optimizing inference requests, Dynamo ensures that every GPU cycle ensures full utilization, driving token production with peak performance. NVIDIA Blackwell GB200 NVL72 systems and NVIDIA InfiniBand networking are tailored to maximize token throughput per watt, making the AI factory highly efficient from both total throughput and low latency perspectives. By validating optimized, full-stack solutions, organizations can build and maintain cutting-edge AI systems efficiently. A full-stack AI factory supports enterprises in achieving operational excellence, enabling them to harness AI’s potential faster and with greater confidence. Learn more about how AI factories are redefining data centers and enabling the next era of AI.

An AI tool aims to wade through mountains of government feedback and understand what the public is trying to say.UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “No one should be wasting time on something AI can do quicker and better, let alone wasting millions of taxpayer pounds on outsourcing such work to contractors.This digital assistant, aptly named ‘Consult’, just aced its first big test with the Scottish Government.The Scottish Gov threw Consult in at the deep end, asking it to make sense of public opinion on regulating non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as lip fillers and laser hair removal. Consult came back with findings almost identical to what human officials had pieced together.Now, the plan is to roll this tech out across various government departments. The current way of doing things is expensive and slow. Millions of pounds often go to outside contractors just to analyse what the public thinks.Consult is part of a bigger push to build a leaner, more responsive UK government—one that can deliver on its ‘Plan for Change’ without breaking the bank or taking an age to do it.So, how did it fare in Scotland? Consult chewed through responses from over 2,000 people. Using generative AI, it picked out the main themes and concerns bubbling up from the feedback across six key questions.Of course, Consult wasn’t left completely to its own devices. Experts in the Scottish Government double-checked and fine-tuned these initial themes. Then, the AI got back to work to sort individual responses into these categories. Officials ended up with more precious time to consider what people were saying and what it meant for policy.Because this was Consult’s first live outing, the Scottish Government went through every single response by hand too—just to be sure. Figuring out exactly what someone means in a written comment and then deciding which ‘theme’ it fits under can be a bit subjective. Even humans don’t always agree.When the government compared Consult’s handiwork to human analysis, the AI was right most of the time. Where there were differences, they were so minor they didn’t change the overall picture of what mattered most to people.Consult is part of a bigger AI toolkit called ‘Humphrey’—a suite of digital helpers designed to free up civil servants from admin and cut down on those contractor bills. It’s all part of a grander vision to use technology to sharpen up public services, aiming to find £45 billion in productivity savings. The goal is a more nimble government that is better at delivering that ‘Plan for Change’ we keep hearing about.“After demonstrating such promising results, Humphrey will help us cut the costs of governing and make it easier to collect and comprehensively review what experts and the public are telling us on a range of crucial issues,” added Kyle.“The Scottish Government has taken a bold first step. Very soon, I’ll be using Consult, within Humphrey, in my own department and others in Whitehall will be using it too – speeding up our work to deliver the Plan for Change.”Over in Scotland, Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said: “Using the tool was very beneficial in helping the Scottish Government understand more quickly what people wanted us to hear and our respondents’ range of views.“Using this tool has allowed the Scottish Government to move more quickly to a focus on the policy questions and dive into the detail of the evidence we’ve been presented with, while remaining confident that we have heard the strong views expressed by respondents.”Of course, like many AI deployments in government, it’s still early days, and Consult is officially still in the trial phase. More number-crunching and testing are on the cards to make sure it’s working just as it should before any big decisions about a full rollout are made.But the potential here is huge. The government runs about 500 consultations every year. If Consult lives up to its promise, it could save officials a staggering 75,000 days of analysis annually.And what did the civil servants who first worked with Consult think? They were reportedly “pleasantly surprised,” finding the AI’s initial analysis a “useful starting point.” Others raved that it “saved [them] a heck of a lot of time” and let them “get to the analysis and draw out what’s needed next” much faster.Interestingly, they also felt Consult brought a new level of fairness to the table. As one official put it, its use “takes away the bias and makes it more consistent,” preventing individual analysts from, perhaps unconsciously, letting their “own preconceived ideas” colour the findings.Some consultations receive tens, even hundreds of thousands of responses. Given how well Consult has performed in these early tests, it won’t be long before it’s used on these massive consultations.It’s worth noting that humans aren’t being kicked out of the loop. Consult has been built to keep the experts involved every step of the way. Officials will always review the themes the AI suggests and how it sorts the responses. They’ll have an interactive dashboard to play with, letting them filter and search for specific insights. It’s about AI doing the heavy lifting, so the humans can do the smart thinking.This move towards AI in government isn’t happening in a vacuum, and experts are watching closely.Stuart Harvey, CEO of Datactics, commented: “Using AI to speed up public consultations is a great example of how technology can improve efficiency and save money. But AI is only as good as the data behind it. For tools like this to work well and fairly, government departments need to make sure their data is accurate, up-to-date, and properly managed.“People need to trust the decisions made with AI. That means making sure the process is clear, well-governed, and ethical. If the data is messy or poorly handled, it can lead to biased or unreliable outcomes.“As the government expands its use of AI in public services, it’s vital to invest in strong data practices. That includes building clear and consistent data systems, making data accessible for review, and keeping humans involved in key decisions—especially when it comes to hearing from the public.”This sentiment is echoed by academics. Professor Michael Rovatsos from the University of Edinburgh, for instance, acknowledges the benefits but also wisely cautions about the risks of AI biases and even the potential for these tools to be manipulated. He’s calling for tough safeguards and ongoing investment to make sure any AI tool used by the government remains reliable and fair.Stuart Munton, Chief for Group Operations at AND Digital, added: “The government’s use of AI to speed up public consultations is a welcome step toward smarter, more efficient public services. However, as AI adoption grows, we must ensure that people – not just technology – are at the heart of this transformation.”“Tools like this will only reach their full potential if we invest in equipping public sector teams with the right skills and training. Empowering diverse talent to work with AI will not only improve how these tools perform but also ensure that innovation is inclusive to real-world needs.”If done right, with these expert caveats in mind, AI tools like Consult have the potential to improve how governments listen, learn, and make policy based on public opinion. The UK government isn’t hanging about; the plan is to get Consult working across various departments by the end of 2025.(Photo by Scott Rodgerson)Want 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.

Apple’s long-brewing next generation of CarPlay is finally here. CarPlay Ultra officially launched this morning. And while anyone not driving an Aston Martin may be disappointed, Apple’s announcement actually brought good news for all CarPlay users. The future of CarPlay isn’t what Apple thought Three years ago, Apple laid out its plans for the next generation of CarPlay. It’s been a long wait, but today the newly branded ‘CarPlay Ultra’ is here—first on Aston Martin vehicles, and later other automakers. Unless you’re in the market for an ultra-premium new car (or already own one), today’s announcement may seem irrelevant to you. But the details of Apple’s announcement reveal it’s actually good news for all CarPlay users. When Apple originally presented its vision for CarPlay’s future, it felt very much like a ‘CarPlay 2.0.’ In other words, next-gen CarPlay was the future, which meant the existing CarPlay would become the past. Today’s announcement, however, makes very clear that Apple’s not taking that approach. CarPlay Ultra isn’t ‘CarPlay 2,’ and that’s good news for the rest of us For anyone worried about CarPlay’s future now that something new has arrived, Apple has reassurance for you. In its press release announcing CarPlay Ultra’s launch, Apple included a key sentence near the end: CarPlay Ultra joins CarPlay, which is beloved by drivers around the world and has fundamentally changed the way people interact with their vehicles, providing a safer, smarter way to use iPhone in the car. ”CarPlay Ultra joins CarPlay”—the word choice is important, as is Apple’s naming choice. CarPlay Ultra is not a replacement for CarPlay. Apple isn’t eventually going to phase out CarPlay as more and more automakers support its new system. Through its branding, and press release, Apple makes very clear that CarPlay Ultra is not ‘CarPlay 2.’ It’s not a replacement, but rather an alternative. Current CarPlay will continue getting better, alongside Ultra Now that CarPlay Ultra has officially shipped, I’m optimistic Apple will continue investing in the current CarPlay system—perhaps more than it has in a while. We’ve seen signs of this happening already, with new features added to CarPlay in recent iOS updates. Perhaps some of CarPlay Ultra’s features will eventually trickle down to standard CarPlay too. Likely not any time soon, since Apple still needs ways to differentiate the system. But a version of widgets coming to standard CarPlay seems likely eventually. In short: CarPlay Ultra is good news because Apple no longer sees it as the future of all CarPlay offerings. Rather, it’s a new, premium option that “joins” the existing CarPlay. And hopefully before long, all CarPlay users will start to benefit. Best CarPlay accessories Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

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.

Think tap to pay — but smarter and safer. Visa is tapping into AI to enhance services for its global network of customers, focused on fraud prevention, personalization and agentic commerce. Sarah Laszlo, senior director of Visa’s machine learning platform, joined the AI Podcast to discuss how artificial intelligence is powering the next generation of payment experiences. Visa processes hundreds of billions of transactions each year, so even small technological enhancements can have a large impact. The company prevents $40 billion in fraud annually. “There’s so much attempted fraud that, even though we’re very good at preventing it, marginal improvements save large dollar amounts,” Laszlo said. AI also powers Visa’s personalization systems, delivering smarter, more relevant offers and recommendations to cardholders. The company’s unique dataset presents a huge opportunity to improve transaction predictions — but also brings privacy challenges. “The key to addressing those challenges is building abstract representations of users — embeddings that capture preferences without exposing private data,” Laszlo said. The company is also working toward agentic commerce — where AI agents help customers with payments. For example, AI agents with access to payment credentials can handle transactions on behalf of consumers, like booking travel arrangements, when instructed. Laszlo shared best practices for enterprises adopting generative AI. She also recommended using open-source models when possible and developing strong relationships between governance and technical teams. In one success story, Visa used GPT-4 to convert legacy code to Python, saving $5 million, with just one engineer completing 50 conversion jobs in a quarter. To learn more, watch Laszlo’s GTC session, The Next Era of Payments: How Generative AI is Shaping the Future. Time Stamps 03:28 – Visa’s priorities for AI use. 07:09 – How Visa optimizes resources using virtual GPUs. 14:42 – AI factories and unified pipelines. 18:52 – Best practices for AI in financial services. You Might Also Like…  NVIDIA’s Jacob Liberman on Bringing Agentic AI to Enterprises Agentic AI enables developers to create intelligent multi-agent systems that reason, act and execute complex tasks with a degree of autonomy. Jacob Liberman, director of product management at NVIDIA, explains how agentic AI bridges the gap between powerful AI models and practical enterprise applications. Firsthand’s Jon Heller Shares How AI Agents Enhance Consumer Journeys in Retail Jon Heller, co-CEO and founder of Firsthand, discusses how the company’s Brand Agents are transforming the retail landscape by personalizing customer journeys, converting marketing interactions into valuable research data and enhancing the customer experience with hyper-personalized insights and recommendations. Telenor Builds Norway’s First AI Factory, Offering Sustainable and Sovereign Data Processing Telenor opened Norway’s first AI factory in November 2024, enabling organizations to process sensitive data securely on Norwegian soil while prioritizing environmental responsibility. Telenor’s Chief Innovation Officer and Head of the AI Factory Kaaren Hilsen discusses the AI factory’s rapid development, going from concept to reality in under a year.

Deal  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Buy Windows 11 Pro for 2 devices with a copy of Office 2021 Pro for only $55 Neowin Deals · May 14, 2025 13:00 EDT Today's highlighted deal comes via our Apps + Software section of the Neowin Deals store, where you can save 86% on Windows 11 Pro (for 2 devices) + Microsoft Office Pro 2021. Upgrade your computing experience with Windows 11 Pro. This cutting-edge operating system boasts a sleek new design and advanced tools to help you work faster and smarter. From creative projects to gaming and beyond, Windows 11 delivers the power and flexibility you need to achieve your goals. With a focus on productivity, the new features are easy to learn and use, enhancing your workflow and efficiency. Whether you're a student, professional, gamer, or creative, Windows 11 Home has everything you need to take your productivity to the next level. New interface. easier on the eyes & easier to use Biometrics login*.Encrypted authentication & advanced antivirus defenses DirectX 12 Ultimate. Play the latest games with graphics that rival reality. DirectX 12 Ultimate comes ready to maximize your hardware* Screen space. Snap layouts, desktops & seamless redocking Widgets. Stay up-to-date with the content you love & the new you care about Microsoft Teams. Stay in touch with friends and family with Microsoft Teams, which can be seamlessly integrated into your taskbar** Wake & lock. Automatically wake up when you approach and lock when you leave Smart App Control. Provides a layer of security by only permitting apps with good reputations to be installed Windows Studio Effects. Designed with Background Blur, Eye Contact, Voice Focus, & Automatic Framing Touchscreen. For a true mouse-less or keyboard-less experience TPM 2.0. Helps prevent unwanted tampering Windows 11 Pro also includes a number of productivity-focused features, such as the ability to snap multiple windows together and create custom layouts, improved voice typing, and a new, more powerful search experience. Personal and professional users will enjoy a modern and secure computing experience, with improved performance and productivity features to help users get more done. Only on Windows 11 Pro If you require enterprise-oriented features for your daily professional tasks, then Windows 11 Pro is a better option. Set up with a local account (only when set up for work or school) Join Active Directory/Azure AD Hyper-V Windows Sandbox Microsoft Remote Desktop BitLocker device encryption Windows Information Protection Mobile device management (MDM) Group Policy Enterprise State Roaming with Azure Assigned Access Dynamic Provisioning Windows Update for Business Kiosk mode Maximum RAM: 2TB Maximum no. of CPUs: 2 Maximum no. of CPU cores: 128 Good to know: Length of access: lifetime Redemption deadline: redeem your code within 30 days of purchase Access options: desktop Max number of device(s): 2 (Use one activation key for up to 2 devices) Version: Windows 11 Pro Updates included Click here to verify Microsoft partnership For Windows 10 or Newer! Get All Essential Microsoft Apps for Your PC with This One-Time PurchaseThis is intended for families and small businesses who want classic Office apps and email. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote. A one-time purchase installed on 1 Windows PC for use at home or work. Lifetime license for MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, & OneNote One-time purchase installed on 1 Windows PC for use at home or work Instant Delivery & Download – access your software license keys and download links instantly Free customer service – only the best support! Microsoft Office Professional 2021 (for Windows) includes: Microsoft Office Word Microsoft Office Excel Microsoft Office PowerPoint Microsoft Office Outlook Microsoft Office Teams Microsoft Office OneNote Microsoft Office Publisher Microsoft Office Access Good to know: ONE-TIME PURCHASE INSTALLED ON 1 DEVICE Redemption deadline: redeem your code within 30 days of purchase Access options: desktop Full versions No subscriptions – no monthly/annual fees Version: 2021 Updates included Here's the deal: This Microsoft Office Pro 2021 + Windows 11 Pro normally costs $438, but this deal can be yours from just $54.97, that's a saving of $383. For full terms, specifications, and license info please click the link below. Get this deal for just $54.97 (86% off), or learn more See all discounted Neowin Deals on offer. This is a time-limited deal.Although priced in U.S. dollars, this deal is available for digital purchase worldwide. We post these because we earn commission on each sale so as not to rely solely on advertising, which many of our readers block. It all helps toward paying staff reporters, servers and hosting costs. Other ways to support Neowin Whitelist Neowin by not blocking our ads Create a free member account to see fewer ads Subscribe to Neowin - for $14 a year, or $28 a year for an ad-free experience Disclosure: Neowin benefits from revenue of each sale made through our branded deals site powered by StackCommerce. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

To start off today’s best Apple deals we are once again checking back in with the M4 MacBook Air lineup as the 24GB 13-inch model hits a new Amazon low again from $1,426 ($173 off). Alongside some ongoing Apple accessory deals – USB-C cables from $7.50 and the 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter, we also have a deal on AirPods Pro 2 with 2 years of AppleCare+ as well as Yale’s Assure 2 Apple Home Key smart lock at up to $145 off and more. Everything awaits below.  Apple’s 15-inch 24GB M4 MacBook Air just dropped again to a new $1,426 Amazon low ($173 off), more from $849 While we are still tracking a particularly notable discount on the upgraded 13-inch model, Amazon has now dropped the price even lower on its 24GB 15-inch M4 MacBook Air. Most models and colors across the M4 MacBook Air lineup are still sitting at $150 off on Amazon, but it has now dropped the 24GB/512GB 15-inch model in the Midnight colorway down to $1,425.99 shipped to deliver a new all-time low. Regularly $1,599, this configuration is now $173 off the going rate to undercut our previous all-time low mention from earlier this week and deliver the best price we have tracked on any color at Amazon (or anywhere else online). As of right now, the silver model has jumped back up close to full price, the Sky Blue is at $150 off, and the Starlight variant is going for $1,427.11, or $172 off the list price. Again, folks who would prefer the more compact 13-inch form-factor can also take advantage of even lower pricing on the upgraded 24GB model with the 512GB SSD right now – it is currently sitting at $1,245.26, or roughly $200 under the price of the 15-inch model. But for those of you specifically looking for the extra screen real estate and an injection of RAM power, today’s deal is certainly worth consideration at the lowest Amazon price to date. 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 16GB/256GB from $849 (Reg. $999) 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 16GB/512GB from $1,049 (Reg. $1,199) 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 24GB/512GB from $1,245 (Reg. $1,399) 15-inch M4 MacBook Air 16GB/256GB from $1,049 (Reg. $1,199) 15-inch M4 MacBook Air 16GB/512GB from $1,249 (Reg. $1,399) 15-inch M4 MacBook Air 24GB/512GB from $1,426 (Reg. $1,599) Amazon now offering 34% off Apple’s official 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter at $39 (Reg. $59) Official Apple Woven USB-C cables up to 62% off today: One for $10 or three at $7.30 each AirPods Pro 2 with 2-years of AppleCare+ back at $180 (Nearly $100 off, Costco members only) Update 5/14: This deal is now live again for members. Details below in the original post. There is a deal right now Costco members will want to be aware of – you can score the same AirPods Pro 2 but with 2-years of AppleCare+ included with your purchase at $179.99 shipped. That’s $10 more, but actually a lower overall price depending on how much you value the extra Apple warranty protection. Details below. Okay so let’s break this down. Going with the lower-priced Amazon deal saves you $79 on the regular $249 list price of the AirPods Pro 2 with a standard Apple warranty. Costco members, can however opt to pay out $180 now and score the same $249 buds with 2-years of AppleCare+ – purchasing the discounted buds with the same AppleCare+ at Amazon will cost you $198.99 shipped right now. Both are clearly solid deals, but if you are a Costco member and value the bonus warranty protection of Apple’s official care program, it might be smarter choice to take that path. Either way, you’re looking at the latest pro-grade Apple AirPods 2, complete with the USB-C MagSafe charging case and all of the new features Apple has introduced to the package over the last year or so. Some of which include the new hands-/voice-free nod gestures (“simply nod your head yes or shake your head no when Siri asks if you’d like to hear a message, answer a call, or manage a notification”) as well as the Hearing Protection, Hearing Test action, Hearing Aid support, and Media Assist that landed last September (details on those await right here). Prefer you some AirPods 4 at a lower price instead? Amazon brought back all-time low pricing on the base model and a solid deal on the ANC this week starting from $100. Now even lower: Apple Find My-equipped mini FlashFinder keychain flashlight now $23 Prime shipped Yale’s Assure 2 Apple Home Key smart lock is up to $145 off today at Amazon If you’re looking for a full replacement smart lock for your front door, complete with Apple Home Key support, the Yale Assure Lock 2 is seeing some notable deals today. Regularly up to $320 at Best Buy, you’ll now find this model starting down at $204.99 shipped. Details below. The more universal Satin Nickel and Black Sided colorways are now down at $249.99 while the dark Oil Rubber Bronze is now selling for $204.99 shipped. These deals are also matched at Best Buy for today only. This is up to $145 off the going rate at Best Buy, although hey have been selling for closer to $290 or so at Amazon as of late. These, by the way, are the Wi-Fi supported models that also include a keypad unit alongside the Apple Home Key tech – just wave your Apple Watch or iPhone to open the lock – as well as HomeKit support: Control your smart lock using voice commands with Siri, home automations, and more, when paired with Apple HomeKit. Controlling this HomeKit-enabled accessory automatically and away from home requires a HomePod, HomePod mini, or Apple TV set up as a home hub. Via the Yale Access app, you can remotely “let people in, lock up, share entry codes, track who comes and goes, and receive notifications,” while leveraging the peace of mind of Power Reserve – “you can still use [Apple] home keys on your iPhone for hours after it needs to be charged.” Amazon has 8 colors of Beats Studio Pro ANC headphones down at $170 (Reg. up to $350) Today’s accessories and charging deals: Alongside the ongoing $100 price drops across the latest M3 iPad Air lineup, Amazon has now brought back its all-time low pricing on the most affordable, latest-generation iPad mini (A17 Pro). Regularly $499, you can now land all four colors down at $399 shipped on Amazon to match our previous mention and the lowest we have tracked to date. Not only are we also seeing the Wi-Fi + Cell models of the entry-level 128GB model at $100 off, dropping from the regular $649 down to $549 shipped, but the $100 discounts are also hitting the rest of the lineup, including the 256GB and 512GB variants. iPad mini A17 Pro 128GB $399 (Reg. $499) iPad mini A17 Pro 256GB $499 (Reg. $599) iPad mini A17 Pro 256GB $699 (Reg. $799) While Apple has unleashed its new 11-inch entry-level iPad since the latest mini arrived back in October, the mini is the most affordable model in the current-generation lineup that can support Apple Intelligence. The new 11-inch comes packed with the A16 chip and, while a wonderful casual machine considering you can score one at the $299 all-time low right now, the latest mini is a more powerful Apple tablet and comes in with that ultra-manageable 8.3-inch Liquid Retina Display you won’t find elsewhere in the lineup. Not to mention the 30% jump in CPU power, 25% better graphics performance, and upgraded storage capacity tiers. Just for comparison’s sake, here’s how the all-time low pricing shakes out on the new 11-inch iPad right now: 128GB iPad (A16) from $299 (Reg. $349) 256GB iPad (A16) from $399 (Reg. $449) 512GB iPad (A16) from $599 (Reg. $649) New 512GB Apple iPad (A16) just hit new Amazon all-time low at $100 off, but you can score an M3 iPad Air for less Huge deals return on official Apple Solo Loops: Score 3 for just $20 (Orig. $147), more Brand new Powerbeats Pro 2 hit Amazon all-time low at $200 today (All colors $50 off), open-box units at $159 Update: The price on the “excellent” open-box condition units at Best buy have dropped back down to $158.99 shipped, or $91 off the list price. We are finally getting the very first chance to save on the new Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds in brand-new condition. We featured a few chances to score an open-box set for less on the black set, but Amazon is now offering all four colors down at $199.95 shipped. Regularly $250, this is a straight up $50 off the going rate and the first deal on Amazon. Today’s Amazon all-time low pricing marks the first time we have seem the lauded new Powerbeats Pro 2 drop in price outside of the open-box offers at Best Buy. You’ll find this same deal also available at Best Buy in brand-new condition while pricing on the open-box listings have now dropped even lower as well, but only on the black colorway – they are now down at $148.99 $169.99 shipped. That’s $79 off and the best we have seen in “excellent” open-box condition at Best Buy with a 1-year warranty attached. Here the details on Best Buy’s open-box “excellent condition” units: This is an Open Box product, which means it’s been opened and returned by another customer. Each open box item is unique, and we offer different discounts based on the product’s condition. To see a product’s condition before purchasing, visit us in store. Works and looks like new. Includes all original parts, packaging and accessories (or suitable replacement). We came away quite impressed, much like the rest of the internet, on the new Powerbeats Pro 2 after getting a chance to give them a run for their money at review. Alongside the onboard heart rate tracking and Apple Find My, they feature active noise cancellation and a Transparency mode powered by Apple’s H2 chip as well as up to 45 hours of battery life, one-touch pairing, automatic switching, Audio Sharing, and hands-free Siri action. Take a deeper dive in our hands-in review right here. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Architizer’s Vision Awards are back! The global awards program honors the world’s best architectural concepts, ideas and imagery. Start your entry today, and take advantage of the Early Entry prices! When the AI wave first crashed into architecture, many feared the end was near. Digital tools like Midjourney, DALL-E and Stable Diffusion could sketch, render and visualize ideas faster than most human teams. Overnight, centuries of craft risked being reduced to a series of prompts and algorithms. But not everyone panicked. Some adapted and evolved. A few, like Amir Hossein Noori, were already living in the future and gaining recognition for it. In 2023, Noori earned Special Mentions at the Architizer Vision Awards, both in the Architect Creator of the Year category and for his AI-assisted visualization project, Cave of Wonders. His early work showed that architects could engage with AI critically and creatively, instead of defensively. He is part of a new generation of architects paving the way forward for a future of architecture with AI. Project by AHN Studio | Images courtesy of Amir Hossein Noori Rather than treating AI as a threat, Noori embraced it as a design partner. As the Cofounder and CEO of AI Hub, he has built a system that helps architects and designers survive in a creative industry that is changing faster than anyone expected. Through AI Hub, Noori has been quietly reshaping what an architect’s toolkit looks like. Instead of offering off-the shelf solutions, his team builds custom AI tools tailored to each firm’s needs. They train design teams to find and use the right technologies, create private AI models to protect creative identity and help architects win more projects, save time, and work smarter. The early days of AI’s arrival were chaotic. Many architects worried that machine-generated design would dilute the craft or even eliminate the need for human designers altogether. I for one, was worried about the fact that it further encouraged the wrong notion that everything done quickly was good, even if it really wasn’t. For Noori,  the panic missed because he was way ahead of time. Architects, he believed, could either resist it or lead it. Project by AHN Studio | Images courtesy of Amir Hossein Noori “My design process is a combination of manual and hand drawing, software, and artificial intelligence. In the initial phase of the project, the project brief is established through multiple client discussions,” says Amir Hossein Noori. “Using the brief and developing a narrative that can support the project’s design concepts, the procedure continues. After refining the narrative, I begin to visualize the ideas using sloppy sketches and diagrams, which are then translated into powerful visuals using artificial intelligence and other software.” Just like Noori, survival for architects should not be about working harder or faster. It should be about working differently. Architects who once spent days refining 3D models now collaborate with AI systems that generate dozens of options in hours. Those who once viewed design as a linear, painstaking process now see it as an agile, evolving conversation between human intention and machine intelligence. The shift has not been easy. Many traditional architects resist the idea of AI participating in the sacred creative process. But some architects are not clinging to the standard definitions of authorship. They are reframing their role and are moving from sole creators to creative directors. They guide and collaborate with AI. Their tools simply changed but the vision is still theirs. Project by AHN Studio | Images courtesy of Amir Hossein Noori Noori’s work shows that AI is not here to replace architects; it is here to extend them. By the work he has done with AI hub, he is showing that the future of architecture belongs to those who know how to lead both people and machines. Its not about losing control. It is about changing the reins and spending less time on the mundane tasks that bog down creativity and more time on the things that matter. Architecture education, too, will need to evolve. As AI becomes a standard design tool, future architects will need to be fluent in form-making, prompt engineering, data interpretation, and creative collaboration with non-human systems. Being a great designer will no longer mean just drawing faster. It will mean thinking broader. Project by AHN Studio | Images courtesy of Amir Hossein Noori At its core, architecture has always been a negotiation between art and technology. From the invention of squares and tables to the first CAD programs, technology has pushed the boundaries of design. AI is simply the next tool in that continuum. Like every tool before it, it demands adaptation and leadership, not fear. The architects who resisted AI may still be standing for now. But those who have embraced it, like Amir Hossein Noori, are already building the next generation of practice. And they are making it clear that in the next era of architecture, vision is still the most powerful tool. Architizer’s Vision Awards are back! The global awards program honors the world’s best architectural concepts, ideas and imagery. Start your entry today, and take advantage of the Early Entry prices! Top image: Amir Hossein Noori The post Amir Hossein Noori and the Rise of the Future-Ready Architect appeared first on Journal.