US City to Feature First Full 3D Printed Neighborhood

The outside of a proof of concept 3D printed house is pictured in Long Island, New York, US, February 11, 2021. (Reuters)
The outside of a proof of concept 3D printed house is pictured in Long Island, New York, US, February 11, 2021. (Reuters)
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US City to Feature First Full 3D Printed Neighborhood

The outside of a proof of concept 3D printed house is pictured in Long Island, New York, US, February 11, 2021. (Reuters)
The outside of a proof of concept 3D printed house is pictured in Long Island, New York, US, February 11, 2021. (Reuters)

Construction of the largest 3D-printed neighborhood will begin in Austin in 2022. An entire neighborhood of 100 single-story, 3D-printed homes will be built.

This method of construction is faster, cheaper and less polluting than conventional construction methods, according to the three companies behind this unique project.

This development is set to be the largest neighborhood of 3D-printed homes ever built. Behind this project are Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), home building company Lennar and 3D printing construction technology company ICON.

The construction of one home takes about a week. But the advantage of these 3D-printed constructions doesn’t stop there. Equipped with photovoltaic roofs, these individual houses also present benefits from an ecological point of view.

ICON’s 3D printing technology produces resilient, energy-efficient homes faster than conventional construction methods with less waste and more design freedom – keeping construction projects on schedule and on budget.

According to the company, the printers can fabricate houses of up to 280sq m. It has already printed the walls of a house measuring between 37sq m and 500sq m in 24 hours, spread over several days.

As strong and durable as traditional housing, these printed homes are designed to withstand extreme weather conditions.

“Additive manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize the built environment as it gets adopted by the industry at scale,” The Star website quoted Martin Voelkle, partner, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group as saying.



OpenAI Abandons Plan to Become For-profit Company

'OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be,' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in an email to staff posted on the company's website. JOEL SAGET / AFP
'OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be,' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in an email to staff posted on the company's website. JOEL SAGET / AFP
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OpenAI Abandons Plan to Become For-profit Company

'OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be,' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in an email to staff posted on the company's website. JOEL SAGET / AFP
'OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be,' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in an email to staff posted on the company's website. JOEL SAGET / AFP

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Monday that the company behind ChatGPT will continue to be run as a nonprofit, abandoning a contested plan to convert into a for-profit organization.

The structural issue had become a significant point of contention for the artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer, with major investors pushing for the change to better secure their returns, AFP said.

AI safety advocates had expressed concerns about pursuing substantial profits from such powerful technology without the oversight of a nonprofit board of directors acting in society's interest rather than for shareholder profits.

"OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be," Altman wrote in an email to staff posted on the company's website.

"We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware," he added.

OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 and later created a "capped" for-profit entity allowing limited profit-making to attract investors, with cloud computing giant Microsoft becoming the largest early backer.

This arrangement nearly collapsed in 2023 when the board unexpectedly fired Altman. Staff revolted, leading to Altman's reinstatement while those responsible for his dismissal departed.

Alarmed by the instability, investors demanded OpenAI transition to a more traditional for-profit structure within two years.

Under its initial reform plan revealed last year, OpenAI would have become an outright for-profit public benefit corporation (PBC), reassuring investors considering the tens of billions of dollars necessary to fulfill the company's ambitions.

Any status change, however, requires approval from state governments in California and Delaware, where the company is headquartered and registered, respectively.

The plan faced strong criticism from AI safety activists and co-founder Elon Musk, who sued the company he left in 2018, claiming the proposal violated its founding philosophy.

In the revised plan, OpenAI's money-making arm will now be fully open to generate profits but, crucially, will remain under the nonprofit board's supervision.

"We believe this sets us up to continue to make rapid, safe progress and to put great AI in the hands of everyone," Altman said.

SoftBank sign-off

OpenAI's major investors will likely have a say in this proposal, with Japanese investment giant SoftBank having made the change to being a for-profit a condition for their massive $30 billion investment announced on March 31.

In an official document, SoftBank stated its total investment could be reduced to $20 billion if OpenAI does not restructure into a for-profit entity by year-end.

The substantial cash injections are needed to cover OpenAI's colossal computing requirements to build increasingly energy-intensive and complex AI models.

The company's original vision did not contemplate "the needs for hundreds of billions of dollars of compute to train models and serve users," Altman said.

SoftBank's contribution in March represented the majority of the $40 billion raised in a funding round that valued the ChatGPT maker at $300 billion, marking the largest capital-raising event ever for a startup.

The company, led by Altman, has become one of Silicon Valley's most successful startups, propelled to prominence in 2022 with the release of ChatGPT, its generative AI chatbot.