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Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have just answered a question thats probably occurred to Lego fans for decades: What if I could instantly turn any idea into a Lego set?In a paper titled Generating Physically Stable and Buildable LEGO Designs from Text, published last week, six coauthors lay out an invention theyre calling LegoGPT. This generative AI model can take a text-based prompt, like an acoustic guitar with an hourglass shape, and determine all of the necessary Lego pieces needed to build that structure and how to assemble them. The LegoGPT demo and code is publicly available through the study, meaning that Lego hobbyists are free to try it out at home. Although outputs are currently limited to around 20 categories (including basic items like chairs, guitars, boats, trains, and cars), the researchers are working to expand the models capabilities into more complicated categories. Ultimately, they think a LegoGPT-type tool might serve as the basis for a variety of real-world tasks in architecture and product design.[Image: CMU]How LegoGPT predicts its next blockLegoGPT is a fine-tuned version of Metas LLaMA-3.2-Instruct-1B language learning model, which you can think of as an open source ChatGPT. To teach the model how to make Lego structures, researchers trained it using a database of 47,000 Lego structures and 28,000 unique 3D shapes, each with their own descriptive captions. Based on that vast swath of designs, LegoGPT is able to predict how to build a hypothetical object using only a text prompt.To do that, LegoGPT uses something called an autoregressive model, which is common among the most popular generative AI platforms.[Image: CMU]ChatGPT and Llama are autoregressive models because, given the string of words that theyve already outputted, they want to predict the next word, explains Ava Pun, one of the studys coauthors and a PhD student at CMU. So if you ask, What is the weather, and it predicts The weather today is, then it will try to predict the next word: sunny, rainy, and so on. With Lego GPT, instead of predicting the next word, it wants to predict the next brick.Once LegoGPT has created a 3D model it thinks will work, the LLM needs a way to make sure that the structure will actually be stable. According to Pun, that proved tricky, considering that existing simulators arent trained to understand the physics of a Lego brick. So, the CMU team built their own physics algorithm for LegoGPT to check its work.We developed a customized physics reasoning algorithm that accounts for all the physical forces that the bricks experience: for example, the downward force due to gravity, friction forces, and contact forces from the other bricks that theyre touching, Pun says. The algorithm constructs a force model for the structure and then evaluates the forces over the entire structure. If these physical forces sum to zero, that means the structure will not move around. LegoGPT automatically uses this algorithm to ensure that its found a viable solution. If any of the block its chosen is causing the model to turn out wobbly, the model will continue iterating until it lands on a new version that passes the test.[Image: CMU]A future real-world applicationSo far, researchers have used LegoGPT to create a range of structures, including vintage cars, steamships, and an electric guitar. Currently, the model only works on a 20x20x20 voxel grid, though Pun says the team is already planning on adding more brick types to the models database and expanding the grid resolution.For Lego fans who want to play around at home, the studys demo, available through a public portal, can turn simple prompts into a buildable 3D Lego model and a list of necessary parts. Because LegoGPT isnt made to be Lego-builder-facing, it doesnt produce step-by-step instructions, meaning the main challenge will be figuring out how to arrange the component parts in the right order. Pun says her team used Lego brick assembly to test AIs 3D-building capabilities because of the blocks accessibility. Eventually, though, they believe this concept could be applied to real-world scenarios, like helping architects draft buildings or designing custom furniture from a predefined set of parts. Todays generative AIs cant offer thatyou can generate a cool image or video of a chair, but the model doesnt know how these things can be made in the real world, Pun says. We wanted to address this challenge by integrating physical laws and assembly constraints into generative models and creating objects that function in reality.
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E-Commerce
To Deb Cloutier, president and founder of the sustainability firm RE Tech Advisors, the news that the Trump administration is planning to get rid of Energy Star simply didn’t make sense. Trumps claims that he wants to reduce Americans energy bills is “completely at odds with this move to scrap the program that certifies energy efficient appliances. And she sees no viable way for private companies or nonprofits to fill this gap. She would know what it takes: Cloutier is one of the original designers of the program. Energy Star officially launched in 1992, under President George H. Bush. Cloutier helped shape the programs focus on building efficiency, and then worked as a consultant every year since its launch. In the past 30 years, Energy Star has exceeded all expectations, Cloutier says: It saves consumers more than $40 billion every year on their bills, and helps certified buildings use 35% less energy, which means lower operating costs. Energy Star is voluntary, not mandatory Energy Star was specifically intended to be a voluntary, nonregulatory way of getting businesses to adopt and understand energy efficiency. The program doesn’t force businesses or building owners to participate. And yet more than 16,000 companies and organizations dofrom appliance manufacturers to school districts. Dozens of voluntary programs exist today, but Energy Star was the seminal first program that proved that businesses working in concert with government in a collaborative fashion could learn from one another, and develop resources that would not be brought to market by the businesses on their own, Cloutier says. It has been a model for other public-private partnerships since, some even directly taking Energy Star’s tools: Canada uses Energy Stars buildings portfolio manager for how it rates and ranks its own buildings. Businesses dont often want to be the first to adopt something new like energy efficiency metrics; it’s a risk, and not always clear how the market will respond. But Energy Star was able to convene industry leaders together so multiple businesses could adopt these standards at once. Then, it started recognizing the top 25% most efficient products, buildings, and manufacturers. It really helped spark that competitive nature of businesses to try and set goals to have X percent of their portfolio that has energy Star certification, Cloutier says. An impartial agency, and a recognizable symbol Because Energy Star is a government program, it provides an impartial scoring metric for efficiency, based on rigorous scientific research. Energy Stars iconic blue label is also easily recognizable by consumers: According to the program, nearly 90% of American households recognize the symbol. Without one symbol from a trusted, third-party source, manufacturers or retailers may put their own efficiency labels on products, which would make for a confusing and crowded landscape for consumers. It also wouldnt be clear if those labels are consistent in what they measure or reward, or who’s verifying those claims. And if a nonprofit were to take over Energy Stars role, it’s unlikely that it could cover the same array of industriesretail, manufacturing, residential, schools, and state and local governmentsthat the federal government does. It would be a tall order to find something that replicates the federal government’s impartiality and breadth, Cloutier says. Energy Star simplifies the efficiency process The federal government is in a unique position to have the national energy data, the research from national laboratories, and the industry expertise that underpin Energy Stars tools and standards. The program draws from other government agencies like the Energy Information Administration, and it incorporates state and local regulations around emissions caps and what information buildings must disclose around their energy consumption. If you own and operate buildings in more than one state or multinational jurisdictions, its already a very complex compliant landscape, Cloutier says. But Energy Star helps simplify the process through things like its portfolio manager software tool, which allows entities to enter their buildings energy consumption and receive a score between 1 and 100, and to track their improvement over time. The private sector not only would struggle to access all the national energy data and laboratory research crucial for Energy Star, it would also face challenges from businesses themselves. I think most entities would be hesitant to give what they would consider to be confidential business information around energy usage to a third party, Cloutier says. Private businesses likely couldnt carry out Energy Star at a large scale either. Its portfolio manager is used by more than 280,000 properties. For a private business to fund such an expansive, far-reaching tool, it would likely have to charge for it, Cloutier sayswhich would burden American businesses, buildings, and families directly. As a government program, Energy Star is incredibly cost-effective: For every federal dollar invested, it delivers a return of $350. When you look at the very small budget to run Energy Star, I would say it’s sort of the little engine that could in terms of its results,” she says. The program supports more than 750,000 U.S. jobs, and Americans purchase 300 million Energy Star-certified products a year, worth $100 billion in market value. Energy efficiency benefits everyone Energy Star has long had bipartisan support, and for good reason. Making products and buildings more efficient helps the entire countrynot only by lowering peoples energy bills, but by putting less pressure on the national energy grid. That means less blackouts and brownouts, too. The more we can help drive down the amount of energy used to live, work, and play in buildings, that helps produce more bandwidth on the grid, Cloutier says. U.S. energy demand is only growing, especially with more data centers to support AI and cloud services, which will also likely raise energy prices for consumers. Without Energy Star, Americans might be more likely to choose the cheapest option at the appliance store, not realizing that doing so will actually increase their energy bills over time. Its not easy, without a third-party label like Energy Star, to translate that trade-off in purchase price versus long-term savings. But by having the Energy Star product, consumers know that item inherently saves energy; Energy Star also details the annual energy use of a productand how much that use compares to the federal standard. Consumers can even search for items like dishwashers and the Energy Star website will sort them by energy use. Losing Energy Star also means buildings might lag on efficiency, in part because the process to meet efficiency standards and implement energy-saving tools will be a more difficult undertaking. Building operators may then pass those increased utility costs on to residents, in the case of apartment buildings, or customers, in the case of hotels. Cloutier has seen numerous examples of how aligning with Energy Star standards has helped building operators save money; thousands of school districts, she says, have saved on operating costs that can then make more resources available for teachers. And Energy Star is authorized by Congress, which means it can’t legally be ended in this fiscal year. What happens after that isn’t clear, but Energy Star’s benefits are. During his first term, Trump tried to end the program but faced strong opposition, and Energy Star survived. “I am highly encouraging our clients and peers in the industry,” Cloutier says, “. . . to defend the value of Energy Star again.”
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E-Commerce
In recent months, the New York City subway system has seen a string of shocking and deadly incidents of violence, including several passengers who have been shoved from the platform into the paths of moving trains. A recent report finds that misdemeanor and felony assaults within the subway system have tripled since 2009. For everyday riders and visitors alike, there is now a lurking fear that their next trip on the subway could be dangerous. Many, including the governor of New York, are seeking solutions, which range from adding more police presence to increasing surveillance to installing more lighting to combatting fare evasion. But there’s another approach that could go a long way to improving security and safety in the subway system. Through specific and targeted design interventions, the subway system itself could be retrofitted to reduce violent crime. This is one of the conclusions of What To Do (and Not To Do) About Subway Safety, a new set of policy recommendations from the urban policy journal Vital City. Based on input and research from criminologists, behavioral scientists, transit experts, and policy wonks, the recommendations include focusing on mental health and substance abuse among users of the system, increasing access to social workers, and using police forces more strategically. [Image: courtesy WXY] Claire Weisz, cofounder of the architecture and design studio WXY, contributed to the report with ideas for design interventions that could increase a sense of security and comfort for subway riders. These design ideas include improving sight lines within the system’s underground stations, increasing visibility between passengers, and reducing dead ends and other areas that can isolate people. Rather than calling for a wide scale and expensive investment in safety infrastructure like Japanese-style platform barriers, the design ideas proposed here are lower lift interventions. The standout design idea from Weisz and WXY is the addition of highly reflective surfaces throughout subway stations. Lining ceilings, walls, and even the areas right above the edge of the platform, these shiny surfaces passively increase visibility, spatial awareness, and navigation within the sometimes circuitous underground world of a subway station. A current interior (left) and a render of proposed revisions (right) [Images: courtesy WXY] “Mirrors or mirror-like surfaces, which could be stainless steel, in the right places can actually help people see around columns, see down hallways, see around corners, but also get a sense that I’m getting closer towards an exit, or I’m getting farther away, or here’s where a platform is,” Weisz says. “Right now, there isn’t kind of intuitive wayfinding.” [Image: courtesy WXY] Reflective surfaces can also increase a sense of security. Directly influenced by the violent shoving incidents that have been happening in recent months, the subway design interventions feature a curved reflective surface just overhead of the tracks, called a soffit. This gives people standing and waiting for trains the ability to catch glimpses of their surroundings without having to look behind their backs. “When you’re standing and waiting for the subway, you can see other people,” Weisz says. The soffit also visually tightens the station interior, making it feel more compact. “It closes down the space between the platform and the third rail on the tracks, so that you’re not as open to the whole track.” [Image: courtesy WXY] The idea behind these reflective surfaces comes from the world of hotel design, Weisz says. Hotel hallways and elevators are commonly outfitted with mirrors that let people see themselves but also, perhaps subconsciously, understand that they are also going to be seen by others in this public place. It’s a bit of social engineering informed by behavioral science that encourages more self-awareness and courteous behavior. The surfaces become like eyes on the platform. [Image: courtesy WXY] Adding these reflective surfaces could be a form of tactical design, improving conditions in subway stations without the need for a drastic and expensive redesign. But for a transit system with nearly 500 subway stationsand almost every one having a unique designmaking widespread improvements will not be easy. “Everything’s expensive, but I do think a couple of pilots in stations that are complex would go a long way,” Weisz says. “My hope is some of these discussions are going to bring money forth from philanthropy or from academia to do a couple of pilots that really get monitored and recorded to find out if this is changing how people feel in these spaces as they move through the subway.” Weisz acknowledges that while the shoving attacks that have been reported in the subway system are rare, they’ve created outsized impacts on riders’ perceptions of safety within subway stations. To maintain the system’s essential role in the functioning of the city, she argues, those perceptions of safety must be improved. “Good design allows people to behave in a way that optimizes the use of public space in the system,” she says.
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