We introduce a diffusion-transformer (DiT) framework for single-image reflection removal that leverages the generalization strengths of foundation diffusion models in the restoration setting. Rather than relying on task-specific architectures, we repurpose a pre-trained DiT-based foundation model by conditioning it on reflection-contaminated inputs and guiding it toward clean transmission layers. We systematically analyze existing reflection removal data sources for diversity, scalability, and photorealism. To address the shortage of suitable data, we construct a physically based rendering (PBR) pipeline in Blender, built around the Principled BSDF, to synthesize realistic glass materials and reflection effects. Efficient LoRA-based adaptation of the foundation model, combined with the proposed synthetic data, achieves state-of-the-art performance on in-domain and zero-shot benchmarks. These results demonstrate that pretrained diffusion transformers, when paired with physically grounded data synthesis and efficient adaptation, offer a scalable and high-fidelity solution for reflection removal. Project page: https://hf.co/spaces/huawei-bayerlab/windowseat-reflection-removal-web

Within the frame of a single image lives a lifetime of experience, emotion, and affect. For Legacy Russell, author of the new book Black Meme: A History of the Images That Make Us, speed and movement--virality--may be the best indicators into how an image speaks. Russell says that "asking questions about the truth of images, consent, and how we are complicit in the way they move--these are all things that are critical to this core driver of representation, and what the implications might be." Those implications, of course, are all around us and only growing in intensity with the spread of generative AI (during a crucial election year, no less). Already we are witnessing a "decay of imagery," she says, a degradation of what is accurate and authentic. To learn more, I phoned Russell, a New York City–based curator and author (her first book, Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto, was published in 2020), hoping to better grasp how images exist in our world today, assuming novel digital forms and sometimes strange meanings--or a lack thereof.

Human-AI interaction in text production increases complexity in authorship. In two empirical studies (n1 = 30 & n2 = 96), we investigate authorship and ownership in human-AI collaboration for personalized language generation. We show an AI Ghostwriter Effect: Users do not consider themselves the owners and authors of AI-generated text but refrain from publicly declaring AI authorship. Personalization of AI-generated texts did not impact the AI Ghostwriter Effect, and higher levels of participants' influence on texts increased their sense of ownership. Participants were more likely to attribute ownership to supposedly human ghostwriters than AI ghostwriters, resulting in a higher ownership-authorship discrepancy for human ghostwriters. Rationalizations for authorship in AI ghostwriters and human ghostwriters were similar. We discuss how our findings relate to psychological ownership and human-AI interaction to lay the foundations for adapting authorship frameworks and user interfaces in AI in text-generation tasks.

It was just another day in the life of San Franciscans, who have noticed a sudden increase in the empty vehicles roaming the streets over the past few months. Google-owned Waymo and General Motors' Cruise are some of the companies testing their autonomous technology here, training the cars on how to share the roads with less predictable humans and navigate real world situations. It's happening in other cities as well, including Phoenix, Austin and parts of Los Angeles, and the companies have plans to expand to more locations in the coming year.

The conversation is on hold. The Edge community has hit the road... or they're staying home. Preparing for the academic year to begin, wrapping up projects and starting new ones, celebrating with family and friends or contemplating in solitude. After a hiatus, Edge is pleased to revive Summer Postcards: Edgies reporting in from wherever they are and on whatever they're doing, as the dog days wind out and the season comes to a close. As the world slowly returns to a "new normal" with enduring COVID restrictions in the midst of renewed vaccine freedoms, this year's collection is a testament to change (temporary and lasting), a consideration of loss (will travel ever be like it was?), and a celebration of questions (that still need answering). The hammock may be away until next year, but the memories remain. I spent the summer writing and revising the final section of a longish novel I started in 2019. It seems now as though I've been from 1946 to 2021 on my hands and knees. Various lockdowns have been a liberation from obligations and the luggage carousel, and I've never known such sweet and total focus for months on end. We have the luxury of living in the country--no shortage of big skies and moody walks. All our few breaks were in the UK--Scotland, the Lake District, the West country. Even in our remote part of the Lakes, I had to keep on writing--as in photo. The best novel I read this summer was Sandro Veronesi's The Hummingbird. Best non-fiction was Peter Godfrey Smith's Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind. I gave time also to some wonderful novellas--perfect fictional form for you too-busy scientists. IAN MCEWAN is a novelist whose works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim. He is the recipient of the Man Booker Prize for Amsterdam (1998), the National Book Critics' Circle Fiction Award, and the Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction for Atonement (2003). His most recent novel is Machines Like Me. In 2019, Časlav Brukner and myself were walking on a beach on Lamma Island, near Hong Kong, marvelling together at the astonishing strangeness of quantum phenomena. This summer, the conversation with Časlav has continued on another island, and quite an island: Lesbos, the northern Greek island near the Turkish coast. Lesbos is the place where lyrical poetry was born. Here lived Sappho and Alcaeus.

John Casey, owner of 3DPicsnStuff, shows a postcard of Fort Myers Beach from 1961 as his robot Krystal looks on at the Lani Kai Island Resort. With Krystal disarming you with words like "sweetheart," the resident robot at the Lani Kai Island Resort is sure to make fast friends. The robot is the newest addition to the Lani Kai Island Resort, where John Casey has set up the studio 3DPicsnStuff that sells crystals, lenticulars and posters. Casey prints the lenticulars and posters and uses a laser to engrave crystals. Just about any image can be produced by Casey onto a lenticular or crystal, though he prefers to work with photographs of families and visitors.

You are speaking to a grid of black squares. One of the black squares gets a text notification. One of the black squares is today replaced by an image of a naked mole rat. None of the black squares will tell you what they found interesting in the reading. The time has come to adopt the newest learning tool, Floobaroom.

Your holiday dinner table is set. Your guests are ready to gab. And, then, in between bites, someone mentions Alexa and AI. "What's this stuff I'm hearing about killer AI? Cars that decide who to run over? Welcome to Thanksgiving table talk circa 2017.

Among the many startups on display at the TechCrunch Disrupt hall in San Francisco this week are companies focused on health and biotech. The products ranged from smart exercise bikes to breast pumps that look like they're from a science-fiction film. One of them, however, stood out from the rest with a large sign that simply read "Take the piss," with the last word in big bold letters. The company is called Testcard, and it claims to tell you if you have a urinary tract infection just by peeing on a postcard. It's just one of many medtech startups vying for legitimacy in an increasingly crowded field.