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In 1918, as World War I intensified overseas, the U.S. government embarked on a radical experiment: It quietly became the nations largest housing developer, designing and constructing more than 80 new communities across 26 states in just two years. These werent hastily erected barracks or rows of identical homes. They were thoughtfully designed neighborhoods, complete with parks, schools, shops and sewer systems. In just two years, this federal initiative provided housing for almost 100,000 people. Few Americans are aware that such an ambitious and comprehensive public housing effort ever took place. Many of the homes are still standing today. But as an urban planning scholar, I believe that this brief historic momentspearheaded by a shuttered agency called the United States Housing Corporationoffers a revealing lesson on what government-led planning can achieve during a time of national need. Government mobilization When the U.S. declared war against Germany in April 1917, federal authorities immediately realized that ship, vehicle and arms manufacturing would be at the heart of the war effort. To meet demand, there needed to be sufficient worker housing near shipyards, munitions plants and steel factories. So on May 16, 1918, Congress authorized President Woodrow Wilson to provide housing and infrastructure for industrial workers vital to national defense. By July, it had appropriated US$100 millionapproximately $2.3 billion todayfor the effort, with Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson tasked with overseeing it via the U.S. Housing Corporation. Over the course of two years, the agency designed and planned over 80 housing projects. Some developments were small, consisting of a few dozen dwellings. Others approached the size of entire new towns. For example, Cradock, near Norfolk, Virginia, was planned on a 310-acre site, with more than 800 detached homes developed on just 100 of those acres. In Dayton, Ohio, the agency created a 107-acre community that included 175 detached homes and a mix of over 600 semidetached homes and row houses, along with schools, shops, a community center and a park. Designing ideal communities Notably, the Housing Corporation was not simply committed to offering shelter. Its architects, planners and engineers aimed to create communities that were not only functional but also livable and beautiful. They drew heavily from Britains late-19th century Garden City movement, a planning philosophy that emphasized low-density housing, the integration of open spaces and a balance between built and natural environments. Milton Hill, a neighborhood designed and developed by the United States Housing Corporation in Alton, Ill. [Image: National Archives] Importantly, instead of simply creating complexes of apartment units, akin to the public housing projects that most Americans associate with government-funded housing, the agency focused on the construction of single-family and small multifamily residential buildings that workers and their families could eventually own. This approach reflected a belief by the policymakers that property ownership could strengthen community responsibility and social stability. During the war, the federal government rented these homes to workers at regulated rates designed to be fair, while covering maintenance costs. After the war, the government began selling the homesoften to the tenants living in them through affordable installment plans that provided a practical path to ownership. A single-family home in Davenport, Iowa, built by the U.S. Housing Corporation. [Image: National Archives] Though the scope of the Housing Corporations work was national, each planned community took into account regional growth and local architectural styles. Engineers often built streets that adapted to the natural landscape. They spaced houses apart to maximize light, air and privacy, with landscaped yards. No resident lived far from greenery. In Quincy, Massachusetts, for example, the agency built a 22-acre neighborhood with 236 homes designed mostly in a Colonial Revival style to serve the nearby Fore River Shipyard. The development was laid out to maximize views, green space and access to the waterfront, while maintaining density through compact street and lot design. At Mare Island, California, developers located the housing site on a steep hillside near a naval base. Rather than flatten the land, designers worked with the slope, creating winding roads and terraced lots that preserved views and minimized erosion. The result was a 52-acre community with over 200 homes, many of which were designed in the Craftsman style. There was also a school, stores, parks and community centers. Infrastructure and innovation Alongside housing construction, theHousing Corporation invested in critical infrastructure. Engineers installed over 649,000 feet of modern sewer and water systems, ensuring that these new communities set a high standard for sanitation and public health. Attention to detail extended inside the homes. Architects experimented with efficient interior layouts and space-saving furnishings, including foldaway beds and built-in kitchenettes. Some of these innovations came from private companies that saw the program as a platform to demonstrate new housing technologies. One company, for example, designed fully furnished studio apartments with furniture that could be rotated or hidden, transforming a space from living room to bedroom to dining room throughout the day. To manage the large scale of this effort, the agency developed and published a set of planning and design standardsthe first of their kind in the United States. These manuals covered everything from block configurations and road widths to lighting fixtures and tree-planting guidelines. A single-family home in Bremerton, Wash., built by the U.S. Housing Corporation. [Image: National Archives] The standards emphasized functionality, aesthetics and long-term livability. Architects and planners who worked for the Housing Corporation carried these ideas into private practice, academia and housing initiatives. Many of the planning norms still used today, such as street hierarchies, lot setbacks and mixed-use zoning, were first tested in these wartime communities. And many of the planners involved in experimental New Deal community projects, such as Greenbelt, Maryland, had worked for or alongside Housing Corporation designers and planners. Their influence is apparent in the layout and design of these communities. A brief but lasting legacy With the end of World War I, the political support for federal housing initiatives quickly waned. The Housing Corporation was dissolved by Congress, and many planned projects were never completed. Others were incorporated into existing towns and cities. Yet, many of the neighborhoods built during this period still exist today, integrated in the fabric of the countrys cities and suburbs. Residents in places such as Aberdeen, Maryland; Bremerton, Washington; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Watertown, New York; and New Orleans may not even realize that many of the homes in their communities originated from a bold federal housing experiment. These homes on Lawn Avenue in Quincy, Mass., in 2019 were built by the U.S. Housing Corporation. [Image: Google Street View] The Housing Corporations efforts, though brief, showed that large-scale public housing could be thoughtfully designed, community oriented and quickly executed. For a short time, in response to extraordinary circumstances, the U.S. government succeeded in building more than just houses. It constructed entire communities, demonstrating that government has a major role and can lead in finding appropriate, innovative solutions to complex challenges. At a moment when the U.S. once again faces a housing crisis, the legacy of the U.S. Housing Corporation serves as a reminder that bold public action can meet urgent needs. Eran Ben-Joseph is a professor of landscape architecture and urban planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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A humanoid robotics startup co-founded by prominent artificial-intelligence futurist Ray Kurzweil said on Tuesday that venture capital firm Gauntlet Ventures will back its $100 million Series B funding round. The company, Beyond Imagination, will be valued at $500 million, and venture capital firm Gauntlet Ventures will be the round’s sole investor. Kurzweil is known for popularizing the term “the singularity,” when he predicted two decades ago that by 2045, artificial intelligence would surpass human intelligence and embark on a path of accelerating self-enhancement. These ideas, which once seemed like science fiction, are now viewed as mainstream by many technologists. Beyond Imagination is co-founded by scientist, entrepreneur and filmmaker Harry Kloor. The company has developed a humanoid robotthe Beyond Botand accompanying AI models that it intends to deploy in industrial settings such as factories, pharmaceutical plants and chip manufacturing facilities, said Gauntlet Ventures co-founder Oliver Carmack. The company has been testing its robots and is now looking for large enterprises into which they can be deployed, Carmack said, adding that he chose to back Beyond Imagination because of its potential to revolutionize U.S. manufacturing and address the projected global shortage of skilled labor. Major tech companies including Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla, alongside various startups, are rushing to make humanoid robots, and are betting that recent advances in AI will also lead to breakthroughs in robots and automation. In October last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that “a lot of progress” has been made with its humanoid robot, Optimus, which could perform many daily tasks. Progress on robots has been slow, however, as researchers have found that the language-related AI breakthroughs driving chatbot development have not necessarily helped with understanding of the physical world. Many companies are spending enormous sums to collect the real-world training data necessary to train models that can power robots. In addition to humanoid robots, Beyond Imagination is also developing Aura, which co-founder Kloor described as a universal operating system for intelligent manufacturing, allowing humans, robots and legacy machines to work together. Beyond Imagination has attracted an eclectic roster of advisers, including former Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and onetime Paramount Pictures chairman Jim Gianopulos. Dawn Chmielewski and Anna Tong, Reuters
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Women may be at a heightened risk for being edged out of their job (or having their duties change) due to AI. According to a new study, jobs disproportionately done by women, especially in higher income countries, are more steadily becoming automated. The joint study, which comes from the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO) and Polands National Research Institute (NASK), was released today. It assessed the ways in which generative AI is reshaping the world, as well as how it changes the role of human beings. We went beyond theory to build a tool grounded in real-world jobs. By combining human insight, expert review, and generative AI models, weve created a replicable method that helps countries assess risk and respond with precision, said Pawel Gmyrek, ILO senior researcher and lead author, in a statement included in the study. How AI is changing jobs The report found that globally about one in four people have a job with generative AI exposure, meaning their jobs had the potential to be performed by AI. Researchers also found a significant contrast between how at-risk women’s jobs were versus men’s. They found that the jobs that had the greatest risk of being performed by AI made up 9.6% of female employment compared to just 3.5% of jobs typically held by men. Administrative tasks, most commonly performed in clerical jobs, were at the greatest risk, but jobs in media, software, and finance were also at notable risk, as well. The researchers noted that rather than AI taking over employees’ jobs completely, human roles will, more commonly, evolve with the technology. We stress that such exposure does not imply the immediate automation of an entire occupation, but rather the potential for a large share of its current tasks to be performed using this technology, the report explained. Shaping the future of work The study’s authors also noted that governments, social dialogue, and worker organizations will be important in determining AI’s growing impact on the workforce in the future. This index helps identify where GenAI is likely to have the biggest impact, so countries can better prepare and protect workers,” said Marek Troszyński, one of the researchers and a senior expert at NASK. Still, when it comes to women’s work, it’s not the first bad news about the impact of AI. A 2025 report from the World Economic Forum and LinkedIn found that AI is making the gender gap worse. It showed that women are currently in fewer roles being augmented by AI, and more in those disrupted by the technology. Currently 33.7% of women work in occupations that are being disrupted, compared to just 25.5% of men.
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