The BTG Brief https://www.barbieri.biz/news/ AI, translated for architecture practice. en-us Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:26:24 +0000 SOM, Foster + Partners, and 24 other leading studios confirm active AI use across design, analysis, and reporting https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-25/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-25/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Dezeen spent time this month asking 26 leading studios what AI is actually doing inside their practices, and the answers landed across three broad areas: generating early design options,… AI copyright lawsuits from authors raise the same questions about architects' drawings and specs https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-24/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-24/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Authors whose books were used to train AI tools are suing, and the cases remain unresolved. The central question, whether feeding copyrighted work into an AI system without the creator's… Sherpa adds prompt-free AI rendering to the SketchUp Extension Warehouse https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-21/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-21/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Most AI image tools for architecture start with a text prompt, which means a designer spends time describing the design they're already looking at. OpenAI commits to zero data retention for enterprise ChatGPT customers https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-20/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-20/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Any firm using ChatGPT for project work has had a reasonable question sitting in the background: where does that text go? OpenAI answered it more formally this week. Microsoft 365 Copilot had a one-click exploit that exposed inbox contents and stored passwords https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-19/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-19/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Any staff member who clicked a crafted link inside their Microsoft 365 Copilot session this past year may have handed an attacker a copy of their inbox, including any passwords stored in… A registered architect published a guide to running Claude inside ArchiCAD via Tapir https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-18/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-18/ Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Chiang Ning is a registered architect and senior project architect who documents the intersection of practice and AI. Claude and a Tapir plug-in drafted a complete ArchiCAD construction document set with no human drawing https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-17/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-17/ Mon, 17 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 What if architecture firms didn't have to spend weeks producing construction document sets? A project posted at chiangning.net is exploring this with AI. ChatGPT's new Computer History feature logs keystrokes and screen activity on macOS https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-16/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-16/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 When a staff member asks ChatGPT a question on their work Mac, the answer now draws on more than what they typed. Cheaper AI closes the price gap between early adopters and everyone else — but not the workflow gap https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-14-weekly/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-14-weekly/ Fri, 14 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Two things happened this week that look unrelated and aren't. OpenAI and Anthropic cut model prices in response to Chinese providers gaining ground on capability per dollar. AI prices are falling. Most firms have no baseline to know what they're saving. https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-14/ https://www.barbieri.biz/news/2026-08-14/ Fri, 14 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0000 Nobody at most firms can tell you, to within a few hundred dollars, what they spend on AI tools in a given month.