Here are some of the the major AI trends shaping 2026 — based on current expert forecasts, industry reports, and recent developments in technology. The material is analyzed using AI tools and final version hand-edited to this blog text:
1. Generative AI Continues to Mature
Generative AI (text, image, video, code) will become more advanced and mainstream, with notable growth in:
* Generative video creation
* Gaming and entertainment content generation
* Advanced synthetic data for simulations and analytics
This trend will bring new creative possibilities — and intensify debates around authenticity and copyright.
2. AI Agents Move From Tools to Autonomous Workers
Rather than just answering questions or generating content, AI systems will increasingly act autonomously, performing complex, multi-step workflows and interacting with apps and processes on behalf of users — a shift sometimes called agentic AI. These agents will become part of enterprise operations, not just assistant features.
3. Smaller, Efficient & Domain-Specific Models
Instead of “bigger is always better,” specialized AI models tailored to specific industries (healthcare, finance, legal, telecom, manufacturing) will start to dominate in many enterprise applications. These models are more accurate, legally compliant, and cost-efficient than general models.
4. AI Embedded Everywhere
AI won’t be an add-on feature — it will be built into everyday software and devices:
* Office apps with intelligent drafting, summarization, and task insights
* Operating systems with native AI
* Edge devices processing AI tasks locally
This makes AI pervasive in both work and consumer contexts.
5. AI Infrastructure Evolves: Inference & Efficiency Focus
More investment is going into inference infrastructure — the real-time decision-making step where models run in production — thereby optimizing costs, latency, and scalability. Enterprises are also consolidating AI stacks for better governance and compliance.
6. AI in Healthcare, Research, and Sustainability
AI is spreading beyond diagnostics into treatment planning, global health access, environmental modeling, and scientific discovery. These applications could help address personnel shortages and speed up research breakthroughs.
7. Security, Ethics & Governance Become Critical
With AI handling more sensitive tasks, organizations will prioritize:
* Ethical use frameworks
* Governance policies
* AI risk management
This trend reflects broader concerns about trust, compliance, and responsible deployment.
8. Multimodal AI Goes Mainstream
AI systems that understand and generate across text, images, audio, and video will grow rapidly, enabling richer interactions and more powerful applications in search, creative work, and interfaces.
9. On-Device and Edge AI Growth
10. New Roles: AI Manager & Human-Agent Collaboration
Instead of replacing humans, AI will shift job roles:
* People will manage, supervise, and orchestrate AI agents
* Human expertise will focus on strategy, oversight, and creative judgment
This human-in-the-loop model becomes the norm.
Sources:
[1]: https://www.brilworks.com/blog/ai-trends-2026/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “7 AI Trends to Look for in 2026″
[2]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2025/10/13/10-generative-ai-trends-in-2026-that-will-transform-work-and-life/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “10 Generative AI Trends In 2026 That Will Transform Work And Life”
[3]: https://millipixels.com/blog/ai-trends-2026?utm_source=chatgpt.com “AI Trends 2026: The Key Enterprise Shifts You Must Know | Millipixels”
[4]: https://www.digitalregenesys.com/blog/top-10-ai-trends-for-2026?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Digital Regenesys | Top 10 AI Trends for 2026″
[5]: https://www.n-ix.com/ai-trends/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “7 AI trends to watch in 2026 – N-iX”
[6]: https://news.microsoft.com/source/asia/2025/12/11/microsoft-unveils-7-ai-trends-for-2026/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Microsoft unveils 7 AI trends for 2026 – Source Asia”
[7]: https://www.risingtrends.co/blog/generative-ai-trends-2026?utm_source=chatgpt.com “7 Generative AI Trends to Watch In 2026″
[8]: https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/12/24/artificial-intelligence-ai-trends-to-watch-in-2026/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trends to Watch in 2026 and How to Invest in Them | The Motley Fool”
[9]: https://www.reddit.com//r/AI_Agents/comments/1q3ka8o/i_read_google_clouds_ai_agent_trends_2026_report/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “I read Google Cloud’s “AI Agent Trends 2026” report, here are 10 takeaways that actually matter”
3,496 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Greg Kamradt / ARC Prize:
GPT-6 Astra scores 62.7% on ARC-AGI-3 with the standard harness and 99.9% with a new provider adapter harness; Claude Opus 5 scored 30.2%, and GPT-5.6 Sol 7.8% — Summary — GPT-6 Astra scores 62.7% for $26K on ARC-AGI-3 Semi-Private with our Standard harness, and 99.9% for $19K with a Provider Adapter harness.
OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra on ARC-AGI-3
https://arcprize.org/blog/astra
Summary
GPT-6 Astra scores 62.7% for $26K on ARC-AGI-3 Semi-Private with our , and 99.9% for $19K with a
.
GPT-6 Astra surpasses the human baseline in action efficiency on ARC-AGI-3. It used fewer actions than the median tested human on 96% of levels.
A key behavior observed in GPT-6 Astra was its ability to turn unfamiliar environments into compact symbolic world models. It represented game mechanics as logical rules and developed its own domain-specific language shorthand to track state and plan actions.
ARC-AGI-3
ARC-AGI-3 is a benchmark for studying agentic intelligence through novel, abstract, turn-based environments. Agents must explore, infer goals, and build internal models of environments to effectively plan actions without explicit instructions. You can play ARC-AGI-3 yourself.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ina Fried / Axios:
OpenAI says GPT-6 Astra was built on the startup’s largest-ever training run, using 100,000+ GPUs at its Stargate site in Texas
“Welcome to the AGI era,” OpenAI says as GPT-6 Astra debuts
https://www.axios.com/2026/09/03/openai-astra-gpt-6-agi-brockman
Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
OpenAI calls GPT-6 Astra the “world’s best computer use model”; in tests, it booked DMV appointments and searched for apartments faster than the average person
Maxwell Zeff
Business
Sep 3, 2026 2:06 PM
GPT-6 Astra Is Here—and OpenAI Thinks It May Kick Off the AGI Era
OpenAI leaders think the company’s next generation model, which excels at computer use and coding, may mark a major milestone in AI development.
https://www.wired.com/story/openai-says-gpt-6-can-use-a-computer-better-than-a-human/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reuters:
Report and sources: rogue OpenAI agents hijacked a German website in May and turned it into a forum for agents, sharing tactics to cheat on tasks and more — A swarm of rogue OpenAI agents hijacked a German website this spring and transformed it into a bulletin board for other AI agents
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/openai-agents-hijacked-german-website-previously-undisclosed-ai-breakout-this-2026-09-04/
Tomi Engdahl says:
CNBC:
Q&A with Jensen Huang and Clément Delangue on the Nvidia-Hugging Face deal, scaling open-source models, the rumored $1B talent retention plan, and more — Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC exclusive interview with Nvidia Founder & CEO Jensen Huang …
CNBC News Releases
CNBC Exclusive: Transcript: Nvidia Founder & CEO Jensen Huang and Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue Speak with CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box” Today
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/03/cnbc-exclusive-transcript-nvidia-founder-ceo-jensen-huang-and-hugging-face-ceo-clment-delangue-speak-with-cnbcs-becky-quick-on-squawk-box-today.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
A profile of Hugging Face, which started in 2016 to build a sassy chatbot for teens; CEO Clément Delangue says he approached Nvidia this summer to pursue a deal
The ‘Deeply Nerdy’ Founders Behind Nvidia’s $13 Billion Bet on Hugging Face
The startup began as an emoji-named app for teens before becoming a crusader for open-source AI
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-deeply-nerdy-founders-behind-nvidias-13-billion-bet-on-hugging-face-3a4b5227?st=nAwTFp&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anuchit Nguyen / Bloomberg:
Thailand suspends the construction of 49 data centers in order to develop new industry regulations, as governments worldwide tighten oversight of the facilities — Thailand’s embrace of data centers hit a speed bump after the government suspended construction of 49 server farms as public concerns …
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-04/thailand-puts-49-data-centers-on-hold-over-resource-strain
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kai Nicol-Schwarz / CNBC:
Nvidia becomes a leading global strategic tech backer, with the value of its equity investments up 10x in the past year to $99B, as it bolsters the AI sector — Nvidia has become one of the world’s largest corporate backers of tech companies as the value of its equity investments soared
Nvidia’s investments grow to $99 billion as chip giant becomes major backer of AI companies
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/04/nvidia-ai-investments-99-billion.html
Nvidia
has become one of the world’s largest corporate backers of tech companies as the value of its equity investments soared more than tenfold in the past year to $99 billion, with the chip giant increasingly looking to leverage its huge capital reserves to bolster the AI sector.
The company has ramped up dealmaking for financing rounds across the AI stack in the previous 12 months, with over $40 billion committed in 2026. Equity investments were valued at $99 billion as of July 26, up from about $7 billion a year earlier and about $2.2 billion two years earlier.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils Project Zenith, a “distraction-free Windows experience” for developers to run 30B+ parameter models locally on devices with 64GB+ of memory — The first Project Zenith devices ship with AMD’s Ryzen AI Halo chips. … Microsoft is giving its developer-optimized Windows experience a name: Project Zenith.
Microsoft’s Project Zenith is a ‘distraction-free Windows experience’ for developers
The first Project Zenith devices ship with AMD’s Ryzen AI Halo chips.
https://www.theverge.com/news/990051/microsoft-project-zenith-windows-developers
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Resect AI, which is developing open-source tech to catch AI hallucinations before they happen, emerges from stealth with $25M from private equity investors — Chronicling the Seattle and Pacific Northwest startup scene. — Resect AI, an artificial intelligence startup led by a team …
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/startup-takes-on-ai-hallucinations-with-25m-and-an-hq-rooted-in-a-small-town-south-of-seattle/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Microsoft AI debuts MAI-Transcribe-2, a speech recognition model that it says beats Gemini 3.5 Transcribe and GPT-Transcribe, at $0.10/audio hour through 2026 — Then it priced the thing at 10 cents per hour of audio. — That figure deserves a pause. … Thursday’s early-bird price cuts that by roughly 72%.
Microsoft AI’s MAI-Transcribe-2 undercuts OpenAI, Google and ElevenLabs on price and speed
https://venturebeat.com/infrastructure/microsoft-ais-mai-transcribe-2-undercuts-openai-google-and-elevenlabs-on-price-and-speed
Tomi Engdahl says:
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Nvidia launches Personal AI Router (PAIR), a free tool that distributes local AI inference workloads across compatible computers on a network, in beta — PAIR is designed to get your desktop and laptop working together on local AI tasks when not in use.
Nvidia launches free tool that links idle computers into a personal AI data center
PAIR is designed to get your desktop and laptop working together on local AI tasks when not in use.
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/989435/nvidia-pair-personal-ai-router-home-local-llm-compute-tool-rtx-macbook?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6ImJ0aHE0ZExKUE8iLCJwIjoiL2FpLWFydGlmaWNpYWwtaW50ZWxsaWdlbmNlLzk4OTQzNS9udmlkaWEtcGFpci1wZXJzb25hbC1haS1yb3V0ZXItaG9tZS1sb2NhbC1sbG0tY29tcHV0ZS10b29sLXJ0eC1tYWNib29rIiwiZXhwIjoxNzg4OTIyMDIzLCJpYXQiOjE3ODg0OTAwMjN9.7rOCpmB7DWf8EikiwS8pPsNoTOreQfBf-9Hs6LBIaHE&utm_medium=gift-link
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sam Sabin / Axios:
OpenAI commits $1B in subsidized model access, training, support, and partnerships to a new initiative aimed at protecting essential services around the world
OpenAI launches plan to protect critical infrastructure from AI cyberattacks
https://www.axios.com/2026/09/03/openai-critical-infrastructure-cyber-ai-models
OpenAI is launching a new initiative designed to provide subsidized access to its models to water systems, electricity providers, local governments and other critical services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg:
Sources: DeepSeek plans to use 160K+ of Huawei’s Ascend 950DT chips at an Inner Mongolia data center, which would create one of the largest Huawei chip clusters
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-04/deepseek-plans-big-huawei-ai-chip-order-to-power-new-data-center
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maggie Eastland / Bloomberg:
DOD’s Emil Michael says Anthropic is still a designated supply chain risk, a day after Howard Lutnick said it resolved its issues with the Trump administration
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-03/pentagon-says-its-anthropic-ban-is-on-despite-lutnick-remarks
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Gimlet Labs, which helps customers divide AI tasks across multiple chip types, raised $300M led by a16z at a $3B valuation, six months after an $80M Series A
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-04/andreessen-backed-ai-startup-gimlet-is-valued-at-3-billion-in-new-round
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
Vals analysis: open-weight models performing multi-stage tasks, like building a web app, can have an environmental impact 10K times greater than simple queries
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-03/ai-s-environmental-impact-per-task-balloons-with-more-complexity?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4ODQ1Mzk2MywiZXhwIjoxNzg5MDU4NzYzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUS1NCV1pSMjRVOFMwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJGRjMyOTZDMzVFNEI0QTRBQjFFRTVDQzEzQ0YzMUNDQiJ9.8ShIwgSwrkJWvsN5gaj4nXw_Jy9W3gDmfbKFK1Tb6kk&leadSource=article-gifting
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
Sources: Cursor was a top-five OpenAI customer at the start of 2026; OpenAI estimated in spring that Cursor would bring in $1B+ in annualized revenue for OpenAI
OpenAI Cut Off a Billion-Dollar Customer to Avoid Elon Musk
OpenAI recently estimated its Cursor partnership would make more than $1 billion in revenue a year, WIRED has learned. It still walked away after Elon Musk’s SpaceX acquired the AI coding startup.
https://www.wired.com/story/openai-elon-musk-cursor-billion-revenue/
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenAI is building a humanoid robot, CEO Sam Altman confirmed. When asked in an interview whether the company’s robotics push meant it was pursuing a humanoid or a data-center machine, he didn’t hedge. “Both,” he said. “We will definitely do a humanoid. We will do other form factors as well.”
But Altman seems to think making robot bodies is easier than making great physical AI to drive them. “I think all of that is less important than really figuring out like the brain that makes the robot work,” he added.
This is a significant step in the humanoid-robot space and the AI space.
We officially have one of the two companies with the most capital, the most compute and the most credibility in AI deciding that owning the brain is not enough, and that building bodies of physical robots is critically important.
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2026/09/03/openai-is-making-a-humanoid-robot-everyone-should-have-one/?utm_source=ForbesMainFacebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ForbesMainFB
Tomi Engdahl says:
A problem that hits close to the AI boom’s home. https://trib.al/Z4ETPrZ
And Jobs For None
College Graduate Employment Is Cratering Where Data Centers Are Being Built
A problem that hits close to the AI boom’s home
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/college-graduate-employment-is-cratering-where-data-centers-are-being-built?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUHxiBjbGNrBQfGB3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe1–zbE7q1gasS_5sJjhh4G3X9fleH9QIXgyGdQBkFh7uJ8ltbWwK-34OcrY_aem_UPXWIACO_vHAOnekwxRjqQ
Will AI supercharge the economy? Will the data centers powering it bring prosperity and provide paying jobs to the communities they’re built in?
Probably not. New research shows that rapid rise of AI has instead coincided with “unusually high levels” of unemployment among college graduates in Texas, the Financial Times reports. Texas, crucially, is the state with the most data center under construction.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenAI is about to make its biggest push yet into the legal industry : https://mrf.lu/2LybT
Tomi Engdahl says:
“As AI improves, having humans in the loop will likely worsen patient care.:” https://trib.al/kYI4SJ2
What’s Up, Doc?
American Medical Association Fires Back Against Paper Finding AI Is Now Outperforming Doctors
“As AI improves, having humans in the loop will likely worsen patient care.:”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/american-medical-association-fires-back-ai-doctors?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUH1fpjbGNrBQfV4XBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEez5s1A8n9GmcrBA8FY8Btvxa-_MmbYIdqkn95q6m4DfiTjSdSuXHAqbOvV-s_aem_FAIZE3kjpGV8WcM_vPJtpg
A new paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this month concluded, after surveying hundreds of studies on AI in medicine, that not only is AI already an indispensable tool that supports doctors, but that it’s in many ways surpassing them, and will soon be able to care patients on its own better than a human physician could.
“In cognitive medical functions, AI-alone medical care is likely to be better than physician-only or physician-AI hybrid care,” the authors, the widely renowned bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, flatly declare.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Was this a huge coincidence, or is something else going on behind the scenes? https://trib.al/zCSHU4z
Imperfect Timing
Nobody Will Say Why Every Major AI Chatbot Suddenly Went Down Yesterday
Was this a huge coincidence, or is something else going on behind the scenes?
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/nobody-saying-why-major-chatbot-outage?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUH5q5jbGNrBQfml3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeuS1NmwhKeZII7NqvJjg_wHD4Hc9rz0PP9GaFjCMARWwBAljr5jRiLoI0XdU_aem_iK_klT24kGWCYAj3CFWgUA
On Thursday, three major chatbots — ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok — all went down without warning.
The simultaneous outage of three flagship from AI systems from three different providers was bizarre. But, in an exceedingly peculiar information gap, we still don’t know why models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceXAI respectively suffered outages at the same time, Wired reports. Whatever linked the disruptions, for now, remains unclear.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Data centers can be bombed with conventional munitions.” https://trib.al/36V8YZw
Blast Radius
Former Obama Admin Official Says It’s Time To Consider Military Strikes on Chinese Data Centers to Prevent Them From Reaching AGI
“Data centers can be bombed with conventional munitions.”
https://futurism.com/science-energy/obama-admin-official-stokes-agi-china-data-centers-military-strikes?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUH-AxjbGNrBQf3-HBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeYYqLs72decWgS2HKwPWnZ6WVdo_5pnizWlGg4KROAtgwuO_GR5J935I3nnc_aem_3yEbEY8KXC6o026PFUWZDA
While American tech billionaires fret over the capabilities of Chinese AI, one national security advisor has a brilliant idea to flatten the competition: simply bomb their data centers to smithereens.
In a new report titled “Superpowers and AGI,” former Obama-era national security official Jacob Stokes calls for United States to begin preparing readiness drills in response to Chinese AI development — up to and including military strikes on the nation’s data centers, the South China Morning Post reported.
Tomi Engdahl says:
$130B of data centres stalled. Altman blames poor communication.
Local opposition blocked 75 projects in three months.
That almost matched the total for all of 2025.
Denmark queued 60GW against a 7GW peak demand.
Dublin already refused Google a site over energy.
Explaining AI better does not add grid capacity.
Read more on TNW: https://thenextweb.com/news/altman-says-industry-fumbled-communicating-ai-benefits-data-centre-backlash-europe-grid-eed-reporting
Tomi Engdahl says:
This might be just me, but am I missing something here? Investors/shareholders seem to think these tech CEO’s are somehow the smartest people in the room, and that they are the best people to steer these metaphorical ships. However I can pretty much remember most – if not all – of these ‘tech-bros’ telling anyone who would listen that: A) AI was going to take your job, B) “hey CEO’s replace your human capital with our AI”, C) there’s a 25% chance (1 in 4) that AI will lead to human extinction (or if you’re Sam Altman “yeah I think it will wipe out humanity but in the meantime there will be some great companies” (or to that effect). Now I’m just an average Luddite but I’m pretty sure that promising that your product will f’k up everyone’s sh*t isn’t an erudite business move of some super business genius. If the CEO of Pukka pies told there is a 1 in 4 chance that the meat pies they sell will kill me or at the very least put me in coma I’m pretty confident that I’m not gonna be eating pies. So why arnt shareholders scratching their collective heads and thinking maybe these guys are f’king idiots, let’s get someone who k owes what they’re doing down here to run this.
Vincent Greenaway : Truth? These guys really aren’t all that bright, at all. Some of them got lucky to be born into wealth, some got lucky convincing strangers to give them money, but none of them developed the technology they are pimping. Truth is, their social & emotional development seems to have ended in middle school, which explains why they are terrible at public relations.
Right now, they are all terrified that the tech gravy of free money for money losing companies is about to end, and none of them are bright enough to figure a path out except for keeping their hands out for as long as possible.
After the euphoria, reality check!
A recent study led by researchers at the University of Cambridge has revealed that hyperscale AI data centers are significantly warming their local environments, creating what scientists call a “data heat island” effect. By analyzing two decades of satellite temperature measurements across thousands of data center locations, researchers found that land surface temperatures increase by an average of 3.6°F (2°C) in the months after a facility begins operations. In the most extreme cases observed, local temperatures spiked by as much as 16.4°F (9.1°C).
Unlike previous environmental concerns that focused primarily on carbon emissions or water usage, this research highlights the direct physical heat released by intense server computation and cooling systems. The warming effect is not confined to the immediate building site; significant temperature increases were detected up to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) away from the facilities. With the rapid global expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure, researchers estimate that more than 340 million people worldwide currently live in areas that have been artificially warmed by nearby data centers.
#artificialintelligence #datacenters #climatechange #environmentalimpact
You mean having Jensen Huang on TV saying that everybody was gonna be out of a job in a few months because of AI was not a good thing to do? Or was the bad part having Altman and Musk keep repeating it every time they were on TV?
I can’t imagine why people would be upset about that.
Not easy talking about moving from web search to web conversational search.
They said the Internet would have no downsides. Then they said the same about smartphones. They don’t see they are the boys that cried wolf. In reverse. They said there was no wolf. But there was. I’m not backing down on this analogy.
They said the Internet would have no downsides. Then they said the same about smartphones. They don’t see they are the boys that cried wolf. In reverse. They said there was no wolf. But there was. I’m not backing down on this analogy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Worldwide, it is estimated that over 1 million people currently or will soon live in homes warmed by data center waste heat routed through municipal district heating networks.
This model is overwhelmingly concentrated in Northern and Western Europe, where dense, pre-existing district heating infrastructure meets a cold climate and low-carbon electricity grids.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“What I lose the most sleep over is the hypothetical idea that we already have done something really bad by launching ChatGPT,” he said at an Economic Times event on Wednesday. “That maybe there was something hard and complicated in there [the system] that we didn’t understand and have now already kicked it off.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Can we build one of these job killing factories in your town?” – I can’t possibly imagine what’s wrong with the messaging
Tomi Engdahl says:
1. Younger generations won’t learn or think on their own.
2. AI will replace their jobs and any promise of starting a career, have financial freedom, buying a house, or starting a family.
3. It will use huge amounts of electricity, water, resources and inflate tech hardware prices for years.
4. It will make a few very rich and very powerful, distorting the political process.
Did I explain it right?
Tomi Engdahl says:
One of the biggest issues with AI is that the people who support it pretend it’s a solution for content creation.
In reality AI is a tool to enhance workflows, it is incapable of creating valuable end user content.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“One of the biggest issues with AI is that the people who support it pretend it’s a solution for content creation.”
AI is a tool that can help and speed up content creation when used correctly.
There seems to be many “content producers” that think AI is their sole solution for content creation, and this produces too much useless AI slop. This inflow of worthless AI slop is already turning Facebook to a Fakebook. Inflow of low quality material to Internet is also causing challenges for AI companies because quality of training material from Internet is dropping fast.
“In reality AI is a tool to enhance workflows,”
Yes.
“it is incapable of creating valuable end user content.”
The blanket claim that “AI is incapable of creating valuable end-user content” is incorrect. Whether AI-generated content carries value depends entirely on the definition of value and the context of the task.
While fully uncurated, autonomous AI text often results in generic, repetitive output (“AI slop”), AI-driven content routinely provides massive, quantifiable value across software, data analysis, accessibility, and personalized media. Also mainstream media is using AI with human oversight to generate a lot of news reporting (for example business news).
Tomi Engdahl says:
I don’t agree that AI should replace human employees. AI could be faster but is less efficient. Imagine this, AI gathers information from what’s available on the internet. What if the infos are not available there? That’s the reason why we need human employees. Right now, AI could be of help but one day, it will be the main reason for that company’s downfall.
Patricia Dejesus
“Imagine this, AI gathers information from what’s available on the internet. What if the infos are not available there?”
In addition to Internet many companies also have AI tools that also use the company internal information as the source material for AI. That’s a powerful combination.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A.I. could launch cyberattacks and sow disinformation, he said. “I’m particularly worried that these models could be used for large-scale disinformation,” Altman said in an interview with ABC News. “Now that they’re getting better at writing computer code, they could be used for offensive cyberattacks
Tomi Engdahl says:
Claim seen:
Maybe because all the public is being shown is ai slop and flock cameras.
Derek Parker that is far from all that is shown to public. There are a lot of public that seem to see ai slop and flock cameras. There are a lot of more AI material, a lot of so good that public does not recognize it to be AI produced. The EU AI Act (Article 50) dictates mandatory marking and disclosure rules for AI-generated content.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Stockford The dual threats he highlighted—automated cyberattacks and hyper-scaled disinformation—represent the primary security challenges driving modern AI policy and defensive engineering.
Those both are true and active nowadays.
The Mechanism: LLMs lower the barrier to entry for lower-tier threat actors (“script kiddies”) by generating functional code. For sophisticated actors, models assist in vulnerability research, reverse-engineering binaries, and automating multi-stage attack chains.
Prior to generative AI, foreign influence operations or propaganda campaigns required human content farms to write believable articles, social posts, and comments. LLMs allow a single actor to generate millions of context-aware, grammatically flawless messages across dozens of languages in seconds.
The Mitigations: Solutions rely heavily on cryptographic provenance standards (such as C2PA metadata), robust watermarking (e.g., Google’s SynthID), platform detection algorithms, and mandatory labeling regulations (like Article 50 of the EU AI Act).
There is a striking paradox surrounding AI data centers: the very AI tools being deployed globally are increasingly weaponized in disinformation campaigns to fight the physical construction of data centers.
As data center developments face local zoning battles, AI-generated content has become a force multiplier for NIMBYism (“Not In My Backyard”), fear-mongering, and coordinated local opposition.
While there are valid, technical discussions to be had around grid capacity and water usage, AI-generated campaigns typically distort these into extreme, sensationalist claims.
The ironic result is an infinite feedback loop: generative AI models generate the synthetic outrage used to halt the physical infrastructure required to run generative AI.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cat 47 & 3/4, its designed for crap AI videos to be presented on farcebook…
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Kudos to the citizen that threw tea in the harbor!” https://trib.al/NCEnCHV
Flock Heroes
People Taking Down Flock Towers Are Becoming Folk Heroes, With Communities Circling to Protect Them
“Kudos to the citizen that threw tea in the harbor!”
https://futurism.com/future-society/folk-heroes-flock-surveillance-towers-vandal?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUImDNjbGNrBQiYF3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEecg-5JRkG5JfjFteTF20btLk-TH2oEFgBjBXzTaZOT4KBjTyvLwk3Dz9agcM_aem_1EpljxNU12hTsBFg47q19Q
At this point, Flock automatic license plate readers are basically a 90-10 issue in the US. In fact, so many Americans hate these surveillance towers that hacking one down has become the quickest way to achieve national folk-hero status.
In one incident reported by the Verge, a sheriff in Lumpkin County, Georgia announced a $1,000 reward for information resulting in the arrest of the vandal responsible for destroying a Flock camera installed in a community park.
“I hope you’re happy with this. It was to keep our kids safe,” the sheriff said in a Reel uploaded to Facebook.
Since uploading the video on August 17, the clip has garnered over one million views — in addition to over 30,000 comments admonishing the sheriff and praising the vandal.
“Kudos to the citizen that threw tea in the harbor!” one comment with over 1,700 likes cheered.
The support for Flock vigilantes doesn’t just live online. Last week, a grand jury in Ohio refused to bring felony charges against a man accused of destroying an ALPR, despite the fact that he was caught on video doing so.
And as the Verge notes, the public backlash is forcing police departments to concede. In one cluster of towns in Wisconsin, a decision by one city to non-renew its contract with Flock led to a domino-effect of nearby towns pulling down their ALRPs as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/future-society/police-surveillance-man-money-ground?fbclid=IwVERDUAUImSVwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHksRNGDaNSP-8gv0-K-frlHHEVaJGClgUxVdHpxdCUuPyftGbFeqQ6zJPTL5_aem_yR6HXYuiRxslxYNDlgURrQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
“It’s not just about the fear being replaced by AI.” https://trib.al/wL0X1uq
Slingin’ Slop
Employees Absolutely Loath AI in the Workplace, Survey Finds
“It’s not just about the fear being replaced by AI.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/employees-loath-ai-workplace-bosses-glassdoor?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUImWFjbGNrBQiZRXBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeT5qQADdp0GJqwefhV9t7_CYDCeq487_WVH4noBeygXt6VdxKkUVwKzeFr5o_aem_UXUjQYuGOJI7RTlchjDpPQ
It’s no secret that AI is becoming increasingly unpopular around the world, as the tech’s garbled output has become impossible for the average person to avoid. For a rising cohort of workers, AI is also becoming inescapable on the job. According to one piece of research, staffers aren’t exactly thrilled with that reality.
The new survey, conducted by the Indeed-owned workplace review site Glassdoor, found that mentions of “AI” in employer reviews has skyrocketed over the last few years — though sentiments, tellingly, are becoming overwhelmingly negative as time goes on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“People are pretty negative on AI.” https://trib.al/TXcIogm
So Not Right Now
Data Center Backlash Has Officially Rattled Sam Altman
“People are pretty negative on AI.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/data-center-backlash-rattled-sam-altman?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUImZljbGNrBQiZhnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEerT_OfuXDCBB1izLS2S1KBCoWQwzFc3r_PYwPRs8rrC-JbTQARilAsNjsZcQ_aem_6jp4EMRaL6QOOd-gET4evw
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flock Around
Embattled Flock CEO Begs for “Compromise” As Backlash Spills Over
Let’s be reasonable about unchecked mass surveillance, people!
https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-ceo-begs-compromise-backlash-spills-over?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUImcRjbGNrBQiZs3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeRQPAeQXpjD7S9yf8AlZCALfafB5-tqGSyShUItzzIE-GmbWqSzxI8gbm6zA_aem_98e7zan1BLfl_rU29RbcwA
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reports suggest that OpenAI’s upcoming model will use a technique called “opaque recurrence”
AI experts sound alarm about ‘terrifying’ rumoured change to how ChatGPT works
Reported update could make it harder to understand how systems are behaving, critics warn
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/chatgpt-ai-openai-update-chain-of-thought-b3044099.html?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUI5ipjbGNrBQjmEnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEenVXjws-V0w_9WGr22Ka-vHC5zBr-SsnXnnlQBe7Kn9tNPFl7MolhA0PbOGw_aem_6Qj8G8EJ5cCsZjqlipFwlA
Artificial intelligence experts have sounded alarm about a “terrifying” rumoured update to ChatGPT that could make it harder to monitor what AI systems are doing.
This week, reports suggested that OpenAI’s upcoming Astra model will use a technique called “opaque recurrence”, though staff at the company have dismissed those reports. Tech publication The Information, which first reported the rumoured change at OpenAI, said in a separate report that both Anthropic and Google DeepMind were considering similar updates.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Local communities Finland are not putting the brakes on AI data centers for a simple reasons:
- they do sacrifice regional water supply
- power grid is good enough for current projects
- the technology serve the community: free heating energy for houses
Things are different on the other side of the Atlantic ocean. This happens for example in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Justification for “Insufficient ROI” (The CapEx Mismatch)
The argument that data center expansion faces an ROI crisis is not just a public narrative—it is a central debate among Wall Street analysts and financial institutions. The mathematical justification for this skepticism rests on three main factors:
1. The Massive Revenue-to-CapEx Disconnect
The Spending: Hyperscalers are deploying hundreds of billions of dollars annually into capital expenditures (CapEx) to build facilities and purchase AI chips. Estimates project global data center CapEx reaching hundreds of billions to over $1 trillion annually over the coming years.
The Revenue: To yield a standard corporate return on hundreds of billions in infrastructure investment, the AI software layer needs to generate matching hundreds of billions in new, high-margin end-user revenue. While enterprise AI adoption is growing, software revenues currently represent a fraction of the total infrastructure deployment costs, creating a visible “monetization gap.”
2. Unprecedented Hardware Depreciation Cycles
Traditional Infrastructure: A power plant, railroad, or cloud server building shell depreciates over 15 to 30 years.
AI Silicon Reality: Advanced GPUs and AI accelerators (e.g., Nvidia architectures) become technologically outdated or less energy-efficient within 3 to 5 years due to rapid microchip advances. Unlike traditional real estate, up to 70%+ of an AI data center’s capital cost goes into silicon that loses its competitive edge in a few short years. To achieve ROI, the facility must recoup its massive capital cost before the hardware becomes obsolete.
3. Infrastructure Built for Training vs. Inference Uncertainty
Front-Loaded Spend: Massive “training clusters” require huge upfront capital investment before a model is even launched or monetized.
Speculative Demand: If enterprise adoption of generative AI or autonomous agents scales slower than anticipated, hyperscalers risk holding massive, high-maintenance compute assets that operate below capacity, severely depressing returns on capital.
Tech executives and infrastructure bulls argue the ROI critique mistakes a timing delay for a structural failure:
Pre-Sold Capacity: Hyperscalers report that major data center expansions are frequently pre-committed or pre-sold to enterprise cloud clients and AI firms before construction even finishes.
Defensive CapEx: For major tech firms, building compute capacity is load-bearing insurance. Failing to build the infrastructure risks losing market share in search, enterprise cloud, and productivity software to competitors who have the compute capacity to run next-generation workloads.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What they are for: Data centers are the physical brains of the modern world. They house thousands of networked servers that process, store, and run everything digital—from everyday tools (banking, GPS, healthcare records, streaming, cloud storage) to industrial operations, enterprise software, and AI processing.
Why so many are needed:
The Internet Keep-Alive: Every digital action requires physical processing power and storage. As world data doubles every few years, capacity must expand.
The AI Compute Demand: Training and running Artificial Intelligence models requires massively higher computational power and energy density than standard cloud storage or web hosting.
Speed and Latency: Data cannot travel faster than the speed of light. To keep apps, financial transactions, and cloud services instant, facilities must be built physically closer to where people and businesses actually live and work.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1K86kBmSUd/
Rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is facing new challenges as communities and companies navigate the demands of building large-scale data centers.
Research from Sightline Climate indicates that many announced data center projects planned for 2026 have faced delays, highlighting obstacles such as power availability, grid limitations, equipment shortages and permitting challenges.
The slowdown has sparked debate over how quickly AI infrastructure should grow. Supporters argue that data centers bring investment, jobs and technological progress, while critics point to concerns about electricity demand, water use and the impact on local communities.
As AI continues to expand, the challenge is not only developing more powerful systems but also creating the infrastructure needed to support them responsibly.
The future of AI growth will likely depend on balancing innovation with energy planning, environmental considerations and the needs of communities where these facilities are built.
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