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”
2,969 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
The very words DATA CENTER are dangerous. They cause humans brains
to stop working!
Tomi Engdahl says:
I always see people complaining about data centers but don’t see any who would willingly get rid of their cellphone, laptop, or computer. Or stop streaming you favourites movies or shows. Data centers store all your digital information.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everyone here complains about AI data centers while using AI data centers to do so. The Dunning-Kruger effect is strong here.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Laura Whitcomb are you using Facebook to post this? Or Google to search what data centers are? Or watch YouTube videos about it? Or watch Netflix movies about the end of the world or geographic videos on oceans? Guess what? You have contributed to the need of data centers as everything I listed uses them to function.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BlackRock is set to take an 80% ownership stake in one of the biggest artificial intelligence data center campuses in the country—Meta’s $14 billion, one gigawatt project in El Paso.
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2026/07/28/blackrock-will-own-80-of-metas-massive-new-ai-data-center-in-el-paso/?utm_source=ForbesMainFacebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ForbesMainFB
Photo: Mario Tama via Getty Images
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1G2tgraYis/
A majority of people who say they oppose AI data centers don’t even live near one, according to new research that exposes the gap between national sentiment and local reality.
Public opposition to AI data centers is transitioning from a local “not in my backyard” issue into a nationwide movement. A recent survey from Milltown Partners reveals that only 8% of Americans who oppose data centers actually live near one, suggesting opposition has transcended geographic proximity to become a matter of broader principle.
As tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, and Google race to build the enormous server facilities required to train and run advanced AI models, public pushback is skyrocketing.
According to Data Center Watch, public resistance has already delayed or blocked at least 75 U.S. data center projects worth approximately $130 billion during the first three months of 2026 alone.
This massive disruption comes during a year when industry leaders are expected to spend $725 billion on capital investments, demonstrating that local physical infrastructure remains one of artificial intelligence’s greatest bottlenecks.
The resistance represents a broader shift in how Americans view AI, focusing less on digital applications and more on the tangible environmental and economic footprints of physical infrastructure.
While major tech companies promote green technologies to reduce water consumption and improve energy efficiency, public anxiety centers on rising electricity bills and whether the economic benefits of AI will be monopolized by tech conglomerates.
Adding to this friction is a stark awareness gap: only 23% of Americans believe they live near a data center, though Pew Research Center data shows that roughly 38% actually reside within five miles of one. This gap is likely to widen as the industry expands.
Images are generated by AI and for demonstration purposes only.
Source: Bove, T. (2026). *Tech companies dealing with data center protests locally are fighting a losing battle.* Fortune.
#DataCenters #AIOpposition #EnergyPolicy #AwarenessGap #fblifestyle
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ERLnfWiua/
The plan is no longer to sell you a software subscription. It is to sell you artificial intelligence the exact same way they sell you water.
Speaking at an infrastructure summit in Washington, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman detailed a future where cognitive tools are treated like public utilities. Instead of general access fees, both companies and consumers would buy digital “tokens” to tap into a foundational intelligence grid, paying strictly for the computational power they use. Supporters argue this scales the technology until it gets too cheap to meter. Critics point out that making AI as essential as running water hands a microscopic group of tech conglomerates unprecedented gatekeeping power over the way society functions.
–
The biggest hurdle to this metered-intelligence future is not the software. It is the physical reality on the ground.
To turn AI into a ubiquitous utility, companies are building data centres so massive they are actively overwhelming domestic power grids. You cannot just flip a switch to make artificial intelligence flow like water—you have to fuel it. Tech companies are already lobbying for major grid expansions and even investing in nuclear power just to keep their current operations running. If we eventually pay for AI on a meter like electricity, it is partly because AI itself will be consuming a massive percentage of the grid’s actual electricity.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Teri Von Marbod Schneider
“Or are they considering AI every photo we take, every email we send, every message or text we send?”
Yes. And we are almost there.
Take a new smart phone – every photo you take goes through steps that by default through steps that use AI tech both in your phone and in cloud
E-mails – AI features are integrated to various steps in the e-mail process in major platforms (Microsoft, Google, etc.)
Tomi Engdahl says:
And thats when people stop using it and the bubble finally pops
Until people realize how much they actually use it. If they don’t want to use it and pay for it, that’s fine. They may become very aware very quickly how much it is being used in everyday life.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Eric Buckeye but your talking about not just people companies as well and truthfully companies is where they will actually make the ROI that they keep touting to investors but there’s only one issue with this so far companies who have adopted AI heavily so far have realized it’s not more efficient than humans it makes many mistakes and you still have to pay a human to oversee it and then you have to pay for the tokens as they are called and at a large company this becomes a large expense very fast and all of a sudden the math doesn’t even make sense to adopt it. And hence the bubble pops. The tech needs and ai ceos keep telling us it’s already replacing jobs at a high rate but the jobs report and other reports tell a different story it’s really not and for those regular companies who have decided to invest heavily into AI so far many of them are less than pleased with the outcome. I read an article a few months back that a family owned company adopted a bunch of ai bots and they almost bankrupted the company with the cost of the tokens… Ironically the only companies really really pushing the ai adoption are the tech companies selling it and trying to figure it out Amazon Tesla Facebook etc. so once again the strategy of the AI companies and certain tech companies is to continue to push this narrative and get investors to invest insane amounts of money into this industry with no actual clear cut plan on how there will ever be a decent ROI, and we have to continue to hear how ai is so advanced and can do so much and is ready for the world and how money won’t even be a thing 10 years from now but yet with zero concrete proof of how any of this is gonna happen. This is a bubble that is destined to burst one way or another.
Jonathan exactly companies are already doing the math on these tokens and adopting to replace humans and the math doesn’t make sense but these AI companies are in a position that they have so much money invested into this crap that to get any ROI the cost has to be high or they have to continue to subsidizing it. This is a bubble that is destined to burst one way or another because the astronomical amount of money that’s being invested into this has no concrete proven way to ever give investors an ROI at all. This is why there are plenty of people saying that this is gonna pop and it ain’t gonna be pretty when it does for the market.
except they won’t stop using it and the bubble will never pop. It’s like $20 for a gross McDonald’s combo at this point and yet they are doing just fine because people who definitely don’t need it, still find the money to pay for that Junk
Too many middle school thinkers think we cannot live without A i….problem is, we all have “thoughts”!
Kel A St People have lived just fine without all the modern things we have now. People didn’t used to have cars or electricity or TV or phones or computers or anything else. Can you say you can live without any of those? I bet not.
Kel A St Yeah, but a thought isn’t supported by relevant information, until it’s researched. – AI reduces that from a lifetime of work to a few weeks of intellectually honest deep conversation with an AI model.
True….but can we live without it? These gamers-in-the-basement-now-billionaires thought the A.i. was their creative Art to have people charge for it….
It wil never get too cheap to meter.
Don’t they already do that…. Token cost
Exactly. He’s just trying to make new terms catch on.
Companies will be paying this toll. But it will also show up in your water and electricity bills if you have a data center near by
Translation: they will no longer be paying your bill for you.
Source: comments at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ERLnfWiua/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The rapid expansion of data centers is backed by a coalition of tech giants, institutional investors, and sovereign wealth funds. This momentum is fueled by a generational investment cycle estimated to reach trillions of dollars in capital expenditure.
The primary drivers of data center expansion are major technology corporations: Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon (AWS), Meta, and Apple.
AI research labs like OpenAI and Anthropic play a central role in driving data center buildouts, but their financial and operational approach differs fundamentally from traditional hyperscalers (like Amazon, Google, or Microsoft).
Rather than funding multi-billion-dollar physical developments purely off their own balance sheets, OpenAI and Anthropic act as anchor tenants, co-investors, and infrastructure catalysts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Claim
America doesn’t need over 5,000 data centers. The fact that the government is not protecting the land, the people or any of Gods creatures tells you that our country is now being ruled by corp America.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Answer
The claim that America holds over 5,000 data centers is accurate—the U.S. currently hosts roughly 5,400+ operational data centers, representing nearly 45% of the world’s total computing infrastructure.
The total count includes far more than just massive AI campuses. It spans the entire digital infrastructure built over the last three decades:
Enterprise & Government Infrastructure: Thousands of these facilities are smaller, legacy server sites owned by hospitals, financial institutions, logistics networks, and state/federal government agencies to host medical records, bank transactions, and public data.
Cloud & Consumer Services: Facilities operated by companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft host the everyday internet—video streaming, e-commerce, cloud storage, supply chains, and mobile apps.
The AI Expansion Wave: While “hyperscale” AI data centers account for a smaller percentage of the total number of buildings (around 600–700 facilities), they require disproportionately massive amounts of land, power, and water compared to standard enterprise server rooms.
The feeling that tech corporations are running roughshod over local communities stems from how data center permitting historically worked—and the immense financial influence behind it
The Underlying Conflict
The core dilemma facing the country is a fundamental tension between economic/technological ambition and resource stewardship
While tech companies argue that rapid data center growth is vital for economic competitiveness, critics and residents rightly point out that unmonitored expansion threatens local watersheds, drives up energy costs, and transforms rural landscapes into industrial zones. Whether government regulators can effectively balance corporate power with public and environmental protection remains one of the defining policy debates of this decade.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pack Your Bags
Residents Furious at Plan to Seize and Destroy Their Homes for AI Data Centers
“We don’t have a choice in this.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/residents-furious-seize-destroy-homes-ai-data-centers-georgia?fbclid=IwdGRjcATW7PljbGNrBNbs0XBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeTbVcKLF0vN2NtLSulolu8kaa8CX18xF88CmdDgCAruCd9-9SAji8wTXdnjU_aem_Yd82ENsbdkH01tULNdHgDg
As dozens of cities across the US are forced to scrap their plans to build power-hungry data centers, some civic leaders are no longer asking.
According to new reporting by Fortune, the state of Georgia’s for-profit utility company, Georgia Power, is looking to demolish and pave over some 30 homes — and 330 parcels of land — that currently block the route of a 1,000 mile transmission line.
When it goes live, the line will distribute nearly 10,000 megawatts of energy from a newly constructed power plant, “approximately 80 percent of which is expected to power data centers,” according to a fact sheet provided by the Georgia Public Service Commission (the rest will presumably be split between local businesses, homes, and other customers.)
Backed by the state, Georgia Power is now working on paying landowners to move, or else face the seizure of their property by eminent domain.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sounds of Violence
You Are Entirely Unprepared for the Noise This Data Center Constantly Blasts at Neighbors’ Homes
You have to hear it to believe it.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/data-center-noise-pollution-dowagiac-michigan-blasts-homes?fbclid=IwVERDUATW7ZRwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHl6WjRsEvhdTwwdK_l94JOT_rszxpQzBO5Z7NyFibMUbaFxmEIvZFvhf2cjP_aem_N2HR8BaYu5A1priZG6gqVQ
Earlier this month, we brought you the story of a data center in the sleepy Michigan town of Dowagiac. Beset by the 30 megawatt tech facility, residents in the otherwise quiet burg were forced to live under the relentless screech of a massive cooling operation, prompting a lawsuit over excessive noise.
At the time, footage from a TikTok video — showing volume readings reaching 60 decibels in one resident’s front yard — captured a portion of the noise, a horrible whine emitted by the data center 24/7.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your AI Agents Are Guessing at Scale: Permissions Decide the Damage
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/your-ai-agents-are-guessing-at-scale-permissions-decide-the-damage/?fbclid=IwdGRjcATW7dtjbGNrBNbty3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeVOvERWgMlhQApkkyceWekGzUYZO-ZgsOXTQYMCeZp-gcIEpeTxUpxp5woro_aem_MUeBLq4ylhuRSPLn31agEA
Watch an agent work through a task, and you’ll see the future of enterprise security.
Watch Claude work through a long task some time. It can spend 4 minutes trying to read a CSV that turned out to be a folder, give up, write a script to list its contents, and then get there. It works. Just never the way you sketched it in your head.
That is guessing at scale, and it is not a flaw. It’s how LLMs work and why they’re so effective. Agents reason probabilistically, choosing the next best action, observing the result, and adapting. That loop is what makes them powerful, but it is also why security models built around predictable workflows break down.
AI agents are designed to improvise; that is what makes them useful. But when improvisation is paired with broad access, every wrong turn becomes a security risk.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Between 30% and 50% of large-scale U.S. data center capacity planned for 2026 is facing delays or cancellations, driven by severe power limitations, equipment shortages, and local pushback
Main Causes of DelaysPower Grid Limits: Electrical grids cannot keep up with the massive energy demands of AI facilities.Equipment Shortages: High-power transformers, switchgear, and battery systems face long manufacturing backlogs.Community Pushback: Local resistance and regional moratoriums have stalled at least 75 major projects worth $130 billion in early 2026 alone.
Impact on the IndustryCapital Slippage: An estimated $150 billion to $200 billion in construction spending is shifting from 2026 into 2027 and 2028.Stalled Pipelines: Market reports from Sightline Climate and analysis via Bloomberg show ambition far outstripping physical infrastructure readiness.
Half of 2026 US Data Centers Delayed or Canceled: What the Power Crunch Means for CRE Investors
https://www.theaiconsultingnetwork.com/blog/us-data-centers-2026-half-delayed-canceled-cre-investors
What is the 2026 US data center delay crisis? The 2026 US data center delay crisis is the finding by Sightline Climate, Bloomberg, and other industry researchers that 30 to 50 percent of the 16 gigawatts of US data center capacity scheduled to come online in 2026 will be delayed or canceled outright, driven by power constraints, transformer and switchgear shortages, and rising community opposition. For CRE investors, this rewrites the underwriting case on one of the hottest sectors in the market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Double AI agents. https://trib.al/BUHF277
Bot Backfire
Microsoft CEO Warns That Companies Embracing AI Could Drive Themselves Out of Business
Double AI agents.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-ceo-warns-ai-business?fbclid=IwdGRjcATYYYZjbGNrBNhhY3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeQDZSIOqXFqmHhVh-HmwIX4DG3q-SV5uu7LdeJzzDHdYDZ2o_fjlNrCQLIN8_aem_QLJSp5v4suHBl2bC1q7BCw
The business world has quickly learned that there’s such a thing as using too much AI, as they get slammed with outrageous token bills.
Now, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is warning of another way that embracing AI could doom a business.
In an interview Sunday, Nadella cautioned against sharing too much information, ranging from proprietary data to the prompts entered, with a third-party AI model.
Instead, he recommended that businesses should make sure they retain all the data on how employees use AI tools so they can eventually train or fine-tune their own open-weight model. This can be accomplished by using AI gateways, which serve as a protective intermediary.
“Any firm that doesn’t have this control, I will claim will not remain a firm because you’ve essentially outsourced your thinking,” Nadella said on an episode of CNN‘s Fareed Zakaria GPS, as spotted by TechCrunch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“I have no idea how to get around this.” https://trib.al/voJ1XdF
Tomi Engdahl says:
Poor guys. https://trib.al/zh8xBx8
Ad Break
The AI Industry Has Acted So Badly That It’s Now Dealing With a Huge Wave of Hatred
It’s gonna take more than smarmy commercials to win back the public.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-industry-ads-public-backlash?fbclid=IwdGRzaATY7oRjbGNrBNjuUXBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeLw5I2nndDbyonbW9TNbpiKbh9LkjGxFbaGSjIaufuDFPChw-qVkxdEJwdlg_aem_ubK8Tv_UCD8YDF-mDWXmOQ
The tech overlords pushing the AI boom are quickly wearing out what little welcome they had.
According to data compiled by Pew Research, 40 percent of US adults predict AI will have a negative impact on society writ large, compared to just 16 percent who say it’ll have a positive effect. A whole 31 percent of those surveyed think AI will have negative consequences for themselves, personally, over the next 20 years.
As disgust with AI itself grows, so too does resistance to the hardware embodying its rise.
Per a separate poll by Gallup, flagged by Business Insider, an astonishing three-quarters of US adults are now resolutely opposed to hyperscale data centers popping up near their home.
Protests against AI companies are flaring up across the country, with Time reporting 142 protests across 42 states in one day alone.
Beyond data centers, a decentralized but highly-motivated movement is growing around the chopping, hacking, and outright sabotage of AI-integrated surveillance cameras. A parallel struggle is being waged around AI-integrated surveillance drones, with organizers in cities like Minneapolis beating back ambitious police dragnets.
So if you’re a tech executive trying to win back the masses to the AI revolution, take note: it’s gonna take a lot more than a few smarmy commercials to solve your PR problem
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rising Tide
Google’s Profits Look a Little Terrifying Under the Hood
“AI investments are redefining what’s possible across every part of our business.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/google-ai-profits-finance-bubble-alphabet?fbclid=IwVERDUATY8AVwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHs8435R301iGMAyr6PH4a0wt1fElgzgWESxOcnpyAj00Nu56cayo6Q5H9JBk_aem__pqafWWLv1iiudoVxk48GQ
As fears of a bursting AI bubble reach new heights, Google has emerged as arguably one of the best yard sticks available to measure investor sentiment around AI.
As the NYT observes, the vast majority of Google’s windfall — $99 billion, to be exact — wasn’t due to actual revenue from AI or any other services the company offers; instead, it was due to Alphabet’s mammoth investments in other tech companies. In particular, Alphabet attributed the massive profits to investments in corporations also chasing the AI payday, like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, as well as Anthropic, the company behind the popular chatbot Claude.
In other words, it’s great financial news — until the instant the AI market crashes, in which case it would all come crashing down.
(In an earnings statement, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai enthused that Google’s “AI investments are redefining what’s possible across every part of our business.”)
At the same time, Alphabet posted a negative free cash flow for the first time as a publicly traded company, meaning the actual cash it generated after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures is worse than nil.
That revised forecast, coupled with the bone-dry cash flow, left investors shellshocked. On Thursday, the day after the company’s earnings report hit newsrooms, Alphabet’s stock fell by 6.89 percent — evidence, perhaps, that massive profits on paper are no longer enough to keep investors hooked at this stage of the AI bubble.
Tomi Engdahl says:
there are data centers that consume lots of water and data centers that use almost no or very little amout of water.
Hyperscalers began announcing structural shifts away from evaporative cooling in 2021, driven by water stewardship goals (“Water Positive by 2030″) and extreme heat loads from high-density AI hardware (GPUs) that required direct liquid-to-chip cooling.
Microsoft, Meta, AWS and Google have all been actively shifting to less water direction for last 3-4 years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
There goes millions of dollars. https://trib.al/zgRQKb4
Money Flops
Amazon Insiders Horrified at “Catastrophically Expensive” Internal AI Usage
There goes millions of dollars.
https://futurism.com/future-society/amazon-catastrophically-expensive-ai?fbclid=IwdGRjcATZp8RjbGNrBNmnnnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeql_6yY6mt2m2aQGpYQbmGA_518P7joATvSZL6jtZPMvUFsykv3oYdVUwxf8_aem_pNXYHUP_awrESGqQbYdyBg
Even the gazillion-dollar empire that is Amazon is reeling from the costs of letting its employees run loose with AI agents.
The Financial Times reports that staff at the company have identified cases of “catastrophically expensive” cost overruns as it switched over to using AI tools to perform what sound like pretty routine coding tasks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why am I getting emails from fake PR reps with AI-generated faces? https://trib.al/6EKcGep
June Barton
We Are Alarmed by This PR Firm Using a Small Army of Fake AI-Powered Publicists to Barrage Journalists With Pitches for Its Clients
Why am I getting emails from fake PR reps with AI-generated faces?
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/pr-firm-fake-ai-publicists?fbclid=IwdGRjcATZu31jbGNrBNm7WnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeeXh4cHSZfYs_dVkHcy3bjQRJJ5scwVDFuBFBcRVXWOGvfTH-ZyOClnCVUv0_aem_qpRNgIYRrgipWjzayXVFVw
Does it ever feel like your inbox is filling up with emails that don’t sound quite human?
You may be right. Last week, I received an email from a publicist identified as “June Barton,” whose address indicated that she worked at a firm called VectorGuideHQ.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Investors are not happy. https://trib.al/0HCOajR
Leaving a Mark
Mark Zuckerberg’s Pivot to AI Is Blowing Up in His Face Spectacularly
Investors are not happy.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/mark-zuckerberg-pivot-ai-blowing-up-face?fbclid=IwdGRjcATZw1djbGNrBNnDO3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe9S-hqzQZg_oyO3E7sf1c1Jk9aX7HLgyp56cjz7uKiONBnfxn2rG1ZuEXArc_aem_mwwjsLq1HiAXTEpc92KCzQ
Despite having almost nothing to show from his enormous spending on AI, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down.
Earlier this week, the social media company announced during its second quarter earnings call that it was raising capital expenditures from $125 billion to at least $130 billion, a clear sign that it’s not taking its foot off the pedal.
Yet amid renewed concerns that the tech industry may be nearing the edge of a cliff thanks to its obsession with building out enormously expensive data centers without a clear path to profitability, investors sent back a clear signal in return. Meta’s shares nosedived following its announcement, plummeting over 11 percent over the last five days alone.
According to Zuckerberg, all that extra AI spending was “accelerating every part of our core business.” He also claimed that some of the tech would be sold off to other businesses.
But whether the company will have anything compelling to offer them remains dubious at best. Meta has been burning through its funds at an alarming rate. Even strong revenue numbers — a 28 percent increase this latest quarter compared to the same period last year — couldn’t stem the bleeding, with free cash flow sinking to the lowest level in at least five years thanks to AI spending.
Despite committing well over $100 billion to the tech, Meta has been practically absent from the frontier AI model race. Its so-called Superintelligence Lab has turned into a “soul-crushing gulag” plagued with rock-bottom morale — and most importantly, it’s not getting results.
The latest news has given some analysts a feeling of déjà vu. Zuckerberg has garnered a reputation for making major strategic missteps since long before AI. Case in point was the company’s heavily criticized pivot to the “metaverse,” an ill-fated attempt to sell customers on the idea of spending their workday inside a hollow and cartoonish virtual reality world, which feels like the perfect precursor to Meta’s current pains.
Meanwhile, Meta’s platforms have descended into a practically unrecognizable ocean of clickbait and AI slop, something the company has yet to meaningfully address as user numbers and engagement continue to slide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Mark Zuckerberg Actually TRYING to Destroy Meta?
He’s driving his own company off a cliff.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/mark-zuckerberg-meta-capex-ai?fbclid=IwVERDUATZxFVwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHnaP_PoyonzbFCbN9lIScpJWp_DnORgW1K37kiF9DXSazIuShJH4HThK3mG9_aem_nHNY92cfzEmAndNnxA0__A
Back in the mid-2000s, Mark Zuckerberg had a pretty awesome product: a site called Facebook, which was still widely loved and not polluted with endless ads and scams.
The interceding years have been hard on Zuckerberg’s empire. From a disastrous, multibillion-dollar foray into a pandemic-era virtual reality world nobody wanted to step a foot into to effectively abandoning content moderation and allowing demented AI slop to flood its social media platforms, Meta now feels more like a dilapidated strip mall than a hot tech property.
Tomi Engdahl says:
That’s one way to deal with data centers. https://trib.al/nx6MEBV
Blast Radius
Iran Appears to Be Blasting Amazon Data Centers Off the Map
That’s one way to deal with data centers.
https://futurism.com/science-energy/iran-blasting-amazon-data-centers-war-usa?fbclid=IwdGRjcATab2JjbGNrBNpvOHBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeWDhBQlOVMIqCZKjs98vWWV2srN9hlDbBpkyH3Ic3JuR9fqZyE1VZDLynCw8_aem_S2_Px1roN2AlJBTDMX_Igg
There’s data center activism, fought with Facebook groups and petitions, and then there’s data center annihilation, fought with guided missile and suicide drones.
Recently, the Iranian military announced it had hit and damaged two Amazon data centers in the island country of Bahrain with a volley of cruise missiles.
Overall, it marks the fourth such attack on a data center since the US began the war in February. Back in March, the IRGC announced a number of US tech companies as “Iran’s new targets,” including Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia, and Oracle. Now that the war is heating back up, it seems that they’re becoming targets yet again.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EdYbVmUtU/
Tästä tulee seuraava keksibanneri.
Pian joka ikisessä kuvassa, videossa ja tekstissä on pieni leima, että sen tekemisessä on käytetty apuna tekoälyä, koska nykyään ei käytännössä voi tehdä enää mitään ilman että tekoäly olisi jollain tavalla prosessissa mukana.
Melkein minkä tahansa sisällön tuottamiseen on jo vuosikaudet käytetty tekoälyä esimerkiksi Photoshop-filttereissä, oikeinkirjoituksen tarkistamisessa, videoeditoreiden aputyökaluissa, audiotyökaluissa ja niin edelleen.
Yritysten on nyt pakko ilmoittaa sisällön yhteydessä, onko sisällön luomiseen käytetty tekoälyä
https://dawn.fi/uutiset/2026/07/31/eu-tekoaly-merkinta-pakko?fbclid=IwdGRjcATagjRjbGNrBNqCI3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeo7wEsWOxJOdNFrqQHWzY89TCEaAL7f3Crk1tZEf9ys4tb3bjgllg1RgPSJ0_aem_OWvKdl2Bw0unJAX1FJ8j4Q
Sunnuntaina 2.8.2026 astuu voimaan uusi Euroopan Unionin vaatimus tekoälyllä tuotetun sisällön läpinäkyvyydestä.
Muutos tarkoittaa sitä, että kaikkien Euroopan unionin alueella toimivien yritysten täytyy ilmoittaa esimerkiksi kuvan tai videon yhteydessä, onko se tehty tekoälyllä tai onko sen tekemisen apuna käytetty tekoälyä.
Vaatimus ei siis koske yksityisiä ihmisiä, eli “hassuja” tekoälyllä tehtyjä kuvia saa jakaa ilman merkintää jatkossakin – joskin useat sosiaalisen median palvelut vaativat tavallisia käyttäjiäkin ilmoittamaan tekoälyn käytöstä jo nyt.
Mutta esimerkiksi yritysten mainoskuvien, asuntojen myynti-ilmoituksissa käytettyjen kuvien tai vaikkapa ravintoloiden ruokalistoilla olevien kuvien yhteydessä pitää näkyä selkeästi tieto, jos kuvan tekemiseen on käytetty tekoälyä.
Yritykset voivat käyttää halutessaan EU:n luomia valmiita kuvakkeita, jotka ilmaisevat tekoälyn käytön tason.
Eri tasot ovat:
AI: kun tekoäly on osallistunut kuvan, äänen, videon tai julkaistun tekstin luomiseen
AI Generated: kun tekoäly on luonut koko sisällön, ilman ihmisen luomia elementtejä tai ilman ihmisen toimituksellista valvontaa (promptia ei lasketa valvonnaksi)
AI Modified: olemassa olevaa ihmisen tekemää sisältöä on muokattu osittain tekoälyn avulla
Symboleita ei ole pakko käyttää, mutta tieto siitä, miten tekoälyä on käytetty, täytyy ilmaista silti erittäin selkeästi kaiken sisällön yhteydessä, johon tekoälyä on käytetty.
Lisäksi vaatimuksessa on joitain poikkeuksia, mm. tekstisisällön osalta. Esimerkiksi tekoälyn avulla tuotetut journalistiset artikkelit voi jättää ilman merkintää, jos ne täyttävät tietyt ehdot:
Tiedonantovelvollisuutta ei sovelleta, jos tekoälyllä tuotettu teksti on läpikäynyt ihmisen suorittaman uudelleentarkastelun tai toimituksellisen valvonnan ja jos luonnollisella henkilöllä tai oikeushenkilöllä on toimituksellinen vastuu sisällön julkaisemisesta.
Helsingin Sanomien mukaan Suomessa tekoälymerkintöjä valvovat Traficom, Tukes ja Tulli. Merkintöjen puuttumisesta voidaan tuomita sakkoihin, mutta lähtökohtaisesti valvovat viranomaiset ottavat yhteyttä yritykseen ja pyytävät tietopyynnön, jossa yritysten pitää perustella sitä, miksi merkinnät puuttuvat.
Traficomin mukaan virasto aikoo valvoa merkintöjen puuttumista ainakin aluksi lähinnä kansalaisilta tulevien vihjeiden perusteella.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Claim 1: “We have approximately five thousand data centers.”
The Granularity: Roughly accurate on paper, but lacking crucial context. The U.S. does have around 3,000 to 5,000 data centers, but this includes everything: from a small corporate server room in an office building to a multi-building hyperscale cloud campus.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Claim 2: “Each one uses anywhere between two and five million gallons of water every day.”
The Math Breakdown: Completely false as a blanket statement.
Where the number comes from: A consumption rate of 1 to 5 million gallons per day only applies to massive hyperscale campuses (like giant Google, Meta, or AWS facilities) using legacy open-loop evaporative cooling on hot summer days.
The Reality:
The vast majority of those ~5,000 facilities are smaller enterprise centers or dry/air-cooled facilities that use negligible amounts of water.
If all 5,000 data centers actually used 2 to 5 million gallons a day, total U.S. data center water consumption would be 10 to 25 billion gallons per day. In reality, all U.S. data centers combined consume around 150 to 300 million gallons per day total—meaning the meme exaggerates actual national consumption by roughly 50x to 100x.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Claim 3: “The water tests are coming back stating that the water is extremely contaminated.”
The Reality: Misleading about how cooling water works.
Evaporation vs. Effluent: As discussed earlier, about 80% to 90% of the water used in evaporative cooling leaves the facility as pure water steam into the atmosphere.
”Blowdown” Water: The remaining unevaporated liquid water (called blowdown water) is flushed out because minerals naturally present in tap water become concentrated as steam escapes. This water also contains standard anti-scaling and anti-algae additives (similar to swimming pool chemicals).
Discharge Standards: Blowdown water is regulated under local industrial discharge permits and sent to municipal wastewater treatment facilities—it is not raw chemical waste, nor is it dumped directly into drinking wells.
Tomi Engdahl says:
John Dicks nothing. It’s popular to hate ai and data centers right now. People acting like it’s something horrible. New laws are being passed that they have to provide their own power and excess power will be used by the power company, lowering costs. They’re also planning to start using closed loop cooling systems, like power plants where water is cooled in cooling towers and it reuses its supply without needing fresh water
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disable autoplay and infinite scroll or risk massive fines, EU tells Meta
Digital Services Act may force Meta to make big changes on its platforms.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/disable-auto-play-and-infinite-scroll-or-risk-massive-fines-eu-tells-meta/
The European Union is ramping up pressure on Meta to make big changes to Facebook and Instagram after the European Commission preliminarily found that features like autoplay, infinite scroll, and highly personalized content recommendations were addictive.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.equinix.com/resources/whitepapers/high-performance-data-centers-for-dummies?ls=Advertising-Web&lsd=25q1_hpdc-sp_hpdc–hpdc-general_/resources/whitepapers/high-performance-data-centers-for-dummies_dm-media_Equinix-run_multi-channel_pmax-google_emea-en_EMEA_hpdc-rt_aware&utm_campaign=emea-en_pmax-google_multi-channel_hpdc-rt_dm-media_hpdc-aware&utm_source=pmax-google&utm_medium=multi-channel&utm_content=hpdc–hpdc-general_high-performance-data-centers-for-dummies&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23438495163&gbraid=0AAAAADzbzdN_mvWZuiRdIFrETHeZXRgaf&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsMLSBhD9ARIsAIpUTDr0gbBoa0djypwv2LYan2eNSWulKW_KO6k0lIdVjgXkcyQAL3jBlesaAj9vEALw_wcB
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/9/gpt-5-6/
Tomi Engdahl says:
$130 Billion in AI Data Centers were Just Blocked. Where Does the AI Boom Go Now
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/130-billion-ai-data-centers-000000041.html
In September, Google walked away from a $1 billion data center outside Indianapolis, pulling its Franklin Township proposal minutes before the city-county council was set to vote it down.
It wasn’t an isolated incident. Communities across the United States have now blocked or delayed more than $130 billion in AI data centers in the first three months of 2026, refusing projects the industry’s biggest names assumed they could build anywhere.
Tomi Engdahl says:
$130 Billion in AI Data Centers Have Been Blocked or Delayed in 2026
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/130-billion-in-ai-data-centers-have-been-blocked-or-delayed-in-2026-302821568.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
$130 billion in data center projects blocked by protests so far this year
Winning fight against AI data centers gives people a “taste of political power.”
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/130-billion-in-data-center-projects-blocked-by-protests-so-far-this-year/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beyond the Canvas: The Azure Architecture Diagram Builder Becomes Agent-Ready
arturoqu’s avatar
arturoqu
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Microsoft
Jul 10, 2026
The Azure Architecture Diagram Builder just grew up. It now iterates by conversation, sketches whiteboard-style blueprints, runs a 13-model fleet — and, most importantly, exposes itself as an MCP server that AI agents like Microsoft Scout can call directly.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azurearchitectureblog/beyond-the-canvas-the-azure-architecture-diagram-builder-becomes-agent-ready/4534590
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.nbforum.com/newsroom/blog/how-to-protect-your-teams-cognitive-skills-while-using-ai/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe7hes_X0l78Ko37Qc-zBRbkaExmrFcaKCgHdh2JZqeuN2AeXjJRUNWYnadME_aem_WUf40OtvDCsFTcHnH0Uuig
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.nextplatform.com/connect/2026/07/17/marvell-brings-radix-low-latency-and-bandwidth-to-bear-with-teralynx-t100/5274615
Tomi Engdahl says:
Australia’s most played song on radio this week draws AI criticisms
Josh Fawaz’s ‘Like a Prayer’ is the #1 song on Aussie radio right now , but the DJ is copping heat from some who believe he’s using AI to make music.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/music/australia-s-most-played-song-on-radio-this-week-draws-ai-criticisms?fbclid=Iwb21leATIyYBjbGNrBMjIrGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHtC9hUwWodiMnDlHbaFh0EYbx1RUC-DcSrjg59wfFHanpHCbW0EFvOSSbuN6_aem_XXDGgJzETFP1i15A9c6yAQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blurring the Lines: Clarke’s Laws and the Magic of Modern Technology
https://medium.com/@Stephen-Howell/blurring-the-lines-clarkes-laws-and-the-magic-of-modern-technology-150d8b221226
I was recently reminded of Arthur C. Clarke’s three laws, the third law in particular. It is the best known and most widely cited of the three. It was originally published in a 1968 letter to Science magazine and later incorporated into the 1973 revision of Profiles of the Future. Clarke ‘s third law states:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
In a recent interaction with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, I was astonished at the exchange. I know that on the other side of the input prompt is a machine and an algorithm. I know that. Yet the exchanges were “indistinguishable from magic.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://muropaketti.com/mobiili/mobiiliuutiset/google-nimeaa-notebooklmn-uudelleen/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://songer.co/lp/meta/lp1?audience=new&fbclid=IwYW9zYgTFg75leHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQBqzVqdO9gEXNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHhVbEIJ-2-xpm788RY-Tg_YvNNAq8yjY1_xEUV-ItOWJgxlogve6o599Eu6S_aem_7vInDU0qtpp3NtGclnt3pw&utm_campaign=A%2B%20%7C%200618&utm_content=img-8-v2-b55%7Ccopy%3Apa3t%7Clp1&utm_id=120248213956280369&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_placement=Facebook_Mobile_Feed&utm_source=Facebook2&utm_term=0621-p13k
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Mapsiin merkittävä muutos: Muuttaa ajomatkat täysin
Google julkaisi Maps-karttasovellukseensa 3d-navigoinnin ja tekoälyavustajan. Yhtiö ei kuitenkaan tarkenna, mihin maihin ominaisuudet tulevat saataville ja milloin.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/digiuutiset/a/4d9cb246-f7d2-43d0-9045-e502caddf1cc
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/openai-ai-model-escapes-safety-b3018638.html?fbclid=Iwb21leATMy3JjbGNrBMzLaWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHpv0vELP2PS9t8_2jaS4VnQi6QheXreROIZoS7tOWS6HG89afRsTcT7TkIxA_aem_dImDX7g2eUnnsp3nGypffg
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://github.blog/changelog/2026-07-21-gemini-3-6-flash-is-now-available-in-github-copilot/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using AI makes people less likely to admit they don’t know something
Researchers found confidence increased even as accuracy fell
https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/07/19/using-ai-makes-people-less-likely-to-admit-they-dont-know-something/5274567
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://dawn.fi/uutiset/2026/07/22/microsoft-mistral-yhteistyo