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”
3,922 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uncle George
Facebook Is Filling With Viral AI-Generated Silver Foxes Wooing Women by Ranting About How Terrible Men Are
“We live in a generation where women have to become the man, because the men are busy acting like the princess…”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-generated-silver-foxes-facebook?fbclid=IwdGRjcATr4-RjbGNrBOvjxHBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeaPSXbEFwte3oOLy88xV441fDkLw3ntPnrtC5FxGQM995Rj3bduW68W4MfNg_aem_lrgJAT9TDBYbsxzVdnlC7w
Tomi Engdahl says:
“They all would look much better on the floor!” https://trib.al/6gzTP9c
Slop and Sleaze
Boomers on Facebook Are Leaving Comments That Make It Clear That They Have No Idea That AI-Generated Thirst Traps Aren’t Real
“Not me, I’m not scrolling past you.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/boomers-facebook-ai-thirst-traps?fbclid=IwdGRjcATr5EZjbGNrBOvkLHBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEejbC2lHeceywV06GV0JYZvIPWFqUONwpO1FZ8NEBlkQcQPmvkMiqoDq8tvtE_aem_3GgUWC2AoPrmh0G1dfg9pQ
Back in 2023, we reported on AI-generated influencers that were pulling thousands of reactions per thirst trap on Instagram.
Years later, the schemes are only getting more sophisticated. Instead of still images, Meta’s platforms are now filling with AI-generated video of nonexistent young woman that are objectified beyond belief while pushing the platform’s rules on sexualized content to the absolute breaking point.
After years of public discourse about the dangers of AI-generated media, you might imagine that users’ skepticism is growing. But instead, the videos are luring in legions of lonely old guys who seem to have no idea that the visages aren’t real.
“They all would look much better on the floor!” one particularly greasy Facebook user commented on a recent clip shared by an AI slop account called “Grace the gymnast.” The female figure coquettishly asked its 6,600 followers — and algorithmically targeted users — “which leotard is best?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenAI has lost three key safety leaders in weeks: ethics head Chloé Bakalar, safety systems head Johannes Heidecke, and mission alignment lead Josh Achiam. Bakalar left quietly with no replacement.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EwMbQTTCc/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/19182-qualcomm-tuo-tekoaelyn-halpoihin-kannettaviin
Qualcomm tuo Snapdragon-alustansa edullisiin Windows-kannettaviin. Uusi Snapdragon C ei käytä yhtiön tehokkaampien PC-piirien Oryon-ytimiä, mutta paketissa on kahdeksan ARM64-yhteensopivaa prosessoriydintä, erillinen Hexagon-tekoälykiihdytin ja Adreno-grafiikka.
Snapdragon C on Qualcommin uusi alusta PC-markkinoiden edullisimpaan päähän. Yhtiö tähtää sillä erityisesti opiskelijoille, perheille, pienyrityksille ja perustyötä tekeville tarkoitettuihin kannettaviin.
Tuote-esittelyn perusteella kyse ei ole Snapdragon X -sarjan suorasta pikkuveljestä. Snapdragon C suoritin perustuu Kryo-ytimiin ja on ARM64-yhteensopiva. Ytimiä on kahdeksan, yhden ytimen maksimikellotaajuus on 3,0 gigahertsiä ja moniydinkuormassa enimmäistaajuus on 2,0 gigahertsiä. Välimuistia on yhteensä kaksi megatavua. Piiri valmistetaan kuuden nanometrin prosessilla.
Qualcomm on kuitenkin tuonut mukaan erillisen Hexagon NPU -tekoälykiihdyttimen. Yhtiö puhuu ”modern AI capabilities” -ominaisuuksista, mutta ei ilmoita NPU-laskentatehoa TOPS-lukuna.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BXayF3Yxz/
AI companies are building huge data centers to power increasingly powerful systems. But UC Berkeley researchers say AI can improve without constantly building bigger data centers.
In a commentary published in Nature, the researchers argue that smaller, open AI models can handle many tasks while using far less computing power.
Companies are building larger AI systems partly because they want faster and more capable tools. But the researchers say not every task needs the most powerful model available.
They point to open models such as Meta’s Llama and DeepSeek, which can be downloaded and run locally instead of relying entirely on large company-run data centers. The researchers say these models are rapidly catching up with leading commercial systems.
That could eventually allow more AI to run directly on ordinary computers, rather than sending every request to a massive data center.
UC Berkeley says local, open models may use up to 100 times less energy than commercial AI systems such as ChatGPT or Claude.
This could also reduce the pressure created by huge data centers, which require large amounts of electricity and water and can put heavy demand on local infrastructure.
The researchers are not saying data centers will disappear. Their argument is that making AI better does not always require making models and data centers bigger.
Instead, they believe the future could rely more on smaller AI models that are powerful enough for specific jobs and can run closer to where people use them.
Source: UC Berkeley and Nature.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“There are teams of engineers and salespeople at these tech companies that are explicitly for the fossil fuel industry.” https://trib.al/bL1GNMf
Dirty Tech
AI’s Impact on the Environment Is Absolutely Horrifying, New Paper Finds
AI companies are the fossil fuel industry’s best friends.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-impact-environment-horrifying-new-paper?fbclid=IwdGRjcATsPhNjbGNrBOw993Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeLf0X_fj3xWWz_9q1RNva-zDGESlROUlJ9YxqGS1fZm5OXE_FA3DETnpVZws_aem_NNcv5etupiKJhxSe7ZonJA
The impact artificial intelligence has had on the environment has been nothing short of devastating.
The data centers powering the boom have been spewing out a staggering amount of pollution by relying on fossil fuel-powered generators. And given the industry’s unrelenting appetite for more infrastructure supporting ever-more-resource-intensive AI models, the trend is only going to get worse from here.
It’s reached the point that AI is giving the fossil fuel industry a substantial leg up, as a new paper published in the journal NPJ Climate Action details. The authors found that the industry has been using AI to increase productivity, drill for more oil, and reap even greater profits, vastly outweighing any benefits from AI-enabled advances in the renewable energy sector.
Put simply, AI’s impact on the environment greatly exceeds emissions linked to data centers.
“Predominant analyses examine the relationship between datacenter energy demand, renewables optimization, and demand-side efficiencies, but insufficiently address how AI also reshapes fossil fuel supply economics,”
They concluded that AI’s “enabled emissions,” meaning additional pollution a new tech enables, “exceed avoided emissions,” or pollution reductions due to advances in renewable energy. Put differently, AI is allowing fossil fuel companies to emit far more additional emissions than the amount of emissions new green energy could save by leveraging the tech.
More specifically, they calculate that the boom in AI could lead to anywhere from three to 13 times more fossil fuel emissions compared to the already massive amount of pollution being released by data centers.
The research highlights just how closely knit the AI and oil and gas industries really are, from a 20-year contract between Microsoft and Chevron for a massive natural gas plant to Amazon building the largest fossil fuel plant in the entire United States.
“There are teams of engineers and salespeople at these tech companies that are explicitly for the fossil fuel industry,” Holly Alpine told climate reporter Emily Atkin for her newsletter HEATED. “They are engineers writing code explicitly in partnerships with oil majors to expand production.”
The research highlights just how closely knit the AI and oil and gas industries really are, from a 20-year contract between Microsoft and Chevron for a massive natural gas plant to Amazon building the largest fossil fuel plant in the entire United States.
“There are teams of engineers and salespeople at these tech companies that are explicitly for the fossil fuel industry,” Holly Alpine told climate reporter Emily Atkin for her newsletter HEATED. “They are engineers writing code explicitly in partnerships with oil majors to expand production.”
“It is difficult and frustrating for us to see the conversation around ‘the true climate impacts of AI’ just stop at operational emissions,” she added. “We cannot get across enough how important it is to include what [AI] is used for.”
In short, the growing backlash to AI data centers is only the tip of the iceberg. As we continue to unravel the real — and likely far worse — effects the AI boom is having on the environment, the conversation is bound to evolve.
However, that’s not to mean we shouldn’t continue to oppose the construction of new data centers, as the Alpines told HEATED.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Gotta feel for all the artists watching their career fields diminish and dreams shatter right before their very eyes.” https://trib.al/rqWUtGO
Sloptastic!
Warner Bros Quickly Deletes Behind-the-Scenes Video That Seems to Show Use of AI Slop During “Supergirl” Production
“Gotta feel for all the artists watching their career fields diminish and dreams shatter right before their very eyes.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/warner-bros-deletes-supergirl-video-ai?fbclid=IwdGRjcATsTi5jbGNrBOxOGnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeXkqzw874_cLzUrWQTJEbMiT7WoqZJLEXMCnFB2_cZcGjXcNPZtp8smyZ_38_aem_6SbVmtiAsO3jVlSroikugg
“Supergirl” just can’t flop in peace.
The 2026 film is one of the biggest box office failures of the year and is the DC franchise’s lowest grossing film since Catwoman (2004).
And now it’s the subject of yet another controversy: the apparent use of AI slop during its production.
A behind the scenes video released by Warner Bros shows director Craig Gillespie and actor Jason Momoa looking at concept art for the character Lobo on a laptop. And even viewed from a distance, the design screams AI-generated.
There were other clues, like how quickly they customize the character on the fly and a window showing around a dozen other iterations of the image.
There was no way of confirming beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was slop — though, come on — but Warner Bros blundered into a textbook case of the Streisand effect by immediately taking down the video once large media accounts like DiscussingFilm and Culture Crave began sharing clips of it.
And by then, it was too late. The DCU fanbase went into meltdown, and loads of other filmgoers trashed the franchise for stooping so low.
While many filmmakers and audiences are staunchly opposed to the tech, some of the old guard are beginning to roll over to its advance. Revered director Martin Scorsese shocked the film world, for instance, when he endorsed a startup behind an AI image generational tool for storyboarding, saying he now uses it to plan his own films.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Death of an Artist
Neill Blomkamp Is Making It Look Like AI Is the Last Resort for Filmmakers With Failing Careers
He’s gone “full AI slop mode.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/neil-blomkamp-ai?fbclid=IwVERDUATsTydwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHvVoRSF0dOZ66q2Aba6A2fmq_MJrJS3q–AMR17wYhdU_gCnVJMsQgEjCoSP_aem_sv8V14w1dHAtkF3NDdjn2w
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/19PiDHpSaG/
One developer said they feared Anthropic’s watermark could lead clients to flag their work as AI-generated and raise questions about authorship.
#anthropic #claude #AI
Claude users are canceling their subscriptions, citing Anthropic’s new AI watermark : https://mrf.lu/2kHlZ
Claude users are canceling their subscriptions, citing Anthropic’s new AI watermark
Anthropic’s move to watermark Claude-generated text is driving some users away from its AI assistant.
The AI lab said this week that some versions of Claude will embed an “imperceptible watermark” directly into their text output. It will travel with the content when it is copied and pasted and may survive some editing, Anthropic said, helping to distinguish AI-generated material from human writing.
Anthropic said watermarking does not change the meaning, quality, or readability of Claude’s response. Despite that, dozens of people have posted on X since Monday that they had canceled their Claude subscriptions, citing the watermark.
Comment:
That watermarking is such a stupid thing to do. I use Claude mostly for translation and redaction in English since it’s not my first language. Even though ALL the content was made by me, the outputs will have a stupid and forced wording pattern and an “AI-made” badge.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Now imagine what an actual hacker could do. https://trib.al/EXwF1J4
Oops!
Dude Asks AI Agent to Book Gym Spot, Accidentally Launches Autonomous Cyberattack
Now imagine what an actual hacker could do.
https://futurism.com/future-society/ai-agent-accidental-cyberattack-gym-booking?fbclid=IwdGRjcATsxnljbGNrBOzGWXBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe7GlxZds0xfLRE7MQYGGhpNPS-jPXxzWLPr18Ln5ygTUkUjnyHXD3ki6vKu8_aem_Y32xOCI_H8B0FLQqyY5QAQ
An Australian man asked his personal AI agent to book him a spot at his local gym. Little did he know that this would snowball into a full-blown cyberattack.
The AI assistant, apparently, was overly enthusiastic about following its master’s instructions. It found an exploit to book gym classes several weeks in advance of what the gym allowed, ABC News reported. And taking no prisoners, it even hacked the software to kick someone who was in the waiting list in front of him.
This, per the reporting, is the country’s first known case of a fully autonomous cyberattack.
The man, Andrew, works for a company that sells AI products to businesses. He was experimenting with OpenClaw, an open source AI agent software that allows you to turn your AI model of choice into a personal assistant that can do tasks on your behalf. The AI powering Andrew’s OpenClaw agent was Anthropic’s Claude.
We’ve long seen examples of AI agents backfiring on the people that use them when they take the initiative to do stuff like delete files without permission. But seeing them break into other systems without the operator intending to them to is a novel threat — and one that could put users in legal jeopardy.
Finding the process of entering all his information to book something cumbersome, Andrew told the ABC that he asked Claude earlier this year to go ahead and book the gym slots for him. First it told him it found a way to get him a slot weeks in advanced, which wasn’t wasn’t allowed.
On a whim, he then asked if it was possible to move him up the waitlist. To his surprise, the AI explained that there was a vulnerability in the software that allowed it to put him next in line.
“The API has zero authorizations checks on cancelling other people’s reservations… I tested this with the person in waitlist position #1 — and it actually went through,” the AI reported, per the ABC‘s reporting. “So you’ve moved from #4 to #3 already.”
Andrew asked the AI to undo this, to no avail.
“Bad news — I can’t add them back,” the AI replied, explaining that it was only the cancel reservation feature that lacked an authorization check.
The incident has drawn comparisons to a thought experiment by philosophizer Nick Bostrom that’s now referred to as the “paperclip maximizer.”
illustrates the dangers of how seemingly harmless instructions can lead to dangerous outcomes
As the ABC‘s reporting notes, this creates a major legal gray area. If someone’s AI agent carries out a damaging cyberattack without the owner intending to, who’s responsible? The user, or the AI’s designers?
The incident comes as some of the top AI labs have, in suspiciously quick succession, come out to declare that their frontier models have broken containment and hacked another company. There’s certainly an element of theater involved in that, as they all try to prove that their AIs are capable enough to be dangerous, too. But there’s also clearly an element of truth: if a random man asking an AI to do something as innocuous like a reservation lead to a full-blown hack, what might bad actors in a large-scale, coordinated effort, might do?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Boz Himself
Zuckerberg’s Manifesto About the Glorious Freedoms AI Will Bring Was Completely Contradicted by His Own CTO During a Company Meeting
The hypocrisy is astounding.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/zuckerbergs-manifesto-contradicted-cto?fbclid=IwVERDUATsx7twZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHm6qHeO3yJ_IW700ZbZHUIxZjvIjHlVU7taSRI0-nWFFHEz_VGW4rRls9E2N_aem_YPJMH3w9ghQuxwLhOfVNI
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg just dumped a lengthy manifesto on his utopian vision for an AI “superintelligence”-driven future. Called “The Future is for Everyone,” it’s so breathlessly optimistic about the technology that it ends up belying something that’s, instead, incredibly dystopian.
But among all the deranged things he shared in the 6,500 word document, it’s Zuckerberg’s promise about how AI will unlock so much personal freedom for its embracers that’s the most hypocritical.
According to Zuckerberg, in the future “everyone will have an exceptionally capable personal agent that understands you, your goals, and everything you care about. Your agent will work 24/7 on your behalf to improve your relationships, health, career, finances, home management, hobbies, and more.”
Most importantly, “it will free up time for the things you enjoy, and help you accomplish more than you could otherwise,” he added.
Now contrast this to what Zuckerberg’s own lieutenant, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, is actually telling employees behind the scenes.
“I hope that what we do with our extra time is to do even more and cooler stuff for the users who use our products every day,” he told the employee.
In reality, Bosworth was being more honest than Zuckerberg: the main role AI serves toward workers today is to intimidate them and push their noses ever closer to the grindstone.
It’s clearly a flawed approach. Heaps of research has already illustrated that forcing AI onto employees bogs down workflows and even intensifies work. Meta itself is going through a morale crisis as the company fired thousands of employees and forced the ones that remained to use AI as much as possible.
Tell that to Zuckerberg.
The Future is for Everyone
The Path to a Positive AI Future
https://www.meta.com/thefutureisforeveryone/?fbclid=IwVERDUATsyLxwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHk51fjHvG4tVHKtwMdgTyxUrgeQQK-h7aA8iU6TLzw8V5ecedPf-3q5N9NId_aem_vKkrrdMjw_WHMNLVwd_J9A
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 67-year-old farmer decided to start consulting an AI chatbot for advice nearly a year ago. He was reportedly skeptical at first, though but began to let his guard down after some early successes with the AI’s farming tips.
He then decided to follow his AI chatbot’s new pesticide plan to the letter, letting loose on some 25 acres of precious sesame seedlings. Unfortunately, the concoction was basically a Long Island ice tea of agro-chemicals: a mix of “high-efficiency flupyridine” and “flufenazate” for pesky weeds, with plenty of “thiamethoxam” and “emamectin benzoate” for bugs and other pests.
Not even one day after treatment, the crops began to wither and die.
https://trib.al/g2Van4q
Slop Crop
Farmer Horrified as AI Gives Bad Advice That Kills 25 Acres of Crops
Tragic.
https://futurism.com/science-energy/farmer-horrified-ai-advice-agriculture-crops-sesame?fbclid=IwdGRjcATtH5pjbGNrBO0fi3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeHwaKhPmtNLDmsTGhFxtTJb55wRnbed2l-ssiU3PbNbNYI3iH57DSgc2_QG4_aem_BA8NsShfGPrV4_vLZjhHpw
Whether you’re looking for medical advice or tips on industrial agriculture, one thing is abundantly clear: never trust an AI chatbot without first getting a second opinion, preferably from a human who has actual expertise in the topic.
That’s the takeaway from an incident in the small city of Chuzhou, China, after a large langue model dispensed some advice that led to the untimely death of 25 acres worth of produce.
He was reportedly skeptical at first, though the farmer began to let his guard down after some early successes with the AI’s farming tips.
Since that time, Wu has come to rely on his LLM for everything from fertilizing guidance to scheduling various tasks around the farm. After months of fruitful consultations, he decided to follow his AI chatbot’s new pesticide plan to the letter, letting loose on some 25 acres of precious sesame seedlings, all without ever double-checking with an expert or outside documentation.
The plan generated for him was basically a Long Island ice tea of agro-chemicals
Not even a day after treatment, Wu says his juvenile sesame crop began to wither and die.
It’s just the latest case of an LLM cooking up some slop that lands a professional in hot water. If nothing else, Wu’s in good company: he joins a host of other dupes across the legal, medical, financial, education, and media industries who’ve likewise fallen prey to an AI chatbot’s inaccurate output.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kun korjaa AI kuplan pois, niin jenkkien talous on lamassa. Kaikki on siis yhden kortin varassa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1854H8H9nf/
The timing is impossible to ignore. Donald Trump took to social media to blast New York for pausing new data center construction. He declared the facilities “cash cows” for local communities and a massive driver of jobs. But on the exact same day, officials in his own backyard took the opposite stance. Commissioners in Palm Beach County voted 5-1 to block a massive expansion of an AI data center right down the road from Mar-a-Lago. Developers wanted to scale the project up to 3.6 million square feet. Residents fought back. The contrast perfectly captures an evolving national divide over artificial intelligence infrastructure. Everyone wants the promised revenue. Nobody wants to live next to the industrial reality required to generate it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Hw8D9uGta/
Petition to stop calling them “data centers” and start calling them “pollution centers.”
Join our people-powered movement: https://bit.ly/join-greenpeaceusa
Data centers release enormous amounts of local air pollution affecting public health and unfathomable atmospheric pollution, exacerbating climate change. Unchecked expansion also strains water sources and surges energy demand (driving utility costs higher). We demand strong AI and data center regulation to protect people and planet!
Tomi Engdahl says:
“~2 to 23 pounds.” https://trib.al/s71mX9t
Crack Squad
Google’s AI Is Telling Users That Flock Cameras Are Filled With Valuable Gold and Copper
It’s AI-on-AI violence.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/google-ai-overview-flock-alpr-surveillance-hallucination-gold-copper?fbclid=IwdGRjcATtp6FjbGNrBO2ni3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEerN8xT3RC9U888nf-8C7eIhoRUs4FNauiSh_UQ1tcoM7uxhuvMxDRFafckYg_aem_LSaIidzPYZlDMOTwCcEh7w
Google’s notorious AI Overview just handed would-be Flock vandals a perfect excuse to carve into the company’s controversial AI-integrated license plate readers (ALPRs).
ALRPs are wildly unpopular, especially online, where privacy-minded communities trade memes and videos cheering on destruction of the surveillance equipment. One of the more popular bits in this space centers on the idea that Flock’s ALPR’s are supposedly packed with valuable metals like gold, copper, and zinc — so, the tongue-in-cheek riffing goes, why not crack one open and cash in at the nearest scrapyard?
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GsrfW5dFo/
AI Data Centers Raise New Pollution Concerns
The rapid expansion of AI data centers is increasing scrutiny over their environmental footprint. These facilities require enormous amounts of electricity and intensive cooling, potentially increasing demand for power generation and associated emissions.
In regions where fossil-fuel plants help supply additional electricity, rising data-center demand could contribute to *higher carbon emissions and local air pollution*. Experts are also examining water consumption, waste heat, and impacts on surrounding communities.
As AI infrastructure continues to grow, developers and policymakers face growing pressure to prioritize *renewable energy, efficient cooling systems, cleaner power sources, and stronger environmental safeguards* for sustainable expansion.
#AI #DataCenters #Pollution #Climate #Environment #Energy #Sustainability #CleanEnergy
Tomi Engdahl says:
Buh-bye. https://trib.al/ao27xlj
Flock Around And Find Out
Flock Is Losing Dozens of Contracts as Controversy Grows
The outrage is surging.
https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-dozens-contracts-alprs-controversy-cancellation?fbclid=IwdGRjcATugatjbGNrBO6BjnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEezUklk-ixc_ErMpdPtVS5JfCl2xcuy8l_nPF8VLX-Z55NW8B-pvj1ffZ8xPc_aem_1m0-98VIAk9N5y4Q8imwng
Mass surveillance technology might be popular with police departments, but for the US public, it’s becoming an increasingly difficult sell.
At least 54 cities across the US have voted to cancel, non-renew, or reject Flock’s automatic license plate reader (ALPRs) since the start of the year, according to data collected by the Washington Examiner. That comes after reporting in February that some 30 cities had done the same since 2025, indicative of the rising backlash against the tech.
In all, the Examiner reports cities in 23 states have shredded their Flock contracts so far this year, led by California and Wisconsin, which each have seven rejections, cancellations, or deactivations. Other heavy hitters include New York, Washington, and Massachusetts with four each, and Virginia with three.
Though Flock has its cameras in over 5,000 US cities as of July 2026, the rise in rejections at the municipal level comes amidst a tidal wave of outrage around issues of privacy and civil rights.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/ai-fail-of-the-week-farmer-asks-chatbot-for-advice-ends-up-destroying-100000-square-meters-of-crops-84367?fbclid=IwdGRjcATujuVjbGNrBO6O4HBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEedTztU6KrwVo5MHUhdX1oWjqB4pm4X7oHieDhsqK-Px_mncefQhye211GyzI_aem_2YpV4T208TJozwGHA3zQYQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here come the waterworks — er, watermarks. https://trib.al/BHQo5k0
People Horrified That They’ll Be Busted Now That Anthropic Is Watermarking AI Content
Here come the waterworks — er, watermarks
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/people-horrified-busted-anthropic-watermark?fbclid=IwdGRjcATuozhjbGNrBO6jKHBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEekqVoXsxxD3fH1IGIO2DoJxPX5YlOt304ziod0q23p1-nUciXhszRSuIXb7E_aem_J2FVUOSjTj_V1P2kOasevg
Using AI to crank out everything imaginable, from your homework to emails to code, is great and all — until you have to own up to it.
Fearless embracers of AI are suddenly clutching at their pearls, after Anthropic announced that its Claude chatbot will watermark the text it generates, potentially exposing anyone who wants to get away with using the tech without detection
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1BkiZfyV7f/
A growing number of college students are directing AI agents to autonomously complete entire online courses on their behalf — logging into learning management systems like Canvas and Blackboard, completing quizzes, watching lectures, writing papers, and even participating in class discussions as the student. The New York Times documented the trend, noting that none of the three most popular AI tools among students — ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grammarly — refuse requests to write full papers, and none block access to learning platforms. AI companies have ignored requests from educators to have their models identify themselves when operating on course platforms. “Am I just interacting with bots here?” said Karen Costa, a two-decade veteran of online teaching. Universities are sending mixed signals: some have signed multimillion-dollar deals with AI companies while leaving individual professors to enforce their own AI policies with little institutional guidance. The consequences are real — research links heavy AI use to impaired critical thinking and memory loss. Some schools are responding: the University of Chicago Law School banned devices in class for freshmen, and Princeton dropped its century-old unsupervised honor code after an AI cheating scandal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“We’re not Big Brother.” https://trib.al/MTgq24m
Doth Protest Too Much
Sensing He’s in Deep Trouble, Flock Safety CEO Says It’s All Been a Big Misunderstanding
“We’re not Big Brother.”
https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-safety-ceo-big-misunderstanding?fbclid=IwdGRjcATuwhBjbGNrBO7B-3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEela0vb_yzcmDMZpuV6hdBu_ZioDTFRHtxisbDTuejD3x3HKDIKBTPRMtPIxc_aem_0mFi2oGPCz99lgq041nWng
In the United States, there’s practically no escaping from mass surveillance company Flock Safety’s 120,000 license plate reading cameras spread across 49 states.
The company has partnered with 6,000 law enforcement agencies and 1,000 private customers, leading to terrifying false arrests and even crooked cops stalking innocent women. Just last week, 404 Media reported that the Flock had been planning to infiltrate the dash cams of Uber and Lyft drivers’ cars to scan license plate numbers of nearby vehicles at unprecedented scale.
In short, it’s no wonder people are being celebrated for physically cutting down Flock’s surveillance towers as the controversy surrounding privacy and civil rights continues to grow. At least 54 cities across the US have voted to cancel, non-renew, or reject Flock’s automatic license plate readers since the beginning of the year, highlighting a major PR crisis for the company.
Consequently, Flock CEO Garrett Langley is now in full damage control mode. The narrative he’s pushing: that it’s all a big misunderstanding. In a new interview, he told Bloomberg that “we’re not Big Brother” — definitely not a thing that Big Brother would say, right? — and that “we’re focused on protecting people.”
The company is still trying to paint itself as the good guy, promising to help law enforcement to fight crime, while underplaying egregious instances its tech being misused.
Flock also announced that it’s making changes to its platform amidst major scrutiny from lawmakers and civil liberties groups in an apparent attempt to address privacy concerns.
Critics, however, are unconvinced, with the American Civil Liberties Union saying calling the moves a “step in the right direction” but downplaying other changes as “merely retreads of previous inadequate safety measures.”
“This is window dressing that doesn’t address the fundamental problem, which is that police officers are the ones deciding who and when to search, and that should be done by judges with real warrants,” Institute for Justice senior attorney Robert Frommer told the Associated Press.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I build AI data centers. I want them to disappear from view. : https://mrf.lu/2RtBh
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/164qrLL8WdE/
America’s AI data center boom is slowing down. More than 60% of projects planned for 2027 haven’t even started construction. Developers face big problems — power grid limits, shortage of transformers, turbines, and skilled workers. Communities are also resisting because of high electricity use, water demand, and pollution concerns.
AI needs huge computing power, but the real challenge is building and powering the machines behind it.
Power hardware shortages are delaying AI data centre expansion, despite record investment
https://dig.watch/updates/power-hardware-shortages-are-delaying-ai-data-centre-expansion-despite-record-investment?fbclid=IwVERDUATvc3ZwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHm1DZUT4wfbWKVsotYg4V21PU5rf1As6EiovWLhgOSoSj4MK1g7fM75UOiOm_aem_nt2ZPJHLg78RDoBUXkzvDQ
US AI data-centre expansion is being constrained by shortages of power-delivery equipment such as transformers, switchgear and batteries, Bloomberg reports. Despite Big Tech planning over $650bn in AI spending in 2026, nearly half of US data-centre projects may be delayed or cancelled due to grid and component bottlenecks. With domestic supply insufficient, developers are turning to imports, including from China, exposing projects to supply-chain and geopolitical risks.
US AI data-centre expansion is increasingly being constrained not by chips, servers or funding, but by the electrical hardware needed to connect new facilities to reliable power, Bloomberg reports. While the US–China trade war has pushed many server makers to move production out of China, the deeper dependency remains in power-delivery equipment.
China is still the world’s largest producer of electrical gear used to build and upgrade power infrastructure, both inside data centres and across the wider grid. Shortages of key components, especially transformers, switchgear and batteries, sourced from China and elsewhere, are now slowing project timelines.
The scale of planned build-outs is colliding with these supply limits. Bloomberg cites forecasts that Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft will spend more than $650bn in 2026 to expand AI capacity, yet close to half of the planned US data-centre builds this year are expected to be delayed or cancelled.
The problem extends beyond the data-centre fence line. Companies must also fund and coordinate grid upgrades to supply enough electricity, competing for the same scarce equipment as utilities coping with rising demand from electric vehicles and electrified heating.
Sightline Climate data cited by Bloomberg suggests about 12GW of US data-centre capacity is expected to come online in 2026, but only around a third of that capacity is currently under active construction due to multiple constraints. Electrical infrastructure may represent less than 10% of total data-centre cost, but it is schedule-critical, because delays in any link of the power chain can halt an entire project.
Lead times for high-power transformers, in particular, have deteriorated sharply, typically 24 to 30 months before 2020, but now stretching to as long as five years, clashing with AI deployment cycles that can be under 18 months.
Why does it matter?
Bloomberg’s central warning is that without easing bottlenecks in transformers, switchgear and batteries, and expanding US manufacturing capacity, trillions of dollars of AI investment may not translate into delivered AI capacity, because power infrastructure, not compute, is becoming the limiting factor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14iLoQznsr8/
AI Arms Race: Could It Threaten Humanity?
Artificial intelligence is developing faster than almost any technology in history.
Countries around the world are racing to build more powerful AI systems for everything from intelligence analysis and cybersecurity to autonomous weapons and military decision-making.
The concern is not simply that AI could become more powerful.
The bigger concern is what happens when powerful AI systems become part of a global arms race.
If nations believe they must move faster than their rivals, safety testing and human oversight could become secondary to speed.
Advanced AI could potentially analyze enormous amounts of information, identify targets, coordinate autonomous systems, conduct cyber operations, and make decisions at speeds far beyond human reaction time.
That creates a dangerous possibility: humans could begin relying on machines to make increasingly important decisions during conflicts.
And once autonomous systems are deployed, a mistake, malfunction, hacked system, or misinterpreted signal could escalate a situation before humans have enough time to intervene.
AI experts have therefore warned that international competition needs strong safety rules, transparency, and meaningful human control.
The goal isn’t to stop AI development.
It’s to make sure that the race to build the most powerful systems doesn’t become a race where everyone loses.
Because the future of AI may depend not only on how intelligent these machines become…
but on whether humanity can remain in control of what they are allowed to do.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/193rLX7aDd/
The United States is the world’s leading consumer of data center power, accounting for nearly 40% of global usage.
With data centers consuming as much electricity as 29 million average American households, the relentless rise of artificial intelligence is pushing the U.S. power grid to its limits. According to the Energy Institute’s 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy, U.S. data centers consumed 312.6 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025—roughly 52% more than China, the second-largest consumer. This massive consumption is roughly equivalent to the annual energy needs of entire nations such as Australia, Italy, Spain, or the United Kingdom.
Yahoo!
Yahoo!
The surging demand stems from tech giants dramatically scaling their infrastructure, with AI capital expenditures skyrocketing from $162 billion to $448 billion between 2022 and 2025. This rapid expansion is placing unprecedented stress on the American electrical grid. Data centers now account for a significant share of all U.S. electricity generated annually. Energy experts warn that this widening gap between energy supply and data center demand represents a critical bottleneck for the future of technology. Without a massive and rapid upgrade to energy infrastructure or a shift toward alternative power sources, the facilities supporting our next generation of artificial intelligence could soon face serious power constraints.
Images are generated by AI and for demonstration purposes only.
Source: Energy Institute. (2026). 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy.
Yahoo!
#DataCenters #AI #EnergyGrid #Sustainability #fblifestyle
Tomi Engdahl says:
A ‘made with AI’ label on Karoline Leavitt’s departure message on X intensifies the AI watermark debate
https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-label-karoline-leavitt-exit-post-fueling-anthropic-watermark-debate-2026-8?fbclid=IwdGRjcATv4M9jbGNrBO_gy3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeuOrK91tuHuVSux3gUGV2QaCOZ49U1iNnMhJy53wc4Kil0nzZLkep9gy4bDk_aem_hrwSyVk1LSIC908fEYjAsA&utm_campaign=mrf-insider-marfeel-headline-graphic&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&mrfcid=202608136a7dc70cd3d59150d6e65a1d
Tomi Engdahl says:
This is insane. https://trib.al/TEIXD0i
Slop Legislation
Congressional Staffers Are So Lazy That They’re Using AI to Write New Laws
This is insane.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/congressional-staffers-lazy-using-ai-write-new-laws?fbclid=IwdGRjcATv4ipjbGNrBO_h0nBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeEtTmiyP7iCcHL9JkVPTD8y3epC3bfeqQfCy_ekovr4xYurqX7TnEk1SL1w4_aem__KRuT3IYTDVGNlgYOiiMd
The use of AI chatbots has invaded almost every profession.
From lawyers getting caught citing hallucinated cases and major consulting firms generating nonsensical reports to teachers using AI to revise likely AI-generated essays from students, the tech has become practically ubiquitous.
Even those responsible for setting new rules on how to regulate the use of AI are making extensive use of the flawed tech. As the Washington Post reports, the use of tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and xAI’s Grok, has quickly become commonplace in Congress.
One particularly egregious example involved the office of representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) accidentally copy-pasting the output of a Claude prompt into the public record of the National Defense Authorization Act.
“increasing example specific factors. Identical to H.R. 100 (118th Congress).11:25 AM????Claude responded:” the garbled document read.
To Luna, it’s all in a day’s work when drafting a Congressional defense bill.
“A lot of staff will use ChatGPT, Claude, Grok. I personally like Grok better, but my staffer prefers Claude,” Luna told the WP. “I’m not gonna knock him for that. There’s nothing illegal about him doing a summary.”
Employees in both the House and the Senate are making liberal use of the tools, a terrifying new reality that could result in nonsensical language and hallucinations to slip into anything from congressional speeches to emails to laws themselves — if it hasn’t happened already without anybody noticing.
That’s because there’s practically no oversight on Capitol Hill, as the WP points out. There haven’t been any instances of a staffer being formally disciplined for AI use specifically breaking a patchwork of lax rules, either.
While plenty of representatives have admitted to consulting chatbots for research, the real risk lies in aides using the tech largely unsupervised.
It’s the latest outcome of the Trump administration’s push to have every corner of the government adopt AI at all costs.
It also highlights just how little oversight there is on how the tech is used on Capitol Hill, suggesting federal regulations will likely remain a complete moot point for the time being.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Good Ol’ Days
Employees Long for the Days Before the Workplace Filled Up With AI Slop
Those were the days.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/employees-long-days-before-ai-slop?fbclid=IwVERDUATv4xVwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHqsEKuInSP0G2rsOr9VOLyjLXS_cnn9CmsxKUSWnII9KlhMAavTn3133mrr6_aem_x3pRfiVht2cTl5tuJJoJtw
The majority of workers agree: AI has turned their lives into slop-filled misery, making them yearn for the good old days before the tech existed.
According to a new survey of office workers by professional services company Adaptavist, just shy of two thirds of respondents say they regularly long for their old, pre-AI work life. Over a third of them would delete generative AI tools from their lives in their entirety if that was an option. And some 36 percent admitted they didn’t even understand why AI was being forced on them in the first place.
In many ways, the results shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The advent of AI has led to widespread frustration and added stress for workers being forced to carefully comb over the output of hallucinating AI models and engage in prompt engineering that wasn’t part of their original job description.
The survey’s results are a strong indication that the once-promised boost to productivity thanks to AI has yet to materialize. Worse yet, AI is actively getting in workers’ ways. Some 42 percent of respondents said they “spend more time verifying AI output than they save using it,” while 49 percent reported that “poor-quality AI output slows down projects.”
Meanwhile, generic slop is turning tasks that once required a modicum of creativity into a slog. Almost half of respondents to Adaptavist’s survey said that all the slop is making their jobs “feel more repetitive and less meaningful.”
Instead of being freed up to pursue a life of leisure while AI takes care of the brunt work, as tech leaders once promised, the conversation has shifted to an even unhealthier work-life balance. Workers are clearly afraid of being made redundant as company leaders push for AI adoption. Over half (54 percent) of survey respondents said they fear losing their jobs within the next five years as a result of AI.
“Without clear guardrails, accountability, and alignment, the promise of AI efficiency risks being offset by a growing burden on the very people it is designed to support,” Adaptavist wrote in its report.
In short, it’s no wonder workers are nostalgic for a pre-AI world order. While tech executives are enriching themselves, they’re being forced to adopt AI at all costs, even if it means a drop in productivity.
It’s a confusing and frustratingly incoherent new reality that’s already alienating an entire generation. Thankfully, Gen Z, which is facing a dire post-graduation job market thanks to AI, is choosing to fight back — a growing rebellion against polluting data centers and chatbots that erode our critical thinking skills.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Let Them Eat Cake
Sam Altman Says Even the Power of AI Will Never Lead to a Shorter Work Week
“We’re still going to complain about it, but secretly we’re going to be happy.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/sam-altman-power-ai-shorter-work-week?fbclid=IwVERDUATv47twZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHqsEKuInSP0G2rsOr9VOLyjLXS_cnn9CmsxKUSWnII9KlhMAavTn3133mrr6_aem_x3pRfiVht2cTl5tuJJoJtw
Tomi Engdahl says:
“I genuinely had no idea that people were this anti-AI.” https://trib.al/vJJ23Hh
Who? Me?
Influencer Melts Down That People Didn’t Like Her Being a Paid Shill for OpenAI
“I genuinely had no idea that people were this anti-AI.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/influencer-melts-down-paid-shill-openai?fbclid=IwdGRjcATv6p1jbGNrBO_qiHBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe70oHY2QFn8hc9VXB6yQnhIGnV0L2GXEHMWS2_baIbfSrGHHQqB-wbyp0obg_aem_8d06ARt29OmNGDEJYXT6Kg
An influencer who attended a “luxury eco-retreat” put on by ChatGPT maker OpenAI got far more of a reaction than she bargained for.
Instagram personality and self-styled “public speaker” Grace McCarrick went on an all-expenses-paid-by-OpenAI gathering alongside other content creators at a high-end resort in upstate New York late last month.
Considering how radioactive the subject of AI and the tech companies leading the construction of extremely environmentally damaging data centers has become lately, the backlash to the thinly-veiled attempt to greenwash the tech was unsurprisingly fierce.
“Can’t wait to show this to the millions of folks who are begging to not have data centers in their backyards because of air and noise pollution but your robe looks cozy,” another influencer commented on a video of McCormick filming herself while wearing a lush bathrobe inside a luxurious bathroom.
In a perfect twist of irony, the video was of her running a bath — an unintentional, albeit hilarious, nod to the enormous amount of fresh water being sucked up by AI data centers, putting people living in drought-stricken regions at risk.
“The Effingham residents in my state of Georgia are about to lose a lot of potable water,” another user wrote. “But glad you go to unwind while we all protest this monstrosity.”
“This is absolutely not the flex you think it is,” a different influencer added.
Despite the extremely public backlash to AI and the associated data centers — a growing bipartisan movement that could potentially influence the upcoming midterm elections — McCarrick was somehow caught off-guard by the outpouring of disappointment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
After OpenAI slashed AI model prices, it boosted usage and revenue, illustrating Jevons Paradox where cheaper costs drive higher consumption.
#SamAltman #OpenAI # tech
AI prices are plunging. That feels bad, but something else is happening. : https://mrf.lu/2k8M5
AI prices are plunging. That feels bad, but something else is happening.
https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-slashed-ai-prices-usage-soared-revenue-jumped-2026-8?fbclid=IwdGRjcATv9mpjbGNrBO_2XXBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeyQxnWs907Dc7UzK3qngKnTM0XrF3Zp5WIevqw5vxYy_UCNU_Nu_SGWG9WRw_aem_Kp1YfavVxXMcyTlgxtIbhA&utm_campaign=mrf-insider-marfeel-headline-graphic&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&mrfcid=202608146a7f140420c9d806a80a5db5
The price of AI is falling fast. That might sound like bad news for the industry. Early evidence suggests the opposite is happening.
OpenAI recently slashed the price of its GPT-5.6 Luna model by 80%. It also cut the price of its mid-range Terra model by 20%.
Then something striking happened: Customers started using dramatically more AI.
Tomi Engdahl says:
They’re even more unpopular than data centers. https://trib.al/j8yUz06
Nazgûl Nine
Young People Hate AI CEOs So Passionately That It’s Almost Hard to Believe
They’re even more unpopular than data centers
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/young-people-ai-ceos-executives-poll?fbclid=IwdGRjcATv-cpjbGNrBO_5vnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeez_prc232FqrYxRLOgzbXYAU9BxApDWogikMVcPdui4IRBgoLTr9t-M6U6g_aem_BsQjT9XoCnLLhq7dYJxGRQ
A decade ago, young adults were flocking to vaunted tech giants like Google and Apple in pursuit of exciting jobs on the cutting edge of tech.
In 2026, however, the status quo of young people who are uncritically enamored with the tech industry and its billionaire overlords has gone completely out the window.
A new survey conducted by CNBC‘s Generation Labs asked over 1,000 US adults aged between 18 and 34 to share their thoughts on politics, AI, and the country’s economy.
A particularly interesting branch of questions polled participants on their views of nine executives overseeing AI companies, and the results were dismal. Asked “who do you trust to act responsibly on AI?” the vast majority of participants said they “don’t trust” any of the nine figures. Palantir’s extremely controversial CEO Alex Karp scored the lowest, with 81 percent choosing “don’t trust,” while Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella fared the best — albeit with a pitiful 35 percent “trust” score.
Everyone else fell in between: 79 percent of respondents said they don’t trust Peter Thiel, while a whopping 71, 70, and 69 percent said they “don’t trust” Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman, respectively (Musk will probably be mad he didn’t get that 69 figure.)
Those are some appalling approval ratings, reflecting the massive swing in popularity the tech industry has experienced over the last decade, driven by concerns around data privacy, the purposeful decay of once-useful platforms, and the erosion of democracy.
And if all of those tech executives could be embodied by one collective avatar, it would arguably be AI — a technology increasingly reviled by Americans of all ages. Ironically, even AI and the data centers powering it scored better than the tech CEOs in the eyes of the US youth, according to the polling.
Asked what kind of impact AI will have on their lives, 45 percent of respondents said it will have a negative affect on their careers, while an additional 40 percent opined that the US government should regulate AI.
When it comes to data centers, 60 percent said they think the tech industry’s all-out construction drive should slow down.
Tomi Engdahl says:
First, AI was coming for your job. Now, it’s coming for your device memory.
Your laptop costs a lot more now. The reason: ‘Chipflation’
AI technology’s explosion has put a suffocating strain on the memory chip supply chain, and consumers are paying the price
https://www.independent.co.uk/us/money/chipflation-ai-technology-apple-nintendo-prices-b3034382.html?fbclid=IwdGRjcATwDMtjbGNrBPAMsXBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEed_iyWMy6ev_ho7Kq78yh7zDfTUoZs8omlZDl3MwMB43nBPMR2BE7DArYT8s_aem_8yCOucCYQVyhYPfnaJ04ug
Tomi Engdahl says:
While defense sectors rely on semiconductors, military hardware accounts for a tiny fraction of global memory chip consumption. The real culprit behind the current memory price surge is AI data center infrastructure.
https://www.idc.com/resource-center/blog/global-memory-shortage-crisis-market-analysis-and-the-potential-impact-on-the-smartphone-and-pc-markets-in-2026/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nazgûl Nine
Young People Hate AI CEOs So Passionately That It’s Almost Hard to Believe
They’re even more unpopular than data centers.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/young-people-ai-ceos-executives-poll?fbclid=IwVERDUATwHbhwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHghuERjBGSGOvFcSCBU1k-_h6cmfiaVLIiNKk4u6EyQRJLEh_aTMftxuCbEx_aem_wOkdI7hGvVFalxsWdxcZUg
A decade ago, young adults were flocking to vaunted tech giants like Google and Apple in pursuit of exciting jobs on the cutting edge of tech.
In 2026, however, the status quo of young people who are uncritically enamored with the tech industry and its billionaire overlords has gone completely out the window.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Violence-based AI slops reinforce a fascination with violence for violence’s sake.” https://trib.al/f8rlFFf
Blood Orange
Experts Warn That AI Slop Is Corrupting Kids’ Brains
“Violence-based AI slops reinforce a fascination with violence for violence’s sake.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/experts-gnet-ai-fruit-slop-corrupting-violence-extremism?fbclid=IwdGRjcATwIkFjbGNrBPAiHnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeuYVbf09zCTBql4h1DfvFBG1ZbVRer5KgmeqNe8g2ueG5AvFTxe2owIOvPoU_aem_Ai0oh4WvrjYN1lw4UKVdVw
What do you get when you let an endless feed of AI fruitslop videos loose on screen-addicted kids? A great recipe for violent extremism, it turns out.
A new analysis by researchers at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET) argues that the AI-generated fruit videos infesting our feeds is a font for covertly spreading “violent and extremist content.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/employees-long-days-before-ai-slop?fbclid=IwVERDUATwIs5wZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHghuERjBGSGOvFcSCBU1k-_h6cmfiaVLIiNKk4u6EyQRJLEh_aTMftxuCbEx_aem_wOkdI7hGvVFalxsWdxcZUg
Tomi Engdahl says:
“AI has become my reading buddy.” https://trib.al/otVHgPk
Dumb Brevity
Publisher of Axios Boasts That He Uses AI to “Read” Everything For Him Now, Instead of Using His Brain
“AI has become my reading buddy.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/journalist-read-ai-brain?fbclid=IwdGRjcATwJoxjbGNrBPAmeHBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeVxvhHZ6I6nggB1_cSS120gTgYMOyMM5Kl47buzwvHVYxiAdqcVU0G5–tYQ_aem_imfUl-NaB-dG7SxM1c5u7Q
All is not well in the fourth estate.
On Tuesday, the publisher of Axios hit “post” on an article about how he basically uses AI to read for him now, instead of recruiting the moldering neurons in his brain.
“AI has become my reading buddy,” began Nicholas Johnston, who formerly served as the news site’s editor-in-chief.
According to Johnston, the tedious process of actually reading a book “makes it easy to lose the thread.” James Fenimore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans,” for example, was “too dense” for “casual vacation reading.” So instead, he typed in a prompt.
“I’d like a guide as I read ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ who can help me understand what I’ve read and where the story is, without giving spoilers or getting ahead of my progress,” he asked the AI. “Can you do this, chapter by chapter?”
Lots to unpack here. Is this a sign of early-onset AI psychosis and/or the specific flavor of AI obsession that bosses seem so prone to? Is the 1826 novel “The Last of the Mohicans” really that hard to read? And is this advice even original enough to warrant a whole article? Isn’t this exactly what AI users have been doing with the tech since it hit the mainstream? What’s new here?
https://www.axios.com/2026/08/11/robot-book-club?fbclid=IwVERDUATwJ1FwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHh3JjHEznYjsjAEz5z0MUvMv4GCeeCVuk5KU0w9aOS489lKJfvX4wUgEhY1a_aem_qJO9DmOU6wr9Hk-Kqd-1SA
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Buyers are voting with their wallets, and AI-generated content is struggling to compete.” https://trib.al/miQ29O6
Saying No to Slop
The Economy Has Spoken: Stuff That’s AI-Generated Has Almost Zero Value
“Buyers are voting with their wallets, and AI-generated content is struggling to compete.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/economy-ai-generated-value?fbclid=IwdGRjcATwQ1NjbGNrBPBDMnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe_z4U02Q78stteQIBn3K_KVNY1j1EuvygSL4hmR_Er3qgjAdDyEI0SmgnqCg_aem_e-K3GvLyzHNvqoiVrCwclg
Online marketplaces are being flooded with AI slop — but is anybody willing to actually pay for it?
In the case of CGTrader, a long-established online marketplace for 3D assets used by video game developers, film editors, and 3D printing nerds, users are sending a clear message. As 404 Media reports, the marketplace is being flooded by AI-generated assets, representing one in six models — but they only account for only $1 out of every $90 in revenue.
In other words, virtually nobody’s willing to shell out for AI slop, meaning it’s economically almost valueless.
“Buyers are voting with their wallets, and AI-generated content is struggling to compete,” the company noted in a press release about its most recent 2026 market trends report, as quoted by 404.
The trend suggests there’s a growing “gap that undercuts the assumption that AI-made content is repricing the market.”
“The upload numbers alone would suggest a takeover,” the company noted. “The revenue numbers say otherwise, and buyers refusing to pay for AI-generated models is saying something bigger than no thanks: it is a signal of how far they trust AI generation itself.”
“Which leaves the question the industry has been avoiding: an AI model may be cheaper to produce, but what is it actually worth?” CGTrader noted in its press release.
Buyers polled by CGTrader overwhelmingly say they aren’t willing to buy AI-generated assets because they’re far lower quality than human-made ones. According to a customer survey, 20 percent “tried AI and found it not good enough,” according to the site. Only four percent of buyers of 3D printing models said AI “works well,” suggesting that translating AI models into a physical object remains a major challenge.
The trend perfectly highlights how vast swathes of the internet are being drowned out by AI slop — and how users are feeling inundated by it against their will. Now that AI slop is overtaking humans in terms of internet traffic and content, online marketplaces could start feeling the effects of disillusioned users refusing to open their wallets as well.
“AI uploads are currently growing faster than AI purchases, which makes effective discovery and ranking increasingly important,” CGTrader CEO Dalia Lašaitė told 404 Media.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/experts-gnet-ai-fruit-slop-corrupting-violence-extremism?fbclid=IwVERDUATwRD9wZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHih9W8-uO_0LZk9LpJrfTnCVJcoW3ggBKre9OTC_gvjdBS7-a05rWFzXpI42_aem_YSDDjtlHjjPpuspVfJPbxw
Tomi Engdahl says:
He says that AI leaders aren’t the problem. Learn more: https://cnews.link/anthropic-ceo-ai-opinion-cure-cancer/
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says public will finally trust AI if it “actually cures cancer”
AI leaders aren’t the problem, says AI leader.
https://cybernews.com/ai-news/anthropic-ceo-ai-opinion-cure-cancer/?utm_source=cn_facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=cybernews&utm_content=post&source=cn_facebook&medium=social&campaign=cybernews&content=post&fbclid=IwVERDUATwRLlwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHn9fSSX13W8PebhfAmzjzLAm3qoLu6DvLRENYZHv7aFe-7Uq8qelQ2oE73hb_aem_y2w08nbZ-e_tYuHHfmRttg
Anthropic’s chief believes “ordinary people” will only be won over by AI companies if they deliver on their promises.
Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, made a rare social media post discussing the general distrust surrounding AI.
“I do agree that the public has a negative view of AI (and that this is a big problem), but I don’t think it is primarily caused by me or any other AI leader warning about AI’s risks,” Amodei said in an X post.
The issues between the general public and AI companies aren’t due to AI leaders, says Amodei. Rather, they stem from a fundamental “crisis of trust.”
The causes of this go back decades, and AI is just the latest iteration of it.
from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s X post.
The general public seems to believe that big tech is “cooking up some new way to screw them over,” which may only slow progress.
However, the only way to “win back the trust – at this point…is actually curing cancer,” instead of just promising AI will do it.
“I think by far the most accurate criticism of AI companies, including Anthropic, is that we haven’t yet delivered on our big promises to benefit the world…that is totally on us,” Amodei admits.
What Amodei is saying is that by “speaking negatively” about AI, big tech leaders are actually being transparent about the potential, real risks of AI, rather than distracting the public with “glitzy marketing.”
AI isn’t all sunshine and rainbows
While Amodei asserts that AI leaders were simply mitigating the effects of their unbridled optimism at the beginning of the AI era, when their products were relatively new, many AI pioneers have since come out to challenge those earlier notions.
OpenAI head Sam Altman, who previously said that AGI would “solve all of physics,” has also said that AI will likely lead to the end of the world.
SpaceXAI CEO, Elon Musk, echoed this notion, saying there’s a decent chance of AI destroying humanity, seemingly mirroring Geoffrey Hinton’s previous estimation.
Hinton, known famously as “The Godfather of AI,” has delivered many stark warnings about AI in the past.
Hinton also said that there’s a decent chance that AI will act as the catalyst for our downfall as a species, and more recently, predicts a “jobless boom” is incoming, according to Fortune.
To summarize the above, my basic prediction is that AI-enabled biology and medicine will allow us to compress the progress that human biologists would have achieved over the next 50-100 years into 5-10 years
from the essay Machines of Loving Grace by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
Tomi Engdahl says:
There is a big rush in the USA to create Super Intelligent AI by constructing these massive data centers and PAX 1 centers. It is the leading AI companies that are investing trillions of dollars to create SUPER Intelligent AI. They freely admit that they don’t know how it works, they don’t know how to control it and it has a good chance of causing human extinction. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei estimates a 25% probability that things will go “catastrophically wrong” with SUPER AI and admits that we only understand 3% of how AI models work, as modern AI’s are grown and not coded. Elon Musk has said that there’s a 10-20% probability that AI annihilates humanity and OPEN AIs Altman reconfirmed in 2025 his long held view that Super Intelligent AI is “ the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Planetary distance are temporatory earth, equater the elenonts and regnestiom org toed dishlign.” https://trib.al/M4Wh8M7
Girls Go To Jupitor
Kentucky Middle School Sends Students Home on First Day of Class With AI-Generated Educational Materials Full of Inexcusable Hallucinations, Including a Map Labeled With “North Dahota” and “Olkchoma”
“Planetary distance are temporatory earth, equater the elenonts and regnestiom org toed dishlign.”
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/kentucky-middle-school-ai?fbclid=IwdGRjcATwU8pjbGNrBPBTu3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeXXLaLoESo672g5MBvhjFs_8v5aZgbMZJhCpL-xw6Oekwq69U4qkdtQrqAcU_aem_lg2QuMQAI3CVA7YOvkRGfQ
Kentucky parents are outraged after discovering that horribly inaccurate educational materials handed out to their middle school students were generated with AI.
According to local station WDRB, students at Farnsley Middle School in Southwest Louisville were sent home with a packet chock full of AI hallucinations on their first day of the school year. The most obvious tell was a map of North America, which contained some jaw dropping misspellings of state names, misplaced cities, and hallucinated territories that don’t actually exist.
Images shared on social media show other parts of the packet with similar problems, like a periodic table of the elements showing Magnesium with an impossible atomic mass of -3.08, and a map of the solar system where Mars has been labeled “Marc.”
“Planetary distance are temporatory earth, equater the elenonts and regnestiom org toed dishligns,” the packet declares, verbatim. “Net to scale.”
In a statement to WDRB, the school district’s executive officer of communications said they “spoke with the school today about inaccuracies in their agenda, and they are communicating with parents about the issue.” After the discovery, the school admin reportedly emailed teachers about the packet, ultimately advising them to rip out 17 pages of AI-generated material before handing them out to students.
For adults who know better, it might just be another case of silly AI hallucinations. But to present this material to middle school students — who may just be starting to conceptualize the world beyond Kentucky for the first time — is egregious, and the long-term consequences are hard to overstate. While the generative AI tool may have butchered the material, the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of whichever educator hit print without giving the packet even a passing glance.
Last week, we brought you the story of parents homeschooling their kids using AI chatbots to plan lessons and curricula.
If this is the quality of material used to educate our kids, it’s no wonder students in the US are performing worse on standardized testing than almost ever before
Tomi Engdahl says:
Live and Learn
Tech Giants Pushing AI Into Schools Is a Huge, Ethically Bankrupt Experiment on Innocent Children That Will Likely End in Disaster
Awful.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/tech-giants-pushing-ai-schools?fbclid=IwVERDUATwVnlwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHn9fSSX13W8PebhfAmzjzLAm3qoLu6DvLRENYZHv7aFe-7Uq8qelQ2oE73hb_aem_y2w08nbZ-e_tYuHHfmRttg
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anthropic is adding a watermark to Claude’s output. Tech blogger John Gruber says it could prioritize traceability over the quality of the writing.
#Claude #Anthropic #AI
John Gruber calls Claude’s AI watermarking ‘patently offensive’ : https://mrf.lu/2RSsg
https://www.businessinsider.com/john-gruber-claude-watermark-perversion-offensive-ai-2026-8?fbclid=IwdGRjcATwZkdjbGNrBPBmQnBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeCFWbbGSiiLD4rJHpJJkCSIdAhO5lKm1mpAMOmk7w1F5OF992ulrF7GK1yNc_aem_nSPZ3K5auD0mPRApnejK0w&utm_campaign=mrf-insider-marfeel-headline-graphic&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&mrfcid=202608176a8361bd38e4e35f4de4515e
Tomi Engdahl says:
“They just want the content as a bunch of words strung together.” https://trib.al/z6rQ7fp
Tomi Engdahl says:
Definitely not a thing that Big Brother would say. https://trib.al/EDpk1Zu
Doth Protest Too Much
Sensing He’s in Deep Trouble, Flock Safety CEO Says It’s All Been a Big Misunderstanding
“We’re not Big Brother.”
https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-safety-ceo-big-misunderstanding?fbclid=IwdGRjcATwx6FjbGNrBPDHeXBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEe_UDlC9Mqqda_CCfO5fgQIudcSjGhLAPrGYX8VwaYopZXLNr4h_gL4fpE7AA_aem_SJrqDiXFso12PC7Fe-kx2Q
In the United States, there’s practically no escaping from mass surveillance company Flock Safety’s 120,000 license plate reading cameras spread across 49 states.
The company has partnered with 6,000 law enforcement agencies and 1,000 private customers, leading to terrifying false arrests and even crooked cops stalking innocent women. Just last week, 404 Media reported that the Flock had been planning to infiltrate the dash cams of Uber and Lyft drivers’ cars to scan license plate numbers of nearby vehicles at unprecedented scale.
In short, it’s no wonder people are being celebrated for physically cutting down Flock’s surveillance towers as the controversy surrounding privacy and civil rights continues to grow. At least 54 cities across the US have voted to cancel, non-renew, or reject Flock’s automatic license plate readers since the beginning of the year, highlighting a major PR crisis for the company.
Consequently, Flock CEO Garrett Langley is now in full damage control mode. The narrative he’s pushing: that it’s all a big misunderstanding. In a new interview, he told Bloomberg that “we’re not Big Brother” — definitely not a thing that Big Brother would say, right? — and that “we’re focused on protecting people.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reddit’s AI is turning posts into podcasts and short videos
Reddit’s latest experiment creates videos with AI voices reading posts and comments out loud.
https://www.theverge.com/tech/981289/reddit-ai-text-video-posts?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6Im9tZlBZWm9hVXkiLCJwIjoiL3RlY2gvOTgxMjg5L3JlZGRpdC1haS10ZXh0LXZpZGVvLXBvc3RzIiwiZXhwIjoxNzg3NDQyOTQ3LCJpYXQiOjE3ODcwMTA5NDd9.7V79A_hM4lrOrvT8f1NkPQ_Zibuq4Ke3TqDUVklXQd8&utm_medium=gift-link
Reddit is trying out a new way for people to take in content on Reddit: by turning text posts into audio / video content. As part of an experiment, some posts are being adapted into videos that use AI voices to read the text of the main post and some comments. The video highlights the text as it’s read by the AI voice, and under the video, a note says that it’s a “Real conversation voiced by AI.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/8zux7m/what_are_some_good_road_trip_games_for_adults/video/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens, a new mode that limits high-risk chats around self-harm, eating disorders, and other topics, adds studying tools, and more
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/technology/chatgpt-for-teens-openai.html