The Download: China’s empty data centers, and OpenAI’s new practical image generator

Just months ago, China’s boom in data center construction was at its height, fueled by both government and private investors. Renting out GPUs to companies that need them for training AI models was once seen as a sure bet. But with the rise of DeepSeek and a sudden change in the economics around AI, the industry is faltering. Prices for GPUs are falling and many newly built facilities are now sitting empty. Read the full story to find out why. —Caiwei Chen OpenAI’s new image generator aims to be practical enough for designers and advertisers What’s new? OpenAI has released a new image generator that’s designed less for typical surrealist AI art and more for highly controllable and practical creation of visuals—a sign that OpenAI thinks its tools are ready for use in fields like advertising and graphic design. Why it matters: While most AI models have been great at creating fantastical images or realistic deepfakes, they’ve been terrible at identifying certain objects correctly and ... Read full article.