At the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick argued alongside Anthropic's Tom Brown that AI growth requires more data centers, launching a US effort to persuade global leaders to support them. The pitch comes even as roughly 3,400 data centers already operate in the US with 2,000 more planned, drawing bipartisan opposition over energy demands, water use and rising utility costs. The summit itself drew about 100 protesters objecting to appearances by Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Lutnick.
cnet.com
· 2026-09-02
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has published documents outlining plans to award a contract worth up to $5 million for building a national database of voter registration and voting history records. The contract, managed by Homeland Security Investigations, would require the winning company to pull publicly available voter files from all 50 states, including data on which federal elections people voted in. ICE says the contractor won't initially be asked to collect party affiliation data, but that could change if a contracting officer directs it in writing.
wired.com
· 2026-09-02
Google has agreed to purchase nearly 400 megawatts of electricity from Fervo Energy's Cape Station geothermal plant in Utah, set to come online in 2028, with an option to buy 600 megawatts more through 2030. The power will support a new Google data center as the company seeks additional electricity sources to meet rising AI computing demands.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-02
PepsiCo has deployed its MiNegocio+ app to help small mom-and-pop stores in Mexico City order products at any time, using data insights to recommend items based on local customer demand. This shifts routine ordering tasks to the app, freeing PepsiCo's sales representatives to focus on offering strategic business advice to shop owners.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-02
Greenpeace says the rollout of Apple's AI features, including the upcoming Siri overhaul, will strain the company's renewable energy commitments due to the heavy electricity and water demands of large-scale data centers. The environmental group, which has praised Apple's clean energy record for over a decade, says Apple must now prove it can scale AI without abandoning those climate goals.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-02
A criminal hacking group has published personal data belonging to nearly 8.7 million customers of Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports after breaching Manchester Airports Group's systems. The attackers had demanded a ransom, which MAG did not pay, and have now released roughly half a terabyte of stolen information—including contact details, vehicle registrations and postcodes—free of charge to other criminals via their own website.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-09-02
Nature's Futures section ran a piece of short science fiction depicting a community living on the fringes of AI-controlled cities that have become dysfunctional and unpredictable, with one city literally rearranging itself and threatening two scavengers, Kyle and Emma, who rely on a hand-drawn map to survive. The story imagines a world where humans ceded urban management to AI systems that have since decayed into unstable, self-altering environments.
nature.com
· 2026-09-02
GoPro announced a $285 million merger with optical-photonics firm Starman Optical, aiming to enter the AI infrastructure market through Starman's optical transceiver technology. The camera maker also plans to expand into defense, government, robotics and aerospace sectors while retaining its core action-camera business. The news comes days after YouTuber Markiplier disclosed an 8.5% stake, becoming GoPro's largest individual shareholder.
slashdot.org
· 2026-09-01
GoPro announced a definitive merger with private photonics firm Starman Optical, aiming to expand beyond action cameras into AI data center infrastructure and defense-related optics. Shareholders will receive $285 million in cash, or $1.14 per share, while the stock stays on the Nasdaq and existing consumer products continue. Shares jumped 40% on the news, with major stakeholders including Markiplier and BlackRock standing to benefit.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-01
Anthropic released Fable and Mythos 5.1, updated versions of its flagship AI models that cut token costs and reduce false-positive blocks from safety filters. Mythos 5.1 remains restricted to vetted cybersecurity and life sciences partners, while Fable 5.1 is now broadly available via cloud platforms and Anthropic's API. The release also introduces a Zero Data Retention option for Fable through a new Enterprise Frontier Safeguards service arriving in June, letting clients run the model on their own infrastructure while retaining control over misuse monitoring.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-01
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told CNBC that many AI data center developers disregard the concerns of communities where they build, contrasting them with companies like Chobani that engage locally. His remarks followed an August executive order imposing strict new requirements on data center projects and removing them from a fast-track approval process.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-01
SB Energy, a data center infrastructure company backed by SoftBank, Nvidia and OpenAI, has filed for an initial public offering with the SEC. The filing discloses net losses of about $3.2 billion for the first half of 2026 against roughly $139 million in revenue, mostly from its legacy energy business, while none of its planned AI data centers are yet operational.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-01
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