February 7, 2025

These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere’s agenda

Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the federal government.  The payment reports have been…

Technology

AI’s search for more energy is growing more urgent

December 17, 2024
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. If you drove by one of the 2,990 data centers in the United States, you’d probably think little more than “Huh, that’s a boring-looking building.” You might not even notice it…

The Download: AI emissions and Google’s big week

December 16, 2024
AI’s emissions are about to skyrocket even further It’s no secret that the current AI boom is using up immense amounts of energy. Now we have a better idea of how much.  A new paper, from a team at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, examined 78% of all data centers in the…

Google’s big week was a flex for the power of big tech

December 16, 2024
Last week, this space was all about OpenAI’s 12 days of shipmas. This week, the spotlight is on Google, which has been speeding toward the holiday by shipping or announcing its own flurry of products and updates. The combination of stuff here is pretty monumental, not just for a single company, but I think because…

AI’s emissions are about to skyrocket even further

December 13, 2024
It’s no secret that the current AI boom is using up immense amounts of energy. Now we have a better idea of how much.  A new paper, from a team at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, examined 2,132 data centers operating in the United States (78% of all facilities in the country).…

The Download: society’s techlash, and Android XR

December 13, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy The internet loves a good neologism, especially if it can capture a purported vibe shift or explain a new trend. In 2013, the columnist Adrian Wooldridge coined…

How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy

December 13, 2024
The internet loves a good neologism, especially if it can capture a purported vibe shift or explain a new trend. In 2013, the columnist Adrian Wooldridge coined a word that eventually did both. Writing for the Economist, he warned of the coming “techlash,” a revolt against Silicon Valley’s rich and powerful fueled by the public’s…

Why materials science is key to unlocking the next frontier of AI development

December 12, 2024
The Intel 4004, the first commercial microprocessor, was released in 1971. With 2,300 transistors packed into 12mm2, it heralded a revolution in computing. A little over 50 years later, Apple’s M2 Ultra contains 134 billion transistors. The scale of progress is difficult to comprehend, but the evolution of semiconductors, driven for decades by Moore’s Law,…

The Download: Google’s Project Astra, and China’s export bans

December 12, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Google’s new Project Astra could be generative AI’s killer app Google DeepMind has announced an impressive grab bag of new products and prototypes that may just let it seize back its lead in…