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Generative artificial intelligence has become widely accepted as a tool that increases productivity. Yet the technology is far from mature. Large language models advance rapidly from one generation to the next, and experts can only speculate how AI will affect the workforce and peoples’ daily lives. As a materials scientist, I am interested in how materials and the technologies that derive from them affect society. AI is one example of a technology driving global change – particularly through its demand for materials and rare minerals. But before AI evolved to its current level, two other technologies exemplified the process created by the demand for specialized materials: cars and smartphones.
That’s right — § 8 Gigs in both directions over fiber from Free telecom, France — a triple play with cable, internet, phone and streaming 39.99 Euros. § Standard Triple play from Spectrum Brooklyn NY, USA — 100 Mbps in 1 direction — $244.29 a month. § (1000 Mbps = 1 Gig) The FCC’s claims that prices are going down, that we should lower our goals of high-speed networks and that America’s future is wireless and satellite and the wires are all legacy and copper. This is all just gibberish. The rest of the world is laughing at us.
In my recent annual predictions for 2026, I predicted that the FCC or the NTIA would declare that the rural digital divide has been solved since everybody in the country now has access to adequate broadband. We got an inkling of this from NTIA Assistant Secretary Arielle Roth in a speech she made to the…
The Paramount CEO knows what Trump wants on CNN—and he’s willing to give it to him so long as he gets control of Warner Bros. Discovery.
In my book Enshittification, I develop the concept of “giant teddybears,” a scam that has been transposed from carnival midway games to digital platforms. The EU has just fined Elon Musk $140m for running a giant teddybear scam on Twitter: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/elon-musks-x-first-to-be-fined-under-eus-digital-service-act/ Growing up, August 15 always meant two things for my family: my mother’s birthday and the first day of the CNE, a giant traveling fair that would park itself on Toronto’s waterfront for the last three weeks of summer. We’d get there early, and by 10AM, there’d always be some poor bastard lugging around a galactic-scale giant teddybear that was offered as a prize at one of the midway games. Now, nominally, the way you won a giant teddybear was by getting five balls in a peach basket. To a first approximation, this is a feat that no one has ever accomplished. Rather, a carny had beckoned this guy over and said, “Hey, fella, I like your face. Tell you what I’m gonna do: you get just one ball in the basket and I’ll give you one of these beautiful, luxurious keychains. If you win two keychains, I’ll let you trade them in for one of these gigantic teddybears.” Why would the carny do this?
Today's AI frenzy fuels a capital expenditure bubble of historic proportions. While mega-cap tech giants possess the balance sheets to survive a contraction, the real pain awaits the physical economy that is currently overbuilding the single-use "islands of Capex" serving this boom: hyperscaler data
"The correct option is neither Paramount nor Netflix buy Warner," said one antitrust advocate.
- AT&T joined its peers in formally ending DEI programs and roles
- It already started dialing back DEI earlier this year
- AT&T still needs FCC approval for its EchoStar and Lumen deals
Another operator bites the dust on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as AT&T joined Verizon and T-Mobile in formally ending its DEI-related policies. In a letter dated December 1 to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), AT&T stated it “does not and will not have any roles focused on DEI,” removed workforce DEI training as well as any DEI references from its internal and external messaging. Further, the company said it won’t use hiring quotas based on race, sexual orientation “or any other protected characteristic.”
In 2025, one of the nation’s most ambitious attempts to close the digital divide collapsed. The Trump administration cancelled every pending grant under the Digital Equity Act, a $2.75 billion program Congress funded as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021 to ensure Americans could not only access broadband infrastructure but also afford it, learn to use it, and participate fully in an increasingly digital society.
The Evers administration announced this week that Wisconsin was awarded more than $1 billion dollars in federal funding for broadband internet projects in the state. The money comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was signed by President Joe Biden in 2021. The state reworked its proposal for the funds earlier this year after the Trump administration ordered states to follow new rules in their applications, which included being technology-neutral when considering project bids. About 11 percent of Wisconsin lacks access to high-speed internet, according to a 2025 report by the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband Access.
This Free Press report examines the Trump administration’s hostile relationship with dissent and free expression in 2025. It analyzes how Trump and his political enablers have sought to undermine and chill the most basic freedoms protected by the First Amendment.
Governor Laura Kelly announced today that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved the Kansas Office of Broadband Development’s (KOBD) $166.6 million final proposal for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The approval represents a significant milestone toward delivering high-speed internet access to the 26,673 eligible households and businesses across Kansas. The NTIA’s approval of Kansas’ proposal brings our state one step closer to connecting every home, farm, business, and community with access to reliable internet,” Governor Laura Kelly said. “This historic investment will yield essential infrastructure, bringing 21st century tools and broadband opportunities to connect all parts of Kansas in the digital era.”
Phreeli is something we haven’t seen before – it’s a mobile carrier that’s so anonymous you don’t even need to give it your name. Surprisingly, that level of anonymity is legal for phone service in all 50 US states, yet none of the major players allow for it. But not giving your name is just one element of the many ways that Phreeli is focused on privacy and anonymity, with this carrier having seemingly thought of just about every aspect required in providing truly anonymous phone service. Of course, you might be wondering why you’d want an anonymous phone service, or thinking that it would only appeal to criminals, but Nicholas Merrill – the company’s founder – has stated in an interview with Wired that while inevitably some bad actors probably will use the service, that’s not who he’s aiming it at.
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As near as one can tell, the business rationale for artificial intelligence rests on the hope that it will substitute for human judgment and discretion. Given the role of big data in training AI systems, and the enormous concentrations of capital they require to develop, the AI revolution will extend the logic of oligopoly into cognition. What appears to be at stake, ultimately, is ownership of the means of thinking. This will have implications for class structure, for the legitimacy of institutions that claim authority based on expertise, and for the credentialing function of universities. Consider some recent developments that don’t pertain to AI per se, but show the power that comes with ownership of computational infrastructure.
Since 2011, a new study finds that Chattanooga's city-owned fiber network has generated $5.3 billion in net community benefits for Hamilton County. Conducted by researchers at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the study finds that the municipal fiber network has dramatically reshaped the regional economy, supporting 10,420 jobs from 2011 to 2024 – about 31 percent of all net new jobs created locally over the past decade.
For many years, competing against the bundle referred to anybody who tried to compete against a cable company that offered the triple-play of broadband, cable TV, and telephone. I conducted market surveys for years, and it was not unusual to find 60% to 70% of cable company subscribers who were buying the bundle. The triple-play…
In their 2023 book Underground Empire, political scientists Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman describe how the modern world runs on US-based systems that other nations treat(ed) as neutral platforms, and how that is collapsing: https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/10/weaponized-interdependence/#the-other-swifties Think of the world’s fiber optic cables: for most of the internet’s history, it was a given that one end of the majority of the world’s transoceanic fiber would make landfall on one of the coasts of the USA. US telcos paid to interconnect these fiber head-ends — even ones on opposite coasts — with extremely reliable, high-speed links. This made a certain kind of sense. Pulling fiber across an ocean is incredibly expensive and difficult. Rather than run cables between each nation in the world, countries could connect to the US, and, in a single hop, connect to anywhere else. This is a great deal, provided that you trust the USA to serve as an honest broker for the world’s internet traffic. Then, in 2013, the Snowden leaks revealed that America’s National Security Agency was spying on pretty much everyone in the world. Since then, the world has undergone a boom in new transoceanic fiber, most of it point-to-point links between two countries. Despite the prodigious logistical advantages of a hub-and-spoke model for ocean-spanning fiber networks, there just isn’t any nation on Earth that can be entrusted with the world’s information chokepoint, lest they yield to temptation to become the world’s gatekeeper.
Regulatory questions are already rising about Netflix's deal to combine its business with WBD's streaming service HBO Max and film studio Warner Bros.
- Telesat’s new LEO business is called Telesat Lightspeed
- It will provide wholesale LEO capacity to enterprises and government clients
- The company sees the writing on the wall, that enterprises are going to demand low-latency LEO satellite services to replace GEO services
While Starlink and Amazon Leo capture all the headlines related to low-Earth orbit satellite, another company is making moves in the LEO space. Canada-based Telesat, a longtime geosynchronous (GEO) satellite operator, is preparing to launch its own LEO constellation because it anticipates that its enterprise customers are going to demand the benefits of LEO. It’s time for GEO operators to get into LEO or risk their own survival.
Environmental and economic justice advocates are urgently calling on Congress to stop the Trump administration's reckless push for massive AI data centers, despite overwhelming local opposition. Will we stand by as communities suffer skyrocketing electricity costs, job losses, and environmental devastation?
- Harmonic agreed to sell its video biz to MediaKind for $145M
- It plans to ramp its broadband focus as BEAD and DOCSIS 4.0 rollouts pick up, said Dell’Oro’s Jeff Heynen
- Harmonic could use the extra cash for potential M&A, he added
Harmonic is going all-in on broadband, having decided to part ways with its video business. The vendor agreed to sell the unit for $145 million to streaming technology company MediaKind. The reason why comes down to focus.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a hearing on December 2 to discuss a package of 19 bills, dubbed “Legislative Solutions to Protect Children and Teens Online” (“the Kids Package”). Some of these bills have been making their rounds for years and may be familiar to those even outside the tech policy world – namely the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) or the Children’s Online Protection Act (known as COPPA 2.0). Others are newer attempts to address very real harms kids face online, including concerns around AI chatbots. The political pressure to act is immense, with nearly every week bringing another devastating story of a child harmed after using an online platform – yet few new federal laws have passed to regulate these platforms.
The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion is at the forefront of coordinating broadband deployment efforts in New Mexico. Established in 2021 by key legislation, including the Broadband Access and Expansion Act (Read Senate Bill 93) and the Connect New Mexico Act (Read House Bill 10), our office works closely with various stakeholders to ensure efficient and effective broadband expansion.
As part of our mission, OBAE collaborates with the Connect New Mexico Council and oversees the Connect New Mexico Fund, which received significant appropriations totaling $100 million (Read Senate Bill 377).
Through these legislative mandates and strategic partnerships, OBAE is dedicated to driving equitable broadband solutions, bridging the digital divide, and enhancing connectivity for all New Mexicans. Click the button below to learn more about our initiatives and how we're working to create a more connected and equitable future for our state.
A new policy guide from the nonprofit Public Citizen is intended to support the public sector with concrete recommendations on transparent data center projects that are respectful to residents.
Zuckerman, who used to run the stalkerware apps SpyFone and SpyTrac, claimed the ban is hurting his unrelated business.
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Scoop.it!
