After the midterms, is the AI industry in for a rough two years?
Democrats’ historic victories in this week’s U.S. midterm elections could also transform the tech industry. The public voted on 41 data center-related ballot measures on Tuesday — in all but one, the majority voted to impose more restrictions on data center development. And even when data centers weren’t on the ballot directly, they were a […]
Get smart on it
The lesson for this story is being written.
Relevant courses
Want to go deeper than the news? Explore live, cohort-based AI courses taught by practitioners.
Browse AI courses on MavenRelated news
Google will let schools disable its AI tools, but not without sacrificing Search
Schools choosing to restrict AI altogether will no longer be able to access Google Search, as AI features are now integrated into the search engine.
Also reported by The Verge, Ars Technica and Wired AI
Big Tech lost big in the 2026 election
On Tuesday, millions of American voters went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly for Democrats and against AI. The fight against Big Tech is about to come roaring back, and the fight over data centers is looking even harder for the folks trying to build them. On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David discuss what the 2026 midterms mean for the tech industry going forward. They dig into the self-quarantining echo chamber that is X, the congressional energy likely to b
China reportedly recruited AI exec to spy on Jensen Huang
China's intelligence agency recruited Megaspeed executive Alice Huang to spy on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, according to The New York Times. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) enlisted her to glean information about American AI chips and "potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China." Megaspeed is a customer of Nvidia's, and Alice Huang also has "relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry,"
Also reported by TechCrunch
Big Tech claims voters’ AI backlash is “anti-Trump” not “anti-tech”
Donald Trump’s big, rapid American AI buildout now faces a major slowdown as voters in yesterday’s elections overwhelmingly supported candidates and measures that favored increasing restrictions on AI and data centers nationwide. One resource from a polling firm, called Redbud Consulting, tracked data center initiatives on the ballot and reported that out of 44 measures across 10 states seeking to restrict data centers, 38 passed so far. Those measures included dozens of moratoriums and bans. An
The US let Nvidia sell chips to an empty office in China
Concerns are being raised that neither the Commerce Department nor Nvidia are doing their due diligence when it comes to vetting Chinese firms cleared to handle the company's H200 AI chips. According to The New York Times, New Matrix is on the list of approved firms, yet its offices are empty, "a hollow gray shell with wires dangling from the ceiling where lights should be." In fact, the paper could find little evidence that the company exists in any meaningful way: Only scant
Industry experts discuss China blocking SoftBank acquisition of ABB Robotics
ABB Robotics has integrated NVIDIA Omniverse libraries into RobotStudio. Source: ABB Robotics Yesterday, ABB Robotics confirmed to The Robot Report that China’s Office of the Working Mechanism for Foreign Investment Security Review has blocked SoftBank Group Corp.’s planned acquisition of ABB Robotics. Regulators had expressed concern that data for training artificial intelligence models could be transferred overseas. ABB Robotics is already a significant manufacturer and provider of