To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Figure caption, Watch: The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil is in Arizona to hear from residents about the expansion of data centres. A year ago, a longtime US senator was not thinking much about data centres. Now, according to one of his advisers, he is having regular meetings with staff to track their impact and working on new legislation aimed at curbing their rapid expansion across the country. This happens sometimes, something starts slow and then it goes fast, the senior policy adviser to the Democratic senator told the BBC.

'Massive' Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least six, damages power sites Share'Massive' Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least six, damages power sites on social media Russian air attacks have killed at least six people in Ukraine and left hundreds of thousands without power, days after United States President Donald Trump announced an "energy ceasefire" in the more-than four year war. The Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had carried out a "massive" strike against communications and energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported. Other targets included a heating and power plant in Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv, along with a thermal power facility which the ministry said supplied the Ukrainian military in the southeast of the Kharkiv region. Moscow said its forces had also hit a data centre in Kyiv which it said was used to gather intelligence on Russia's military. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged people to remain in shelters.

Did Iran capture a US submarine? Iran threatens Gulf data centres: How exposed is the region's internet? Iran's security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, has warned that cables, data centres and artificial intelligence (AI) facilities across the region could be attacked if war with the United States erupts again. The warning comes as the capture of Yemeni territory along the Red Sea coastline last month by the Iran-backed Houthis has raised concerns over the safety of internet cables linking Europe and Asia. Fierce fighting is under way between Yemen's internationally recognised government and the Houthis at several locations, including Bab al-Mandeb, through which nearly one-fifth of global internet traffic passes.

AI could self-replicate on home devices within'months', Anthropic says Share AI could self-replicate on home devices within'months', Anthropic says on social media Small artificial intelligence models could soon begin self-replicating on everyday consumer products such as smart TVs and fridges, without needing a data centre, according to researchers at AI giant Anthropic. In a report released on Monday, the researchers said small AI models "may be months away from being capable enough" to copy themselves on internet of things (IoT) devices used in homes and small businesses. While data centres would be "a clear, high-value target" for AI worms, internet-connected devices like smart TVs, fridges, ovens and lawnmowers could soon also provide sufficient computing power for self-replication, the research team said. Although no current AI model proved to be both powerful and small enough to self-replicate reliably on a smart TV used in testing, the trend in development makes the emergence of such a model likely by the end of 2026, the researchers said. "Home and small business IoT devices might be the first target for such attacks because they're connected to the internet and, historically, have had minimal security measures in place," researchers William Zhou and Daniel Freeman said. The researchers said they anticipated the future would be "awash with agents running on all types of hardware", including some that "aren't under human control".

Image caption, Yandex's data centres have been targeted three times this week - like this one in Sasovo on Thursday Yandex has been forced to pause its operations at a data centre near Moscow after the facility was damaged in a Ukrainian drone strike - the third attack on the Russian tech giant's sites this week. The company - dubbed Russia's Google - said no one was injured at the centre in Vladimir, east of the capital, but some of its services were unavailable to users. Earlier this week, Yandex said it was struggling to maintain its services after two of its five data centres were hit in Ukrainian strikes. Sunday's attack came hours after US President Donald Trump warned that Ukraine should damn well stop attacking Russia's oil refineries. Later on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that any de-escalation steps must be reciprocal and backed by real guarantees.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russia's Yandex says data centre in Vladimir shut down after drone attack Share Russia's Yandex says data centre shut down after drone attack on social media A Russian data centre run by technology and AI company Yandex has been shut down after it was hit in a drone attack. No injuries were reported in the attack on the facility in the city of Vladimir, east of the capital, Moscow, the company said on Sunday. "Operations at the data centre have been completely suspended," Yandex said in a service alert on Telegram, advising users to activate disaster-recovery plans as the platform operated in emergency mode. "The remaining resource configuration is considered unstable," it added, warning that technical support communications could also be disrupted as teams assessed the damage.

Russian tech giant Yandex has said it was struggling to maintain services after two of its five data centres were struck by Ukrainian drones in the past two days. Often dubbed Russia's Google, the company runs the country's most popular search engine, as well as a food-ordering and taxi app used by tens of millions of people. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks were in response to weeks of Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centres. Both sides have stepped up attacks on infrastructure in recent months as the war between the two drags on. Kyiv says its strikes are aimed at revenue streams for Moscow's war machine, and that the latest attacks could force Russia to divert resources to Yandex.

Is the war entering a new phase? Ukraine takes aim at Russia's AI data infrastructure Share Ukraine takes aim at Russia's AI data infrastructure on social media Ukrainian drone strikes have partly disabled an AI data centre operated by Russian digital giant Yandex. The strike on Friday followed an attack on another of the company's data hubs the previous day, appearing to signal that Ukraine's military campaign is widening its scope to target Russia's technology infrastructure. Moscow has previously targeted data hubs inside Ukraine. A day earlier, a Ukrainian attack shut down a major data hub in Sasovo in the Ryazan region, where two of the three supercomputers used to develop the company's AI models are housed.

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Why are data centres such a big deal in Scotland? Every time you ask ChatGPT a question, read a Google summary or make an online bank payment, a data centre is working behind the scenes. Now Scotland is part of a global race to build many more of them - on a massive scale. The explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past few years has seen tech firms scrambling to build new hyperscale data centres, including some which would rank among the biggest in the world. Plans are in place to build at least 23 giant AI-powered data centres.