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Many residents are concerned about the health and environmental issues a datacenter could bring to the community. Many residents are concerned about the health and environmental issues a datacenter could bring to the community. Inside the long, bitter fight over one man's quest to build the biggest AI datacenter in California Sat 17 Oct 2026 09.00 EDTLast modified on Sat 17 Oct 2026 09.01 EDT Sebastian Rucci zoomed in on a map in late 2024, looking closely at a large block of brown earth. The barren plot sandwiched between sprawling alfalfa fields and sleepy desert suburbs was exactly what he'd been searching for - the perfect place to realize his dream of building the largest artificial intelligence datacenter in California. It was in the Sonoran desert, just north of the Mexican border, where temperatures regularly rose past 100F (37.8C). Water was scarce in the once-booming agricultural area, which gets its supply from the beleaguered Colorado River.

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. So-called balcony solar setups are becoming legal across the US. Maria Diaz is a staff writer with a passion for home automation, smart home devices, and tablets. Multiple states are working to legalize backyard solar setups. After Utah, nine other states have legalized it, or are working on bills for plug-in solar.

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.

Energy bills are going up - here's what you can do about it Energy prices have now risen by nearly 4%, with forecasts of a much bigger jump to come in January. Regulator Ofgem's price cap affects about 20 million households in England, Scotland and Wales and sets a maximum price for each unit of gas and electricity. Forecasters have suggested a 16% increase is possible in January, due to high wholesale prices paid by suppliers as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. While that's beyond consumers' control, charities say the government should offer more support - beyond a VAT cut on electricity bills which takes effect on Thursday - and households should reset for winter again. That includes reading the meter now, and taking other steps to keep a check on rising bills.

There Is No A.I. "Race" We're constantly told that Chinese advances would have catastrophic consequences. But the first to innovate is rarely the one who wins. In 1884, Charles Parsons invented a machine that revolutionized the mass production of electricity. His steam turbine could generate power far more cheaply, and on a vastly greater scale, than traditional piston engines. Parsons belonged to a long line of great British inventors--including the "father of electricity," Michael Faraday--who helped bring a new technology to the world, one that illuminated cities, enabled subways, and provided the bedrock of modern computing.

Steve Cargil's family has farmed the flat, dry land around Uvalde, a small city in southwest Texas, since 1953. Cargil, 67, had always assumed that one of his three children would eventually take it over, the way he had from his father. But that assumption took a hit one night in 2018 after a violent hailstorm. Cargil and his son, Ryan, had spent months nursing crops of cabbage and onions to harvest. Then a storm rolled through and destroyed them overnight.

The technology could strap onto existing gas turbines and make them more efficient--but it wouldn't do away with their emissions entirely. A new company has a plan to make the dirty gas turbines powering data centers more efficient: liquid carbon dioxide. American Supercritical came out of stealth Wednesday, announcing $8 million in funding. It wants to retrofit inefficient gas turbines that many data centers rely on for power with units that can generate more power, without adding more emissions (though the gas-fired turbines will continue to emit carbon pollution). The technology can also theoretically be used on a wide variety of energy sources at a time when power demand is skyrocketing.

The longtime tech journalist says she's seen Silicon Valley make the same mistakes again and again. As the AI industry likes to tell it, superintelligent bots could one day cure cancer and end poverty. Or in the worst-case scenario, they might wipe out all humans from the face of the Earth. In recent weeks, Silicon Valley's existential concerns about the technology it is racing to build have blown up. The tech journalist Kara Swisher sees it differently. "We have to stop thinking AI is going to kill humanity," she told executive editor Adrienne LaFrance at The Atlantic Festival. If the AI future goes sideways, bots won't be to blame. "These are people at the helm of these things." In the several decades that Swisher has covered Silicon Valley--formerly as a reporter at, now as the host of two podcasts--she says that she's seen tech whizzes make the same mistakes again and again: failing to take proper precautions against the products they are building. "One of the things about tech people is they're the smartest people in the world, in case you need to know, because they like to tell you," she said. In her interview with LaFrance, Swisher also discussed the economic implications of the AI race, who is likely to win, and how Americans can respond to this dizzying and worrying AI moment. You have been paying attention to the tech world and AI for basically ever. And now it seems like within the past, say, two weeks, the rest of the world is suddenly paying much closer attention. So I wanted to start just by talking about where you think we are, in this moment.

MSPs asked to pause Scotland's AI data centre boom Scotland has a new boom industry, at least if planning applications are taken at face value. The term "hyperscale data centre", rarely heard a few years ago, is now dividing opinion across the country as a rush of applications are made to build them. A debate at Holyrood later, led by the Scottish Greens, will call for planning applications to be put on hold until promised new national guidelines are in force, with an emphasis on energy demand and the environment. Ahead of the debate, ministers announced that all new applications for AI data centres will have to undergo an environmental impact assessment. The growth of AI is happening at lightning pace, so what are the advantages and disadvantages of Scotland being at the forefront?