Author: Frank Salvato

A proposed 160,000-square-foot data center on San Francisco’s central waterfront is becoming a test of whether the city that has emerged as the center of the artificial-intelligence economy is willing to accommodate the physical infrastructure AI requires. Nestory Park Capital is exploring redevelopment of a four-acre industrial property at 1215 Michigan Street near Dogpatch, although no formal plans have been filed and the property has not changed hands. The proposal surfaces just as city supervisors advance a 45-day citywide moratorium on new data-center approvals while officials study energy, water, pollution, noise and neighborhood impacts. The dispute highlights a growing contradiction…

There was a time when influence was something a person earned. You built a company, wrote a book, won elections, raised a family, mastered a trade, discovered something, invented something, served your country, or accumulated enough wisdom that other people decided you were worth listening to. Influence was generally the consequence of accomplishment. Social media managed to reverse the equation. Today, influence can itself be the occupation. Welcome to the age of the “influencer,” perhaps the only profession whose job title is essentially a declaration of what everyone else is supposed to do. Influencers are not merely celebrities adapted to…

The nation’s two largest public-school systems are imposing significant restrictions on student use of generative artificial intelligence, potentially establishing a template for K-12 districts nationwide. New York City has enacted a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI from 2-K through eighth grade, affecting roughly 600,000 students, while permitting carefully controlled high-school programs and AI-literacy instruction. Los Angeles Unified has similarly halted student use of generative AI on district-owned devices during the current school year. The policies reflect mounting concerns among parents and educators over privacy, excessive screen time, academic integrity, unreliable AI-generated information, and whether introducing powerful technology before its…

Four of America’s most powerful artificial-intelligence companies—Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google—are facing a federal antitrust lawsuit accusing them of coordinating efforts to slow AI development rather than allowing each company to make its own competitive decisions. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the proposed class action represents paying users of ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Gemini and argues that coordinated restraint could reduce innovation and diminish the value consumers receive from their subscriptions. The dispute emerged after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for industrywide cooperation to “pace” frontier AI development for safety reasons, followed by…

The federal government is taking a fresh look at the potential health effects of electromagnetic fields and radiofrequency radiation, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launching a formal request for scientific evidence, clinical observations and public input concerning exposure from cell phones, Wi-Fi, smart meters, 5G and 6G networks, wearable devices and other wireless technologies. The review comes amid longstanding disagreement over whether federal exposure standards—rooted in guidelines established decades ago—adequately address modern, cumulative exposure. A federal appeals court previously faulted regulators for failing to sufficiently explain their treatment of evidence concerning possible non-cancer health effects.…

President Donald Trump announced plans to establish a federal “AI Force” and appoint a new artificial-intelligence “czar,” comparing the initiative to the creation of the U.S. Space Force during his first administration. Although the administration has not yet detailed the organization’s authority, budget, membership, or placement within the federal government, Trump said its mission would include supporting American AI development while addressing harmful conduct primarily through existing criminal and civil law. The announcement comes amid an intensifying debate over AI safety, data-center expansion, electricity demand, cybersecurity, and competition with China. Trump has argued that excessive regulation could impede American technological…

Foreign hackers breached two small Colorado water utilities in late August, manipulating equipment settings, disabling alarms and remote access, and altering pumping cycles before operators regained control. The utilities, each serving fewer than 200 people, reported no known impact on drinking-water quality, treatment processes, public safety or service. The incidents are nevertheless part of a much broader threat to American critical infrastructure: federal authorities say cyberattacks have targeted more than 100 drinking-water and wastewater systems across 12 states this year, while earlier attacks on internet-connected industrial controllers actually degraded some water operations. Colorado officials have not identified who conducted the…

A U.S. military operation reportedly came dangerously close to intercepting and boarding a Chinese vessel after an artificial-intelligence system falsely concluded that the ship was transporting components connected to a nuclear weapons program during the spring 2026 conflict with Iran. An analyst working with U.S. Special Operations Command reportedly used an AI chatbot to combine open-source information with classified signals intelligence, after which the erroneous conclusion was incorporated into a standard intelligence report and circulated through military channels. Forces prepared for an armed boarding operation and aircraft were reportedly already airborne before officials examined the underlying intelligence and discovered that…

Artificial intelligence is entering a more consequential phase of information warfare as Iran, China-linked operators and private groups experiment with autonomous AI agents capable of creating fake social-media accounts, generating political content and coordinating messaging with limited human involvement. Recent investigations indicate that some operations are combining powerful Chinese open-source models with agentic software, allowing networks to function on private infrastructure where conventional safeguards can be removed. Iranian state-aligned actors have separately used AI to construct multilingual propaganda systems, fake personas and targeting databases, while China-linked influence operations have attempted to insert covert messaging into American technology-policy debates. The immediate…

Hollywood’s long fascination with Silicon Valley is entering a markedly darker phase, with a new generation of films and television programs portraying technology founders less as visionary entrepreneurs and more as powerful figures whose ambitions can carry serious social consequences. The shift is visible in The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to The Social Network, which revisits Facebook through whistleblower Frances Haugen and the internal documents she disclosed; Artificial, which dramatizes Sam Altman’s 2023 removal and return at OpenAI; and Cupertino, a legal drama built around ordinary people challenging powerful technology interests. Perhaps more consequential than Hollywood’s changing portrayal of…