Welcome to the Future!
We’ve talked about a variety of ways companies are pursuing data centers in space. This past Friday, SpaceX filed plans with the FCC for a million-satellite data center network. Well that escalated quickly.
“Five years from now, my prediction is we will launch and be operating every year more AI in space than the cumulative total on Earth,” Musk said.
Tech Crunch | Elon Musk is getting serious about orbital data centers
We’ve been talking about Florida’s proposed AI bill of rights. It’s out of committee unanimously.
The 23 page bill bans companion chatbots from communicating its children, requires chatbot disclosures, bans foreign owned AI, stops the sale of data, & prohibits AI images without express permission.
Remember how a bipartisan group of Texas legislators came forward opposing the Federal Excutive Order concerning federal AI preemption?
Well, there is also a letter from NCSL, the Council on State Governments, the National League of Cities, Conference of Mayors, and the National Association of State CIOs.
This letter states “We urge the President to reconsider this approach and work with states and local governments to build a strong, unified framework. An Intergovernmental AI Working Group would allow us to identify areas where state innovation can inform national policy while respecting states’ rights and leveraging the expertise of state and local leaders.”
Route Fifty | AI preemption ‘top of mind’ for state, local tech leaders
States are starting to form volunteer cyber civilian corps to protect themselves from cyber attacks. In Virginia this looks like HB 83 that allows the state’s technology agency to designate Virginians that will serve.
The cyber corp would provide rapid-response assistance under the direction of the state technology agency upon request from a client, or government agency, affected by a cybersecurity incident.
Virginia Mercury | Virginia to consider joining states creating volunteer cyber civilian corps
First came mobile phone bans in schools, and now in 2026 lawmakers are looking to prevent kids from being exposed to predatory AI.
For Michigan this looks like a bill package that includes privacy protections SB 757, preventing tech companies from profiting from kids’ data SB758, protections from Chatbots SB 760 , & adding children to consumer protection legislation SB 759.
Governing | Phone-Free Schools Are Working. Now We Must Tackle AI Safety
Florida’s proposed AI Bill of Rights includes limitations on data centers/AI site selection. The proposal seeks to “Protect Natural Florida— Prevent the construction, siting, or operation of a data center by foreign principals or on land classified as agricultural and/or lands under a greenbelt exemption, and require setbacks and vegetative buffers. Requires FDOT to complete noise abatement reviews to protect natural Florida from noise pollution”
New benchmark called APEX-Agents shows that every AI lab is failing in the workplace. “Faced with queries from real professionals, even the best models struggled to get more than a quarter of the questions right. The vast majority of the time, the model came back with a wrong answer or no answer at all.”
TechCrunch | Are AI agents ready for the workplace? A new benchmark raises doubts.
Start-up Humans& sees AI’s flaws in its analysis, collaboration, and long term decision making as an opportunity. They call it the second wave of AI adoption.
“We are building a product and a model that is centered on communication and collaboration,” Eric Zelikman, co-founder and CEO of Humans& and former xAI researcher, told TechCrunch.
SEC Investment Management Division Director supports using AI for proxy voting. This would be an alternative to traditional third-party advisory services.
Symbolic.ai signed a major deal with News Corp. Symbolic.ai says it can make the process of journalism more efficient.
TechCrunch | AI journalism startup Symbolic.ai signs deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp