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A federal judge has dealt a significant blow to Flock Safety, the automated license plate reader network used by hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country. The judge's ruling characterizes the system as indiscriminate mass surveillance, a finding that could reshape how police departments use passive data collection tools going forward.
Shifting to a story about scale and priorities, a company called Valar Atomics wants to plant four hundred fifty six small nuclear reactors across more than nine thousand acres of federal land in Utah. Project Beehive would generate nine point six gigawatts — enough electricity for seven to eight million homes. The catch: every watt is earmarked for data centers, not local residents.
And a piece worth reading carefully — a new analysis in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists argues that the science behind AI doom scenarios is weaker than its proponents admit, and that apocalyptic framing conveniently serves the interests of the very large companies funding AI research. It's a reminder that in technology, who benefits from a narrative is always worth asking.
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