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Google's overhaul of Search at I/O twenty twenty six — swapping traditional blue links for AI-driven agents — has triggered a measurable backlash. DuckDuckGo saw app installs spike thirty percent as users, frustrated by what many are calling force-fed AI, went looking for an exit.
That discomfort with AI behavior extends beyond search. A new coalition of faith-based universities says it has found systematic religious bias baked into leading AI models. The research suggests these systems treat different religious traditions unevenly — a finding that adds to a growing body of evidence that the values embedded in AI are anything but neutral.
Meanwhile, a study is putting a hard number on the cost of the AI infrastructure boom. Researchers warn that data center expansion could push electricity bills up by more than fifty percent in some states by twenty thirty. That's not an abstraction — it's a real transfer of cost from tech companies onto ordinary households, and it's arriving faster than most utility regulators have prepared for.
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