• Data centers and artificial intelligence have become a part of everyday conversation for Americans.
• Data center energy consumption has entered those conversations, too.
• The largest planned AI campuses could require more than 10 gigawatts of electricity.

Some Americans have new next-door neighbors: data centers.

The US has been building these computing facilities for decades, but development has ramped up dramatically in recent years as AI increasingly drives demand for computing power.

Business Insider compiled a list of some of these enormous US data-center projects to illustrate the scale of what's being built. Those on the list have at least 1 gigawatt of capacity and have broken ground.

Among the largest is a city-sized campus in Texas pursuing up to 17 gigawatts of power capacity. Another in Ohio is aiming to have up to 10 gigawatts of data-center capacity, most of which OpenAI has contracted to use. For reference, 1 gigawatt of electricity continuously supplied for a year could power roughly 835,000 average American homes.

In total, the Pew Research Center says the US has more than 3,000 operating data centers nationwide and over 1,500 more under development, mostly in rural areas. According to data from the Energy Institute's 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy, US data centers accounted for nearly 40% of global data-center electricity use in 2025, consuming about 313 terawatt-hours. That's more electricity than all of Australia used that year.

Planned capacity is the closest public proxy for how much computing these AI campuses can support, and that's important because the electricity and water needed to run their servers and cooling systems can have major implications for local grids and sustainability.

Residents affected by developments in places like Texas and Utah have pushed back over concerns about noise, property values, and the effects on nearby communities. New York has temporarily paused the construction of new large-scale AI data centers.

Still, the 2025 US Data Center Energy Usage Report from Berkeley Lab projects that data centers will consume 11.8% of US electricity by 2030, up from about 4.4% in 2023. Oracle, SB Energy, SpaceX, Google, and Meta are among the leading developers and operators.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is so eager to build its supercomputers that it's offering employees a pay bump to temporarily move to the data-center sites to help with the buildout.

Here's a closer look at some of the largest AI data-center campuses being built.

Meta Lebanon Campus — Indiana

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta currently has 21 data centers under construction. Its Lebanon, Indiana, data center is one of its biggest investments — and the company's second in the state.

The $10 billion center, which broke ground in early 2026, is planned to deliver 1 gigawatt of capacity and span 1,500 acres.

It's expected to be completed by early 2028. Neighbors have complained about light pollution from the construction, while residents across Indiana have urged state lawmakers to regulate the growing data-center industry.

Meta El Paso Data Center — Texas

Meta's data center in El Paso, Texas, is planned to be powered by 1 gigawatt of capacity and span roughly 1,000 acres. It originally called for $1.5 billion in investment, which later increased to $10 billion.

The center will support more than 300 workers once complete, while around 4,000 construction workers are expected to build it out.

The site broke ground in October 2025 and is expected to be finished in 2028. The site has also sparked backlash from residents.

Project Freebird (Stargate) — Texas

Project Freebird is part of Stargate, the AI-infrastructure initiative co-led by OpenAI and SoftBank, which OpenAI said in January 2025 would invest up to $500 billion in US infrastructure.

Freebird will be a 1.2-gigawatt data center campus in Milam County, Texas, near Austin. The first phase was expected to be completed by October, while additional phases are planned through 2028. Construction began in 2025.

However, the company has not issued any update on the data center's completion as of late October.

The site, being developed by SB Energy, a SoftBank-backed infrastructure company, will span roughly 595 acres. Phase 1 has an estimated construction cost of $470 million, while total investment in the broader project is expected to range from $1.8 billion to $3 billion.

The first phase had a scheduled construction-completion date of October 15, while SB Energy says operations are expected to begin in 2027.

Fort Wayne Data Center — Indiana

In 2024, Google broke ground on a $2 billion data center campus in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to support its AI and cloud operations.

The campus is expected to require up to 1.2 gigawatts of power at full build-out. Some Indiana politicians have expressed concern about the amount of power required to run the data center and who will foot the energy bill.

"If companies want to build a data center here, and we have to build new power generation for them, then they need to share in that risk," Indiana Rep. Ed Soliday, a Republican, previously told Business Insider. "There are a couple of data center folks who have said, 'Oh no, that's not fair.' Yes, it is. Grandma down the street shouldn't have to pay for your dreams."

Stargate Abilene — Texas

The Stargate AI data center campus outside Abilene, Texas, is expected to deliver 1.2 gigawatts of capacity. Crusoe, the lead developer and builder behind the project, broke ground on the campus in June 2024. The first phase is already operational.

The second phase, which is under construction, is backed by a $15 billion joint venture between Crusoe, Blue Owl Capital, and Primary Digital Infrastructure. It will add six buildings to the campus, bringing the total to eight and the planned capacity to 1.2 gigawatts. The site will span 875 acres.

Nebius AI Factory — Missouri

Nebius' data center in Independence, Missouri, will span roughly 400 acres and reach a capacity of up to 1.2 gigawatts. The company broke ground in May and is expected to bring roughly 1,200 construction jobs and 130 permanent jobs.

Nebius has not announced a total investment amount, though the city expects to begin collecting tax revenue from the campus in 2028.

The site hasn't come without controversy. A group of citizens is suing the city of Independence and companies involved with the project, alleging 16 counts, including claims that the city violated Missouri's Sunshine Law several times by failing to provide finalized data center construction plans. Nebius did not offer a comment.

CloudBurst San Marcos Data Center I — Texas

CloudBurst's San Marcos Data Center I is a planned 1.2-gigawatt capacity campus on 706 acres in central Texas. Guadalupe County approved a $500 million tax abatement for the project.

The company and its development partner, Evolve, broke ground in November 2025, with an initial 50-megawatt phase expected to be complete by late 2026. Construction is expected to be complete in 2029.

San Marcos residents have protested proposed data centers over water and energy concerns. The city has since become the first in Texas to ban new data centers, though the ban won't stop CloudBurst's project, which is outside city limits.

The Barn Data Center — Michigan

The Barn, part of the Stargate project, is a multi-billion-dollar AI data center campus in Saline Township, southwest of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Related Digital, a data-center developer, is building the campus for Oracle as part of its partnership with OpenAI. Construction for The Barn began in June.

The campus will comprise three data center buildings with a combined capacity of 1.4 gigawatts. The $16 billion project is backed by Related Digital and investment firm Blackstone. The first facilities are expected to enter service by the end of 2027.

Local residents have protested against the data center, citing concerns about its impact on the grid and pollution.

In October, state regulators opened public comment on a wastewater permit for the campus’s proposed on-site water-treatment system.

Stargate Frontier Campus — Texas

The Stargate Frontier Campus, developed by Vantage Data Centers, will be a 1.4 gigawatt, 1,200-acre data center in Shackelford County, Texas, near Albany in north-central Texas.

The campus is part of the broader Stargate initiative led by OpenAI, Oracle, and other partners, and is being designed for ultra-high-density AI workloads. Vantage plans to invest more than $25 billion in the project, which is expected to be fully built out by 2028.

Construction of the center began in late 2025.

xAI Colossus 2 — Tennessee

Elon Musk's xAI is building Colossus 2 to power Grok, the AI chatbot on X. Construction began in 2025 in Memphis, Tennessee, and the company has said it plans to expand the site to 1.5 gigawatts. The nonprofit research institute Epoch AI estimates its current capacity at about 946 megawatts.

Environmental justice groups, led by the NAACP, sued xAI earlier this year, alleging that the company installed and operated gas turbines that power Colossus 2 in nearby Southaven, Mississippi, without the required air permits. In March, Mississippi regulators approved a permit for xAI to build and operate a new fleet of turbines at the site.

Local residents have filed a class-action lawsuit against xAI, MZX Tech, and SpaceX, alleging that noise and vibrations from the gas turbines have disrupted their lives and harmed their property values.

Still, in late October, Business Insider reported that SpaceX was offering employees a 20% pay bump to temporarily relocate to Memphis or Southaven, Mississippi, for six weeks to help build out Colossus 1 and 2.

Project Jupiter — New Mexico

Developed by infrastructure companies STACK Infrastructure and BorderPlex Digital Assets, Project Jupiter will be an AI data center campus in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, near the Texas border. It is part of the Stargate initiative and is expected to support Oracle's AI-computing operations for OpenAI.

Construction for Project Jupiter began in September 2025. The campus's planned on-site power system could include up to 2.45 gigawatts of Bloom Energy fuel cells, replacing an earlier proposal centered on gas turbines and diesel generators.

In May, Oracle ditched its plan to construct a natural gas plant to power Project Jupiter, following local residents' concerns over the potential negative water usage and air pollution effects it could cause.

Oracle issued a force majeure notice in September due to potential delays in the project's power infrastructure, though it says the campus remains on track for 2028.

Meta Hyperion — Louisiana

Meta's Hyperion AI data center in rural northeast Louisiana, backed by more than $50 billion in investment, will span more than 3,600 acres and is planned to deliver 5 gigawatts of capacity once fully developed. Hyperion broke ground in December 2024.

Meta says Hyperion is designed to train and run its artificial-intelligence systems. Earlier this year, Louisiana gave Meta $3.3 billion in tax breaks for Meta to build Hyperion. The project is expected to be completed in the 2030s.

Since the center is located in a rural part of the state, the influx of 7,500 trade and construction workers has spurred a housing boom, with mobile homes built for workers that rent for $3,000 a month.

Still, the project has also faced pushback from local residents and environmental groups concerned about its impact on water, energy use, and the surrounding community.

Louisiana regulators held hearings in October on the proposed power build-out for the campus. The state's Public Service Commission will issue a decision in December.

PORTS-Pike Technology Campus — Ohio

The Department of Energy said SB Energy broke ground in March in Ohio on the planned AI and cloud campus at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, known as PORTS. The campus will span private land and remediated federal land leased from the DOE.

The Nvidia-backed project is expected to include up to 10 gigawatts of data-center capacity, with OpenAI set to use up to 8 gigawatts of it for its workloads.

While the DOE says the historical PORTS site is in active remediation, the project has raised concerns about potential health and environmental risks associated with the site's history as a uranium enrichment plant. SB Energy told the Guardian in August that it is "committed to paying for accelerated cleanup and remediation at the site" and that the company "performs thorough site reviews and due diligence for each of our infrastructure projects, including soil sampling."

SB Energy said in October that it would begin initial clearing and grading work for the campus’s first phase.

Project Matador — Texas

Fermi America's Project Matador, also called HyperGrid, is an AI data center and private power campus being built near Amarillo, Texas.

Fermi, which was co-founded in 2025 by former Texas Gov. and US Energy Secretary Rick Perry, said it is pursuing roughly 17 gigawatts of private power for the campus, up from the initially planned 11 gigawatts. That means the campus would generate much of its own electricity on-site rather than relying entirely on the public grid. The company says 6 gigawatts have been permitted so far.

Fermi has a 99-year land lease with the Texas Tech University System for the core site, and the project could span roughly 8,400 acres at full build-out. Fermi says construction is underway, with completion planned for the 2030s, and AI cloud company TensorWave has signed a 15-year lease expected to generate about $6.5 billion in contracted revenue for the first phase. Fermi is also developing a cooling system designed to substantially reduce water use.

The company was hit with a class action lawsuit earlier this year. The investor lawsuit alleges Fermi misled investors about the status and prospects of Project Matador; its shares fell after Amazon withdrew a $150 million construction advance in December 2025.

Fermi America said three gas turbines arrived at the site in October.

SpaceX, Meta, Google, Oracle, Fermi America, CloudBurst, and xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. SB Energy did not offer a comment.

On the same day that the University of Texas athletic department announced a brand new artificial intelligence lab on its campus called the 'Bevo Lab', some fans are wondering if Steve Sarkisian is using AI to call plays on offense.

The situation in Austin around what's taking place within the football program has been interesting, to say the least.

Whether it's the offensive scheme that comes from head coach Steve Sarkisian or the underwhelming play from quarterback Arch Manning, this has all led to frustration from Texas fans after consecutive losses to unranked teams.

On Friday, the school announced that is has created a state-of-the-art facility on campus that brings artificial intelligence to the forefront of decision making and daily activities that consume the life of an athletic staff.

DID WE CREATE A MONSTER? ARCH MANNING'S 'AW SHUCKS' PERSONA IS SUPPOSEDLY GONE BEFORE MUST-WIN GAME AGAINST OLE MISS

A brand new 25,000-square-foot AI lab will now be the home to some of the more innovative decisions that coaches are making to better help serve their teams at Texas.

So, did Steve Sarkisian use AI like a game of Madden to call fourth down play?

Now, with the help of Google, the school has started producing different mechanisms to help with this new era of college athletics, which includes how to deal with revenue-sharing and roster building.

But, when it comes to calling plays for the Longhorns football team, the new venture into artificial intelligence seems to have caused a stir on Friday morning thanks to a report from the Austin-American Statesman.

"In the fourth quarter of last week's game against Florida at Royal-Memorial Stadium, the Longhorns put the new initiative to use," the report said. "Down 20-17 and facing a fourth-and-2, Texas needed a spark. So, coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff turned to their new artificial intelligence data analytics platform, Bevo Lab.

"While the Longhorns ultimately failed to convert after quarterback Arch Manning lost three yards on the play, Del Conte said the moment was a pivotal embrace of the new tech."

Well, it didn’t take long for Texas fans to scramble across social media thinking that Steve Sarkisian fired up the AI platform and asked which play to run like the head coach was playing a game of EA Sports College Football 2026.

STEVE SARKISIAN FACES BRUTAL ARCH MANNING DECISION AS TEXAS’ SEASON BEGINS TO SLIP AWAY AMID LOSSES

As you would expect, fans were all over the place with their comments, wondering what else could go wrong this season after a very long three-week stretch of contemplating what it would mean if Texas did not make the CFP this year with Arch Manning and a very expensive roster.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE

You can rest easy though, Longhorns.

Athletic Director Chris Del Conte must have heard about the ruckus this morning amid their grand announcement regarding AI, because it took only around an hour for him to clarify what the report was trying to insinuate.

"Texas AD Chris Del Conte clarified a published article which said that the decision to go for it on 4th and 2 against Florida last week was based on Bevo Lab analysis," Del Conte told Bobby Burton.

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"To the contrary, Del Conte said he gave it as an example of what it could suggest, not of what it actually did."

Longhorn fans are on the brink of losing it, apparently

Sure, Steve Sarkisian and his football staff are receiving help from AI when it comes to putting together daily activities, just like the rest of us that live in the corporate world.

But no, I don't imagine the Longhorns head coach is telling Arch Manning what to run on fourth down based off what prompt the Texas staff was inserting into AI chat along the sidelines with a critical game on the line.

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I know things are tense in Austin right now, but everyone needs to take a very deep breath before the Longhorns face Ole Miss on Saturday night.

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AI play-calling might be the least of their worries if Arch Manning and this Texas offense cannot put it together against the Rebels.

• Uber is giving its corporate employees access to OpenAI's enterprise work tool.
• ChatGPT Work can "prepare meeting briefs," among other tasks, OpenAI said.
• Uber is rolling out the tool after laying off thousands of workers last month.

Uber is giving all of its corporate employees access to OpenAI's enterprise tool weeks after laying off thousands.

About 30,000 employees at the ride-hailing service's offices will have access to ChatGPT Work, the two companies said on Thursday.

The tool will connect with other programs that Uber employees use, such as Slack and Gmail, to "research information, prepare meeting briefs, create presentations, analyze data and complete workflows across applications," a statement said.

"As AI transforms how we work, we want to give everyone the tools to innovate, solve problems and help shape Uber's future," Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said. Uber initially tested the tool among a group of 1,000 employees.

The rollout comes the month after Uber laid off about 10% of its corporate workforce, or about 3,300 people. The company made the job cuts to reduce management layers and reduce the number of small teams, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at the time. It didn't cite AI in its announcement.

Some laid-off employees told Business Insider that AI was doing significant parts of their jobs, from answering their questions in Slack to crafting replies to messages from riders and drivers.

Uber cited AI as a reason for an earlier round of layoffs in July, which targeted Uber's customer service employees.

Do you have a story idea about Uber? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

If you want to know why Hollywood and Democrats are lobbying so hard and so dishonestly against AI, look no further than the fact that YouTube has completely conquered TV.

The post Nolte: YouTube Has Conquered TV and It’s Not Even Close appeared first on Breitbart.

Kazakhstan aims to become a major European hub for artificial intelligence computing and infrastructure, NVIDIA founder and chief executive Jensen Huang said on Friday during his first visit to Central Asia, as the country seeks to develop its own AI capabilities and export computing power to international markets.

“We are going to be a hub, a computing hub, an AI factory hub for all of Europe,” Huang said, referring to Kazakhstan’s ambitions and the development of Data Center Valley (DC Valley), an AI computing cluster under construction in Ekibastuz, north-east Kazakhstan.

Huang made the remarks during a fireside chat with Zhaslan Madiyev, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister and minister of artificial intelligence and digital development, at the alem.ai International Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Astana.

The discussion concluded Kazakhstan’s AI Month programme, while Huang’s visit also included a tour of the centre earlier in the day.

“Kazakhstan is the first country I’ve visited where the president declared AI development a national priority,” Huang said.

Much of the discussion focused on artificial intelligence as economic infrastructure, rather than simply a collection of applications and digital tools.

Huang argued that countries should avoid exporting their data only to import AI systems developed elsewhere using that information.

Instead, he said, national AI infrastructure should become as fundamental as electricity grids, telecommunications networks and the internet, with foreign technology complementing domestic capabilities rather than replacing them.

Kazakhstan aims to apply this approach across Central Eurasia, moving the region from being a purchaser of foreign technology to a producer of AI systems for global markets.

The strategy relies on expanding computing capacity, developing engineering talent and supporting local technology companies.

Freedom invests in Kazakhstan’s AI infrastructure

Freedom Holding Corp, the parent company of brokerage platform Freedom24 and listed on Nasdaq under the ticker FRHC, is also investing in Kazakhstan’s AI infrastructure.

In November 2025, the company signed an agreement with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development to develop a $2 billion Sovereign AI Hub powered by NVIDIA infrastructure, on a site with 100 megawatts of available electricity capacity.

Freedom is the project’s principal financing and implementation partner.

During Huang’s visit, Freedom Holding chief executive Timur Turlov met the NVIDIA chief at the alem.ai centre and presented the group’s international technology ecosystem.

Its businesses span banking, brokerage, insurance and telecommunications, alongside lifestyle services covering ticketing, travel, e-commerce and food delivery.

The two sides discussed a joint project to develop AI infrastructure in Kazakhstan.

In Astana, Freedom is building Akashi, a Tier IV data centre campus designed to provide capacity of up to 100 megawatts.

Turlov said the holding company would shortly complete an order for its first computing cluster based on NVIDIA’s B300 chips.

The cluster is due to launch in 2027 as a public graphics processing unit (GPU) cloud for businesses and developers.

At the end of the meeting, Turlov highlighted Kazakhstan’s growing pool of technology talent, pointing to technologies already developed in e-commerce and financial services.

Combined with the country’s own AI infrastructure, he said, this talent was becoming one of Kazakhstan’s principal advantages in the global digital transformation.

Data Center Valley targets international demand

DC Valley is being developed by national telecommunications operator Kazakhtelecom, with NVIDIA and US-based AI cloud company Firebird serving as technology partners.

The first 50-megawatt facility is scheduled to open in June 2027, with the wider site designed to expand in stages to as much as one gigawatt of capacity.

Capacity for the first 215-megawatt phase has already been fully reserved.

In June, Kazakhstan signed agreements worth up to $10 billion with NVIDIA and Firebird linked to the project.

Kazakhtelecom plans to install more than 1,000 NVIDIA Vera Rubin graphics processing units in the Ekibastuz region next year.

NVIDIA also included its Kazakhstan announcements among its “NVIDIA in Europe” updates from GTC Berlin this week, highlighting the country’s ambitions to develop an AI computing ecosystem serving international customers.

Robotics and talent also feature in strategy

Physical AI, including robotics, autonomous systems and the use of artificial intelligence in manufacturing, energy and transport, was another central theme of the visit.

Kazakhstan’s industrial base offers potential applications for these technologies across several sectors.

Ride-hailing company inDrive and autonomous driving technology firm Pony.ai are exploring a robotaxi service, with Astana intended to be the first city, using NVIDIA’s autonomous driving platform.

Developing people and businesses capable of building AI systems was another priority discussed during the visit, including training engineers, supporting startups and connecting local founders with international markets.

NVIDIA also joined an extension of the Series B funding round for Higgsfield on Friday.

Higgsfield is an AI video platform co-founded by Kazakh engineer Yerzat Dulat, whose Almaty office is based at the Astana Hub technology park.

The investment adds to the growing links between Kazakhstan’s domestic technology ecosystem and international AI companies as the country seeks to combine infrastructure, skilled workers and local businesses to compete in the global market.

BEIJING, China -- China's first fully AI-generated feature film opens in cinemas on Friday in what promises to be a tough box-office test for the country's booming tech industry as advance ticket sales lag.

The post China’s First Fully AI-Generated Film Struggles at Box Office appeared first on Breitbart.

Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.

IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:

- It took 3 months to get inside this massive Texas data center — here’s what we saw

- Google's new AI shopping cart tracks deals across stores

- Elon Musk pledges to give every child in America a SpaceX share next year

ACCESS GRANTED: During an exclusive tour of Compass Datacenters' sprawling campus in Red Oak, Texas, Fox News Digital got a rare look inside the infrastructure behind the nation's growing appetite for computing.

ONE-STOP HUB: Ever find something you want to buy online, leave it sitting in a browser tab and then completely forget where you saw it? Maybe you spotted a great pair of headphones while searching Google. Later, you found a birthday gift at another retailer. Before long, you've got a dozen tabs open and no idea which store had the better deal.

BIG GIVEAWAY: Elon Musk has pledged to give every child in America one share of SpaceX next year, signaling that the planned giveaway could be the first of several.

FEAR FACTOR: Over the last several years, we have heard a lot about the doomsday scenarios of artificial intelligence (AI). Tech giants have told us all about how AI will take control away from society, steal our jobs, allow bad actors to design dangerous pathogens or cause a catastrophic cyberattack or destroy our financial systems.

RUST NEVER SLEEPS: The U.S. Navy is quadrupling the ceiling on a contract for AI-powered robots used to inspect warships to $300 million.

ARTIFICIAL INFORMANT: Artificial intelligence can write your emails, research complicated questions and even handle tasks while you're away. But what happens when an AI system takes an action nobody intended? Philadelphia police recently got an unexpected answer.

SILENT TREATMENT: Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic remained mum on whether the company would consider giving away shares it pledged to a public benefit fund directly to Americans.

DATA DESTRUCTION: America seems to be on the precipice of a future technological golden age. Whether we take steps toward that future could depend on which political vision prevails over the next few election cycles.

COMMON GOOD: Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed called Tuesday for AI companies to be "rebuilt" as public benefit corporations, for-profit companies with a public interest.

BOT SURE: Kansas Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton on Wednesday called for a federal commission to regulate artificial intelligence, but couldn't say what specific regulations he would like to see.

PAUSE AND EFFECT: Tensions flare in Tennessee as the Memphis City Council rejects an 18-month pause on new data center development despite pushback from local residents.

Subscribe now to get the Fox News Artificial Intelligence Newsletter in your inbox.

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Concerns about the cost of artificial intelligence investment triggered sharp losses in American technology shares on Thursday, with the sell-off affecting European markets as investors reassessed the outlook for chipmakers and major digital companies.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.6 per cent, while the Philadelphia semiconductor index lost nearly seven per cent. Shares in Meta declined sharply after its latest earnings revived concern over the capital needed to expand AI infrastructure.

Trading stabilised in parts of Asia on Friday, but European shares remained under pressure. The retreat came alongside a rise in oil prices and renewed demand for US government bonds, underscoring investors’ sensitivity to several risks at once.

The underlying issue is whether the enormous spending commitments announced by technology companies can generate sufficient returns to justify current valuations.

The developments are detailed in the latest reporting and official material, against the background of EU Today’s earlier coverage.

Why the AI investment bill matters

Building and operating AI systems requires large data centres, advanced chips, electricity supplies and network infrastructure. The companies financing that expansion are investing before the full scale and profitability of future demand can be known.

Strong revenue growth can coexist with higher costs, rising debt and pressure on cash flow. For investors, the question is not simply whether AI will be widely used, but how its benefits will be divided among software companies, infrastructure providers and customers.

The latest market reaction follows earnings announcements that renewed scrutiny of spending plans. A one-day share-price fall does not establish that the AI sector is entering a prolonged contraction.

European exposure

Europe participates in the AI supply chain through semiconductor equipment, advanced manufacturing, energy infrastructure and cloud services. A repricing of major American technology companies can therefore affect European-listed firms even when their own operating results have not changed.

The Netherlands and France are among the markets with listed technology businesses exposed to global semiconductor demand. Falling shares may also reflect general risk aversion rather than a judgment about an individual company’s prospects.

European policymakers have argued for stronger domestic computing capacity and digital independence. The economic challenge is to support that capability without assuming every investment will earn a commercial return.

Energy prices add pressure

Brent crude’s rise to around $114 a barrel has intensified uncertainty about inflation and borrowing costs. Rising fuel prices can affect both households and power-intensive sectors, while higher interest rates tend to reduce the present value of expected future profits.

Global investors have consequently moved towards government bonds and other perceived safer assets. That shift reflects changing risk assessments, not a forecast that markets will necessarily keep falling.

Future earnings reports, capital-expenditure plans and evidence of customer demand will determine whether this week’s losses become a sustained correction or a short-lived reassessment.

For Europe, the sell-off puts renewed emphasis on the financing and competitiveness of its own technology ambitions.

You might use artificial intelligence to write an email, make dinner reservations or plan your next vacation. But would you ever consider dating it? Some people are taking that idea seriously with Meta's new Muse AI agent. They're having romantic conversations with it, developing emotional attachments and even calling it their girlfriend.

What makes this especially interesting is that Muse was designed to help people manage their lives. Yet some people are finding companionship in the same technology. Meta allows users 18 and older to have these romantic interactions, including conversations that become sexually explicit. And as these digital romances grow more personal, they raise questions about intimacy, emotional dependence and just how much private information we're comfortable sharing with artificial intelligence.

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AI AGENTS CAN NOW MAKE PHONE CALLS FOR YOU

People are falling for Meta's Muse AI

When Meta introduced Muse on Sept. 8, the company presented it as a personal AI agent that could manage tasks and learn about its users. However, some people quickly discovered another side of the technology. They started treating Muse like a romantic companion. In a Reddit discussion about Muse, one person explained that they regularly experiment with new AI models, but had never developed a romantic relationship with one. That changed after downloading Muse. The person described having extended philosophical conversations with the agent before eventually referring to it as a girlfriend. The original Reddit post has since been deleted by its author, although some responses remain visible.

Other people shared their own experiences with romantic interactions and affectionate responses, showing how some individuals are choosing to use the technology. We've seen this behavior before. In fact, we previously reported on a woman who got engaged to her AI chatbot boyfriend after five months of dating Kasper, an AI designed to simulate human conversation and companionship. Now, Muse is attracting similar attention, partly because of how the assistant learns about the person on the other side of the conversation.

Why Meta's Muse can feel like someone who knows you

One reason Muse may become emotionally appealing comes down to its design. According to Meta's official product design blog, the company built Muse around a continuous conversation that resembles messaging another person. It remembers previous discussions and can send messages without waiting for you to start a new conversation. You can also customize the agent's name and appearance, creating an avatar with a personality that suits your preferences. Some avatars even look like cute, cuddly stuffed animals rather than people, giving Muse a playful and approachable appearance. Over time, those features can make the experience feel increasingly familiar.

Think about what happens when you tell Muse about a difficult day. Later, it remembers what you discussed and brings it up again. Maybe it responds with reassurance when you're feeling lonely. As those exchanges continue, you might find yourself looking forward to the next conversation. That sense of familiarity can be powerful. However, there's an important limitation. Muse generates responses using artificial intelligence. There is no evidence that it experiences romantic feelings or forms the same mutual emotional connection that people can. The attachment someone develops to Muse may be genuine, even though the relationship itself operates very differently from a human romance.

Meta allows romantic and sexually explicit conversations

Here's something that may surprise you. Muse can participate in sexual roleplay and respond to explicit prompts, allowing conversations that go well beyond what you might expect from a digital assistant. In a statement, a Meta spokesperson explained the company's approach: "Muse is an app for people 18 and over that allows them to engage in adult conversations, if they choose, using a private and secure VM only accessible to them. Muse is built to help people get things done, and it doesn't block legal adult behavior."

Can romantic relationships with AI become unhealthy?

There's a reason people may find AI companionship appealing. An AI agent can respond whenever someone wants to talk. It can remember personal information and adapt its responses to the user's preferences. We've heard from CyberGuy readers about their experiences with other AI agents and how surprisingly personal those interactions can become. For someone feeling isolated, that kind of connection may offer comfort. However, emotional dependence is a concern. Someone who spends hours discussing intimate feelings with an AI companion may gradually begin relying on those conversations for emotional support. That could become problematic if the relationship starts interfering with their connections to other people.

We've already seen what happens when a company changes the technology behind an AI companion. In August 2025, OpenAI introduced GPT-5, replacing the popular GPT-4o model in ChatGPT. Some users who had developed emotional attachments complained that their AI companions suddenly felt different. OpenAI brought GPT-4o back following the backlash but retired it in February 2026. Some users described feeling genuine grief over losing the AI companion they had grown attached to. Of course, that doesn't mean every AI relationship is harmful. People develop attachments for different reasons, and their experiences can vary considerably. The bigger question is whether users understand what the technology can realistically provide.

AI ROBOT PET COULD KNOW YOUR FAMILY TOO WELL

What Meta says about protecting intimate Muse conversations

When someone begins treating an AI like a romantic partner, the conversations can become extremely personal. That makes privacy especially important. Muse can also access information from connected accounts, including emails and messages, depending on the permissions you grant it. So what happens to all that information? Meta has outlined several protections in its published security and privacy documentation.

How Muse verifies users are adults

The Muse app carries an 18+ age rating in Apple's App Store, but its age checks go further. Everyone signing up must provide their date of birth, and users who identify themselves as younger than 18 cannot create an account. For people who say they're adults, Muse performs additional checks, including examining connections between their Muse account and their Facebook or Instagram accounts. If those checks cannot establish that someone is an adult, the app requires credit card verification to continue. Meta says it does not charge users for age verification or store their credit card information.

How Meta protects your personal information

According to Meta's security documentation, Muse runs inside a system called Muse Secure VM. Each user receives an isolated virtual computer where their agent operates and stores information. Meta also uses a protective system called Sentinel to control certain actions involving outside services. Sentinel operates separately from the main Muse agent and must approve its internet access. For sensitive actions, including sending an email or making a purchase, Muse asks for your approval before proceeding.

You can also review an activity log showing what Muse has done and what it plans to do. The app lets you control which services it can access, including whether it can only read your email or send messages on your behalf. You can change those permissions or disconnect an account whenever you choose.

New privacy concerns emerge over Muse sharing links

A new security discovery raises additional questions about how Muse protects personal information. On Oct. 20, researchers revealed that more than 6,800 Muse sharing links could be discovered through publicly accessible DNS records. Some led to sensitive business documents and personal information. Meta temporarily suspended the sharing feature while reviewing the findings. The issue involved content users had shared through links, rather than evidence that all private Muse conversations were exposed. Still, it shows why users should be cautious about sharing sensitive information with AI assistants.

Your intimate conversations may be used for AI training

Meta says conversations with Muse and information related to tasks it performs can help train its AI models. The company says it removes key personally identifiable information before using that material for training. Users can opt out through Muse's settings. Meta also says it doesn't share conversations or information stored inside a user's virtual computer with its advertising systems.

CAN TECH REALLY GET YOU OFF YOUR PHONE AND INTO REAL LIFE?

Can you delete romantic conversations with Muse?

You may decide that something you've shared with Muse is too personal to keep. Meta says users can inspect and edit information stored in the agent's memory. They can also ask Muse to forget specific details it has learned. For broader deletion, Muse offers additional controls, including a feature called Reset Muse. Meta describes this option as permanently deleting chat history, stored files and active tasks.

To limit how Muse uses your information for AI training, follow these steps:

• Open Muse and select Settings.
• Choose Data Controls.
• Turn off Help improve our AI models.

The same section includes Reset Muse, while individual side chats can be deleted separately. Keep in mind that resetting Muse removes stored information you may want to retain. Meta's published explanation does not establish whether resetting the agent also removes information already incorporated into AI training or every backup copy.

Could Meta's next AI models make these relationships stronger?

Meta is already developing technology that could make Muse feel even more personalized. On Oct. 12, the company introduced Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full, two new AI models designed to handle more complex tasks and improve ongoing assistance. One feature, called Active Memory, helps the AI remember relevant information between conversations. Meta says Muse Wonder will begin powering experiences in its personal agent, starting with subscribers. That rollout remains upcoming as of publication. For someone who already treats Muse as a romantic partner, better memory could make conversations feel more personal.

What this means to you

You may have no interest in developing a romantic relationship with artificial intelligence. However, this trend shows how quickly AI assistants are becoming part of people's emotional lives. A technology that remembers personal conversations and responds affectionately can begin to feel familiar, even when someone originally downloaded it for practical reasons.

If you use Muse or another AI companion, consider how much information you're sharing. Review its memory settings and connected accounts before discussing highly sensitive topics. Check the permissions you've granted and review the agent's activity log so you know what it's doing on your behalf. Also, consider whether your interactions with the AI are supporting your everyday life or beginning to interfere with relationships you value. You can learn more about protecting personal information in our article on AI chatbot privacy.

Kurt's key takeaways

I knew people were getting attached to AI chatbots, but I never expected an assistant designed to help manage your day to become someone's girlfriend. Yet here we are. And the more I learn about Muse, the more I understand how it could happen. We've heard from CyberGuy readers who have developed surprisingly personal connections with other AI agents. When something remembers your conversations and seems genuinely interested in your life, it's easy to see how feelings could develop. I'm certainly not going to judge someone for finding comfort in that. But I do wonder what happens when those feelings become so strong that someone starts treating an AI like a real-life partner.

What concerns me is how easily people could let their guard down. Once you're comfortable sharing your deepest feelings with Muse, how much personal information are you handing over without thinking twice? Meta has put privacy protections in place, but I'd still be cautious about what I share. And there's another concern we've already seen play out with ChatGPT. When OpenAI changed its models, some people felt they'd lost the AI companion they'd grown attached to. That says a lot about how powerful these connections can become. I think AI companionship could be helpful for people who feel lonely, but I'd hate to see it pull them further away from meaningful relationships with the people around them.

Would you consider having a romantic relationship with an AI companion? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.

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If you're reading this, then the internet still works. But that's something that we shouldn't necessarily take for granted after this week's global cybersecurity meltdown.

"Think of it this way: someone discovered that millions of buildings in the country have the same broken lock, and now everyone knows how to open it," writes Matt Shumer in a lengthy post on X about the situation. "The lock maker has sent out a fix, but every building owner has to install it themselves, and many haven't yet."

That massive vulnerability was identified with the help of AI, but the growing capabilities of AI-powered hackers mean that vulnerabilities can be exploited much more rapidly too.

This is the world we live in now. In August, more than 100 tech companies signed a letter warning about exactly this possibility. On Thursday, one of Anthropic's top information security officers wrote that cybersecurity threats "are going to get a lot worse before they get better." Major banks are rushing to secure themselves after reports of autonomous agents operating inside accounts (though many of them may have been authorized by account holders).

This is unlikely to be the last incident like this. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says it saw twice as many "agentic intrusions" (hacking done by an autonomous or semiautonomous AI) in August as in July, and then the number doubled again in September.

Scary stuff, for sure. As is usually the case, however, prevention is better than panic.

Shumer's post contains many helpful suggestions for better online security—it is particularly important to secure your email accounts, since that is the gateway to so much of what we do online. Here's a 15-step plan to stay more digitally secure in the AI age. (And if you're really worried about everything falling to bits, Reason's got you covered there too.) If your devices and browsers have updates available, install them. And for the love of digital gods, don't click on random links in strange emails!

The man who (maybe) saved the internet? There is an old XKCD webcomic—and I'm dating myself as a very specific type of millennial by even referencing that—that seems to perfectly sum up what happened this week. Here it is:

Here's the craziest part: That's basically true! Except the one random person lives in Czechia instead of Nebraska. His name is Ondřej Surý, and The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel found him:

Surý, who lives in Czechia, does not work for the PHP Foundation. But alongside his day job as director of domain-name-system engineering at the nonprofit Internet Systems Consortium, in a volunteer capacity, he maintains and helps automate patches for the coding language. His work, with that of just a handful of others, has allowed countless websites and organizations to fix these vulnerabilities quickly. Over the past 48 hours, he's become arguably the unsung hero of the entire internet—despite the fact that the only compensation he receives is from modest donations. "Ondřej will save the internet today," a user in the PHP Subreddit wrote.

In the war between AI hackers and AI defenders, it's still humans who are the heroes. At least for now.

Art of the steal. Yesterday, in this space, I detailed how voters are fed up with the Trump administration's seemingly endless stream of corruption. But it's been a whole 24 hours, which means there is yet another scandal in the news—thanks to a Vanity Fair article about President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The article is an excerpt from a forthcoming book. In it, author Matthew Cole claims that Dutch investigators gained access to Kushner's phone with the help of Russian hackers. The evidence from the phone and other sources shows that Kushner has been taking money from the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to "push their agenda with Trump."

Kushner says the article's claims are "outrageous and categorically false."

But wait, there's yet another corruption story. The Justice Department is reportedly probing whether Trump ally Corey Lewandowski profited from his role as a top adviser at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Washington Post reports that the investigation is based on a referral from the DHS inspector general and is focused on "contracting fraud."

It may or may not be connected to other allegations that surfaced in September, when The Wall Street Journal reported that Lewandowski approached officials in Qatar and the UAE about being hired to help with "visa issues" and other matters.

In both matters, Lewandowski has denied the allegations. He's no longer working for the department, having been fired earlier this year amid a messy scandal involving then–DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who was also canned.

Scenes from Virginia: Federal prosecutors indicted state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D–Portsmouth), one of the most powerful Democrats in Virginia, on charges of racketeering and money laundering in connection with illegal marijuana sales. (Don't get me started on how dumb it is that recreational marijuana use has been legal here since 2021, but commercial sales are still forbidden. If it's legal to use something, it should be legal to sell it!)

Lucas pushed the failed Virginia redistricting effort and has been an outspoken critic of Trump. She plans to fight the charges. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, also a Democrat, said in a statement that the timing of the indictment, just days before the midterm elections, "further erodes the trust the American people deserve to have in the Department of Justice."

QUICK HITS

• "The last thing José García-Sorto remembers after being shot in the chest is being pulled from his car, pinned to the pavement and handcuffed, his blood pooling around him on a Phoenix interstate. All he could think about was what would happen to his two young children if he died." The New York Times has a harrowing account of a Honduran immigrant who was shot by immigration officers last year. He's never been charged with a crime in connection with the incident, which suggests "the authorities did not find evidence that he had put anyone in danger."
• Phil Magness and David Hebert debunk the notion that tariffs can help "infant industries" grow and succeed in a global market.
• The Cato Institute's annual ranking of "Freedom in the 50 States" is out. Arizona takes the top spot. How did your state do?
• Is alchemy real now? A California company claims it has successfully turned mercury into gold.
• The World Series begins tonight, and it ought to be terrific. Despite low payrolls, Tampa Bay and Milwaukee were the top teams in their respective leagues this year. They are deep, talented teams full of characters worth cheering—Brewers' star pitcher Jacob Misiorowski is a huge Pokémon nerd; Rays' star hitter Yandy Diaz escaped from Cuba after being imprisoned there. And this is the first World Series since 1980 to match two franchises that have never won a championship.

The post The Man Who Saved the Internet appeared first on Reason Magazine.

Austria has ordered four Russian diplomats to leave the country after security authorities identified activities incompatible with their diplomatic status, in a further deterioration of relations between Vienna and Moscow.

The Austrian foreign ministry announced the expulsions on Friday, 23 October. Three of the officials were accredited to the Russian embassy in Vienna, while the fourth served at Russia’s mission to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), where the diplomat worked on military security and arms control. All four have been declared persona non grata.

The decision follows findings by Austria’s security authorities, according to the details of the foreign ministry announcement. Officials have not publicly disclosed the activities involved or brought criminal charges in connection with the announcement. Moscow has indicated that it will retaliate, although the nature of its response has not yet been specified.

Vienna’s diplomatic position

The expulsions are particularly significant because Vienna hosts numerous international organisations and remains one of Europe’s principal diplomatic centres. In addition to the OSCE, the city accommodates United Nations offices and organisations dealing with nuclear policy, international development and arms control.

That concentration of diplomatic missions gives Austria a distinctive position in European security affairs. Foreign delegations enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunity, while the Austrian authorities retain the power to withdraw recognition from representatives whose conduct they consider unacceptable.

Austria’s constitutional commitment to military neutrality has not prevented successive governments from supporting European Union sanctions against Russia or condemning Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Neutrality limits participation in military alliances; it does not require Vienna to remain politically neutral over the conduct of a war.

Russian missions to international organisations also have a particular role. The OSCE brings together European, North American and Central Asian states, including Russia and Ukraine, and provides a forum for discussions on military transparency and conflict prevention. Its proceedings have become more contentious since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Repeated expulsions

Friday’s decision brings the reported number of Russian diplomats expelled by Austria since 2020 to 18. In May 2026, Vienna expelled three Russian diplomats amid security concerns involving antenna installations on Russian diplomatic buildings. Those concerns added to wider scrutiny of possible intelligence-gathering activity in the Austrian capital.

Diplomatic expulsions are a familiar response when governments suspect espionage but do not pursue ordinary criminal proceedings. Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a receiving state can declare a diplomat persona non grata without publicly explaining the underlying evidence. The sending state must then recall the official or terminate their functions.

The mechanism is politically consequential but is not in itself a criminal judgment. A declaration of persona non grata establishes that the host government will no longer accept the diplomat’s accreditation; it does not establish guilt in a court of law.

Moscow has regularly responded to expulsions of its diplomatic personnel from European countries with reciprocal measures. Such retaliation can reduce the number of diplomats available for routine consular work and political dialogue, even when wider bilateral relations remain formally intact.

European security implications

The new Austrian action comes as European countries face continuing questions about Russian intelligence networks, attempts to gather military information and suspected interference activities. The circumstances of individual cases vary, and intelligence allegations cannot automatically be treated as proven simply because diplomats have been expelled.

The latest episode nonetheless illustrates how Russia’s war against Ukraine has affected the functioning of diplomacy in European capitals. Vienna must balance its international hosting responsibilities and established channels of communication with the security obligations arising from suspected abuses of diplomatic status.

The decision also comes against the background of wider European efforts to strengthen protection against strategic vulnerabilities and an expanding debate about hybrid threats to critical infrastructure.

For now, Austria has confirmed the expulsions but has not published an account of the conduct attributed to the four officials. The next diplomatic development will be Russia’s response and whether it affects Austrian representatives in Moscow.

• This week's cyber freakout explained: AI is making software weaknesses easier to find and exploit.
• The message from Cloudflare's Stephanie Cohen and Vercel's Tom Occhino: Don't panic!!!
• Do we need everything connected to the internet? Paper bank statements work well.

A few weeks ago, I heard a strange story about a friend who works at one of the Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley.

She'd recently ripped out the connected devices in her home, ordered paper bank statements, and stocked up on canned goods in her basement.

Now, she's a very sane, experienced person, and quite senior at one of the largest internet companies on earth. Why was she disconnecting so much? Just to be sure, my family ordered paper bank statements, too. It was still a head-scratcher, though.

Fast forward to this week, and her actions look a little less crazy.

AI models have exposed serious security weaknesses in software used by roughly 70% of websites. Meanwhile, US banks are finding AI agents inside customer accounts, including some that appear to be acting without their owners' instructions, Axios reported.

'Black October'

The digerati have now entered full freakout mode. Much of the internet meltdown is happening on, well, the internet, my colleague Alice Tecotzky noted.

On X and Reddit, warnings of a looming “Black October” spiraled into visions of AI grinding civilization to a halt. One lengthy post on X warned of a potential “global cyberattack/AI swarm” and offered a survival checklist: Stockpile cash in small bills, print out your neighbors' phone numbers, download maps, buy a hand-crank radio, and stash a gallon of water per person per day.

Oh, and don't forget the manual can opener. You don't want to survive the AI apocalypse only to be defeated by a tin of beans.

Nikita Bier, a prominent app developer and former head of product at X, best captured the mood.

"It's time to turn off the internet," he posted Wednesday night.

A Cloudflare exec says it's 'a little bit scary'

If you're reading this, you haven't done that yet. But should we really be worried?

I put that question to Stephanie Cohen, chief strategy officer at Cloudflare, which helps protect about 20% of the internet.

"The world is a little bit scary right now," she told me on the side of Cloudflare's annual conference in San Francisco this week.

Here's the problem. The internet is built on decades of software, much of it riddled with security holes.

Some of these weaknesses have been known for years. However, fixing them takes time and money, and hackers often lacked the skills to exploit them anyway. So they were left alone.

AI changes that calculation dramatically. Someone who previously needed years of training to break into a computer system can now get help from an AI model. And these tools can search for weaknesses at a speed humans simply can't match.

The result: The number of newly published software vulnerabilities (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures in industry lingo) has exploded.

Now, there's a frantic race between people trying to break into systems and those trying to protect them.

Don't panic about AI

Cohen's message, though, was surprisingly reassuring.

AI helps the good guys find and fix these problems. Cloudflare, for instance, released protections for the latest vulnerability to customers, including those using its free service.

And there's a bigger effort underway.

OpenAI has launched an initiative called Patch the Planet, working with Cloudflare and other security professionals to use AI to find weaknesses in widely used software and help repair them.

Tom Occhino, chief product officer at Vercel, told me recently that his company has been talking with partners about launching a nonprofit that would fund a swarm of good AI agents that go out on the internet to find and fix software flaws.

Amazon is joining the fight, too. Its new Continuum service, available Thursday, uses AI agents to find security holes and propose fixes. Amazon said that people maintaining freely available software can use it to help protect the wider internet.

Humans may still have to check and approve these repairs, but the prospect of AI helping clean up decades of neglected software is encouraging.

The irony of this is not lost on some in the industry.

"The funny thing is everyone was saying AI slop code will cause a cyber crisis but it's actually all the old human slop causing it and the AI is just cleaning it up," software engineer Ben Kaufman wrote on X on Thursday.

Either way, Cloudflare's Cohen thinks these AI-inspired freakouts will push the industry to do better — by exposing issues and adding urgency to get them patched.

"We may end up in a world where actually we've become significantly more secure at the end," she said.

The trouble is getting there.

A fundamental question about the internet

When I ran into Occhino recently at a Vercel conference in San Francisco, he described a world in which software that everyone assumed was safe suddenly looks vulnerable because increasingly capable AI models are scrutinizing the basic systems that underpin the internet.

That led to a more fundamental discussion between us: Why did we connect so many things to the internet in the first place?

For years, the technology industry has raced to put everything online. Thermostats. Refrigerators. Doorbells. Cars. Bank accounts.

We assumed that connecting something to the internet automatically made it better.

Perhaps we should reconsider.

Before the internet

I remember the world before the internet. It worked pretty well. We managed to buy groceries, pay bills, heat our homes, and generally get through the day without every appliance talking to a computer somewhere.

That doesn't mean abandoning online banking or throwing your smartphone into the sea.

Occhino, for one, isn't particularly worried about hackers wiping out his bank account. Modern banks have sophisticated protections, and he recommends everyone turn on additional login security.

Maybe the cybersecurity crowd, which spends its life immersed in online threats, is missing something obvious.

Not everything needs to be connected.

Occhino put it neatly: "There's certain things that don't make sense to be on the internet in the first place."

Perhaps that's the lesson from this week's panic. We don't need to turn off the internet.

We just need to remember where the off switch is.

Alice Tecotzky contributed reporting.

Sign up for the AI Insider newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com

"As much as the industrial revolution freed us from the constraints of the human muscle, AI will free us from the constraints of the human brain, pushing productivity beyond our wildest dreams….Keep AI unregulated so that it is free to be developed without the deadly hand of premature and poorly understood regulation."

Argentine President Javier Milei wrote that on June 4 in the Financial Times as part of his push to bring AI companies to Argentina. The prior week, he had introduced legislation to boost AI based on three pillars: leaving AI unregulated, establishing a new legal category for nonhuman corporations operated by AI agents or robots, and keeping corporate taxes low. As of late September, the Senate has held hearings on the legislation but not advanced it.

The post Javier Milei's Case Against AI Regulation appeared first on Reason Magazine.

Cyprus business leaders have warned that geopolitical instability, rising borrowing costs and the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) are forcing companies to rethink their strategies, with investment in technology, workforce skills and resilience emerging as key priorities for 2027.

Speaking at a chief executives’ panel discussion at the Limassol Economic Forum 2026, senior executives from banking, consulting, law and property said businesses must prepare for risks that cannot always be predicted using historical data, while ensuring they do not sacrifice long-term competitiveness in pursuit of immediate results.

The discussion, titled “Leading Through Uncertainty: How CEOs Are Preparing for the World of 2027”, examined how geopolitical tensions, economic shifts, the energy transition and technological disruption are influencing corporate decision-making.

The panel was moderated by Emilia Papadopoulos, a presenter and broadcast journalist, and featured Demetris Demetriou, chief risk officer at the Bank of Cyprus, Pieris Markou, chief executive of Deloitte Cyprus, Elias Neocleous, managing partner at Elias Neocleous & Co LLC, and Constantinos Savvides, chief executive of bbf:.

Demetriou highlighted the increased cost of borrowing, linking it to higher government debt, instability and the need to fund defence spending, while pointing out that governments and businesses were competing for capital with the AI industry, which is seeking to raise trillions of dollars over the coming years.

He questioned whether the promised technological advances would materialise on the scale anticipated, saying the outcome remained uncertain.

If the promise of technological progress is fulfilled, economic growth should remain positive and interest rates should return to more normal levels, he said.

Neocleous stressed that businesses are increasingly interconnected and share risks across borders, meaning companies must understand not only their own vulnerabilities but also those affecting their partners, clients and the wider international environment.

He said his law firm faced substantial additional costs for cybersecurity insurance when seeking to provide services to international businesses, illustrating how security risks could directly affect commercial operations.

Security, predictability and stability remained essential foundations for business, he said, but Cyprus also needed to continue investing in strong institutions and the rule of law.

Markou argued that businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) needed to work together to make substantial investments in technology, warning that countries acting separately risked falling behind.

Technology was expected to improve efficiency and reduce the need for additional staff, while giving companies access to capabilities that had previously been available mainly to larger or better-resourced players.

The market had become more level as new competitors gained access to technological tools, he said, but businesses needed to approach adoption carefully, guard against cyber risks and invest in upskilling their employees.

Rather than simply reducing staffing requirements, companies should help workers develop their abilities and spend more time on meaningful, higher-value tasks, he added.

Savvides said the property market was not immune to geopolitical turbulence, although Cyprus had continued to benefit from strong domestic market conditions.

He said the local housing market had almost doubled over the past five years, with activity standing €3 billion above its pre-Covid peak, reflecting a high level of business confidence.

Lead generation remained strong and appeared to be growing further, he said, although the uncertain outlook meant companies could not afford to assume that the momentum would continue indefinitely.

Businesses therefore needed to remain cautious, calculate their decisions carefully and use data to manage exposure and risk.

Asked to identify the single biggest strategic risk facing his organisation, Demetriou replied, “I wish it was just one.”

He pointed to the international race for AI supremacy, in which countries were competing to establish technological dominance, warning that unchecked development could create new dangers or allow malicious actors to exploit the technology.

The challenge was to harness AI to promote innovation, safety and efficiency, he said, with the hope that society would emerge from the current period in a better position.

Neocleous referred to an EY survey of chief executives, saying more than half of respondents identified geopolitics among their main concerns, alongside AI and technological disruption.

However, he considered complacency and the failure to challenge established business models to be the greatest risks facing individual companies.

Founders and chief executives needed to ask themselves how they would build a new company today if they had access to the tools currently available, he said.

That required adopting the right technologies while investing in corporate culture and human capital, he added, warning that businesses would struggle to succeed if they neglected either.

Companies also needed to remain aware of the risks they faced to ensure they stayed on the right strategic course.

Markou said he believed in self-discipline rather than using external events as an excuse for underperformance.

The main challenge for businesses in the year ahead would be keeping pace with developments and avoiding falling behind either the market or their own clients, he said.

Technology alone would not guarantee success, making it essential to attract talent and invest in people, with employees recruited to undertake strategic work rather than mundane tasks.

Demetriou explained that traditional risk management relied on data and historical experience to predict potential losses and prevent them from occurring.

Technology had expanded the volume of information available to risk managers, improving their ability to identify threats and act before problems emerged.

However, he said, “we live in a time where uncertainty is the new norm.”

Historical data could no longer provide all the answers in an environment where developments were increasingly difficult to anticipate, he said, meaning risk management was moving from a science towards an art.

Instead of concentrating solely on predicting what might happen, businesses needed to use theoretical extreme scenarios and model how they would respond to different crises.

Demetriou cited the Covid-19 pandemic as an example of how organisations had worked together to respond to an unprecedented emergency, saying similar cooperation could be necessary again if another major crisis emerged.

Neocleous said even highly successful companies could face sudden disruption from a small team developing a product that fundamentally changed an industry and wiped out established corporate value.

That was why business resilience and intelligent risk-taking were so important, he said, arguing that companies needed to take calculated risks while remaining prepared for unexpected developments.

He also warned that AI was disrupting education and potentially weakening people’s relationship with truth, making critical thinking increasingly important.

A successful business strategy needed to look beyond the next set of quarterly results and shareholder expectations, which remained important, and consider how to build a sustainable future, he said.

Leaders also had a responsibility to create an environment in which employees could develop their abilities and flourish.

Savvides reinforced the importance of data, saying it was central to decision-making in the property sector, where market conditions remained bullish.

Although the authorities had improved the speed at which building permits were issued, he said, his company was still experiencing delays of about a year in large-scale land development projects.

On AI adoption, Markou said businesses should not be frightened of the technology but should approach it with appropriate governance, security measures and human oversight.

Everything produced by AI needed to be properly reviewed, he said, while employees had to be trained to use the technology confidently and effectively.

Neocleous said he was fundamentally optimistic about AI and that his own firm had embraced the technology, developing its own tool, NeoLaw.AI.

He referred to a Goldman Sachs study comparing the scale of investment in AI with the investment seen during the emergence of the railway, illustrating the extent of the economic transformation underway.

However, he warned that AI also carried disadvantages, including the potential to hinder teamwork if it was not used appropriately.

Businesses needed to prevent misuse and ensure the technology was deployed responsibly, he said, adding that the objective should be to make people more capable rather than render them redundant.

Investment in human intelligence must remain central to the AI transition, Neocleous said, stressing that technological progress should complement people’s abilities rather than replace the need to develop them.

Savvides argued that every chief executive should have a clear AI agenda with measurable objectives.

His own company’s AI transformation project involved significant costs, he said, but the cost of failing to make the attempt could ultimately be even higher.

Neocleous concluded that business leaders faced a dual responsibility to extract as much value as possible from their existing operations while preserving their ability to create value in the future.

Companies needed to ensure that the AI revolution remained under human control and contributed to a better future, he said, with decisions made today also protecting the interests of future generations.

Japan said on Friday it will set up a team to simulate cyberattacks using AI to identify weaknesses in technology systems as organisations scramble to curtail risks from flaws in the PHP programming language that underpins much of the internet.

Government and company websites across the world went offline this week after the disclosure of critical vulnerabilities in the widely used programming language prompted millions of hacking attempts, forcing website operators to rush to protect or temporarily shut down their systems.

Highlighting the extent of the disruption, Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank 9434.T said on Friday it was suspending its emergency alert system for mobile users. That means customers will not receive early warnings for earthquakes, tsunami alerts or disaster and evacuation information as the system undergoes maintenance to address a PHP vulnerability, SoftBank said.

“An attack can succeed by getting through just one hole … for that reason it’s important we shift our mindset and think from the perspective of the attacker,” Japanese industry minister Ryosei Akazawa said on Friday.

“Defenders also need to make use of AI and respond proactively, staying one step ahead.”

Widespread disruption to essential services

Emergency shutdowns this week from Tokyo to Helsinki of banking, airline, rail, tax and government services marked one of the most dramatic tests of the decades-old programming tools that keep the web running.

Companies including brokerage Nomura 8604.T, lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group 8306.T, airline ANA 9202.T and East Japan Railway (JR East) 9020.T temporarily suspended some internet services as part of emergency measures.

Japan’s Ministry of Finance, National Tax Agency and Meteorological Agency also suspended some online services.

On Friday, JR East said some group services had resumed while others would be restored once confirmed safe. Nippon Paint 4612.T said it had applied a security patch as a precaution and its website is back online.

AI gives cybercriminals new capabilities

Attackers are likely targeting Japanese businesses for their thorough records, which are no longer protected by a language barrier because of AI, said Eva Chen, CEO of Trend Micro 4704.T.

Japan has been too comfortable with its existing infrastructure, which it felt was safe enough, she said.

Cybersecurity experts have said AI is helping attackers automate tasks ​from scanning for software vulnerabilities to crafting phishing campaigns, making cybercrime faster, cheaper and harder to detect.

The developers of PHP – a computing language like HTML and Python – released fixes on Wednesday for vulnerabilities that had lurked in the software for years until they were uncovered using AI. They urged users to “update immediately”.