Power & systems
Regulation, geopolitics, economics: who decides, who pays, who wins in the game being played around AI.
Regulation · Geopolitics · Economy — 79 articles
Microsoft Limits How Much AI Its Own Teams Can Use
Since July, every Microsoft division has an AI spending cap. The company that owns the data centers finds the bill worth watching closely.
Alexandre Noto · Aug 5, 2026 · 6 min
Power & systems$375 million in two days to secure AI agents
$375 million raised in two days to protect companies from their own AI agents. Fewer than one in five has several of them working together.
Alexandre Noto · Aug 4, 2026 · 6 min
Power & systemsFrance Held Off Google's AI Overviews for Two Years
Since July 22, Google has been answering search queries directly in France. Two years after everywhere else, and nobody was ready.
Alexandre Noto · Aug 2, 2026 · 6 min
Power & systemsAI Act: Europe can finally start fining from Sunday
Europe's rules for big AI models have been on the books for a year. What was missing was the power to punish. That arrives Sunday.
Alexandre Noto · Aug 1, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsAI capex: Microsoft outspent Meta and still has cash left
Microsoft spent more on infrastructure than Meta this quarter: $35.8 billion against $31.1 billion. It still walked away with $19.6 billion of free cash. Meta kept $784 million.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 30, 2026 · 5 min
The Verified NumberNvidia's $100 Billion in OpenAI Became $30 Billion
Nvidia said it would invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI. The actual commitment is $30 billion. Nobody lied, and nobody ever went back to fix the headline.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 28, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsCongress Wants an AI Kill Switch
A bipartisan bill wants a mandatory kill switch for AI. But does cutting the power actually match how these systems fail?
Alexandre Noto · Jul 24, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsKimi K3 Accused of Copying Anthropic by the White House
The White House accuses Kimi K3 of copying Anthropic and threatens sanctions, with no public proof, just fifteen days after the rival model shipped.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 23, 2026 · 5 min
The Verified NumberThe Verified Number: Golf, Data Centers, and Water
American golf courses use 4.6 times more water than every data center in the country combined. That number checks out. But it stacks today against tomorrow, and the water you can see against the water nobody's counting.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 21, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsKimi K3 Ties Claude Opus 4.8 at 40% of the Price
A Chinese model lands within a single point of the Western frontier on an independent leaderboard, at 40% of the price. The gap between frontier labs is changing shape.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 20, 2026 · 6 min
Power & systemsNebius Just Borrowed $775M Against Its Own GPUs
Nebius raised $775M in debt backed by its own graphics cards. It is a quiet shift in how AI infrastructure gets financed.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 19, 2026 · 3 min
Power & systemsGoogle's AI Answers in Search Just Lost Their Legal Shield
In one week, two European regulators went after the same thing inside Google: the neutrality that used to protect it. AI just knocked it down.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 17, 2026 · 5 min
The Verified NumberNumber of the Week: AI and Older Workers
First installment of our new weekly column. Six headlines, one study. Senior programmers are leaving jobs more than before, but still less than painters. What AI is eroding is not a career. It is a premium.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 14, 2026 · 7 min
Power & systemsGrok 4.5, GPT-5.6: The War of Homemade Benchmarks
xAI and OpenAI both dropped a model the same day: Grok 4.5 and GPT-5.6. Two victory laps, zero third-party verification. The real fight is happening somewhere else.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 9, 2026 · 5 min
Society & safeguardsThe AI That Screens Your CV on Its Own Is Illegal in Europe
The robot that rejects your CV alone, with no recourse, is largely a fantasy and mostly illegal in Europe. The sense of injustice, though, is very real.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 2, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsFrontier AI Is Becoming a State-Licensed Weapon
Fable 5 is back, and Washington kept the switch. In three weeks, frontier AI turned into a strategic asset held under a state license.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 2, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsFrench voters want AI rules. Their leaders are hitting the brakes
A cross-partisan majority of French voters wants tighter AI rules. Their own governments, Paris in the lead, just pushed the EU's key obligations back by two years.
Alexandre Noto · Jul 1, 2026 · 4 min
Power & systemsWe let AIs run a company. Almost all of them sank it.
Princeton handed a simulated company to 13 AIs for 500 days. Three end in the black. A rules-based script with no AI beats almost all of them.
Alexandre Noto · Jun 28, 2026 · 3 min
Power & systemsEurope Names Its 3rd Sovereign LLM, Ships None
The EU just crowned the winner of a 400-billion-parameter AI model. One catch: the model doesn't exist yet.
Alexandre Noto · Jun 27, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsAnthropic Accuses Alibaba of Copying Claude
Anthropic says Alibaba copied Claude across 28.8 million questions. But can you really steal a model just by asking it things?
Alexandre Noto · Jun 25, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsMatignon buries an AI report. Because it isn't scary enough.
A cross-inspectorate report quantifies AI's impact on the French civil service headcount. Matignon won't release it: the numbers aren't alarming enough.
Alexandre Noto · Jun 18, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsBezos promises a labor shortage. The numbers say otherwise.
Jeff Bezos says AI will leave us short of hands, not cut them. Meanwhile, 2026 has already cut 142,000 tech jobs.
Alexandre Noto · Jun 18, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsAmazon Got Anthropic's Fable 5 Switched Off
The press said Washington pulled the plug on Anthropic's most powerful model. The real story starts inside the company, with its first backer.
Alexandre Noto · Jun 17, 2026 · 5 min
Power & systemsxAI's Colossus Runs All Night. So Do the Turbines.
More than 10,000 neighbors of xAI's supercomputer are suing. The roar of its gas turbines tells the story of an AI cost no metric ever captures.
Alexandre Noto · Jun 12, 2026 · 4 min