This isn’t spin. It’s seasoned analysis.
The Most Important Machine in America Is Older Than You Think
There are two kinds of people in this country. The first kind can tell you the horsepower of a 1969 Camaro, the caliber of the rifle their grandfather carried in World War II, and probably the batting average of the Yankees' cleanup hitter. The second kind knows where...
The First AI Data Center Problem Came Before the First Server
For months, people have been arguing about AI data centers. Will they use too much electricity? Will they consume too much water? Will they overwhelm local infrastructure? This week, Cheyenne, Wyo., reminded us there's another question we probably should have been...
America Doesn’t Trust AI Yet
If you only read the headlines, you'd think America has decided artificial intelligence is the next great menace. That's not what the numbers say. A new national survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for Athena Insights found that about two-thirds of...
Stop Counting Buildings. Start Counting Brains
Every few days another meme makes the rounds claiming to expose the "truth" about artificial intelligence. This week's version goes something like this: India has three times as many internet users as the United States but only about 153 data centers. China has four...
Not Every Data Center Is a Hyperscale AI Campus
If you'd wandered into the Marietta, Ga., planning meeting without knowing the agenda, you might have thought someone was proposing to build the Death Star. People spoke of "the data center" the way previous generations whispered about nuclear plants. There were...
The Chart That Left Out Half the Story
A journalist develops an annoying habit after enough years in the business. We don't stop reading when everyone else does. We follow the footnotes. This week someone posted an infographic titled "Water and Data Centers: The Least Understood Risk." It looked...
‘All Persons’ Means Just That
Last year, I found myself in several debates with Trump supporters over birthright citizenship. I kept coming back to the same two words. All persons. Not "all citizens." Not "all legal residents." Not "all persons whose parents entered the country legally." The first...
The New Wild West
Every now and then, someone asks a question that refuses to leave your head. This week, it came from a woman in an online discussion about artificial intelligence and data centers. She wrote, "My question is always, do we need more?" Then she added something that...
When Seven Justices Tell Fifty States “No”
The headlines say the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for Monsanto. That's true. It's also the least interesting part of the story. The Court, in a 7-2 decision, didn't decide whether Roundup causes cancer. It didn't declare glyphosate safe. It didn't tell anyone to use—or...
One Small Step
The internet has given us many gifts. Cat videos. Conspiracy theories. People who believe the Earth is flat while using GPS satellites to drive to Walmart. And now, according to social media, China apparently has giant AI data centers floating in space, sucking up...
How Two Executive Orders Became One Giant AI Conspiracy
I've been a reporter long enough to know that whenever somebody begins a sentence with, "They don't want you to know this," I immediately want to know two things. First, who exactly is "they"? Second, did anybody actually read the document? The latest internet panic...
The Robot Wanted Proof I Was Me
It started with a puddle. Not one of those biblical homeowner catastrophes where water is shooting through the ceiling and the neighbors gather in lawn chairs to watch the excitement. Just a puddle. Clear water. Under the air conditioner handler in my garage. The unit...
The Data Center You Never See
"I hate data centers." A woman wrote that recently. I believe her. A lot of people do. They worry about water. They worry about electricity. They worry about giant industrial buildings appearing where ranches, farms, forests, and open land once stood. Those concerns...
The AI Water Grab That Might Not Be
The headline practically writes itself. "AI Data Center Sues for Colorado River Water." Well, there you go. Somewhere, a Facebook post just picked up another thousand shares. The villain is obvious. The giant AI company wants to suck the Colorado River dry so people...
Florida’s AI Moment
A funny thing happened while everybody was arguing about artificial intelligence. Floridians started using it. Not debating it. Not attending conferences about it. Not forming committees to study it. Using it. A recent report estimates that nearly two million Florida...
Isaac Cubillos
This isn’t journalism for the polite table.
This is truth with grit under its nails and dirt on its boots.