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A massive Oracle data center planned for rural Michigan secures $16 billion in funding

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A digital rendering of the huge 1-gigawatt data center campus planned for Saline, Michigan, which will serve Oracle's AI business. Courtest of Related Digital The developer of a huge one-gigawatt data center says it has secured $16 billion in funding. The data center in rural Michigan will serve Oracle's AI business. Local residents have protested the data center, fearing grid impact and pollution. As far as data centers go, it's a big one. The Saline Township campus in Michigan, about 50 miles outside of Detroit, will have a capacity of more than 1 gigawatt. That's huge. Most data centers have capacities between 100 and 300 megawatts. And now the developer behind it, Related Digital, says it has secured the $16 billion needed to build it, with a little help from Blackstone and PIMCO. The campus will span 250 acres to start, making it one of the largest in the United States. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year called it the "largest investment in ...

Trump hosted a gala luncheon for leading $TRUMP holders, where he spoke about his pro-crypto policies, but avoided the memecoin's declining value (Wall Street Journal)

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Wall Street Journal : Trump hosted a gala luncheon for leading $TRUMP holders, where he spoke about his pro-crypto policies, but avoided the memecoin's declining value   —  The president's address touched on everything from the war in Iran to his policies supporting the crypto industry from Techmeme https://ift.tt/tJAiKz9

A look at Tin Can's $100 retro-style, Wi-Fi-enabled landline phone, and how some schools are seeding the device to students in an attempt to curb smartphone use (Samantha Kelly/Bloomberg)

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Samantha Kelly / Bloomberg : A look at Tin Can's $100 retro-style, Wi-Fi-enabled landline phone, and how some schools are seeding the device to students in an attempt to curb smartphone use   —  The Tin Can has gone viral over the past year, mostly through word of mouth.  Now schools want to get even more of them in students' homes. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/8vs7OBz

AI is igniting a love affair between Silicon Valley and the consulting industry

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Consulting firms and Silicon Valley are growing closer than ever. Kilito Chan/Getty Images AI startups are increasingly relying on consultants to distribute their technology to companies. Working with AI startups has become a key survival tactic for consulting firms. The result: partnerships galore. Things are getting serious. For consulting firms , partnering with AI startups has become a key survival tactic as the technology upends everything about their industry. And for AI startups, consulting firms have become an important channel for distributing their products to companies. This blossoming love affair between the two industries was apparent in a flurry of recent dalliances. Google announced Wednesday it was launching a $750 million fund to help consulting firms like McKinsey, Accenture, and Deloitte roll out agentic AI to their clients. McKinsey and Google have also created a new working group to help companies go from identifying AI opportunities to building and sc...

ChatGPT is trying to besmirch the memory of Don Rickles. He didn't text Lena Dunham — and it makes me nervous about our AI future.

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ChatGPT tried to tell me Don Rickles tried to hit on Lena Dunham. Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Caesars Palace / Aeon/GC Images I asked ChatGPT to identify the unnamed male celebrity who allegedly tried to sext Lena Dunham in 2012. It told me it was Don Rickles, which I feel pretty certain is not correct. So what are we doing here, folks? Learning to use AI? Did you hear about the time Don Rickles tried to chat up Lena Dunham in the middle of the night? No? Let me explain. First, we need to talk about Reese Witherspoon. See, I'm a simple woman. I have only two interests: tech news and celebrity gossip. So I was naturally intrigued by a recent online fuss over Reese Witherspoon's admonition for women to learn to use AI. It sparked so much backlash that she had to issue a follow-up explanation. I've also been intrigued by Lena Dunham's new book . (They're related — sort of. Keep reading!) I think Reese is generally right about AI — she's saying the...

Sources: JPMorgan and other banks struggled to spread the risk of billions in loans they made to build data centers leased to Oracle in Texas and Wisconsin (Wall Street Journal)

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Wall Street Journal : Sources: JPMorgan and other banks struggled to spread the risk of billions in loans they made to build data centers leased to Oracle in Texas and Wisconsin   —  The AI boom has hit a funding snag, compounding power constraints and a growing public backlash against data centers from Techmeme https://ift.tt/y9VG87b

OpenAI launches GPT-5.5, designed to handle complex tasks with minimal guidance; the model will be used to power the company's upcoming "super app" (Rachel Metz/Bloomberg)

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Rachel Metz / Bloomberg : OpenAI launches GPT-5.5, designed to handle complex tasks with minimal guidance; the model will be used to power the company's upcoming “super app”   —  OpenAI is introducing an artificial intelligence model that's intended to be better at completing work without much direction … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2nid9KW