{"id":860250,"date":"2025-07-05T07:12:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T12:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/05\/the-download-ai-agents-hype-and-googles-electricity-plans\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T07:12:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T12:12:46","slug":"the-download-ai-agents-hype-and-googles-electricity-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/05\/the-download-ai-agents-hype-and-googles-electricity-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: AI agents hype, and Google\u2019s electricity plans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u2014Yoav Shoham is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and cofounder of AI21 Labs.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

At Google\u2019s I\/O 2025 event in May, the company showed off a digital assistant that didn\u2019t just answer questions; it helped work on a bicycle repair by finding a matching user manual, locating a YouTube tutorial, and even calling a local store to ask about a part, all with minimal human nudging. Such capabilities could soon extend far outside the Google ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The vision is exciting: Intelligent software agents that act like digital coworkers, booking your flights, rescheduling meetings, filing expenses, and talking to each other behind the scenes to get things done.<\/p>\n

But if we\u2019re not careful, we\u2019re going to derail the whole idea before it has a chance to deliver real benefits. As with many tech trends, there\u2019s a risk of hype racing ahead of reality. And when expectations get out of hand, a backlash isn\u2019t far behind. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Google\u2019s electricity demand is skyrocketing<\/strong><\/p>\n

We got two big pieces of energy news from Google this week. The company announced that it\u2019s signed an agreement to purchase electricity from a fusion company\u2019s forthcoming first power plant. Google also released its latest environmental report, which shows that its energy use from data centers has doubled since 2020.<\/p>\n

Taken together, these two bits of news offer a fascinating look at just how desperately big tech companies are hunting for clean electricity to power their data centers as energy demand and emissions balloon in the age of AI. Of course, we don\u2019t know exactly how much of this pollution is attributable to AI because Google doesn\u2019t break that out. (Also a problem!) So, what\u2019s next and what does this all mean?<\/p>\n

\u2014Casey Crownhart<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review\u2019s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, <\/strong>sign up here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

+ <\/p>\n

<\/em>To read more about whether nuclear energy is really a viable way to power the AI boom, check out Casey\u2019s recent article<\/a>, which is part of Power Hungry: AI and our energy future\u2014our new series shining a light on the energy demands and carbon costs of the artificial intelligence revolution. You can take a look at the rest of the package here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

The must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

1 Meta\u2019s climate tool was \u2018trained using faulty data\u2019<\/strong>
Scientists claim it raised false hopes about the feasibility of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (FT<\/a> $)
+ xAI\u2019s gas turbines have been greenlit, despite community backlash. <\/em>(Wired<\/a> $)
+ Why we need to shoot carbon dioxide thousands of feet underground. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 We don\u2019t know whether US insurers will cover vaccines for kids<\/strong>
Major insurers haven\u2019t confirmed whether they\u2019ll keep covering the costs of shots. (Wired<\/a> $)
+ What\u2019s next for the Gates Foundation\u2019s global health initiatives? <\/em>(Undark<\/a>)
+ How measuring vaccine hesitancy could help health professionals tackle it. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

3 The Trump administration wants to gut Biden\u2019s climate law<\/strong>
The Inflation Reduction Act\u2019s green energy tax incentives are hanging in the balance. (WP<\/a> $)
+ It\u2019s bad news for one of the US economy\u2019s biggest growth sectors. <\/em>(Vox<\/a>)
+ How are we going to feed the world without making climate change worse? <\/em>(New Yorker<\/a> $)
+ The President threatened to unravel the landmark law long before he was elected. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

4 There are certain tells a scientific study abstract has been written by AI<\/strong>
Use of hundreds of words has shot up since ChatGPT was made public. (NYT<\/a> $)
+ Beware over-reliance on AI-text detection tools, though. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

5 Elon Musk doesn\u2019t care about cars any more<\/strong>
Which is terrible news for Tesla and its investors. (WSJ<\/a> $)
+ Things aren\u2019t looking too hot for Rivian, either. <\/em>(Insider<\/a> $)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

6 America\u2019s weather forecasting is getting worse
<\/strong>Just a year ago, US storm forecasting was the best it had ever been. Now, its accuracy is rapidly declining. (The Atlantic<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

7 Brazil has sustainable data center ambitions
<\/strong>Environmentalists aren\u2019t convinced, however. (Rest of World<\/a>)<\/p>\n

8 A mysterious object has been spotted passing through the solar system
<\/strong>And we\u2019ve got good reason to believe it originated outside our system. (Ars Technica<\/a>)<\/p>\n

9 A rising band on Spotify is probably AI-generated<\/strong>
But no one seems able to say for sure. (Vice<\/a>)<\/p>\n

10 The homes float in flood water<\/strong>
It\u2019s one solution to building homes on known flood plains. (Fast Company<\/a> $)
+ How to stop a state from sinking. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Quote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAI doesn\u2019t know what an orgasm sounds like.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\u2014Annabelle Tudor, an audiobook narrator, tells the Guardian<\/a> why she\u2019s not convinced by the industry\u2019s plans to have AI narrate audiobooks.<\/p>\n

One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n

Who gets to decide who receives experimental medical treatments?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has been a trend toward lowering the bar for new medicines, and it is becoming easier for people to access treatments that might not help them\u2014and could even harm them. Anecdotes appear to be overpowering evidence in decisions on drug approval. As a result, we\u2019re ending up with some drugs that don\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

We urgently need to question how these decisions are made. Who should have access to experimental therapies? And who should get to decide? Such questions are especially pressing considering how quickly biotechnology is advancing. We\u2019re not just improving on existing classes of treatments\u2014we\u2019re creating entirely new ones. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Jessica Hamzelou<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Rhiannon Williams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2014Yoav Shoham is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and cofounder of AI21 Labs. At Google\u2019s I\/O 2025 event in May, the company showed off a digital assistant that didn\u2019t just answer questions; it helped work on a bicycle repair by finding a matching user manual, locating a YouTube tutorial, and even calling a local<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":860251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1999,24097,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-860250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-agents","8":"category-download","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}