Dallas Keeps Moving North
The Mavs and Stars aren't just leaving downtown. They're following a center of population that's been walking north since 1970, and it started with how Dallas treated its southern half.
Andrew Maddox
AI news, analysis and practice from inside higher ed. Daily AI briefings as well as some longer form essays and experiments.
Essays
Data Centers Were on the Ballot. They Lost
Voters didn’t just hand Democrats Congress and countless state positions—they backed data center limits in more than 30 communities, changing the calculus on future AI infrastructure.
AI Is Driving a Surge in Drupal Security Advisories
AI-assisted bug hunting pushed Drupal to 256 security advisories in five months, nearly 4x all of 2025.
Out of Milk? Let Claude Do the Walmart Order
We ran out of milk, so I had Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, build our Walmart cart from our order history. Here's how it went, the steps to try it yourself, and a prompt you can use.
A Lighter Blog
Twenty years ago, Cameron Moll made the case for realigning a site instead of redesigning it. I finally took that advice because of Claude Code.
How I Used AI to Build a Custom WordPress Theme in a Weekend
I used AI (Claude Opus 5.5) to build a custom WordPress theme in a weekend — about 10 minutes of hands-on time versus the 20 hours it used to take.
On Meta’s Shift to AI
John Gruber muses on Meta's new AI strategy: There are four big players in consumer AI: Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic. I don’t think Zuckerberg mentioned any of the others…
Zuckerberg and AI
Mark Zuckerberg’s newest manifesto casts him as a defender of the individual against concentrated technological power. He argues that “superintelligence” should be widely distributed, enabling people to create, compete, and…
Municipal Budget Cuts, Property Taxes, and Data Centers
The Dallas Morning News recently posted an article about Dallas reducing park-related expenses from its upcoming city budget: The Dallas Park and Recreation Department has made limited progress toward its…
Apple AI
Last week, Apple hosted its annual developer conference, WWDC. The keynote presentation started with new controls for parents to help them establish guidelines for their kids. I was surprised by…
Briefings
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A market pullback is forcing investors to question whether massive AI spending can deliver returns, with OpenAI reportedly cutting its fundraising target and Anthropic facing doubts about a valuation once discussed as high as $1.6 trillion. The pressure extends beyond IPO plans: Oracle is seeking $20 billion to fund its AI buildout, while data-center constraints and rising debt concerns highlight the costs and risks behind the boom.
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AI’s infrastructure boom hit two walls this week: money and voters. Anthropic disclosed $17 billion in quarterly revenue, a $23 billion loss and nearly $895 billion in compute commitments, just as investors started asking hard questions about Big Tech’s spending. Then voters overwhelmingly backed data-center restrictions, and OpenAI promised to cover power and grid costs (at sites it owns, anyway). Also: Google’s school AI opt-out takes Search with it, GPT-6 Cyber is finding bugs at a startling clip, and outside shopping agents are barely ordering anything.
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OpenAI is promising community agreements, public reporting and payments for power and grid upgrades at future data centers it owns, as voter restrictions and investor jitters signal growing resistance to AI infrastructure. The briefing also examines how Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s early influences shaped his safety-first views, and covers OpenAI’s GPT-6 Cyber vulnerability-finding model alongside Google’s new Gemini video-generation and AI models.
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Voters backed limits on data-center development in most local ballot measures, while Democratic gains and candidates promising tighter oversight have raised the prospect of new restrictions on AI and its infrastructure. The push reflects concerns over power bills, water use and pollution—and could delay projects, constrain computing capacity and keep costs high; this briefing also examines policy proposals from OpenAI’s Chris Lehane and the uncertain path to legislation.
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Google's making its AI tools opt-in for K–12 schools next year. The catch? Schools that say no to AI lose Search, too. Also today: an MBA taught by AI avatars, and the $1.5 million paychecks going to engineers who can actually get AI into production.
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Anthropic’s rapid growth is colliding with nearly $895 billion in computing and infrastructure commitments: it reported $17 billion in quarterly revenue but a $23 billion loss, sharpening questions about how its AI expansion will be financed ahead of a possible IPO. The pressure extends across the industry: OpenAI has raised about $11 billion against an initial $30 billion target as investors reassess returns and lenders tighten terms, even as major tech companies plan hundreds of billions in AI spending.