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Alkira advances NaaS for the agentic AI era
The practical difference spans a number of areas including the format of responses. Rather than returning raw JSON that requires parsing and interpretation, the MCP Server can deliver tabular summaries. An operator or AI agent can request a deployment overview and receive structured data showing region counts, segment configurations, connector types, operational status and active alerts. This preprocessing serves the primary use case: integration with agentic AI systems that need to query multiple backend systems simultaneously. Shah noted that an AI agent could be talking to multiple MCP servers in support of an overall service. For example, the AI agent could be talking to Jira, ServiceNow and a monitoring service to get information and take action. The MCP Server inherits Alkira’s role-based access controls and security frameworks. Users can only access data they’re authorized to see, maintaining the existing governance model. NIA copilot: Bringing conversational troubleshooting to networking The MCP server is an integration and automation platform intended primarily for agents, APIs, scripts, or other systems, providing structured, high-level access and orchestration capabilities. For end-users, Alkira’s NIA copilot extends the utility of AI into everyday network operations. With a chat-style interface, NIA guides users through configuration, troubleshooting and gathering documentation.
South Korea’s data center fire triggers global scrutiny of lithium-ion batteries and DR architecture
Kasthuri Jagadeesan, research director at Everest Group, said enterprises should audit centralization risks by mapping interdependencies across UPS, cooling, and shared power zones. “The NIRS case illustrates that redundancy alone cannot protect against weak compartmentalization,” she said, noting that outages can cost millions per hour. “Geographic redundancy is only effective if failover processes are tested and staff are trained to execute under pressure,” Jaura said. “CIOs must validate that DR plans are operational, not theoretical. This means regular, realistic testing, cross-functional engagement, and continuous improvement.” IDC research shows that centralized facilities offer economies of scale but concentrate risk, while distributed and modular approaches enhance resilience and reduce single points of failure, according to Jaura. “Diversify datacenter locations to mitigate regional risks,” he advised. “Invest in modular and mobile data center solutions for flexibility and rapid recovery.” Market implications Rai said the incident may instigate “heightened due diligence and a more cautious pace of adoption,” but lithium-ion technology’s advantages remain compelling. “What is likely to change is that enterprises will demand stronger safety certifications and vendor accountability, and accelerate investment in disaster recovery planning, geographical redundancy, and resilience frameworks.” Kalyani Devrukhkar, senior analyst at Everest Group, said both enterprises and regulators will be more demanding about safety standards. “Some organizations may look at alternatives like sodium-ion or advanced valve-regulated lead-acid, and insurers will almost certainly raise premiums where risk is seen as high,” she said, noting that NFPA 855 and newer International Fire Code editions now include stricter requirements for lithium-ion battery systems. “Enterprises are increasing budgets for business continuity management, IT disaster recovery planning, and alternative site management,” Jaura said. For CIOs, Jaura recommended a business impact analysis-driven framework that balances efficiency with safety and compliance. “The decision is not binary — mitigation such as advanced monitoring, fire suppression, and
TotalEnergies Taps Cognite for AI-Enhanced Data Analysis
TotalEnergies SE said it has expanded its strategic partnership with industrial AI firm Cognite, targeting to harness the potential of TotalEnergies’ data to enhance the industrial performance of its sites. The two companies have agreed to scale the deployment of the Cognite industrial data and AI platform over a period of three years across all of TotalEnergies’ operated upstream assets worldwide, covering the entire value chain from drilling to production, the French energy major said in a news release. The new initiative aims to make TotalEnergies’ complex data AI-ready and improve operations across its assets, the company said. TotalEnergies said it targets to improve the accuracy of data analysis faster and shorten the lead to adopting applications by providing easy and quick access to relevant, high quality industrial data, as well as “enable the dynamic visualization of assets to enhance decision-making throughout the production lifecycle and monitor critical equipment for production and operational safety”. “This partnership with Cognite marks a new milestone in our digital transformation,” Namita Shah, president of OneTech at TotalEnergies, said. “By creating the data foundation which unifies our industrial data globally and makes it AI-ready, we are creating the conditions to accelerate AI-driven solutions that will significantly enhance the safety, operational and environmental performance of TotalEnergies. This initiative reflects our ambition to make data and AI strategic levers for more reliable, sustainable, and efficient energy,” Shah added. “TotalEnergies isn’t just embracing digital transformation; they are accelerating their entire operation,” Cognite CEO Girish Rishi said. “Our long-term collaboration is built on a shared vision to scale the impact of Industrial AI. By establishing an AI-ready data foundation, we’re equipping their teams to rapidly unlock insights and improve operational excellence across their global assets,” Rishi said. Board Confirms Financial Strategy Last week, TotalEnergies’ board confirmed the company’s shareholder
The Download: our thawing permafrost, and a drone-filled future
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Scientists can see Earth’s permafrost thawing from space Something is rotten in the city of Nunapitchuk. In recent years, sewage has leached into the earth. The ground can feel squishy, sodden.This small town in northern Alaska is experiencing a sometimes overlooked consequence of climate change: thawing permafrost. And Nunapitchuk is far from the only Arctic town to find itself in such a predicament. Now scientists think they may be able to use satellite data to delve deep beneath the ground’s surface and get a better understanding of how the permafrost thaws, and which areas might be most severely affected. Read the full story.
—Sarah Scoles
The US may be heading toward a drone-filled future —James O’Donnell Last week, I published a story about the police-tech giant Flock Safety selling its drones to the private sector to track shoplifters. Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now leads Flock’s drone efforts, described the ideal scenario: A security team at a Home Depot, say, launches a drone from the roof that follows shoplifting suspects to their car. The drone tracks their car through the streets, transmitting its live video feed directly to the police.It’s a vision that, unsurprisingly, alarms civil liberties advocates. But the fate of drones in the US pretty much comes down to one rule. It’s a Federal Aviation Administration regulation that stipulates where and how drones can be flown—and it is about to change. Read the full story. This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Trump’s impact on the next generation of innovators Every year, MIT Technology Review recognizes dozens of young researchers on our Innovators Under 35 list. This year Amy Nordrum, our executive editor, and our senior investigative reporter Eileen Guo checked back in with recent honorees to see how they’re faring amid sweeping changes to science and technology policy within the US.Join us tomorrow at 1.30pm ET for an exclusive Roundtables conversation with Amy and Eileen to learn about the complex realities of what life has been like for those aiming to build their labs and companies in today’s political climate. Register here!
The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 California’s governor has signed America’s first AI law It’ll require AI developers to publicly disclose their safety and security protocols. (Politico)+ The landmark bill has received a mixed reception from the AI industry. (TechCrunch) 2 The Trump administration is pressuring TaiwanIt’s pushing officials to move 50% of chip production to the US—or else. (Ars Technica)+ The US argues it’s the best way to counter invasion threats from China. (Bloomberg $)+ Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review) 3 US ChatGPT users can now buy stuff without leaving the chatbotIt’s laying the groundwork for AI agent-based shopping. (WSJ $)+ Etsy is among the first retailers to sign up for the service. (CNBC)+ It’s a direct challenge to Google’s business model. (Fortune $)+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review) 4 YouTube has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump It’s handing over $24.5 million after his account was suspended in the wake of the US Capitol riot in 2021. (WSJ $)+ It’s the third giant tech platform to bend to the President’s will. (The Verge) 5 Meta is expanding use of its facial recognition toolsIn a bid to combat account impersonation in Europe, the UK, and South Korea. (Engadget) 6 The US Energy Department has banned the term “climate change”See also: “green” and “decarbonization.” (Politico)+ Even “emissions” isn’t safe. (TechCrunch)+ How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the States. (MIT Technology Review)
7 AI data centers are sending the cost of electricity skyrocketingAnd it’s regular citizens who are left paying the price. (Bloomberg $)+ Sam Altman wants a staggering amount of energy. (The Information $)+ The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review) 8 Elon Musk’s senior staff are leaving in their drovesThey’re burnt out and tired of their leader’s erratic strategies. (FT $)
9 Do black holes actually exist?The evidence says yes, but proving it is a different matter. (New Scientist $)10 California police tried to ticket a driverless car But who’s to blame for its illegal U-turn if there’s no driver? (The Guardian)+ It turns out officers don’t currently have any way to issue tickets to robots. (Insider $) Quote of the day “There are certainly people in [the] tech world who would like to see no regulation of anything in any respect whatsoever, but that’s not tenable.” —US Senator Scott Wiener, who proposed the original AI Safety Bill last year, explains why he believes the revised version that’s been passed into law is a reasonable approach to the New York Times.
One more thing How mobile money supercharged Kenya’s sports betting addictionMobile money has mostly been hugely beneficial for Kenyans. But it has also turbo-charged the country’s sports betting sector.Since the middle of the last decade, experts and public figures across the African continent have been sounding the alarm over the rising popularity of sports betting. The practice has produced tales of riches, but it has also broken families, consumed college tuitions, and even driven some to suicide.Nowhere, though, is the craze as acute as it is in Kenya, the country often dubbed Africa’s “Silicon Savannah” for its status as a regional tech powerhouse. But while Kenya’s mobile money revolution has played a well-documented role in encouraging savings and democratizing access to finance, today, it’s easier than ever for those in fragile economic circumstances to squander everything. Read the full story. —Jonathan W. Rosen
WoodMac Enters into Partnership with Novi Labs
Research and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said it has entered into a strategic data partnership with Novi Labs, aiming to enhance its Lens Lower 48 solution with Novi’s well-level production data and advanced lease-to-well algorithms. The collaboration provides Wood Mackenzie customers with access to Novi’s proprietary data across a region where over 4.4 million wells generate more than 20 percent of global liquids and gas supply, Wood Mackenzie said in a news release. “The partnership provides access to Novi’s licensed proprietary oil, gas, and water production data for more than 25,000 wells and advanced lease-to-well algorithms trained on the same well actuals in major supply driving states such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana,” the company said. According to the release, Novi’s upstream data, which “provides the most accurate well-level production information available,” will support advanced AI workflows and machine learning applications. “Novi’s proprietary data and lease-to-well algorithms establish a new standard for production data accuracy not previously achievable,” Novi CEO Scott Sherwood said. Built on thousands of actual well records from operators across every major unconventional basin, our AI-powered technology delivers unmatched production data accuracy for more confident, data-driven investment decisions. Through our partnership with Wood Mackenzie, this data is now accessible to stakeholders across the energy value chain, including energy producers and investors”. “The Lower 48 represents the world’s most dynamic upstream market, and accurate well detail data is absolutely critical for US analysis that feeds into integrated global modeling,” Joe Midgley, global head of upstream and carbon management at Wood Mackenzie, said. “Our partnership with Novi transforms our ability to serve customers with the most trusted well-level production data available, combined with our industry-leading cost intelligence and global market perspective”. “Timely and high-quality trusted data underpins how existing operators, new entrants and investors can deliver winning strategies,” Midgley
OPEC+ Will Likely Lift Quotas at Next Meeting
OPEC+ will likely lift its quotas by another 137,000 barrels per day for November when they meet on October 5, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) Chief Commodities Analyst Bjarne Schieldrop said in a report sent to Rigzone on Monday morning by the SEB team. “OPEC+ will decide on 5 October on what to do with production quotas for November,” Schieldrop highlighted in the report. “Market consensus seems to be that the group will lift its overall quota by 137,000 barrels per day yet again – we fully share that view,” he added. “When it lifted the quotas for October by 137,000 barrels per day at the start to September the Brent crude oil price was trading at $65.5 per barrel. Now it is close to $70 per barrel,” he continued. “It seems highly likely that they will lift the quota yet again. The group naturally loves a good price, but right now the group is in a process of recapturing market share,” Schieldrop went on to state. In the report, Schieldrop outlined that the price of Brent crude was down one percent to $69.4 per barrel on Monday morning “in part due to this”. In a separate report sent to Rigzone by the Standard Chartered team last week, Standard Chartered Bank analysts, including the company’s global head of commodities research, Suki Cooper, highlighted that “OPEC has accelerated its return of barrels, with one eye on adherence to compensation cuts and the other on the perception of tightening spare capacity”. Rigzone has contacted OPEC for comment on the SEB and Standard Chartered reports. At the time of writing, OPEC has not responded to Rigzone. A statement posted on OPEC’s website on September 7 revealed that Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman “decided to implement a production adjustment
Alkira advances NaaS for the agentic AI era
The practical difference spans a number of areas including the format of responses. Rather than returning raw JSON that requires parsing and interpretation, the MCP Server can deliver tabular summaries. An operator or AI agent can request a deployment overview and receive structured data showing region counts, segment configurations, connector types, operational status and active alerts. This preprocessing serves the primary use case: integration with agentic AI systems that need to query multiple backend systems simultaneously. Shah noted that an AI agent could be talking to multiple MCP servers in support of an overall service. For example, the AI agent could be talking to Jira, ServiceNow and a monitoring service to get information and take action. The MCP Server inherits Alkira’s role-based access controls and security frameworks. Users can only access data they’re authorized to see, maintaining the existing governance model. NIA copilot: Bringing conversational troubleshooting to networking The MCP server is an integration and automation platform intended primarily for agents, APIs, scripts, or other systems, providing structured, high-level access and orchestration capabilities. For end-users, Alkira’s NIA copilot extends the utility of AI into everyday network operations. With a chat-style interface, NIA guides users through configuration, troubleshooting and gathering documentation.
South Korea’s data center fire triggers global scrutiny of lithium-ion batteries and DR architecture
Kasthuri Jagadeesan, research director at Everest Group, said enterprises should audit centralization risks by mapping interdependencies across UPS, cooling, and shared power zones. “The NIRS case illustrates that redundancy alone cannot protect against weak compartmentalization,” she said, noting that outages can cost millions per hour. “Geographic redundancy is only effective if failover processes are tested and staff are trained to execute under pressure,” Jaura said. “CIOs must validate that DR plans are operational, not theoretical. This means regular, realistic testing, cross-functional engagement, and continuous improvement.” IDC research shows that centralized facilities offer economies of scale but concentrate risk, while distributed and modular approaches enhance resilience and reduce single points of failure, according to Jaura. “Diversify datacenter locations to mitigate regional risks,” he advised. “Invest in modular and mobile data center solutions for flexibility and rapid recovery.” Market implications Rai said the incident may instigate “heightened due diligence and a more cautious pace of adoption,” but lithium-ion technology’s advantages remain compelling. “What is likely to change is that enterprises will demand stronger safety certifications and vendor accountability, and accelerate investment in disaster recovery planning, geographical redundancy, and resilience frameworks.” Kalyani Devrukhkar, senior analyst at Everest Group, said both enterprises and regulators will be more demanding about safety standards. “Some organizations may look at alternatives like sodium-ion or advanced valve-regulated lead-acid, and insurers will almost certainly raise premiums where risk is seen as high,” she said, noting that NFPA 855 and newer International Fire Code editions now include stricter requirements for lithium-ion battery systems. “Enterprises are increasing budgets for business continuity management, IT disaster recovery planning, and alternative site management,” Jaura said. For CIOs, Jaura recommended a business impact analysis-driven framework that balances efficiency with safety and compliance. “The decision is not binary — mitigation such as advanced monitoring, fire suppression, and
TotalEnergies Taps Cognite for AI-Enhanced Data Analysis
TotalEnergies SE said it has expanded its strategic partnership with industrial AI firm Cognite, targeting to harness the potential of TotalEnergies’ data to enhance the industrial performance of its sites. The two companies have agreed to scale the deployment of the Cognite industrial data and AI platform over a period of three years across all of TotalEnergies’ operated upstream assets worldwide, covering the entire value chain from drilling to production, the French energy major said in a news release. The new initiative aims to make TotalEnergies’ complex data AI-ready and improve operations across its assets, the company said. TotalEnergies said it targets to improve the accuracy of data analysis faster and shorten the lead to adopting applications by providing easy and quick access to relevant, high quality industrial data, as well as “enable the dynamic visualization of assets to enhance decision-making throughout the production lifecycle and monitor critical equipment for production and operational safety”. “This partnership with Cognite marks a new milestone in our digital transformation,” Namita Shah, president of OneTech at TotalEnergies, said. “By creating the data foundation which unifies our industrial data globally and makes it AI-ready, we are creating the conditions to accelerate AI-driven solutions that will significantly enhance the safety, operational and environmental performance of TotalEnergies. This initiative reflects our ambition to make data and AI strategic levers for more reliable, sustainable, and efficient energy,” Shah added. “TotalEnergies isn’t just embracing digital transformation; they are accelerating their entire operation,” Cognite CEO Girish Rishi said. “Our long-term collaboration is built on a shared vision to scale the impact of Industrial AI. By establishing an AI-ready data foundation, we’re equipping their teams to rapidly unlock insights and improve operational excellence across their global assets,” Rishi said. Board Confirms Financial Strategy Last week, TotalEnergies’ board confirmed the company’s shareholder
The Download: our thawing permafrost, and a drone-filled future
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Scientists can see Earth’s permafrost thawing from space Something is rotten in the city of Nunapitchuk. In recent years, sewage has leached into the earth. The ground can feel squishy, sodden.This small town in northern Alaska is experiencing a sometimes overlooked consequence of climate change: thawing permafrost. And Nunapitchuk is far from the only Arctic town to find itself in such a predicament. Now scientists think they may be able to use satellite data to delve deep beneath the ground’s surface and get a better understanding of how the permafrost thaws, and which areas might be most severely affected. Read the full story.
—Sarah Scoles
The US may be heading toward a drone-filled future —James O’Donnell Last week, I published a story about the police-tech giant Flock Safety selling its drones to the private sector to track shoplifters. Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now leads Flock’s drone efforts, described the ideal scenario: A security team at a Home Depot, say, launches a drone from the roof that follows shoplifting suspects to their car. The drone tracks their car through the streets, transmitting its live video feed directly to the police.It’s a vision that, unsurprisingly, alarms civil liberties advocates. But the fate of drones in the US pretty much comes down to one rule. It’s a Federal Aviation Administration regulation that stipulates where and how drones can be flown—and it is about to change. Read the full story. This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Trump’s impact on the next generation of innovators Every year, MIT Technology Review recognizes dozens of young researchers on our Innovators Under 35 list. This year Amy Nordrum, our executive editor, and our senior investigative reporter Eileen Guo checked back in with recent honorees to see how they’re faring amid sweeping changes to science and technology policy within the US.Join us tomorrow at 1.30pm ET for an exclusive Roundtables conversation with Amy and Eileen to learn about the complex realities of what life has been like for those aiming to build their labs and companies in today’s political climate. Register here!
The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 California’s governor has signed America’s first AI law It’ll require AI developers to publicly disclose their safety and security protocols. (Politico)+ The landmark bill has received a mixed reception from the AI industry. (TechCrunch) 2 The Trump administration is pressuring TaiwanIt’s pushing officials to move 50% of chip production to the US—or else. (Ars Technica)+ The US argues it’s the best way to counter invasion threats from China. (Bloomberg $)+ Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review) 3 US ChatGPT users can now buy stuff without leaving the chatbotIt’s laying the groundwork for AI agent-based shopping. (WSJ $)+ Etsy is among the first retailers to sign up for the service. (CNBC)+ It’s a direct challenge to Google’s business model. (Fortune $)+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review) 4 YouTube has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump It’s handing over $24.5 million after his account was suspended in the wake of the US Capitol riot in 2021. (WSJ $)+ It’s the third giant tech platform to bend to the President’s will. (The Verge) 5 Meta is expanding use of its facial recognition toolsIn a bid to combat account impersonation in Europe, the UK, and South Korea. (Engadget) 6 The US Energy Department has banned the term “climate change”See also: “green” and “decarbonization.” (Politico)+ Even “emissions” isn’t safe. (TechCrunch)+ How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the States. (MIT Technology Review)
7 AI data centers are sending the cost of electricity skyrocketingAnd it’s regular citizens who are left paying the price. (Bloomberg $)+ Sam Altman wants a staggering amount of energy. (The Information $)+ The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review) 8 Elon Musk’s senior staff are leaving in their drovesThey’re burnt out and tired of their leader’s erratic strategies. (FT $)
9 Do black holes actually exist?The evidence says yes, but proving it is a different matter. (New Scientist $)10 California police tried to ticket a driverless car But who’s to blame for its illegal U-turn if there’s no driver? (The Guardian)+ It turns out officers don’t currently have any way to issue tickets to robots. (Insider $) Quote of the day “There are certainly people in [the] tech world who would like to see no regulation of anything in any respect whatsoever, but that’s not tenable.” —US Senator Scott Wiener, who proposed the original AI Safety Bill last year, explains why he believes the revised version that’s been passed into law is a reasonable approach to the New York Times.
One more thing How mobile money supercharged Kenya’s sports betting addictionMobile money has mostly been hugely beneficial for Kenyans. But it has also turbo-charged the country’s sports betting sector.Since the middle of the last decade, experts and public figures across the African continent have been sounding the alarm over the rising popularity of sports betting. The practice has produced tales of riches, but it has also broken families, consumed college tuitions, and even driven some to suicide.Nowhere, though, is the craze as acute as it is in Kenya, the country often dubbed Africa’s “Silicon Savannah” for its status as a regional tech powerhouse. But while Kenya’s mobile money revolution has played a well-documented role in encouraging savings and democratizing access to finance, today, it’s easier than ever for those in fragile economic circumstances to squander everything. Read the full story. —Jonathan W. Rosen
WoodMac Enters into Partnership with Novi Labs
Research and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said it has entered into a strategic data partnership with Novi Labs, aiming to enhance its Lens Lower 48 solution with Novi’s well-level production data and advanced lease-to-well algorithms. The collaboration provides Wood Mackenzie customers with access to Novi’s proprietary data across a region where over 4.4 million wells generate more than 20 percent of global liquids and gas supply, Wood Mackenzie said in a news release. “The partnership provides access to Novi’s licensed proprietary oil, gas, and water production data for more than 25,000 wells and advanced lease-to-well algorithms trained on the same well actuals in major supply driving states such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana,” the company said. According to the release, Novi’s upstream data, which “provides the most accurate well-level production information available,” will support advanced AI workflows and machine learning applications. “Novi’s proprietary data and lease-to-well algorithms establish a new standard for production data accuracy not previously achievable,” Novi CEO Scott Sherwood said. Built on thousands of actual well records from operators across every major unconventional basin, our AI-powered technology delivers unmatched production data accuracy for more confident, data-driven investment decisions. Through our partnership with Wood Mackenzie, this data is now accessible to stakeholders across the energy value chain, including energy producers and investors”. “The Lower 48 represents the world’s most dynamic upstream market, and accurate well detail data is absolutely critical for US analysis that feeds into integrated global modeling,” Joe Midgley, global head of upstream and carbon management at Wood Mackenzie, said. “Our partnership with Novi transforms our ability to serve customers with the most trusted well-level production data available, combined with our industry-leading cost intelligence and global market perspective”. “Timely and high-quality trusted data underpins how existing operators, new entrants and investors can deliver winning strategies,” Midgley
OPEC+ Will Likely Lift Quotas at Next Meeting
OPEC+ will likely lift its quotas by another 137,000 barrels per day for November when they meet on October 5, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) Chief Commodities Analyst Bjarne Schieldrop said in a report sent to Rigzone on Monday morning by the SEB team. “OPEC+ will decide on 5 October on what to do with production quotas for November,” Schieldrop highlighted in the report. “Market consensus seems to be that the group will lift its overall quota by 137,000 barrels per day yet again – we fully share that view,” he added. “When it lifted the quotas for October by 137,000 barrels per day at the start to September the Brent crude oil price was trading at $65.5 per barrel. Now it is close to $70 per barrel,” he continued. “It seems highly likely that they will lift the quota yet again. The group naturally loves a good price, but right now the group is in a process of recapturing market share,” Schieldrop went on to state. In the report, Schieldrop outlined that the price of Brent crude was down one percent to $69.4 per barrel on Monday morning “in part due to this”. In a separate report sent to Rigzone by the Standard Chartered team last week, Standard Chartered Bank analysts, including the company’s global head of commodities research, Suki Cooper, highlighted that “OPEC has accelerated its return of barrels, with one eye on adherence to compensation cuts and the other on the perception of tightening spare capacity”. Rigzone has contacted OPEC for comment on the SEB and Standard Chartered reports. At the time of writing, OPEC has not responded to Rigzone. A statement posted on OPEC’s website on September 7 revealed that Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman “decided to implement a production adjustment
Seatrium, Cochin Shipyard Pen Cooperation Agreement
Seatrium Offshore Technology Pte. Ltd. (SOT) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Cochin Shipyard Ltd. (CSL) to strengthen cooperation in the offshore sector across India and Asia. SOT, a Seatrium Ltd. company, said in a media release that the partnership will combine SOT’s specialized equipment and offshore solutions with CSL’s extensive infrastructure, fabrication facilities, and ship repair expertise to leverage business opportunities. SOT said that the partnership will focus on maintenance, repair, and overhaul projects for clients with operations in Asia. The two companies will also explore opportunities to expand into other key offshore markets in the region. “This MoU is a strategic milestone in Seatrium’s efforts to expand our global footprint across Asia, with India identified as a key market for long-term growth. India’s rapidly developing offshore energy sector and rising demand for maritime infrastructure present compelling opportunities for collaboration and innovation”, Winston Cheng, Senior Vice-President and Head of SOT, said. “By combining CSL’s robust local capabilities with Seatrium’s deep engineering expertise and technology strengths, we aim to deliver integrated offshore asset solutions that meet the region’s evolving needs. “Our shared goal is to support India’s energy transition, enhance its maritime capabilities, and position Seatrium as a trusted partner in driving sustainable offshore development”. The MoU establishes a framework for joint marketing, project execution, and technology collaboration, fostering a long-term partnership with CSL to advance regional energy transition and offshore development. It builds upon a prior agreement signed in November 2024 between Seatrium, via its subsidiary Seatrium Letourneau USA Inc., and CSL for co-designing and supplying essential equipment for jack-up rigs serving the Indian market, SOT said. “The MoU marks a significant step forward in CSL’s efforts to expand our offshore footprint. Our decision to strengthen collaboration with Seatrium demonstrates our confidence in their global expertise, enabling
Australia Gets Bulk of Chevron Payments to Governments
Chevron Corp has reported $14.21 billion in payments to governments for 2024 with Australia topping the list at $3.39 billion. That was more than Chevron’s home country; the United States got $1.59 billion. The disclosure to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) consisted of taxes, royalties, production entitlements, fees, bonuses, and “community and social responsibility” payments. The filing included exploration-related payments made 2023 that had been delayed for reporting. Rounding up the top five recipients are Nigeria at $2.91 billion, Angola at $1.74 billion and the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia Partitioned Zone at $1.09 billion. Payments to Australia, the U.S. and Kuwait-Saudi Arabia were mostly taxation. Production entitlements comprised the bulk of payments to Nigeria and Angola. The oil and gas giant paid Australia $3.33 billion in taxes for 2024. The remaining Australian payments consisted of $27.33 million for community and social responsibility and $26.18 million in fees. Chevron’s Aussie operations mainly consist of three natural gas projects in Western Australia, which both export overseas and supply the domestic market. On Barrow Island, Chevron operates the Gorgon Project with a 47.3 percent stake. Put into operation March 2016, Gorgon has three liquefaction trains with a combined capacity of 15.6 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa) and a domestic gas plant that supplies up to 300 terajoules (tJ) a day, according to Chevron. On the Pilbara coast, Chevron’s operated and 64.14 percent-owned Wheatstone Project includes a two-train LNG facility with a capacity of 8.9 MMtpa and a domestic gas plant that delivers up to 230 tJ per day, according to Chevron. Wheatstone shipped its first LNG October 2017. On the Burrup Peninsula, Chevron owns a minority stake in the North West Shelf (NWS) Project, operated by Australia’s Woodside Energy Group Ltd. On July 25, 2025, the International Group of LNG Importers reported Woodside
Eni, Seri Industrial Launch Battery Production Project in Brindisi
Eni SpA and Seri Industrial SpA have kicked off activities for a project to build a production hub for stationary lithium batteries in the Italian industrial area of Brindisi. The project is planned to produce over eight gigawatt hours a year of lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, primarily for stationary energy storage, using a water-based process. “The project is currently in the engineering phase and undergoing economic, financial and authorization assessments, which are expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2026, before moving into the execution phase”, Italy’s state-backed Eni said in a press release. The project is under Eni Storage Systems, a joint venture between Eni (50 percent plus one share) and Seri Industrial subsidiary Fib. The project “confirms the partnership between Eni and Seri Industrial in the integrated management of the Brindisi site, together with the plant that Fib is building in Teverola (in the province of Caserta)”, Eni said. “At the Brindisi site, industrial activities will also include the production of cathode active material – a lithium-iron-phosphate that stores and releases lithium ions in the cathode during charge and discharge cycles – as well as the assembly of batteries into BESS (battery energy storage systems), serving both the Brindisi and Teverola facilities. “In future, the Brindisi site will also implement battery recycling, which, together with the production of cathode active material, will be available to other operators in the sector. “Seri Industrial and Eni aim to gain more than 10 percent of the European stationary battery market, creating an integrated, state-of-the-art hub between Brindisi and Teverola to drive sustainability and the energy transition”. In another battery project, Eni early this year completed the construction of its largest battery storage system, the 200-megawatt Guajillo plant in Webb County, Texas. Equipped with lithium-ion LFP batteries, the facility was to start commercial operation by
GeoPark to Acquire Two Vaca Muerta Blocks from Pluspetrol
GeoPark Ltd has signed an agreement to purchase the producing Loma Jarillosa Este and Puesto Silva Oeste blocks in the Vaca Muerta formation in Argentina’s Neuquen Province from Pluspetrol SA for $115 million. Concurrently Bogota-based GeoPark penned two agreements with the provincial government that “include the issuance of a new unconventional exploitation license for the Puesto Silva Oeste Block that requires GeoPark to transfer a five percent working interest (WI) to Gas y Petroleo del Neuquen SA (GyP), therefore resulting in a 95 percent operated WI in that block”, GeoPark said in a statement on its website. Expected to be completed by year-end, the transaction with Buenos Aires-based Pluspetrol will increase GeoPark’s proforma production by 1,700-2,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) – 95 percent oil and five percent gas – to 30,000 boepd, the statement said. “Current production is processed with a battery that can handle up to 6,000 bopd at the Loma Jarillosa Este Block”, the statement said. “GeoPark plans to develop the two blocks as a hub, with a new central processing facility to be built at the Puesto Silva Oeste Block with an expected capacity of approximately 20,000 bopd and a pipeline connecting the two blocks. Construction of this infrastructure is projected to start in 2026 and be online in time to support the anticipated plateau production”. GeoPark eyes “50-55 additional wells across 15 pads, unlocking more than 60 MMboe gross recoverable volumes”. Loma Jarillosa Este and Puesto Silva Oeste hold estimated proven and probable reserves of 25.8 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) and estimated 2C contingent resources of 44.2 MMboe, GeoPark said. The Loma Jarillosa Este side of the transaction involves the transfer of Pluspetrol’s concession of 6,054 acres, with an exploitation license valid until 2057. The Puesto Silva Oeste portion of the transaction involves
TechnipFMC Bags Contract for Newest Stabroek Project
TechnipFMC PLC said it had won a “substantial contract” from Exxon Mobil Corp to deliver subsea production systems for the Hammerhead field in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana. “TechnipFMC will provide project management, engineering and manufacturing of subsea production systems supporting both production and water injection capabilities”, the integrated energy contractor said in a press release. “The subsea architecture will include products from the Subsea 2.0® platform, including subsea trees, manifolds and associated controls”. TechnipFMC values a substantial contract between $250 million and $500 million. “Hammerhead is our seventh greenfield project award from ExxonMobil Guyana since the first development was sanctioned in 2017″, said Jonathan Landes, president for subsea at TechnipFMC. “Our continued success stems from our ability to provide schedule certainty, built on our proven execution and the benefits of Subsea 2.0®”. Last week ExxonMobil announced a positive FID (final investment decision) on Hammerhead, earmarking $6.8 billion for the 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) development. Targeted to be put into production 2029, Hammerhead will grow Stabroek’s production capacity to 1.5 million bpd, the operator said in a statement September 23. Hammerhead is the seventh project approved in Stabroek, with the fourth and biggest – the 250,000-bpd Yellowtail – started up earlier this year through floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) ONE GUYANA. “ExxonMobil is safely producing approximately 650,000 barrels of oil per day from the Stabroek block”, ExxonMobil said. “With the recent successful startup of a fourth FPSO, the ONE GUYANA, the company anticipates growing production to more than 900,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of the year. “Construction is underway for the fifth and sixth approved projects, Uaru and Whiptail, with Uaru anticipated to start production in 2026, and Whiptail is anticipated for startup in 2027”. Hammerhead’s development plan includes 18 production and injection wells. The Hammerhead FPSO
Perry’s Energy REIT Fermi Boosts IPO Target to $715MM
Fermi Inc. increased the number of shares in its initial public offering and is seeking to raise as much as $715 million, up from a target of as much as $550 million last week. The company co-founded by former US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry plans to market 32.5 million shares for $18 to $22 each, according to a filing Monday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It previously planned to market 25 million shares with the same price range. At the top of that range, the company would have a market value of $13 billion based on the 593.2 million outstanding shares listed in its latest filing, down from 598.1 million shares previously. The offering is expected to price on Sept. 30 for trading on Oct. 1, according to terms seen by Bloomberg News. The company has filed for an IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and said that it plans to apply for a listing on the London Stock Exchange. Fermi’s “Project Matador” is a development-stage advanced energy and intelligence campus with more than 5,000 acres of land leased from Texas Tech University. The company hopes to draw data center and hyperscaler tenants, and it expects to have one gigawatt of power online by the end of next year. Perry, who was governor of Texas prior to serving in President Donald Trump’s cabinet during his first term, is a director at the company. Fermi was founded in January. The infrastructure and real estate firm aims to have up to 11 gigawatts of power to computing centers on-site by 2038 through a mix of natural gas, solar energy and nuclear power, according to filings. The Amarillo, Texas-based company had a net loss of $6.37 million since its inception in January through the end of June. The offering
National Grid, Con Edison urge FERC to adopt gas pipeline reliability requirements
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should adopt reliability-related requirements for gas pipeline operators to ensure fuel supplies during cold weather, according to National Grid USA and affiliated utilities Consolidated Edison Co. of New York and Orange and Rockland Utilities. In the wake of power outages in the Southeast and the near collapse of New York City’s gas system during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022, voluntary efforts to bolster gas pipeline reliability are inadequate, the utilities said in two separate filings on Friday at FERC. The filings were in response to a gas-electric coordination meeting held in November by the Federal-State Current Issues Collaborative between FERC and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. National Grid called for FERC to use its authority under the Natural Gas Act to require pipeline reliability reporting, coupled with enforcement mechanisms, and pipeline tariff reforms. “Such data reporting would enable the commission to gain a clearer picture into pipeline reliability and identify any problematic trends in the quality of pipeline service,” National Grid said. “At that point, the commission could consider using its ratemaking, audit, and civil penalty authority preemptively to address such identified concerns before they result in service curtailments.” On pipeline tariff reforms, FERC should develop tougher provisions for force majeure events — an unforeseen occurence that prevents a contract from being fulfilled — reservation charge crediting, operational flow orders, scheduling and confirmation enhancements, improved real-time coordination, and limits on changes to nomination rankings, National Grid said. FERC should support efforts in New England and New York to create financial incentives for gas-fired generators to enter into winter contracts for imported liquefied natural gas supplies, or other long-term firm contracts with suppliers and pipelines, National Grid said. Con Edison and O&R said they were encouraged by recent efforts such as North American Energy Standard
US BOEM Seeks Feedback on Potential Wind Leasing Offshore Guam
The United States Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Monday issued a Call for Information and Nominations to help it decide on potential leasing areas for wind energy development offshore Guam. The call concerns a contiguous area around the island that comprises about 2.1 million acres. The area’s water depths range from 350 meters (1,148.29 feet) to 2,200 meters (7,217.85 feet), according to a statement on BOEM’s website. Closing April 7, the comment period seeks “relevant information on site conditions, marine resources, and ocean uses near or within the call area”, the BOEM said. “Concurrently, wind energy companies can nominate specific areas they would like to see offered for leasing. “During the call comment period, BOEM will engage with Indigenous Peoples, stakeholder organizations, ocean users, federal agencies, the government of Guam, and other parties to identify conflicts early in the process as BOEM seeks to identify areas where offshore wind development would have the least impact”. The next step would be the identification of specific WEAs, or wind energy areas, in the larger call area. BOEM would then conduct environmental reviews of the WEAs in consultation with different stakeholders. “After completing its environmental reviews and consultations, BOEM may propose one or more competitive lease sales for areas within the WEAs”, the Department of the Interior (DOI) sub-agency said. BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said, “Responsible offshore wind development off Guam’s coast offers a vital opportunity to expand clean energy, cut carbon emissions, and reduce energy costs for Guam residents”. Late last year the DOI announced the approval of the 2.4-gigawatt (GW) SouthCoast Wind Project, raising the total capacity of federally approved offshore wind power projects to over 19 GW. The project owned by a joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE received a positive Record of Decision, the DOI said in
Biden Bars Offshore Oil Drilling in USA Atlantic and Pacific
President Joe Biden is indefinitely blocking offshore oil and gas development in more than 625 million acres of US coastal waters, warning that drilling there is simply “not worth the risks” and “unnecessary” to meet the nation’s energy needs. Biden’s move is enshrined in a pair of presidential memoranda being issued Monday, burnishing his legacy on conservation and fighting climate change just two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Yet unlike other actions Biden has taken to constrain fossil fuel development, this one could be harder for Trump to unwind, since it’s rooted in a 72-year-old provision of federal law that empowers presidents to withdraw US waters from oil and gas leasing without explicitly authorizing revocations. Biden is ruling out future oil and gas leasing along the US East and West Coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and a sliver of the Northern Bering Sea, an area teeming with seabirds, marine mammals, fish and other wildlife that indigenous people have depended on for millennia. The action doesn’t affect energy development under existing offshore leases, and it won’t prevent the sale of more drilling rights in Alaska’s gas-rich Cook Inlet or the central and western Gulf of Mexico, which together provide about 14% of US oil and gas production. The president cast the move as achieving a careful balance between conservation and energy security. “It is clear to me that the relatively minimal fossil fuel potential in the areas I am withdrawing do not justify the environmental, public health and economic risks that would come from new leasing and drilling,” Biden said. “We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient and the food they produce secure — and keeping energy prices low.” Some of the areas Biden is protecting
Biden Admin Finalizes Hydrogen Tax Credit Favoring Cleaner Production
The Biden administration has finalized rules for a tax incentive promoting hydrogen production using renewable power, with lower credits for processes using abated natural gas. The Clean Hydrogen Production Credit is based on carbon intensity, which must not exceed four kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilogram of hydrogen produced. Qualified facilities are those whose start of construction falls before 2033. These facilities can claim credits for 10 years of production starting on the date of service placement, according to the draft text on the Federal Register’s portal. The final text is scheduled for publication Friday. Established by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the four-tier scheme gives producers that meet wage and apprenticeship requirements a credit of up to $3 per kilogram of “qualified clean hydrogen”, to be adjusted for inflation. Hydrogen whose production process makes higher lifecycle emissions gets less. The scheme will use the Energy Department’s Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model in tiering production processes for credit computation. “In the coming weeks, the Department of Energy will release an updated version of the 45VH2-GREET model that producers will use to calculate the section 45V tax credit”, the Treasury Department said in a statement announcing the finalization of rules, a process that it said had considered roughly 30,000 public comments. However, producers may use the GREET model that was the most recent when their facility began construction. “This is in consideration of comments that the prospect of potential changes to the model over time reduces investment certainty”, explained the statement on the Treasury’s website. “Calculation of the lifecycle GHG analysis for the tax credit requires consideration of direct and significant indirect emissions”, the statement said. For electrolytic hydrogen, electrolyzers covered by the scheme include not only those using renewables-derived electricity (green hydrogen) but
Xthings unveils Ulticam home security cameras powered by edge AI
Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Xthings announced that its Ulticam security camera brand has a new model out today: the Ulticam IQ Floodlight, an edge AI-powered home security camera. The company also plans to showcase two additional cameras, Ulticam IQ, an outdoor spotlight camera, and Ulticam Dot, a portable, wireless security camera. All three cameras offer free cloud storage (seven days rolling) and subscription-free edge AI-powered person detection and alerts. The AI at the edge means that it doesn’t have to go out to an internet-connected data center to tap AI computing to figure out what is in front of the camera. Rather, the processing for the AI is built into the camera itself, and that sets a new standard for value and performance in home security cameras. It can identify people, faces and vehicles. CES 2025 attendees can experience Ulticam’s entire lineup at Pepcom’s Digital Experience event on January 6, 2025, and at the Venetian Expo, Halls A-D, booth #51732, from January 7 to January 10, 2025. These new security cameras will be available for purchase online in the U.S. in Q1 and Q2 2025 at U-tec.com, Amazon, and Best Buy. The Ulticam IQ Series: smart edge AI-powered home security cameras Ulticam IQ home security camera. The Ulticam IQ Series, which includes IQ and IQ Floodlight, takes home security to the next level with the most advanced AI-powered recognition. Among the very first consumer cameras to use edge AI, the IQ Series can quickly and accurately identify people, faces and vehicles, without uploading video for server-side processing, which improves speed, accuracy, security and privacy. Additionally, the Ulticam IQ Series is designed to improve over time with over-the-air updates that enable new AI features. Both cameras
Intel unveils new Core Ultra processors with 2X to 3X performance on AI apps
Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Intel unveiled new Intel Core Ultra 9 processors today at CES 2025 with as much as two or three times the edge performance on AI apps as before. The chips under the Intel Core Ultra 9 and Core i9 labels were previously codenamed Arrow Lake H, Meteor Lake H, Arrow Lake S and Raptor Lake S Refresh. Intel said it is pushing the boundaries of AI performance and power efficiency for businesses and consumers, ushering in the next era of AI computing. In other performance metrics, Intel said the Core Ultra 9 processors are up to 5.8 times faster in media performance, 3.4 times faster in video analytics end-to-end workloads with media and AI, and 8.2 times better in terms of performance per watt than prior chips. Intel hopes to kick off the year better than in 2024. CEO Pat Gelsinger resigned last month without a permanent successor after a variety of struggles, including mass layoffs, manufacturing delays and poor execution on chips including gaming bugs in chips launched during the summer. Intel Core Ultra Series 2 Michael Masci, vice president of product management at the Edge Computing Group at Intel, said in a briefing that AI, once the domain of research labs, is integrating into every aspect of our lives, including AI PCs where the AI processing is done in the computer itself, not the cloud. AI is also being processed in data centers in big enterprises, from retail stores to hospital rooms. “As CES kicks off, it’s clear we are witnessing a transformative moment,” he said. “Artificial intelligence is moving at an unprecedented pace.” The new processors include the Intel Core 9 Ultra 200 H/U/S models, with up to
Gemini Robotics 1.5 brings AI agents into the physical world
AcknowledgementsThis work was developed by the Gemini Robotics team: Abbas Abdolmaleki, Saminda Abeyruwan, Joshua Ainslie, Jean-Baptiste Alayrac, Montserrat Gonzalez Arenas, Ashwin Balakrishna, Nathan Batchelor, Alex Bewley, Jeff Bingham, Michael Bloesch, Konstantinos Bousmalis, Philemon Brakel, Anthony Brohan, Thomas Buschmann, Arunkumar Byravan, Serkan Cabi, Ken Caluwaerts, Federico Casarini, Christine Chan, Oscar Chang, London Chappellet-Volpini, Jose Enrique Chen, Xi Chen, Hao-Tien Lewis Chiang, Krzysztof Choromanski, Adrian Collister, David B. D’Ambrosio, Sudeep Dasari, Todor Davchev, Meet Kirankumar Dave, Coline Devin, Norman Di Palo, Tianli Ding, Carl Doersch, Adil Dostmohamed, Yilun Du, Debidatta Dwibedi, Sathish Thoppay Egambaram, Michael Elabd, Tom Erez, Xiaolin Fang, Claudio Fantacci, Cody Fong, Erik Frey, Chuyuan Fu, Ruiqi Gao, Marissa Giustina, Keerthana Gopalakrishnan, Laura Graesser, Oliver Groth, Agrim Gupta, Roland Hafner, Steven Hansen, Leonard Hasenclever, Sam Haves, Nicolas Heess, Brandon Hernaez, Alex Hofer, Jasmine Hsu, Lu Huang, Sandy H. Huang, Atil Iscen, Mithun George Jacob, Deepali Jain, Sally Jesmonth, Abhishek Jindal, Ryan Julian, Dmitry Kalashnikov, Stefani Karp, Matija Kecman, J. Chase Kew, Donnie Kim, Frank Kim, Junkyung Kim, Thomas Kipf, Sean Kirmani, Ksenia Konyushkova, Yuheng Kuang, Thomas Lampe, Antoine Laurens, Tuan Anh Le, Isabel Leal, Alex X. Lee, Tsang-Wei Edward Lee, Guy Lever, Jacky Liang, Li-Heng Lin, Fangchen Liu, Shangbang Long, Caden Lu, Sharath Maddineni, Anirudha Majumdar, Kevis-Kokitsi Maninis, Andrew Marmon, Sergio Martinez, Assaf Hurwitz Michaely, Niko Milonopoulos, Joss Moore, Robert Moreno, Michael Neunert, Francesco Nori, Joy Ortiz, Kenneth Oslund, Carolina Parada, Emilio Parisotto, Peter Pastor Sampedro, Acorn Pooley, Thomas Power, Alessio Quaglino, Haroon Qureshi, Rajkumar Vasudeva Raju, Helen Ran, Dushyant Rao, Kanishka Rao, Isaac Reid, David Rendleman, Krista Reymann, Miguel Rivas, Francesco Romano, Yulia Rubanova, Pannag R Sanketi, Dhruv Shah, Mohit Sharma, Kathryn Shea, Mohit Shridhar, Charles Shu, Vikas Sindhwani, Sumeet Singh, Radu Soricut, Rachel Sterneck, Ian Storz, Razvan Surdulescu, Jie Tan, Jonathan Tompson, Saran Tunyasuvunakool, Jake Varley, Grace Vesom, Giulia Vezzani, Maria Bauza Villalonga, Oriol Vinyals, René Wagner, Ayzaan Wahid, Stefan Welker, Paul Wohlhart, Chengda Wu, Markus Wulfmeier, Fei Xia, Ted Xiao, Annie Xie, Jinyu Xie, Peng Xu, Sichun Xu, Ying Xu, Zhuo Xu, Jimmy Yan, Sherry Yang, Skye Yang, Yuxiang Yang, Hiu Hong Yu, Wenhao Yu, Li Yang Ku, Wentao Yuan, Yuan Yuan, Jingwei Zhang, Tingnan Zhang, Zhiyuan Zhang, Allan Zhou, Guangyao Zhou and Yuxiang Zhou.We’d also like to thank: Amy Nommeots-Nomm, Ashley Gibb, Bhavya Sukhija, Bryan Gale, Catarina Barros, Christy Koh, Clara Barbu, Demetra Brady, Hiroki Furuta, Jennie Lees, Kendra Byrne, Keran Rong, Kevin Murphy, Kieran Connell, Kuang-Huei Lee, M. Emre Karagozler, Martina Zambelli, Matthew Jackson, Michael Noseworthy, Miguel Lázaro-Gredilla, Mili Sanwalka, Mimi Jasarevic, Nimrod Gileadi, Rebeca Santamaria-Fernandez, Rui Yao, Siobhan Mcloughlin, Sophie Bridgers, Stefano Saliceti, Steven Bohez, Svetlana Grant, Tim Hertweck, Verena Rieser, Yandong Ji.For their leadership and support of this effort, we’d like to thank: Jean-Baptiste Alayrac, Zoubin Ghahramani, Koray Kavukcuoglu and Demis Hassabis. We’d like to recognize the many teams across Google and Google DeepMind that have contributed to this effort including Legal, Marketing, Communications, Responsibility and Safety Council, Responsible Development and Innovation, Policy, Strategy and Operations, and our Business and Corporate Development teams. We’d like to thank everyone on the Robotics team not explicitly mentioned above for their continued support and guidance. Finally, we’d like to thank the Apptronik team for their support.
US investigators are using AI to detect child abuse images made by AI
Generative AI has enabled the production of child sexual abuse images to skyrocket. Now the leading investigator of child exploitation in the US is experimenting with using AI to distinguish AI-generated images from material depicting real victims, according to a new government filing. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Crimes Center, which investigates child exploitation across international borders, has awarded a $150,000 contract to San Francisco–based Hive AI for its software, which can identify whether a piece of content was AI-generated. The filing, posted on September 19, is heavily redacted and Hive cofounder and CEO Kevin Guo told MIT Technology Review that he could not discuss the details of the contract, but confirmed it involves use of the company’s AI detection algorithms for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The filing quotes data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that reported a 1,325% increase in incidents involving generative AI in 2024. “The sheer volume of digital content circulating online necessitates the use of automated tools to process and analyze data efficiently,” the filing reads.
The first priority of child exploitation investigators is to find and stop any abuse currently happening, but the flood of AI-generated CSAM has made it difficult for investigators to know whether images depict a real victim currently at risk. A tool that could successfully flag real victims would be a massive help when they try to prioritize cases. Identifying AI-generated images “ensures that investigative resources are focused on cases involving real victims, maximizing the program’s impact and safeguarding vulnerable individuals,” the filing reads.
Hive AI offers AI tools that create videos and images, as well as a range of content moderation tools that can flag violence, spam, and sexual material and even identify celebrities. In December, MIT Technology Review reported that the company was selling its deepfake-detection technology to the US military. For detecting CSAM, Hive offers a tool created with Thorn, a child safety nonprofit, which companies can integrate into their platforms. This tool uses a “hashing” system, which assigns unique IDs to content known by investigators to be CSAM, and blocks that material from being uploaded. This tool, and others like it, have become a standard line of defense for tech companies. But these tools simply identify a piece of content as CSAM; they don’t detect whether it was generated by AI. Hive has created a separate tool that determines whether images in general were AI-generated. Though it is not trained specifically to work on CSAM, according to Guo, it doesn’t need to be. “There’s some underlying combination of pixels in this image that we can identify” as AI-generated, he says. “It can be generalizable.” This tool, Guo says, is what the Cyber Crimes Center will be using to evaluate CSAM. He adds that Hive benchmarks its detection tools for each specific use case its customers have in mind. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which participates in efforts to stop the spread of CSAM, did not respond to requests for comment on the effectiveness of such detection models in time for publication. In its filing, the government justifies awarding the contract to Hive without a competitive bidding process. Though parts of this justification are redacted, it primarily references two points also found in a Hive presentation slide deck. One involves a 2024 study from the University of Chicago, which found that Hive’s AI detection tool outranked four other detectors in identifying AI-generated art. The other is its contract with the Pentagon for identifying deepfakes. The trial will last three months.
The Download: shoplifter-chasing drones, and Trump’s TikTok deal
Shoplifters in the US could soon be chased down by drones The news: Flock Safety, whose drones were once reserved for police departments, is now offering them for private-sector security, the company has announced. Potential customers include businesses trying to curb shoplifting. How it works: If the security team at a store sees shoplifters leave, they can activate a camera-equipped drone. “The drone follows the people. The people get in a car. You click a button and you track the vehicle with the drone, and the drone just follows the car,” says Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now directs Flock’s drone program. The video feed of that drone might go to the company’s security team, but it could also be automatically transmitted directly to police departments. The response: Flock’s expansion into private-sector security is “a logical step, but in the wrong direction,” says Rebecca Williams, senior strategist for the ACLU’s privacy and data governance unit. Read the full story.
—James O’Donnell Read more of our stories about the latest in drone tech:
+ Why you’re about to see a lot more drones over America’s skies. + Meet Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. His work could help to determine the future of Ukraine, and wars far beyond it.+ We examined four big trends that show what’s next for drone technology.+ The defense tech startup Epirus has developed a cutting-edge, cost-efficient drone zapper that’s sparking the interest of the US military. Read our story about how it could change the future of war. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 TikTok US is being valued at $14 billion by Trump’s dealThat’s shockingly low for a fast-growing social media company. (FT $) + The deal is basically just Trump giving TikTok to his friends. (Vox $)+ Here’s what the sale means for you. (WP $) 2 Microsoft has stopped letting Israel use its technology for surveillanceThe system was used to collect millions of Palestinian civilians’ phone calls every day. (The Guardian)3 There are more robots working in China than the rest of the world combinedIt’s a trend that’ll further cement its status as the world’s leading manufacturer. (NYT $)+ China’s EV giants are betting big on humanoid robots. (MIT Technology Review)4 The inside story of what happened when DOGE came to townIf anything, this is even more grim and chaotic than you might imagine. (Wired $) 5 Instagram’s teen safety features are flawedResearchers tested 47 of these features, and found that only 8 were fully effective. (Reuters $)+ There’s growing concern among lawmakers about the risks of kids forming bonds with chatbots. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Brazil’s judicial system is adopting AI with gustoThe trouble is that rather than reducing the amount of work for judges and lawyers, AI seems to be increasing it. (Rest of World)+ Meet the early-adopter judges using AI. (MIT Technology Review)7 Amazon is refunding $1.5 billion to Prime subscribersThe deal with the FTC lets it avoid a trial over claims it tricked consumers into signing up. (WP $)8 These women are in love with AI Like it or not, these sorts of romances are becoming more common. (Slate $)+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review) 9 Scientists are improving how we measure nothingResearchers are developing a vacuum-measurement tool that could unlock exciting new possibilities for science. (IEEE Spectrum)+ This quantum radar could image buried objects. (MIT Technology Review)10 Why does everything online feel so icky? 😬Most of us will go to extreme lengths to avoid awkwardness IRL. On social media, it’s another matter entirely… (Vox $)+ China’s government has had enough of everyone being negative on its internet. (BBC) Quote of the day “AI machines—in quite a literal sense—appear to be saving the US economy right now. In the absence of tech-related spending, the US would be close to, or in, recession this year.” —George Saravelos, global head of FX research at Deutsche Bank, warns that the AI boom is unsustainable in a note to clients, Fortune reports. One more thing COURTESY OF OPENAI The two people shaping the future of OpenAI’s research
—Will Douglas HeavenFor the past couple of years, OpenAI has felt like a one-man brand. With his showbiz style and fundraising glitz, CEO Sam Altman overshadows all other big names on the firm’s roster. But Altman is not the one building the technology on which its reputation rests. That responsibility falls to OpenAI’s twin heads of research—chief research officer Mark Chen and chief scientist Jakub Pachocki. Between them, they share the role of making sure OpenAI stays one step ahead of powerhouse rivals like Google.
I recently sat down with Chen and Pachocki for an exclusive conversation which covered everything from how they manage the inherent tension between research and product, to what they really mean when they talk about AGI, and what happened to OpenAI’s superalignment team. Read the full story.
VaultGemma: The world’s most capable differentially private LLM
AcknowledgementsWe’d like to thank the entire Gemma and Google Privacy teams for their contributions and support throughout this project, in particular, Peter Kairouz, Brendan McMahan and Dan Ramage for feedback on the blog post, Mark Simborg and Kimberly Schwede for help with visualizations, and the teams at Google that helped with algorithm design, infrastructure implementation, and production maintenance. The following people directly contributed to the work presented here (ordered alphabetically): Borja Balle, Zachary Charles, Christopher A. Choquette-Choo, Lynn Chua, Prem Eruvbetine, Badih Ghazi, Steve He, Yangsibo Huang, Armand Joulin, George Kaissis, Pritish Kamath, Ravi Kumar, Daogao Liu, Ruibo Liu, Pasin Manurangsi, Thomas Mesnard, Andreas Terzis, Tris Warkentin, Da Yu, and Chiyuan Zhang.
Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones
Once reserved for police departments, Flock Safety is now offering its drones for private-sector security, the company announced today, including for businesses intent on curbing shoplifting. Companies in the US can now place Flock’s drone docking stations on their premises. If the company has a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly beyond visual line of sight (which are becoming easier to get), its security team can fly the drones within a certain radius, often a few miles. “Instead of a 911 call [that triggers the drone], it’s an alarm call,” says Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now directs Flock’s drone program. “It’s still the same type of response.” Kauffman walked through how the drone program might work in the case of retail theft: If the security team at a store like Home Depot, for example, saw shoplifters leave the store, they could activate the drone, equipped with cameras, from its docking station on the roof.
“The drone follows the people. The people get in a car, you click a button,” he says, “and you track the vehicle with the drone, and the drone just follows the car.” The video feed of that drone might go to the company’s security team, but it could also be automatically transmitted directly to police departments.
The company says it’s in talks with large retailers but doesn’t yet have any signed contracts. The only private-sector company Kauffman named as a customer is Morning Star, a California tomato processor that uses drones to secure its distribution facilities. Flock will also pitch the drones to hospital campuses, warehouse sites, and oil and gas facilities. It’s worth noting that the FAA is currently drafting new rules for how it grants approval to pilots flying drones out of sight, and it’s not clear if Flock’s use case would be allowed under the current proposed guidance. The company’s expansion to the private sector follows the rise of programs launched by police departments around the country to deploy drones as first responders. In such programs, law enforcement sends drones to a scene to provide visuals faster than an officer can get there. Flock has arguably led this push, and police departments have claimed drone-enabled successes, like a supply drop to a boy lost in the Colorado wilderness. But the programs have also sparked privacy worries, concerns of overpolicing in minority neighborhoods, and lawsuits, charging that police departments should not block public access to drone footage. For its other technologies, like license plate readers, Flock has drawn recent criticism for the ease with which federal US immigration agencies, like ICE and CBP, could look at data collected by local police departments amid President Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Flock’s expansion into private-sector security is “a logical step, but in the wrong direction,” says Rebecca Williams, senior strategist for the ACLU’s privacy and data governance unit. Williams cited a growing erosion of Fourth Amendment protections—which prevent unlawful search and seizure—in the online era, in which the government can purchase private data from companies that it would otherwise need a warrant to acquire it. Proposed legislation to curb that practice has stalled, and Flock’s expansion into the private sector would exacerbate the issue, Williams says. “Flock is the Meta of surveillance technology now,” Williams says, referring to how much personal data Meta has acquired and monetized. “This expansion is very scary.”
Gemini Robotics 1.5 brings AI agents into the physical world
AcknowledgementsThis work was developed by the Gemini Robotics team: Abbas Abdolmaleki, Saminda Abeyruwan, Joshua Ainslie, Jean-Baptiste Alayrac, Montserrat Gonzalez Arenas, Ashwin Balakrishna, Nathan Batchelor, Alex Bewley, Jeff Bingham, Michael Bloesch, Konstantinos Bousmalis, Philemon Brakel, Anthony Brohan, Thomas Buschmann, Arunkumar Byravan, Serkan Cabi, Ken Caluwaerts, Federico Casarini, Christine Chan, Oscar Chang, London Chappellet-Volpini, Jose Enrique Chen, Xi Chen, Hao-Tien Lewis Chiang, Krzysztof Choromanski, Adrian Collister, David B. D’Ambrosio, Sudeep Dasari, Todor Davchev, Meet Kirankumar Dave, Coline Devin, Norman Di Palo, Tianli Ding, Carl Doersch, Adil Dostmohamed, Yilun Du, Debidatta Dwibedi, Sathish Thoppay Egambaram, Michael Elabd, Tom Erez, Xiaolin Fang, Claudio Fantacci, Cody Fong, Erik Frey, Chuyuan Fu, Ruiqi Gao, Marissa Giustina, Keerthana Gopalakrishnan, Laura Graesser, Oliver Groth, Agrim Gupta, Roland Hafner, Steven Hansen, Leonard Hasenclever, Sam Haves, Nicolas Heess, Brandon Hernaez, Alex Hofer, Jasmine Hsu, Lu Huang, Sandy H. Huang, Atil Iscen, Mithun George Jacob, Deepali Jain, Sally Jesmonth, Abhishek Jindal, Ryan Julian, Dmitry Kalashnikov, Stefani Karp, Matija Kecman, J. Chase Kew, Donnie Kim, Frank Kim, Junkyung Kim, Thomas Kipf, Sean Kirmani, Ksenia Konyushkova, Yuheng Kuang, Thomas Lampe, Antoine Laurens, Tuan Anh Le, Isabel Leal, Alex X. Lee, Tsang-Wei Edward Lee, Guy Lever, Jacky Liang, Li-Heng Lin, Fangchen Liu, Shangbang Long, Caden Lu, Sharath Maddineni, Anirudha Majumdar, Kevis-Kokitsi Maninis, Andrew Marmon, Sergio Martinez, Assaf Hurwitz Michaely, Niko Milonopoulos, Joss Moore, Robert Moreno, Michael Neunert, Francesco Nori, Joy Ortiz, Kenneth Oslund, Carolina Parada, Emilio Parisotto, Peter Pastor Sampedro, Acorn Pooley, Thomas Power, Alessio Quaglino, Haroon Qureshi, Rajkumar Vasudeva Raju, Helen Ran, Dushyant Rao, Kanishka Rao, Isaac Reid, David Rendleman, Krista Reymann, Miguel Rivas, Francesco Romano, Yulia Rubanova, Pannag R Sanketi, Dhruv Shah, Mohit Sharma, Kathryn Shea, Mohit Shridhar, Charles Shu, Vikas Sindhwani, Sumeet Singh, Radu Soricut, Rachel Sterneck, Ian Storz, Razvan Surdulescu, Jie Tan, Jonathan Tompson, Saran Tunyasuvunakool, Jake Varley, Grace Vesom, Giulia Vezzani, Maria Bauza Villalonga, Oriol Vinyals, René Wagner, Ayzaan Wahid, Stefan Welker, Paul Wohlhart, Chengda Wu, Markus Wulfmeier, Fei Xia, Ted Xiao, Annie Xie, Jinyu Xie, Peng Xu, Sichun Xu, Ying Xu, Zhuo Xu, Jimmy Yan, Sherry Yang, Skye Yang, Yuxiang Yang, Hiu Hong Yu, Wenhao Yu, Li Yang Ku, Wentao Yuan, Yuan Yuan, Jingwei Zhang, Tingnan Zhang, Zhiyuan Zhang, Allan Zhou, Guangyao Zhou and Yuxiang Zhou.We’d also like to thank: Amy Nommeots-Nomm, Ashley Gibb, Bhavya Sukhija, Bryan Gale, Catarina Barros, Christy Koh, Clara Barbu, Demetra Brady, Hiroki Furuta, Jennie Lees, Kendra Byrne, Keran Rong, Kevin Murphy, Kieran Connell, Kuang-Huei Lee, M. Emre Karagozler, Martina Zambelli, Matthew Jackson, Michael Noseworthy, Miguel Lázaro-Gredilla, Mili Sanwalka, Mimi Jasarevic, Nimrod Gileadi, Rebeca Santamaria-Fernandez, Rui Yao, Siobhan Mcloughlin, Sophie Bridgers, Stefano Saliceti, Steven Bohez, Svetlana Grant, Tim Hertweck, Verena Rieser, Yandong Ji.For their leadership and support of this effort, we’d like to thank: Jean-Baptiste Alayrac, Zoubin Ghahramani, Koray Kavukcuoglu and Demis Hassabis. We’d like to recognize the many teams across Google and Google DeepMind that have contributed to this effort including Legal, Marketing, Communications, Responsibility and Safety Council, Responsible Development and Innovation, Policy, Strategy and Operations, and our Business and Corporate Development teams. We’d like to thank everyone on the Robotics team not explicitly mentioned above for their continued support and guidance. Finally, we’d like to thank the Apptronik team for their support.
Alkira advances NaaS for the agentic AI era
The practical difference spans a number of areas including the format of responses. Rather than returning raw JSON that requires parsing and interpretation, the MCP Server can deliver tabular summaries. An operator or AI agent can request a deployment overview and receive structured data showing region counts, segment configurations, connector types, operational status and active alerts. This preprocessing serves the primary use case: integration with agentic AI systems that need to query multiple backend systems simultaneously. Shah noted that an AI agent could be talking to multiple MCP servers in support of an overall service. For example, the AI agent could be talking to Jira, ServiceNow and a monitoring service to get information and take action. The MCP Server inherits Alkira’s role-based access controls and security frameworks. Users can only access data they’re authorized to see, maintaining the existing governance model. NIA copilot: Bringing conversational troubleshooting to networking The MCP server is an integration and automation platform intended primarily for agents, APIs, scripts, or other systems, providing structured, high-level access and orchestration capabilities. For end-users, Alkira’s NIA copilot extends the utility of AI into everyday network operations. With a chat-style interface, NIA guides users through configuration, troubleshooting and gathering documentation.
South Korea’s data center fire triggers global scrutiny of lithium-ion batteries and DR architecture
Kasthuri Jagadeesan, research director at Everest Group, said enterprises should audit centralization risks by mapping interdependencies across UPS, cooling, and shared power zones. “The NIRS case illustrates that redundancy alone cannot protect against weak compartmentalization,” she said, noting that outages can cost millions per hour. “Geographic redundancy is only effective if failover processes are tested and staff are trained to execute under pressure,” Jaura said. “CIOs must validate that DR plans are operational, not theoretical. This means regular, realistic testing, cross-functional engagement, and continuous improvement.” IDC research shows that centralized facilities offer economies of scale but concentrate risk, while distributed and modular approaches enhance resilience and reduce single points of failure, according to Jaura. “Diversify datacenter locations to mitigate regional risks,” he advised. “Invest in modular and mobile data center solutions for flexibility and rapid recovery.” Market implications Rai said the incident may instigate “heightened due diligence and a more cautious pace of adoption,” but lithium-ion technology’s advantages remain compelling. “What is likely to change is that enterprises will demand stronger safety certifications and vendor accountability, and accelerate investment in disaster recovery planning, geographical redundancy, and resilience frameworks.” Kalyani Devrukhkar, senior analyst at Everest Group, said both enterprises and regulators will be more demanding about safety standards. “Some organizations may look at alternatives like sodium-ion or advanced valve-regulated lead-acid, and insurers will almost certainly raise premiums where risk is seen as high,” she said, noting that NFPA 855 and newer International Fire Code editions now include stricter requirements for lithium-ion battery systems. “Enterprises are increasing budgets for business continuity management, IT disaster recovery planning, and alternative site management,” Jaura said. For CIOs, Jaura recommended a business impact analysis-driven framework that balances efficiency with safety and compliance. “The decision is not binary — mitigation such as advanced monitoring, fire suppression, and
TotalEnergies Taps Cognite for AI-Enhanced Data Analysis
TotalEnergies SE said it has expanded its strategic partnership with industrial AI firm Cognite, targeting to harness the potential of TotalEnergies’ data to enhance the industrial performance of its sites. The two companies have agreed to scale the deployment of the Cognite industrial data and AI platform over a period of three years across all of TotalEnergies’ operated upstream assets worldwide, covering the entire value chain from drilling to production, the French energy major said in a news release. The new initiative aims to make TotalEnergies’ complex data AI-ready and improve operations across its assets, the company said. TotalEnergies said it targets to improve the accuracy of data analysis faster and shorten the lead to adopting applications by providing easy and quick access to relevant, high quality industrial data, as well as “enable the dynamic visualization of assets to enhance decision-making throughout the production lifecycle and monitor critical equipment for production and operational safety”. “This partnership with Cognite marks a new milestone in our digital transformation,” Namita Shah, president of OneTech at TotalEnergies, said. “By creating the data foundation which unifies our industrial data globally and makes it AI-ready, we are creating the conditions to accelerate AI-driven solutions that will significantly enhance the safety, operational and environmental performance of TotalEnergies. This initiative reflects our ambition to make data and AI strategic levers for more reliable, sustainable, and efficient energy,” Shah added. “TotalEnergies isn’t just embracing digital transformation; they are accelerating their entire operation,” Cognite CEO Girish Rishi said. “Our long-term collaboration is built on a shared vision to scale the impact of Industrial AI. By establishing an AI-ready data foundation, we’re equipping their teams to rapidly unlock insights and improve operational excellence across their global assets,” Rishi said. Board Confirms Financial Strategy Last week, TotalEnergies’ board confirmed the company’s shareholder
The Download: our thawing permafrost, and a drone-filled future
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Scientists can see Earth’s permafrost thawing from space Something is rotten in the city of Nunapitchuk. In recent years, sewage has leached into the earth. The ground can feel squishy, sodden.This small town in northern Alaska is experiencing a sometimes overlooked consequence of climate change: thawing permafrost. And Nunapitchuk is far from the only Arctic town to find itself in such a predicament. Now scientists think they may be able to use satellite data to delve deep beneath the ground’s surface and get a better understanding of how the permafrost thaws, and which areas might be most severely affected. Read the full story.
—Sarah Scoles
The US may be heading toward a drone-filled future —James O’Donnell Last week, I published a story about the police-tech giant Flock Safety selling its drones to the private sector to track shoplifters. Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now leads Flock’s drone efforts, described the ideal scenario: A security team at a Home Depot, say, launches a drone from the roof that follows shoplifting suspects to their car. The drone tracks their car through the streets, transmitting its live video feed directly to the police.It’s a vision that, unsurprisingly, alarms civil liberties advocates. But the fate of drones in the US pretty much comes down to one rule. It’s a Federal Aviation Administration regulation that stipulates where and how drones can be flown—and it is about to change. Read the full story. This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Trump’s impact on the next generation of innovators Every year, MIT Technology Review recognizes dozens of young researchers on our Innovators Under 35 list. This year Amy Nordrum, our executive editor, and our senior investigative reporter Eileen Guo checked back in with recent honorees to see how they’re faring amid sweeping changes to science and technology policy within the US.Join us tomorrow at 1.30pm ET for an exclusive Roundtables conversation with Amy and Eileen to learn about the complex realities of what life has been like for those aiming to build their labs and companies in today’s political climate. Register here!
The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 California’s governor has signed America’s first AI law It’ll require AI developers to publicly disclose their safety and security protocols. (Politico)+ The landmark bill has received a mixed reception from the AI industry. (TechCrunch) 2 The Trump administration is pressuring TaiwanIt’s pushing officials to move 50% of chip production to the US—or else. (Ars Technica)+ The US argues it’s the best way to counter invasion threats from China. (Bloomberg $)+ Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review) 3 US ChatGPT users can now buy stuff without leaving the chatbotIt’s laying the groundwork for AI agent-based shopping. (WSJ $)+ Etsy is among the first retailers to sign up for the service. (CNBC)+ It’s a direct challenge to Google’s business model. (Fortune $)+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review) 4 YouTube has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump It’s handing over $24.5 million after his account was suspended in the wake of the US Capitol riot in 2021. (WSJ $)+ It’s the third giant tech platform to bend to the President’s will. (The Verge) 5 Meta is expanding use of its facial recognition toolsIn a bid to combat account impersonation in Europe, the UK, and South Korea. (Engadget) 6 The US Energy Department has banned the term “climate change”See also: “green” and “decarbonization.” (Politico)+ Even “emissions” isn’t safe. (TechCrunch)+ How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the States. (MIT Technology Review)
7 AI data centers are sending the cost of electricity skyrocketingAnd it’s regular citizens who are left paying the price. (Bloomberg $)+ Sam Altman wants a staggering amount of energy. (The Information $)+ The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review) 8 Elon Musk’s senior staff are leaving in their drovesThey’re burnt out and tired of their leader’s erratic strategies. (FT $)
9 Do black holes actually exist?The evidence says yes, but proving it is a different matter. (New Scientist $)10 California police tried to ticket a driverless car But who’s to blame for its illegal U-turn if there’s no driver? (The Guardian)+ It turns out officers don’t currently have any way to issue tickets to robots. (Insider $) Quote of the day “There are certainly people in [the] tech world who would like to see no regulation of anything in any respect whatsoever, but that’s not tenable.” —US Senator Scott Wiener, who proposed the original AI Safety Bill last year, explains why he believes the revised version that’s been passed into law is a reasonable approach to the New York Times.
One more thing How mobile money supercharged Kenya’s sports betting addictionMobile money has mostly been hugely beneficial for Kenyans. But it has also turbo-charged the country’s sports betting sector.Since the middle of the last decade, experts and public figures across the African continent have been sounding the alarm over the rising popularity of sports betting. The practice has produced tales of riches, but it has also broken families, consumed college tuitions, and even driven some to suicide.Nowhere, though, is the craze as acute as it is in Kenya, the country often dubbed Africa’s “Silicon Savannah” for its status as a regional tech powerhouse. But while Kenya’s mobile money revolution has played a well-documented role in encouraging savings and democratizing access to finance, today, it’s easier than ever for those in fragile economic circumstances to squander everything. Read the full story. —Jonathan W. Rosen
WoodMac Enters into Partnership with Novi Labs
Research and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said it has entered into a strategic data partnership with Novi Labs, aiming to enhance its Lens Lower 48 solution with Novi’s well-level production data and advanced lease-to-well algorithms. The collaboration provides Wood Mackenzie customers with access to Novi’s proprietary data across a region where over 4.4 million wells generate more than 20 percent of global liquids and gas supply, Wood Mackenzie said in a news release. “The partnership provides access to Novi’s licensed proprietary oil, gas, and water production data for more than 25,000 wells and advanced lease-to-well algorithms trained on the same well actuals in major supply driving states such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana,” the company said. According to the release, Novi’s upstream data, which “provides the most accurate well-level production information available,” will support advanced AI workflows and machine learning applications. “Novi’s proprietary data and lease-to-well algorithms establish a new standard for production data accuracy not previously achievable,” Novi CEO Scott Sherwood said. Built on thousands of actual well records from operators across every major unconventional basin, our AI-powered technology delivers unmatched production data accuracy for more confident, data-driven investment decisions. Through our partnership with Wood Mackenzie, this data is now accessible to stakeholders across the energy value chain, including energy producers and investors”. “The Lower 48 represents the world’s most dynamic upstream market, and accurate well detail data is absolutely critical for US analysis that feeds into integrated global modeling,” Joe Midgley, global head of upstream and carbon management at Wood Mackenzie, said. “Our partnership with Novi transforms our ability to serve customers with the most trusted well-level production data available, combined with our industry-leading cost intelligence and global market perspective”. “Timely and high-quality trusted data underpins how existing operators, new entrants and investors can deliver winning strategies,” Midgley
OPEC+ Will Likely Lift Quotas at Next Meeting
OPEC+ will likely lift its quotas by another 137,000 barrels per day for November when they meet on October 5, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) Chief Commodities Analyst Bjarne Schieldrop said in a report sent to Rigzone on Monday morning by the SEB team. “OPEC+ will decide on 5 October on what to do with production quotas for November,” Schieldrop highlighted in the report. “Market consensus seems to be that the group will lift its overall quota by 137,000 barrels per day yet again – we fully share that view,” he added. “When it lifted the quotas for October by 137,000 barrels per day at the start to September the Brent crude oil price was trading at $65.5 per barrel. Now it is close to $70 per barrel,” he continued. “It seems highly likely that they will lift the quota yet again. The group naturally loves a good price, but right now the group is in a process of recapturing market share,” Schieldrop went on to state. In the report, Schieldrop outlined that the price of Brent crude was down one percent to $69.4 per barrel on Monday morning “in part due to this”. In a separate report sent to Rigzone by the Standard Chartered team last week, Standard Chartered Bank analysts, including the company’s global head of commodities research, Suki Cooper, highlighted that “OPEC has accelerated its return of barrels, with one eye on adherence to compensation cuts and the other on the perception of tightening spare capacity”. Rigzone has contacted OPEC for comment on the SEB and Standard Chartered reports. At the time of writing, OPEC has not responded to Rigzone. A statement posted on OPEC’s website on September 7 revealed that Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman “decided to implement a production adjustment
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