The AI Data Center Boom Is Warping the US Economy

The AI Data Center Boom Is Warping the US Economy

The amount of capital pouring into AI data center projects is staggering. Last week, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon reported their 2025 capital expenditures would total roughly $370 billion, and they expect that number to keep rising in 2026. The biggest spender last quarter was Microsoft, which put nearly $35 billion into data centers and other investments, equivalent to 45 percent of its revenue.

Rarely, if ever, has a single technology absorbed this much money this quickly. Warnings of an AI bubble are getting louder every day, but whether or not a crash eventually happens, the frenzy is already reshaping the US economy. Harvard economist Jason Furman estimates that investment in data centers and software processing technology accounted for nearly all of US GDP growth in the first half of 2025.

Today, we’re looking at how data centers are impacting three crucial areas: public markets, jobs, and energy.

Cashing Out

The US stock market is booming, mostly thanks to AI. Since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, AI-related stocks have accounted for 75 percent of S&P 500 returns and 80 percent of earnings growth, according to JPMorgan’s Michael Cembalest. The question now is whether that growth will be sustainable as tech firms continue spending heavily on AI infrastructure.

At the start of this year, tech giants were financing their AI projects mostly with cash they had on hand. As financial journalist Derek Thompson pointed out, the ten largest US public companies kicked off 2025 with historically high free cash flow margins. In other words, their businesses were so profitable that they had billions of dollars sitting around to put towards Nvidia GPUs and data center buildouts.

That trend has largely continued through 2025. Alphabet, for example, told investors last week that its capital expenditures this year would be as much as $93 billion, an increase from its previous estimate of $75 billion. But it also reported that revenue was up 33 percent year over year. Put another way, Silicon Valley is both spending more and earning more. That means everything is fine, right?

Not exactly. For one thing, tech giants appear to be using accounting tricks to make their financials look rosier than they may really be in reality. A significant portion of AI investment flows to Nvidia, which releases new versions of its GPUs approximately every two years. But companies like Microsoft and Alphabet are currently estimating that their chips will last six years. If they need to upgrade sooner to stay competitive—a likely possibility—that could wind up eating into their profits and weaken their overall performance.

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#Data #Center #Boom #Warping #Economy

Snapchat is officially joining the race to clean AI slop out of social media.

The company announced July 31 that wholly AI-generated videos will no longer be eligible for recommendation in Spotlight, Snapchat’s discovery feed for trending videos from creators across the platform in order to “reward authentic creativity.”

The policy does not prevent users from posting AI-generated videos elsewhere on Snapchat. It also does not disqualify every video that involves AI. Creators can continue using Snapchat’s AI tools to edit or enhance their original footage, and those videos will remain eligible for Spotlight recommendations with transparency indicators.

The line Snapchat is drawing comes down to who, or what, created the underlying video. AI can help a person make something. It cannot make the entire thing and still expect Snapchat’s recommendation system to distribute it.

“As low-quality, repetitive, AI-generated content becomes increasingly common across the internet, we want Spotlight to remain a place where people can discover authentic creativity from real people,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Keeping entirely generated videos out of Spotlight matters on the platform because recommendation is what allow a creator’s work to reach people who do not already follow them. Removing that distribution makes Spotlight far less valuable as a growth channel for automated content farms that can produce synthetic videos at scale.

It also protects a part of Snapchat that has been attracting more creators. Snap said the number of unique people contributing to Spotlight globally has increased by more than 120 percent over the past year.

Exactly how Snapchat will identify wholly AI-generated videos is less clear. The company has not explained what level of human involvement would make a video eligible or how it will distinguish an AI-enhanced recording from a generated video that received a few human edits.

Snap acknowledged that challenge in its announcement, saying that “no detection system is perfect.”

Social platforms are reconsidering AI slop

Snapchat isn’t the first platform to decide that the flood of repetitive AI content is becoming a problem for its users.

LinkedIn began expanding tools in July that allow members to report posts and comments that “seem like AI slop.” The company is also introducing classifiers intended to reduce low-quality AI content in recommendations and replacing its “enhance your post” writing feature with a more limited proofreading tool.

LinkedIn Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan emphasized that the company does not consider all AI-assisted work to be slop. The concern is content that feels automated, generic, or disconnected from the person publishing it.

Substack has taken a transparency-focused approach. On July 21, the newsletter platform introduced an optional AI-detection feature built with Pangram. Readers can scan posts, notes, replies, and comments longer than 100 words to receive an estimate of how much of the text was written by a person or with AI assistance.

YouTube’s current policies similarly make repetitive or mass-produced “inauthentic content” ineligible for monetization. Its spam rules also prohibit creators from using automated or synthetic tools to flood the platform with large volumes of nearly identical videos.

TikTok has also put more of the decision in viewers’ hands. The platform began testing a setting in November that lets users increase or decrease the amount of AI-generated content that appears in their For You feeds.

Snapchat’s decision also arrives as Meta imagines a very different future for social media.

In its latest earnings remarks on July 29, Meta said its Muse image and video models would create a “nearly infinite universe of personalized content” across its platforms. That AI-generated material would become another source of recommendations alongside posts from friends and established creators.

Snapchat is making a different bet for Spotlight. As synthetic video becomes easier to produce and harder to distinguish from recorded footage, the platform is reserving its most valuable discovery space for content that begins with a person.

Drawing that line may be easier than enforcing it. Still, Snapchat has made its preference clear: AI can stay behind the scenes. Spotlight belongs to the humans.

#Snapchat #bans #fully #AIgenerated #videos #Spotlight #recommendations">Snapchat bans fully AI-generated videos from Spotlight recommendations
                                                            Snapchat is officially joining the race to clean AI slop out of social media.The company announced July 31 that wholly AI-generated videos will no longer be eligible for recommendation in Spotlight, Snapchat’s discovery feed for trending videos from creators across the platform in order to “reward authentic creativity.”The policy does not prevent users from posting AI-generated videos elsewhere on Snapchat. It also does not disqualify every video that involves AI. Creators can continue using Snapchat’s AI tools to edit or enhance their original footage, and those videos will remain eligible for Spotlight recommendations with transparency indicators.

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            New safety rules for under-16 Snapchat users
            
        
    
The line Snapchat is drawing comes down to who, or what, created the underlying video. AI can help a person make something. It cannot make the entire thing and still expect Snapchat’s recommendation system to distribute it.“As low-quality, repetitive, AI-generated content becomes increasingly common across the internet, we want Spotlight to remain a place where people can discover authentic creativity from real people,” the company wrote in a blog post.Keeping entirely generated videos out of Spotlight matters on the platform because recommendation is what allow a creator’s work to reach people who do not already follow them. Removing that distribution makes Spotlight far less valuable as a growth channel for automated content farms that can produce synthetic videos at scale.It also protects a part of Snapchat that has been attracting more creators. Snap said the number of unique people contributing to Spotlight globally has increased by more than 120 percent over the past year.Exactly how Snapchat will identify wholly AI-generated videos is less clear. The company has not explained what level of human involvement would make a video eligible or how it will distinguish an AI-enhanced recording from a generated video that received a few human edits.
        
            Mashable Trend Report
        
        
    
Snap acknowledged that challenge in its announcement, saying that “no detection system is perfect.”Social platforms are reconsidering AI slopSnapchat isn’t the first platform to decide that the flood of repetitive AI content is becoming a problem for its users.LinkedIn began expanding tools in July that allow members to report posts and comments that “seem like AI slop.” The company is also introducing classifiers intended to reduce low-quality AI content in recommendations and replacing its “enhance your post” writing feature with a more limited proofreading tool.LinkedIn Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan emphasized that the company does not consider all AI-assisted work to be slop. The concern is content that feels automated, generic, or disconnected from the person publishing it.Substack has taken a transparency-focused approach. On July 21, the newsletter platform introduced an optional AI-detection feature built with Pangram. Readers can scan posts, notes, replies, and comments longer than 100 words to receive an estimate of how much of the text was written by a person or with AI assistance.
YouTube’s current policies similarly make repetitive or mass-produced “inauthentic content” ineligible for monetization. Its spam rules also prohibit creators from using automated or synthetic tools to flood the platform with large volumes of nearly identical videos.TikTok has also put more of the decision in viewers’ hands. The platform began testing a setting in November that lets users increase or decrease the amount of AI-generated content that appears in their For You feeds.Snapchat’s decision also arrives as Meta imagines a very different future for social media.In its latest earnings remarks on July 29, Meta said its Muse image and video models would create a “nearly infinite universe of personalized content” across its platforms. That AI-generated material would become another source of recommendations alongside posts from friends and established creators.Snapchat is making a different bet for Spotlight. As synthetic video becomes easier to produce and harder to distinguish from recorded footage, the platform is reserving its most valuable discovery space for content that begins with a person.Drawing that line may be easier than enforcing it. Still, Snapchat has made its preference clear: AI can stay behind the scenes. Spotlight belongs to the humans.

                    
                                            
                            
    
        Topics
                    Artificial Intelligence
                    Snapchat
            

                        
                                    #Snapchat #bans #fully #AIgenerated #videos #Spotlight #recommendations

AI slop out of social media.

The company announced July 31 that wholly AI-generated videos will no longer be eligible for recommendation in Spotlight, Snapchat’s discovery feed for trending videos from creators across the platform in order to “reward authentic creativity.”

The policy does not prevent users from posting AI-generated videos elsewhere on Snapchat. It also does not disqualify every video that involves AI. Creators can continue using Snapchat’s AI tools to edit or enhance their original footage, and those videos will remain eligible for Spotlight recommendations with transparency indicators.

The line Snapchat is drawing comes down to who, or what, created the underlying video. AI can help a person make something. It cannot make the entire thing and still expect Snapchat’s recommendation system to distribute it.

“As low-quality, repetitive, AI-generated content becomes increasingly common across the internet, we want Spotlight to remain a place where people can discover authentic creativity from real people,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Keeping entirely generated videos out of Spotlight matters on the platform because recommendation is what allow a creator’s work to reach people who do not already follow them. Removing that distribution makes Spotlight far less valuable as a growth channel for automated content farms that can produce synthetic videos at scale.

It also protects a part of Snapchat that has been attracting more creators. Snap said the number of unique people contributing to Spotlight globally has increased by more than 120 percent over the past year.

Exactly how Snapchat will identify wholly AI-generated videos is less clear. The company has not explained what level of human involvement would make a video eligible or how it will distinguish an AI-enhanced recording from a generated video that received a few human edits.

Snap acknowledged that challenge in its announcement, saying that “no detection system is perfect.”

Social platforms are reconsidering AI slop

Snapchat isn’t the first platform to decide that the flood of repetitive AI content is becoming a problem for its users.

LinkedIn began expanding tools in July that allow members to report posts and comments that “seem like AI slop.” The company is also introducing classifiers intended to reduce low-quality AI content in recommendations and replacing its “enhance your post” writing feature with a more limited proofreading tool.

LinkedIn Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan emphasized that the company does not consider all AI-assisted work to be slop. The concern is content that feels automated, generic, or disconnected from the person publishing it.

Substack has taken a transparency-focused approach. On July 21, the newsletter platform introduced an optional AI-detection feature built with Pangram. Readers can scan posts, notes, replies, and comments longer than 100 words to receive an estimate of how much of the text was written by a person or with AI assistance.

YouTube’s current policies similarly make repetitive or mass-produced “inauthentic content” ineligible for monetization. Its spam rules also prohibit creators from using automated or synthetic tools to flood the platform with large volumes of nearly identical videos.

TikTok has also put more of the decision in viewers’ hands. The platform began testing a setting in November that lets users increase or decrease the amount of AI-generated content that appears in their For You feeds.

Snapchat’s decision also arrives as Meta imagines a very different future for social media.

In its latest earnings remarks on July 29, Meta said its Muse image and video models would create a “nearly infinite universe of personalized content” across its platforms. That AI-generated material would become another source of recommendations alongside posts from friends and established creators.

Snapchat is making a different bet for Spotlight. As synthetic video becomes easier to produce and harder to distinguish from recorded footage, the platform is reserving its most valuable discovery space for content that begins with a person.

Drawing that line may be easier than enforcing it. Still, Snapchat has made its preference clear: AI can stay behind the scenes. Spotlight belongs to the humans.

#Snapchat #bans #fully #AIgenerated #videos #Spotlight #recommendations">Snapchat bans fully AI-generated videos from Spotlight recommendations

Snapchat is officially joining the race to clean AI slop out of social media.

The company announced July 31 that wholly AI-generated videos will no longer be eligible for recommendation in Spotlight, Snapchat’s discovery feed for trending videos from creators across the platform in order to “reward authentic creativity.”

The policy does not prevent users from posting AI-generated videos elsewhere on Snapchat. It also does not disqualify every video that involves AI. Creators can continue using Snapchat’s AI tools to edit or enhance their original footage, and those videos will remain eligible for Spotlight recommendations with transparency indicators.

The line Snapchat is drawing comes down to who, or what, created the underlying video. AI can help a person make something. It cannot make the entire thing and still expect Snapchat’s recommendation system to distribute it.

“As low-quality, repetitive, AI-generated content becomes increasingly common across the internet, we want Spotlight to remain a place where people can discover authentic creativity from real people,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Keeping entirely generated videos out of Spotlight matters on the platform because recommendation is what allow a creator’s work to reach people who do not already follow them. Removing that distribution makes Spotlight far less valuable as a growth channel for automated content farms that can produce synthetic videos at scale.

It also protects a part of Snapchat that has been attracting more creators. Snap said the number of unique people contributing to Spotlight globally has increased by more than 120 percent over the past year.

Exactly how Snapchat will identify wholly AI-generated videos is less clear. The company has not explained what level of human involvement would make a video eligible or how it will distinguish an AI-enhanced recording from a generated video that received a few human edits.

Snap acknowledged that challenge in its announcement, saying that “no detection system is perfect.”

Social platforms are reconsidering AI slop

Snapchat isn’t the first platform to decide that the flood of repetitive AI content is becoming a problem for its users.

LinkedIn began expanding tools in July that allow members to report posts and comments that “seem like AI slop.” The company is also introducing classifiers intended to reduce low-quality AI content in recommendations and replacing its “enhance your post” writing feature with a more limited proofreading tool.

LinkedIn Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan emphasized that the company does not consider all AI-assisted work to be slop. The concern is content that feels automated, generic, or disconnected from the person publishing it.

Substack has taken a transparency-focused approach. On July 21, the newsletter platform introduced an optional AI-detection feature built with Pangram. Readers can scan posts, notes, replies, and comments longer than 100 words to receive an estimate of how much of the text was written by a person or with AI assistance.

YouTube’s current policies similarly make repetitive or mass-produced “inauthentic content” ineligible for monetization. Its spam rules also prohibit creators from using automated or synthetic tools to flood the platform with large volumes of nearly identical videos.

TikTok has also put more of the decision in viewers’ hands. The platform began testing a setting in November that lets users increase or decrease the amount of AI-generated content that appears in their For You feeds.

Snapchat’s decision also arrives as Meta imagines a very different future for social media.

In its latest earnings remarks on July 29, Meta said its Muse image and video models would create a “nearly infinite universe of personalized content” across its platforms. That AI-generated material would become another source of recommendations alongside posts from friends and established creators.

Snapchat is making a different bet for Spotlight. As synthetic video becomes easier to produce and harder to distinguish from recorded footage, the platform is reserving its most valuable discovery space for content that begins with a person.

Drawing that line may be easier than enforcing it. Still, Snapchat has made its preference clear: AI can stay behind the scenes. Spotlight belongs to the humans.

#Snapchat #bans #fully #AIgenerated #videos #Spotlight #recommendations

The sale includes the 10-inch Skylight Calendar for $119.99 ($50 off), the 15-inch Skylight Calendar 2 for $259.99 ($20 off), and the 27-inch Skylight Calendar Max for $479.99 ($90 off). The 10-inch model takes up the least amount of space, though the newer, larger 15-inch Calendar 2 features faster performance, a brighter display, and swappable magnetic frames. The 27-inch Calendar Max, meanwhile, offers the sharpest and largest screen and must be mounted to the wall (the other models can stand on a table or be mounted), making it the easiest option for large families to view from across the room.

Regardless of which model you choose, every Skylight Calendar includes the same set of organizational features. Each member of your household can have their own color-coded profile, and each can sync events from Google, Outlook, Apple, Cozi, or Yahoo calendars. You can also create shared lists for groceries, chores, and other to-dos that everyone can access from the calendar or the companion mobile app, and even send your grocery list to Instacart with a couple of taps. Built-in weather forecasts also can help you plan around upcoming events, and you can also share calendar access with family members and trusted contacts.

You get even more perks if you subscribe to the $79 per year Plus Plan (the first month of the service is free to try). Skylight uses AI to automatically turn emails, photos, flyers, and spreadsheets into calendar entries. It also adds meal planning, tools for assigning and rewarding completed chores, and a mode that displays your photos like a digital picture frame.

#Skylights #smart #calendars #backtoschool #saleDeals,Gadgets,Smart Home,Tech,Verge Shopping">Skylight’s smart calendars are up to  off during its back-to-school saleThe start of a new school year can feel hectic, as parents juggle their kids’ classes, extracurriculars and sports on top of work, appointments, and other responsibilities. It’s easy for things to slip through the cracks, but Skylight’s shared smart calendars can help keep everyone on track, and from August 2nd through August 9th they’re up to  off.The sale includes the 10-inch Skylight Calendar for 9.99 ( off), the 15-inch Skylight Calendar 2 for 9.99 ( off), and the 27-inch Skylight Calendar Max for 9.99 ( off). The 10-inch model takes up the least amount of space, though the newer, larger 15-inch Calendar 2 features faster performance, a brighter display, and swappable magnetic frames. The 27-inch Calendar Max, meanwhile, offers the sharpest and largest screen and must be mounted to the wall (the other models can stand on a table or be mounted), making it the easiest option for large families to view from across the room.Regardless of which model you choose, every Skylight Calendar includes the same set of organizational features. Each member of your household can have their own color-coded profile, and each can sync events from Google, Outlook, Apple, Cozi, or Yahoo calendars. You can also create shared lists for groceries, chores, and other to-dos that everyone can access from the calendar or the companion mobile app, and even send your grocery list to Instacart with a couple of taps. Built-in weather forecasts also can help you plan around upcoming events, and you can also share calendar access with family members and trusted contacts.You get even more perks if you subscribe to the  per year Plus Plan (the first month of the service is free to try). Skylight uses AI to automatically turn emails, photos, flyers, and spreadsheets into calendar entries. It also adds meal planning, tools for assigning and rewarding completed chores, and a mode that displays your photos like a digital picture frame.#Skylights #smart #calendars #backtoschool #saleDeals,Gadgets,Smart Home,Tech,Verge Shopping

$119.99 ($50 off), the 15-inch Skylight Calendar 2 for $259.99 ($20 off), and the 27-inch Skylight Calendar Max for $479.99 ($90 off). The 10-inch model takes up the least amount of space, though the newer, larger 15-inch Calendar 2 features faster performance, a brighter display, and swappable magnetic frames. The 27-inch Calendar Max, meanwhile, offers the sharpest and largest screen and must be mounted to the wall (the other models can stand on a table or be mounted), making it the easiest option for large families to view from across the room.

Regardless of which model you choose, every Skylight Calendar includes the same set of organizational features. Each member of your household can have their own color-coded profile, and each can sync events from Google, Outlook, Apple, Cozi, or Yahoo calendars. You can also create shared lists for groceries, chores, and other to-dos that everyone can access from the calendar or the companion mobile app, and even send your grocery list to Instacart with a couple of taps. Built-in weather forecasts also can help you plan around upcoming events, and you can also share calendar access with family members and trusted contacts.

You get even more perks if you subscribe to the $79 per year Plus Plan (the first month of the service is free to try). Skylight uses AI to automatically turn emails, photos, flyers, and spreadsheets into calendar entries. It also adds meal planning, tools for assigning and rewarding completed chores, and a mode that displays your photos like a digital picture frame.

#Skylights #smart #calendars #backtoschool #saleDeals,Gadgets,Smart Home,Tech,Verge Shopping">Skylight’s smart calendars are up to $90 off during its back-to-school sale

The start of a new school year can feel hectic, as parents juggle their kids’ classes, extracurriculars and sports on top of work, appointments, and other responsibilities. It’s easy for things to slip through the cracks, but Skylight’s shared smart calendars can help keep everyone on track, and from August 2nd through August 9th they’re up to $90 off.

The sale includes the 10-inch Skylight Calendar for $119.99 ($50 off), the 15-inch Skylight Calendar 2 for $259.99 ($20 off), and the 27-inch Skylight Calendar Max for $479.99 ($90 off). The 10-inch model takes up the least amount of space, though the newer, larger 15-inch Calendar 2 features faster performance, a brighter display, and swappable magnetic frames. The 27-inch Calendar Max, meanwhile, offers the sharpest and largest screen and must be mounted to the wall (the other models can stand on a table or be mounted), making it the easiest option for large families to view from across the room.

Regardless of which model you choose, every Skylight Calendar includes the same set of organizational features. Each member of your household can have their own color-coded profile, and each can sync events from Google, Outlook, Apple, Cozi, or Yahoo calendars. You can also create shared lists for groceries, chores, and other to-dos that everyone can access from the calendar or the companion mobile app, and even send your grocery list to Instacart with a couple of taps. Built-in weather forecasts also can help you plan around upcoming events, and you can also share calendar access with family members and trusted contacts.

You get even more perks if you subscribe to the $79 per year Plus Plan (the first month of the service is free to try). Skylight uses AI to automatically turn emails, photos, flyers, and spreadsheets into calendar entries. It also adds meal planning, tools for assigning and rewarding completed chores, and a mode that displays your photos like a digital picture frame.

#Skylights #smart #calendars #backtoschool #saleDeals,Gadgets,Smart Home,Tech,Verge Shopping

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