AI Daily: Big Tech AI push seen spiking electricity bills

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

AI PUSH: Just a few years ago, tech companies were minor players in energy, but are now changing the face of the U.S. power industry and are morphing into some of the sector’s most dominant players, Ivan Penn and Karen Weise of The New York Times reports. With the rise of AI, tech companies are becoming even more involved in the sector, with Amazon (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy recently noting the “single biggest constraint” of AI is power. The AI boom, however, threatens to increase power bills for residents and small businesses across the country since data centers will require expensive upgrades to the electric grid. Other big tech companies in the sector include Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), and Google (GOOGL).

AI POLICIES: Two Republican U.S. senators are calling for a congressional investigation into Meta after Reuters reported on an internal policy document that permitted the company’s chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” Jody Godoy reports. Meta confirmed the document’s authenticity, but says it removed portions which stated it is permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children after receiving questions earlier this month from Reuters.

INTEL STAKE: The Trump administration is considering using funds from the Chips Act to take a stake in Intel (INTC), Joe Deaux, Ryan Gould, Mackenzie Hawkins and Josh Wingrove of Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the discussions. The government is in talks to use Chips Act funding to at least partially finance an equity stake in Intel, and it is unclear if this would involve converting Intel’s existing Chips Act grants into equity or allocating new funding, sources told Bloomberg.