A new report from Politico says that data centers are facing political turmoil, particularly because people believe that data centers are going to steal their jobs, destroy the water supply, steal information, and raise energy rates. Regardless of your stance on artificial intelligence, it is clear that a contingent of people has hijacked this hot-button issue with inflammatory rhetoric and absolute hatred for anyone who uses AI, calling them thieves and even sending death threats. This comes on the heels of ChatGPT being forced to launch “ChatGPTeen” to control teens’ access to the software. Look at this clip from the Pulse: The Heartbeat of America podcast from August 22, 2026.
Even as AI backlash grows, we see millions of Americans using it intentionally. This is ChatGPT we are talking about as of right now, not built into any device at the OS level like Google’s Gemini or Microsoft’s Copilot. Why is this happening, with so many people accepting and using AI while hating data centers or whining about RAM prices in phones?
Apple Price Hikes
Speaking of RAM prices, we see Apple is planning to launch the iPhone 18 series, and there may be a price hike of $100 across all models. Will we see a $100 improvement or more of the same? I sincerely doubt that from the iPhone 17 to the iPhone 18 the differences in camera tech and battery tech will improve so much, so just get an iPhone 17 (or an Android phone, as they are better anyway). The iPhone 18 Pro will allegedly have a smaller Dynamic Island and of course the new A20 chip, which should be better for efficiency. But you know what I’m going to say, which is that iOS and Android need to have better offline apps to harness this power – heck, even port software from PC/Mac to our pocket computers. This potential price hike comes as Apple TV+ has reported a price hike of $20, moving from $99 a year to $119 a year.
In another move that will definitely go over well with the always-online anti-AI crowd, Google has launched a feature in collaboration with authors called Expert Intelligence. This is available in NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook) and will allow you to chat with select books in the program purchased on Google Play Books. This could be extremely useful. Think of CliffsNotes and other applications that take books and summarize them for you; well, instead of paying for that, you could buy the books you want and get the intelligence inside Google. And because they are e-books, you won’t even see this week’s reels about how they are chopping up old books for AI, so you don’t have to go lead a protest.
God bless, and Tech Talk To You Later!!
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