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ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Thursday that Texas will be the “flagship” data center site in the Stargate project it is building with SoftBank. Around 16 states have indicated interest in building data centers for Stargate, an OpenAI executive said on a conference call. Stargate plans to invest up to $500 billion to help the United States stay ahead of China and other competitors in the global AI race. In January, President Donald Trump announced the private sector investment initiative to fund AI infrastructure, aiming to outpace rival nations in this critical business technology. Stargate will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States, Trump said. These companies, along with other equity backers of Stargate, have committed $100 billion for immediate deployment, with the remaining investment expected to occur over the next four years. The initial data centers for the project are already under construction in Texas, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison had said then. Juby Babu, Akash Sriram, and Anna Tong, Reuters
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E-Commerce
A bipartisan duo in the the U.S. House is proposing legislation to ban the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from federal devices, similar to the policy already in place for the popular social media platform TikTok. Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill., on Thursday introduced the No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act,” which would ban federal employees from using the Chinese AI app on government-owned electronics. They cited the Chinese government’s ability to use the app for surveillance and misinformation as reasons to keep it away from federal networks. The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,” Gottheimer said in a statement. We simply cant risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security.” The proposal comes after the Chinese software company in December published an AI model that performed at a competitive level with models developed by American firms like OpenAI, Meta, Alphabet and others. DeepSeek purported to develop the model at a fraction of the cost of its American counterparts. A January research paper about DeepSeek’s capabilities raised alarm bells and prompted debates among policymakers and leading Silicon Valley financiers and technologists. The churn over AI is coming at a moment of heightened competition between the U.S. and China in a range of areas, including technological innovation. The U.S. has levied tariffs on Chinese goods, restricted Chinese tech firms like Huawei from being used in government systems and banned the export of state of the art microchips thought to be needed to develop the highest end AI models. Last year, Congress and then-President Joe Biden approved a divestment of the popular social media platform TikTok from its Chinese parent company or face a ban across the U.S.; that policy is now on hold. President Donald Trump, who originally proposed a ban of the app in his first term, signed an executive order last month extending a window for a long term solution before the legally required ban takes effect. In 2023, Biden banned TikTok from federal-issued devices. The technology race with the Chinese Communist Party is not one the United States can afford to lose, LaHood said in a statement. This commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation will ban the app from federal workers phones while closing backdoor operations the company seeks to exploit for access. It is critical that Congress safeguard Americans data and continue to ensure American leadership in AI. The bill would single out DeepSeek and any AI application developed by its parent company, the hedge fund High-Flyer, as subject to the ban. The legislation includes exceptions for national security and research purposes that would allow federal employers to study DeepSeek. Some lawmakers wish to go further. A bill proposed last week by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., would bar the import of export of any AI technology from China writ large, citing national security concerns. Several countries have moved to ban DeepSeeks AI chat bot, either entirely or on government devices, citing security concerns. Last month, Italys data protection authority blocked access to the application in a move it said would protect users data and announced an investigation into the companies behind the chatbot. Taiwan announced this week that it banned government departments from using Deepseeks AI. South Koreas industry ministry has also temporarily blocked employee access to the app. This week Australia announced that it banned DeepSeek from government systems and devices. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order banning both DeepSeek and RedNotea Chinese TikTok alternativefrom the states government-issued devices. Matt Brown, Associated Press Associated Press writer Sarah Parvini contributed reporting.
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E-Commerce
Some 10,000 grocery store workers across the greater Denver area went on strike Thursday, claiming unfair and illegal negotiating practices by King Soopers while their union has been negotiating a new contract with the store chain. Striking workers at 77 King Soopers stores in Denver and its suburbs, plus those in nearby Boulder and Louisville, Colorado, urged customers not to cross picket lines that began taking shape before dawn. Stand together. Stay strong, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7 President Kim Cordova wrote union members in a Monday letter announcing the strike. UFCW Local 7 members voted by 96% last week to authorize the unfair labor practices strike. King Soopers, a chain owned by Kroger, with 121 stores in Colorado and Wyoming, has been negotiating a new contract since October. The current contract expired in January. Stores with striking workers will remain open under a curtailed schedule that starts an hour later and closes two hours earlier than usual each day, King Soopers spokesperson Jessica Trowbridge said by email. Cordova accused the company of flying workers in from out of state to staff stores. Locations in northern and southern Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming where workers are not on strike will remain open during their usual hours, Trowbridge wrote. The union alleges King Soopers illegally interrogated and surveilled union members, refused to provide information needed for contract negotiations, threatened union members with discipline for clothes and buttons expressing union support, and insisted on using $8 million in retiree health benefit funds to cover pay increases. King Soopers denies all of the allegations, saying in a statement Friday it has acted in full compliance with the law and its collective bargaining obligations. Management has gone to great lengths to share all relevant data with the union, is committed to fair and lawful negotiations and disputes the union’s claim that it would gut the retiree health benefit funds. “We want to be clear the Unions call for a strike is not about wages, health care, or pensions. It is based on allegations we believe lack merit,” King Soopers President Joe Kelley said in the statement. The strike will force customers to pay higher prices at competing stores and stores with nonunion workers, Kelley added. The strike follows several recent threatened and implemented labor union actions in the U.S. Last week, the Teamsters union and Costco reached a tentative contract agreement to avert a strike. At Utah’s Park City ski resort, the biggest in the U.S., some 200 union ski patrollers ended an almost two-week strike Jan. 9 after reaching an agreement with resort owner Vail Resorts for higher pay including raises for senior ski patrollers. Labor unions have secured other meaningful employer concessions in recent months following strikes by Boeing factory workers, dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports, video game performers, and hotel and casino workers on the Las Vegas Strip. Mead Gruver, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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