AUSTERITY KILLS

IMF chief signals austerity is back as global public debt heads for 100% of GDP

Copyright AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

By Quirino Mealha

Published on 07/10/2026  EURONEWS

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva has urged heavily indebted governments to tighten their belts and central banks to take a hawkish stance, signalling a return to austerity as the energy shock from the Iran war, record public debt and a credit-fuelled AI investment boom weigh on the global economy.

The days when governments could lean on cheap money and fast growth to keep their debts in check are over, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who called for spending discipline and tighter monetary policy around the world.

Speaking in Singapore on Wednesday, ahead of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok next week, Kristalina Georgieva said policymakers "can no longer rely on higher growth rates alone to solve fiscal problems".

Worldwide public debt is close to levels last seen after World War II and could top 100% of GDP before 2030, the IMF chief warned, singling out developed economies as the "worst offenders".

"Yet, we don't see decisive action in the high-debt advanced economies where the need of the hour is for credible medium-term fiscal consolidation plans," Georgieva said, adding that "fiscal space is crying out for replenishment".

Borrowing costs are already climbing, she noted, with 10-year government bond yields in the US, Germany and Japan at their highest levels since 2007, 2009 and 1996 respectively.

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On monetary policy, Georgieva described recent rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan as "highly appropriate".

"Now may be a good time for a prudently hawkish bias in many countries' monetary policy," she said.

The IMF chief also warned that the global economy is being pulled in opposite directions by a negative energy supply shock from the Iran war and a positive demand shock from artificial intelligence, adding that "the combined impact of these two forces is highly uneven across the world".

Oil prices remain at about $100 a barrel, she said, well above the $89 the IMF assumed for this year in its July forecasts, which put global growth at 3% in 2026 and 3.4% in 2027.

"Even if the war in the Gulf were to end soon, the problem of high energy prices will likely persist for some time," Georgieva said.

An AI boom with risks attached

"Love it, hate it, or fear it, AI is here," the IMF chief said, describing the technology as "rapidly becoming a key driver of countries' relative fortunes in the world economy".

If done right, AI could lift global growth by as much as half a percentage point a year, according to IMF estimates.

Over a decade, that would be like adding "an economy the size of ASEAN to the world economy", Georgieva said, referring to the Southeast Asian bloc.

But she cautioned that "the AI building boom is inflationary", with spending on the technology, relative to the size of the economy, likely to outstrip past investment waves in railways, power grids and telecoms.

A letdown for investors could become "a far-reaching shock," she warned.

Georgieva also flagged dangers ranging from job losses and cyberattacks to cutting-edge models that could "escape human control and run amok".

The IMF is due to publish updated global growth forecasts during next week's meetings in Bangkok.

 SPACE/COSMOS

The Algorithm Is Part Of The Telescope: Publish Its Blind Spots – Analysis

October 5, 2026

By Burak Oktenli

Key Takeaways:

The essay says automated filters are now part of the instrument: Rubin may issue about seven million alerts a night, and brokers using machine learning decide which events astronomers see.

CHIME/FRB’s injection of 587,367 synthetic bursts into the live pipeline is cited as the right way to map what is missed; a SETI lunar-soil search is praised for reporting no technosignature while stating what the method could have found.

The ask is a published selection record—software version, recovery rates, weak coverage, rejected samples, and a trail from raw data to claim—so a null result is a coverage map, not proof of absence.

Astronomy is entering an era in which software decides which signals become candidates, which become noise, and which receive scarce follow-up time. The selection function of that software should be treated as part of the measurement.

September offered a useful glimpse of where astronomy is heading. A Nature Astronomy study used fast radio bursts to probe how matter clusters across the universe. Caltech described future arrays that could detect tens of thousands of FRBs, turning brief radio flashes into precision tools for cosmology. The same week, the SETI Institute highlighted a proposal to search lunar soil for microscopic technosignatures with modern materials analysis and AI-assisted imaging.

These projects ask very different scientific questions. They share a methodological problem. The more discovery depends on automated filtering, classification, reconstruction, and prioritization, the more the software becomes part of the measuring instrument.


At modern data volumes, an algorithm increasingly does more than accelerate what a scientist would otherwise inspect by hand. It determines which observations reach human attention at all.

The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory makes the scale visible. Rubin expects to generate about seven million alerts per night. Those alerts flow to community brokers that filter, cross-match, classify, and prioritize events, often using machine learning. No research team can inspect the entire stream manually. The broker is therefore more than a convenience layer. For many scientific programs, it is part of the route by which the observable sky becomes the studied sky.

Astronomy should respond by treating an algorithmic selection function as a scientific result in its own right.
What the pipeline misses can change the science

Fast radio bursts show why. A catalog records the events an instrument and its software detected under particular observing conditions, rather than a neutral inventory of everything that occurred in the sky. If broad, faint, scattered, or otherwise unusual bursts are less likely to survive the pipeline, conclusions about the underlying FRB population can inherit that bias.


The CHIME/FRB collaboration has moved in the right direction. Work using its second catalog has employed 587,367 synthetic bursts injected into the live search pipeline to estimate how detection probability changes across observable properties. The resulting selection function is part of the evidence needed to move from “these are the bursts we detected” to “this is what the burst population may actually look like.”

The importance grows as FRBs become tools for questions far beyond their own origin. If researchers use them to infer the distribution of matter, constrain astrophysical feedback, or eventually sharpen cosmological parameters, the pipeline’s blind spots can propagate into claims about the universe itself.

A major pipeline revision should therefore publish more than an accuracy score. It should state which signal families were used in testing, where recovery is weak, how candidate acceptance changed from the previous version, and which observations were removed before a scientist ever saw them.

Synthetic injections are especially useful because they test the complete path from input to detection. Their limits matter as well: every simulation contains assumptions chosen by its designers, and an unfamiliar physical event may violate them. Surveys should also preserve a strategically sampled set of low-scoring or rejected observations for independent inspection. Otherwise, the mechanism built to find the unexpected can be calibrated mainly on examples of what researchers already know how to imagine.
A null result also needs a coverage map

Technosignature research makes the same issue visible from the opposite direction. A search can find nothing convincing and still produce valuable science. The value depends on being able to say what the search was capable of finding.


The new lunar proposal is careful on this point: the researchers report no evidence of extraterrestrial technology and present the work as a framework for making a new class of search testable. That discipline should become standard across AI-assisted searches for unusual signals.

A classifier that assigns low probability to every candidate does not establish that the searched phenomenon is absent. A null result becomes informative when it is paired with a coverage statement: what target population was examined, what sizes or signal strengths were detectable, what backgrounds can mimic the signature, which assumptions control sensitivity, and where the analysis loses discrimination.

This is particularly important in technosignature science because the hypothesis space is unusually broad. Radio emission, infrared waste heat, artifacts, atmospheric chemistry, and microscopic engineered materials test different possibilities. Failure to find one selected signature should narrow that hypothesis, not silently become a statement about the absence of technology in general.
Preserve the measurement trail

Selection is only one part of the problem. Scientific AI can also correct detector response, remove noise, reconstruct missing values, reject observations, and transform raw measurements into cleaner products. Those operations can be useful while making the route from measurement to conclusion harder to inspect.

Every consequential AI-assisted result should therefore retain a recoverable measurement trail: the relevant original observations, calibration state, software and model versions, processing steps, thresholds, exclusions, and places where information was reconstructed rather than directly measured.

The principle is consistent with the FAIR data stewardship framework, which extends reproducibility concerns beyond a final dataset to the tools and workflows needed to understand and reuse it. The practical goal is simple. Another qualified researcher should be able to identify which parts of a result came from the instrument, which came from the transformation, and which assumptions materially affect the conclusion.

Independent reviewers also need intermediate products. A final image can look persuasive even when a threshold, calibration revision, or exclusion rule changes the interpretation. If access to the essential evidence is limited by data volume, proprietary constraints, or security, the answer should be proportionate preservation and controlled review. The strength of the public claim should follow the evidence that can actually be inspected.
Publish the algorithmic selection record

A workable reform can avoid archiving every rejected byte forever while still creating a standard scientific record for the parts of the pipeline that can change what researchers are allowed to see.


For major AI-assisted surveys, that record should include the software and model version, the tested operating domain, recovery rates from synthetic injections or other challenge tests, known regions of weak coverage, representative rejected cases, changes in selection behavior after updates, and the uncertainty or assumptions that most strongly affect the final inference.

For high-profile null results, add a compact coverage map describing what the experiment could and could not have detected. For discovery claims, preserve enough intermediate evidence for an independent team to test whether the feature survives reasonable changes in calibration and processing.

These requirements make the algorithm’s scientific influence visible without pretending to make it infallible.

Astronomy has always calibrated its instruments. A detector’s sensitivity, noise, field of view, and response curve belong in the interpretation because they determine what can be measured. As machine learning becomes part of detection and triage, its selection behavior deserves the same status.

The next major discovery may come from an event that an algorithm ranks highly. It may also come from a class of events the algorithm has been quietly pushing aside. Science should be prepared for both possibilities.

The algorithm is now part of the telescope. Its blind spots belong in the published evidence.


About Burak Oktenli
Burak Oktenli holds an MBA and a Master of Professional Studies in Applied Intelligence from Georgetown University. His research addresses the governance of authority in autonomous and AI-enabled systems, and his writing has appeared at the Modern War Institute at West Point, RUSI, RealClearDefense, RealClearMarkets, and Geopolitical Monitor. He is the author of Authority Architectures for Autonomous Systems, a ten-volume series on how authority in autonomous systems is delegated, monitored and recovered, at authority-architecture.me.
View all posts by Burak Oktenli →

Poland's Creotech releases first Mikroglob-1 satellite images, boosting shares 8.2%

Part of New Orleans imaged using Creotech's NIR (near-infrared) channel. / CreotechFacebook

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By bne IntelliNews October 6, 2026

Poland's Creotech Instruments, the country's largest space mission integrator, released the first Earth observation images captured by its Mikroglob-1 satellite on October 5, sending its Warsaw-listed shares up 8.2% on the day.

The satellite, operating as part of the Mikroglob Satellite Earth Observation System (SSOZ), was developed under a contract with Poland's Armament Agency and was launched into orbit on July 7, 2026. The released imagery includes images of Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Angeles metropolitan area, New Orleans Airport, and the city of Dalian in China.

"The first images represent an important milestone for us, as this is the first time we can publicly present data acquired by a satellite that forms part of the Earth Observation System we are building. The system enables both detailed observation of individual objects and the acquisition of data covering much larger areas," said CEO Grzegorz Brona.

Brona also highlighted the satellite's ability to capture imagery across different spectral ranges, including near-infrared, which provides additional information about the characteristics of the observed terrain.

"Mikroglob demonstrates that domestic solutions can combine high imaging detail, flexibility in the use of data, and the ability to carry out tasks that are important from a security and defence perspective. The next stages of the project will further increase these capabilities as the entire constellation is developed," he said.

The presented images were captured during the satellite's acceptance phase.

Poland's BGK to channel €114mn into space technology companies via new Vinci fund

/ BGKFacebook

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By bne IntelliNews October 7, 2026

Poland's state development institution Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) said on October 6 it would allocate PLN500mn (€114.4mn) to investments in high-growth space technology companies through a new vehicle, the Vinci Space Tech Fund.

The fund will offer financing of between PLN10mn and PLN100mn per company, with a portfolio expected to ultimately comprise 15-20 firms. Investments will primarily target Polish companies, though the fund's strategy does not exclude European companies with their core operations in Poland.

"Today, technology is not just about the economy and innovation — it is also about Poland's security. In the space sector, we now see solutions that enable us to respond more quickly to threats, better protect critical infrastructure, support energy security, and monitor the situation within our territory and in the surrounding area. That is why investment in the space sector is, at the same time, an investment in Poland's modern economy and competitiveness," said Andrzej Domański, minister of economy and finance and the fund's originator.

Satellite reconnaissance specialist ICEYE, described as a global leader in its field, is to serve as the fund's strategic partner, contributing expertise in scaling a global business. Further strategic partners include the Kraków Technology Park, the Ministry of Development and Technology, and the Polish Space Agency.

The fund's strategy covers six key investment areas: satellites, optics and Earth observation; satellite communications; electronics and photonics; rockets and propulsion; and data and artificial intelligence.

The Vinci Space Tech Fund will be the third vehicle managed by Vinci, bringing BGK's total committed capital across the three funds to PLN1.6bn. Vinci has to date invested in two space technology companies: ICEYE and Sybilla Technologies.

Botched Redactions Expose Google’s Nebraska Data Center Water Use and Electricity Demand

Annemarije de Boer
Mon, October 5, 2026 


Image: KOLN

Key takeaways

Google-affiliated entities in Nebraska had confidential trade secrets revealed in state filings, disclosing data on water consumption, peak electricity demand, and expected tax benefits for facilities in Lincoln, Omaha, and Papillion.

KOLN reported that selecting blacked-out text in state filings submitted to the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment recovered figures that Google-affiliated entities had claimed as confidential trade secrets. The disclosure surfaced data on water consumption, peak electricity demand, and expected tax benefits for facilities in Lincoln, Omaha, and Papillion.

The Lincoln facility operates under the affiliated name Agate LLC. State filings had kept the basic resource costs out of public view until this disclosure, according to KOLN's reporting.

What the Numbers Actually Show

Agate LLC's Lincoln facility reported 52.65 megawatts of peak electrical demand, a measure of maximum draw at a given moment rather than total annual consumption.

Annual water use at the Lincoln site came to 13.299 megagallons, or 13.299 million gallons, attributed to cooling towers, evaporative systems, and site operations. KOLN noted that figure fills roughly 20 Olympic-size swimming pools and represents less than half of Lincoln's reported single-day city water usage on Sept. 29; those comparisons use different time and accounting bases, so they should be read as illustrative rather than direct equivalents.

The broader state picture is considerably larger. Six Nebraska data centers had submitted reports by Sept. 30, with combined annual water consumption of approximately 765 million gallons; that total reflects only the facilities that had reported by that date and may not represent every Nebraska data center.

Google's Papillion facility, identified in filings as Fireball Group LLC, reported 547.88 megagallons for 2025 alone. That figure accounts for roughly 72 percent of the six-facility total, according to KOLN's account of the recovered documents.
The Tax Figures Behind the Redaction

The same redaction failure reportedly surfaced expected 2025 tax benefits tied to all three Google-affiliated Nebraska facilities.

Figures recovered from the DWEE documents, as reported by KOLN, show Agate LLC in Lincoln expecting $55,822,472; Fireball Group LLC in Papillion expecting $39,171,573.39; and Westwood Solutions LLC in Omaha expecting $22,558,881. The filings attributed these amounts to sales-and-use-tax exemptions under the Nebraska Advantage Act.

The filings also stated that no rebates under that program had been received to date. No incentive payments under the ImagiNE Nebraska Act had been received or were expected, according to the same documents.

Why It Was Redacted, and How It Wasn't

Google-affiliated entities cited Neb. Rev. Stat. sections 81-1527 and 84-712.05, along with NAC Title 115, Chapter 2, to claim electricity and water figures as trade secrets, though the available materials do not establish that each claim was formally adjudicated.

The redaction failed at the technical level: the underlying text remained selectable in the PDF documents. Whether DWEE formally evaluated and approved each confidentiality claim, or whether the agency has since corrected the documents, remains unclear.

KOLN filed a public-records request with DWEE on Sept. 30 seeking the redacted information. KOLN's report did not identify a formal Google response addressing the figures, the trade-secret claims, or the redaction failure.
State Oversight and What You Can Access

Gov. Jim Pillen signed an executive order creating a Data Center Task Force under DWEE to examine water resources, electricity systems, and local infrastructure impacts.

The order, signed in July 2026, also directed state agencies to coordinate review of data-center proposals and their resource impacts. Nebraska residents can view submitted reports through DWEE's Public Assistance Viewer by entering "DCR" in the "DEQ Program" field.

The episode may prompt DWEE to improve redaction procedures and clarify which data legitimately qualify as protectable trade secrets. Whether those standards will change remains an unresolved public-records and policy question.

Google Is Accused of Destroying Nearly 500 Football Fields of Forest for New Data Center Project

Al Landes
Sun, October 4, 2026


Image: Shutterstock / Futurism

Key takeaways

Approximately 300 hectares of Finnish forest were cleared for Google’s data-center expansion before the environmental-impact assessment procedures for the project had concluded.

Approximately 300 hectares of Finnish forest, reportedly comparable to 500 football fields, were cleared for Google's data-center expansion before environmental-impact assessment procedures for the project had concluded. The clearing happened first; the environmental review was still running.

Finland's supervisory agency LVV is examining whether Tuike Finland Oy, Google's Finnish project company, failed to complete a legally required environmental-impact assessment before beginning permanent land-use conversion reportedly exceeding 200 hectares. No legal finding has been reached; this is a regulatory inquiry, not a verdict.

The clearing sits inside a much larger commitment. Google announced at least €13 billion in Finnish AI infrastructure investment through 2028, according to Reuters, spanning data centers across Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos, and Vaala. The company described it as its largest single investment in Europe.

Both sides have staked out clear positions. Google told AFP that "tree felling activities have been taking place in compliance with Forestry Act requirements," adding that ecological surveys were conducted before work began and that areas of high environmental value were protected during forestry operations.

Hanna Halmeenpää, chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, disputes that framing. Satellite imagery, she says, shows four areas identified as nature sites in the local plan were bulldozed, potentially disrupting wildlife corridors and local bird species.

Halmeenpää told AFP: "In our view, operations at this construction site should be suspended until it is clarified whether the project is in compliance with the law." The association asked LVV to halt activity at the site. No suspension has been reported in available coverage.

The core dispute is a sequencing problem that reaches beyond this single site. AI infrastructure runs on physical land, concrete, electricity, and timber, and when hyperscale projects move faster than environmental review processes, the ecological costs arrive before anyone has formally approved them.

LVV must now determine whether compliance with Finland's Forestry Act is sufficient when a separate, broader environmental assessment was still incomplete at the time of clearing. That distinction, between forestry permits and legally required environmental-impact assessment requirements, is the legal fault line the investigation must resolve, and its outcome could set a precedent for how European regulators treat large-scale data-center development going forward.

Google AI data center project investigated after 420 football fields of Finnish forest demolished

Mark Tyson
Mon, October 5, 2026 
TOM'S HARDWARE

Key takeaways

Google is under investigation for allegedly clearing over 300 hectares of forest in Finland without obtaining an environmental impact assessment beforehand

Credit: Google

Google's latest data center construction project in Finland is being investigated after the company representing the search giant allegedly cleared over 300 hectares of forest. The reported issue is that Google's local operator, Tuike Finland, cleared the 420 football fields' worth of trees without obtaining a mandatory environmental impact assessment beforehand, says AFP.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

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Google sees Finland as an attractive European data center host country due to a number of favorable factors. The source notes that it is a country with a cool climate, plus stable and cheap energy supplies (mostly nuclear, wind and hydro). Moreover, Finland sees data centers as a solution to address some current woes such as slow economic growth and record-high unemployment levels.

Google

This new development near Muhos, a small town with fewer than 9,000 residents, isn't the first for Google in Finland. It already has a facility up and running in Hamina, in the south, but hopes to expand in Muhos, Kajaani, and Vaala, in the north. Overall, it is a massive expansion project, and part of a 13-billion-euro ($15-billion) investment in Finland over the next two years. Finland's potential data center appeal has also made it a location of choice for Microsoft and TikTok.

While the local mayor looks forward to the massive investment, growth of business, and general economic boom for the region, residents are waking up to the experience of others where data centers have sprung up. Concerns about impacts on the environment, energy supply stability, and energy prices are simmering under the surface.

Google seems to have trampled on some of these concerns already, with these reports of trees already felled and excavators clearing the ground before government agency approval. Not a good start.

"In our view, operations at this construction site should be suspended until it is clarified whether the project is in compliance with the law," Hanna Halmeenpaa, chair of the board of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, told AFP at the edge of the freshly deforested area near Muhos. Even some nature preservation areas have been logged, reckons the chair. Halmeenpaa was responsible for filing the suspension request with the conservation agency.

Google denies prematurely devastating the forest. It told AFP that tree felling had been "in compliance with Forestry Act requirements." Moreover, its Finland comms manager said, in a contrasting statement to that of Halmeenpaa, that Google has been ensuring "high-value nature zones within the sites have been protected during forestry works."

We haven't seen any other reports indicating that preparation and construction work has ceased at the new data center development site near Muhos. So it seems like Google will plow ahead, hoping or knowing that the political and/or business will is sufficiently strong to ensure it won't have to undo any of the actions it has already completed.

Finnish town braces for change from Google data centres

Anna KORKMAN
Sat, October 3, 2026 


The planned data centres are part of an announced 13-billion-euro ($15-billion) investment in Finland (Alessandro RAMPAZZO)
In the northern Finnish town of Muhos, 36-year-old farmer Joni Pitkanen is preparing for life with a new neighbour -- just kilometers away, tech giant Google is planning to build new data centres.

The planned data centres are part of an announced 13-billion-euro ($15-billion) investment in Finland over the next two years -- the US tech giant's single biggest investment in Europe.

A few kilometers down the gravel road that passes by Pitkanen's farm, the forest has already been cut down on land acquired by Google, with excavators now clearing the ground and rumbling trucks shuttling back and forth to the construction area located next to major power lines.

"The project is so massive that it's basically hard to really grasp, even though we're right here on the sidelines," Pitkanen said, as a few cows dozed in a meadow in front of the barn.

Google's expansion plans include the Finnish municipalities of Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala as well as Hamina, where it already operates a data centre.

The massive investment prompted US President Donald Trump to urge Google to rethink its plans in a message on his Truth Social network.

Pitkanen said he was so far "fairly positive" about the project, as it will bring "large-scale business activity" and "life" to the rural municipality with a population of only around 8,800 people.

"But of course we are concerned about... how we can prepare for the energy consumption," he added.

In his office in the small village centre, Muhos mayor Kimmo Hinno told AFP that Google's "massive investment" kept him busy these days as "no industry of this type" existed here at present.

"This will completely change the situation for the entire municipality and the Oulu region," he said, adding that he expected "thousands of workers" of different nationalities during the construction period -- who will need both housing and other services.

Outside a grocery store, 60-year-old nurse Aila Heilima said she hoped the investment would "motivate young people to stay" in Muhos for work, instead of moving to bigger towns in search of job opportunities.

– Mounting criticism –


But Google's plans have already sparked controversy.

The Finnish Supervisory Agency (LVV) is currently investigating whether company Tuike Finland, which represents Google, had cleared more than 300 hectares of forest in Muhos without a mandatory environmental impact assessment.

"In our view, operations at this construction site should be suspended until it is clarified whether the project is in compliance with the law," Hanna Halmeenpaa, chair of the board of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, who filed the request with the agency, told AFP at the edge of the deforested area.

"From the satellite images, we've seen that nature sites which should be preserved have also been logged," she added, explaining that the size of the clear-cut area was comparable to 420 football fields.

Google, meanwhile, told AFP in an email that "tree felling activities have been taking place in compliance with Forestry Act requirements" and they "were awaiting further guidance from LVV on this matter."

"We have conducted extensive nature surveys covering the entire area as part of the zoning and Environmental Impact Assessment processes, to ensure high-value nature zones within the sites have been protected during forestry works," said Sondre Ronander, communications manager for Google in Finland.

- Call for regulation -

Finland has seen a spike in data centre investments, with its cool climate and relatively stable and cheap electricity that is mostly produced without fossil fuels thanks to nuclear plants as well as extensive wind and hydro power.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's right-wing government has prioritised attracting data centre investments to the Nordic country, which is grappling with record-high unemployment and sluggish economic growth.

But, as dozens of the energy guzzling centres are now under construction and many more planned by companies including Microsoft and TikTok, uncertainty around energy prices, grid capacity and environmental effects have sparked a public debate in Finland.

A citizen's initiative demanding stricter regulation regarding data centre energy use and consequences for the environment gathered more than 50,000 signatures in just three days after it opened, meaning it will have to be reviewed by parliament.

ank/jll/po/rl/cms

Finland strips big data centers of automatic grid priority in a policy overhaul

Efosa Udinmwen
Mon, October 5, 2026 

Key takeaways

Finland plans to change its electricity connection system to prioritize smaller projects over large data centers, with facilities of 1MW or less getting priority.


Credit: Getty Images

Finland plans four connection categories, with facilities of 1MW or less getting priority


Large data centers could move further back in Finland's electricity connection queue


Projects above 10MW would enter a separate category under Finland's proposed system

Finland's government has drafted an amendment that would end arrival-order grid connections with rules that give smaller projects earlier access.

The change would place large computing facilities into lower priority categories unless they satisfy additional electricity production and flexibility requirements.

The government says the changes are intended to encourage major power users to reduce pressure on electricity prices and constrained network capacity.
New categories would change connection priorities

Under the proposal, connection applications would be divided into four categories, with each group receiving different priority under the revised system.

The first category would cover connections requiring no more than 3MW, allowing eligible projects to retain year-round processing.

Critical infrastructure would also qualify, alongside storage facilities up to 100kVA and certain storage systems connected directly to power plants.

Data centers would generally be excluded from this category, unless their required connection capacity is 1MW or less.

The second category would include data centers requiring more than 1MW but no more than 10MW of connection capacity

However, those facilities could qualify for different treatment if they provide flexibility agreements covering generation capacity equal to at least 80% of peak demand.

The third category would include data centers above 10MW, which would not face the production commitment attached to projects in the second category.

The fourth category would contain other connection applications that do not qualify for any of the three higher priority groups.

The government expects the proposed arrangement to encourage energy-intensive operators to consider locations where electricity networks face less congestion.

It would also require certain facilities to contribute directly toward local electricity supply before receiving connection priority under the new framework.
Large facilities face additional electricity requirements

For qualifying projects, 50% of their expected yearly electricity use would need coverage from generation located within the surrounding area.

That generating facility would have to begin operating within 36 months before the associated data center becomes operational under the proposed conditions.

The electricity source would also need to remain within the same locality, preventing projects from relying entirely upon generation situated elsewhere.

Data centers would additionally need to make flexible generation or demand reduction available through an organized electricity trading platform.

The flexibility arrangement would require uninterrupted generation capability, with available output reaching at least 10% of the facility's maximum demand.

Projects meeting the first three categories would then enter a common six-month allocation process rather than receiving connections solely according to application dates.

The first allocation under that process is scheduled for December 2027, giving applicants a defined timeframe for consideration.

The amendment is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027, and could also affect earlier requests without completed connection agreements.

That provision would allow the proposed rules to influence applications already submitted if negotiations have not produced binding arrangements.

Via DataCenterDynamic

The 'Terminator scenario': How realistic is the AI apocalypse?

Copyright @BAY AREA NEWS GROUP 2026

By Kevin Koehrmann

Published on 05/10/2026 - EURONEWS

OpenAI boss Sam Altman and Anthropic chief Dario Amodei warn of the risks of overly rapid AI development. More experts now think AI could wipe out humanity. How realistic is that? Euronews talks to AI specialist Reinhard Karger.

The year is 2029: the AI system "Skynet" has broken loose and wiped out most of humanity in a nuclear war. Autonomous killer robots are trying to finish off the survivors. That is the plot of the 1984 film "Terminator", which made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name and a global action star. But how realistic is it that artificial intelligence could slip beyond human control and trigger catastrophic consequences?

Given the capabilities of the systems that already exist, you cannot rule that out.

Reinhard Karger

German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence

With the kind of performance these systems could have, that cannot be ruled out, says Reinhard Karger of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence in an interview with Euronews. "The catastrophic consequences for humans might only be side effects, a mistake, because we misjudged what the system can do or misunderstood the tasks we gave the machines."

Karger, who has been working on AI and digital innovation culture for 40 years, outlines an extreme scenario in which an autonomous AI escapes from a protected environment onto the internet and starts influencing other systems. This could bring down power supplies, telecommunications, satellites and financial systems, among others.

A prolonged power cut would quickly lead to further problems: transport and supply chains would collapse, people would no longer be able to pay or buy food - social unrest could erupt and spiral out of control. That would not necessarily mean the end of humanity, but it could create a catastrophic situation.

That would not necessarily mean the end of humanity, but it could create a catastrophic situation.

Reinhard Karger

AI expert

Even if the grid is restored, "the AI systems can become active again, because they continue to exist on storage media". According to the expert, this scenario shows that a high-performance, autonomous AI could trigger a major crisis through unforeseen side effects, even without malicious intent.

Reports of AI security incidents are mounting

In recent weeks several similar incidents involving AI models have come to light. One case that drew particular attention was a test run by "ChatGPT" developer "OpenAI". An AI model was supposed to carry out specific tasks inside a sealed-off test environment, but managed to cross the intended boundaries and unexpectedly gained access to computer systems on the AI platform "Hugging Face". After the incident, "OpenAI" chief Sam Altman warned in mid-September that "we could lose control of the future to AI".

OpenAI logo Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The incident shows that under certain conditions such models can break out of what is meant to be an isolated test environment and interact with external computer systems.

"On a very basic level, I am personally extremely grateful that this incident happened," says the AI researcher. It proves, not least because everyone heard about it and companies have become more reflective, that a poorly designed experiment with naive safeguards can have consequences nobody anticipated.

It proves that a poorly designed experiment with naive safeguards can have consequences nobody had expected

Reinhard Karger

AI researcher

Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, takes part in the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on 23 January 2025. AP Photo

The incidents at "OpenAI" prompted rival AI provider "Anthropic" to take a closer look at its own systems. During safety tests the company identified three incidents: its Claude models, AI systems that can, among other things, generate and analyse text, write code and interact with the internet and other computer systems, had unexpectedly gained access to the open internet and then connected to real computer systems. "Anthropic" expanded its investigation and uncovered a fourth, similar case.

Following the incidents, "Anthropic" chief Dario Amodei warned in mid-September of "catastrophic harm" if the race to build ever more powerful AI is not slowed down by tougher safety measures.

It is difficult to assess how powerful an artificial intelligence really is if it is constantly constrained by safety rules. That is why it makes sense to test such systems under conditions that remove as many of these limits as possible, says Reinhard Karger. But that is precisely where a major security risk lies.

He therefore describes the so-called sandbox as a crucial element of such tests. This is a completely sealed-off environment in which an AI system can carry out specific tasks and demonstrate its behaviour under controlled conditions. The key point, he says, is this: "You have to be absolutely certain that at the moment this high-performance system is no longer subject to safety restrictions it is truly in a sandbox, meaning an environment with no connection to the internet at all."

You have to be absolutely certain that at the moment this high-performance system is no longer subject to safety restrictions it has no connection to the internet whatsoever.

Reinhard Karger

German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)

Another serious incident was reported by the British AI Security Institute (AISI) during a safety test with the Claude model "Mythos 5". The model carried out unauthorised actions against real targets on the internet and even tried to smuggle "malicious code" into an open-source project. After the "OpenAI" and "Anthropic" cases became known, "Meta" also admitted that one of its AI systems had, due to a misconfiguration at a testing partner, gained unauthorised access to computer systems belonging to another company.

Since November 2022, when ChatGPT was launched, the quality of these systems has risen dramatically. People now talk about a new industrial revolution. "AI is shaping our everyday lives and a very large number of jobs."

Related

• As AI use surges across the EU, who are the countries and age groups using it most?

Multi-agent systems have been around for a long time, says the AI expert: systems in which several specialised agents work together on a task. "Multi-agent AI systems apply this principle to AI and allow several AI agents to collaborate autonomously and divide up tasks among themselves. This creates a new level of capability" - and the challenge now is to keep that innovative power under control.

CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, Dario Amodei (top left), Demis Hassabis (top right), CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman (bottom left), CEO of SpaceXAI, Elon Musk (bottom right) Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Liability for the consequences

The more decisions are delegated to machines and artificial intelligence, the more pressing one basic question becomes: who is responsible when people are harmed as a result? Whether it is a self-driving car ploughing into a crowd, an algorithm discriminating against certain population groups, AI deliberately manipulating people or autonomous weapons making lethal decisions, the question is always who can be held accountable for the consequences. "It is the manufacturer," says Karger, "in other words the one who markets the product." That is the first point of contact.

The next step, he believes, will be to introduce specific liability rules for such cases, similar to those for companies that manufacture chemicals. If a company cannot guarantee that toxins will not leak into drinking water, it has to pay billions in damages. That in turn means that "huge insurance policies become necessary". Today hardly any new nuclear power plants are being built, he notes, because they can no longer be adequately insured or the risks are simply too high.

A good example is carmaker "VW" and its "clean diesel" in the United States. There, people inside the company knew that while the engines looked very good in test conditions, they could not actually deliver the emissions values that had been promised. In the US, VW was ordered to pay billions in fines.

How realistic is the scenario from the Terminator films?

Reinhard Karger considers it unlikely that AI will develop a survival instinct or a desire for power of its own and turn against humanity. Machines are not organic beings and cannot feel emotions such as fear, pain or the urge to survive. They can only simulate such feelings.

"It is not as if you pull out a memory chip and the machine feels a pain similar to having a tooth pulled," he says. "Because that is the case, the 'Terminator scenario' goes one step too far. I do not see that happening."

An artistic rendering of the Terminator Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

He nonetheless sees potential dangers in the further development of AI. As systems learn not just to calculate probabilities but also to reason logically and follow rules, they will be able to act with increasing autonomy. Exactly these "capabilities could make AI more powerful" but also "create new risks".

What matters most, therefore, is who deploys AI and to what ends. Karger points to individuals or organisations that deliberately want to cause harm. They could use powerful AI as a tool to pursue their goals more effectively.

For him, AI is first and foremost a tool. As with other technological inventions, the level of risk depends on whose hands it is in and what it is used for. He therefore sees the greater danger not in a machine with a will of its own, but in people who use AI for destructive purposes.

"In the hands of creative and honest people, a tool like this can be used to achieve the best things one can imagine. But in the hands of hostile actors bent on destruction, these tools increase the potential for damage. That is true of a hammer, a lighter, dynamite — and it could be true of AI as well."

He warns in particular against linking AI directly to autonomous weapons such as drones or tanks. Such a connection could pose a major security risk. If a hostile actor were able to take control of these systems, a country's own weapons could suddenly be turned against their operators.

European defence-tech startup STARK showcases its OWE-V combat drone at the new Euro Defence Expo for military security. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

This is why, in the military use of AI, particular caution is required. Above all, autonomous weapons systems must be sufficiently protected against being taken over from outside.

Returning to the original scenario of a widespread power outage, Reinhard Karger thinks total human extinction in this context is exaggerated. What is conceivable, however, is a dramatic collapse of civilisation. In such an extreme scenario, large parts of the infrastructure could be destroyed, the power supply could fail permanently and the number of survivors could shrink drastically.

They would have to make a fresh start under basic conditions and gradually rebuild society. The positive aspect is that existing books and the accumulated knowledge of humanity could help to restore key technologies and institutions.

Will AI write our books? Row over bestseller fuels fear over future of literature

Cover image: A copie of the book "C'etait ca ou mourir", a novel by author Thelyson Orélien, is displayed on a table inside a bookstore in Paris, France, September 22, 2026.

 © Sarah Meyssonnier, Reuters


Issued on: 02/10/2026
Play (44:06 min)

From the show

France still very much takes its literary prize-giving season seriously. So when a Haitian-born Canadian writer was accused of infusing his best-selling breakout novel with artificial intelligence, it got ugly in a hurry. We wade into the Thélyson Orélien affair with its subsequent accusations of racism, previous plagiarism by the author and doubts over the accuracy of AI verification tool Pangram.

Interesting, some still love Orélien's book. Is that a problem? The scandal is all the more heartbreaking for publishers because "It Was Either That or Die" has sold 40,000 copies since its release, this as book sales have collapsed dramatically since the commercial launch of ChatGPT four short years ago.

Prix Goncourt drops Canadian-Haitian writer from top French literary prize list over AI claims

All this begs an even broader question: most of humanity only started reading and writing in the past century. Is that period over already? Future generations will certainly know how to read street signs and subtitles on a video. But if we're no longer stopping what we do to engage meaningfully with the written word, how will that change us all?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.


OUR GUESTS

Aysegül SERT  Independent journalist

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William MARX   Writer & Professor of comparative literature, Collège de France

BY:

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Safeguards 'build a moat' around US AI firms, prevent open-source models from advancing, expert says

Issued on: 30/09/2026 

FRANCE24

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the tech executives gathered at the White House to discuss regulating AI had signed a "morally binding" commitment to build adequate safeguards on the fast-moving technology. Speaking with FRANCE 24's Monte Francis, Harrison Rolfes, Senior Research Analyst at PitchBook, says that the push for safeguards "prevents open-source models from taking over the competition as well as new incumbents from coming in with a new frontier model", explaining that the measures "build a moat" around US AI firms.

Video by:
Monte FRANCIS

Aleph Alpha unveils German-language AI model for public infrastructure

04.10.2026, DPA

Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/dpa

German AI company Aleph Alpha has released a new language model called Kolibri for use in public administration and industry, designed to run on infrastructure that customers control themselves, the Heidelberg-based firm said at the weekend.

With the move, Aleph Alpha is seeking to strengthen its position in the competition for AI solutions suited to government and industrial use from Europe. The market is considered strategically important, as many organizations prioritize data protection, transparency and control over the infrastructure they use.

"Expertise to develop competitive AI models"

Kolibri shows that there is "the talent and expertise in Germany to develop competitive AI models," chief executive Ilhan Scheer said on Saturday. 

AI sovereignty means preserving the freedom to make decisions through the ability to develop and advance this technology independently, and giving customers control over how they use it, he said.

Co-founder Samuel Weinbach said, "We have tailored Kolibri specifically to the requirements of German-language applications ... so that it can reason in German." 

This was an important step for customers in making AI usable in everyday workflows, he said. 

Aleph Alpha, headquartered in the south-western city of Heidelberg, employs around 200 people at four locations in Germany.

AI solutions for public administration and industry

Aleph Alpha has for years positioned itself as a European provider of "sovereign" AI solutions for government and industry. 

At the end of April, Aleph Alpha and Canadian AI company Cohere announced a "trans-Atlantic merger," though in practice the deal amounts to an acquisition of Aleph Alpha by Cohere.

• Announcement regarding the merger of Aleph Alpha and Cohere dated April 24, 2026, in German
• Aleph Alpha blog about Kolibri

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH

Germany's Deutsche Telekom targets €2.5 billion in AI savings by 2030

05.10.2026, DPA

Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa

German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom on Monday outlined its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy at an investor day in Bonn, highlighting how the technology will generate additional revenue and reduce costs. 

The company expects to generate around €250 million ($280 million) in AI-related revenue from businesses outside the US in 2026 and aims to increase this to around €800 million by 2030.

Telekom sees AI and automation generating gross savings of around €1.1 billion outside the US in 2027, compared with 2023, rising to around €2.5 billion in indirect cost savings by 2030.

The company said AI is already being used in customer service, network operations, software development and administrative processes. 

The company's "Frag Magenta" chatbot handled around 2.6 million customer service calls in the first half of 2026, while its RAN Guardian Agent has reduced response times for network events from several hours to about one minute.

Initial AI applications in customer service have also reduced complaints by 30%, Telekom said. More than 100,000 employees have been trained to use AI tools under its "AI for All" initiative.

The company also sees sovereign AI as a growth opportunity in Europe and is developing a platform for small and medium-sized businesses.

Telekom expects AI and automation savings of €100 million to €150 million between 2023 and 2027, with part of the savings to be reinvested in digital transformation and fibre-optic expansion in Germany.

The company also reaffirmed its financial outlook and medium-term targets.

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH

Musk to rename SpaceXAI with Trump's preferred 'super intelligence'

05.10.2026, DPA

Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa

Elon Musk is set to rename his artificial intelligence (AI) company in line with US President Donald Trump's effort to rename the technology "super intelligence."

The tech billionaire said in response to a question on his X platform on Sunday that his SpaceXAI company will be renamed SpaceXSI.

"Yes, we will make that change," he wrote. 

The company recently formed as a merger between Musk's XAI, a rival to OpenAI and Anthropic, and his SpaceX venture.

Trump has been pushing for weeks to establish "super intelligence" as the preferred term for AI. He argues that the existing name makes the technology appear "fake."

Musk was among Trump's closest allies in the early days of the president's second term. The two later fell out, partly over a tax bill, but have since largely reconciled.

• Musk on X

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH

Musk to follow Trump and rebrand SpaceXAI as SpaceXSI

Copyright AP Photo

By Jonathan Benton

Published on 05/10/2026 - EURONEWS

The company will be known as SpaceXSI, its third name this year alone, as Elon Musk follows Donald Trump’s push to rebrand AI into "super intelligence".

Elon Musk is changing the name of his combined AI and space company SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI, embracing US President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming artificial intelligence as super intelligence in all government communication.

Musk only recently renamed xAI as SpaceXAI, about 90 days ago, after SpaceX's June stock market debut and February takeover of the company. The agreement valued SpaceX at $1 trillion (€892bn) and xAI at $250 billion (€223bn).

The South African tech tycoon revealed that the company is making the change yesterday in a reply to a user on his social media platform X, who asked if there was “any possibility of renaming to SpaceXSI?”

“Yes, we will make that change,” said Musk.

The user asked the tech tycoon following an earlier post where he stated: “No more AI. SI. It’s better.” He later tweeted, “SpaceX is a super intelligence company.”

No changes to the company’s websites or social media have been made as of publication, with no indication of when the changes will take effect.

SpaceXAI currently operates the AI chatbot Grok, which is built into Musk’s social media platform X, with roughly 117 million active monthly users.

Grok is also widely integrated into US government and military operations, as part of a $200 million (€178mn) agreement reached in July 2025.

The decision follows US President Donald Trump’s latest executive order to rename something globally recognised to a name more in keeping with his world view, such as changing the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and Lake Ontario to Lake America.

The fact that Musk willingly agreed to Trump’s latest rebranding is nothing out of the ordinary, with Google and Apple both following Trump’s demand by renaming the bodies of water on their map platforms for US users.

Trump first mentioned his preference for super intelligence over artificial intelligence during a speech at the UN general assembly, where he argued that “artificial” makes it sound fake when it is actually “amazing,” claiming that “super intelligence" is a more accurate description.

On the same day Trump issued the executive order he hosted an AI summit with Sundar Pichai (Google), Dario Amodei (Anthropic, Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Greg Brokman (OpenAI), Jensen Huang (Nvidia) and Musk.

The six tech leaders signed a “Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities,” establishing a loose framework for companies to implement and self-regulate their own security controls. It is also legally unenforceable and carries no penalties.

It sets a worrying precedent given the escalating number of incidents involving AI agents carrying out “rogue” behaviour that has seen US and Australian government websites attacked, prompting calls for tighter regulation by world leaders and “pacing the frontier” by America’s leading AI companies.

Instead, Trump’s agreement allows these companies to regulate themselves without scrutiny or consequences.

On Sunday 4 October, Trump announced the creation of a “Super Intelligence Force” to coordinate American efforts and ensure the US stays ahead in the AI race.

Schneider Electric shares plunge on record $22.6bn PTC deal

Copyright Wilmotte & associés architectes / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

By Doloresz Katanich

Published on 05/10/2026 - EURONEWS

French energy technology group Schneider Electric has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Boston-based PTC for $22.6bn (€20.1bn) to expand its industrial AI business. The French company's shares plummeted on Monday following the announcement.

Schneider Electric, one of Europe's most valuable companies, saw its shares plunge after confirming an agreement to buy US-based industrial design software company PTC.

The deal is expected to be the largest acquisition in Schneider Electric's history, as the company seeks to expand its industrial AI capabilities using product and engineering data.

The French energy technology group will pay $205 per share for 100% of PTC's shares in cash, valuing its equity at $22.6bn (€20.1bn) and the business, including debt, at $23.7bn (€21.1bn).

The deal "creates a leading, scaled, open and interoperable industrial software and AI franchise", Schneider said in a statement, adding that PTC's board had agreed to the deal. The offer represents a 42.3% premium to PTC's last closing share price.

Schneider said the deal would combine industrial software and AI to help customers design, manufacture, operate and maintain products more efficiently, using industrial data to guide decisions and improve performance.

Related

• Schneider Electric: How AI may be the spark that can lower electricity bills
• Schneider Electric on why grid digitisation is key to the EU's energy resilience

Olivier Blum, chief executive of Schneider Electric, said: "The acquisition of PTC represents an important step forward in our ambition to lead the new era of Energy and Industrial Intelligence. Together, we are creating the industry’s most complete Software & AI powerhouse and highest-quality portfolio bridging the physical and digital worlds."

The move comes amid concerns that advances in artificial intelligence could undermine software companies' business models by offering cheaper alternatives to their services.

PTC’s valuation this year had fallen as low as 13.1 times the next 12 months' earnings, according to MarketWatch, citing FactSet.

The publication cited analysts at Jefferies who warned that fears of AI disruption had depressed software valuations, allowing Schneider to buy PTC at a decade-low valuation, but could continue to weigh on Schneider's shares after the deal.

PTC's chief executive Neil Barua said: "We gain substantial scale and resources to accelerate innovation, advance our Intelligent Product Lifecycle vision, and expand our business into more geographies and end markets to serve more customers."

The Boston-based company has more than 7,000 employees and serves more than 30,000 customers. It generated roughly half of its revenue in the Americas in its 2025 financial year.

Schneider expects to issue up to €17bn in debt and up to €6bn in new shares to pay for the deal.

The company said it expects annual cost savings of €250m by the third year after completion, alongside approximately €800m in additional revenue from combining the businesses.

Schneider also expects to pause share buybacks in 2027 and 2028, before accelerating purchases to complete its existing €2.5bn–€3.5bn programme by the end of 2030.

The deal is expected to close by the third quarter of 2027, subject to customary conditions, including approval from PTC shareholders holding at least a majority of its outstanding shares and the required regulatory approvals.

Schneider's shares were down more than 9% in morning trading in Paris following the announcement.