• Advanced AI should be paused as regulators assess the potential damage
• Trump urged to discuss international agreement with Chinese President
• Current US government criticized for taking a light-touch approach

Bernie Sanders is working together with former White House strategist Steve Bannon in a bid to urge the governments to take more oversight over AI.

Job losses, a loss of control over advanced AI, biological warfare, rising energy prices and concentrated power among a few AI giants as just some of the arguments the two political figures are using in their broad argument for greater AI regulation, per Reuters reporting.

In particular, Sanders claims that tens of millions of jobs could be removed by AI, making it increasingly difficult for younger generations to get a job at all.

US government gets another nudge to regulate AI

Consequently, Trump is being urged to use an upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to establish an international agreement to pause the development of advanced AI.

This aligns with separate legislation Sanders is pursuing, which calls for the permanent ban of artificial super intelligence, temporary pauses on other advanced AI, and the establishment of both a new federal AI regulator and further international agreements.

Bannon criticized the Trump administration for taking a light-touch approach to AI regulation, blaming it on close ties with (and the influence of) American tech giants. His approach also slightly differs from Sanders' in that Bannon is more vocal about blocking Chinese access to advanced American chips and other relevant hardware.

While attitudes are split virtually on a person-by-person basis, rather than a per-party basis, the current administration is generally seen as more pro-American innovation than anti-AI. House Speaker Mike Johnson warned that slowing down US development would ultimately cause it to lose its competitive advantage over China.

However, while opinions are split, it's clear that artificial intelligence has become a major political discussion, and with US midterm elections just weeks away, all could be about to change.

• M365 E5 plans tend to include more than their Google Workspace counterparts
• Google can sometimes work out cheaper for Mac and Chromebook users
• Software is undergoing an AI change, so is it best to just wait?

New research from Senior Gartner principal analyst Domenico Scriva has deemed that switching from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace doesn't actually deliver any meaningful savings (via The Register).

This is despite Google Workspace licenses generally coming in cheaper than their Microsoft 365 counterpart, M365 E5.

Instead, Scriva claims that many companies are only switching to Google out of pure spite or dissatisfaction with M365, without assessing the ROI.

Why are businesses switching from M365 to Google Workspace?

Scriva argued that being unhappy with Microsoft isn't itself a business case for switching, while also noting that the E5 subscription adds additional things like telephony, security and even OS licences, which customers wouldn't otherwise get with a Google Workspace subscription.

All of this considered, plus the fact that Gemini is included in Google plans while Copilot is a paid extra, still leaves Google coming out at $2 per month more expensive, the analyst revealed.

However, migrations could be spelling out much more than a preference of software, because Scriva admitted that Google Workspace plans can actually be most cost-effective for Macs, which tend to have longer service lives, and Chromebooks, which are usually cheaper to acquire in the first place.

With this in mind, it's possible that we're also seeing a shift in hardware tendencies, be it a reduction in refresh cycle frequency or a total migration to a new type of hardware.

Still, whether it's a software migration, a hardware switch, or both, Scriva warns that retraining costs can instantly wipe any ROI that a company could have otherwise achieved.

At the end of the day, Gartner warns that enterprises should consider specific business outcomes rather than acting on instinct, and with AI likely to change software as a whole, many may be better off riding out their lesser-preferred software option to see where things are heading.

• Setting up a WhatsApp Business account is unnecessarily convoluted, Meta admits
• New MCP server gives third-party agents access to set up accounts for you
• Meta is asking for feedback during this initial testing release

In an effort to make running small businesses even easier – and also to gain new WhatsApp customers, it's likely – Meta has launched a new WhatsApp Business Tools MCP to give AI agents access to interact directly with the platform.

Through this connection, users will be able to set up and configure Business messaging agentically, rather than having to manually trawl through dashboards and other pages.

While the company would obviously like you to use Meta AI to handle this, offering a new MCP server means Claude, ChatGPT and there AI agents can also do the heavy lifting for you.

An AI agent can now set up your business' WhatsApp

The company has admitted that onboarding to WhatsApp Business has become unnecessarily fragmented, with the Meta Developer Console, Business Manager and other dashboards all playing a role in setup.

Under the new agentic way of signing up, AI can create accounts, add and verify phone numbers, create and edit message templates and more. "You describe what you want; your agent handles the accounts, numbers, templates, and API calls," Product Marketing Manager Zoë Lieberman wrote.

"Before any tool runs, the server confirms you're an admin of the app, resolves the attached business, and verifies your Terms of Service are signed," Lieberman stressed.

Meta Business Messaging MCP is currently rolling out gradually, and it's only discoverable on Claude, Codex and ChatGPT, but with such clear intent to make communication admin easier for business owners, Meta may soon continue to add new features, MCP options and supported agents.

For now, though, the company stressed that this current release is "built for development and testing workflows," thus it's asking for feedback to monitor how effective it is.

• US data center energy consumption could top 426 TWh by 2030
• Grid expansions are delayed while new data center projects keep getting approved
• New report reveals how energy transmission could be just as important as new generation

New Moody's data (via The Register) has revealed that US data center construction is ramping up so quickly, the country's grid isn't able to keep up.

With power availability quickly becoming one of the biggest constraints on future projects, the report claims that roughly $110 billion of new electricity generation capacity could be required.

By the end of the decade, the electricity consumption for America's data centers alone could top 426 TWh.

Power supply is one of the biggest data center constraints

The data shows that new campuses can be developed much more quickly than new grid infrastructure, with power projects facing lengthy planning phases, long lead times on equipment and supply chain issues. According to the report, some projects face delays of up to seven years.

Canada's Saskatchewan is one example of how a region can tackle power issues, because the province requires large new facilities to supply their own power.

Moody's says the US grid system should also consider transmission infrastructure to move electricity to data center clusters – not just building capacity for additional generation. That additional transmission infrastructure could also provide rural communities with access to cheaper energy that's been generated further afield, making it a win-win.

Some US states and regions have even been forced to put a temporary ban on certain new projects as they take a step back to reassess legislation.

While President Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge does aim to shift the responsibility onto utility companies in order to protect citizens from bearing the brunt of rising costs, Moody's ultimate conclusion is that data center projects are coming in at an accelerated rate, and it's clear that the grid needs additional support from the likes of those operators in order to deliver campuses on time.