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The data centers that power the AI boom also need power themselves and a lot of it. Now, the Trump administration wants the tech companies cashing in on AI to foot a bigger part of the bill. The Trump administration said Friday that it would urge major East Coast power grid operator PJM Interconnection to hold an emergency auction for tech companies, inviting them to bid on 15-year contracts for new electricity generation. Under the plan, the power auction would raise billions of dollars that would then go directly toward building out $15 billion in new power plants. Tech companies would be locked into paying for the power they buy at auction over the lifetime of the long-term contracts whether they wind up using the electricity or not, a measure designed to smooth out spikes in electricity costs and offer 15-year revenue certainty for new plants. The governors of Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania and other states in PJMs area also signed onto the proposal to remake Americas power supply. U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum also supported the plan, which urges the power grid operator to make changes but isnt binding. For two years, Ive been sounding the alarm, explaining that without fundamental changes to PJM Pennsylvanians were going to be paying more and more, and getting nothing in return, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said in a press release. …Ive been working with my fellow governors and federal energy officials to push PJM to make needed reforms, and Im glad the White House is following Pennsylvanias lead and adopting the solutions weve been pushing for. In a fact sheet on the proposal published to the Department of Energys website, the Trump administration is also encouraging PJM to cap what existing power plants charge in an effort to pass along savings to residential power users. The Department of Energy described the measures as temporary, noting that the changes could stave off painful future price increases and make blackouts less likely. Worries grow over resource-hungry AI Acknowledging the growing backlash around AI data centers, Microsoft also announced a new initiative this week that it claims will protect residential customers from eating the cost of its AI buildout. The tech giant says it will work closely with utility companies on the price of electricity, likening its AI expansion to other historic national infrastructure improvements like canals, railroads, the electrical grid, or the interstate highway system. Communities value new jobs and property tax revenue, but not if they come with higher power bills or tighter water supplies, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith wrote in a blog post. Without addressing these issues directly, even supportive communities will question the role of datacenters in their backyard. Trump hinted at Microsofts plan earlier this week in a Truth Social post, stating that new policies would ensure Americans dont pick up the tab for higher energy bills. I never want Americans to pay higher Electricity bills because of Data Centers, Trump wrote. …We are the HOTTEST Country in the World, and Number One in AI. Data Centers are key to that boom, and keeping Americans FREE and SECURE but, the big Technology Companies who build them must pay their own way. Americans are starting to blame AI for high bills In the AI arms race, techs hottest companies often frame their insatiable appetite for electricity as an inevitability rather than its own problem. But as the cost of electricity goes up, Americans may disagree. Tech giants are pouring billions into massive electricity and water-guzzling server warehouses to fuel their AI ambitions. In 2025 alone, five companies making big bets on AI invested $399 billion into the technology and its accompanying infrastructure, and that number is expected to shoot up to $600 billion by 2028. Those investments have also prompted broad concerns that the stock markets concentrated growth around AI represents a single point of failure if the industry starts to wobble. Other worries are much less theoretical. Americans are grappling with higher power bills and theyre starting to blame the tech industry. A nationwide survey last year found that two-thirds of those polled believe that AI is driving up their electricity bill and most said that they couldnt afford a $20 per month increase. Beyond power, data centers also need massive amounts of water for cooling all of those servers humming day and night. In The Dalles, Oregon, city officials are seeking to buy part of a nearby national forest to get access to more water a move that is alarming some residents and environmental groups. While officials have claimed the water will meet growing population demands, Google is The Dalles thirstiest resident and the tech companys data centers already consume a third of the citys water.
Category:
E-Commerce
Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday. Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1%, growing to about 70,000 over five years. China will reduce its total tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from 84% to about 15%, he told reporters. Our relationship has progressed in recent months with China. It is more predictable and you see results coming from that, Carney said. Carney hasn’t been able to reach a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump to reduce some tariffs that are punishing some key sectors of the Canadian economy and Trump has previously talked about making Canada the 51st state. Earlier Friday, Carney and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony. Xi told Carney in a meeting at the Great Hall of the People that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea. Carney said that “this agreement will drive considerable Chinese investment in Canadas auto sector, creating good careers in Canada and accelerating our progress towards a net zero (emissions) future and the auto industry of the future.” Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, called Friday’s deal good for both China and Canada. Canada is diversifying its bets economically,” Wiseman said. “And China is succeeding in driving a small wedge between Canada and the U.S.” Improve global governance Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, told Xi that better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as under great strain. Later, he said at the news conference that the system may give way at least in part to country-to-country or regional agreements rather than the global ones that have underpinned economic growth in the post-World War II era. The question is: What gets built in that place? How much of a patchwork is it? he said. The new reality reflects in large part the so-called America-first approach of Trump. The tariffs he has imposed have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies. Carney, who has met with several leading Chinese companies in Beijing, said ahead of his trip that his government is focused on building an economy less reliant on the U.S. at what he called a time of global trade disruption. A Canadian business owner in China called Carney’s visit game-changing, saying it re-establishes dialogue, respect and a framework between the two nations. These three things we didnt have, said Jacob Cooke, the CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which helps exporters navigate the Chinese market. The parties were not talking for years. Canada had been aligned with US on tariffs Canada had followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100% on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carneys predecessor. China responded by imposing duties of 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said. Overall, China’s imports from Canada fell 10.4% last year to $41.7 billion, according to Chinese trade data. Carney tried to address the concerns of Canadian automakers and auto workers by saying the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3% of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years. Were building (a) new part of our car industry, building cars of the future in partnership, bringing affordable autos for Canadians at a time when affordability is top of mind, and doing it at a scale that allows for a smooth transition in the sector, he said. For the exchange of a small piece of the Canadian market, we have a commitment. We are waiting for an investment commitment in Canada. The real leaders of the new industry. So its an agreement that will create the future for our industry. But Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the leader of Canada’s most populous province where the country’s auto sector is based, blasted the deal. “Make no mistake: China now has a foothold in the Canadian market and will use it to their full advantage at the expense of Canadian workers,” Ford posted on social media. Worse, by lowering tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles this lopsided deal risks closing the door on Canadian automakers to the American market, our largest export destination. China sees an opening under Trump China is hoping Trumps pressure tactics on allies such as Canada will drive them to pursue a foreign policy that is less aligned with the United States. The U.S. president has suggested Canada could become America’s 51st state. Carney, though, noted Canada’s relationship with the U.S. is much more multifaceted, deeper and broader. Canada and China have different systems and disagree on issues such as human rights, he said, limiting the scope of their engagement even as they seek ways to cooperate on areas of common interest. The Canadian leader leaves China on Saturday and visits Qatar on Sunday before attending the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week. He will meet business leaders and investors in Qatar to promote trade and investment, his office said. Ken Moritsugu and Rob Gillies, Associated Press Associated Press business writer Chan Ho-him contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
Quickfire question: Who, in a business, should be responsible for AI? Most of us would assume the tech side of an organization should hold the bag: the CTO, CIO, CDO, CMO or perhaps even a new chief AI officer. And while this direction certainly made sense in the early wave of AI adoptionwhen it was still a mere toolthe rise of agentic AI (read: autonomous, intelligent agents that behave less like gadgets and more like colleagues) forces us to rethink our assumptions. Which means we should be asking whether AI should be treated as a technology or as a member of the team. And if its the latter, is HR actually the role best positioned to oversee it? WHY HR IS RE-EMERGING AS A STRATEGIC AI PLAYER While some might think that AI will diminish the influence of chief people officers, human-centered agentic design is bringing HR back to the center of business transformation. After all, autonomous AI could transform the very definition of an HR role: managing workflows, employee experiences, and workplace culture. One challenge blocking effective AI management is often rooted in organizations outdated design models. Traditional enterprise structures, especially in the Fortune 500, lag years behind the market and best practice. For instance, until recently CFOs were often leading AI decisions, largely optimizing for cost savings only. But just because a machine can do something doesnt mean it should. Research by Gather found that 95% of AI pilots fail to deliver meaningful business impact because theyre overly based on algorithms. Meanwhile, employees spend $13 billion annually on their own subscriptions as enterprise tools dont meet their needs. Human-centered design is the missing ingredient for AI success at scale; companies that design for human needs achieve faster ROI, lower risk, and sustainable competitive advantage. Fortunately, I can see a more progressive mindset emerging. Its no longer How do we do the same with fewer people? but How do we help the same people do more with AI? And instead of What roles can AI replace? its What roles can only humans perform? These reframed attitudes make the people function central to AI transformation. If AI is treated as an employee-like resource that affects experience, workflow, and culture, HR becomes its logical home. REINVENT HR: INTRODUCING THE CHIEF RESOURCE OFFICER But if AI really is joining the workforce, HR must evolve beyond managing just human resources. In the agentic era, the function becomes responsible for orchestrating all faculties: human and digital. Enter the chief resource officer (CRO). This is a new role that would reflect AIs real place in a company, responsible for integrating AI into workforce planning, ensuring ethical and effective use, and promoting a culture that encourages augmentation over replacement. Mic drop, I know. Now hear me out. Weve seen similar transformations before. The chief revenue officer didnt exist until CFO priorities shifted, and suddenly organizations needed a new leader to capitalize on growth opportunities. AI represents a similar inflection point, one that expands HRs mandate rather than diminishes it. THE REAL CHALLENGE? UPSKILLING THE C-SUITE The biggest barrier to this shift will be leadership readiness. Many existing HR managers are not yet AI experts, and theyre often stereotyped as preferring traditional processes and workflows. But as companies adopt agentic systems, CROs will become core stakeholders. Theyll need fluency in data governance, workflow management, and experience design. Any AI work integrations must be human-centered and, from an agentic perspective, negate the chances of garbage in/out. As a result, CRO training and upskilling, whether performed in-house or with the help of an external partner, become more important than ever. The risks of unwittingly fostering an AI knowledge gap are real. At Gather, we partnered with a major global financial services company whose lifecycle management systems werent communicating properly with its AI capabilitiesresulting in churn, operational escalations, increased risk, and inconsistent messaging to card members. But the problems were organizational, rather than technological. Gather interviewed five core user groups to map the complete automation lifecycle (intake to execution), identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and consistency. Then, we created assets to showcase automation use cases and build stakeholder awareness, introducing structured data models for better reporting, governance, and reuse. So far, the changes have proved a huge successpowering significant progress for the businesss automation adoption goals. DESIGN A HUMAN-CENTERED AI FUTURE Thriving in the agentic era starts with asking another quickfire question: What work must remain human? Creativity, empathy, judgment, and relationship-building remain irreplaceable, and these are the areas that determine long-term business success. So, a new CRO must: Bring HR into AI strategy early Upskill executives together, not in silos Treat AI as a collaborator rather than a cost-reduction tool Design systems where both humans and agents can thrive Far from diminishing HRs role, AI will expand it. As agentic systems take on more responsibility, HR and the chief resource officer will become some of the most important stewards of the modern workforce. Ultimately, AI wont replace peoplebut it will replace organizations that fail to redesign around them. Justin Tobin is founder and CEO of Gather.
Category:
E-Commerce
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