Here’s what’s happening in tech..

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Running AI uses a huge amount of electricity. Every time you type a question into a tool like ChatGPT and it sends you back an answer, that back-and-forth uses real electricity to power the large language models making it happen. Most users never think about that cost, but it adds up fast for the countries and companies building these systems.

Energy and AI are now directly tied together. Oil and natural gas power a large share of the electricity grids that run data centers around the world. Countries that control energy supply have power over countries that need to buy it from others just to keep their lights on.

Between 20 and 30% of the world's oil and a large share of natural gas moves through one waterway in the Middle East called the Strait of Hormuz. If that route gets blocked, gas prices go up. Electricity costs go up. And that makes running AI more expensive for everyone who depends on it.

Asia feels this the most. Countries like China buy most of their oil from other nations and depend heavily on Middle Eastern energy to keep their grids running.

The US produces and sells its own natural gas instead of buying it from others, which gives it more protection from direct supply shortages. But that doesn't mean the US is free from the tension. Oil is priced globally, so when supply gets disrupted anywhere, prices go up everywhere, including in the US. On top of that, close US allies like Japan and South Korea depend heavily on Middle Eastern energy. When their costs go up, it affects the US too. That's a big reason why the US stays deeply involved in Middle East politics even as a major energy producer itself.

That difference in energy access still matters in an AI race. When one country can run its data centers at lower, steady energy costs, it can build and deploy AI faster. Energy access is quietly becoming one of the biggest factors in who leads AI over the next decade.

The global race for AI comes down to who builds the best models and who can afford to keep them running. Energy access will decide both.

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Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $126,000 in October 2025. It has since pulled back to around $65,000 to $70,000. The New York Times just published an opinion piece calling crypto pointless. They waited until prices dropped to say it.

Think about that for a second. One single Bitcoin is still worth more than most people make in a month. More than some people's rent for an entire year. And that is after the pullback. Meanwhile, the US dollar has lost most of its value over time. When the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, one dollar could buy a lot. Today that same dollar barely buys anything compared to back then. Bitcoin, even at its lowest price in recent years, still trades at tens of thousands of dollars per coin. That is not a failing technology. That is a technology that changed what people believe digital money can be worth.

Bitcoin and crypto were built to remove banks and politicians from the middle. No third party deciding if your transaction goes through. Just two people sending value directly to each other, anywhere in the world. Some of the most significant technology built in human history.

Think about what that means for giving. With traditional nonprofits, charities, and foundations, typically created by philanthropists and elites, a portion of your donation gets absorbed before it reaches the person who needs it. With crypto, you can send money directly to someone you have never met on the other side of the world. No middleman. The full amount moves. That’s powerful.

Technology can be used for good or for evil. The same institutions this technology was built to work around are now buying in, shaping the rules, and influencing how it gets used. Right now, it is in the wrong hands.

When media calls something pointless after it just broke an all-time high record, pay attention to who benefits from that message. The technology works. The question is who it is working for.

That rewards card the casino handed you with a smile is doing more than counting points. Every swipe builds a behavioral profile tied to a single number called your Average Daily Theoretical, or ADT. It tracks your average bet, how fast you play, which machines you prefer, and how often you show up.

That number controls everything. Your mailers, room offers, free play, and whether you ever get a casino host all come from it.

Here's the part most people miss. Stopping in for coffee and swiping your card for a dining discount can register as a zero-play day on your account. No gambling required. The system just logged a day where you showed up and contributed nothing, quietly pulling your profile down.

This data doesn't stay in a silo. Casinos share behavioral and spending data with marketing partners, hotel networks, and travel platforms. If you're a Caesars rewards member, that profile can follow you across their hotel and entertainment properties nationwide. MGM's network spans destinations from Las Vegas to Maryland. Your spending patterns, visit frequency, and preferences travel with you whether you realize it or not.

Over time, profiles like these feed into broader consumer scoring systems. Travel companies, insurance providers, and financial platforms increasingly use behavioral data to personalize pricing. What you pay for a hotel room, a rental car, or even a credit offer can be shaped by the kind of spender your profile says you are.

A few ways to stay on top of it. Consolidate your play at one property so your profile reflects your best sessions. Leave your card out during casual visits where you're not planning to play. Check your rewards account regularly to understand what the program knows about you. And treat every loyalty program you join, casino or otherwise, like the data agreement it is.

The rewards are real. So is the profile being built around them.

Your data is worth a lot. Every piece of information about you, your location, what you buy, who you talk to, is being collected, repackaged, and sold. Companies profit billions, while you get nothing.

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AI is starting to run parts of the internet on its own. Some AI systems are already buying and selling crypto, checking transactions, and keeping networks running without a person having to do anything.

To understand why this matters, you need to know what a node is. Think of a node like a worker on an assembly line. Its job is to check that every transaction follows the rules and make sure all the records match. Normally a person sets that up and keeps it running. Now imagine software doing that job automatically, around the clock, without ever needing a break.

That is what is starting to happen. AI can now earn fees for doing that work, pay its own bills, and even vote on network decisions based on rules it was given ahead of time. No company. No employee. Just code doing its job.

The bigger change goes beyond technology. Control and ownership are slowly moving away from people sitting in offices and toward software running all over the world. Over time, more of the economy could be managed by AI Agents or automated systems, with humans setting the goals but not handling the day to day work.