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September 2026

Sizing Up Another BEAD Round Using the Ever-Changing BEAD Map

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program was designed to close the digital divide in the U.S., but the size and shape of that divide have changed dramatically since Congress created the program in November 2021. Private investment and other broadband programs have continued to connect locations, while BEAD, the largest-ever broadband grant program, has followed a circuitous path across two very different presidential administrations to finally get to the point of being able to dole out funds.

The Largest Data Centers Planned in Rural Counties

In this edition of the Rural Index, I wanted to explore a hypothesis that my colleague Julia Tilton and I have been throwing around over the last few weeks: Are data center developers targeting vulnerable and marginalized communities, where they know residents are not as likely to have the power to fight back? As is the case with most good hypotheses, I wasn’t able to come to a definitive conclusion.

Meta debuts Muse, its long-planned personal AI agent

Meta announced Muse, a personal AI agent built on the latest generation of models developed under chief AI officer Alexandr Wang. Muse exists in a chat interface, similar to a text thread. It's designed to be more proactive and long-running than typical chatbots. Users can name their agent, create an avatar, and customize how it communicates. The Muse agent runs on a dedicated virtual machine in Meta's cloud, using a built-in browser that's visible to the user. Meta is offering a free tier of Muse, as well as two subscription options, at $20 per month and $100 per month.

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