The goal of expanding broadband availability in Texas has been a long time coming. Depending on the day, the finish line either looks closer than ever or so very far away. Recently, Texas won final approval to use billions of federal money to help connect every corner of the sprawling state. The news came about 17 months after the $3.3 billion was first pledged for Texas — part of the bipartisan infrastructure deal signed by President Joe Biden. Yet two days after federal regulators OK’d the state's plan to spend the money, Texas’ own junior U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested in a letter that money might be delayed amid a presidential transition and Republicans taking control of Congress. The most recent back and forth is emblematic of the last several years as Texas has tried to catch up with the nation in deploying reliable high-speed internet. And supporters of the effort worry it may also foreshadow hectic days ahead.

Digital connectivity is becoming more vital in driving economic growth, attracting inward investment, creating jobs and improving outcomes for people and communities. Improving availability and access to improved broadband is important for many of the key sectors within Harlan County and plays a crucial role in attracting inward investment to the area:

• Improved digital connectivity enhances connectivity and communication, creating significant transformational opportunities for professional services and remote working. 
• Making better use of digital connectivity is vital for driving innovation and growth in Manufacturing, particularly in the automotive industry, by enabling more efficient and streamlined production processes.
• Improved connectivity is also key to driving the expansion and innovation within the Aerospace Industry supply chain. 
• Increasing access to digital connectivity can also drive investment in Clean Energy Manufacturing; on one hand, it enables smart grid technologies and real-time data monitoring for efficient energy distribution. 
• Healthcare is the largest sector in Harlan’s economy. Better digital connectivity improves access to telemedicine/ telecare, enhances real-time data sharing, and supports remote patient monitoring. It enables efficient coordination among healthcare providers, boosts patient engagement, streamlines operations, reduces costs, and enhances the overall quality of care.
• Digital connectivity offers many benefits to Retail, tourism, and accommodation and food services through seamless e-commerce platforms. It can also support data analytics for personalized marketing, demand forecasting, and real-time inventory management. For tourism, it also enables efficient booking systems, virtual and augmented reality tours/ activities, and real-time updates on travel services.
• Finally, the Digital Economy sector is based upon reliable and robust digital connectivity to ensure seamless communication, data transfer, and access to cloud-based services. 

When Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, it was panned as one of the worst tech acquisitions in history. Two years, an election, and a generative-AI boom later, it's starting to look like more of a bargain. Shortly after the deal closed in October 2022, the Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives said it would "go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals on the Street." Yet the deal has provided significant benefits for Musk. He's set to wield considerable influence in the Trump administration after using X to support the former president's reelection. Not only has X served as Musk's political megaphone—it has also been a lucrative source of training data for one of the billionaire's other ventures, xAI, a startup that has rocketed to a $50 billion valuation in 16 months. That fresh valuation means xAI has surpassed Musk's purchase price for X. 

Amazon is reaching out to news publishers about opportunities to license their content for the next generation of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, slated to debut in 2025. The company plans to debut a new, smarter version of Alexa, using generative AI to power customized responses to real-time user queries about the news. The tech giant is eyeing preliminary tests with several publishers who it hopes can serve as launch partners for the revamped Alexa in late 2025. It's currently testing new ways to incorporate news answers into Alexa via text and photo query results. The company isn't testing generative AI video outputs as part of its revamped Alexa offering at this time.

The Federal Trade Commission will prohibit data broker Mobilewalla, Inc. from selling sensitive location data, including data that reveals the identity of an individual’s private home, to settle allegations the data broker sold such information without taking reasonable steps to verify consumers’ consent. Under the FTC’s proposed settlement order, Mobilewalla will also be banned from collecting consumer data from online advertising auctions for purposes other than participating in those auctions, marking the first time the agency has alleged such a practice was an unfair act or practice. The FTC alleges in a complaint that Georgia-based Mobilewalla collected data from real-time bidding exchanges and third-party aggregators. Often consumers had no knowledge that Chamblee-Georgia-based Mobilewalla had obtained their data.