Some of the technology and innovation policy issues at top of mind as we start 2026:

• Move Past the Broadband Access Gap:  2026 may be the year the United States closes the broadband access gap once and for all. With continued private investment, the growth of low-earth-orbit satellites, and Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program money set to roll out, there should be no more deployment gaps in the United States and therefore no more need for subsidies to fill them. Meanwhile, leftover BEAD funds and Universal Service Fund reform should shift the focus to helping low-income Americans be able to afford broadband and develop digital skills.

• Free Up More Spectrum: Modernize spectrum policy for productivity and global competitiveness: The United States needs to get more productive with wireless resources. That means making way for more commercial spectrum use by making outdated federal systems high-tech, and updating spectrum policy to account for a world of convergence that increasingly blurs the lines between terrestrial and satellite uses.

• Accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) Adoption: Given massive investments in AI, the level of maturity of the technology, and promises from tech executives, it is win or bust for AI. Companies and countries that successfully go all-in on AI will have an enormous advantage over their more hesitant peers. The United States needs a national AI adoption plan where policymakers can work hand-in-hand with industry to accelerate AI adoption by measuring uptake, addressing barriers, and developing the skills and infrastructure needed to be a global leader in AI.

The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) has released a comprehensive and detailed Three-Year Statewide Broadband Plan that unveils the agency’s ambitious goals, strategic priorities and initiatives planned for 2026-2028. The plan is the result of feedback from the members of the Connect New Mexico Council and stakeholders around the state. At present, 90 percent of New Mexico has high-speed internet, and the Three-Year Plan will serve as the roadmap to getting the state 100 percent connected. OBAE's vision is a fully connected New Mexico where every community has access to affordable, high-quality, future-ready broadband. At the heart of the plan are four major Program Goals: Universal Availability, Widespread Adoption, Next Generation Advancement, and Program Stewardship. OBAE has also identified six strategic priorities — key building blocks that will guide and advance the agency’s agenda through 2028 and provide New Mexicans with unlimited opportunity and improved education, healthcare, job growth and critical services:

1. Statewide Connectivity;
2. Affordability;
3. Strategic Infrastructure;
4. Data, Policy, and Permitting;
5. Digital Opportunity; and
6. Network Operations.

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are a unique population with structural barriers to being reached in health promotion efforts. Social media platforms and communication campaigns are increasingly used in health promotion efforts with farmworkers. However, digital exclusion, sometimes referred to as the digital divide, can limit the reach of social media interventions and campaigns. It is critically important for program planners to know the potential reach of different communications channels. For this publication, researchers conducted a secondary analysis of a time-venue convenience sample survey of farmworkers that was fielded in North Carolina in May–December 2023 at housing and clinic locations. The researchers assessed social media use for seven platforms (Facebook, GroupMe, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, YouTube), randomizing each participant with internet access to be asked about one platform. They calculated what percentage of farmworkers in North Carolina would likely be missed via each platform based on the use of the platform and inconsistent or no internet access. Several social media platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube) were widely used by farmworkers in North Carolina. However, use and access were not universal, with even the most used platforms missing approximately 1 in 10 farmworkers who had consistent internet in their housing locations. Considering the use of platforms in combination with having no or inconsistent internet access in housing, platforms missed a minimum of approximately one in three farmworkers. Campaigns and interventions should consider using multiple social media platforms and other channels to maximize reach. 

Tech companies and developers looking to plunge billions of dollars into ever-bigger data centers to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing are increasingly losing fights in communities where people don’t want to live next to them, or even near them. Communities across the United States are reading about—and learning from—each other’s battles against data center proposals that are fast multiplying in number and size to meet steep demand as developers branch out in search of faster connections to power sources. In many cases, municipal boards are trying to figure out whether energy- and water-hungry data centers fit into their zoning framework. But as more people hear about a data center coming to their community, once-sleepy municipal board meetings in farming towns and growing suburbs now feature crowded rooms of angry residents pressuring local officials to reject the requests. “Would you want this built in your backyard?” Larry Shank asked supervisors in Pennsylvania’s East Vincent Township. “Because that’s where it’s literally going, is in my backyard.”

If I were to locate the moment slop broke through into popular consciousness, I’d pick the video of rabbits bouncing on a trampoline that went viral. For many savvy internet users, myself included, it was the first time we were fooled by an AI video, and it ended up spawning a wave of almost identical riffs, with people making videos of all kinds of animals and objects bouncing on the same trampoline. My first reaction was that, broadly speaking, all of this sucked. That’s become a familiar refrain, in think pieces and at dinner parties. Everything online is slop now—the internet “enshittified,” with AI taking much of the blame. Initially, I largely agreed, quickly scrolling past every AI video in a futile attempt to send a message to my algorithm. But then friends started sharing AI clips in group chats that were compellingly weird, or funny. Some even had a grain of brilliance buried in the nonsense. I had to admit I didn’t fully understand what I was rejecting—what I found so objectionable. To try to get to the bottom of how I felt (and why), I recently spoke to the people making the videos, a company creating bespoke tools for creators, and experts who study how new media becomes culture.

[Caiwei Chen is a China reporter at MIT Technology Review.]