A federal judge in July gave digital equity advocates a partial victory against President Donald Trump, stopping his attempt to unilaterally kill a multibillion-dollar grant program Congress created. But U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, in a 35-page opinion, also agreed with the administration that it was unconstitutional for the government to use race or ethnicity as the basis to award money under a program created to expand internet skills and access. “It was definitely disappointing,” said Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a nonprofit that filed suit last year after not receiving a nearly $26 million award meant to bolster digital and internet skills nationwide. “With this administration, it’s really worrisome.”

I can think of only three sources of locations that the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program missed the first time around. One group of locations is those being turned back to State Broadband Offices when BEAD awardees decide not to accept a BEAD grant. The broadband offices have been trying to find other internet service providers to take these locations at the original award price. But I already know of several examples where there are no takers—at least at the dollar level of BEAD that was awarded after the Benefit of the Bargain round. Perhaps the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will loosen the purse strings a bit to allow for higher awards for some of these locations. Another potential source of locations comes from each update of the Federal Communications Commission mapping fabric, when new locations are added to the FCC map. Some of these are new construction, and others are corrections of the fabric. I can’t imagine that is a whole lot of places in this category, but there are always going to be some with each new map. The only other source of new BEAD locations I can think of would be from fixing the many errors introduced in the BEAD map challenge process. The only word I can use to describe the map challenge process is ludicrous.

President Donald Trump tried to shut down a burgeoning push for the United States to further regulate artificial intelligence, saying the U.S. has already done enough to prevent artificial intelligence from catastrophic risks and that the dangers posed by the technology are a “HOAX.” In a flurry of social media posts on September 14, the president decried placing additional guardrails on AI, argued that the technology and data centers will boost the economy, claimed there’s a conspiracy against it, and alleged, without evidence, that there’s no real threat posed by AI.

Spectate or participate. Those are the options on the table for operators as the AI revolution rolls on, Alianza CEO Brian Beutler argued. And the choice could mean the difference between hitching up to a growth engine or being left behind as a dumb pipe—again. Alianza recently unveiled Crux, a new orchestration platform designed to enable operators to tap into the AI voice market. Crux was pitched as not just a customer retention tool and churn reducer, but also a path to new revenue streams for operators. But the battle around AI voice isn’t just about technology. It’s about compelling operators to act before the moment passes them by.

We are facing the multi-trillion-dollar march of private artificial intelligence (AI) data centers into our economy, politics, ecosystem, and cultural life. Amid calls for blanket moratoria and investments in data centers in space, how can the public assert a controlling interest in the development and outcomes of this technology? This essay proposes developing municipally owned, small-scale data center capacity to support municipal services and public-interest AI. To encourage outcomes in the public interest, infrastructure investments must shift away from primarily private, hyperscale facilities and toward publicly accountable, resource-aware, incremental, and flexible deployments. Starting small will open new horizons for municipalities’ capabilities to achieve their public service missions. This is an opportunity for municipalities to provide a next-generation category of services, take risks, and build competency and control over the emerging productive assets of the 21st century.

[Preston Rhea is a Principal in the Technology & Society Studio at HR&A Advisors, where he advises cities, counties, and states on broadband and public technology infrastructure.]