Internet/Broadband

The Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program is coming back, and applications could open as soon as December. After a federal court ruled in July that the administration could not simply cancel the program, the Commerce Department committed to reopening it under a new Notice of Funding Opportunity. That is good news for the field. But the application window is likely to be short and badly timed, and the organizations that start preparing now will be best placed to compete. Finding the right partner can make or break a joint application, and the clock is already running.

Researchers from Pennsylvania State University recently published an excellent report, Beyond Connectivity Among Rural First Responders in Pennsylvania. The report is based on the findings from focus groups and interviews with law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMTs, 911 center representatives, local officials, and other key stakeholders. The in-depth discussions identified multiple problems that hinder public safety work in rural areas:

As social media platforms have become an important part of the information environment around the world, the view that social media is harming democracy has become more common. A new 37-nation Pew Research Center survey finds that in most countries where trend data is available, the share of the public who believes social media is bad for democracy has increased significantly from 2022 or 2023 to now. Views about social media’s impact are particularly negative in the United States, where 64% of adults say it is bad for democracy.

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Many governments struggle to get a handle on a technology that has rapidly outpaced their ability to respond. A.I. is evolving so quickly that laws passed two years ago are having limited effect, proposed bills to regulate the technology are stalling without a vote and international summits to discuss what to do are being swiftly forgotten. A.I. has made the gap between policymaking and technology one of the widest ever, according to more than 20 interviews with lawmakers, technologists and policy experts. Many governments are torn between wanting to harness A.I. and fearing its risks.

Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee Chairman Mike Lee (R-UT), and Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 to reform the federal environmental review and permitting processes.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed an executive order permanently declaring Artificial Intelligence to be called “Artificial Intelligence” in California. He also signed new first-in-the-nation legislation signed will protect people in the workplace from the impacts of artificial intelligence, automated technology, and AI-powered workplace surveillance.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a series of permitting reforms that will modernize the agency’s approach to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations and cut billions of dollars’ worth of red tape. Industry projections estimate that, without the reforms in this item, the FCC’s NEPA and historic preservation rules would result in over $2.2 billion in compliance costs over the next decade and a total of at least $7.5 billion in welfare and economic activity loss over that same period.

A recent Innovative Systems survey of 132 rural operators found 82% have no clear or defined AI strategy and 49% have only limited or informal adoption of the technology.

President Donald Trump is determined to leave AI companies to their own devices when it comes to building safety guardrails. But tech executives and former government officials say they’re skeptical the accord will lead to tangible changes because the stipulations aren't legally binding and likely aren’t much different from what the companies are already doing. The accord underscores a simmering tension between some major AI companies and the Administration over safety guardrails: Executives such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei