🚫 California city weighs data center ban after staggering electricity demands revealed

San Diego officials are considering a temporary ban on new data centers amid growing concerns that the rapidly expanding industry could strain the city's electricity grid, drive up utility bills and worsen its housing shortage.

The move comes after a local developer floated plans for a massive 400-megawatt data center near Old Town that, if built, could become the largest facility of its kind in California. According to reporting by Voice of San Diego, the proposed facility could consume as much electricity as more than 320,000 homes.

Mayor Todd Gloria said the city needed to balance technological development with protecting residents from the potential consequences of large-scale data centers.

"San Diego is a city of innovation, and I want us to continue leading in the technologies and jobs of the future," — Gloria said. "But we cannot allow a rapidly expanding industry to get ahead of the rules needed to protect our residents."

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🤖 AI startup hacks Anthropic in 12 hours, gains access to employee details and internal messages

A cybersecurity startup called Cathedral gained access to sensitive internal systems at Anthropic in less than 12 hours, exposing employee information, salary details, job offers and internal messages discussing the company's advanced AI models. The incident was discovered during a security test conducted under Anthropic's programme for outside researchers to identify vulnerabilities.

According to a draft report, Cathedral used AI agents to find weaknesses in business software used by Anthropic for administrative and sales tasks. The researchers found ways to access internal data, including meeting transcripts and Slack messages, after running their agents for less than 12 hours.

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🚫 US Bans Chinese Genomics Companies BGI, MGI, Citing Forced Labor

The US placed an effective ban on imports from the Chinese genomics powerhouse BGI Group and two related entities, one of the most striking applications yet of a law seeking to block goods allegedly made by forced labor from entering the country.

The Department of Homeland Security added BGI Group, its publicly traded genomics-testing unit BGI Genomics Co., and the spin-off MGI Tech Co. to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, according to a Federal Register notice posted Wednesday.

The designation creates a presumption that the companies’ goods are made with forced labor and can’t enter the US unless importers prove otherwise.

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