Internet/Broadband

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:

For most people, the internet may be indispensable, but they take it for granted. Though it is sometimes described as the world’s biggest machine, few spare a thought for its physical core: the vast networks of cables spun across sea floors and continents, the cities of energy-hungry servers speeding along data. Until there is a problem. Any number of things can knock an undersea cable out of service. Landslides can do it. So can a ship dragging its anchor. There may be unintended damage from military skirmishes. And then there is sabotage, a growing concern.

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.

The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against Gravy Analytics Inc. and its subsidiary Venntel Inc. for unlawfully tracking and selling sensitive location data from users, including selling data about consumers’ visits to health-related locations and places of worship.

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.

Recent research shows that advanced technology adoption and use are concentrated in large firms. This pattern also applies to artificial intelligence (AI). Evidence from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey for the years 2017 and 2018 indicates that AI use in producing goods and services rises with firm size (Zolas et al., 2020 and Acemoglu et al., 2022). However, this pattern may be changing in the wake of recent advances in generative AI, which may have a disproportionate impact on small firms’ adoption and use of AI. 

Amazon is reaching out to news publishers about opportunities to license their content for the next generation of Amazo

Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority Executive Director Brandon Carson has announced the Commonwealth’s $1.16 billion 

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.

As Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” prepares for its mission of slashing federal government to the bone, it’s collecting some unlikely supporters. One is Jennifer Pahlka, a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center and former President Barack Obama’s deputy chief technology officer who says that despite Musk and DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy’s right-wing lens on increasing efficiency, it could present a welcome and rare opportunity to do so.