Author: Gareth

“NFL Expands Micro-Betting with Genius Sports, Experts Warn of Addiction.” Edited by Vlada Didenko, Mezha, Bukvy, 19 Mar. 2026, mezha.net/eng/bukvy/nfl_expands_micro-betting/.

*Note: this article acts as a follow-up piece to a news story originally published by CNN, the original CNN article is now locked under a membership paywall, so I cited this article as a free alternative. The organization behind this specific article, Bukvy, is currently based out of Ukraine. Many members of their writing staff work anonymously.

Summary: NFL has recently partnered with a tech start up company called Genius Sports who are seeking to create a digital program called BetVision. This program uses AI to track individual players as they make plays around the field allowing betting spectators to quickly input small bets on well-made individual plays. This tactic being coined as “micro-betting.” Micro-betting with AI systems is not new to the sports-world, as entire sportsbook rooms of AI assisted gameplay screens have been popping up in hotels and casinos across the country in recent years. However, this partnership between the NFL and Genius Sports sets a precedent of sportsbook style micro-betting potentially becoming an integrated part into official NFL game viewing. The Mezha article goes on to cite from medical experts how this integration could pose a danger to the American public by increasing risks of gambling addiction.

Why this matters: As seen through tactics like micro-betting, tech companies can use AI to take manipulative business strategies like gambling, and be able to conduct them at an even more insidious and wide-spread level than previously seen. Based on the article, the NFL is likely going ahead with their partnership with Genius Sports- despite even the controversy of legitimizing a method of gambling, because of a record total thirty-billion-dollar profit from last year’s football season just from bets alone. Additionally, because the NFL is the most watched sports entertainment in America, their partnership is incredibly dangerous to the entertainment industry broadly as it may encourage other media outlets to embrace AI in a similarly exploitative way.

Desouza, Kevin C. “Analyzing the Passage of State-Level AI Bills.” Brookings, 14 Jan. 2026, www.brookings.edu/articles/analyzing-the-passage-of-state-level-ai-bills/.

Summary: This article examines how legislation at State level governments are passing or rejecting AI bill proposals based on a multitude of considered factors; representative and State community political leanings, business sector regulation, clashing ideology between state institutions, as a few noteworthy examples. The results of the study indicate that richer and more educated states have more failures in AI regulation bills passing mainly because of legislative congestion, (there are more bills being proposed than ability to consider and pass them) While States with stronger business networking and less poverty have fewer failed AI bill proposals.

Why this is important: This kind of data is important to analyze because AI regulation is a proposed solution many are considering for some of the problems caused by AI usage or proliferation, having an understanding of what State governments are currently doing about AI and why gives a more nuanced perspective on what is being considered more in regulation and where.

Walker, Carla, and Ian Goldsmith. “From Energy Use to Air Quality, the Many Ways Data Centers Affect US Communities.” World Resources Institute, 17 Feb. 2026, www.wri.org/insights/us-data-center-growth-impacts.

Summary: This article further contextualizes the current data center boom in the US and the economic and political reasoning for this rapid development, as well as covering in-depth potential impacts of the building of these data centers for nearby local communities such as air, water, and noise pollution, and how States and organizations involved with construction and development plans have been working to find solutions to these issues.

Why this matters: While previous articles posted to this site offer information on data center development in Michigan, this article offers a wider picture of the US as a whole. Giving broader context to the issue country wide, additionally, the article goes further in detail on the social and environmental impacts of these new data center projects on surrounding communities, as well as potential solutions.

Blum, Karen. “Ai Is Enabling Robots to Assist in Surgery. What to Know.” Healthjournalism.Org, Association of Health Care Journalists, 17 Sept. 2025, healthjournalism.org/blog/2025/09/ai-is-enabling-robots-to-assist-in-surgery-what-to-know/.

Utilizing several peer reviewed research articles, this journal from the AHCJ summarizes, as of it’s publishing, important advancements in robotic surgery due to rapid development of AI. The article details how a fully designed and trained robot surgeon, SRT-H was able to independently and perform a gallbladder surgery without human intervention with complete success. Additionally, more advances are being done in China to create incredibly advanced robotic arms to assist human surgeons in procedures with minimal patient risk.

Landry Signé, Hanna Dooley, et al. “AI Drives New Opportunities and Risks in Space.” Brookings, 23 Jan. 2026, www.brookings.edu/articles/ai-drives-new-opportunities-and-risks-in-space/.

This article shows how the advancement in AI has impacted the space market and technological advancements for space exploration. Both positively, in how it has brought more efficient and faster machines to the International Space Station for example, while also bringing some unforeseen challenges like weakening system cybersecurity.