AI data centers could reduce power draw on demand, Meta signed an AI licensing deal with News Corp, and no end-to-end encryption for TikTok DMs

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AI data centers could reduce power draw on demand.

Meta signed a multi-million dollar AI licensing deal with newscorp.

And TikTok will not add end-to-end encryption to DMs.

It's Wednesday, March 4th, and here's a quick look at tech news this morning from Engagget.

Well, apparently, AI data centers are capable of sucking less power, that is, a recent

UK trial demonstrated that they can adjust their energy demands dynamically.

Without disrupting critical workloads.

Now this contrasts with data centers current approach up always on power draw, which can

strain grids and drive up prices for everyone.

Over five days in December of last year, more than 200 simulated grid events tested a London

data center's ability to adjust its energy use on the fly.

The trial used software from Emerald AI, which was involved in the study.

Other partners included Nvidia, National Grid, Nebius, and the Nonprofit Electric Power

Research Institute.

In each simulated grid event, the data center successfully adjusted its energy use to the

requested level.

It reduced power draw by up to 40% while critical workloads continued to run as normal throughout

the trial.

The data center successfully reacted to spikes in demand during soccer match half times.

In one case, it reduced its power draw by 10% for up to 10 hours.

It also managed to cut its demand quickly.

One event saw the data center reduce its load by 30% in only 30 seconds.

Now the study will serve as a blueprint for a 100 megawatt power flexible AI factory

that Nvidia plans to operate in Virginia.

Josh Parker Nvidia's Sustainability Lead wrote in a statement, this trial proves that

Nvidia powered infrastructure can act as a grid-aware asset, modulating demand in real

time to support stability.

By making AI workloads responsive, we accelerate deployment while reducing the need for costly

grid upgrades.

The organizations involved in the study say they will share their data with the AI industry,

regulators and policymakers to try to influence their approach.

Fortunately, we don't need to hope that data center operators altruism will lead to their

cooperation, agreeing to curb usage during peak demand, could be good for their balance

sheets and lead to faster approvals for new data center grid connections.

Steve Smith, president of National Grid Partners, told Bloomberg, we would love to get to

a point where we can get customers on the network in two years.

And this is part of that.

Meta has signed an AI licensing deal with newscorp that will allow the Meta AI maker to use

content from the Wall Street Journal and other brands in its chatbot responses and for

training of its AI models.

Newscorp confirmed to engage it that it had struck a deal with Meta, but did not provide

specifics on the terms of the arrangement.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta will pay newscorp up to $50 million a year

for a three-year deal that covers content from the journal, as well as the media giants

other brands in the US and the UK.

Newscorp previously struck a five-year deal with OpenAI that was valued at around $250 million.

Having a recent appearance at Morgan Stanley's annual technology media and telecom conference,

newscorp CEO Robert Thompson hinted that the media company was in the advanced stage with

other negotiations.

Thompson said, we have what you might call a woo-and-soo strategy.

We'll woo you.

We'd like you to be our partner.

But if you're stealing our stuff, we are going to sue you.

So there will be a discount for those who hand themselves in and there will be a penalty

for those that resist.

A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that the two companies had reached an agreement.

The company, which has been reorganizing its AI teams as it looks to create its next

model, has struck a number of licensing deals in recent months.

It previously signed multi-year agreements with USA Today, People, CNN, Fox News, and

other outlets.

The company said at the time that by integrating more and different types of news sources, our

aim is to improve Meta AI's ability to deliver timely and relevant content and information

with a wide variety of viewpoints and content types.

If you have ever wondered if TikTok would offer a more secure messaging experience, you

now have an answer.

TikTok has told the BBC that it will not protect direct messages sent in the app with end-to-end

encryption because it believes it will make users less safe.

In a briefing about security at its London office, TikTok said that implementing the technology

would prevent its safety teams or law enforcement from being able to read messages if needed.

The bite-dance-owned app framed it as a deliberate decision made in an effort to keep users,

especially younger ones, safe on its platform.

With end-to-end encryption, only the sender and receiver are able to read messages exchanged

between them.

The technology is not typically implemented in China, where bite-dance is located, though

TikTok did not say whether its parent company had an influence on its decision.

TikTok said messages sent through its app are still protected by standard encryption

and only authorized employees will be able to access them if the app gets a request from

authorities or gets user reports for harmful behavior.

You have a lot of other apps to choose from if you want to communicate through apps with

end-to-end encryption.

Apple's iMessage and Google Messages use the technology, and there's also Facebook

Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.

It looks like TikTok just is not the place to go if you want to use secure messaging,

though it is unclear if its US entity also shares the same stance.

If you will recall, TikTok signed a deal to spit off its US business, which is now an

entity called the TikTok-USDS Joint Venture, a group of non-Chinese investors, including

Oracle, purchased an 80% stake on the app, while bite-dance retained only a 19.9% stake.

The entity will be in charge of content moderation in the country and will retrain TikTok's

algorithm on US users' data.

Thanks for listening, there's more tech news at Engaget.com.

This episode featured journalism from Will Shanklin, Carissa Bell, and Mary Elemoon.

Enjoy your day, I'll be back tomorrow with more tech news from Engaget.

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