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 Rest of World
restofworld.org
Joined April 2009
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  • Followers72.6K
3.4KMedia
Last fall, Rest of World senior reporter @violazhouyi moved into Mark Zuckerberg’s old house.
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China is rapidly gaining control of emerging technologies such as clean energy manufacturing, signaling its intent beyond AI, writes Steve Feldstein in his new book, “Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Big Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare.” restofworld.org/2026/china-a…
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American and European developers have access to advanced chips, yet Chinese open-weight models are still outperforming them while running tasks up to 90% cheaper restofworld.org/2026/china-o…
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Tech giants are draining drinking water to cool AI servers, sparking backlash in drought-hit regions of Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil restofworld.org/2026/ai-data…
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New on Rest of World: AI models cost more when you don’t use English bit.ly/4zeKViw

AI models cost more when you don’t use English

Some languages require far more tokens for AI models to process, raising costs and reducing context for the people who use them.

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“A massive data center is trying to jump the queue and take our land, water, and energy.” restofworld.org/2026/south-a…
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Chinese tech firms are building local alternatives to Hugging Face, but staying competitive still requires global open-source networks for its developers restofworld.org/2026/china-o…
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While Western cities like New York ban generative AI in primary schools, the UAE has become the first country to mandate AI literacy for K-12 students as young as seven. restofworld.org/2026/uae-man…
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Raffi Krikorian explains that while consumers flock to ChatGPT and Claude, companies are increasingly turning to open models that they can customize and control restofworld.org/2026/open-so…

Mozilla’s CTO thinks AI should be built like the internet

Raffi Krikorian explains that while consumers flock to ChatGPT and Claude, companies are increasingly turning to open models that they can customize and control.

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Meta and OpenAI want to take AI agents global, but fragile networks and language barriers pose steep hurdles across developing nations restofworld.org/2026/meta-mu…
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Retraining alone won’t protect workers from AI-driven job losses, argues Alessandro Crimi. He calls for policies like basic income and taxes on automation to curb inequality restofworld.org/2026/robot-t…

The case for a robot tax to redistribute wealth

In an excerpt from his book, “Innovate for Impact: A Roadmap to Sustainable Technology Beyond AI,” Alessandro Crimi explains that a tax on automation is more effective than retraining labor.

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As AI data centers absorb global memory chip supplies, smartphone prices have jumped up to 25% while the world's cheapest budget devices disappear from the market restofworld.org/2026/ai-data…
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Chinese tech firms are building local alternatives to Hugging Face, but staying competitive still requires global open-source networks for its developers restofworld.org/2026/china-o…
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Tech giants are draining drinking water to cool AI servers, sparking backlash in drought-hit regions of Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil restofworld.org/2026/ai-data…
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Author Payal Arora explores how necessity-driven AI adoption across the Global South is unlocking creative tools and addressing public resource deficits, countering Western anxiety restofworld.org/2026/west-ai…
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China is rapidly gaining control of emerging technologies such as clean energy manufacturing, signaling its intent beyond AI, writes Steve Feldstein in his new book, “Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Big Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare.” restofworld.org/2026/china-a…
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Meta and OpenAI want to take AI agents global, but fragile networks and language barriers pose steep hurdles across developing nations restofworld.org/2026/meta-mu…
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U.S. and European labs are rolling out new open AI models, but they still lag behind China’s cheaper and more efficient systems restofworld.org/2026/china-o…
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New on Rest of World: Big Tech’s thirst for water is sparking a global resistance bit.ly/4jAfytS

Big Tech’s thirst for water is sparking a global resistance

In his new book “Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires,” writer Paris Marx examines how local communities are resisting the growing demand for water to cool data centers.

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Author Payal Arora explores how necessity-driven AI adoption across the Global South is unlocking creative tools and addressing public resource deficits, countering Western anxiety restofworld.org/2026/west-ai…
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While rivals like Tesla rely on rented carriers to export from China, BYD is expanding its private shipping fleet to 18 vessels by 2029 to cut costs and avoid charter market swings restofworld.org/2026/byd-exp…
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