Jay Peters

AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects: * KTVU: Pittsburg approves 45-day data center moratorium but doesn’t stop current plans to build one * NPR: How a lifelong Republican came to lead the data center battle in Ohio * OPB: Oregon counties, cities say data center moratorium could cost them millions * San José Spotlight: San Jose data center advances after pushback

Epic’s VP of development, Marcus Wassmer, told This Week in Videogames that “we are definitely using AI to develop code and features for Unreal Engine.” Wassmer says that the UE team has seen benefits like “faster” development of features, and the ability for engineers to “explore ideas” that they haven’t had “the time to tackle.” CEO Tim Sweeney said this month that Epic is retooling for “maximum AI acceleration,” and the company said it “vibe coded” its updated games launcher. [Link: Epic Games Confirms AI is Being Used to "Develop Code and Features for Unreal Engine"

It's packed with details and worth reading in full . There's a lot of fascinating stuff about the game's systems and seemingly incredible level of detail, but I was most intrigued by a tidbit about how quitting crime is a “a fundamental theme” of the game's story:

It's also turning on AI Mode ads for more people and in more scenarios: ahead of that call, Google announced that it's bringing ads in AI Mode to new countries and launching ads in follow-up queries in AI Mode in the US.

The judge in Apple's trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI has set a trial start date of July 19th, 2027, as reported by 9to5Mac

Full production of restoring vaulted content is expected to begin in February, and from there, “we expect full production will be about 12mos. to fully complete the porting process,“ according to a blog post

Earlier this month, Big Walk developers House House said that the game skipped Xbox to support the BDS movement.

Reddit is becoming a ‘logged-in-only experience,' says CEO Steve Huffman.

Although Google's AI-powered modes reduce traffic to Reddit, Steve Huffman says that Reddit is still a ‘top search term' on Google.

12 pts Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in an earnings call today that Google's AI-powered search modes do not help with traffic to the platform, echoing problems facing other websites and publishers. As part of its Q3 2026 earnings, Reddit revealed that search traffic in October has "dropped by more than 1 million…