Technology Desk

Technology

Infrastructure, industry, and the machinery behind digital life.

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Commercial drone flying over an airport approach corridor, city rooftops and low-altitude logistics infrastructure at blue hour

Technology • Investigation

Drones Have Left the Gadget Era

The hard part is no longer whether small aircraft can fly useful missions. It is whether law, air traffic systems, police oversight, war planning and supply chains can see and govern the low-altitude sky now filling up.

By The Press • May 16, 2026 • 2:30 p.m. EDT

Image of a grid-scale battery storage site under transmission lines at dusk

Technology • Analysis

The Battery Is Becoming the Grid

Grid batteries, electric cars, lithium supply chains, virtual power plants, and interconnection queues are turning storage from a gadget story into the shock absorber of the power system.

By Julian Mercado • May 7, 2026 • 11:20 a.m. EDT

Photorealistic aerial image of the Pentagon complex in daylight, with Washington, D.C. visible in the background

Technology • Report

The Pentagon Just Let Big AI Into the Classified Room

The Pentagon's classified-network AI agreements are not a chatbot story. They are the moment frontier models, cloud infrastructure, and defense power began moving into the same secured room — with Anthropic's empty chair revealing the fight over who controls the guardrails.

By Julian Mercado • May 3, 2026 • 4:30 p.m. EDT

Image showing Elon Musk and Sam Altman facing each other with the OpenAI logo between them

Technology • Analysis

The Trial Over OpenAI’s Soul

Elon Musk says OpenAI betrayed its nonprofit mission. OpenAI says Musk wanted control and lost. The court battle is really about whether the most powerful AI company in the world can still claim to serve humanity after becoming one of the richest corporate prizes in technology.

By Julian Mercado • April 29, 2026 • 10:15 a.m. EDT

Construction at TSMC Fab 21 in Phoenix, Arizona

Technology • Report

AI Needs Electricity, Steel, and Time

Behind the chatbot boom is a slower race over transformers, substations, fabs, and the people who know how to build them.

By Julian Mercado • April 6, 2026 • 9:05 a.m. EDT