There's no digital attorney-client privilege. If a lawyer uses LLM's on your behalf, the communications are protected. If you use the same LLM's on your own behalf, the chats are not protected.
DOJ could cut Z.ai off from US-based payment systems (Mastercard/Visa) if they don't comply with subpoenas.
They could, but generally it is expected that before a subpoena is complied with it is checked to be compatible with the laws of the country it’s in, and requires cooperation from that country. Most often they are ignored if there’s not a presence/entity/assets in the US.
It’s also hard because no individual case would likely justify a move like that. It would have to be the sum of many, many cases.
Please link me to anyone pushing back against the precedent of US v. Heppner, S.D.N.Y. (2026). Would love to learn more! I'd rather not spout off on things that I'm not an expert on if I can help it, and I may have commented a bit fast above.
Don't know if GP's comment has any backing at all, but the statement that "not all judges agree" is probably literally true (though not necessarily meaningfully true), given that it's a recent case in a district court, issue hasn't been heard in an appeals court yet (presumably), and the fact that all things AI are constantly in flux.
That said I think it's generally a good idea to err on the "safe side" and assume that there's no privilege at all in communications with purported AI lawyers.
Morgan v. V2X, Inc., No. 25-cv-01991 (D. Colo. Mar. 30, 2026)
The opinion you cited is from an aiphobe judge. Searching ChatGPT is no different than searching Westlaw. If done in anticipation of litigation it’s likely privileged.
Indeed. Would be nice to have a rock-solid “correct” example to critique and learn from. And a write-up from an expert which goes into detail about all the traps for new players, what failure states / eFuse settings could be truly unrecoverable even if you have remote control of the MCU’s PWR / COM / RST pins, etc.
Years ago I had to design some robust OTA systems for both ATmega’s and ESP32’s. I was very confident that my ATmega solution could recover from absolutely any failure state that wasn’t a true “not my fault” hardware failure. At the time though, I was never quite sure if I properly covered every last edge case of the ESP32, which has significantly higher complexity of things that can go wrong from a bad OTA firmware update.
Just FYI, LoRa / LoRaWAN (Part 15) explicitly allow even unlicensed operators to utilize encryption. WiFi and Bluetooth, similarly, of course (also under Part 15). And surprisingly long range wireless network bridging like the Ubiquiti Building Bridge XG over 5GHz and 60GHz to bridge two building's LANs up to 500meters away. Part 15 also covers the unlicensed usage of the 900MHz band popular for citizen mesh networks at 2-15Mbps.
MURS (Part 95J) allows unlicensed operators to utilize encryption for digital data transmission as long as it's not encrypting voice communications, though it disallows store-and-forward packet operation and repeaters which makes doing anything similar to Reticulum/Meshtastic rather difficult.
For $400-800 nearly anyone can get a FCC Part 90 Nationwide Itinerant Data License which would allow them to do most of the "fun stuff" they might like to do for just $45-75/year, which is pretty darn affordable. Part 90 explicitly allows encryption, both of voice and data.
FCC Part 96 (CBRS) allows "unlicensed" (licensed-by-rule) operators to run their own private LTE/5G cell sites, if you have a WAN connection like Starlink or whatever. Obviously encryption is allowed.
Encryption is really only hard-banned for "amateur" radio (Part 97), and voice rules of Part 95 (i.e. CB / FRS / GMRS).
Of course, but the power dissipated in a data center provide zero heat for your house.
(Tangent: I wonder why we haven't seen deployment of organic Rankin cycle generators in AI data centers, the exhaust temperature should be compatible and that could yield a 10-20% energy bill saving).
They use it in the city heating system, which is obviously the optimal way of reusing the heat but most data centers aren't put next to such a heating system.
I'm talking about making electricity back from the heat (using a low-temp thermodynamic cycle). It has a low yield (due to the low input temperature) but it's usually economically viable when using heat that would end up in the heavens anyway.
Easier said than done, but if you water-cool the GPU just upstream of your domestic water heater, it wouldn't be a bad thing. Perhaps using coolant and a counterflow heat exchanger, rather than the potable water, but the point stands. Would just need a secondary tank as a buffer (able to soak up heat from the GPU at all times, even when there's no demand for hot water) which then flushes in when demand exists.
Let's say your GPU uses a constant 300W. It takes approximately 1.16 Wh to heat a liter of water 1 degree celsius under 100% efficiency. This setup won't be 100% efficient, so let's round up to 1.5 Wh per liter per degree (roughly 80% efficient). A typical domestic water heater in the US 40-50 gallons, so roughly 160 liters.
Let's say your incoming water temperature is 18C and you want it preheated to 50C, which is 32C degree differential, which means you'll need 32 * 1.5 * 160 = 7680 Wh, or 25 hours straight to heat the buffer tank from scratch.
You'll need to purchase a small water-to-water heat exchanger ($50), two pumps ($100 each), a power supply for said pumps, hose and/or copper pipe and fittings, and various other sundries, plus the cost of a buffer tank ($600ish), so figure all in roughly $1000, plus the cost of electricity to run the pumps.
At $0.22/kWh you're saving roughly $450 a year with this setup in foregone water heating, but because it's not 100% efficient you're spending $500 in electricity to run your GPU 24/7/365, and that's the maximum you can possibly save with the above assumptions. Scale up for more GPUs and down accordingly for less usage as you see fit.
Alternatively, use air as the heat conductor by placing the GPU laden machine in the same space as a hybrid heat pump water heater.
Just recycle an old water heater as the tank? I think your cost estimate is way overblown but it would certainly eat up a lot of time and effort to DIY. Regardless there's a much bigger flaw with this plan. Water tanks need to be kept above or below certain temperatures. The "preheated" range being described here is distinctly unsafe due to various microorganisms IIUC.
> I wonder why we haven't seen deployment of organic Rankin cycle generators in AI data centers
Because there was never a long term plan for AI data centers. It's an AI market capture and cash grab scheme that ends when local models eat their lunch.
That makes no sense. Do you think their plan is to spend billions of dollars and build infrastructure mega projects just to let it sit idle?
Did the rise personal computing make data centers and super computers obsolete?
Any advance in inference that allows local models to do the job will also benefit hyperscalers. Imagine the sheer amount of compute they could throw at problems if each 32GB of VRAM was enough for frontier reasoning.
They could also be betting that there will only be 1 or 2 big winners. And if they don't win they are saving on expenses, if they do win then they will have all the money they need to upgrade later if they want.
In my testing, Synthient's tool[0] and offerings have performed very well for this kind of service. Synthient have also achieved impressive proven success against malicious botnets[1].
DOJ could cut Z.ai off from US-based payment systems (Mastercard/Visa) if they don't comply with subpoenas.