Marketplace All-in-One The weather outside is frightful (so's the heating bill)
Dec 25, 2025
Josh Jezza, Investigations editor at The Verge, dives into the world of AI training data, discussing the importance of high-quality datasets over scraped web data. He explains how training-data firms resemble essential support businesses, profiting while AI companies struggle. Will Bain, BBC correspondent, explores the surge of U.S. investors in British soccer clubs, highlighting how these owners are monetizing teams through sponsorships and media deals. Together, they unravel the economic threads connecting energy costs and tech innovations.
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Year-Round Energy Squeeze
- U.S. households face both high cooling and heating bills, creating year-round energy pressure.
- Rising natural gas prices and grid modernization costs are being passed to consumers, worsening affordability.
Expand Aid And Improve Efficiency
- Increase LIHEAP funding and expand emergency assistance to reduce shutoffs and debt accumulation.
- Adopt energy-efficiency upgrades and change rate structures to lower long-term bills for vulnerable customers.
AI Drives New Energy And Labor Markets
- AI growth is raising electricity demand via data centers and specialized human-generated training data.
- Companies supplying training labor and infrastructure act as profitable 'picks-and-shovels' in the AI boom.