The nuclear future for zoomers will look different than it did for boomers.

Older generations were born into a world of nuclear fission, a form of nuclear energy that creates power by splitting atoms, releases radioactive waste, and is fueled by non-renewable sources like uranium and plutonium. But 80 years later, the US is on the precipice of energy generation from nuclear fusion, the other type of nuclear energy.

Fusion creates power by fusing two atoms into one, making the result larger than the sum of its parts. The process is fueled by tritium and deuterium, a hydrogen isotope found in seawater, and creates more energy than nuclear fission. Fusion also creates less radiation and can’t lead to a nuclear meltdown like the fission catastrophes that occurred at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine) or Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

Why now: So why didn’t the US generate power from this safer, renewable form of nuclear energy in the first place? Because fusion technology wasn’t advanced enough to produce reliable results until recently. Now, nuclear fusion companies are urging the federal government to help this technology scale as fast as possible to make sure the US takes advantage of what could be a multitrillion-dollar market.

“As we continue to scale, it’s the beginning of a chapter where fusion is starting to be able to replace fission,” Greg Piefer, CEO of nuclear fusion company Shine Technologies, told Tech Brew.

“China is absolutely investing much more than the US government in fusion. So we do need to make sure that we don’t lose that race,” he added.

Keep reading here.—TC

You can’t learn to swim by reading about water. It’s a similar principle when it comes to the education around combatting deepfakes and other AI-powered cyberattacks. Reading tutorials and watching instructional videos doesn’t have the same impact as experiencing a deepfake incident in real time.

That’s why we reached out to three security awareness training (SAT) companies currently focusing their attention on the growing threat of deepfakes, which led to $347.2 million in direct losses in Q2 2025 (per Resemble.ai’s quarterly Deepfake Threat Intelligence report). The goal? To see if the industry is keeping up with the rapidly evolving deepfake threat with equally sophisticated educational content.

Seeing double. The first stop in my quest: Adaptive Security, a security awareness training company that specializes in AI-powered attacks. Adaptive’s website touts its ability to engage employees with “captivating” deepfake and AI content. To put this assertion to the test, I asked the company if it would demo its offering by creating a deepfake of an IT Brew reporter introducing themselves for an interview with Adaptive CEO Brian Long about—you guessed it—deepfake technology.

An Adaptive spokesperson instructed me to send over a 30-second video of myself talking naturally, adding that it would be best if the video was filmed with good lighting and facing toward the camera. So, I grabbed my iPhone and filmed a quick video reciting their instructions, then reading a few lines from a recent article of mine.

Less than 24 hours later, the company delivered its deepfake video, which Long said only took about five minutes to make.

Keep reading here.—BM

Community solar is in need of some serious teamwork to get installations back on track.

According to a new report from Wood Mackenzie and the Coalition for Community Solar Access, installations of community solar—solar infrastructure shared by subscribers who, in turn, receive energy credits—fell by 36% in the first half of 2025. The report said this stark decrease is the result of President Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which phased out solar tax credits and “fundamentally altered” the community solar market, causing “slowing growth” in states that install community solar the most.

“The early expiration of the [Investment Tax Credit] will only add to this difficulty given the window for any new projects to secure tax credits is so small,” Caitlin Connelly, a Wood Mackenzie senior analyst, said in the report.

Both New York and Maine have seen booms in community solar installations in the last five years. But high interconnection costs have decelerated the community solar market in New York, and Maine recently passed legislation that makes community solar ineligible for net-metering, the billing policy it relies on. Even though “corporate demand for community solar remains high,” promising state markets in Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey “remain stalled” between program iterations, the Wood Mackenzie report said.

Keep reading here.—TC

OpenAI, nearing its 10th anniversary, is navigating a shift from nonprofit roots toward for-profit growth, with strategic partnerships like Microsoft’s evolving. These changes impact developers, enterprises, and the broader AI ecosystem, shaping competition, alliances, and innovation. Stay informed on how OpenAI’s structural pivots could influence the future of generative AI and the emerging tech landscape.

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