Hiawatha Bray

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Sabrina Shankman |Hiawatha Bray

Massachusetts is pumping the breaks on its ambitious goals to shift drivers from gas to electric vehicles, the Healey administration announced Friday. The state will delay by two years the enforcement of a a rule that would have required 35 percent of cars sold to be electric and plug-in-hybrid starting with 2026 models. From there, the percentages had been set to increase annually until all vehicles sold in the state are fully electric in 2035.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Hiawatha Bray

An Alabama company wants to spend $250 million building fiber connections in over two dozen Massachusetts towns, including Quincy, Beverly and Haverhill. But the company, GoNetspeed, claims that burdensome local regulations are getting in the way. GoNetspeed provides broadband services in eight states, including Maine and Connecticut. These states have a streamlined process for broadband companies seeking to hang optical fiber lines from local utility poles, allowing for quick deployment.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Hiawatha Bray

If you’re not yet worried about artificial intelligence, now might be a good time to start. You’ve probably grown comfortable with systems like ChatGPT, Claude and Grok, which can analyze complex documents, create original works of art, compose music and write essays, poems and software. But powerful as they are, these systems require a fair amount of human guidance. They constantly need to be told what to do next. But what happens when AIs try to figure more things out on their own?

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Hiawatha Bray

Natick resident Eric Sellke sells humorous novelty gifts made in China —plastic pickles that yodel or tell jokes, a tiny violin that plays sad songs. But Sellke saw nothing funny in the Trump trade war with China. He described the administration’s 145 percent tariff on Chinese imports as “one of the most disruptive things that ever happened.” But now that the United States has agreed to lower the tariff to 30 percent for at least 90 days, the pressure has eased.

1 month ago | bostonglobe.com | Hiawatha Bray

Local retailers say that they have enough inventory for now — and they’re hoping the trade war subsides before they feel the full effects. Similar worries have beset retailers of every size throughout the United States. Many began buying extra quantities of foreign goods right after Trump’s reelection.