Security Waivers, Power Fights, Quantum Hype, Gaming Woes

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It’s Monday, May 11, 2026. Here’s what’s moving in AI and tech today.

A rare regulatory reversal at the FCC that could keep millions of existing routers and consumer drones secure through 2029... a state-versus-grid-operator fight over who pays for AI-driven power upgrades... China’s splashy claim of a dual-core quantum computer — and why researchers aren’t impressed yet... a Right-to-Repair showdown between Louis Rossmann and 3D-printing giant Bambu Lab... and Sony’s 766 million dollar write-down on Bungie after Destiny 2 and Marathon underperformed.

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First up — a significant pivot at the Federal Communications Commission that touches both cybersecurity and everyday gadgets.

Late Friday, May 8, the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology issued a public notice extending waivers so certain foreign-made, already authorized consumer routers and drones can keep receiving software and firmware updates until at least January 1, 2029. That’s a two-year extension beyond the 2027 cutoff many were bracing for.

The Commission framed it as consumer protection — blocking critical patches would raise cybersecurity risk for households, schools, and small businesses that still rely on these devices. The notice also points back to earlier decisions adding foreign-made drones, and more recently consumer-grade routers produced abroad, to the Covered List, which curtails approvals of new models unless they get case-by-case clearance. Friday’s step makes clear that owners of equipment already in the market won’t be stranded without security fixes for at least the next three years. If you’re an IT manager, or a parent trying to keep a home network safe, that buys valuable time.

One important caveat: this is about updates for previously authorized gear — not a green light for new imports. The broader ban on approving future routers remains in effect without conditional approvals. According to public notice DA-26-454, the update allowances now run to January 1, 2029.

Zooming out... Washington is tightening supply-chain and national-security controls, even as it tries not to harm security for existing users. Keep that distinction in mind if you’re planning hardware refresh cycles in 2026 and 2027.

Story two — the AI power crunch is increasingly landing on voters’ doorsteps.

Over the weekend, Maryland’s Office of People’s Counsel filed a formal complaint to federal regulators, arguing that PJM Interconnection — the grid operator across 13 states and D.C. — is unfairly pushing a two billion dollar slice of a twenty two billion dollar transmission upgrade plan onto Maryland ratepayers to accommodate surging data center demand, much of it out of state. The consumer advocate says that could translate to an extra 1.6 billion dollars over the next decade for Maryland customers — roughly 345 dollars per residential account, 673 dollars per commercial customer, and more than 15,000 dollars for large industrials. The office’s David Lapp put it bluntly: PJM’s cost-allocation rules are broken, and without action from federal regulators, Maryland customers would be paying billions for infrastructure that primarily benefits distant AI campuses.

It’s a microcosm of a national debate: who pays to harden the grid for hyperscale AI — local ratepayers, or the companies driving the load? Expect this fight to influence new contract structures where developers shoulder more of the transmission bill, or where AI operators bring their own power. Either way, the cost of compute isn’t just GPUs... it’s poles, wires, substations — and political capital.

Third — quantum computing headlines out of China grabbed attention Sunday, but the fine print is... thin.

A Wuhan-based firm affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences unveiled Hanyuan-2, billed as the world’s first dual-core quantum computer. The machine reportedly houses two neutral-atom arrays — 100 rubidium 85 atoms and 100 rubidium 87 atoms — for a total of 200 qubits in a single cabinet-style system, with power draw claimed under 7 kilowatts. The pitch is that the two arrays can run in parallel, or dedicate one to real-time error handling while the other computes.

Impressive on its face — but researchers quickly flagged what’s missing: no peer-reviewed paper, no gate fidelity or coherence-time metrics, and no error-rate data. For context, leading neutral-atom efforts in the West publicly report larger arrays and quality metrics — Atom Computing demonstrated a 1,180 qubit array in 2023, and QuEra has shipped error correction ready machines. Until we see benchmarks, this looks more like a packaging innovation than a performance leap. It’s an intriguing claim, not a peer-validated breakthrough.

If you’re tracking the quantum race... the dual-core label echoes classical CPU marketing. Many labs are already exploring modular architectures that link multiple processors. The novelty here is placing two atom arrays in one integrated box — whether that’s actually an advantage will depend on fidelity and connectivity data the company hasn’t released. Stay skeptical, but curious.

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Fourth — a fresh Right-to-Repair flashpoint in the 3D-printing world.

Over the weekend, repair advocate and YouTuber Louis Rossmann publicly pledged ten thousand dollars toward legal fees for a developer who says Bambu Lab sent a cease-and-desist over code that would restore direct control between Bambu printers and the open-source OrcaSlicer. In a characteristically blunt video, Rossmann told the company to go bleep yourself — and urged the community to crowdfund the defense if the developer chooses to put the code back online.

Bambu Lab has argued that certain third-party integrations swamped its cloud infrastructure — saying last year it was seeing roughly 30 million unauthorized requests per day. But the pushback highlights a broader consumer-rights principle: if you bought the printer, should you be able to fix and modify it... or choose a local software path instead of a cloud? The dispute touches multiple hot buttons at once — device ownership, open-source forks, and whether vendors can legally fence off repair or third-party control in the name of security and uptime.

Why you should care even if you don’t own a 3D printer: these test cases often ripple outward. We’ve seen similar fights around tractors, smartphones, and consoles. The outcomes will shape whether AI-infused appliances — from robot vacuums to smart HVAC — remain serviceable on your terms, or only on the vendor’s.

And fifth — a sobering update from the games-meets-tech economy.

Sony recorded a 120.1 billion yen impairment — about 766 million dollars — on Bungie for its 2025 financial year, which closed March 31, 2026. The write-down follows weaker-than-expected engagement and sales for Destiny 2, and a softer-than-hoped debut for Marathon. Remember, Sony acquired Bungie for 3.6 billion dollars in 2022, partly to bolster live-service ambitions. This charge doesn’t mean the studio is sunk, but it underlines how brutally hard games-as-a-service has become — especially as AI tools reshape pipelines and player expectations. For the broader industry, it’s another data point that content bets remain risky, even for cash-rich platform owners.

Two quick threads tie today’s stories together. First, the hidden cost of AI at scale — Maryland’s filing shows how the infrastructure bill can boomerang onto ratepayers if rules don’t evolve. Second, the governance of connected devices — the FCC’s waiver buys time to patch what’s already in the wild, while the Bambu–Rossmann dispute shows users still fighting to control the hardware they own. As for quantum... splashy specs without metrics won’t cut it — benchmarks, or it didn’t happen. And in gaming, even giants can misread the room.

Recap: the FCC will allow security updates for foreign-made routers and drones until January 1, 2029. Maryland is asking federal regulators to shield its customers from a two billion dollar grid upgrade linked to AI data centers. China floated a 200 qubit dual-core quantum machine, but offered scant performance data. Right-to-Repair tensions escalated as Louis Rossmann backed a developer in a fight with Bambu Lab. And Sony booked a 766 million dollar impairment on Bungie as live-service realities bite.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more.

Thanks for listening and a quick disclaimer, this podcast was generated and curated by AI using my and my kids' cloned voices, if you want to know how I do it or want to do something similar, reach out to me at emad at ai news in 10 dot com that's ai news in one zero dot com. See you all tomorrow.