Providence Technology Group

Sparkz, a Sacramento-based battery maker betting big on American manufacturing, pulled back the curtain Wednesday on its new U.S.-built lithium battery system, the SparkzCore22, at its Metro Air Park factory. Executives pitched the hardware as a compact, scalable power bank for homes and businesses that can also be clustered to support power-hungry data centers and ease strain on the electric grid. The debut doubled as the finale of a media tour during Sacramento Climate Week, putting the company’s onshoring message squarely in the spotlight. Keep Reading This Article at Hoodline.com

In a remarkable encounter off the coast of Alaska, human scientists had what they describe as a “conversation” with a humpback whale named Twain. Dr. Brenda McCowan from the University of California Davis (UC Davis) and her team, known as Whale-SETI, have been studying how humpback whales communicate. They’re aiming to understand whale communication systems to help in the search for life beyond Earth. Keep Reading This Article at Earth.com

A new retail experiment in San Francisco, Ca. is testing how far AI can go, not just as a tool, but as the boss. At 2102 Union St. in the Cow Hollow neighborhood, Andon Market, a boutique that opened April 1 (appropriately enough), an AI system named Luna is in charge, developed by Andon Labs and given a three-year lease, a $100,000 budget and access to a company credit card, then told to build and operate a profitable store. Keep Reading This Article at Forbes

Santa Clara University will establish the Cunningham Shoquist Center for Applied AI and Human Potential after receiving nearly $25 million from Nvidia executive Debora Shoquist. The center will advance research in healthcare, medical imaging, intelligent robotics, information access, and human-computer interaction, and will support faculty grants, student fellowships, hackathons, and events. Leaders expect it to serve as a collaborative hub linking academic expertise with Silicon Valley companies to develop AI tools that enhance human capability and reflect ethical values. Keep Reading This Article at Mercury News

As some businesses across the Greater Sacramento region are announcing layoffs and closures, one high-tech company in Rancho Cordova is actually expanding. If you’re watching a YouTube video or surfing the net, there’s a chance that data is being stored on computer drives created by the Rancho Cordova-based company, Solidigm. Keep Reading This Article at MSN.com

When Zeus, a medical student living in a hilltop city in central Nigeria, returns to his studio apartment from a long day at the hospital, he turns on his ring light, straps his iPhone to his forehead, and starts recording himself. He raises his hands in front of him like a sleepwalker and puts a sheet on his bed. He moves slowly and carefully to make sure his hands stay within the camera frame. Keep Reading This Article at MIT Technology Review

California State Chief Information Officer Liana Bailey-Crimmins announced on Friday she will retire after a 38-year career in public service, stepping down from her role leading the California Department of Technology. Appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022, Bailey-Crimmins led statewide efforts to modernize infrastructure and expand digital services. Her departure marks a transition point for one of the largest state IT organizations in the country. The state has not announced a replacement. Keep Reading This Article at StateScoop

Scrutiny in Sacramento over California’s stalled Next Generation 9-1-1 system continued Tuesday, with lawmakers from the Assembly Committee on Emergency Management grilling the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and the vendors chosen to build the new emergency call network about the project’s future and past failures. Keep Reading This Article at MSN.com

UC Davis Health is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance patient care and reduce the workload of experienced physicians. And now it’s taking a step further by preparing the next generation of health care providers to harness the advanced technology in a way that only an academic medical center can. The Department of Emergency Medicine at UC Davis Medical Center is implementing a pilot program to teach its residents to use note-taking technology that faculty physicians have already implemented in their clinics. The pilot program will provide residents with training to apply generative AI tools during patient encounters, review those notes, and understand the opportunities and inherent risks of using the technology. Keep Reading This Article at UC Davis Health

If you’re worried about data centers and AI inflating your electricity bill, you’re not alone. A California watchdog released a report Tuesday urging policymakers to act fast on the state’s fast-growing data-center industry – before soaring electricity demand from artificial intelligence lands on the bills of ordinary households. “The costs that data centers impose on the electrical grid should be paid by the centers themselves, not by average California families already struggling with high utility bills,” said Pedro Nava, chair of the Little Hoover commission, the independent bipartisan body that produced the report. Keep Reading This Article at APNews.com

California’s job market appears steady overall, but clear differences have emerged between sectors. Education and health services have driven employment gains, while tech-related industries have lagged. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, education and health services added about 49,000 jobs between July and December 2025. Over the same period, the information sector lost roughly 4,600 positions. Keep Reading This Article at Edhat.com

The rise of artificial intelligence and other technology has traditional high schools scrambling to keep up — with states doing an uneven job of encouraging schools to embed critical thinking skills, and offer students access to internships and college courses, according to a new report. Today’s world, the nonprofit XQ Institute argues in its new report The Future Is High School, “requires an entirely new kind of educational experience — one that traditional high schools were never designed to deliver,” the report found. Keep Reading This Article at Yahoo News