Axios

"Demure" is Dictionary.com's 2024 word of the year — a very mindful, very cutesy choice.

The big picture: While the adjective is traditionally used to describe a reserved or modest individual, demure has taken on an expanded meaning this year to signify sophisticated appearances or behaviors — a shift kindled on TikTok.

The Biden administration is seeking to harness artificial intelligence to help clear the growing backlog of renewable energy waiting to connect to the grid.

Why it matters: Nearly 2,600 gigawatts of active projects — almost all wind, solar, and batteries — were in U.S. grid interconnection queues at the end of 2023, up 27% from the end of 2022, according to a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab report.

When startups collapse, the losers usually are direct stakeholders like investors, founders, and employees.

• But when fintech Synapse went under earlier this year, thousands of users also were left holding the bag. In some cases, that meant their life savings.

Twenty-something knowledge workers are pretty much all using generative AI tools, finds a survey out Monday from Google Workspace.

Why it matters: The youngs are early adopters. If Gen Z is doing it — there's a good chance that at some point soon everyone else might, too.

Microsoft has aggressively added AI-powered Copilots to nearly all its products, but that doesn't necessarily mean your data is being used to train models.

Why it matters: You won't know how much data you might be sharing with Microsoft's AI developers unless you dig into the firm's policies and understand your options.

LONDON — Top researchers this week said scientific discoveries using AI, like new drugs or better disaster forecasting, offer a way to win people's trust in the technology, but they also cautioned against moving too fast.

Why it matters: Public trust in AI is eroding, putting the technology's wide adoption and potential benefits at risk.