Bill Friend

I'm just an old guy with thoughts and opinions to share with anyone who cares to listen.

AI Implementation Plans, Problems, and Possible Solutions

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Problems A mismatch between planning horizons and capability velocity is one of the defining—and underappreciated—features of the current AI environment. Most large-scale AI implementation plans, whether for enterprise deployment, public services, national infrastructure, or defense, still follow multi-year cycles. Power procurement, permitting, construction, integration testing, workforce preparation, and regulatory alignment routinely take years. Meanwhile, frontier … Read more

The United States and Unilateral Seabed Mining: A New Frontier in Global Ocean Governance

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The deep ocean floor holds vast deposits of polymetallic nodules — potato-sized mineral concretions rich in nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese — scattered across abyssal plains, and concentrated particularly in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a deep-sea region of the Pacific lying between Hawaii and Mexico. These minerals are inputs for electric vehicle batteries, defense technologies, … Read more

Thinking Out Loud: The Mutuality of UHVDC and AI

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I’ve been watching the current buildout of UHVDC—the ultra-high-voltage lines designed to move massive amounts of electricity across continents—and AI data centers, and I keep coming back to a couple of questions: Are these two things building a virtuous cycle that pays for the grid of the future? Or are they locking us into a … Read more