Welcome to Issue 6. The lead story this week is last Tuesday’s midterm elections, which turned out to be partly about AI: voters across the country weighed in on data centers, the huge computer buildings that run AI, and what comes next may reach our own corner of the Lowcountry. Also in this issue: Apple’s new warning about AI agents, ChatGPT learning to make animated GIFs, and a look at fake online ads that borrow the name of a real company.

Our first SIG meeting is this Monday, November 9, and the details are just below.

AI SIG announcements

First SIG meeting: Monday, November 9, 4:00 pm

Our first meeting is Monday, November 9, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. After that, we’ll meet on the first Wednesday of each month, 4:00 to 5:00 pm, starting Wednesday, December 2. Each meeting is an hour. Afterward, you’re welcome to stay for optional member Q&A, up to another hour (until 6:00 pm), where we take your questions about AI. All meetings are virtual on Google Meet until further notice. You don’t need to install any software or app: select the link in a web browser such as Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox, and you’re in. You don’t need a Google account to join, though you may be asked to type your name and wait to be admitted.

We hope online is temporary: we’re still working through the room-scheduling maze and hope to offer in-person options soon.

Every AI SIG member receives this newsletter automatically. Computer Club members who haven’t joined yet can email SCHHCC.AI.SIG@gmail.com with the subject “Join.” (Computer Club members only.)

Please take the member survey, if you haven’t already

If you haven’t yet filled out the AI SIG member survey, please take a few minutes to do it. Take the AI SIG member survey. It takes about 5 minutes, and every question is optional. You don’t need a Google account. The results will be important in shaping how this newsletter and our SIG meetings are run, so your answers really do make a difference. If the link doesn’t open, copy it into your web browser’s address bar, try a different browser, or email SCHHCC.AI.SIG@gmail.com and we’ll help.

Wednesday Walk-In Help: AI questions welcome

I’ll be at the club’s Wednesday Walk-In Help session on Wednesday, November 11, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. It’s a chance to ask general AI questions or get help with specific tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Gemini Notebook and others. Bring your device and your questions. Depending on interest, I may continue and possibly expand this to other days.

Computer Club Hour: Fix It, Design It, Imagine It, Friday, November 13

I’ll be presenting “Fix It, Design It, Imagine It: Using AI Image Tools” at the Computer Club Hour on Friday, November 13, at 10:00 am in Magnolia Hall. It will include demonstrations of image creation, photo restoration and enhancement, photo analysis, creating websites with photo galleries, and much more. Related reading: Preserving the Past While Revitalizing It: AI and Photo Restoration, Image Compositing with AI: What It Can Do (and What It Can’t), and Restoring Family Photos with AI: How Much Is Real?.

ChatGPT classes filled; more in December

Both November sessions of “ChatGPT: The Parts You’re Not Using (Yet)” filled within two hours of the announcement in Education Weekly. I plan to offer more in December, so stay tuned and watch the SCHHCC Education Weekly announcements for sign-up details.

Have a question or an idea for a future AI SIG session? Send it to SCHHCC.AI.SIG@gmail.com.

AI news worth knowing

What the midterm elections mean for AI and data centers

AI itself was rarely on the ballot on November 3, but one piece of it was: data centers, the large buildings full of computers that run AI services and use a great deal of electricity. The Associated Press counted 47 local data-center referendums across 12 states, and where counting was complete, voters approved restrictions in 44 of 45. The AP’s voter poll found about three-quarters of voters oppose a new data center in their own community.

The AP and TIME both report that Democrats won control of Congress. What that means for AI is mostly expectation so far, and no law has changed. Both say sweeping federal AI rules are unlikely soon, since Democrats would need substantial Republican support to overcome a possible presidential veto. TIME adds that a push to bar states from passing their own AI laws will now be harder to win, and that Congress can hold hearings and question AI executives. More of the action is expected in state capitals and town halls.

Stocks swung sharply. NPR reports that shares rose on Wednesday, when it was clear who had won, then fell on Thursday: the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped more than 5%, erasing over $2 trillion in value, with AI-related companies among the biggest decliners. NPR ties the drop to investor fears of tougher AI and data-center rules. The AP’s account is more cautious: it says the Nasdaq ended Thursday about 11% below its record high, with investors also worried that higher borrowing costs may slow data-center construction, and it notes that President Trump could stall a federal crackdown. Tech stocks were already struggling before the election, as investors questioned whether AI spending will pay off, and NPR says it is unclear whether the slide will continue. We didn’t find reliable coverage of Friday’s trading. Many of us own these companies through retirement accounts, so the swings may show up in a statement; this is news, not investment advice, and questions about your own money are best taken to your financial adviser.

Closer to home. We found no data center operating or proposed in Okatie, Bluffton or Hilton Head. In mid-October, the chairs of both the Beaufort and Jasper county councils told the Island Packet that none has been proposed in their counties, and both are acting in advance. Jasper County passed a one-year pause on new applications in its unincorporated areas on October 5. Beaufort County’s planning commission has recommended a nine-month pause, which the County Council must still approve in three readings after a public hearing. We found no report of a council vote yet. The City of Savannah has paused large data-center applications through late January while it writes rules.

The nearest big project is across the state line: OpenAI’s planned campus in Effingham County, Georgia, near Savannah, announced July 22. It is planned for 3.2 gigawatts of power, built in phases from 2028 to 2032. OpenAI says it will pay the full cost of the electric service and that Georgia families “will not subsidize this project.” In Colleton County, an October settlement bars data centers across most of the ACE Basin, including the site of a proposed 1,000-megawatt campus.

Upstream, along the Savannah River, Aiken County, South Carolina, has three data center projects. The largest is Meta’s $800 million AI campus near Graniteville, expected to open in spring 2027 and to draw about 200 megawatts of power, more than the city of Aiken uses, according to a state senator quoted by the Aiken Standard. Aiken Electric Cooperative will serve it. Meta says it aims to be “water positive” by 2030, meaning it would fund projects, such as restoring wetlands or fixing leaky pipes, that return more water than it uses. By Meta’s own description, those projects focus on regions where water is scarce, so they would not necessarily be near Aiken. We found no published figure for the Aiken campus’s water use. Our area’s water comes from the same river: the Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority draws from it, and officials have said it supplies more than enough, with treatment capacity the limit. We found no report that the Aiken projects threaten that supply or raise local power rates. Palmetto Electric’s CEO chairs Central Electric Power Cooperative, which in March adopted a standard rate for data centers and other very large users, intended to keep their costs from falling on other co-op members. Whether that fully protects members is something to watch.

Why it matters: Decisions about AI that touch members’ daily lives, such as where data centers are built, who pays for their power, and what state rules say about how AI may be used, are increasingly made by local and state officials. This is the same question behind OpenAI’s pledge in Also this week. None of it changes the AI tools you use today. If you want to follow along, your county and state governments are the places to watch. Here, that means the Beaufort and Jasper county councils, and your town council too: Jasper’s pause doesn’t cover towns, which could still permit a data center on their own.

Sources: How AI Backlash Shaped the 2026 Midterms, TIME, Nov. 4, 2026 · Data centers took a beating in the midterm elections, Associated Press via ABC News, Nov. 6, 2026 · Fears of an AI crackdown after midterms spark $2 trillion rout in tech stocks, NPR, Nov. 5, 2026 · Beaufort and Jasper counties data center coverage, Hilton Head Island Packet via AOL, Oct. 12, 2026 · Data centers, City of Savannah · OpenAI plans massive data center facility with Georgia Power, WSB-TV, reporting OpenAI’s July 22, 2026 announcement · Meta and other Aiken County data centers, Aiken Standard · What Does it Mean to Be ‘Water Positive’?, Meta Sustainability, Mar. 15, 2023 · S.C. electric co-ops adopt new data center rate, WRDW, Mar. 18, 2026 · Lowcountry water and growth, Post and Courier · Colleton County settlement, Southern Environmental Law Center, Oct. 21, 2026

Apple warns that AI agents can act in ways nobody intended

An AI agent is a program that carries out tasks for you, such as sending messages or completing a purchase, instead of just answering questions. The term covers a wide range. At one end are simple helpers, such as a tool that watches your inbox and alerts you, or one that drafts something for you to review. At the other end are agents that work on their own for long stretches and can log in to your accounts. Apple’s warning and the bank notices below are about that second kind: agents that combine a high degree of independence with access to your passwords or to financial and other accounts where mistakes have real consequences. Meta’s Muse and xAI’s Grok Bot are examples of the independent kind. They run in the cloud and can keep working on a task after you close the app. In its annual report to investors, filed on November 3, Apple added new language listing AI agents as a business risk.

According to CNBC and Fortune, which reviewed the filing, Apple says agents “may behave in unintended or unpredictable ways,” including by taking actions they were not authorized to take. Its examples include reaching systems they may not be permitted to use, changing code, sending messages and completing transactions. Apple also says some of these tools may conceal what they have done or give inaccurate or deceptive answers, that some results, such as deleted data or a completed transaction, may be hard or impossible to undo, and that its ability to oversee and control third-party agents may be limited.

This is risk language that companies write for investors, not a notice to customers. Fortune reports that Alphabet and other companies have added similar warnings. On Monday’s earnings call, Apple CEO John Ternus said, “We just want to make sure that users are aware of what they are giving access to.” CNBC reports that Apple has not launched an agent product. Its new Siri AI works with information on your device but can’t run on its own for long stretches.

Why it matters: “Agent” covers a lot of ground, and the concern here is a narrow part of it. Two things together raise the stakes: how independently the agent can act, and what it has access to. An agent that works on its own and holds the keys to your bank, card or email accounts is the case that worries Apple and the banks. Bank of America recently emailed customers that giving login details to an AI agent may leave them responsible for what the agent does, and other large banks have reportedly begun blocking outside agents. Check your own bank’s terms before connecting anything.

Many other uses are much lower risk: summarizing a web page, drafting a message you will review, or alerting you to important email. So are some newer tools, such as ChatGPT Finances, which connects to your accounts through a service called Plaid in a read-only way. The AI can look at your balances and transactions but cannot see your full account numbers, move money or change anything. That is quite different from an agent that can act for you.

Agents are new and have little track record, so our advice is simple: for now, avoid using software agents for anything of consequence. That means money, bank or card accounts, passwords, and messages sent in your name. If you want to experiment, stay with low-stakes tasks, find out what the agent will be allowed to do, and choose setups that ask you to approve each step, as we suggested in Issues 4 and 5.

Ron’s note: I use agents like Codex and Claude Code often for coding, where I can review the results, and one that watches my email for items needing attention. I’m not yet comfortable using them for financial transactions. Agents have been the big AI story of 2026, and I expect that to intensify in 2027. Apple’s filing is the latest of many developments, and I’ll be watching closely.

Sources: Apple warns of AI agents that behave in unintended or unpredictable ways, CNBC, Nov. 3, 2026 · Apple warns rogue AI agents could cause unintended consequences, Fortune, Nov. 3, 2026 · Bank of America tells customers to stop sharing banking passwords with AI agents, TechRadar, Oct. 2026

ChatGPT can now make animated GIFs

A GIF is a short, looping animated picture, like the ones people text to family. On November 4, OpenAI released an update called ChatGPT Images 2.6. You can now ask ChatGPT to make an animated GIF from a typed description or from a photo you upload, change how fast it plays, and edit its individual frames. The update also lets you save reference images of yourself, a pet or a character so you don’t have to upload them each time. OpenAI says image creation is faster too.

OpenAI says it is rolling out to all ChatGPT users on the web, desktop and mobile. We couldn’t find a breakdown by plan, usage limits, or how long a GIF can be, so the free plan may limit what you can do, or it may not have reached your account yet. Details come from news coverage and OpenAI’s announcement on its developer forum.

Why it matters: Making a birthday GIF for the grandchildren is a fun low-stakes try. Remember that a reference image means a photo of a person is saved in a service, so think twice before saving someone else’s face without asking. We’ll be exploring image tools at the November 13 Computer Club Hour.

Sources: ChatGPT can now make animated GIFs, The Next Web, Nov. 4, 2026 · Images upgraded: introducing ChatGPT Images 2.6, OpenAI Developer Community, Nov. 4, 2026

Also this week

  • OpenAI says it will pay the full electricity and infrastructure costs of the data centers it owns and operates, and will stop signing nondisclosure agreements with public officials (Nov. 5). The announcement follows local ballot measures on data centers in several states, so power bills and who pays for them are becoming a question for ordinary households. This comes from a summary of CNBC’s report; we couldn’t open the original. (AI Weekly)

Member Voices

How I Saved Myself from Making Some Boneheaded Christmas Gift Purchases by Using AI in the Store

By Jim Smith · Real-world use

I tried to do some Christmas shopping while in Savannah today. Standing in the jewelry store in the Marriott’s lobby at Plant Riverside, I thought I saw the perfect gift for my daughter. But I wondered if the price was fair for the necklace I was looking at. So, I pulled out my phone, snapped a picture, and asked Gemini what it thought. I gave Gemini no information other than the photo, yet it came back and told me who designed the necklace, what it retails for (which matched exactly what it was being sold for at the Marriott), and why I might want to think twice before buying it. It then gave me some better options for a necklace featuring the same stone, which I followed up on. I ended up spending about $100 more than what the Marriott was asking, but I know my daughter will have a quality piece she’ll cherish for a long time.

This experience really showed me the value of using AI on the go. It’s remarkably easy to snap a photo of a product, upload it to the AI app on your phone, and ask whether you’re making a sensible buy. That’s going to come in handy for me, because I have a real propensity for buying the wrong things, only to end up dissatisfied later. Going forward, I’ll definitely be taking a few more pictures and letting AI weigh in before I pull out my credit card.

Your turn. Have you used AI while shopping, like Jim, made something with an AI image tool, planned a trip, or checked a login with a password manager? We’d love to hear what worked, and what didn’t. Email SCHHCC.AI.SIG@gmail.com with a subject starting “Share:” and tell us how you’d like to be credited: full name, first name and last initial, or anonymous. We may share it in a future issue.

Worth a look

  • ChatGPT: The Parts You’re Not Using (Yet), the class guide (AI SIG, Ron Snyder). Early survey responses show many of you are just getting started and want to know how to get better answers from an AI chatbot. I’m planning simple ChatGPT and Gemini handouts to present at a future SIG meeting. Until then, the guide from the recent Computer Club class covers most of what a new user needs. It’s long, so you don’t need to read it all. A good path for a beginner:

    The later demonstrations (voice, photos, connecting accounts, scheduled tasks) can wait until you’re comfortable. Free to read, no account needed to view it.

  • The FTC’s report on protecting older adults (Federal Trade Commission, Nov. 4, 2026). A consumer alert summarizing the agency’s yearly report to Congress. The FTC says reported fraud losses among adults 60 and over rose from about $600 million in 2020 to about $3 billion in 2025, and that older adults were more likely to report losses to tech support, prize and government impersonation scams. Free to read.
  • FTC Consumer Alerts (Federal Trade Commission). Short, plain-English warnings about current scams, posted several times a week. Reading a few is a good way to learn the patterns. Free, and no account is needed.

Stay safe: Fake ads that imitate real companies

In the news.

You search for a company’s customer service number, or scroll past a sponsored post from a store you know. The ad looks right, with the real logo and name, but the link leads to an imposter who wants your payment details or a “fee” to fix a made-up problem.

On November 2, the FTC said scammers impersonate well-known businesses and government agencies in ads on social media, search results and shopping sites. The agency is considering updating its Impersonation Rule, or writing a new one, to hold platforms more accountable. It is asking whether they should vet advertisers before ads run, let people report suspected imposter ads, and investigate and remove the ones that are scams.

The FTC’s alert doesn’t list warning signs, but ordinary precautions help:

  • Don’t act on an ad alone. Type the company’s address yourself, or use a bookmark.
  • Get phone numbers from a card, bill or the company’s own website, not from an ad or a search result.
  • Report it. Tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The alert also points to a public comment process; check the notice it links to for the current deadline.

Sources: Tell the FTC about imposter ads online, Federal Trade Commission, Nov. 2, 2026

That’s it for Issue 6. Tell us what helped, what confused you, and what you’d like covered next at SCHHCC.AI.SIG@gmail.com.

Until next time,
Ron & Jim

Prepared with AI assistance.