Editor’s note: AI Pulse is RISMedia’s ongoing roundup of AI happenings, providing trends and real-world use cases to help navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Startup asks homebuyers to host mini data centers in their backyards
One of the largest current barriers to expanding the capabilities (or at least size) of frontier AI models is physical, rather than theoretical or computational. Massive data centers running millions of high-performing computer chips are what allow these tools to perform the trillions of instantaneous calculations that make them function, and those data centers need lots of space and energy.
The data center buildout has become more and more unpopular, with some states even banning companies from building new ones in their boundaries. But one startup is betting that individual homeowners might not be so averse to living (very) near to an AI processor.
Span, a company that specializes in electrical panels, recently partnered with chipmaking giant Nvidia on a project to install tiny “compute nodes” on residential properties, tapping into (supposedly) underused neighborhood energy grids.
Homebuilder giant PulteGroup has already committed to putting the units in new communities, and Span has scheduled a test of around 100 units for later this year.
Will homebuyers, homeowners or neighborhoods be willing to let advanced GPU chips sit on their properties and hoover up electricity? Span says the units are designed to make “minimal noise” and blend with the outdoor infrastructure of the homes.
But amid affordability concerns, Span also has a pitch for people struggling with bills—paying the homeowner’s electrical costs as well as for high-speed internet, though the company said the “details” of their arrangements with property owners can vary.
Honolulu leans on AI for permits amid inventory crisis
Despite lots of recent advances, AI tools often struggle with complex decision-making and nuanced, technical workflows—both aspects of the often difficult process of getting a new home build approved.
But in Honolulu, Hawaii, the Department of Planning and Permitting is now offering a new AI tool meant to help both regulators and applicants streamline building approval, claiming that the technology can reduce review times by up to 60%.
Currently optional for developers, the rollout is still ongoing, complicated by the fact that it was introduced shortly after a total system overhaul that saw a bumpy introduction.
But as the city struggles with a lack of inventory, the tool (known as CivCheck) offers the alluring possibility of quickly cross-checking building permit applications to ensure there are no basic missteps or conflicts, theoretically speeding up the time it takes to get an approval while also reducing costs on both sides.
In 2025, housing units in Hawaii were coming online at the slowest rate since the 1940s, according to local news reports.
AI gets frosty reception at colleges, even as schools offer AI real estate classes
Although you may be an AI evangelist, if you want to work with up-and-coming Gen Z buyers and sellers, you may want to keep it to yourself.
As universities hold graduation ceremonies around the nation, mentions of AI by commencement speakers and college leaders are eliciting boos and even walkouts. While polling shows that younger generations continue to use AI, sentiment toward the technology is growing more negative.
The backlash isn’t just elite private schools, either. A real estate executive speaking at the University of Central Florida was soundly booed for calling AI “the next industrial revolution,” and again for simply stating that students have access to AI tools that they didn’t use to. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt also received jeers for portions of his speech at the University of Arizona in which he detailed his thoughts on AI in the labor market.
Gen Z currently makes up just 4% of homebuyers and a negligible number of sellers, according to NAR, meaning agents who tout their AI tools or expertise aren’t necessarily about to sink their business. But having a reputation as an AI-powered agent might not necessarily be the branding you want for the future, if younger folks continue to feel negatively about the technology.
At the same time, young people are clearly being exposed to AI at a high rate—including around real estate. Both Columbia University and UCLA recently launched (non-degree) courses on AI in real estate specifically, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers a (degree-earning) course on “AI and Data Science in Real Estate.”
