This Month's Latest Tech News in Riverside, CA - Saturday May 31st 2025 Edition

Riverside's tech scene surged in May 2025, driven by a wave of AI innovation, new infrastructure, and vital dialogue about technology's societal impact. The launch of the Maverick Innovation Labs and Inland Empire Tech Bridge in Norco cements the region's commitment to fostering startups and workforce development, amplifying its status as an Inland Empire innovation hub (Maverick Innovation Labs opens in Norco).

At the same time, AI's benefits and challenges are under scrutiny, with Caltech's community reflecting on the technology as a powerful tool for medicine, climate, and education - but still reliant on human judgment and creativity.

As one Caltech scholar observes,

“AI is a tool to enhance learning and speed but not a replacement for human reason and intuition.”

(AI at Caltech in 2025).

Yet, calls for responsible, sustainable growth are intensifying as generative AI's environmental costs - soaring electricity demands, CO₂ emissions, and water use - become more widely recognized.

As Professor Elsa A. Olivetti notes,

“When we think about the environmental impact of generative AI, it is not just the electricity you consume when you plug the computer in. There are much broader consequences that go out to a system level and persist based on actions that we take.”

(MIT's analysis of generative AI's environmental impact).

Veritone has secured a multi-year agreement with the Riverside County Sheriff's Office (RCSO) - one of the nation's largest sheriff's departments - to deploy its advanced AI-powered redaction software, Redact, as part of the Intelligent Digital Evidence Management System (iDEMS) suite.

This partnership aims to streamline the redaction of sensitive information, such as faces, license plates, and other personally identifiable details, across vast quantities of bodycam, dashcam, CCTV, and interview footage, significantly reducing administrative burdens and accelerating evidence processing.

As explained by Veritone CEO Ryan Steelberg,

"As the demand for transparency and timely evidence disclosure increases, Veritone Redact helps departments like RCSO to meet public expectations without compromising operational efficiency or privacy rights."

The technology reflects the broader move toward responsible and scalable AI adoption in law enforcement - built on Veritone's “AI for Good” framework emphasizing transparency, trust, security, and user empowerment.

This deal also highlights an industry-wide trend of leveraging automation to meet rising compliance requirements while safeguarding civil liberties. For a deeper look at the features and benefits driving this transformation, visit the detailed announcement in Veritone's official press release on its AI redaction partnership with the Riverside County Sheriff's Office, or explore the sector context and impact in the Prism MarketView analysis of Veritone's expansion in public safety, and see how automated redaction enhances transparency efforts in GovTech's coverage of Riverside Sheriff adopting Veritone.

The University of California, Riverside has unveiled a pioneering AI-powered webinar platform designed to revolutionize how virtual events engage and represent attendees.

Unlike traditional webinars, this new platform intelligently synthesizes participant responses in real time, ensuring that the diverse perspectives of all attendees are captured and reflected in discussions.

As reported in UC Riverside's announcement of its reinvented webinar technology, the platform leverages artificial intelligence to advance inclusivity and engagement, supporting faculty, staff, and students across disciplines.

Recent events such as the "Faculty and TA Partnership in AI-Enhanced Teaching" and biweekly workshops from the AI Literacy Series underscore UCR's commitment to integrating AI tools and ethical practices in academic environments, providing hands-on sessions that empower instructors to design assignments and lesson plans around AI capabilities (explore the AI Literacy Series details).

The university's platform complements a suite of efforts to enhance digital teaching strategies, including guidance for faculty on integrating tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini into course design, promoting equity, adaptability, and responsible use as core values (see UCR's AI in the Classroom strategies).

This holistic approach to AI in education places UCR at the forefront of digital pedagogy, reinforcing Riverside's status as a leader in innovative, inclusive tech-driven learning.

UC Riverside is making headlines for its pioneering integration of Google's NotebookLM, an AI-powered note-taking and research assistant, into classrooms across its new School of Business.

Under the guidance of Assistant Professor Rich Yueh, students are leveraging NotebookLM to analyze course materials, generate custom study aids like summaries and podcasts, and even collaborate on group projects - all from a single platform.

Described by Yueh as “augmented intelligence - technology used intentionally to deepen learning and sharpen thinking,” NotebookLM encourages students to develop critical thinking skills in an increasingly AI-driven world.

UCR's strategic investments in Google's Cloud Platform and AI tools were recently recognized in a feature by Inside UCR, with campus CIO Matthew Gunkel highlighting the university's commitment to innovation:

“We're focused on providing cutting-edge tools like NotebookLM to enhance teaching and learning, while simultaneously exploring AI's potential to streamline administrative processes and drive innovation across the university. Our goal is to equip our students, faculty, and staff with the resources they need to excel in an increasingly AI-driven world, ensuring UCR remains at the forefront of academic and research excellence.”

A recent KTLA 5 segment illustrated how both undergraduate business students and faculty, including the Association for Information Systems student chapter, are at the forefront of these efforts (Empowering Students with AI: UCR's NotebookLM Implementation).

The university's teaching center also offers detailed guidance on NotebookLM's features - including tailored summaries, research support, and collaborative tools - helping to expand its benefits for both students and educators (NotebookLM - Generative AI Tool at UC Riverside).

The move underscores UCR's position as a leader in AI-driven learning in 2025.

This month, research from UC Riverside has ignited a nationwide conversation about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, specifically its immense water footprint.

Studies led by Dr. Shaolei Ren reveal that the water consumed in cooling AI data centers already rivals - and in some cases exceeds - the direct usage of global giants like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

As highlighted in Proof News report on AI water usage,

"If you have a conversation of 10 to 50 queries with ChatGPT, you're going to consume roughly 500 ml of water."

A single GPT-4-generated email can use over half a liter, and AI-driven data centers are projected to double Denmark's entire annual water use by 2027.

The issue is compounded by the fact that many of America's largest data centers are in drought-prone regions, and national demand is only growing. Despite advances in cooling technologies and a few corporate pledges to curb usage, most major tech firms remain opaque about full water disclosure, mainly reporting only direct consumption while ignoring indirect and supply chain impacts.

The scope and breakdown of AI-triggered water usage are illustrated below:

Usage Scenario	Water Consumption	Equivalent
10-50 AI queries (ChatGPT conversation)	~500 ml	One bottle of water
1 GPT-4 email (100 words)	~519 ml	One bottle of water
Google/Microsoft/Meta AI (2027 projection)	Twice Denmark's annual use	More than top beverage companies combined

"The rapid rise of AI has dramatically changed this trajectory and presented new challenges the industry has never met before." - Shaolei Ren, UC Riverside

Beyond the headlines, new legislative efforts in the U.S. and EU are pushing for greater transparency and reporting requirements for water and energy consumption in AI, aiming to address this growing imbalance and inform responsible innovation.

For more on the underlying science and the global scale of the problem, visit the Washington Post's investigation of AI energy and water use and further explore broader water scarcity and AI resource strategies at the Center for Secure Water's AI's Challenging Waters article.

Nvidia's historic $500 billion plan to manufacture advanced AI supercomputers entirely in the United States marks a pivotal shift for the tech sector, but this expansion is raising environmental alarms amid the promise of economic and technological gains.

Key manufacturing hubs in Texas and Arizona - backed by partners like TSMC, Foxconn, and Wistron - will enable mass production of Blackwell AI chips and supercomputers designed for energy-efficient, high-powered workloads, positioning the U.S. as a leader in AI infrastructure.

As outlined by EE Times' analysis of Nvidia's $500 billion investment, these facilities will use more than a million square feet of new factory space, employ sophisticated automation, and spur thousands of jobs.

Yet, experts and local advocates warn of environmental tradeoffs:

“We can't afford to lose millions of gallons a day into the air because we have to cool data centers,” said Teresa Patterson with the Trinity Coalition, highlighting concerns about water consumption for cooling high-performance AI data centers in North Texas as detailed in coverage by NBC 5 Dallas.

The scale rivals global leaders in supercomputing, where facilities demand massive energy and water resources for operation, as shown in the table below based on November 2024 performance data by Robotics & Automation News:

Supercomputer	Country	Performance (exaFLOPS)	Estimated Cost
El Capitan	USA	1.742	$600 million
Frontier	USA	1.35	$500 million
Aurora	USA	1.01	$500 million
Eagle	USA	~0.561	$400 million
Fugaku	Japan	0.442	$1 billion

Balancing innovation, economic opportunity, and sustainable resource use will be crucial as Riverside and other U.S. regions brace for the rise of AI megafactories in their own backyards.

The recent surge of Studio Ghibli-style AI-generated images has sparked viral excitement on social media, but it's also fueling environmental alarms about the technology's hidden water and energy toll.

Studies from the University of California and other institutions reveal that producing just one AI image can consume between 5 to 50 liters of water - enough to match a family's daily drinking supply - due to the massive cooling requirements in data centers running powerful GPUs, as highlighted in Smart Water Magazine's deep-dive on the environmental cost.

With millions worldwide enthusiastically churning out Ghibli-style portraits using tools like OpenAI's GPT-4o, the collective impact is staggering, as companies like Google reportedly used over 5.6 billion gallons of water in 2022, largely from AI operations, according to Channel News Asia.

The strain has grown so intense that OpenAI imposed rate limits on image generation, with CEO Sam Altman warning,

“Can y'all please chill on generating images, this is insane. Our team needs sleep”

as covered by the Times of India.

The table below summarizes key energy and water consumption metrics associated with AI image generation:

Activity	Energy Consumption	Water Consumption
Generate 1 AI image	~3.25 Wh	5–50 liters
Generate 1,000 images	2.9 kWh	Not specified
100-word GPT-4 email	0.14 kWh	519 ml

“It's super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT… But our GPUs are melting.” - Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO

As Riverside and the world embrace creative AI, the environmental price - measured in both carbon and clean water - demands growing public awareness and urgent innovation toward hydrosustainable solutions.

The explosive growth of data centers in the American Southwest, especially around Reno and Phoenix, is fueling mounting concerns over water usage and energy demands in some of the nation's driest regions.

The scale is striking: at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center alone, 13 million square feet of data centers - operated by tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Apple - are under construction, with direct water use projected at up to 5.7 billion gallons per year and indirect water use via power generation reaching 15.5 billion gallons annually.

As detailed by MIT Technology Review's in-depth report on Nevada's data center boom, such facilities are reshaping local water management, while tribes like the Pyramid Lake Paiute warn of threats to their water rights and ecosystems.

Across the West, centers like those in Phoenix's Maricopa County consume an estimated 177 million gallons daily - less than regional agriculture but a growing share amid drought, as Red Canary Magazine's analysis of water usage in Phoenix data centers compares.

Critics point to the environmental burden of water-intensive cooling and fossil-fueled power grids, but some operators are transitioning to more sustainable technologies, such as air-cooled and closed-loop systems.

With California and other states proposing new legislation to protect consumers from data center-driven electricity rate hikes and to mandate resource transparency, experts and advocates emphasize the urgent need for better oversight.

As The Register's technical breakdown of evaporative cooling in data centers notes, while evaporative cooling is currently dominant due to efficiency, the path to truly water-sustainable data processing remains unfinished.

“We just don't want to be in a situation where the tail is wagging the dog, where this demand for data centers is driving water policy,”

cautions Kyle Roerink of the Great Basin Water Network.

For a summary of key impacts, see the table below:

Data Point	Value
Data center area (TRI, NV)	13 million sq ft under construction
Estimated annual direct water use	860 million–5.7 billion gallons
Annual indirect water use (power plants)	Up to 15.5 billion gallons
Maricopa County (AZ) total data center use	~177 million gallons/day
Agriculture water use (Maricopa, 2015)	600 million gallons/day

For deeper dives on policy responses and technological solutions, read CalMatters' exploration of data center regulation and electricity rate protection.

Controversy has erupted in California's legal community after the State Bar admitted it used artificial intelligence (AI) to draft 23 multiple-choice questions on the February 2025 bar exam - part of a cost-saving shift that also involved recycling questions from a first-year law student test and contracting with Kaplan Exam Services.

Nearly 60% of exam takers reported that questions were worded inconsistently with standard legal terminology, and an independent audit was triggered after hundreds faced technical failures, such as platform crashes and copy-paste malfunctions, during the hybrid online test.

Critics - including legal educators - were especially troubled by the lack of lawyer involvement in drafting these questions and the appearance of typos and nonsense content, with Mary Basick of UC Irvine Law school stating,

“I'm almost speechless. Having the questions drafted by non-lawyers using artificial intelligence is just unbelievable.”

The resulting furor led to lawsuits against the test vendor, a Senate audit request, and a Supreme Court-mandated return to in-person testing.

The pass rate soared to its highest since 1965, further raising questions about exam reliability. The following table summarizes major exam issues:

Issue	Description
Technical Problems	Platform crashes, screen lag, errors
Question Quality	Typos, unclear content, missing facts
Question Source	AI-created by non-lawyers, reused 1L questions
Oversight	Lack of timely notification to examiners/Supreme Court

As the State Bar faces financial fallout and renewed scrutiny, even its executive director admitted, “For the February 2025 exam, we did not meet that standard.” Explore comprehensive coverage at the Los Angeles Times overview of the AI-assisted bar exam, an in-depth breakdown from Balls & Strikes on the AI-generated questions' impact, and the Ars Technica analysis of the scandal's wider implications.

In May 2025, lawmakers at both federal and state levels moved decisively toward regulating artificial intelligence (AI) and its supporting data center infrastructure, responding to mounting concerns over environmental impact, national security, and industry transparency.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Request for Information on artificial intelligence infrastructure, identifying 16 federal sites - including Argonne, Brookhaven, and Los Alamos National Laboratories - where rapid development of AI-ready data centers is planned, with operations projected to begin by the end of 2027.

This initiative follows competing executive policies: President Biden's 2025 Executive Order emphasized clean energy, competitive site selection, and strong permitting standards, while subsequent directives from the Trump administration prioritized American-made AI technologies and even coal-powered data center development, as detailed in an analysis of recent federal AI policy shifts.

Meanwhile, state legislatures are active - 48 states and Puerto Rico introduced AI-related bills in 2025, targeting transparency, energy usage, labor implications, and the ethical deployment of novel technologies.

The following table highlights selected examples of state legislative activity:

State	Bill Number	Summary	Status
California	A 1018	Disclosures and audit requirements for automated decision systems	Pending
Montana	S 212	“Right to Compute” for AI-controlled critical infrastructure	Enacted
Wisconsin	A 664	Disclosure of AI-generated content in political ads	Enacted
New York	A 822	State agency reporting and employee protections for AI tools	Enacted

As plans for new data centers accelerate nationwide, experts warn of continued risks related to energy and water resource strain, supply chain security, and accountability - reinforcing the importance of robust regulatory frameworks.

For more on public-private partnerships and permitting processes shaping the nation's AI infrastructure buildout, see the DOE's vision for data centers on federal lands.

Burlington's $257 million acquisition of its 889,445-square-foot distribution center at 21600 Cactus Ave in Riverside marks the region's largest industrial real estate sale in over a year and underscores the Inland Empire's significance as a logistics epicenter.

Formerly leased from BlackRock since its construction in 2019, the facility boasts a 40-foot clear height and 220 dock doors, making it ideal for Burlington's expanding operations and push towards logistics property ownership.

According to CoStar's analysis of the deal and market context, user-owners like Burlington now account for 22% of Inland Empire industrial buyers, signaling a broader shift away from institutional investors.

This acquisition is a key part of Burlington's nationwide strategy, having opened 101 new stores in 2024 and planning about 100 net new locations for 2025, as reported in REBusinessOnline's coverage of Burlington's aggressive growth.

As Burlington's CFO Kristin Wolfe said,

“We're redesigning how merchandise flows within [distribution centers], automating select processes and ultimately reducing touches and time to process merchandise and saving labor dollars.”

This trend, also detailed by Colliers' market summary, highlights how logistical ownership and automation are powering regional tech and economic growth in Riverside, further cementing the city as a logistics and technology hub.

Riverside stands as a microcosm of AI innovation and its challenges, balancing technological ambition with community concerns and environmental stewardship. As major projects like the March Innovation Hub propose transforming vast tracts into a high-tech campus with a 35% emission reduction and 42% more open space, resident groups remain vigilant, cautioning against “greenwashing” and citing persistent risks of warehouse sprawl and environmental harm (March Innovation Hub community debate).

Meanwhile, Riverside's recognition among the 2025 LEED for Cities Cohort highlights the city's leadership in sustainability, championing renewable energy, zero-emission vehicles, and innovative agricultural tech such as the Northside Agriculture Innovation Center, which deploys solar-powered greenhouses and community-driven workforce training (LEED for Cities sustainability program; Northside Agriculture Innovation Center plans).

These dualities reflect a region intent on embracing the future, but with an increasingly active public demanding transparency and lasting ecological safeguards.

As one local environmental scientist laments,

“Six of the top ten largest warehouse projects in Southern California are in Riverside County. It's not a badge of honor - it's a badge of shame.”

This tension between economic innovation and sustainability will define Riverside's trajectory as both a tech leader and a cautionary tale for rapidly-growing communities nationwide.