RAIN — Week of August 03, 2026

Ask Amy

How do I get AI to be a better thought partner and not just regurgitate things from the internet?
Cori in Bayfield, CO

I love this question because this is a great way to level up with AI. Cori, just tell your AI tool to be a thought partner. AI as a tool works best when you give it parameters. You can ask AI to be downright hostile, poking holes in your argument, or a supportive collaborator, helping flesh out your ideas.

I often prompt AI with "tell me why this is wrong" or "help me think this through." If you have a big, broad question like "should I change careers?" ask AI to interview you. If I am brainstorming and want to get my half-baked ideas out, I use voice mode. Then I am not slowed down by typing. AI becomes my thought partner, sorting out all my ideas.

If you want AI to act more as an advisor, tell it your goals, give it your project plan, and then ask for a critique of blind spots, weaknesses, places where the plan is not sustainable, and places where you are not being aggressive enough.

Another thing to try is asking AI why. Not only is this a surface-level check on whether the answer holds up, it is a way to dig deeper. Probing why the answer came out the way it did can help you think more objectively about whatever it is you are exploring.

AI as a thinking partner is a lot more useful than AI as an answer machine, Cori. Have fun and let me know how it goes!

Stories of the Week

Artificial Intelligence in Rural Health Care: A Policy Roadmap

The National Rural Health Association has published a policy paper setting out how federal and state policymakers should handle AI adoption across rural hospitals, clinics, and telehealth programs. It is the association's first consolidated advocacy position on the technology.

Rural providers now weighing AI scribes, triage algorithms, and remote monitoring finally have a national position to cite in front of legislators and vendors. Read it before your state commits Rural Health Transformation dollars to multi-year AI contracts.

Patients Wary of Governments, Companies Pushing AI as a Rural Healthcare Solution

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pitching "AI nurses" for rural patients and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz favors AI avatars for rural mental health, while states spend from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program on AI. Only 26 peer-reviewed studies on AI in rural health care were published from 2010 through April 2025.

Residents in Hot Springs, South Dakota (population 3,400) told KFF Health News that cost and staffing shortages, not technology, are the real barrier, though a clinic in Valentine, Nebraska credits AI scribes with cutting burnout. CMS has no AI-specific reporting requirements, so whether outcomes get measured is your state's choice.

AI Is Being Used to Boost Medicaid Enrollment, but Not Without Concerns

Kern Family Health Care spent roughly $370,000 on a generative-AI voice agent called "Angelica," which has made more than 800,000 renewal calls to 387,000 Medi-Cal members in over 30 languages. The plan says matching that would take 40 employees and $2.4 million; its April renewal rate hit 94.9%. Also covered by Route Fifty.

Work-requirement documentation begins nationally in 2027 and most enrollees will renew twice a year instead of once, a paperwork wave that lands hardest on thin-staffed rural plans and county human services offices. Researchers warn the same software could be used to cherry-pick who stays covered, and oversight is still being written.

Texas halts data center connections to power grid amid overwhelming demand

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a halt on August 3 to new data center grid connections until state regulators and ERCOT audit every project in the interconnection queue, now over 1,800 projects and 474 gigawatts, roughly 90% of it data centers. ERCOT has postponed its "Batch Zero" planning study. Also covered by Utility Dive, Route Fifty.

E&E News links Abbott's reversal to eroding support over extra-high-voltage transmission lines built through rural areas, and the audits will ask whether cooling systems draw water local communities need. Projects building their own on-site gas generation are exempt, so pressure on rural sites continues.

[Grant] AI3 Action Institute - Artificial Intelligence for American Indians

The Administration for Native Americans is taking applications for the AI3 Action Institute, opportunity number HHS-2026-ACF-ANA-NAI-0035, to build artificial intelligence capacity in American Indian communities. Applications close August 27, 2026.

This is one of very few federal funding lines aimed squarely at tribal AI capability rather than at generic broadband or workforce buckets. Tribal governments, tribal colleges, and Native-led nonprofits have about three weeks.

New NSF State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs will power AI-enabled scientific research across the country

NSF announced a $100 million program funding up to 10 State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs, one award per state or region, pooling compute from universities, state and local governments, industry, and philanthropy. Applications close November 4, 2026. Also covered by StateScoop; see the grants.gov listing.

With one award per state or region, rural-serving campuses, tribal colleges, and land-grant extension programs left out of their state's consortium will sit outside the compute and faculty-training pipeline for years. Get into the coalition conversation before the proposal is drafted.

Community opposition helped block $170B in data center projects, report finds

A Carbon Direct report found at least 46 AI data center projects worth $170 billion across 20 states were delayed or cancelled after community opposition between January 2024 and May 2026. Lack of transparency about ownership, NDAs, and power and water demand was the most common trigger.

One of six opposition patterns the report names is fast-organizing civic resistance in conservative rural areas, and a July poll found 71% of Americans want stronger limits on construction. The report tells developers to settle community benefit agreements before any application, which is exactly when rural officials should be asking.