Which, if it works well, is a big deal as the headline claims.

The world is slowly but surely running out of sand which has the right consistency and courseness to be used as an ingredient for concrete. Manufacturing that sand artificially so that it is suitable for concrete is rather tricky, from what I understand.

That said.. I've seen the weak-ass concrete mixes used in some Chinese tofu-dreg buildings. Let's hope that the artificial sand is not the culprit there.

artificial adjective ar·​ti·​fi·​cial ˌär-tə-ˈfi-shᵊl 1 a : made, produced, or done by humans especially to seem like something natural : man-made an artificial reef artificial sweetener an artificial limb artificial diamonds

There isn't sand. Humans did a thing. There's sand.

There isn't a diamond. Humans did a thing. There's a diamond.

Those are the literal definitions of "artificial".

Normally crushed materials don't work well because the shape of the particles. Sand is smoothed by years of waves, crushed rock is jagged. This leads to issues with viscosity.

A direct example: railroad rocks. Rail tracks are laid on very well engineered rocks, that are designed to lock together under the weight of a train. They have a roughly 1x1x2 cross sectional ratio, specifically for that purpose. You don't want that happening when you pour concrete.

Florida is mostly sandy soil and water, it will all be part of the ocean some day.

Nope!