Like Apple CEO Tim Cook in an "Axios on HBO" interview, Pichai made it clear that tech accepts that new regulation is inevitable and will now try to work with Washington to get the balance right.

Pichai spoke with Axios after lawmakers grilled him on perceived search bias and consumer data abuses. In the interview, Pichai said he recognized that more conversations need to happen between Mountain View and Washington. “There needs to be deeper, different engagement than what happens today,” he said.

• Pichai said that he views these sorts of cultural backlashes as moving in cycles, so Big Tech’s troubles may abate one day. Meanwhile, he said he hopes that “we don’t lose that sense of optimism we have about technology.”
• “But I think a broader scrutiny of technology at a high level, I think, is actually important,” he said. “I personally have always felt so.”

Pichai reiterated Google’s support for “thoughtful” privacy regulation and said the company is exploring instances in which certain user settings would default away from collecting the data that fuels the company’s ad-targeting machine. Instead, consumers would have to opt in to that data collection in some instances.

• “I think privacy is an area where you have constantly evolving user expectations,” he said. “I think, as a company, we have grown a lot. … I think people may legitimately have questions saying, ‘I do want a different construct.’”
• He declined to say which default settings the company might change. (He said the team might say to him: "Sundar, that was a stupid idea.") But he said that location data is one area it is working to simplify settings for users. “We understand location is in the fabric of everything,” he said.
• The catch: Google’s data trove is what makes its tools so useful for consumers. Location data, for instance, is how Google knows what language to translate when you travel to another country. When Google gets it wrong, “people are very upset at us,” he said. “We are trying to respond to user needs.”

Concerns about AI's power and potentially negative consequences are legitimate, he said. Still, the development of powerful technologies such as AI is inevitable, and it’s essential to keep up with the progress being made in these areas by bad actors.

• For example, he said, the only way to thwart fake videos is to develop technology advanced enough to sniff them out. “The worst thing you can do is to stop progress on AI [while] someone else is making progress on manipulation of AI,” he said.

What's next: He also pointed to the important role large tech companies now play in the R&D of emerging technology, particularly AI and quantum computing, as federal spending falls.

• When asked if Google would be broken up, he cited investment in emerging technologies as a benefit of bigness. “There are some advantages of big companies, which is we do invest for the long term in foundational technologies,” he said.

Go deeper: Slowing economy could increase pressure on Big Tech

Today, Microsoft’s Brad Smith is in D.C. to announce the company is raising its goal to reach 3 million rural Americans by 2022.

• “Closing the broadband gap will require a focused and comprehensive solution that combines private sector capital investment in innovative technologies with targeted financial and regulatory support from the public sector,” Smith writes in a blog post this morning.

Beyond building out connectivity, the consumer devices necessary to tap into the broadband networks also must be affordable.

• Smith says that 18 months ago TV white spaces connectivity devices cost more than $800. Today, they cost less than $300. As prices continue to fall and demand increases, “the market will become self-sustaining," he adds.

Be smart: Microsoft’s Airband plan still needs a green light from the FCC to make use of all the unlicensed white spaces airwaves it needs to realize its goal.

• And if broadcasters continue to raise concerns — they worry opening up those frequencies will cause interference to their TV broadcasts on adjacent frequencies — the FCC’s decision could take a while.