Delivery robots roll through cities with ease — but can't open doors or push elevator buttons, driving new AI that lets them ask humans for help.
Why it matters: People and robots will increasingly interact in the real world — at work, stores and even on the street. But the technology needs to be seamless to avoid chaos and frustration.
The Commerce Department on Wednesday is opening a call for proposals to help U.S. companies bundle and export end-to-end AI systems to international markets.
Why it matters: The Trump administration's AI strategy is based partly on a bet that the best way to win the AI race is to embed U.S. tech deep inside other countries' digital infrastructure.
SpaceX has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, permultiplereports, with expectations that Elon Musk's company will go public this summer.
Why it matters: This could be the largest IPO ever, eclipsing oil giant Saudi Aramco in 2019.
Just a few hours remain in the countdown for Artemis II, NASA's mission to return astronauts to lunar orbit for the first time since the Apollo era.
The agency's new lunar hopes and dreams are sitting on pad 39B at Florida's Kennedy Space Center in the form of a 322-foot-tall rocket set to launch three Americans and one Canadian on a 10-day flyby of Earth's nearest celestial companion.
Pioneering a whole new class of car is hard enough, but musician will.i.am tells Axios he also wants his Trinity three-wheeled electric vehicle to be an AI agent, helping its driver plow through emails or plot out strategy.
Why it matters: Trinity is the epitome of the kind of ambition sweeping Silicon Valley: that AI can turn even a single-seat vehicle into a platform — and that building it can revive left-behind communities.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
Growing up as a scrawny Star Trek nerd in the '90s, I learned pretty quickly to hide that part of myself to avoid being bullied just because I knew a little Klingon (Qapla'!).
Now, approaching my 40s, I've learned to let my geek flag fly — and I'm glad for it.
The big picture: Part of what makes this easier is that the world has changed, and yes, I'm older. But geek culture is mainstream culture now.
Rahm Emanuel wants to shift billions of dollars from building new ICE facilities to funding community colleges — arguing they'll become more critical as AI disrupts the job market.
Why it matters: It's Emanuel's latest attempt to get ahead of other potential 2028 candidates with early policy proposals, especially on AI, tech and education.
