Axios

Gary Marcus, a research scientist who joined Uber four months ago as director of its AI labs, is leaving the company, according to sources. Uber bought Marcus' startup, Geometric Intelligence, in December, using its 15 employees to form a new artificial intelligence unit.

Marcus joins a long list of recent exits from the troubled company, with Uber's most future-leaning efforts especially hard hit. Other notable departures include product head Ed Baker, self-driving car engineer Raffi Krikorian and famous car hacker Charlie Miller, who is joining Chinese rival Didi.

Why it matters: Today's Uber is all about matching riders and drivers, but the company's future efforts in self-driving cars and machine intelligence require a type of talent in short supply. Uber, already facing a lawsuit from Google and its ongoing harassment investigation, may have a tough time replacing those who leave.

Update: Marcus has confirmed the move in a Facebook post, saying is moving back to New York and will be a "senior advisor" to Uber.

The Congressional battle over the FCC's privacy rules for internet providers is officially underway. Republican Sen. Jeff Flake introduced a resolution on Tuesday to repeal the rules. And Rep. Marsha Blackburn is planning to follow suit in the House late Wednesday afternoon, which was first reported by Politico.

Who should care: Internet providers, first and foremost, who rail against the rules because they say it puts them at a disadvantage with web services — like Facebook or Google — that have to comply with less-strict standards. But some argue that the rules actually could be bad news for those web services as well because they would set a broader precedent for regulations in this area.

Google devoted much of its Cloud Next conference to trotting out happy customer after happy customer, but there were a few bits of news, including confirmation it had acquired machine learning startup Kaggle.

The search giant also used the San Francisco event to announce a partnership with SAP and to launch a new tool that automatically categorizes and searches video. Google Cloud chief Diane Greene insists Google is gaining ground on market leaders Microsoft and Amazon, saying it is winning more half the accounts it bids on.

On the other hand: Microsoft and Amazon insist they still rarely see Google when competing for large customer accounts.

Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing giant that acquired Uber's local business last year, has opened a research center in Silicon Valley, the company said on Wednesday.

Focused on artificial intelligence, security, and autonomous driving, the office will be in Mountain View—Google's hometown—and it has hired Charlie Miller, the famed car hacker who left Uber last week. Didi Chuxing VP of Research Institute Dr. Fengmin Gong will lead the lab.

Joining the race: Despite being one of the biggest ride-hailing companies in the world, Didi seems to be joining the race to build self-driving cars a bit later than everyone else, though it's impossible to know how long it's been working on this tech behind closed doors. On Wednesday, it also announced it's co-hosting a competition with online learning company Udacity, which offers education on self-driving car technology, and the winners will get to work with Didi.

Uber, which has faced a tough last two weeks including allegations of sexual harassment, a lawsuit from Alphabet, and executive departures, is seeking a COO to assist CEO Travis Kalanick in running the company. The Information and Recode first reported the efforts before the company made a public announcement:

This morning I told the Uber team that we're actively looking for a Chief Operating Officer: a peer who can partner with me to write the next chapter in our journey. —Travis Kalanick

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was invited to give the commencement speech at Harvard on May 25.

Seeking inspiration, he turned to previous speaker, and fellow Harvard dropout Bill Gates for a fun YouTube video. It's the best, Gates tells Zuckerberg. You get an honorary degree and everything.

"You don't even have to go to class," Zuckerberg asks. "No, no, you just put that degree on your resume and it looks great," Gates replies.

WikiLeaks released more than 8,000 documents it says originate from the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence that reveal its hacking capabilities and programs between 2013 and 2016, including malware, viruses, Trojans, malware remote control systems, and weaponized exploits. That amounts to several hundred million lines of code and more pages than were published in the first three years of the Edward Snowden leaks.

They're calling it "Vault 7." The main findings:

• The CIA has turned iPhones, Android devices, Windows operating systems, and Samsung TVs into covert microphones, known as "zero day" weaponized exploits.
• "Weeping Angel," which infests Samsung smart TVs, was developed with the UK's MI5/BTSS, and turns the TV in a "Fake-Off" mode to route audio over the Internet to a covert CIA server.
• The CIA has also developed attacks to remotely control popular smart phones so they send geolocation, audio, and text communications, and activate the phone's camera and microphone. The CIA either made these attacks or obtained them from the Government Communication Headquarters in the UK, the NSA, or the FBI, or purchased it from arms contractors. (Note, that bypasses the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide, and Cloakroom.)
• The CIA has developed malware attacks and control systems for Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, Linux, and more.
• The U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt operates as a covert CIA hacker base, covering Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. WikiLeaks disclosed instructions the CIA hackers use to get through German Customs.

CIA spokesman Jonathan Liu told the AP: "We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents."

Roskomnadzor, Russia's communications watchdog, said Tuesday that LinkedIn sent a letter stating its refusal to comply with a 2015 law that requires foreign companies to store Russian citizens' personal data on servers based in the country, per FT. In doing so LinkedIn has become the first social network to be banned under a law targeting foreign internet companies.

The oversight agency said that LinkedIn has "confirmed its lack of interest in working on the Russian market," and tweeted "R.I.P." with a photo of the company's logo. Meanwhile a LinkedIn spokesperson told Axios that the company is disappointed with the agency's actions, adding that, "While we believe we comply with all applicable laws... we have been unable to reach an understanding that would see them lift the block on LinkedIn in the Russian Federation. LinkedIn will continue to be available in the Russian language, and we hope that we are able to restore service in Russia in the future."

Why this matters: Moscow argues that the law protects Russians' privacy. But, as FT points out, it would also make it easier for Russian security services to conduct surveillance while also forcing Western internet companies to comply with the Russian mandate that all tech companies install automatic backdoors for the secret service.

This story was updated with a comment from LinkedIn.

President Trump has been tweeting on health care this morning, and not just on the Obamacare replacement plan. Here's what he said about bringing down drug prices:

Between the lines: It's unlikely that Trump is actually working on a plan of his own. Sometimes he says that when he really means he's just supporting what congressional Republicans are doing (see: Obamacare replacement bill). More likely, Trump is just repeating what he said at his January meeting with drug company executives: The best way to bring down drug prices is to promote competition. That's a plan Congress is already likely to take up, through a bipartisan bill to speed the approval of generic drugs.

From a White House spokesman: Trump is "committed to making drugs more affordable while promoting innovation, and cutting regulations to encourage drug companies to bring back operations and jobs to the United States."

The race to build self-driving cars is on, and companies from major automakers to Google are rushing to cobble together sensors and teach cars how to drive on roads. Silicon Valley startup Civil Maps, in which Ford recently invested, is focused on a crucial layer: detailed three-dimensional maps that are constantly updated.

Accelerating tech: Civil Maps has built a kit, including a hardware unit with sensors and software for capturing and processing mapping data. It's now making that kit available to outside companies and teams working on self-driving cars as a starting point. These companies can then provide mapping data while they use the units for their own testing, while getting access to Civil Maps' constantly updating maps.

Increased automation in industries like trucking and fast food could mean a loss in income tax revenue as human workers are replaced by machines. Some big names in politics and industry think they've found a solution to that problem: tax the job-stealing robots.

That would be a complicated proposition.