Axios

Google is launching a new feature, called multi-faceted featured snippets, that will provide users with multiple answers to nuanced questions. For example, if a user asks about “ears popping on a plane,” they could be looking for the cause or for remedies.

Why it matters: The new rollout represents a significant update to a years-long progress of refining search results to show users the most accurate answers in relation to the intent of what they are asking.

The artificial intelligence revolution is fundamentally different from past big tech cycles, say leading researchers: unlike with almost any other major invention through history, AI will allow ordinary malefactors to easily do some extraordinarily bad things.

What they're saying: For a couple of years now, high-profile technologists and scientists have rung alarms about the potential for super-human AI to inflict harm. But this alert, raised in a new paper, is different in warning about AI's evolution short of human intelligence, what the field calls "General artificial intelligence."

Humans are no longer sufficient to police cyber attackers, experts tell Axios, and machines must move in to find them.

Quick take: "High walls and bigger moats" are obsolete in computer security, says Mark Testoni, CEO of NS2, the U.S. arm of German software giant SAP. Instead, people, governments and organizations housing sensitive material on their computers should "presume that intruders are already inside," he tells Axios.

Twitter is globally rolling out a button for bookmarking tweets, the company said on Wednesday. Tweets that are bookmarked with the new tool will be kept private, presumably to provide users with more privacy around their interests instead of having to publicly explain why they've bookmarked a particular tweet.

Why it matters: This is part of an ongoing evolution of Twitter's product. For years, many used its somewhat-ambiguous, star-shaped "favorite" button to bookmark tweets, but the company's switch to a heart-shaped "like" button in 2015 has complicated the meaning.

Why it matters: This isn't the first time the president has gone after his Attorney General for what he sees as poor judgment. In this instance, it's about Sessions' decision to let the Inspector General investigate allegations that the FBI and Justice Department abused their surveillance power, as detailed in Rep. Devin Nunes' memo.

The CEO for autonomous car tech startup Aurora, Dr. Chris Urmson, told Axios’ Mike Allen at an event Wednesday that he believes big tech companies “at their core are doing what they think is right for society” and “doing their best to generate a better world.” The caveat? “They have massive reach,” and with that, “there is a social responsibility that comes along with that.”

Why it matters: An exclusive Axios-SurveyMonkey poll released Wednesday shows a majority of Americans are now concerned that the government won't do enough to regulate how U.S. technology companies operate.

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters said at an Axios event today that he's worried increased automation due to growth in machine learning will gut the middle class:

"Now I’m not one of these folks who think that all the jobs are going to disappear and we won’t have work," Peters said. “However, I am concerned that if you have a hollowing out of the middle class you may have just two types of jobs.”

Why it matters: Peters, the author of draft legislation meant to address the rise of self-driving cars, is at the frontline of this debate. But Congress has yet to act on renewed concerns about automation and job loss.

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters told Axios’ Mike Allen Wednesday that a military general said “the F35 fighter that we’re building now will probably be the last aircraft fighter ever built that will have a human pilot.”

“Autonomy will start changing the face of warfare. You're going to have drones operating with autonomous function, perhaps autonomous tanks as well."

Why it matters: “We lost more soldiers in logistics operations … than we did in combat in Afghanistan,” Sen. Peters said. “Great advances are being made in autonomy … to save soldiers’ lives.”

The chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an attack on the market power of large tech companies Wednesday. "I’m not looking for a lot of regulation, I’m looking for responsibility," Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said at an Axios event. "If responsibility doesn’t flow, then regulation will."

Why it matters: Walden leads the House committee tasked with overseeing technology issues.

"The House ... passed a bill [388-25] that gives victims and prosecutors more power to sue websites that knowingly aided sex trafficking, adding a new level of accountability for internet companies," the N.Y. Times Cecilia Kang reports.

Why it matters: "[S]ex trafficking victims and law enforcement officials say the existing law, known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, has been too loosely applied by sites like Backpage.com, a site known for prostitution and sex trafficking."

An anti-trafficking bill won the House's approval Tuesday despite a scramble by internet companies to slow it down in the final hours before the vote.

Why it matters: The 388-25 vote to pass the bill was a striking defeat for Big Tech in Washington as the industry is fighting more battles than ever. It now heads to the Senate and, if it passes, seems likely to get Trump's signature.

Former president Barack Obama said last week at a sports analytics conference at MIT that companies like Google and Facebook, as well as Twitter and other platforms, have to have a conversation about their business model and "recognize that they are a public good as well as a commercial enterprise."

Why it matters: While the former president didn't explicitly call for more regulation of these platforms the way other public figures have, he did for the first time acknowledge that they are shaping our culture in powerful ways.

A majority of Americans are now concerned that the government won't do enough to regulate how U.S. technology companies operate, according to an Axios-SurveyMonkey poll. Across the board, concern about government inaction is up significantly — 15 percentage points — in the past three months.

Why it matters: That's a seismic shift in the public's perception of Silicon Valley over a short period of time. It shows how worried Americans are about Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but it also reflects a growing anxiety about the potentially addictive nature of some of the tech companies' products, as well as the relentless spread of fake news on their platforms.