Axios

Last week, all Amazon had to do was buy a pharmacy startup to wipe $15 billion in value off competing drug chains — but in the booming market for smart assistants, it's Amazon that's been getting its clock cleaned.

What's going on: In the first quarter of 2016, Amazon Echo held 80% of the global smart assistant market, according to Canalys. Chinese companies were so far behind that they registered zero. But just a year later, Amazon has collapsed to a 28% market share, behind Google Home's 36% and ahead of China's Alibaba and Xiaomi with a combined 19%.

Select some live seafood in one of Alibaba's Hema grocery stores in Shanghai, get it rung up and bagged, and a robotic arm will whisk it away to a kitchen. Minutes later, a pod will wheel out of the kitchen, pulling up to your table with your meal under a transparent dome.

What's going on: A raised highway of robot pods has replaced human waitstaff in an already high-tech Hema — with humans mostly left to the greeting and cooking.

"The Seattle region is home to America's two richest men, but their local legacies to date represent two very different eras for the city," AP's Sally Ho writes.

The big picture: "While Amazon's Jeff Bezos is blamed by some for rising rents and clogged city streets, Bill Gates is largely admired for helping lead the computing revolution and donating billions through his philanthropy."

Facebook disclosed in new filings to Congress that it had granted some companies and apps access to users' personal information for months after it claimed to shut down access in 2015, per The Wall Street Journal.

The details: The 61 entities that had continued access to the data, which includes basic information about users' friends, vary from shipping giant UPS to the dating app Hinge — and it comes after last month's disclosures that Facebook shared user data with device makers, including some in China, without users' explicit consent. Facebook declined to comment to the WSJ on the disclosures, but had said in an earlier interview that it had a "consistent and principled approach to how we work with developers over the course of the past 11 years."

The next crop of startups are going to need to work with all levels of government, because the world's biggest problems waiting to be solved happen to be in regulated industries.

Why it matters: Technology startups are notoriously laser-focused on innovation and building the "next big thing" — and engaging with government bureaucrats or regulators is, at best, an afterthought. As Evan Burfield — an entrepreneur, investor and co-founder of startup incubator 1776 — argues in his new book, "Regulatory Hacking," improving healthcare, energy, transportation, food distribution, education and elections is going to require a more collaborative approach.

Artificial intelligence will play an increasing role in the U.S. military, a top Air Force general told journalists on Thursday, according a Defense One report. James Holmes, the leader of the Air Force's Air Combat Command, said the government needs to work with technology companies to develop AI for military.

The big picture: After it was revealed that Google was participating in Project Maven, thousands of Google employees signed a petition and some even resigned in protest. Google decided that it won't renew its contract when it expires next year.