A new poll about Americans' attitudes toward AI shows deep ambivalence about what the technology will do to their lives.
The big picture: Americans fear the effect AI will have on employment, politics and privacy, but also believe it should play a bigger role in technology, manufacturing and more.
Artificial intelligence will "change the nature of war," according to Robert Work, a former deputy secretary of defense.
Why it matters: Success on the battlefield will increasingly come down to the ability to make algorithmically aided decisions faster, and while the U.S. has long maintained a decisive technological advantage in warfare, its lead in AI is much narrower.
New laws and regulations are aiming to draw some boundaries for the fast-growing but often black-box approach of using AI to hire employees.
Why it matters: Companies large and small have embraced AI-based tools to screen, assess and select job candidates, but algorithmic approaches have been largely unregulated and risk perpetuating biases on race, gender, disability and more.
Microsoft’s vice president of gaming, Phil Spencer, wants the gaming industry to work toward a common goal of keeping older games available to modern audiences through emulation, he tells Axios.
Why it matters: The industry has big problems preserving its past, as older games routinely become unavailable.
"Six Days in Fallujah,” a shooter game based on the U.S. military’s 2004 battle in Iraq, has been postponed until late 2022.
Why it matters: “Six Days” is among the most controversial games on the horizon, given that it features a battle the Red Cross says killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians.
The big picture: The Federal Trade Commission warned companies in July that it would step up enforcement of unlawful restrictions manufacturers impose on product repairs.
The U.S. Constitution — one copy of it, anyway — is the latest asset to become the focus of crypto-powered, meme-stock-style investment fever.
What's happening: People are ponying up millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency to buy into ConstitutionDAO, a consortium assembling a bid on an original Constitution that's for sale in a Thursday Sotheby's auction.
The Senate on Tuesday voted 68-29 to confirm Big Tech foe Jonathan Kanter to lead the antitrust division of the Justice Department.
Why it matters: Kanter, a favorite among progressives, joins Biden administration antitrust gurus Tim Wu and FTC chair Lina Khan who want to see more aggressive action against monopoly power.
Microsoft and Uber are leaving the Internet Association (IA), a trade group that lobbies on behalf of internet companies and the tech industry, Axios has confirmed.
Why it matters: Losing Microsoft and Uber, two major members, is a blow for the group. The association has seen steadily waning influence in D.C. in recent years, partly because it does not work on the competition and antitrust issues that beset the industry right now.
What they're saying: “It is always unfortunate to lose a member, but business decisions related to time and resources are to be respected," said Christina Martin, senior vice president of global communications and public affairs at The Internet Association.
"Microsoft and Uber have been great supporters of IA for nearly a decade. We have every hope they may return in the future," Martin said. “IA remains nearly 40 strong with new members having been added such as Discord, Notarize and NewsBreak.”
"We advocate for public policies that support our business goals," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "As our business needs evolve, we periodically review trade association memberships to ensure alignment with our policy agenda."
Flashback: IA, which was founded in 2012 and includes members such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, thrived when it could fight for all of its member companies with a unified voice on policy goals, an easier mission in the earlier days of the internet, when tech still had a halo in Washington.
Now, tech companies often have different legislative priorities based on size or other factors. That has made IA's job more difficult and sometimes has set members at odds with one another.
Longtime former IA president Michael Beckerman is now at TikTok. Dane Snowden, a former cable lobbying group executive, is current president and CEO.
Google has filed new breach of contract claims against Sonos in the latest chapter of a long-running dispute over a smart speaker partnership gone bad.
Why it matters: The ongoing dispute between Sonos and Google has caught the attention of Congress and other regulators. How it plays out will be of interest to those investigating claims of anti-competitive behavior by Big Tech firms.
Microsoft’s head of gaming, Phil Spencer, is being cautious about the prospects of NFT gaming, saying some current efforts feel “exploitive.”
Why it matters: As the operator of one of the biggest online gaming marketplaces in the world, Xbox has the power to let NFT gaming companies and their projects into its ecosystem or keep them out.
Activision Blizzard employees are calling for CEO Bobby Kotick's resignation and some are planning to hold a walkout Tuesday, following a bombshell Wall Street Journal report about how the company has handled sexual harassment complaints.
Driving the news: The Journal, citing interviews and internal documents, found that Kotick not only knew about several instances of sexual harassment, but also has a history of personally shielding abusers and reports of harassment. Activision Blizzard has called the report "misleading."
The promise of a "metaverse" is being used by companies across entertainment, tech and gaming to lure developers and excite investors.
Why it matters: While each company defines metaverse differently, the broad concept of bringing people together in a virtual interactive world seems to have taken over the chatter inHollywood and Silicon Valley.
Forbes defined house hacking as "a strategy that involves renting out portions of your primary residence to generate income that is used to offset the cost of your mortgage and other expenses associated with owning a home."
While it sometimes involves a single-family home, it's "typically done with small, multi-family properties like duplexes, triplexes, or any properties with divisible living spaces," per Good Housekeeping.
"That way the owners can live in one unit while renting the other units to tenants."
Why it matters: House hacking represents "the natural culmination of the way in which housing has been transformed into an investment vehicle over the last 50 years,"according to a New York Times article on how cutthroat bidding wars in hot markets like Austin have priced people out.
The back story: The term was coined in 2018 by a blogger named Brandon Turner who described it in a manifesto: "An Intro to House Hacking: Here’s How I Get Paid to Live for Free."
The other side: There are lots of potential pitfalls in renting out your living space to others. Risks include possible lawsuits, falling afoul of tax laws, and winding up with toxic tenants who won't leave.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday that the state has ordered Amazon to pay $500,000 for "concealing COVID-19 case numbers" from workers.
Why it matters: The court judgment is the first of its kind under California's new "right to know" law, which aims to bolster worker safety by requiring employers to disclose coronavirus cases to employees and local health agencies, among other provisions.
