James Talarico, a Texas Democrat running for U.S. Senate who has put his faith at the forefront of his campaign, follows several adult film performers, escorts and OnlyFans models on Instagram, according to an Axios review.
The big picture: Talarico, 36, a seminarian and state House member, has become a sensation in Texas politics by talking about how his Christianity is the basis for his Democratic politics.
Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp said on "The Axios Show" that Democrats privately tell him they doubt New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani can accomplish his ambitious agenda.
Why it matters: Karp is part of an influential group of tech billionaires who have broken with the Democratic Party and aligned themselves with President Trump.
Allowing President Trump to fire independent agency commissioners without legal cause would "profoundly destabilize institutions" at the heart of American governance, the attorneys representing Rebecca Slaughter argue in a brief filed on Friday.
Why it matters: The last Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission is not only embroiled in a legal battle to get her job back, she's challenging the White House over its broader effort to set a new precedent on the president's authority.
Hallucinations across large language models are a problem for the entire AI industry and problems arise when consumers use models only meant for developers and researchers, Google wrote in a letter to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: Conservative claims of Big Tech censorship are shifting to focus on AI models that spit out false information — and this is likely just the first of many spats.
Metropolis, a tech-enabled parking lot network, has raised $500 million in Series D funding led by LionTree at around a $5 billion valuation. It also secured a $1.1 billion syndicated term loan led by JPMorgan.
Why it matters: This is both a short and long-term bet on transportation automation.
Alex Karp, co-founder and CEO of Palantir, tells me on a new episode of "The Axios Show" that AI could lead to dysfunction and even violence if benefits aren't spread broadly to workers at all levels.
"Does the person on the factory floor in America — vocationally trained, with specific knowledge of their domain — do they participate [in the prosperity]?" asked Karp, an outspoken mogul who's at the forefront of how AI is reshaping government, business and the workplace.
Karp — whose AI-driven software company has won big government contracts and soared in value since President Trump took office — gestured around the room in Manhattan where we taped the hour-long interview this week and added: "How well does your camera person do?"
The MAGA populists who made breaking up Big Tech their rallying cry are losing momentum under President Trump's full-throated embrace of AI and cozy relations with the tech industry.
Why it matters: The Trump administration would rather scrap regulations than create new ones in the age of AI, blunting whatever bipartisan unity remained around curbing tech's power.
Colorado's approach to implementing AI has been "bullish with guardrails," DavidEdinger, the state's chief information officer, told Axios in an interview.
Why it matters: Colorado is an example of a state where AI safety still reigns supreme.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Governors and local leaders in the Midwest and South say they're hopeful that AI will supercharge stagnant economies and create new jobs despite questions over whether the AI revolution is all it's cracked up to be.
Why it matters: Tech investments are pouring into communities, and states are embracing AI for economic growth, even as skepticism grows over how long the boom can last.
Apple has yet to deliver a smarter Siri, but a potential partnership with Google could yield an AI assistant beyond what Apple could produce on its own.
The big picture: Using Google's Gemini under the hood could create a stronger pocket assistant, but much will come down to how well Apple can stitch together its voice assistant with Google's technology.
