Artificial intelligence is struggling to understand accented English and non-standard dialects, creating problems that can cascade into biased hiring, grading or clinical records.
Why it matters: AI is deciding who gets a job interview, how students are graded, and what doctors record in a patient's chart. But major speech-to-text systems make far more errors for Black speakers than for white speakers.
A group of nearly 30 Jeffrey Epsteinsurvivors said Friday that they have received death threats amid the ongoing push to release investigation files linked to the convicted sex offender.
The big picture: The letter, titled "What We're Bracing For," is their latest call to action after President Trump signed a bill requiring the Justice Department to release all files related to Epstein earlier this week.
A group of congressional Democrats with national security backgrounds say threats coming into their offices have surged dramatically after President Trump said comments they made are "punishable by DEATH!"
Nokia just hosted its 2025 Capital Markets Day in New York, where it announced a new strategy and a simplified operating model to position the company on a strong path to lead, innovate, serve its customers and create shareholder value.
NEW YORK — Key players in biotech research at the Axios BFD summit on Nov. 18 discussed new drug development ideas and how the industry can adapt and grow amid major technological shifts.
Axios' Katherine Davis and Claire Rychlewski moderated the roundtable discussion, which was sponsored by Bayer.
Why it matters: AI's role across the drug discovery process continues to grow, and companies are looking for ways to apply the technology to improve patient outcomes.
However, no drug discovered exclusively by AI has reached the marketplace to date.
Five key takeaways from participants in the roundtable …
Products like GLP-1s are bellwethers for progress, Enveda CXO Daniel Wee said. "A lot of analysts would have written off [obesity treatment as] slower than it is, but having something like the GLP-1s show what the potential of a great drug can do."
Direct-to-consumer platformscan potentially educate patients about drug indications, said Alexander Kerman, head of life science at Ubie Health. As more pharmaceuticals hit the market with various uses in mind, it's important that the public understands how to access and use them safely.
The promise of AI in biotech advances isn't in small improvements, RA Venture partner Jacob Oppenheim said. It's in discovering entirely new ways to fight diseases.
If the tech industry, like AI, becomes too centralized by certain owners, "and we're beholden to those owners … we're going to lose, as a society," warned Procept, Partners LLC founder Shawn Knopp.
Clinical trialsare king when it comes to predicting and evaluating results, Wee said: "It's going to be incredibly hard to refute what happens when you give someone a drug versus what a model says. We'll take the person every time."
Sponsored content:
Simon Rosof, Bayer Pharmaceutical's senior vice president and head of product and pipeline, noted how AI has streamlined the company's ability to screen gene-driven diseases.
"We've seen the ability to already screen more than 5,000 gene-driven diseases, and get that down to five actionable pipeline targets in a matter of a single 90-day sprint."
In the past, the process took close to a year, Rosof said.
Brian Cantwell, Bayer Pharmaceutical's vice president of digital strategy and product operations, addressed the challenge of patients researching and finding health care options via tools like ChatGPT, which lack physician oversight.
"How do we create that single entry point … so that they can very quickly understand the options available to them, consult with a health care professional, and then ultimately make the best possible decision with the right treatment at the right price that they can afford?" he asked.
Joby Aviation is suing its biggest air taxi rival, Archer Aviation, claiming Archer used information stolen by a former Joby employee to interfere with a confidential real estate deal.
Why it matters: Joby and Archer are bitter rivals in the race to certify electric air taxis, and the companies are competing to open future vertiports in major cities.
Rep. Jason Crow's (D-Colo.) office is seeking a U.S. Capitol Police investigation into President Trump for what they described as "intimidating, threatening, and concerning" social media posts he made.
Why it matters: It's highly unusual for a member of Congress to request a police investigation into a sitting president of the United States.
Nvidia's powerhouse earnings weren't quite enough to pause a tech-driven selloff on Thursday. Instead, it took comments from a top Federal Reserve apparently confirming an interest rate cut in December to support the market, at least in Friday morning trading.
Why it matters: So much of the market, and the economy, has relied on a single company, and its earnings didn't do enough to dispel AI bubble concerns.
Physical Intelligence, a San Francisco-based developer of AI software for robots, has raised $600 million led by Alphabet's CapitalG at a $5.6 billion valuation.
Why it matters: There's tons of talk about how AI could lead to a white-collar jobpocalypse, in a reversal of the 1980s and 1990s factory automation boom. "Learn to plumb, not to code."
But VCs are pumping a ton of cash into marrying AI and robotics, which suggests that all collar colors could get singed.
House Democratic leadership said Thursday they've been in touch with the U.S. Capitol Police and the House sergeant-at-arms to protect a group of lawmakers after President Trump appeared to suggest that their comments were "punishable by DEATH!""
Why it matters: Trump considerably ramped up the severity of his rhetoric against Democrats on Thursday after a group of military veterans serving in Congress released a video encouraging service members to resist unlawful orders.
European defense could be an alternative tech play as AI stocks in the U.S. come under pressure, J.P. Morgan Private Bank says in its 2026 outlook.
Why it matters: Defense budgets are technology budgets now, particularly in Europe as nations there work to shore up their militaries and infrastructure in the face of the Russian threat.
What they're saying: The market isn't pricing European defense "as a secular story like it is AI, and we think it's on the same level," Jacob Manoukian, U.S. head of investment strategy at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, tells Axios.
Defense spending in Europe could double from current levels, he says. European countries are shoring up power supplies amid the AI boom.
That could fuel investments across electrification and industrial firms, as well as across the traditional defense sector, according to the outlook.
The European defense sector has rallied over 20% this year as the "sell America trade" ballooned, but is in "year three" of a "decade trend."
Zoom in: Higher wholesale prices and reliance on energy imports make electricity prices higher in Europe compared with the U.S.
That problem could be exacerbated by AI, which requires lots of energy.
Europe also lost 30% to 40% of its electricity input from Russian pipeline gas following the invasion of Ukraine, according to Manoukian.
Europe, he says, will have to spend more to build LNG import terminals to ensure lower energy costs in a fragmented world centered on AI.
Between the lines: The bet on Europe is also about diversification.
"The investment opportunity in European names is differentiated relative to the story in the U.S.," says Stephen Parker, co-head of global investment strategy at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.
Zoom out: Investing internationally becomes "that much more important" as the world's superpowers step back from globalization, Manoukian says.
The Internal Revenue Service is rolling out Salesforce's AI agent program, Agentforce, in multiple divisions across the agency, per an announcement shared exclusively with Axios.
Why it matters: At a time when the IRS has seen a massive reduction in its workforce due to Trump administration layoffs, it's also using AI agents for the first time.
Humanlike AI companions are dangerous by design and should not be used by minors at all, per policy recommendations that are being floated by a collection of children's safety, family and consumer groups and were shared exclusively with Axios.
Why it matters: There's long been a push to get kids off social media by people who say it has damaging effects on young minds, and now that fight is moving to combat chatbots.
The mayors of Phoenix and Melbourne, Australia, are leading a global commitment with eight other mayors to ensure that companies build AI systems more sustainably.
Why it matters: Mayors are on the front lines of the global data center boom. They respond to residents' concerns, rising energy prices, water management issues and other infrastructure demands.
House Republican leaders are pressing ahead on a proposal to preempt state-level AI regulation, two GOP aides told Axios on Thursday.
Why it matters: President Trump's draft executive order to thwart state AI laws may not be ready for prime time, so his Hill allies are scrambling to get the task done via Congress.
