Axios

Paris Hilton is backing a bipartisan bill to make it easier for victims of deepfakes to sue, speaking out Thursday alongside lawmakers and advocates on Capitol Hill.

Why it matters: A surge in nonconsensual sexualized images targeting women and children is fueling calls for stronger legal protections.

Job listings that mention AI terms are surging, even as the overall labor market looks weak, per new data from the jobs site Indeed.

Why it matters: Everyone's braced for AI to take their jobs, but for now the new technology appears to be an actual bright spot in an otherwise grim labor market — particularly for white-collar professionals.

Tech companies are promising they'll pay for their AI data center demands, but some Democrats aren't buying it and want stronger commitments.

Why it matters: The tech industry is scrambling to make clear their AI ambitions won't make life more unaffordable for Americans as high prices become the focal point of upcoming elections.

DAVOS, Switzerland — Clearly stating the goals of AI in an organization can be the difference between success and failure, two chief executives said at an event this week at Axios House.

The big picture: Companies that understand their AI objectives and tailor their use cases accordingly are best poised to win the AI race.

Axios' Courtenay Brown and Ina Fried moderated conversations with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and Honeywell CEO Vimal Kapur. They were sponsored by Qualcomm.

What they're saying: There are three key steps to getting a positive return on AI, Kurian told Fried — "organize your data, ensure you have a strong foundation … and rethink the process" for which you are using it.

• "When AI is driven as a pure technology project, often it fails because the business line doesn't understand — and doesn't agree on — the metric" it's trying to achieve.

Case in point: "Customer service" isn't a specific enough key performance indicator, Kurian said.

• He used "speeding up claims resolution" as an indicator that works in insurance claims processing because it "is the best way to retain customers."

Honeywell is taking it a step further, Kapur said, by using AI to automate parts of its engineering process — starting with specifications.

• Kapur likened Honeywell's level of customization for clients to a custom tailor, and the process "takes a lot of time."
• "So we are automating the generation of specifications using AI, so that engineers spend less time duplicating what they did 20 times before."

Content from the sponsor's remarks:

In a View from the Top segment, Durga Malladi, Qualcomm Technologies' EVP and GM, technology planning, edge solutions and data center, said he thinks about the spectrum of use cases when it comes to where to run AI.

• "For instance, something that is far more personal and contextual, you might want to run it immediately and locally, directly on the device. … We see a continuum of computing and connectivity," Malladi said.

Go deeper: Watch the full interviews on YouTube.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that he expects the company to begin selling humanoid robots to the public by the end of 2027.

Why it matters: Musk has billed Tesla's Optimus robot as a globally transformational technology capable of performing innumerable human tasks.

Since taking office roughly a year ago, President Trump has increasingly inserted himself into the inner workings of American businesses.

Why it matters: Corporate America is well-versed in managing pressure from NGOs, activist investors and the media. What's new is the need to respond in real time to the whims of a single political figure with an enormous megaphone.

AI and robotics could help reduce the obstetrics crisis in the U.S. in the next few years, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said Thursday at an Axios event in Davos.

Why it matters: It's a tangible use of AI that could bring real benefits soon — better than speculating on advances 10 years from now, Oz said.

Driving the news: Oz said AI and robotics can be part of the solution for parts of America that don't have access to critical medical care, like obstetricians and mental health services.

• "Within the next three years, before our administration is done, we will be using agentic AI to accelerate our ability to take care of people, especially when they're in places where we don't have access to care," Oz said at the Axios House event.
• More than one-third of U.S. counties don't have any obstetricians, midwives or birthing centers. More than 500 hospitals have closed OB units since 2010.

How it works: One idea that has been proposed is to "use robots to do ultrasounds on pregnant women," Oz said. "Robots can do it. We already have simple systems that are effective."

• There are also technologies under development "where you can take a wand, you don't even see the image, you get digitized insights back that tell you whether the child's OK or not."
• "And frankly, I don't have to see the image. I just have to know if the image is good enough to tell me the child doesn't have a problem," Oz said.

For mental health care, "we will never, ever have enough practitioners in those areas to do this" in rural America, Oz said.

• "We have AI systems now [that] augment the ability of doctors to take care of patients by fivefold, maybe more, without burning out," he said, "helping them do much of the laborious work of collecting information, and giving them some navigation tools and most importantly by allowing or empowering patients to control their own decisions."

Context: Some states already are experimenting with AI tools for expectant and new mothers, using smartphones and wearables to monitor vitals, provide maternal health advice, book vaccinations and order tests.

• Oz's agency finalized a proposal last fall to expand Medicare payment policies for digital mental health services to include payment for devices used to treat ADHD. It also solicited feedback on how it might pay for innovative software algorithms and AI.

The bottom line: "I think talking about AI in 10 years is almost a futile effort. I think most of the changes are going to happen in three to five years," Oz said.

DAVOS, Switzerland — Finding the human elements of AI is emerging as a clear strategy to implementing the technology in the workplace, according to two industry leaders at a Jan. 20 Axios event.

Why it matters: Asking the right questions of AI and using it to augment work can give both employees and organizations a leg up in productivity and job security.

Axios' Mike Allen and Ina Fried spoke with Accenture chair and CEO Julie Sweet and Stanford Digital Economy Lab director and Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) senior fellow Erik Brynjolfsson. The event was sponsored by ADP.

By the numbers: In a late 2024 report, Brynjolfsson and his co-investigators found that among workers ages 22 to 25, jobs in software engineering, call centers, parts of sales and marketing saw a 13% decline.

• "We just did an update," Brynjolfsson told Fried, and "now it's about 16% so the effect is growing."

Yes, but: "The more senior workers did not see much of a decline," said Brynjolfsson.

• "When [AI] was used to automate, you tended to see this job decline even steeper. But for the subgroup … who are using it to augment what they were doing, then we saw growing employment."

What they're saying: "More and more people are going to be … chief question officers. Not chief executive officers. People who define the question for a fleet of agents who then carry them out become the CQO," Brynjolfsson said.

• "Be one of the people who's using AI as a power tool. So whichever occupation you're in, whether you're doing art history or coding or economics, be somebody who's on the leading edge of using it to do better," he added.

Leaders are responsible for training employees accordingly, Sweet told Allen.

• "You can't trust AI unless you understand AI … if you don't have the leaders understanding it, they can't explain it to our people."
• Companies "have to become learning organizations," Brynjolfsson told Fried. "The goal posts keep moving … you have to have a mindset of always updating and learning."

Content from the sponsored segment:

In a View from the Top conversation, ADP president and CEO Maria Black said a key evaluation technique around whether to automate something is to consider if it will retain an element of humanity.

• "You start with that worker, you start with a human, and you think about that as … the fundamental Part One to the design — human centered," she said.

ADP chief economist and ESG officer Nela Richardson said that while there's concern about job elimination, the potential in AI is really in task elimination.

• "If AI is done well, it means that people who are not in the workforce now … have an avenue back … into higher valued work that they actually love and enjoy."

Silicon Valley investment firms Greenoaks and Altimeter on Thursday filed arbitration claims against South Korea's government, arguing that it has acted unlawfully toward e-commerce giant Coupang.

• They also asked the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate.

Why it matters: It's highly unusual for U.S. venture capitalists to sue foreign governments, and their move could drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul.

Cowboys in the American West are increasingly managing cattle not just from horseback, but from smartphones and with artificial intelligence.

Why it matters: AI won't be the end of cowboys. But AI-adjacent tools help fewer people manage more land, quietly redefining the job by turning cattle, fences and water systems into data streams.

The health of the economy increasingly depends on rich people spending money, a new analysis of government data finds.

Why it matters: That puts the U.S. in a fragile place because consumer spending drives growth — so the entire economy is now relying on a smaller number of people to keep things afloat.

Nonprofit EqualAI is releasing its AI governance playbook during the World Economic Forum to help board directors grapple with the technology.

Why it matters: AI is rapidly reshaping corporate America, and board directors responsible for legal and compliance oversight have little practical guidance.

There may be an AI bubble forming, but everyone in Davos is convinced they won't be the ones left holding the bag.

Why it matters: Businesses are investing almost unfathomable sums in AI, but there is a growing sense that at least some companies won't be able to recoup their massive investments.

DAVOS, Switzerland — A four-day Greenland crisis that roiled global markets, endangered the transatlantic alliance and dominated Davos ended Wednesday the same way it began: with a post on Truth Social.

Why it matters: Details remain thin on President Trump's "framework of a future deal" with NATO, but the immediate crisis appears defused in a way that allows virtually every party to claim a win — or at least take a breath.