Axios

The good news is AI is actually making workers more productive, rather than obsolete. The bad news? Employers might expect that productivity regularly, leading to pressure and burnout.

The big picture: Companies may need AI guardrails to avoid overwork while protecting increased productivity, researchers wrote in Harvard Business Review.

House Republicans are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance, suggesting the content and lyrics of the Puerto Rican star's show were "illegal."

The big picture: Many of the explicit lyrics cited by Bad Bunny critics are literal translations of his songs but were not actually performed during the February 8 halftime show.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) plans to introduce bipartisan legislation with Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) banning the sale of certain AI chips to China, she told reporters on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Lawmakers are rallying around tougher export controls, and this legislation would give Congress some power to block the Trump administration from exporting AI chips to adversaries.

EPA's reversal of the formal 2009 scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten humans will be issued Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Why it matters: Rescinding the "endangerment finding" is the Trump administration's most direct effort yet to rip out climate regulations root and branch — and make it harder for a successor to impose new ones.

The models underpinning self-driving cars, humanoids and other physical applications of AI are about to become prime targets for hackers over the next year, SentinelOne CEO Tomer Weingarten warned.

Why it matters: Few people outside the depths of the security industry are ready for a world where Waymos are hijacked or warehouse robots are tricked into rerouting merchandise.

Alphabet is on a borrowing spree — Google's parent company raised $20 billion in a bond sale Monday.

Why it matters: Tech giants are spending enormous amounts on AI, and, despite their relatively deep coffers, they need help paying for it.

The Pakistani government is making moves to lower the barrier for its entrepreneurs to build AI-native applications without relying on Western cloud hyperscalers.

Why it matters: If successful, the effort could serve as a model for other emerging economies looking to jumpstart AI-based growth while keeping sensitive data stored within national networks and out of reach of foreign adversaries.

Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke on Tuesday announced he is leading a new startup for developers geared toward the reality where most coding is done by AI agents.

Why it matters: Automated coding has been one of generative AI's earliest success stories, but it's also an increasingly crowded market with a flood of startups alongside big players like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft.

A new, strange-bedfellows group is launching an initiative with an ambitious goal: "reimagine how the United States manages its public lands and waters in the face of accelerating 21st-century challenges."

Why it matters: Ground Shift is quite different from existing groups working to sway management of vast swaths of public lands used for energy, conservation, recreation and more.

This is the first part of an Axios series on seizing control of your reality. The series will unfold in AM and Finish Line. Please watch our kickoff video above or click here.

Your reality is formed from what you read, see, listen to and experience. It's no longer mostly shaped by the "news."

• The people you follow, the videos you watch, the podcasts you hear, the news you read all shape the world you know.

Why it matters: It feels like you control this. You often don't. The algorithms on your favorite platforms are so fine-tuned that they know you, often better than you do. They respond to what you actually do, not what you think or aspire to.

The Texas Democratic Senate primary between Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico has turned ugly over race and credibility, becoming a skirmish that could foreshadow tensions for Democrats nationwide.

Why it matters: The primary's rapid escalation in identity-based attacks reveals unsettled fault lines that Democrats worry could derail them, again.

AI CEOs are openly trash-talking each other, sniping over advertising and their philosophical approaches to the future.

Why it matters: The squabbling is intensifying as the cost of staying competitive in AI soars — and pressure is mounting for the technology to deliver real returns.