Overnight Tech: House GOP wants to hear from tech CEOs on net neutrality | SEC eyes cryptocurrency | Elon Musk, Zuckerberg trade jabs over AI | Trump says Apple opening three plants in US

GOP CHAIRMAN CALLS FOR SILICON VALLEY TO TESTIFY ON NET NEUTRALITY: House Republicans are asking the CEOs of major technology and telecommunications companies to weigh in on the net neutrality debate as the Federal Communications Commission moves to repeal the Obama-era rules.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a hearing on Tuesday that he has invited the executives to testify before the panel on September 7 to settle the debate.

“A strong consensus is forming across party lines and across industries that it’s time for Congress to call a halt on the back-and-forth and set clear net neutrality ground rules for the internet,” Walden said.

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The move comes as Republicans have been pressuring Democrats to come to the negotiating table to work out a legislative replacement to the FCC’s net neutrality rules, which are in the process of being repealed by the agency’s Republican leaders.

Democrats and net neutrality supporters have argued that any such bill would unnecessarily water down current FCC protections that require internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally.

Walden sent invitations to the chief executives of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google parent company Alphabet, Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and Charter Communications.

The major tech companies have all voiced support for the FCC’s net neutrality rules but have also showed a willingness to support a legislative compromise on the issue. Republicans are hoping that they will say as much during a hearing before the committee to pressure Democrats.

Read more here.

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SEC WEIGHS IN CRYPTOCURRENCY: Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a cryptocurrency fundraising tactic used by small companies and projects, are becoming the object of SEC scrutiny. In a release on Tuesday the agency said that ICOs may be subject to the same laws as securities. “The SEC is studying the effects of distributed ledger and other innovative technologies and encourages market participants to engage with us,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. “We seek to foster innovative and beneficial ways to raise capital, while ensuring – first and foremost – that investors and our markets are protected.”

Coin Center, a cryptocurrency non-profit research and advocacy group, cautioned that not all coin offerings should be regulated the same way as securities.

“We believe that applying the same facts and circumstances test to other tokens will mean that some do not fit into the definition of securities, particularly tokens with an underlying utility rather than a mere speculative investment value,” Coin Center director of research Peter Van Valkenburgh said in a statement.

MUSK-ON-ZUCK: Tesla CEO Elon Musk charged that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a “limited” understanding of artificial intelligence, continuing a public argument between the two tech moguls on the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

On Sunday, Zuckerberg said on a Facebook livestream during his 50-state speaking tour that apocalyptic speculation on the future of AI is “irresponsible.”

“I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios — I just, I don’t understand it. It’s really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible,” Zuckerberg said.

“In the next five to 10 years, AI is going to deliver so many improvements in the quality of our lives,” he continued.

Read more here.

ADOBE TO KILL OFF FLASH BY 2020: Adobe announced it would end support for the multimedia plug-in Flash by the end of 2020.

“Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash. Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats,” the company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

Flash, historically one of the most successful tools to ease the creation of interactive content, was also one of the most common vectors for hackers to break into computers.

Read more here.

TRUMP SAYS APPLE IS PLANNING THREE U.S. PLANTS: President Trump said on Tuesday that Apple CEO Tim Cook promised him that the company would be starting three new manufacturing plants in the U.S.

“I spoke to [Cook], he’s promised me three big plants — big, big, big,” Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won’t consider my administration an economic success. He called me, and he said they are going forward.”

An Apple spokesman did not immediately respond when asked to confirm the president’s remarks.

Read more here.

DEMS INTRO CYBER WORKFORCE BILL: Three House Democrats on Tuesday introduced a multi-layered bill aimed at boosting the cybersecurity workforce.

The “New Collar Jobs Act,” released by Reps. Ted Lieu (Calif.), Matt Cartwright (Pa.) and Ann McLane Kuster (N.H.), would establish incentivized tax breaks for employers offering cybersecurity training, increase funding for a cyber scholarship program and establish a student debt relief program for cybersecurity job takers.

“Our vision is to improve our economy and national security by re-educating industrial workers with high-demand skills in cyber to fill these ‘New Collar’ jobs – positions that have competitive salaries, career growth potential, and cannot be outsourced,” Lieu said in a press release.

Read more here.

ON TAP:

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) will speak at a Google event on innovation and economic opportunity at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology will host a hearing on advancing STEM education at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) and former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler (D) will host a forum on net neutrality at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

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