How should the feds regulate tech? This government watchdog is hitting the road for ideas.

The Trump administration's privacy, competition and consumer protection cops plan to embark on a cross-country listening tour to gauge how academics and average Web users believe the U.S. government should address digital-age challenges, from the rise of artificial intelligence to the data-collection mishaps that have plagued companies like Facebook. The effort announced Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission and its new chairman, Joe Simons, includes 15 or more public sessions in a series of cities that have yet to be announced. The hearings are expected to touch on a wide array of topics like the agency's "remedial authority" to address privacy and security abuses, the potential risks posed by big data, and the commission's tools to enforce antitrust laws as media, tech and telecom companies gobble each other up or seek to enter new lines of business. The public outreach will begin in September and continue into January 2019, the agency said. It could presage tougher scrutiny of Silicon Valley in response to complaints that the FTC has been too soft on tech giants and the ways they collect, swap and manipulate personal information about billions of Americans.