Marketplace Tech
Monday through Friday, Marketplace demystifies the digital economy in less than 10 minutes. We look past the hype and ask tough questions about an industry that's constantly changing.
Thu, July 17, 2025
ICE uses insurance fraud database to search for deportation targets
Marketplace's Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Joseph Cox, a reporter at the tech news site 404 Media, about his recent reporting on how ICE is uses ISO ClaimSearch, among other databases, to find deportation targets.
Wed, July 16, 2025
Right to repair hits the battlefield
Know how some companies intentionally make it hard for customers to fix their own gadgets? In the armed forces, as military contractors consolidate and equipment becomes increasingly software-driven, it's become a problem. Now, some Pentagon leaders are talking about adding right to repair provisions into procurement contracts. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with now-retired Master Sergeant Wesley Reid, who's spoken out in favor of the military's right to repair, informed by his experiences at an Afghanistan army field hospital in the late 2000s.
Tue, July 15, 2025
From 'rizz' to 'unalive': How social media algorithms are changing the way we talk
Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Adam Aleksic, author of the new book “Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language." He’s a trained linguist and also an influencer who goes by the handle "Etymology Nerd" online. True to his name, he told us what he means when he uses the term “algospeak.”
Mon, July 14, 2025
Federal tax incentives could mean more tech research and innovation
Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Rebecca Lester, a professor of accounting at Stanford, about a tax provision within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that could further tech R&D and innovation.
Fri, July 11, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — X CEO steps down, SCOTUS greenlights age verification law, and tariffs on copper
X CEO Linda Yaccarino leaves the social media giant on the heels of antisemitic posts from AI chatbot Grok. SCOTUS rejects a challenge to a Texas law for age verification online. President Trump this week said he’ll impose a 50% tariff on copper. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino is joined by Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, to discuss all this.
Thu, July 10, 2025
Pay-per-crawl model would make AI firms pay for the content they scrape
For years, AI crawlers have scraped data and content from the internet for free. But last week, Cloudflare attempted to change that. With an update to its web services, the tech company keeps AI crawlers out by default. The hope? To create a new economic model that makes AI companies finally pay for the content they collect. In this episode, Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Cloudflare co-founder and CEO, Matthew Prince, about his vision for a fairer internet.
Wed, July 09, 2025
Are we “flying blind” into peak hurricane season?
The National Weather Service lost some 600 positions early in the second Trump administration, through early retirements and layoffs. Now the agency says it’s working to fill some “mission-critical” roles. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has also proposed cutting the greater NOAA budget by more than 25% next year . A rising chorus of meteorologists and climate experts warn that efforts to shrink the federal workforce and downplay global warming could compromise accurate weather forecasts and climate monitoring.
Tue, July 08, 2025
Could AI be a peacekeeper of the future?
As technology has advanced, the ways countries fight wars has changed drastically. Now, AI companies are hoping technology can also play peacekeeper and prevent the next global conflict. Anadyr Horizon, one of the AI startups, developing what many are calling “peace tech,” is doing so through simulating future conflicts and the world leaders they may involve.
Mon, July 07, 2025
One in five consumers are using AI daily
More than half of all Americans have used artificial intelligence tools recently, according to a study published by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. And one in five people use it daily. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Amy Wu Martin, a partner at Menlo Ventures, to learn how they’re using it in their day-to-day lives.
Fri, July 04, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review - AI regulation ban dies, renewable energy credits hit and Amazon’s millionth robot
On this week’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” Marketplace’s Nova Safo and Paresh Dave, senior writer at WIRED, discuss Amazon releasing its 1 millionth robot at one of its warehouses. Plus, lawmakers contended with provisions dealing with artificial intelligence and renewable energy in that big tax and spending bill, recently passed by Congress, that consumed Washington this week.
Thu, July 03, 2025
How AI "ghost students" are stealing financial aid
In today’s episode, Marketplace’s Nova Safo speaks with Sharon Lurye, a data reporter at the Associated Press, about her recent investigation into “ghost students” — scammers who use AI to pretend to be college students in order to steal financial aid and loan money.
Wed, July 02, 2025
News on social media is now mainstream
What once was taboo has now gone mainstream. As television and print audiences have dwindled over recent years, social media is now the No. 1 place for Americans to get their news updates. Detailed in the report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, Americans across the political spectrum are using social media for news consumptions over traditional avenues. However, conservative influencers have seen the largest audiences and most engagement. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Nic Newman, a co-author of the report, to talk about the state of news consumption in the U.S. More on this “ Overview and key findings of the 2025 Digital News Report ” — from the Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford
Tue, July 01, 2025
Some states shared private health information with Big Tech
An investigation from Tomas Apodaca, at CalMatters and The Markup, found several states were accidentally sharing private health information with tech companies. The tech companies receiving the information never even wanted it. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Apodaca to learn more about the accidental leak.
Mon, June 30, 2025
The case for the FTC to rein in Big Tech for online safety
Haley Hinkle, policy counsel at the advocacy group Fairplay, recently formulated a case brought to the FTC, saying there are powers afforded to the Commission to impose new children's safety regulations on internet companies. She specifically points to Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.”
Fri, June 27, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review - AI's fair use case win, at-home camera surveillance tech, and iPhone's 'F1' ad annoys users
On this week’s Bytes: Week in Review: Apple irked customers with movie ads, the Mideast conflict reminded us of the lack of security in smart surveillance cameras, and a federal judge handed down a landmark ruling on AI’s use of copyrighted works, citing a legal doctrine known as fair use.
Thu, June 26, 2025
Data centers in space
Demand for data centers continues to grow everywhere, but their environmental impacts are causing some to consider a different option: build them in space, where there's lots of room, solar power and a cold environment. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Evan Robinson-Johnson, business reporter at The Information, to learn more.
Wed, June 25, 2025
How commercial satellites are defining modern warfare
Over the last several days, you may have seen the latest examples of a growing phenomenon: satellite images of a conflict zone. This time, they were of Iranian nuclear sites, before and after American bombs struck. Images like these come from commercial satellite companies, a change from our past reliance on government-provided photographs. The shift toward commercial satellites gained steam amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to Mariel Borowitz, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology who specializes in space policy and the satellite industry.
Tue, June 24, 2025
Iranians are left without internet access amid Middle East conflict
Iran's government knocked out internet and mobile networks after Israel began bombing the country. That’s left the population with little to no access to critical information. One person who watched this played out is Ahmad Ahmadian, executive director at Holistic Resilience, an organization that helps Iranians circumvent government censorship. He says Iran's government often restricts internet during critical times.
Mon, June 23, 2025
California seeks new guardrails on automated AI systems
In California, the state Senate has voted in favor of a so-called AI Bill of Rights, which would establish new guardrails around automated decision systems. To learn more about them, Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Kate Brennan, associate director of the think tank AI Now Institute.
Fri, June 20, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review – Trump's mobile venture, online data brokers used to target MN victims, and an OpenAI-Microsoft breakup
OpenAI and Microsoft are reportedly caught up in protracted behind-the-scenes negotiations that are in danger of boiling over into public conflict. Prosecutors say the man accused of assassinating a Minnesota Democratic lawmaker used online data brokers to help target his victims. And, the Trump Organization unveiled a new venture this week: a mobile service and a smartphone. Marketplace’s Nova Safo is joined by Natasha Mascarenhas at The Information, who explains why.
Thu, June 19, 2025
Malawi looks to tech to solve teacher shortage
Despite having free primary schools, children in Malawi are lagging behind. According to UNESCO, almost 90% of them cant read a simple sentence at the age of 10, due in part to a shortage of teachers and basic resources. But the government has gone for a high-tech solution — digital tablets.
Wed, June 18, 2025
Online coverage of anti-ICE protest split by political lenses
Protests in Southern California and around the country over raids targeting undocumented immigrants played out differently on social media depending on the person or the platform. They’re peaceful - look at the carnival atmosphere. They’re violent - Los Angeles is in flames. These competing narratives underline the hyper-siloed nature of online discourse and the power of misinformation. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Renee DiResta, Research Professor at Georgetown University about how protest discourse has been playing out online.
Tue, June 17, 2025
The various contracts Palantir has with the federal government
Data analytics company Palantir has many contracts with federal government, just as the Trump administration is reportedly trying to construct a centralized database combining information from various agencies. That's brought Palantir renewed scrutiny. Joseph Cox has been following all of this at the tech news site 404 Media.
Mon, June 16, 2025
Crypto crime gets physical
On today’s episode of Marketplace Tech, Nova Safo speaks with Ari Redbord , global head of policy with the blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, about the recent wave of cryptocurrency “wrench attacks” and why more bad actors are going after high-profile crypto investors with threats of physical violence.
Fri, June 13, 2025
Is Apple out of ideas?
Today on “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” we're looking at Apple's latest software and operating system updates. Also, there's a tentative labor deal between video game actors and studios. And we'll remember legendary Apple software engineer Bill Atkinson, who died at the age of 74. We begin with Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference which came and went this week with some mixed reactions. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist for The Information, to get her take on this year’s WWDC. Tech Bytes for June 13 More on everything we talked about “Apple fails to clear a low bar on AI” - from The Wall Street Journal “Apple underwhelms at WWDC with incremental AI changes, new software name and ‘liquid glass’ design” - from The Associated Press ”Video game performers on strike for almost a year over AI issues reach a tentative deal” - from The Associated Press “Videogame voice actors strike 'suspended' following agreement with game companies: 'All SAG-AFTRA members are instructed to return to work’” - from PC Gamer “Bill Atkinson, Macintosh Pioneer and Inventor of Hypercard, Dies at 74” - from WIRED “Bill Atkinson, who made computers easier to use, is dead at 74” - from The New York Times
Thu, June 12, 2025
Can Finland take Europe’s startup crown?
Building work has started in the Finnish capital Helsinki on what’s expected to become the biggest startup campus in Europe. Finland’s government says it wants the small Nordic nation to offer the best startup ecosystem in Europe. The BBC’s Maddy Savage has this story.
Wed, June 11, 2025
Brazil wants its consumers to control their digital data — by monetizing it
There's a trial run taking place over a type of digital wallet for data. Consumers are in control, and they can sell their data to the highest bidder. This trial run is taking place in Brazil, the first country to try something like this on a national scale. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Sao Paolo-based journalist Gabriel Daros. He's been covering the story for the news site Rest of World.
Tue, June 10, 2025
Companies are betting on deep sea mining for critical minerals
The International Energy Agency projects the global market value of critical minerals could reach almost $800 billion by 2040. That's because we must have them for the electrified future. And right now, China is a dominant supplier. The Trump administration wants to find other sources, and it's looking to U.S. and international waters to mine minerals on the ocean floor. Marketplace contributor Daniel Ackerman has been reporting on the deep-sea mining companies that are working to figure out how to harvest in unforgiving terrain.
Mon, June 09, 2025
Federal judge rules AI chatbots don't have free speech protections — for now
There’s a lawsuit right now that’s testing the question of whether AI chatbots are protected by the First Amendment. And before we get into it, a warning that our story today includes discussion of suicide. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Jane Bambauer, law professor at the University of Florida, who’s been following this case.
Fri, June 06, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review: A bet to make AI less human, and more
Yoshua Bengio, one of the so-called godfathers of AI, wants it to be less human. Plus, a federal judge temporarily blocked a law in Florida that would ban kids under 14 from getting social media accounts. But first, Meta announced an energy deal with one of the country's biggest operators of nuclear reactors. Marketplace’s Nova Safo is joined by Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at the venture capital firm Collab Capital, to break down these tech stories from the week.
Thu, June 05, 2025
How a high-tech farm in Canada is winning in the trade war
We've been looking at how technology is changing agriculture . Last month, we visited Central California where there's new investment in everything from electric tractors and leaf sensors to upskilling farmworkers . Today, Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams visits our neighbor to the north. Specifically, Canada's first fully-automated greenhouse. It's cost millions to set up, and it's just in time for a trade war.
Wed, June 04, 2025
A test to weed out AI-generated deepfake images
AI-generated deepfakes are everywhere on social media. Now, you can take a test developed by Northwestern University to see how well you spot them. Marketplace’s Nova Safo took the test, sifting through a bunch of real and fake images. He got five out of six right, which is the average in a study Northwestern conducted. Lead researcher Matt Groh also helped develop a litmus test, a series of things to look for to spot deepfakes.
Tue, June 03, 2025
The startups bringing brain-computer interfaces to market
On this episode of “Marketplace Tech,” host Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Christopher Mims, a tech journalist at The Wall Street Journal, about the recent evolution of brain computer interfaces — technology that has enabled people with paralysis to move prosthetic limbs or type out communication using computer implants in their brains — and the neurotech startups trying to bring their implants to a larger market by making them less invasive.
Mon, June 02, 2025
Police use new AI tool that can identify someone without facial features
Facial recognition systems use artificial intelligence to analyze patterns in faces, and they've come under increasing scrutiny, particularly in policing. There have been multiple instances of false positives leading to the arrest and detainment of innocent people. There's no federal regulation of this technology, but at least a dozen states have laws that limit its use. So, some law enforcement authorities have turned to a new system called Track, made by a company called Veritone. It doesn't analyze faces, but looks to the rest of the body for clues — things like clothing, body type or hair — according to recent reporting by James O'Donnell for MIT Technology Review.
Fri, May 30, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — Texas’ age verification law, a potential moratorium on local AI laws, and Meta splits its AI team
There's a provision tucked into the Big Beautiful Bill, among the tax cuts and Medicaid cuts, that would bar states from passing laws to regulate artificial intelligence for a decade. Plus, Meta is reshuffling its AI team again in an apparent attempt to catch up to the competition. But first, this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law requiring age verification for Apple and Google app stores. It also requires parental consent for app downloads and in-app purchases by minors. But it raises some legal questions. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino is joined by Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, to discuss all this.
Thu, May 29, 2025
NYC's child welfare agency uses AI to scrutinize marginalized families, recent investigation finds
The New York City Administration for Children's Services, or ACS, has been using predictive artificial intelligence to flag some families for greater scrutiny, according to a recent investigation by The Markup. Colin Lecher reported the story and tells Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino, like all AI systems, it can encode historical biases.
Wed, May 28, 2025
Controversial Reddit AI study raises wider ethical concerns
In late April, details came to light about a covert experiment conducted by researchers from the University of Zurich on unsuspecting Reddit users on the debate forum known as r/changemyview. They used AI chatbots posing as real humans on the forum to test their powers of persuasion and invented backstories like a rape survivor or a Black man opposed to Black Lives Matter. What they didn't have was consent. The experiment violated Reddit Terms of Service, forum rules and, critics say, academic research standards. The researchers who notified Reddit of the experiment after the fact have since apologized and said they won't publish the results. Reddit says it's increasing efforts to verify users are human. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Mohammad Hosseini, a professor at Northwestern University's medical school, about the potential harms that could come from a study like this one.
Tue, May 27, 2025
Big Tech pivots from the carrot to the stick
Big Tech firms like Microsoft, Meta and Google are using stricter performance reviews to bring up productivity and weed out low performing workers. It’s a noticeable pivot away from the perks that defined Silicon Valley work culture a decade ago. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Alistair Barr, author of the Business Insider Tech Memo Newsletter, about their recent coverage of this latest shift.
Mon, May 26, 2025
Are digital banking outages on the rise?
Digital banking is often seen as a smoother, less costly way to deliver financial services. But where there’s tech, there are sometimes outages. Bank customers in the U.K. and other countries have seen an increasing number of banking interruptions, often with costly impacts.
Fri, May 23, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review – AI dominates Google I/O and more
On this week’s episode of Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week In Review, President Donald Trump signed the "Take It Down" Act, which requires internet publishers to take down intimate images like revenge porn or deepfakes within 48 hours of a complaint. Google unveiled a suite of new AI products, upgrades and projects at its annual I/O developers conference. And the game Fortnite finally returns to the Apple App Store after a long legal drama. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Paresh Dave, senior writer at WIRED, to discuss all these topics and more.
Thu, May 22, 2025
Farm workers head back to school to upskill in agtech
This week, we hit the road to check out California’s Central Valley, where the future of agricultural innovation is taking shape. We visited a farm that’s piloting next-gen tools and a university research center that’s helping develop that tech. Today, we’re at an AgTEC Workforce graduation, a community college program in this region that helps upskill farm workers.
Wed, May 21, 2025
Universities propel agtech innovation in the Central Valley
This week, we’re heading to California’s Central Valley to see how technology is transforming this agricultural region. And we’re going straight to the innovation source: the University of California, Merced, where academics there are guiding students to research agtech innovations to potentially develop them for commercialization.
Tue, May 20, 2025
California farmers reshape agriculture with cutting edge tech
California is known for being home to Hollywood and Silicon Valley. But the Golden State also has millions of acres of farmland, and we’re exploring how technology is changing that landscape in a series this week about “Agtech Valley.” We visited HMC Farms with its farm manager Drew Ketelsen, who took us to an orchard of Lady Erin yellow peach trees trained to grow in narrow upright pillars rather than the usual rounded shape.
Mon, May 19, 2025
Having a child in a digital economy
Having a baby in the era of apps, influencers, subreddits and Facebook groups, has its ups and downs. Journalist Amanda Hess thought she knew all about it as an internet culture writer for the New York Times, but found herself surprised when she was the one expecting. She writes about how pregnancy magnified her relationship with technology in a new memoir, “Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age.” It begins, actually before conception — with the period-tracking app, Flo Health.
Fri, May 16, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review - Saudi Arabia bets billions on AI
President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East has prompted a flurry of AI deals worth billions. We'll get into the details on today's “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” Stateside, the Trump administration has rolled back a Biden-era “AI Diffusion” rule. Companies involved in the semiconductor supply chain were critical of the rule, though it's still not entirely clear how Trump plans to revamp the regulation. Plus, what some might call the most obvious rebrand: Warner Bros brings back the "HBO" to its Max streaming platform. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Natasha Mascarenhas, reporter at The Information, to discuss all of this and more.
Thu, May 15, 2025
What it takes to bring manufacturing to space
President Donald Trump talks a lot about wanting to build more stuff here in the U.S. But the future of manufacturing might not even be on earth, but in orbit. It might sound kind of out there — or way out there — but space manufacturing is already happening on a small scale. There's a mini boom of companies looking to do more of it, according to recent reporting in Wired by journalist Jonathan O'Callaghan. He says space has some unique qualities that make it attractive for manufacturing.
Wed, May 14, 2025
AI is more marketing hype than real capabilities, new book suggests
The excitement around AI has gotten a bit frothy. Those two magic letters are everywhere, promising everything. Authors Emily Bender and Alex Hanna want us all to take a beat and a more critical look, per their new book "The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want." Bender is a linguist at the University of Washington who helped popularize the term "stochastic parrots" to describe large language models. And Hanna is the director of research at the Distributed AI Institute, formerly an AI ethicist at Google. She says claims of AI's artistic prowess can be misleading.
Tue, May 13, 2025
Mozilla rejects DOJ's remedies in Google search antitrust trial
The remedy phase of one of the antitrust cases against Google wrapped up last week and the judge is expected to issue his decision by August on how the company must address its monopoly in search. One option suggested by the Justice Department: ban Google from paying browsers to make its search engine the default. But Mozilla, the developer of the independent Firefox browser, has opposed this remedy. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Laura Chambers, CEO of the Mozilla Corporation, about how the move would be crippling for smaller browsers like theirs.
Mon, May 12, 2025
The rise of the "Splinternet"
There was a time not so long ago when it seemed like the most consequential conversations in our society were happening on social media. But as the digital commons spawned mobs, performative posturing and rage-baiting, a lot of those conversations went private. That's one takeaway from the recent Semafor report on the private group chats between tech titans, business leaders and public intellectuals. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Amy Webb, founder and CEO of the Future Today Strategy Group, about the growth of what she calls the Splinternet.
Fri, May 09, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review - RIP Skype
On this week’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” OpenAI retreats from its pivot to profit after its plan to restructure the business hit some snags. Plus, we say goodbye to the old-school internet phone call platform - Skype. But first, the Department of Justice pushed for breaking up part of Google's advertising business by selling off two of its ad tech products, which Google says would be nearly impossible. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist at the Wall Street Journal, to discuss all these topics and more.
Thu, May 08, 2025
Vibe coding is having its moment
Vibe coding is having a moment. The buzzy new phrase was coined earlier this year by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy to describe his process of programming by prompting AI. It's been embraced by tech professionals and amateurs alike. Google , Microsoft and Apple have or are developing their own AI-assisted coding platforms while vibe coding startups like Cursor are raking in funding. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino recently spoke with Clarence Huang, vice president of technology at the financial software company Intuit and an early adopter of vibe coding, about how the practice has changed how he approaches building software. More on this “What is vibe coding, exactly?” - from MIT Technology Review “New ‘Slopsquatting’ Threat Emerges from AI-Generated Code Hallucinations” - from HackRead “Three-minute explainer on… slopsquatting” - from Raconteur
Wed, May 07, 2025
The human cost of fast shipping
E-commerce sites like Temu and Shein might not be quite as cheap as they were a week ago now that tariffs are kicking in on even small-dollar imports. But these platforms known for selling low-cost goods from China have also sought to cut costs on delivery. They contract in the U.S. with companies like UniUni, which promises to dispatch packages for $3 or less — well below the industry standard. How UniUni delivers on those low rates is the subject of a recent investigation by reporter Theo Wayt at The Information. He tells Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino that drivers are hired through a network of subcontractors and UniUni pays them per item rather than an hourly wage.
Tue, May 06, 2025
Fiverr CEO explains why everyone needs to upskill with AI
In an internal memo to his staff in April, Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman wrote that “AI is coming for your jobs. Heck, it's coming for my job too. This is a wake-up call. It does not matter if you are a programmer, designer, product manager, data scientist, lawyer, customer support rep, salesperson, or a finance person - AI is coming for you.” Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Kaufman, about his "radical candor" on the subject and how he wanted to spur them to think creatively about how they can remain relevant in the face of fast-changing technology.
Mon, May 05, 2025
Is talking to AI chatbots good for us?
People are using chatbots in all kinds of ways — to search the web, get help with an online purchase, sometimes even for counseling. But there's a lot about this human-AI interaction we don't fully understand. Do these chatbots effectively combat loneliness or worsen social isolation? The answer — so far — is complicated, according to Cathy Fang, a second-year PhD student at MIT Media Lab who, along with researchers from OpenAI, studied how chatbot use affects human social and emotional wellbeing.
Fri, May 02, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review - Meta joins the AI assistant race
Meta launches its own, dedicated AI app that could go head to head with the likes of ChatGPT. Plus, a massive data leak put California Blue Shield members' most sensitive medical details at risk. And how is the health tech investment sector navigating all the recent economic uncertainty from the Trump Administration’s latest trade war? Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino and Christina Farr, managing director at Manatt Health, explore all these topics on this week’s Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.
Thu, May 01, 2025
When an AI internet search competes against a human internet search
When President Jimmy Carter died late last year, the foundation that runs Wikipedia noticed something unusual: the flood of interest in the late president created a content bottleneck, slowing load times for about an hour. Wikipedia is built to handle spikes in traffic like this, according to the Wikimedia Foundation, but it's also dealing with a surge of bots scraping the site to train AI models, and clogging up its servers in the process, the organization’s chief product and technology officer Selena Deckelmann told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino.
Wed, April 30, 2025
Meta's news blackout in Canada causes problems during election
Canada's liberal party and its leader Mark Carney are set to remain in control after the country held federal elections Monday. They were the first since Canada adopted the Online News Act in 2023, which requires online content providers — like social media platforms — to negotiate some sort of "fair" payment to news publishers in exchange for using their content. They can also do what Meta did — block news from their Facebook and Instagram platforms altogether. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Marketplace Senior Washington Correspondent Kimberly Adams, who’s been reporting on the election from Canada, to learn more about that law and what happened to the online news environment after it passed.
Tue, April 29, 2025
A battery farm in the Bronx could help clean up New York's power grid
One of the most powerful tools in the fight against climate change is the money sitting in investment portfolios - especially the trillions of dollars invested on behalf of public retirees. That’s money that could continue to fund fossil fuel development, or help pay for climate solutions instead. New York City has implemented an ambitious Net Zero plan for its public pensions. That plan includes divesting from some fossil fuel companies and investing billions of dollars in climate solutions. One company benefiting from that investment is NineDot Energy. Wedged between an elementary school and a big box shopping center in the Northeast Bronx, NineDot Energy is operating a battery farm that the city’s utility company, Con Ed, can call on to help relieve the grid when it gets overstressed. “The batteries hold a combined three megawatts of battery storage. That’s enough to power about 3,000 New York City households for four hours on a hot summer day. Last summer, the battery farm was called half a dozen times, which was enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a combined 24 metric tons. That’s the equivalent of nine thousand car trips on the Cross Bronx Expressway. Currently, the city has the dirtiest energy grid in the state. More than 90% of its power comes from fossil fuels. NineDot Energy is still in growth mode, but battery farms like this could eventually help the grid transition to renewable sources, like wind and solar. “The sun only shines when nature tells it to; the wind only blows when nature tells it to, but people use electricity when they decide to,” explained Adam Cohen, co-founder of NineDot Energy. “A battery helps mediate that process. It pulls in the extra power when it's available, and then puts it back out when people call for it.” On a recent visit to the Bronx facility, 12-year-old Virtue Onoja showed off a mural she helped paint along with other students from the elementary school across the street, envisioning a future powered by cleaner energy. “One thing about me, I'm definitely an artist,” she said. “I drew a clear blue sky, no pollution, no nothing [and] beautiful yellow flowers and the sun.” There are also drawings of windmills and electric school buses. “There's still a lot of pollution, not just in the Bronx, but just in New York in general,” Onoja said. “All of this is the goal that we want to achieve.” This is an excerpt from the latest season of How We Survive. Listen to the full episode here .
Mon, April 28, 2025
AI can't read the room
Leyla Isik, a professor of cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University, is also a senior scientist on a new study looking at how good AI is at reading social cues. She and her research team took short videos of people doing things — two people chatting, two babies on a playmat, two people doing a synchronized skate routine — and showed them to human participants. After, they were asked them questions like, are these two communicating with each other? Are they communicating? Is it a positive or negative interaction? Then, they showed the same videos to over 350 open source AI models. (Which is a lot, though it didn't include all the latest and greatest ones out there.) Isik found that the AI models were a lot worse than humans at understanding what was going on. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes visited Isik at her lab in Johns Hopkins to discuss the findings.
Fri, April 25, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review - OpenAI's for-profit troubles, FTC sues Uber and how VCs are weathering Trump tariffs
It's the last Friday in April and it's time for Marketplace Tech Bytes Week in Review. This week, we'll talk about how the Federal Trade Commission is suing Uber over its subscription service. Plus, how the VC world is navigating the uncertainty created by the trade war. But first, a nonprofit pivot is facing some challenges. Open AI, the maker of ChatGPT was founded about a decade ago as a nonprofit research lab. It's now looking to restructure as a for-profit — specifically, a public benefit corporation But that transformation is facing resistance. About 10 former Open AI employees, along with several Nobel laureates and other experts, have written an open letter asking regulators in California and Delaware to block the change. They argue that nonprofit control is crucial to Open AI's mission, which is to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity." Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at Collab Capital, about how unusual it is to see this kind of conversion. YouTube Video of Marketplace Tech Bytes More on everything we talked about An Open Letter - Not For Private Gain Ex-OpenAI workers ask California and Delaware AGs to block for-profit conversion of ChatGPT maker - from the Associated Press OpenAI’s Latest Funding Round Comes With a $20 Billion Catch - from the Wall Street Journal FTC Takes Action Against Uber for Deceptive Billing and Cancellation Practices - from the Federal Trade Commission FTC sues Uber over difficulty of canceling subscriptions, “false” claims - from ArsTechnica White House Considers Slashing China Tariffs to De-Escalate Trade War - from the Wall Street Journal VC manufacturing deals were already declining
Thu, April 24, 2025
Is community fact-checking the future of social media moderation?
TikTok is going to be testing a new crowd-sourced fact-checking system called Footnotes. It’s seems similar to the Community Notes systems already in use on other social media, such as X and Facebook. TikTok is also keeping its current fact-checking systems in place. The way these community systems generally work is, say someone makes a post stating "whales are the biggest fish out there." Another user could add a note saying "actually, whales are mammals, and here's a source with more information." Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Vanderbilt psychology professor Lisa Fazio about why this model of "citizen fact-checking" is catching on.
Wed, April 23, 2025
Cities take the lead in battling rent-setting algorithms
The use of algorithmic software in setting residential rents has come under scrutiny in recent years. In 2024, the Joe Biden administration sued real estate company RealPage, alleging that its algorithm, which aggregates and analyzes private data on the housing market, enables landlords to collude in pricing and stifles competition. There's no word yet on what the second Donald Trump administration's Justice Department will do with this case. But in the meantime, some cities are banning the use of these algorithms completely. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Robbie Sequeira, who has been reporting on the issue for Stateline.
Tue, April 22, 2025
This company uses AI to make workers AI-savvy — and keep their jobs
We've sometimes wished we could have our own Wendy Rhodes, the performance coach at the hedge fund on the TV show “Billions.” Most workplaces, however, aren't bringing in billions and can't afford a Wendy. But an upskilling platform called Multiverse uses artificial intelligence to provide personalized, on-the-job guidance. Its AI coach, Atlas, helps workers expand their abilities and keep themselves relevant in an economy that makes skills obsolete faster than ever before, says Ujjwal Singh, chief product and technology officer at Multiverse.
Mon, April 21, 2025
Mobile apps are failing users with disabilities
Developers of mobile apps have "room for improvement" in making their platforms fully accessible for disabled users, according to a new report from the software company ArcTouch and the digital research platform Fable. It looked at fifty popular apps and assessed them for features that improve accessibility like screen reading, text size adjustability, voice controls and multiple screen orientations. The apps were tested by disabled users who reported a poor or failing experience almost three-quarters of the time. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Ben Ogilvie, head of accessibility at ArcTouch, to learn more about why so many apps are behind.
Fri, April 18, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — Meta's antitrust trial, Nvidia's export restraint, and Jack Dorsey's hot take on IP law
NVIDIA gets caught up in the trade war, the titans of Twitter/X debate intellectual property law — and the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case against Meta kicks off in court. We're digging into all of it on today's Tech Bytes: Week in Review. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, about what we learned in week one of Meta's monopoly trial.
Thu, April 17, 2025
For the 2034 Olympics, Utah wants air taxis instead of Ubers
Flying cars have been a staple of science-fiction visions of the future for ages. Perhaps most famously in “Back to the Future II.” The film may have overshot the mark a bit with Doc and Marty McFly navigating full-on air highways in 2015. But Utah is pushing for the technology to take off by 2034, when the state hosts the Olympic and paralympic winter games. We're not exactly talking about flying Delorians or vehicles you'd recognize as a car, but rather small, lightweight aircraft for traveling shorter distances. Reporter Caroline Ballard got a first look at the air taxis.
Wed, April 16, 2025
Can the U.S. get around China's restrictions on rare earth minerals?
China is responsible for most of the world’s processing of rare earth metals and minerals, but its new export restrictions have raised the stakes for U.S. efforts to build its own supply chain and processing industry. Barbara Arnold, a professor of mining engineering at Penn State, says there are options, but they require time, development and investment.
Tue, April 15, 2025
Virginia's reliance on surveillance tech raises data privacy questions
Surveillance technology like automated license plate readers has become commonplace in policing. They've made it easier to locate stolen vehicles and track suspects, but they've also raised concerns about civil liberties. Cardinal News Executive Editor Jeff Schwaner took a 300-mile drive through the state to see how often his car would be recorded. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Schwaner about his experience and issues related to privacy and who has access to the data.
Mon, April 14, 2025
Is using AI in job interviews cheating?
One area where artificial intelligence has been swiftly adopted is software coding. Google even boasted last year that more than a quarter of its code was generated by AI. But the technology is also generating challenges to the traditional technical job interview, where candidates are given programming problems as a way to assess their skills. And lately it’s become apparent that a lot of applicants are using AI to give themselves a boost, according to recent reporting from Business Insider's Amanda Hoover. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Hoover about the controversy over applicants using AI while interviewing for jobs that often use AI.
Fri, April 11, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — How tariffs impact consumer gadgets, e-commerce and the AI boom
The tariff rollercoaster has created a lot of uncertainty in the tech industry. We're digging into how its playing out for makers of consumer tech, e-commerce platforms and AI. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, about all these topics for this week’s Tech Bytes.
Thu, April 10, 2025
Etsy's AI curates the search for the perfect thing
Etsy, the online marketplace known for selling one-of-a-kind handmade items, is hoping that artificial intelligence can boost sales of those crafty creations. The site has been selling less stuff and recently announced a plan to double down on high-quality and unique merchandise over cheap and mass-produced. Now, it's launching AI-curated product collections, based on trends like island luxe or maximalism. They build on the work of human trendspotters, using AI to scan the site and tag thousands of matching products. Nick Daniel, chief product officer at Etsy, explains what the company calls algotorial curation to Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino.
Wed, April 09, 2025
What does a bear market mean for Big Tech?
After President Donald Trump's launched his “Liberation Day” tariff agenda, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite stock index suffered its biggest plunge since March 2020. The so-called Magnificent 7 — Nvidia, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Tesla — lost a combined $1.8 trillion of market value in two days. The tariff-induced downturn in business conditions is likely to be temporary, according to Daniel Newman, CEO and chief analyst at the Futurum Group, a tech research and advisory firm. Newman told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino that tech consumers might feel more of the pain, but not much can stop corporate AI adoption and the data center buildout.
Tue, April 08, 2025
Microsoft wants to be the world's AI platform
Microsoft celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. The company started as a small software startup co-founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in an Albuquerque, New Mexico, garage. It went on to revolutionize personal computing, business productivity and now — it hopes — artificial intelligence with its big investment in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Microsoft has set about integrating the technology across its products, and it recently unveiled a slew of upgrades to its Copilot AI assistant. They include Memory, which retains personal details like the foods you like or your kids' birthdays and can use that information to make your dinner reservations or pick out a gift. The Vision upgrade enables the AI to analyze photos and video and provide tips on, say, redecorating your kitchen. Marketplace's Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's consumer chief marketing officer, to learn more about the new features.
Mon, April 07, 2025
How to ethically design a nuclear power plant
Rising demand for electricity, largely to power the artificial intelligence boom, has stirred a resurgence in nuclear energy. Older plants like Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania are being brought out of retirement, but there’s also investment in smaller-scale reactors with different designs. The fresh interest in nuclear generation has also renewed discussion about how to build these facilities ethically, in other words, with an approach that’s sensitive to the needs of the community and the world at large. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Aditi Verma, assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan, who co-created an undergrad course about ethically designing modern nuclear facilities. Verma discussed her effort to train young engineers to transform the industry. For some engineers, it’s also renewed a discussion about how to build these facilities ethically. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Aditi Verma, professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan who co-created a course for undergraduate students about how to ethically design modern nuclear facilities, about why it’s so important to be teaching this to young, would-be engineers now.
Fri, April 04, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — TikTok’s new bidders, Tesla sales slump and OpenAI raises $40 billion
OpenAI — the maker of ChatGPT — keeps raising more money, this time in a $40 billion round led by SoftBank. We’ll get into the strings attached in Marketplace “Tech Bytes — Week in Review.” Plus, what’s going on with Tesla’s sales slump? And how much is its polarizing CEO, Elon Musk, to blame? But first, the clock is ticking on a TikTok sale. The extended deadline, which may or may not be a real deadline according to President Donald Trump, is coming Saturday. As of this episode’s recording, the hugely popular short-form video app was supposed to find a U.S. buyer or be banned, and plenty of suitors have thrown their hats into the ring. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, about all these topics and more.
Thu, April 03, 2025
Why LGBTQ+ teens, young adults feel safer online
There’s been mounting concern in recent years about the harms of social media use for kids. The sites can be addictive, ripe for cyberbullying and contribute to increased rates of body dysmorphia, anxiety and depression. The growing evidence has led at least a dozen states to pass laws attempting to restrict access to online platforms for kids. The Kids Off Social Media Act, a bipartisan bill in the Senate, would bar minors under 13 from social media. But despite the risks, there can be benefits to finding communities online, especially for LGBTQ+ teens and young adults. A recent report jointly released by the Born This Way Foundation and the nonprofit Hopelab found that young people in these demographics felt significantly safer expressing their identities online compared to in-person spaces.
Wed, April 02, 2025
Worry over worker visas goes viral in Silicon Valley
Registration for the H-1B visa lottery closed last week. The tech industry has long been the biggest beneficiary of this program for specialized workers. But uncertainty has been spreading due to the Trump administration’s restrictive stance on immigration policy. Even legal immigrants have felt the crackdown. It’s led some companies to advise their H-1B holders not to leave the country for fear that they could be barred from returning. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Gerrit De Vynck, who wrote about risks to the visa program for The Washington Post.
Tue, April 01, 2025
Napster lives on
Yes, Napster is still alive and kicking. The peer-to-peer file-sharing company that became synonymous with music piracy in the early 2000s was bought by a company called Infinite Reality Labs last week for about $207 million. It’s the latest in a string of attempts to revive the brand. After it was shut down by the courts in 2001 and declared bankruptcy, Napster returned as a music subscription service, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens and now a virtual reality-metaverse destination. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Harry McCracken, global technology editor at Fast Company, who has been following Napster from the beginning. He says the brand still has some power.
Mon, March 31, 2025
China sets its sights on AI leadership
Chinese President Xi Jinping is pushing for the country to be a global leader in artificial intelligence by 2030 as Beijing competes with Washington to gain an edge in advanced technology. The release of AI chatbot DeepSeek, which stunned industry experts in January, gave a boost to China’s hopes of catching up to the U.S. despite restrictions on the advanced chips used to power AI.
Fri, March 28, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — Trump officials’ Signal leak, 23andMe goes bankrupt and chatbots take on search engines
AI company Anthropic recently added web search to its chatbot Claude. It joins other artificial intelligence tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT in delivering one clear answer to a web search query instead of pages and pages of links. Plus, 23andMe declared bankruptcy. So what’s gonna happen to all that genetic data? But first — the Signal group chat heard round the world. A Trump administration official appears to have inadvertently invited a journalist into a conversation about sensitive national security issues on the secure messaging app Signal. The app does offer end-to-end encryption, the gold standard for security in consumer-level messaging apps, but that doesn’t make it foolproof for the most sensitive of data. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal, to break down all these topics for this week’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”
Thu, March 27, 2025
Network effect: Customers help utilities build smarter, more efficient power grid
On today’s episode of “Marketplace Tech,” Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Daniel Cohan, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University, about virtual power plants. These aren’t physical generating stations. They’re more of a network, usually managed by a local utility, that aggregates electricity from different sources like businesses or homes. Essentially, these customers give energy back to the grid or help the utility balance supply and demand. As electricity demand grows, thanks to power-hungry AI data centers, electric cars and extreme weather, some providers are turning to virtual power plants to reduce strain on the grid.
Wed, March 26, 2025
The SEC invites cryptocurrency supporters and skeptics to the table
Last Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission held its first-ever crypto roundtable, a discussion with industry leaders and skeptics to answer a grand question: how should the SEC regulate crypto? Should SEC officials regulate crypto tokens like bonds and stocks? The agency under President Donald Trump is taking what many see as a friendlier approach to cryptocurrency and has already dropped a number of lawsuits against various crypto exchanges initiated during the Biden Administration. Axios reporter and author of the Axios Crypto newsletter, Brady Dale, returns to the show to discuss why the question of regulating crypto like a security asset is a very complicated one to answer.
Tue, March 25, 2025
AI chatbots mimic human anxiety, study finds
There’s a lot of hope that artificially intelligent chatbots could help provide sorely needed mental health support. Early research suggests humanlike responses from large language models could help fill in gaps in services. But there are risks. A recent study found that prompting ChatGPT with traumatic stories — the type a patient might tell a therapist — can induce an anxious response, which could be counterproductive. Ziv Ben-Zion, a clinical neuroscience researcher at Yale University and the University of Haifa, co-authored the study. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino asked him why AI appears to reflect or even experience the emotions that it’s exposed to.
Mon, March 24, 2025
Workers hope to steer giant Southern EV battery plant toward unionization
The electric vehicle industry in the Southeast is growing rapidly, with increased sales, charging stations and manufacturing. Buoyed by notable victories in the last couple of years, the United Auto Workers union is revving up efforts to organize the EV and battery sector in the South. One target is a sprawling campus in rural Kentucky that, once completed, will be one of the largest EV battery plants in the world. A supermajority of workers at BlueOval SK has asked the National Labor Relations Board for a vote on joining the United Auto Workers. The nearly $6 billion electric vehicle battery campus in Glendale, Kentucky, is part of a joint venture between Ford and South Korea’s SK On.
Fri, March 21, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — Nvidia’s new bot, evaluating AI models in health care, and a health tech company preps its IPO
The stock market has been a tad volatile lately. But this month, the digital physical therapy company Hinge Health filed for an initial public offering. Plus, a new tool out of Stanford University evaluates how various AI models perform in real-world health care. It grades them on tasks from patient education to clinical note generation. But first, Nvidia just hosted its annual GTC confab, where it announced a whole lot of collaborations and, of course, some new and improved chips. Main takeaway: The company has its fingers in a bunch of AI pies. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino discusses all of this with Christina Farr, managing director at Manatt Health.
Thu, March 20, 2025
More Stanford grads are finding jobs and purpose in defense tech
Stanford University has long been a feeder for the neighboring tech industry with graduates often heading to a brand name of Silicon Valley. But the times, they are a-changin’, according to writer Jasmine Sun. She reported recently for the San Francisco Standard that building tech for the military has become cool on campus. One student, Divya, said her “most effective and moral friends are now working for Palantir.” Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Sun about how this shift compares to when she attended Stanford in the late 2010s.
Wed, March 19, 2025
Ransomware’s new strategy: naming and shaming victims
Federal officials are warning consumers against a type of cyberattack that’s been on the rise. It’s called Medusa, a ransomware program that uses tactics like phishing to infect a target’s system and encrypt their data, which hackers then threaten to publicly release unless a ransom is paid. Medusa is just one example of how hackers are evolving their strategies at a time when federal cybersecurity resources are being cut by the Donald Trump administration. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Lesley Carhart, director of incident response for North America at cybersecurity firm Dragos, to learn more about the use of embarrassment as a weapon and the impact of funding cuts on digital safety.
Tue, March 18, 2025
The do’s and don’ts of payment apps
You could say once your company becomes a verb, you’ve arrived. And “Venmo me” is a pretty common phrase these days. Mobile payment apps like Venmo, along with Zelle and Cash App, are becoming pretty widespread, especially among young people. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, consumers under the age of 25 were twice as likely to have used some kind of mobile payment app compared to older Americans. But as with any form of money, there is etiquette about how to use them. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Yanely Espinal, host of Marketplace’s “Financially Inclined,” a video podcast that provides money lessons for teens, about the do’s and don’ts of these payment apps.
Mon, March 17, 2025
Schools are using AI tracking software on student devices, recent investigation shows
Back when the pandemic first hit, many students received tablets or laptops from their schools. Schools also wanted to know what students were doing on those devices, so demand for AI-powered software to monitor students’ digital activities also grew. That surveillance software is the subject of a new investigation from the Associated Press andTthe Seattle Times, whic Claire Bryan coauthored. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes asked her what sort of things this surveillance software might flag.
Fri, March 14, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review – AI that reads emotions, Waymo expands its services, and the industry pushes back on federal tech cuts
We are taking a look at how the tech industry is pushing back against federal cuts to artificial intelligence and science. Plus, Waymo is expanding its self-driving services in Silicon Valley. But first, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba this week released an AI model called R1-Omni, which the company says can read human emotions. Alibaba shared a demo on the coding platform GitHub that accurately described a character as being angry and experiencing fear. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes is joined by Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at venture firm Collab Capital, to break down these stories.
Thu, March 13, 2025
Futurist couldn’t predict our inability to plan for the future
This week, we’ve been exploring the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, we spoke about what might happen with futurist Amy Webb, the CEO of the Future Today Strategy Group. She predicted, among other things, that we would give up more personal data around our health and location. Then on the show in 2021, she said more definitively that privacy was dead. This week, Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Webb again. They discussed the current state of digital privacy, the lessons not learned from the pandemic and, as Webb sees it, the victory of politics over planning.
Wed, March 12, 2025
The pandemic made teachers learn to love tech
In the spring of 2020, 77% of American public schools moved to online distance learning when the pandemic hit, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to the pandemic, you could say that schools were trickling into the digital age. Then, when COVID changed everything, they were basically tossed into it. Some educators adapted quickly, like Bebi Davis, who was working as a vice principal in Honolulu at the time. She’s now principal of Princess Victoria Kaiulani Elementary. Going totally virtual, she said, meant introducing an onslaught of technology — videoconferencing, classroom management software and messaging systems. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes asked Davis about the school system’s experience adopting so much tech all at once.
Tue, March 11, 2025
Keeping remote workers close to the action
Five years ago today, after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, there was a widespread shift to remote work for many workers who were considered nonessential. And people had to get used to seeing their colleagues mainly on a screen. In recent years, some companies have required employees to return to the office full time. But remote work remains a major part of many people’s lives, far more than in 2019. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Anita Blanchard, a professor of psychological and organization science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, about what’s lost when workers don’t interact in the same physical space.
Mon, March 10, 2025
How the pandemic gave a huge boost to wastewater virus tracking
March 11 marks five years since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 virus officially a pandemic. Tracking the virus has been key to understanding where outbreaks are occurring and one tracking tool that had been mostly on the shelf prior to the pandemic is wastewater surveillance. That’s pretty much what it sounds like — testing what we flush down the toilet which eventually lands in what’s known as a sewer shed. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with molecular virologist Marc Johnson at the University of Missouri about the advantages of wastewater surveillance. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Fri, March 07, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review – Tariff tensions hit tech stocks, TSMC expands its U.S. investment and a tech leader joins bid to buy TikTok
In this week’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” TSMC announced it’s investing an additional $100 billion to make chips in the U.S. Plus, a co-founder of the social media platform Reddit joins a bid to buy TikTok. But first, let’s talk about the stock market. A number of tech companies watched their stocks sink this week, when new tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada were put in place. That volatility continued when President Donald Trump backtracked on the policy, at least temporarily. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Natasha Mascarenhas, reporter at The Information, to unpack these stories and more.
Thu, March 06, 2025
Maryland’s message to Big Tech: Think different.
Today, we’re wrapping up our series “The Infinite Scroll,” where we look at kids’ lives on social media and the risks and rules they face. One approach some states take to creating rules to mitigate risk is known as an age-appropriate design code, a law that puts the onus on tech companies to design products that keep kids safer when they’re on the internet. California passed its Age-Appropriate Design Code Act in 2022, as did Maryland last year. Both have been challenged by lawsuits from the tech industry. State Delegate Jared Solomon, a sponsor and lead author of the Maryland law, explained to Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes that the oversight effort attempts to prevent manipulation by algorithms. He hopes the industry will begin to “think differently about how they design their products.”
Wed, March 05, 2025
Can close connections with AI chatbots harm kids?
On our new series “The Infinite Scroll,” we’re looking at the rules and risks of kids using social media. Artificial intelligence is showing up on these platforms in the form of chatbots, digital characters you can text or talk with. Today we explore what can happen to youngsters who interact with them. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes discussed the subject with Meetali Jain, founder and director at the Tech Justice Law Project. Her organization is involved in a lawsuit against Character.AI, an app that enables users to create and communicate with these bots.
Tue, March 04, 2025
Parents want their kids to be social, but with less social media
This week, we are looking at how kids use social media and the risks and rules around it. It’s part of our new series “The Infinite Scroll.” Monday, we talked about how habitually checking social media can change adolescents’ brains, making them more sensitive to feedback from their peers. Today, we’re going to look at what it’s like to be a parent monitoring their kids’ social media. One thing’s clear: It can be a lot of work.
Mon, March 03, 2025
Youngsters’ social media habit has developmental impact, researcher says
Social media takes up a huge chunk of kids’ lives. A 2024 study from Pew found that about half of U.S. teenagers are online “almost constantly.” It’s a big source of stress for parents too, and policing their kids’ actions on these platforms can take up a lot of time and energy. Also, there’s AI, and it’s showing up on social media as bots that are always available to talk. We’re going to get to all of that this week in our new series about what it’s like to be a kid on social media and the risks and rules that come with it. We call it “The Infinite Scroll.” We’re kicking things off with Eva Telzer, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Telzer told Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes about the intensity of youngsters’ connection to their phones and its effects on how the kids are wired, which may last into adulthood.
Fri, February 28, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — Apple’s huge investment, Nvidia’s strong earnings and Bybit hack batters bitcoin
In this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” chip powerhouse Nvidia saw its revenue soar last quarter, showing that the AI boom is still booming. Plus, it was a bumpy week for bitcoin after the crypto exchange Bybit lost almost $1.5 billion of digital assets in a hack. But first, Apple announced it’s spending $500 billion to expand manufacturing and create jobs in the U.S. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, about what the investment could do for American tech manufacturing and more.
Thu, February 27, 2025
As followership wanes, TikTok resets relations between creators and fans
Patreon, a company that enables fans to directly support internet creators financially, has produced a report looking at how creators and their fans are feeling these days. One finding: Fans say they’re seeing more short-form work on social media, even though they prefer long-form content. And more than half of creators surveyed say it’s harder to reach their followers now than five years ago. This is part of what the report calls the “TikTokification of the internet.” Brielle Villablanca, vice president of communications and creator advocacy at Patreon, discusses the trade-offs for creators in the current TikTok-driven environment with Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes.
Wed, February 26, 2025
If AI writes code, is coding still crucial for kids to learn?
For years, coding has been thought of as a useful skill for children to learn. It’s integrated into computer science classes and a number of organizations are dedicated to helping kids code. But now, AI tools can write code themselves. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Monica McGill of the Institute for Advancing Computing Education about what the expanding capabilities of artificial intelligence mean for coding as a necessary — or not so necessary — skill.
Tue, February 25, 2025
How will Australia’s teen social media ban work?
Last year, Australia passed a measure that would ban children under 16 from using social media. That’ll be a big shift: About 80% of Australian kids between the ages of 8 and 12 used social media in 2024, according to a report from Australia’s online safety regulator. The government is now working on the details of how to implement what many are calling one of the strictest age restriction policies in the world. The BBC’s Naomi Rainey reports on the difficulties of enforcing the ban and the impact it could have on kids in the future.
Mon, February 24, 2025
Satellites provide internet access and a lot more, but the skies are getting crowded
Satellite internet has been around for decades. But in just the past six years, the number of satellites orbiting the planet has grown dramatically. Many belong to Starlink, a unit of SpaceX whose satellites are in low Earth orbit. And it’s expected to get even busier up there with Amazon’s Project Kuiper launching thousands of new satellites. Joe Supan of CNET recently wrote about this. He told Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes about the race to claim a piece of space and the risk of high-tech debris clogging the zone.
Fri, February 21, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — deep cuts at AI agency, DOGE sued again and pulling the plug on the Ai Pin
Another lawsuit hits the Department of Government Efficiency from privacy rights advocates concerned about Americans’ personal data. And another wearable — the Ai Pin — bites the dust. But first, layoffs by the federal government are continuing, including, reportedly, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, which is part of the Commerce Department. This is a federal laboratory that’s been around since 1901 whose mission is to promote U.S. innovation and competition. And part of its work is to help create standards for new technology, like artificial intelligence. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes is joined by Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, to break down these stories. Curi recently reported that NIST is expected to fire about 500 workers. But what does NIST do, exactly?
Thu, February 20, 2025
Responsible ways to use AI for government efficiency
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that representatives of DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency — gained access to sensitive data at the Department of Education and fed it into AI software. This has raised red flags over whether it violates federal privacy law. We reached out to DOGE for comment, but didn’t hear back. But there are ways to use AI to improve efficiency without raising privacy concerns. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Kevin Frazier, contributing editor at the publication Lawfare, about how the government has used AI in the past and how it could use it more responsibly in the future.
Wed, February 19, 2025
The cost of losing government webpages and public data
404: Page Not Found. That error message has become a more common sight on government websites. Many — reportedly thousands — of federal government webpages were recently taken down, ranging from Census Bureau research on depression among LGBT adults to Food and Drug Administration guidance for making clinical trials more diverse. These erasures come after President Donald Trump signed executive orders cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and what he calls gender ideology. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Jack Cushman, director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab and a contributor to the End of Term archive project, which works to preserve government sites before a new administration takes over. They discussed his recent work archiving those sites and data sets and what’s lost when these digital artifacts are not properly archived.
Tue, February 18, 2025
When venture capital collides with the nation’s capital
Venture capitalists have been welcomed into the Donald Trump administration, and their presence is growing. People who’ve been in the business of backing startups have been tapped to run the Office of Personnel Management and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Another, David Sacks, is the White House artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar. Even the vice president, JD Vance, spent time making venture deals before he moved into politics. Sarah Kunst, founder and managing director at Cleo Capital, says that in venture capital, you have to be good at saying no and comfortable taking risks knowing they likely won’t pan out. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes asked Kunst what it means to bring these qualities to the federal government.
Mon, February 17, 2025
Are we ready for ‘grief-tech’?
An industry is emerging that uses AI to build chatbots of people who’ve died. “Five years ago I would have said that most people would still find it kind of creepy. But then ChatGPT hit,” said Carl Orman, a Swedish researcher and author who has spent the past 10 years studying the ethics of the digital afterlife. “It’s not implausible that over the next decade or so, interacting with chatbots impersonating real humans becomes just as common as having a video call and that’s going to open up a new market for those chatbots.” The BBC’s Isabel Woodford looks at the business of grief-tech.
Fri, February 14, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — AI talks at Paris summit, Apple launches health study and BuzzFeed’s social media plans
On this week’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” we’ll talk about Apple launching a new health research study and BuzzFeed starting a new social media platform. But first, the U.S. is pushing back against global AI regulation. This week there was a kind of who’s who of AI and government at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly said there should be rules for this technology and that AI cannot be the Wild West. But the country that’s home to the original Wild West wants to forge ahead. U.S. Vice President JD Vance delivered a speech underlining the Donald Trump administration’s intent to develop AI without worrying about the risks. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at the venture firm Collab Capital, about these topics for this week’s “Tech Bytes.”
Thu, February 13, 2025
Will DeepSeek disrupt American AI’s first-mover advantage?
There’s a concept in business called the first-mover advantage. Basically, it means that if you’re the first company with a successful product in a new market, you have the opportunity to dominate the market and fend off rivals. But that advantage can be short-lived. Take Netscape Navigator, the first popular commercial web browser. Microsoft entered the field with Internet Explorer, and it wasn’t long before Navigator crashed. In AI chatbots, two of the first movers are OpenAI and Anthropic. But recently the Chinese company DeepSeek made a splash with an AI chatbot that it reportedly developed for a fraction of what its competitors have spent. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with historian Margaret O’Mara, author of the book “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” about whether America’s artificial intelligence industry should be worried about newcomers like DeepSeek.
Wed, February 12, 2025
The AI boom is carving space for the data centers economy
Data centers are filled with servers, basically a bunch of beefed-up computers stacked on top of each other in buildings that can be as big as warehouses. So they need a lot of electricity. And there are more of those projects in the works. For example, Meta has said it’s planning to build out at least one data center that’s going to be so big it could cover a good chunk of Manhattan. Wall Street Journal tech reporter Meghan Bobrowsky explained to Hughes what kinds of companies are benefitting from this data center construction boom.
Tue, February 11, 2025
AI pressures professions to accept artificial expertise
About 1 in 4 U.S. jobs requires an occupational license, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Licensing requirements differ by state and can apply to everyone from barbers to lawyers. The general idea, of course, is to keep unqualified workers out. But technology, and specifically artificial intelligence, is making inroads. Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, is also author of the new book “The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong.” She told Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes that in some instances, AI is letting consumers bypass licensed workers altogether.
Mon, February 10, 2025
The complicated business of changing digital map names and boundaries
Geography has been part of President Trump’s agenda. His first day on the job, he signed an executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and Denali, the highest peak in North America, will now go back to being called Mount McKinley.Private companies that make maps — analog or digital — don’t have to follow suit but at least one is. Google said in a post on X that it has long had a practice of applying name changes from official government sources. So, once the official federal naming database is changed, it’ll update Google Maps for people in the U.S. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with, Sterling Quinn Professor of Geography at Central Washington University, about whether tech companies generally have standard operating procedures around name changes.
Fri, February 07, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — Google’s AI policy pivot, OpenAI teams up with California colleges, and robotaxis arrive in Austin
On this week’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” we’ll explore OpenAI’s inroads in higher education. Plus, how passengers can get on a waitlist to hail a driverless car in Austin, Texas. But first, a look at how Google is changing its approach to artificial intelligence. In 2018, the company published its “AI principles,” guidelines for how it believed AI should be built and used. Google originally included language that said it would not design or deploy AI to be used in weapons or surveillance. That language has now gone away. Google didn’t respond to our request for comment, but it did say in a blog post this week that companies and governments should work together to create AI that, among other things, supports national security. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Natasha Mascarenhas, reporter at The Information, about these topics for this week’s “Tech Bytes.”
Thu, February 06, 2025
The case for a comprehensive federal law to oversee AI
Congress considered 158 bills that mention artificial intelligence over the past two years, according to a count by the Brennan Center for Justice. But zero comprehensive AI laws have been passed. There has been movement by states, however. In Tennessee, for example, the ELVIS Act, which protects voices and likenesses from unauthorized use by AI, became law in March. In Colorado, a law that takes effect in 2026 requires developers of high-risk AI systems to protect consumers from algorithm-based discrimination. But some who fund AI technology say a federal law is needed. That includes Matt Perault, head of AI policy at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Wed, February 05, 2025
A veteran of Reagan’s “Star Wars” has doubts about Trump’s “Iron Dome”
Among President Donald Trump’s many executive orders is one calling for a “next-generation missile defense shield.” The White House calls this the Iron Dome for America. The order says it should defend against all sorts of missile attacks and include “space-based interceptors” that could potentially act as both sensors and weapons. It reminded retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Latiff of a Ronald Reagan-era program he worked on: the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, known popularly, and especially to its critics, as “Star Wars.” Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Latiff about whether the U.S. has the technology, money and time to make this grand project work.
Tue, February 04, 2025
Artificial ingredient: Cooking up new snacks with aid of AI
One of the more hopeful scenarios for how artificial intelligence could affect jobs is that it would take over more of the boring grunt work and free up humans for loftier pursuits. Mondelez, the company behind many of America’s favorite snacks, like Oreo cookies, Sour Patch Kids candy and Ritz crackers, is trying to do just that — using AI to speed up innovation for food scientists and give their taste buds a break. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Wall Street Journal reporter Isabelle Bousquette about how AI is changing the snack game.
Mon, February 03, 2025
Reimagining the long-term alignment of human and AI advancements
Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, has long been the holy grail of innovation — a synthetic intelligence with all the capabilities of a human mind or more. Recent advances in AI have many predicting we could be closer to achieving it than we’re ready for. It’s a reality that preoccupied the late diplomat Henry Kissinger before he died last year at 100 years old. He collaborated with Eric Schmidt, formerly at Google, and Craig Mundie, formerly at Microsoft, on the new book “Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope and the Human Spirit.” Mundie joined Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to discuss what a future with superintelligence might look like.
Fri, January 31, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — DeepSeek, chip tariffs, and an attempt to get kids off social media
Everyone was obsessed with the new white whale of the AI world this week. We’ll get into it on today’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” Plus, Trump floats tariffs on semiconductors from overseas. And a bipartisan Senate bill to ban kids from social media is getting another look. But first, back to that DeepSeek drama. The Chinese AI company took the world and the markets by storm with claims that its class-leading large language model was built at a fraction of the cost of Silicon Valley rivals. DeepSeek claims it spent only $6 million on compute power — at least 16 times less than leading U.S. companies. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, about all these topics for this week’s Tech Bytes.
Thu, January 30, 2025
Trump renews interest in crypto “meme coins”
President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has been seen by many as a boost for cryptocurrency. During the campaign, he made several crypto-friendly pledges and recently made a splash when he launched his own “meme coin” shortly before the inauguration. The Trump token reached a nearly a $15 billion valuation, though it has since fallen quite a bit. But it continues to provoke questions, like, is it a conflict of interest for a high-ranking official? What the heck is a meme coin anyway?Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Axios reporter Brady Dale, author of the Axios Crypto newsletter, to get some answers.
Wed, January 29, 2025
How Trump’s executive order on online free speech could upend content moderation
Amid all the executive orders signed by President Donald Trump during his first week in office came a promise to “restore freedom of speech” and end federal censorship. Keen observers may note that freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution. But the order seems to have something more specific in mind. It calls out what it characterizes as the Biden administration’s pressure campaign on social media companies to “moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech under the guise of combatting misinformation.” Will Oremus, tech news analysis writer at The Washington Post, told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino that the order is a signal of the president’s continued focus on content moderation online.
Tue, January 28, 2025
“Superagency” explores how AI can enhance human potential to new heights
There’s no shortage of bullish voices on artificial intelligence among the titans of tech. But even many of the leading evangelists, in addition to prevailing pop culture narratives, tend to strike a note of impending doom when envisioning the future of the technology. Reid Hoffman wants us to consider the alternative. He’s the co-founder of LinkedIn, and a founding investor and former board member of OpenAI before he branched into other ventures, like Inflection AI. And his new book “Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future?” explores those alternatives. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Hoffman about what he means by the idea of “superagency.”
Mon, January 27, 2025
At Davos, rich and powerful now comfortable with power of AI
Last week’s annual gathering of the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was a bit overshadowed by the inauguration of Donald Trump in the U.S. The president made a virtual appearance at the conference, delivering a speech that hit on several of his recurring themes: tariffs, inflation and artificial intelligence. AI has been a big topic at the summit for several years. But the way it was treated this year felt different, according to Reed Albergotti, tech editor at news website Semafor. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino caught up with Albergotti just as he was wrapping up his reporting at Davos.
Fri, January 24, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — The Stargate project, Trump meme coins, and the TikTok flip-flop
There’s been quite a firehose of news this week, but we’re going to distill some of it into a nice, tall glass for you on today’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” We’ll dig into why some crypto insiders are upset with President Donald Trump over his preinaugural meme coins. Plus, the latest in the TikTok ban rollback and how Congress might respond. But first, amid the flurry of executive orders the president signed during his first week in office, he announced the Stargate project, a private, multiparty venture to build domestic artificial intelligence data centers. In attendance at the White House were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. The investment could be as much as $500 billion. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, for her take on these stories.
Thu, January 23, 2025
As LA blazes rage, even firefighters turn to Watch Duty
Getting fast, comprehensive and accurate information is crucial during emergencies like the devastating wildfires still raging in the Los Angeles area. And over the last two terrifying weeks, one app has become the place to find it: Watch Duty. Operated by a nonprofit, the app was launched in 2021 to track wildfires in Northern California and now provides coverage for more than 20 states. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with David Merritt, Watch Duty’s chief technology officer, about how it all came together.
Wed, January 22, 2025
How one college is leveraging AI for educators and students
The explosion of artificial intelligence tools like chatbots has rocked the education world in the last couple years. It’s spurred efforts to prohibit, detect or otherwise build guardrails around these powerful new tools. Some educators, though are embracing them, and Colby College is doing it on an institutional level. Four years ago, before most of the public had ever heard about large language models, this private liberal arts college in Maine established a cross-disciplinary institute for AI to help educators and students integrate the technology into their curricula in an ethical way. We had the college president on back then to discuss, and today we wanted to check back in — this time with Michael Donihue, interim director of the Davis Institute for AI at Colby College.
Tue, January 21, 2025
Trump’s election syncs up with tech backlash against gloom and guilt
There’s been a lot of doom and gloom in the tech sector in recent years — the feeling that so many of the advances in internet connectivity, social media and now artificial intelligence might have caused more harm than good, increasing the need for at least caution in the industry and even, possibly, government intervention. But lately a backlash to the backlash has been brewing among techno-optimists. Their movement is called effective accelerationism, a play on the effective altruism community, and its supporters argue that unrestricted technological progress is a force for positive change. It’s received more attention since Donald Trump won the 2024 election. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Nadia Asparouhova, a writer and researcher who’s been following the rise of the effective accelerationist subculture, often shortened to e/acc.
Mon, January 20, 2025
Biden pushed back on Big Tech’s power, and Trump found a few new friends
It’s Inauguration Day, and a veritable who’s who of tech are in attendance for the swearing in of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States. The massive presence of tech leaders, overtly supporting or just making nice with Trump, represents a stunning reversal from his first term. Today, we’re looking back at what happened in between. President Joe Biden was often seen as taking an adversarial approach to the tech industry.
Fri, January 17, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — TikTok shutdown, Biden’s AI policies and Zuckerberg asks Trump for a favor
On this week’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes,” we’ll dive into President Joe Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence plus a request Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made to President-elect Donald Trump. But first, tech news site The Information reported that TikTok plans to completely shut down its app in the U.S. on Sunday and will instead direct users to a website where they can read about the platform’s ban. According to that reporting, TikTok will allow American users to download their data — and, if the ban is overturned down the road, those users will be granted access to it immediately. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams is joined by Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, to break down these stories.
Thu, January 16, 2025
California’s wildfire detection tech was no match for the Palisades fire
California relies on a variety of tools to stop and mitigate wildfires, some as low-tech as dumping giant buckets of seawater on the flames. But on the higher-tech side is a new, AI-powered monitoring system called ALERTCalifornia, which was developed at the University of California, San Diego. It’s designed to speedily detect and report wildfires using a network of over 1,000 cameras and sensors. The developers say the network detected over 1,200 blazes across the state during the 2023 fire season, sometimes with impressive quickness. But the system wasn’t quick enough to prevent the current disaster in Los Angeles. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke with Cyrus Farivar, a senior writer at Forbes, who explored how the fury of the Palisades fire overwhelmed that human-made system.
Wed, January 15, 2025
Donors need protection too as wildfire misinformation and scams emerge
As fires burn in Los Angeles, many people are going online to find ways to support people who have been temporarily or permanently displaced by the disaster. But like we’ve seen in the aftermath of recent hurricanes and floods, bad actors are spreading misinformation and financial scams. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke with Steve Grobman, chief technology officer at the cybersecurity firm McAfee, to learn more.
Tue, January 14, 2025
How AI chatbots are turning the tables on scammers
Scam calls about fake warranty renewals, non-existent credit card bills and more are still a global problem. But some companies and telecommunication providers are turning to AI chatbots to intercept the calls before they ever reach a real person. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino recently spoke with Dali Kaafar, founder and CEO of Apate AI, an Australia-based company creating these chatbots, about how his company is designing these bots to scam the scammers.
Mon, January 13, 2025
Will AI replace call center workers?
Since large language model chatbots hit the scene a few years ago, there’s been a lot of speculation about which jobs they might disrupt most. A lot of bets were on customer service. And recent data show they are becoming more common in the space. A Salesforce survey found a 42% increase in the share of shoppers who turned to AI-powered chatbots for customer service during the 2024 holiday shopping season compared to the previous year. But as AI becomes more powerful and more human-like, will AI voice agents become the norm, even for those more complicated customer cases now handled by human agents? The BBC’s Elizabeth Hotson looked into what a future of synthetic customer service might look like.
Fri, January 10, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — Meta’s users take over fact checks, YouTubers sue PayPal and highlights from CES
CES wraps up in Las Vegas this week. That’s the annual convention where some of the most cutting-edge consumer tech is unveiled. And while we still don’t have a prototype for Rosey, the housecleaning robot from “The Jetsons,” we’ll get into some of the big robot reveals for today’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” Plus, YouTubers are taking PayPal to court. A class-action suit alleges that the payments company is messing with their commissions on affiliate links. But first, Meta made big changes to its content moderation policy this week. Facebook’s parent company said it’s cutting ties with third-party fact checkers and switching to a community notes system like the one X uses. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal, about her takeaways from the announcement.
Thu, January 09, 2025
Meta pivots to community fact-checking ahead of Trump term
This week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced some big changes to content moderation strategy. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp will no longer be contracting with third-party fact-checkers from the media and nonprofits as it has since 2016. Instead, Meta will follow the lead of X under Elon Musk and rely on crowd-sourced Community Notes to provide additional context on posts. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with David Gilbert, a reporter at Wired who covers online disinformation and extremism, to learn more about Meta’s latest pivot.
Wed, January 08, 2025
A Dutch port demonstrates how automation in the industry could work
U.S. ports could be facing another strike as the deadline looms next Wednesday to settle a union contract for 45,000 dockworkers on the East and Gulf coasts. A major sticking point has been automation. Proponents argue that technology can make ports cleaner and more efficient; critics point to lost jobs, high costs and mixed productivity results. While the cost-benefit analysis of port automation is complicated, there are places where the model appears to be succeeding, like Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Tue, January 07, 2025
Why 2025 may be the year of small AI
By now you probably know the term “large language model.” They’re the systems that underlie artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT. They’re called “large” because typically the more data you feed into them — like all the text on the internet — the better those models perform. But in recent months, there’s been chatter about the prospect that ever bigger models might not deliver transformative performance gains. Enter small language models. MIT Technology Review recently listed the systems as a breakthrough technology to watch in 2025. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to MIT Tech Review Executive Editor Niall Firth about why SLMs made the list.
Mon, January 06, 2025
With OpenAI seeking profits, activist seeks payback to the public
A battle is brewing over the restructuring of OpenAI, the creator of pioneering artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. It was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 with the goal of developing AI to benefit humanity, not investors. But advanced AI requires massive processing power, which gets expensive, feeding into the company’s decision to take on major investors. Recently, OpenAI unveiled a plan to transition into a for-profit public benefit corporation. That plan has drawn objections from the likes of Elon Musk, Meta and Robert Weissman, co-president of consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which urged California authorities to ensure that as OpenAI reorganizes, it will repay much of the benefits it received as a nonprofit.
Fri, January 03, 2025
Bytes: Week in Review — Trump’s bid to delay TikTok ban, OpenAI’s advances and a tech prediction for 2025
OpenAI closed the year with a bang, announcing a new, powerful AI model called o3. It could mark a significant step toward artificial general intelligence — an advanced form of AI that can learn or understand anything a human can. Plus, we’re mulling another tech prediction for 2025 — will AI assistants actually make our lives easier this year? But first, President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to put the TikTok ban on hold so he might negotiate a deal to save the app in the United States. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, about all these topics for this week’s Tech Bytes.
Thu, January 02, 2025
Not all AI is, well, AI
Artificial intelligence and promises about the tech are everywhere these days. But excitement about genuine advances can easily veer into hype, according to Arvind Narayanan, computer science professor at Princeton who along with PhD candidate Sayash Kapoor wrote the book “AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference.” He says even the term AI doesn’t always mean what you think.
Wed, January 01, 2025
Not all screen time is created equal (rerun)
This episode originally aired on August 19th, 2024. Six years ago, Apple introduced a new feature on iPhones and iPads: The Screen Time Report. The feature promised to empower users to manage their device time and balance the things that are really important. But is it actually doing that? Caroline Mimbs Nyce, a staff writer at The Atlantic, recently wrote about why she thinks Screen Time is the worst feature Apple has ever made. She told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino that it sometimes feels like Screen Time is doing more guilt-tripping than empowering these days.
Tue, December 31, 2024
Futurist forecasts convergence of key technologies into “living intelligence”
2024 was all about the artificial intelligence boom. That was true for Wall Street and Silicon Valley, but also the case on a wider, more practical level, with AI becoming increasingly visible in our schools, offices and social media feeds. AI advances are sure to remain a massive part of the tech economy, but in the coming year, we could see more sci-fi-like tech becoming reality, according to futurist Amy Webb, CEO of the Future Today Institute. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Webb about some of the emerging trends she’s watching for in 2025, including a potential evolution in AI tech that she calls living intelligence.
Mon, December 30, 2024
How content creators profit from rage-baiting
Have you ever found yourself angry or outraged at a piece of content on social media? A disgusting recipe or shocking opinion? It could be intentional. Social media influencer Winta Zesu freely admits that she provokes for profit — and made $150,000 last year by posting content meant to elicit “hate comments.” She’s part of a growing group of online creators making rage-bait content, where the goal is simple: record videos, produce memes and write posts that make other users viscerally angry, then bask in the thousands, or even millions, of shares and likes. The BBC’s Megan Lawton reports.
Fri, December 27, 2024
How China’s EV market could endure higher tariffs
It’s fair to say China dominates in electric vehicle sales. The country is the world’s biggest consumer of electric cars and has dozens of automakers competing in the space. Last year, Chinese companies sold about 9.5 million EVs and plug-in hybrid cars. But the industry faces mounting trade pressures. The Biden administration imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs which President-elect Donald Trump is expected to continue. Meanwhile the European Union recently raised tariffs up to 45%, citing concerns that Chinese government subsidies give the companies an unfair advantage. Subsidies certainly help but there are other factors giving Chinese EV’s an edge. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty spoke with Marketplace’s China correspondent Jennifer Pak about how those factors could keep Chinese EV makers competitive, even in a more restrictive global market.
Thu, December 26, 2024
Yelp helped change the game for online reviews
As we close out the year and look ahead at 2025, we wanted to mark an anniversary of sorts: 20 years ago, the online review site Yelp was launched — the name reportedly a mashup of “help” and “Yellow Pages.” In the two decades since the site launched, the website has changed the business of online reviews and our relationship to review culture, even has fake review continue being generated.
Wed, December 25, 2024
How teenagers can get hooked on sports betting (rerun)
This episode originally aired Sept. 23, 2024 . You might say online gambling has been on a winning streak since a Supreme Court decision in 2018 cleared the way for states to allow sports betting. It’s now legal in 30 states and its influence is hard to miss: Online sportsbook companies like DraftKings and FanDuel are on billboards, commercials even college campuses, many of which have made deals with sports betting companies. Yanely Espinal, host of Marketplace’s “Financially Inclined” podcast, recently covered this topic on her show and she explained to Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino how these online betting companies are reeling in younger users.
Tue, December 24, 2024
Big Tech’s pivot away from diversity efforts (rerun)
This episode is a rerun and originally aired Sept. 11, 2024. Over the last couple of years, the tech industry has slashed hundreds of thousands of jobs , many of them in recruiting and other departments working to improve diversity. Companies like Meta and Google, which earlier set ambitious hiring and investment goals, have pulled resources from those efforts. As a result, many nonprofit groups set up to train and recruit underrepresented workers are struggling to stay afloat. One prominent person in the field is Lisa Mae Brunson, founder of the nonprofit Wonder Women Tech. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino asked her how things have changed.
Mon, December 23, 2024
A look back at 20 years of podcasting
Raise your hand if you kind of forgot where the word podcast comes from. The now-catchall term for digital audio shows goes back to the Apple iPod. And it’s been almost two decades now since Apple helped bring podcasts mainstream by adding them to iTunes. “We’re going to list thousands of podcasts and you’ll be able to click on them, download them for free, and subscribe to them right in iTunes,” said then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the 2005 Worldwide Developers Conference. So, what was the business of podcasting like at the beginning, and where might it go from here? Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty asked Nicholas Quah, podcast critic for Vulture and New York Magazine.
Fri, December 20, 2024
Bytes: Week in Review — SCOTUS to hear TikTok case, Congress unveils AI roadmap, and the year ahead for robotaxis
The House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence released a lengthy report this week that doesn’t recommend any specific policies or bills. We’ll also look ahead at what the new year could bring the robotaxi business. But first, the TikTok ban is heading to the Supreme Court. A federal appeals court last week upheld the law that would ban the short-form video app if its Chinese owners don’t sell it by Jan. 19. TikTok asked the court to weigh in, and this week SCOTUS agreed. Lily Jamali, tech correspondent at the BBC, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to discuss the news.
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