Marketplace Tech

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 before tariffs entered the picture - from Pitchbook

Transcribed - Published: 25 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 24 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 23 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 22 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 21 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 18 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 16 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 11 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 10 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 9 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 8 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 7 April 2025

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.  

Transcribed - Published: 4 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 3 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 2 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2025

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.”

Transcribed - Published: 28 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 27 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 26 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 25 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 24 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 21 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 20 March 2025

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.  

Transcribed - Published: 19 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 18 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 17 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 14 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 13 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 12 March 2025

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.  

Transcribed - Published: 11 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 10 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 7 March 2025

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.”

Transcribed - Published: 6 March 2025

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.  

Transcribed - Published: 5 March 2025

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.  

Transcribed - Published: 4 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 3 March 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 28 February 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 27 February 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 26 February 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 25 February 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 24 February 2025

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?

Transcribed - Published: 21 February 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 20 February 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 19 February 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 18 February 2025

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.

Transcribed - Published: 17 February 2025