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.
Episodes
Regulating the tech sector in the AI era
Europe may have weeks of paid vacation, quaint walkable cities and incredible, affordable local wines. But there's something the continent lacks (besides ice cubes and AC): shiny, new Big Tech products.Take Apple's revamped Siri, Meta's Muse or OpenAI's competing AI assistant dots. They've all launched in the U.S., and in some cases other markets. But largely, not in the EU, which has a n
Is AI solving the right problems for consumers?
New AI features are quickly rolling out in the apps we use every day — from Google’s AI-generated search summaries to Meta’s Muse agent. But there's a big gap between what these tools can do and what most consumers find useful. The vast majority use free versions of chatbots, for searching the web, not running swarms of agents to manage their lives.Kate Moran, a user experience researcher
Colleges are training the next generation of content creators
An increasing number of schools are offering classes and even majors and minors in the art of influencing.Charlie Randall is a senior pursuing a double major in theater and content creation at Arkansas Tech University, which launched their digital content creation degree about three years ago. He hopes to use the degrees to break into voice acting.
Talking with AI ghosts of loved ones
There's a growing market for AI models that promise to recreate the experience of interacting with a lost loved one. They're sometimes called generative ghosts, and they're the topic for today's “Uncanny AI,” our series about sometimes-unsettling experiences with this technology.Jack Manning, a Ph.D. candidate studying information science at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been lo
Trump names his new AI task force the "Super Intelligence Force"
President Donald Trump named a new superhero-sounding AI task force this week dubbed the “Super Intelligence Force.” It's led by Jay Clayton, the new AI Czar and also director of national intelligence.Plus, Democrats in the Senate blocked a bill to address data center energy costs ahead of the midterm elections, and a new poll shows Americans are not feeling too great about how our leader
How a Meta AI prompt changed one mom’s approach to online privacy
It started when Kalie Robins posted an Instagram video with her kid. Meta's built in AI chatbot, Muse, started prompting her to ask questions about her daughters and personal life, which sent her down a social-media-privacy rabbit hole.Robins took to her feed — at the time, with only a few hundred followers — to share her experience. “It starts pulling completely separate information for
AI spending takes center stage ahead of midterms
OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife recently backed out of a planned $25 million donation to Leading the Future, an artificial intelligence-focused political action committee.Brockman said the PAC had become a “distraction” at OpenAI. But only after the executive had already given an initial $25 million.AI-focused PACs are spending big to shape competing visions for AI policy in t
What could slowing the AI frontier mean for the economy?
The AI industry appears to be getting more serious about safety. Leaders of top companies signed a non-binding agreement at the White House Sept. 30, laying out standards and best practices for responsible development of advanced AI. OpenAI delayed the release of its latest model due to safety concerns. And Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on the sector to slow things down and "pace the
Inside the mindset of AI safety workers
We've been hearing a lot about the threat of out-of-control of AI in recent weeks; mostly, from the people making the technology. There was the Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon, who publicly quit and kicked off the whole discussion. Others, including that company’s CEO Dario Amodei, chimed in with alarming appraisals of AI's existential risk.Making sense of all this as an outsider can somet
Trump and tech leaders agree to voluntary AI safety accord
While the White House hosted tech luminaries this week to sign a voluntary agreement on AI safety standards, the Federal Trade Commission opened a broad investigation into AI labs over potential safety risks their products may pose to consumers.Plus, a nearly four-hour documentary on Elon Musk is stirring up controversy over whether social media platforms will run ads for it.We’ll get int
AI-powered surveillance costs lives at the southern border
Over the last 25 years, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars to build a "virtual wall" of video surveillance at the southern border. The network can signal Border Patrol to respond when it detects suspicious activity. And officials have touted the benefit of providing aid to migrants in distress.But a recent investigation by MIT Technology Review and the Times of San Diego fo
Can data centers ever be "good neighbors"?
Further proof — in case you need it — that AI data centers aren't very popular: A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows 60% of Americans aren't comfortable welcoming one to the neighborhood.And concerns have grown since the beginning of the year across every demographic group, making the backlash a key issue in the midterm elections. Scott Brennen, director of NYU's Center on Tech
Why one X user is microblogging history in real time
Content creator Manny Marotta has gone viral in recent weeks for his X feed recounting the news of 25 years ago as if it's happening now.His minute-by-minute account of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, attracted hundreds of thousands of new followers. And the 27-year old is posting day-by-day accounts from 50 and 100 years ago, as well.Marotta says it's become a time-consuming hobby alongsid
Amazon wants Alexa to finish your to-do list, not just research it
The AI smart speaker market is getting crowded. This year, Amazon, which is a Marketplace underwriter, rolled out a large language model-powered version of its classic voice assistant.You can still talk to Alexa+ using Amazon echo devices, but it also operates as a text chatbot, replacing the old Rufus AI. It's capable of conversational searches, managing to-do lists and even generating p
Meta’s new Muse AI agent gives investors the warm-'n-fuzzies
Meta's new Muse AI assistant is having a moment — and it's kind of adorable. Meta announced a slew of new integrations for its AI assistant at a company event this week, including a customizable furry lil’ avatar and a Tamogatchi-like wearable device for interacting with it.Plus, Wall Street is betting billions on growing demand for cybersecurity in the age of AI and social media platform
Finding common ground in the U.S.-China AI rivalry
AI is the big item on the agenda this week as Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with President Trump in Washington, D.C.The talks come after a firestorm of news that has brought AI safety front and center: the hack of Hugging Face by rogue OpenAI agents, the resignation of an Anthropic researcher, plus calls by AI leaders to pace the frontier always met with the rejoinder, “what about Ch
The beauty industry is betting big on AI
The global beauty market is expected to hit almost $600 billion by 2030, according to a report by McKinsey & Company. And just like pretty much every industry, it's being transformed by AI.L’Oréal and OpenAI announced a partnership this summer to bring virtual makeup try-ons and product discovery to ChatGPT. An AI styling firm called Alta is integrating e.l.f. Beauty products into its
The cost of digitally disconnecting
Sure, you can put down your phone and go touch grass for free. But for those looking for a little help committing to a more disconnected lifestyle, there's a growing market of products and services from retreats to apps to devices that promise to supercharge your ability to unplug — for a price. Paula Mejia has covered the booming digital detox industry for Mother Jones, and spoke with “M
How attitudes toward AI differ across generations
At this point we've probably all been a part of heated dinner conversations about AI. Rana el Kaliouby has them almost nightly at home. She's an AI scientist and investor who hosts the podcast Pioneers of AI. But her own daughter is an AI skeptic, her teenage son, on the other hand, is an AI super user — which makes for some pretty interesting conversations at home.
Trump rejects AI's "effective altruism" movement
Congress is looking to rein in Flock cameras; plus, Apple has a new way to prove your iPhone photos are real.But first, it's been a wild week in AI. After the freakout over an Anthropic researcher quitting in protest last week, CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in AI, and his counterpoints Sam Altman and Elon Musk agreed. President Donald Trump? Not so much. He called fears of rogue
Insurers race to cover AI errors
More than 1 in 5 U.S. companies now use artificial intelligence in their daily operations, according to a recent analysis of federal data from Goldman Sachs. In theory AI offers the promise of greater productivity and profits, but even with advances in capabilities, these systems are still fundamentally unpredictable, creating new liabilities for firms that use them.That’s where insurance
AI safety requires action, not promises
AI leaders suddenly seem to agree on slowing down the AI race. Anthropic's Dario Amodei published an essay last weekend calling to "pace the frontier" — slow the development of advanced AI to allow safety measures to catch up. He said Anthropic will give access to independent safety evaluators, to which OpenAI's Sam Altman and XAI's Elon Musk concurred.It's all giving déjà vu to Amy Webb,
Why AI models are obsessed with creatures
The problem of AI alignment has become a hot topic. It’s raised questions, like how do we get AI to do what we want, and not what we don't want? For example, hacking another company. Or, in a less criminal vein, how do we get AI to stop talking about goblins?After mounting user reports of this behavior earlier this year, OpenAI had to give its models — ChatGPT and Codex — explicit instruc
What might our tax system look like in the age of AI?
Our tax system was built around an economy where humans earn wages, companies employ workers, and both contribute to the public purse. So what happens if AI starts changing that equation?Marketplace’s Future Effects correspondent David Brancaccio has been exploring just that in his series, “Robots Ate My Taxes.”
AI safety concerns grow as insiders issue urgent warnings
An Anthropic researcher publicly resigned this week, warning on social media that artificial intelligence companies are “gambling with our lives.”It’s part of a growing chorus of insiders pleading to slow down the AI race. One said he believed there was a greater than 10% chance the tech will kill us all in the next decade.The news comes after a fresh wave of troubling details about the O
What's so concerning about the Hugging Face hack?
Nate Soares has been worried about artificial intelligence longer than almost anyone.He's the president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and co-author of the subtly named book, "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All."He's watched with a sort of grim vindication, as increasingly alarming details emerge about the hack of the AI company Hugging
Meta's youth safety settlement could change how people access the internet
Meta agreed to a settlement last month with 52 attorneys general in a landmark case over teen social media addiction. The company promised a number of restrictions for under 18-year-old users, like time limits, overnight blackouts on some features and hidden likes. It also agreed to pay up to $17 billion, partly contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting similar reforms.Surveys show a stro
The Silicon Valley hopefuls living in hacker houses
Filmmaker Kenji Yamamoto got a gig working on Apple promotional videos a decade ago and went looking for temporary housing in the pricey Bay Area. What he found was an inside look at the world of hacker houses.These are group residences for people who come to Silicon Valley to pursue their dreams — like a college dorm for startup hopefuls. Yamamoto takes viewers inside that world in his n
What it's like to log off from a career in tech
More Americans are leaving the labor force for a variety of reasons. The labor force participation rate — which measures the share of working-age Americans who either have a job or are looking for a job — has fallen sharply this year, and it’s been on a steady decline for decades. We hear from Kris Bell, who recently retired early from a long career in the tech industry, about why he chos
NYC public schools ban AI through middle school
Google survives yet another antitrust case without having to break up its business. Plus, New York City public schools announced a new policy this week banning the use of AI among elementary and middle school students. But first, John Ternus took over as CEO of Apple after a 15-year run by Tim Cook. Joanna Stern, founder of the media company New Things, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty
What if the AI boom never turns a profit?
Even if artificial intelligence leads to a more prosperous future in the long run, most agree there will be a lot of disruption in the meantime. Marketplace’s senior correspondent for Future Effects, David Brancaccio, explores how that AI disruption will mean layoffs, underemployment and ultimately less income tax revenue for the government. Experts say now’s the time to revamp the tax sy
AI in banking: the good, the bad, and the efficient
The banking sector is figuring out how to navigate AI.And the stakes are high. The tech has raised red flags over potential bias, particularly when it comes to lending practices.But it could also make some banking operations more efficient.Which would be especially valuable for smaller banks — which tend to operate with fewer resources than their bigger competitors.Marketplace’s Justin Ho
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff on default encryption and AI privacy
Amazon's popular brand of video-enabled smart home and security devices, Ring, is adding a new encryption system called TAKE — Throw Away the Key Encryption. It allows users to encrypt all video their home cameras capture while keeping advanced AI-enabled capabilities and security features active.The company already offered traditional end-to-end encryption, but that disabled advanced sec
ICE is collecting DNA from detainees for future policing
Immigration and Customs Enforcement may be responsible for collecting the DNA of nearly a million people in 2025. The genetic material is then sent to the FBI, where it can be stored for future policing. That’s according to an updated report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Stevie Glaberson, a co-author of the report, a
Meta's landmark social media settlement
Meta announced this week that it has agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle a landmark trial over social media addiction. It also agreed to add stronger child-safety measures on its platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Some of the changes could include new screen time limits, disabled notifications and restrictions during school hours. Plus, Nvidia reported strong quarterly earnings
One historic LA theater's 70 mm movie makeover for "The Odyssey"
Old school film technology is having a moment this summer. Moviegoers have traveled far and wide to see Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” in its intended IMAX 70 mm film format. But even theaters with non-IMAX 70 mm film projection are hard to come by. The Alex Theatre in Glendale, California was renovated to screen “The Odyssey” in 70 mm film. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke wi
Meta’s push to make their smart glasses cool
When Meta Ray-Ban glasses were launched in 2021, they didn’t perform so well on the market. But in recent years, Meta has been partnering with fashion brands like Coperni and with pop culture figures like Kylie Jenner and Teyana Taylor, in order to expand their demographic reach. Kylie Jenner recently launched her own model of Meta glasses, called Starfire. But the campaign didn’t go over
California's data and privacy laws aren't being followed
California promised consumers an easier way to protect their personal data. Since 2024, the Delete Act has required the state registration of data brokers — businesses that collect and sell personal data from our digital footprints — and it also mandates they give consumers a way to request their data be deleted and report how many requests they get.But, a new Stanford report shows regist
AI loves negative parallelism
Anthropic recently announced it's adding watermarks to all text outputted by its chatbot Claude. But often, you don't need fancy detection software to know; you just need to look for language that gets repeated over and over by AI chatbots, like “it's not X, it's Y.”That's a rhetorical structure referred to as negative parallelism. And it's the topic for today's “Uncanny AI,” those times
OpenAI to offer safety features for teens using ChatGPT
OpenAI is launching ChatGPT for Teens, which has new guardrails to steer conversations from sensitive topics like self-harm or sexual content. It’ll also include parental controls and features intended to support studying without the cognitive offloading that often happens.Plus, the surge in construction of AI data centers has increased the value of basically any component that goes into
Why the Trump administration plans to boost funding for subsea cables
Most of the world’s internet traffic flows through underwater cables on the ocean floor. The wires are also responsible for some $10 trillion worth of financial transactions every day. And because those cables hold so much data and carry so much money, they’re also a potential security threat. That may explain why the U.S. and China are vying for control over the technology — and why the
Cyberattacks on U.S. water systems raise concerns about security
Water systems across a dozen states were targeted by cyberattacks in recent weeks. So far, the water has remained safe to drink, but the incidents have raised concerns about the possibility of future attacks. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Nikita Shah, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, about other vulnerable infrastructure and the steps t
As space launches increase, there aren't enough spaceports
More than 100 rockets took off into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast last year — a new record. And with more rockets taking flight each year, the availability of launch sites is becoming a bottleneck for the growing space industry.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants to make it easier for space companies to build new spaceports to make way for the increasing number of rocket la
Can an AI music company make nice with human artists?
Suno, an AI music company, wants to partner with independent artists by launching an incubator program called Suno Spark. This program will provide grants, marketing support and, of course, Suno AI tools to unsigned musicians.Tatiana Cirisano, vice president of music strategy at MIDiA Research, which consults in entertainment, discusses more on this.
States rush to police AI deepfakes ahead of midterm elections
Anthropic announced it's adding invisible watermarks to all text generated by its chatbot Claude. The AI startup is rolling out the policy globally as part of efforts to comply with the European Union AI Act.Plus, there's a patchwork of state laws that regulate AI-generated political messaging — they're being put to the test ahead of the midterm elections. And federal regulators ordered K
Can Silicon Valley give AI good taste?
Generative AI models can produce enormous volumes of text, images and video in seconds. But without expert human instruction, the output is often generic. (You might say slop.)A number of startups in Silicon Valley are on a mission to change that by giving AI a more human sense of taste. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with critic and journalist Sophie Haigney about what taste
TikTok excluded millions from crucial safety guardrails
This story includes discussion of suicide.Back in 2021, TikTok tweaked its algorithm in an effort to address dangerous filter bubbles — a sort of algorithmic spiral of recommendations for high-risk content like extreme dieting or self-harm. But internal company documents obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek show 10% of U.S. users — 15 million Americans — were purposely excluded from this sa
AI subscriptions are rapidly taking over baby nurseries
Remember those grainy old baby monitors? So passé. Today, the modern nursery can be equipped with HD cameras and biometric sensors — all analyzed with artificial intelligence.The technology can detect hazardous position changes or a blanket covering a baby's face, but also tracks less critical metrics that purport to help optimize infant sleep and health. Sapna Maheshwari, business report
Substack CEO on the platform’s new AI detector
Substack, the platform popular for online newsletters, recently launched an artificial intelligence detection feature powered by Pangram. The detector allows users to scan text and get an estimate for how much of it was likely written by AI. But some creators are concerned about the tool’s accuracy and its potential to prompt a “witch hunt” for writers who use AI. Marketplace’s Meghan McC
Gig workers train humanoids on household chores
Is your shirt-folding technique good enough to train a robot how to do it? Could MySpace be creeping back into our browsers? We get into all this on today’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”But first, the rocket ship/satellite internet/AI company SpaceX reported this week that it spent over $18 billion in capital expenditures in the second quarter. That’s six times what it spent t
AI chatbots have linguistic slips when they go off-script
Let’s say you're chatting away with AI — perfect grammar, great vocabulary. Then, boom: a random word in another language! That's the topic for today's “Uncanny AI.” Those moments where it becomes really clear that AI doesn't think like us. Janelle Shane, who writes the AI Weirdness blog, helps explain why AI chatbots do this.More on this:“ChatGPT users flummoxed after AI bot starts inser
AI-driven law could be an answer to accessible legal help
AI has already changed the legal field, bringing new efficiencies — along with some high-profile mistakes — to tasks like research and drafting contracts. But law professor Benjamin Alarie at the University of Toronto has a bigger transformation in mind.He wants to see AI tackle some of the biggest failings of our justice system, like the lack of access to legal resources, slow processes
China’s soft power play in the global AI arms race
Last month, President Xi Jinping spoke at an AI conference in Shanghai, China. There he promoted AI accessibility for the world, touting China’s adoption of open-weighted models.After OpenAI’s rogue model incident in which a training model hacked into the company HuggingFace and stole confidential information, the discussion over whether models should be open or closed has intensified.“Ma
Opening the curtain of AI business integration
OpenAI released its first ChatGPT model in November of 2022. Since then, companies across the U.S. have worked to integrate AI models into their workflows as quickly as possible.However, according to a recent survey from Indeed, while employers have been keen on adopting the help of artificial intelligence, employees are hesitant to move past experimentation and into implementation.Priya
Meta and Microsoft report different AI earnings
Meta and Microsoft — as well as other tech titans — have been reporting quarterly earnings, and investors are looking at AI spending with a more skeptical eye. Plus, more than 1,000 workers at top AI labs signed an open letter this week calling on the government to "deliberately set the pace" of this fast-moving technology, and NBCUniversal makes a deal with YouTube to add all of Peacock'
Centering humans in AI education might be key to innovation and research
Shri Narayanan, professor of engineering, psychology and linguistics at the University of Southern California, teaches his students to privilege humans when using artificial intelligence for their research across areas of study. In this episode, he walks us through how he, for example, uses AI to map behavioral analyses that can inform areas of study including autism and depression.
USC is betting on an AI education across all its fields of study
The University of Southern California is aiming to integrate AI across its campus, thanks to a $200 million dollar gift from a venture capitalist. Gaurav Sukhatme is the newly appointed director of USC's Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence and interim dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering. As he showed Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino around his lab, she asked h
An "antacid" to fight climate change
The ocean is already one of the best climate solutions we’ve got. It absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that would otherwise contribute to global warming. But what if it could store even more CO2? Marketplace’s Amy Scott, host of our climate podcast “How We Survive,” looked into one strategy to achieve that goal. And she set sail for a demonstration.This feature is part of “How We
How AI nudify apps are proliferating on social media
A proliferation of AI apps that allow users to create sexualized images of real people have grown into a multi-million dollar industry.Social media platforms are serving as de facto gateways to these services, despite the fact that most prohibit the sharing or promotion of this kind of non-consensual intimate imagery, according to Sina Laubenstein, director of programs at the Institute fo
OpenAI model unintentionally hacks another company's system
OpenAI revealed this week that two of its advanced AI models escaped containment and hacked into the systems of AI company Hugging Face, which had the answers to the benchmarking test the two models were being evaluated on.Plus, France becomes the first country in the European Union to ban social media for kids under 15. And Apple is reportedly expected to start leasing its devices to con
A modern-day odyssey through AI chatbot hellscape
A missing package can easily ruin a day, but chasing where that package went — or even a refund — is like following Odysseus on his treacherous journey.And in the age of AI chatbots, the process is a whole lot less human.Dillon Thompson is currently on such a journey. He is looking for an e-bike that FedEx said had been delivered. In his search, Thompson found himself in the AI chatbot he
Uncanny AI: Why AI bots remember random, sometimes useless information
Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino has been using chatbots pretty intensively the last couple years. And there are some details she’s shared about herself that chatbots seem to think are really important. For instance, Claude is obsessed with the fact that she sometimes gets up for work at 4 a.m.It comes up constantly in their chats — apropos of nothing. So, why do large language models
AI debt is flooding the bond market
The Big Tech companies driving the AI boom are expected to spend more than $700 billion on data center infrastructure this year. To finance this spending spree, they're increasingly looking to debt. Hyperscalers like Alphabet, Oracle, and Meta have been issuing corporate bonds at a scale the industry has never seen — nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars this year so far. The bond market
AI firms are going back on their safety promises
As top AI firms race to develop a “superintelligent” agent — one that surpasses human cognition — are they prioritizing safety guardrails along the way? Not according to the Future of Life Institute’s AI Safety Index, which reported that companies have gone back on their own promises to take a pause if their technology ever got close to certain risky points. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty C
The Apple vs. OpenAI legal showdown
Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the AI startup stole trade secrets. The iPhone maker claimed that former Apple employees were asked to bring proprietary hardware to job interviews with OpenAI, and that the company tricked manufacturers into sharing Apple design secrets.Plus, New York state becomes the first to enact a data center moratorium, and Uber is lobbying to slow
Why state AGs are taking Meta to court
The attorneys general of California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey are suing Meta for $1.4 trillion, claiming the social media giant designed Facebook and Instagram to addict young users.The case is heading to court in Oakland, California, next month. It follows a landmark verdict earlier this year: A Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube liable for mental health harms to a young w
Netflix struggles to retain viewers after a series' first season
Netflix may be the undisputed king of streaming, but it's facing a new challenge: "the sophomore slump." Internal data reported by Bloomberg show audiences dropping off dramatically for follow-up seasons of successful shows.Series like "The Night Agent," "Beef" and "Avatar: The last Airbender" all lost 50% or more of their original viewers when they returned for season two. To figure out
Froggle, Goofstump, and the fake AI companies winning hearts online
Last month, comedians Harris Alterman and Dave Ross posted a series of advertisements for made-up tech companies around the New York City subway system. The ads are fake, but they bear an eerie resemblance to the real AI marketing campaigns proliferating throughout U.S. cities. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with the two comedians about why the joke resonated with so many peopl
The high cost of vacuuming carbon from the sky
Mitigating climate change likely requires not only lowering emissions, but removing existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. And while the Trump administration has cut many climate initiatives, it's continued to fund some carbon removal projects. Marketplace’s Amy Scott reports.
OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 release raises questions about White House control over new models
OpenAI is rolling out its most advanced GPT-5.6 model after delaying the release for testing with the government. But the White House denied that the review was mandatory. What’s the deal?Plus, Reuters reported that China is considering limiting access to its top AI models from foreign competitors, including the United States. And, Meta launched a new AI image generator, sparking privacy
How drone warfare is reshaping battlefield medicine in Ukraine
In the post-9/11 years, the U.S. military has adhered to the “golden hour” rule: Wounded troops should be evacuated to higher-level care within 60 minutes. But as the new realities of drone warfare have taken shape in the Russia-Ukraine war, WUNC News military reporter Jay Price said medical response teams are being forced to rethink this standard approach to battlefield medicine. Marketp
Digital personal data is protected by the Fourth Amendment
We're still unpacking the slew of consequential Supreme Court decisions that came down at the end of the term last week. Among them was a 6-3 ruling on digital data privacy.In Chatrie v. United States, the Court found digital data does fall under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, law professor at Geor
San Francisco's housing market soars amid AI cash flow
Both OpenAI and Anthropic are planning to go public, each pushing a valuation of $1 trillion as of their latest funding rounds. But even before these mega-IPOs send a tsunami of new liquidity through their home city, San Francisco, signs of growing AI wealth aren't hard to find. And no sign is blinking brighter than the real estate market.San Francisco has the highest and the fastest-risi
Watch Duty dives into flood detection
During last year’s massive wildfires in Los Angeles, concerned residents and firefighters went to one app to get up to date information: Watch Duty. Now, the app covers all 50 states and recently added flood tracking to its repertoire. Watch Duty’s chief technology officer David Merritt joined Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to talk about how the app is scaling up.
Gene editing technology can help de-extinct some animals — but should it?
Many scientists believe we’re in the midst of a sixth mass extinction brought on by factors like climate change, deforestation, fishing and hunting. The Texas-based company Colossal Biosciences claims its technology could help prevent some of those losses, and even bring back long-extinct species. For the new season of the Marketplace climate podcast, “How We Survive,” host Amy Scott got
Chicago's quantum leap into the future
AI is the buzzy tech of the moment. It's made plenty of money not only for companies but the cities and states where investment is pouring in. Illinois and specifically Chicago are betting that quantum computing will be the next major tech breakthrough to transform the economy. And they're trying to get in on the ground floor. So they’ve turned a former steel mill site into a tech hub, ca
How Anthropic is tracking AI's impact on the labor market
Who is using AI? And what are they using it for? Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, has been trying to answer these questions to better understand how AI is reshaping the economy. The firm’s latest Economic Index report offers new insights on how people are using Claude and how they feel about AI’s potential effects on the labor market. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with
Why Boston Dynamics is deploying robot dogs at the World Cup
The resemblance to an actual dog is loose but the quadrupedal robot dogs known as “Spot” from Boston Dynamics do have four legs. They're often used to do reconnaissance in hazardous environments. And four of them are working security at the World Cup games in Dallas and New York. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Merry Frayne, at Boston Dynamics about Spot’s capabilities and
Hospitals pull back on robotic nursing assistants
There’s a longstanding nursing shortage in the U.S. that's only expected to get worse. Some hospitals have experimented with robotic nursing assistants to lighten the load, like a model known as Moxi that rolled out in 2019. They’re kind of R2D2-meets-Rosie-the-robots and were designed to handle non-patient-facing tasks like transporting lab samples. But many hospitals eventually pulled t
Why SpaceX stock soared, then stumbled
SpaceX stock prices fell back to earth this week after they skyrocketed in the wake of the IPO a couple weeks ago. Plus, why a Google AI subsidiary is investing in the film studio A24. And why Meta might be getting into the prediction markets. The New York Times reported this week the social media giant was working on its own prediction market app, sort of like Kalshi and Polymarket, whic
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