150 episodes

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.

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    • Technology

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.

    Bytes: Week in Review — OpenAI’s workplace expansion, data center power woes and the ’80s on TikTok

    Bytes: Week in Review — OpenAI’s workplace expansion, data center power woes and the ’80s on TikTok

    In the early days of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a chatbot query required about 10 times the electricity of a typical Google search. And as people do more with generative artificial intelligence, we’re going to burn through even more power. Plus, the ’80s are back — on TikTok. A new dance trend is getting Gen X parents to show their Gen Z kids how they danced back in the day, to the tune of Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy.” Also this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that consulting and professional services giant PricewaterhouseCoopers is now OpenAI’s largest customer and the first reseller of ChatGPT’s enterprise tier, which is aimed at businesses. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke with Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at Collab Capital, about these headlines for this week’s Tech Bytes: Week in Review.

    • 13 min
    Potential TikTok ban stirs anxieties in small-business owners

    Potential TikTok ban stirs anxieties in small-business owners

    A law signed by President Joe Biden last month would force TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or be banned in the United States because of national security worries. And it’s making a lot of small-business owners anxious. We hear their stories.

    • 8 min
    A scientist’s struggle to find the truth behind 3M’s “forever chemicals” problem

    A scientist’s struggle to find the truth behind 3M’s “forever chemicals” problem

    Sharon Lerner has been reporting on “forever chemicals” for the better part of a decade. These manmade compounds — known as PFAS for short — resist oil, water and heat, take an incredibly long time to break down in nature, and have been used widely in products like Scotchgard, Teflon and firefighting foam. Lerner has focused part of her work on understanding the flow of information inside manufacturers like 3M. By the 1970s, Lerner says, Minnesota-based 3M had established that they were toxic in animals and were accumulating in humans’ bodies. But who inside 3M knew? And what did they know? Reporting for ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative news site, Lerner got a complicated answer after coming across a former 3M scientist named Kris Hansen. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke with Lerner about her recent investigation.

    • 14 min
    What to do when combating misinformation gets personal

    What to do when combating misinformation gets personal

    When it comes to combating election-related misinformation online, sometimes the real world is the best place to start, but it isn’t always easy. On this week’s installment of “Marketplace Tech’s” limited series “Decoding Democracy,” Lily Jamali and senior Washington correspondent Kimberly Adams discuss the personal side of misinformation, take questions from colleagues and hear from experts about best practices for talking with loved ones about this sometimes sensitive topic.

    • 14 min
    A not-so-furry dog to help the visually impaired

    A not-so-furry dog to help the visually impaired

    A team from the University of Glasgow in Scotland is developing a robot guide dog aimed at helping the visually impaired find their way around. They’re calling the AI-powered device the RoboGuide. The BBC’s Shiona McCallum brings us along on her visit with one of the robodogs and its handler, Dr. Wasim Ahmad.

    • 5 min
    Tech Bytes — Week in Review: Online extremism, Section 230, and ScarJo vs. OpenAI

    Tech Bytes — Week in Review: Online extremism, Section 230, and ScarJo vs. OpenAI

    Proceeding without permission is a time-tested practice in some corners of Silicon Valley. Well, it’s not working out so well for OpenAI. Actress Scarlett Johansson said this week the company approached her twice to voice a new AI assistant for ChatGPT-4o. She declined, only to find it had used a voice that sounds “eerily” like hers. Plus, on Capitol Hill, a House subcommittee held a hearing that could decide the future of Section 230, the provision that largely governs the internet today. We’ll explain why chatbots have entered the chat on Section 230’s future.

    But first, a new report by former tech company officials and academic researchers finds far-right extremist militias are once again organizing on Facebook ahead of November’s presidential election. They recommend platforms ramp up content moderation to avoid fueling political violence. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali is joined by Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, for her take on this week’s tech news.

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    • 12 min

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