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.

Marketplace Tech Marketplace

    • Technology
    • 4.4 • 69 Ratings

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.

    Makers of electric roasters pitch carbon cutting in coffee making

    Makers of electric roasters pitch carbon cutting in coffee making

    Roasting coffee beans was a market worth over $1 billion globally in 2022, according to Grand View Research, which projects that figure could double by 2030. Traditional roasters, powered by the fossil fuel natural gas, still dominate the market. These machines are big and bulky and kind of look like part of a train. But the makers of more compact electric roasters are piling into the business. And they have an edge, touting themselves as high-tech alternatives that are more environmentally friendly and cheaper to run than their old-school counterparts. The BBC’s Frey Lindsay has more on the story.

    • 5 min
    TikTok faces the hammer, Sam Altman returns to OpenAI’s board, and Waymo’s driverless taxis come to Los Angeles

    TikTok faces the hammer, Sam Altman returns to OpenAI’s board, and Waymo’s driverless taxis come to Los Angeles

    We’re at the end of the week, which means we’re serving up another episode of Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review. Autonomous vehicle company Waymo has launched its driverless taxi service in Los Angeles. OpenAI has given CEO Sam Altman his board seat back. And a U.S. bill passed by the House of Representatives would force TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to sell its stake in the U.S. version of the popular social media platform or be banned from app stores. Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, joined Marketplace’s Lily Jamali to discuss why policymakers have been pushing for action on TikTok for years.

    • 15 min
    What a TikTok ban would mean for free speech and data privacy

    What a TikTok ban would mean for free speech and data privacy

    On Wednesday, members of the House of Representatives proved they can agree on something. In a bipartisan vote, lawmakers passed a bill that would force TikTok to split from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or face a nationwide ban — the first for a social media app in the U.S. President Biden has signaled he’d sign the bill into law if it passes the Senate. Advocates argue that the Chinese government could use the hugely popular app to collect Americans’ personal data and threaten U.S. security. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke to Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, about the congressional action. He pointed out that a little something called the First Amendment could complicate the crackdown.

    • 11 min
    The Biden administration hasn’t had a CTO. Why?

    The Biden administration hasn’t had a CTO. Why?

    When President Barack Obama took office way back in 2009, he created a new role that promised to bring some tech know-how to his administration. Chief Technology Officer, or CTO, was, of course, a title borrowed from corporate America. Early on, the job focused on things like bringing broadband access to rural parts of the country and modernizing the way the federal government keeps records. President Donald Trump also had a CTO. Well, we are now deep into President Joe Biden’s current term in office and the president has yet to appoint a CTO for the United States. For more on why, Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke with Cristiano Lima-Strong, tech policy reporter at The Washington Post, who’s been tracking developments on the position.

    • 10 min
    States and schools are learning how to manage AI in education

    States and schools are learning how to manage AI in education

    It’s been about a year and a half since ChatGPT hit the scene and changed the world of education, leaving teachers scrambling to adjust lesson plans and grading policies. Currently, only a handful of states are providing guidance on how AI should be used in the classroom. Just five have official policies, with about a dozen more in the works. Bree Dusseault at the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University has been following all this.

    • 9 min
    AI can’t handle the truth when it comes to the law

    AI can’t handle the truth when it comes to the law

    Almost one in five lawyers are using AI, according to an American Bar Association survey. But there are a growing number of legal horror stories involving tools like ChatGPT, because chatbots have a tendency to make stuff up — such as legal precedents from cases that never happened. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Daniel Ho at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence about the group’s recent study on how frequently three of the most popular language models from ChatGPT, Meta and Google hallucinate when asked to weigh in or assist with legal cases.

    • 9 min

Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5
69 Ratings

69 Ratings

DEGreaves ,

Welcome Molly !!!!!

I re downloaded the Apple podcast app, just so I could do reviews, and specifically for this one. (I consume my podcasts on another app with more control and function). I have enjoyed Marketplace Tech since the days of John Moe. Which means you, Molly are my fourth host for this show. WELCOME!! I am a huge fan of yours, from Marketplace and even more so from Make Me Smart (my next review). I have enjoyed all 3 of your interviews since your start on Tuesday. Keep doing what you're doing. And enjoy.

Liam in Ohio ,

A perfect little nugget every day

John Moe is a delightful host--funny and opinionated without being snarky or obnoxious. The team finds creative ways to explain complex tech issues, such as parodies of Masterpiece Theater, and the show is consistently entertaining. Five minutes well spent every day.

Kékcsillag ,

Full of advertising

Sick of it. FIrst 30 seconds you'll be listening to stupid ads. Then you get 2 minutes of yadda-yadda and then some more ads. Sheesh!

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