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
Before the government shutdown, the Federal Communications Commission voted to end funding for Wi-Fi on school buses and the lending of hotspot devices from libraries. Nicol Turner Lee, author of “Digitally Invisible,” said this could further the digital divide for marginalized communities.
Countries all over the world use technology to keep track of immigrants released from detention centers. The idea is to allow people to live in communities while their cases are adjudicated.
But Petra Molnar of the Refugee Law Lab at York University said the technology is also often employed in ways that are too intrusive and can act like digital shackles. She told Marketplace’s Nova Safo that even smartphone apps, wh...
Open AI has added a checkout feature to ChatGPT, partnering with Etsy and Shopify to let users purchase some items from select merchants. OpenAI says ChatGPT's answers are still organic and unsponsored. But why not offer a seamless way to buy things that come up in certain responses?
Eventually this could lead to so-called “agentic” shopping: letting AI research items, pick one, and then buy it on our behalf. Marketpl...
The ongoing government shutdown has caused a lapse in the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act,a law that's key to protecting the nation against major cyberattacks. Plus, OpenAI this week made a huge investment in chipmaker AMD, the latest in a round of blockbuster deals. And Google said it will be updating its smart home devices with its advanced artificial intelligence, Gemini. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Maria C...
A recent study of nearly 20,000 University of California, San Diego Health workers found cybersecurity training reduced the likelihood of successful phising attacks by just 2%.
Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Ariana Mirian, senior researcher at the cybersecurity firm Censys and co-author of the study, who explained that many workers are just not taking those training programs seriously enough.
AI slop is pointless content shared online like fake images and videos. A new study in the Harvard Business Review wants us to consider a variant: “workslop,” or AI-generated reports, emails and more that are sloppily crafted.
The authors of the study say 40% of workers they surveyed have encountered workslop. And that's costing time and money.
Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with social psychologist and vice presid...
The number of scams involving job postings and offers nearly tripled between 2020 and 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The change translates to more than $500 million in reported losses.
These scams have proliferated on legitimate job boards and you might have even received some via email or text message — fake recruiters reach out with “enticing” offers which are too good to be true. Marketplace’s Nov...
Algorithms, which are just sets of instructions expressed in code, are harder to restrict than physical goods. But, as Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino reports, governments — including the U.S. — have long tried to prevent their export.
California passed a sweeping law setting up new AI safety rules this week. Meanwhile, YouTube settled a lawsuit brought by President Trump over account suspensions in the wake of the January 6 capitol riot. And an AI-generated “actor” stirred up controversy in Hollywood and pretty much everywhere else.
Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Natasha Mascarenhas, reporter at The Information, to learn more about all these st...
So far this year, LA defense tech companies have raised $4 billion in funding — more than double last year's haul, according to Los Angeles Times tech reporter Queenie Wong. She told Marketplace’s Nova Safo that venture capital firms are increasingly embracing military-focused tech.
The role of artificial intelligence in mental health care is an unsettled issue. States including Illinois, Utah, and Nevada limit or ban the use of AI for therapy. And researchers say such conversations can sometimes veer off course and even be dangerous.
Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Jenna Glover, chief clinical officer at the mental health care platform Headspace, which launched an AI assistant, Ebb, last year...
Colleges and universities are dealing with a growing problem of college admission essays being written by artificial intelligence. Rather than try to figure out which essays are AI-generated, some schools are turning to an alternative approach: Have students submit a video instead.
Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Anne Kim, senior editor at Washington Monthly magazine who recently wrote about this new strategy that'...
Researchers at several universities tested how successful artificial intelligence can be at political persuasion, and found some AI chatbots were 40-50% more successful than a static message at getting people to change their views. And those views often stayed changed weeks later.
Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with David Rand, one of the researchers involved in the study who’s also a professor of information science an...
On this week’s Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review, Nova Safo speaks with Axios tech policy reporter Maria Curi about the details and lingering unknowns of President Donald Trump's new, $100,000 fee on incoming H-1B visas, how secret service authorities dismantled a network of more than 100,000 SIM cards that could have been used to disrupt communications on a massive scale and why French fans of the video game franchis...
The EV tax credit expires September 30, and Americans have been rushing to take advantage before the deadline. But according to reporting from Marketplace’s Henry Epp, many dealerships are facing new friction when processing tax credits with the IRS.
Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Epp about the new IRS requirements and how dealerships are handling the changes.
Tony Pietrocola, president of the cybersecurity company AgileBlue, says cybercriminals are using artifical intelligence to generate deepfake video and audio calls, making the cyber threats more sophisticated and harder to catch.
There’s a race going on among tech firms — big and small — to join in the construction of what President Trump has dubbed the Golden Dome, a missile defense system similar to Israel’s Iron Dome. Tens of billions of dollars in military contracts are at stake. In fact, the total cost might be in the trillions and the project could stretch a decade.
The technology and scale needed to make this all happen is, so far, larg...
Here’s cautionary tale for you, out of China, about a young woman who says she fell in love with an artificial intelligence chatbot. There have been well-publicized instances of people seeking companionship from chatbots and it leading to tragedy. In this instance, it caused heartbreak. The story involves the Chinese AI firm Deepseek which, earlier this year, launched a chatbot that's almost as good as its American rivals....
Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, joins Marketplace’s Nova Safo to break down all of these headlines. This episode was produced by Jesús Alvarado.
During the 2024 election, the cryptocurrency industry, including political action committees, accounted for nearly half of all of the corporate money going into the election, according to the watchdog group Public Citizen. That spending helped make Congress and the Trump administration more friendly to the crypto industry.
Now, in the run-up to the midterms, the AI industry wants to replicate the crypto sector’s succe...
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.