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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.


1114 Episodes
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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.
On this week’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” we’ll talk about Apple launching a new health research study and BuzzFeed starting a new social media platform. But first, the U.S. is pushing back against global AI regulation. This week there was a kind of who’s who of AI and government at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly said there should be rules for this technology and that AI cannot be the Wild West. But the country that’s home to the original Wild West wants to forge ahead. U.S. Vice President JD Vance delivered a speech underlining the Donald Trump administration’s intent to develop AI without worrying about the risks. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at the venture firm Collab Capital, about these topics for this week’s “Tech Bytes.”
There’s a concept in business called the first-mover advantage. Basically, it means that if you’re the first company with a successful product in a new market, you have the opportunity to dominate the market and fend off rivals. But that advantage can be short-lived. Take Netscape Navigator, the first popular commercial web browser. Microsoft entered the field with Internet Explorer, and it wasn’t long before Navigator crashed. In AI chatbots, two of the first movers are OpenAI and Anthropic. But recently the Chinese company DeepSeek made a splash with an AI chatbot that it reportedly developed for a fraction of what its competitors have spent. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with historian Margaret O’Mara, author of the book “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” about whether America’s artificial intelligence industry should be worried about newcomers like DeepSeek.
Data centers are filled with servers, basically a bunch of beefed-up computers stacked on top of each other in buildings that can be as big as warehouses. So they need a lot of electricity. And there are more of those projects in the works. For example, Meta has said it’s planning to build out at least one data center that’s going to be so big it could cover a good chunk of Manhattan. Wall Street Journal tech reporter Meghan Bobrowsky explained to Hughes what kinds of companies are benefitting from this data center construction boom.
About 1 in 4 U.S. jobs requires an occupational license, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Licensing requirements differ by state and can apply to everyone from barbers to lawyers. The general idea, of course, is to keep unqualified workers out. But technology, and specifically artificial intelligence, is making inroads. Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, is also author of the new book “The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong.” She told Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes that in some instances, AI is letting consumers bypass licensed workers altogether.
Geography has been part of President Trump’s agenda. His first day on the job, he signed an executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and Denali, the highest peak in North America, will now go back to being called Mount McKinley.Private companies that make maps — analog or digital — don’t have to follow suit but at least one is. Google said in a post on X that it has long had a practice of applying name changes from official government sources. So, once the official federal naming database is changed, it’ll update Google Maps for people in the U.S. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with, Sterling Quinn Professor of Geography at Central Washington University, about whether tech companies generally have standard operating procedures around name changes.
On this week’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” we’ll explore OpenAI’s inroads in higher education. Plus, how passengers can get on a waitlist to hail a driverless car in Austin, Texas. But first, a look at how Google is changing its approach to artificial intelligence. In 2018, the company published its “AI principles,” guidelines for how it believed AI should be built and used. Google originally included language that said it would not design or deploy AI to be used in weapons or surveillance. That language has now gone away. Google didn’t respond to our request for comment, but it did say in a blog post this week that companies and governments should work together to create AI that, among other things, supports national security. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Natasha Mascarenhas, reporter at The Information, about these topics for this week’s “Tech Bytes.”  
Congress considered 158 bills that mention artificial intelligence over the past two years, according to a count by the Brennan Center for Justice. But zero comprehensive AI laws have been passed. There has been movement by states, however. In Tennessee, for example, the ELVIS Act, which protects voices and likenesses from unauthorized use by AI, became law in March. In Colorado, a law that takes effect in 2026 requires developers of high-risk AI systems to protect consumers from algorithm-based discrimination. But some who fund AI technology say a federal law is needed. That includes Matt Perault, head of AI policy at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Among President Donald Trump’s many executive orders is one calling for a “next-generation missile defense shield.” The White House calls this the Iron Dome for America. The order says it should defend against all sorts of missile attacks and include “space-based interceptors” that could potentially act as both sensors and weapons. It reminded retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Latiff of a Ronald Reagan-era program he worked on: the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, known popularly, and especially to its critics, as “Star Wars.” Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Latiff about whether the U.S. has the technology, money and time to make this grand project work.
One of the more hopeful scenarios for how artificial intelligence could affect jobs is that it would take over more of the boring grunt work and free up humans for loftier pursuits. Mondelez, the company behind many of America’s favorite snacks, like Oreo cookies, Sour Patch Kids candy and Ritz crackers, is trying to do just that — using AI to speed up innovation for food scientists and give their taste buds a break. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Wall Street Journal reporter Isabelle Bousquette about how AI is changing the snack game.
Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, has long been the holy grail of innovation — a synthetic intelligence with all the capabilities of a human mind or more. Recent advances in AI have many predicting we could be closer to achieving it than we’re ready for. It’s a reality that preoccupied the late diplomat Henry Kissinger before he died last year at 100 years old. He collaborated with Eric Schmidt, formerly at Google, and Craig Mundie, formerly at Microsoft, on the new book “Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope and the Human Spirit.” Mundie joined Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to discuss what a future with superintelligence might look like.
Everyone was obsessed with the new white whale of the AI world this week. We’ll get into it on today’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” Plus, Trump floats tariffs on semiconductors from overseas. And a bipartisan Senate bill to ban kids from social media is getting another look. But first, back to that DeepSeek drama. The Chinese AI company took the world and the markets by storm with claims that its class-leading large language model was built at a fraction of the cost of Silicon Valley rivals. DeepSeek claims it spent only $6 million on compute power — at least 16 times less than leading U.S. companies. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, about all these topics for this week’s Tech Bytes.
President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has been seen by many as a boost for cryptocurrency. During the campaign, he made several crypto-friendly pledges and recently made a splash when he launched his own “meme coin” shortly before the inauguration. The Trump token reached a nearly a $15 billion valuation, though it has since fallen quite a bit. But it continues to provoke questions, like, is it a conflict of interest for a high-ranking official? What the heck is a meme coin anyway?Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Axios reporter Brady Dale, author of the Axios Crypto newsletter, to get some answers.
Amid all the executive orders signed by President Donald Trump during his first week in office came a promise to “restore freedom of speech” and end federal censorship. Keen observers may note that freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution. But the order seems to have something more specific in mind. It calls out what it characterizes as the Biden administration’s pressure campaign on social media companies to “moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech under the guise of combatting misinformation.” Will Oremus, tech news analysis writer at The Washington Post, told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino that the order is a signal of the president’s continued focus on content moderation online.
There’s no shortage of bullish voices on artificial intelligence among the titans of tech. But even many of the leading evangelists, in addition to prevailing pop culture narratives, tend to strike a note of impending doom when envisioning the future of the technology. Reid Hoffman wants us to consider the alternative. He’s the co-founder of LinkedIn, and a founding investor and former board member of OpenAI before he branched into other ventures, like Inflection AI. And his new book “Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future?” explores those alternatives. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Hoffman about what he means by the idea of “superagency.”
Last week’s annual gathering of the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was a bit overshadowed by the inauguration of Donald Trump in the U.S. The president made a virtual appearance at the conference, delivering a speech that hit on several of his recurring themes: tariffs, inflation and artificial intelligence. AI has been a big topic at the summit for several years. But the way it was treated this year felt different, according to Reed Albergotti, tech editor at news website Semafor. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino caught up with Albergotti just as he was wrapping up his reporting at Davos.  
There’s been quite a firehose of news this week, but we’re going to distill some of it into a nice, tall glass for you on today’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” We’ll dig into why some crypto insiders are upset with President Donald Trump over his preinaugural meme coins. Plus, the latest in the TikTok ban rollback and how Congress might respond. But first, amid the flurry of executive orders the president signed during his first week in office, he announced the Stargate project, a private, multiparty venture to build domestic artificial intelligence data centers. In attendance at the White House were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. The investment could be as much as $500 billion. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, for her take on these stories.
Getting fast, comprehensive and accurate information is crucial during emergencies like the devastating wildfires still raging in the Los Angeles area. And over the last two terrifying weeks, one app has become the place to find it: Watch Duty. Operated by a nonprofit, the app was launched in 2021 to track wildfires in Northern California and now provides coverage for more than 20 states. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with David Merritt, Watch Duty’s chief technology officer, about how it all came together.
The explosion of artificial intelligence tools like chatbots has rocked the education world in the last couple years. It’s spurred efforts to prohibit, detect or otherwise build guardrails around these powerful new tools. Some educators, though are embracing them, and Colby College is doing it on an institutional level. Four years ago, before most of the public had ever heard about large language models, this private liberal arts college in Maine established a cross-disciplinary institute for AI to help educators and students integrate the technology into their curricula in an ethical way. We had the college president on back then to discuss, and today we wanted to check back in — this time with Michael Donihue, interim director of the Davis Institute for AI at Colby College.
There’s been a lot of doom and gloom in the tech sector in recent years — the feeling that so many of the advances in internet connectivity, social media and now artificial intelligence might have caused more harm than good, increasing the need for at least caution in the industry and even, possibly, government intervention. But lately a backlash to the backlash has been brewing among techno-optimists. Their movement is called effective accelerationism, a play on the effective altruism community, and its supporters argue that unrestricted technological progress is a force for positive change. It’s received more attention since Donald Trump won the 2024 election. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Nadia Asparouhova, a writer and researcher who’s been following the rise of the effective accelerationist subculture, often shortened to e/acc.  
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Comments (28)

rjc75z

All that discussion of Trump's meme coin with no mention of Trump's personal ownership and control of a large quantity of them? No mention of the unlimited opportunity for untraceable bribes and grift? No mention of Trump's documented history of shakedowns for favorable treatment?

Jan 30th
Reply

Koala geddon

2025 could be the year of small AI as advancements in efficiency, scalability, and accessibility make it easier for businesses and individuals to harness AI's potential on a smaller scale. Exciting times ahead!

Jan 24th
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Mia Michael

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Jan 12th
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Oct 16th
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Denial Brown

It's funny but this is a new reality for me, thanks for your podcast. I think that now people are increasingly thinking about this. The use of services such as https://collegepaper.net/ was a reality, and now AI tools

Sep 27th
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Emilia Gray

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Apr 25th
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Andrew Miller

The podcast was really informative and helped me understand some of the basic concepts in the field. I especially appreciated the clear explanations of machine learning algorithms. After listening to the podcast, I stumbled upon this article https://voiceofaction.org/cost-effective-ways-to-label-machine-learning-datasets/. It's a great resource for anyone who's looking to build a machine-learning model, but doesn't want to break the bank on expensive data labeling services. I found it helpful in understanding the practical side of implementing a machine learning project.

Apr 22nd
Reply

Kris Lewis

Mathematics is one of the most difficult subjects. Even at school, you need to study each topic thoroughly so that you don't have any problems with your maths studies at university. Turn to Cazoom Maths and choose the maths worksheets. For example, here you will find maths worksheets for 5th grade: https://www.cazoommaths.com/year-5-maths-worksheets/

Apr 6th
Reply

Danny Acton

Ultimately, the goal should be to create a learning environment that supports and encourages students to develop their skills and knowledge in an ethical and honest way. By addressing the root causes of cheating and providing support and resources for academic success, Chatgpt can help students to achieve their full potential and become responsible, ethical learners and also they can get their assignment work from https://goodessaywriters.com/ site there. While the use of ChatGPT for cheating presents a challenge, it is also an opportunity to reflect on the ways in which we approach education and to find new and innovative ways to support student learning and growth.

Mar 16th
Reply

craig potts

my download failed too

Aug 11th
Reply (1)

Karen M

download failed

Aug 8th
Reply

red snflr

yet CNN is promoted by them with their constant lies. Google = CIA.

Dec 2nd
Reply

Nimrah imran

During the pandemic many people lost their jobs and some missed the opportunity of getting into a new job because of a virtual interviewing session. They faced certain problems of having an unstable internet connection and much more.Best tips to get hired after a zoom interview includes always keeping a backup of the internet and connectivity, Never assuming that the casual attitude and dressing will work as it is an interview conducting from home and nobody is going to notice it. Few days back i came across with a very detailed and well explained article on a guest posting website https://uaestudents.ae/tips-to-get-hired-in-a-virtual-interview/ Many people get rejected because they often feel like not dressing up formally as done during the physical or walk in interviews.

Aug 30th
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Lee Hyde

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Jul 14th
Reply

Maciej Czech

Episode 8 mins long, more than 1 of commercials :/ Plus intro, outro and it would be 2 mins in total

Aug 3rd
Reply

Maciej Czech

This is all absurd, listen what she said, it's now just anti-white rhetoric

Jul 14th
Reply (1)

Sean Fontana

https://castbox.fm/vb/228695456 another insight into the vaporfly trainer. some facts and opinions 🏃‍♂️💨👍

Feb 9th
Reply

Maciej Czech

Oh please stop with that constant complaining about mens.

Jan 26th
Reply (1)

Maciej Czech

Apple more repairable? xD Pure lies!

Oct 5th
Reply