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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.


1399 Episodes
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The CEO of Intel resigned this week, likely with a push from the company’s board. We’ll take a look at the landscape for U.S. chip manufacturing on today’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” Plus, Amazon is trying to make good on its net zero carbon emission pledges with a pilot to capture carbon at one of its data centers. But first, OpenAI announced this week it’s partnering with a military technology startup called Anduril. It’s just the latest AI company to get into the defense business. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at Collab Capital, about all these stories and more.
We talk a lot about how the internet is filling up with AI content. And, of course, that includes the sort guaranteed to generate clicks and dollars: the adult variety. Platforms like Instagram have seen an explosion in sexy AI-generated influencers, and the people running those accounts sometimes steal content from real creators and mash them up with AI. The practice is called “AI pimping,” Jason Koebler, co-founder of 404 Media, told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino.
The Quayside development on Toronto’s waterfront was supposed to be the shining example of a tech-optimized smart city, an urban environment reinvented “from the internet up,” as it was described by Sidewalk Labs. That was a sister company to Google, which won a government bid in 2017 to modernize the 12 acres of former dockland. There would be robotaxis, heated sidewalks, adaptive traffic lights and lots of data collection. But in 2020, Sidewalk Toronto suddenly shut down before a single ribbon had been cut, turning a shining example into a cautionary tale. It’s all chronicled in a new book from Globe and Mail reporter Josh O’Kane called “Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy.” Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with O’Kane about what went on behind the scenes of the Sidewalk Toronto project.
Ever since ChatGPT hit the scene a couple years ago, there’s been a nagging sense of dread for many: what will this mean for jobs? Well, new research from Imperial College London finds a shift already underway. Between July 2021 and July 2023, the report found freelance job postings for writing and coding decreased by about 20%. There was also a slowdown in freelance jobs for visual art. And it’s happening more quickly than past technological disruptions, Ozge Demirci, one of the coauthors of that report and a business professor at Imperial College London, told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino.
The internet has been overrun by AI content. The weirdly glowing and inadvertently surreal airbrushed images, the generic and oddly formal sentences peppered with factual errors and distracting phrases like “as of my last knowledge update.” So much of social media content these days has the unmistakable stench of “AI slop,” hastily spit out by image generators or chatbots to get a few likes. And while the phenomenon might seem harmless or sometimes even charming, the AI slop takeover of the internet is crowding out real information and human perspectives. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Rebecca Jennings, a senior correspondent at Vox, about how AI slop is transforming social media.
OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT turns two years old tomorrow. So how has it changed the tech industry and what’s next for the company? We’ll get into it in today’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” Plus, we look into rumblings that improvements in AI have slowed, raising questions about whether we’ve hit a wall when it comes to training more advanced AI systems. But first, the Commerce Department finalized nearly $7.9 billion in subsidies for Intel. It’s the largest award yet under the CHIPS and Science Act and a potentially game-changing sum for the company right now. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino is joined by Natasha Mascarenhas, reporter at The Information, to break down these stories.
A survey by nonprofit organization Common Sense Media shows 42% of children in the U.S. have a phone by the age of 10. And numbers like this are causing concern for educators, including a group of headteachers in Greystones, a town in Ireland. That group was so worried by the increased levels of anxiety among children using smartphones and social media that last year they asked parents to sign a voluntary pledge to delay buying cellphones for their children until at least the age of 11. The BBC’s Leanna Byrne checks in to see what effect it had.
A 58-year-old Mike Tyson may have come up short in his ballyhooed comeback match against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul. But Netflix emerged as a big winner, boasting 108 million viewers for the Nov. 15 spectacle, the most streamed sporting event in history. Unfortunately for viewers, Netflix’s livestream of the fight suffered buffering and lag problems. It wasn’t a great start for the platform, which will be livestreaming some much-anticipated NFL games on Christmas Day. But the streaming service has been leaning into more and more live content. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Lucas Shaw, who writes the Screentime newsletter at Bloomberg, about the event and what it portends for Netflix’s future live endeavors.
It’s an interesting time for many in the U.S. Some people feel great about President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, while others don’t. This week, people from both sides are sitting down together for Thanksgiving dinner. And while it’s one thing to ignore a family member’s social media posts or online rants, that can be a bit more challenging face-to-face, sometimes leading to awkward conversations about beliefs, truth and misinformation. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams spoke to Whitney Phillips, assistant professor of digital platforms and ethics at the University of Oregon, about how to navigate awkward conversations this holiday season.
To EV, or not to EV

To EV, or not to EV

2024-11-2513:19

The push for electric vehicle adoption got a bit more uncertain with the election of Donald Trump. While reports of “EV death” have been greatly exaggerated, sales growth has slowed, and carmakers have pulled back on aggressive targets. Now, it seems Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino may be part of that trend. She recently spoke with Jack Stewart, a former Marketplace reporter and the man who convinced her to buy an EV, about her decision to trade in her EV for a gas-powered car.
The social media app Bluesky is flying high this week as users disenchanted with Elon Musk’s X flee that platform post-election. That’s just one of the topics for today’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” We’ll also get into Big Tech’s big-money lobbying effort to slow down a federal bill aimed at protecting kids online. But first, the latest in the potential Google breakup. This week, the Department of Justice proposed forcing the company to sell its Chrome browser. It’s one possible resolution to an antitrust case that has already ruled Google’s search business a monopoly. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino is joined by Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, to break down these stories.
Some of the biggest health insurers in the country are turning to an algorithm to help determine if a medical claim will be approved. That’s according to a recent investigation led by ProPublica into EviCore, a contractor used to outsource prior approval requests for much of the insurance industry. The investigation found that EviCore tweaks an algorithm to increase the likelihood those claims will be denied, which means lower costs for insurers but more patients losing access to potentially lifesaving care. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to ProPublica’s T. Christian Miller, who co-reported this story.
Remember the old mantra from the early days of social media, “pics or it didn’t happen”? For more than a century, photographic evidence was about as close to a physical representation of the real world as we’ve had. But, thanks to new AI-powered photo editing tools – like the one now available on Google’s newest Pixel phones – anyone can create convincing pics of things that didn’t happen. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Sarah Jeong, a features editor at The Verge, who recently wrote about these cutting edge tools. Jeong says no one’s ready for the impact of this technology.
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk to co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency. And the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who is also the owner of X, does have a record of wringing efficiencies out of his businesses. But the move raises many questions, like should someone whose companies benefit from federal dollars have a hand in making budget decisions? SpaceX alone has secured about $15.4 billion in federal contracts over the last decade, helping it become the dominant player in the industry. So, how has SpaceX rocketed ahead of the competition, and can anyone catch up? Ashlee Vance, the author of “When the Heavens Went on Sale” and a writer for Bloomberg, pointed to reusable rockets, an innovation that was on spectacular display when SpaceX tested its Starship system last month.
Advancements in artificial intelligence have made it possible for the technology to mimic humans in ever-more convincing ways. But even far less sophisticated tools than today’s chatbots have been shown in research to trick our brains, in a sense, into projecting human thought processes and emotions onto these systems. It’s a cognitive failure that can leave people open to deception and manipulation, which makes the increasingly human-like technologies proliferating in our daily lives particularly dangerous, Rick Claypool, research director at the nonprofit Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino.
It’s been almost eight months since Reddit went public, and since then, the platform known as the front page of the internet has been going gangbusters. We’ll get into why on this week’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.” Plus, crypto surges to new highs in the wake of the election. But first up, Silicon Valley is going to Washington. This week, President-elect Donald Trump tapped his favorite tech CEO, Elon Musk, as the co-lead of a new Department of Government Efficiency along with Vivek Ramaswamy, the former biotech entrepreneur and GOP presidential candidate. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Anita Ramaswamy, financial analysis columnist at The Information, for her take on these stories.
Apple is reportedly facing a fine from the European Union, and it could be a hefty one. It’s the first Big Tech company to be slapped with a financial penalty under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which went into effect last year. The law, aimed at spurring competition in digital markets, requires Big Tech companies designated as “gatekeepers” to change policies that lock consumers into their products. Like, say, the walled garden of the Apple App Store. EU regulators ruled that Apple violated the DMA by failing to fully support app developers “steering” consumers to alternative marketplaces. It’s a story Matt Binder, a senior tech reporter for Mashable, has been following.
Gary Marcus is worried about AI. The professor emeritus at NYU doesn’t count himself a luddite or techno-pessimist. But Marcus has become one of the loudest voices of caution when it comes to AI. He’s chronicled some of the funniest and most disturbing errors made by current tools like ChatGPT, calling out the many costs – both human and environmental – of an industry that continues to accrete money and power. In his new book “Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us,” Marcus lays out his vision for a responsible path forward. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Marcus about that path and how it may be further out of reach, though not impossible, given the results of this year’s presidential election.
Do the free speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment apply to online discourse? What if that online discourse spreads misinformation? Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Nadine Farid Johnson, policy director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, about how we should understand the right to free speech in the internet era.
This fall, California became the latest state to adopt a law banning cellphone use in schools. The Golden State joins more than a dozen that have imposed restrictions as alarm grows about the potentially harmful effects of smartphone use on students’ learning and mental health. Support for these policies spans the political spectrum. But one important constituency sometimes has a hard time adjusting: parents. Kathryn Jezer-Morton, a columnist for The Cut, wrote about the challenges of disconnecting.
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Comments (26)

Mia Michael

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Jan 12th
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Alex Saunders

I recently had the opportunity to try out Starlink Telecommunications and I must say, it was an incredible experience. The speed and reliability of the internet connection were truly impressive. From streaming movies and TV shows to video conferencing with colleagues, everything was seamless and uninterrupted, also find customer service contacts at https://starlink.pissedconsumer.com/customer-service.html . The customer service provided by Starlink was also top-notch, with their team being responsive and helpful whenever I had any questions or concerns. I am hopeful that Starlink will continue to expand its coverage and bring this amazing service to more people around the world. If you're looking for a reliable and fast internet connection, I highly recommend giving Starlink a try.

Oct 16th
Reply

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
Reply

Emilia Gray

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Apr 25th
Reply

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
Reply

Lee Hyde

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Jul 14th
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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

Maciej Czech

So what, you want to force everybody to put womens anywhere? Norway tried to regulate this and it became absurd because there are womens which just sit in the meetings. That stupid law just objectified them even more xD

Aug 5th
Reply (2)

Maciej Czech

Really just can't stand so many commercials and stuff about donations :/ It's up to 40% of episode, every day the same clips.

Jul 1st
Reply