Marketplace Tech

Episod

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  Why the Trump administration plans to boost funding for subsea cables 20.08.2026 9min

  Most of the world’s internet traffic flows through underwater cables on the ocean floor. The wires are also responsible for some $10 trillion worth of financial transactions every day. And because those cables hold so much data and carry so much money, they’re also a potential security threat. That may explain why the U.S. and China are vying for control over the technology — and why the Trump administration is ramping up spending to replace cables in the Caribbean and Central America. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Erin Murphy, the managing director for Asia at Redpoint Advisors, about why these cables play a key role in geopolitics. More on this:US is considering big boost to anti-China spending globally from The Associated PressRisk Beneath the Waves: Safeguarding Subsea Cables for a Secure Global Network from CSIS
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  Cyberattacks on U.S. water systems raise concerns about security 19.08.2026 10min

  Water systems across a dozen states were targeted by cyberattacks in recent weeks. So far, the water has remained safe to drink, but the incidents have raised concerns about the possibility of future attacks. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Nikita Shah, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, about other vulnerable infrastructure and the steps that states can take to strengthen cybersecurity. More on this:How Tehran’s Use of Cyber Operations in the U.S.-Iran Conflict Has Evolved from CSISA Leaked Memo Ties Cyberattacks on Minnesota Water Utilities to Iran | WIRED from WIREDNew York awards $9M to protect water systems after cyberattacks in other states - Gothamist from Gothamist
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  As space launches increase, there aren't enough spaceports 18.08.2026 7min

  More than 100 rockets took off into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast last year — a new record. And with more rockets taking flight each year, the availability of launch sites is becoming a bottleneck for the growing space industry.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants to make it easier for space companies to build new spaceports to make way for the increasing number of rocket launches. The agency has proposed waiving some environmental requirements for space launch. Daniel Ackerman has been reporting on the space industry as part of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT.
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  Can an AI music company make nice with human artists? 17.08.2026 7min

  Suno, an AI music company, wants to partner with independent artists by launching an incubator program called Suno Spark. This program will provide grants, marketing support and, of course, Suno AI tools to unsigned musicians.Tatiana Cirisano, vice president of music strategy at MIDiA Research, which consults in entertainment, discusses more on this.
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  States rush to police AI deepfakes ahead of midterm elections 14.08.2026 12min

  Anthropic announced it's adding invisible watermarks to all text generated by its chatbot Claude. The AI startup is rolling out the policy globally as part of efforts to comply with the European Union AI Act.Plus, there's a patchwork of state laws that regulate AI-generated political messaging — they're being put to the test ahead of the midterm elections. And federal regulators ordered Kalshi to continue to operate in New York, despite a state lawsuit seeking to shut it down.Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, about all this for this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”
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  Can Silicon Valley give AI good taste? 13.08.2026 8min

  Generative AI models can produce enormous volumes of text, images and video in seconds. But without expert human instruction, the output is often generic. (You might say slop.)A number of startups in Silicon Valley are on a mission to change that by giving AI a more human sense of taste. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with critic and journalist Sophie Haigney about what taste is and whether artificial intelligence can truly replicate it.
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  TikTok excluded millions from crucial safety guardrails 12.08.2026 9min

  This story includes discussion of suicide.Back in 2021, TikTok tweaked its algorithm in an effort to address dangerous filter bubbles — a sort of algorithmic spiral of recommendations for high-risk content like extreme dieting or self-harm. But internal company documents obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek show 10% of U.S. users — 15 million Americans — were purposely excluded from this safety update. This was part of user testing to validate the new feature and track whether it reduced engagement with the famously sticky platform.One of those users was then-16-year-old Chase Nasca, who subsequently died by suicide. Olivia Carville, Bloomberg Businessweek investigative reporter, has been on the story.
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  AI subscriptions are rapidly taking over baby nurseries 11.08.2026 8min

  Remember those grainy old baby monitors? So passé. Today, the modern nursery can be equipped with HD cameras and biometric sensors — all analyzed with artificial intelligence.The technology can detect hazardous position changes or a blanket covering a baby's face, but also tracks less critical metrics that purport to help optimize infant sleep and health. Sapna Maheshwari, business reporter at The New York Times, recently wrote about this. She's been an avid user of the Nanit Smart Baby Monitor System with both of her children.More on this“Aw, It’s Baby’s First A.I. Surveillance System” from The New York Times“AI-powered IoT is creating a new security challenge” from Spiceworks
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  Substack CEO on the platform’s new AI detector 10.08.2026 7min

  Substack, the platform popular for online newsletters, recently launched an artificial intelligence detection feature powered by Pangram. The detector allows users to scan text and get an estimate for how much of it was likely written by AI. But some creators are concerned about the tool’s accuracy and its potential to prompt a “witch hunt” for writers who use AI. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Substack CEO Chris Best about the new feature.More on this:AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn from PangramI Test-Drove Substack’s New AI Detection Tool, and It Mostly Worked from CNET
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  Gig workers train humanoids on household chores 07.08.2026 12min

  Is your shirt-folding technique good enough to train a robot how to do it? Could MySpace be creeping back into our browsers? We get into all this on today’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”But first, the rocket ship/satellite internet/AI company SpaceX reported this week that it spent over $18 billion in capital expenditures in the second quarter. That’s six times what it spent the same time last year. Most of that was on AI infrastructure. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Joanna Stern, founder of the media company New Things, to discuss all these topics.Everything we talked about:“Here's the mark a SpaceX rocket crash left on the moon” from CBC“SpaceX posts loss of $541 million in first report since record-setting IPO” from The Washington Post“Train robots and make money” from The New Things“Could Myspace be making a return” from CNN
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  AI chatbots have linguistic slips when they go off-script 06.08.2026 8min

  Let’s say you're chatting away with AI — perfect grammar, great vocabulary. Then, boom: a random word in another language! That's the topic for today's “Uncanny AI.” Those moments where it becomes really clear that AI doesn't think like us. Janelle Shane, who writes the AI Weirdness blog, helps explain why AI chatbots do this.More on this:“ChatGPT users flummoxed after AI bot starts inserting Arabic into responses” from The New York Post“ChatGPT is mixing languages or Answers are Wrong!” from OpenAI Developer Community
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  AI-driven law could be an answer to accessible legal help 05.08.2026 9min

  AI has already changed the legal field, bringing new efficiencies — along with some high-profile mistakes — to tasks like research and drafting contracts. But law professor Benjamin Alarie at the University of Toronto has a bigger transformation in mind.He wants to see AI tackle some of the biggest failings of our justice system, like the lack of access to legal resources, slow processes and inconsistencies in how law is applied. He lays out his vision in a new book called "Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence."More on this:“Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” from Oxford University Press“Judge Punishes 4 Lawyers After Catching Both Sides Using A.I. in Lawsuit” from The New York Times
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  China’s soft power play in the global AI arms race 04.08.2026 6min

  Last month, President Xi Jinping spoke at an AI conference in Shanghai, China. There he promoted AI accessibility for the world, touting China’s adoption of open-weighted models.After OpenAI’s rogue model incident in which a training model hacked into the company HuggingFace and stole confidential information, the discussion over whether models should be open or closed has intensified.“Marketplace Tech” host Meghan McCarty Carion spoke with Adam Segal at the Council of Foreign Relations about China’s soft power play in the global AI arms race.
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  Opening the curtain of AI business integration 03.08.2026 6min

  OpenAI released its first ChatGPT model in November of 2022. Since then, companies across the U.S. have worked to integrate AI models into their workflows as quickly as possible.However, according to a recent survey from Indeed, while employers have been keen on adopting the help of artificial intelligence, employees are hesitant to move past experimentation and into implementation.Priya Rathod is a workplace trends editor at Indeed, and she said that in order to get across this great divide, employers need to focus on adequate training for employees and their managers.“Marketplace Tech” host Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Rathod about the survey and how businesses can improve on AI adoption.
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  Meta and Microsoft report different AI earnings 31.07.2026 13min

  Meta and Microsoft — as well as other tech titans — have been reporting quarterly earnings, and investors are looking at AI spending with a more skeptical eye. Plus, more than 1,000 workers at top AI labs signed an open letter this week calling on the government to "deliberately set the pace" of this fast-moving technology, and NBCUniversal makes a deal with YouTube to add all of Peacock's content to its premium streaming service.Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to discuss these stories on this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”
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  Centering humans in AI education might be key to innovation and research 30.07.2026 5min

  Shri Narayanan, professor of engineering, psychology and linguistics at the University of Southern California, teaches his students to privilege humans when using artificial intelligence for their research across areas of study. In this episode, he walks us through how he, for example, uses AI to map behavioral analyses that can inform areas of study including autism and depression.
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  An "antacid" to fight climate change 28.07.2026 4min

  The ocean is already one of the best climate solutions we’ve got. It absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that would otherwise contribute to global warming. But what if it could store even more CO2? Marketplace’s Amy Scott, host of our climate podcast “How We Survive,” looked into one strategy to achieve that goal. And she set sail for a demonstration.This feature is part of “How We Survive.” You can hear more of Amy’s reporting on marine carbon removal and other geoengineering solutions on their new season, wherever you get your podcasts.
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  How AI nudify apps are proliferating on social media 27.07.2026 6min

  A proliferation of AI apps that allow users to create sexualized images of real people have grown into a multi-million dollar industry.Social media platforms are serving as de facto gateways to these services, despite the fact that most prohibit the sharing or promotion of this kind of non-consensual intimate imagery, according to Sina Laubenstein, director of programs at the Institute for Strategic Dialogues, which recently published a report on this.
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  OpenAI model unintentionally hacks another company's system 24.07.2026 13min

  OpenAI revealed this week that two of its advanced AI models escaped containment and hacked into the systems of AI company Hugging Face, which had the answers to the benchmarking test the two models were being evaluated on.Plus, France becomes the first country in the European Union to ban social media for kids under 15. And Apple is reportedly expected to start leasing its devices to consumers. Will Oremus at The Atlantic joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino for these stories.
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  A modern-day odyssey through AI chatbot hellscape 23.07.2026 8min

  A missing package can easily ruin a day, but chasing where that package went — or even a refund — is like following Odysseus on his treacherous journey.And in the age of AI chatbots, the process is a whole lot less human.Dillon Thompson is currently on such a journey. He is looking for an e-bike that FedEx said had been delivered. In his search, Thompson found himself in the AI chatbot hellscape that customer service lines have become.“Marketplace Tech” host Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Thompson about his trials and tribulations as he chased his tail from company to company and chatbot to chatbot in hopes of finding his missing bike.