This week, Meta announced teen accounts with a slew of new safety features. We’ve also got Apple news to talk about — no, not the latest iPhones or watches, but new functionality for AirPods that basically turns them into hearing aids. First, though, are we ready for artificial general intelligence, or AGI, that could match or exceed human capabilities? It could be a mere one to three years away, according to testimony at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee Tuesday. A number of AI insiders spoke, including former Google and OpenAI researchers and Georgetown’s Helen Toner, who explained the stakes. “That technology will be at a minimum extraordinarily disruptive and at a maximum could lead to literal human extinction,” she said. “So I would argue that a wait-and-see approach to policy is not an option.” Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at Collab Capital, for her take on all this for our weekly segment “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”

In this tense election year, polling is top of mind. But collecting polling data has become harder. It often relies on people actually answering the phone and then speaking frankly to a pollster, both of which are becoming less common. The result has been data that is less predictive, and repeated misses in recent elections have made the public much more skeptical. Polling, it seems, needs an update for the digital age. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Bruce Schneier, lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, who says AI can help.

A federal appeals court heard arguments Monday in a case that pits the First Amendment against national security. TikTok sued to block a bipartisan-backed law that will ban the Chinese-owned app in the U.S. by January 19 — unless it finds a U.S. buyer. This week, the government argued the app gives China access to Americans’ sensitive data, as well as the ability to spread propaganda. While TikTok argued it’s been unfairly singled out and that a sale isn’t the only way to address security concerns. TikTok touts 170 million users in the U.S., and that includes both candidates for president. A group of U.S.-based creators have also joined as plaintiffs in this lawsuit. Anupam Chander, professor of law and technology at Georgetown University, walked Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino through the arguments in the case.