Episódios

  • Bytes: Week in Review - SpaceX eyes an IPO, community members want legal commitments from Micron, and YouTube to ditch AI slop
    Jan 23 2026

    A Micron memory chip factory in upstate New York is wrangling with local groups who want legal assurances the project will benefit the local community. Plus, YouTube plans to crack down on AI slop.


    But first, it's shaping up to be a big year for very big initial public offerings. Elon Musk is reportedly preparing to take SpaceX public at an anticipated valuation of around $1.5 trillion. AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI are also expected to follow suit this year.


    Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, to discuss all these topics on this week’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”

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    12 minutos
  • Unraveling the complex knot of an AI-generated hoax
    Jan 22 2026

    In the era of AI, sometimes a story is really just too good to be true, even if the initial evidence suggests otherwise.


    And as artificially engineered content becomes mainstream, journalists need to go the extra mile to verify a story’s authenticity.


    Casey Newton from Platformer spoke with “Marketplace Tech” host Meghan McCarty Carino about his recent wild goose chase that ended in an AI hoax.

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    9 minutos
  • Welcome to the 'infocalypse'
    Jan 21 2026

    Information Apocalypse Now.


    AI content is flooding social feeds and its getting increasingly hard to determine what is real versus what is fake.


    Aviv Ovadya, founder and CEO of the AI and Democracy Foundation, has been warning of this apocalypse for a decade now. “Marketplace Tech” host Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Ovadya about the state of our information ecosystem and protecting our institutions.

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    7 minutos
  • How "surveillance pricing" charges one online customer more than another for the same item
    Jan 20 2026

    Consumers have heard of “dynamic pricing,” when the prices are based on demand within a single moment. But whether they know it or not, they’re also contending with “surveillance pricing,” where companies use personalized consumer data to serve up personalized prices. Marketplace's Kristin Schwab reports.

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    4 minutos
  • The 'biohacking' trend that has tech workers experimenting on themselves
    Jan 19 2026

    In an industry known for pushing the bounds of human innovation, tech elites are now trying to push the bounds of their own bodies. The hot new biohacking trend is injectable peptides — similar to the ones found in GLP-1 medications like Ozempic. But these are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.


    These gray-market peptides, largely from Chinese manufacturers, are being used by tech workers and founders. Not just to lose weight, but to optimize their health and performance in all manner of ways. “Marketplace Tech” host Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with independent journalist Jasmine Sun, who recently wrote about this for the New York Times.

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    8 minutos
  • Bytes: Week in Review – New chip exports for China, Microsoft to pay electricity for AI data centers, and Gemini will power Apple’s AI
    Jan 16 2026

    Those massive AI data centers going in across the country can use as much energy as an entire city. President Trump said this week he wants tech companies to "pay their own way," and touted a new Microsoft pledge to bear the full cost of their AI energy needs.


    Plus, Apple announces its long awaited new AI Siri will be powered by Google.


    But first, Nvidia can once again export its second best H200 chips to China if it follows some new security rules and pays the U.S. government 25% of its sales. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, to discuss all these topics on this week’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”

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    12 minutos
  • Teaching students to 'be better than a robot'
    Jan 15 2026

    When it comes to AI, educators biggest worry: cheating.


    With the click of a button, students can form papers, generate test answers or even finish their homework. Leading educators to address its use directly and the expectations for their students.


    But Kristi Girdharry, director of the writing center and associate professor at Babson College, has gone a step further. She’s actively integrating AI into her coursework. All in the hopes that her students learn to outwork their robot counterparts.


    “I have a mantra going with my students now,” said Girdharry. “I always say, ‘you have to be better than a robot.’”

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    4 minutos
  • This Swiss city wants to become the bitcoin capital of Europe
    Jan 14 2026

    The pretty Swiss lakeside town of Lugano has set out to become Europe’s bitcoin capital, with the aim of attracting bitcoin companies and the cryptocurrency itself to the city. In Lugano, you can still pay for everything in Swiss francs, but in hundreds of shops and restaurants you can also pay in bitcoin. The city has even started accepting it for municipal services. The BBC’s John Laurenson went to check it out.

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    6 minutos