Marketplace Tech With Molly Wood

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.”

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.’”

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.

Much like graphics processing units, high bandwidth memory is essential for training and running AI. It's paired with all those NVIDIA chips that have been selling like hotcakes and only a small handful companies in the world make it. Now the surge in demand from data centers has created a global shortage for everything else — the PCs and smartphones and other consumer electronics that also use memory chips. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Tom Mainelli, vice president of device and consumer research at IDC, about how long this shortage could last.

On Jan. 7, 2025, the Eaton and Palisades Fires began, killing 31 people and destroying around 13,00 homes in the Los Angeles area. A year later, residents are looking to rebuild the lives and homes they once had. Marketplace’s David Branccacio and his wife lost their Altadena home to the Eaton fire, and have yet to break ground on a new building. But as they continue to plan for construction in the new year, they are focusing on fire-resistance for the future.Branccacio joined “Marketplace Tech” host Meghan McCarty Carino to speak about the technology and building that goes into fire-resistant homes.

X, formerly Twitter, is facing a global backlash because users are directing the platform's AI chatbot, Grok, to generate non-consensual intimate imagery. Users have been popping up in the replies of women — and sometimes minors — tagging Grok and asking it to generate images of them in bikinis or undressed.The company and its owner, Elon Musk, have both clarified illegal content will not be tolerated on the platform.Plus, President Donald Trump signed an executive order late last year aimed at blocking states from enforcing local AI regulations — something a majority have adopted in some form.And, Meta is a victim of its own success. Its new Ray-Ban smart glasses are selling too fast to keep up with demand.Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, to discuss all these topics on this week’s Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.

For the past couple months, YouTube technologist Benn Jordan has been investigating Flock Safety surveillance cameras. With the help of 404 Media, they found that many of these cameras were not only tracking, zooming and following every passerby, but the footage was freely accessible on the internet.Jordan joined Marketplace Tech host Meghan McCarty Carino to talk about how he found the footage and the dangers the surveillance system poses to privacy and other civil liberties. Remember, Big Brother is always watching.

Over a century ago, farmers exchanged their horses and plows for the automated tractor. Generations of farmers have come, gone and watched technology transform their industry.Automation and biotechnology have continued to propel farming forward, but with the emergency of AI technology, farmers have gained another tool up their sleeve.Andrew Nelson is a fifth-generation farmer in Farmington, Washington, and he is now using his computer science degree to help tend to his crops.

Artificial intelligence isn't just chatbots. The technology is being integrated all across our economy and our lives. And that convergence of AI and robotics, biology and more is likely to be the most important tech trend in 2026, according to Futurist and CEO of the Future Today Strategy Group, Amy Webb.

The 2024 presidential race was the first big election to happen in the new generative AI era. There have, of course, been major concerns that the technology could be used to deceive voters or interfere with the exercise of democracy. But so far, that kind of activity has been limited, according to Tim Harper, a senior policy analyst and coauthor of a recent report from the Center for Democracy and Technology.

The digital detox economy is estimated to grow to $20 billion by 2032. The gamification that got you addicted to your phone might be the key to putting it down.

When it comes to homebuilding, Ronda Conger, vice president of CBH Homes, wants to be like the Savannah Bananas.“We are out there trying to do things so differently,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons we embraced AI so quickly.”But there are growing fears that artificial intelligence will begin to replace human employees. For Conger’s team, the bots are doing the grunt work, so the real humans can shine.

2025 brought some new speed bumps for electric vehicle sales, namely the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It cut federal EV tax credits — up to $7,500 for new cars and $4,000 for used ones. Those incentives had been on the books in some form since 2008 and were expanded during the Biden administration. They expired at the end of September. Consumers rushed to take advantage before they disappeared, leading to record high sales earlier this year. But now the market faces an uncertain road ahead.Marketplace's Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with her colleague Henry Epp about the outlook for EV sales in the U.S. now that federal tax credits are gone.

AI psychosis became a thing in 2025. That's when a chatbot leads a user into a delusional spiral.The technology's tendency to affirm what people say can result in conversations that become untethered from reality and, in the worst cases, has ended with real-world harms. Kashmir Hill has been reporting on this phenomenon for The New York Times.Content warning: This episode includes mention of self harm and suicide.

This year turned out to be a pretty big year for autonomous vehicles. Waymo is the leader in the robotaxi race and over the last year, its signature Jaguar electric vehicles have become a common sight on the streets and recently freeways of cities around the country.Companies like Uber and Zooks have expanded their fleets to several metropolitan areas. And Tesla finally rolled out its cybercab service in a limited capacity in Austin.Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Kirsten Korosec, transportation editor at TechCrunch, about how the robotaxi became a common fixture on city streets this year.

About half of U.S. states now require some form of online age verification to prevent kids from accessing certain content — usually pornography. But in some cases, that also means broader categories of adult content that include social media. Drew Harwell, tech reporter at The Washington Post, has been following this.

Will Gottsegen, a staff writer at The Atlantic, tests out Meta’s AI smart glasses and gives us a recap of how AI continues to get embedded in consumer tech.

Polystyrene is the chemical compound that makes up styrofoam, which is used for packaging and insulation. But it’s not the most environmentally friendly.By one estimate, 40 million tons of polystyrene were produced globally in 2024, leaving millions of tons of plastic waste. The search for an earth-friendly alternative has led researchers to dig deep and come up with an unlikely solution: fungus. The BBC’s Anna Holligan has this story.

In January, we saw a who's who of tech leaders front and center at President Donald Trump's inauguration.Since, the White House has advocated for the build out of AI infrastructure and put a moratorium on state-level AI regulation. But the Trump administration also added a $100,000 fee to petitions for H-1B visas, which are widely used in the tech sector. To review the year in tech and Trump we called up Suyash Pasi, a research analyst and editor at the nonprofit Human Rights Research Center, who’s been following this shift.

Could AI chat bots replace human doctors? Probably not, but that won’t stop people from trying.Just as they did during the emergence of Google, doctors across the country are grappling with the changing healthcare landscape thanks to artificial intelligence. Today on the show, Dr. Hassan Bencheqroun, a pulmonary and intensive care doctor in San Diego, California, talks about his approach to the intersection of patient care and AI.