Marketplace Tech With Molly Wood

Over the last 25 years, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars to build a "virtual wall" of video surveillance at the southern border. The network can signal Border Patrol to respond when it detects suspicious activity. And officials have touted the benefit of providing aid to migrants in distress.But a recent investigation by MIT Technology Review and the Times of San Diego found more than 1,000 migrants have died over the last decade within range of one of these cameras. Eileen Guo co-reported the series, “Dying on Camera.”More on this:“The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch people before they die?” from MIT Technology Review“A congressional representative just proposed killing America’s border tower program” from MIT Technology Review

Further proof — in case you need it — that AI data centers aren't very popular: A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows 60% of Americans aren't comfortable welcoming one to the neighborhood.And concerns have grown since the beginning of the year across every demographic group, making the backlash a key issue in the midterm elections. Scott Brennen, director of NYU's Center on Technology Policy, recently published a report on how data centers could better work with communities.More on this:“Americans’ views of data centers have turned more negative” from Pew Research Center“Collective Goods but Local Harms: How Data Centers Can Earn Community Support” from Center on Technology Policy“Residents voice concerns as Hobart City Council approves Amazon data center” from WGN9“More Americans concerned about AI, even as it drives economy” from Marketplace

Content creator Manny Marotta has gone viral in recent weeks for his X feed recounting the news of 25 years ago as if it's happening now.His minute-by-minute account of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, attracted hundreds of thousands of new followers. And the 27-year old is posting day-by-day accounts from 50 and 100 years ago, as well.Marotta says it's become a time-consuming hobby alongside his job as a law clerk for a non-profit.

The AI smart speaker market is getting crowded. This year, Amazon, which is a Marketplace underwriter, rolled out a large language model-powered version of its classic voice assistant.You can still talk to Alexa+ using Amazon echo devices, but it also operates as a text chatbot, replacing the old Rufus AI. It's capable of conversational searches, managing to-do lists and even generating podcasts.Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa and Echo, broke down what's new with Alexa+.More on this:“I’ve Been Testing Alexa for a Decade. Here’s My Take on How Alexa+ Compares.” from Wirecutter“Amazon's Alexa+” from Amazon

Meta's new Muse AI assistant is having a moment — and it's kind of adorable. Meta announced a slew of new integrations for its AI assistant at a company event this week, including a customizable furry lil’ avatar and a Tamogatchi-like wearable device for interacting with it.Plus, Wall Street is betting billions on growing demand for cybersecurity in the age of AI and social media platform Discord enters its age-gating era.Anita Ramaswamy at The Information is here to help us unpack the week in tech.More on this:I Gave My Life Over to Meta’s A.I. Agent and Was Blown Away — New York Times Meta Tests Muse AI Agent Calls That Are Actually Made By Humans in a Call Center — 404 Media CrowdStrike and Okta Trade at Big Premiums Despite Unproven AI Payoff — The InformationDiscord’s age-verification era is upon us, despite community backlash — Tech Crunch

AI is the big item on the agenda this week as Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with President Trump in Washington, D.C.The talks come after a firestorm of news that has brought AI safety front and center: the hack of Hugging Face by rogue OpenAI agents, the resignation of an Anthropic researcher, plus calls by AI leaders to pace the frontier always met with the rejoinder, “what about China?”Samm Sacks, senior fellow at the think tank New America, tells us more about China's approach to these AI talks.More on this:“US and China Hail Talks as Positive Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit” from Bloomberg“US proposes AI incident alert system in talks with China, Bessent says” from Associated Press

The global beauty market is expected to hit almost $600 billion by 2030, according to a report by McKinsey & Company. And just like pretty much every industry, it's being transformed by AI.L’Oréal and OpenAI announced a partnership this summer to bring virtual makeup try-ons and product discovery to ChatGPT. An AI styling firm called Alta is integrating e.l.f. Beauty products into its virtual try on avatars. And consumers are increasingly looking to chatbots for skincare and makeup recommendations.Apparently beauty inquiries account for almost half of generative AI retail referral traffic, according to market research firm EuroMonitor. For more we're joined by fashion-tech journalist and consultant Maghan McDowell, who's been following this trend.

Sure, you can put down your phone and go touch grass for free. But for those looking for a little help committing to a more disconnected lifestyle, there's a growing market of products and services from retreats to apps to devices that promise to supercharge your ability to unplug — for a price. Paula Mejia has covered the booming digital detox industry for Mother Jones, and spoke with “Marketplace Tech” host Meghan McCarty Carino about her reporting.More on this:“Adventures in Unplugging” from Mother Jones“Meta to pay up to $18bn to settle claims its platforms harm children” from BBC9

At this point we've probably all been a part of heated dinner conversations about AI. Rana el Kaliouby has them almost nightly at home. She's an AI scientist and investor who hosts the podcast Pioneers of AI. But her own daughter is an AI skeptic, her teenage son, on the other hand, is an AI super user — which makes for some pretty interesting conversations at home.

Congress is looking to rein in Flock cameras; plus, Apple has a new way to prove your iPhone photos are real.But first, it's been a wild week in AI. After the freakout over an Anthropic researcher quitting in protest last week, CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in AI, and his counterpoints Sam Altman and Elon Musk agreed. President Donald Trump? Not so much. He called fears of rogue AI a hoax, and even went after a niche intellectual community that's deeply invested in AI safety: the Effective Altruist movement.Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to explain more about all this on this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”Check out our YouTube page to watch more episodes of “Tech Bytes.”

More than 1 in 5 U.S. companies now use artificial intelligence in their daily operations, according to a recent analysis of federal data from Goldman Sachs. In theory AI offers the promise of greater productivity and profits, but even with advances in capabilities, these systems are still fundamentally unpredictable, creating new liabilities for firms that use them.That’s where insurance typically comes in. But AI is disrupting that business, too. Deloitte projects insurance for AI will grow into a nearly $5 billion global business by 2032.

AI leaders suddenly seem to agree on slowing down the AI race. Anthropic's Dario Amodei published an essay last weekend calling to "pace the frontier" — slow the development of advanced AI to allow safety measures to catch up. He said Anthropic will give access to independent safety evaluators, to which OpenAI's Sam Altman and XAI's Elon Musk concurred.It's all giving déjà vu to Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Strategy Group, who’s been pushing government leaders around the globe to adopt a similar framework for AI for almost a decade. She laid out her vision in her 2019 book “The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity.”More on this:“AI CEOs want to ‘pace’ the industry. That may not mean slowing down.” from NBC News“AI's leaders just asked to slow down. I made that case nine years ago.” from Amy Webb“We Must Pace the Frontier” from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei

The problem of AI alignment has become a hot topic. It’s raised questions, like how do we get AI to do what we want, and not what we don't want? For example, hacking another company. Or, in a less criminal vein, how do we get AI to stop talking about goblins?After mounting user reports of this behavior earlier this year, OpenAI had to give its models — ChatGPT and Codex — explicit instructions to cut it out. It's the topic of today's “Uncanny AI,” those moments when it's clear AI doesn't think like us.Janelle Shane, author of the blog "AI Weirdness,” says goblin mode emerged from a nerdy personality customization. “Marketplace Tech” host Meghan McCarty Carino asked her why.

Our tax system was built around an economy where humans earn wages, companies employ workers, and both contribute to the public purse. So what happens if AI starts changing that equation?Marketplace’s Future Effects correspondent David Brancaccio has been exploring just that in his series, “Robots Ate My Taxes.”

An Anthropic researcher publicly resigned this week, warning on social media that artificial intelligence companies are “gambling with our lives.”It’s part of a growing chorus of insiders pleading to slow down the AI race. One said he believed there was a greater than 10% chance the tech will kill us all in the next decade.The news comes after a fresh wave of troubling details about the OpenAI incident where agents escaped a testing environment and hacked into Hugging Face.Plus, data center developers have their eye on Patagonia — the colder, the better. And Amazon is betting AI lip-syncing can make dubbed video content more watchable.Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to break down the busy week in tech news.Everything we talked about:Scoop: Sanders convenes senators for AI briefing amid mounting alarm — from Axios Tech explores Argentina's Patagonia for mega data centers — from ReutersGoogle to invest record $15 billion in AI infrastructure in the ‘Texas of

Nate Soares has been worried about artificial intelligence longer than almost anyone.He's the president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and co-author of the subtly named book, "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All."He's watched with a sort of grim vindication, as increasingly alarming details emerge about the hack of the AI company Hugging Face by OpenAI models in development.OpenAI and third-party investigators recently released reports outlining what went wrong. Soares worries it's not enough.More on this:The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead - From OpenAIBrief independent investigation of agents’ behavior, reasoning and collaboration in the OpenAI / Hugging Face hacking incident - From METR and Redwood Research

Meta agreed to a settlement last month with 52 attorneys general in a landmark case over teen social media addiction. The company promised a number of restrictions for under 18-year-old users, like time limits, overnight blackouts on some features and hidden likes. It also agreed to pay up to $17 billion, partly contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting similar reforms.Surveys show a strong majority of Americans support stricter limitations on social media for kids. But, this settlement could fundamentally change how everyone accesses the internet, according to Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.More on this:“That $17B Meta settlement comes with a catch: Your online speech rights” from The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression“Majority of Americans support banning social media for kids under 16” from Pew Research Center

Filmmaker Kenji Yamamoto got a gig working on Apple promotional videos a decade ago and went looking for temporary housing in the pricey Bay Area. What he found was an inside look at the world of hacker houses.These are group residences for people who come to Silicon Valley to pursue their dreams — like a college dorm for startup hopefuls. Yamamoto takes viewers inside that world in his new documentary for PBS, “The Dreamers and I.”More on this:“The Dreamers and I” from PBS“The New (And Slightly Smelly) Center of the AI Boom” from The Atlantic

More Americans are leaving the labor force for a variety of reasons. The labor force participation rate — which measures the share of working-age Americans who either have a job or are looking for a job — has fallen sharply this year, and it’s been on a steady decline for decades. We hear from Kris Bell, who recently retired early from a long career in the tech industry, about why he chose to make the leap.

Google survives yet another antitrust case without having to break up its business. Plus, New York City public schools announced a new policy this week banning the use of AI among elementary and middle school students. But first, John Ternus took over as CEO of Apple after a 15-year run by Tim Cook. Joanna Stern, founder of the media company New Things, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to explain more about what this means for the iPhone maker on this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”Everything we talked about“Apple Begins Its Next Balancing Act as New C.E.O. Takes Over” from The New York Times“Why Apple’s folding iPhone will be ‘Ultra’ in name only” from Macworld“In a Big Win, Google Avoids a Breakup of Its Ad Tech Business” from The New York Times“Nation’s largest school district bans AI in the classroom through 8th grade” from CNN“Three AI agents. One school shopping list.” from New Things