Marketplace Tech

Ziv Ben-Zion, a clinical neuroscience researcher at Yale and the University of Haifa, discusses his study on AI chatbots and anxiety. He reveals how traumatic stories can provoke anxious responses from these bots, raising questions about their potential in mental health support. The conversation highlights the risks of using AI for emotional guidance, emphasizing the importance of cautious application. Additionally, mindfulness techniques are explored as a way to enhance chatbot interactions, underscoring the emotional implications for users.

The electric vehicle industry is booming in the Southeast, with a significant focus on a massive battery plant in Kentucky. Workers are advocating for union representation to address safety concerns and job security. As the United Auto Workers aim to organize the sector, the episode delves into the challenges those workers face in achieving fair wages and safer working conditions in a rapidly evolving manufacturing landscape. This movement reflects broader aspirations for labor rights in a region where good jobs are hard to come by.

Christina Farr, Managing Director at Manatt Health, shares her insights on the rapidly evolving landscape of healthcare technology. She discusses Hinge Health's bold IPO amidst market uncertainties and the groundbreaking Stanford tool that evaluates AI models in real-world healthcare scenarios. The conversation highlights the pressing challenges of integrating AI, like the issues of data quality, and underscores the urgent need for innovation spurred by demographic shifts. Farr emphasizes how these developments could transform patient care and reshape health tech.

Stanford University has long been a feeder for the neighboring tech industry with graduates often heading to a brand name of Silicon Valley. But the times, they are a-changin’, according to writer Jasmine Sun. She reported recently for the San Francisco Standard that building tech for the military has become cool on campus. One student, Divya, said her “most effective and moral friends are now working for Palantir.” Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Sun about how this shift compares to when she attended Stanford in the late 2010s.

Federal officials are warning consumers against a type of cyberattack that’s been on the rise. It’s called Medusa, a ransomware program that uses tactics like phishing to infect a target’s system and encrypt their data, which hackers then threaten to publicly release unless a ransom is paid. Medusa is just one example of how hackers are evolving their strategies at a time when federal cybersecurity resources are being cut by the Donald Trump administration. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Lesley Carhart, director of incident response for North America at cybersecurity firm Dragos, to learn more about the use of embarrassment as a weapon and the impact of funding cuts on digital safety. 

You could say once your company becomes a verb, you’ve arrived. And “Venmo me” is a pretty common phrase these days. Mobile payment apps like Venmo, along with Zelle and Cash App, are becoming pretty widespread, especially among young people. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, consumers under the age of 25 were twice as likely to have used some kind of mobile payment app compared to older Americans. But as with any form of money, there is etiquette about how to use them. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Yanely Espinal, host of Marketplace’s “Financially Inclined,” a video podcast that provides money lessons for teens, about the do’s and don’ts of these payment apps.

Back when the pandemic first hit, many students received tablets or laptops from their schools. Schools also wanted to know what students were doing on those devices, so demand for AI-powered software to monitor students’ digital activities also grew. That surveillance software is the subject of a new investigation from the Associated Press andTthe Seattle Times, whic Claire Bryan coauthored. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes asked her what sort of things this surveillance software might flag.

We are taking a look at how the tech industry is pushing back against federal cuts to artificial intelligence and science. Plus, Waymo is expanding its self-driving services in Silicon Valley. But first, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba this week released an AI model called R1-Omni, which the company says can read human emotions. Alibaba shared a demo on the coding platform GitHub that accurately described a character as being angry and experiencing fear. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes is joined by Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at venture firm Collab Capital, to break down these stories.

This week, we’ve been exploring the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, we spoke about what might happen with futurist Amy Webb, the CEO of the Future Today Strategy Group. She predicted, among other things, that we would give up more personal data around our health and location. Then on the show in 2021, she said more definitively that privacy was dead. This week, Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Webb again. They discussed the current state of digital privacy, the lessons not learned from the pandemic and, as Webb sees it, the victory of politics over planning.

In the spring of 2020, 77% of American public schools moved to online distance learning when the pandemic hit, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to the pandemic, you could say that schools were trickling into the digital age. Then, when COVID changed everything, they were basically tossed into it. Some educators adapted quickly, like Bebi Davis, who was working as a vice principal in Honolulu at the time. She’s now principal of Princess Victoria Kaiulani Elementary. Going totally virtual, she said, meant introducing an onslaught of technology — videoconferencing, classroom management software and messaging systems. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes asked Davis about the school system’s experience adopting so much tech all at once.