Marketplace Tech

Christina Farr, Managing Director at Manatt Health, dives into Meta's new AI app aiming to rival ChatGPT while addressing pressing issues in health tech. They discuss a significant data leak affecting California Blue Shield members, spotlighting urgent privacy concerns. Farr also examines how the Trump Administration’s trade policies impact health tech innovation and startups. Additionally, the conversation touches on the ethical challenges of AI in health data interpretation and the crucial link between university research and evolving medical technology.

Selena Deckelmann, Chief Product and Technology Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, dives into the intriguing world of AI bots and their impact on Wikipedia. She discusses the unexpected traffic spikes following President Jimmy Carter's death, which exposed vulnerabilities in their system. Selena highlights the challenge of balancing public knowledge access with the ethical dilemmas posed by data scraping. Collaboration with developers is essential, as they navigate the complexities of AI and its growing influence on the internet.

Canada's recent elections faced significant challenges due to a new law mandating payment from social media companies to news publishers. Meta's drastic decision to block news from its platforms created a vacuum, leading to less access to credible information. This blackout not only impacted media engagement but also allowed misleading content to flourish. As local news outlets struggled to survive, questions arose about the implications for democracy and the role of tech companies in shaping public discourse.

The fight against climate change takes a financial twist as New York City plans to redirect public pension funds from fossil fuels to climate solutions. NineDot Energy operates a battery farm in the Bronx, providing crucial support to the power grid during peak times. With the capacity to power 3,000 homes for four hours, this initiative has significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, a young artist envisions a greener future through a mural, blending creativity and environmentalism to inspire urban sustainability.

Leyla Isik, a professor of cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University, is also a senior scientist on a new study looking at how good AI is at reading social cues. She and her research team took short videos of people doing things — two people chatting, two babies on a playmat, two people doing a synchronized skate routine — and showed them to human participants. After, they were asked them questions like, are these two communicating with each other? Are they communicating? Is it a positive or negative interaction? Then, they showed the same videos to over 350 open source AI models. (Which is a lot, though it didn't include all the latest and greatest ones out there.) Isik found that the AI models were a lot worse than humans at understanding what was going on. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes visited Isik at her lab in Johns Hopkins to discuss the findings.

Jewel Burks Solomon, managing partner at Collab Capital and advocate for Black-owned businesses, shares her insights on the tech landscape. She discusses OpenAI's controversial shift from nonprofit to for-profit, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a mission focused on global good. The conversation also tackles the FTC's lawsuit against Uber, highlighting consumer protection in a rapidly changing tech environment. Lastly, Jewel addresses how current corporate struggles might open doors for innovative startups, creating new opportunities in a challenging market.

TikTok is rolling out Footnotes, a crowd-sourced fact-checking feature to improve content accuracy. This collaborative approach encourages both professional and amateur fact-checkers to address misinformation. However, challenges like bias in community notes on platforms like X and Facebook raise questions about effectiveness. The discussion also highlights the unique challenges of verifying information, particularly in sensitive areas like personal finance. A psychologist offers insights into why citizen fact-checking may shape the future of social media moderation.

The controversy surrounding algorithmic rent-setting is heating up as cities like San Francisco and Minneapolis take action against these tools. The Biden administration has sued RealPage, questioning the fairness of its pricing algorithms. Amidst growing concerns over housing affordability, cities are leading the charge to ban these practices, sparking debates about potential price-fixing and the role of technology. The clash between landlords and regulators is intensifying, highlighting the urgent need for effective housing policies.

Ujjwal Singh, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Multiverse, explores how AI can enhance employee skills with their innovative coach, Atlas. He discusses the importance of personalized, project-based learning in keeping workers relevant in a fast-evolving economy. Singh highlights Atlas's success in providing continuous support and overcoming educational challenges. He also emphasizes the platform's role in improving job access for individuals over 40, advocating for a more equitable workforce through AI-driven upskilling.

Developers of mobile apps have "room for improvement" in making their platforms fully accessible for disabled users, according to a new report from the software company ArcTouch and the digital research platform Fable. It looked at fifty popular apps and assessed them for features that improve accessibility like screen reading, text size adjustability, voice controls and multiple screen orientations. The apps were tested by disabled users who reported a poor or failing experience almost three-quarters of the time.Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Ben Ogilvie, head of accessibility at ArcTouch, to learn more about why so many apps are behind.