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Marketplace Tech

Marketplace Tech

By: Marketplace
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Monday through Friday, Marketplace demystifies the digital economy in less than 10 minutes. We look past the hype and ask tough questions about an industry that's constantly changing.Copyright 2026 Minnesota Public Radio Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Bytes: Week in Review — AI companies divided over proposed state law, Amazon buys Globalstar, and Spotify to sell physical books
    Apr 17 2026

    This week, Spotify is letting its users buy physical books. Plus, Amazon acquires the satellite service provide Globalstar. But first, state lawmakers in Illinois are considering a bill that says developers of large AI models can’t be held liable for critical harms caused by those models, as long as the developer doesn't intentionally or recklessly cause the harm and has published a safety protocol on its website.


    A representative from OpenAI testified in favor of the bill; meanwhile, Wired reported this week that Anthropic is pushing for either major changes to the legislation, or for it to be killed completely. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Maria Curi, tech policy reporter at Axios, about all these headlines for this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”

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    13 mins
  • One way to avoid AI altogether? Retire early
    Apr 16 2026

    The share of older workers is on the decline — about 37% of people age 55 and above are now active in the labor force. About a decade ago, it was around 40%.


    The pandemic chased some older workers out, and others can simply afford to retire. Another factor that's causing some to exit? The emergence of artificial intelligence. Learning how to interact with it as a tool, maybe even as a colleague, seems like a headache to some. So, they’re choosing retirement instead.


    Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Wall Street Journal reporter Lauren Weber, who’s been covering the phenomenon.

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    7 mins
  • How botnets infiltrate the internet of things
    Apr 15 2026

    Routers, computers, web cameras — they all connect to the internet. And they can be infected with malicious software that lets someone else take over. The device becomes a bot, essentially.


    A group of these devices networked together then becomes a botnet. And these botnets can then be used for nefarious purposes, like distributed denial of service attacks, without the device owners even knowing about it.


    Cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs recently wrote about several large botnets including one called Kimwolf that compromised more than three million devices.

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    7 mins
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