Marketplace Tech

This week on “Marketplace Tech,” we’re reporting on the innovations that will help us transition to a post-pandemic future. A lot of hopes are pinned on a vaccine for COVID-19. And there are, in fact, a lot of efforts on that front.

A recent study looked at how artificial intelligence is used to determine treatments and care. It found that many of the algorithms used in medicine use race as a variable, and that is a problem.

Some companies have spent tens of thousands of dollars on thermal cameras, which can, supposedly, spot someone with an elevated temperature from a distance.

This week on “Marketplace Tech,” we’re reporting on the innovations that will help us transition to a post-pandemic future. One of those innovations has been waiting in the wings for a long time: robots. Robots can do jobs that are too dangerous for humans or just make life a little easier while offering companionship during quarantine.

Video games have become a huge release for lots of people, especially the many who are entering their sixth month of some sort of coronavirus lockdown.

There are new tools to help with online learning, but a recent report from Common Sense Media and Boston Consulting Group found that at least 15 million students in the United States lack either a device or internet access, and 9 million kids lack both. Those disparities are worse in rural communities and Black, Latinx and Native American households.

With popular attention focused, at least for now, on racial justice, a new initiative wants to put more people of color in newsroom leadership by helping them start their own media companies

It’s Election Day in a half-dozen states, and another opportunity for election officials to sort out just how to run elections in a pandemic. As roughly 8,000 jurisdictions prepare for November, one concern is cybersecurity and if their systems can withstand any kind of hacking.

In July, federal Judge Esther Salas was deliberately targeted in her home in New Jersey. A gunman shot and killed her son and gravely wounded her husband. This week, Salas released a statement, speaking about how personal information, like her home address, was available online, making it easy for her attacker to find her.

Late Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order, banning the social media app TikTok in 45 days. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and the administration says a Chinese company having access to Americans’ data is a national security threat.