Marketplace Tech

Are you ever really alone when talking to your smart speaker? It turns out there might just be someone on the other side listening to you as part of the platforms' quality assurance measures.

Depending on which research you read, somewhere between 30% and 35% of American workers are part of the gig economy, many of them working through digital apps.

Molly Wood visits NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab to talk about how social media fits into the agency's public mission.

What's at risk when sites disappear?

At least 20 states are considering new legislation, which is likely to lead to a lot more online gambling.

The platform of choice? WhatsApp, the messaging service owned by Facebook that allows users to send encrypted messages to other individuals, groups of people, and forward messages they've received.

Pew Research says almost a quarter of students from low-income families lack a dependable computer or internet connection.

People who try to build a career as creators on YouTube may put all their creativity and time and identity into the platform. On the other end of the screen, an algorithm can take away their ability to make money by what's called demonetizing videos, or just giving them a lower priority in its recommendation engine. One year ago today, a YouTube creator shot three people at the company's San Bruno, California, headquarters before killing herself. A police investigation concluded that when YouTube demonetized her channel, it took away a "critical part of who she was." Host Molly Wood talked with Katherine Lo, a visiting researcher at the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. Lo said the relationship can feel very one sided. Today's show is sponsored by Oregon State University and Ultimate Software.

The Federal Trade Commission is the agency that can fine or prosecute tech companies over unfair or anti-competitive consumer practices. The current FTC Chair Joseph Simons has said he will set up a task force to address tech issues. But there is one empty chair at the agency: the chief technologist, who is supposed to give advice on tech and policy. The role has existed since 2010, but it's been empty for about a year, and some critics are worried. Neil Chilson had the job last. He's now a research fellow at the Charles Koch Institute. Host Molly Wood asked him if he thought the FTC is missing some important tech expertise. Today's show is sponsored by Oregon State University and Panopto.

You can think of innovation as a ladder of sorts. It might start with imitation and then progress to adaptation, like tweaking a foreign idea to develop it for a local market. Finally, hopefully, you reach invention, perhaps even big, industry-changing ones. But the steps needed to climb that ladder, in any given country, can be elusive and murky. There's only so much governments can do, says Regina Abrami, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Marketplace’s Tracey Samuelson talked to her about China's efforts at state-sponsored innovation.

Today's show is sponsored by Kronos, the University of Florida Warrington College of Business and EquityZen.