Marketplace Tech

Silicon Valley loves a charismatic founder story. But there's a difference between vision and leadership and … narcissism. And new research shows that narcissistic CEOs are bad for business. Jennifer Chatman, a professor of management at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business who has researched the tech industry, found that narcissistic CEOs tend to pay themselves more and pay their executives less. They get involved in more lawsuits because they take more risks than they need to. And they tend to hire people more because of their loyalty than their skills or judgment. Molly Wood asks Chatman if the myth of the genius founder means a lot more narcissists in tech. (10/15/18)

In just the last week, Facebook and Google have both announced new smart speakers with video screens. And Amazon is heck-bent on putting Alexa in everything. On the one hand, people seem to want these doohickeys. Research firm Canalys says global smart speaker sales grew 187 percent in the second quarter of this year. On the other hand, an always-on, always-connected listening device in the home really freaks some folks out. Let's dig into this in Quality Assurance, the segment where we take a deeper look at a big tech story. Molly talks with Tom Merritt, host of the podcast Daily Tech News Show. He says, before you decide whether to worry about smart speakers, you should know what you're worried about. (10/12/18)

The whole multitrillion dollar promise of 5G and its millions of jobs and new businesses is just a pipe dream without infrastructure. Unlike 4G, which can be delivered through a relatively small number of tall towers, 5G wireless service relies on lots and lots of small receivers placed fairly close together. And installing all those little 5G cells is turning into a big fight. (10/11/18)

The next generation of wireless technology, 5G, could be a huge deal. The speed and the number of devices that can be connected could spawn new businesses we haven't even thought of yet. Last year chip maker Qualcomm and tech research firm IHS Technology put out a report that said 5G could enable $12 trillion in economic output across the world by 2035, and add some 22 million jobs. The report compared 5G to electricity. Compare that to 4G, which, just in the U.S., contributed about half a trillion dollars to the economy in 2016. And even a whiff  of that potential is why there's a race to get to 5G first between companies and even countries. Molly talks with Scott Tong, Marketplace reporter and former China correspondent. He says the U.S. won the race to 4G, and China doesn't want that to happen again. (10/10/18)

A report last week from Bloomberg Businessweek suggested that Chinese spies had embedded tiny microchips on motherboards that control computers in order to steal information from nearly 30 U.S. companies, including Apple and Amazon. Both of those companies, and Super Micro, the electronics maker that was allegedly infiltrated, and the Chinese government have categorically denied the report. But the story is lingering, in part because it brings up a very scary reality that lots of cybersecurity experts keep talking about. Molly Wood talks about it with cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier. (10/08/18)

Almost 40 percent of rural America, or about 23 million people, don't have access to broadband internet or reliable mobile service. Long term, this digital divide is a huge economic problem. Companies need high-skilled workers, and people without decent internet access can't find those jobs or get the training they might need to do them. Now the Fed is trying convince businesses that the digital divide is their problem, too, Jeremy Hegle told us. He's a senior community development adviser for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Its territory includes Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, parts of Missouri and northern New Mexico. (10/08/18)

Facebook announced this week that it had suffered its biggest hack ever, compromising the accounts of at least 50 million users. Part of the reason a Facebook hack is so scary is that the social network connects to so many other apps and services. You might use it to log in to Spotify or Tinder or OpenTable — a whole string of apps might have your information connected to your profile. So far, Facebook has said hackers did not access any third-party apps. But it's still investigating the scope of the hack. We dig into this in Quality Assurance, the segment where we take a deeper look at a big tech story. Molly Wood talks with Mike Isaac, a tech reporter for The New York Times who's been covering the story. (10/05/18)

Automation is coming. And although it's inevitably going to take jobs away, it's also going to create millions of new jobs, make production more efficient and kickstart entire new industries. The countries that invest in automation early, and in the retraining that will help workers transition to new types of jobs, could really jump ahead economically. That's partly why automation is a huge part of the Chinese government's Made in China 2025 initiative. That’s the country's plan to reduce its reliance on outside technology and create a tech economy that rivals the West. Automation is an especially big deal in China because there's so much manufacturing there. It's sometimes referred to as “the world's factory.” Marketplace’s China correspondent Jennifer Pak joins host Molly Wood to talk about how big a deal the transition to automation might be for China. (10/04/18)

This week, the United States, Mexico and Canada made a tentative trade deal that will replace NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. And while NAFTA is better known for, say, avocados and cars, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as it's known, is updated for the digital age. For example, it would protect internet companies like Facebook or Google from being sued over material that shows up on their services. It addresses how internet services and future 5G might work in all three countries. And it would make it easier for digital goods and data to cross borders. Molly talks about it with Victoria Espinel, who is on the federal Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations and is CEO of the software industry trade group called BSA / The Software Alliance. (10/03/18)

In the insanely popular video game "Fortnite," players can spend about five bucks to unlock dances called emotes for their characters to perform. And these dances are everywhere. You see them on playgrounds, in pro sports, and there are "Fortnite" dance classes.  But are they really "Fortnite" dances? Most of them appear borrowed, like the dance called “Ride the Pony,” which is pretty clearly “Gangnam Style.” There's the one called “Fresh,” which is a dead ringer for the “Carlton Dance” from the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." Back in July, Chance the Rapper Tweeted at Epic Games, the maker of "Fortnite," and said it should give rappers and artists credit and cash for their dances. A rapper named 2 Milly has said he might sue Epic Games over his dance “Milly Rock,” which he alleges is “Swipe It” in "Fortnite." Host Molly Wood talks about it with Merlyne Jean-Louis, a lawyer and former dancer who's written about copyrighting choreography. (10/02/18)