Marketplace Tech

A report this week in the Financial Times suggests that China might be moving to ban all foreign computer hardware and software from government agencies and public organizations within three years. The move could hurt American tech companies, but what’s tricky is that China doesn’t really have the technology to replace a lot of the software it’s trying to kick out. “Marketplace Tech” host Molly Wood talks with Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Microsoft is one of the world’s biggest tech companies, but it’s mostly been left out of controversies and investigations around privacy, data protection and antitrust. It’s ironic since the company spent about a decade fighting antitrust allegations in the 1990s. Microsoft is still developing many of the technologies that are under scrutiny now.

This week, world leaders are meeting at the United Nations climate summit in Madrid, talking about how to keep global warming in check. One thing that’s going to become increasingly valuable in the future is drinking water. Droughts, storms and sea level rise all affect the availability of potable water. India, in fact, is already running out. One startup is working on it with tech that collects water vapor from the air and stores it as clean water.

The 1982 science fiction classic “Blade Runner” was set in November 2019 in Los Angeles. But the LA envisioned by director Ridley Scott is very different from the LA you’d recognize today. For one thing, it’s raining all the time, and it’s a dystopian hellscape with flying cars, pervasive technology and artificial humans, or replicants, who are almost indistinguishable from real humans. Also, almost everyone smokes. Aside from the obvious, how far off is the movie from present-day 2019?

Amazon is by far the largest online retailer in the United States. Chances are you’ve clicked the buy button for holiday shopping or just some daily staples recently. Reporter Will Evans said he obtained records on injury rates from 23 Amazon fulfillment centers around the country and found the rate of serious injuries is more than double the average for the industry. At some warehouses, it’s as much as six times higher.

We’re revisiting some of our stories looking at how technology can help us adapt to climate change.  In this piece (which originally aired October 1), we look at the digital tools available to figure out a home’s flood risk.

This week, we’re revisiting pieces on how technology can help us adapt to climate change, from our series “How We Survive.”  This story (which originally aired August 5), looks at how technology can help us keep our indoor air clean when wildfires cause intense smoke outside.

This week, we’re revisiting several stories on how technology can help us adapt to climate change as part of our series “How We Survive.” This piece (which was originally published on July 18) looks at how a unique levee in the Bay Area utilizes nature to increase flood protection while restoring wetlands.

This week, we’re revisiting several stories on how technology can help us adapt to climate change. In this piece, which originally aired June 18, we look at how using Microsoft’s AI computing power can help the environmental nonprofit Chesapeake Conservancy make better decisions about the watershed.