Prosthetic limbs can be expensive, costing thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. So the industry seemed ripe for disruption when 3D printing came along. The technology requires little labor and uses economical materials. But the reality of 3D printing prosthetic limbs isn’t that straightforward, according to writer and University of California, Berkeley, lecturer Britt Young, who uses a prosthetic arm.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Young about why 3D printing has yet to bring down prosthesis costs.

A new report from Stanford and Common Sense Media finds that more than half of U.S. teens use AI chatbots for companionship. But, according to Dr. Darja Djordjevic, an adolescent and adult psychiatrist who co-authored the research, the bots aren't equipped to provide the kind of emotional support young people need when dealing with a mental health issue.

Dr. Djordjevic and her team simulated conversations involving various mental health concerns with four of the most popular consumer chatbots and identified several risks; chiefly, their tendency to be sycophantic. A note, this conversation mentions suicide and self-harm.

The Trump administration has been trying for months to ban AI regulations at the state level. And its latest gambit to roll such a measure into the congressional National Defense Authorization Act appears to have failed. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Tuesday that GOP leadership is now “looking at other places” to include that measure after reportedly facing pushback from both parties.

Plus, New York recently became the first state to enforce an AI law designed to protect consumers from "algorithmic pricing." And Amazon pulled back on AI dubbing for some international content after anime fans complained.

Every day, consumers are confronted with the fragility of our personal data privacy — another data breach, another government agency accessing databases they didn't previously have access to, another consent form popping up to get permission to gather more data.

It's almost too much for any one person to keep a handle on, according to Rohan Grover, professor of artificial intelligence and media at American University. He recently co-authored a piece for The Conversation about why data privacy seems to have largely fallen out of the public discourse, even though he says the topic is more urgent than ever.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman once speculated that we'll soon see the first billion-dollar company run by one person and an army of AI agents. Journalist Evan Ratliff decided to put the idea to the test in the newest season of his podcast, “Shell Game,” where Ratliff and his team of synthetic co-founders, executives and workers launched their startup, HurumoAI. His AI agents designed a logo, built a website and eventually released their own agentic AI service.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Ratliff about what he learned from this whole experience.

Robots are commonplace in factories, and increasingly in warehouses like those run by Amazon. But what about robots to help with household chores — so-called humanoids to load the dishwasher or fold the laundry?

To find out, we checked in with Ken Goldberg, professor of engineering at UC Berkeley and co-founder of the AI and robotics company Ambi Robotics. He spoke to Marketplace’s Nova Safo en route from a robotics conference in China.

Marketplace's Matt Levin visits a couple in suburban Sacramento who both use an AI-enabled pendant that acts as a personal assistant — and sometimes, a relationship therapist.

Accessibility has long been aided by the advancement of technology. When it comes to artificial intelligence, accessibility is top of mind for Taylor Arndt, Chief Operations Officer at Techopolis Online Solutions. Arndt has been blind since birth, and so accessibility has been a lifelong battle. When she was in school, she often received physical materials she was unable to read. So, she bought her own hand-held scanner and downloaded a screen reader. At 14, Arndt taught herself to code. Now as a coder working on AI, Arndt says in order for it to help others, the AI models need to be trained on data that has already incorporated accessibility measures.

Sub-Saharan Africa has a youth unemployment problem. The latest figures from the International Labour Organisation show more than one in five young people there are "NEET": Not in Employment, Education or Training. Structural issues like the lack of political stability in many countries and lagging infrastructure remain major barriers to high quality job creation. But the gig economy has been growing rapidly thanks to the proliferation of digital platforms. The The BBC's Wairimu Gitani reports.

Hannah Quay-de la Vallee, senior technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, coauthored a recent report that recommends more transparency on what artificial intelligence education technologies can and cannot do.