WSJ Tech News Briefing

By The Wall Street Journal

Tech News

What's WSJ Tech News Briefing about?

Tech News Briefing is your guide to what people in tech are talking about. Every weekday, we’ll bring you breaking tech news and scoops from the pros at the Wall Street Journal, insight into new innovations and policy debates, tips from our personal tech team, and exclusive interviews with movers and shakers in the industry. Hosted by Zoe Thomas

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Tech to Block Scam Calls St...

01.27.2023

Phone scams may seem like a thing of the past, but nearly a quarter of older adults who reported losing money in a scam last year said it all started with a phone call. But, there is tech that can ...

WSJ Tech News Briefing episodes:

01.27.2023 Tech to Block Scam Calls Still Defrauding Older Adults Phone scams may seem like a thing of the past, but nearly a quarter of older adults who reported losing money in a scam last year said it all started with a phone call. But, there is tech that can ...
01.26.2023 Apple Avoids Layoffs Hitting the Rest of Tech, for Now Apple has so far been able to avoid the huge layoffs other big tech firms have announced. What is the iPhone maker doing differently than its counterparts? WSJ Apple reporter Aaron Tilley joins host Zoe Thomas to explain the business ...
01.25.2023 DOJ Slaps Google With Antitrust Lawsuit Over Its Digital Ad Business The Justice Department has sued Google seeking to break up its digital advertising business. Google has had a foothold in nearly every part of the online ad-market and earns billions in revenue from the business. WSJ Google reporter Miles Kruppa ...
01.24.2023 In the Battle Between Microsoft and Google, What Role Could AI Play? Microsoft is deepening its partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and Dall-E. That has investors and analysts speculating whether Microsoft could challenge Google’s dominance in search. WSJ Heard on the Street columnist Dan Gallagher joins host Zoe Thomas to ...
01.23.2023 China’s Tech Crackdown Winds Up Beijing appears to be nearing the end of a two-year crackdown on the county’s big tech companies. Some of China's most well-known and influential internet companies have been forced to make significant changes. WSJ Asia tech reporter Liza Lin joins ...
01.20.2023 Lasers Could Help Deflect Danger From Lightning Strikes A test of giant lasers shot from a mountaintop in Switzerland is helping scientists develop ways to guide lightning. It could be a first step in defending against dangerous strikes that lead to death and destruction. WSJ science reporter Aylin ...
01.19.2023 The 3-D Printing Revolution Is Quietly Under Way 3-D manufacturing was once only suited for creating prototypes and models. Now advances in the tech are leading to changes in manufacturing and quietly upending global supply chains. WSJ tech columnist Christopher Mims joins host Zoe Thomas to explain the ...
01.18.2023 TikTok Offers More Transparency to Win Over U.S. Regulators TikTok is trying a new tactic in its efforts to reach a deal with U.S. regulators that would allow it to keep operating in the county: more transparency. But what exactly is the social-media platform willing to reveal and how ...
01.17.2023 Space Industry Races to Increase Launches and Defense Capabilities This year the space sector is expected to focus less on human space travel and more on government defense and satellite launches. But that doesn't mean competition in the industry is getting less intense. WSJ aerospace reporter Micah Maidenberg joins ...
01.13.2023 How to Make 5G Feel Like Less of a Letdown Cellular carriers advertised 5G as a game changer for connectivity. But for many of us, the promised changes and improvements are hard to notice. WSJ senior personal tech columnist Joanna Stern joins host Zoe Thomas to explain why the newest ...
01.12.2023 Can Deepfakes Be Regulated? China Is Giving It a Shot China is implementing new rules aimed at limiting the production of deepfakes, or artificial-intelligence-generated video, audio and pictures that imitate real people. WSJ reporter Karen Hao joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss why it won’t be easy and why other ...
01.10.2023 To Boost EVs, New York Has to Decide Where to Put the Chargers One of the biggest challenges to getting more electric vehicles on the road is giving drivers a place to charge them. New funding from the federal government, states and private entities is being put toward building charging infrastructure. But in ...
01.09.2023 Tech Layoffs Pile Up as Bosses Reverse Course After a period of aggressive hiring to meet heightened demand for online services during the pandemic, tech companies are now laying off many of those workers. And tech bosses are saying “mea culpa” for the miscalculation. WSJ reporter Dana Mattioli ...
01.09.2023 How High-Tech Lobster Traps Could Help Save Whales Endangered whales in the Atlantic could be given a lifeline by the use of high-tech lobster traps that pose less risk to them. But getting the industry on board may not be easy. WSJ science reporter Eric Niiler joins host ...
01.06.2023 Best of CES: What Gadgets Stood Out at This Year’s Big Tech Show? CES is known as a place where companies can show off boundary-pushing gadgets. This year, paperlike speakers, a robot pet and tools to keep us connected even in the desert were on display. WSJ news editor for personal tech Shara ...
01.05.2023 How to Declutter Your Inbox and Devices in 2023 For a New Year’s resolution, many of us would benefit from decluttering our digital lives. But all those emails, photos and more can be overwhelming to think about, much less tidy up. To help, WSJ family and tech columnist Julie ...
01.04.2023 How Ukraine Digitized Its Forces on the Cheap Nearly a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s fighting forces have managed to rapidly digitize, something the U.S. has spent decades and billions of dollars to do. WSJ Brussels bureau chief Dan Michaels joins host Julie Chang to discuss ...
01.03.2023 CES: How Will Gadget Startups Face Economic Challenges? The global trade show CES kicking off this week has been the place for startups to showcase their technologies to potential future partners and customers. But the show has been disrupted by the pandemic the past couple of years, and ...
12.30.2022 Blockchains Can Trace Carbon Credits, But Can They Improve the Market? The market for carbon credits has some big problems. The certificates that allow companies and governments to offset their emissions have been shown in some cases to be unreliable. Crypto enthusiasts think using the same blockchain tech that makes digital ...
12.29.2022 Can Lab-Grown Meat Live Up to Its Climate Promises? One way to reduce the greenhouse gases produced by the meat industry: cutting out the farm. Cultivating meat by growing cells without growing the whole animal has gotten tentative approval from regulators. But keeping its environmental impact low means the ...
12.28.2022 Carbon Transformation: Could Your Next Outfit Be Made of CO2? A small group of so-called carbon transformation companies are gaining traction with investors by turning carbon captured from factories and the air into things like textiles to make clothing. But can startups such as Rubi change ingrained supply chains like ...
12.27.2022 Could Underwater Data Centers Make Cloud Computing Greener? Cloud storage centers suck up a lot of energy. But when Microsoft tried putting data centers underwater a couple of years ago, it found the strategy greatly reduced energy use and improved performance. Now a U.S. startup called Subsea Cloud ...
12.26.2022 Next-Gen Climate Tech: Can It Live Up to Its Promises? So much of what we do every day adds to our carbon footprint. And now some tech companies are looking beyond green energy to come up with novel solutions. This week Tech News Briefing takes a close look at the ...
12.23.2022 Boston Dynamics CEO on Robots of the Future Boston Dynamics is best known for its robotic dog Spot, which is used by police departments and warehouses to perform various tasks. But the company is working to expand its range of robots and their capabilities. CEO Robert Playter spoke ...
12.22.2022 NFT Artist Beeple on the Future of Digital Art The artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, is one of the most valuable living artists. But now that demand for non-fungible tokens has cooled and the crypto winter has set in, what does he see as the future of ...
12.21.2022 How the EU Took On Big Tech in 2022 Regulators in the European Union have been taking more actions against big tech companies this year, aiming to protect data privacy and customer choice and prevent the businesses from getting too big. But have their actions made things harder for ...
12.20.2022 India’s Chip-Making Plans Face a Long Road Ahead India is making an ambitious push into the advanced-semiconductors market as it looks to establish itself as a high-end tech manufacturing alternative to China. But setting up chip plants takes a lot of time and money. WSJ South Asia correspondent ...
12.19.2022 YouTubers’ Old Videos Could Earn Them Millions, With Strings Attached A number of investment firms are offering YouTubers big payouts for the revenue rights to their back catalogs. For some, the deals could be a way to invest in their future, but only if they are willing to accept the ...
12.16.2022 Could the Key to EV Adoption Be… Shorter-Range Batteries? Would you choose an electric car that charges faster even if it meant a more-limited driving range? WSJ tech columnist Christopher Mims joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss the latest research into fast-charging EV batteries and the tradeoffs they may ...
12.15.2022 Why More Shoppers Are Turning to Reddit for Holiday Gift Research This holiday season, as gift-buyers try to avoid fake reviews on e-commerce sites and influencers pushing their products, many are turning to Reddit groups for candid advice. WSJ personal tech reporter Ann-Marie Alcántara joins host Zoe Thomas with tips for ...
12.14.2022 Nuclear-Fusion Breakthrough: How Long Until Limitless Clean Energy? The U.S. Department of Energy has announced a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion, saying scientists achieved a fusion reaction that generated more energy than it consumed. The development could bring the world a step closer to potentially limitless amounts of ...
12.13.2022 Open-Source Intel: Are U.S. Spy Agencies Falling Behind? U.S. intelligence agencies’ use of publicly available data is outpaced by adversaries such as China and even some large companies, officials say. WSJ reporter Warren P. Strobel joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss how this shift took place and the ...
12.12.2022 Tensions at Salesforce Rose Ahead of Co-CEO’s Departure The recent exit of Salesforce's co-CEO Bret Taylor wasn’t long planned, according to people familiar with the matter, who say it was fueled by tensions with the company’s co-founder and other co-CEO Marc Benioff. WSJ reporter Emily Glazer joins host ...
12.09.2022 Google Merges Maps and Waze on Cost-Cutting Journey Google plans to combine its mapping units, Waze and Maps, as its parent company Alphabet looks for opportunities to increase efficiencies. How will it affect employees and users of these apps? WSJ reporter Miles Kruppa joins host Zoe Thomas to ...
12.08.2022 Clock Is Ticking for TikTok to Reach Security Deal With Washington For years U.S. officials have warned that TikTok poses a national-security risk because of its owner, China-based ByteDance. The social-media app and the Biden administration have been working to reach a deal that would protect U.S. users’ data from Beijing ...
12.07.2022 What Is ChatGPT, the AI Chatbot That Everyone Is Talking About? ChatGPT, Lensa and DALL-E are giving more people without computing skills the chance to interact with artificial intelligence. These AI programs that can write detailed responses to questions or create stunning images based on prompts are all over social media. ...
12.06.2022 How Spotify Wrapped Does Data Collection Without Being Creepy Spotify Wrapped is the streaming giant’s annual reveal about its users’ listening habits. It’s one of the rare times a digital platform tells its users about the data it collects on them. WSJ personal tech columnist Nicole Nguyen joins host ...
12.05.2022 China Steps Up Internet Censorship in Response to Protests China clamps down on virtual private networks and pressures tech companies to boost censorship. The moves follow widespread protests in the country. WSJ Asia tech reporter Liza Lin joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. ...
12.02.2022 Audio Tech in TVs Has Improved. So Why Do Shows Sound Muddled? If you’re having trouble hearing the dialogue on your TV, it may not be you. As audio technology develops and directors make more creative sound choices, it’s getting harder to distinguish what actors are saying. WSJ personal tech reporting assistant ...
12.01.2022 Sam Bankman-Fried Paid Little Heed to Risk, Say Ex-Staff Early staffers at Sam Bankman-Fried’s first company, Alameda Research, say they quit over his approach to risk, compliance and accounting. How similar were those issues to ones that arose at the crypto exchange FTX? Wall Street Journal special writer Gregory ...
11.30.2022 Cyber Insurers Consider: What Would a Catastrophic Hack Look Like? Insurance firms that cover cyberattacks are working out what to do in the event of a catastrophic hack, one that takes down a systemically important company and possibly even the economy. WSJ Pro Cybersecurity reporter James Rundle joins host Zoe ...
11.29.2022 Facebook’s Top Posts Were Trash. Here’s What It Did to Fix Things. Earlier this year Facebook parent Meta quietly formed a team to deal with an uncomfortable reality: the most popular posts on its platform were trash. WSJ tech reporter Jeff Horwitz joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss the war room Meta ...
11.28.2022 Actor Ben McKenzie on His Turn to Crypto Skeptic Actor Ben McKenzie, known for his roles in The O.C. and Gotham, is an outspoken critic of crypto and of celebrities who use their fame to promote it. At the WSJ’s recent Tech Live event, he spoke with WSJ reporter ...
11.25.2022 Debating the Metaverse: Can It Live Up to Its Mega Hype? A lot has been made about the metaverse and its potential, but in many ways it has failed so far to live up to its hype. At the WSJ’s Tech Live conference, Phil Libin, co-founder and CEO of startups All ...
11.23.2022 Holiday Tech Gifts That Are Actually Worth the Money As the holiday shopping season gets underway, The Wall Street Journal’s personal tech team has come with a list of tech gifts that are actually worth the money. WSJ personal tech columnist Nicole Nguyen, personal tech reporter Dalvin Brown and ...
11.22.2022 Apple AirPods Show Possible Future for Hearing-Aid Tech The FDA says only one-fifth of Americans who would benefit from a hearing aid actually use one. But a recent study found Apple's latest AirPods Pro could be an alternative for some people with mild to moderate hearing loss. WSJ ...
11.21.2022 Meta Workers Hijacked User Accounts and Charged Bribes, Report Says Meta disciplined or fired more than two dozen workers that it found allegedly misused an internal system to hijack users’ accounts. In some cases, Meta says the workers charged users bribes to regain access to their profiles, according to people ...
11.18.2022 FTX’s Workers Are Angry and Financially Ruined The collapse of FTX was a massive blow for its customers and the wider crypto industry. It was also damaging for the exchange’s employees, many of whom believed in the company and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. WSJ reporter Alexander Osipovich ...
11.17.2022 Russian Tech Workers’ Latest Exodus Hits Local IT Sector After Moscow stepped up its military mobilization to support its war in Ukraine, more of the country’s tech workers began to leave. That is making an already difficult economic situation worse for Russian startups and tech firms. WSJ reporter Yuliya ...
11.16.2022 To Prepare for Weather Extremes, U.N. Looks to Collect More Data Scientists say climate change is leading to more extreme weather patterns, but many nations lack systems to provide early warnings of possible weather disasters. A United Nations effort is pushing to improve the data collection that is key to these ...

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