Meta and Microsoft report different AI earnings
Meta and Microsoft — as well as other tech titans — have been reporting quarterly earnings, and investors are looking at AI spending with a more skeptical eye. Plus, more than 1,000 workers at top AI labs signed an open letter this week calling on the government to "deliberately set the pace" of this fast-moving technology, and NBCUniversal makes a deal with YouTube to add all of Peacock's content to its premium streaming service.
Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to discuss these stories on this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”
Why SpaceX stock soared, then stumbled
SpaceX stock prices fell back to earth this week after they skyrocketed in the wake of the IPO a couple weeks ago. Plus, why a Google AI subsidiary is investing in the film studio A24. And why Meta might be getting into the prediction markets. The New York Times reported this week the social media giant was working on its own prediction market app, sort of like Kalshi and Polymarket, which have been bringing in billions of dollars but also drawing lots of scrutiny and legal challenges. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, financial columnist at The Information, for this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”
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Google search gets an AI makeover
On this week’s Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review, we take a look at how college graduates do not wanna hear about AI. Plus, what we all learned from the Musk v. Open AI case.
But first, AI was unsurprisingly front and center at Google’s annual I/O developer conference. Among a suite of new AI products, Google said it updated its iconic search bar. Now, when searching in AI mode, the bar will expand as you ask a question. It will also provide suggestions about what you might wanna ask. Google says this is the biggest change to its search box since it debuted over 25 years ago. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, a columnist at The Information, about how this could change how people experience the internet.
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Bytes: Week in Review — Apple’s new CEO, Meta's latest AI play, and Roblox's safety updates
This week, Meta is reportedly laying off 10% of its workers. But in the meantime, it's also capturing their mouse clicks to train its AI models. Plus, Roblox settles with states over child safety concerns.
But first, Apple's CEO is stepping down. The company announced this week that CEO Tim Cook is moving on from that role after about 15 years. His successor is John Ternus, a senior vice president of hardware engineering at the company. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, a columnist at The Information, about all these headlines for this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”
Bytes: Week in Review — Gecko's $71M contract with U.S. Navy, BuzzFeed doubts its business viability, and Amazon offers faster delivery
This week, Amazon speeds up delivery even more. Plus, will BuzzFeed stay in business?
But first, Gecko, a robotics startup, landed a $71 million contract with the U.S. Navy. The 13-year-old Pittsburgh-based company says it'll be using its drones and wall-climbing robots to help find defects on ships. Then, it will use artificial intelligence to model current and future structural issues.
Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, financial analysis columnist at The Information, about all these headlines for this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”
Bytes: Week in Review — Google to make links more prominent, Palantir moves to Florida and Ring reportedly had plans to use "Search Party" for more than finding lost dogs
This week, Palantir announced on X it’s relocating its headquarters to Miami. Plus, we look at the controversy around Ring's Search Party feature.
But first, an update to Google's AI search summaries. If you use AI-enabled search on Google, it’ll spit out an AI-generated summary with source links to the right. Now, the company is making links more prominent when users hover over certain words in the AI summary.
Google says this new interface is “more engaging.” Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, about all this and more.
Bytes: Week in Review – New chip exports for China, Microsoft to pay electricity for AI data centers, and Gemini will power Apple’s AI
Those massive AI data centers going in across the country can use as much energy as an entire city. President Trump said this week he wants tech companies to "pay their own way," and touted a new Microsoft pledge to bear the full cost of their AI energy needs.
Plus, Apple announces its long awaited new AI Siri will be powered by Google.
But first, Nvidia can once again export its second best H200 chips to China if it follows some new security rules and pays the U.S. government 25% of its sales. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, to discuss all these topics on this week’s “Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”
Bytes: Week in Review - Micron's big earnings, Oracle's data center woes and "slop" is Merriam-Webster's word of the year
Building artificial intelligence tools requires a lot of graphic processing units, and those GPUs need huge amounts of ultra-fast memory to feed them data. Micron Technology is one of a handful of memory chip makers that has been selling a whole lot of memory, thanks to the AI boom.
Plus, cloud company Oracle's data center debt is coming under scrutiny. And Merriam-Webster names the word of the year for 2025: slop.
Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, to learn more on this week’s Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.