Business, Spoken
2,340 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago - ★★★★ - 16 ratingsGet in-depth coverage of current and future trends in technology, and how they are shaping business, entertainment, communications, science, politics, and society.
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Episodes
How Artificial Intelligence Can–and Can't–Fix Facebook
May 04, 2018 07:10 - 8 minutesFacebook has problems. Fake news. Terrorism. Russian propaganda. And maybe soon regulation. The company’s solution: Turn them into artificial-intelligence problems. The strategy will require Facebook to make progress on some of the biggest challenges in computing. During two congressional sessions last month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg referenced AI more than 30 times in explaining how the company would better police activity on its platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...
Your Instagram #Dogs and #Cats Are Training Facebook's AI
May 03, 2018 16:30 - 7 minutesUsing a social network like Facebook is a two-way street, part-shrouded in shadow. The benefits of sharing banter and photos with friends and family—for free—are obvious and immediate. So are the financial rewards for Facebook; but you don’t get to see all of the company’s uses for your data. An artificial intelligence experiment of unprecedented scale disclosed by Facebook Wednesday offers a glimpse of one such use case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A California Ruling Threatens the Gig Economy
May 03, 2018 09:05 - 6 minutesThe California Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the gig economy on Monday in a decision that will have far-reaching effects not just for the likes of Uber and GrubHub, but for many different types of employers. The court ruled that employers must treat workers who do work related to a company's "usual course of business" as full-fledged employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What Mark Zuckerberg Gets Wrong—and Right—About Hate Speech
May 02, 2018 16:30 - 8 minutesWhen he testified before Congress last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the problem of using artificial intelligence to identify online hate speech. He said he was optimistic that in five to 10 years, “We will have AI tools that can get into some of the linguistic nuances of different types of content to be more accurate in flagging content for our systems, but today we’re not just there on that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mark Zuckerberg Says It Will Take 3 Years to Fix Facebook
May 02, 2018 07:10 - 11 minutesMark Zuckerberg knew his keynote speech at F8 this year would not be like any other. His previous appearances at Facebook's annual developer's conference were all about the new products and technology Facebook was announcing that day, and the vision he would share for future triumphs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This Silicon Valley Lawmaker Has a Plan to Regulate Tech
May 01, 2018 16:31 - 7 minutesUS Representative Ro Khanna (D-California) represents much of Silicon Valley, but he’s not just a cheerleader for the hometown industry. He supports tougher antitrust review of tech mergers, for one thing. Khanna is also trying to draft an “Internet Bill of Rights,” principles that he hopes can later form the basis of legislation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Sprint/T-Mobile Merger Is Huge—But a Lot of Questions Remain
May 01, 2018 07:10 - 7 minutesSprint may soon be no more. Today the venerable telecommunications company announced plans to merge with T-Mobile in an all-stock deal. If regulators give the go-ahead, the new company will be called simply T-Mobile, and T-Mobile's current chief executive officer John Legere will be its CEO. That's a big if. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Pandora Learns the Cost of Ads, and of Subscriptions
April 30, 2018 16:30 - 8 minutesAt best, advertising is something people tolerate while consuming media. At worst, it’s a turnoff. Media companies engage in a delicate balance between showing audiences enough ads to earn a profit without annoying them so much they leave altogether. A new study by internet radio service Pandora shows that too many ads can motivate users to pay for an ad-free version, but push many more to listen less or abandon the service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Facebook Launches a New Ad Campaign With an Old Message
April 30, 2018 07:10 - 5 minutesFacebook's new ad promises to better protect users. On Wednesday, American TV viewers, including fans watching the NBA Playoffs, caught the launch of a major national advertising campaign from Facebook that will appear online, in movie theaters, public transit, billboards, and TV through the summer. “We came here for the friends,” the TV voiceover begins, emphasizing that Facebook is about connecting and making people feel less alone. “But then something happened. Learn more about your ad cho...
The Startup That Will Vet You for Your Next Job
April 27, 2018 16:30 - 8 minutesIf you've ever applied for a job, chances are someone has run a criminal background check on you. But what exactly does that mean? "There's often a misconception that you can order a one-stop shop of information on a person, but that doesn't exist," says Melissa Sorenson, the executive director of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. Instead, a background check typically involves pulling records from multiple places, such as state and county courts. Learn more about ...
Here’s What Facebook Won’t Let You Post
April 27, 2018 08:10 - 12 minutesIf you eat someone, do not share it on Facebook. Cannibalism videos are banned. Same with still images of cannibalism victims, alive or dead. Unless the image is presented in a medical context with a warning that only those 18 and over can see it. But fetish content regarding cannibalism? Verboten for all ages. And not just on News Feed; it's also a no-no on other Facebook properties like Instagram—and even Messenger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Some Startups Use Fake Data to Train AI
April 26, 2018 16:31 - 9 minutesBerlin startup Spil.ly had a problem last spring. The company was developing an augmented-reality app akin to a full-body version of Snapchat’s selfie filters—hold up your phone and see your friends’ bodies transformed with special effects like fur or flames. To make it work, Spil.ly needed to train machine-learning algorithms to closely track human bodies in video. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Future of Snapchat Looks a Lot Like Magic Leap
April 26, 2018 07:10 - 9 minutesVomiting rainbows is so 2015. Since Snapchat first introduced its augmented reality lenses, the filters that allow us to vomit rainbows in photos, it has released new ones frequently enough to keep its users hooked. But so far, these AR filters mostly focus on distorting selfies. They allow you to turn yourself into a bug-eyed bunny rabbit or a big-cheeked flower child, or paper something funny—a Jeff Koons statue, a dancing hot dog—atop the physical world. Learn more about your ad choices. V...
Gmail Is Getting a Long-Overdue Upgrade
April 25, 2018 16:30 - 5 minutesGoogle is beginning one of the biggest updates to Gmail in years. Starting Wednesday, the company is rolling out new features like snooze buttons and a sidebar with a new task-management system. Google promises other new features, including new security options, in coming weeks. The snooze feature will help you declutter your inbox by hiding messages for a set amount of time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Spotify Bolsters Free Service in Defense Against Apple Music
April 25, 2018 07:11 - 6 minutesAs the leader in streaming music, Spotify is under attack from Apple, Google, and Amazon. The Silicon Valley giants have endless cash to support their streaming services, which require expensive payouts to artists. Apple, Google, and Amazon also control the devices many people use to play music, be they smartphones, home assistants, or smart TV accessories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
When John Doerr Brought a ‘Gift’ to Google’s Founders
April 24, 2018 16:30 - 22 minutesVenture capitalist John Doerr is best known for being an early backer of Google and Amazon, among many other companies. Doerr, chair of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, has authored "Measure What Matters," in which he details a management philosophy around setting and achieving audacious goals. In this edited excerpt, Doerr describes injecting his management techniques in Google's early days. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Facebook’s 2017 Privacy Audit Didn’t Catch Cambridge Analytica
April 24, 2018 07:10 - 6 minutesTwo years after Facebook learned that a university researcher had given political consultancy Cambridge Analytica personal information on millions of Facebook users, a government-mandated outside audit of Facebook’s privacy practices found nothing wrong. The April 2017 audit, by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), had been required as part of a 2011 consent decree between Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Facebook Is Steering Users Away From Privacy Protections
April 23, 2018 16:30 - 8 minutesFacebook Wednesday announced changes to how it asks users for permission to collect their personal information, in order to comply with strict new European privacy rules. But critics say Facebook’s new offerings seem designed to encourage users to make few changes and share as much information as possible. The European rules, called the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, go into effect May 25th and will apply to any companies that collect or process data on individuals in the EU. Le...
The WIRED Guide to Internet Addiction
April 23, 2018 07:10 - 14 minutesMore than a decade after the first iPhone was released, it suddenly dawned on us that we could be addicted to our smartphones. We'd certainly developed quite the habit: Almost 50 percent of people say they couldn’t live without their phones, which we check every 12 minutes and touch an average of 2,600 times a day. "Likes are “bright dings of pseudo-pleasure” that can be as empty as they are alluring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Trump’s Attack on Amazon Actually Has Its Precedents
April 20, 2018 16:30 - 9 minutesAs public attitudes towards Silicon Valley and Big Tech continue their rapid pivot from admiration to vilification, the current occupant of the White House has sought to lead the chorus. Several weeks ago, he launched a tweet-driven crusade against Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos, accusing the company of ripping off the US Postal Service and harming Americans by not collecting more sales tax. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Minds Is the Anti-Facebook That Pays You for Your Time
April 20, 2018 07:10 - 8 minutesDuring Mark Zuckerberg's over 10 hours of Congressional testimony last week, lawmakers repeatedly asked how Facebook makes money. The simple answer, which Zuckerberg dodged, is the contributions and online activities of its over two billion users, which lets marketers target their ads with razor precision. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
FCC Delays Are Keeping Broadband From Rural School Kids
April 19, 2018 16:31 - 9 minutesWoodman School is a tiny, whitewashed schoolhouse lodged in a remote clearing in Montana's Lolo National Forest. It has a total of 35 students, and in January, all of them got the same assignment: Write a letter to local lawmakers explaining why you want internet access at school. “If we had internet, we could do tests at our own school and not have to get bussed to Lolo and take tests on their computers,” scrawled one Woodman third grader on a sheet of looseleaf. Learn more about your ad cho...
Google's New AI Head Is So Smart He Doesn't Need AI
April 19, 2018 08:05 - 7 minutesGoogle’s heavy investment in artificial intelligence has helped the company’s software write music and beat humans at complex board games. What unlikely feats could be next? The company’s new head of AI says he’d like to see Google move deeper into areas such as healthcare. He also warns that the company will face some tricky ethical questions over appropriate uses for AI as it expands its use of the technology. The new AI boss at Google is Jeff Dean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit p...
I Feel Everything: Soul-Searching at TED's Inspiration Assembly Line
April 18, 2018 16:31 - 9 minutesSomewhere between my eighth and eighteenth turmeric lattes, I realized I was dangerously close to falling for TED. The annual conference, which gathers elite technologists, thought leaders, scientists, economists, futurists, visionaries, activists, physicists, poets, enthusiasts, academics, entertainers and billionaires has a binary reputation: For anyone who hasn’t been, it’s an object of easy mockery. For anyone who has, it’s a religion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...
The Zuckerberg Hearings Were Silicon Valley's Ultimate Debut
April 18, 2018 07:10 - 9 minutesIf you are part of the rarified group of tech insiders who mostly live in the Bay Area, your perception of Mark Zuckerberg is different. You have likely done business with Facebook: your company’s been bought by it, or you’ve been crowded out of a promising market when Zuckerberg decided to launch there. You’ve driven past Zuckerberg’s San Francisco compound in the Mission, or given birth at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/...
Thanks to AI, These Cameras Will Know What They’re Seeing
April 17, 2018 16:30 - 8 minutesModern life is one big photo shoot. The glassy eyes of closed-circuit TV cameras watch over streets and stores, while smartphone owners continually surveil themselves and others. Tech companies like Google and Amazon have convinced people to invite ever-watching lenses into their homes via smart speakers and internet-connected security cameras. Now a new breed of chips tuned for artificial intelligence is arriving to help cameras around stores, sidewalks, and homes make sense of what they see...
SoftBank's Futuristic Vision Fund Takes on the Real (Estate) World
April 17, 2018 07:10 - 12 minutesIn the last two months Michael Marks has turned down a dozen offers to make keynote speeches at conferences. His company, construction startup Katerra, is three years old, but the attention surge is very recent. “Construction technology has gotten kinda buzzy,” he says. That may be. But more likely, interest in Katerra has spiked because in January, the company landed an astounding $867 million in venture funding led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast...
Netflix Sees Itself as the Anti-Apple
April 16, 2018 16:30 - 6 minutesStreaming service Netflix is famous for its unique culture. The most well-known example is the company’s no-vacation policy, which allows employees to take off as many days as they choose, whenever they choose. That policy is just a symbol of a broader attitude in the company, according to CEO Reed Hastings. “There’s a whole lot of that freedom,” Hastings said on stage Saturday, at the TED conference in Vancouver. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mark Zuckerberg and the Tale of Two Hearings
April 16, 2018 07:10 - 8 minutesIt was about three hours into Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday, when all of the attention quickly shifted from Zuckerberg’s glistening brow to the exhibit looming over Missouri Republican Billy Long's head. "Who are they?" Long asked, referring to the two women whose larger-than-life faces filled the giant poster board. Zuckerberg paused, before offering, almost in question, "I believe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit pod...
What Hearings? Advertisers Still Love Facebook
April 13, 2018 16:30 - 7 minutesAfter 10 hours of verbal flogging by an incensed Congress, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seemed like a leader whose pedestal had cracked. Over and over during his testimony this week, he apologized for lapses in his company’s handling of user data. He emerged from the hearings with months’ worth of homework for him and his team. But life’s not so bad for Zuckerberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Using Open Source Designs to Create More Specialized Chips
April 13, 2018 07:10 - 10 minutesThe open source movement changed how companies build software. Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo employees pitched in during the early days of the data-crunching software Hadoop. Even after the relationship between Apple and Google soured, the companies' coders kept working together on an obscure but important piece of software called LLVM. Microsoft now uses and contributes to the Linux operating system, even though it competes with Windows. The embrace of open source isn't about altruism. Learn ...
SpaceX’s President Is Thinking Even Bigger Than Elon Musk
April 12, 2018 16:31 - 4 minutesGwynne Shotwell has a difficult job. Her boss, Elon Musk, is known for wild, impossible ambitions on wild, impossible timelines. There’s even a term for his rosy view of what’s achievable and when: “Elon time.” As president and COO of Musk’s space exploration company, SpaceX, Shotwell must convey Musk’s crazy expectations to a workforce of thousands, without discouraging them with impossible-to-achieve goals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Four Questions Congress Should Actually Ask Mark Zuckerberg
April 12, 2018 08:27 - 8 minutesFollow Mark Zuckerberg's Wednesday testimony here. The hearing is scheduled to start at 10 am EDT. Mark Zuckerberg testified for almost five hours Tuesday in a televised Senate hearing about Facebook’s privacy practices and data abuse. More than 40 Senators had five minutes each to ask questions. Zuckerberg’s most frequent response? “My team will follow up with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
If Congress Doesn't Understand Facebook, What Hope Do Its Users Have?
April 11, 2018 16:31 - 8 minutesFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg received a less than warm welcome in Washington, DC, where he testified before a joint hearing of two Senate committees Tuesday. Among the crowds of spectators lining up to watch Zuckerberg get grilled were members of the activist group CodePink, wearing oversized sunglasses with the words, "Stop Spying," written across them. Another group wore t-shirts with the hashtag #DeleteFacebook scrawled on them in red Sharpie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...
One Woman Got Facebook to Police Opioid Sales On Instagram
April 11, 2018 07:10 - 8 minutesEileen Carey says she has regularly reported Instagram accounts selling opioids to the company for three years, with few results. Last week, Carey confronted two executives of Facebook, which owns Instagram, about the issue on Twitter. Since then, Instagram removed some accounts, banned one opioid-related hashtag and restricted the results for others. Searches for the hashtag #oxycontin on Instagram now show no results. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mark Zuckerberg Answers to Congress For Facebook's Troubles
April 10, 2018 16:30 - 9 minutesLast fall, when Congress called on Facebook to answer for its failures during the 2016 election—including selling ads to Russian propagandists and allowing fake news to flourish on the platform—the social networking giant sent its general counsel, Colin Stretch, leaving lawmakers wanting for face time with the company's founder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Groups Allege YouTube Is Violating Law That Protects Kids
April 10, 2018 07:10 - 5 minutesA coalition of more than 20 child-health, privacy, and consumer groups is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether YouTube is violating a federal law designed to protect children on the internet. The groups are expected to file a complaint with the FTC on Monday. The relevant federal law, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, requires website operators to obtain parents' permission when collecting personal data about children younger than 13. Learn more abo...
Security News This Week: The US Gets Tough With Putin's Inner Circle
April 09, 2018 16:31 - 6 minutesThis week in security we took a closer look at Fin7, also known as JokerStash, Carbanak, and a host of other names. The cybercrime group rakes in as much as $50 million a month by stealing credit card numbers, most recently from the company that owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, and more. They’ve got an interest in ATM hacks, too, and their professional acumen has turned them into what researchers estimate is a billion-dollar enterprise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastcho...
Spotify Shunned an IPO. Now It's Just Another Public Company
April 09, 2018 07:10 - 6 minutesSpotify’s successful direct listing could change the way tech’s “unicorns” go public, possibly even saving them some money. But let’s not get self-righteous about it---this is still capitalism. Typically, when companies go public, they follow an elaborate series of protocols. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ex-Google Executive Opens a School for AI, With China's Help
April 06, 2018 16:30 - 6 minutesWhen China’s government said last summer it intends to surpass the US and lead the world in artificial intelligence by 2030, skeptics pointed to a major problem. Despite gobs of data from the world’s largest online population, lightweight privacy rules, and 8 million fresh college graduates in 2017, the country doesn’t have enough people skilled in AI to overtake America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google Turns to Users to Improve Its AI Chops Outside the US
April 06, 2018 07:10 - 8 minutesSmart algorithms have taken Google a long way. They helped the company dominate search and create the first software to conquer the complex board game Go. Now the company is betting that algorithms that understand images and text will draw business to its cloud services, make augmented reality popular, and prompt us to search using our smartphone cameras. But some of the algorithms Google is staking its future on aren’t equally smart everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast...
MeToo Is Changing Even the Smarmiest Advertisers
April 05, 2018 16:31 - 10 minutesIn 2016, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation sent a letter to a fast-growing content marketing network called RevContent. The nonprofit watchdog was concerned about the way some of RevContent’s advertisers portrayed women. The network regularly ran ads for mail-order bride services, for example, or ones that featured close-ups of women’s breasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Spotify and the Triumph of the Subscription Model
April 05, 2018 07:10 - 5 minutesIn 2011, when Spotify launched its streaming music service in the U.S., the future of digital media lied squarely in the realm of advertising. Sure, everyone knew ad-based models—sometimes called “the Internet’s original sin”—had flaws. But companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and were able to grow very large, very quickly by attracting big audiences to their free services and selling ads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
YouTube Shooting Spree Injures 4, Kills 1
April 04, 2018 16:52 - 5 minutesAt least one person was killed and four others wounded following a shooting at YouTube's headquarters Tuesday afternoon. Four victims were being transported to local hospitals, though the extent of their injuries was unknown. San Bruno police say one woman was found with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and is believed to be the shooter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How GrubHub Analyzed 4,000 Dishes to Predict Your Next Order
April 04, 2018 10:34 - 17 minutesAll Matt Maloney wanted to know was whether Chicago-style deep dish pizza is better than New York-style thin crust. It’s a simple question. If he were anyone else, Maloney would have had to get violently anecdotal. Deep dish, while delicious, is obviously not so much a pizza as a casserole; conversely, if you want to put pizza toppings on a cracker, why not just order a flatbread? (Maloney is from Chicago, so you can guess which side he comes down on.) But no. Learn more about your ad choices...
The Comcast-NBC Merger Offers Little Guidance for AT&T-Time Warner
April 03, 2018 16:30 - 8 minutesAT&T spent last week in court slugging it out with the Department of Justice over its $85 billion plan to acquire Time Warner. The DOJ argues the deal could lead to higher cable television prices for consumers, while AT&T says the deal is routine and that the agency is blocking it for political reasons. On the surface, the deal bears a strong resemblance to Comcast's 2011 acquisition of NBC Universal in a deal valued at about $30 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices...
Emmanuel Macron Talks to WIRED About France's AI Strategy
April 03, 2018 07:10 - 26 minutesOn Thursday, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, gave a speech laying out a new national strategy for artificial intelligence in his country. The French government will spend €1.5 billion ($1.85 billion) over five years to support research in the field, encourage startups, and collect data that can be used, and shared, by engineers. The goal is to start catching up to the US and China and to make sure the smartest minds in AI—hello Yann LeCun—choose Paris over Palo Alto. Learn more abou...
Zuckerberg Finds It's Not Easy to Tame Facebook's Growth Obsession
April 02, 2018 16:31 - 7 minutesWhen Mark Zuckerberg isn't responding to the latest scandal engulfing his company, he's actually trying to fix Facebook: He's trying to redirect its obsession with growth---in users and in the time they spend on Facebook---to focus on whether those users have good experiences on the platform. The problem is that he'd prefer the world not know exactly how obsessed with these metrics his company was. And the world is not cooperating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/ad...
The Next Cold War Is Here, and It's All About Data
April 02, 2018 07:10 - 8 minutesThe headlines about the trade wars being touched off by President Trump’s new tariffs may telegraph plenty of bombast and shots fired, but the most consequential war being waged today is a quieter sort of conflict: It’s the new Cold War over data protection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why Are New York Taxi Drivers Committing Suicide?
March 30, 2018 16:30 - 12 minutesIt was a somber scene outside New York’s City Hall on Wednesday afternoon. Four coffins sat at the foot of the steps; one by one, taxi drivers covered them with white flowers, before assembling on the steps and shouting for the city to “stop Uber’s greed” and “stop making us slaves.” It was the second such gathering in two months, as drivers and their advocates mourned another suicide that they attribute to the rise of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. Learn more about your ad choices...