What to watch for at CES

Streaming giants Spotify and SoundCloud were both founded in Stockholm, and over the past two decades the Swedish capital has developed a reputation as a European hub for companies blending music and innovation. So why does this small Nordic city punch above its weight in music tech, and are start-ups still able to thrive there after a rocky few years for the global economy? The BBC’s Maddy Savage reports.

For the millions of residents and visitors who commute in and out of the areas daily, billboards in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area have long been a way to see where the state of tech is at the moment — and where it’s headed next.

Yesterday, we explained San Francisco’s fraught relationship with the tech industry. Tech workers weren’t always welcome in the eyes of many other residents, and when the COVID-19 pandemic began, a lot of them left, taking their dollars with them. But on a recent Thursday evening, organizers of a block party downtown were trying to bring people back. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke to Manny Yekutiel and Katy Birnbaum about their efforts to revive the city’s downtown.

Cities across the country are still trying to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic changed how and where many of us work, leaving big holes in downtown office districts. San Francisco, once teeming with tech workers, is no exception. But few cities have suffered the sustained reputational damage that San Francisco has. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali recently visited the city to meet with Heather Knight, The New York Times’ San Francisco bureau chief. Knight, who has been covering the city for more than two decades, offered her take on San Francisco’s image problem, economic situation and tech culture.

In the past week or so, Nvidia’s stock finally encountered the law of gravity — what goes up must eventually come down, at least a little bit. And we look under the hood of artificial intelligence companies that aren’t necessarily making headlines. Plus, the Supreme Court ruled against Republican-led states that accused the federal government of coercing social media companies into suppressing content. But first, major music labels, including Universal, Sony and Warner, are suing two startups that produce AI-generated music. The labels accuse Suno and Udio of using copyrighted works scraped from the internet to train their AI models. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali speaks with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, for her takes on these stories in this week’s Marketplace Tech Bytes: Week in Review.

It feels like eons ago, but during a town hall on violence in America in 1994, then-President Bill Clinton took to MTV to reach the nation’s youth. Clinton’s openness to MTV and what The New York Times called “other unconventional media” had helped pave his path to the White House two years earlier. Fast-forward to today, and even reluctant politicians use TikTok to reach younger voters — President Joe Biden is no exception. His first post came just ahead of this year’s Super Bowl. We invited Marketplace’s senior Washington correspondent, Kimberly Adams, and Joshua Scacco, professor of political communication and director of the Center for Sustainable Democracy at the University of South Florida, to discuss the evolution of political messaging with Marketplace’s Lily Jamali. Scacco said Clinton’s MTV moment informed how future presidents, including his successor, George W. Bush, have engaged with Americans.

This week, we’ve been taking stock of how tech has both helped and harmed Americans trying to get abortions in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. After the Dobbs decision, some experts warned consumers that menstrual tracking apps would provide a means of surveilling abortion seekers. There was even a social media campaign on what was then Twitter advising people to delete their period trackers. But it’s turned out that the threat to privacy isn’t limited to those apps. Other digital data can actually be more likely to reveal an illegal abortion. That’s according to Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. He told Marketplace’s Lily Jamali that everyday consumer apps generate sensitive data that can be used for abortion surveillance.

After the U.S. Supreme Court took away the federal right to abortion two years ago, telehealth has helped provide ongoing access, including to people in states where abortion is now banned. That was our subject Monday. Now we are looking into apps that link patients with abortion providers. Julie F. Kay, executive director at the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, told Marketplace’s Lily Jamali that digital privacy protections are far from equal across these services.

Two years ago this week, the Supreme Court ruled that abortions are not constitutionally protected in the U.S., a decision that would draw protests across the country. Since then, 14 states have outlawed abortions. Still, some people in those states have been able to cut through barriers to get abortions via telehealth, according to a recent report from the research project #WeCount. Usually, this requires a virtual visit with a telehealth care provider. The provider assesses the patient and gets their information, then can mail them mifepristone and misoprostol, which aid in ending a pregnancy. The Supreme Court preserved access to mifepristone in a ruling this month, which means it can still be prescribed and mailed to patients. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali discussed the increase in telehealth abortions with Ushma Upadhyay, professor of OB-GYN and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and a coauthor of the #WeCount report.

Big Tech subscription services are once again in the crosshairs of the Federal Trade Commission, nonprofits with links to OpenAI are becoming less transparent, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is urging Congress to require warning labels on social media. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali speaks with Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired magazine, for this week’s Tech Bytes: Week in Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) already offers customer service solutions to business and, with the help of the multi-billion dollar computer gaming industry, will be helping healthcare organisations to manage the physical fitness of ageing populations in the near future. Researchers are now improving on the techniques employed in existing computer games to develop home-use applications that can supervise movement. With high-speed data transmission, the next generation of healthcare providers may be virtual physiotherapists who guide patients through entertaining electronic rehabilitation "games" and send updates to their doctors. And that's just the beginning, says international AI expert, Lundy Lewis, a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales. Don't hit the pause button! Soon university students may be discussing their courses with virtual professors.

Artificial intelligence (AI) already offers customer service solutions to business and, with the help of the multi-billion dollar computer gaming industry, will be helping healthcare organisations to manage the physical fitness of ageing populations in the near future. Researchers are now improving on the techniques employed in existing computer games to develop home-use applications that can supervise movement. With high-speed data transmission, the next generation of healthcare providers may be virtual physiotherapists who guide patients through entertaining electronic rehabilitation "games" and send updates to their doctors. And that's just the beginning, says international AI expert, Lundy Lewis, a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales. Don't hit the pause button! Soon university students may be discussing their courses with virtual professors.

We spoke with Olli Rundgren, CEO, Psyon Games, about the power of games and how they can positively impact health and behaviour. Olli discusses the formation of habits, the opportunity for education and data collection, and Psyon Games' WHO endorsed game ‘Antidote’.

Welcome to the latest episode of the GLOBAL edition of our What Matters in Edtech Series, our podcast collaboration with Bett. This podcast series is all about the things that matter in education, and how and when tech might help. 

Thank you to Bett for supporting this series and to FormAssembly for supporting this episode.

What's in this episode?

Follow the conversation, share and comment using #edtechpod and #Bett2021.

People

• Prof. Pierre Dillenbourg, Associate Vice-President for Education, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland | Twitter: @EPFL_en; @EPFL
• Margus Pedaste, Professor of Educational Technology at the Institute of Education of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tartu | Twitter: @pedaste
• Dr. Anantha K. Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO MGIEP, The UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development | Twitter: @akduraiappah
• Benoit Wirz, Partner, Brighteye Ventures | Twitter: @bthewirz; @brighteyevc
• Lance Huang, Education Lead, Agora | Twitter: @AgoraIO
• Sophie Bailey is the Founder and Presenter of The Edtech Podcast | Twitter: @podcastedtech

Time Stamps for the episode

• 5:22  - Pierre Dillenbourg
• 15:58 - Magnus Pedaste
• 29:41 - Anantha Duraiappah
• 44:47 - Benoit Wirz
• 58:21  - Lance Huang
• 1:10:40 - Guest recommendations and resources 

Show Notes and References

You can find links to any references from the episode in our show notes: https://theedtechpodcast.com/edtechpodcast.

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