Marketplace Tech

We're still unpacking the slew of consequential Supreme Court decisions that came down at the end of the term last week. Among them was a 6-3 ruling on digital data privacy.

In Chatrie v. United States, the Court found digital data does fall under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, law professor at George Washington University and author of the recent book “Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance," explains more.

More on this

“Chatrie v. United States” opinion from the Supreme Court of The United States

“Supreme Court limits use of 'geofence warrants' amid cellphone data privacy concerns” from ABC News

Bluesky thread post on the 6-3 ruling from Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

Both OpenAI and Anthropic are planning to go public, each pushing a valuation of $1 trillion as of their latest funding rounds. But even before these mega-IPOs send a tsunami of new liquidity through their home city, San Francisco, signs of growing AI wealth aren't hard to find. And no sign is blinking brighter than the real estate market.

San Francisco has the highest and the fastest-rising home prices in the country, according to data from Redfin. Recently, a turn-key restored Edwardian home hit the market for just under $3 million, right outside the neighborhood known as Cerebral Valley for its concentration of AI workers.

During last year’s massive wildfires in Los Angeles, concerned residents and firefighters went to one app to get up to date information: Watch Duty. Now, the app covers all 50 states and recently added flood tracking to its repertoire. Watch Duty’s chief technology officer David Merritt joined Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to talk about how the app is scaling up.

Many scientists believe we’re in the midst of a sixth mass extinction brought on by factors like climate change, deforestation, fishing and hunting. The Texas-based company Colossal Biosciences claims its technology could help prevent some of those losses, and even bring back long-extinct species. For the new season of the Marketplace climate podcast, “How We Survive,” host Amy Scott got a virtual tour of their labs.

AI is the buzzy tech of the moment. It's made plenty of money not only for companies but the cities and states where investment is pouring in. Illinois and specifically Chicago are betting that quantum computing will be the next major tech breakthrough to transform the economy. And they're trying to get in on the ground floor. So they’ve turned a former steel mill site into a tech hub, called the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, with the hope of attracting as much talent and investment as possible. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Jeanne Whalen, economics reporter at The Wall Street Journal, to learn more.