Marketplace Tech

Nate Soares has been worried about artificial intelligence longer than almost anyone.

He's the president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and co-author of the subtly named book, "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All."

He's watched with a sort of grim vindication, as increasingly alarming details emerge about the hack of the AI company Hugging Face by OpenAI models in development.

OpenAI and third-party investigators recently released reports outlining what went wrong. Soares worries it's not enough.

More on this:

The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead - From OpenAI

Brief independent investigation of agents’ behavior, reasoning and collaboration in the OpenAI / Hugging Face hacking incident - From METR and Redwood Research

Meta agreed to a settlement last month with 52 attorneys general in a landmark case over teen social media addiction. The company promised a number of restrictions for under 18-year-old users, like time limits, overnight blackouts on some features and hidden likes. It also agreed to pay up to $17 billion, partly contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting similar reforms.

Surveys show a strong majority of Americans support stricter limitations on social media for kids. But, this settlement could fundamentally change how everyone accesses the internet, according to Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

More on this:

“That $17B Meta settlement comes with a catch: Your online speech rights” from The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

“Majority of Americans support banning social media for kids under 16” from Pew Research Center

Filmmaker Kenji Yamamoto got a gig working on Apple promotional videos a decade ago and went looking for temporary housing in the pricey Bay Area. What he found was an inside look at the world of hacker houses.

These are group residences for people who come to Silicon Valley to pursue their dreams — like a college dorm for startup hopefuls. Yamamoto takes viewers inside that world in his new documentary for PBS, “The Dreamers and I.”

More on this:

“The Dreamers and I” from PBS

“The New (And Slightly Smelly) Center of the AI Boom” from The Atlantic

More Americans are leaving the labor force for a variety of reasons. The labor force participation rate — which measures the share of working-age Americans who either have a job or are looking for a job — has fallen sharply this year, and it’s been on a steady decline for decades. We hear from Kris Bell, who recently retired early from a long career in the tech industry, about why he chose to make the leap.

Google survives yet another antitrust case without having to break up its business. Plus, New York City public schools announced a new policy this week banning the use of AI among elementary and middle school students.

But first, John Ternus took over as CEO of Apple after a 15-year run by Tim Cook. Joanna Stern, founder of the media company New Things, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to explain more about what this means for the iPhone maker on this week’s “Tech Bytes: Week in Review.”

Everything we talked about

“Apple Begins Its Next Balancing Act as New C.E.O. Takes Over” from The New York Times

“Why Apple’s folding iPhone will be ‘Ultra’ in name only” from Macworld

“In a Big Win, Google Avoids a Breakup of Its Ad Tech Business” from The New York Times

“Nation’s largest school district bans AI in the classroom through 8th grade” from CNN

“Three AI agents. One school shopping list.” from New Things