Marketplace Tech

The startup Winnie is a marketplace for childcare. It works like this: Parents type in the age of their kid and their zip code, then different childcare providers in the area will pop up. You can also filter by languages spoken, and whether you want a childcare center or home-based daycare or another option. It's free for parents to use.

But the company was founded back in 2016, when AI search wasn’t really a thing. And Winnie’s CEO and co-founder Sara Mauskopf says parents now want to be able to describe what they're looking for in natural language. So, Winnie has had to adapt. It's just released an AI-powered search tool.

Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Mauskopf to learn more about their new AI search engine and the challenges of keeping up with the fast-paced AI sector.

The GUARD Act is a bipartisan bill that would prohibit companies from letting kids under 18 interact with what the legislation calls "AI companions,” which are chatbots designed to encourage the simulation of an interpersonal relationship.

This comes after some harrowing stories of teenagers who developed relationships with chatbots and then harmed themselves or others. The bill just passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes talks about this with Ashley Gold, a senior tech policy reporter at Axios.

This week, Taylor Swift trademarked her voice and image in what appears to be a bid to protect against AI misuse. Plus, a Japanese airline is experimenting with humanoid robots to help with baggage.

But first, Google landed a deal with the Pentagon to let its AI models be used for classified work. A Google spokesperson told us in a statement that the company is proud to be providing its services for national security and that it believes AI should not be used for “domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry without appropriate human oversight."

We talked with Maria Curi at Axios about how Google’s deal compares to ones the Department of Defense has with other AI companies.

Check out our YouTube page to watch more episodes of “Tech Bytes.”

The war with Iran has upended supply chains including for materials that are critical to building the electronics we use everyday, such as a certain kind of thermoplastic, copper, and helium. We are now dealing with shortages of all of them. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Jeff Janukowicz, an analyst with the research firm IDC, to learn more.

There's been renewed interest in nuclear power in recent years, thanks in part to demand from tech companies in search of reliable energy to power their AI data centers.

The startup Kairos Power has jumped on this opportunity. Its nuclear reactors are cooled by molten salt. They also use golf-ball sized nuclear fuel, instead of uranium rods cooled by water used by traditional reactors.

Mike Laufer, co-founder and CEO of Kairos, says their reactors a bit like an upside down gumball machine.

The company just started construction on its first power plant, located in eastern Tennessee, called Hermes 2. It will supply energy to the utility in the area, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and specifically to Google to power its data centers.

Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Laufer to learn more.