Marketplace Tech

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

Even if artificial intelligence leads to a more prosperous future in the long run, most agree there will be a lot of disruption in the meantime. Marketplace’s senior correspondent for Future Effects, David Brancaccio, explores how that AI disruption will mean layoffs, underemployment and ultimately less income tax revenue for the government. Experts say now’s the time to revamp the tax system for the age of AI.

The banking sector is figuring out how to navigate AI.

And the stakes are high. The tech has raised red flags over potential bias, particularly when it comes to lending practices.

But it could also make some banking operations more efficient.

Which would be especially valuable for smaller banks — which tend to operate with fewer resources than their bigger competitors.

Marketplace’s Justin Ho spoke with bankers at some smaller institutions about how they’re approaching the technology — and their concerns about the future of AI in banking.