Business, Spoken

Latest Episodes:

SoftBank Flips the Venture-Capital Script Again With GM Deal Jun 04, 2018

Show notes

General Motors, the US’s 10th-largest company by revenue, is eager to lay the groundwork for future growth by developing self-driving technology. But its shareholders are dubious of too much spending as revenue declines---it fell 5.5 percent last year. Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has the opposite problem: A giant pile of cash, and not enough opportunities to spend it.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook Is Killing Trending Topics Jun 04, 2018

Show notes

Facebook is getting rid of its Trending Topics feature, according to a blog post the social network published Friday. The Trending sidebar, located on the right-hand side on desktop, displays popular topics users are discussing across the site. The product will officially shutter next week, including on third-party services that use the Facebook Trends API. Alex Hardiman, Facebook's head of news products, said the company is ditching the feature because it's underused.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Real Reason Google Search Labeled the California GOP as Nazis Jun 01, 2018

Show notes

If you Googled the California Republican Party earlier this week, the so-called "knowledge panel" that's supposed to surface the most relevant results would have told you that the party's primary ideologies are conservatism, market liberalism, and, oh, Nazism. Conservatives have been quick to point fingers at Google and other tech giants, claiming another example of perceived liberal bias in Silicon Valley.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Big Tech Trades Splashy Conference Demos for Introspection Jun 01, 2018

Show notes

The tech industry is booming. Its biggest companies are minting money. Their influence and reach into media, telecommunications, retail---everything really---is so great that once-dominant firms in those industries are desperately seeking merger partners to keep up. Some venture capitalists say the market for new companies and the talent to staff them hasn’t been this overheated since the great internet bubble of 2000.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Obama's US Digital Service Survives Trump—Quietly May 31, 2018

Show notes

The Trump administration doesn’t hold much regard for asylum seekers or projects started by President Obama. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has moved to keep more asylum seekers in detention. Trump has rolled back Obama-era initiatives wholesale since taking office. Yet in one corner of the White House, a team of idealistic tech workers established by Obama is helping the Department of Homeland Security offer asylum seekers better customer service.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snap Is No Facebook, and Spiegel Insists He Wants It That Way May 31, 2018

Show notes

Evan Spiegel wants the world to know something: His company, Snap, doesn’t admire Facebook, doesn’t want to be like Facebook, and believes that Snap’s approach to its users and their data is better for the world. Appearing onstage at the Code Conference in Palos Verdes, California, Tuesday night, Spiegel said that Facebook may have changed its products and mission but “fundamentally they will have a hard time changing the DNA of the company.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why the US-China ‘Trade War’ Remains a War of Words May 30, 2018

Show notes

So, about that trade war. Recent days have presented a dizzying series of reversals followed by reversals of reversals over whether, when, or if the United States will impose punitive tariffs on China in response to unresolved issues, ranging from intellectual property theft to lack of access to domestic Chinese markets. On Tuesday, the White House made a splashy announcement that it will move ahead with tariffs, which were widely reported as a done deal. Except that they're not.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Cambridge Analytica Alum Launches a New Data Firm May 30, 2018

Show notes

The last two years have been a rollercoaster ride for Matt Oczkowski. On the night of the 2016 presidential election, he sat inside then-candidate Donald Trump's San Antonio campaign headquarters, where he led a team of anxious data scientists crunching numbers throughout the day before an unexpected victory party at a local bar much later that night.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pentagon Will Expand AI Project Prompting Protests at Google May 29, 2018

Show notes

At Google’s campus in Mountain View, California, executives are trying to assuage thousands of employees protesting a contract with the Pentagon’s flagship artificial-intelligence initiative, Project Maven. Thousands of miles away, algorithms trained under Project Maven—which includes companies other than Google—are helping war fighters identify potential ISIS targets in video from drones.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Social Media Became a Pink Collar Job May 29, 2018

Show notes

Companies hiring for technical positions often slip language into their job postings that appeals to men. They say they’re looking for “ninjas,” who seek to “obliterate competition,” and are capable of “dominating.” By now, these wordings are a well understood form of bias that produces more male candidates than female. But one job in the digital economy falls predominantly to women.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected