David Brancaccio (2:33)

Aha. Our consumer data is at Play here. Spotify. What do they get out of this? I mean, you know, their niche is audio, I guess.

Michael D. Smith (2:42)

Honestly, when I go to Spotify, I'm going to listen to stuff, and when I go to Netflix, I'm going to watch stuff. So I think what Spotify gets out of this is, is access to a new audience on a platform where people are there to watch video. The other thing I think Spotify gets out of this is the potential to keep Netflix out of the podcast game.

David Brancaccio (3:02)

There's a brand we haven't mentioned here. You get the feeling that both Netflix and Spotify are looking over their shoulder. It begins with a why. What brand might I be thinking about?

Michael D. Smith (3:14)

Yeah, I'm just guessing. YouTube.

David Brancaccio (3:16)

Yeah.

Michael D. Smith (3:17)

So let's address the elephant in the room here. They both get out of this the possibility of doing a better job of competing with YouTube. So I think when they look at each other in this deal, they say, you know what the enemy of my enemy is, my friend? Let's create something where we both can do a better job of competing against YouTube.

David Brancaccio (3:40)

Is it fair to say that Netflix has a better heeled audience than, say, YouTube?

Michael D. Smith (3:45)

That's my sense. Right. Is by doing this, they're going after the top end of the market and we'll let YouTube keep the bottom end of the market.

David Brancaccio (3:55)

Audio with pictures. I look forward to the time when they have a camera up my nose. Trust me, I'm a handsome fellow at 2:15am Pacific Time. But there's no way to stop it, right? I mean, people just want video with their content. That's what people are used to.

Michael D. Smith (4:10)

That's what we seem to be finding is we started with these podcasts as audio and people discover actually it's a whole lot more fun to watch Conan o' Brien and Sona with video. So I think that's where it's moving. And I think this Spotify Netflix deal has a lot of value for both sides.

David Brancaccio (4:28)

Michael D. Smith is a professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Thank you so much.

Michael D. Smith (4:34)

My pleasure, David.

David Brancaccio (4:36)

Now, once a skeptic, America's central bank is warming to crypto. The Federal Reserve yesterday hosted a conference on innovations in paying for things with discussions on digital concoctions like stablecoins and ways to link traditional finance and digital marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.

Nancy Marshall Genzer (4:53)

Fed Governor Christopher Waller kicked things off by saying the Fed is embracing new financial technology, not looking at it with suspicion or scorn.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller (5:02)

This is an acknowledgment. The distributed ledgers and crypto assets are no longer on the fringes but are increasingly woven into the fabric of the payment and financial system.

Nancy Marshall Genzer (5:12)

U.S. regulators have been skeptical and cautious toward digital currencies. But now, Waller says the central bank might create a new type of Fed account for fintech firms. It would give them access to Fed infrastructure for moving money around. These accounts wouldn't pay interest and could be capped, but they're a start, waller says.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller (5:32)

Payment innovation moves fast, and the Federal Reserve needs to keep up.

Nancy Marshall Genzer (5:35)

This would be a major benefit for crypto firms. Right now they have to rely on third parties like banks that have full fledged Fed accounts to make transactions. I'm Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.

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David Brancaccio (6:34)

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David Brancaccio (6:40)

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has launched not a Web page but a whole Web browser with artificial intelligence built in. Atlas is a rival to Google's Chrome and will be a way to scroll, with ChatGPT always at hand. The BBC's North America technology correspondent Lily.

Lily Jamali (6:57)

Jamali has more OpenAI boss Sam Altman says Atlas will be powered by artificial intelligence. Paying subscribers can set up ChatGPT to conduct searches on its own in what it calls agent mode. The challenge to Google comes a year after the search giant was declared an illegal monopolist in online search. But the company has not been ordered to spin off its Chrome browser as an antitrust remedy, as US Government lawyers had requested. Google is also heavily invested in AI, and for the last year has been able to show users AI generated answers in its search results.

David Brancaccio (7:33)

That's the BBC's Lilly Jamali also, Bloomberg is reporting that Google and Anthropic are in discussions about a deal that could bring in a lot more computing power to Anthropic's AI system called Claude, which doesn't work as a name on the radio here because you might be thinking C L O D, as in blockhead. It's Claude, like the French name, like composer Claude Debussy or Claude Shannon, the father of information theory. In Los Angeles, I'm David Brancaccio. Marketplace Morning report from APM American Public Media.

Bridget (8:06)

Hey, everyone, it's Bridget, host of Million Bazillion, a podcast from Marketplace. You've probably heard about the government shutdown, but if you're anything like our young caller Esme, whose dad is a federal worker, you might still have questions.

Lily Jamali (8:20)

I've noticed that my dad hasn't been going to work, and I don't know when the government shutdown will stop and my dad can go back to work.

Bridget (8:29)

We can help tune into our recent episode where we explain what you and the young ones in your life need to know about government shutdowns. Listen to Million Bazillion on your favorite podcast app.