Investors are once again pouring money into biotechnology startups. But this time, it feels different from the heyday of 2021. We’ll be digging into the latest data for today’s Marketplace “Tech Bytes: Week in Review,” our roundup of the week’s top headlines, including some you might have missed.

We’ll also talk about a private equity deal with the country’s biggest digital pharmacy platform. But first, OpenAI closes a historic funding round. The maker of ChatGPT raised another $6.6 billion — valuing the company at $157 billion, double its worth earlier this year.

Our regular contributor Christina Farr, managing director with Manatt Health, joins Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino to discuss the news.

All those fancy artificial intelligence systems need a lot of data centers to run, and those data centers need a lot of energy. One estimate from the Electric Power Research Institute suggests that current data center electricity consumption in the U.S. will more than double by 2030, making up about 9% of all energy use. But the AI sector is coming up against the big energy-hungry tech innovation of yesteryear: crypto mining. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Reuters reporter Laila Kearney about the scramble to power up in both industries.

Today we’re talking about voting tech and the push in some areas to move away from machines and go back to hand counting ballots. A legal battle is brewing in Georgia over a new rule requiring ballots be hand counted on election night to ensure the tally matches electronic records. Arizona has added a similar requirement. The issue has become particularly mired in misinformation in recent years, with some election deniers questioning the security of the tech used in our elections. While some may believe hand counts are more accurate, the number of jurisdictions across the country relying on them on election night has been steadily dropping. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Pam Smith, president and CEO of the nonpartisan organization Verified Voting, about why the practice of counting ballots by hand is waning.

This week, we’re talking about how teenagers are using artificial intelligence tools like chatbots and image generators, often without the knowledge of their parents and teachers, according to a recent report from the nonprofit Common Sense Media. Monday we heard about that research from Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of the group. And now we want to home in on a specific piece of what he said: “If you look back at the advent of social media, about 20 years ago, we pretty much blew the regulatory side of that, but also the educating teachers and parents part of that. And we left kids on their own.” So we called up Nathan Sanders, an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, who has written about the overlapping risks of AI and social media.

As soon as ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, it became clear that artificial intelligence was going to send massive shockwaves through education. And, as with any new technology, young people were likely to adopt it more quickly. Well, now we have some data about that phenomenon. A new report from the non-profit Common Sense Media shows seven in 10 teenagers from ages 13-18 are using generative AI in some way. And Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, told Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino it’s not all about cheating.

It’s perhaps not a big surprise, but OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has a very optimistic take on what his company’s technology could mean for the world. He shared his vision of a near future transformed by ever-advancing artificial intelligence systems in a much-discussed blog post earlier this week. Plus, Meta revealed more of its AI plans at its big developer conference including another go at celebrity chatbots. But first, X, formerly Twitter, finally released a new transparency report. It’s the first one since 2022, when Elon Musk bought the platform. And it’s full of data on reported abuse, harassment, how many accounts were suspended and more. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino discussed these topics and more with Anita Ramaswamy, columnist at The Information, on this week’s Tech Bytes: Week in Review.

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission made history this month with the first-ever commercial spacewalk. It seems space travel is no longer reserved for highly trained government astronauts, but increasingly open to anyone with the funds (and the courage) to try it. But before we all go strapping on our spacesuits, Chris Impey, a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, says we need to be clear-eyed about the risks. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke to Impey about those risks and the rewards that might make them worth it.

The infrastructure that enabled Silicon Valley’s artificial intelligence boom is not located in California, but rather in northern Virginia. How did the region become the data center capital of the world? And what does it mean for tech companies, the local economy and residents? Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino has the story.

There have been a lot of rumors and misinformation recently about voter registration and voter list maintenance, adding confusion to what experts say are secure processes. And while election officials regularly update voter lists, it’s become increasingly important that individuals also keep their voter registration information up to date. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams recently spoke with Josh Visnaw,  project manager at a Harvard University initiative called VoteFlare, about the challenges of maintaining accurate voter lists and how VoteFlare is trying to help.

You might say online gambling has been on a winning streak since a Supreme Court decision in 2018 cleared the way for states to allow sports betting. It’s now legal in 30 states and its influence is hard to miss: online sportsbook companies like DraftKings and FanDuel are on billboards, commercials even college campuses, many of which have made deals with sports betting companies. Yanely Espinal, host of Marketplace’s “Financially Inclined” podcast, recently covered this topic on her show and she explained to Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino how these online betting companies are reeling in younger users.