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Theranos, Encryption, Peter Thiel: The Best And Worst In Tech 2016

(Carolyn Kaster/AP)
(Carolyn Kaster/AP)

At the start of the year, fraud allegations were just beginning for the $9 billion blood testing start-up Theranos. Then came more and more, until the company began its freefall.

Entrepreneur Peter Thiel, on the other hand, began 2016 as an outcast of sorts — a rare Donald Trump supporter in a sea of Silicon Valley liberals. Now, he is advising the president-elect and may have an outsize say in how technology policy will change.

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd speaks with Edmund Lee (@edmundlee), managing editor of Recode, about the tech industry’s winners, losers and other top stories in 2016.

5 Of This Year’s Top Tech Stories
  1. Biotech startup Theranos collapses after misleading investors and customers
  2. Russian hackers attempt to affect the outcome of the U.S. election
  3. Artificial intelligence reaches the masses with Amazon Echo and Tesla’s autopilot
  4. Apple sits on its hands both in the lab and in the courtroom
  5. Peter Thiel wins Silicon Valley

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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