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Monica Nickelsburg

AI & Economy Reporter

About

Monica Nickelsburg covers artificial intelligence, tech, and the local economy in the Pacific Northwest.

Monica came to KUOW in 2023. Before that, she spent six years covering the intersection of technology and politics for GeekWire and worked as a digital producer for The Week.

Monica grew up in Los Angeles and got her B.A. in Journalism and History from New York University before landing in Seattle.

Location: Seattle

Languages Spoken: English

Pronouns: she/her

Podcasts

Stories

  • Nine families, one roof: Urban cohousing in Seattle

    A growing number of people are building a different kind of housing to get the benefit of more space without the added cost. It’s called co-housing, where people come together with friends and strangers to live in modest apartments with more shared spaces -- all designed from scratch.

  • Can AI really cure cancer?

    In the debate over how fast we should be embracing artificial intelligence, one thing comes up again and again. The claim from tech CEOs that AI can cure cancer.  So can it?

  • caption: Cables are shown inside a server bank at the Sabey data center on Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Quincy, Washington.

    The human coders hired to mop up AI slop

    So-called “vibe coding” allows anyone to type in their idea for an app or website and get the code they need to build it, no technical expertise required. But there’s a hitch: The coding vibes are off.

  • The cleanup crew mopping up AI slop

    It turns out, handing the keyboard over to a robot can end up costing more time and money than hiring a human to do that work. 

  • Inside Amazon's surprising settlement

    The long-awaited trial between Amazon and the FTC is over... after just a few days. Joshua and Monica sat down to talk about what they heard during the hearings and why they think Amazon might have settled the case so soon.