Transcript

1.27.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the reading of the
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Washington Post for this Tuesday, January twenty seventh. Your reader
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is Rod Brotherton, and as you know, RADIOI is a
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 2: Just a note about our weather.
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Speaker 1: It continues to be very frigid, cold, and dangerous through
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the rest of the week. Single digits will prevail, particularly
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at night. Please please, if you have to go out,
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make it short and make it safe.
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Speaker 2: Now let's turn to the news.
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Speaker 1: Trump softens tone on Minneapolis violence amid calls for accountability.
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Some federal agents will begin to leave the Minneapolis area
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on Tuesday, the mayor said, as President Trump softened his
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tone on immigration enforcement in the wake of another killing
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of an American citizen by federal officers, I mean growing
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calls for investigation. Trump on Monday expressed sorrow over the
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bloodshed and announced he was sending a new envoyd to
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take charge of Minneapolis. At the same time, the White
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House tried to pen the violence on democratic led jurisdictions
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that prohibit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The administration
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warned that the violence won't end until democratic governors and
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mayors assist federal law enforcement in arresting, detaining, and deporting
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undocumented immigrants.
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Speaker 2: Nobody in the White.
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Speaker 1: House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt
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or killed in America's streets. White House Press Secretary Caroline
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Levitt's at Monday, it is President Trump's hope and wish
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and demand.
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Speaker 2: For the resistance and chaos to end the day.
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Speaker 1: She added, the most peaceful way to carry out this
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vital public safety mission is for Republicans and Democrats to
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do it together, and for state and local law enforcement
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to work together with federal law enforcement. The Department of
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Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment
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early Tuesday. The Whitehouse's more measured response to the shooting
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death of Alex Pritty on Saturday, when compared with that
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of Renee Good earlier in January, appears to shift the
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tone of an aggressive enforcement policy of Trump's own making.
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Speaker 2: The clearest sign of that.
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Speaker 1: Shift was Trump's decision Monday to send to Minnesota border
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Zar Tom Homan, whose focus on targeting violent criminals contrasts
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with the dramatic confrontations that Trump has demanded. Levitt said,
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Trump maintains full confidence and Homeland.
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Speaker 2: Security Secretary Christy L.
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Speaker 1: Noum, but she has also been responsible for FEMA's response
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to the weekend's winter storm. Norm down played reports of
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tension with Holman and a social media post praising him.
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Yet Holman will report directly to the President. He's taking
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over from Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who has
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been the face of the operation in Minnesota as well
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as previous forays into Los Angeles and Chicago. Levitt said
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Bovino will continue to lead operations around the country. Trump
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said he spoke with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry, the Democrat,
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on Monday evening, and he said Holman would continue the
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discussion in person the next day. Frey said Trump agreed
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the present situation can't continue and some federal agents would
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begin leaving the area on Tuesday. He will continue pushing
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for the rest involved in this operation to go, Frey
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wrote on social media Monday night. The developments come as
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most of Trump's advisors inside the White House have urged
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him to focus on de escalating the conflict in Minneapolis.
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A person close to the White House said what administration
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official said. Trump concluded that Gnome was no longer the
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right person to be in the spotlight on immigration enforcement.
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Noam has been loyal, and firing her would look like
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a victory for his opponents, said the person who spoke
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on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized.
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Speaker 2: To speak publicly.
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Speaker 1: Over the weekend, Trump took note of conservative media figures,
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including Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, who criticized the rhetoric
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from officials such as Gnoam, and the White House advisor
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Stephen Miller, who called Pretty a domestic terrorist. The thirty
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seven year old ICU nurse died Saturday after being shot
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by Border patrol officers during an enforcement operation. Video of
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his death contradicted federal accounts that Pretty had threatened the
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lives of officers with a gun, showing that federal agents
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took the gun before they opened fire, and local police
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said he was carrying the weapon lawfully. After good Pretty
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was the second person to be shot to death this
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month on the streets of Minneapolis by federal immigration authorities.
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Trump initially responded combatively to Pretty's death by calling him
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a gunman and posting a photo of the license pistol,
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but he did not go as far as Gnome or Miller,
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and he sounded more equivocal Sunday when he told the
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Wall Street Journal I don't like any shooting.
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Speaker 2: I don't like it.
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Speaker 1: President Trump does not want any Americans to lose their
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lives in the streets of America and an American unities
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across the country. Levit said he believes what happened on
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Saturday was a tragedy, but every life is equal to
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President Trump. Senators Ted Cruz and Governor Greg Abbott, Republicans
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of Texas, urged the White House to change its tone
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on immigration enforcement, while other Senate Republicans, including Jerry Moran
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of Kansas John Curtis of Utah, called for independent investigation.
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Senate Homeland Security Committee chair Ran Paul, the Republican of
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Kentucky said Monday that the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
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Customs and Border Protection, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services
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should testify before the panel. Public opinion surveys show voters,
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especially independents, turning against Trump on his signature issue, adding
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to the falling ratings on managing the economy, especially inflation.
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A New York Times seeing a College poll conducted before
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the Pretty shooting this month found that sixty one percent
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of Americans, seventy one percent of independence said Ice had
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gone too far. Even as fifty percent of voters said
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they approved of Trump's deportations, only twenty percent of Americans
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said the pretty shooting was justified, according to a Yugov
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poll conducted Sunday. Levitt dismissed concerns as hysteria, adding that
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Americans overwhelmingly want exactly what President Trump is delivering, strong borders,
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strict immigration enforcement against the worst illegal aliens. Even before
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Saturday's fatal shooting, the White House was trying to get
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a better handle on the situation in Minneapolis. Vice President J. D.
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Vance visited the state Thursday at Trump's direction to turn
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down the chaos and facilitate cooperation by federal and local officials.
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He met privately with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. According
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to a White House official with knowledge of the meeting,
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who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were
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not authorized to speak publicly, the Vice President ann Ellison,
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who is a Democrat who has been sharply critical of
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the Trump administration's activity in the state, had a frank discussion,
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a person said, describing the meeting, as productive, but not
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declining to elaborate. Ellison on Sunday called the meeting polite,
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but described it in less productive terms, saying he left
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thinking that the two men probably weren't going to get anywhere.
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Speaker 2: When Vance emerged in front.
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Speaker 1: Of the news cameras Tuesday in Minneapolis, which is Thursday
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in Minneapolis, the Vice President's tone was significantly different from
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what he had said days and weeks earlier, suggesting for
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the first time that federal immigration officials would be subject
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to investigations and discipline. The administration is trying to refocus
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the Minneapolis operation on what originally drew federal officers there,
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crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and fraudulent medicallaide games. Trump
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on Sunday demanded that Minnesota officials and other Democratic governors
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and mayors assist federal law enforcement in arresting, detaining, and
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deporting undocumented immigrants. Attorney General Pam Bondi asked Minnesota Governor
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Tim Waltz, the Democrat, to turn over medicaid and voter
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records and repeal sanctuary policies that prohibit local cooperation with
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federal immigration authorities. Senator Lindsey Graham Republican of South Carolina
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said he would propose legislation to ban such policies nationwide.
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Speaker 2: Walt said the.
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Speaker 1: Administration claims about the state's failure to co operate. In
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a Wall Treet journal op ed Monday, he said the
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state holds two hundred and seven non citizens in its prison,
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not thirteen hundred and sixty, and has never released someone
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without offering to transfer to federal authority. Trump's campaign for
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a second term, promising to launch a military style deportation
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operation and encouraging police to use more force without restraint
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or fear of consequences. He promised to indemnify police from lawsuits,
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a slogan with little practical consequence since officers already have
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broad legal protections from liability, but one clearly signaling that
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they would not be held responsible for using force. One speech,
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he mused bluntly that police could deter crime by holding
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one really violent day or one rough hour, and I
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mean really rough.
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Speaker 2: We will send.
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Speaker 1: Elite squads of ice border patrol federal law enforcement officers
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to hunt down, arrest, and deport every last illegal alien
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gang member until there is not a single one left
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in this country. Trump said in an immigration focused speech
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in October of twenty twenty four, It's going to go
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very quickly.
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Speaker 2: In the next.
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Speaker 1: Story, more history exhibits pulled from national parks, including the
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Grand Canyon. Trump officials have ordered national parks to remove
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dozens of signs and displays related to climate change, environmental protection,
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and settler's mistreatment of Native Americans. In a renewed push
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to implement President Trump's Executive Order on Restoring Truth and
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Sanity to American History. Park staff have interpreted Trump's directive,
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which seems to scrub federal institutions with what it calls
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partisan ideology and remove any content deemed to despair Americans
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passed or living, to include any reference to historic racism
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and sexism, as well as climate change and LGBTQ rights.
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Last week, that included the removal of an exhibited Independence
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National Historic Park that focused on George Washington's ownership.
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Speaker 2: Of enslaved peoples.
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Speaker 1: In a new wave of orders this month, Trump officials
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instructed staff to remove or in its signs and other
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informational materials and at least seventeen additional parks in Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Montana,
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and Wyoming. According to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
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The documents also listed some removals ordered in August and
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September of last year. The Interior Department set in a
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statement that it was implementing Trump's executive order all federal
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agencies are to review interpretive materials to ensure accuracy, honesty,
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and alignment with shared national VACUS values. The statement said,
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Following completion of the required review, the National Park Service
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is now taking appropriate action.
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Speaker 2: In accordance with the order.
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Speaker 1: Among the national parks targeted in the new removal orders
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are some of the country's most iconic Rand Canyon, Glacier,
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Big Bend, and Zion. The removal orders include descriptions of
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how climate change is driving the disappearance of the glaciers
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at Glacier National Park and a wayside display of the
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Grand Canyon. Referring to the force removal of Native Americans,
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The administration's broad attempt to suppress true story should offend
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every American, said Kristin Bringle, Senior vice president of Government
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Affairs for the National Parks Conferenceservation Association. Bringle emphasized that
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Park Service staff is are acting on administration orders. Everyone
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understands this history, she said, it's not debatable, but they're
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being forced to select stories because they think the administration
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will threaten their jobs if they don't. Here are the
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details of some of the changes being ordered at national parks.
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In Grand Canyon National Park, staff at a Grand Canyon
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exhibit center in Arizona removed part of an exhibit after
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flagging potentially problematic passages to the National Park Systems leadership
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in DC. According to documentation reviewed by the Post, the
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passage included text stating that settlers exploited land for mining
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and grazing, and then federal officials pushed tribes off their
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land to establish the park. The land also removed references
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to cattle ranchers carelessly overgrazing the land, tourists foolishly leaving
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trash in the park, and entrepreneurs who profited excessively from tourism.
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Drop officials aviate to take action on several other items,
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including a video about Native American history. Park staff suggested
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fixes that would remove a reference to a federal policy
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that prevented Native Americans from using body and face paint,
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as well as references to their ancestors, misery, suffering, and loss.
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Roadside displays on climate change, pollution, and mining were also
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flagged for possible removal Glacier National Park. In response to
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frequent inquiries from visitors about the potential disappearance of the
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famous glaciers at Montana's Glacier National Park, staff created signs
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and other resources to answer those questions, said Jeff Moe,
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who retired as superintendent of the park in twenty twenty two.
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The administration flagged one brochure for removal or changes that
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shows images of Glacier's retreating and explains that human cause
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climate change is a factor in their likely future disappearance.
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A video that refers to the disappearance of the glaciers
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was also ordered removed or changed. Also flag was a
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sign at the park's gift shop that says climate change
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affects national parks and the treasures they protect. We're whitewashing
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or we're taking out all of those sort of not
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so nice stories that have occurred in.
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Speaker 2: Our nation's history. Mo said.
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Speaker 1: Another informal display to be removed or changed describes the
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park's issues with air pollution. The administration paused air quality
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monitoring at the national parks last year. Another sign talked
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about increasing fire risk at the Park, as well as
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a nearby dam that flooded.
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Speaker 2: Two lakes within the park.
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Speaker 1: As the nation's storyteller of natural and cultural history, the
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National Park Service takes great pride in telling these stories.
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Mo said, this process of being edited, it's like taking
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a torpedo.
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Speaker 2: In the bow.
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Speaker 1: At Big Bend National Park, the signs slated for removal
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at Big Ben National Park along the Texas Mexico border
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did not reference the topics such as climate or Native
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American history that have typically attracted the attention of Trump officials. Instead,
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the nearly twenty signs flagged for not conforming with the
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new policy. Many deal with geology, prehistoric history, fossils, and
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others seemingly uncontroversial scientific or historical topics. The removal orders
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do not spell out what's wrong with signs. Some of
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the displays are bilingual in Spanish and English, while others
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talk about cooperating with Mexico on modern preservation efforts. Big
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Ben's submission for the Administration review says these wayside exhibits
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to defeat described natural features, but emphasized matters unrelated to
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the beauty, abundance, or grandeur of said natural features. Although
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it was flagged the materials for review of the park
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said it did not advocate changing these wayside exhibits. Even so,
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Troup officials decided the displays failed to conform with the
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administration policy and ordered them changed or removed. This is
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not something that the National Park Service should be blamed for,
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said Bob Krumnaker, superintendent of Big Ben until twenty twenty three.
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They are being told they have to do these things.
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Speaker 2: My hope is they're.
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Speaker 1: Saving these exhibits for when things change so they can
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put them back up other parks. The administration also targeted
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less famous parks. One sign slated for removal at Ben's
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Old Fort Natural History Site in Colorado described keys in
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the state's history and included references to the force removal
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of a Native tribe, a family's slave ownership, and another
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historic figure who had a miscarriage. At Hubble Trading Post
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National Historic Site in Arizona, a panel on Ganado Mucho,
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a Navajo leader known for settling disputes with ranchers, is
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also listed for changes or removal. Documentation reviewed by the
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Post also included new details on removals and changes that
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were ordered last year at Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National
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Park in monument, descriptions of destructive grazing practices in the
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accelerating rate of warming since eighteen fifty, as well as
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a booklet that talks about endangered turtles and Sonoran pronghorn
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were ordered.
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Speaker 2: Changed or removed.
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Speaker 1: At Grand Tee Time National Park and Wyoming, it was
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ordered to remove or change a panel about Gustaphus Cheney
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Doan that said he participated in the US Army massacre
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of a Pagayan Blackfeet Native Americans, including women, children, and
20:15
the elderly. At Little Big Horn Nettled National Battlefield Monument
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in Montana, the exhibit text that described the United States
20:25
as being hungry for golden land and breaking promises to
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Native Americans was ordered changed or removed. Another text describing
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how US run boarding schools for Indigenous children violently erased
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cultural identities and language, was also deemed not to comply
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with Trump's policies. Brangle of the National Park Conservation Association
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said that the Trump administration efforts to sanitize American history
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runs counter to the mission of the park system. We
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are capable of hearing about our tragedies and our victories,
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and this systematic erasure should concern everyone in our country,
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she said. The next story the one legged stools holding
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up a fragile economy. Low unemployment, strong consumer spending, and
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steady business investments have helped fuel the largest expansion in years.
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The US economy grew at a robust annual rate of
21:30
four point four percent in the most recent quarter, define
21:34
fears of an imminent slowdown, but economists caution that growth
21:39
is increasingly concentrated, the result of a steady but fragile
21:44
economy built on a series of narrowing pillars. There are
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one legged stools everywhere you look, and yet when you
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put it all together, we're still standing, said Diane Swank,
21:55
chief economist at KPMG, began using the phrase last summer
22:00
to describe the economy. The question is how long can
22:03
we keep ourselves upright? Here are three pillars holding up
22:09
the economy. Health Care jobs are propping up labor market.
22:14
The job market has been surprisingly sturdy, even in the
22:16
face of high interest rates, changing economic policy, and looming uncertainty.
22:21
The unemployment rate, at four point four percent, is near
22:24
historic lows, but the bulk of job markets recent gains
22:28
has come from one industry healthcare. Health Care and Social
22:33
assistance positions accounted for ninety seven percent of the seven
22:37
hundred and thirty three thousand private sector jobs created across
22:40
the economy last year.
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Speaker 2: Hospitals, doctors' offices, and.
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Speaker 1: Residential care facilities added hundreds of thousands of positions in
22:48
twenty twenty five, helping make up for losses in manufacturing, transportation,
22:54
and white collar professions such as advertising and computer science.
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It's really impressive and how much job growth has been
23:01
driven by health care and social assistance and Daniel Zoul,
23:05
Chief Economists and career site Glassdoor. It's the last remaining
23:11
pillar of growth, and the wealthyest Americans are driving spending.
23:17
The post pandemic recovery has favored the richest Americans. Fast
23:21
rising home values and a rapid run up in stock
23:24
valuations have disproportionately patted the fortunes of the wealthiest, allowing
23:28
them to keep spending in a way that's lifting the
23:31
entire economy. The top ten percent of Americans, those earning
23:35
two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars or more, now
23:38
account for a record forty five percent of all spending,
23:43
up from about thirty nine percent before the pandemic. According
23:46
to Moody's Analytics, that imbalance helps explain why spending on
23:51
extras such as dining out and travel has kept rising
23:55
over the past year, even as many households say they're
23:58
cutting back. There's been a dramatic narrowing. The folks at
24:02
the top account for much higher share of spinning than
24:05
folks in the bottom eighty percent, and the gap is widening,
24:08
said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. Very clearly
24:14
shows that the economy is dependent on spending by the
24:17
folks at the top.
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Speaker 2: Rising consumer spinning has been a major.
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Speaker 1: Driver of growth in recent quarters, accounting for nearly seventy
24:25
percent of the country's gross domestic product, But after adjusting
24:31
for inflation spending by lower and middle income Americans, it's
24:34
largely stayed flat since the pandemic, Zandy said. Top twenty percent, though,
24:39
are splurging. Their spending is up by more than four
24:43
percent per year since twenty twenty. The dynamic is worried some,
24:47
Zandi said, because it leads to growing disparities, and also
24:51
because so much of the wealthiest American's recent spending power
24:55
is tied to the whims of the stock market surging
25:00
prices have made the wealthiest even wealthier, giving them the
25:03
willingness to spend. But what happens if something were to
25:06
disrupt that equity party? The growth source of growth would
25:10
go away and it would be enough to send the
25:12
economy into a recession. Are gone close to it and
25:18
the AI related spending investments are propelling business spending and
25:23
the stock market.
25:24
Speaker 2: Spending on artificial intelligence.
25:26
Speaker 1: Is driving billions in business investments and helping lift stocks
25:30
to record highs, boosting company valuations and Americans portfolios. The
25:35
four richest companies developing AI, which are Microsoft, Google, Amazon,
25:39
and Meta, has spent roughly three hundred and sixty billion
25:43
dollars combined in the last year on big ticket projects,
25:47
including building AI data centers and outfitting them with computer chips, software,
25:53
and other equipment. According to a recent Washington Post analysis,
25:57
which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, overall
26:03
business spending on equipment software has grown every quarter since
26:07
January of twenty twenty five. There is one horse drawing
26:12
the carriage right now, and that is AI, said Mark Morrow,
26:15
a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution who studies the
26:19
AI economy. But it's not necessarily a reassuring source of growth.
26:24
There are worries about a bubble and a lot of
26:27
questions about what happens next. Although there is growing debate
26:32
just how much those investments are contributing to the US economy,
26:36
experts say it's clear that AI related enthusiasm is translated
26:40
into real gains, especially at the stock market. Among the
26:45
biggest beneficiaries of that group have been the Magnificent Seven,
26:49
a group tech giants Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta In, Microsoft,
26:55
in Vidia, and Tesla that have seen their share prices
26:59
balloon by nearly twenty percent on average in the past year,
27:02
translating into.
27:04
Speaker 2: Trillions of dollars in value.
27:07
Speaker 1: The two engines of today's economy are the AI ecosystem
27:13
and wealthy consumers, Richmond FED president Tom Barkin said in
27:18
a recent speech.
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Speaker 2: The two, he noted, are closely linked.
27:24
Speaker 1: AI has been supporting virtually all of the growth in
27:28
business investment, and any drop in valuation of the Magnificent
27:34
Seven would surely flow through to net worth and in
27:39
turn consumption. But with the job growth concentrated in one sector,
27:45
is very risky for the economy. Talking about the healthcare,
27:49
it'd be much better if gains were spread across a
27:53
variety of industries, especially given that healthcare hiring has slowed
27:58
in recent months. Employers added an average of four hundred
28:03
and twenty one thousand healthcare and social assistance jobs a
28:07
month in the first half of twenty twenty five. In
28:11
the second half, that figure fell to three hundred and
28:15
sixty three thousand and The next story for Today inside
28:20
one company secret plan to destructively scan every book in
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the world. In early twenty twenty four, executives and artificial
28:32
intelligence startup Anthropic ramped up an ambitious project they sought
28:37
to keep quiet. Project Panama is our effort to destructively
28:42
scan all the books in the world. An internal planning document,
28:45
unsealed in legal filings last week said, we don't want
28:50
it to be known that we're working on this within
28:54
about a year. According to the filings, company had spent
28:58
tens of millions of dollars to acquire and slice the
29:02
spines off millions of books before scanning their pages to
29:07
feed more knowledge into the AI models behind products such
29:11
as its popular chatbot Claud. Details of Project Panama, which
29:17
had not been previously reported, merged in more than four
29:20
thousand pages of documents and a copyright lawsuit brought by
29:24
the book authors against Anthropic, which has been valued by
29:28
investors at one hundred and eighty three billion dollars. The
29:33
company paid one and a half billion dollars to settle
29:37
the case in August, but a district judge's decision last
29:41
week to unseal a slew of documents in the case
29:45
more fully revealed anthropics zealous pursuit of books. The new documents,
29:52
along with earlier filings and other copyright cases against AI companies,
29:57
showed the links to which tech firms such as is Anthropic, Meta, Google,
30:03
and OpenAI went to obtain colossal troves of data with
30:09
which to train their software. The Anthropic case was part
30:14
of a wave of lawsuits brought against AI companies by authors, artists, photographers,
30:20
and news outlets. Filings in the cases show top tech
30:24
firms and a frantic, sometimes clandestine race to acquire the
30:29
collected works of humanity. Books were viewed by the companies
30:35
as a crucial prize. The court record show. In January
30:39
twenty twenty three, documents one Anthropic co founder theorized that
30:44
training AI models on books could teach them how to
30:47
write well instead of mimicking low quality Internet speak. A
30:53
twenty twenty four email inside Meta described assessing a digital
30:58
trove of books as easy essential to being competitive with
31:02
its AI rivals, but the court records suggest the companies
31:07
didn't see it as a practical way to gain direct
31:10
permission from publishers and authors to use their work. Instead, Anthropic,
31:15
Meta and other companies found ways to acquire books in
31:19
bulk without the author's knowledge. Court filings alleged, including by
31:25
downloading pirated copies. On several occasions, Meta employees raised concerns
31:33
and internal messages that downloading a collection of millions of
31:36
books without permission would violate copyright laws in December of
31:42
twenty three, and internal email said the practice had been
31:45
approved after escalation to m z AT, a parent reference
31:51
to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. According to filings and a copyright
31:56
lawsuit bought by book authors against the company, Meta declined
32:01
the comment for this story. In one newly released legal filing,
32:07
Anthropic disclosed that co founder Ben Mann personally downloaded a
32:12
hall of fiction and non fiction from a shadow library
32:15
of books, another copyright infringing content called lib Gin, over
32:21
an eleven day stretch in June of twenty one. A
32:24
screenshot of his web browser included in the filing show
32:28
him downloading files with file sharing software. A year later,
32:34
Man hailed the July of twenty twenty two debut of
32:38
a new website called the Pirate Library Mirror, which claimed
32:42
to have a massive database of books and had stated
32:46
that we deliberately violate the copyright law in most countries.
32:50
Man sent a link to the site to other Nentropic
32:53
employees with a message, just in time. Anthropic said in
32:59
legal filing that the company never trained a commercial AI
33:02
model that generated revenue using its lib gen data, and
33:07
never used the Pirate Library Mirror to train any complete
33:11
AI model. Ed Newton Rex, a former AI executive and
33:17
music composer who now runs a nonprofit asserting creators' rights,
33:22
said the disclosures underscore that AI companies o creators of
33:27
greater debt than they've paid so far. We urgently need
33:32
a reset across the AI industry such that creatives start
33:36
being fairly paid for their vital contributions they make, he said. Google, Microsoft,
33:44
and Chat Gpteamaker OpenAI are also facing copyright lawsuits from
33:49
book authors making similar allegations. Washington Post has a content
33:54
partnership with Open Ai. Most of the legal case against
34:00
AI companies are still ongoing, and James Gimmelman, Professor of
34:05
Digital and Information Law at Cornell Tech, said the questions
34:09
they raise are still unsettled law, but in two early rulings,
34:15
judges have found that tech company's use of books to
34:18
train AI models without an author or publisher's permission can
34:24
be legal under a doctrine in a copyright.
34:27
Speaker 2: Law known as fair use.
34:30
Speaker 1: In June, District Judge William also found that Anthropic was
34:36
within its rights to use books for training AI models
34:41
because they possessed the material in a transformative way. He
34:46
likened the AI training process to teachers training school children
34:50
to write well. Same month, District Judge Vince Chabaria found
34:56
in the medicase that the book authors had failed to
34:58
show that the company's AI models could harm sales of
35:01
their books, but companies can still get in trouble for
35:06
how they went about acquiring books. In Anthropics case, the
35:10
book scanning project pass Muster, but the judge found the
35:14
company might have enfranched on author's copyright when it downloaded
35:18
millions of pirated books free before launching project Panama alts
35:25
up granted class action stats to authors whose books were
35:29
included in a pair of shadow libraries, huge troves of
35:33
digitized books shared online without authorization that Anthropic had downloaded
35:39
and stored for future use. Rather than face a trial,
35:44
the company agreed to play one point five billion dollars
35:48
to publishers and authors without admitting wrongdoings. Authors whose books
35:54
were downloaded and claimed their share of the settlement, estimated
35:58
to be about three thousand dollars per title.
36:02
Speaker 2: This case has.
36:04
Speaker 1: Been settled, but the Court's landmark June twenty five ruling
36:08
it remains intact, and Thropics Deputy General Council Arpona Stridhar
36:14
sent in an email to the Washington Post. Judge Alsop
36:18
held that AI training was quintessentially transformative, and Thropics AI
36:25
models trained on works not to replicate them or supplant them,
36:29
but to turn a hard corner and creating something different.
36:34
The issue we settled was on about how some materials
36:37
were acquired, not whether we could use them to develop
36:41
AI models. When Anthropic embarked on its Project Panama operation
36:47
to buy and scan physical books, it turned to a
36:50
Silicon Valley veteran. The company hired Tom Turvey, a Google
36:55
executive who had helped to create the Search giants famous
36:59
but legally contested Google Books project two decades earlier. Anthropic
37:05
initially considered buying books from libraries or used bookstores like
37:09
New York City landmark The Strand, known for its eighteen
37:13
miles of used books. According to the filings, the store
37:18
was interested in providing used books. According to a document
37:21
detailing March twenty twenty four Anthropic content acquisition meeting, Anthropic
37:28
employees also discussed approaching US libraries, including the New York
37:33
Public Library or a new library that is chronically underfunded.
37:37
According to the documents, it's not clear which, if any,
37:42
of the proposals Anthropic implemented. Reached via email, a spokesperson
37:48
for The Strand said the bookshop did not end up
37:51
selling any books to Anthropics. NYPL did not respond to
37:57
a request for comment. Anthropic eventually bought millions of books,
38:03
often in batches of tens of thousands. According to the filings,
38:07
if relied on booksellers, including used book retailers, Better World
38:11
Books and UK based World of Books. The ultimate number
38:16
of books scanned in their costs are redacted in the documents,
38:20
but a project proposal by a vendor that ultimately worked
38:24
with Anthropic noted that the AI company was seeking an
38:27
experienced document scanning services vendor to convert from one half
38:32
million to two million books over a six month period.
38:38
Better World Books and World of Books did not respond
38:41
to requests for comment On Monday. The document describes now
38:46
the scanning company's hydraulic powered cutting machine would neatly cut books.
38:51
These pages would later be scanned on high speed, high quality,
38:56
production level scanners. Finally, it notes scanning company will schedule
39:01
with the recycling company to pick up the completed books.
39:05
Documents released in the copyright suit against Meta show employees
39:09
at the social network Giant were also hungry from war
39:12
data and were willing to take legal risks to obtain it.
39:17
While Chabria, the judge sided with Meta on its use
39:21
of books to train AI models, he allowed the authors
39:24
to proceed with litigation that Meta illegally distributed copies of
39:29
pirated books. The plaintiffs are seeking class action status for
39:33
those claims in the Northern District of California. In their lawsuit,
39:39
the authors allege that Meta higher ups considered paying for
39:43
books to train their AI models, but opted to instead
39:47
download millions of books free from Torrant. Platforms that facilitate
39:53
online piracy. The way platforms are designed often reward users
39:59
who upload the material the faster downloads of large collections
40:03
of files. Internal documents, some of which have been previously reported,
40:08
show Meta employees expressing concerns that what they were doing
40:13
was risky or wrong, and discussing how to cover their tracks.
40:18
Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn't feel right, one engineer
40:23
wrote in twenty twenty three, According to the documents, The
40:26
same employee later shared a concern with the company's legal
40:30
team that using Torrant sites could entail sharing pirated works
40:35
with each other, which could be legally not okay. In
40:41
December of twenty three, email from the court filings makes
40:44
clear that use of gin had been approved, apparently by Zuckerberg,
40:51
referring to by his initials after the prior escalation to
40:56
mz gen AI has been approved to use libjen for
41:00
Lama III with the number of agreed upon mitigations, it said,
41:04
before listing legal and policy risks to.
41:07
Speaker 2: Using the data.
41:10
Speaker 1: If there is media coverage suggesting we have used a
41:14
data set we know to be pirated, such as libgin.
41:18
This may undermine our negotiating position with regulators on these issues.
41:23
The email went on By April of twenty four, Internet
41:27
communications showed the company was moving to download lib Gin
41:31
and other shadow libraries. Chat logs show one employee ask
41:36
another to clarify why they were using servers read from
41:40
Amazon for torrenting rather than those owned by Facebook. The
41:45
reply avoiding risk of tracing back the activity to the
41:50
company and if filing. Last month, Meta's attorneys wrote that
41:55
the company denies that it distributed plaintiff's works when it
41:58
downloaded training data using torrents. A separate lawsuit originally filed
42:04
in twenty twenty three, book authors have accused open ai
42:08
and Microsoft of also breaching copyright law in their own
42:12
pursuit of books for training ais. Open ai, where man
42:17
and anthropic CEO Dario hammil Day worked before co founding
42:22
the startup, has acknowledged downloading lib Gin, but told the
42:27
court it deleted the files before the release of chat GPT.
42:32
Open ai fired the starting gun that led to the
42:35
rampant piracy by AI companies and the strip mining of
42:40
all humanities expression, said Justin a Nelson, attorney at Sussman Joffrey, LLP,
42:46
who was representing book authors in both the Open AI
42:50
and Anthropic cases. Open AI declined to comment for this story.
42:57
Earlier this month, two major publishers asked court to let
43:01
them join a group of writers and illustrators in a
43:04
copyright suit against Google that was originally filed in twenty
43:08
twenty three. Grimmelman, the Cornell Tech law professor, said that
43:14
AI companies talked themselves into a fallacy of using copyrighted data.
43:19
The breakthroughs behind chat, GPT and similar tools began in
43:24
academic research, where using copyrighted material for training is broadly accepted,
43:30
he said, but researchers continued the practice even as AI
43:35
models were commercialized. By the time the tension became clear,
43:40
they had made huge investments in incorporating copyrighted data into
43:45
their pipelines and were locked in a fast paced, high
43:49
stakes competition to release newer, better models. Grimmleman said anthropics
43:55
decision to begin acquiring and scanning physical books instead of
43:59
downloading shadow libraries turned out to be a smart call.
44:03
He added, this would be a good example of the
44:06
company taking a more restrained approach and achieving legal compliance.
44:12
The next story forty years later, a new look at
44:16
lessons from the Challenger disaster. As high school teacher Krista
44:22
mccauliffe prepared to be strapped into the Space Shuttle Challenger,
44:26
Brian Russell, an official at the company that built the
44:29
craft's solid rocket boosters, had just participated in a fateful
44:34
teleconference from his Utah headquarters. Like every other engineer in
44:39
the conference room at Morton Pire Call on that day
44:42
four decades ago, the thirty one year old Russell opposed
44:46
launching because the bitterly cold temperatures at Forida's Kennedy Space
44:51
Center threatened the O rings that sealed the rockets boosters.
44:56
Their managers initially supported this view, but Russell listened in
45:01
dismay as they reversed themselves under pressure from NASA officials
45:06
and senior company officials, and signed off on the launch.
45:11
The mission ended in catastrophe for the reason Russell feared
45:17
a story I know well as a reporter who covered
45:20
McAuliffe and witnessed the Challenger's explosion. But for those involved
45:26
in this tragedy, the families of the astronauts and those
45:30
who approved the launch, much about this story is perhaps
45:33
even more relevant today. Than it was on January twenty eighth,
45:38
nineteen eighty six. The belief that there are still lessons
45:42
to learn from the disaster. It's what led Russell last
45:46
year to take an extraordinary step that until now has
45:50
received no public notice. He visited NASA centers across the
45:55
country telling the Challenger story, hopes that similar mistakes will
46:00
not occur as the Space Agency prepares to launch four
46:04
astronauts on Artemis two, which is scheduled to fly by
46:08
the Moon as soon as February.
46:13
Speaker 2: The lesson of.
46:14
Speaker 1: Challenger is not just about the old rings that failed.
46:18
For Russell and colleagues who accompanied him on the NASA tour,
46:22
understanding the human causes behind the Challenger disaster provide still
46:28
crucial lessons about managers who failed to heed the warnings
46:32
of their own experts. Russell made his tour to make
46:37
sure NASA officials heard it from us and heard the
46:41
emotional impact that we felt on that day four decades ago.
46:47
I was standing alongside mccaulliff's parents and friends. I was
46:51
a reporter at the Boston Globes Bureau and conquered New
46:54
Hampshire and I was assigned to follow mccaulliff's journey from
46:58
conquered to Cape Canack. I visited mccaulliffe in her home,
47:03
flew with her son's class to Florida, and witnessed the disaster.
47:09
As the fortieth anniversary near, I revisited mccaulliff's journey documented
47:15
in my clippings, as well as thousands of pages of books, reports,
47:20
and previously unpublished material. I tracked down the handful of
47:24
surviving former officials involved in the launched decision, including the
47:28
rocket company's manager who reversed himself and signed off on
47:34
the launch. What I found are intertwined stories mccalliffe and
47:40
her fellow crewmates determined to revive interest in the space program,
47:45
and another of behind the scenes turmoil as rocket engineers
47:49
all but begged that the launch beast scrub. President Reagan
47:54
had announced in nineteen eighty four that he wanted the
47:57
first private citizen in space to one of America's finest
48:01
a teacher. McAuliffe was chosen by a government appointed panel
48:06
in July of nineteen eighty five from eleven thousand applicants
48:10
to be the space teacher, invariably portrayed as in media
48:15
as a small town teacher with a nervous laugh. She was,
48:18
in fact, the teacher liked few others, a bit of
48:21
a rebel. It was bursting to speak about inequality, woeful pay,
48:26
and the power of politics.
48:29
Speaker 2: If only she was asked.
48:31
Speaker 1: Mcauloff thirty seven, taught a history course called The American Woman,
48:36
which included study of astronauts Sally Ryde, who in nineteen
48:40
eighty three became the first American woman in space, assigned
48:44
to the Challenger. Two years later, when McAuliffe learned that
48:48
Reagan had sought a teacher to be the first civilian
48:51
in space, she filled out an application seeking to follow
48:55
in Ride's path, which, as it happened, would be aboard
48:59
the same space shut As a woman, I have been
49:03
envious of those men who could participate in the new
49:06
space program, and who were encouraged to excel in the
49:09
areas of math and science and the call offf wrote
49:12
in her application, I felt that woman had indeed been
49:16
left outside of one of the most exciting careers available.
49:20
When Sally Rode and the other women began to train
49:23
as astronauts, I could look among my students and see
49:26
ahead of them an ever increasing list of opportunities, McAuliffe
49:32
became one of ten finalists training with a group of
49:35
traveling to Cape Canaveral on July twelfth, nineteen eighty five,
49:39
to witness a launch of the Challenger, but the flight
49:43
was aboarded three seconds before liftoff because of a faulty vow.
49:48
Days later, McAuliffe was unanimously chosen by the government appointed
49:52
panel of experts to be the Teacher in Space, a
49:56
decision announced at the White House on July nineteenth, nineteen
49:59
eighty by Vice President George H. W.
50:03
Speaker 2: Bush.
50:05
Speaker 1: Ten days later, after the NASA fixed the valve and
50:08
the spacecrafts launched, but was almost immediately in trouble. What
50:12
are the three engines shut down? Heading to concern that
50:16
the Shuttle would have to make an emergency landing. NASA
50:19
controller Jenny Howard probably saved the mission when she made
50:24
a split second decision that faulty censors caused the shutdown
50:28
and overrode them, enabling the flight to continue. Twice in
50:33
two weeks, Challenger had been in danger, but the Teacher
50:37
and Space show went on. Only two days later, NASA
50:42
publicists whisked mccaulliffe into a set of the Tonight show
50:46
or she gave host Johnny Carson a kiss and won
50:49
him over along with the national audience of millions. The
50:52
recent problems with Challenger, however, were on her mind, as
50:56
she said timing of her flight was being bumped up
50:59
a little bit the problems they've had. Are you in
51:03
any way frightened of something like that, Carson said, noting
51:06
that they had a frightening incident and one of the
51:09
engines went out.
51:11
Speaker 2: Ah.
51:11
Speaker 1: I haven't really thought of it in those turns, because
51:14
I see the shuttle program as a very safe one,
51:16
she said, But I think the disappointment, and Carson interrupted
51:21
to tell a joke by another astronaut. It's a strange
51:24
feeling when you realize that every part of this capsule
51:27
was made by the lowest bidder. A few days later,
51:31
mcaulliffe was back and conquered and agreed to see me
51:34
at her gracious three story house in a neighborhood known
51:37
as The Hill. Her husband, Stephen, who was then in
51:40
private practice law, listened attentively. At the time, New Hampshire
51:46
was a solidly conservative Republican state. Mccaulff was an outspoken
51:50
activist with political ambition. She had been the head of
51:54
the local teachers' union and true to her Massachusetts roots,
51:58
a self described feminine and Kennedy Democrat. Although rarely mentioned
52:04
in national stories, her fight for teacher salaries had made
52:08
her a logical legend when she made the case before
52:11
a town meeting to raise pay, and she succeeded.
52:15
Speaker 2: By the time a.
52:16
Speaker 1: Cauff applied to be a teacher in Space, New Hampshire
52:19
teacher salaries averaged only eighteen thousand, five hundred and seventy
52:23
seven dollars, better than only Maine and Mississippi according to
52:28
any statistics, and she made only twenty four thousand dollars
52:33
annually after fifteen years. When asked about the salary fight
52:38
and the continuing low pay for teachers, mcauliff looked up
52:42
from a packing a bad labeled teacher in Space and
52:46
said that after dozens of interviews, this was the first
52:50
time she had been asked such a question about education.
52:54
She hoped that her Space mission would give her a
52:57
platform to fight for teachers. My sympathies have always been
53:02
for working class people. I grew up in that era.
53:05
We are real big Kennedy supporters, and I think it's
53:08
important to be involved. We discussed thecalliff's recent round of
53:13
rousing public appearances including The Night Show, and Stephen mccauliffe
53:18
couldn't resist hitting hinting about a future in politics. The
53:22
Democratic Party could use a good candidate, said, and I
53:26
think she'd be pretty good, don't you. The Space Shuttle
53:31
was one of the greatest triumphs an aeronautical design that
53:34
the world had seen. The airplane like orbiter carried astronauts
53:39
and payloads such as satellites, and could return to Earth
53:41
for a runway landing. It was launched into space by
53:45
external tank with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, propelled by
53:50
two solid rocket boosters that were jettisoned about two minutes
53:53
into the fight and could be reused, but the solid
53:57
rocket boosters had potential weakness. They were constructed in sections
54:02
at the Morton Thigh Call Plan in Utah, shipped across
54:06
the country by rail, and reassembled at the Florida launch site.
54:12
This meant the rocket was fit together at a series
54:14
of field of joints, as they were called, which would
54:18
have to be sealed with an O ring, a supersized
54:22
version of a rubber seal on a kitchen faucet. The
54:26
O rings were only a quarter of an inch thick
54:29
wrapped around the rocket sections at a circumference of thirty
54:33
seven feet. It was well known that the slightest leak
54:38
in an O ring could be catastrophic, so a second
54:41
seal was added for redundancy. NASA insisted the rockets were
54:46
so secure that the probability of failure was too small
54:49
to calculate. They could fly every week for one hundred
54:53
years without incident, the government asserted. At one point. Indeed,
54:58
when a NASO official brief mccalloff and others, he said,
55:02
if a crucial part should fail, a backup assurance success,
55:05
citing the need for such redundancy to prevent a burn
55:08
through in the solid rocket boosters, because we're very concerned
55:12
about the first two minutes you're on the solid rockets,
55:15
one of those rockets goes. Why, it's pretty bad. According
55:19
to I Touched the Future, a nineteen eighty six biography
55:23
of McAuliffe by Robert T.
55:25
Speaker 2: Hohler.
55:26
Speaker 1: After the disaster, Stephen mccaulloff has sought to keep the
55:29
focus of his life's work for education. A little more
55:33
than five months after the explosion, he delivered a speech
55:35
to the National Education Association, in which he urged members
55:39
to remember her legacy by working until we have the
55:42
system that honors teachers and rewards teachers as they deserve.
55:46
Forty years later, that mission is still a work in progress.
55:51
New Hampshire today ranks thirty eighth in starting teacher salaries
55:55
at an average of forty two thousand, five hundred and
55:58
eighty eight dollars, according to the Nation Education Association. In
56:02
nineteen ninety two, seven years after George H. W. Bush
56:05
had announced christ mccalloff's selection at the White House, Bush
56:09
was president and nominated Stephen mccaff to be a judge
56:12
in the U S District Court in New Hampshire, a
56:14
seat mccauloff still holds under part time senior status. The
56:19
pick transcended the fact that mccaulloff was an outspoken Democrat
56:23
and Bush was a Republican seeking re election. Stephen mccauoff,
56:27
who remarried and still lives in New Hampshire's capital city,
56:30
spoke in September of twenty twenty four at the unveiling
56:33
of a statue of Christo on the State House law.
56:36
He focused on Christa's support for teachers, which he said
56:39
is democracy's lifeline and was far more important to her
56:43
than spaceflight. This is still difficult for me, he said,
56:48
which I guess I'm kind of proud of. And this
56:51
concludes the reading of The Washington Post's reading for Today, Tuesday,
56:56
January twenty seven. Your reader has been Rod Brotherton. Now
57:00
please stay tuned for continued news right here on Radio
57:04
I