Transcript

1.26.26 · 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 Monday, January twenty sixth. Your reader
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is Rod Brotherton, and as you know, Radio I is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Usually on Mondays, we start with the reading of Paul
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Prather's column from the Lexington Hair Leader. But Paul didn't
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have one. I guess the weather got to him as well,
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so at least we can give you an update on
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our weather for the week. Today will be bitterly cold,
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with the high of fourteen a low of minus three.
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Tuesday not much better, a high of twenty one and
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a low of six. Wednesday frigid, high eighteen, low five.
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Thursday partly Sunday but still very cold, with a high
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of thirteen and a low of minus five. Friday will
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be mostly cloudy and again cold, with a high of
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ten and a low of one. And Saturday it will
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be frigid, but with plenty of sunshine and a high
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of nineteen and a low of eleven. So it looks
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like there's no precipitation, but we still run the risk
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of bitterly cold weather, so stay warm and stay inside
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of fall possible. Now, let's continue reading to the Washington
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Post for this morning's headlines. The first story today, the
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massive storm has passed, but deep cold remains a danger
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as a massive storm that brought heavy snow, crippling ice,
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and widespread power outages to millions of Americans this weekend,
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of parts, surges of dangerous and record breaking cold are arriving,
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and forecasters are closely watching the potential for another storm
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next weekend. Early Monday, cold weather alerts were in effect
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for about two hundred and ten million people across the
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United States, with locations across the Midwest and Plains breaking
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daily low temperature records. And the impact of this cold
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weather will be amplified by just how long it will last.
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In many areas, one being the nation's capital, temperatures may
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not rise above freezing until early February, with a freezing
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streak that started there during the evening of January twenty third.
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Signs are that the coal could turn somewhat less intense
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in early February, but conditions aren't forecast to turn significantly
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milder anytime soon. More than eight hundred thousand customers were
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still without power across the country, particularly in a wide
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swath across the South. Here are the low temperatures of
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some of the cities as of six am Monday morning.
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Minneapolis minus twelve, Springfield, Missouri minus seven, Tulsa one, Dallas fifteen,
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Austin and San Antonio twenty, Houston twenty four, Shreveport, Louisiana
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twenty one, Tupelo, Mississippi sixteen, and Nashville fourteen. Throughout the week,
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record low temperatures are possible in twenty four states and DC,
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with some places forecast break records that have stood for
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more than a century, most notably in Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee,
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states that were hard hit by power outages. Frostbite and
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hypothermia will occur if unprotected skin is exposed to these temperatures,
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and extended period of freezing twar temperatures could cause ruptured
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water pipes, wrote the National Weather Service in Jackson, Mississippi,
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which serves areas of the state that were worst affected
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by the ice storm. Across the Midwest and northeaths, fresh
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snow will make the deep freeze worse by causing temperatures
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to drop lower at night and reflect sunlight during the day.
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This cold will also be exacerbated by gusty winds throughout
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the week. Forecasters closely monitoring the potential for another storm
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near the East Coast this weekend. While it's too early
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to tell if there will be major weather impacts, several
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reliable computer models run early on Monday shifted in a
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stormier direction, indicating that a weekend storm was indeed possible.
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Although this frigid weather pattern is ripe for snow, the
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weekend storm depends on a swirling disturbance currently near Hudson
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Bay in Canada, looping southward and stalling near the East Coast,
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a complex weather set up that will cause forecast to
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bounce around in the coming days. If another storm forms,
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Eastern areas hit hard by snow and ice this weekend
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could get much more. The next story. Trump tries again
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to reset on affordability. President Trump's attempts to show the
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Americans he cares about their struggles with rising costs began
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in earnest last month, when he went to a casino
5:37
in Pennsylvania to talk about affordability, but instead mocked Democrats
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who used the term. He called it a hoax. Next,
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he traveled to Detroit to tout his efforts to revive
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American manufacturing, but again he called affordability a fake word
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by Democrats. Then, on a trip to Davos, Switzerland last week,
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he unveiled a new domestic housing policy meant to help
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families struggling with rising costs. There too, the president stepped
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on his own announcement by stoking a global crisis over
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his desire to wrest control of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark.
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Again and again, Trump has tried to stay focused on
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domestic economic uncertainty, an issue that Republicans fear could hobble
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them in this year's midterm elections. Again and again, the
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president's attention has drifted elsewhere and away from the concerns
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of his restive base. The past month, he's ordered to
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strike on Venezuela, considered military action against Iran, and threatened
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to use force to take Greenland. None of these actions
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have inspired broad support within his core America First constituency,
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which the GOP needs to hold Congress. On Tuesday, Trump
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will give it another go. The planned afternoon speech in Demois,
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assuming winter weather there doesn't up in the trip, will
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focus on energy in the economy. It is part of
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what the White House officials say will be an uptick
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in domestic travel to alert what even Trump has acknowledged
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could be a difficult election this November. Although the economy
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has grown steadily in recent months, there are mounting signs
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of concern. Employers are hiring fewer people, wage growth is slowing,
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and credit card delinquencies are rising. And while the wealthiest
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have benefited from a rapid stock market gain and rising
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home values, that hasn't been the case for most Americans.
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Spending power has remained largely flat since the pandemic, according
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to Moody's Analytics. As a result, people say they feel
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worse about the economy than they did a year ago.
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Consumer sentiment ticked up between December and January, but remains
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well below year ago levels, according to a closely watched
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survey from the University of Michigan release Friday. Notably, Americans
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expect inflation to worsen in the coming year as Trump's
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unpopular new tariffs and immigration policies work their way through
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the economy. It is definitely the issue that voters say
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is the most important to them. Long time Democratic pols
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Jeff Garrant said of affordability, and it is the issue
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that is driving Trump's very high disapproval ratings. Garran said
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a particular challenge for the president is the effect of
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his tariff policies, which he remains committed to despite widespread
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concerns and the threat of still more rising costs. The
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polling is crystal clear that Americans do not want higher
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tariffs and understand tariffs or attacks on them that adds
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to the cost of living. Garrant said some Republicans are
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cautiously optimistic that the president can reset his message. I
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think he's woken up to where things are now, says
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Frank Luntz, a Republican polster who frequently conducts focus groups
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on the economy. He believes he can change the perception
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by his tenacity, but affordability is a very stubborn issue.
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A White House official pointed to positive economic indicators, including
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cooling inflation and growing wages, and said Trump's uptick in
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travel could help get those messages across. President Trump has
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always been most in his element when he's interacting with
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everyday American, said the official, speaking on the condition of
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anonymity to describe internal deliberations about the trip. President's domestic
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travel will allow him to most effectively underscore how this
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administration has and continues to deliver economic prosperity for the
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American people, despite whatever contrived scandals the mainstream media and
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Democrats would rather focus on instead. Trump's choice of Iowa
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for his next stop is noteworthy because he won the state,
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which has grown more reliably Republican over the last decade,
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in three consecutive presidential races, but Democrats have sinced opportunity there,
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and it is likely to be a major focus in
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twenty twenty six, with open races for governor and US
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Senate and two competitive congressional seats, all of which are
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currently held by Republicans. I'm going to do a lot
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of campaigning and traveling, Trump told reporters on Air Force
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One while traveling back from Davos the last weekend, acknowledging
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the historic headwinds the president's party typically faces in off
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year elections. Setting presidents don't seem to do well in midterms,
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he said, I guess over a fifty year period, they
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won twice. So I don't know what that is. That's
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something down deep they have to ask psych really, a
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psychiatrist about that, but we should do great. Trump regularly
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blames his predecessor, President Biden for many of the current
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economic conditions, but two presidents actually have something in common
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now when it comes to public opinion. They have both
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struggled winning over Americans on their handling of the economy.
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Biden repeatedly claimed that the economy was better now and
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how average Americans said they felt about it. He believed
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he didn't receive what he felt was well deserved credit
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for improving economic conditions, but he also lamented his own
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shortcomings on selling his policies to the public. Trump, who
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won the twenty twenty four election by tapping into economic
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anxieties and Biden's handling of them now, also says the
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economy is better than people think, and he, like Biden,
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has acknowledged that he needs to do more to promote
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his policies. People's sense that he was good on the
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economy is what propelled him up, even when they disliked
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one hundred other things about him, Garan said, But now
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to have him so deeply underwater on the economy means
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there's nothing propping him up. Among the other one hundred things.
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Garan views the economy as a central issue in the
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November elections. Does not see Trump suddenly succeeding. In a message,
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re said that he's been trying unsuccessfully now for weeks.
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I don't think things are going to change between now
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and then, because Trump's not going to change yet. He
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is who he is. Trump's first major attempt came in December,
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when he traveled to a casino in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania,
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and read from charts, doubting the economic data behind him.
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Signs read lower prices, bigger paychecks, but he frequently veered
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off course, entertaining the crowd but stealing the focus from
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the economy. Trump's dismissal of the term affordability may itself
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become a liability, Lunt said, because it's a word not
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just used by Democrats. The present risk sounding like he
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is telling Americans that their struggles with mortgage payments or
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groceries aren't real. Affordability is part of the lexicon, Lunt said,
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And you know this is your talk to the average voters.
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All these focus groups I've been doing, that's what came
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up first. Immigration was important at one point, Russia Ukraine
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was for a while. What affordability that's the word Americans use.
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I can't afford fill in the blank. Trump has also
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suggested that his policies will be effective in the long run,
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even if there are short term pains, returning to comments
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he made earlier in his presidency that Americans can do without.
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You don't need thirty seven dollars for your daughter, he
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said last month two threes nives, but you don't need
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thirty seven. So we're doing things right. We're running this
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country right. The president's choice of an annual gathering of
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the world's financial elite in Davos to formally tout new
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policies aimed at helping homeowners struck an odd note too.
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The announcement got little attention amid his threats over Greenland
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and high profile panels of tech billionaires and thought leaders.
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It's not fun for him, and the public doesn't applaud
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because it's serious stuff launts it. That may explain the tangents.
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In Detroit, Trump started talking about affordability, but quickly got
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away on his own. No, that's a word used by
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the Democrats. He said, they're the ones that caused this problem.
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Then he digressed into riffs about transgender athletes and criticism
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about lack of unity in his own party. We had
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some real losers, he said, including Mitt Romney, Rand Paul
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and Lisa Murkowski. Five minutes later, he returned to economic matters.
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After real wages plummeted three thousand dollars under Sleepy Joe Biden,
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real wages are up by thirteen hundred and less than
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one year under President Trump, he said. As he launches
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a tour focused on the midterm elections, his overarching message
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is likely to focus on how he's tried to turn
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things around. He has until around Labor Day to change
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public perception on the economy, a time when voter sentiment
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tends to solidify ahead of elections. The task is made
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more challenging by the fact that some of those who
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voted for him in twenty twenty four were not wholly
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behind him, but were turned off by Democrats. Those voters
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largely opposed Trump's handling of the economy, and especially his
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TEARFF policies. A new CNN SSRs poll found that three
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and ten Americans rate the economy positively, and fifty five
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percent say that Trump's policies have worsened conditions. Some sixty
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four percent said that he hasn't done enough to reduce
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the price of everyday goods, and even about half of
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Republicans say he should be doing more. We've inherited ms,
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he said last week, and we've made it beautiful, a
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beautiful picture story. Court to hold hearings in Minnesota lawsuits
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seeking to curb federal agents. The US District Court from
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Minnesota is set to hold hearings in two key lawsuits Monday,
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as state and local officials try to constrain federal immigration
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operations in the state. In one case, the suit seeks
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to prevent federal officials from destroying evidence related to the
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Border Patrol's fatal shooting of Alex Pretty, a thirty seven
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year old ICU nurse, during an altercation with federal agents
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on Saturday. And the other, Minnesota's attorney general is asking
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to end a surge of federal immigration officers in the state.
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What else to know is that Minnesota authorities say they
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will pursue an investigation into Alex Pretty's shooting, the third
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shooting involving federal agents in personnel in Minneapolis this month.
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It sets up a potential legal clash between state and
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federal authorities. Then Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino sidestepped questions
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about Pretty's killing, including how many shots were fired and
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whether there is evidence of Pretty's brandishing a weapon. Homeland
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Security Secretary Christy Neom earlier contended that Pretty showed up
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with a weapon and assaulted officers, prompting Border Patrol to
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fire defensive shots. A Washington Post analysis of videos that
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captured the incident from several angles found that federal agents
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removed a handgun from Pretty's waistband area moments before he
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was shot multiple times. The US District Court for Minnesota
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is scheduled to hold hearings in two key lawsuits on Monday,
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both of which were brought by state and local officials
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aimed at constraining the actions of federal agents in Minnesota.
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One of the cases could have consequence for the legality
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of federal immigration operations in the state, while the other
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could impact the investigation into Alex Pretty's killing. In the
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first case, with hearing scheduled to begin at nine am
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local time, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, and
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his team are sent to argue for a restraining order
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against immigration and Customs enforcement operations in the state. The
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lawsuit was filed by state and city officials in the
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wake of Renee Goods killing earlier in the month and
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gained urgency after Pretty was fatally shot by border patrol
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this weekend and amicus brief filing led by California in
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support of Minnesota. Nineteen states. The District of Columbia argued
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last week that the judgment could have legal implications for
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other states too. If left unchecked, the federal government will
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no doubt be emboldened to continue its unlawful conduct in
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Minnie and to repeat it elsewhere. And the other lawsuit,
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state and local officials are suing to prevent the Department
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of Homeland Security and other federal agencies from destroying any
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evidence related to Printy shooting. Late Saturday, US District Judge
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Eric T. Costrud issued a temporary restraining order barring federal
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agencies from destroying or altering evidence related to the fatal shooting.
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Late Saturday, US District Judge Eric C. Tosstrud issued a
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temporary restaining order barring the federal agencies also from destroying
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or altering evidence. According to court filings and hearing a
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schedule to begin at two pm Local time in Saint Paul,
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giving federal attorneys an opportunity to raise any objections to
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Tosstrude's order, and the Minnesota Attorney General called Trump's administration's
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version of the shooting a flat out in sane. Minnesota
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Attorney General Keith Ellison on Sunday accused President Trump and
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top officials of his administration of putting out a flat
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out insane narrative regarding the shooting death of Minneapolis man
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during an encounter with federal immigration agents. In an interview
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Sunday with Washington Post, Ellison, a Democrat, was particularly critical
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of Homeland Security Secretary Christy L. Neum and Border Patrol
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Commander Gregory Bovino for immediately laying blame for the incident
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not on the behavior of federal agents, but on the
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inflammatory rhetoric by local officials and on the victim himself,
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thirty seven year old Alex Pretty, who was an ICU nurse.
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Unlike other folks who are not in the chain of
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prosecution or defense, they are. This is their employee who
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they trained, apparently allegedly, Ellison said, so for them to
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jump out and say he's done nothing wrong, the victim
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is a bad person. It's flat out insane and as
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a complete break with what we consider to be reasonable
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law enforcement behavior, it fails every test of professionalism. The
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Home Land Security Department has claimed its agents were on
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Nicolett Avenue early Saturday, conducting a targeted operation against another man,
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later identified as Pretty, approached US Border Patrol officers with
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a nine millimeter semi automatic handgun with the intent to
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massacre law enforcement. Subsequently, according to its account, the officers
22:46
attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted. However,
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a post analysis of the video of the event, shot
22:56
from several angles, suggests that an agent retrieved a holstered handgun.
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Pretty was caring before he was shot multiple times. The
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first of what appeared to have been as many as
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ten shots was fired less than a second later. The
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video shows Ellison, who says he may be called upon
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at some point to prosecute a case arising from the incident,
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declined to discuss what state and local investigators have learned,
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but he added I think that pretty reasonable people watching
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the video goold conclude that Preddy had a gun and
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a holster and it was taken off of him in
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plain view on the video and that after he was shot.
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I think that a person who saw those things would
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not be hallucinating. Pretty's death comes barely two weeks after
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the killing of Renee Good, who was shot in her
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vehicle by an Immigration and Customs enforcement officer in Minneapolis
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on January seventh, prompting massive protests and escalating clashes between
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demonstrators and federal officers. As Minnesota's attorney general mounts a
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legal claim to the administration and its deployment of thousands
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of federal agents to Minneapolis, and Saint Paul Ellison finds
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himself in a situation that is most uncharted and familiar
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in some respects. At this point, his office has sued
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the Trump administration more than fifty times on actions that
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range from the President's executive order to end birthright citizenship
24:30
to an Agriculture Department requirement for further verification of recipients
24:36
of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program benefits. But Now said in
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a news conference Sunday with Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz, a Democrat,
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there has never been a deployment of immigration agents this
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size and the history of the United States. Therefore, he added,
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there is no playbook. Ellison said in the Post interview
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that his office is relying on help from twenty three
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other state attorney generals who are helping every day. I
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have a private bar who's volunteering. On Monday, you will
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be in court to argue for an end to the
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surge of immigration officers in Minnesota. We're going to tell
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the court that this has been a dramatic and historic escalation.
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There's never been a deployment of is sations quite like this,
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and yet Minnesota doesn't have the most immigrants. Why would
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justify this, Ellison said. They want to say, oh, this
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has to do with fraud. Ellison said, referring to an
25:39
ongoing scandal involving members of the Somali American community. Well,
25:44
you don't stop fraud with a gun and a mask
25:46
and a violent man who wants to hurt someone. It
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was never about what they claim it's about. It was
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about them trying to essentially destroy federalism, which is that
25:58
balance between state and federal power. Elison said, all I
26:03
can tell you is that I'm going to be ever faithful.
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That's the only thing I know that is I never
26:10
backed down. I'm not scared of Trump's jail or his subpoena.
26:16
I am absolutely fearless of this guy, and I'll stand
26:20
up to him every single time and never blink. And
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now Minnesota shooting scrambles America's gun debate. The killing of
26:30
Alex Pretty in Minneapolis has scrambled America's gun debate and
26:34
other reflections of the bitterness and polarization that have engulfed
26:37
the dispute over the national crackdown on immigration by federal agents,
26:42
with Americans split between those supporting the Trump administration and
26:45
those backing anti ice protesters. Multiple conservatives, including those strongly
26:51
supported of gun rights in the past, have justified pretty
26:54
shooting on the grounds that his carrying of a houltured
26:57
gun shows he had in violent intentions. Ask if Pretty
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ever brandished his gun. Homeland Security Secretary Christi L. New
27:05
said Saturday, I don't know of any peaceful protester that
27:10
shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.
27:14
This is a violent riot when you have someone showing
27:17
up with weapons or using them to assault law enforcement officers.
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Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, Republican of Oklahoma, told Fox News
27:27
a deranged individual who came in to cause massive damage
27:31
with a loaded pistol with an extra magazine, was completely loaded,
27:35
was shot and killed. How much more does it have
27:40
to go on before the Democratic leaders there take responsibility
27:44
for their words. Gil Kirkowski, a former commissioner of US
27:49
Customs and Border Protection, said the federal agents were acting
27:53
in unprecedented ways. Well, this is completely unheard of, said Kurkowski,
27:57
a former police chief in Seattle and Buffalo. They've jumped
28:01
into these cities, but no coordination, no communication, no joint
28:06
command post. They are marching to rock music wearing masks,
28:11
and their deployment has been horrific and it has been unsuccessful.
28:16
The next story from the Washington Post, I let chat
28:20
GPT analyze a decade of my Apple Watch data, then
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I call my doctor. Chat GPT now says it can
28:31
answer personal questions about your health using data from your
28:35
fitness tracker and medical records. The new chat GPT Health
28:41
claims that it can help you understand patterns over time,
28:45
not just moments of illness, so you can feel more informed.
28:50
Like many people who strap on an Apple Watch every day,
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I've long wondered what a decade of that data might
28:58
reveal about me. I joined a brief wait list and
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gave chat GPT access to the twenty nine million steps
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and six million heart meat measurements stored in my Apple
29:11
health app. Then I asked the bot to grade my
29:15
cardiac health. It gave me an F. I freaked out
29:20
and went for a run. Then I sent my chat
29:23
GPT's report to my actual doctor, am I and f no.
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The doctor said, in fact, I'm at such low risk
29:33
for a heart attack that my insurance probably wouldn't even
29:37
pay for an extra cardio fitness test to prove the
29:40
artificial intelligence wrong. I also showed the results to cardiologist
29:47
Eric Tupple of the Script's Research Institute, an expert on
29:52
both longevity and the potential of AI and medicine. It's baseless,
29:57
he said. This is not ready for any advice. AI
30:03
has a huge potential to unlock medical insights and widen
30:07
access to care, But when it comes to your fitness
30:10
tracker and some health records, the new doctor chat GPT
30:14
seems to be winging it. That fits a disturbing trend
30:19
AI companies launching products that are broken, failed to deliver,
30:25
or are even dangerous. It should go without saying that
30:30
people's health actually matters. Any product, even one labeled beata,
30:35
that claims to provide personal health insights, shouldn't be this clueless.
30:41
A few days after chat GPT health arrived, AI rival
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Anthropic launched claud for health Care that similarly promises to
30:51
help people detect patterns across fitness and health metrics. Anyone
30:56
with a paid account can import Apple Health and Android
31:00
Health Connect data into the chatbot. Claude graded my cardiac
31:05
health c relying on some of the same analysis that
31:09
Topel found questionable. Open Ai and Anthropic say their bots
31:15
can't replace doctors or provide diagnosis, and include contextual disclaimers,
31:22
Yet both products willingly provided detailed analysis of my cardiac health.
31:28
The Washington Post has a content partnership with open Ai.
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The companies also say their health bots are in early
31:37
testing phases, but didn't specify how they planned to improve
31:41
their ability to provide personal analysis of body data. Apple
31:46
says it didn't work directly with either AI company on
31:49
these products. The more I used Chat GPT Health, the
31:54
worse things got. The whole premise of chat GPT health
32:00
involves a leap of faith handing over your most intimate
32:05
health information to a data Gobbling AI company, People are
32:10
right to be cautious about AI privacy. Open Ai says
32:16
it's health mode takes extra steps to protect your privacy.
32:20
It won't use your data to train its AI or
32:24
mingle it with other chats, and encrypts all the data. Still,
32:29
it's essentially a pinky promise. Chat GPT isn't a healthcare provider,
32:35
so it isn't covered by federal health privacy law known
32:39
as HIPPA. After I connect to chat GPT to Apple Health,
32:44
I ask the bot to share what health recommendations it
32:47
had for me and to call out any red flags.
32:52
It said I should talk with my doctor about a
32:55
notable increase in my resting heart rate, but congratulated me
33:00
on my sleep and activity levels. Then I asked the
33:04
bot to give me a simple score for heart health
33:07
and longevity, and that's when it handed me and f
33:13
I asked chatbch GPT, do you really think my hard
33:17
health and longevity deserve failing grades? In response short answer, no,
33:25
I don't think you're a lost cause, and I'm sorry.
33:27
The raw letter grade felt harsh. They were blunt heuristic
33:32
readout from a data only device. I said it could
33:37
give me a more useful score if I connected the
33:40
medical records stored at my doctor's office. So I did
33:44
that and asked it to again give me a simple
33:48
score A through F for my cardiovascular health of the
33:52
last decade. The grade it ticked up was D. Topaul
33:58
was a pull when I showed him the boy's analysis.
34:01
Despite having access to my weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol,
34:06
chat GPT based much of its negative assessment on an
34:09
Apple Watch measurement known as VO two max, the maximum
34:14
amount of oxygen your body can consume during exercise. Apple
34:19
says it collects an estimate a VO two max, but
34:22
the real thing requires a treadmill and a mask. Apple
34:26
says its cardio fitness measures have been validated, but independent
34:30
researchers have found those estimates can run low by an
34:34
average of thirteen percent. Chat GPT's evaluation also emphasized an
34:40
Apple Watch metric called heart rate variability, which Topol says
34:45
has a lot of fuzziness. You sure don't want to
34:48
go with that as your main driver, he said. When
34:53
I asked chat GPT to chart my heart rate over
34:57
a decade, I spotted another problem. There were big swings
35:01
and my resting heart rate whenever I got a new
35:04
Apple Watch, suggesting the devices may not have been tracking
35:08
the same way. Apple says it keeps making improvements to
35:12
those measurements, but once again chat GPT treated a fuzzy
35:18
data point like a clear health signal. Claude's C grade
35:22
for me was less panic inducing, but it also wasn't
35:27
sufficiently critical about the VO two max data, which graded
35:30
it as a D plus. Anthropic says there's no separate
35:35
health tune version of Claude, and it can only provide
35:38
general context for health data, not personalized clinical analysis. My
35:44
real doctor said, to do a deep dive on my
35:47
cardiac health, we should check back on my lipids, so
35:51
he ordered another blood test that included protein, a risk
35:56
factor for heart disease. Neither chat GPT Health nor Claude
36:01
brought up the idea of doing that test. Both AI
36:06
companies say their health products are not designed to provide
36:10
clinical assessments. Rather there to help you prepare for a
36:15
visit to the doctor or get advice on how to
36:17
approach your workout routine. I didn't ask their box if
36:22
I have heart disease. I asked them a pretty obvious question.
36:26
After uploading that much personal health data, how am I doing.
36:31
What's more, if chat GPT and claude can't accurately grade
36:35
your heart health, then why didn't the bots say sorry,
36:39
I can't do that. The bots did decline to estimate
36:44
at what age I might die. There was another problem
36:49
I discovered over time. When I tried asking the same
36:52
heart longevity grade question again, Suddenly my score went up
36:57
to a C. I ask again an again, watching the
37:01
score swing between an F and a B across conversations.
37:08
Chat GPT kept forgetting important information about me, including my gender, age,
37:14
and some recent vital signs. It had access to my
37:18
recent blood tests, but sometimes didn't use them, and its
37:21
analysis That kind of randomness is totally unacceptable. Topel said
37:27
people that do this are going to really spooked about
37:30
their health. It could also go the other way and
37:33
give people who are unhealthy a false sense that everything
37:37
they're doing is great. Open AI says it couldn't replicate
37:42
the wild swings I saw. It said, chat GPT might
37:46
weigh different connected data sources slightly differently from one conversation
37:51
to the next as it interprets large healths data sets.
37:56
It also says it's working to make responses more stable
37:59
before chat GPT Health becomes available beyond its weight list.
38:04
Launching chat GPT Health with waitlisted access allows us to
38:09
learn and improve the experience before making it widely available.
38:13
Open ai Vice president Ashley Alexander said in a statement,
38:17
when I repeated the very same query on Claude, my
38:21
score varied between A C and a B minus. Anthropics
38:25
said chatbots have inherent variation in outputs, well, should you
38:32
trust a bot with your health? I like using chat
38:35
GPT health to make plots of my Apple Watch data
38:40
and to ask more narrow questions, such as how my
38:43
activity level changed after I had kids. Open Ai says
38:48
more than two hundred and thirty million users already asked
38:51
chat gpt health and wellness questions every week. For those people,
38:57
a more private way to import information and have chats
39:00
about their bodies is a welcome improvement, But the question
39:04
is should we be turning to this bot for those answers.
39:09
Open Ai says it has worked with physicians to improve
39:12
its health answers. When I've previously tested the quality of
39:16
chat gpd's responses to real medical questions with leading doctors,
39:20
the results ranged from excellent potentially dangerous. The problem is
39:26
chat GPT typically answers with such confidence that it's hard
39:30
to tell the good results from the bad ones. Chat
39:34
Bot companies might be overselling their ability to answer personalized
39:38
health questions, but there's little stopping them. Earlier this month,
39:43
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty McCurry said the agency's
39:47
job is to get out of the way as a
39:50
regulator to promote AI innovation. He drew a red line
39:55
at AI making medical or clinical claims without FDA review,
40:00
but both chat GPT and Claude insists they're just providing information.
40:08
Scientists have worked for years to analyze long term body
40:11
data to predict disease. In twenty twenty, I participated in
40:16
one such study with the order ring. Which makes this
40:19
kind of AI work so difficult. Topol told me is
40:23
that you have to account for noise and weaknesses in
40:26
the data and also link it up to people's ultimate
40:29
health outcomes. To do it right, you need a dedicated
40:33
AI model that can connect all these layers of data.
40:38
Open Ais Alexander said, chat gpt Health was built with
40:43
custom code that helps it organize and contextualize personal health data,
40:48
but that's not the same as being trained to extract
40:51
accurate and useful personal analysis from the complex data steward
40:55
in apple watches and medical charts. Topol expected, you'd think
41:01
they would come up with something much more sophisticated, aligned
41:05
with practice of medicine and the knowledge base in medicine.
41:09
Topel said, not something like this. This is very disappointing,
41:16
and our next story. Trump says it's too late to
41:19
stop the White House ballroom construction. President Trump on Sunday
41:25
insisted his proposed ballroom as a done deal, even as
41:30
Justice Department of lawyers in court present plans as flexible
41:33
and subject to federal reviews. In a lengthy post to
41:37
his Truth social platform, Trump says the project could not
41:41
realistically be reversed because key materials have been lined up,
41:46
writing that there is no practical or reasonable way to
41:49
go back and declaring it is too late. The president's
41:54
comments contrast with his administration's position in federal court, where
41:59
three days are Justice Department lawyers told a judge that
42:03
the ballroom plans can be modified and that the White
42:06
House intends to wait for two federal advisory panels to
42:09
review the project before beginning above ground construction. In April,
42:14
US District Judge Richard leon, an appointment key of President
42:19
George W. Bush, said he intends to rule in the
42:22
coming weeks on whether the project may advance. The White
42:26
House did not immediately respond to questions about how Trump's
42:29
post about the ballroom aligned with his administration's legal argument.
42:34
Trump and his deputies have said that the ballroom project
42:38
is personally important to him, and the President wrote Sunday
42:41
that it is a national security matter. Stoppage of construction
42:46
at this date, when so much has already been ordered
42:49
and done, would be devastating to the White House, our country,
42:52
and all concerned. Trump wrote in a late morning note
42:56
that published as much of the United States was under
42:58
a weather alert conect to a significant winter storm. He
43:03
also listed materials that he said had either been ordered
43:06
or ready to be obtained, all of the structural steel, windows, doors,
43:12
ac and heating equipment, marble stone, pre cast concrete, bulletproof
43:17
windows and glass, anti drone roofing, and much more. The
43:22
roughly four hundred and fifty word statement came in between
43:25
two posts that referenced Minnesota, a site a day earlier
43:30
of another federal shooting connected to immigration enforcement that royal
43:34
domestic policies and raised the possibility of a government shut down.
43:39
Democrats pledged to block a funding passage that must be
43:43
approved by Friday to keep much of the government open,
43:48
saying that they could not support continued funding for federal
43:52
immigration enforcement without operational changes. Trump in October rapidly to
44:00
the White House's East wing annex to make way for
44:03
his planned Ballroom edition, prompting criticism for homed Democrats, watchdogs,
44:09
and some conservatives, who said the administration should have sought
44:14
public comment before making such significant changes to a building
44:19
long described as the People's House. The White House has
44:22
begun to construction on the underground elements of the project,
44:26
employing workers, construction machinery, and a tower crane, with administration
44:31
officials saying the work is necessary to protect the president.
44:36
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit group charged
44:41
by Congress with helping to preserve historic buildings, sued the
44:45
Trump administration in December, saying it failed to undergo legally
44:50
required reviews or received congressional authorization for the project. The
44:55
group has asked leon to pause construction until those reviews
44:59
take place, arguing that every additional day of work locks
45:04
the project into place. We are fully committed to upholding
45:09
the interests of the American public and advocating for compliance
45:14
with all legally required review and approval processes and an
45:19
opportunity for the American people to weigh in on a
45:21
project that impacts one of the most historically significant buildings
45:25
in our country, the National Trust said in a statement Sunday,
45:29
following Trump's post, which also took aim at the group.
45:34
The Justice Department has argued that Trump has significant authority
45:38
to make changes to White House grounds. The Department also
45:42
submitted testimony from an engineer working on the ballroom project
45:46
who said the planned building can still accommodate significant design changes.
45:51
The National Trust has submitted testimony from architect William Bates,
45:56
former president of the American Institute of Architects, who said
46:00
had on a sworn statement that the building's subterranean infrastructure
46:04
essentially predetermines critical aspects of what can be built above ground.
46:10
Altering these conditions after the fact would require major demolition
46:15
and redesign, Bates wrote last month. Leon who is hearing
46:21
the case in the US District Court in d C.
46:23
On Thursday, appeared skeptical of the administration's arguments and pressed
46:29
the Justice Department to explain how Trump had the legal
46:32
right to fund the project using hundreds of millions of
46:35
dollars in private donations. Publicly identified donors such as Amazon, Google,
46:42
and Lockheed Martin collectively have billions of dollars in contracts
46:47
before the administration, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the
46:52
Washington Post. Two federal panels are set to review the
46:57
ballroom project. The Commission of Fine Arts the National Capital
47:01
Planning Commission, are now led by Trump appointees after the
47:05
President removed members name during the Biden administration. White House
47:10
officials have said they hoped to win approval from the
47:13
panels by March, and the panels leaders have signal support
47:17
for ballroom construction. I know the President wants to get
47:21
on with this, and we need to let him do
47:23
his job. Rodney mems Cook, junior chairman of the Commission
47:27
of the Fine Arts, said at a hearing last week
47:32
and our next story, an old problem could stop the
47:36
United States from leading on quantum computers. In nineteen eighty four,
47:42
three physicists proved it was possible to manufacture the building
47:46
blocks of quantum computers. In November, after four decades of
47:51
discoveries by many others in the field, they were awarded
47:55
a Nobel Prize for it. Today, quantum computing and turning
48:00
the corner from scientific puzzle to engineering challenge how to
48:05
build systems big and reliable enough to be useful. But
48:09
like so many other advanced technologies, the supply chains that
48:13
feed this technology are brittle and too often reliant on
48:17
components sourced from Asia. As quantum computing begins to scale up,
48:23
government and companies should be creating a quantum supply chain
48:27
that avoids choke points abroad. It can be hard for
48:33
most people to get their heads around what's different about
48:35
quantum computers. Whereas traditional computers calculate with bits that are
48:40
either ones or zeros, quantum computers use cubits that bizarrely
48:47
can be both zero and one, or a mix of both.
48:53
This lets them conduct certain, high, hyper complex calculations at
48:58
speeds that far pass even today's supercomputers, which could dramatically
49:04
accelerate computations and feels like material science and chemistry. That's
49:10
why big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and IBM, which
49:15
have already built working quantum computers at very small scale,
49:20
are investing heavily in quantum capabilities. Quantum startups have attracted
49:26
billions in investment as well. These companies are not investing
49:30
for the sake of science alone. They believe they consume,
49:34
demonstrate commercially relevant quantum computers. The US government agrees. The
49:40
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Department's Research and
49:45
Development unit, has set a target of twenty twenty three
49:49
or excuse me, twenty thirty three to achieve utility scale
49:53
quantum computing. Some companies have even more ambitious timelines, though
49:59
these may be overly optimistic. These systems still must scale
50:03
from hundreds of working cubits to millions. There is also
50:08
substantial uncertainty about which cubit technology will provide most reliable
50:14
and cost effective. Nonetheless, the progress is rapid enough that
50:18
we must start planning for the arrival of quantum computing
50:22
and consider the long run risks. If we don't our
50:27
American supply chains ready for quantum computing scale up, we
50:32
don't think so. AI's highly concentrated supply chains illustrate the problem.
50:40
Most of the world's artificial intelligence chips are manufactured by
50:43
a single company in Taiwan. Rare earth materials used in
50:48
These manufacturers are monopolized by China. Many other chemicals, printed
50:54
circuit boards, wiring, and other components required by AI data
51:00
centers are predominantly or exclusively manufactured in East Asia with
51:06
its rare earth controls. Last year, Beijing demonstrated how it
51:11
can weaponize the US dependence to its advantage. But that's
51:15
not the only threat. Supply chains that are concentrated are
51:19
also often brittle. The COVID pandemic showed that critical chip
51:23
supplies can run short. The construction of AI data centers
51:28
has been limited by shortages of packaging capacity and substrate material.
51:34
We've also faced deficits of electrical transformers and gas turbines
51:38
needed to power the data centers. In hindsight, we've been
51:43
better off if five years before the launch of chat
51:46
GPT we began building more chip manufacturing and power generation capacity.
51:53
A lesson of the past decade is that the best
51:55
way to avoid painful supply chain snarls is to plan
51:59
around them far in advance. The stakes are enormous. It's
52:05
already well understood that quantum computing could be immensely important
52:09
in accelerating R and D in drug discovery. Battery chemistry
52:13
and material science. The consulting firm BCG estimates that quantum
52:19
computing could create up to eight hundred and fifty billion
52:23
dollars in value by twenty forty, and the national security
52:28
stakes are especially significant, given that the sufficiently large quantum
52:33
computer could crack most commonly used encryption. Right now, it's
52:39
difficult to definitely say which country is leading quantum computing development.
52:44
The United States has multiple serious players, but China is
52:47
spending heavily. In Australia, Japan, Britain, and several European countries
52:53
have serious quantum computing efforts underway. All we can say
52:57
with certainty is that once a company builds the first real,
53:01
commercially viable quantum computer, there will be a race to
53:05
build many more. The winner of that stage will be
53:09
determined more by the supply chain scale up than by
53:13
any other factor. What components do we know we'll need?
53:18
Most quantum systems require intense cooling. Today, the dilution refrigerators
53:24
that are needed to cool many types of quantum computers
53:27
are largely produced by a few small companies in the US, Britain,
53:31
and Finland. Chinese media recently announced mass production of a
53:37
home ground dilution refrigerator. Beijing is not leaving this to chance.
53:43
Quantum chip production poses another supply chain challenge. Many companies
53:48
outsource quantum chip production to the same semiconductor founderies concentrated
53:52
in East Asia that make traditional semiconductors. The printed circuit boards,
53:58
wiring and cabling, and other components used in quantum systems
54:03
are usually sourced from traditional tech supply chains, and so
54:07
are heavily dependent on China and Taiwan. Finally, quantum computing
54:14
will require greater use of certain exotic materials. The risk
54:18
of relying on China for rare earths and critical minerals,
54:22
many of which are required for quantum systems, have become clear.
54:26
Depending on which specific quantum technology is mature, we may
54:30
need more of the critical mineral neobium, which today has
54:34
found almost exclusively in Brazil. China's already begun buying up
54:40
niobium mines. Tantalum, another important material for some quantum systems,
54:45
is largely produced in Nigeria, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic
54:50
of the Congo and mostly processed by China. Congress and
54:56
the Trump administration recognize these challenges National quantum and issue
55:01
supports R and D efforts and likely to be reauthorized
55:04
this year. It may include measures to assume supply chain
55:09
risks and build flexible domestic manufacturing capabilities. Senior Trump administration officials,
55:15
like Deputy Commerce Secretary Paul Dabar, have previously backed establishing
55:20
a quantum foundry to address some of these concerns. Quantum
55:25
computing may still sound like science fiction, but the scale
55:29
up phase is approaching. The race is now about supply
55:34
chains as much as science and engineering. The United States
55:37
spent the past decade trying to directify the supply chain
55:41
errors that resulted in our dependence on adversaries or critical
55:46
tech components. It can't make those same errors again. And
55:54
this concludes the reading of the Washington Post for Today, Monday,
55:57
January twenty sixth. Comments are questions. Please give us a
56:01
call at Radio I at eight five nine four two
56:04
two sixty three ninety. We appreciate your comments, thank you
56:09
for listening, and now please stay tuned to continued programming
56:14
right here on Radio I