This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro

This week, I interviewed Dr. Dane Quinn who is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Akron, while I was hosting the Ray Horner Morning show. I wanted to hear what he thinks about future employment prospects for students interested in pursuing that type of degree, in the face of so much change and disruption expected from AI.

Dr. Dane Quinn, University of Akron's Professor of Mechanical Engineering, joined Jeanne Destro to discuss the future of engineering, employment, and more.

As tech giants ramp up their investments in AI, and artificial intelligence-driven applications continue to be deployed throughout society; both the costs and benefits of this rapidly developing technology were on display in dramatic ways this week. Listen now, as we find out more about how the Stock Market reacted to concerns about returns on investments in AI, how teen reliance on AI chatbots to alleviate loneliness is becoming a mental health issue, Disney licensing some of its most iconic characters to OpenAI, and the Akron Police Department using an AI-powered virtual assistant to help answer non-emergency calls.

There is a new legal battle brewing now between the Trump administration and states, including Ohio, over who gets to regulate AI. Congress recently punted on the question, when they refused to pass a measure embedded in the recent continuing resolution that reopened the federal government, that would have denied states the right to regulate AI.  But that did not make President Trump happy, and just yesterday; he signed an executive order to stop "excessive" state regulation of Artificial intelligence. Exactly how his administration is going to define "excessive" is still up in the air though, and may not sit well with states like California, Colorado, Tennessee, and Utah, which have already passed some form of AI regulation, or, like Ohio, Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut, and Virginia; are working on it now. That's because there is a lot of genuine concern at the state level, about the kind of harm that unregulated AI could do, or perhaps already has done to citizens. In addition, because it is not exempt under federal law from civil liability claims like other technologies including social media platforms; the states actually do have very solid legal standing to write their own laws. At least; that's what they'll likely be arguing in court, sometime in the not too distant future, as we'll hear today from our special guest, Legal Analyst, and University of Akron Law Professor, Emeritus; Dean Carro. Listen now.

Imagine you are a hit-making musician.   Then, imagine that you are excited about sharing your work, and making a living, when– poof–it all evaporates because somebody, somewhere on the internet, just ripped you off.  Well, that’s exactly what’s been happening to creative artists of all types, especially musicians, at an ever-accelerating speed since the dawn of the internet. And, because federal law shields digital platforms from getting sued for copyright infringement on the part of people who use their services; digital piracy continues to flourish. But copyright owners are just plain sick of it. They’re tired of letting other people steal their work, distribute it worldwide, and getting nothing in return. So, they fought back in a big way, suing Cox Communications for copyright infringement.  But, you may be wondering; why Cox Communications? After all, they are not a big online platform like YouTube, or Facebook, for example. They are an internet service provider. They don't actually host the copyrighted material. All they do, is pipe it into your home, office, hospital, or wherever. They are in fact, like a telephone line, transmitting information across the wire. They are simply the conduit, the pass-through, the man in the middle. At least; that’s their argument. But Sony Entertainment wasn’t having any of that. They argued that because they notified Cox about the copyrighted material flowing through their network, and Cox chose to transmit it anyway; they are liable, and a jury back in 2019 agreed to the tune of a billion dollars. The song isn’t over though, as part of that jury verdict was overturned on appeal, what is at stake is perhaps internet service providers having to cut off customer access, and at the whole complicated legal ball of wax wound up before the US Supreme Court this week.  So, who will win?   I asked CBS News Radio Legal Analyst, and Correspondent, Thane Rosenbaum: