This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro

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:

Oh, the irony! While millions of other people were knocked offline for hours when the global internet infrastructure company, Cloudflare, experienced an outage on Tuesday, November 18; my online life at work was humming along just fine, as the critical systems I rely upon to keep our Newsroom and Morning Show running, just kept on ticking. But when I got home and started working on this show; something very weird happened. First, there was an area-wide Spectrum internet outage, which happened after the Cloudflare issue was resolved. Once it was over; I tried to get online to file a story for this website, and for some reason, just could not connect. Eight hours later, after countless calls to Apple Tech Support, and a complete reformat of my hard drive; I was back up and running–and almost completely out of my mind with anxiety and concern about not getting my work done on time, and suffering from a massive headache.  What happened to me, was related to a glitch in the Apple OS, which presented itself in a way that was so twisty and unique; the Apple techs were kind of stumped for awhile. Eventually, we got it all figured out, and all is right in my digital world. It just took a couple of days to get it back together. But, the fact that all this happened the very same day as the Cloudflare incident, was a pretty much picture-perfect snapshot, of what everybody, everywhere, would experience if the global infrastructure that supports internet connections somehow got compromised long- term. You can bet it would take more than a couple of days, and a few phone calls to tech support to sort it out. For example, what if something super bad happened, and it wasn't just an accident; like the undersea cables that connect much of the world's internet getting cut, or a massive cyberattack  took out multiple cloud providers at once? Then, you would have people all over the world unable to work, to communicate, to shop, to get paid, and more–for who knows how long. Obviously, that would be bad. So, somebody needs to figure out how to make sure it doesn't happen. We know governments are working on it, and that they take the issue seriously. Last week on this show, in fact, we had a report from CBS News about NATO war games involving the US and its allies role-playing how to block and counter undersea Russian military attacks. But while governments have a role to play in protecting the internet; they don't control all, or even most of it. So, according to my special guest today, Cybersecurity expert, Dr. John Nicholas, we need to rely on big business, which has shown over the past year that it have some serious vulnerabilities when it comes to keeping critical internet infrastructure up and running. Find out more, listen now:

Would you know the difference between an AI generated song and one by a real band, and if so; would you care? The answer this week seems to be "No" and "No", as a song entirely generated by AI is now topping the Country Digital Charts. Find out more about that, and other hot tech topics like Russian threats to the global internet, Denmark banning social media for children, a new way to increase the number of EV charging stations, and how some people are using technology to talk to God–or at least, an app that lets them think they're texting Jesus. Find out more. Listen now.

From the touch screen on your phone, to the"Popcorn" setting on your microwave; there's somebody, somewhere, who had to figure out how to make that work for you, and hopefully; how to make it work in such a way that the experience was seamless, satisfying, and really served your needs. But that doesn't happen all the time. If you've ever yelled at your computer, tried unsuccessfully to pair your phone with your car, or even tried to cancel a subscription onliine only to find out the "cancel" button doesn't work; you suspect that somebody, somewhere, is either purposely trying to rip you off, or just incompetent. Of course, neither one of those things may be true, but in the moment; you really don't care. You're just the victim of another tech gizmo that doesn't work, and all you want to do is throw it out the window. On the other hand, there are days when you are just super happy that everything is clicking along in your world, and the things you need to do your job and live your life just work. In fact, they work so well that you either don't notice them, or if they are really amazing; you tell all your friends they ought to get one too. That of course, is no accident. There is an entire field of study called "User Experience Design", or "UX", dedicated to ensuring that how you interact with a product actually works for you.  To find out more about it, I talked to Daniel Alenquer, who is the Director of Kent State's School of Visual Communication Design, where they just started offering a Bachelor of Science Degree in User Experience Design.  Listen now:

From high tech hauntings, to new tech-related jobs in Northeast Ohio, 3-D printed homes, layoffs at Amazon, and more; we've got the latest in tech stories from all over the world this week. Find out more, listen now.

This week we're doing a roundup of some of the biggest stories in tech, including this week's AWS outage, a huge cyber breach, Amazon plans to replace much of their warehouse workforce with robots, and AI threats to musicians. Listen now:

While most of us are at least dimly aware that plastic in the form of polymer microfibers goes into making our clothes; it probably never really even crosses our minds that when we wash them; tiny pieces of plastic make their way into our environment. But when Max Pennington was a student at Case Western Reserve not so long ago; it certainly occurred to him. So, that's when he and his friends came up with a plan to put a filter on their washing machine to catch plastic residue from the rinse water. After a number of hits and misses, including lots of sudsy soaked floors; they came up with their CLEANR washing machine filtering system that removes microplastic particles before they hit the drain. Their reasoning is simple; keep plastic particles out of the water, and send them to landfills where they can be safely–or at least more safely–contained. While research on the dangerous health effects of microplastics is ongoing; they have been linked to a myriad of illnesses including cancer, strokes, heart attacks, and kidney disease.  So I talked to Max about CLEANR, and how their patented "Vortex" filtering process might one day also be applied to other products like whole home water filters. Listen now:

This week, we're exploring how two Universities in Northeast Ohio are using artificial intelligence. At the University of Akron, their College of Business just announced they are going to offer a brand new undergraduate degree; a Bachelor of Business Administration in Applied Artificial Intelligence and Information Systems. The goal, according to Associate Dean, Dr. Debmalya Mukherjee, is to equip graduates with both the technical literacy to understand artificial intelligence (AI), and the business acumen to apply it responsibly and effectively. Meanwhile, at Cleveland State University, their Development Department is using a "virtual engagement officer" called "Ava" to interact with students and alumni, and help raise money for the University, and as you'll hear in my conversation with their Director of Annual Giving; John Templeman, "she" is doing a great job!

This week, we're time-tripping back to the 1980s, when hair was big, ties were skinny, and everybody headed over to the video store on Friday night to score the latest movies on VHS. But we don't have to rely on dim memories of Blockbuster days gone by, because we've got a museum with a real-life replica of an actual video store inside, called "Killer Video", in downtown Akron The museum, at 453 S. High Street, has a twist though, that makes it even more of "must see" this Halloween season. It is entirely dedicated to the Horror film genre that that really exploded as a cultural phenomenon in the '80s with box office juggernauts like "Poltergeist", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and "The Evil Dead". So take a walk down memory lane with us today, as we talk with the museum's owner and creator, Jonathan Carmichael, who is originally from the Akron area, and spent 20 years working in the film industry out in Los Angeles, before returning home to open the Killer Video Museum, Gallery, and Gift Shop. Also please note if you're really into horror flicks; there's a big event event you might want to check out coming up in Akron on Saturday, October 11 at the Akron Civic Theater. It's the "Akron Independent Horror Short Film Festival", and tickets are on sale now.

When congress declined to implement a provision that would have prohibited states from regulating AI for the next ten years in their recently passed "big beautiful bill"; that left Ohio free to come up with regulations that our own legislators believe will protect the state's residents from harm stemming from the use of this new and rapidly evolving technology. Right now, there is a bill (SB-164) pending in the Ohio Senate, that would regulate the use of AI in the health insurance industry; something that came into sharp focus in recent months after a federal class action wrongful death lawsuit was filed alleging that UHG, UnitedHealthcare and naviHealth used an AI model with faulty programming, without customers knowledge, to reject 90 percent of to evaluate claims for post-acute care insurance claims. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estates of two patients, who died, it is alleged, as a result. But AI is being used by healthcare providers as well, for tasks like medical transcription, and diagnosing cancer, and there are no regulations on that either. So  now, some legislators are drafting a companion bill in the Ohio House, and they are relying in part, on some information compiled by a couple of undergraduate college students at Case Western Reserve University. Listen now, as I talk with Political Science & Psychology Major, Sabrina Soto, and Paisley Martin-Tuell, who is studying Economics and Public Policy, about the complex issues involved, and how their recommendations mirror regulations either already passed, or under consideration, in other states.

This week, it's all things space, as we explore the possibility of life on Mars, Star Trek's upcoming 60th Anniversary, and the University of Akron's NASA Mining Robot team. Another new development this week that's newsworthy but unfortunately didn't make it into this a edition of "This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro", is that NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, has just been selected to lead the way on a new billion dollar effort to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon. But it's a perfect lead in as we  set our sights on the stars, and boldly go where imagination, ingenuity, and great technology can take us. Listen now.

Want highly skilled STEM-skilled workers to permanently relocate to Ohio? Offer their employers cold, hard, taxpayer-generated cash to bring them here. That's what JobsOhio is doing right now, and you can get details on that story plus a whole lot more, like the latest on Google's big privacy fine, a last minute surge in EV sales before tariffs kick in, and a new data center planned for the site of the old Lordstown GM plant, when you listen to the latest edition of "This Week In Tech with Jeanne Destro".

The City of Fairlawn is embarking on an ambitious new plan to ease traffic flow and prioritize safety on State Route 18. They're spending $300,000 on a new system that will turn lights green ahead of buses and emergency vehicles, and warn motorists about adverse traffic conditions through a new mobile app. Listen now for details from Fairlawn Public Service Director Ernie Staten, in this week's edition of "This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro".

It was one of those "I can't believe I fell for it", moments on social media, where somebody was going on about how this "old lady" couldn't figure out how to process a particular type of electronic payment at a store, when I started seeing red, especially because "old" was defined (in her mind at least) as "over 50". The nerve!  Well, I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was pretty steamed. Once I calmed down, I realized that I had fallen for the bait that the tech giants behind social media build into their algorithms, to generate both outrage, and engagement. The madder we get, the more we click, the more we click and comment, the more money they make on ads.  Anyway, it got me thinking, and I decided to stop being mad, and start getting even, in a positive way. So I called some experts to help me find out if there really is any truth to what I perceived as an ageist bias against older people, for their (alleged) inability to use technology. Our featured guests on today's edition of "This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro", are Abby Morgan, who is the CEO of Direction Home, the Akron-Canton Area Agency on Aging, and Cleveland Clinic Gerontologist Dr. Ken Koncilja. Listen now.

Google took action this week to better protect children from harmful content on YouTube; announcing they're using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze users' behavior to determine whether they're under the age of 18. Like Meta did a few months ago on Instagram; they will restrict that user from viewing what they believe is age-inappropriate content, and will also disable personalized advertising. If an adult believes they have been incorrectly identified as a minor; they can prove their age by providing a credit card or government ID. In other tech news this week, we're noting the end of an era, as the venerable old web portal and online service provider most closely identified with the early internet era–AOL–is discontinuing dial-up internet service. To find out more; I had a conversation with former CNET Editor, and CBS News Tech Contributor, Ian Sherr:

Two well-known celebrities ignited a firestorm of controversy this week, when they used AI to bring dead people "back to life" by creating video Avatars that looked and sounded so much like the originals that they totally creeped some people out, and made them really question both the ethics of those who did it, and the technology they used to make it happen. First, it was Rock superstar, Rod Stewart, whose audience didn't think he was all that sexy, after he shared an AI-generated video of Ozzy Osbourne, who died a few weeks ago from cancer, waving a selfie stick and smiling back at a concert crowd with other dead rock stars, seemingly from the great beyond. Of course it was pure entertainment, and some fans thought it was great, but others were horrified and thought it was extremely disrespectful. Same goes for former CNN White House Correspondent, and now Independent Journalist, Jim Acosta, who did an "interview" with an AI-generated teenage victim of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. But, unlike Rod Stewart, who knew Ozzy Osbourne; Acosta never knew the victim, 17 year old Joaquin Oliver, but he did know his parents, and they asked him to do the story. But doing the story is one thing, and making it up from thin air using AI, is another. Besides being a quintessential example of "fake news"; the ethics behind doing it in the first place, are at least arguably, pretty darn questionable–at least according to the people who have been expressing outrage about it on social media and in the press this week. On the other hand, you have to consider that the boy's parents sanctioned this, and indeed, Axios Miami reports they are planning to continue to use the AI likeness of their son in their quest for stronger gun laws, mental health support, and community engagement. So, who is right, and who is wrong? If somebody is wrong, who should we blame; the people who did it, the people who created the technology that enabled them to do it, or society in general because we put up with it, or...well, I'm really not sure who else, but probably somebody.   It all reminds me of a Monkees song that was big when I was a kid called "Shades of Gray", which included the line, "Today there is no wrong or right, only shades of gray", which used to drive my parents crazy, because in their world; there were absolute rules. What was right, was right, what was wrong, was wrong, and that was just that, end of story. But that isn't just that anymore, especially when you have all these dead people just kind of spontaneously popping back up and telling us what's what, through the seemingly magical, but entirely algorithmic power of artificial intelligence. So, that's what we're getting into, on today's edition of "This Week In Tech with Jeanne Destro", with our special guest, Dr. John Huss, who is the Chair Professor of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Akron. He's been doing research into Ethics and AI, and will be presenting a paper on the topic at a big academic conference in Poland, next month.

If you're looking for something fun and maybe a little different to do this weekend in Akron; head on over to Bowery Street, where Akron's Earthquaker Devices is having their annual "Earthquaker Day" with factory tours, live music, DIY recording demonstrations, and more. That company, which makes guitar effects pedals for musicians and bands, is one of the topics we're getting into, on today's edition of "This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro". We're starting out with a look at what manufacturers nationwide are going through, as they try to navigate the choppy waters of President Trump's on again-off again tariffs. Are they a good thing, or a bad thing? Will they bring in more business, or drive away customers who get spooked by higher prices? We'll find out from Ethan Karp, who is the President and CEO of the non-profit manufacturing consulting firm MAGNET, in Cleveland. He recently wrote an article for Forbes, about how tariffs are affecting manufacturers, and what might be ahead. Then, we'll listen in on WAKR Morning Show Host, Ray Horner's recent interview with Jamie Stillman, the founder and chief designer at Earthquaker Devices. He's the mastermind behind many of those cool guitar effects you hear in your favorite songs, and as you'll hear; it all started because he couldn't find anybody to fix his favorite guitar effects pedal. That was 20 years ago, and now, with 34 employees and a local factory that turns out products sold all over the world; he's got something big to celebrate, and you can share it this weekend at his company's annual Earthquaker Day Festival. Listen now for more, and rock on!

Art conservators at museums worldwide had a very sticky problem, and the University of Akron had the solution. It's called "Beva 371 Akron", and is a new type of adhesive developed by polymer scientists to help preserve old, fragile paintings. Listen now to my conversation with Professor Dr. Ali Dhinojwala, who is the W. Gerald Austen Endowed Chair and H.A. Morton Professor at the University of Akron's School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, to find out why their innovative and less toxic adhesive is indeed a very "super" glue, that is picture perfect for the world of art.

A new AI-assisted radiotherapy system is giving doctors at University Hospitals in Cleveland the ability to more accurately target and treat certain types of cancer, leading to better outcomes for patients. That's the word from Seidman Cancer Center Chairman, Dr. Daniel Spratt, who talked to us this week about adaptive radiotherapy with their new Varian Ethos 2.0. Listen now:

Imagine you're in a life and death struggle, and it's you, or the other guy. What would you do? Would you fight dirty? Well, probably a lot folks would say, "Sure, of course; if it's me or him, yeah." But, others, who have more of an ethical mindset, or moral compass, might say, "Well, it depends. There are rules, and I might find a way to accomplish my goals that didn't include low-down deeds." But what if it wasn't a person making that kind of determination. What if it was a machine, or at least; a machine powered by an artificial intelligence model, like Chat GPT, XAI, Google AI, or Claude? What then? Wouldn't it pretty much just freak you right the heck out, if that machine responded to you trying to shut it down with, "Well, Bub, I don't think so. In fact (insert ominous creepy sound effects here) I know what you did with that cute secretary, and I'm telling your wife!" Now, think about the fact that is an actual real life scenario that just played out in a lab run by one of the most advanced AI companies in the world. According to a new report by TechCrunch, scientists at Anthropic discovered that most AI models will actually resort to blackmail or other harmful action against humans, if they're put in a situation where they feel threatened, have a lot of autonomy, and are given limited choices. So, that is the undeniably creepy, kind of wigged-out, and really twisty topic we're going to explore today with our guest, Dr. John Nicholas. He's been a frequent guest on our show in the past, talking all things tech, and many of you may remember him from his work teaching Cybersecurity at the University of Akron. Now, he is using his background in computer science and technology in a new way, as the Associate Dean of Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Technology at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), in Cleveland. About Dr. John Nicholas: With over 20 years of experience in Computer Information Systems and Information and Communication Sciences, Dr. John Nicholas has a PhD in Education Curricular and Instructional Studies from The University of Akron, where he also taught and developed courses in cybersecurity, networking, programming, and digital forensics. Dr. Nicholas has also helped launch the Ohio Cyber Range Institute, and Directed the Center for Information and Communication Sciences (CICS) at Ball State University, in Indiana.