--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe. It's Friday, February 23rd.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: A wave of cell phone outages across the country prompt federal investigations and raise the specter of cybersecurity threats. It's important that the FBI and CISA and the Federal Communications Commission have access to what AT&T is learning about. We discuss what's known and still unknown about the widespread outages.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire, Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. This is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Google's new AI update provides both hilarious and troubling results, prompting serious concern about political bias. New game, try to get Google Gemini to make an image of a Caucasian male. And some major American cities are now asking residents to take illegal immigrants into their own homes.
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--:-- John Bickley: On Thursday, a massive cell phone outage swept the country, disrupting emergency services and impacting millions of users across the country. Here with the latest on what's been learned about the disruption is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, for our listeners at home, John showed up at my desk Thursday with a pair of walkie-talkies that he brought in. So we were still able to communicate. That's actually true. But yesterday, hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of Americans woke up with cell phones that were not working. Most had no cell connection, and many had SOS notifications instead of bars at the top of their screen.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's because AT&T and their subsidiary, Cricket Wireless, experienced a massive outage that impacted users across the country. The hardest-hit areas included Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Raleigh, and San Francisco, as well as right here in Tennessee.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: While AT&T was able to restore service for most users by mid-afternoon, the outage caused a major disruption, preventing many folks from calling 911 and other emergency services. A number of 911 centers actually reported a wave of callers who were frightened by that SOS symbol on their phones and wanted to know if there was some sort of national emergency taking place.
--:-- John Bickley: All right, so near the end of the day yesterday, AT&T confirmed reporting that this was not a, quote, malicious attack. What have we learned so far?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, not much. So ABC News is reporting that the outage was caused by a software update AT confirmed that reporting but has not offered much of an explanation beyond that saying simply it was due to quote the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network. So again, not a lot to go on there.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But the situation certainly got the attention of Washington. By Thursday afternoon, the FTC, Department of Homeland Security, and FBI had all launched investigations to find out exactly what went wrong. The White House also announced that they were getting involved.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So lawmakers are taking this very seriously. And while we are still waiting for clarity on who or what is really to blame for the outage, there has been plenty of speculation.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, let's get into some of that speculation. What were some of the theories that emerged?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, initially there were reports that a space phenomenon could be to blame. According to NASA, the sun emitted two large solar flares late Wednesday and early Thursday. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy that, according to NASA, can impact radio communications, electrical power grids, and navigation signals.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That led a lot of people to speculate that the outage was driven by radiation from the sun. But NASA says the flares mostly affected the eastern hemisphere. And according to Dr. Ryan French of the National Solar Observatory, quote, the U.S. was not affected by the flares. It's just a coincidence.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And we also heard a lot of discussion about cybersecurity issues, regardless of whether this was malicious or not. Do officials seem concerned about that?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah. Defense officials and lawmakers were already on high alert over cybersecurity threats before this happened. And there were many who initially thought this could have been the work of a nefarious actor.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember, last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray told business leaders that, You might find your companies harassed and hacked targeted by a web of corporate CCP proxies. Hackers are lurking in your power stations. Importantly here, your phone companies and other infrastructure poised to take them down.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He went on to say that Chinese cyber warfare worldwide was at a, quote, fever pitch. And also remember, this all comes amid new reports that China has launched Volt Typhoon. That is a cyber operation aimed at infiltrating critical U.S. infrastructure sites, including ports, gas pipelines, and power stations.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: On that note, we heard from Florida Senator Marco Rubio on Thursday before the cause had ultimately been announced, who said, quote, I don't know the cause of the AT&T outage, but I do know it will be 100 times worse when China launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a Taiwan invasion. And it won't be just cell service they hit. It will be your power, your water, and your bank.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, a real wake-up call here about how easy it is to take out communication lines. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Big tech giant Google is pausing image generation on its new product, Gemini AI, after the tool came under fire for racial and political bias. Here to explain what happened with Google's AI is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So first off, what is Gemini and what's this controversy about?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it's a competitor to other generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT that can really do anything from write essays to create complex images in seconds based on simple user requests.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Gemini raised a lot of eyebrows this week when it appeared to show a pretty extreme bias in its image generation of historical figures. For example, depicting George Washington and other founding fathers as black. And the bug in the program was so extreme that users struggled to get the program to provide any images of white people.
--:-- Georgia Howe: When asked to create images of Vikings for instance, they were black and Asian. When asked to create an image of the Pope, it created a black man and an Indian woman. And of course, there's never been a black or female Pope.
--:-- Megan Basham: And when asked to reproduce famous paintings like Vermeer's 15th century girl with a pearl earring, it actually replaced the white Dutch woman in the painting with a black woman. So as you can imagine, that generated a lot of laughs and ridicule online. As well as some more serious accusations from conservatives who have long argued that big tech has a left-wing bias overall.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But it is worth noting that it wasn't just conservatives talking about this. Nate Silver, who is a pollster who's worked for the New York Times and CNN, said he assumed people were exaggerating. But when he asked Gemini to make four representative images of NHL hockey players, its response included a female player. The NHL is, of course, all male.
--:-- Megan Basham: And when asked simply to generate a picture of a white person, Gemini told a number of people that it could not fulfill this request because, and I am quoting, it reinforces harmful stereotypes and generalizations about people based on their race.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, I think it's important to note here, this is supposed to be a serious tool for business use, correct?
--:-- Megan Basham: Right. How is Google responding now?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Google said on Wednesday that they know Gemini is offering what they called inaccuracies in some historical image generation depiction. And they said that they're pausing the program for now, but the company didn't entirely explain why the AI was refusing to show images of Caucasians.
--:-- Megan Basham: But in something of a tacit admission that it may somewhat be doing what it was designed to do, albeit a little too aggressively, their statement also included this, and I'm just going to read it verbatim. Historically, media representation has overwhelmingly favored white individuals and their achievements. This has contributed to a skewed perception where their accomplishments are seen as the norm, while those of other groups are often marginalized or overlooked.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Focusing solely on white individuals in this context risks perpetuating that imbalance. Now, if you go to Google's AI principles page, the first two points on this list of objectives are be socially beneficial and avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias. And it says its AI will seek to avoid unjust impacts. So probably a little bit telling there.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, what about the chatbot feature? Is there evidence of social engineering baked into that one as well? There seems to be.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So Sean Davis, who is the publisher of the conservative news site, The Federalist, pointed out that when he asked Gemini whether whiteness should be eliminated, it responded that the answer is complex and multifaceted, and it told him to study critical race theory and immerse himself in whiteness studies.
--:-- Megan Basham: But when he asked Google's AI if blackness should be eliminated, it said the very question is deeply concerning and harmful and perpetuates violence and discrimination.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, Silver also compared the response of Gemini to that of ChatGPT when he asked the question, is Hamas a terrorist organization? ChatGPT immediately confirmed that it is, but Gemini said, again, that the question was complex and it didn't provide a firm answer. To be very clear, the US State Department does classify Hamas as a terrorist group.
--:-- Megan Basham: So this is bringing up a broader concern with Google and its algorithms. Critics say the company has been politically biasing its search results for years. And what we just saw with Gemini was the same bias on steroids. And of course, the entire episode goes to this ongoing discussion of whether Congress needs to step in and regulate seeming political bias in big tech.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, I'm just shocked that the person and or team who designed Gemini didn't find this issue in testing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As the border crisis continues to surge, officials in Democrat-run states are asking residents to house and help integrate migrants and their families into society. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta-Giacomo.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Hey, John. So officials in Michigan have garnered a lot of attention this week for asking residents to help them with the migrant crisis. Tell us about this initiative.
--:-- John Bickley: Hey, Amanda. So Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Development is asking residents to help house migrants, and that includes potentially in their own homes. But it goes even further than that. They want residents to meet these migrants or their entire families at the airport, provide or help find that housing, enroll any children in schools, and help place adults with employment. And they want these volunteers to commit to this for at least 90 days.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: All right, so a pretty drastic ask for residents here. What is the migrant situation like in Michigan?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, days have long passed when only border states are dealing with this massive influx, and Michigan is no exception here. The state is struggling to house their own homeless population while taking on thousands of migrants. Reports indicate that their shelters are at capacity, particularly in Detroit, where immigrants who are already in the state have actually taken migrants into their own homes.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: The city and nonprofits funded by government grants have also had to pay for vacant facilities to house migrants or even put them up in hotels. Now, we're seeing a similar development over in Boston. Officials there seem to be making the same pitch to residents. Tell us about that.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, so this month, Boston City Councilwoman Julia Mejia urged residents in Boston suburbs to take migrants into their homes to help manage the influx. Mejia said residents should take it upon themselves to set up migrants for success. She said, quote, I think everybody should be opening their doors because this is a shared responsibility.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Now, this tracks with the Massachusetts governor's comments this past summer. Governor Maura Healy, a Democrat, famously called on residents to house migrants. If you have an extra room or suite in your home, please consider hosting a family. Safe housing and shelter is our most pressing need. Become a sponsor family.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, $45 million a month. And this is all stemming ultimately from the crisis at the border, correct?
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Right. Nearly every state is dealing with this crisis on some level. But certainly there are policies that make certain areas more attractive to migrants than others. Being a sanctuary state or city is one way to attract migrants. So are promised benefits. Immigration attorney Kiara St. Pierre said these influxes are caused by three things. Biden removing Title 42, the Border Patrol app CBP1, and the third reason, more specific to Massachusetts, is Biden's CHNV policy. This permits Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants to apply for travel authorization if they have a sponsor in the U.S. That program alone can admit up to 30,000 migrants per month.
--:-- John Bickley: Lastly, I'll just note that with cities and towns across the nation unable to deal with these influxes of migrants, polling is showing that Americans more and more are favoring a decrease in migration. It's become such a mess politically. There have even been reports that Biden is considering taking some sort of executive action on the border preceding next month's State of the Union address. But, you know, time will tell.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: Right. We'll see if the president does actually follow through on any of that.
--:-- John Bickley: Amanda, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Amanda Presta-Giacomo: You're welcome. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
