Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

Multiple tornadoes touching down in Texas, dramatic video shows the moment a suspected gunman was tackled by police just outside San Francisco, the batch of classified documents found at the home of former VP Pence, the new chatbot that can churn out school papers in just a few clicks and the historic Oscar nominees just announced.

Tonight breaking news, the tornado emergency at this hour. At least four reported twisters touching down in Texas. A confirmed tornado tearing through a suburb of Houston. Roofs ripped off homes, streets flooded. Several injuries reported. The threat continuing into the night, our team live in the path of the storm and standing by with the full forecast. Dramatic video showing the moment a suspected gunman was tackled by police just outside of San Francisco.

that man allegedly responsible for the second mass shooting in the state in just 48 hours. Seven people killed across two rural locations. This after 11 were killed at that dance hall in Southern California. The new details tonight coming in about those lives lost. Also breaking another batch of classified documents found this time at the home of former vice president, Mike Pence. The discovery coming after similar documents were found at the homes of President Biden and Trump. The lawmaker tonight calling this.

A bipartisan epidemic. The new reporting from Washington tonight, the Biden administration planning to send a fleet of the military's top tanks to Ukraine after weeks of debate. How many they're expected to send and how soon those reinforcements could arrive. Plus the terrifying moment caught on camera in New York, an SUV barreling onto the sidewalk, slamming into a fruit stand. What we're learning tonight about injuries at the scene. And Robot got your homework? Some students taking full advantage of a new chatbot that can churn out. A-plus papers with just a few clicks.

We'll walk you through how it exactly works and how some professors are scrambling to find ways to detect it. Top story starts now. And good evening. We want to get right to that breaking news tonight, a tornado emergency declared near Houston as severe storms tear through the area.

At least four possible twisters and multiple injuries reported. And we are getting the first images of the damage into the news, room. Here they are right here. A confirmed tornado sweeping through Pasadena, Texas late today. Roofs ripped off their homes. You see it there, an entire neighborhood littered with debris. Heavy wind sending this tractor trailer toppling over a median knocking open fire hydrants and destroying cars in nearby parking lots. In neighboring Spring, Texas, cars swallowed

by the rising floodwaters, others drivers left stranded. New Orleans now directly in the path of this storm. Morgan Chesky is there live for us tonight. Morgan, out of the corner of my I can see the radar, the live radar. And what it's shown is that this storm is headed right for you and your team. Tell us what you're experiencing tonight. Tom, conditions only starting to deteriorate here in New Orleans. We have a wind gust warning that will last until tomorrow morning. They could be hitting 55 miles an hour.

But those high winds that were already feeling, not the concern you mentioned it, Tom. It will be the tornadoes. A tornado watch and effect until 1 a.m. here in New Orleans. And that is what people are being aware of because they know all too well the severe weather impact that can happen in January, in February here, almost any time of year when you get the conditions like they are over the next 48 hours. But you mentioned that damage in Texas. We have some new video just in showing the path of that confirmed tornado through Pasadena, that suburb of Texas. And this was what was remarkably here, Tom, is the National Weather Service not wasting any time confirming this tornado. saying that it would telltale sign on the radar left. No doubt the damage left behind as to what it was. We do know that they're still surveying the damage, but there was one confirmed tornado,

multiple reported tornadoes in that area. And among the damage, early reports of injuries, we know three people were taken to a nearby hospital with injuries, and a animal shelter that was struck Tom had one employee and two dogs that were injured as a result of this fast-moving storm that left wind damage. And as you mentioned, people trapped inside cars as those low-lying areas flooded with this storm. Right now, the rain not falling here in New Orleans. That is expected to change in the next hour or two. We can have a real problem in our hands because, as we know all too well, it does not take a lot of rain in this city for the low-lying areas to flood. And this is an area that just several weeks ago was struck by a reporter to

Now they're facing the threat yet again, something that everyone here is all too familiar with. Tom? Yeah, in the last few months, Louisiana has become a tornado magnet. All right, Morgan, you and your team stay safe tonight. We appreciate your reporting. I want to get right over to Bill Karens, our NBC News meteorologist. Bill, I know you and your team have been tracking two major weather systems, including the tornadoes that are occurring right now. Walk us through what's happening.

So the tornado we showed you all the pictures from. That was this little red icon right here near Deer Park in Pasadena. And since then, we've taken that line. of storms and look at all the new tornado reports going up now a lot of these happened after dark we don't know yet how bad they were a lot of them were over kind of rural areas so it's going to take a lot longer for the crews to get out there and assess the damage and get anyone rescued that needs it but this is now heading into areas of louisiana we've had at least now 10 or 11 tornado reports and this will classify then as a tornado outbreak another one this is like our third or fourth one this month

alone in january which is extremely rare so here's our current line of storms no active tornado warnings That's good. A lot of lightning with these storms. And we will take this to New Orleans right around 11 p.m. or midnight local time in New Orleans is when that line will go through. And you saw how windy it is. A big concern is that the power will get knocked out from the high winds ahead. And then people won't get their tornado warnings, Tom, if they don't have powers. That's a huge issue. Yeah, we're going to stay on top of the tornado outbreak throughout this broadcast. Also get us up to speed on that winter storm we've been tracking as well. Yeah, so we got the severe weather. And then after all that, we're still going to have about, oh, what was it, now up to 82 million. billion people that are included in winter weather advisories or warning. So these are all the people that are waking up in the morning, wondering if they have school tomorrow, wondering if work is delayed. Missouri, areas of Illinois, St. Louis, include to Indianapolis, a major snowstorm for you, Toledo to Cleveland. And then tomorrow night, we take that entire mess northwards up into areas of the northeast. So snow totals, it's going to be around four to six inches, St. Louis, up to six to eight inches, Indianapolis. And it doesn't look like, Tom, not this time for New York

and D.C. and Philly. Still, no snow. Okay, we hope you're right. Bill, we appreciate all of that. We want to now move on to another major story. Another major story we're following tonight. A painful familiar scene in America, another mass shooting reported in California. The second in just 48 hours. This went in Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco. Dramatic video showing the moment you see it here,

the suspected gunman was taken down by police in front of cameras in the parking lot of the sheriff's office. That man accused of killing seven people across two rural locations. That deadly spree, one of 39 mass shootings defined as incidents in which four more people are shot or killed since the start of just 2023 and we're just 24 days in. It comes two days after the Lunar New Year massacre in Monterey Park in Southern California. 11 people killed, a cross laid out for each one of them. It has been done in the wake of so many tragedies in this country.

We will have much more on the lives lost in a moment. But first, Miguel Almagher is in Northern California tonight. deputies made the arrest just outside the sheriff's department's front door the 66-year-old suspected gunmen who investigators say killed seven farm workers whisked into custody after an officer spotted the man in a car with a semi-automatic weapon we found him with his seat back he was laying in the front seat and luckily we're able to apprehend him quickly authorities say chunli Zao began his rampage just before 2.30 p.m. Monday in Half Moon Bay at this farm where he worked. After killing four and critically wounding another, investigators say he drove three miles to a second agriculture center and shot three more to death. Families and children lived on the property. There were no specific indicators that would have led us to believe that he was capable of something like this. The arrest outside San Francisco marked the second mass shooting in California

in 48 hours, both allegedly at the hands of senior citizens. Just 24 days into this year, 70 have been killed in 39 mass shootings. How many people have to die? How many children have to be killed? How many children have to witness their parents being killed? Authority said the suspect was not previously known to police and described the shooting as a workplace violence incident. tonight friends and family of those feared dead are desperate for answers we hear about this on and we see it on the news and it almost seems like it's our normal and it's not right we have to do something we have to do more tonight the once unspeakable now seemingly routine as another community finds itself in the middle of a mass shooting okay Miguel Almaguer joins us now live from Half Moon Bay tonight where that shooting that first shooting occurred Miguel what's next for the suspect Well, Tom, the suspect is expected in court tomorrow. He is expected to face seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Police earlier today said he was cooperating.

But the big unknown, the big question tonight, the motive, why? Tom? Yeah, in both shootings. Okay, Miguel, thank you for that. Staying in California now in the devastated community in Monterey Park, also looking for answers, struggling in the aftermath of that deadly mass shooting. Law enforcement now working to determine a motive there as well. NBC Steve Patterson spoke to some people who knew the victims are looking for answers. Another night of morning in Monterey Park.

I'm grieving and I didn't want to be alone. The community shattered after what was supposed to be a night of celebration. Today, the county coroner releasing the names of all 11 victims, including Valentino Elverro, a loving grandfather remembered as the life of the party. You have 10 unresponsive inside. Police say 72-year-old who can'tran, first made entry after 10. on Saturday night and opened fire. I hear the noise.

Just 20 minutes after fleeing the first scene, police say the gunman arrived at a second ballroom in El Hambra, where 26-year-old manager Brandon Say wrestled the weapon away and the attacker fled. Law enforcement sources say the 72-year-old Asian gunman's motives were likely personal. About 80 miles east of Monterey Park, investigators searched trans home for more clues. Police say they found hundreds of rounds of ammunition. a rifle and materials for homemade firearm suppressors. Tran's ex-wife told CNN she met him at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, where he used to volunteer

and could be quick to anger. They divorced in 2006. A resident who knew Tran from another ballroom near his home says he was distant unless he was dancing. I would call him meek. You know, he would talk to snap, but he was not a very outgoing person as far as that goes, except on the dance floor. My heart felt so achy. Star ballroom dance instructor Katia Vaz says the star is part of the fabric of Monterey Park. She's still in shock.

I don't know how you make sense of such a thing. Vaz was supposed to be there that night but decided to stay home. She woke up to the news that one of her friends, ballroom manager Ming Ma, was killed. Friends say he was the first to rush the gunman. He was the hero of that place. He was a teacher, but super humble and always elevated. to everyone that would come in there. That's the kind of person he was.

So sad to hear about the lives lost there. Steve Patterson joins us now live from Monterey Park. And Steve, we were just talking to Miguel moments ago. They don't know the motive in that shooting. And still, we do not know the motive here in this shooting in Southern California. Yeah, and Tom, I want to be very clear about this. And so it's important to bear repeating that they have yet to list a motive in this case. But at this point, they're all but ruling out something like domestic terrorism or this being hate.

crime. We have sources close to the investigation that are very clear about this being about personal connections at this point. They just need to make the proper links before they can announce something official to the public. They recognize it's important to the public. They want to get it right. And so it's just going to take some time. Okay, Steve Patterson for us, Steve. Thank you for that. We turned out of politics and Washington and the discovery of even more classified documents, this time at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence. This has controversy squirrels around President Biden's handling of sensitive materials. NBC News Chief White House correspondent Kristen Welker has the latest.

Tonight, the controversy over classified material now spreading again, with former Vice President Mike Pence's legal team revealing a small number of classified documents were inadvertently taken to Pence's Indiana home after he left the vice presidency. According to a letter, his legal team sent to the National Archives and obtained by NBC News. They say the former VP asked his team to conduct a search and was unaware he had the secret material in his home. It was discovered January 16th. By January 18th, the letter was sent to the National Archives. The next day, the FBI took possession of the documents.

Pence's team says he is cooperating fully. It comes after he was asked last year if he took classified documents after leaving the vice presidency. I did not. Tonight, there's bipartisan criticism that a sitting president, a former president, and now a former vice president have all acknowledged having classified material in unsecured locations. We have an epidemic of senior leaders taken classified home, and we have to say categorically, whether it's Republican or Democrat, it's all wrong. Kind of thought, holy heck, and I do wonder, you know, how many other foreigners. Meanwhile, the firestorm over President Biden's handling of classified material is growing, with the possibility the FBI may search his beach house.

Just this weekend, the FBI searching Mr. Biden's Wilmington Delaware home, finding yet another batch of classified documents, the fourth discovery so far, including classified material dating back to his time in the Senate. That new discovery after a defiant Mr. Biden had insisted there was no there there. I have no regrets. I'm following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. It's exactly what we're doing. There's no there there. Tonight, the president yet again ignoring reporters' questions as he met with top congressional Democrats, with the special counsel investigation threatening to overshadow his agenda. All right, Kristen, Welker, joins us tonight from the White House. Kristen, earlier today, I was watching this incredible show called Meet the Press Now.

And I heard you ask one of your guests, what is next in this case for former Vice President Pence, including the possibility of a special counsel, a third special counsel now? This was stunning, Tom. Congressman Don Bacon saying he would support the appointment of a special counsel to investigate former Vice President Pence's handling of classified documents. No indication if that is going to happen. But you do have bipartisan calls to get to the bottom of what the issue is, why so many classified documents are being mishandled. Now, as for Pence, his spokesman says they have not heard anything back

since turning over those documents to the FBI. Now, former President Trump is weighing in as well. As you know, he's a frequent critic of former Vice President Pence. He is saying today in a post-Tom, quote, Mike Pence is an innocent man, leave him alone. And, of course, Mr. Trump facing a special counsel investigation of his own regarding classified material, Tom. All right.

President Trump defending his former vice president there. Okay, Kristen, thank you. We turn out of the war in Ukraine and the major development in America's support for the country. U.S. officials telling NBC news that the Biden administration will begin sending tanks to support the military. All of this comes as a corruption scandal, shakes up President Zelensky's government. NBC's foreign correspondent, Ralph Sanchez, is in Ukraine for us tonight. Weighing in at 70 tons and armed with a 120-millimeter cannon, the M1 Abrams battle tank. tank has long been the iron fist of America's ground forces. And now it's heading to Ukraine.

After weeks of debate, three U.S. defense officials tell NBC News, the White House will send several dozen American tanks to Ukraine's military. A shift from last week when officials said the Abrams, which runs on jet fuel, was too difficult for Ukraine to maintain. Today's decision made in coordination with NATO allies, Germany and Poland, who are now expected to send their own leopard tanks to Ukraine, according to European media reports. The heavy armor and answer to Ukraine's long-time plea. Give us tanks, give us more weapon, and we will stop this war as quick as we can.

Fighting still raging along a vast front line in eastern Ukraine, and officials say Russia is preparing another assault. This is what Russian forces did the last time they laid siege to Harqiv and the Ukrainian government is now warning Vladimir Putin's forces are regrouping, and they may soon try again. It comes as President Zelensky shakes up his government amid high-level corruption allegations. His deputy chief of staff resigning today, no official reason given, but he was linked to an alleged $7 million embezzlement of humanitarian aid, a charge he denies. Also resigning this week, a deputy defense minister and five regional governors.

Another official arrested after allegedly taking $400,000 in cash bribes. And here, a local police chief allegedly giving his girlfriend a permit to drive in an area usually reserved for emergency vehicles, according to the national police. He's been suspended. Ukraine has long been plagued by corruption and has ranked 112 out of 180 countries on a global corruption index. Tom pressed another one of Zelensky's advisors on corrupt. last week. If there was any type of scandal, if it turned out that some of this money was going

to waste or somebody stole the money, it could hurt the effort, the U.S. effort to give aid to Ukraine. What do you say to that? We understand that, you know, any risk of any possible fraud is an issue of concern. And trust me that right now, we are living in a country which is transforming itself on a daily basis because of the war, because we are losing our people. President Zelensky tonight fighting a war on two fronts, one against Russia's military and another against corruption at home. And Tom, those several dozen American tanks will be a formidable fighting force, but it's not clear when they're actually going to reach the battlefield. The real power of this decision is it gives political cover for Germany and other NATO allies to send their leopard tanks to Ukraine. And there are about 2,000 of those in Europe already that could be on the battlefields.

soon. Tom. Okay, Raf Sanchez. Raff, thank you. Still ahead tonight, the controversy surrounding Congressman George Santos is growing stranger by the day. The newly elected Republican claiming he was the victim of an assassination attempt and a mugging in New York. Those and other shocking claims he made on a recent podcast appearance will show you. And also in New York, dramatic video showing an SUV slamming into a fruit stand. What we're hearing about the injuries on the scene. Top story just getting started on this Tuesday night. Okay, we're back now with the latest in the saga surrounding Representative George Santos. The embattled congressman recently appeared on a Brazilian podcast, claiming he was the victim of multiple crimes, including an alleged assassination attempt.

Ryan Nobles has the latest. Tonight, another wave of shocking claims from Representative George Santos, speaking in Portuguese on a Brazilian podcast in December about an alleged. attempt to assassinate him. We've just suffered a attempt to assassinate. The embattled congressman also claiming he was mugged in the summer of 2021 in New York, the supposed assailants even taking the shoes off his feet on Fifth Avenue. I was assaulted by two men,

but they were me assaulted, and they were my past, left my lapato and my reloge. And this was in the light of the day. It were 3 and a little bit of the time. NBC News asked Congressman Santos office for verification, of the stories and have not heard back. We've also reached out to the NYPD

and multiple other police departments for any associated reports and have not been able to verify. The freshman lawmakers' early political career has been steeped in controversy, stemming from the web of lies he spread about his family, employment history, religion, and more.

Now, forced to admit some of those statements were false. I always joke, I'm Catholic, but I'm also Jew. In one of the more bizarre about faces, he first denied performing as a drag queen in a tweet, but just two days later appeared to admit to dressing in drag when questioned by reporters. I was young and I had a fun at a festival. In the podcast interview, he explained his support for the Brazilian drag community, but in contrast said American drag culture is over-sexualized.

I particularly, I think, I think the maximum. The arts of drag queen, I think very legal, but I always I interpreted as a part of an art cultural for adult. The openly gay congressman also defended his support for Florida Governor Ronda Sanchez's so-called don't-say gay bill. To talk about sex with a little bit of 12 years of age, I think a little inappropriate. Santos has quickly become an easy target with late-night TV shows piling on.

I'm just in town to pick up my Nobel Peace Prize. Friday Night Live, offering up another portrayal. Proud to be the first African-American quarterback to ever dunk a football. Santos responding by tweeting that he's been, quote, enshrined in late-night TV history, but that all the impersonations are, quote, terrible so far. Even some Republican lawmakers have turned on him. He's nutty as a fruitcake. Santos responding that he is saddened by Kennedy's derogatory language.

Clearly, not backing down, he surprised reporters with coffee and donuts outside his Capitol Hill office this morning. Donuts and coffee for all the hard work you guys do. All right, Ryan Nobles joins us now from the Capitol. Ryan, we saw there in your report. Santos is clearly on Capitol Hill interacting with reporters there. But I'm told he didn't attend the new Congress member's reception at the White House. Is that right? Yeah, that's right, Tom.

And his office is not really giving us a clear indication as to why he chose to skip that event. just saying that his schedule was too packed and he was unable to do it. Now, for most new members of Congress, a new member's reception at the White House is of the highest priority. Rank and file members of Congress, particularly freshman backbenchers, don't get a lot of interaction with senior White House officials or the president. So the idea that you could be at the White House and have an audience with these important members of the executive branch, it seems a little peculiar that he chose not to attend, but there's been a lot of things Santos has done in his early days as a member of, Congress that certainly deviate from the norm. I think, Tom, this is just another example of that. Yeah, blazing his own type of trail. Okay, Brian, we thank you for that. We want to turn

out of the bad blood surrounding Taylor Swift's upcoming tour. Senator's grilling ticket master's parent company Live Nation at a hearing today after technical meltdowns left thousands of Taylor Swift fans unable to get a ticket. Here's Savannah Sellers. It's not every day TikTokers are tuning into Senate hearings. Every spare moment at work today, I had the Senate congressional hearing playing through my headphones. It's also not every day. Senators are quoting Taylor Swift. Because darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream.

I think it's a nightmare dressed like a daydream. We know all too well. May I suggest respectfully that Ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and say, I'm the problem. It's me. Two months after the chaotic pre-sale of Swift's era's tour tickets caused bad blood between Swifties and Ticketmaster. I just really wanted to see Taylor.

Today, the CEO of Live Nation, Ticketmaster's parent company, was on the hot seat. We apologize to the fans. We apologize to Ms. Swift. We need to do better. The company primarily pinning its difficulties on cyber attacks and bot traffic. This is what led to a terrible consumer experience, which we deeply regret. But lawmakers pushed back. Our critical infrastructure in this country.

country, whether it is utilities, electric water, power. They get bot attacks every single day by the thousands, by the thousands. And they have figured it out, but you guys haven't. This is unbelievable. They also challenged the company's combination of concert promotion, venue ownership, and ticket sales, calling it a monopoly. The fact of the matter is that Live Nation, Ticketmaster, is the 800-pound gorilla here. It's a monopolistic mess. If you care about the consumer, cap the price.

Singer-songwriter Clyde Lawrence, a witness at today's hearing, even wrote his frustration into a song. And Live Nation is a monopoly. Between their ability to be the promoter and the venue and the ticketing company at the same time, you end up kind of having no choice, but to interact with them.

Savannah Sellers joins us out from Capitol Hill. Savannah, in her closing statement, Senator Klobuchar, commented on how the hearing wasn't just about the monopolies, but about the fans, which you are one of, a Swifty. A tick-liss one, though, we should say. I might add, what were the Swifties like you hoping to see accomplished today? Well, Tom, that's a burn, but it's true. That's right.

I was in this line. I was waiting for these tickets. It didn't come through. I mean, look, I think the honesty about it here is if you look on TikTok, People just want tickets to her concert. And the bottom line is this is not going to help that, of course. We can't regulate the way that people feel about Taylor Swift or force her to perform more shows. But what they are maybe going to be able to see down the line could be ticket fees lowered,

maybe ending those exclusivity contracts with certain venues. That's now what lawmakers are turning their sites toward that could potentially make a difference here, even if it's not exactly going to get people to Taylor Swift's Ares Tour. Okay, Savannah, we appreciate all that. When we come back, the latest on a shooting out of Washington State. Three people shot and killed at a gas station overnight. The suspect's still on the loose. The latest on that manhut next.

All right, back now with Top Stories News Feeding. We begin with the arrest of a suspect behind a deadly triple shooting in Washington State. Police in Yakima taking 21-year-old Jared Haddock into custody after 12 hours on the run. He's accused of randomly shooting and killing three people out of gas station overnight. A New York City woman is recovering after a wild crash caught on camera. Take a look at this. New surveillance video shows a white Mercedes-Benz speeding down a sidewalk before plowing into a fruit stand. Authorities say the woman was knocked over in the chaos, but was luckily not hit by the car somehow.

Police say the driver kept going until crashing into a patrol car. No one else was seriously her. And Justin Bieber has sold his music catalog, the superstar, selling the restaurant, selling the rides to most of his music to hypnosis songs capital for about $200 million. These sales include his tracks released before December 2021, including mega hits such as Baby and Sorry. It's that firm's largest acquisition to date. Stephanie Gosk brings us a report on the latest breakthrough in AI technology as a language model named ChatGPT has successfully passed a business school exam.

But as this technology becomes more advanced, the debate around its role in education continues. Should we rely on AI to supplement or even replace human educators? Stay tuned as we dive deeper into this topic with our expert analysis. All right, before we get to Stephanie, I have to admit something right now. What I just said was not written by a human. In fact, that's the first time I even read it. My producers opened up chat GPT, told it to write a 20-second anchor intro to a report by Stephanie Gosk about passing a business school exam and the debate around the technology. Then they printed it out, and I didn't read it up until now. That's what it spit out in just seconds. So for more now and how students are now using the same tool, here's Stephanie

Gosk. At UPenn's prestigious Wharton Business School, a B-B-B-Minus on an exam is pretty good, but a computer getting that grade using artificial intelligence is jaw-dropping. Professor Christian Teravis tested something called chat GPT on a graduate exam. The computer put to use knowledge that analysts, managers, and consultants get paid big money for, although it struggled with sixth grade math. Judge yourself, I think it's amazing, but it's still a flawful money plus. ChatGPT was launched just two months ago by OpenAI, Microsoft investing billions in the development. And the technology is already shaking up the academic world. At the University of Minnesota law school, ChatGPT averaged a C plus on law exams,

although professors noticed suspiciously perfect grammar. New York City and Seattle school systems have banned its use on department devices. NYU set up a task force within a week to deal with it. What was your first reaction when chat GPT launched in November? Was eyes open and oh my God. The big deal about chat GPT is it is conversational, hence the chat part. You ask it a question, it gives you an answer. Relying on a database of words, a massive one, it can write an essay instantly

on any topic, or a limerick. Write a limerick about Stephanie Gossk. There once was a reporter named Stephanie. Because ChatGPT's site was at capacity, Professor Clay Shirky showed me something similar. The big change is the existence of a paragraph is no longer evidence of human thought. But that feels kind of disturbing to me.

Am I just a boomer? No, you're just somebody who probably does a lot of writing and reading for a living. How do you prevent students from cheating? So there's really two big strategies. One which everybody focused on immediately was to detect the cheating. The much more complicated question is how we design writing assignments so that they understand that they're in a world where chat GPT exists. All right, we thank Stephanie Goss for that report.

If your head is spinning, so is mine. And that's why I want to keep this conversation going. The debate about AI on college campus is only beginning as schools decided. whether to ban it or to embrace it. Anthony Oman joins us now. He's a philosophy professor at Northern Michigan University. He actually caught a student using ChatGPT for a paper. And Edward Tion, he's a student at Princeton and created GPT Zero, which can detect if AI is actually being used.

Believe this, he is an undergrad, which is actually hard to believe. Welcome both the Top Story. And, you know, Edward, I want to start with you right now. Explain ChatGPT to our viewers in the simplest terms. terms? Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. It's a real pleasure. So chat GPT is a brilliant new innovation that generates text.

And what it's really doing is it's ingesting gigantic portions of the internet and it's training data and it's looking through it for patterns. And through these patterns, it's regurgitating the patterns. And it's really good, as you can see in some of these examples. Yeah, we, you know, we saw our viewers saw it when we used it with our producers to put out that anchor copy, as we call it. How is it able to work so quickly because it did what we asked it to do within seconds? Yeah, I would say so one of these big companies like OpenAI that trains these models

have already put millions and millions of dollars doing so. So these models are trained and ready for when you put in your prompt or your question. And once you do, it starts spitting out probabilities of the next word and then the next word and the next word and appending these together into an entire essay, as you saw. Edward mentioned their open AI. Wall 3 Journal says that company is valued at more than $20 billion. So, Anthony, I want to ask you, you busted your student, if you will. What stood out to you on the paper? Why did you notice something was off? The truth is that the paper was just a little bit too good to be true. The grammar was too perfect. The structure was too sound. And the ideas were

incredibly insightful. And so I submitted the essay to ChatGBTGBT, and I asked it, hey, did you write this? And it said that there was a 99% chance that it did write it. So the application that the student possibly used also told you that it had written it? It also told me that it had written it. And if I asked ChatGBTBT to grade the student's paper and give comments, it would do that too. That's incredible. So Anthony, as a philosophy professor. I mean, obviously you're a deep thinker here. What was that experience like? Yeah, I mean, at the very beginning, it was like, oh, is this the end of the world? Like, is nobody going to write anymore? But I feel like I end up using it in my own work, to be honest.

Like, I submit work that I've written to it, and I ask it, hey, is there some kind of objection that I haven't thought of, or is there some part of my grammar that could be fixed? So I actually find it to be a pretty useful tool. So you're saying that school shouldn't reject this type of technology, they should embrace it? I think it's a big mistake to reject this kind of technology. Look, the technology exists out there in the world whether we like it or not. It's going to be there the second the students graduate. And the students are already worried that there's a big gap between what goes on in the

university and the quote-unquote real world. If there's this really cool tool out there that we won't train them on and won't talk about, that golf is going to get even bigger. We have an obligation to train them. Edward, I told you this technology is worth billions of dollars. I'm not sure how much your technology is worth, but it's probably worth a lot now. How did you create your application to sort of detect whether this had been done by that chat GPT? Yeah, I built GPD Xero, which detects if an essay is AI or human-ridden over my holiday break.

So I've been doing research with the Princeton and LP lab on this, had the research on my laptop. Had a lot of free time over winter break, so wanted to build it out so everybody could use. Obviously, you can't reveal everything because that's your own, right, proprietary information. But I do want to ask you if you can explain how it doesn't detect whether something was written by the AI or if it was written by a human. Yeah. Well, I would say we're doing two things, almost like the philosophy essay asking chat GPT itself. There's sort of a fingerprinting where you're asking the model itself how familiar it is with a piece of text, how likely it is to generate itself. Then there's a big picture indicator, which is more of, like, over time, human writing has variance.

It has sudden burst in creativity, for example, versus these machines, which are really powerful, have more of a consistent writing over time, and we're looking for that, too. Anthony, on that point, do you see novels, screenplays? You know, we showed our viewers what it can do when it comes to newscast. But, I mean, what does the long-term sort of play with that? Will people eventually get sick of it? Does it lack that creativity, that human spark, if you will? I think there's two sides to that coin.

I think some people will try to use it to piece together parts of a bigger book and then just have the whole chat, write the whole book. But there's one big thing that the chat can never do for us. And that is it can't take away the joy of coming up with something for ourselves. Like that creative experience that we have when we try to put our own thoughts into words, that's intrinsically valuable. and having the chat do it, it's just not the same thing. So I don't think that's going away.

Anthony, do you think this is actually going to take people's jobs away? I mean, on college campuses, I don't know. I mean, I can see that there is a big fear that AI is going to, you know, as we move towards more and more automation, human jobs are going to be lost. Do you see that on college campuses? Do you see it in other walks of life? It's going to change the nature of a lot of jobs, that's for sure. For example, if a job used to have people who are writing copy for a blog post about some new widget that they're producing, now the chat can write that blog posts, but maybe there's still going to be people whose jobs it is to come up with the right kind of questions to ask the chat, to come up with their blog posts. So I'm not sure. Maybe Edward has ideas.

Yeah, Edward, I was going to ask you, what is your biggest fear? I know we don't want to sort of be fearmongers here, but what is your biggest fear when it comes to this type of technology? Yeah, a few things. I would actually agree with Anthony. exactly that these technologies aren't coming up with anything original. If you're asking it a question, you need to fact-check it because if it's wrong in its training data, it's going to be wrong in its output. And I think one... So, Edward, on that point, just so our viewers understand, you don't think this AI technology could create the godfather. It could create something like that. No, I think it's really good at pumping out fake news, for example, or fake articles,

but it'll never be able to tell the real news or come up with something. new or report the facts or come up with the story that's something original itself. Edward, that is incredibly hopeful, and on that point, we're going to end it right there. Edward and Anthony, thank you so much for joining Top Story tonight and explaining this to us. We really do appreciate it. All right, time now for Top Stories Global Watch and an alarming new report about violence against journalists in Latin America. A new report released by the committee to protect journalists found more members of the media

were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean than in any other part of the world, year. That includes the Ukraine war zone. At least 67 journalists were killed in 2022, half of those in Latin America, including 14 in Mexico alone. Now to the search for survivors after a building collapsed in northern India. New video shows the mangled remains of the apartment building at least 12 people pulled from the wreckage, including two children with at least a dozen more still unaccounted for. It's still unclear what caused that building to collapse. And the U.S. Coast Guard rescuing nearly 400 Haitian migrants near the Bahamas, Take a look at this.

New video shows the 50-foot sailboat packed with migrants before they were detained by the Coast Guard. Bahamian officials calling it one of the biggest human smuggling incidents in the region. They say the migrants will be processed in the Bahamas before being sent back to Haiti. Okay, coming up, the high egg prices are forcing some to extremes. People now trying to bring them in from Mexico, in some cases, by the hundreds. Yes, smuggling, not Yeo, but Weevos, across the border. We show you how the sticker. shock at your local stores. He's leading to the seizures at the border. Stay with us.

All right, back now with the Americas and the growing problem for many Americans, surging egg prices. At times, they are tripling. U.S. Customs and Border officials now scrambling to stop people from bringing in raw eggs from Mexico, an illegal move that could cost people thousands and fines. Stephen Romo has this very interesting story. Tonight, a crackdown in an unexpected contraband at the southern border. Crate after crate full of chicken eggs confiscated. Some going the extra mile to get their hands on a carton. All due to high demand and rising prices for the culinary staple.

It shouldn't be such a struggle to pull together a meal. The spike in egg costs now pushing some to go across the border, a move that's been banned for more than a decade due to the risk of avian flu. In South Texas alone, U.S. Border Patrol reports a 300% increase in raw eggs intercepted. with seizures ranging from 86 eggs at a time to nearly 350. And in San Diego, the customs team sending out a reminder that failure to declare agriculture items like uncooked eggs can result in penalties of up to $10,000. But Border Patrol says at times some travelers simply aren't aware that they can't enter

the U.S. with raw eggs and that moderate amounts could lead to a penalty that ranges anywhere from 300 to $1,000. So we've talked about inflation driving up the cost of groceries for a while now, but that is not exactly what's happening here. Egg prices continue to climb, even though inflation has leveled off. But there's such a mainstay for American tables, egg hunts like these are likely to continue. The average price for a dozen eggs hit 425 last month, up from $1.72 a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. $17 for a whole case when we started, and now we're paying like $60 a case. The eggs are in some places you can find like a 45, 50 percent expensive.

So what's driving these climbing prices? Bird flu hit egg farmers hard. Nearly 58 million birds were killed last year to stop the virus from spreading, according to the USDA. And the majority were egg laying hands. That led the U.S. egg inventory to drop nearly 30% by the end of last year. I used to have good, good brands for $3.50 and a 50. So, but not anymore. Many now hoping for those simpler times when eggs were just cheaper by the dozen. So when will this spike in prices end? That is the key question. Some experts say it will likely continue at least through the first quarter of this year. But it's hard to tell exactly when it will

clear up because this hasn't happened in a while. This recent bout of bird flu is the worst seen since 2015. So how long will it take the egg industry to catch up? That's what a lot of people want to know. Tom. All right, coming up, the Oscar nominees are in. All right, we are back now with those Oscar nominations. The nominees who started everything from indie darlings to major blockbusters showcase the range of great movies this year. Some are making history before. even earning the statue. NBC News now anchor Joe Fryer has a closer look at those who made the cut and those who did not. So without further ado, here are the nominees. The Oscar race is officially on. And everything everywhere all at once was everywhere all at once, leading the field with

11 nominations. From everything everywhere, everything, everything, everything everywhere all at once. The sci-fi adventure film earned a best actress nomination for Michelle Yo, who won a Golden Globe for the role earlier this month. Mrs. Wang, are you with us? I am paying attention. Jamie Lee Curtis, Ki-Hi-Quan, and Stephanie Shue also got nods for their supporting roles. Following close behind, all quiet on the Western Front, the World War I epic, and the dark Irish comedy, the Banshees of Inashira. Each with nine noms, including the packed Best Picture category.

Banshee's star Colin Farrell also grabbed a best. Actor nomination, along with Paul Mescal, Bill Nye, Austin Butler, and Brendan Fraser. Fraser, largely seen as the odds on favorite to win, is experiencing a career comeback after his transformational turn in The Whale. Someone close to me passed away. But it was Butler's performance as the King and Elvis that scored the Golden Globe for Best Actor. It has everything to do with this. Butler's also creating buzz this award season for still using the Elvis voice off screen. You know, I don't think I sound like him still, but I guess I must because I... On the best actress side, alongside Michelle Yo, are the fableman's Michelle Williams and frontrunner Kate Blanchett for Tarr.

But that category created a tweet storm today after two black actors were snubbed, the woman King's Viola Davis and Till star Danielle Deadweiler. This was my boy. Picking up nominations instead, Anaday Armis and Andrea Rysboro. Riseboro's nod in the indie film, To Leslie, was all the more shocking because she wasn't nominated for other well-known awards. So what was behind the nomination? A last-minute awards campaign supported by Hollywood A-listers who swarmed social media to promote the film. I ain't going nowhere. Blockbuster sequel Top Gun Maverick is a Best Picture nominee, but no nod for Tom Cruise or the film's cinematography. I just want to manage expectations.

And while Avatar the Way of Water is gross $2 billion worldwide, James Cameron was not nominated for Best Director. Another snub in the Best Director category, women were shut out completely again, even though Sarah Pauley's women talking is up for best picture. I will become a murderer if I stay. But it's still expected to be a historic night. 16 of the 20 acting nominees are first timers. It's the most nominations for Asian actors in the Academy's 95. year run. I am queen of the most powerful nation in the world.

Angela Bassett broke several Oscar barriers for her nomination in Black Panther Waconda Forever, including becoming Marvel's first acting nominee. Joe Fryer, NBC News. All right, a big thanks to my buddy, Joe Fryer for that. For a deeper dive into the Oscar nominees, surprises and snubs, Eric Davis, managing editor of Fandango, joins us now. Eric, thanks so much for joining Top Story tonight. So the big question, the elephant in the room, Joe didn't really talk about this, but I want to talk about this.

Will Smith, the slap, is there any sort of hangover or the repercussions? Is it part of the ceremony? What do you think happens? I'm curious to see. I mean, one thing that's not going to happen is Will not be there presenting the best actress Oscar, which is usually customary from the year prior because he won best actor. So that won't happen. So there'll be somebody else that's presenting that Oscar, which immediately creates conversation. And I mean, Jimmy Kimmel is hosting. Kimmel knows the audience. They know him. He's not afraid to say whatever.

So, yeah, I mean, they're going to have to address it. You know, this was also kind of a, you know, glaring mark on the academy that this happened. This was an embarrassment for them. So I expect Kimmel to go there, but I don't expect it to be sort of like a running joke or a theme throughout. It might create interest to see, you know, see what Kimmel says in the beginning about this, see if he addresses it at all. Let's jump into the movies, though. Your best film of the year. Tell me it.

Yeah, I mean, look, I'm Top Gun Maverick all day, every day. So Maverick gets nominated for Best Film. Explain this to our viewers, but it doesn't get cinematography. T. Cruz doesn't get Best Actor. What's going on? Yeah, it's it. Well, I mean, keep in mind with the Oscars. Every branch votes for their specific category, and then everybody votes for Best Picture.

So everybody, when they voted for Best Picture, had Maverick on their list, of course. But then the actors vote for the actors, cinematographers for the cinematographers. I think more so than Tom Cruise, that cinematography snub is. is pretty significant. I sat next to him, Claudio, last week at the Critics Choice Awards, and he's great, and he won the Critics Choice Award for cinematography. You think Top Gun actually has a chance of winning best film? I think it does because there is this preferential ballot. So when it comes to the Oscars, it's not just about like, okay, what movie got the most votes, it's like number one,

number two, number three. And because a lot of people are going to put Maverick in their top three, I feel like it could potentially make a move there. But also, I mean, watch out for everything everywhere all at once, which led all nominees. It has a lot of buzz. I feel it's gotten the most buzz going into awards season. A lot of buzz, but it's not the most accessible movie. You know, a lot of people I speak to, they're like, I love it. I love its inventiveness.

It's really fun to watch, but I don't necessarily get all of it. But I think Michelle Yeo will win for Best Actress, and I could see those guys potentially winning Best Director. Talk to me about Best Actor, because you have another feeling about this, too. You think the streak is going to continue. Yeah, I mean, cool thing about this. It's all first-time nominees. So I like that.

But for Best Actor, I think it's between Colin Farrell, Brendan Frazier, and Austin Butler. Really, I look at it being Brendan Frazier versus Elvis Presley. I think Austin Butler wins this. Performance is fantastic. You look at the recent passing of Lisa Marie. I think that adds extra weight to the category. And I really do think, like, it's Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley himself never nominated for an Oscar.

Yeah. Never won an Oscar. So I think it's really nice. It's a nice story. If he wins, here's a fun fact. He'll be the first best actor winner, having been born in the 90s. Yeah, and having this new accent, too, which is kind of... Yeah, having his new Elvis accent.

Does it matter how... Like, you know, you've mentioned Brendan Frazier, so many people are pulling for him. Does it matter, like, the speeches that people give before this, or there's all that voting already complete before those awards are handed out? I just wonder how much that, like, weighs into people's thinking and choices. There is. I mean, these are, like, these are, like, political campaigns. It's a campaign up until...

Oh, yeah. I mean, I mean, I think... That's why Tom Cruise didn't get nominated is because he was busy shooting the Mission Impossible movies, and he wasn't doing the Q&A's and doing the meet and greets and shaking hands. He was off making movies, and so he wasn't part of that conversation. Then you look at Andrea Riceboro, nominated for Best Actress for Q. Leslie, completely grassroots campaign.

Huge social media campaign. We talked about this in the Joe Fryer spot there. Explain to our viewers who had heard nothing about this movie. Now, all of a sudden, they're hearing about it every day on their social media feeds. Yeah, I mean, what happened was, like, her team and her rep, like went out and started emailing celebrities, and Gwyneth Poutro fell in love with the film, and then she blasted it out. And it was just this total grassroots, like no marketing budget. One of the craziest stories that I've ever seen. I mean, what that did, though, is it pushed

a couple of women that were almost guarantees in that category, Viola Davis and the Woman King, Danielle Deadweiler from Till. Both of them, a lot of people thought they were going to make it. They didn't make it, but Andrea made it because of that last-minute grassroots. Talk to me about best actress, though. Who do you think is going to get it? I think it's between Cape Blanchett and Michelle Yeo. Okay. Michelle Yo, the veteran, but first-time nominee in this crazy inventive movie. Kate Blanchett, the legend, you know, former winner, former nominee.

I think Michelle takes it, though. I think there's a lot of support for her, but it's going to be fun to watch those, too. Any sort of snub that you just thought were completely crazy? I mean, we mentioned Tom Cruise, but anything else that you thought was kind of wild, that didn't get nominated, that should have, that maybe people should check out? I think the woman came. I had just mentioned it, but Viola Davis, I think Gina, of Prince Bythwood could have been the first black woman ever nominated for Best Director.

I think she deserves to be there. Definitely over the guy that directed Triangle of Sandus. I know you liked that film, but I thought it was a really good movie. Don't watch it with dinner, but it's a great movie, yeah. And the film got blanked for Best Picture, too. So for me, like, that is the biggest stuff. Okay. Eric Davis from Fandango. Thanks so much for hanging out, man.

I hope you're right. I like Maverick, too. Thanks so much for watching Top Story. I'm Tom Yamison, New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.