Full Episode: Start of the New School Year, The Great State Fair, Future of AI
Start of the New School Year, The Great State Fair, Future of AI
Dan Clark: New York's migrant crisis has now turned into the blame game with just about everyone pointing fingers and almost no one accepting responsibility. Unfortunately, that's not my opinion., that's actually what's happening.
Last week, we told you how Governor Kathy Hochul has asked the White House for more help dealing with the crisis, and this week, she traveled to the White House to push that request. After a two-hour meeting, both Hochul and the White House issued separate statements saying they'll work together to get more asylum seekers into jobs as long as they're eligible. But as far as financial support goes, the White House kicked that to Congress, saying they should get involved as well. So now no one is really owning this crisis with the closest person being New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
He's had to manage it since it began last year, and he's called on other local leaders around the state to help out, but many say they don't want to. Governor Hochul said last week that she won't force them and that garnered this response from Mayor Adams this week.
Eric Adams: But I think this issue I think the governor is wrong. She's the governor of the state of New York and New York City is in that state. Every county in this state should be part of this. We have .05% of the landmass in this state, and we have almost 99% of the migrant asylum seekers. This is a real leadership moment.
DC: But since there's no real update there, we're going to move on for the week and instead talk about artificial intelligence. Zach Williams from Bloomberg Law has been covering that in New York. Zach, thanks for being here.
Zach Williams: Thanks for having me.
DC: So artificial intelligence is something that has really been blowing up with things like Chat GPT, we hear about stuff in cars, things like that. How is A.I. used in our real lives right now
ZW: Well, I think people would be surprised how much artificial intelligence has been around for many, many years. You know, from the suggested movies and TV shows on Netflix that you see, to spellcheck on your computer, to the automated screening tools that employers use when they look at your resume. That that last one might be something that most people don't really think about, but most employers for years now have just looked for certain keywords in your resume or your cover letter, and if those kind of meet their algorithm, then you're the person that they agree to meet in person. So, there's all sorts of different things.
Artificial intelligence is really just this range of tools, these, you know, automation, machine learning is something you hear a lot about, but really, it's just a whole bunch of math kind of figuring out patterns and what might fit it and what people want to use.
DC: As something like this continues to kind of grow in emerge, and people are concerned about where they might be seeing it and A.I. might interacting with them, we often get into a conversation about regulation. In New York, I don't know where we are in A.I. regulation, but let's kind of zoom out for a second, because I know that you've gone to some conferences in the past couple of months and talked to a lot of people about this. What does it look like around the country? How are other states thinking about A.I.?
ZW: Well, it's been a little piecemeal. There's a lot of political gridlock in D.C., so not a lot has gotten done in Congress. Quite a few states have set up commissions or task forces to look at how A.I. or automated systems already used in their states create some sort of reporting mechanism, and some have even gone so far like Vermont in establishing a state division of artificial intelligence, which is really just a couple people kind of in an office tasked with the idea of really thinking about, what might be good uses of artificial intelligence and where might they want to pause and think about the consequences before implementing them.
DC: So what about New York? I'll be honest with you, I haven't heard a lot about A.I. in the legislature as they've been passing legislation. I know you asked the Governor about it in August, and she had a response kind of saying that she wants to take a look at it, but can you actually just expand what she said? How is the state looking at this right now?
ZW: Well, right now, they're kind of like looking at how they should look at it.
DC: They’re planning to plan.
ZW: Exactly. There was legislation passed by the Senate and the Assembly this year that would set up a state commission. They would have lots of smart people, they would write a report, they would recommend how to maybe deal with A.I., and the Governor suggested that she might go her own way. Governors don't like these study bills after all, and set up some sort of a summit. But, you know, there's a long term will they take our jobs, terminator kind of class of problems with A.I. potentially, but there's also much more immediate things.
We've got the elections in 2024. Legislation that passed this year that Hochul could sign would ban deepfake revenge pornography. So that's where people take these generative A.I. like Chat GPT or DALL-E for images and take someone's photo and put it on a pornographic image. That's not technically illegal right now. Revenge pornography, which is an intimate image that maybe you took with someone's permission or without their permission, but then disseminate. That's illegal in New York, but not if you fake it. So that could end pretty soon, and I think that's kind of really the first instance where we'll see computer generated fakes becoming illegal.
Now, with the elections coming up, this could become a huge issue.
DC: That's what I was just thinking. If they can get away with it in regards to fake revenge porn, what's to stop somebody from doing a generated video of a presidential candidate saying something crazy to convince the public that they shouldn't vote for them.
ZW: I mean, all of this is unregulated, and it would all really depend. There are current laws, now say, lord forbid, somebody decided that they would impersonate Dan Clark and say things that Dan Clark didn't say. You know an example being, vote for me, Dan Clark says I'm great on New York Now.
Now, maybe there are issues with defamation or libel, but your likeness is different than your copyright. You know? We've already seen this with authors even. Go to Amazon and you'll find books that are written in the style of this person or that person. Now, some authors have tried to sue or protest, get it delisted, saying, hey, I didn't write this, but it wasn't like they're claiming you wrote it. They're just saying it's in the style of John Grisham or because they asked Chat GPT please write this like Dan Clark would write it.
So, there's all sorts of different applications right now. You know, New York Now needs to be worried. state legislatures should be concerned. You know, A.I. has just this ability to really shake things up in all sorts of interesting ways, kind of like social media ten years ago.
DC: I know I could be fake right now and our audience would have no idea.
ZW: He's not.
DC: I'm not fake, and I guess you don't know if I'm telling the truth, and the problem with it is how could you ever know?
When I'm thinking about this, I'm thinking of companies like OpenAI that that does catch up if the state starts to introduce regulations and stuff. Do you see this being a big fight?
ZW: Well, we're already seeing companies kind of on a charm offensive out there. You know, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, have all been meeting with state lawmakers across the country, with federal lawmakers and just trying to put a good face on A.I., and it is true, there are a lot of great things that these automated systems are capable of.
You know, they're much touted with medicine and spotting things like cancer and stuff, but we've also seen in the history of their application that there's a lot of hype like Watson, which beat a human in Jeopardy!, you know, they tried to get it to look at cancer, and these tools, when they're made for specific purpose, they're really good at it, and when they're made for a different purpose, they can go in all sorts of different ways.
So I think we're going to see a lot of piecemeal legislation on elections or what I mentioned with deepfakes, but a comprehensive, what do we do about the robots totally changing our world solution, I think, is at least a few years off.
A lot of people liken it to nuclear weapons. You're going to need to see this at an international level to really deal with it in a way that will save humanity forever, hopefully.
DC: It's really interesting. It’s a big question and we'll have to have you back to talk about it because A.I. seems to be just kind of getting more into our lives. We'll have to keep a close eye on it.
Zach Williams from Bloomberg Law, thank you so much.
ZW: Thanks for having me.
Dan Clark: For most kids and parents in New York, the new school year starts next week and it's a really interesting time for that. This year is just the second school year since COVID. Last year was relatively normal, but school leaders and education officials started to notice that the pandemic had taken a toll on pretty much everyone. A lot of students now have gaps in learning and trauma from the pandemic, but teachers do as well, making the state's teachers shortage worse at a critical time in education.
At the same time, schools in New York are preparing for another challenge the state's influx of asylum seekers. Children who are new to this country will be placed in local school districts, wherever they are. And it's not often that schools in New York have had to deal with something like that alongside other challenges that don't seem to let up. So for more on all that, we turn this week to Melinda Person, president of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the Teachers union in New York.
Melinda, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.
Melinda Person: Thanks for having me.
DC: So this school year is interesting because in the past few years, students and teachers have had to deal with COVID 19 pandemic and then coming out of that. So there's been a lot of shifting in terms of what school looks like for teachers and students. How are you feeling going into this school year? It's kind of the first school year where COVID seems to be even less of a problem in schools. How are you feeling?
MP: I'm feeling really optimistic about this year. Our members tell us that last year there was still some recovering, a lot of focus on learning loss and getting kids back into normal routines. This year, it looks like it's going to be, you know, really normal in the sense that we will be able to focus on sort of the normal problems that we have in a school year, like the teacher shortage, which is a topic we've been talking about a lot, but also focusing on getting kids back on track.
DC: Yeah, exactly. In the past few weeks, the state has announced some funding for mental health resources for students and schools. A really good initiative because as you know I'm sure and as I know, that kind of trauma really manifests in a way for these students that could affect their academic performance, their lives. But I'd like to kind of flip that look at teachers.
During the pandemic, teachers had to shift really quickly away from what they've been doing for several years to or teaching it from home now, or some people are teaching to an empty classroom over Zoom. I think that there are mental health implications there as well. What do you think about that? Should we be doing more for teachers in that sense?
MP: Most definitely. And I don't mean emphasizing self-care because our members do have enough to do, but providing resources that are educators can take advantage of during the school day, mindfulness training, things like that. Those are the types of things that we're pushing for at the state level to help support our members. We have a new hotline that our members can call when they're in crisis and get the resources and referrals that they need.
DC: That's great. I mean if I were a teacher and I had gone through that, even as a journalist having gone through that, there are certain parts of it that I think you carry with you a little bit longer, and especially for teachers, they have to go back into that same classroom and kind of come out of the pandemic and figure out what's our new normal there.
During the pandemic, we saw this problem continue of the teacher shortage more people were kind of going into retirement rather than staying in because they didn't really see a future there in the next couple of years. At the same time, we don't see as many new teachers coming in. It's been a problem before the pandemic, the teacher shortage. It's a big question, but what do you think we should do about it?
MP: Well, we have a number of solutions as one of the problems. One of the solutions that we're launching this year is a program called Educator Inspired. And it is an effort to lift up the profession and remind our members who they are for their students and for their communities.
We're asking people to tell stories about their favorite educator, somebody who inspired them, someone who got them into the field that they are currently in, and almost every adult can tell me who their favorite teacher was, and they light up when they talk about them.
So why don't we start with you? Tell me a little bit about your favorite teacher.
DC: I will tell you about my favorite teacher. His name is Roy Pratt. He taught English for middle and high school where I went to school in central New York in Shenango County in Afton, New York. He was just brilliant, paid extra attention to the kids. You can always rely on him for space at lunch or after school to just hang out. Especially for me, I had a lot of family problems at home and it made such a difference to have him there.
He also got me my first reporting job. Weirdly, I started as a reporter at 16, covering car racing in Afton, New York, and I would put out a weekly story about the races. So, he kind of started me on my track.
It's those kind of teachers that I think don't get enough recognition. You know, as we were talking before we started recording, this guy to me was like a third parent. He really was the person that I leaned on in every part of my life, and I have to imagine you hear those stories all the time, too.
MP: We do.
Our members love other people's children that they take care of them like their own, and it is it's past due that we really lift up their voices and remind them who they are.
DC: Do you think, you know, getting more people into the profession is. Is it about that recognition or is it about things that are a little bit more tangible? So teachers just get paid more to get people into these jobs?
MP: That's part of it. I mean, we want our professions to be sustainable and enticing professions. One of the things that we're focusing on is fixing Tier 6. For instance, the pension system for our newest members is not as generous as for our more senior members, and one of the benefits of going into public service in general is dignity and retirement and being able to look ahead and retire after 30 years. That's something that we want all of our members to be able to experience.
DC: You know, there's another thing happening in schools right now that I find really interesting, and it brings teachers into this conversation about what are their jobs going to look like in the next couple of years. The state Education Department is considering new graduation requirements. We don't know what they're going to look like. A panel is going to present them to the regents who are going to either accept them or reject them. But what may happen is either changing or taking away the regents exams. What do you think about that? I mean, these the reasons have been in place for a couple of decades now. I took them, a lot of my friends, took them. What do you think about ending them or changing these graduation requirements in general?
MP: I think that what we're looking at is not necessarily ending the regents, but offering multiple pathways to demonstrating your readiness to go out into the world and enter higher ed or a career, general requirements to demonstrate that you're ready for life. Tests are not the only way that you can demonstrate learning.
When I was in high school, I used performance assessments instead of the Global studies regents, and this was 30 years ago. So, this isn't a new concept, but it's something that hasn't been adopted in a major way here in New York. And we're looking forward to seeing some changes coming out of this commission's work.
DC: Do you think it'll be good for teachers to have those different pathways to graduation in different alternatives? I was thinking of it as does this make teachers jobs easier or harder, or does it just make them different?
MP: I think it will depend on the type of class that you're teaching. A lot of educators would like to be able to go more broad or deep into the curriculum and not be driven by a specific test. But educators can have a lot of say over how this is developed. We have a task force right now that is looking into this, and they're going to guide our decision making and the recommendations that we make.
DC: So, this school year as well some things are different in some schools in terms of immigration. We've had an influx of asylum seekers coming to New York over the past two years. About 100,000 people more than now, we don't know the exact number. Obviously, they have children with them who are going to have to go to school with people in general in New York.
You wrote an op ed in the Times-Union recently looking at these relocation efforts and basically saying, we need to coordinate this in a way that makes sense. Talk to me about that.
MP: So, we've already seen right here in the Capital Region an influx of students into the Mohonasen school district, and I think it's really a great example of how our public schools are prepared to welcome all students that enter their doors every day. That is what we do. We do what we need to do to take care of the kids, and in Mohonasen our members from all the surrounding districts, showed up when the students arrived and helped process them into the district and provided translation services, brought food and clothes and all of the things that families need when they're moving into a new place.
The thing that we are focused on right now is, now that we are beginning to get information about where students will arrive, we need to make sure we're providing those districts with the financial resources to provide the education that the kids need.
We know certain districts are more prepared and capable. They have the teachers, they have the space, right. We should do this in a really thoughtful way so that kids are placed where they can get the best care and education.
DC: Can you break that down a little bit. What specialized care do these kids need in these schools as they're coming here? I mean this is the first time, presumably, that they will be in the U.S. education system. We don't necessarily know where they're learning is at. So, what does that look like for them coming into the system?
MP: So oftentimes, kids coming into the system from outside the country will need case management services. We definitely know we need ENL teachers and teachers who are prepared to provide education to our new neighbors. Some districts have this type of staff and others don't. So, whichever communities we're sending them, we should align the resources and the students.
DC: We'll see how that works out when the school year starts and everything like that. Melinda Person from New York State United Teachers. Thank you so much.
And if the school year hasn't already started, most kids are heading back to classrooms this coming week.
Dan Clark: Let’s take a break from the news and bring you to Syracuse or actually to Gettys, small town just outside Syracuse. That's where every year the Great New York State Fair is held. As I like to say, the fair is really a love letter to the rest of New York.
So this year, we again sent a crew to bring the fair to you. New York Now, reporter Shantel Destra has that story.
Shantel Destra: It's a wonderful day here at the 2023 Great New York State Fair in Syracuse, New York. Visitors have traveled from near and far to experience all that the fair has to offer, which is also the longest running state fair in the country. Come along as we experience fan favorites and also the newest exhibits making their debut at the Fair this year.
To kick things off, we caught up with Sean Hennessy.
Sean Hennessy: I want to welcome you all to the 2023 Great New York State fair. It is wonderful to be able to be with you here as the newly minted director of the Great New York State Fair. Yay!
SD: After serving as interim director last year, the Governor officially appointed Hennessy as director at the start of this year's fair.
SH: I was just shocked. I really was when she announced it. I didn't know it was coming, and, you know, I'm a long time public servant. I worked with a couple of different agencies, and to have this honor, to work with the folks here at on the ground and especially Commissioner Ball and for Governor Hochul is just really a true honor.
SD: What was your vision for the state fair this year?
SH: Well, really, to reengage with agriculture. As you see around here, you know, we have what's called Voice of the Farmer, and we're an agricultural based fair. A lot of people see the bling, they see the circus, the midway and all the great food that we have here, but really, what it boils down to is agriculture and inclusion.
SD: Hennessy was with local farmers and elected officials to unveil the Voice of the Farmer Garden, which is the first of its kind farmers garden at a state fair in the U.S., featuring more than 35 different types of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and other plants.
It was also agriculture career day at the fair. So we caught up with Richard Ball, commissioner of the State Department of Agriculture. For him and a lot of people, the fair is about bringing New York's agriculture industry to New Yorkers, especially the young ones.
Richard Ball: We'll have about a million New Yorkers, people from around the region, Indiana, all over the country come here and have an opportunity to have a touch point with agriculture, the importance of food, the importance of nutrition today more important than ever in our lives, and just a touch point. For some of our young people, hopefully a career touch point.
This is an opportunity for so many young people, moms and dads, to see that there are opportunities in the food system.
SD: That's more than just what grows in the ground. The fair is also home to hundreds of animals for a two week span, including roosters who have a daily crowing competition.
The day we were there, the winner was Frankie and his owner, Henry Pascall.
Henry Pascall: He likes whistling loud, he likes a lot of attention. So if you give him a lot of attention, he usually crows. He likes his hens, so that's the way he really crows.
SD: So how will you be rewarding Frankie for being the winning rooster today? Any special treats or anything?
HP: We'll get some pellets and stuff when he gets in the cage some of the feed and some maybe some bread, and he'll go back in his cage and be a rooster.
SD: We then caught up with Kelly Jean, superintendent of the Poultry Barn, to unpack what makes for a good rooster crow.
Kelly Jean: While he was a little slow, but we asked for audience participation, and they started cheering for him and clapping. And some of the big roosters love the noise and then all of a sudden, he came from zero and won the competition.
SD: By this point in the day, we covered a lot of ground, and my stomach was rumbling.
The fair had so many different types of foods to offer, from burgers to fried foods and pastries, but we decided to try an ultimate fair fan favorite food and that was the famous Gianelli sausage.
Over the years, Gianelli has become a staple at the fair. It's even said politicians have to eat a Gianelli sausage for good luck. The company ended its partnership at the fair in 2021 and doesn't have a stand-alone booth anymore but the sausage is still offered at several different stands at the fair.
Well, I’m super excited to share my very first Gianelli sausage. Let's see what it's all about.
Whoa. That's good.
To keep in the spirit of bucket list items at the fair, we thought it was about time to head to the dairy building and see this year's butter sculpture.
We're at the butter exhibit. As you can see, it's a fan favorite. This year's theme is dairy: every day is a healthy to nourish our brains, bones and bodies.
Next, we made our way inside the expo center for an attraction showcasing history and human evolution.
That was the dinosaur exhibit where I was sure we would see my favorite historic beast. This attraction features over 60 life-sized and realistic-looking dinosaurs, transcending visitors back to a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth years ago. Some are as tall as 35 feet and have a width of 80 feet.
Visitors, including the governor, were able to see, touch and hear the large beasts. After learning about agriculture and history for most of the day,
We knew we couldn't leave the fair without heading to the carnival for some fun. We tried to win a big prize, but could not successfully make a basket and while i was having fun shooting hoops, my crew decided they wanted to have some of their own fun and next, we decided to get some sweet treats.
I opted for a binette, while my crew treated themselves to some fried dough. Only two of many tasty offerings at the state fair.
Believe it or not, today was actually my favorite first time at the state fair, but I had so much fun. I'll definitely be back again next year.
Shantel Destra, for New York now.
DC: That was Shantel Destra reporting. The state fair runs through Monday. You can buy tickets online or at the fair's gates.
On This Week's Edition
Catch this week's show on your local PBS member station, or watch on YouTube, Facebook, or using the free PBS app anytime after Friday. A podcast version is available wherever you normally get podcasts.
On This Week's Edition of New York NOW:
- It's the start of the new school year in New York. We'll chat about education, schools, and more with Melinda Person, president of New York State United Teachers.
- The Great New York State Fair runs through Labor Day. Reporter Shantel Destra spends a day at the fair and brings it to you.
- What's the future of artificial intelligence in New York? Zach Williams from Bloomberg Government has been covering that, and joins us to explain.
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