August 29, 2025 • 24 mins
We are hearing stories of true bravery from people after Wednesday's massacre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at a Catholic school. Andrew Cuomo is warning voters that if Zohran Mamdani gets elected to Mayor of New York City, President Trump will take over Manhattan. Democrats in Chicago don't want help from the National Guard troops from Donald Trump, but many citizens there do. John Cohen joins Larry to discuss how cybersecurity is a valuable technology for keeping our information safe. Still, it also has its drawbacks, especially when it comes to the federal government. Swatting is adding to the fear of the terror climate issues in our country. This stems from Wednesday's tragedy at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. AI is advancing rapidly, and Kevin Cirilli and Larry explore areas where it's having a significant impact right now. Many employees and students are more competent, rather than faster, when using Artificial Intelligence. What will the future of the workforce look like due to AI and work ethic changes in society?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And good morning to you. Happy howiday weekend? Huh, it's
it's just a spell baron out there. I think everybody's
going to some place, but they're not in this area.
They they're already driven, they're they're gone, they're in another state,
or they're in the air, or they're they're not here.
They're certainly not in this building. I'll tell you what
(00:22):
if you're not on the air here, you're not here.
The sales floor, you know, and the management floor they're empty.
Where do we go wrong, Larry? We didn't get into management.
That's exactly what you should do. I mean, it's empty.
The whole building is like empty. I was kidding with
the security guards downtown downstairs. I mean, I said to them,
(00:46):
is there anybody showing up today? And he said, it's
just a little trickle of a few people that have
to be here. It's it's almost empty. So God bless you,
and you know, you get the you get that four
day weekend and we don't. But that's okay. But it's
gonna be beautiful for you, really nice, really nice. Maybe a
passing shower today, but other than that, right through the weekend,
(01:07):
all the way through Tuesday, it's gonna be sunny, so
it's just wonderful. I'm glad you have the day off.
I'll be off tomorrow like always. But I'm so happy
for everybody that has some time off and that you
get to enjoy it and then get back on Tuesday.
(01:28):
In the meantime, in the Big Three, we have to
remember what happened yesterday, A day after the horrific mass
shooting at a church in Minneapolis. We are hearing stories
of true bravery.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Over the past day. I've heard many stories accounting the
swift and heroic actions of children and adults alike from
inside the church. Without these people and their selfless actions,
this could have been a tragedy of many magnitudes. More
For these people, I'm thankful.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, And all the stories of children helping other children,
older children pushing second graders and first graders under the
pews to save their lives. What a wonderful community and
what a horrible thing to have happened to them. Mayor
Eric Adams is taking a trump like action after a
(02:23):
series of murders and shootings in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Inded shooters hid an unintended target and when bullets fly
because the gang disputes. It doesn't stop in poises say okay,
this is not a rival gang member, or this is
a rival gang member. It takes a life. It takes
the life of an innocent person, right, And.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So he's sending a thousand officers into the Bronx. He
is flooding the Bronx. Also, he's going to have a
summit with those gang members at Gracie Mansion. That's going
to be the topic of Natalie Migliore's Beat on the
Street coming up. Andrew Cuomo is now warning that New
Yorkers if Zorin Mamdani becomes mayor, President Donald Trump is
(03:07):
going to take over the city.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
If Zoran Mandani became mayor, how long would it be
before he took control of New York City? A day,
two days a week.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
In Chicago, there is right now a groundswell of support,
not from the Democratic politicians, of course, you know they're
anti Trump, Trump stay away, Trump, stay away, but from
the people for Donald Trump to help fight crime in
their city.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
We need to invite President Trump in. We invite the
National Guardian. You know, we've had two hundred and fifty
four deaths in two hundred and thirty three days. Eighty
percent of those have been black boys. And for anyone
in our community to say that things are getting better
and that people are safe, that is an outright lie.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
More problems at Newark's Liberty International air for incoming planes
couldn't land because air traffic control wasn't able to communicate
with the pilots.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
They told us there was some sort of frequency issue
with the airport, and we just kept circling, circling, probably
for about an hour.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
The all important Path station in Hoboken, New Jersey, is
closed for repairs that may take up to five days,
leaving tens of thousands of commuters to find another way
into the city. I just have to add another maybe
thirty to sixty minutes to make sure I'll be I'll
be down time and at Penn Station soon to become
(04:38):
Trump Station. The new Acella train is getting rave reviews.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
It's gorgeous.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
It's such luxury compared to the old train, kind of
compared to an airplane because I fly a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It is gorgeous, super smooth. Yeah, it was beautiful. Let's
talk about yesterday just a little bit more. It is
still sinking in exactly what happened, and now the father
of ten of eight year old Fletcher Merkele, his father
(05:11):
is Jesse Merkle, spoke to the media and also spoke
with the for the parents of Harper Moyski, who was
ten years old.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
A coward decided to take our eight year old son,
Fletcher away from us. Because of their actions, we will
never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play
with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young
man he was on the path to be coming.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And right after that, the Merkell family and the Moyski
family put out a joint statement asking please for the
media to stay away. Now they've made their statements, they've
talked to the media, and that's enough. Just let them mourn.
Police Chief Brian O'Hara talked about the bravery not only
of the community, but of the other children. He was
(06:02):
marveling at it. You know, of all the people that
were in front of microphones, this guy was the most appropriate.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
All of our law enforcement partners, first responders, and many children,
members of the school staff, and parishioners of Annunciation Annunciation
Catholic Church all showed incredible courage yesterday. Yesterday in the
face of unspeakable horror.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We've heard stories of children getting on top of younger
children and taking a bullet, but they were trying to
protect someone else. We've heard stories of older children going
along a row and pushing younger children under the pews.
It is amazing. I mean, you don't know what you're
(06:53):
gonna do in a moment like that, right, you don't
know who you're gonna be. Are you gonna hide? Are
you gonna care about yourself? That's the that's the instinct, right.
Nobody can shame you for that. Of course, it just
kicks in. But what kicked in to a lot of
these children at Annunciation was to protect others. First thing
(07:16):
they thought of, Oh my goodness, I need to protect
the younger children. That's special, that's a special community. That's
incredible for someone that young to think of the person
next to them, to think of someone more vulnerable, and
to put themselves at risk. I'll tell you what, it
(07:41):
is horrible. What happened. It is horrific, But it could
have been worse. It could have been much worse, and
if not for the bravery of those kids, it would
have been in that community. An Annunciation parish should feel
(08:04):
proud of the ones that were willing. Now, thank god
none of them were killed. Some of them took bullets
though when here in the hospital. Thank God for those
children that they protected. Others.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
His buddy's family reached out to me to just say
how much they're thankful for Francis, my son's name, for
protecting their young first grader and I'm so proud of
my son for doing that.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, that was Juliet and Najar Shepherd, the mother of Francis,
who can't you know, you can see she's still filled
with emotion. How could you not be, but so as
she said, so proud of her son.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
It is.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It is just amazing to look at, I mean, coming
out of tragedy, to have these stories of heroism. I
guess it happens a lot, but not with children in
this age, and that needs to be celebrated. That needs
to be honored in the face of tragedy. And we,
you know, and we got to stop talking about that
(09:12):
devil that went and shot up at church and put
those children in jeopardy. They're now in the media going
around trying to find more about him. And they came
across a young girl named Josephina Sanchez. Josephina Sanchez was
kind of friends, was in the same classes. Knew the
(09:34):
coward that shot up that school, and she said, look,
I was always afraid of them.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
It doesn't leave your mind when you see something like erratic,
it doesn't leave your mind.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
So he would.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Put up his hand and say, like, praise Hitler.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, glad he killed himself. Look, he might have had
a tragic life. You know, he was transgender, he was confused.
I get it, I'm you know, but how can you
feel sorry for this scum? You know he was willing
to take the lives of several children. It wasn't for
the heroism of other children he would have so good riddance.
(10:16):
Well we have the weekend now after this tragedy. You know,
it's going to be horrible up in Minneapolis, but they'll
heal and that community, with those people in that community,
you know they're going to come back stronger than ever.
Here's a nice story to get us out of this.
A New Jersey shopwrite employee has become a viral sensation
(10:40):
for her sales pitches. We'll talk about that next. Because
of everything that's going on, this may not have been
on your radar. But apparently the terror climate in this
country just continues to rise. And for that, we're going
to talk to John Cohen, ABC News consultant. He is
(11:00):
former counter terrorism coordinator at DHS. John, thank you so
much for taking some time to talk to us today.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
It's great to be with you. Thank you so.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Explain that that headline that the terror climate continues to rise.
What is causing that?
Speaker 8 (11:16):
Well, there's a variety of factors. But if we take
a step back and look at what's been going on
in this country through last year and into this year,
we are continuing to see mass shootings, some ideologically motivated,
some motivated by a combination of ideology and personal grievance,
(11:36):
some motivated by some type of dispute occurring at a
public place. But we are seeing a mass shooting occur
somewhere in this country almost every single day at the
same time. Just yesterday or a few days ago, the
FBI and members of the intelligence community warned US industries
that countries like China and Russia have essentially infiltrated using
(11:59):
site or attacks are telecommunications infrastructure and the Internet, and
they're warning people to actually use encrypted signaling apps on
their phones to protect their their conversations. We continue to
see cyber criminal organizations, hostile foreign powers and others use
(12:23):
techniques like swatting, which is using the Internet to create
hoax nine when one calls and the hopes that law
enforcement will descend upon the location, you know, enforce causing
disruption and or John John.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
That's called swatting, right, Is that what you're talking about.
Speaker 8 (12:41):
Yes, yes, swatty. We've been seeing just so in the
past week, we've seen universities across the United States targeted
by a cyber criminal group at the same time that
the city of Minneapolis experienced an actual, real mass shooting.
So this is the environment that law enforcement is dealing
with right now, and it's as you and I have
talked about in the past, it continues to be highly volatile,
(13:05):
highly complex, and quite frankly dangerous.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Let's talk about the cyber attacks for a moment, because
I don't think that gets enough attention. And I've talked
to local homeland security officials about this before, and they
say that it is amazing how many attacks are not reported,
mainly because the companies involved don't want them reported. But
they say it happens every day and several times a day.
(13:30):
Is that still the case?
Speaker 8 (13:32):
Absolutely. I mean, foreign militaries, foreign intelligence services, even terrorist
groups are targeting our critical infrastructure. They're targeting the industry sector.
They're targeting our telecommunications infrastructure. They're targeting the information and
communications systems that that are are operated by federal, state
(13:52):
and local governments. I think part of the problem and
part of the challenge when talking about cyber is that
the people and this is my profession who are engaged
in cybersecurity usually speak about it in very technical terms.
But the danger of cyber attacks are far more in
the physical world than they are in the in the
(14:12):
digital world. What do I mean by that? We have
seen foreign cyber actors, threat actors targeting police nine one
one systems. They will not what we call denial of
service attacks, so they'll use cyber attacks to make those
nine one one systems inoperable, which means you can't pick
up the phone and call the police in an emergency. We're
seeing cyber attacks directed at state and local government, so
(14:35):
they can't share information, they can't issue business licenses, they can't,
you know, their jail management systems don't work, which run
which means it runs the risk of them releasing bad
people into our communities. We have seen cyber attacks that
have resulted in sensitive information regarding in criminal investigations by
(14:57):
foreign by foreign criminal organization, and they're using that information
to threaten law enforcement or to disrupt investigation. So the
danger for cyber is, yes, it could it can shut
down an information network. Yes it can mean sensitive credit
card information and other data can be stolen. But there's
also very real world implications that can impact the public
(15:20):
safety and the public health of people across the country.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Now, we're pretty good at stopping this.
Speaker 8 (15:28):
We are, actually and this is what is so troubling
to me, is that over the past decade, you know
that the first in the first Trump administration, during the
Obama administration, to some degree in the Biden administration, you know,
we started putting in place, you know, really good strategies
and tools to empower state and local governments in particular,
(15:52):
but also the private sector to protect themselves against these
cyber attacks. My concern and the concern of others today
is that at those resources are being reduced and in
some cases being diverted. So we have, for example, law
enforcement personnel with the FBI and other federal agencies who
(16:13):
in the past were actively involved in counter intelligence cyber
investigations and criminal cyber crime investigations. Those resources being reassigned
to work on things such as immigration enforcement. So we
need to you know, every administration has a has a priority,
and they and that's their right. But I think, you
know what, we should be making decisions on resource allocation
(16:36):
based on those threats that are impacting our communities the most.
In cyber is clearly one of those areas well.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
It seems like it may be the biggest area of
concern for the federal government right now because you can
imagine I don't have to tell you all of the
things that could be hacked and the chaos that would cause.
So John, it's always fascinating to talk to you. ABC
News consultant for former counter terrorism coordinator at DHS. I
(17:03):
look forward to talking to you again. Thank you for
your time.
Speaker 8 (17:06):
Have a good holiday weekend.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Now let's get to Kevin's really futurist reporter and founder
of Meet the Future website. Kevin, I appreciate you being
here today. You are sort of the man on the
hour because we've had so many stories that have to
do with a I, and I don't think a whole
lot of people understand exactly what is going on and
(17:29):
how pervasive AI is already in our lives. Let's start
with this. How much is it going to threaten the workforce?
Speaker 9 (17:40):
You know, I think there's I'm an optimist, as you know,
especially when it comes to embracing technology, and I think
there's a lot of upside if you play your cards right.
You know, there's this coin term that's been making its
way this year through the zeitgeist of the technology world,
and that's these super workers. The new star employees aren't
necessarily sat sir, but they're smarter with AI. So a
(18:03):
big conversation in the education front is, oh, are students
cheating with AI? I don't like that word, I mean
even in the workplace. So did you use AI to
write that report? Well, I hope you did, But the
question is can you still make it sound human? And
these super workers have cracked that code. These are early adopters,
people who have figured out ways to be able to
(18:23):
be more streamlined in the workplace, scheduling meetings, replying to emails.
They're called super workers. Think about it from the sense
of AI. A lot of these growth revenues. They're seeing
three x revenue growth, and top talent is getting ahead
with their salaries as a result of embracing it. But
I also think that it's leading us to another conversation
(18:44):
about entry level jobs. We've heard, you know, I've talked
to you, Larry about the whole notion of you know,
white collar jobs and mid level jobs and whatnot. But
the AI kids who are cashing in are the ones
who doubled down on artificial intelligence and learning it. The
start ups. The starting salaries for these kids out of
college two hundred thousand dollars not bad.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
How proficient do you have to be at AI to
get that salary right out of college.
Speaker 9 (19:12):
Well, it's not just being proficient in it. It's also
learning how to design the llms, how to be able
to teach others the lms, and being able to to
recognize sort of what businesses are going to be needing
in the next three to five years. You know, we've
all heard of SEO, for example, but you know, artificial
intelligence models, especially if you're a business. You're gonna want
(19:35):
your news if you're in the media industry, or you're
gonna want your data if you're in the data industry
picked up by the artificial intelligence bots because that's the
new Google, and so thinking like that, that's why these
college kids are making so much money.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, so you're saying the people that just like major
in AI, who they know AI, know how to develop AI,
are going to get these big jobs. But what about
the people that are proficient at it. I would imagine
they have a step up over somebody else no matter
what they do, if they.
Speaker 9 (20:10):
Know AI correct And you know, and I said this
to a business community, meaning that I that I presented
at a couple of weeks ago, which is people should
be thinking of AI as like a senior vice president
in their org chart. And that can be kind of
controversial but of a statement, but it's true in the
sense that the entry level jobs are going to have
(20:32):
to learn the AI system. The c suite is going
to have to understand how AI is going to be
integrated into their organization chart and the deliverables that they
want their AI to perform and automate, and the employees
are going to have to work seamlessly with it. But
it all comes back to security and trust. If this
information isn't something that your organization or your colleagues are
(20:55):
able to interact with, then it's useless and it's just cumbersome.
But if it is able to enhance that's the ability
for your company to meet their KPIs and whatnot, then
it's better for them. But I would also argue that
in the culture because of the rise of AI, and
then this come back to work, back to the office.
You and I have talked about this when I was
(21:15):
you know, I'm actually in New York today for other meetings,
but when I was when I saw you in the studio,
I'm a big fan of going into the office. But
the four day work week, I think is going to
pick up steam in the sense that because of AI
making things faster and more efficient. A lot of global
trial trials have showed that not only are workers eighteen
(21:35):
percent happier, cutting stress by twenty six percent, but company
profits are boosted. So, you know, we could talk about
a four day work week as we head into a
three day weekend, But then that is implications for the
political world, which I'll let you cover because you know
certain industries maybe you know one a four day work week,
but one at a five day salary. Blah, blah blah
(21:57):
blah blah. So it is really fascinating how the culture
around work is evolving.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Well, here's the amazing thing about a four day work week.
Not only are workers happy with that because they get
an extra day off, but apparently profits are up right.
Speaker 9 (22:12):
Profits are up And so from a four day work
week perspective, you know, if it lets you be more
efficient and it gets people back into the office and
it gets people back, you know, I would argue downtown
into the business districts and that has a I would
argue a positive effects on the economy and people can
be more efficient. You know, it might be time. You know,
Americans are notoriously bad at taking vacations, so you know,
(22:35):
maybe maybe maybe we've all been working up to this moment.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Larry, Yeah, well, I hope, So that would be really nice.
What about robots? How big are they going to be
in our future when we go to work or in
some of the workplaces.
Speaker 9 (22:51):
Well, especially in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing. A couple of
years ago, I did a tour of a plant in
Arizona where they were making semiconductor trips, and I felt
like I was in honey shrunk kids because I saw
all of these I get. I mean, I saw these
humans manning the robots. It was wild. It was a
secure facility, deep underground in the Arizona Desert, and I
had to put on the bunny suit, the white you know,
(23:12):
the white suit and all that, and I watched these
engineers control robots and it was really like a scene
out of the future flash forwards. Today. The Wall Street
Journal has the story out this week about a Hyundai
plant where there's seven hundred and fifty robots. But the
point of the story isn't that the robots are here.
It's that the humans didn't lose their jobs. The humans
are manning the robots, and that I think is also
(23:33):
going to be incredibly important, because you do need the
humans there to make sure that the robots don't, you know,
start making put the left tire on the right side
or the right eye on the left side.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Right right, And you don't want them taking over the
world either, so you want to human they're absolutely not.
Speaker 9 (23:48):
Thanks Also, Larry, the last point, the robots don't have
purchasing power, so the human maintains the power because they
have the money. So they're making the cars for humans
to buy. Never forget that, because that's the leverage that
humanity has for now.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Kevin's surreally futurist reporter and founder of Meet the Future website.
Thanks so much, Talk to you again, Kevin,
And good morning to you. Happy howiday weekend? Huh, it's
it's just a spell baron out there. I think everybody's
going to some place, but they're not in this area.
They they're already driven, they're they're gone, they're in another state,
or they're in the air, or they're they're not here.
They're certainly not in this building. I'll tell you what
(00:22):
if you're not on the air here, you're not here.
The sales floor, you know, and the management floor they're empty.
Where do we go wrong, Larry? We didn't get into management.
That's exactly what you should do. I mean, it's empty.
The whole building is like empty. I was kidding with
the security guards downtown downstairs. I mean, I said to them,
(00:46):
is there anybody showing up today? And he said, it's
just a little trickle of a few people that have
to be here. It's it's almost empty. So God bless you,
and you know, you get the you get that four
day weekend and we don't. But that's okay. But it's
gonna be beautiful for you, really nice, really nice. Maybe a
passing shower today, but other than that, right through the weekend,
(01:07):
all the way through Tuesday, it's gonna be sunny, so
it's just wonderful. I'm glad you have the day off.
I'll be off tomorrow like always. But I'm so happy
for everybody that has some time off and that you
get to enjoy it and then get back on Tuesday.
(01:28):
In the meantime, in the Big Three, we have to
remember what happened yesterday, A day after the horrific mass
shooting at a church in Minneapolis. We are hearing stories
of true bravery.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Over the past day. I've heard many stories accounting the
swift and heroic actions of children and adults alike from
inside the church. Without these people and their selfless actions,
this could have been a tragedy of many magnitudes. More
For these people, I'm thankful.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, And all the stories of children helping other children,
older children pushing second graders and first graders under the
pews to save their lives. What a wonderful community and
what a horrible thing to have happened to them. Mayor
Eric Adams is taking a trump like action after a
(02:23):
series of murders and shootings in the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Inded shooters hid an unintended target and when bullets fly
because the gang disputes. It doesn't stop in poises say okay,
this is not a rival gang member, or this is
a rival gang member. It takes a life. It takes
the life of an innocent person, right, And.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So he's sending a thousand officers into the Bronx. He
is flooding the Bronx. Also, he's going to have a
summit with those gang members at Gracie Mansion. That's going
to be the topic of Natalie Migliore's Beat on the
Street coming up. Andrew Cuomo is now warning that New
Yorkers if Zorin Mamdani becomes mayor, President Donald Trump is
(03:07):
going to take over the city.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
If Zoran Mandani became mayor, how long would it be
before he took control of New York City? A day,
two days a week.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
In Chicago, there is right now a groundswell of support,
not from the Democratic politicians, of course, you know they're
anti Trump, Trump stay away, Trump, stay away, but from
the people for Donald Trump to help fight crime in
their city.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
We need to invite President Trump in. We invite the
National Guardian. You know, we've had two hundred and fifty
four deaths in two hundred and thirty three days. Eighty
percent of those have been black boys. And for anyone
in our community to say that things are getting better
and that people are safe, that is an outright lie.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
More problems at Newark's Liberty International air for incoming planes
couldn't land because air traffic control wasn't able to communicate
with the pilots.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
They told us there was some sort of frequency issue
with the airport, and we just kept circling, circling, probably
for about an hour.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
The all important Path station in Hoboken, New Jersey, is
closed for repairs that may take up to five days,
leaving tens of thousands of commuters to find another way
into the city. I just have to add another maybe
thirty to sixty minutes to make sure I'll be I'll
be down time and at Penn Station soon to become
(04:38):
Trump Station. The new Acella train is getting rave reviews.
Speaker 6 (04:42):
It's gorgeous.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
It's such luxury compared to the old train, kind of
compared to an airplane because I fly a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It is gorgeous, super smooth. Yeah, it was beautiful. Let's
talk about yesterday just a little bit more. It is
still sinking in exactly what happened, and now the father
of ten of eight year old Fletcher Merkele, his father
(05:11):
is Jesse Merkle, spoke to the media and also spoke
with the for the parents of Harper Moyski, who was
ten years old.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
A coward decided to take our eight year old son,
Fletcher away from us. Because of their actions, we will
never be allowed to hold him, talk to him, play
with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young
man he was on the path to be coming.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And right after that, the Merkell family and the Moyski
family put out a joint statement asking please for the
media to stay away. Now they've made their statements, they've
talked to the media, and that's enough. Just let them mourn.
Police Chief Brian O'Hara talked about the bravery not only
of the community, but of the other children. He was
(06:02):
marveling at it. You know, of all the people that
were in front of microphones, this guy was the most appropriate.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
All of our law enforcement partners, first responders, and many children,
members of the school staff, and parishioners of Annunciation Annunciation
Catholic Church all showed incredible courage yesterday. Yesterday in the
face of unspeakable horror.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We've heard stories of children getting on top of younger
children and taking a bullet, but they were trying to
protect someone else. We've heard stories of older children going
along a row and pushing younger children under the pews.
It is amazing. I mean, you don't know what you're
(06:53):
gonna do in a moment like that, right, you don't
know who you're gonna be. Are you gonna hide? Are
you gonna care about yourself? That's the that's the instinct, right.
Nobody can shame you for that. Of course, it just
kicks in. But what kicked in to a lot of
these children at Annunciation was to protect others. First thing
(07:16):
they thought of, Oh my goodness, I need to protect
the younger children. That's special, that's a special community. That's
incredible for someone that young to think of the person
next to them, to think of someone more vulnerable, and
to put themselves at risk. I'll tell you what, it
(07:41):
is horrible. What happened. It is horrific, But it could
have been worse. It could have been much worse, and
if not for the bravery of those kids, it would
have been in that community. An Annunciation parish should feel
(08:04):
proud of the ones that were willing. Now, thank god
none of them were killed. Some of them took bullets
though when here in the hospital. Thank God for those
children that they protected. Others.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
His buddy's family reached out to me to just say
how much they're thankful for Francis, my son's name, for
protecting their young first grader and I'm so proud of
my son for doing that.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, that was Juliet and Najar Shepherd, the mother of Francis,
who can't you know, you can see she's still filled
with emotion. How could you not be, but so as
she said, so proud of her son.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
It is.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It is just amazing to look at, I mean, coming
out of tragedy, to have these stories of heroism. I
guess it happens a lot, but not with children in
this age, and that needs to be celebrated. That needs
to be honored in the face of tragedy. And we,
you know, and we got to stop talking about that
(09:12):
devil that went and shot up at church and put
those children in jeopardy. They're now in the media going
around trying to find more about him. And they came
across a young girl named Josephina Sanchez. Josephina Sanchez was
kind of friends, was in the same classes. Knew the
(09:34):
coward that shot up that school, and she said, look,
I was always afraid of them.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
It doesn't leave your mind when you see something like erratic,
it doesn't leave your mind.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
So he would.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Put up his hand and say, like, praise Hitler.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, glad he killed himself. Look, he might have had
a tragic life. You know, he was transgender, he was confused.
I get it, I'm you know, but how can you
feel sorry for this scum? You know he was willing
to take the lives of several children. It wasn't for
the heroism of other children he would have so good riddance.
(10:16):
Well we have the weekend now after this tragedy. You know,
it's going to be horrible up in Minneapolis, but they'll
heal and that community, with those people in that community,
you know they're going to come back stronger than ever.
Here's a nice story to get us out of this.
A New Jersey shopwrite employee has become a viral sensation
(10:40):
for her sales pitches. We'll talk about that next. Because
of everything that's going on, this may not have been
on your radar. But apparently the terror climate in this
country just continues to rise. And for that, we're going
to talk to John Cohen, ABC News consultant. He is
(11:00):
former counter terrorism coordinator at DHS. John, thank you so
much for taking some time to talk to us today.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
It's great to be with you. Thank you so.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Explain that that headline that the terror climate continues to rise.
What is causing that?
Speaker 8 (11:16):
Well, there's a variety of factors. But if we take
a step back and look at what's been going on
in this country through last year and into this year,
we are continuing to see mass shootings, some ideologically motivated,
some motivated by a combination of ideology and personal grievance,
(11:36):
some motivated by some type of dispute occurring at a
public place. But we are seeing a mass shooting occur
somewhere in this country almost every single day at the
same time. Just yesterday or a few days ago, the
FBI and members of the intelligence community warned US industries
that countries like China and Russia have essentially infiltrated using
(11:59):
site or attacks are telecommunications infrastructure and the Internet, and
they're warning people to actually use encrypted signaling apps on
their phones to protect their their conversations. We continue to
see cyber criminal organizations, hostile foreign powers and others use
(12:23):
techniques like swatting, which is using the Internet to create
hoax nine when one calls and the hopes that law
enforcement will descend upon the location, you know, enforce causing
disruption and or John John.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
That's called swatting, right, Is that what you're talking about.
Speaker 8 (12:41):
Yes, yes, swatty. We've been seeing just so in the
past week, we've seen universities across the United States targeted
by a cyber criminal group at the same time that
the city of Minneapolis experienced an actual, real mass shooting.
So this is the environment that law enforcement is dealing
with right now, and it's as you and I have
talked about in the past, it continues to be highly volatile,
(13:05):
highly complex, and quite frankly dangerous.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Let's talk about the cyber attacks for a moment, because
I don't think that gets enough attention. And I've talked
to local homeland security officials about this before, and they
say that it is amazing how many attacks are not reported,
mainly because the companies involved don't want them reported. But
they say it happens every day and several times a day.
(13:30):
Is that still the case?
Speaker 8 (13:32):
Absolutely. I mean, foreign militaries, foreign intelligence services, even terrorist
groups are targeting our critical infrastructure. They're targeting the industry sector.
They're targeting our telecommunications infrastructure. They're targeting the information and
communications systems that that are are operated by federal, state
(13:52):
and local governments. I think part of the problem and
part of the challenge when talking about cyber is that
the people and this is my profession who are engaged
in cybersecurity usually speak about it in very technical terms.
But the danger of cyber attacks are far more in
the physical world than they are in the in the
(14:12):
digital world. What do I mean by that? We have
seen foreign cyber actors, threat actors targeting police nine one
one systems. They will not what we call denial of
service attacks, so they'll use cyber attacks to make those
nine one one systems inoperable, which means you can't pick
up the phone and call the police in an emergency. We're
seeing cyber attacks directed at state and local government, so
(14:35):
they can't share information, they can't issue business licenses, they can't,
you know, their jail management systems don't work, which run
which means it runs the risk of them releasing bad
people into our communities. We have seen cyber attacks that
have resulted in sensitive information regarding in criminal investigations by
(14:57):
foreign by foreign criminal organization, and they're using that information
to threaten law enforcement or to disrupt investigation. So the
danger for cyber is, yes, it could it can shut
down an information network. Yes it can mean sensitive credit
card information and other data can be stolen. But there's
also very real world implications that can impact the public
(15:20):
safety and the public health of people across the country.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Now, we're pretty good at stopping this.
Speaker 8 (15:28):
We are, actually and this is what is so troubling
to me, is that over the past decade, you know
that the first in the first Trump administration, during the
Obama administration, to some degree in the Biden administration, you know,
we started putting in place, you know, really good strategies
and tools to empower state and local governments in particular,
(15:52):
but also the private sector to protect themselves against these
cyber attacks. My concern and the concern of others today
is that at those resources are being reduced and in
some cases being diverted. So we have, for example, law
enforcement personnel with the FBI and other federal agencies who
(16:13):
in the past were actively involved in counter intelligence cyber
investigations and criminal cyber crime investigations. Those resources being reassigned
to work on things such as immigration enforcement. So we
need to you know, every administration has a has a priority,
and they and that's their right. But I think, you
know what, we should be making decisions on resource allocation
(16:36):
based on those threats that are impacting our communities the most.
In cyber is clearly one of those areas well.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
It seems like it may be the biggest area of
concern for the federal government right now because you can
imagine I don't have to tell you all of the
things that could be hacked and the chaos that would cause.
So John, it's always fascinating to talk to you. ABC
News consultant for former counter terrorism coordinator at DHS. I
(17:03):
look forward to talking to you again. Thank you for
your time.
Speaker 8 (17:06):
Have a good holiday weekend.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Now let's get to Kevin's really futurist reporter and founder
of Meet the Future website. Kevin, I appreciate you being
here today. You are sort of the man on the
hour because we've had so many stories that have to
do with a I, and I don't think a whole
lot of people understand exactly what is going on and
(17:29):
how pervasive AI is already in our lives. Let's start
with this. How much is it going to threaten the workforce?
Speaker 9 (17:40):
You know, I think there's I'm an optimist, as you know,
especially when it comes to embracing technology, and I think
there's a lot of upside if you play your cards right.
You know, there's this coin term that's been making its
way this year through the zeitgeist of the technology world,
and that's these super workers. The new star employees aren't
necessarily sat sir, but they're smarter with AI. So a
(18:03):
big conversation in the education front is, oh, are students
cheating with AI? I don't like that word, I mean
even in the workplace. So did you use AI to
write that report? Well, I hope you did, But the
question is can you still make it sound human? And
these super workers have cracked that code. These are early adopters,
people who have figured out ways to be able to
(18:23):
be more streamlined in the workplace, scheduling meetings, replying to emails.
They're called super workers. Think about it from the sense
of AI. A lot of these growth revenues. They're seeing
three x revenue growth, and top talent is getting ahead
with their salaries as a result of embracing it. But
I also think that it's leading us to another conversation
(18:44):
about entry level jobs. We've heard, you know, I've talked
to you, Larry about the whole notion of you know,
white collar jobs and mid level jobs and whatnot. But
the AI kids who are cashing in are the ones
who doubled down on artificial intelligence and learning it. The
start ups. The starting salaries for these kids out of
college two hundred thousand dollars not bad.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
How proficient do you have to be at AI to
get that salary right out of college.
Speaker 9 (19:12):
Well, it's not just being proficient in it. It's also
learning how to design the llms, how to be able
to teach others the lms, and being able to to
recognize sort of what businesses are going to be needing
in the next three to five years. You know, we've
all heard of SEO, for example, but you know, artificial
intelligence models, especially if you're a business. You're gonna want
(19:35):
your news if you're in the media industry, or you're
gonna want your data if you're in the data industry
picked up by the artificial intelligence bots because that's the
new Google, and so thinking like that, that's why these
college kids are making so much money.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, so you're saying the people that just like major
in AI, who they know AI, know how to develop AI,
are going to get these big jobs. But what about
the people that are proficient at it. I would imagine
they have a step up over somebody else no matter
what they do, if they.
Speaker 9 (20:10):
Know AI correct And you know, and I said this
to a business community, meaning that I that I presented
at a couple of weeks ago, which is people should
be thinking of AI as like a senior vice president
in their org chart. And that can be kind of
controversial but of a statement, but it's true in the
sense that the entry level jobs are going to have
(20:32):
to learn the AI system. The c suite is going
to have to understand how AI is going to be
integrated into their organization chart and the deliverables that they
want their AI to perform and automate, and the employees
are going to have to work seamlessly with it. But
it all comes back to security and trust. If this
information isn't something that your organization or your colleagues are
(20:55):
able to interact with, then it's useless and it's just cumbersome.
But if it is able to enhance that's the ability
for your company to meet their KPIs and whatnot, then
it's better for them. But I would also argue that
in the culture because of the rise of AI, and
then this come back to work, back to the office.
You and I have talked about this when I was
(21:15):
you know, I'm actually in New York today for other meetings,
but when I was when I saw you in the studio,
I'm a big fan of going into the office. But
the four day work week, I think is going to
pick up steam in the sense that because of AI
making things faster and more efficient. A lot of global
trial trials have showed that not only are workers eighteen
(21:35):
percent happier, cutting stress by twenty six percent, but company
profits are boosted. So, you know, we could talk about
a four day work week as we head into a
three day weekend, But then that is implications for the
political world, which I'll let you cover because you know
certain industries maybe you know one a four day work week,
but one at a five day salary. Blah, blah blah
(21:57):
blah blah. So it is really fascinating how the culture
around work is evolving.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Well, here's the amazing thing about a four day work week.
Not only are workers happy with that because they get
an extra day off, but apparently profits are up right.
Speaker 9 (22:12):
Profits are up And so from a four day work
week perspective, you know, if it lets you be more
efficient and it gets people back into the office and
it gets people back, you know, I would argue downtown
into the business districts and that has a I would
argue a positive effects on the economy and people can
be more efficient. You know, it might be time. You know,
Americans are notoriously bad at taking vacations, so you know,
(22:35):
maybe maybe maybe we've all been working up to this moment.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Larry, Yeah, well, I hope, So that would be really nice.
What about robots? How big are they going to be
in our future when we go to work or in
some of the workplaces.
Speaker 9 (22:51):
Well, especially in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing. A couple of
years ago, I did a tour of a plant in
Arizona where they were making semiconductor trips, and I felt
like I was in honey shrunk kids because I saw
all of these I get. I mean, I saw these
humans manning the robots. It was wild. It was a
secure facility, deep underground in the Arizona Desert, and I
had to put on the bunny suit, the white you know,
(23:12):
the white suit and all that, and I watched these
engineers control robots and it was really like a scene
out of the future flash forwards. Today. The Wall Street
Journal has the story out this week about a Hyundai
plant where there's seven hundred and fifty robots. But the
point of the story isn't that the robots are here.
It's that the humans didn't lose their jobs. The humans
are manning the robots, and that I think is also
(23:33):
going to be incredibly important, because you do need the
humans there to make sure that the robots don't, you know,
start making put the left tire on the right side
or the right eye on the left side.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Right right, And you don't want them taking over the
world either, so you want to human they're absolutely not.
Speaker 9 (23:48):
Thanks Also, Larry, the last point, the robots don't have
purchasing power, so the human maintains the power because they
have the money. So they're making the cars for humans
to buy. Never forget that, because that's the leverage that
humanity has for now.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Kevin's surreally futurist reporter and founder of Meet the Future website.
Thanks so much, Talk to you again, Kevin,
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