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Millions Of Americans Shiver In A Winter Storm; New Computer Model Animates Plate Tectonics; AI Brings Assistance And Controversy To Online Classes. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired February 17, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Along with the temperature, records have fallen across the United States thanks to a winter storms that`s scraping across
the country. I`m Carl Azuz.
Thank you for taking 10 for CNN. Of the 48 states in the contiguous U.S., the government reported that snow was on the ground in 45 of them. That
happened on Tuesday morning. Only Florida, Georgia and South Carolina were snow free at that time. The snow covered more than 73 percent of the
country outside of Alaska and Hawaii.
That`s the most coverage the nation has seen since records of this started being kept in 2003. It`s fun for folks to play in, it`s not fun if they
have nowhere warm to go afterward.
That`s a big enough problem to cause states of emergency in places like West Virginia, Kentucky and Texas. More than 10 inches of snowfall has
piled up in the central part of the Lonestar State. Below freezing temperatures were recorded in every part of the state. That`s put a record
amount of demand on the state`s electrical grid and then the power went out.
Several million Texans couldn`t turn on the heat yesterday. Some retreated to shelters or ran their cars outside on streets and driveways to get warm.
Energy officials say limited natural gas supplies are part of the problem. So are frozen wind turbines. They generate an estimated 25 percent of the
state`s power but the ice storm caused some of them to shutdown or freeze up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Freezing temperatures and power outages are pummeling areas from Texas through the Plains states. More than a 1/3 of the country
reached temperatures below zero on Monday. Texas is receiving the brunt of the storm with millions across the state left with no power and no heat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all (ph) to the current situation. I`m not going to sugar coat it. The next few days are going to be very tough. There`s a
high chance the power will be out for the -- for these folks until the weather gets better which will not be for a couple of days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The city of Abilene that has a population of more than 100,000 residents was forced to shut off water last night due to power
outages. The lacking infrastructure for these conditions is a major concern for hard hit areas with some families freezing in their homes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s like a walk-in freezer. It`s like 34 to 36 degrees I would say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It depends on which room you`re in, 40 degrees at the lowest end to 55 at the highest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Harris County, power outages nearly spoiled more than 8,000 corona virus vaccine doses. Moderna advised the county that
3,000 of those doses could go back into storage and the rest were distributed throughout the county. Historic lows in Dallas, Oklahoma City
and in Kansas City, the coldest since 1989.
The wind chill factor reaching temperatures as cold as -32 degrees. In Tennessee, authorities reported two fatalities from the storm on Monday.
In Kentucky, the governor is warning that another storm is on its way. He tells residents not to run your gas ovens to generate heat and be careful
using generators and camp stoves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, I can`t stress the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning which is absolutely avoidable. Those are casualties we don`t
want to see. We did not make it through almost a year of a pandemic to lose people to a snow or an ice storm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which scientist work gave rise to the theory of plate tectonics? Charles Richter, Inge Lehmann, Alfred Wegener or Ian
Malcom. Wegener`s theory of continental drift led to the theory of plate tectonics.
Wegener`s book on continental drift was published in 1915. It was not well received in the scientific community. But through the decades as more
discoveries were made, the theory of plate tectonics gained acceptance in the 1960s` and that helped explain Wegener`s theory of continental drift.
Research on this continues today. This an animated computer model that shows the movement of tectonic plates. The giant theoretical chunks that
compose the Earth`s outer crust. Geologists are using this to examine how plates might have interacted along their boundaries. It`s the first model
of its kind and researchers hope it will help geologists understand the history of our planet.
Meantime, technology is trying to understand the expressions of your face. An artificial intelligence tool is gaining usage at a time where more
people are learning and working online. Critics don`t like the idea of laptop cameras, for instance, tracking users faces especially when it comes
to students. But applications for this could go well beyond the online classroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our faces say a lot about us. Whether we`re happy, angry or sad, facial expressions are a big part of how we communicate with
each other. But what about when we can`t see each other`s faces? For teachers around the world, it`s become a problem including in Hong Kong.
When Mosta Kim Chu`s (ph) classes went online, he struggled to stay connected to his students through the screen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Standing in front of the classroom I always observe the reaction and then the face, the emotion of students. We cannot see face to
face teaching at this moment and we -- we don`t understand their progress.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One solution is helping Chu (ph) to read the room. Artificial Intelligence to analyze the student`s emotions as they learn. It
comes from a local startup, Find Solution Ai (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We developed Motivation Ai (ph) especially to help kids using emotion detection to upstart how they learn and motivate them to
learn in a better way. We can motivate them by giving some easy questions. We will also give them some (inaudible) to guide them when are not
understanding something, you know. So it`s like a teacher sitting next to the kid but the teacher`s not there. It`s the software.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lam (ph) says the software works via your webcam or camera. Measuring the position of your eyes, eyebrows, mouth and other
features to detect for six emotions, happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise.
For example, if the corners of your mouth are raised, this would tell the AI that you are happy. While a wrinkled nose, would signal disgust and the
AI is pretty good at it Lam (ph) says.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) accuracy for the emotion detection that we scored around 85 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But can just six facial expressions really convey a range of feelings? According to experts the answer, like emotion is
complex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So there are what we call primary emotions. So you can tell somebody`s angry or sad or happy from any culture pretty easily.
Then the other is what we call secondary emotions that can be harder and can be cultural dependent and can be gender dependent.
We`re not able to recognize secondary emotions with such accuracy. Machines can already do that better than some human beings. We would like
to train the machines to be not just as good as humans but it should be better than the average human.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Find Solution Ai (ph) is one of the number of developers racing to advance the technology. Already, Lam (ph) says the
number of schools using its (inaudible) platform has more than doubled since the pandemic began. As users grow, so do concerns around privacy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the classroom, we need to get a consent. Right? To be part of this program, to be monitored in terms of facial expressions.
More importantly, we need to explain to them how we use their data.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lam (ph) says Fine Solutions AI software doesn`t store videos or photos and parents and students can always chose to turn
off the camera. This feature could give the start-up an edge as global demand grows for machines that can read our emotions. It`s a business that
set to reach $56 billion by 2024. With benefits not just for the virtual classroom but also the virtual workplace from employee wellbeing to online
meetings.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: During the (inaudible) altering the video conference saying, you want to know if that person is engaging or they just turn on
the camera and that person is not literally there. So that is reason why we also expecting to move forward to other industry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Face to face communication is still a way off for many people but a solution in the meantime could be staring us right in the
face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: So just how big a drawing can one person do with a marker? That was the challenge for an art teacher in Philadelphia and this is the work she
drew. It apparently set a record for the largest drawing ever made by an individual.
It`s size 6,450 square feet. It`s features, sky and sea with city buildings in between. It`s total time to complete, 63 hours. The work is
made up of the kind of doodles you might have done in class. Just a wee bit bigger.
So I guess it was a pretty "Sharpie" idea to "Cray-all-over" the room. Because in making her "mark" she met the "mark" while "marking" up the
floor in a "marker" break record attempt that is pretty "remarkable".
We`ll just have to see how "permanent" it is. Shout out today goes out to Rising Sun High School. It is in the picturesque sounding town of Rising
Sun, Maryland. They did the one thing you can do to get a mention on CNN 10. They subscribed and left a comment on our most recent show at
YouTube.com/CNN10. I`m Carl Azuz.
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