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ISIS Prisoner Swap Deadline Passes; Domestic Violence PSA during Super Bowl; McDonald's CEO Retiring as Sales Dip; Bill Gates Warns about Smart Computers

Aired January 29, 2015 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We're continuing to follow breaking news this morning.

An ISIS deadline to hand over a convicted terrorist has passed -- it's an hour old now. Now the world waits to find out the fate of that Jordanian pilot who crashed last month while conducting coalition air strikes. And of course, we're also awaiting the fate of Kenji Goto, the Japanese hostage.

Let's bring in CNN's Jomana Karachi. She's in Jordan this morning. Any new word?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nothing -- Carol. What we're hearing so far from the Jordanian government in the past hour. They're reiterating here that they will honor their word yesterday that they will Sajida al Rishawi, that convicted would-be suicide bomber that ISIS is asking for, but they say they will only do this based on two conditions.

One, they want proof of life. The Jordanians are saying they have for a while now been asking through the intermediaries, these indirect channels of negotiations for proof of life. And so far they don't know if their young pilot, Muath al-Kasaesbeh is alive. They have not seen anything to prove that yet.

The other issue here, Carol, is what the Jordanians are offering. They're saying they're ready to release Sajida al-Rishawi in exchange for their own pilot. But that's not what ISIS is asking for. They asked for a swap, Sajida al Rishawi for Kenji Goto and threatening to kill the Jordanian pilot if that does not happen.

No word yet. But we know from Jordanian officials in the last hour and a half or so saying that Sajida al-Rishawi has not left Jordan and that she is in jail. We don't know if that has changed in the last hour or so. But that's the last thing we're hearing.

And again, Carol, these are the public statements that we're hearing. We do not know what's going on behind the scenes.

COSTELLO: All right. Jomana Karadsheh -- thank you so much for the update. The awful wait continues. Thank you so much. Well, it will be one interesting Super Bowl, and not just because of the game. If you thought the controversy swirling around Ray Lewis was bad, it's nothing compared to this.

Former Patriot Aaron Hernandez in the Super Bowl just three years ago for the New England Patriots is on trial today for murder. And get this. It is conceivable Bill Belichick and even Pats owner Robert Kraft will take the stand. Add to that the Ray Rice domestic violence mess that also hangs over the Super Bowl. Now a brand new powerful PSA concerning domestic violence will air during the game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 911 Operator, 911. Where's the emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 127 Brimmer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok. What's going on there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd like to order a pizza for delivery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, you reached 911. This is an emergency line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Large with half pepperoni, half mushroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know you called 911. This is an emergency line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know how long it will be?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, is everything ok over there, do you have an emergency or not?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you're unable to talk because --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right, right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there someone in the room with you? Just say yes or no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok. It looks like I have an officer about a mile from your location. Are there any weapons in your house?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you stay on the phone with me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. See you soon, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I don't know. That really shook me. I think it's really powerful.

You know, through all of this, I haven't even mentioned deflate-gate, right?

Let's talk more about all of this. Joining me now: former NFL linebacker Coy Wire and CNN sports anchor Rachel Nichols -- welcome to both of you.

Rachel, that PSA, it is, it's powerful. When will it air in the Super Bowl?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS: Yes. It's really well done. It's done by an organization called No More. It's going to air during the game. Now, the 60-second version is what's been put out there and what's online, a 30-second version is what will run on Sunday. Still, it's going to affect a lot of people.

The NFL is actually donating that time. Super Bowl ads, a 30-second ad is currently going for $4.5 million. I think the NFL probably will get a discount from NBC. But still, it's a sizable donation for them to make this kind of statement and it says a lot about their commitment here.

They have definitely made strides, Carol. There is no doubt about that. You cannot look at where they were a year ago to where they are now and not think that there has been progress. There is, of course, always more progress to go. We expect to hear more about that from Roger Goodell when he gives his state of the union address.

COSTELLO: Ok. So Coy, that PSA affected me. But will it affect the people it needs to affect, do you think?

COY WIRE, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Absolutely. And it starts with the players. I spoke to many last night asking them if they had seen it. Those who had stopped, paused, took a deep breath and one of the words they used was "powerful".

A lot of the league's teams have already had seminars dealing with domestic abuse issues. Even the people at the league's network, the television network, the NFL Network, they have had a two-hour seminar just two weeks ago, where everyone up to the highest levels of executives had to sit down and have a seminar and get educated about this scenario.

And Jerry Angelo, a Chicago Bears GM. He said not so long ago --

NICHOLS: Former.

WIRE: Yes, former GM. He said that the league in hundreds and hundreds of cases would turn a blind eye to domestic abuse issues, and he regretted not taking action. Well now we're seeing this. This could be the impetus for great change within the league and maybe help save some lives in the long run.

COSTELLO: I hope you're right. Like I said, that really affected me when I watched it. It brought tears to my eyes. So the NFL is making progress on that front.

The sad thing for the New England Patriots and the NFL is Aaron Hernandez is on trial right at this moment for murder, Rachel. Is there any talk about that at the Super Bowl?

NICHOLS: Not really. I talked to some of the Patriots players. They just don't feel a connection there. First of all, you've got a lot of different guys on the team than there were even three years ago. Football teams have a high turnover rate. But even the ones who were on the team with Aaron, there's not a lot of communication there.

Remember the Patriots organization cut him immediately after he was arrested. Owner Robert Kraft came out and said the organization felt duped, that Aaron Hernandez had lied to all kinds of people on the team, the coaching staff. So it was pretty easy for them to turn around and move forward and move away from him.

Of course, several members of the organization, you mentioned Bill Belichick. You mentioned Robert Kraft. They're on the witness list because there's questions that the police and prosecutors have about what conversations did Hernandez have with his teammates, with his coaches, in the days after that murder. So it will be interesting to see if after the Super Bowl they are called to the stand.

You notice the trial starts this week. There's no New England prosecutor that would ever call Bill Belichick to the stand during Super Bowl week. But down the road we may see that.

COSTELLO: That's true.

Coy, did you know Aaron Hernandez?

WIRE: I did not know him; I did know people who had been around him. And you know, to Rachel's point, this has been forgotten quite some time ago. He has lost all right and privilege to be part of the NFL fraternity and brotherhood, lied to many, wrongdoing allegedly.

So, you know, I think this is a situation where we're not going to hear much about it, talks of the Super Bowl players, coaches. Closer you get to game day it will be more and more about what's going to happen between the lines on game day.

COSTELLO: All right. Rachel Nichols, Coy Wire, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

Saturday CNN goes inside footballs biggest game with. Rachel Nichols and hall of famer Dan Marino.

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll overcame being fired by the Patriots to bring a championship to Seattle. From the heart of Super Bowl Central in downtown Phoenix, join us for CNN's "KICKOFF IN ARIZONA". That's Saturday 4:30 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And by the by, 72,000 fans will attend Sunday's Super Bowl. Keeping them safe will take some extreme measures. Those include black hawk helicopters, truck-sized x-ray machines and thousands of security and law enforcement personnel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: I think the key is vigilance. And we've devoted a lot of resources and a lot of effort to making sure this event is safe and secure.

JOSEPH YAHNER, ACTING PHOENIX POLICE CHIEF: We have 24 expert work groups that have thought of everything from cybercrimes to intelligence analysis and everything else. So we are prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Homeland Security says there have been no specific credible threats made against the Super Bowl. They're taking every precaution they can, however. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Super sizing was so 1994. Fresh off from its worst sales in decades, McDonald's CEO is leaving. His name is Don Thompson and the company says he is retiring in February.

Thompson is just 51 years old, just became the company CEO in 2012. But keep this in mind Thompson's annual salary was a whopping $9.5 million. It would take the average fast food employee 502 years to make that much money. But you could argue that to fix McDonald's you need to pay someone an awful lot in this case. And I don't know if McDonald's can even be fixed at this point.

Cristina Alesci joins me now to talk about that.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. There were multiple blunders at this company. It's easy to talk about the lack of integrity if you want to say or the food, the quality. The fact is, McDonald's failed to keep up with consumer tastes and trends. They weren't just getting clobbered by the companies that touted organic and all natural. They were getting clobbered by Wendy's and Sonic. Look at the third quarter sales figures. Everyone else out there, all of their rivals reported increases in sales, McDonald's down 3.3 percent. That says something.

Even Burger King did better than McDonald's. So this just isn't a story about getting ahead of the millennial trend of better food, better quality food. This is a systemic problem that needs to be fixed. And probably nothing says it better than a recent consumer report survey that ranked McDonald's burgers dead last. Everyone else was ahead of them. So this is a real big problem for the company and it's a systemic one.

COSTELLO: They could go two ways -- right. They could say, you know, we're going to make better burgers and that actually hasn't worked. Why don't they just embrace that their burgers are bad and cheap and you should come to eat if you don't have any money.

ALESCI: You know, that's definitely the case here -- right. Their competitive advantage is price, and that is a very big competitive advantage especially at the lower end of the spectrum, but this used to be a company that everyone loved. The problem is they've got an image problem.

You brought up the fact that the CEO makes so much money, their average workers don't make a lot of money. In fact, I covered the minimum wage protests with McDonald's -- right. They had an opportunity to get in front of America, because they had an opportunity to get everybody's attention and regain some love and trust. Instead they would hand me a statement that said those protesters are paid, they're lying.

Even if all of that were true, from a public relations standpoint, when do you draw the line and say, look, this is our opportunity to get some love. Why don't we just announce a wage increase instead of putting everything on the franchisees and not taking any responsibility at the head of the company? This has been a PR nightmare for them. So it's not been healthy.

COSTELLO: How do they dig out of the hole then? What do they do? Who are they going to hire next? You can talk about this poor guy that only lasted a couple years on the job, but McDonald's has got big problems.

ALESCI: They do. And look, they've tried. They hired the former mythbusters guy from Discovery Channel to get out there and say, look, our burgers don't have pink slime in them. This is the way we do things -- right.

Just two weeks ago they put out this video that shows how they make French fries. They say we're going to take you behind the scenes. We're going to show you how it's done. The problem is they said that there's 19 ingredients in their French fries, one of which was an anti-foaming agent. You and I would look at that and say, ok, I definitely don't -- first of all, I don't know what an anti-foaming agent is, but whatever it is, it doesn't sound healthy and I'm not going to put that in my mouth.

I mean this is the problem. Even when they took people behind the scenes they didn't do a good job and they weren't authentic enough for the message to resonate.

COSTELLO: I don't think they like Morgan Spurlock very much these days. I'm going to talk to him about it. I'm going to like go look for him today.

Cristina Alesci, thanks so much.

ALESCI: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM when we usually hear from Bill Gates, it's about the latest Microsoft innovation. Now he's sending an alarm about making computers too smart.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Hollywood called it the rise of the machines in the box office series "The Terminator". But now Bill Gates is sounding a warning on artificial intelligence saying if humans don't manage smart machines well, those machines could become a threat to our very existence. And Gates isn't the only tech giant who shares that perspective.

CNN's Samuel Burke joins us now with more. Seriously?

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some of the most intelligent and influential people of our time have been saying this. Stephen Hawking was one of the first to sound the alarm. He said saying artificial intelligence may be the biggest event in human history and it may also be the last event in human history.

Elon Musk who co-founded Paypal, he said that it's potentially more dangerous than nukes. But think about the artificial intelligence that has already creeped into our lives, things you say to Siri and it knows the answers. Or Google for example -- you now how sometimes you type a question and it actually knows what you're going to asking before you're done typing just a few letters? So it's already happening.

So in this Reddit forum yesterday on the Reddit Web site, Bill Gates said the following. I think it really makes a lot of sense. He wrote, quote, "First the machine will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. A few decades after that, though, the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not more concerned."

Don't forget, IBM's computer Watson, that super computer beat a human at Jeopardy. It's all downhill from there.

COSTELLO: See I'm married to a computer scientist who thinks completely the opposite.

BURKE: Really?

COSTELLO: Yes. He's way into artificial intelligence.

BURKE: I'm quite surprised. Because if you think about what's already happening. Think about the group Lizard Squad for example that group that claimed responsibility for hacking the Xbox and PlayStation over Christmas time. They're programmers -- they're doing it. So all it takes is someone like that to program something to get its own ideas to start doing these type of things. And it just all goes from there.

But you know, it's amazing how well this technology knows us. In fact, I was just this morning using Siri and I asked it this, who is Carol Costello.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carol Costello is an anchor at CNN. I want her job. I must get rid of her so I can take her spot. BURKE: And there we have it.

COSTELLO: That's not -- is that a setup?

BURKE: Anyway. There you have it. It could be as easy as that.

COSTELLO: Ok. Now, I'm afraid. I'm going to have to go talk to my husband and tell him, "Hey, cut it out, no more new innovations."

BURKE: Maybe he's doing the programming. He wants you at home.

COSTELLO: Yes, exactly. Samuel Burke, many thanks.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a new Super Bowl ad you won't see airing during the big game. We'll tell you why next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking some of the top stories for you at 56 minutes past. Ford is recalling specially designed police sedans known as Interceptors. They're among more than 221,000 cars and vans being recalled. Ford saying door latch springs can swing open in a crash. There are no reports of any injuries.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social networking giant got a lot done in 2014. And they're not kidding. Facebook is reporting $701 million in profit for last year's fourth quarter, that's a 34 percent jump. 1.4 billion people now actively use Facebook every month -- that's up 13 percent from one year ago.

Commercial controversy -- with the Super Bowl just days away, a puppy ad is being pulled, landing Go Daddy in the doghouse.

Jeanne Moos has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What sells better than sex?

Puppies. But when GoDaddy cut the cord with sexy commercials --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: GoDaddy.com.

MOOS: -- and went with Buddy, the Golden Retriever, for its Super Bowl spot --

JENNIFER JACOBS, ANIMAL ACTIVIST: Instantly, my mouth was just gaping open as I watched.

MOOS: First, the pup bounces off a pickup.

Then makes a grueling but adorable effort to find his way home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Buddy, I'm so glad you made it home. Because I just sold you on this Web site I built with GoDaddy. Ship him out. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me no likey. That's so mean.

JACOBS: I just was completely horrified.

MOOS: "Do you think puppy mills are funny?" tweeted the SPCA. "What kind of monster do they have running their marketing department?" raged another critic.

GoDaddy noted the ad spoofs the latest Budweiser Super Bowl tearjerker which celebrates puppy-horse love. When the pup is threatened -- the Clydesdales come to the rescue.

But with the wolves circling GoDaddy, the CEO retreated. "What should have been a fun and funny ad clearly missed the mark, and we will not air it." He added, "You'll still see us in the big game this year, and we hope it makes you laugh."

(on camera): But there's a theory out there that we're not just falling for puppies, we're falling for a setup. Don't cry.

(voice-over): Even the pup smells a setup. Some think GoDaddy floated this thought to provoke a backlash.

BARRY CUNNINGHAM, DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING, ZIMMERMAN ADVERTISING: You scrub a spot at the last minute, and then reproduce another one in three or four days kind of tells you that there may have been something in the works.

MOOS: GoDaddy told CNN this is not a stunt and that they're now working on a new commercial. Barry Cunningham says, just you wait until Sunday's game that the new spot will capitalize on the current flap.

CUNNINGHAM: I think we're going to see the puppy finding a good home.

MOOS: GoDaddy is a company that relies on the kiss of controversy. Now they're hoping a retriever will prove golden.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That puppy is awfully cute. That's all I'm going to say.

Thanks for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. Another hour of NEWSROOM right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another deadline has just passed. Lives hanging in the balance. Is a prisoner swap with this brutal terror group still in the works? We have the latest developments.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Super Bowl drama, all the hype, all the excitement, all the controversy and oh, yes -- they're playing a game too.

NFL great Joe Theisman --