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Testimony Resumes In Texas Abortion Ban Lawsuit; Hollywood A.I. Sparks Fears Tech Could Take Jobs; Stanford President To Resign Over Research Questions. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 20, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA CASIANO, PLAINTIFF: And then called in a case worker. And a case worker came in and they handed me a paper that said funeral homes on top of it.

She told me that I didn't have options because there was a law -- that the Texas abortion law prohibited and I was unable to get one. So, I -- I felt like I was abandoned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: She says her baby, who, she and her husband named Halo, lived four hours, quote, "gasping for air." And that she watched Halo, quote, "go from being pink to red to purple, from being warm to cold."

Data obtained from the Texas Department of State Health Services show that, in 2022, infant deaths caused by severe genetic and birth defects rose 20 percent. That's a spike that reversed a nearly decade- long decline.

Joining me now is Dr. Erika Werner. She's chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts Medical Center.

Really tough testimony, Dr. Werner, to listen to, when we look at what is an 11.5 percent increase in infants dying in Texas.

Can you tell us, is that just due to this increase in infant deaths that is caused by severe genetic and birth defects?

DR. ERIKA WERNER, CHAIR, OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY, TUFTS MEDICAL CENTER: You know, I think we need better access to the data to be sure. But from what I have seen, it does seem that the spike is because of an increased rate of neo-natal deaths following situations like the one we just heard about.

KEILAR: Let's talk about when a woman can know that she's carrying a child who has, say, some sort of disorder like the case of the woman that we heard testifying on the stand.

Because the ban is at six weeks. At what point in the pregnancy would you know, in most cases, if the pregnancy is not viable?

WERNER: Yes, I wish we knew by six weeks, but we never know by six weeks. Best case, Anencephaly, which a major brain anomaly, things like that, we may know at the end of the first trimester.

But often we don't know about major birth defects, major genetic problems until well into the second trimester.

Most women, many of your viewers probably had their detailed anatomy scan between 18 to 20 weeks. And that's often when we find out about this. And that's in the second trimester.

Which is part of the problem with all of the restrictions is that they take away the choice for patients and force them to carry pregnancies that won't lead to a live infant for months.

KEILAR: Obviously, this was incredibly difficult on Mrs. Casiano and on her family.

What does this generally do to the mental health of a woman who is forced to carry when she would otherwise choose not to carry a pregnancy that is not a baby that is going to die, shortly after birth?

WERNER: So, you know, every patient is different. Some people really do want to carry, and I want them to have that choice as well. But for women, not being able to choose, women, you know, like this individual who lost all autonomy of their body, the emotional strain.

It's already the worst day of any mother's life to hear that you are not going to be able to take your baby home with you from the hospital.

But then to add on top of that, you're going to have to carry that pregnancy, you're going to have to put your body and your ability to take care of our other children at risk for months, because there are many complications that can compromise your health, the anxiety and the stress that it puts on individuals is unimaginable.

KEILAR: What do you think an amendment or a change to this ban would look like if this case is successful, to stop cases like this one we saw in court?

WERNER: Yes, I mean, the real problem is that no two cases are exactly the same.

So, it's why the decision really needs to be left between a patient and their provider. It really, you know, we need to have the ability to use medical decision-making, not politics, to make medical decisions.

And so I would like to see patients and physicians be able to make decisions together that are in the best interest of family health.

KEILAR: Doctor Werner, we thank you so much for being with us. Obviously, this is very difficult for a number of families in Texas. Thank you.

WERNER: Thank you for having me, I appreciate the time.

KEILAR: Boris?

[14:34:57]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A strike averted on Broadway. The backstage workers and owners just reached a deal. We have details on that.

Meantime, the password crackdown appears to be working for Netflix. They added millions of new subscribers. Details on their numbers when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour,

New York City agreed to pay out millions of dollars to settle a federal class-action lawsuit brought by hundreds of demonstrators from the 2020 George Floyd protests.

The marchers clashed with police and the NYPD came under heavy criticism for their tactics. The city agreed to pay $13 million to settle the suit, accusing the NYPD of violating the rights of protesters. Each plaintiff will get nearly $10,000.

[14:40:03]

Also, it appears that Netflix's crackdown on sharing passwords is working. It says, in the last three months, it has added nearly six million paid subscribers. And signups are exceeding cancellations. As an alternative, Netflix said it has now launched paid sharing in more than one hundred countries.

And the show will go on for New York's Broadway. A strike between stagehands and backstage workers has just been averted. The union reaching a tentative contract deal today.

Negotiators made the agreement just as thousands of union members were voting to authorize a strike that could have shut down Broadway starting tomorrow.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: So, it's more than movie scripts. A.I. technology is now being used to alter what we see on the big screen, allowing Hollywood to de-age actors like Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movie. And even to change their words right before our eyes.

As CNN's Donie O'Sullivan reports, not everyone is thrilled about this new technology.

Donie joins us now with his new reporting.

Donie, what are you learning.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Boris. This is special effects on steroids. It's hard not to be blown away when you see the power of this technology.

But as we're learning, a lot of people in Hollywood, writers, actors, see this technology and, for them, it's a disaster.

Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT PANOUSIS, COO, MARZ: This is where we started. It's an automated solution for cosmetic and de-aging work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through some technological wizardry, 80-year-old Harrison Ford looks exactly like 40-year-old Harrison Ford.

Do you understand how they did that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not completely.

(LAUGHTER)

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): In the latest Indiana Jones movie, Harrison Ford is de-aged for a flashback where he fights the Nazis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not Photoshopped or anything. It doesn't look that way.

O'SULLIVAN: Hollywood studios are moving beyond traditional visual effect technology and embracing artificial intelligence, turning to companies like MARZ.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): What does MARZ stand for?

PANOUSIS: Monsters, Aliens, Robots and Zombies.

O'SULLIVAN: I think that's the best name I've heard for a company.

PANOUSIS: Thank you.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The latest "Spiderman" movie released in 2021 features villains like the Green Goblin and Dr. Otto Octavius characters, who haven't been seen in years.

JONATHAN BRONFMAN, CEO, MARZ: So they took the villains from previous versions of "Spiderman" movies and they wanted to bring them back in that moment then when they originally performed that character.

So without naming names, we helped Marvel do that on a certain character.

O'SULLIVAN: MARZ says it's de-aging. AI technology knocks thousands of man hours off the visual effects process, but they say they aren't killing jobs. BRONFMAN: The demand for visual effects way outstrips the supplies but there are a finite number of artists in the world that are able to execute on that demand.

O'SULLIVAN: MARZ has also built an AI dubbing tool aiming to make awkward out of sync voiceovers like these a thing of the past.

MARZ uses deep-fake technology to reconstruct an actor's lips to match the dubbed audio.

They tried it out on me first. We sent them this short clip I shot in a CNN studio.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): I've always been terrible at speaking any language other than English. In fact, I struggle with English sometimes.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): With that, they were able to do this.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): -- Donie O'Sullivan is a correspondent on CNN -- (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

That is very impressive.

(LAUGHTER)

O'SULLIVAN: My lips look French.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know who you are.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): This technology can even put other people's words in your mouth.

A.I.-GENERATED VOICE: But what I do have are a very particular set of skills.

If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): My fellow Irishman as well.

PANOUSIS: Lip dub was built for the purpose of allowing studios to take content in their native tongue and put that content across the globe in a way where it looks native to the viewer.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): For its part, MARZ says it is not in the business of replacing actors. Its technology is meant to enhance performances, not create them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's not a question of the technology is how you use it.

TOM HANKS, ACTOR: Look, you know, I can be hit by a bus tomorrow. And that's it. But my performances can go on and on and on and on and on.

And outside of the understanding that it's been done with AI or deep fake, there will be nothing to tell you that it's not me and me alone.

O'SULLIVAN: Fears of how AI will be used as partly why SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, is on strike, saying the studio's want to replace them with artificial performances.

The movie studios are pushing back on that claim.

BRONFMAN: Technology cannot replace an actor full on. So you cannot go head to toe and redo the entire face and expect that to be photo real. The technology just isn't there right now.

[14:45:05]

Now as it relates to writers, I think they can more easily be replaced by artificial intelligence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'SULLIVAN: Now, other than fulfilling my dreams of being Liam, this technology does a lot of fun, powerful stuff.

But you heard there, there's a stark warning, especially for writers, more so than writers. This A.I. technology is already quite powerful at writing scripts. In another six months' time, who's to tell what it will be able to do.

SANCHEZ: Donie, you do have a very particular set of skills, especially when it comes to these A.I. stories.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: I find them so fascinating.

These are the early stages of A.I. And when you look to the future, it could be troublesome for any kind of career.

At some point in the future, you could have an entire movie with actors of your choosing and potentially putting yourself in the film?

O'SULLIVAN: Exactly. You heard from Tom Hanks, who is saying that he could write a script tomorrow and have A.I. play him as himself, similar to how Harrison Ford was de-aged.

From tracking this on a daily basis, it's overwhelming, the developments in this technology. It seems like there's a new release every day. And every week there seems to be just multiplying and getting more powerful.

So you're right, Boris, this can have big ramifications not just for Hollywood but for all of us.

SANCHEZ: This summer, Donie O'Sullivan, in "Taken."

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Donie, thank you so much for the reporting. Always a pleasure.

Brianna?

KEILAR: You speak Spanish and English. So, you know, you don't need anyone.

Do you know who else has a very particular set of skills? A student newspaper journalist at Stanford.

Stanford University's president now stepping down after the student newspaper revealed flaws about his research as a neuroscientist. We're going to speak to the writer who broke that story for "The Stanford Daily," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:51:46]

KEILAR: Now to a scandal in the highest office of leadership at one of America's most elite universities. Stanford's president just announced that he is resigning on August 31st after a special committee confirmed that some of his published work had, quote, "serious flaws" in the presentation of research data.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne said that he would retract three of 12 papers reviewed and corrected two more. He will remain on the faculty and said that Stanford needs a president not hampered by questions of an ability to lead.

He also said that he's thankful that the committee found that he did not knowingly engage in fraud.

Joining me now is Theo Baker, the Stanford student that broke the story in the campus daily starting in November of last year.

Theo, thank you so much for being with us.

We're going to go through what happened here. But first, what tipped you off to looking into this story?

THEO BAKER, STUDENT JOURNALIST, "THE STANFORD DAILY": Well, thank you so much for having me.

What's interesting about this story is actually, if you knew the right place to look, a lot of it you were already able to figure it out around since 2015.

Which is when a rumor started popping up on an anonymous form called pub here. A lot of folks focused on allegations of manipulation. Places where it looked like something had been photoshopped and photoshopped out to make results look like something that they weren't.

Obviously, there have been a lot more things that have come out since then. Since we started asking questions. But it all started from things that, if you had tried to access them in 2015, you could've found exactly what we found.

KEILAR: So explain to us these flaws and how culpable Tessier-Lavigne was. These are testimony and questions from years before you even stepped foot into Stanford. Tell us about the timeline and the allegations here.

BAKER: Yes. All 12 papers will probably be retracted or corrected. The most interesting ones are the five he's principal authors. Of those five, three he has agreed to retract and three he will issue lengthy corrections to.

What happens now is the result of this report that just came out recently, as you said. The report pushed Tessier-Lavigne to questions and retractions that he had repeatedly failed to issue more than two decades.

The committee found -- the committee that was set up to investigate him and that he found opportunities on a scientific record on multiple different occasions.

And that although he did not directly manipulate images or research data himself, he created an environment where people seemed incentivized to do it and he rewarded the winners and punish the losers. Those are the people that cannot create the results that he wanted.

KEILAR: I know it's summer, obviously, right now. What has the reaction been like among the student body on campus? What's it been like for you?

BAKER: Yes, this is obviously a shocking thing, a turn of events for all of us to be experiencing.

A year ago, Tessier-Lavigne enjoyed one of the highest reputations in science. He's done some really fundamental work. But now he's resigned from his post.

For president of an institution that spent billions of dollars of research to be accused of research misconduct, it's a hard thing to do when you want to maintain your credibility when you're telling people how to conduct the research.

[14:55:05]

In the end, Tessier-Lavigne has not even acknowledged that it hampered his ability to lead. In the months leading up to that, something that he consistently denied.

KEILAR: Theo, it is great to have you on to take us through your reporting here. It's really tremendous. And obviously, you have a bright future in journalism.

So thank you for being with us this afternoon.

BAKER: Thanks so much. And I appreciate the opportunity to share.

KEILAR: Thank you.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: Former President Donald Trump has a third indictment looming as a grand jury meets today. We will take you live outside federal courthouse when CNN NEWS CENTRAL returns.

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