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Sources: Supreme Court Did Not Disclose Ties To Expert In Leak Probe; Whistleblowers: Twitter Failed To Take Action Ahead Of Jan. 6 Riot; New ChatGPT AI Tech Stunning Users With Realistic Writing; Memphis Police Shut Down SCORPION Unit Tied To Deadly Beating; One Dead, Two-Year-Old Among Three Wounded In Baltimore Shooting; Three Killed, Four Wounded In Shooting Just Outside Beverly Hills; Cleanup Underway In New Zealand After Deadly Flash Flooding; Police Seal Off Home Of Gunman In Attack Near Synagogue; Zelenskyy Says Ukraine Needs Long-Range Missiles; Trump Kicks Off 2024 Campaign With Stops In New Hampshire And South Carolina. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired January 29, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:25]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. I'm Amara Walker.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Amara. I'm Boris Sanchez.

Permanently disbanded. A major change at the Memphis Police Department after the beating death of Tyre Nichols as the country sees another night of protests.

WALKER: Ukrainian officials say -- quote -- "fast-paced" negotiations are underway with western allies to supply the country with long-range missiles amid days of Russian attacks. How vital these new weapons could be to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANIKA COLLIER NAVAROLI, TWITTER WHISTLEBLOWER: I do fear for the future and what it may hold.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You think there could be another January 6th in this country?

NAVAROLI: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Plus, a former Twitter employee blowing the whistle about what she says were the company's failures leading up to the insurrection. Why she is not satisfied with the January 6th committee and concerned this could all happen again.

WALKER: Also, artificial intelligence with some very real world impacts. More on that viral tool ChatGPT and why it's raising some concern among America's teachers on CNN THIS MORNING. SANCHEZ: Sunday, January 29th. We are grateful to have you starting this new week with us. Good morning, Amara.

WALKER: So grateful to have you back, Boris. Good to see you.

SANCHEZ: Pleasure to be with you, as always.

So, residents in Memphis are calling for additional reform after the city's police force agreed to shut down that controversial specialty SCORPION unit that was linked to the beating death of Tyre Nichols.

WALKER: Protesters in Memphis and other cities rallied for a second day after officials released that graphic video showing the deadly encounter. A makeshift memorial has been set up near the corner street sign where the 29-year-old was reportedly -- repeatedly, I should say, beaten by officers. A GoFundMe account has also raised more than nearly $1 million for his family. But residents of Memphis say more needs to be done for Nichols and for the city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIARA HILL, CONCERNED RESIDENT: To see the events unfold, how they have unfolded with this Tyre Nichols situation, is heartbreaking. I have a son, and Tyre was out of the officers on the scene, he was the calmest. Tyre Nichols did not deserve this at all whatsoever. Moving forward I just don't know what can help the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The city has confirmed that all five officers who were fired and charged in Nichols' death were members of this disbanded SCORPION unit. It's a specialized force that was created in 2021 to tackle Memphis' rise in crime. It's still unclear though why Nichols, who was unarmed, was targeted by the officers. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: A significant move here by the Memphis Police Department. The police chief announcing that they are disbanding the SCORPION unit. This is the unit that the five former officers were a part of. Their tactics have been called into question. Of course, we saw their aggressive moves when they pulled over Tyre Nichols. And when it was learned that these five officers were part of that SCORPION unit, many of the community members and, of course, Nichols' family all came out asking that the police chief disband this unit.

Now, what this unit does is that they drive around in unmarked cars aggressively fighting crime and some of their tactics have come into question. And because of the concerns raised by the community, the police chief said that she met with officers in that unit and they all decided that in the interest of trying to heal the wounds here and try and help some of the work that the police department and the community knows they are going to need to do to try and win back the respect, she is going to disband it. And then we will see what happens. You know, certainly there is a lot more work here to do as this investigation continues.

Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Memphis, Tennessee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: All right. Shimon, thank you for that. Joining me now to discuss this further is Tom Verni. He is a former NYPD detective and a law enforcement consultant.

[06:05:02]

Good morning you, sir. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. So as you know, the city launched this SCORPION unit, a specialized crime fighting unit in response to a surge in crime in Memphis. First off, what are your thoughts on disbanding this unit permanently, and do you think this is -- should be just the first of many steps?

TOM VERNI, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Good morning, Amara and Boris. And I'd like to say, first off, my condolences to Tyre Nichols' family and friends for having to -- have to deal with this horrible incident. I mean, no one should have to deal with something like this. It's a terrible use -- abuse of authority. And, you know, it smears the good name of the seven to 800,000 law enforcement officers working tirelessly around the country to keep us all safe.

And, you know, when we have units like this, specialized unit, the so- called SCORPION unit, every police department around the country, large police departments anyway, have units like this. In the NYPD we would have something called anti-crime or conditions or street crime unit, and they are formed where you have officers working largely in unmarked cars, in undercover plainclothes versus working in uniform. And my concern with disbanding this unit is that it largely benefits the bad guys because when you take away a unit like this, it creates a void in the street and the bad guys know this. And now, you know, it just fills that void with bad guys doing more bad things.

So if the unit itself was ineffective, if they, you know, just go back and look at the performance of this unit, if it's an ineffective unit, if there are just more cases of abuse than there are arrests and the taking away of crime, then I'm all for that.

WALKER: But doesn't the Tyre Nichols case, isn't it just one example of, you know, a portion of that unit, not exactly being effective? I mean, I guess that's not the right word, effective.

VERNI: Yes.

WALKER: I mean, they -- I mean, a man died in the hands of --

VERNI: Yes.

WALKER: -- some of these officers, you know, who were a part of this aggressive unit.

VERNI: Yes. So, again, what I would look at is the totality of the -- quote -- unquote -- "success" of that unit or lack of success of that unit. If the unit is known for nothing but just officers abusing their authority and they are not really effective in reducing crime, then, yes, then this unit is, you know, shouldn't be around and they have to do away with it. I have no problem with that, if that's the case.

WALKER: Tell me more about these kinds of units and the training that, you know, goes on, you know, behind the scenes and the tactics that are employed. Because, of course, there has been a lot of talk about SCORPION unit or these specialized crime units and their, you know, aggressive, you know, crime-fighting ways.

VERNI: So these units are generally trained, again, to work in uniform patrol, you know, you are a police officer in full uniform, you're in a marked police car, so your presence generally in and upon itself would dissuade, you know, crime from occurring because people see the police car and they're like, OK, I am not going to do this here because the police are right there.

With these specialized undercover units you are working in unmarked vehicles, so they're not going to see you necessarily coming whether it be on foot or in a vehicle for that matter. And -- so they are trained to also interact now with the on duty in uniform police by working undercover they have to be careful because they don't want to be mistaken for someone who -- you know, one of the criminals that they are chasing. So they have to be able to work under those conditions.

In cities like Memphis, as well as New York, where I worked, you know, you are talking about high crime areas. You are talking about recidivists, criminals that don't care for law and order and don't care for, you know, continually, you know, criminalizing, you know, our neighborhoods that we're trying to protect. So they really -- they have their backs up against the wall trying to keep these areas safe.

WALKER: Sure.

VERNI: So they have to -- these units to try to figure out how to stay one step ahead of the common criminal. So --

WALKER: So, I mean, you are a law enforcement consultant. So, you know, just let's move forward here and talk about reforms because, you know, that's what everyone is calling for. And this is just the beginning of it, disbanding permanently the SCORPION unit.

What needs to be done from your consultant point of view and do you anticipate and believe that there should be a thorough background check of these charged officers to see whether there was a pattern of abuse or complaints about excessive force?

VERNI: Yes.

WALKER: And if so, how do you go about that?

VERNI: Absolutely.

[06:10:00] So I -- if you ask most, you know, I would say most to almost all law enforcement, you know, people, whether they are active duty or retired, and consulting, for that matter, they will tell you that there is nothing wrong with police reform in the sense that, you know, when you hear this, you know, defund the police nonsense, you know, defunding the police is not going to do any good. Because what you actually need to do is fund the police.

You need to fund more training. You need to fund the police when they do background checks on people coming into the police force. You want to make sure that you are getting the best of the best that society has to offer and try to do away with those who might have some sort of kind of situation where they can't control themselves.

So, whether you are talking about increased de-escalation training perhaps, if you are talking about screening people better, if you are talking about increased training on how to respond to high-pressure situations like this, you know, they are doing a car stop at night, which is probably the most dangerous jobs a police officer can do. That's where most police officers get injured or killed every year is doing car stops, particularly at night where your vision a hampered.

So, increased training and that's -- when we talk about police reform that's what we need is to have higher and more intense and more training done more often to lessen the chance that something like this happens.

WALKER: No. That's a great point. And I think, you know, it probably goes deeper than that, too, right, because it also comes down to policing culture. But we are out of time. Tom Verni, I appreciate your expertise in this. Thank you.

VERNI: Sure. Anytime.

WALKER: Make sure you tune into "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning. Dana Bash will sit down with the Nichols family attorney, Ben Crump, to discuss what happens next following the release of these videos. That's at 9:00 right here on CNN.

SANCHEZ: And still ahead this morning, violence overnight in Baltimore. A two-year-old child among several injured in a shooting late last night. The passionate message coming from the city's mayor as police search for the shooter.

Plus, amid days of Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that fast-paced negotiations are underway right now to get new long-range missiles to Ukraine. How those could prove vital in Ukraine's fight to protect itself.

And former President Donald Trump hitting the campaign trail as other potential GOP candidates start testing the waters. How the 2024 presidential race is already taking shape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:34] SANCHEZ: We want to bring you up to speed on some other top stories that we are following this morning. Police in Baltimore say that one person was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting last night. Among those hurt was a two-year-old. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott says that whoever carried out the shooting is a coward. He urged anyone with information about the incident to come forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BRANDON SCOTT, BALTIMORE: We're talking about someone dead. A woman shot. A child shot. Another child injured. Another person shot. Over what?

I see a lot of folks trying to be, acting like they are tough, but they are really weak because only weak people shoot somebody when you know children are right there. And if you are harboring that person, if that's your homeboy, if that's your man, and that's your cousin, I don't care who it is, then you are weak, too. And we need to step up and be better for ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We are told the two-year-old who was shot is in stable condition and the two adults who were wounded are in critical condition.

WALKER: California is coping with its fourth mass shooting in a week. Los Angeles police say three people were killed and at least four injured in the shooting overnight. It happened just outside of Beverly Hills in the Beverly Crest community. Police say three people were shot inside a car and the other four while standing outside a home. This follows mass shootings in Monterey Park, Half Moon Bay, and Oakland.

SANCHEZ: Cleanup efforts, meantime, are underway in New Zealand after torrential rain caused deadly flash flooding. Three people there have died and officials have recovered a body believed to be that of a missing man. Auckland, which is New Zealand's largest city, had its wettest day on record during the downpours. The equivalent of a summer's worth of rain fell only on Friday. Search and rescue teams say they have responded to more than 400 emergency calls.

WALKER: Israeli police say they have sealed off the home of the gunman responsible for an attack near a synagogue in Jerusalem. Seven people were killed.

Police seized the gunman's home following the attack Friday. They identified the attacker as a 21-year-old resident of east Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to strengthen settlements in response to the shootings. Besides the attack near the synagogue, a 13-year-old boy allegedly shot and wounded a father and son on Saturday.

All right. Now to the war in Ukraine. And President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs long-range missiles following a barrage of attacks by Russia. SANCHEZ: And a Ukrainian diplomat says that western allies are going to be sending more than 300 tanks to Ukraine. Let's get you updated on all of this with CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen. He's live for us in Kramatorsk. Fred, Ukraine says that it is in a race against time to get these additional weapons. Bring us up to speed. What's the latest?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly from the vantage point here it seems as though they possibly are in a race against time. If you look at the area around where I am in the east of the country where certainly right now, Boris, the bulk of the heavy fighting is going on. And we have had some rocket attacks by the Russians in villages not far from where I am right now. And, of course, you have that main battlefront right now in the town of Bakhmut.

And when the Ukrainians say they are in a race against time, they obviously mean that they need those main battle tanks from the west as fast as possible. And if you look at the battles that are going on here in the east, tanks play a major role, both in their classic role of conducting attacks, for instance, but also when they are being used as artillery when it comes to fighting around cities.

[06:20:11]

We visited a tank unit here, one of the hardest hit areas by the war around Bakhmut. Here's what we saw.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: Revving like a dragster, the crew from the 28th Mechanized Brigade warm up their Soviet era T-64 for battle.

We have problems with ammunition. We are running low, the commander tells me. And that's the only problem we have to get enough spare parts, our commanders work all the time to sustain the tank and repair it. That commander who goes by the call sign David races the 40-year- old beast towards the front line like a steam engine train.

A lot of Ukraine's made battle tanks are as old as this one. That's why the military says they urgently need those new western main battle tanks. They say around three to 400, to try and turn the tide in this war. The problem, Ukraine is running out of Soviet era tanks and is having increasing trouble replacing those lost in battle or needing repair.

The 28th helped liberated Kherson in the south and then was sent here. It has already been a long war for this unit. Ukrainian soldiers on the front around Bakhmut are elated Western nations are sending modern battle tanks M1A2 Abrams from the U.S., German made Leopard 2s and British Challenger tanks.

But the Ukrainians are also masters at using the old Soviet tanks they have now to best effect. Firing, reloading, taking aim and quickly shooting again. The tank engineer who only gave his name as Maxim (ph) says the soldiers from the 28th could operate these vehicles blindfolded.

If we fire from a covered position, we use this device, he says. It's old and analogue, but pretty efficient, very precise.

Ukraine's forces say their tanks have been extremely important and effective here in Bakhmut, taking on the mercenaries of Russia's Wagner private military company who often use convicts as cannon fodder to try and storm Ukrainian positions with almost no fire support. The tank commander says they are constantly working to stop Wagner's advances here.

We just fight against them. If we stop they will come closer and we will lose our houses and families. We stand here to allow people to peacefully live in their homes.

But Ukraine's army is under growing pressure around Bakhmut as the Russians pour more armor into this area. The promised western tanks probably won't arrive fast enough to make a difference in this battle, but these soldiers hope they will turn the tide of the war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: So, you can see, guys, that the Ukrainians, obviously, saying they need a lot of those western machine main battle tanks and they do think that that will make a big difference on the battlefield, especially if they want to take the fight to the Russians and win back some of those territories that the Russians got at the beginning of this war.

And the other thing, of course, as you guys mentioned, is those longer distance missiles, those attack guns that the Ukrainians also want to have. They say the main reason for that is that after they got the multiple rocket launchers from the U.S. they were able to hit some supply lines from the Russians, take some of those out. But they say now the Russians have simply moved those supply lines further away from the front lines, so Ukrainians say they need longer distance capabilities to be able to hit those as well. Of course, we know that the Biden administration so far is not willing to give those missiles just yet -- guys.

WALKER: All right. Frederik Pleitgen, excellent reporting as always. Thank you so much, Fred.

And still ahead this hour, back on the campaign trail. Yes, former President Trump returns as other potential GOP rivals test the waters. The latest on where the Republican Party stands.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:10]

WALKER: Donald Trump says he is more committed to winning back the White House than ever before. Pledging that this time around his campaign would be about the future rather than focusing so much on the past. SANCHEZ: The former president formally kicked off his 2024 campaign this weekend as his other potential Republican primary rivals start to test the waters. CNN's Gabby Orr has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GABBY ORR, CNN REPORTER: Well, Donald Trump making his return to the campaign trail on Saturday holding back-to-back events in New Hampshire and South Carolina unveiling his leadership team in South Carolina as well as two endorsements. One from South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, the other from Senator Lindsey Graham, and announcing a new campaign hire in New Hampshire. Outgoing Republican State Chairman Stephen Stepanek will join the Trump campaign as a senior adviser in the first in the nation primary state.

The former president surrounded himself with supporters at both of these events. But there are several Republicans who said that they still are waiting to see how the GOP primary field takes shape in 2024. Who else jumps in?

Some of them have mentioned Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, who is considering a presidential campaign of her own. And we learned that she actually called former President Donald Trump this week to inform her (ph) of her interest in becoming one of his rivals.

The former president saying on his campaign plane that he encouraged Haley to run if that's what's in her heart. He said -- quote -- "Go by your heart and launch a campaign if you want to." And so, that could potentially make for a very interesting primary here in South Carolina.

CNN, Gabby Orr in Columbia, South Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: Gabby, thank you. And new this morning, exclusive reporting from CNN about the Supreme Court leak investigation. Sources say the high court did not disclose existing ties with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

[06:30:00]

SANCHEZ: Yes. Remember, he was the expert that was brought in to independently review the investigation into who leaked the draft opinion overturning Roe versus Wade? CNN's Joan Biskupic has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SENIOR SUPREME COURT ANALYST (on camera): You will remember that last year's early leak of the court decision reversing Roe v. Wade truly shook the country. Then there was the report on the investigation into the leak issued last week that produced more questions than answers. Now CNN has learned from sources familiar with the situation that the expert the court used to vouch for the investigation, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, had longstanding financial ties to the court.

The decision to keep those ties secret is part of a pattern of the justice's declining to be transparent. The court previously paid Michael Chertoff's private firm money to look at security protocols at the court. Some of his consultation work involved personal safety for the justices, assessing their homes, and police officer details. Estimated payments reached at least $1 million.

Another contract involved advising the court as it returned to the bench during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, this was fairly recent work, coming before the justices' request that he review, how well its own investigation into the leak went. The court's leak investigation was carried out by its marshal, Gail Curley. Her investigators determined -- her investigators did not determine how the draft opinion in the Dobbs case was leaked, yet they revealed the internal security shortcomings in protocols for confidentiality and computer use. And the marshal acknowledged a day after the report was issued that while she had spoken to the nine justices, she didn't give them the kind of scrutiny she gave court employees, which included asking some of those employees to sign affidavits regarding the leak.

Michael Chertoff gave the entire investigation a seal of approval and the court touted that endorsement publicly with its January 19th report. CNN has learned he was previously involved in these consultations on court security and benefitted financially from these contracts. Neither the court nor the Chertoff group revealed any of those contracts and neither would comment this week when asked about the specifics of those deals and the money involved.

Supreme Court contracts are not covered by public disclosure rules as federal agencies ae. The justices have long cloaked themselves in secrecy to the point of declining to respond to question about potential conflicts of interest, certain court rules, and the justices' health and public appearances. This decision to not reveal the prior connections to the person they enlisted to validate the leak report adds to that pattern of secrecy.

Joan Biskupic, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Joan for that report. A whistleblower who testified anonymously to the January 6th Committee is going public. What she saw in the lead cup to the insurrection and why she is concerned not enough has been done to prevent another one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:00]

SANCHEZ: A January 6 rioter has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for his art part in assaulting U.S. Capitol police that ultimately led to the death of one officer.

WALKER: Julian Khater pled guilty in September to two counts of assault for blasting Brian Sicknick and several other officers with bear spray as they were defending the Capitol building. Sicknick died the following day after suffering from several strokes. The medical examiner said the officer died of natural causes, but told the Washington Post that the riot and all that transpired played a role in Sicknick's death.

The violence of January 6th came as a shock to many, but a former Twitter employee turned whistleblower says the company was aware violence was possible but failed to take action.

SANCHEZ: Now, there was a draft memo that didn't make the committee's final report that details those failures. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan was the first reporter to speak with that whistleblower and he filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANIKA COLLIER NAVAROLI, FORMER EMPLOYEE, TWITTER: I do fear for the future and what it may hold.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): You think there could be another January 6th in this country?

NAVAROLI: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: Anika Collier Navaroli is a former Twitter employee turned whistleblower who testified before the January 6th Committee initially anonymously.

NAVAROLI: A lot of the locked and loaded, stand back, stand by, those tweets were in response to Donald Trump.

O'SULLIVAN: Now she is speaking exclusively to CNN in her first television interview.

NAVAROLI: I think it's really important for these findings from the committee about the roles that social media played within January 6th come to light.

O'SULLIVAN: Navaroli says she can't talk specifics about her time at Twitter publicly, but shared eye-opening details in depositions with the January 6th Committee. One example, as Trump supporters gathered in Washington, D.C. on the eve of the attack, Navaroli and her colleagues warned management at Twitter there might be someone getting shot tomorrow, according to transcripts of her deposition.

ALEXIS RONICKHER, ATTORNEY FOR A TWITTER WHISTLEBLOWER: But Twitter leadership refused to take action.

O'SULLIVAN: Attorney Alexis Ronickher spoke to CNN behalf of a second Twitter whistleblower who has remained anonymous.

RONICKHER: It wasn't actually until the doors of the Capitol were being breached that Twitter leadership started to taking action. At that point, it was too little too late. The real-world harm and violence had happened.

O'SULLIVAN: How did you feel as an American just seeing this happen?

NAVAROLI: Terrified. It was horrifying to experience political violence happen within our country at such a grand scale.

[06:40:15]

O'SULLIVAN: Jacob Glick was a lawyer for the January 6th Committee who deposed Navaroli.

JACOB GLICK, INVESTIGATIVE COUNSEL, JANUARY 6 SELECT COMMITTEE: She described employees, including herself, coming forward to warn their supervisors. And Anika is telling they were denied over and over and over. And who knows what could have been avoided if they had listened to her and her colleagues sooner.

O'SULLIVAN: But Navaroli is not happy with the January 6th Committee's final report.

NAVAROLI: Social media companies are mentioned hundreds of times within the final report. However, their role or their responsibility within that day and the events of that day and the violence that occurred has not been fully laid route.

O'SULLIVAN: The committee has so-called purple team dedicated to looking into social media and extremism. CNN obtained a copy of an unpublished draft document the team prepared. Much of it would focus on social media's role in the run-up to January 6th did not make it into the final report.

This is what did not make it into the final cut. Social media companies failed to anticipate post-election violence. Social media platforms had a delayed response to the rise of far-right extremism. Twitter was paralyzed by a fear of political reprisals, key decisions that Twitter were bungled by incompetence and poor judgment.

NAVAROLI: I risked a lot to come forward and speak to the committee and to share the truth about these momentous occasions in history. And I think it is really a missed opportunity that the committee did not include that information forefront and center within their report.

O'SULLIVAN: Anika and others say the January 6th Committee missed a real opportunity here. You worked on the committee. Do you agree with that?

GLICK: The report did its job exceedingly well which was to show the American public the dangers posed by President Trump's multi-layered attack on our democracy.

O'SULLIVAN: As for the draft document, Jacob Glick says it includes errors and shouldn't have been released.

Do you think social media companies fully appreciate the role that they played on January 6th?

GLICK: I don't think so. That lack of awareness, of responsibility is stark. NAVAROLI: By seeing this information, we will be able to understand

better what happened on January 6th in order to ensure that it doesn't continue to repeat itself.

O'SULLIVAN: Donnie O'Sullivan, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Thanks to Donnie O'Sullivan.

Coming up, it can produce an entire school paper in just minutes. And now schools are scrambling to stop artificial intelligence from helping kids cheat. More on the steps they are taking after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:00]

SANCHEZ: Microsoft is making a multibillion-dollar investment in the company behind the new viral chatbot tool ChatGPT. When you put it to the test, the chatbot has answered questions with responses that appear as though a human wrote it.

WALKER: Yes, it's frightening when you see how it works, at least in my opinion. So, the program can even write an entire school paper in just minutes, sparking New York City Public Schools to ban this platform to cut down on cheating.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): ChatGPT, short for Chat Generative Pretraining Transformer, is a machine-learning model that generates human-like text. It's been trained on a massive amount of data allowing it to understand and respond to a wide range of questions and prompts.

What you just heard me reading wasn't written by me. It was written by artificial intelligence, ChatGPT.

I simply typed in a prompt, write a TV news script written by a reporter about ChatGPT. And in just seconds, the A.I. spit out the copy you just heard. ChatGPT has exploded in popularity in recent months. CEOs are now using it to write emails. It passed a Wharton School of Business exam.

Should be more excited of ChatGPT or more fearful of it?

GARY MARCUS, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF PSYCHOLOGY AND NEURAL SCIENCE, NYU: I think they should have a mixed view.

YURKEVICH: OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, says the technology is still in its research phase and can produce inaccurate information.

You like artificial intelligence, but are you here to issue a warning about it?

MARCUS: Absolutely. Artificial intelligence is sort of like a teenager right now. It's exciting to see the teenager, like, get its footing, but it's also not there yet and we can't trust it.

YURKEVICH: But Microsoft thinks it's a good bet, even with some risks. They are investing billions of dollars in OpenAI. Jack Po, CEO of Ansible Health had ChatGPT take three versions of the U.S. Medical Licensing Test and it passed all three.

JACK PO, CEO, ANSIBLE HEALTH: Not only can it answer very complex questions, it can also modulate its answer.

YURKEVICH: Po and his team of 30 doctors started using the platform to help with treatment for patients who have COPD, a pulmonary disease.

PO: What this technology could really enable and has already started enabling us is to suddenly suggest things that we might not be thinking of at all. It will absolutely save lives.

YURKEVICH: Jake Heller is a lawyer and founder of Casetext, which helps clients comb through documents using A.I. like ChatGPT.

JAKE HELLER, FOUNDER, CASETEXT: You can have it read a police reports. You can -- you can have to see if witnesses gave contradictory testimony. You can almost certainly help find information that is pertinent to, you know, guilt or innocence.

[06:50:10]

YURKEVICH: But Po and Heller both say that human oversight of ChatGPT is still necessary. OpenAI says the platform can produce harmful instructions.

HELLER: In law, there absolutely is right and wrong answers, and that's why, you know, ChatGPT alone is not going to be enough to handle some of the most important questions in fields like law.

YURKEVICH: And then there's the question of plagiarism. New York City Public Schools banned ChatGPT on school network devices due to concerns that negative impacts on student learning and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content.

EDWARD TIAN, FOUNDER, GPTZERO: It's incredible innovation. At the same time, it's like opening a pandora's box.

YURKEVICH: Which is why Edward Tian, a 22-year-old Princeton student himself spent his winter break building GPTZero, which he says can detect whether something likely written by a human or ChatGPT. He says teachers use it to check their students' papers.

Is this like one A.I. cross-checking another A.I.?

TIAN: In a sense, yes.

YURKEVICH: But can it spot misinformation? TIAN: Oh, OK, yes. So, as opposed to misinformation, it's more of like it can only spot if something is A.I. generated or human generated.

YURKEVICH: And that's the greatest fear of all, spreading misinformation. ChatGPT, a tool designed to help humanity, could ultimately hurt it.

MARCUS: People who want to manipulate elections and things like that, instead of like writing one thing at a time, you could write thousands of things to give, for example, vaccine denialism more oxygen than it deserves.

YURKEVICH: Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: Can with we just go back to the '80s? It freaks me out. It really freaks me out. You know, my thing is, look, I am all about the future being now, we have to roll with the changes and stuff, but I mean, how reliant are we going to get on A.I., right? Because like they said, it's not perfect. And then now, you've got A.I. checking other A.I. and then perhaps even, you know, spreading more misinformation. I don't know. I don't know about that.

SANCHEZ: It's terrifying. This is going to disrupt so many industries. It is going to remake the economy, the global economy. It's just like the Internet. We had no idea the reach it was going to have. And this kind of technology, especially when pair it with other stuff, with robotics and the way that you can fake someone's face now, misinformation is a terrifying thing in that regard.

But I'm with you. I have ton of VHS tapes.

WALKER: Me too.

SANCHEZ: It would be great if we went back to the '80s.

WALKER: And beta tapes. I've got all that stuff. I'm old, not you. All right, that was a great report by Vanessa Yurkevich.

SANCHEZ: Yes, that was awesome.

Still ahead this morning, it is championship Sunday in the NFL. So, will Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals eliminate Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs for the second straight year to reach the Super Bowl? A preview of a huge game still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:55:00]

SANCHEZ: It is championship Sunday on both sides of the world, not just here in the United States, but also down under in Australia.

WALKER: Coy Wire is with us now. Coy, Novak Djokovic went to Melbourne on a mission, and now it's mission accomplished. COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Yes. Top of the

morning to you. That mission was two-fold, really. One was moving past all the trauma surrounding his COVID deportation out of last year's Aussie Open. And the other was a catch 22, as in catching Rafael Nadal's record 22 men's career grand slam titles and facing Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Joker won the first set with ease. Then he took the second and third sets in tiebreaks. He went over to the stands afterwards, broke down in tiers. It's his tenth Aussie Open title. Djokovic won his first major as a 20-year-old. He is now 35 years old. And in the first major of the year, he ties the all-time men's grand slam title record, 22 overall. He regains the world number-one ranking in the process as well.

It's also, as Boris mentioned, championship Sunday in the NFL. And by the end of the day, we will know which two teams will be playing in the Super Bowl. In the early game today, it's the 49ers facing the Eagles. San Francisco's quarterback rookie Brock Purdy is the so- called Mr. Irrelevant. He was the last pick in this season's draft but he is a perfect 8-0 since taking over as a starter. And the 49ers, they have won 12 straight.

Now comes their toughest challenge yet facing the top-seeded Eagles in front of some of the most raucous fans in sports in Philadelphia. Quarterback Jalen Hurts is healthy, has the team soaring high after the beat down with Giants last weekend. Coach Nick Sirianni expects his fans to live up to all of their hype.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK SIRIANNI, HEAD COACH, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: They can get a little more amped up because of the stakes of this game, right? And they are going to be a little bit more amped up. And I say welcome, welcome -- I welcome that and be as loud as they can be and be as energetic. And it's going to be great. It's going to be very extra.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, on the late game, Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes officially cleared to play after suffering this gnarly ankle sprain in their win over the Jaguars last weekend. He'll rally for a rematch of last year's AFC title game with the Cincinnati Bengals where Joe Burrow and the crew beat the Chiefs.

Burrow has never lost to Mahomes. He's a perfect 3-0. Teammates even have called Kansas City's historic Arrowhead Stadium Burrowhead. And the Chiefs have taken notice and they're using it as a rallying cry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS JONES, DEFENSIVE LINEMAN, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: It's like a full 360, right? Same thing, same circumstances on the Burrowhead Stadium, so feeling good about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you just say Burrowhead Stadium? JONES: Yes, Burrowhead Stadium, right? Yes. Take care. See you all at Burrowhead Stadium.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, we're going to end with some Sunday motivation for you. Bills safety Damar Hamlin speaking publicly for the first time since suffering cardiac arrest during a game earlier this month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMAR HAMLIN, SAFETY, BUFFALO BILLS: What happened to me on Monday night football I feel is a direct example of God using me as a vessel to share my passion and my love directly from my heart with the entire world. And I am able to give it back to kids and communities all across the world who need it the most. And that's always been my dream. I couldn't do this without any of the support and the love. And I can't wait to continue to take y'all on this journey with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Fans have held rally raising more than $9 million for Damar Hamlin's charity which helps kids, American Heart Association. Amara and Boris, the 356,000 people suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year, that's nearly 1,000 per day. 90 percent of them don't make it. Damar Hamlin clearly taking nothing for granted on his opportunity here to create positive change.

WALKER: I love that moment to raise awareness as well. And by the way, I love that you used the world gnarly in your report. I mean, it brings me back to my Cali -- not that I surfed, the surfer days. That was a gnarly report, Coy.

WIRE: I don't know that about you, Amara.

WALKER: I don't surf. I don't surf. I just like being near the surf. Thanks so much, Coy.

WIRE: You got it.

WALKER: The next hour of CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

[07:00:00]