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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Charles To Be Crowned British Monarch In Coronation Tomorrow; Biden To Invest $140 Million To Promote AI Innovation; Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. Suspended At Churchill Downs After Two Horse Deaths. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired May 05, 2023 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: -- and other dignitaries who have traveled to the U.K. for tomorrow. So that will happen at Buckingham Palace.
I don't expect we'll see them tomorrow morning before everything kicks off in terms of the procession, but we may hear from them. If you are traveling on a train or a Tube in the U.K. tomorrow this is the message you may hear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING CHARLES III: My wife and I wish you and your families a wonderful coronation weekend.
CAMILLA, QUEEN CONSORT: Wherever you're traveling we hope you have a safe and pleasant journey.
KING CHARLES III: And remember, please mind the gap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: Mind the gap.
And actually, the Prince and Princess of Wales were actually on the Tube yesterday. They were spotted on the Elizabeth line. They headed into Soho where they went to a pub, the Dog & Duck, and had a pint with some locals, though certainly making sure that the British public feel engaged ahead of tomorrow's ceremony -- Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And Monday's a holiday. Am I right?
STEWART: Monday is a holiday. It's another long weekend for Brits. We had Easter and we've got another one coming.
ROMANS: A long weekend for Brits.
All right, nice to see you, Anna Stewart. Thank you.
You can celebrate the coronation of King Charles III with CNN. Watch "HISTORY IN THE MAKING: INSIDE WESTMINSTER ABBY." And "ALONG THE PROCESSION" tomorrow morning at 5:00 on CNN. All right, quick hits around the globe right now.
Officials in India's Manipur state giving troops shoot-on-sight orders in an effort to quell days of violence between tribal and non-tribal groups. The orders to shoot-on-sight authorized for extreme cases where all forms of persuasion and reasonable force have been exhausted.
An iconic Sudanese actress has been killed in the crossfire during fighting between the country's rival military forces. Eighty-year-old Asia Abdel-Majid died after shells hit her home.
A billionaire investor buying the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein's private islands for $60 million. Stephen Deckoff plans to build a luxury resort there off the coast of St. Thomas.
All right, up next, hope and fear over the power of artificial intelligence. Hear what President Biden now says about it.
And the Golden State Warriors evening the playoff series with a blowout of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Bleacher Report ahead.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:36:16]
ROMANS: All right. The White House meeting with some of America's top tech leaders on artificial intelligence. President Biden personally urged them to keep the new technology in check.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: (INAUDIBLE) has enormous potential and enormous danger, and I know you understand that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: More examples have now surfaced of AI being used in deceptive and frightening ways.
Here is CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A 15-year-old Arizona girl off at a skiing competition -- a desperate phone call home.
JENNIFER DESTEFANO, RECEIVED AI SCAM CALL: I hear my daughter's voice and it says, "Mom?" and she's sobbing. And I said, "What happened?" And she was like, "Mom, I messed up." And she's going, "Help me, mom. Please, help me, help me" and bawling.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Jennifer DeStefano says then a man came on demanding ransom. But the girl had never been taken. DeStefano says it was all a scam. Her daughter's voice apparently generated by artificial intelligence. DESTEFANO: I never doubted for one second it was her. That's the freaking part that really got me to my core.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Fear of runaway smart technology has dominated sci-fi for decades but now, real-life concerns about this technology running amuck has the White House meeting with Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and others, and putting $140 million into AI research.
The move comes as analysts fear AI bots could pour unprecedented amounts of false information into upcoming elections. The Republican National Committee has already rolled out this political ad comprised of doomsday images created by AI.
RNC POLITICAL AD: Border agents were overrun by a surge of 80,000 illegals yesterday evening.
Officials closed the city of San Francisco this morning.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Again, none of that is real. Neither is this. They're just elaborate computer simulations.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (AI-GENERATED FAKE VIDEO): We're entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point in time.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Concerns about AI go beyond politics to education, crime, and privacy issues, but the technology brings promise, too.
In the hit film "Top Gun: Maverick," actor Val Kilmer was unable to speak as a result of cancer treatment. So AI sampled old recordings and created the voice you heard.
VAL KILMER, ACTOR, "TOP GUN: MAVERICK": The Navy needs Maverick.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But worries about the downside seem to hover everywhere. One issue in the Hollywood writers' strike -- will AI take away some of their work?
FOREMAN (on camera): This whole technology is moving at such a breakneck pace right now no one can say where it's going to be in even the near future. But one study indicates worldwide, AI could affect up to 300 million jobs.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Yes, you've heard it called something like a new industrial revolution -- that kind of impact on economies.
Joining me now is CNN senior business writer Samantha Kelly. So nice to see you here. This is just happening so quickly, I think is what really has caught a lot of people off guard.
We know that Microsoft is rolling out AI-powered search engines. What has Microsoft said about the concerns here?
SAMANTHA MURPHY KELLY, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS WRITER: So, Microsoft recognizes that there are clear dangers and risks involved here. However, it does feel comfortable with the pace at which it's rolling it out because it says it needs to test the technology out in the world in order for users to use it and they can go back and fix it.
Just six months ago, ChatGTP launched. Three months ago, Microsoft introduced its Bing-powered engine there and it's learned so much within that time. If it didn't put that technology out how would it be able to evolve, and that's sort of their stance.
ROMANS: Interesting.
OK. So Hollywood writers are on strike right now over concerns, in part, the studios -- about studios and the future use of AI. We know the studios would like to use AI to generate these scripts, right?
[05:40:04]
KELLY: Yes.
ROMANS: What is the -- I guess, the interplay there? The concern that these are real jobs that could be lost to the computers.
KELLY: Absolutely. Writers don't want to be written out of the equation so to speak. They don't want a producer or management to bring a script to them that's been AI-generated at the last minute and say hey, can you make some changes, some tweaks to this? Or they don't want their jobs replaced.
They also don't want the material that they've previously written to be used as sort of feeder material into these AI systems because that's what they're being trained upon. At the same time, consumers, people at home, or in the movie theaters -- they want fresh content and new bold, progressive ideas -- things they haven't seen before. And when these systems are trained on old material you're really just going to get kind of mediocre product in the end.
ROMANS: Interesting.
The Biden administration just announced this $140 million in funding for AI research and some measures or guidelines, I guess, to address the challenges of AI.
What's the role for government here?
KELLY: Yes, the government has a massive role here. The technology, like I said, is moving along at such a rapid pace and we know that government -- it takes a little bit longer -- it takes a long time sometimes for things to come to fruition. So they really have to act accordingly and act quickly, and this is why they're holding these meetings now.
They're starting to kind of talk about regulation. And they had a bill of rights that came out a few months ago. And there's a lot of pressure. But as we've seen before, especially with social media regulation, these things take time.
ROMANS: Yes, they do.
All right, Samantha, nice to see you. Have a great weekend --
KELLY: Thank you -- you, too.
ROMANS: -- and have a great rest of your day.
All right, to sports now.
The Warriors even up their playoff series against the Lakers with a blowout win in game two.
Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Christine.
You know, this series -- it's got seven games written all over it. And it was the Warriors making the adjustments in game two and they worked.
JaMychal Green starting for Kevon Looney who was feeling a bit under the weather, and he gave the Warriors the boost on offense scoring 15 points in just 13 minutes.
Now, the Lakers did lead this game by seven after the first quarter, but the second and third quarters belonged to Golden State as they outscored L.A. 84 to 47. Klay Thompson getting red-hot and making eight of his 11 threes for 30 points.
The Warriors would cruise to a 127-100 win.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KLAY THOMPSON, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS GUARD: We know LeBron's seen it all. A.D.'s seen it all. And so, it's 1-1 at the end of the day. So we've got to go to L.A. and get one and go from there.
LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: And they made their adjustments and we knew they were going to do that. That's what a championship team does. And they held serve on their home court tonight. And we've got to obviously see the adjustments they made. We've got to make our adjustments coming into game three.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: All right, the playoffs continue tonight with two game threes -- Boston at Philly and then Denver at Phoenix.
All right, the Bucks, meanwhile, firing head coach Mike Budenholzer just two years after winning the NBA title. Milwaukee had the best record in the NBA this season but were upset by the Heat in the first round of the playoffs. Budenholzer coached the Bucks for five seasons.
All right. A gambling scandal, meanwhile, has cost Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon his job. On Friday, U.S. Integrity, which is a Las Vegas-based firm that monitors the betting market, issued an alert to its Sportsbook clients regarding suspicious wagering activity involving the Alabama-LSU game.
Now, according to the Ohio Casino Control Commission, the alleged suspicious activity took place Friday at the Sportsbook at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. Now, the OCCC then halted all betting on Alabama games on Monday.
In a statement, athletic director Greg Byrne said Bohannon was fired for, quote, "among other things, violating the standards, duties, and responsibilities expected of university employees."
Now, no direct link between Bohannon's firing and the suspicious bets have been announced yet.
CNN has reached out to Bohannon but has not heard back.
All right, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, meanwhile. The Maple Leafs finding themselves in an 0-2 hole after dropping game two to the Panthers last night. So, Toronto had a 2-1 lead in the second period but then Florida pounced on the home team scoring two goals in less than a minute. The home crowd there was just stunned.
The Panthers would win 3-2. The series now shifts to the Sunshine State for game three on Sunday.
The New Jersey Devils will look to even up their series against the Carolina Hurricanes later tonight. The puck drops at 8:00 eastern for that one on our sister channel TNT.
All right, and just two days before the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs has suspended trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. indefinitely and scratched the horse he was training for the Derby, Lord Miles, after the sudden death of two of his horses this past week.
So, Saffie telling CNN affiliate WDRB he's been made out to be the scapegoat and that he runs thousands of horses and has never had a horse to suspiciously die before.
[05:45:05]
Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the death of his two horses that he trains this past week.
The Kentucky Derby is Saturday. Post time 6:57 eastern.
And, you know, Christine, the Kentucky Derby always such a fun day for everyone.
ROMANS: Yes.
SCHOLES: It's just sad to see that these kind of headlines are coming out of Louisville this week.
ROMANS: Yes, absolutely. All right, Saturday is the day.
Thank you so much.
SCHOLES: All right.
ROMANS: Nice to see you, Andy. Have a good weekend.
SCHOLES: You, too.
ROMANS: Coming up on "CNN THIS MORNING" a judge sets a deadline leaving the door open for Donald Trump to testify in person in a lawsuit against him.
And next, right here, bank fears in America. Why some are taking a long, hard look at where they put their money.
(COMMERCIAL)
ROMANS: All right, your Romans' Numeral this morning, 48. A new Gallup poll says nearly 48 percent of adults are concerned about their money in their bank. This poll was taken after the Silicon Valley Bank failure but before First Republic Bank's collapse. Gallup says worries are stronger among Republicans, Independents, lower-income adults, and those without a college degree.
[05:50:15]
All right. Looking at markets around the world right now, Asian markets are mixed this morning. Europe higher. Investors are reacting to the European central bank's slowing the pace of interest rate hikes there.
On Wall Street, it looks like a positive tone this morning after markets fell for the fourth day in a row yesterday. Fears about the health of the banking sector ripping through Wall Street. All three averages are on track for a week of losses.
Regional bank stocks fell this morning -- really important here. They have stabilized premarket following days of losses. Zions Bank up six percent right now. Western Alliance bouncing 10 percent. PacWest rising 11 percent.
On inflation watch, gas prices fell a penny to $3.56 a gallon.
April's critical jobs report due out at 8:30 a.m. this morning. The U.S. economy is forecast to add 180,000 jobs. The jobless rate rising slightly to a still historically low 3.6 percent.
I'm really pleased to bring in chief economist at Morning Consult this morning, John Leer, in the studio with me. Hi, John. Nice to see you.
JOHN LEER, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MORNING CONSULT: Great to see you --
ROMANS: -- on a jobs day.
LEER: Yes.
ROMANS: What are you expecting from the big labor market report?
LEER: I think we'll continue to see pretty robust jobs growth. It's still early in the -- you know, the impact of those -- that spending contraction on jobs I think is going to take a little bit of time to work its way through the system and the credit contractor that we're seeing on the banking system. Again, I think it's a little premature for that to hit jobs right now.
ROMANS: So, still strong but cooling.
LEER: That's right.
ROMANS: All right. Still strong but cooling.
Unemployment -- the unemployment rate is expected to tick up. We talked to Nela Richardson yesterday from ADP, who has been talking about people coming off the sidelines, and that's a really good sign, and that can help nudge up the unemployment rate.
Is that something you're seeing?
LEER: We have started to see fewer adults say that things like COVID, things like childcare are limiting them from looking for work, so I think that's really encouraging. And, in fact, the labor supply has really increased recently.
I do get a little concerned about some of these higher-income folks. I think it's hard to maybe --
ROMANS: Right.
LEER: -- feel too bad for them. But some of the folks who are working in the tech sector, some folks in the -- in the financial services sector as well -- that's where I think some of the weaknesses are right now.
ROMANS: So that's where we're seeing layoffs and --
LEER: That's right.
ROMANS: -- that's where we're seeing those jobs being laid off.
But the labor market, though, has been overall pretty tight. That has kept wages up and that has helped feed into the inflation story.
A year into these aggressive rate hikes where are we on the inflation story?
LEER: We've made a lot of progress. I think it's premature at this point to say that it's time for a victory lap.
The Federal Reserve has rapidly raised interest rates. I think they're likely to pause going forward. But it's not clear to me that inflation necessarily is going to sort of directly fall in the next few months. We're likely to see some surprise -- upside surprises.
ROMANS: All those rate hikes -- I mean, there's a real concern that something's got to break.
LEER: Yes.
ROMANS: And maybe we've already seen that in First Republic, in Silicon Valley Bank.
But what about the pressure on the banking system from all of these rate hikes? Where are we, I guess, in the bank pressure story? I mean, I don't think it's a crisis. I think it's stress in the banking sector. How would you characterize it?
LEER: I would say on that front it's still early days. What we know for sure is that there were some practices in the banking sector -- particularly in these mid-sized, smaller, state-run banks -- that were not consistent with sort of sound risk management practices. And on top of that, after the Fed's recent report we know that the Fed really wasn't watching and supervising these banks the way that they should be.
So my expectation going forward is that you'll see more and more of these sort of issues, particularly on the credit side of things going forward as the Fed steps in and starts to be a little bit more aggressive with lending standards. And banks, I think as well, are trying to protect themselves.
ROMANS: Does it hurt the economy? Does it -- does it -- is it a wider economic story?
LEER: I think so. Yes, I think it will, and I think that's something that Powell acknowledged explicitly that going forward there are sort of two drivers of monetary policy right now or credit conditions. It's both interest rates, which they directly set, but also credit --
ROMANS: Right.
LEER: -- conditions.
And I think actually, that's one of the areas where the Fed unfortunately I think sort of shot themselves in the foot, which is that credit conditions -- they don't directly control. And so that's going to be a really big issue that's sort of an unknown going forward.
ROMANS: Speaking of shooting yourself in the foot, Washington, D.C. and the debt ceiling debate. Where are we on that in terms of risk to the economy? I mean, we know it's terrible. How do you -- how do you even prepare for that as an economist trying to --
LEER: Right.
ROMANS: -- gauge what's going to happen?
LEER: It's something that historically has had sort of a very low probability but then a very high impact if it does materialize. And I still think that's the case, although unfortunately, maybe the probability of this leading to something like a shutdown is higher than we would normally expect.
If it were to happen it would be really catastrophic both in the near term. You've got a government shutdown and all that near-term spending. Long term, the credibility of the United States is really what drives our ability to finance our debt and our ability to make investments in this country. That's, I think, what's at risk and that's unfortunate.
ROMANS: I know. The probability should be zero but it's not zero and that's what so --
LEER: It's not zero.
ROMANS: -- aggravating.
All right, John Leer, Morning Consult. Nice to see you. Have a good weekend.
LEER: Thank you, again.
ROMANS: All right. Is the U.S. Justice Department now working with an insider at Mar-a-Lago? Details on an explosive new report.
[05:55:00]
And calls for justice for the man killed on a New York subway train after being put in a chokehold.
(COMMERCIAL)
ROMANS: All right, our top of the morning this Friday morning, the top songs in America right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MILEY CYRUS, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "Flowers."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Miley Cyrus tops iHeart Radio with "Flowers."
Here's number two.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REMA, NIGERIAN SINGER, AND SELENA GOMEZ, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "Calm Down."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Rema with Selena Gomez. That's "Calm Down."
And number three. [06:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SZA, SINGER: Singing "Kill Bill."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: "Kill Bill" by SZA.
One of those will be stuck in your head for the rest of the morning.
Thanks for joining me. I'm Christine Romans. Have a great weekend, everybody. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
