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Quest Means Business

US Senators Grill Ticketmaster Boss; Interview With Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL); US Sues Google Over Dominance In Online Advertising; Der Spiegel: Germany Agrees To Send Tanks To Ukraine; 2023 Academy Awards; Schools Sound Alarm On ChatGPT AI Tool; Dash To The Bell. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 24, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:28]

ZAIN ASHER, CNN BUSINESS HOST: An hour left to trade on Wall Street and the markets are clawing back early losses. Let's take a look here and see how

the Dow is doing. It was actually down earlier by the way, more than 300 points. Now, you can see it's in the green already up about 150 points.

Those are the markets and these are the main events: US Senators accuse Ticketmaster owner, Live Nation of running a monopoly at a hearing on

Capitol Hill.

The US Justice Department wants to break up Google's ad business, claiming it unfairly stifles competition.

And Germany appears ready to send tanks to Ukraine after months of debate with NATO Allies.

Coming to you live from New York. It is Tuesday, January 24th. I'm Zain Asher, in for my colleague, Richard Quest, and this is QUEST MEANS

BUSINESS.

Good evening.

Tonight, there appears to be bad blood between US lawmakers and the head of America's biggest ticket seller. Obvious, not so subtle reference to a

Taylor Swift song, we couldn't help ourselves here. Senators grilled CEO Joe Berchtold over Live Nation's market dominance. His company has been

fiercely criticized for mishandling Taylor Swift's upcoming concert tour.

The ticket sales last November left millions of fans angry and out of luck. Berchtold apologized for it at the time, and again, now. He said the

company's Ticketmaster service was overwhelmed by bots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BERCHTOLD, PRESIDENT AND CEO, LIVE NATION ENTERTAINMENT: We knew bots would attack that on sale and planned accordingly. We were then hit with

three times the amount of bot traffic that we'd ever experienced.

This is what led to a terrible consumer experience, which we deeply regret. We apologize to the fans. We apologize to Miss Swift.

We need to do better, and we will do better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Matt Egan is with me now.

So Matt, I mean, just how much skepticism is there around the CEO's excuse that, you know, this was partially the result of a cyberattack, that bots

were to blame. What are people making of that?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Zain, I think there is a lot of skepticism and it was bipartisan skepticism. I mean, Live Nation really got a good old

fashioned grilling on Capitol Hill today, and in some ways, this whole situation has already accomplished two things, right, one, it has shined a

bright light on what is normally a pretty arcane issue, and that is the argument that some companies have just gotten too big and too dominant.

And secondly, it has managed to bridge the partisan divide in Washington. Listen to what Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said about that issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): Mr. Berchtold, I want to congratulate and thank you for an absolutely stunning achievement. You have brought together

Republicans and Democrats in an absolutely unified cause.

Unfortunately, your approach today in this hearing is going to solidify that cooperation because as I hear and read what you have to say, it's

basically it's not us, it is everyone, but us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Now, Live Nation tried, to, as Taylor Swift would put it, they tried to shake it off, but they are obviously facing a lot of criticism here. The

Live Nation executive, you know, he was blaming bots, he was even blaming cyberattacks. He did apologize to the fans.

Now, I think all of this raises questions about what can be done here. One solution that was floated is the idea of making these concert tickets and

sporting events tickets nontransferable to cap some of the prices, but a lot of people think the issue here is competition or lack thereof.

And on that front, you have to wonder whether or not today's hearing gives the Justice Department political cover to file an antitrust lawsuit against

Live Nation, much like the antitrust lawsuit that was just filed today against Google.

Another idea that was mentioned today, Blumenthal, he said, maybe the Justice Department should just unwind the 2010 merger between Live Nation

and Ticketmaster that formed this ticket behemoth in the first place.

Effectively, the DOJ would be saying and I have to do one more Taylor Swift pun here, effectively, they would be saying, I knew you were trouble when

you walked in.

ASHER: Do you know what I find funny is that I cannot believe how many US lawmakers know more Taylor Swift lyrics than me.

[15:05:10]

EGAN: Or at least their aides -- or at least their aides knows the lyrics.

ASHER: The aides, fine, fine. That makes you feel a little bit better. And you apparently as well, throwing down those lyrics there. I do know like

three songs, I think.

Okay, Matt Egan, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much.

EGAN: Thank you.

ASHER: All right, Ticketmaster's dominance or market dominance, I should say was obviously a key theme at the hearing. Estimates from Yale

University show the company has a 70 percent share of the market for live event tickets and 80 percent when it comes to major concerts.

Mr. Berchtold disputed those estimates saying it's closer to 50 or 60 percent. For their part, senators said, the Taylor Swift tour fiasco shows

Ticketmaster's market share as a problem nonetheless.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): You can't have too much consolidation something, that unfortunately, for this country as an ode to Taylor Swift, I will say,

"We know all too well."

BLUMENTHAL: May I suggest respectfully, that Ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and say, "I'm the problem, it's me."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Jan Schakowsky is part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have raised concerns about Ticketmaster's Taylor Swift fiasco.

Jan joins us live now.

So what are the solutions here, do you think? When you have, you know, this fiasco caused in part, there were obviously other issues at play, but in

part by market dominance by this one company who sort of gobbled up other elements of competition, what is the solution, do you think, Jan?

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D-IL): Well, there are a number of solutions to a number of problems that we see with Ticketmaster, but clearly when you have

monopolies, and that's why the reason that we don't want to see this concentration, then it leads right to price gouging. That's what we're

seeing.

And the other thing, they hide what the real costs of that Ticketmaster additionally adds. So someone might be trying to get a ticket, let's say

it's $30.00 or as much as $50.00 which for many consumers is a big deal. It isn't until the end of the transaction, that they find out that, you know,

there may be 50 percent or more added to that cost in order to complete the transaction.

Ticketmaster apparently, acknowledged that this was a problem in the hearing today in the Senate. But you know, the bots problem that is that,

you know, these bots can go online and just swallow up. We passed a Bots Act in 2016, and yet, Ticketmaster has no inclination to be working with

the Federal Trade Commission to stop these bots from buying up all the tickets and that is where we got into the Taylor Swift issue.

But you know, right now, 93 percent of the tickets bought for football games, the NFL, are through Ticketmaster. And that, you know, a large,

number 87 percent, when it comes to basketball.

So we see that consumers are really placed in a very bad position, and let me just add one other thing that Ticketmaster also owns a number of the

venues, and they are very punishing to some of the artists as well.

ASHER: So there is -- yes, I mean, it's a problem on top of a problem here. Our reporter, Matt Egan was just speaking just before you. I don't even

know if you had a chance to hear what he had to say, but he was talking about, you know, various sorts of solutions, and one of them would be this

idea of the DOJ trying somehow to unwind the merger that initially was approved back in 2010 between Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

How complicated would that be? What would that even involve?

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, I mean, I certainly think the effort has to be made, and that Ticketmaster has to cooperate. You know, we have seen this and you've

heard from Senator Blumenthal that, you know, everybody else seems to be the problem. They don't want to acknowledge that they're the problem.

And so we need to as a Congress insist -- insist. And so, the beginning of December, a bipartisan group wrote to Ticketmaster and said, we want a

clear briefing on what exactly you're doing. So the House of Representatives, again, in a bipartisan way, is also looking into this.

So this isn't going to drop because ordinary Americans who want their day out, they want to have some fun are getting ripped off time and time again

from Ticketmaster. It has got to stop.

ASHER: And in terms of the possibility of seeing some kind of antitrust lawsuit. I mean, we just had one filed against Google, which I'm going to

be getting into later on in the show, but in terms of some kind of antitrust lawsuit filed by the DOJ against Ticketmaster or Live Nation,

rather, what are your thoughts on the possibility of that?

[15:10:11]

SCHAKOWSKY: I would certainly support that that there be a lawsuit that says that Ticketmaster can't engage in this kind of predatory behavior.

And, you know, so you get the Federal Trade Commission. You get a lawsuit. I think it is time to protect consumers and artists as well, from just the

will of Ticketmaster. I support it.

ASHER: And I love how Senator Richard Blumenthal said exactly what I was thinking, which is that, you know, this is incredible that it's brought

both Republicans and Democrats together with the same level of energy for this cause.

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, yes, because it is certainly not limited when people go and want to go to a live event. It's that Democrats or the Republicans who

are most likely to do that. And so when you get to the issue of consumer protection, I think we're very likely to get bipartisan support.

I've been the Chair in the House of Representatives of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee, and we've been able on a number of issues to be

able to pass bills where other issues get stuck in partisanship, not us.

ASHER: All right, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. Thank you so much for being with us, Congresswoman.

All right, the US Justice Department has just accused Google, as I was just mentioning there a second ago of illegally dominating the online ad market.

It's suing the company to break up its alleged monopoly.

This is the Biden administration's first antitrust case against a Big Tech company. Google says a DOJ victory would essentially slow innovation and

raise advertising fees as well.

Speaking in just the past hour, Attorney General Merrick Garland, who you see there said Google has been abusing its power for over a decade.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, US ATTORNEY GENERAL: For 15 years, Google has pursued a course of anticompetitive conduct that has allowed it to halt the rise of

rival technologies, manipulate auction mechanics to insulate itself from competition, and force advertisers and publishers to use its tools.

ASHER: Anna Stewart joining us live now from London. So Anna, DOJ essentially saying that Google squeezed out competition and that

essentially forced advertisers to pay more and that website creators essentially ended up getting paid less. Just break down for us the results

of this lawsuit.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Yes, at one stage, in fact, this lawsuit alleges that Google gets at least 30 cents of every advertising dollar that

goes between the two parties.

Listen, this wasn't a surprise, we knew that the DOJ had been laying the groundwork for a big antitrust case like this for some time, and it is

quite similar to an investigation that the EU was launched also looking at Google's digital advertising space.

Now the allegations here are that it, first of all, bought up rivals, pressured publishers and advertisers to use its technology. So illegal

domination of the market, but also that it just simply owns too many pieces of the digital advertising ecosystem.

So first of all, it owns the technology used by major website publishers to offer ad space. Secondly, that it owns the tools used by advertisers to

then go buy that space. And then thirdly, that it owns the largest automated ad exchange that essentially link the two together.

So it says this dominance is unfair in the market. And as you say, it makes it far too expensive for advertisers. It means website publishers aren't

receiving enough money, and it is a very interesting case in terms of its huge -- given, it's the DOJ -- and it is going to be looking at antitrust,

I think much, much more with these Big Tech giants.

It is a very different area than it was just ten, twenty years ago. Anticompetition has gotten incredibly complicated given the domination of

these Big Tech players in the market.

ASHER: So how does Google fight this? Because obviously, you know, they will.

STEWART: Of course, they will. And they have actually already responded saying today's lawsuit from the DOJ, attempts to pick winners and losers in

the highly competitive advertising tech sector.

They say this is a flawed argument, and they say that it will simply slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of

small businesses and publishers to grow. That's the statement we've had from Google. I'm sure they will fight this.

They have tried to actually seek some sort of arrangement with the EU who have launched a similar investigation, but haven't yet brought charges. We

have yet to see whether that works.

I think at this stage, they're probably going to fight it as much as they can. And they fought a lot of battles. Don't forget that Google has

actually been charged three times by the antitrust regulator in the EU. They've charged it more than $8 billion so far -- Zain.

ASHER: All right, Anna Stewart, live for us there. Thank you so much.

All right, Germany will reportedly send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, if true it ends a months' long standoff between Western allies over providing Kyiv

with heavier weapons. We'll have all the details on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:51]

ASHER: All right, Germany is going to be sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, according to the German news website, Der Spiegel. If that is

confirmed, this would end a months' long waiting game as Ukraine's NATO Allies debated whether or not to supply Kyiv with heavier weapons.

The US is also finalizing plans as well to send its Abrams tanks to Ukraine that's according to three American officials that could be part of

international efforts to break this logjam.

Last week, Germany indicated it wouldn't send its tanks unless the US actually did the same. Let's bring in our Nic Robertson joining us live now

from London.

So Nic, I think you and I were talking yesterday and the big news then was that Germany was actually not going to block Poland from sending these

Leopard tanks. Now, we're hearing that it's possible that Germany might itself be sending their own tanks, their own Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

What got Germany to change its mind given that this debate has been going on for many months now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, there really seems to have been this behind the scenes choreography that got stalled at a

moment when President Biden said that he didn't think it was necessarily the right thing to do, and his officials kept repeating the line that the

US tanks weren't suitable for Ukraine.

But it seems that the German Chancellor really held his ground and what he'd originally said was he didn't want to send his unless the United

States sent their tanks, too.

And it's not sort of clear how this sequencing became unstuck, but it creates the impression that the United States and President Biden has in

the effort of keeping unity amongst all the NATO allies and the supporters of Ukraine, really given in to what the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

wanted. We don't know those details, so it is hard to be specific about this.

But that's the impression that creates that unity at the end of the day was the most important thing here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice over): The logjam broken according to a Des Spiegel exclusive. Ukraine to get US and German made-tanks like the Abrams and the

Leopard 2. What Ukraine wanted, a Western-made modern counter to a potential Russian spring offensive now a reality.

[15:20:14]

After weeks of high-stakes posturing and frustrations, Germany insisting it wouldn't send its tanks unless the US did, too. Hence a deal was in the

works, but times hard to read.

BORIS PISTORIUS, GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): I explicitly encouraged the partner countries that have leopard tanks that are ready for

us to start training Ukrainian forces on these tanks already.

ROBERTSON (voice over): Poland pointed reply saying it is training Ukrainians already, and after days of publicly aired frustrations finally

made a formal request to Germany to reexport some of their Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

MATEUSZ MORAWIECKI, POLISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I hope this response from Germany will come quickly this time, because the Germans are

delaying, dodging, acting in a way that is very difficult to understand. Very clearly, they do not want to help Ukraine.

ROBERTSON (voice over): The public wrangling the biggest visible tension in the so far strongly united response to Russia's unprovoked invasion of

Ukraine was talked down both sides of the Atlantic.

ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET), COORDINA OR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AT THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: To say that this is dividing the Alliance or

somehow putting international security at risk in Ukraine because there is a discussion over tanks is just way over blowing this thing.

ROBERTSON (voice over): But Germany's peed bumps to arming Ukraine were not new.

Rewind to earlier in the war, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz drew President Zelenskyy's criticism for lagging other allies in military support. Since

then, a government realization, Russia a threat, not a business partner, air defense systems, and heavy howitzers sent to Ukraine.

The root of Germany's caution, public opinion, a politician's bellwether and is laced with uncomfortable World War Two comparisons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scholz knows that a big part of this population is against this war and they don't want that Germany goes too deep into this

war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I think Olaf Scholz is a little bit too hesitant about it and I think there is a lot more that he could do.

ROBERTSON (voice over): When the tanks actually arrive in Ukraine, still unclear.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (on camera): So for the Abrams tanks, there will be a lot of training. These are not tanks that the Ukrainian forces are familiar with,

they run on jet fuel, they have jet engines. There is a high level of maintenance. They don't go as far as the German tanks on one tank of gas,

if you will.

So there is going to be a lot of -- a lot more work to actually get these tanks, both the German and the US tanks in the Ukrainians' hands in a way

that they can actually make a difference on the battlefield because the last thing any contributing nation wants is to see these, you know,

expensive pieces of military hardware squandered because no one knows quite how they operate.

ASHER: Yes, I mean, that's a really good point.

I'm sure though Zelenskyy will be pretty pleased with this latest development.

Just walk us through though, how much of a game changer these tanks are just in terms of you know, Ukrainians standing on the battlefield.

ROBERTSON: I think when we look across the whole sort of gamut of all the equipment that Ukraine has received recently, and particularly there has

been this big push with armored vehicles and mobile military vehicle, mobile infantry vehicles.

Now the tanks and you've got complex air defense systems and new Howitzers for Ukrainians' use. There is a lot of equipment that's coming into

Ukrainian military's hands that requires training.

So how quickly they can be used and how effectively they can be used, really is going depend on the level of training, how quickly they can

actually put their troops inside these tanks.

I think realistically many military analysts look at the situation right now and say all this hardware in Ukraine's hands will hold off any

potential Russian offensive, hopefully, that could come this year in spring and perhaps another offensive later in the summer, and it may not be until

next year that Ukraine's military really becomes a strong force, powerful, and capable enough to do what they want, which is they say, to push the

Russians right back to 1991 lines, right out of Ukraine.

ASHER: All right, Nic Robertson live for us there. Thank you so much.

Okay, in Kyiv, President Zelenskyy has begun a purge of government officials amid a growing corruption scandal. More than a dozen Regional

Governors, Deputy Ministers and senior officials have resigned or been dismissed, some but not all have been accused of corruption linked to the

procurement of wartime supplies. Mr. Zelenskyy says more changes are coming.

[20:25:15]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): There are already personnel decisions, some today, some tomorrow regarding officials

of various levels in the Ministries and central government structures, as well as in the regions and in the law enforcement system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Unfortunately, Ukraine does have a history of shaky governance and graft. Zelenskyy rose to power by tapping into public frustration over

rampant corruption. His progress, though has been slow.

Transparency International ranks Ukraine as Europe's second most corrupt country after Russia.

And right now, with more Western aid on the way Ukraine is increasingly under pressure to show it can properly manage the money and the supplies

that it is receiving.

Fred Pleitgen is in Kyiv for us and puts today's developments into context.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a huge wave of resignations and sacking, some of them, close to the top

levels of the Ukrainian government and generally of the Ukrainian political sphere. You could almost call this a purge. There has been so many

resignations in the past 24 hours.

For instance, if you look at the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration, that's someone at the top level who is also very visible

and very prominent here in Ukrainian society.

For instance, you take last week, when we had that massive strike by a Russian missile on a building in Dnipro, the deputy head of the

presidential administration, Timoshenko, he was the one who was sent over there to make sure that the rescue and recovery efforts were going as

planned, but also, of course, to show face for the administration here in Kyiv.

So clearly, he is also not exempt.

Now, as we recall, all of this started with the arrest of a top level official for embezzlement last week, and that really set off this cascade

of people resigning, of people being pushed out of office as well, and it is not only about the government in Kyiv, it is also regionally as well.

There were some regional governors, who have also been told that they will have to resign or will be pushed out of office.

For instance, for the Dnipropetrovsk region, a big region right in the center of Ukraine, the Kherson region as well, which of course right now is

so important after the Ukrainians managed to push the Russian forces out of large parts of Kherson.

The European Union has now also come out and said that they praise the government here in Kyiv, saying it shows that Kyiv and the Zelenskyy

administration that they take fighting corruption very seriously. Also, a senior adviser to the presidential administration, he came out and he said

all of this shows that Volodymyr Zelenskyy understands the pulse of the people.

He said that people who are in government needs to understand that they have a specific job to do at this very important time and they shouldn't

deviate from it.

ASHER: All right, that was our Fred Pleitgen reporting for you there.

Okay, so still to come here, last year, as I'm sure you'll remember, it was the slap heard around the world, and now the Oscars are back, trying

desperately to stay relevant. This year's nominees are next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ASHER: Blockbusters, snubs and the first ever Asian nominee for Best Actress. The Academy Awards are back and filled with drama as usual.

After controversies and terrible TV ratings, this year's awards are giving blockbusters some love. Two of the biggest box office draws, "Avatar: The

Way of Water" and "Top Gun: Maverick" are in the running for Best Picture.

The question remains, can the Oscars stay relevant?

Chloe Melas joins us live from New York to answer that question.

What do you make of the inclusion of these big Hollywood blockbusters this year?

Not just "Avatar" and also "Top Gun: Maverick" but even the fact that you had Angela Bassett being nominated for "Black Panther"?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Zain, there's so much to unpack. First of all, in my opinion, having "Avatar: The Way of Water," having "Top Gun:

Maverick" be nominated, these are the movies that people went to the theater to see.

These are from two directors, from a cast of people, who wanted people to see them in theaters. Both doing incredibly well at the box office. And

really it was "Top Gun" leading the way, making over $1 billion at the global box office.

Some saying Tom Cruise brought movies back. I was disappointed to not see Tom Cruise getting an Oscar not himself but Jerry Bruckheimer, one of the

producers of "Top Gun," he is very famous, he released a statement to CNN, saying that this is such a huge moment, it is his first Oscar nomination.

They are just so excited about this.

I think there's a real chance that it could win. I know that might be a controversial answer but I think there is a real chance. Let's look back at

"Titanic," "The Sound of Music," "Gone with the Wind," these are movies that were blockbusters at the time, even, yes, "Gone with the Wind," back

in the day.

I think that was like the first movie my grandmother went and saw. But these set a precedent, "Forrest Gump," another movie that was a blockbuster

at the time. Everyone went to go see it in theaters. These movies won Best Picture.

Is it possible?

Yes.

Does it happen often?

No.

ASHER: Well, you bring up a good point. I personally have gotten very used to the Oscars showcasing the very small, independent movies that,

unfortunately, no one goes to see.

What about the snubs though this year, Chloe?

Everyone from Viola Davis and "The Woman King" but I watched the actress in "Till," Danielle Deadwyler, she is an amazing actress. I thought she

deserved something. I was so disappointed when I didn't see her name on that list at all.

MELAS: You know, there are snubs. I think it is just one of those things that, every year, there are going to be snubs. You just can't make

everybody happy. I would say that, if you're looking at a category where people think there were those that truly were shut out, it would be the

Best Director category.

If you look, that is because it is all men nominated. You are going to be seeing the hashtag #OscarsSoMale on your feeds because that is happening.

Steven Spielberg getting a nod for "The Fabelmans." He just won the Golden Globe for Best Director.

Some people say that the Golden Globes can kind of indicate who might win. In that case, "The Banshees of Inisherin," which you see also has a nod for

best directing, that is nominated for Best Picture, starring Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell.

I just finished the movie the other day and it is good. But again, it has that indie vibe. "Coda," the movies that have won in years past, they are

those indie films. You turn to your left, you turn to your right.

[15:35:00]

And most people you know haven't seen them. But I think people are going to be tuning in to see "Avatar," see James Cameron, see Tom Cruise. But then

you also have to mention Austin Butler for "Elvis." He won the best actor at the Golden Globes. I was there just a few weeks ago.

Some people say that his portrayal of Elvis Presley could win him the Oscar. I don't know, I think that's overreaching.

But is Austin Butler a great actor?

Yes.

Was he great in "Elvis"?

He was. So I think that is a movie to watch as well.

ASHER: I'm looking at this list, so many movies to see. I'm going to get through at least three of them this weekend.

MELAS: A lot of them are on demand. Some of them streaming.

ASHER: Should I watch "The Banshees of Inisherin"?

MELAS: You should watch it.

ASHER: Listen, it's got over 10 nominations.

MELAS: It is set in Ireland so it is just visually beautiful to watch although, the premise of the film, that these two best friends who are

speaking anymore, I won't say much more than that. But is quite disturbing. So it is not like a blockbuster fun family movie like maybe "Avatar" or

even "Top Gun."

Actually my 5 year-old wants to see "Top Gun' and I might just let him see it because it is just so much fun to watch.

ASHER: I'll take your advice, I'm going to try to watch "Banshees" this weekend. Chloe, so good to see you. I think you're right next door.

MELAS: I am.

ASHER: OK, 'bye, Chloe. Talk soon.

All right, a new and controversial artificial intelligence tool known as ChatGPT is gaining popularity for its ability to craft emails, write essays

and answer almost any question in a matter of seconds.

But with great power of course, you heard it before, comes great responsibility. And people are already sounding the alarm about the risk of

it being misused. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ChatGPT, short for Chat Generative Pretraining Transformer, is a machine

learning model that can generate 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 T.V. news script written by a reporter about Chat GPT." And in just seconds, the AI spit out the copy you

just heard.

ChatGPT has exploded in popularity in recent months. CEOs are now using it to write emails. It even passed a Wharton School of Business exam.

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

GARY MARCUS, AUTHOR, "REBOOTING AI: BUILDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WE CAN TRUST": I think they should have a mixed view.

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

[15:40:06]

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 a teenager, like, get its footing but it's

also not there yet and we can't trust it.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): But Microsoft thinks it's a good bet, even with some risks. They're investing billions of in open AI.

Jack Po, CEO of Ansibel Health, had ChatGPT take three versions of the U.S. medical licensing test and it passed all three.

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

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Po and his team of 30 doctors started using the platform to help with treatment for their patients who have COPD, a

pulmonary disease.

PO: What this technology could really enable -- it 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 (voice-over): Jake Heller is a lawyer and founder of Casetext, which helps its clients comb through documents using AI like ChatGPT.

JAKE HELLER, FOUNDER, CASETEXT: You can have it read police reports. You can -- you can have it see if witnesses gave contradictory testimony. You

can almost certainly help find information that is pertinent to guilt or innocence.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): 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 ChatGPT alone is not going to be enough to handle some of the most

important questions in fields like law.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): And then, there's the question of plagiarism. New York City Public Schools banned ChatGPT on school network devices due to

concerns about negative impacts on student learning and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content.

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

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YURKEVICH (voice-over): 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 is likely written by a human or ChatGPT. He says teachers use it to check their students' papers.

YURKEVICH: Is this like one AI cross-checking another AI?

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 AI-generated or human-generated.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): 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'd be able to write

thousands of things to give, for example, vaccine denialism more oxygen than it deserves.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, New York.

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ASHER: That is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for you. Back to the top of the hour as you make a dash for the closing bell. Up next, "LIVING GOLF."

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ASHER: Hello everyone. I'm Zain Asher. It's the dash to the closing bell. And we are just two minutes away.

A glitch at the New York Stock Exchange briefly froze trade in more than 80stocks. It was an otherwise quiet day for the Dow, which is set to close

slightly higher.

There were two major U.S. averages are off ever so slightly. The head of Ticketmaster's parent company was grilled today on Capitol Hill. The

hearing was sparked by the company's Taylor Swift ticket fiasco back in November. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky said it is time to hold Ticketmaster

accountable.

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REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D-IL): I would certainly support that there be a lawsuit that says that Ticketmaster cannot engage in this kind of predatory

behavior. And so you get the Federal Trade Commission, you get a lawsuit. I think it is time to protect consumers and artists as well from just the

will of Ticketmaster.

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ASHER: Looking at the Dow components quickly, Travelers up over 3 percent. Its revenue was up last quarter, helping to offset storm related payouts.

3M is cutting 2,500 manufacturing jobs. It is at the bottom, down at 6 percent.

All right. That is your dash to the bell. I am Zain Asher. The closing bell is on Wall Street. "THE LEAD" up next.

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