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New Agreement Between U.S., Canada, and Mexico called USMCA; Spanish Flu Was the Worst Flu Outbreak in 1918; 2017-2018 Flu Season was One of Worst in Decades; Computer Generated Avatars Used in Business; Couple Get Married on Ferris Wheel in Branson, Missouri
Aired October 02, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: From NAFTA to USMCA, our first story today centers on international trade in North America and we`re glad to watch you
watching. I`m Carl Azuz with your objective explanation of world events. A new trade agreement has been reached between negotiators for the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico. The three countries have been working to do this for much of Donald Trump`s term as U.S. President. A major promise he made in
the campaign trail was that he`s renegotiate NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. The new deal which was reached on Sunday night is called
the USMCA, the United States Mexico Canada Agreement.
It`s not finalized. First, the leaders of all three countries have to sign it. President Trump says he plans to do that by the end of November. Then
the legislatures of all three countries have to approve it. In the U.S. Congress, this involves the Senate which has the Constitutional authority
to approve treaties and the House of Representatives which also has authority when treaties are related to foreign trade. And like NAFTA, the
USMCA is all about trade between the three North American countries. It involves a lot of compromise between them. For one thing, the new
agreement is expected to help American farmers by allowing them to send more dairy, poultry and eggs to Canada. But some Canadian dairy farmers
are concerned it will hurt their business.
One criticism of NAFTA was it lead American auto makers to shift production to Mexico where it could be done less expensively because workers there
earn less money. The USMCA is intended to encourage U.S. carmakers to do more of their manufacturing in the U.S. but critics say it could lead them
to do more in Asia. So what will actually happen? Time will tell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Weeks of bitter negotiations an American President who would not back down. Threats to leave Canada out of a modernized NAFTA and
then at the 11th hour a deal. Here`s what we know. It will not be called NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement from 1994 that Trump has
called the worst deal ever signed. It will be the USMCA, the United States Mexico Canada Agreement. Now the Americans and the Canadians were just
bitterly divided only days ago and now they`ve issued a joint statement. They promised this deal will help the middle class and create good jobs
across North - - North America.
It provides more access to Canada`s protected dairy market. That`s a relatively small part of U.S.-Canada trade but it`s a Trump campaign
promise that he hopes will help farmers in Wisconsin and New York. Canada wanted to preserve a dispute resolution mechanism that stays and there are
higher labor wage and environmental standards. Cars imported duty free in the NAFTA zone must have 75 percent of the parts made in North America and
to remain duty free a car sold in North America must have 2/5ths of it`s content made by workers earning at least $16 an hour.
In theory, that means higher wages for all North American workers and more domestic production. Now the whole thing expires in 16 years if it is not
renegotiated. Bottom line, it removes Trump threat of 25 percent auto tariffs but it does not kill the steel and aluminum tariffs that American
manufacturers and automakers oppose. Now if faces Congress with a 60 day clock now ticking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. An estimated 28 percent of Americans were sickened by a flu outbreak that began in what year? 2018, 2009, 1947, or
1918. The Spanish Flu the most severe flu outbreak of the 20th century started in 1918 and sickened more than a quarter of the population.
The Spanish Flu killed an estimated 675,000 Americans and 10`s of millions of people worldwide. More than the number who died in the first World War.
And while last winter`s flu outbreak wasn`t nearly that bad, it was still the deadliest in decades. It killed an estimated 80,000 Americans. The
most deaths from the flu since 1976 and possibly farther back than that. The 2017-2018 flu season had another superlative. It was severe across all
age groups, the first year that happened according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. And there were three weeks in a row when the entire
continental U.S. was highly effected.
What about the flu vaccine? Scientists say last winter`s vaccine effectiveness was around 40 percent. By that, they mean that people who
got the flu shot had a 40 percent less risk of having to go to the doctor for flu treatment. It was one of the less effective vaccines in recent
years. Still the CDC says that getting the vaccine is the best way to prevent getting the flu. How about this winter? Well in Australia, where
winter just wrapped up, there was a relatively mild flu season this year. What happens there can be one indicator of what happens in the U.S. winter
months ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s amazing how much more we know about how to predict the flu. What they`re trying to do now is predict the flu very much in the
way that you predict the weather.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hurricane season. NOAH is predicting a below average season.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many parts of the state were under a hurricane warning early Thursday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know, all kidding aside. We don`t always get the weather right but this is pretty interesting and they use mathematically
modeling to, sort of, predict where flu virus is going to be most dominant. But then they look at real time data and the real time data is fascinating.
People searching for flu on - - on Google for example and they assimilate all the information to give you what are called hot spots but they can go
even deeper than that. This is a particular project that comes out of the Columbia School of (inaudible).
You can actually figure out which week is going to be the worst in your particular city but also for hospitals. They can be anticipating more
patients coming in so leading more surg capacity, more beds available, having more medications, flu vaccine, things like that on standby. But
this is sort of where we`re headed once we go to predicting when things are going to get really bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: I`d like to think that my anchoring style is not robotic. That it couldn`t be replaced by a digital human. But could jobs that hinge on
human interaction one day be filled by computer generated avatars? Critics and some attorneys have raised concerns about this calling for complete
transparency. So people who see digital humans know right away they`re not actual humans. Beyond that though, how would our lives be changed if more
of the customer representatives we interacted with were computerized?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the future, you`ll absolutely have an artificial version of yourself that goes out performing tasks that you really don`t
want to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, right. That sounds too good to be true, like avatar or something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our CEO is the technologist behind avatar and a whole array of different movies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And now he`s using that Hollywood magic to change what it means to work. Meet Cora. She`s a digital version of an actual
human.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cora`s consistent. Cora - - Cora never sleeps. Cora`s able to answer questions 24/7. She`s - -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. OK. If she`s so great, why don`t you just hire her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At some point in 2018 going live with Cora is our ambition.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cora`s currently being tested as a customer service rep. and one of Great Britain`s largest banks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I lost my card.
CORA: Do not worry. Losing your card can happen to anyone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There have been other virtual agents which are avatar based but I haven`t seen anything that is quite as realistic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cora`s kind of like a chatbot but one that analyzes your facial expression and speech and it was developed here in the New
Zealand based Artificial Intelligence Company called Soul Machine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole point of it is to make machines more like us. To sort of understand the intersection (ph) between computer science and
human consciousness.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Soul Machine has sold a handful of avatars to companies across the world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to Mercedes Benz.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Looks familiar right? So, as these avatars enter the workforce does that mean that us humans will be replaced?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is actually being replaced is the human capacity to - - to do stuff quickly and repeatedly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s a relief, sort of. As technology advances, hundreds of millions of workers worldwide could use their job in the coming
decades. A scary thought but also a chance to approach work differently.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perhaps in 10 years. Perhaps in 20 years. We need to look at how we define what work is. That is sort of much bigger
question we need answer as a society.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After all, Soul Machine sees a world where we each have a digital twin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the future, we totally believe that there will be millions if not billions of artificial humans that exist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if you could send your fake self to the office everyday, how would you choose to spend your time?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: The Ferris wheel has seen a lot of first kisses and maybe even some break-ups since it`s debut in 1893 but it`s not often the site of holy
matrimony. That`s what a Missouri couple had in mind when they climbed aboard the Branson Ferris Wheel recently. They met in 1994 but lost touch
for a while. After getting reconnected, then they got permanently connected onboard the wheel.
The vows, the rings, the commitment, all part of the 15 minute ceremony. It`s a fitting setting to embark on all of life`s "ups and downs", "as the
world turns" through thick and thin air the ride of the rest of their lives. And as our affiliate KYTV says, it proves love is in the "air".
And it`s where we make a "fair" landing here on CNN 10. I`m Carl Azuz.
END
