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New AI Tool Can Create Videos From Text; The Death of Alexey Navalny, a Well-Known Critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Aired 4- 4:10a ET
Aired February 20, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Good morning, early birds. I`m Vanessa Yurkevich subbing in for Coy Wire today. I`m so happy to start this week
with you after a long holiday weekend. So let`s get those final yawns out and get ready to let some knowledge in.
Our lead story today takes us to Russia. Alexei Navalny, who was a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin had been in prison since 2021.
He died on Friday. The Russian Prison Service says he didn`t feel well while he was on a walk at his prison and then fell unconscious. His cause
of death is still unclear, but the Kremlin says an investigation is underway.
Navalny`s team accused Russian authorities of lying and are refusing to return his body to his family for at least a few more weeks. Navalny`s
widow Yuliya claims President Putin is responsible for his death and she says she will continue her husband`s legacy and fight for justice in
Russia.
There`s been an outpouring of grief across the world, but in Russia, the act of mourning is more difficult. State media largely is ignoring the
situation. And authorities are telling people to avoid unsanctioned gatherings with some makeshift memorials being taken down.
Human rights groups claim police have detained hundreds in the country for attending rallies and vigils, and this marks the largest wave of arrests at
political events in the country in two years.
Now, to give you more of a sense of who Navalny was and his impact on Russia, let`s turn to our Matthew Chance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lawyer, politician, and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny led street protests against the
Kremlin for years, but never managed to challenge Putin in the ballot box, famously branded Putin`s United Russia party as the party of crooks and
thieves.
Navalny rose to prominence in 2008, when he began blogging about the alleged corruption within Russian state-run companies. In 2011, he emerged
as one of the leaders of the massive protests that broke out after allegations of massive fraud in parliamentary elections.
Navalny was arrested numerous times and was convicted on embezzlement charges. His first embezzlement conviction came in 2013, as the anti-
corruption activist was preparing to run for mayor of Moscow. Navalny was found guilty of misappropriating about half a million dollars` worth of
lumber from a state-owned company.
The activist denied the accusations saying that the charges were politically motivated. The day after the conviction however, the state
prosecutor stunned observers by requesting that Navalny be freed on bail so he could continue campaigning for mayor of Moscow.
But Navalny lost to former presidential aide and interim Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin. In 2017 during the retrial of the same case, Navalny was
found guilty and received a five-year suspended prison sentence. This time the conviction prevented him from running against Putin in the 2018
presidential elections.
ALEXEI NAVALNY (through translation): It is not about Navalny. It is about the fact that a candidate is needed who will finally come to the election
and speak openly about everything that happens in our country now, who will describe our reality honestly, absence of prospective, poverty. I did that
and that`s why you don`t want to let me take part in the election.
CHANCE: Russian state media has often silenced the anti-corruption activist but that didn`t stop Navalny who took his anti-Putin message to You Tube
where he frequently broadcast to hundreds of thousands of viewers.
The Kremlin has often condemned Navalny as a dangerous threat to the country`s stability and has rejected his allegations of widespread, high-
level corruption. But outside Russia, many see Navalny as an alternative to hardline Putin.
NAVALNY (through translation): The choice is very simple, you`re either scared or you go on. I chose to go on a long time ago and I won`t give up
on my country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YURKEVICH: It is 10 second trivia time.
Which American filmmaker created the infamous "War of the World`s" radio play that sparked panic in 1938?
Alfred Hitchcock, Clint Eastwood, Billy Wilder, or Orson Welles.
You said Orson Welles. Well, you`re right. The radio broadcast fooled an audience of millions by mimicking the style of a news report. Some
listeners were convinced that Martians had actually attacked New Jersey.
OK, this next story will blow your mind. And maybe even your eyes. Isn`t this video of a Victoria crowned blue pigeon, just gorgeous? Well, guess
what? It`s not even real and that`s not actually a bird and no one actually even filmed this video. It was all generated using artificial intelligence.
AI leader, OpenAI, the company behind the viral ChatGPT has introduced this new model called Sora. The company says Sora can create realistic videos of
up to 60 seconds long, just from quick text prompts. Like this example of a mesmerizing scenic shot in Big Sur, California. OpenAI has not released
this to the public just yet because the company says it intends to work on the safety issues behind these models.
Sora, however, is making some tech experts concerned. Our Michael Holmes spoke with Kristian Hammond, the Director of the Center for Advancing
Safety of Machine Intelligence at Northwestern University about what this breathtaking tool could actually mean.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIAN HAMMOND, DIRECTOR, THE CENTER FOR ADVANCING SAFETY OF MACHINE INTELLIGENCE: We have to get used to the idea that all of these things we
thought were part of establishing truth really no longer will.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN NACHOR: Yes.
HAMMOND: And we have to have an eye towards that.
HOLMES: Yeah. OpenAI, they`ve weighed into this and they said, and I`ll quote them too. They say, we are working with red teamers -- domain experts
in areas like misinformation, hateful content and bias -- who will be adversarially testing the model. Are you reassured by that at all? I`m not
sure I am.
HAMMOND: We really now have to put this, not only in the hands of the technology companies, and we have to force them to work as hard as they can
to make sure the content is good. We have to realize that it`s up to us now.
HOLMES: Yeah.
HAMMOND: To be able to look at the content we see and make decisions about whether or not we believe it or not. It`s just that we have to start
thinking less about the technology and more about how it`s used. And if we`re going to regulate, it`s going to be regulating the use, not the
technology itself because the technology is here to stay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YURKEVICH: And now let`s turn to a story that as Coy would say deserves a 10 out of 10. All this black history month, the show has been highlighting
trailblazing, black Americans who made a lasting impact on the world.
And today I want to talk about Charles Richard Drew, the Father of the Blood Bank. Drew was the first black student to earn a medical doctorate
from Columbia University. He studied all things blood, like transfusions and preservation, leading to a groundbreaking discovery that made it
possible to store blood for up to a week.
This was during World War II. So Drew led a pilot program for the red cross, supplying blood around the U.S. in Great Britain, saving countless
lives.
He also invented Mobile Blood Donation Stations known as Blood Mobiles. But Drew couldn`t participate himself, even though he led these efforts. The
Red Cross refused to let black people donate blood.
I also want to highlight the achievements of Bessie Coleman, the first black woman to become a pilot. Because of her race and gender, flight
schools in the U.S. wouldn`t accept her, but that didn`t stop her dream of flying. So she decided to learn French and moved to Paris to attend a
prestigious aviation school there. She got her pilot license in 1921 and that was two years before another famous female pilot, Amelia Earhart.
When she returned to the U.S., Bessie still faced discrimination, but found work, performing aerial stunts and parachute jumps. Her dream of opening a
flight school for black pilots never came true, but her determination in breaking the mold continues to inspire not only pilots, but anyone fighting
racial and gender stereotypes.
And now I`m told it`s time for shoutouts, starting with a school across the world. This is Hillside Collegiate International School in Geoje, South
Korea. Wow. Thank you so much for tuning in.
And for a shout out a little closer to home at least my home. Shout out to my Alma Mater, Montclair High School in New Jersey. Go Mounties.
Now, before I go, I`m told tomorrow is #YourWordWednesday. So follow CNN 10`s YouTube channel or Coy on Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok, and put your
unique vocabulary word in the comment section of the most recent post. Make sure you include your school, teacher, and mascot. And the team here will
choose a winner to work into the show.
Guys, today was so much fun. I`m Vanessa Yurkevich. Thank you for letting me join you all. I`m ready to take on the rest of the day and I hope you
are too. You are all truly what makes this CNN 10.
END
