Cleveland Tech Startup Fights Laundry Microplastic Pollution

While most of us are at least dimly aware that plastic in the form of polymer microfibers goes into making our clothes; it probably never really even crosses our minds that when we wash them; tiny pieces of plastic make their way into our environment. But when Max Pennington was a student at Case Western Reserve not so long ago; it certainly occurred to him. So, that's when he and his friends came up with a plan to put a filter on their washing machine to catch plastic residue from the rinse water. After a number of hits and misses, including lots of sudsy soaked floors; they came up with their CLEANR washing machine filtering system that removes microplastic particles before they hit the drain. Their reasoning is simple; keep plastic particles out of the water, and send them to landfills where they can be safely–or at least more safely–contained. While research on the dangerous health effects of microplastics is ongoing; they have been linked to a myriad of illnesses including cancer, strokes, heart attacks, and kidney disease.  So I talked to Max about CLEANR, and how their patented "Vortex" filtering process might one day also be applied to other products like whole home water filters. Listen now:

This week, we're exploring how two Universities in Northeast Ohio are using artificial intelligence. At the University of Akron, their College of Business just announced they are going to offer a brand new undergraduate degree; a Bachelor of Business Administration in Applied Artificial Intelligence and Information Systems. The goal, according to Associate Dean, Dr. Debmalya Mukherjee, is to equip graduates with both the technical literacy to understand artificial intelligence (AI), and the business acumen to apply it responsibly and effectively. Meanwhile, at Cleveland State University, their Development Department is using a "virtual engagement officer" called "Ava" to interact with students and alumni, and help raise money for the University, and as you'll hear in my conversation with their Director of Annual Giving; John Templeman, "she" is doing a great job!

This week, we're time-tripping back to the 1980s, when hair was big, ties were skinny, and everybody headed over to the video store on Friday night to score the latest movies on VHS. But we don't have to rely on dim memories of Blockbuster days gone by, because we've got a museum with a real-life replica of an actual video store inside, called "Killer Video", in downtown Akron The museum, at 453 S. High Street, has a twist though, that makes it even more of "must see" this Halloween season. It is entirely dedicated to the Horror film genre that that really exploded as a cultural phenomenon in the '80s with box office juggernauts like "Poltergeist", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and "The Evil Dead". So take a walk down memory lane with us today, as we talk with the museum's owner and creator, Jonathan Carmichael, who is originally from the Akron area, and spent 20 years working in the film industry out in Los Angeles, before returning home to open the Killer Video Museum, Gallery, and Gift Shop. Also please note if you're really into horror flicks; there's a big event event you might want to check out coming up in Akron on Saturday, October 11 at the Akron Civic Theater. It's the "Akron Independent Horror Short Film Festival", and tickets are on sale now.

When congress declined to implement a provision that would have prohibited states from regulating AI for the next ten years in their recently passed "big beautiful bill"; that left Ohio free to come up with regulations that our own legislators believe will protect the state's residents from harm stemming from the use of this new and rapidly evolving technology. Right now, there is a bill (SB-164) pending in the Ohio Senate, that would regulate the use of AI in the health insurance industry; something that came into sharp focus in recent months after a federal class action wrongful death lawsuit was filed alleging that UHG, UnitedHealthcare and naviHealth used an AI model with faulty programming, without customers knowledge, to reject 90 percent of to evaluate claims for post-acute care insurance claims. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estates of two patients, who died, it is alleged, as a result. But AI is being used by healthcare providers as well, for tasks like medical transcription, and diagnosing cancer, and there are no regulations on that either. So  now, some legislators are drafting a companion bill in the Ohio House, and they are relying in part, on some information compiled by a couple of undergraduate college students at Case Western Reserve University. Listen now, as I talk with Political Science & Psychology Major, Sabrina Soto, and Paisley Martin-Tuell, who is studying Economics and Public Policy, about the complex issues involved, and how their recommendations mirror regulations either already passed, or under consideration, in other states.

This week, it's all things space, as we explore the possibility of life on Mars, Star Trek's upcoming 60th Anniversary, and the University of Akron's NASA Mining Robot team. Another new development this week that's newsworthy but unfortunately didn't make it into this a edition of "This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro", is that NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, has just been selected to lead the way on a new billion dollar effort to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon. But it's a perfect lead in as we  set our sights on the stars, and boldly go where imagination, ingenuity, and great technology can take us. Listen now.

Want highly skilled STEM-skilled workers to permanently relocate to Ohio? Offer their employers cold, hard, taxpayer-generated cash to bring them here. That's what JobsOhio is doing right now, and you can get details on that story plus a whole lot more, like the latest on Google's big privacy fine, a last minute surge in EV sales before tariffs kick in, and a new data center planned for the site of the old Lordstown GM plant, when you listen to the latest edition of "This Week In Tech with Jeanne Destro".

The City of Fairlawn is embarking on an ambitious new plan to ease traffic flow and prioritize safety on State Route 18. They're spending $300,000 on a new system that will turn lights green ahead of buses and emergency vehicles, and warn motorists about adverse traffic conditions through a new mobile app. Listen now for details from Fairlawn Public Service Director Ernie Staten, in this week's edition of "This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro".

It was one of those "I can't believe I fell for it", moments on social media, where somebody was going on about how this "old lady" couldn't figure out how to process a particular type of electronic payment at a store, when I started seeing red, especially because "old" was defined (in her mind at least) as "over 50". The nerve!  Well, I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was pretty steamed. Once I calmed down, I realized that I had fallen for the bait that the tech giants behind social media build into their algorithms, to generate both outrage, and engagement. The madder we get, the more we click, the more we click and comment, the more money they make on ads.  Anyway, it got me thinking, and I decided to stop being mad, and start getting even, in a positive way. So I called some experts to help me find out if there really is any truth to what I perceived as an ageist bias against older people, for their (alleged) inability to use technology. Our featured guests on today's edition of "This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro", are Abby Morgan, who is the CEO of Direction Home, the Akron-Canton Area Agency on Aging, and Cleveland Clinic Gerontologist Dr. Ken Koncilja. Listen now.

Google took action this week to better protect children from harmful content on YouTube; announcing they're using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze users' behavior to determine whether they're under the age of 18. Like Meta did a few months ago on Instagram; they will restrict that user from viewing what they believe is age-inappropriate content, and will also disable personalized advertising. If an adult believes they have been incorrectly identified as a minor; they can prove their age by providing a credit card or government ID. In other tech news this week, we're noting the end of an era, as the venerable old web portal and online service provider most closely identified with the early internet era–AOL–is discontinuing dial-up internet service. To find out more; I had a conversation with former CNET Editor, and CBS News Tech Contributor, Ian Sherr:

Two well-known celebrities ignited a firestorm of controversy this week, when they used AI to bring dead people "back to life" by creating video Avatars that looked and sounded so much like the originals that they totally creeped some people out, and made them really question both the ethics of those who did it, and the technology they used to make it happen. First, it was Rock superstar, Rod Stewart, whose audience didn't think he was all that sexy, after he shared an AI-generated video of Ozzy Osbourne, who died a few weeks ago from cancer, waving a selfie stick and smiling back at a concert crowd with other dead rock stars, seemingly from the great beyond. Of course it was pure entertainment, and some fans thought it was great, but others were horrified and thought it was extremely disrespectful. Same goes for former CNN White House Correspondent, and now Independent Journalist, Jim Acosta, who did an "interview" with an AI-generated teenage victim of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. But, unlike Rod Stewart, who knew Ozzy Osbourne; Acosta never knew the victim, 17 year old Joaquin Oliver, but he did know his parents, and they asked him to do the story. But doing the story is one thing, and making it up from thin air using AI, is another. Besides being a quintessential example of "fake news"; the ethics behind doing it in the first place, are at least arguably, pretty darn questionable–at least according to the people who have been expressing outrage about it on social media and in the press this week. On the other hand, you have to consider that the boy's parents sanctioned this, and indeed, Axios Miami reports they are planning to continue to use the AI likeness of their son in their quest for stronger gun laws, mental health support, and community engagement. So, who is right, and who is wrong? If somebody is wrong, who should we blame; the people who did it, the people who created the technology that enabled them to do it, or society in general because we put up with it, or...well, I'm really not sure who else, but probably somebody.   It all reminds me of a Monkees song that was big when I was a kid called "Shades of Gray", which included the line, "Today there is no wrong or right, only shades of gray", which used to drive my parents crazy, because in their world; there were absolute rules. What was right, was right, what was wrong, was wrong, and that was just that, end of story. But that isn't just that anymore, especially when you have all these dead people just kind of spontaneously popping back up and telling us what's what, through the seemingly magical, but entirely algorithmic power of artificial intelligence. So, that's what we're getting into, on today's edition of "This Week In Tech with Jeanne Destro", with our special guest, Dr. John Huss, who is the Chair Professor of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Akron. He's been doing research into Ethics and AI, and will be presenting a paper on the topic at a big academic conference in Poland, next month.