AI, Drones, and Robots, Oh My!: This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro

Would you know the difference between an AI generated song and one by a real band, and if so; would you care? The answer this week seems to be "No" and "No", as a song entirely generated by AI is now topping the Country Digital Charts. Find out more about that, and other hot tech topics like Russian threats to the global internet, Denmark banning social media for children, a new way to increase the number of EV charging stations, and how some people are using technology to talk to God–or at least, an app that lets them think they're texting Jesus. Find out more. Listen now.

From the touch screen on your phone, to the"Popcorn" setting on your microwave; there's somebody, somewhere, who had to figure out how to make that work for you, and hopefully; how to make it work in such a way that the experience was seamless, satisfying, and really served your needs. But that doesn't happen all the time. If you've ever yelled at your computer, tried unsuccessfully to pair your phone with your car, or even tried to cancel a subscription onliine only to find out the "cancel" button doesn't work; you suspect that somebody, somewhere, is either purposely trying to rip you off, or just incompetent. Of course, neither one of those things may be true, but in the moment; you really don't care. You're just the victim of another tech gizmo that doesn't work, and all you want to do is throw it out the window. On the other hand, there are days when you are just super happy that everything is clicking along in your world, and the things you need to do your job and live your life just work. In fact, they work so well that you either don't notice them, or if they are really amazing; you tell all your friends they ought to get one too. That of course, is no accident. There is an entire field of study called "User Experience Design", or "UX", dedicated to ensuring that how you interact with a product actually works for you.  To find out more about it, I talked to Daniel Alenquer, who is the Director of Kent State's School of Visual Communication Design, where they just started offering a Bachelor of Science Degree in User Experience Design.  Listen now:

From high tech hauntings, to new tech-related jobs in Northeast Ohio, 3-D printed homes, layoffs at Amazon, and more; we've got the latest in tech stories from all over the world this week. Find out more, listen now.

This week we're doing a roundup of some of the biggest stories in tech, including this week's AWS outage, a huge cyber breach, Amazon plans to replace much of their warehouse workforce with robots, and AI threats to musicians. Listen now:

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".