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Welcome to New Wisco Weekend. I'm Lisa Hale, your host.
We're calling this one the Popory Issue, as this week's theme is a combination of things.
Use less stuff day, useless stuff, and if artificial intelligence is the future, can it help you remain focused and safe?
Terry Bar tackles one piece of the AI puzzle, while Joanne Krulotz looks into AI scams.
Our cover story is also about the future, with a focus on the University of Wisconsin-Ashkash Chancellor Manohar Singh.
We'll learn a little bit about what motivated Singh to become an educator and an administrator.
And we'll ask him for an outlook on what he anticipates for UWO moving forward.
We have stories from Parker Olson, who tells us about a UW-Madison group and how they're working to separate bad AI from the good.
Savannah Tome Olson takes a look at the data center conversations happening throughout the state.
Amanda Nimmer has the best rant on useless stuff.
One very topical item in particular, you don't want to miss it, and all I have to say is bear with her.
Pichwaba has his classic Cinema Pick of the Week.
And a little bit later on, Melissa K gives us a great story about a protest that happened on Veterans Day.
But we begin New Wisco Weekend with the endless opportunities AI seems to offer.
The versatile tool can provide everything from personal fitness or meal planning to organizing your notes.
It's the organizing part, getting Terry Barr's attention.
And she opens up this issue of New Wisco Weekend by putting AI to the test for one very particular task.
It's hard to believe the busiest days of the holiday shopping season are just around the corner.
But did you know Black Friday and Cyber Monday have led to the creation of Use Less Stuff Day?
Environmental experts say it's in response to all the trash and clutter accumulated during the holidays.
And it isn't just about having too much, but also having things you just don't really want or that don't fit your life anymore.
So how do you get rid of those things?
Since we are focusing on artificial intelligence as part of this issue, I thought, if I can't wrap my brain around this answer, maybe AI can.
So my first question is, how do you AI describe clutter?
Clutter is the physical reminder of postponed decisions, the things we've held on to just in case.
Use Less Stuff is anything that no longer serves your home, your habits, or your happiness.
It's what fills your shelves, but not your life.
Again, that is an artificial intelligence voice answering my questions.
So next, I'm going to ask, is there a practical or simple way to look at getting rid of your clutter?
Clutter items without a clear home or purpose. Use Less Stuff. Things you haven't used, needed or loved in a year.
It's the things you step around, move from place to place, or forgot you even owned.
AI, do you have any inspiration to help me realize how good it could feel to get rid of all this stuff?
Clutter is the quiet weight of yesterday, souvenirs from habits we've outgrown.
Use Less Stuff is what hides the things that truly matter. When you clear it, you don't just make space on the shelf, you make space in your mind.
And thank you to artificial intelligence for the answers, at least I think so.
By the way, use Less Stuff Day is the Thursday before Thanksgiving on November 20th, because sometimes less is more.
I'm Terry Barr.
Terry shares there's one thing she learned through her AI experiment to tackle clutter.
It's great with structure as a tool to assist you, but it just can't replace what will still be the use of more best judgment.
Scammers can use various types of technology to fool and trick consumers, including AI.
Civic Media's Joanne Croulette has the story.
The use of artificial intelligence technology has become popular to help disguise a scammer's identity.
There are four true uses of AI technology, the first is chat box text generation.
Michelle Reinen is with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection.
Scammers that involve direct messages or social media posts may use this text generation or chat box.
Scammers use them because it allows one scammer to target many people at the same time, and the AI has made them capable of dynamic conversation.
So consumers should remember that whether they are texting, emailing, or speaking with a stranger on social media.
There is a chance there isn't even a human on the other side of this conversation.
It could likely just be a chatbot that they are engaging with.
The second true use of AI technology involves the use of images and videos.
Scammers use AI to create very convincing profile pictures or brief videos to enhance a fake social media account.
This way that reverse image search won't turn up any results, and we've talked about that being a tool that consumers can use to identify that they're engaged with a scam.
But now that they've created this new method, it makes that tool obsolete in some ways in helping with the identification.
So some scammers use the artificial intelligence to create a misleading image or video of a product they're selling online in order to make it look higher quality or more appealing than it really is.
So remember, even if a photo or video looks real, more verification is going to be required to really give you confidence and boost that it is real.
The third is used to alter an image in a video.
A deep fake is specialized technology to replace a person's face in a video with a different face, and it can be used by a scammer to trick individuals into believing they're seeing someone familiar or trustworthy.
So deep fakes have been used to copy a celebrity's likeness and endorse an online product, so think a talking head overlay, if you will.
But they can also be used to copy the face of someone that a consumer knows in real life, like a friend, a family member, a coworker, or even a boss.
So some deep fakes can even work in real-time video calls and be those talking heads where it's just that image use, no interest talking at you, but that's not who's really there generating the information.
Michelle Reinen says that the fourth type of AI technology use can make a voice sound like someone you know using voice cloning.
It takes just a few seconds of audio of a person's voice, and scammers can run it through this AI program and convert that voice to sound like the cloned voice or make that cloned voice read written text.
Here consumers need to have that awareness that an audio of a person's voice can be downloaded off social media or captured during a phone call and then used to trick friends and family members into taking action.
I mean, again, remember, it can be programmed to read a script so they can really navigate an entire conversation with just a few seconds of that original audio file.
It can be very hard to detect over a phone call, and when used in combination with a deep fake, again, that video technology where it looks like you're engaged in a video chat with someone, this can be very difficult to identify in additional verification will be needed for consumers.
If you suspect or are a victim of a scam using AI, you can contact that cap's consumer protection hotline by phone at 1-800-422-7128 or by email at datcphotline at wi.gov.
I'm Joanne Krulats.
You know, we're about 10 days away from Thanksgiving, but the holiday shopping fever has already struck, and for some, it's unbearable.
Here's our commentator, Amanda Nimmer.
Our lovely leader, Lisa, has made this week's theme useless things, plus AI.
I'm assuming non-related, but useless things.
And you know what, it got me thinking of something that's just completely unbearable.
That damn Starbucks bear cup.
Oh my, please.
Like, when you think of something useless, it's gotta be this bear cup.
And the absolute frenzy that surrounded it.
First of all, yeah, I get it.
That's cute.
Cool.
But it doesn't fit in your cup holder.
Which means if you're driving with your drink, which by the way has to be cold, it's glass.
You cannot have a hot beverage in there.
If you're driving around with your drink, you have to hold it in your lap.
Or buckle it into the seat next to you.
Make it a small child, hold it.
I don't know.
Also, it's glass.
So careful holding this odd-shaped bear cup.
And have you actually, like, looked at it?
Like, the liquid goes into, like, the ears.
It's gonna be really hard to clean.
Odds are what's gonna happen, okay?
As people got these cups, right?
You're gonna use it one, two times max.
I'd say 10 absolutely tops.
If there's like a real dedication to it, maybe 10 times tops.
Otherwise, it's going to sit awkwardly in your cabinet unused.
Completely unused.
And the frenzy, the frenzy over this cup, has four Starbucks to issue in apology,
a gasoline apology, by the way, claiming that the excitement for this berry-stick cup exceeded even their biggest expectations.
They claimed that they sent more of these cups to their coffee house chains and stores than any other merchandise for the holiday season,
despite stores coming out saying that they never even received a shipment.
People got up at 4 a.m.
This is old school Black Friday style, by the way, because Black Friday isn't the way that used to be,
where people wake up at the butt crack of dawn and stand in line freezing cold for hours to fight over $3 DVDs.
No, no, it's not that way anymore, but about this cup.
People woke up at 4 a.m.
drove to locations, perhaps an hour or so away from them, so that they could get said cup that was barely even in stock.
Pun intended.
And there was no limit, so people who did go to these stores to get these cups, right?
They would hoard them.
They hoarded these cups, in droves, and are now reselling them at a higher price, because there was no one per limit.
So you get a wake apology from Starbucks over a bear cup.
A completely non-practical cup that, while adorable, is still useless.
You might as well just store them right next to those fancy china plates that all your boomer parents have that are for the good company only.
And they never take them out, but you know one day you're gonna inherit those ugly freaking plates.
That are now instilled in your mind are completely unusable unless you have good company, good being not defined, by the way, because the plates were never taken out.
The good china, the fancy silverware, useless stuff that just sits there.
But you know what, I guess, when it comes down to it, if it makes you happy, have at it.
Who am I to say that you can't?
No one, I'm no one, I'm just the voice on the radio, that you might not even be paying attention to right now.
So go ahead, get your weird, fancy little bear cup that you paid way too much money for.
Go ahead and get the fancy dishware for the good company.
Go ahead and buy those white pair of Nike or Dita shoes that have to remain in pristine condition.
Because in the words of my 18 year old nephew, oh no, you can't have creases in them.
You can't have creases in them. They have to remain pristine white.
Then what's the point? It's a shoe. It's meant to be worn.
I just, you know what, whatever. It makes you happy, have at it.
If that's the ounce of happiness that you need to get through your day, because of the world we live in right now,
I guess you shouldn't be denied.
From New Mexico again, I'm Amanda Numer, and there you go.
There's more still ahead, including our cover story with Menor Singh of UWO.
And a new study reveals the top 100 US cities considered AI friendly.
The survey by SuperSide shows the highest level of use at work and home happening in New York,
followed by Atlanta. Milwaukee comes in at number 59 for the use of AI.
Madison is 66 out of 100. Wisconsin overall is listed as the 48th out of 50 states to be least prepared for the use of AI technology.
This is NewWesco Weekend.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
This is NewWesco Weekend. I'm Lisa Hale, your host.
In a moment, we have a story on caps that are being set on utilities.
But first, we've got Peach Wabba's Classic Movie Pick of the Week.
NewWesco Weekend presents Peach Wabba's Classic Movie Pick of the Week.
Sticking with this week's theme of AI, my classic pick takes us back to an early edition of Artificial Intelligence.
I'm not going all the way back to 1927's Metropolis, but I will go back to 1984's The Terminator.
A film that predicted AI would eventually take over the world 41 years ago.
It hasn't quite happened yet, but the movie does seem like a harbinger.
If you haven't seen this iconic early Arnold Schwarzenegger film about an assassin cyborg who travels to the past to kill the woman responsible for giving birth to the man,
who would basically defeat AI and save the world, well pop up some popcorn and get your looking balls ready to be dazzled.
The Terminator has a creepy feel to it due in part to the cinematography and the fact that it was shot at night.
And the nighativity of unassuming Angelinos who go about their life not knowing that an AI killing machine is walking amongst them.
Very few of them find out what kind of monster the future has sent, except for those who get pulled into the middle.
Linda Hamilton plays Sarah Connor, a waitress and mom to be of John Connor, who squares off against AI in the future.
I mean let's be honest, if you could send someone back in time to wipe out a problem, wouldn't you?
Michael Bean plays Kyle Reese, the human resistance fighter John Connor sends to protect his mother Sarah, who does her best to comprehend what is happening.
Alright listen, the Terminator is an infiltration unit, part man, part machine.
Underneath it's a hyper ally combat chassis, microprocessor control, fully armored, very tough, but outside it's living human tissue, flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs.
Look Reese, I don't know what you want.
Reese is overmatched against the Terminator, but he's crafty and does his best to keep Sarah alive.
Just an aside about cast, it seems like every week Bill Paxton pops up in my classic movie picks with a bit part.
You can see him in this film as one of the first to stand up to the Terminator. It does not go well for Billy P.
The Terminator was directed by Hollywood legend James Cameron. This was not Cameron's first time in the director's chair, but it did put him on the map.
Cameron had made his directorial debut with 1982's Piranha II, the Spawning. The film received a 5% critics reception on Rotten Tomatoes and a 13% audience score.
Part of believe such a successful director whose films have gone on to make billions could have been part of such a fiasco.
In Cameron's defense, the producer fired him and made his own cut. Cameron spent years trying to get his name taken off of Piranha II and considers the Terminator to be his feature film directorial debut.
You might ask how did Cameron come up with this idea in 1984 before AI was on our radars. He can thank the aforementioned Piranha II, the Spawning.
After he had been replaced as director, Cameron used his own money to travel to Rome hoping to be involved with post-production on the film.
While there, he got sick and went to bed with a high fever one night and dreamed of a metal endoskeleton emerging from flames while holding kitchen knives.
The director immediately sat down and made a drawing of his vision. He wrote a script working backwards. Cameron knew that if the film ever got made and he was allowed to direct it, it would not have an extravagant budget that would allow him to shoot something futuristic.
So he did what great artists do. He got creative and decided to bring the future to the present, thereby saving millions of dollars on a budget he knew he could never get.
Most people consider Terminator 2, where Schwarzenegger is the good guy, a much better movie than the original. But the Terminator was so unique and original at the time, it would definitely get the nod in my opinion as the better film.
The original also includes the iconic line, I'll be back.
Enjoy this absolute thriller of a classic. Why not make it a double feature and rent Terminator 2 and decide for yourself, which is the better movie.
James Cameron's the Terminator from 1984 is this week's classic pick. For more movie and entertainment talk, join me weeknight from 6 to 8 p.m. for Nightlight here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
For New Whisky Weekend, I'm Peach Wobb.
Democrats are introducing a bill that would limit utility costs for Wisconsinites. Savannah Tomay Olsen has that story.
One in four Americans struggles to pay their electric bill, according to data from the U.S. Census.
And the Bureau of Labor Statistics says energy prices have jumped by 40% just in the last five years.
In Wisconsin, residential energy customers are paying about 30% more than they did in 2020. That leads some families to make hard choices, like Jill Sexton and her husband, who live in Warsaw.
Our house is heated by gas, and we're on a fixed income. We're doing everything we can, yet we still cannot keep up.
I ended up taking a part-time job specifically to cover the increase in our electric and heating bills.
Not in. Here's our reality. Each month we choose between paying the electric bill and heat bill or filling our prescriptions.
I don't buy them medication.
Some months we stretch food until the very last day. We're enrolled in the LIF program, and that's the utilities.
Income-qualified bill assistance program that offers monthly credits and sometimes,
forgive us of past due balances for customers under a set income threshold.
Even with LIF, we still struggle because the base bills keep rising.
Maria Beltrend lives in Milwaukee.
I am a mother of seven grandmother of seven. When I was raising my babies, our heat and electric was always shut off.
I remember all slept in one bedroom. On my mattress on the floor, pallets were made to stay warm. My children would say, Mommy, I can see my breath, making it a contest of who blew the biggest cloud to not think about the cold.
The representative Darren Madison is from Milwaukee. He's introducing a bill that would require Wisconsin's Public Service Commission create a program that limits utility cost to 2% of a household's income.
When fully phased in, the 2% income payment program will be a fully universal and automatic program, making it so that no one ever has to pay more than 2% of their income on utilities again.
From November 1st to April 15th, utility companies cannot shut off someone's electricity if they're behind on payments.
That's been Wisconsin law since 1984. But once April 15th hits, people have higher bills to pay and can have their power shut off.
The low income heating and electricity assistance program or LIHEAP distributes funding to states to help low income households afford their utility bills.
Back in April, the Trump administration fired the entire national staff of LIHEAP, so now its future is in jeopardy.
Even before employees were fired, only 17% of families who qualify for LIHEAP help actually got it.
Advocates say enrollment is complicated, but under this bill, the 2% utility cap would be automatic for families.
However, this bill would need Republican support to go up for a vote and pass, which is unlikely in this state legislature.
I'm Savannah Tomay Olson.
Coming up on New Wisco Weekend, our cover story, UW-Ashkosh and Chancellor Manohar Singh.
This is New Wisco Weekend. I'm your host Lisa Hale.
A little over three months ago, the University of Wisconsin-Ashkosh got a brand new chancellor.
He's Manohar Singh, and I had the opportunity to sit down, talk to him, and find out a little bit about Chancellor Singh,
where he's from, what he's done, and his thoughts for the future of UW-O.
Oh, this will be my 116th day today.
116th day, you're counting my days!
Because they're so exciting, every day is a beautiful day, and I know how blessed I am to be able to count in my chest of treasures.
Coming in as the new chancellor for UW-O, I know that we'll talk a little bit about what you see as the future for the University,
but I want to introduce you to the community, so to speak.
So, tell me a little bit about Manohar.
I want to know about you. Where do you come from?
Well, I am a wanderer with the purpose, and the purpose is to spread the joy of discovery and knowledge and education through being an educator myself.
I am a first-generation college student, so I understand the impact that education can have on our lives, and also on the lives of our communities.
The parents were refugees from Pakistan when in 1947 they divided the country, and we as six came to India in 1947.
I was born in 1965, so I did not go through that trauma, but my mom and dad did, and we were seven brothers.
And mom and dad made sure that we go to school, naked, hungry, or cold, and get our education.
And the most beautiful ending of this story of my life is that out of the seven brothers, two of them just retired as Supreme Court Justices in Indian States,
I am a chancellor of a university in the best nation in the world.
Three other brothers of mine were just marvelous, successful conscientious leaders in their own fields back in India.
And thanks to mom and thanks to dad sacrifices and thanks to education.
I think I am the very core of my representing a student, and then representing an educator.
And that's my personality, and I am very proud to be in this calling of mine to teach and to be educators.
When you started your career as an educator, did you start as wanting to educate at the college level?
I did actually, I recall when I was in my first year of honors school in India, in Punjab, one of the topics was presentation to our professor in the classroom.
And at the end of the presentation, he said, your presentation was a very long manner, but I do see a very successful professor in you.
Then I asked my mom, and then she said to me, let me check on your elementary school things.
And then she was able to see a documentary about third or fourth grade in which they just had surveys as to what you want to do.
I didn't even know probably at that time what professors do. I just said professor.
And that's what I have done for the last 30 years. And right now, as a chancellor, I also had the privilege of being a full professor of finance.
When did you start developing your love for administration on the administration level? I mean, being a professor of finance, I know you love that.
But administrating is a little bit of a different animal.
It is. It is. And I'm blessed to be able to, I want to believe that I'm little creative.
And I'm born Libra and Libras are known to be little creative and little, little out of the box thinkers, if you've heard.
And in extreme cases, little crazy, if you were in the thought processes, limitless.
And I think when you learn economics and you learn business and finance and you have a creative mind, you become entrepreneurial.
And that streak of entrepreneurship was in higher education, lacking in some institutions. And my chancellor looked at me and said, Manohar, you can help us solve this problem.
And that was in 2013, they wanted me to serve as a coordinator of their business program to build some enrollment and to bring some financial stability.
That was at Penn State, Abington campus. And that was an encouraging sign. And we did work there for two years. And that really was my first foray into administration. And I just loved it.
Then the chancellor at Connecticut State University Systems looked at my record and said, Manohar, would you want to lead Western Connecticut State University as the president?
Well, I had never thought dreaming in India when I was begging my mom to let me go to the US. And we were not very rich. It was a struggle.
But at that time, I just wanted a Mercedes. That was my dream. That's it. And then I connected the dot with my professor's word that you can be a professor.
I knew that PhD stuff, but it will give me the opportunity to go and realize my Mercedes dream. I wanted to live in air conditioned home that has carpets.
And you know, that's the American dream. It is.
And I think I have lived my American dream from the day I landed in Southern Illinois, Carbondale, very proud alum of Southern Illinois, Slookies.
But it is limitless for a person with me who is from India, first generation. I veer my entire, my turbine, and all, all visible signs of not being from the US,
but still being hardcore American in my values and my work ethics in my love for democracy in my being America, being the, being the beacon of hope and political awareness and strength and economic prosperity.
I think as an administrator, I have found my calling at Western Connecticut State University when I saw what my creativity can do for the next generations, how many other more people can we bring into our fold, just like I was brought into a fold.
And here at Oshkosh, the biggest attraction for this job was that 40 plus percentage of students is first generation and pelagrant eligible.
So here I am not only living the dream for me, but also hopefully contributing to the next generations and to the nation that I chose to be my motherland.
Let's look at UWO, what brought you to of all places, Oshkosh, Wisconsin?
Well, my love affair, I have called it with the American dream started in Southern Illinois, Carbondale.
And the fascinating part was just like we talk about first love, first love was Midwest, and I cannot forget the drive from St. Louis to Carbondale.
St. Louis by the airport where I landed, it was 12 o'clock at night, I had a two-year-old boy in my lap and my wife, and the shuttle brought us to Southern Illinois Carbondale.
The people that I met in the very first 10 minutes just stole my heart, and I fell in love with people in Midwest.
And an Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as soon as they came on surface with the job opening, the search firm reached out to me and I said, Oshkosh it is, and I had a feeling, at least I am a very god centric person.
And the interview happened, my belief in the beauty and my love for the human beauty of Midwesterners just propped up.
And I said, I'm going to do whatever it takes to get the job, and I was blessed, I was fortunate thanks to people who are interviewing me, and here I am.
So you're now here at UWO, you've been here for, as you said, 116 days, what are you seeing as the things that you want to do, the marks you want to make on the university?
Yeah, I would consider myself successful in my calling, and rising up to my own expectations if I can bring financial stability to the institution which over the last few years has suffered significantly 18.5 million dollar deficit is the most recent one.
But good news is that this year we are balancing budget.
Next year's projections are balancing budget.
Good. Financial stability is driven by enrollment and tuition revenue on one hand, and then how prudently are we using our economic resources?
So we have found significant amount of economic efficiencies and costs are being contained very effectively, and that's where you will see that we are able to balance the budget.
But at the same time, cutting is not a solution for good. So we need a sustainable growth of revenue, and that's where the enrollments are building.
And when we talk about building enrollments, so we have stabilized that University of Wisconsin, Ashkosh, we are building upon budget enrollment as I would want to highlight 17% increase in the incoming class.
There's students are up about 4% honors class in the three years continues to grow up in size.
And then we are expanding a lot more into new program territories, especially on engineering and artificial intelligence and most advanced technological health care and education.
And then at the same time, the graduate and focus would be on international enrollments retaining the students that we recruit.
And that process requires a very coordinated systematic strategic action plan, and which we are not only building upon for the next four years or so, we would be following a very collaboratively designed vision for where the University needs to be.
The biggest one is maintaining the growth and enrollment will be having a new strategic marketing plan, new geographic areas that will be expanding, new programs in academic areas responding to the workforce needs, responding to the talent needs of our local businesses.
The major things I think I will consider myself successful only if I'm able to achieve that and that is bringing the University to the doors of the community.
I want to be the one who would bring my faculty, my staff, my colleagues to rural farmland and work with farmers, work with dairy farmers to help them increase the productivity of their work.
So that we bring three things to the rural and remote communities in Wisconsin. One is schools, education, and I understand remote areas, we need to be more present there, bringing technology, Wi-Fi so that if there is remote work, remote education possibility, we should be able to.
So that will be my second, so schools, strong Wi-Fi connectivity, and then health care. My faculty, my colleagues, my nurses, my students will want to go and provide those services to the areas that are remote.
Is there anything you'd like to add that we haven't talked about?
Well, I just want to highlight that Oshkosh is a very beautiful community and it takes a village.
All these people are so invested in the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh that I only see us going upwards and onwards and I have no plans to move anywhere.
This probably is where I would want to call myself as my home. Thank you. I wanted to make sure that I thank you for putting my voice in the larger public.
Lisa, you're doing a divine work because you are giving voice to those who may not otherwise get a chance to be heard.
Number one, and I am that voice on behalf of my students. They want nothing more than a peaceful life, a life of dignity and pride, a life that they can say that they were relevant to the community and they contributed.
A life that they can live free of worries whether they are economic or political and that is my request to all of you that please keep helping our students as you have always kindly been doing this as a community.
We are awesome here as a community. The village is beautiful and I stand here as a chancellor with the deep gratitude forever.
Chancellor Manohar Singh of UW Oshkosh, thank you very much.
Thank you so much for having me.
Normally our next segment would be all about some music, but this week we have even more feature stories for you. On AI, data centers and a Veterans Day protest.
This is NewWisco Weekend.
You're listening to Civic Media. Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
This is NewWisco Weekend and I'm Lisa Hale. We don't have a music feature in this issue. Instead, we've got more about AI and the Veterans Day protest for you.
A pair of students at UW-Madison are working to create a product that uses AI to detect and take down AI impersonations and deep fake content. Civic Media's Parker Olson has more.
SmartShot and Tennis Jawahar are undergraduates at UW-Madison. They founded Red 11 Labs, a service that uses artificial intelligence to combat digital disinformation.
The company's goal is to identify and combat deepfakes, those highly convincing photos or recordings that depict things that aren't real or situations that didn't happen.
Shasa's their product addresses an area of AI that is largely untapped.
There's a lot of money on the side of AI, creating things and developing things in general, but nothing is really there in a security side as such.
Nobody's out there to protect yourself or anything that is being generated, and that's what we see a gap in this market for. Nobody's there to say, hey, this is illegal.
Hey, this is a defamatory and some capacitive. So that's what we're doing.
Red 11 Labs helps prove that those deepfakes online aren't real and they help their clients get it taken offline.
They make an evidence bundle of all the proof that something isn't real and submitted to social media platforms for removal.
The bundle points to proof like metadata or visual clues. They say it's cheaper and more efficient than doing it through lawyers.
Right now, they're focusing on high net worth clients and hoping that down the road their service can be more accessible.
Their unauthorized content is often used in cyberbullying or sex torsion cases. Red 11 Labs is fighting against online trolls.
Actually, one of one of our competitions last month in Chicago.
When we were pitching this, a person came up to us and told, you know, I would love to see this five years ago because I just had a friend at high school who took his own life because of someone some troll releasing such pictures on him on the web.
Shaw and Jawahara competing in an event hosted by the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce this week.
It's like Shark Tank and features local entrepreneurs. If Red 11 Labs wins, Shaw and Jawahara will get a trip to San Francisco where they'll have an opportunity to pitch their idea to more investors.
For Civic Media News, I'm Parker Olson.
Wisconsin lawmakers are talking about data centers. Projects are proposed and some are moving forward across the state.
Here's Civic Media's Savannah Tome Olson.
Microsoft is building one in Mount Pleasant, AI company Vantage is putting one in Port Washington.
QTS is proposing a data center in DeForest while Jamesville City leaders are considering one at the old GM plant.
Last week, the Assembly Committee on Science, Technology and AI held an informational hearing on data centers.
One of the biggest criticisms of these projects is just how much power they use.
Chelsea Chandler is the Climate Energy and Air Program Director for Clean Wisconsin.
Currently, we only have information from two large data center projects on their potential energy use.
Those two projects, the Microsoft data center in Mount Pleasant and the Vantage data center in Port Washington,
will require a combined 3.9 gigawatts of electric power.
According to our analysis, that is enough energy to power 4.3 million Wisconsin homes.
Kalim Manahan is the Director of Public Policy for Vantage, the company behind the data center in Port Washington.
She says they'll be paying their fair share for power.
So we energy has designed a really innovative tariff structure that ensures that the new large loads will pay the full cost to serve them through the VLC, the very large customer tariff and Vantage is very supportive of that tariff structure.
Cory Singletary is the Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Citizens Utility Board.
He says because there's not much regulation, companies are trying to build these data centers as fast as possible before laws catch up.
Speed to market is a primary, if not the primary consideration of data center developers.
It may be natural then for this committee, the Wisconsin legislature, and perhaps the commission to consider whether and how to bridge this speed gap.
Some in the legislature are already working to help the laws catch up.
Democratic State Senator Jodi Habesonikin from Whitefish Bay authored a bill she says creates guard rails for data centers in Wisconsin.
Her plan would require prevailing wages for workers and require they use 70% renewable energy at data centers.
The bill also aims to increase transparency on their water and energy use.
I'm Savannah Tomay Olsen.
This story is a little off topic today, but I really wanted to include it here on New Wisco Weekend.
Civic Media's Melissa K covered a protest that happened on Veterans Day.
Dozens gathered on a busy corner in Wisconsin Rapids for a protest on Veterans Day.
The protest included veterans like Richard Bartosh, who served in the Marine Corps in South Vietnam.
He held a sign reading Democracy Yes, Fascism No.
Yeah, I think it's a real appropriate time to emphasize the importance of affirming veterans and affirming the importance of a democracy in this country.
So I'm glad to be here.
Michael Kinney also served in the Marine Corps.
When we took that oath, it was for the Constitution. It was not for wannabe dictators.
Liz McDonald came out to protest with several of her siblings.
We made a sign from my dad. We've got his picture from World War II on there.
And our sign said, our dad was Antifa and so are we.
Because people need to realize that Antifa really means anti-fascists.
And that's who they were fighting in World War II, and that's who we're trying to fight against right now.
So that's why I'm here.
Galey Warner has multiple veterans in her family.
She said it's disrespectful to see rights taken away when men and women have died for them.
I'm watching the VA being downgraded.
I'm watching my husband having to spend more and more time waiting to get services.
My son, coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, is having to fight harder for services.
Warner said she believes in the USA.
I support our country. I think most people agree that we want it to be better.
We need to come together, all of us.
We've been lied to. We need to stand up to it and say no more.
I'm Melissa Kay, and you're listening to Civic Media News.
Thank you for being a part of New Wisco Weekend.
Your look at a popery of things.
I use less things, useless things, and UWO Chancellor Manohar Singh.
New Wisco Weekend is written by Terry Barr and Lisa Hale, directed and produced by Lisa Hale.
Our lead correspondence is Terry Barr with features from Savannah, Tomay Olsen, Joanne Krulotz, Parker Olsen, Melissa Kay, Pete Schwabba, and commentator Amanda Nimmer.
If you have a story you'd like to hear covered, please feel free to email us any time.
My email address is Lisa.Hale at civicmedia.us.
I'm Civic Media Northeast Wisconsin Bureau Chief Lisa Hale.
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