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tv   ABC7 News Getting Answers  ABC  December 8, 2023 3:00pm-3:31pm PST

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today on getting answers. college presidents under scrutiny after a stunning congressional hearing. did they in fact, defend genocide and
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what kind of impact will the fallout have on the concept of free speech? meta is taking a huge leap in ai, introducing new tools today that it says will transform the way you find a restaurant, plan, a vacation or sell more products during the holiday season. but first, the new jobs report is out and there are conflicting views on whether this means our economy is on the upswing or downswing. you're watching getting answers. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us so the november jobs report came out today and it's good news or bad news depending on which news report you're reading or watching. here are the numbers from the labor department. the us labor department says the us added 190,000 new jobs. the unemployment rate is 3.7, better than october's 3.9. so why is the washington post reporting it? as the labor market slow down continues while the new york times is reporting it as us job growth continues to be
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robust? joining us live now to talk about it is julia pollock, chief economist at the hiring platform ziprecruiter. julia, thanks for joining us. >> thank you so much. >> so looking at this, did we get good news or bad news today? >> so here's the thing about these reports. they're noisy. the statistical noise in these reports is enormous. last month's report showed more than 300,000 workers were no longer being employed in the household. survey and this month showed a massive increase of over 700,000. and so if you look at those numbers from one month to the next, you will sound like a crazy person. instead said, it's good to zoom out, look at all of the indicators together and have a more holistic picture. this report was also funny because of the strikes that happened that made last month's look a lot worse than it was in this month's. a lot better. >> oh, right. because a lot more deals have been cut. people are back at work. but let's talk about what are some of those
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other indicators, because we're just looking at that 3.7% unemployment rate. we're looking at the 190,000 jobs added in november. tell us what else you're looking at that gives you an overall picture for sure. >> so the overall picture is that probably the underlying rate of job growth was around 180,000 last month and around 660,000 this month. once you account for the strikes, wage growth on a year over year basis continues to cool. zooming in on just the last quarter, wages are only growing at around 3.3. so that shows quite a lot of cooling in the labor market in the last couple of months. so, you know, this is not a bad report by any means. the unemployment rate is low, but drop growth has narrowed very substantially. we're only seeing jobs over the last five months or so. we've only seen gains really in health care, government and leisure and hospitality. >> you're getting ahead of me. i was going to ask you about that. i want to look a little closer
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at that 3.7, though. what's the historic high? what is the low? what's considered good for the economy? >> so any time you have unemployment below around 4, a wonderful things start to happen . we see participation pick up, people come in off the sidelines . we see wages grow more quickly, real wages rise. we've now hit that. we've now been under 4% for 22 months. and historically, that's been fairly rare. so that is something to celebrate. and it is likely to keep employers on their toes and make them continue having to be competitive. >> so why then does it feel so bad to so many people? right. because you hear the white house saying, hey, look at those numbers. those are good numbers. the economy is doing well. but if you talk to many americans, they're not feeling that secure. why this gap? >> so one reason is that costs have gone up 18.5% since the pandemic and wages have only
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gone up around 19. so some people are saying, hey, look, people got real wages. their wages have grown faster than inflation. yes. but before the pandemic, between 2013 and 2019, workers got used to seeing their wages rise by about 1.4, more than prices each year. they got a really significant real wage boost, and that hasn't happened. so that's one reason. another is that the labor market has slowed over the past year and it is getting a bit harder to find a job. >> can i ask you if that's especially true here in the bay area, because we're so tech heavy? yes >> yes, definitely. so. there's massive variation across the country. there are parts of the country where job growth is still very fast and where the unemployment rate is falling. and then there are others like western states where unemployment has risen recently. california is one of them. >> really. how much has tech shed in terms of jobs and do you see that turning around soon? >> sure. so tech has shrunk by about 2% over the last year, and it's not turning around yet. but
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i think the tech sector is poised for a comeback once inflation is under control and interest rates start falling. >> so what does that take for inflation to get more under control? because you did point to that as one of the real reasons why people feel poorer even if they are making a little bit more. but the cost of things you buy, that's gone up even more. so what can be done? >> well, we are actually within striking distance of the fed's 2% inflation target. many of the different measures, if you look at what's been happening in the last month or three months, are very, very close. so i think the fed will want to see that this is really a sustainable trend, that it isn't just a blip. so they'll want to see this for another few months. but then they, you know, they could soon actually start cutting rates early next year. all right. >> we'll see about that. but before i let you go, real quickly, i want to ask you, what's your best advice for job seekers? i think you mentioned that health care is one of the areas that's growing. what are
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some of the other areas and based on that, what would you advise people to do if they're in the market for a job right. >> so if you are in an industry like manufacturing or professional business services, advertising, financial services, where things have become more competitive lately, you need to understand that it's a numbers game, that if you're not getting callbacks, it's not necessarily about you. you just need to be consistent and set up a schedule, apply for a certain number of jobs every day. make sure you monitor your email alerts and new postings and apply early. >> all right. and are there things that ziprecruiter is doing to make applying like mass applying to hundreds of jobs any easier? >> yes, of course. we have a one click apply button. there are millions of jobs that you can apply to with one click. once your profile is created. so create a job seeker profile. keep it up to date. browse listings, sign up for email alerts so that you know when a job is posted that matches your skills and interests. and then apply quickly. you know, don't let the perfect be the enemy of
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the good. apply soon so that you can get your foot in the door. >> i subscribe to that principle here doing broadcast news. julia bullock thank you so much. really appreciate your time. >> thank you so much. >> coming up, presidents under pressure. next, the fallout following a congressional hearing with presidents of some of the top universities in the nation who face tough questions about anti semitism on campus. we'll dig into the complexity of the issue
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investigating anti-semitism on campus triggered by the israel hamas war. one mega donor to the university of pennsylvania has threatened to pull $100 million
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if president liz mcgill does not resign. this after her much criticized exchange with republican elise stefanik from new york. >> ms. mcgill at penn does calling for the genocide of jews violate penn's rules or code of conduct? yes or no? if the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. yes, i am asking specifically calling for the genocide of jews. does that constitute bullying or harassment? if it is directed and severe or pervasive, it is harassment. >> so the answer is yes, it is a context dependent decision. congresswoman. >> we've seen the presidents of some of our most elite universities literally unable to denounce calling for the genocide of jews as anti-semitic troc that lack of moral clarity is simply unacceptable. label even vice president kamala harris's husband, doug emhoff, has weighed in. >> now, with his criticism of
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the university leaders. so what is the repercussion then, and what is the right balance between protecting free speech and student sense of safety? joining us live now to talk about this hot issue, professor of constitutional law at uc law, san francisco, matt coles. professor coles, matt, thanks for joining us. >> pleasure to be with you. >> so it was penn, harvard and mit this time. why those particular universities? >> i have no idea really, other than perhaps those universities like most really good universities, model their code of conduct after the first amendment. and so they were looking for somebody who would give a first amendment answer to the question they were asked. >> so i want to get into that. but first, i just want to know, we heard, you know, calls for the genocide of jews being referred to in that hearing. a lot. was that happening a lot in those schools or maybe other schools recently? and if so, were they coming in the form of explicit language or phrases that are open to interpretation?
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>> you know, i don't really know the to answer that. i know that there have been you know, there have been chants that people have engaged in on college campuses that some people read as calls for genocide. and other people say they're not intended as calls for genocide, whether people explicitly called for it on any one of those three college campuses, i don't really know. okay. >> okay. okay. so now i want to direct this back to what was said at the hearing. a lot of people don't understand what the presidents were saying, that it depends on the context. like we heard in that soundbite, whether a statement calling for the genocide of jews is bullying or harassment. explain what you think they were referring to. >> sure. i mean, if you listen to the criticism of them, the criticism is, is that they didn't denounce calls for genocide of jewish people or calls for genocide of anyone, and that is a fair critique. but it's not the question they were asked. they weren't asked, do you denounce genocide? they weren't asked. as harvard and penn and mit try to teach that genocide is abhorrent and
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unacceptable. they were asked whether saying it violated their discipline code. and the first amendment is really clear on that. you can't punish somebody just for saying something because you oppose the message, no matter how repugnant or awful you think the message is. the first amendment doesn't allow that. and if you've modeled your conduct code on the first amendment, then the answer is no, not unless it turns into individually directed harassment at which point it does become bullying. and the first amendment does allow punishment. so i think the three professor was they may have been being kind of legalistic and kind of technical, but to the question they were asked, does this violate your code of conduct? i think they gave the right answer. >> do you think perhaps it's kind of a gap between the brains of academics and brains of politicians a little bit? >> oh, i think there was a very sharp political mind working here. i think the question was deliberately asked in a way to
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omit a technical first amendment answer, but in a way of asking it by talking about genocide for the jews, in a way of asking it, that would make everybody react negatively to a technically correct answer. so yeah, i think the i think the three college presidents were certainly naive. i think the person who asked the question knew exactly what she was doing. >> okay. i mean, look, what do you think they should have said or done? because cause they were pretty roundly criticized and even by those who, you know, on both sides of the issue, if you will. i hate saying that, but, you know, what should they have said that would have gotten their true message that they meant to convey across? >> well, you know, in a way, you just put it there are no two sides to genocide. genocide of anybody. genocide of any group of people. there are no two sides on that. and i think when they heard the word genocide, probably the thing to do was to say, look, the university of pennsylvania, the massachusetts institute of technology, thinks that genocide is abhorrent. we
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attempt to teach values which will make our students understand why it's abhorrent, why no civilized person would ever call for it under the first amendment, though, you can't punish somebody just for the contents of their message. i think they should have probably said something like that to deflect the criticism. but i think some of this criticism really is unfair. if you listen to the question they were asked, i think they answered it and answered it correctly. >> okay. well whether it's correct or not, you know, there's criticism and now they've had to issue apologies. the president of penn is especially under fire with the prestigious wharton school's board calling for her ouster. so here is her follow up statement. and here's part of it. >> i was not focused on, but i should have been the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate. >> all right. so, professor coles, this is kind of what you were talking about, what should
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have been said, maybe, but i want to just also show our viewers one more thing, which is after seeing all this at and the fallout leaders at other universities, rs are taking action. they're going on the record today. stanford which was not even part of the hearing, and have really not seen such high profile incidents released this statement. stanford unequivocally condemns calls for the genocide of jews or any peoples. that statement would clearly violate stanford's fundamental standard the code of conduct for all students at the university. and, of course, penn's president. her follow up message also said, we're going to reevaluate our policy. so what does this all mean? what rules might change? is that what they're saying? maybe most codes of conduct at universities call on students to behave maturely and responsibly. >> and when you say something abhorrent like that, of course you're not behaving maturely and responsibly. the different question whether that's going to subject you to some kind of punishment, which at least in one instance, was the representative's question. so i
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don't know that it's going to mean anything. it's going to change. i think that statement from stanford and the one from president mcgill were very carefully crafted to try and express the outrage that that should be any reaction to a call for genocide. while still hewing to the first amendment standards. it would be a terrible shame, i think, if our best universities walked away from the first amendment. that's a dangerous path. >> i was just going to ask you, look, if you're not jewish or a palestinian or if you're not engaged in this particular issue, how might this battle playing out still affect you? why should you care? >> well, as long as you have any kind of a controversy opinion, i think you should care if we decide that the people in charge , whether it be university administrators or whether it be the federal or the state government, i think if you have any slightly controversial opinions, you should be frightened about letting those people decide that they can punish people based on opposition to the message.
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because once we start down that road, the key to the greatness of the united states, the key to all the good things we brought to life is in danger. >> look, some have questioned whether this hearing reflects a growing sentiment against elite universities. do you think that is playing out? >> you know, i think the sentiment against elite universities is hardly new. >> it may be bubbling up a little bit now, but boy, i'm old enough to remember that sentiment from the 1960s, from the 1970s, from the 1980s, during the reagan administration. i just don't think it's a new thing. i think it bubbles up periodically and it probably bubbles up when principal comes up against an understandable emotional reaction that is, i think everyone can agree certainly what's happening. >> professor matt coles at uc san francisco, thank you so much. pleasure to talk being with you. an app you likely have on your phone right now is using
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new ai technology to help brighten your holiday. up next, we'll talk to meta, which just unveiled some new features, including one designed to help add some sparkle to your season
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generative ai tools. so how will they shape your sharing experience? joining us live now is meta spokesperson jim cullinan. jim, thanks for joining us today. >> thanks for having me, kristen. >> so what are the new generative ai tools that meta unveiled today? well we have a number of tools, both standalone and within the apps themselves, so that people who go and use our products like facebook, instagram and whatsapp, they can go and communicate with each other in a more fun way and inventive way. >> things like creating a sticker of something fun or creating an image of saying, i'm standing here in union square next to a christmas tree. fun to
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create it if you're not there or do something even more interesting on something like search to talk to our ai eyes to say where should i go in san francisco to celebrate the holidays this year? so there's different ways that people within the apps themselves that can go and find information option and share that with their friends and family who they connect with in our in our application. >> so like the ones that you're talking about, are they already embedded in the apps? like you don't need to do anything new to start using them or you don't need to like delete and reinstall or anything. >> you don't have to reinstall, but there is a there is a tool now that basically is backslash. imagine, backslash, and then what you want to go and do. so it's and that's the standalone imagine dot meta .com is the standalone tool. but if you want
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to. yes exactly. and if you wanted to go and ■do something different in there, that's great. and this is almost a little bit further along than a beta, which is go and find an image and going to do something new and unique. you can do that right there in those images that are called photorealistic. and by having those types of things is, you know, i'm as a big napa person, i do that a lot of standing in a vineyard or doing something like that because that's what i like to take photos of. but if you create it on your own, you can go share that with your friends and family. and then in the app themselves, if it's like if you're an instagram and your direct message, you can go and look and search at the at meta eyes and you can find someone like lorenzo, who's the travel expert to say, where should i go , you know, in the east bay to go find something fun tonight.
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and i and i did a, you know, a little bit of a search and found like the lights out at the oakland zoo are supposed to be a wow factor. so they told me to go there. there's a couple of big sort of light displays in livermore. go there so you can go and find things with experts and do it quickly and easily right within the app. >> got it. and i wonder, what do you think is the advantage of that versus like you can do some of that with chatgpt, right? so just an itinerary in this area or canva where you can also say, i want you to create an image of, you know, a dog with a cat and with birthday hats on. what is the advantage of it being embedded in some of these social apps we use, like facebook or instagram? >> sure. well, i think people communicate. people use our applications to communicate, connect and discover. so like just being able to go do things like communicate using images is a way people are doing it today. right that's the big, big thing
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of people sharing, whether it's a meme or an image. so if you're creating those things on the fly and say, here's, you know, here's an interesting way to communicate that point, people can do it without even having to leave the leave the app itself. the other thing i would say is that as people sort of like want to search and find things like you can find something of what are the best light displays in the bay area and you can get reels as that show in video of what those displays from a family took a picture or or you know, even the official reel you can those right there so that it's not only text based but it does have video capabilities so you can make your decision not just based on words, but on the visuals of what you will see. all right. >> real quickly, how is meta addressing concerns over the trustworthiness of ai? for example, i think in your business you call it
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hallucinations, right? like inaccurate or incorrect images? >> well, i think one, i think the images themselves were working. there's like legal and policy ways to go and say how do we go protect those? how do we go protect those images is the right way. but then we also know that there's a government need for government involvement and regulation action around ai. and we've called for that. and we believe, you know, in the bay area is creating a tremendous amount of jobs. but so we need that like the engine to keep going. but we also know government needs to be engaged in order to provide the right guard rails so that things are done legally, safely and properly be all right. >> meta spokesperson jim cullinan today on the new generative ai tools that are part of meta, including imagine. thank you so much for coming on our show. >> so thanks for having me. have a great weekend. >> you too. a reminder, you can
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area. world news tonight with david muir is next. and tonight, this major storm hitting now, then moving right into the northeast. snow, raining damaging windi the major pileup already. we have just

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