john: tonight on "pbs news weekend," israeli hostages and palestinian prisoners are freed in the latest steps forward for the gaza ceasefire, while israel's truce in lebanon appears to be in doubt. then, an ai transcription tool used in hospitals that makes up text, including imaginary medical procedures and even content that's racist. >> if you have an ai tool that is just kind of fabricating

racial content, you do have to wonder how that could possibly add to some of the racial disparities that we've seen historically in health care settings. john: and the 11th hour biden administration move to erase medical debt from millions of americans' credit reports. ♪ >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- >> friends set out to make wireless coverage accessible to all, with no long-term contracts, nationwide coverage and 100% u.s.-based customer support. consumer cellular, freedom calls. ♪

>> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. john: good evening, i'm john yang. jubilation in both israel and gaza today as hostages and palestinian prisoners were freed in the latest advance for the fragile israeli-hamas ceasefire. in gaza city, there was a highly choreographed transfer of four young female israeli soldiers from their hamas captors to the red cross. later, at a hospital in israel, they were reunited with their

families. there were similar reunions in gaza and the west bank for 200 freed palestinian prisoners. fifteen months of war meant many had no homes to return to. a threat to the truce arose today when hamas didn't release a female civilian hostage it said it would. in response israel said it would not allow displaced residents to return to northern gaza, as it had agreed to. meanwhile, on israeli's northern front, israel said it would keep troops in lebanon beyond this weekend's deadline to withdraw as part of the ceasefire with hezbollah. they say hezbollah and lebanon haven't kept their side of the deal. special correspondent simona folytyn is in lebanon. simona: in the ruins, hezbollah's flag still flies i, despite the station in the south, the role of -- the war with israel is considered a victory. bread is distributed to

celebrate and to honor the sacrifice. this ardent supporter of hezbollah, the resistance, as it is called here, is holding a picture of the leader, killed in an israeli strike last september. >> the damage will be compensated. that is a loss. may god protect us, we won, if it was not for them, we would not be here. simona: it is undeniable that hezbollah's heartland has been hit hard. there is a field that israel has not just targeted the fighters but punishing supporters, as well. much of the historic market is no more. in the burned-out shell that was once a shop -- >> i put a lot of effort into the shop. it was distinguished by its looking character. simona: in the words, hezbollah

was supposed to be the support front to help hamas, but it turned into a major battleground , a miscalculation that cost lebanon dearly. this is the only one of mohammed's four shop standing. still, he is careful to criticize hezbollah. >> we were surprised when the front moved. they called it a civil front. but, i mean, we would have been better off without it because in the end, the front came to us. maybe this destruction would not have happened, maybe, or maybe the israelis would have finished gaza and then come here. simona: the market was also damaged in the 2006 war, back then, he took out financial support from hezbollah. the group promised financial stabilization, but he has yet to receive it. >> we did not know anything

until now. they say that hezbollah and the state will compensate, but until now, nothing is clear. simona: by chance, we ran into the environment minister touring the city, and is also responsible for government response. >> what we see here, the town town, the main city of this district, you see this is all commercial, this is also billion. this is clearly an urban xi -- this is all civilian. this is clearly an urban side. the attack and other parts of lebanon was clearly an attack on civilians, an attack on everything. simona: more than 100,000 houses have been destroyed across lebanon. the israeli army continues demolitions in the areas it still occupies. >> the level of destruction by israeli forces and the firepower used was unprecedented for a

country that has been through wars. this was really unprecedented. simona: this is what towns and villages across southern lebanon look like, but despite widespread damage, hezbollah has portrayed itself as the victor of the war. now, even here in lebanon's south, where hezbollah enjoys widespread support, not everybody agrees. people do not there to criticize them on camera. i spoke to one shop owner who said this war has been a huge loss for lebanon and that hezbollah has been weakened, not just militarily, but also politically. >> the election of lebanon's new president earlier this month is a sign of shifting political winds. the former army commander was favored by the united states and had long been opposed by hezbollah. his appointment ended two years of political stalemate and ensured hezbollah's influence has diminished.

he pledged to limit the cease-fire deal with israel and to ensure that hezbollah is replaced as the dominant arm doctor. >> i will make sure that the country will carry weapons. simona: the remark was met with applause, but hezbollah has resisted. the bigger challenge may be to force the idea to withdraw from southern lebanon, in line with a deal, and then there is the human cost of the war. it continues to rise, despite the cease-fire. since october 2023, israel attacks and lebanon have killed more than 4000, according to lebanon's ministry of health, including hundreds of children. many more have been left with life changing injuries. in a hospital in the eastern valley, i met a seven-year-old who survived an israeli strike, but she suffered brain damage.

she cannot see, hear, speak, or walk. >> she was playing with her cousins when the bomb hit. her cousin lost an arm. all the children were affected, but none like her. look at her. my daughter was very beautiful, very cute, very smart. simona: she was her parents only child. this was her life before the war, doing cartwheels like an ordinary child anywhere else in the world. whether or not the cease-fire holds, her life will never be the same. her father blames the united states. >> america is the mother of terrorism, in lebanon and gaza. they are bombing us with american weapons. i will tell you something, whether muslims, christians or jews, we all believe in the afterlife and will get are just as. simona: one night, they gathered

to commemorate the fallen leader. resistance against israel is deeply framed in this community's dna. >> the way we rebuilt in 2006, we will rebuild again. we are committed to this path more than we were before. simona: the mother of a fallen hezbollah fighter, a price she is willing to pay again. >> i raised my son on this road, and i will raise my grandson the same way. i will pass on the teachings. simona: the latest war between hezbollah and israel may not be the last. ♪ john: in the day's other news,

pete hegseth was sworn in as defense secretary. vice president j.d. vance administered the oath of office hours after casting the dramatic tie-breaking senate vote to confirm hegseth. three republicans voted against him, including former majority leader mitch mcconnell. today, hegseth thanked the vice president. >> we look forward to having the backs of our troops and having your back in executing peace through strength, in putting america first. uh, and in rebuilding our military. uh, mr. vice president, thank you for breaking the tie. [laughter] john: president trump's cabinet continues to take shape. today, the senate confirmed kristi noem as homeland security secretary. the vote was 59 to 34. the former south dakota governor said her top priority is border security and immigration enforcement. several news outlets are reporting that president trump has fired more than a dozen inspectors general at nearly every cabinet-level agency. it caps a first week in office

in which mr. trump has taken a series of steps to reshape the federal government, including removing officials he sees as unfriendly to his agenda. inspectors general are presidential appointees intended to be independent watchdogs to help prevent mismanagement and abuse of power. under the law, removing one of them requires 30-days advance notice to congress. and there's a new american champion down under. madison keys won her first grand slam title at the australian open, beating the top-ranked player in the world, aryna sabalenka. at 29, keys is one of the oldest women to become a first-time champion. sabalenka had won the last two australian opens. after the match, she smashed her racket in frustration. still to come on "pbs news weekend," an ai transcription tool used by many hospitals that makes things up. and, the effect of removing medical debt from the credits scores of millions of americans.

>> this is "pbs news weekend," from david m. rubenstein studios in washington, home of the pbs newshour, weeknights on pbs. john: as artificial intelligence increasingly becomes part of daily life, both its benefits and its pitfalls are becoming apparent. take medical centers. many of them use an ai powered tool called whisper to transcribe patients interactions with their doctors researchers , but have found that it sometimes invents text. it's what's known in the industry as hallucinations. that raises the possibility of errors like misdiagnoses. garance burke is an associated press global investigative reporter who's been looking into

this. i first want to give folks an example of what researchers found. here's what a speaker said. simple sentence. and after she got the telephone, he began to pray. but here is what is transcribed. then he would, in addition to make sure i didn't catch a cold, he would help me get my shirt, and i was he began to to pray. now, what sorts of other hallucinations have been found? garance burke: yeah. so in talking with more than a dozen engineers and academic researchers, my co reporter helga shaman and i found that this particular ai powered transcription tool makes things up that can include racial commentary, sometimes even violent rhetoric, and, of course, what we're talking about here, you know, incorrect words regarding medical diagnoses. so that obvious leads to a lot of concerns about its use, particularly in really sensitive settings like in hospitals. john: we asked openai about this, and here's what they told us. they said, we take this issue seriously and are continually working to improve the accuracy

of our models, including reducing hallucinations. for whisper, our usage policies prohibit use in certain high stakes decision making contexts, and our model card for open source use includes recommendations against use in high risk domains. given those warnings, why do so many medical centers use this? garance burke: you know, i think we're at a time when a lot of health care systems are looking to ai and ai agents to do things that human beings do more efficiently and at scale. there's a lot of talk about the promise for ai to help unlock new kinds of diagnoses in electronic healthcare records that haven't been possible before. but here's really the concern is that if these a.i. models are not up to the task of the very kind of precise and specific language that is used to analyze these kinds of electronic health records, we could end up with some really problematic transcriptions that have nothing

to do with what a patient actually told the doctor. john: in health care settings, did you find any places that checked the accuracy of these transcriptions? garance burke: you know, there are some places that have adopted openai's whisper model and really sought to finetune it and then keep the original audio, say, of what the doctor discussed with the patient so they can fact check that original recording against whatever the ai model wrote down as having been said. but we did find one company that just threw out the original audio, which obviously, you know, could raise some real red flags if what the ai said transpired is really the only record that exists. john: is there any government regulation of this or the possibility of government regulation? garance burke: there has not been real rigorous regulation of

this kind of use of ai powered transcription models. what we're seeing is that, you know, health care systems that are themselves really took note of our reporting and started asking a lot of questions about whether their use of this a.i. model was the best way to go forward. so i think we may see a certain amount of self-regulation and we'll see what happens under the new trump administration. john: you mentioned that it sometimes adds racial commentary. is there any effect or potential effect on the equity issues in medicine? garance burke: well, i think, you know, one of the issues that we ran across here is this amoral, just inserting the word black in a transcription that some of the researchers analyzed. so if you have an ai tool that is just kind of fabricating racial content, you do have to wonder how that could possibly add to some of the racial disparities that we've seen historically in health care

settings. john: is there anything patients can do to protect themselves? garance burke: you know, we spoke to one person who said that she decided to opt out of having her daughter's doctor's visit recorded simply because she had concerns about the privacy of their family's intimate medical history being shared with a big tech company. so i think there are some opt out provisions that patients can look into. i do know that a lot of these models are being fine tuned by hospitals and health care systems that really do have patients' well-being in mind. but as with everything involving a.i., it's a good opportunity for patients to check in as to how their data is being used and who actually ends up with ownership of it. john: garance burke of the associated press, thank you very much. garance burke: thanks so much for having me. ♪

john: the sky-high cost of healthcare is one of the leading reasons for consumer debt in this country more than 100 million americans are burdened with medical bills they can't pay. in the final weeks of the biden administration, the consumer financial protection bureau or cfpb issued new rules banning credit agencies from including medical debt on credit reports. they're set to take effect in mid-march. ali rogin discussed what this new protection will mean for people carrying medical debt with noam levey, a senior correspondent with kff health news. ali: tell us what kind of medical data is about credit reports.

>> it may get sent to collections, but only some medical bills get reported on people's credit scores. it really depends on what the hospital or with the doctor does, but for consumers, for patients, you may not know when you go to a hospital how much jeopardy you are really in. ali: now the new rule will eliminate that. tell us how it works. noam: about 50 million people still have some kind of medical debt on their credit score. and with this regulation will do is force the credit reporting agencies to remove those bills, and people will no longer have any medical debton their credit report, and it will also prohibit lenders from considering unpaid medical bills as they make decisions about whether or not to extend somebody's mortgage. ali: is this going to have a retroactive effect? noam: effectively, he asked because if you have a medical bill, it will go away. there is a tricky part in the sense that if you put a medical bill on a credit card, or if you

have taken out to some other kind of loan, and we know people are doing this a lot, that is still going to show up on your credit score as like credit card debt. ali: to what extent does medical debt attend to indicate -- tend to indicate whether someone is credit worthy or not? noam: this was on of the main reasons why the bureau said they wanted to put this regulation in place. the reason for having d ings on the credit report is to say, well, this person is behind on their credit card, maybe it is not good to extend their mortgage. but when the cfpb looked at this, they said, people not paying their medical bills is not a good indicator of what kind of risk they may be for lending. it should be pointed out that the books challenging this role and the credit reporting industry, as well as the collections industry, are actually suing to stop this regulation and have argued, among other things, that that

analysis is flawed. i'm sure there will be a lot of debates in the courts coming up about whether or not in fact that passes. ali: before i asked the other side of this, i would like to play some sound from people across the country who have dealt with medical debt. >> my name is christopher and i live in kansas. >> my name is melissa. i live in virginia. >> i'm kelly from st. louis, missouri. >> my name is charles, from wichita, kansas. >> nobody says, you are sick, let's not send you an electric bill this month. that is not have been. all your bills are still there, so you just start chipping away at your savings, everything you have, and ultimately chipping away at retirement. >> when you have multiple medical situations and bills out there, from different specialists, different collection agencies, you do not get to sleep without thinking

about it sometimes. >> the medical debt i accumulated over the past has really impacted me, both financially and as well as my mental health. >> i have had to creatively finance this medical debt, and i'm sure it affected my credit score, but i'm not sure how from debt collectors. >> i think it has definitely taken a big burden off of my shoulders. >> for those of us who are faced with doctors and specialists and other people, you are still going to end up being in trouble because you have to pay for it one way or another. ali: are these stories similar to the ones you have heard reporting? noam: yeah, we have been writing about medical debt the last several years, and i've interviewed hundreds of people across the country. one thing that bears underlining

is it is hard really to over state the suffering that people are enduring because of medical bills, and you saw some of the emotion there in people living with the stress of being unable to pay a bill or having to drain retirement savings. ali: what is the argument in favor of keeping medical debt on credit reports? noam: there are a couple. one, from credit reporting agencies, if you are going to be lending people money, you need to make sure they are a good risk. if those safeguards are not in place, could we get back to a situation where we were before the 2008-2009 financial crisis were people took on more than they could, etc.? the other argument, an interesting one, is that from the collections industry is essentially that if medical offices, hospitals are not able to essentially have a threat to

report you if you don't pay your bill, they are going to start demanding you pay upfront for you actually get your procedure, and there is an argument to be made that if that happens, does that put more barriers in front of people? ali: is this just a band-aid for broader problems in our health care system here in america? noam: sure, yes, it is a band-aid. there are underlying problems, people cannot pay $2000 medical bills and the end of going into debt. i would say that some of the efforts to address the worst problems associated with medical debt like credit reporting, like people being sued, people having liens on their homes, these sorts of things probably deserve to be addressed, even before we get to the much more difficult and complicated issues of how we make it cheaper to go to the hospital and get a prescription at the pharmacy or an mri and x-ray. that is subject for another day. ali: bigger questions certainly.

thank you so much. noam: thanks. ♪ john: and that is pbs news weekend for this saturday. i'm john yang. for all of my colleagues, thanks and see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by -- ♪ >> the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

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