The Mark Arum Show 08-14-26 HR 2

Welcome back to the show and a good Friday morning to you. Mark Aram here, you there. It's 10.05, 5 minutes after 10 o'clock. This is the Mark Aram show live Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to noon on 955. W.S.B. Plain short-handed today. Gracie Award winning Deborah is executive producer of the program. No Vinny drips still under the weather. So Justin Ovi doing double duty screening your calls and on the other side of the takeout window. Coming up in 30 minutes, we're going to chat with political annals Bill Crane. in depth on the big races here in Georgia. And one hour, Shadi Abu Saeed from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, going to continue our coverage of the flock camera issues that have been... bubbling up here across Metro Atlanta. And Deborah's got two pairs of tickets to give away today, chance to see Blackberry Smoke at the Tabernacle and Sugar Land. Right now, let's go in-depth on AI. Joining us from Axios Senior AI reporter Madison Mills. Madison, an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks so much for having me. I mean, I cover AI every day on the show. I'm as informed as... a person that's not in the business can get. Yet I am still confused, and I haven't made up my mind if AI is good or bad. For the listeners that don't live, you know, the AI-centric world that you and I do, ease concerns, raise concern? Like, what advice do you have to the average listener right now that really doesn't pay attention to AI that much? Well, what I can give you sort of the state of play of where we're at now. So the first thing is that AI has been part of our lives for many, many years now. So it's not really something that we can just decide is. good or bad or here or not here, it's in a lot of the things that we are already interacting with. But we have entered this new phase of intelligence. And some people call it artificial general intelligence, which is when the models can make themselves better. They kind of have a life of their own. And that's the thing that can be understandably a little scary. Some of the biggest AI companies in the US and in the world have had these really scary hacking incidents where their AI models have sort of broken out and gone and done things on their own that the humans in the loop did not want them to do. Obviously, there's a lot of negative sentiment around data centers, the environmental impact of them, the economic impact of AI in general. So all of that is sort of happening in the background. And then there's a very quiet reminder that not a lot of executives in the AI space talk about very often that these tools could be used for massive scientific discoveries and potentially, you know, everyone loves to throw around that it could cure cancer someday, even though we don't have a ton of evidence that we're making progress on that. So those are the kind of positives that are.

quietly in the room with us, but the negatives are the things that are much more apparent right now. And that's why I think that is making up more of the conversation in the AI race. Madison, it's almost daily where I flip my opinion. Like one day, I'm like, oh, my God, AI is going to be the death of us. And the next day, I'm like, oh, my God, AI is going to change the world for the good. It just depends on what the headlines are. And the biggest headlines the last couple of weeks, you mentioned AI, quote, breaking out of their sandboxes, right, to hack other AI things. And then the story last week where AI, I invented 16 new viruses that were before non-existent. Like stories like that go, oh, man, you know, I put on my doomsday glasses. Well, and the virus story is a really good example to look at of the kind of you could be an optimist or a pessimist about it. Some scientists said that, you know, this is something that could be used to. create vaccines faster. The root of that discovery could be used to get rid of viruses and hugely positive. But then there's also this negative thing of a bad actor could use that to create viruses someday that could become something similar to what we saw with COVID. But that's the kind of back and forth here is that there are discoveries that in the hands of the good guys could be. vastly helpful and change our world. And then there are discoveries that in the hands of the bad guys could be vastly hurtful and change our world. And those are the kind of two sides of that coin. Madison Mills, Senior AI reporter for Axios joining us live on the Mark Abrams show. One of the stories we cover are like AI proof jobs. I mean, what you have right now, I would imagine you have the most security, I think, of any reporter in the world because you are covering this explosive... segment of the economy of our lives. Is this something that was tasked to you or are you driven with a passion to cover AI? I'm going to ask for a recording of that so that I can just play it back to myself anytime I get nervous. That's great. Listen, I was a markets reporter for a really long time. And as everybody knows now, the stock market and AI are kind of intrinsically linked. So I ended up writing about AI a lot. And then at the same time, Axios was looking for an AI reporter. So it was serendipitous. But it's no shortage of great stories to tell. I think that when, as I'm sure you relate to this, when you're a reporter, you just want to be on the story that has the most news and the most scoops you can possibly get. And so that's what's been great about diving into this beat. Yeah, you certainly have it. And I think a lot of the good news, too, you mentioned the impact that AI's had on the markets, like record-breaking S&P and NASDAQ numbers. I mean, a lot of these 401K bumps that we're experiencing are due to this AI boom. On the flip side of that, you mentioned data centers and the energy usage. And data center is a big hot button issue here in Metro Atlanta across North Georgia. Some communities welcoming them with open arms, others saying not in my backyard, no way in hell do we want a data center. My concern is that we're, I mean, you know, you said AI has been with us for a number of years, but I still think we're kind of in the infancy of this sector.

And I'm just, you know, extrapolating what's going to happen in the future. If we need these data centers now, what's the need going to look like in 10 years? Well, and it's so funny because it depends on who you ask, right? The AI CEOs say that we are never going to satiate the amount of demand there is for artificial intelligence. And so we need so many more data centers than we can even dream of right now. This week there was the half a trillion dollar announcement from NVIDIA and a bunch of massive Wall Street banks to finance the build out of data centers, right? But the question is whether or not that demand is actually... going to materialize. You know, I talk to a lot of sources who've been using Chinese AI models. That usage certainly does not require a data center in the United States to be popping up. And I talk to a lot of people who are feeling like they don't necessarily need to be using the best most frontier model that requires the most compute from more data centers in the U.S. So if we're already starting to see signs of a tide turning in that potential compute demand, Maybe we don't need that big of a buildout. And if we spend a lot of money to do the buildout and then the demand doesn't materialize the way the AI CEOs say it well, that could start to look a little bubbly. And that's where you start to get concerns that this is rhyming with what we saw in the telecom bust. Madison, I'll end with this. And it's probably a two-hour conversation we could have on this. But just finally. What role will our legislative branches have in this as far as regulation? Do you see them really stepping up and saying, all right, we need to fully regulate this industry? Or do you think it'll be a more hands-off approach moving forward? I mean, the Trump administration so far has been relatively hands off. They have this AI executive order that they have decided to not publicly announce or publish, but Axios reporters have been able to get some intel on what's included in that framework, things like voluntary submission of your AI models to the government before they're released publicly so that the government can just get eyes on what the models look like and what their capabilities are. There's been a back and forth about whether or not regulation should be pushed to the states. That's in part why we're seeing where I am in New York, data center bands statewide. That's happening increasingly in states across the country. So I think especially as we get closer to the midterms, it's going to be really interesting to see how politicians. handle AI, I mean, especially given the economic backdrop we have right now. I'm really curious to see whether messaging does focus much on AI or if politicians at the legislative level continue to just kind of focus on economic factors that are not being driven by the AI buildout. So those are some of the things that we're watching. Madison Mills, senior AI reporter from Axios, Madison, really enjoy your work. Thanks so much for your time.

Thanks for having me. Yeah, I mean, Debra, this is not something that's going away anytime soon. We're going to be talking about AI for the rest of our careers. I just think the question is how long will our careers last? Or will AI do away with what we do? All right. Correspondent John Decker, White House correspondent John Decker. John, the clock ticking to the midterms. As a result, President Trump hitting the campaign trail later today, headed to New York. What impact might we see President Trump on these midterm elections? He's heading to New York State, his former home state, and the president is going to be campaigning for the Republican nominee for Governor Bruce Blakeman. As you may recall, Kathy Hochul's the governor of New York State. She was in a tough race in 2022. That was against Lee Zeldin, who's now a member of the Trump administration. And polls indicate it could be close for her once again. So the president heading to Nassau County, New York, and trying to enter. Republicans as it relates to this upcoming election. I'm sure the gubernatorial candidate in New York from the Republican Party very welcoming to President Trump to come to stump for him. But with the president's cratering poll numbers, is there a chance there are some Republican candidates? They say, you know what? No need to come to my state and campaign for me. Yeah, there could be some, you know, I think that, you know, Susan Collins isn't going to invite President Trump to Maine to campaign for her. But you never know. I mean, there's one district in Maine that is very much pro-Trump, you know. So we'll see what happens as it relates to that. But yeah, I mean, if you come from a district that's a swing district like Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania, you may not necessarily want the president to come to your district to campaign for you. But if you're from a red state. solid red state, you welcome the president to come in to energize his base and make certain that that base comes out to vote for you. John, you and I have talked a bunch of times about what Susie Wiles' role is here and trying to keep the president on message on the campaign trail and talking about affordability and what the Republican Party can do. You've covered the president for years. Is he going to be able to stick to the messaging that his chief of staff wants him to do? Yeah, I think so. You know, I've been with the president quite a bit, you know, and I see him when he's on message. And he recognizes what's at stake. What's at stake is the Republican control of both the House and the Senate. So I expect him to take a lot of campaign trips between now and November. The president told me the other day, for instance, he's going to travel down to South Carolina to help out Senator Darlene Graham and her runoff election, which takes place on August the 25th. So see if the president follows through with that. would like to see her emerge victorious in that runoff primary and then of course go on to be a senator for the next six years for south carolina you mentioned what's at stake i just want to do a follow-up on that john if the democrats uh gain control of the house that that would really complicate president trump's final two years of his second term Oh, yeah. I mean, that's exactly right. You know, you can, if you are Democrats, you know, I would not be surprised to see impeachment proceedings being launched by Democrats in the House of Representatives. It's not going to go anywhere in the Senate, you know, in terms of a conviction. But, you know, that's something that would be a headache for the White House for sure. And then looking over on the Senate side, you know, if Democrats regain control the Senate, which is a possibility, slim, but it's a possibility, then it's just almost impossible.

to get your nominees through the Senate with Democrats in control of the entire process. Indeed. Very important midterm election cycle coming up. John Decker, White House correspondent. John, appreciate your time. Have a great weekend, my friend. Have a great weekend, Mark. Thanks so much. Bye-bye. President Trump heading to New York. How many times will he come to Georgia before the midterms? I'll ask political analyst Bill Crane at that question when he joins us live after the news at 10.30. 1024 on this fast-moving Friday edition of the Mark Aram show. It might not be fast-moving this weekend. Planning for another massive 285 closure, a brief preview joining us live from Atlanta's only 24-hour traffic center. Smile on Mark McKay. Smile, and where is the project scheduled for this weekend? Back to the west side perimeter, Mark. We've been down this road before, so to speak, the slow road. It'll be shut down, as matter of fact. Nobody getting through after 7 o'clock tonight, weather permitting the forecast looking favorable. for them to continue the work on 285 north and southbound in southwest Atlanta between Cascade Road, MLK Jr. Drive. The detours that we had in place will be in play again this weekend. If you're coming 285 south leaving Cobb County, you'll want to take I-20 east into downtown. Up from the airport, you can also take Langford Parkway eastbound to the connector. So extra pressure through the downtown area is what we're going to expect. This is a different location than last weekend. What was up near Truis Park. This is back down to southwest Atlanta. We saw at least... I saw some pretty big delays last weekend up around the Cobb Clover leave. But I think the folks on the southwest side of town, they've done this construction closure for a while. They should be maybe more used to the detours, the alternate routes, et cetera. Yeah, the worst it's been, we're right at the exit ramps where all traffic is funneled off at Cascade or MLK, and it's really starting to, what it starts to do is really take those surface streets in Southwest Atlanta, Cascade, MLK, really clog them up. So if you have no business in those neighborhoods and you want to... obviously get to the businesses and, you know, give them your money. You'll just want to avoid the area altogether and make a wide berth of it and not necessarily go right up to the exit and get caught because that's been the worst of it when we've seen those detours in place in previous closures on the west side. All right. Luckily, you have a 24-hour source to get traffic updates on that 285 closure. Atlanta's only 24-hour traffic center. 7 p.m. tonight, north and south, enter in the outer loop, southwest perimeter, Cascade, and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Smile and we'll give you a current update of The Roads in just a second. When we come back, political analyst Bill Crane joining us live. All Things Politics with William. Social media is active through the broadcast at Mark Airman at WSB Radio.

1037 on this glorious Friday morn in Metro Atlanta, North Georgia. Welcome back to the Mark Aram show. Coming up in 30 minutes, we're going to continue our team coverage of the flock camera issues, what the City of Atlanta Police Department is doing about it moving forward. Also in 30 minutes, Deborah, got a pair of tickets and giveaway CDs. Bye, folks. Yeah, Blackberry Smoke going to be at the Tabernacle in November. The Tabby. I've never had a bad time at the Tabernacle. Never. Even if the act isn't good, what BlackBerry Smoke is amazing. But I've seen like Max, but it's always a good time. Yeah, it's a great venue. Yeah. Get a PBR.R. Well, not me. A low and brow? Are you a low and brow gal? More of a cocktails, girl. Okay. But growing up in Wisconsin, I always think cheese and beer. Yeah, but I'm just not a beer person. How about a blackberry beer in honor of blackberry smoke? I'm not a hipster either. All right. 1037, let's talk politics. I did it my way. Joining us live as he does every Friday at this time. Political analyst extraordinaire, Mr. Bill Crane. Bill, happy Friday, my friend. Okay, Mark. Hope you're already ready for your weekend. My weekend starts when you come on. When I hear old blue eyes, I'm like, all right, the weekend can begin. Bill, I want to talk about, I want to start off about what our experience that the ballots might be like this November, because I'm still not sure. Are we going to have paper ballots, electronic ballots, a hybrid? Do we have any clarification yet? No change for this fall's 2026 general election. There's a nine-member commission that was appointed by. the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the Speaker of the House, they had their first meeting last Friday, and they're evaluating with one Democrat on that body of nine, the next voting equipment we will move to with the direction and the statute that we move back to handmark paper ballots. So there are technologies that still use scanners, but like those people who now vote at home via the absentee ballot where you've got six or seven pages depending on the county. With all the candidates for all the races, you'll get a ballot that looks like that. You will handmark it, and then all of those pages will have to be scanned. I'll just say I disagree, and I think I'm stating the state backwards, but just a bit of context for your listeners. 2000 presidential election most contested in the history of the United States, closest contest decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which stopped recounts in Florida between Palm Beach and Dade counties. George. W. Bush wins Florida, thus the electoral college. There's an awareness at the primary voting system then, these chab, these cards that we used to push through a stylus with were delicate when handled, that the little chad pieces of paper fell out, that a human couldn't read them because the way those cards were read was light was pushed. from behind through the card, in the card reading machine, and where the light fell based on the hole that was there, that told you it was a vote for George Bush, that was a vote for Al Gore. So states started looking for new systems. Then Democratic Secretary of State Kathy Cox gave Georgia the first electronic voting system in a country in 2004. And the GOP in Georgia started winning. In 2004, they took the state Senate. In 2006, they took the state house.

Funny Purdue was elected governor in 2002. And you roll forward, and it's win after win after win. Brian Kemp, become Secretary of State, following Karen Handel, who had run for governor. And they were saying, rightly, that Windows and Microsoft were no longer going to be servicing or updating Windows XP. That was the platform that our prior electronic voting system ran on. From 2010, 2012, 14, 16, 18, the platform that we ran on was very... subject to being hacked. I'd necessarily mean they could change a lot of votes, but they could definitely screw up the machine and system because Windows was no longer getting updates. The Secretary of State, who is now governor, was pushing for a new system. They started the process. They involved 70 local election officials, members of both parties. This process was overseen by Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, and has been Deputy Secretary of State, Gabe Sturley. And we selected a system. which has served us well. And very recently, the Secretary of State's office and Georgia were ranked one in four in the country, above 50 states of the most secure, fastest, best run, most transparent elections. There's one election where this pattern didn't work out for the GOP, and that's the presidential contest in 2020. And not every member of the Republican Party in Georgia, but particularly in the state senate, they are obsessed with a belief that ballots were switched or fraudulent ballots were scanned in. Even in this most recent contest in the summer, when we did three, we audited the Senate and the governor to primaries after the fact in the primary. All of the ballots that had problems being read or that were error prone or that they couldn't read were handmarked paper ballots. There was actually no deviation, no change at all. and the results of the machine balloting in all 159 counties in both races. Bill, let me jump in for a second. Is this a solution in search of a problem? In my opinion, this is a solution in search of an outcome. This is a belief that paper ballots are probably easier to manipulate, and you can find some. Oh, we didn't realize we had this missing precinct, which you can't do with the current system, not to mention the problems mechanically and logistically of thousands of more printers. millions of more ink cartridges, waste and storage, because every one of the pages of those handmarked paper ballots has to be stored on the back end, I think, six or seven years versus typically the one page that you're scanning today with the QR code and only showing the candidates you voted for in the races you voted. People don't vote the entire ballot quite frequently. About as much as a third by the end of the, you know, by things like the constitutional questions, just voter skip them. Yeah. They will still have to scan that page. Bill, 10 days ago, I'm sorry, I want to get to this. 10 days ago, it seemed like the Democratic Socialists were taking over the Democratic Party. Then we had some primary results on Tuesday, showed the establishment still has some skin in the game. They do. But I think generationally, both parties are experiencing very frustrated young voters who don't like the establishment on either side.

who are not getting gains in employment they thought they would, who can't afford a new house, who are increasingly in population becoming the largest voting block, which has typically been seniors in a lot of states. And in those primaries where every vote counts more, they're saying, we don't like this. We want to go in a different direction. And, you know, you're in your early 50s. Correct. I'm 65. We view, when we hear the word socialism, we get a very instant negative connotation. You go and speak in a college classroom and you say, as I do quite frequently, how many of you think it's a good idea if every one of you when you left you're in college made the same income, regardless of your degree and regardless of your grade just because you have the college degree? Every hand goes up. That's socialism. And they just haven't been taught or experienced capitalism in the way you and I have, and they've seen a whole lot of crony capitalism with thumbs on the scale favoring certain parties and they think it's corrupt. I'm curious to see what happens in, obviously, for many reasons. I'm curious to see what happens in the midterms. But I just want to know if this is comparable to the Tea Party movement or the Republicans years back to what we're seeing with the DSAs right now is it's loud. It's making a lot of commotion. And it may be shifting some of the policy. But at the end of the day, you know, the more mainstream, as it was, the mainstream Republicans, you know. basically controlled the powers. And we'll see if the mainstream Democrats control the party as well. But I do I see this more like a flirtation like with Ross Perrault or as you just said, the Tea Party, which was big, big news during the Barack Obama's second term election and had a lot to do with fighting the Affordable Care Act. But when was the last time you heard anybody talk about the Tea Party? Yeah, political analyst Bill Crane joining us here on The Mark Am show. Special Lexer runoff for David Scott coming up in 11 days, Tuesday, August 25th. Likely you say to be cited by Gwynette County. Winnet County is the largest block of voters in that district. And the two candidates that remain are Marcy Scott, the daughter of the congressman and Everton Blair, the former school board chair. in Gwinnett County. It's the first time, second time that district has been voted, but first time that you had new, new candidates because David Scott has held the 13th since it was created. And it was a southern crescent seat, changed to a northern crescent seat after the 2020 reapportionment and the new maps. Gwinnett County has five members of Congress. It's splintered. But the block of votes and the way the turnout was in the primary special election, this is the special election runoff. the largest block of voters are going to be in Gwinnett County where he got 37 percent and she got 47 percent overall, but his biggest block of votes was there. So Gwinnett County likely decides who the next congressperson is there for four months, September, October, November, December, when the new member takes over who will win between the Democratic Republican nominees in November. Bill, final question. President Trump heading to New York today to campaign in the governor's race there.

How often do we expect President Trump to come to Georgia to campaign? And are there some candidates that see the president poll numbers that might say, you know what? I don't need you this time, Mr. President. If I was Rick Jackson, I would suggest that the president go to every other state in the country and not come here. But that doesn't mean that's what's going to happen. Mike Collins, the senator, senatorial nominee for the GOP really wants the president here. Rick Jackson wants to be Donald Trump's favorite president, but governor. But I think he also believes and knows that disaffected independent voters and a lot of Republicans at this point are not huge fans of this president's agenda. So. I think that this is going to be another case of what we're going to get is what Donald Trump wants, not necessarily what the candidates want, and we will see probably in the fall. There are places that helps, and there are places it really hurts. So there is a possibility, though, that we could see a Trump Susan Collins event and not necessarily a Trump Susan Collins event down here. Yes, and I think we definitely will see a Trump Susan Collins event outstate. in more rural area as opposed to Wheeler High School, whether or not Rick Jackson's advisors are able to steer him away from that or not remains to be seen. But it didn't necessarily help him to be on stage with the president other than the line a few weeks ago that he will step in if governor and push the General Assembly to match the $1,000 contribution in the state's making Trump accounts for future savings. And if the state doesn't choose to do that, General Assembly doesn't want to make that. He personally will fill that checking account. Political analyst to Bill Crane. Bill, great insight, as always. Have a fantastic weekend, my friend. Take care, brother. There you go. 1054 on the Mark Aram show, very few people probably remember what theme song goes with the TV show. You recognize the song, but you don't know that this is the theme song from Kate and Allie, which is a pretty big show back in the day. Susan St. James. She was Kate, I think. She turns 80 today. She was Kate. I just watched the whole thing on Peacock, I think. Does it hold up? No. Really? I mean, it's just, no, not really. But it was a fun, really. I remember watching Red ones when I was a kid. So I, quote, used to work for Susan St. James. Really? I didn't get paid. I was an intern at this radio station when I was in college, WZBG in Litchfield, Connecticut. And her husband. He was the head of NBC. Dick Ebersaw. Student St. James wanted to open a local radio station. So he just built one from the ground up. So I was in college and I was the sports intern. And like she was the boss. That's kind of cool. Yeah, it was very cool. Was she nice? She was great. Yeah, absolutely great. Yeah. So she's 80 today. Is that station still around? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, the voice of Litchfield County, WZBG. Yeah, that was my first experience of actually being inside a radio station going, oh, this is cool. This is cool, too. I love this. Survey says you should take the stairs, not the elevator, and I do that for the most part. Maya's hammered in my head. Like when we go to the airport, we don't take the plane train, we walk.

We take the stairs up instead of the escalator. Why is it so much better to take the stairs than not? A new study shows that taking the stairs regularly can actually lower the risk of cardiovascular death by about 24%, which is huge. So they're recommending, if possible, climb at least six flights of stairs for daily health benefits. All right. I always take the stairs here. Yeah, same here. What's the number of flights you have to go up before you go, all right, I'm going to elevator it? Is there a certain? Like, to me, like. If I have to go more than five, five levels up. Usually if it's above five, or if I'm carrying a lot of stuff, you know, sometimes we have packages upstairs. Yeah, that's true. All right, I'll get a cart and take the elevator. Or if I have more than three inch heels on, that'll take the elevator. That might be the only healthy thing I do on a regular basis is take the stairs. And I'll credit to my wife on that. Although we flew, when we fly internationally, we get the international terminal. Like, Mike, can we not walk to Backage Clinic? Can we take the plane train? She's like, yes, fine. We can do that. But take the stairs, folks. It'll help you in the long run. News weather and traffic in three. When we come back, what Atlanta Police Department, the APD, is going to do about flock cameras in depth with Shadi Abou Said from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and your chance to win Blackberry Smoke tickets next on the Mark Air Show.