On today’s show: Pete Hegseth faced grilling from Democrats at his confirmation hearing as GOP senators voiced support, CBS News reports. And NBC News breaks down the major takeaways from the hearing. Publishers are taking OpenAI to court over copyright-infringement claims. The suit may have serious repercussions for the future of AI. NPR explains. Xochitl Gonzalez with The Atlantic looks at what was lost when the Eaton Fire tore through middle-class Altadena, California. Plus, South Korea’s impeached president is detained, how you can help animals affected by the L.A. fires, and Kate Middleton says her cancer is in remission. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What happened at Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing?
But first, to Capitol Hill, where Pete Hexeth, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, faced tough questions from senators on the Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing. It was also a test of loyalty to Trump, not just for the nominee, but for the Republican lawmakers questioning him.
In his opening statement, Hegseth, a military veteran and former Fox News host, acknowledged criticisms from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that he lacks the qualifications to lead the Pentagon and one of the world's largest military forces.
Chapter 2: What were the qualifications debates around Hegseth?
Now, it is true and has been acknowledged that I don't have a similar biography to defense secretaries of the last 30 years. But as President Trump also told me, we've repeatedly placed people atop the Pentagon with supposedly the right credentials.
Heading into this hearing, a number of Republican senators seemed to be on the fence about his nomination, but NBC senior political reporter Sahil Kapoor watched from Capitol Hill yesterday as, one by one, they seemed to fall in line.
Chapter 3: How did Republican senators react to Hegseth?
I think Hegseth is one step closer to becoming Secretary of Defense after this hearing for the simple reason that watching the Republican senators on the Armed Services Committee, I did not see a single one of them seriously challenge him, have a contentious back and forth with him, dig into the myriad allegations in his past, the questions about his qualifications or financial mismanagement claims.
Several Democratic senators did bring up his past, including allegations of excessive drinking and an incident in 2017 where a woman accused Hegseth of sexual assault. He paid her an undisclosed amount of money to settle, and he's described the encounter as consensual, but he was married at the time.
Chapter 4: What allegations were raised against Hegseth?
Some Republican senators defended Hegseth, like Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, a Republican from Oklahoma.
How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job? And don't tell me you haven't seen it because I know you have. And then how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down?
Chapter 5: What pressure is Joni Ernst facing regarding Hegseth?
One of the key Republicans who Hegseth needs to win over is Iowa Senator Joni Ernst. She's been outspoken about being sexually assaulted while she served in the military. And she was one of the few Republican senators heading into the hearing who hadn't publicly promised to vote for Hegseth.
As a result, the Des Moines Register reports that she's been the focus of a pressure campaign by Trump and his allies to confirm Hegseth. And Kapoor told us she appeared more open to his nomination yesterday than before.
She kind of asked him to promise to appoint a senior level person to combat sexual assault in the military, which he had an interesting answer. He said, as I promised you, Senator, yes, I will. So it looks like this is already choreographed.
During Ernst's round of questioning, Hegseth walked back past comments he made. He previously said women should not hold combat roles because, quote, men in those positions are more capable. Yesterday, he told Ernst that women would continue to hold combat roles under his leadership. After the hearing, Ernst put out a statement saying Hegseth has her support.
Senator Jack Reed, the Democratic-ranking member on the committee, criticized Hegseth for injecting partisan politics into a role that was meant to stay above it. Reed said Hegseth's nomination will be the first he has opposed over many years on the Armed Services Committee, having voted to confirm the previous eight defense secretaries.
Let's turn now to a court case involving ChatGPT, what's being called the first big test for AI in the copyright space.
A number of news organizations, including the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, have merged their individual lawsuits into one case against OpenAI and its biggest investor, Microsoft, accusing OpenAI's chatbot of copyright infringement. Both sides appeared in court on Tuesday.
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Chapter 6: What is the significance of the ChatGPT court case?
The news outlets say training the artificial intelligence bot by feeding it millions of copyrighted articles is basically making ChatGPT a substitute for the publisher's original work.
OpenAI argues the more journalistic data they provide the chatbot, the more accurate and relevant results will be, and that they're protected by fair use rules, because this is a case where copyrighted work is being used for education and research purposes. This combined lawsuit is a sign that ChatGPT has a lot of news organizations worried.
Chapter 7: How are news organizations responding to AI tools?
It's fair to say the entire digital publishing industry is on edge about generative AI tools like ChatGPT.
That's NPR's tech correspondent Bobby Allen speaking on NPR after the suits were first filed in 2023.
There are fears about job loss, fears over AI turbocharging misinformation online, and a concern that AI companies like OpenAI are becoming popular on the backs of copyright holders.
NPR explains OpenAI's fair use defense. The law around this can be murky, but the gist is, to clear the bar of fair use, a copyrighted piece of work must be transformed into something brand new. And it cannot compete with the original content in the same marketplace.
The Times says fair use does not apply here. In fact, the Times says OpenAI has become a direct competitor of the Times' website. And the lawyers point out that ChatGPT is often citing the Times incorrectly, claiming the paper reported things it never has reported, which, of course, is a huge problem for the paper's credibility and reputation.
The Times wants ChatGPT's dataset, its most valuable asset, to be destroyed. Allen says that would be an extraordinary measure, but it means the court could force OpenAI to rebuild using only authorized materials. Either way, the suit could lead to big changes on both sides of the argument.
This would be an incredibly disruptive, if not impossible, task for the company. Other AI companies with similar business models will be watching this lawsuit closely, as will other publishers whose work has been harvested without permission by ChatGPT.
Now to Southern California, where the L.A. wildfires are still burning and dangerous winds have picked back up. Tens of thousands of acres have burned over the last week. They've wiped out neighborhoods, businesses, schools, community centers, and so many homes. Many people tend to think of Los Angeles as a city filled with mansions and rich celebrities, but that's certainly not true all over.
And today we're going to focus on Altadena, a middle-class town of roughly 42,000 people affected by the fires just north of L.A. in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
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