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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Monday, May 22nd. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, how artificial intelligence is causing chaos on college campuses, the positive impact of more women outearning their husbands, plus a sound in nature that has powerful health benefits.
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But first, let's take a brief look at some major stories in the news.
Today, President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meet to talk about the debt ceiling. Both sides recently signaled they were far apart on key issues. But following a phone conversation between McCarthy and Biden yesterday, many in Washington thought the speaker sounded more optimistic than before.
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Kevin McCarthy: I believe it was a productive phone call. And so, at the end of the phone call, what we agreed to do is, we're gonna have Congressman Garret Graves and Patrick McHenry get back together with… he's gonna ask his team to get back together, so we can walk them through literally what we've been talking about. I think some of the challenges here, they might not completely understand how we're coming about this.
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The clock is ticking to make a deal and avoid default, which could happen as early as next week.
Biden was dealing with this while at the G7 summit in Japan, where he also endorsed training Ukrainian pilots to fly American-made F-16 fighter jets. Ukraine has wanted F-16s for a long time, but the U.S. has been reluctant. Part of that is concern that giving these planes to Ukraine could provoke Russia. Ukraine agreed not to fly the planes into Russian territory. After Biden changed his position on pilot training, the Kremlin warned of, quote, "enormous risks" to Western countries if they transfer the jets to Ukraine.
Turning to border policy, there's new information about the 8-year-old migrant girl who died in U.S. Border Patrol custody. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says she was treated for flu-like symptoms for several days, before she died at a Texas hospital. She came from Honduras with her family. Her parents have been released from custody and will be living with family in America while seeking asylum. Her death comes a week after a 17-year-old boy from Honduras died in a Florida detention center. There are growing concerns about crowded conditions at these facilities.
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We're still figuring out how rapidly advancing artificial intelligence is gonna affect our lives, for better or worse. One place where AI questions are front and center is college.
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An "Atlantic" writer who also teaches at Washington University talks to students and professors and comes to this stark conclusion: the last year in universities was a mess because of AI. Students aren't sure what they can and can't do with artificial intelligence. Professors aren't sure how to catch cheating that uses AI, or even how to define what cheating is in this new landscape.
Some students at Texas A&M University faced possible delayed graduations this month, after a professor accused them of using ChatGPT to cheat. The professor says he came to that conclusion after he pasted the students' essays into ChatGPT and asked the software whether AI wrote them. ChatGPT's maker says it doesn't yet have a fully reliable tool to tell the difference between human and AI writing.
A student at Pomona College told "The Atlantic," he uses AI to test his ideas. He writes his own thesis and then asks ChatGPT to generate counterarguments and recommend additional sources. He says the chatbot ultimately helped him write a stronger paper. "The Atlantic" author says that seems like a smart and ethical use of the technology.
The challenge is that AI-detection software may flag a paper like that, which could lead to accusations of cheating. The same thing can happen for papers that use spelling and grammar checkers, or automated translators. So, when a paper is flagged, professors aren't sure what to do with that information.
<v And that's frustrating for the people doing the educating, who say their jobs are getting harder. One English teacher tells "The Atlantic" that he was demoralized by grading AI-created papers. He's decided to leave education for good. But he's no Luddite. His next career move>software designer.
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There's a major shift underway in American marriages in the last 50 years. The number of women outearning their husbands has tripled.
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Julia Carpenter: And I thought, okay, wow. Like tripled from 1% to 3%, but it actually had tripled from 5% to 16%, which is pretty significant.
That's "Wall Street Journal" Personal Finance Reporter Julia Carpenter. Data also shows that these marriages are far less likely to end in divorce. In the 1960s and '70s, couples were 70% more likely to get divorced if the wife earned the same or more than her husband. In the '90s, that number dropped to 4%.
Now, part of this is more career opportunities for women. Another driver, Carpenter says, is the higher cost of living.
Carpenter: Men know that they can't have the quote-unquote "ideal," quote-unquote "traditional male breadwinner" model that maybe their grandparents had. You can't raise a family like that now. You have to have both partners maximizing their income potential to even attain the basics of what your grandparents had.
Women are still paid significantly less than men overall. On average, 82 cents on the dollar. Those who have passed their husbands in income told Carpenter, societal pressure made them initially feel kinda nervous to tell their partners about getting a raise.
Carpenter: They would acknowledge to their husband or their partner, "Hey, this really great thing happened. How are you feeling about this? You know, honestly, I feel silly, but I'm a little nervous to tell you." And the husbands or the partners always reacted with like, "Oh my God, this is great! Like, what are you talking about? Like, now we can go on the honeymoon, now we can get married."
Personal finance reporting sometimes means covering difficult realities about inflation and home-buying challenges. Carpenter says this data on marriages is refreshing.
Carpenter: Writing a story like this, where like the coda on the end is sort of like, "Progress, it's happening and it's actually good for you," was really refreshing. [LAUGHS] It was really nice.
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<v Spending time in nature is good for mental and physical health, according to the research. It's one of those things that you just kinda know is right, even if you don't have the data. We were intrigued by "The Washington Post" story about studies showing that a particular sound from nature has special benefits>birdsong.
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Research shows that seeing birds or hearing them sing is good for us. So, we're gonna let these birds hang out with us while I tell you about the data. In one of the studies, people reported higher mental well-being after bird encounters, often for hours afterwards.
In other research, listening to about six minutes of bird song was associated with people feeling less anxious, depressed and paranoid. And this study was done with recorded audio. So, if you're living in a place where it's hard to hear the sound of birds, you can try this too. "The Washington Post" piece has lots of embedded bird songs.
Scientists aren't sure exactly why bird songs affect us the way they do. One hypothesis is the sounds of nature help us engage in what's called "soft fascination." That's where something holds our attention but doesn't demand all of it. And that frees up some mental space for reflection.
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The full "Post" story is in the Apple News app, including some tips on how to get the most out of birdwatching and bird-listening. And if you're already hearing this in the News app right now, stick around.
We've got a narrated article coming up next. "The Wall Street Journal" looks at the journey to find a downed American plane from World War II.
The story of that extraordinary underwater mission is cued up to play for you next. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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