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♪ >> This is NJ business beat with Raven Santana.

>> Thank you for joining me.

Artificial intelligence is slowly becoming a part of everyday life from a chatbot for customer service to wearable fitness trackers.

AI is being embraced by many industries and the technology is poised to explode in growth in the coming years.

In a recent survey by McKinsey, 75% of workers said they were exposed to AI in some form.

33% of companies said they regularly use AI for at least one work function and 40% plan to increase their investment in AI next year.

The most common uses for AI are marketing and sales, product development and service development for creating drafts, documents, or identifying customer habits.

33% of companies say AI will help reduce cost.

They also acknowledge how AI will impact employees with 25% of companies saying AI will decrease their workforce by up to 10%.

With so many questions, Governor Murphy recently created an AI tax -- task force run by chief innovation officer Beth Simone Novak.

She joined me to discuss how the state plans to monitor AI use and make sure it is ethical.

Why was this task force created?

>> Increasingly we are seeing new technologies like ChatGPT, Google barred, and other tools we are coming to use to help us generate and analyze content, whether it is text, computer code, or music.

We are starting to play with the tools and discover their potential.

They have powerful potential uses for doing good in the world, for making government work better.

As we all know from the news, there are risks.

Some of them are amplified risks that we have always had with any technology.

Some of them are new to these technologies.

So, we want to take a really sober responsible look at how we in New Jersey should be using these technologies and what the state government can be doing in particular to amplify and accelerate the good uses while ensuring we limit any bad effects.

Raven: When you speak about amplifying the good uses, what is the task force function?

Best: The function is to look deeply at a couple important issues within this broader frame of AI.

The important question about jobs.

Jobs of the future.

Public-sector sector and private sector jobs.

We want to ask the question, what do people really need to know?

What do workers need to know public and private to make use of these technologies?

To benefit from them economically?

To create new jobs and new businesses?

And, what kind of training do we need to acquire to help us take advantage of the power of the new tools.

There is a component of the task force that will look at issues with regard to equity and literacy.

You get powerful new uses of the technologies, things people may be familiar with if you learn a language undoable lingo or you and your children are using con Academy.

That is an example of new consumer technologies that take advantage of AI to help us learn how to read or speak, whether it is English or another language.

We want to look at how to take advantage of the technologies to promote equity and illiteracy, to make sure we close the gap in performance around reading in particular.

We will also look at how to create more jobs in New Jersey.

How do we attract a new AI businesses and help existing businesses use AI to help them become more powerful?

To become more successful in what they do.

That will be one of the topics we look out.

And of course, we need to look at, throughout everything we are doing, security, safety, and privacy.

How do we ensure we minimize the risk from these technologies.

Raven: Tell me more about the public sector training program.

Beth: there are many important users.

Some are very simple.

Translating a document.

Up to everything like spotting wildfires that we want to take advantage of.

That is why it is important people need to know how to use these tools responsibly.

That is why we have said public service needs to know about AI and we are partnering with nonprofit innovate U.S. to make sure that training is available and accessible to public servants across the state.

Raven: How is AI helping New Jersey residents?

Beth: there are lots of ways AI is in use across New Jersey in the public and private sector.

One good example from government is the ability we are making use of with AI to deliver government services 2470 people.

We are -- 24-7 to people.

We are familiar with going to a government office between nine :00 and five :00 and what that means for child care, eldercare, or working.

Now we can provide services via the web and we are increasingly using chatbots.

That's another form of AI sometimes called a conversational agent.

Just like ChatGPT, it is AI that talks to you.

It makes it easier to type in a question and get an answer, or type in a question and have the questions related to humans that can oversee and provide answers to people 24/7.

Raven: Thank you for joining me.

Beth: thank you for having me.

Raven: advancing artificial intelligence in New Jersey starts in state colleges pre-and many adopted AI and machine learning programs to train the next generation of workers to work alongside the new technology.

McKinsey estimates AI will create between 20,000,000-50,000,000 new jobs by 2030 and Garden State colleges are preparing students for those roles.

Dr. Geller, tell me why NJIT decided to include an AI program?

>> artificial intelligence is now up through the roof and he read about it everyday in the news people -- newspaper.

People used to ChatGPT every day with unbelievable speed.

That is the place to be at.

Since NJIT is a technological University it was logical we would have degree programs for artificial intelligence.

Raven: are you seeing a growing interest?

It seems like this would be the right move, are you seeing or hearing students that want the program?

Dr. Geller: absolutely.

We have a Masters degree program and also a certificate.

And for this coming spring, January, we had one hundred 19 applications for the Masters degree.

We accept dead -- 119 applications for the Masters degree and accepted 30 two.

For the certificate program we had 21 applications at accepted seven of them.

There is a sudden spike in interest in the programs.

Raven: what are you teaching in the programs?

Dr. Geller: the goal of artificial intelligence going back 60 years was to make computers behave like humans.

But, the interesting thing is, for all those things that are easy for humans, they are hard for computers.

And all those things that are easy for the other way around, for example, playing chess.

That's very hard for me.

But, computers are brilliant at that.

But, recognizing a face, recognizing a cat, understanding a complicated sentence, these were very very difficult.

So, you can sort of go from these human capabilities, exactly what we are teaching.

The goal of artificial intelligence is machine learning.

So, we have three courses on that.

Machine learning, deep learning, and reinforcement learning.

Then what we are good as.

Natural language processing.

There is a course on that.

Computer vision.

There is a course on that.

And, image processing.

Because of all the problems we recently had, with ethical issues.

We have a brand-new course on ethical artificial intelligence.

Because, there is so much space to misuse the artificial intelligence.

Raven: Tell me a little bit about the job opportunities out there for those who graduate with an AI degree.

Dr. Geller: Of course there are commercial services like indeed and glass door.

I went on glass door and typed in data science jobs and got 5000 hits.

Artificial intelligence, people are arguing, what is part of what?

Is artificial intelligence under data science?

Is it data science under artificial intelligence?

We will leave it to the professors to argue.

But artificial intelligence is a bit newer.

277 job openings.

I typed in entry-level job opening.

In data science, salaries start at 80 thousand dollars and they go to one hundred $90,000 -- $190,000.

In artificial intelligence it starts at $61,000 and goes to 100 $31,000 --$131,000.

Those are entry-level jobs.

At an advanced position it would be more.

Raven: do you expect more colleges and universities to offer courses in AI?

Dr. Geller: we have a number of competitors that are already offering courses.

Essentially I think that what will happen is the same thing that happened with computer science, but much faster.

In the beginning there were only a few schools that had computer science programs.

Now there are 2000 colleges and universities that have considered -- computer science programs in the U.S. alone.

So the same thing will happen with artificial intelligence.

I am convinced that 5-10 years from now every accredited college will have courses on artificial intelligence.

So, it is important to be among the first group.

Raven: It is not a question of whether it will be here or not.

It is going to be here.

It will be at every school.

It is just, when are you going to offer it?

Dr. Geller: Exactly.

It is about when, not if.

Raven: Dr. Geller, thank you for joining me.

We are seeing more uses of AI pop up to make our lives more convenient from digital assistants to self check outs and self-driving car's.

Down the shore AI is being used in a unique way, to keep you safe.

Ocean City is working with a company called zero five, that uses AI to detect guns through surveillance cameras, set up on the boardwalk to protect visitors and businesses and they are at ocean city schools to prevent a school shooting.

I sat down with the Ocean City police Chief Bill Campbell to discuss how zeroeyes works and how they want to expand it.

Geez, there have been criminals using AI for some terrifying ways.

You have chosen to use it to catch criminals and bad actors doing bad things.

Talk about the technology.

Chief Campbell:ZeroEyes is in artificial intelligence system designed to detect an un-holstered firearm.

When it does that, we have cameras set up on the boardwalk and in the school system, so, when the staff at ZeroEyes, when the detection occurs, there is a phone call automatically, almost simultaneously made to our dispatch center with information.

You know, the location of the type of weapon.

Then, in turn, our dispatchers will dispatch a police car, a police unit, to wherever the scene is.

>> tell me, Chief, what you thought it was important to use this gun detection, not just in the school district, but on the boardwalk?

Chief Campbell: on the boardwalk we could get a large amount of people, especially on weekends.

Usually when the sun goes down.

The crowds in.

People go to the boardwalk to eat, to enjoy amusement rides.

And just to walk.

We felt it was important to link ZeroEyes with the cameras that are already up on the boardwalk.

And, that in our dispatch center we have monitors so we can see.

Our dispatchers are monitoring the boardwalk all the time anyway, so this is like an added security measure with ZeroEyes so if somebody did happen to be up on the boardwalk and have an unconcealed weapon number right away, now, ZeroEyes will make the notification to a dispatch center.

Raven: With a school district, we talked about this off-camera.

It was a no-brainer, given the time we are living in.

Chief Campbell: we partnered with the school district and we gave a presentation and they liked what they saw.

With all the school violence the country has experienced over the last several decades, obviously, the powers that be at the Ocean City school district thought it was important to help protect the student body and faculty.

Raven: describe how this all works.

How many seconds or minutes does it take one a camera to text someone has a gun?

Chief Campbell: Seconds.

It is almost from the operators or dispatchers from ZeroEyes, like, once the identification is made they are making a phone call almost simultaneously.

It is literally seconds.

Raven: We know there have been concerns, especially when it comes to accuracy, privacy, bias.

What are your thoughts on that?

Chief Campbell: this system is put in place created just to identify a weapon, and un-holstered weapon.

So, it is not anybody that would potentially carry a weapon and have it on holstered and be --on holstered and be somewhere in Ocean City in camera view that we will get notification about that.

It has nothing to do with race, with gender, with anything.

It is focusing on the gun.

Raven: Would you like to see it expanded to different areas, maybe not just a school district and a boardwalk?

Maybe businesses or other areas less obvious?

Chief Campbell: I would've realizing it is a great program.

I think the folks that developed this, that started the company have a military and law enforcement background.

With a focus, obviously, on security and being able to detect something before something bad happens.

It is the whole premise behind ZeroEyes and it artificial intelligence model they have developed.

Raven: have other departments reached out to you?

Chief Campbell: they have.

There was a demonstration ZeroEyes did about two weeks ago.

There were other chiefs were mainly came a County Police Department there.

It was held at Ocean City high school.

I know there is interest.

I know there are other police departments in New Jersey that have signed on with ZeroEyes.

Raven: what is the bottom line for people watching?

What do you want them to walk away knowing?

Chief Campbell: that if they come to Ocean City and they are mainly on the boardwalk, there is a camera and they will be watched.

And they should come away with a feeling of safety.

Ocean City adopted or signed on to ZeroEyes to help protect all of the visitors, all the people that come.

Whether you live here or you are coming here to visit, our focus is to do whatever we can to make it a safe community, as safe as possible, and protect people.

Raven: Thank you so much for joining me.

Chief Campbell: thank you.

Raven: We explored many events AI has.

Security experts cautioned that as the technology grows so does the risk of cyber security threats.

Hackers and malicious actors can manipulate AI to take advantage of consumers are threatened companies.

I sat down with a Cybersecurity expert about what companies and consumers need to look out for looking -- using AI.

Scott, with AI there is a lot of good that can cut.

There is also a lot of concerns.

It is not just deep tech concern.

This has to do with people like you and me.

Somebody can actually convince you that I said and did something I may not have.

When we think about deepfakes and the Cybersecurity with AI, how will that affect future?

Scott: When you look at something like deepfake, you say I know that person.

I see their mannerisms.

Even the boys -- voice committee inflection.

Those things are tells that breakdown if we are questioning something.

If we get over that line to believe it, Cybersecurity criminals use that to full -- fool us on the manipulate an opinion this way or that way.

Or it can be used to get us to divulge personal information about yourself, your family.

An account.

Raven: Anytime I go to our website or when I need information people constantly encourage me, go to the website, go online.

We encourage you to try online first.

Then there are these chatbot's giving you assistance online.

You can chat with them.

Are those doorways?

Scott: When you start having a conversation online, buying something, doing research, and you are talking back and forth with a chatbot it is like you are talking to a person.

You ask a question, get an answer, get steered this way and that way.

What are they often do?

Pop up a link.

What are you inclined to do?

You are not thinking, is this a scam?

You are inclined to say, they just offered me 10% savings if I ask now.

Let me click this.

It induces you in and falls you.

That is what we all have to be careful about.

Just because they are using technology and we have a level of comfort shopping online, and many of us use it and there is good with it.

It is not that it is all bad and we should not use a chatbot's, we just have to use caution.

Not being too quick to click.

There's reason for that because often it redirects to a fraudulent side.

Whereas if you go into your browser and enter in the site directly because you know what the website as you are less inclined to run into malware, downloads, or other information that could get on your computer and cause havoc.

Raven: What industries are most vulnerable to AI cyber attacks?

Scott: All industries are.

But one of the most vulnerable is that the financial sector.

Why?

Because, the financial sector has a lot of data.

Second is probably health care.

Why?

Think about when you go to a doctor or hospital.

Patient records are a treasure trove of information.

Personal to you or I that somebody can now take and sell on the dark web, kind of committing underground belly of the Internet.

Get top dollar for that.

There is a lot of medical fraud.

They can get Social Security numbers, name, address, all the common things in a data breach.

Even more, maybe what procedure you had, what medicines you are on.

Codes to get approvals for things.

That's very rich data that is extremely valuable that they can sell to the highest bidder.

Raven: For a long time, Scott, I thought we were ahead of a lot of these scams but this is new territory.

Scott: All of the best practices in cybersecurity awareness really help us.

However, what are cyber criminals now doing?

Using advances like artificial intelligence and machine learning to fool us, to take it to the next level where it seems more convincing to you or I or your listeners.

To say, well, it sounds real.

It looks real.

The logo looks real.

The number matches.

All these things seem convincing.

There are some banking scams I have seen in any mail.

They will actually have in their the phone number.

They will say, pick it up.

When 800, you call it and the bank answers.

Suddenly you sound convinced.

You click the link and it still takes you to a fraudulent side.

So, they can mix it up with voice cloning and different types of scams that they are interacting with and mixing up using AI for the power to deliver that efficiently.

Raven: What is the best way to stay ahead of scams and protect businesses?

Scott: Education always comes down to the fundamental thing.

From the janitor to the CEO, we all have to be educated.

Not just long strong passwords, actually doing.

Not for using the same passwords across multiple sites.

When you look at statistics unfortunately, the past 10 years, more than 50% of computer users come Internet users are still reusing their password across multiple logins.

Raven: Thank you for these tips.

Before we leave you, here are the top business headlines of the week.

The corporate business tax surcharge is back in the spotlight we had at an event this week Governor Murphy reiterated a promise to let the 2.5% tax surcharge expire at the end of the year.

Business groups for years have campaigned to let the surcharge expire after it was extended by a law passed during the pandemic sang the tax imposes an unfair burden on New Jersey businesses and makes New Jersey less affordable for businesses looking to locate here.

>> On the other hand it does exacerbate a structural deficit we are running at the moment and we have to be clear eyed about that.

>> The sunset of the surcharge of the corporate business tax makes a difference for New Jersey corporations.

It's hundreds of thousands of jobs in New Jersey.

>> Later in the week advocates rallied outside the state house urging lawmakers to pass an extension and use the money to help fund New Jersey transit and other social services.

We learned more about the potential cost for New York's controversial congestion pricing plan this week.

The transportation mobility review board recommended daytime rates of $15 on top of regular tolls.

The rates dropped by 75% for overnight hours after 9:00 p.m.. Small trucks face a $25 rate and big rigs would have to pay $36.

The court recommend it five dollars discount for those taking battery tunnels during peak hours.

Governor Murphy says the MTA is ripping off New Jersey commuters with financial failings paid he says the state is considering further legal action to stop the pricing plan.

The FDA maintains the congestion pricing plan is needed to control traffic jams and cut vehicle pollution.

Remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for when we post new episodes and clips.

I am Raven antenna.

Thank you for watching and we will see you next week.

>> Support provided by NJ NEP focused on productivity, performance and strategic develop.