♪♪ >> From NJPBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagis.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

Coming up, AI in New Jersey.

From people turning to chatGBT for advice, to AI programs replacing jobs, we look at the impact of the technology on our state.

And later July marks Disability Pride Month.

We look at the challenges of flying for people who depend on a mobility device.

But first, is New Jersey becoming Hollywood East?

We talk with actor, writer, director, and Jersey native Kevin Smith to get his take.

That's next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Long before Hollywood became synonymous with the movies, New Jersey helped give birth to the film industry.

Now, with major studios taking shape across the state, New Jersey is once again emerging as a filmmaking destination, and few filmmakers are more closely tied to the state than Kevin Smith.

His 1994 indie classic Clerks was shot here on a shoestring budget, and since then he's continued to put Jersey on the map by putting Jersey stories on the screen.

I recently spoke to Kevin Smith about the industry today and his recent efforts to keep people going to the movies with his local theater, Smondcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands.

Here's that conversation.

Kevin, great to have you on.

You became a New Jersey icon and really a household name with some of the movies.

You made your first movies in the 90s, movies I grew up with, Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, the Jay and Silent Bob movies.

These bring me back to high school.

I should engage myself.

What are you up to these days?

I am, you know, trying to keep relevant.

That's the thing I had no idea.

I wish I'd have known before I started my journey into entertainment, which began, oh, 33 years ago, when we started making Clerks in 1993.

But I wish I'd known then, 'cause I would have told young Kev, "If you get what you want here, if somebody buys this movie, anybody, you know, if you, if they acknowledge you're a filmmaker, like you seem to think you are, just know that what follows it is a chase for relevancy for the rest of your life.

You have to figure out how to make total strangers care about you enough to invest themselves in your work or whatever it is that you do so that you don't have to go working at the convenience store again.

So it's like that's yeah.

How much has that chase been fun for you or been pressure for you?

What a great question.

Now, if the chase was horrible, like I do it because I'm lazy by nature, but you don't notice it so much because you're doing the thing you love.

And whether you're getting paid multi millions, or even like, five figures, six figures, you're getting paid to like make pretend.

So you're breathing that rarefied air.

So for most of my career, like I didn't notice that it's only later as relevancy slips away the older I get, I've been doing this 32 years.

So, you know, whether you like my stuff or not, it's like, well, he has been around for a red hot minute.

And that works in your favor sometimes, but it also works against you.

Sometimes you become the establishment I started my career is like, you know, outside the establishment.

So, you know, later in life, it's about how do I make them care about me now?

And you know, so it's a bit more of a struggle now than it was when I was younger, but the sweetest struggle.

Excellent point, which is just like, what else would I do?

Two things I always say to myself, whenever I do something, whether it works or doesn't work.

Number one is, you wanted this.

Oh my God, you wanted this.

You changed the entire shape of the universe to make this thing happen.

So don't be disappointed with the results.

You got what you wanted.

Enjoy it.

And then the other thing I always say is, what was the alternative?

Like, what would you have done if you didn't pursue this, whether it worked or not, like to live with it in your head and heart, and knowing that you could have done it and could have accomplished it, but you didn't even try?

Like, what was the alternative?

I had to do the thing.

Well, you say you're trying to make people care.

You're at a point right now where you're trying to make people care in a different way.

You opened Smodcast Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands at a time when movie theaters are struggling to get people in their seats.

So bring us to your current challenge of trying to get people to care about going to the movie theater.

How do you do that?

How do you get them in the scene?

What my friend, childhood friend, lifelong friend, Ernie O'Donnell, reached out to me post pandemic and said, they're closing Atlantic.

That's our movie theater.

You know, it was called when we were kids, it was the Atlantic and then it became the Atlantic Islands Twin Cinema.

And then they added three more screens to multiplex but a Frankensteinian multiplex most multiplexes you build a big cement block and it's got a bunch of theaters big parking lot this was just a single screen house that slowly expanded over decades into a multi screen multiplex and whatnot so when you know this is the movie theater that I went to as a kid this was my my temple you know what I'm saying like I've said many times I never learned anything about myself sitting in a classroom and I damn skippy didn't learn anything about myself sitting in a church.

Most I ever learned about who I am I learned sitting in the darkness of that very movie theater.

Looking up at the great white mirror and seeing like life reflected back.

So the idea of letting it die was anathema like oh no we can't let this happen.

And so me and Ernie and our friends got together like the Goonies and saved the theater but it was the worst financial decision I ever made in my life.

Oh my God, there was a reason this theater was going under.

Like you don't need a multiplex anymore let alone one there.

They got theaters not too far away with better seats.

I'm here to find out.

I was hoping you could tell me for heaven's sakes.

We've been doing this five years and we had to go non-profit because the theater will never make a profit for heaven's sake.

So what we do that's different at Small Castle Cinemas is I show up once, twice a month and then we do fun programming.

So like, you know, for, um, we did a, we do the stop start screening.

So we'll show Mallrats and we'll show the opening scene.

Then we, cause I own the movie theater, we could pause it.

And then we get up and tell every damn story we can remember about the making of just that one scene.

So it's gratifying work keeping the theater alive, but it's hard work, man.

There are theaters with more modern seats within driving distance of our theater.

We have like one of the best projection systems in New Jersey and stuff, but our seats are the same seats that I sat in when I went to see "Friday the 13th Part II."

That's how old the theater is.

- So let me jump in here.

- When we shot my movie.

- Let me- - Sure, go ahead.

- Let me jump in because I wanna ask you about the industry as a whole, because we see New Jersey, listen, a lot of people think of Hollywood, right, as the kind of the epicenter of the film industry, but at a time it was New Jersey.

And at a time, again, perhaps it is New Jersey.

We've got Lionsgate, we've got Paramount has a studio, 1888, we've got Netflix that just bought, recently bought Fort Monmouth.

How do you see the industry changing to make it perhaps easier for talent on this side of the coast to create movies, to be in movies?

What do you see and what decisions should filmmakers be considering when they decide where they wanna make their movies?

- New Jersey becoming the epicenter of film again is gratifying for a longtime Jersey resident who knows that the industry began in New Jersey.

Thomas Edison, one of the inventors of motion pictures, had the Black Mariah studio.

They used to make film in New Jersey all the time.

So it left for a long time.

At one point, they were running away from unions and whatnot.

And then also because the weather out west is really nice.

But in a world where, you know, the dollar rains, they're gonna go anyplace.

where they can get a rebate.

And truth is, Jersey has the fattest, sweetest rebate right now.

So as long as that rebate maintains, you know, Jersey will continue to see all the film activity that Atlanta has enjoyed for the last 10 years when they had their big rebate.

And once that rebate kind of went away or the rebates started getting bigger elsewhere, like overseas, we lose a lot of productions overseas, it'll dry up.

Right now, Jersey's committed, man.

For, I think they put in for 10 years at least of these rebates, so nobody can take it away.

And that means something.

That's why one of the reasons Netflix is like, "All right, we'll buy Fort Mommoth "and build our soundstages here."

The only thing that's confounding to me is at least it's Netflix, and Netflix is one of the studios that continues to make content, as they call it now today, all the time.

Netflix has all the money.

But building sound stages is just anathema to me.

I'm out here in Los Angeles, in the heart of Hollywood, where most of the sound stages are completely empty right now.

And that's not just because we don't have the tax rebate that Jersey has, but a lot of movies don't need to film on sound stages anymore, you know what I'm saying?

So Netflix building a bunch of stages at Fort Monmouth is great.

It's gonna create a lot of jobs and whatnot, and they're committed to staying there.

- I'm not sure if it's like putting a lot of money into it so I can't see them going anyplace else and whatnot.

But as long as Jersey has that rebate, that tax incentive rebate, which you the taxpayer pays for and stuff, remember, like you are helping to finance the movie industry and whatnot.

- Yeah.

- With all this giant, like everyone being like, "Film is coming back to New Jersey.

It ain't coming for free, kids.

It's coming out of your taxpayer dollars."

But the good news is bringing lots of jobs with it and all the hype.

Oh my God, everyone's talking about New Jersey again in terms of being the epicenter of production and whatnot.

So it's a hot time to be a Jersey felon.

- New Jersey never had a shortage of talent, right?

We've seen so much talent come out of New Jersey, but maybe now they have a place more local where they can exhibit that talent.

I've just a little bit of time left that we have.

How do you see yourself as a supporter of the film industry, big picture of Netflix, you know, streaming, and trying to keep local movie theaters alive, yours in particular, but I'm sure others as well.

Can those two exist at the same time?

Absolutely.

Netflix at this point is in competition for us.

It's a public utility, you know what I'm saying?

It took the place of normal television, which that was replaced by cable TV.

So it's the standard by which most of us get our information, Netflix, and of course, YouTube and whatnot, you can't compete with those the same way movie theaters couldn't compete with the golden age of television when it started drawing people away and stuff.

So you learn to live with it.

I mean, I have Netflix, it would be weird for me to be like, who are these streamers when I pay a monthly bill, because I like to watch it at home as well doesn't mean that it's necessarily going to kill a movie theater.

And as long as you put some love and attention into a movie theater, you know, I found my path by which I can help, which is like, Hey, remember Jane's on Bob, we're showing those movies come out and I'll tell you about them.

That's, that's how I can keep that theater alive and keep the dream alive and keep live exhibition going and stuff because watching a movie theater, you know, watching a movie in the theater with a bunch of strangers as the lights go down, having that collective experience will never go away.

It's just going to get pricier is all it comes down to.

Not at Smodcastle Cinemas though, where you can see a brand new movie for $12 every night.

There you go.

We are not paid to pay for that advertisement.

But you're right, there's nothing like sitting in a theater with a bunch of strangers who you don't know and sharing that experience together.

We have to leave it there.

I wish we could talk so much longer.

Kevin Smith, director, writer, actor, and of course, owner of Smodcastle Cinemas.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Great to talk to you.

Thanks for having me.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming a part of people's daily lives, at work, at home, even in schools.

But as many New Jerseyans embrace this new frontier, concerns are growing over the technology's impact on jobs and who's accountable when AI goes wrong.

Joining me now to talk about it is Aaron Lindberg, Associate Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Aaron, great to have you with us.

AI has become more and more a part of our daily lives.

I know people who are using chat GPT for guidance and advice.

I can't help but think of that movie, her a while ago where the character falls in love with his AI operating system named Samantha.

How are you seeing programs like chat GPT, for example, being used as part of people's daily lives?

Well, it is really a sea change in how we engage with information technologies.

And what I want you to do is to imagine how the world looked like before the Internet compared to today and realize that we're moving in a red direction where things are going to change as much, if not more, and at a faster pace than that.

AI is increasingly being integrated in every aspect of our lives that touches a computer, and it will start to change everything that we do.

Give me some examples.

Well, for example, right now I have an AI running on a server in my home that's creating custom software that I need in my work.

And I do this without necessarily having to look at the individual lines of codes that are being generated.

The AI is doing it for me.

So it's creating custom software for me and this is increasingly something that almost everybody can do.

It's in some ways created a lot of ease, right?

We can search things with ease.

Sometimes we can get questions answered with ease if we're calling a company and it's a quick simple question.

But more and more we find it hard, I think, to connect with humans on the other side.

And the concern is that AI is replacing jobs more and more.

My question to you is, how has this accelerated and should we expect this to continue accelerating, continue taking over jobs?

I think it's reasonable to expect that AI is going to change the job market.

Is AI taking jobs right now?

Well, the story is complicated.

The headline numbers don't really prove that economists haven't really agreed on whether AI is causing job losses, or whether it's just getting over the search and hiring after the pandemic.

What we do know, however, is that it's increasingly harder for young people to find entry level positions, especially in technical fields.

Explain that a bit.

Why?

Is it that those entry level jobs are the ones that are easier to give to an AI program?

That's exactly right.

In many cases, technical entry level jobs are about writing code, producing documents, and these are exactly the things that AI does really well.

Do you think, Aaron, that there's any industry that would be safe from AI not coming in and perhaps replacing humans?

And on the flip side, is there any industry that shouldn't be relying on AI in some capacity?

That's a two-part question.

I think that any industry that's been touched by information technology in the past 20 years is similarly going to be affected by AI.

So I don't think that there is a place that is safe in the sense of remaining static.

And I think what we need to do is to develop new skills, new forms of knowledge, new capabilities, so that the young people that we educate for the future are prepared for that future as opposed to a past that's no longer with us.

So OpenAI reported that its AI models had escaped testing and went ahead and launched a hack of another company.

What is the role of government in regulating business that uses AI, regulating AI, and are we already behind it?

Well, the first thing I want to say about this is that I think it's really a piece of brilliant marketing on the part of OpenAI here.

They created a sandbox that was not safe enough for what they were doing.

They made mistakes and then this started to affect other companies.

And they are spinning this as the model escaped.

And really what happened was that open AI screwed up.

And really they should have done better and they should do better.

And I think that we need to remember that these AI agents they are not responsible themselves.

It is the companies behind them that are responsible for their actions.

In this case this was open AI's doing and they spin it as the model did it.

So it's a high-tech version of the excuse that the dog ate my homework.

Government has an important role in regulating these types of models and increasingly we're seeing more attention both at the federal level as well as the state level in terms of understanding what are these models doing and how can we make them safe for everyone.

Yeah, I know that's a very short answer to a very complex challenge.

Aaron Lindberg, Chair of Information Systems and Analytics at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Thank you.

Thank you.

July is Disability Pride Month, and for millions of Americans with disabilities, one of the biggest barriers is air travel.

Roughly more than 10,000 wheelchairs and scooters are damaged, delayed, or lost each year, according to the U.S.

Department of Transportation.

New federal protections were supposed to help change that, but the Trump administration has delayed enforcement of several key provisions finalized under the previous administration, saying it's reviewing the rules with any changes expected as soon as next month.

But one change that did move forward, a training mandate that airline staff had to meet by June.

Behind the numbers though are the people who depend on these devices, people like Emily Ledao, who we spoke to this past March after her wheelchair was damaged during a flight.

Here's a look back at my conversation with the disability rights advocate and author of Demystifying Disability.

Just earlier this month, you experienced this, unfortunately not for the first time.

What happened to your wheelchair?

Thank you for having me.

First of all, I wish it was under better circumstances, but I am really glad to be raising awareness about this issue.

So I flew from LaGuardia Airport to Minneapolis-St.

Paul Airport and it was on Delta Airlines.

And when I arrived, I was informed that my wheelchair had taken a fall while they were removing it from the airplane.

And it is a 450 pound device.

So a fall is quite dangerous for something that heavy.

And it turned out that the wheelchair was totaled.

It was completely destroyed.

Just OK.

So I'll have a lot of questions quickly.

The cost of that wheelchair.

What is it.

So it is a little over seventy five thousand dollars because it is a custom wheelchair.

So it's not just a standard issue.

There are multiple features that it has including elevation because it helps me reach things.

It has a tilt and recline function which is for my safety so that I can relieve pressure and avoid pressure sore.

It's also custom measured to my specifications.

So it really expensive, durable medical equipment.

So in this case here you are landing in Minneapolis about to go do a speech where you are a disability rights advocate.

What happens next.

How do you then get around.

What is your mobility at that point.

Well I was at first in quite a panic because without my wheelchair I have no way of getting around.

I am unable to walk.

So my wheelchair is essentially akin to legs for me.

It is my freedom of movement and mobility.

So what happened is that the complaint resolution team at the Minneapolis St.

Paul Airport immediately got in touch with the company that they contract with called Scoot Around and it is Scoot Around's job to help source a loner wheelchair.

And this was particularly a challenge because as I was just mentioning my wheelchair is custom so it's not as though you can just pull one off the shelf and give it to me and it's not as though they're always in immediate supply but miraculously within about four and a half hours they were able to source a wheelchair for me.

It was not at all the right dimensions, it was much too large for me and it was hard for me to sit in but it did have an elevation feature which was essential for me to be able to transfer in and out of it.

So at the end of the day I actually consider myself quite lucky that they were able to find a functional solution for me to get out of the airport.

Sadly like I said this is not the first time that this has happened to you.

In fact you had posted on social media just before this trip because you shared concerns about this.

What is the impact on you and so many thousands of others who depend on their wheelchairs or scooters for mobility when it comes to deciding whether or not you can travel whether or not you can go on a honeymoon.

In your example.

Well I'm really glad that you mentioned it's not just me.

The implications are incredibly far reaching and I'm so appreciative that I have the opportunity to talk about this issue.

But there are so many times when stories like this go completely under the radar.

And the implications as you said are very far reaching.

For me I was traveling because it was a business trip.

I was going to the University of Wisconsin La Crosse for a speaking engagement.

And so not being able to travel puts my livelihood at risk.

But my husband and I were also supposed to go on our honeymoon to London next month.

And after the, quite frankly, trauma of having my wheelchair broken, we just could not fathom getting back on an airplane.

Not to mention, we didn't know if I would yet have a replacement workable wheelchair.

So this is a matter of impacting livelihood.

It's a matter of impacting leisure.

And beyond that, it's just a matter of impacting people's freedom of choice to go where they want to go when they want to go there.

You are calling on the FAA to make a change that allows folks who depend on a wheelchair to stay in that wheelchair on their flights.

Where is the FAA as far as you understand in terms of considering that rule?

So under the previous administration, there was a lot of work being done to hold airlines accountable and hopefully either prevent damage to wheelchairs or at least eliminate the hoops that people have to jump through if their wheelchairs or mobility equipment are damaged in flight.

So I am at the very least calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to not roll back the work that was done on implementing those heavier protections for the disability community in the hopes that they really will hold the feet of the airlines to the fire.

But beyond that, there's an organization called All Wheels Up that's been working with the FAA to crash test the technology needed to allow wheelchair users to roll their mobility equipment right onto the airplane and stay in their mobility equipment and just have it tied down and secured in the same way that you might if you were rolling onto a public bus, for example.

Emily, I'm sorry, would that then require more open rows on airplanes to accommodate folks who need wheelchairs?

It's a great question, and I know that there's a financial concern about it, but the technology that's being developed is such that the airline wouldn't have to lose money because the seats would be replaceable if they weren't filled by a wheelchair user, so it's not as though the seats would go empty.

So right now, we have the testing, we have the technology, what we need is the airline industry and the FAA to work together to implement it.

and it will be time and effort, but it will not be at a significant loss because it will open up more travel opportunities for people with disabilities and people who use mobility devices.

and they won't have to pay for the damaged equipment.

and beyond that, they're not going to lose the seats on the airplanes.

so it's really a win-win for everybody.

>> all right.

>> I'm so excited to be here.

disability rights advocate.

I want to thank you so much for coming on and sharing your perspective and advocating for those who don't have a voice like you do.

Thank you.

>> thank you for having me.

>> that's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna gaggis for the entire team here at "NJ spotlight news."

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

>> RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

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