Week in Review: Bing, violent crime, and school closures

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with Jane C. Hu, Karen Weise and Joni Balter.

On Tuesday, Mircosoft debuted a new version of the Bing search engine. It will run on a more powerful version of OpenAI's popular ChatGPT natural language AI technology. Users will still see normal web links with their search results, but also AI-powered responses that specifically addresses user questions. How will our lives change in the near future because of this AI development?

On Monday, Seattle released its annual crime statistics for 2022. The report shows that last year had the highest violent crime rate in 15 years. This is a continued increase from the spike that happened in 2020. What is the city doing to respond?

On Monday, parents protested outside of the Bellevue School District headquarters because of the announcement that the district would be closing three schools due to low enrollment. Seattle Public schools is also considering the idea of school closures due to low enrollment and large budget shortfalls. Why is there a decline in enrollment?

The Seattle City Council will have significant turnover this election cycle. More councilmembers are not seeking reelection than those who will. Of the reasons, concerns about safety and harassment have been cited. What impact will this have on Seattleites?

On Monday, Seattle and King County officials announced that they would no longer require their employees to be vaccinated, effective immediately. In a statement, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said “The City’s actions then and now have always been informed by the science of the pandemic and recommendations of public health officials — an approach based on data and dedicated to saving lives.” Why has Washington State not dropped it?