for gma3. i'm dr. jen ashton, from all of us at abc news, be well and stay healthy. ♪ ♪ today on getting answers. a south bay city is using ai to detect homeless encampments. is it to provide services or, as critics charge, to punish people

without homes? what's in a name? a lot if you're an airport in the bay area, why san francisco is ready to fight oakland's port over its proposal to change its airport's name. but first, millions of americans witnessed a special celestial event today, a total solar eclipse was the show as amazing as promised? you're watching. getting answers. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us. a total solar eclipse 2024 is in the books this morning. heads lifted up to the sky and mouths open in awe as a total solar eclipse made its way across north america from mexico to canada. here in the bay area, we experienced a partial eclipse at 34% coverage. so not this. the states that experienced totality texas, indiana, illinois, upstate new york, vermont, just to name a few all saw a rush of eclipse tourism. and just as the sun was obscured completely by the moon and day turned to night in

cleveland, abc news caught up with a woman who traveled there from san francisco to witness the solar spectacular. >> you have traveled from where? >> san francisco. all by yourself? yes. why did you want to come here? it was a last minute decision. but look at this. i mean, this is this is amazing. i mean, this is everything. it's science. >> it's beautiful. it's all the people coming together. i mean, it's incredible. >> it is. and i'm completely jealous because they had about four minutes of that joining us live now, doctor quinn konopacki, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at uc san diego, professor konopacki, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> hey, so how did you spend this big day? were you in san diego? i think you guys had, what, 55% coverage there? yeah, we had about 55. >> yeah. so we had a big on campus event at uc san diego. we were, had our telescopes with our special solar filters out on campus. we had a whole bunch of eclipse glasses that we were

giving away just to have the help the students experience, this eclipse, even though it was only partial, it was still really, really fun and really exciting for everybody. >> let's see some video of the eclipse, did it evoke any emotions in you? >> it does. you know, it's really interesting. i can't it's really hard to explain when, you know, as an astronomer, i see pictures of eclipses all the time. i see lots of really amazing pictures of the sky. but until you're actually, there viewing a total solar eclipse, there's really nothing that can describe the feeling that you get. have you seen any total? >> did you see the i saw in 2017? >> yeah, i saw the 1 in 2017. and then i was i was kind of a not believing i would have an experience, but i started to cry. i couldn't help it and i don't know why, but, it's just emotional and beautiful. and you're there with all of these people experiencing, something that's amazing, an amazing coincidence that we even get to have these here on earth. yeah. >> i mean, i saw video today of people crying in all those cities, and a lot of people say, well, you just said about like, oh, i felt like i was just a speck. and this reminded me that

humanity is so huge and we're all tied together and their purpose is bigger than ourselves. and yeah, so that's pretty common. but this was the first total solar eclipse since 2017, in north america. right. but it happens around the world all the time. >> it does. there's a few of them that happen every year, you just have to hopefully get lucky , a lot of them are over the, over the ocean, so those are harder to get to, so our next one in north america won't be until 2044, so hopefully a lot of folks got out and got to experience this today, because it's going to be a while until we get another one. >> well, i was going to say 20, 44 or 45 for last, but, but you may as well, since you brought it up. okay. explain the difference. there's 1 in 44, but i know there's 1 in 45 that i'm super excited about because that's going to be right here in north, northern california. and i even looked at the map and we have it. i feel like if i just drive up to redding, i will be in the path of totality. >> that's right. yeah. you just have to go a little bit north of the bay area, i believe, to get to get into totality. see? there

it is. yeah. so luckily, in california, hopefully people won't have to travel quite as far as they did as they did this time to get over to those other states that had the totality today. >> so as we zoom in, do you want to be somewhere on that red dotted line? is that where the ideal spot is? >> yeah, that's where you get the longest total. so you you get totality within the dark red band. but the longest time of totality is right along the dotted line. >> so about 4.5 minutes. right. is that because that's what it was okay. so let's zoom in a little bit more. you can see lake tahoe. like if we just zoom in a little bit closer i was thinking, oh, i'll just drive to lake tahoe. but i'm quite sure that people there are thinking, we don't need like 10,000 people to pour into lake tahoe, but that's, you know, basically just south of that red, you know, red, red part where you will get totatality b two miles. so yeah. so 20, 45, i've got it on the calendar. but in terms of what we had this year and today, let me just ask you, you know, for all of us who are not in that totality area, you know, is

it kind of like an all or nothing? i mean, i know you thought it was still pretty great at 55, but the sun is just so bright, right? so, so yeah. >> yeah, there's really something special about being able to take off your, you know, eclipse glasses, and look at the sun. yeah. yeah, i mean, even, but even, you know, even with the even with the eclipse glasses, it's, it's something that we don't really do every day. we don't really think about looking at the sun, and kind of seeing what it's up to, and it's just so fun to see it looking like a crescent through the special glasses and doing that with a group of people, but there really is something magical about being in totality. >> it really is. i mean, as you know, 30 people live along the path, but i think like 150 and like many, many more people travel to those destinations. sure. have you heard of some of them were bust because of clouds, or did it all work out for everyone? because i know people were dropping tens of thousands of dollars on trips to those places and airfares were up like quadruple. >> yeah for sure. yeah so, folks, i, a lot of the folks i

know, a lot of the astronomers who chase eclipses were headed to texas, because they thought that was the best, the best chance they'd have. and then there was predictions of clouds there. but i did see people, getting glimpses of the eclipse in texas through clouds that were kind of breaking up as, as the eclipse was happening, and it actually created this beautiful, kind of eerie, like moment for those folks. so i was really, really glad that they did get to see it, so i haven't personally heard of any busts yet, so i'm hoping that people i know did get to see it. >> it traveled okay. i'm happy to hear that, look, i know there's a science element here, right? that nasa is doing experiments, hoping to learn some things from this, what are they interested in? what are you interested in? from a scientific standpoint, so we used to like, use, use eclipses a lot to study things like the outer atmosphere, of the sun that you couldn't see any, any other way. now we have, like, a lot of really advanced telescopes that allow us to use hardware to block the glare of the sun and study the corona, whenever we

like to, but folks are interested in studying things like how, how, you know, nature and birds and different animals react when the eclipse is happening. so that's not something that you can study with a telescope, and we also use the technique of, of planets passing in front of their star to discover other planets. so it's kind of like a little mini miniature eclipse or a transit is what we call it, so we're using kind of the lessons that you learn from, from these natural events that happen in our own solar system in order to discover really cool things about the universe beyond our own, our own sun moon system. >> so, like indirectly, it's teaching us a lot about a lot of things. >> that's right. >> yeah, that is amazing. what kind of questions are your students asking you? what do they want to talk about, they they want to talk about why we don't get totality here in california, so they were they were super, super excited to get to see the eclipse today, even though it wasn't it wasn't totality. so they were asking when they might have a chance to do that again. i was telling

them, it's, you know, 20 years in the future, they're asking, you know, what? what is it about, the kind of the way that the sun, the earth and the moon is organized that allows something as amazing as a total solar eclipse to happen. it's actually this amazing coincidence that the size of the sun and the size of the moon on the sky are actually almost exactly the same, so that didn't have to happen. it has to do with the size of the sun, the size of the basically. and actually how far apart they are, from each other and from the earth. so it's this kind of amazing cosmic coincidence that that occurs. >> yeah. and i just think when i look at that video, i think, you know, back in the beginning of our civilization, before we had explanations and knew what was happening up there, it must all be so, i don't know, either freaky or mystical or something. >> it's very i'm sure people were very, very confused about what was happening. i can imagine, all sorts of interesting stories and mythology, when you had no idea what was going on and why this was happening, and when that amazing view. >> but now we've got classes that you teach. we got science

museums. we've got all that. so really fabulous time for learning, especially about all things space and science, doctor quinn konopacki, thank you so much for joining us today. really appreciate your time. >> thank you so much for talking to me. >> all right. happy eclipse day. thank you, thank you. you too. a first of its kind. i experiment is using the technology to help determine homeless encampments in san jose. critics say it's pushing the limits of pricy. and i, professor and you made a cow! actually it's a piggy bank. my inspiration to start saving. how about a more solid way to save? i'm listening. well, bmo helps get your savings habit into shape with a cash reward, every month you save. both: cash reward? and there's a cash bonus

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hi. hey. nice to meet you. (♪) you're so amazing. (♪) so it's no surprise that the city is an early adopter of ai technology, but a pilot program there is adopting it to detect

homeless encampments and rvs used as homes. it's a use that some residents question and some critics decry. here to tell us how it's supposed to work san jose ai professor vishnu pendyala, professor pendyala, thank you so much for joining us . >> sure. it's a pleasure. >> i just want to make sure we're clear with our viewers. you're not part of the city's pilot program. however you are an expert in the uses for ai, so i want to get that out there. but from what we understand, san jose has since december been using a car fixed with a half dozen small cameras on top to collect footage of parked cars and rvs. the images are fed into a system ai system developed by private companies, and then the ai makes a determination. explain what the ai does with the images is so the artificial intelligence works in layers, so when an image is extracted from the camera, the features are

extracted from the image in layers. the first layer will probably detect, low level features like lines, angles, colors. and then the next level, the features will detect. it will be something like, shapes, and the next level, the next layer, the features detected would be something like, a window, a wheel of a car. and things like that, so eventually, the final layer will, detect highest level of features. and based on these highest level of features, the classification is done here. it's a binary classification of, whether the scenario or the scene pertains to, homeless camp or not. >> do we have any idea the of its degree of accuracy? >> that's a good question. the

computer vision itself is, pretty good these days. it's almost, the accuracy is pretty similar to the human level, of, accuracy, in terms of computer vision. so, the be pretty good, but of course they will. they will continue to be, false positives, and probably even false negatives, but i think, the accuracy, in my opinion, would be good enough for this pilot program. and as we collect more data, we will probably, confirm that the accuracy is good enough. all right. san jose mayor matt mehan thinks this could be a game changer. >> how does the ai do what humans cannot? as in, why is it necessary versus just having teams of people? >> yeah, that's a good question.

the main advantage that artificial intelligence brings to us is the scale, right, scale and the cost effectiveness, if, people had to go around looking for these camps, it would be a very expensive operation. and it does not scale to the extent that we desire, whereas when the task is automated using artificial intelligence and the cameras and the cars, it's, much more efficient, to scale level that the city expects, i see. >> well, this is a major issue for the city. about 6300 homeless people in san jose, about 70% of them living in cars. mayor mehan has also said this pilot can ensure services get to people who might need them. that is the goal. but critics have concerns as what are some of the concerns? >> the main concern, i would think, is, privacy, because,

artificial intelligence is powered by data and data about people, data their environment is, certainly will cause concerns with respect to privacy. >> but the city says the cameras don't collect identifying footage of license plates or people's faces. so do you still have privacy concerns or or other concerns like hacking, for example? >> yeah, there is some cause for concern i wouldn't completely rule out, any privacy concerns because a camera is a camera, right? it, it will capture, whatever comes in its way. of course, the city will hopefully do the due diligence in, blurring out the faces and not, storing the data with, personally identifiable information, but there is always

a chance like, we have heard about, privacy breaches when, there were a number of privacy breaches that were in the news, in the last few years. yeah well, the city says this is part of a broader program to start using ai for good. >> i know some cities are already using it to detect potholes or reduce traffic or fight wildfires, but it sounds like with these concerns, safeguards need to be set up. so in the 30s we have left, what kind of safeguards do you hope they will enact? >> so privacy, has to be preserved. so, so there is need to make sure that, privacy concerns are addressed adequately, so that is probably the most important safeguard that needs to be put in place, for this kind of a pilot program. >> all right. well, we'll see how it goes. i know the city

will evaluate the results and possibly add to its fleet of these cars with the cameras for ai analyzing if it goes well. so we'll keep you updated on that. professor vishnu pendyala, thank you so much for joining us today. >> thank you. thanks for having me. >> a battle is escalating between two airports over the words the san francisco bay. we'll talk with san francisco city attorney over the name change, possible name change that's now led to thre

international airport, or perhaps soon to be san francisco bay. oakland international airport, the port of oakland, which operates the airport, thinks the change will put oakland on the map as an alternative for travelers coming to the bay area. but days ahead before the vote, san francisco saying, don't you dare. joining us live now to talk more about this is david chiu, san

francisco city attorney. david, thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me on. kristen. >> yeah, i just want to mention we invited the port of oakland to also join us on this program. they declined, but they will vote this thursday on the potential new name again, that's san francisco bay, oakland international airport. okay, david, you represent the city of san francisco, obviously. what is the message you're sending to the port of oakland? >> you know, from our perspective, oakland's renaming proposal is going to cause immense confusion and chaos for travelers, especially visitors who don't speak or read english. we also believe the currently proposed name infringes on sfo's trademark lax. sfo has been in operation for almost a century. since 1927, we've used san francisco international airport or san francisco airport throughout most of that history. we've had these trademarks for so long that they're incontestable under federal law, and so from our perspective of, if oakland chooses to move forward with its proposal, we

will have no choice but to pursue legal action to prevent the misuse of our trademarks. >> so you're saying the trademark of sfo essentially equals san francisco international airport, or using the word san francisco in an airport name? >> we've had federal trademarks registered to us for san francisco international airport as well as sfo. from our perspective, oakland's proposal appears intentionally designed to divert travelers who may be unfamiliar with bay area geography and also lead them to believe that oakland airport has a business relationship with sfo, which it doesn't. and from our perspective, yeah, from our perspective, the clear similarity and the very high likelihood of confusion gives us strong federal trademark infringement and trademark dilution claims. this is a real and clear infringement on sfo's trademarks. >> all right. so the port of oakland did send us a statement. ironically, they say changing the name will, quote, clarify,

not confuse like you believe it will. their market research apparently shows travelers don't know that oakland is located on the bay in the bay area, so are reluctant to book flights to the airport, and that in turn leads to airlines to not want to fly in and out of there. do you acknowledge that may be true from the research, and do you sympathize? >> well, as you stated, as you introduced the topic, we're talking about the difference between san francisco international airport versus san francisco bay, oakland international airport, i think i think anyone who hears us that sees that, would understand our perspective, that we think it will cause immense confusion and chaos, but let me also say this to oakland. we all want to see the entire bay area thrive as a tourist destination. we all want to see an expansion of offerings to all of our visitors. but this proposal is just not a legal or practical way to go about it. we're very happy to entertain

conversations, about alternatives and how to move this forward. from our perspective, litigation is our last resort. we hope to avoid it, but we will resort to litigation if we need to. if oakland chooses to move forward. yeah, i hear you. >> you're saying, look, we'll work to lift all boats, but this is not the way, but i do want to ask you, right, just to play devil's advocate, does san francisco seem a little hypocritical? hypocritical in that, you know, the airport, sfo is essentially in san bruno and quite a bit south of the city. >> well, the airport has been on san francisco property, but the more important thing to understand is that we've been using, this name for the better part of a century. we've owned these trademarks. and unfortunately, oakland, is violating trademark law at this point. so, we want to have a conversation with oakland about this, about alternatives and how we lift all of, the tourism in our region. but this is not the way to go about it, okay, the

legal issue aside, right. the trademark aside and the confusion for travelers aside, do you think there could be actual financial economic harm done to the city of san francisco if a different airport were using san francisco in its name? i think that is very much a likelihood. >> but as we said before, this comes down to the immense confusion and chaos we think this will mean for travelers, particularly those who don't speak english from all over the world, who will end up in an airport thinking they're trying to go to a different airport and , we think that that would be catastrophic and it would be bad for the reputation of our region and both of our airports. >> all right. we have about 20s. but i do want to ask you, you know, is there kind of a city attorney to city attorney or to, you know, chat that you can kind of engage in, before the vote? >> i, we are more than happy to engage in conversations. as we've said, as soon as we

learned about this, we were just as surprised as everyone in the bay area, when oakland proposes recently. but that being said, we want to have constructive conversations about how as a region, we can all work together. david thank you so

racism and anti-black policies. >> there are many people who feel as strongly as i do about this, and viscerally so. and we're not black, but we understand a little bit of what what's happened here through our

own history for change to happen, it has to involve everybody. >> california's case for reparations looks at the amount of public support for reparations and whether there is political will in sacramento to pass the legislation currently being considered. watch the abc seven originals documentary, now on abc seven news.com and wherever you stream abc seven news. thanks for watching. getting answers today. we'll be here every weekday at 3:00, answering questions with experts from around the bay area. world news tonight with david muir is next. and i'll see you back here at four. tonight, the eclipse across america. the awe-inspiring images. from mexico to maine. the total solar eclipse. tens of millions of americans witnessing the breathtaking sight. starting in mexico, then