Rival cellphone providers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are teaming up to eliminate dead zones across the United States, the companies announced this week.

The joint venture aims to nearly eliminate dead spots in underserved areas by relying largely on satellites rather than traditional cell towers to fill coverage gaps.

The service is considered direct-to-device, meaning cellphones will communicate directly with satellites.

RELATED STORY | T-Mobile teams up with Starlink to eliminate dead zones

The companies said they are also developing redundant technology to ensure reliable service during emergencies.

The collaboration comes a year after T-Mobile and Starlink launched a beta project to use satellite technology to fill coverage gaps. Also last year, Verizon partnered with Skylo to offer satellite messaging and location detection for customers with select Android devices.

The companies did not disclose which satellite providers will participate in the latest joint venture.

RELATED STORY | How often do you really need to restart your smartphone?

Our goal is to make staying connected simple, no matter where you are on a rural highway, in a national park, on a boat, or during an emergency, said John Stankey, chairman and CEO of AT&T. By joining with other carriers, we're bringing our combined expertise to accelerate access to reliable, always-on coverage everywhere. This collaboration not only makes connectivity easier; it strengthens America's communications leadership.

The partnership is subject to final regulatory approval.

WASHINGTON (AP) Scientists are tweaking a powerful cancer therapy in hopes it could fight HIV instead, by supercharging patients' own immune cells.

On Tuesday, researchers said a single dose of those revved-up cells strongly suppressed HIV in two people one for nearly a year and the other for nearly two years without requiring their usual medicines.

Larger and longer studies are needed to prove if what's called CAR-T cell therapy might really offer long-lasting help for HIV, cautioned Dr. Steven Deeks of the University of California, San Francisco, who led the research.

We find the fact that two people have had such a really sustained response provocative, he said. There is a real need for a one-and-done, safe and scalable cure ... and this is one of the strategies that were pursuing.

The data is being presented at a meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy in Boston.

There are nearly 40 million people living with HIV around the world. Todays medicines have turned the virus that causes AIDS from a fast killer into a manageable chronic disease, often keeping the virus at undetectable levels, but only if people can afford the drugs and stick with them. The virus hides out in reservoirs in the body and rebounds fast if people stop treatment.

Researchers have long hunted an elusive cure, pursuing such clues as a rare gene mutation that makes some people naturally resistant to HIV or how a handful of HIV patients who also had certain cancers were declared cured or in long-term remission after receiving a stem cell transplant, something too risky for most people.

CAR-T therapy involves taking immune soldiers called T cells out of a persons blood, genetically engineering them into living drugs and infusing them back into the patient. Theyre widely used to cure certain types of cancer and are being studied for other diseases.

For HIV, scientists at the nonprofit drug developer Caring Cross created CAR-T cells with dual features. They're programmed to better find and kill HIV-infected cells and engineered with protection against infection by the very virus theyre supposed to fight.

With that added armor, they should be able to reproduce enough to keep HIV in check, said Caring Cross executive director Boro Dropuli.

Deeks early-stage experiment tested different dosing strategies in people who stopped their HIV medicine the day they received their CAR-T cells. There were no serious side effects. The first three recipients showed no response and resumed their usual medicines.

Six others received a small amount of chemotherapy to make space for the new T cells. Those two strong responders saw their HIV drop to undetectable levels, inching up only occasionally when the CAR-T cells presumably got to work again. A third patient had a temporary response and resumed regular HIV treatment.

Those three patients all had started their original HIV treatment soon after they'd been infected, Deeks said. That makes sense because people treated early tend to have less HIV hiding in the body and a healthier immune system.

This is certainly very fascinating that theyve had this positive response, said Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem, a gene therapy expert at Seattles Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center who wasnt part of the new study. He cautioned that it will take additional research to prove if CAR-T really works.

But the strategy is exciting because its boosting what our body, our immune system, can already do, said Andrea Gramatica, vice president for research at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, which is funding some work to create easier-to-use versions.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Meta Platforms said Wednesday it's rolling out an incognito mode for WhatsApp users to have private conversations with its AI chatbot, a move intended to ease privacy concerns about sensitive information that users share in chats.

The social media company said in a blog post that incognito chat mode provides a way to have private, temporary conversations with Meta AI, its artificial intelligence assistant that's been available on WhatsApp for a few years.

Messages will be processed in a secure environment" that even Meta can't access, won't be saved by default and will disappear when exiting a session, Meta said.

RELATED STORY | Google settles $5B lawsuit over tracking people using 'incognito mode'

Generative AI systems have been dogged by privacy concerns because the large language models that underpin these systems are trained on vast troves of data, sometimes including personal information provided by users themselves in their conversations with AI chatbots.

Rival chatbot makers already have some privacy features. Google's Gemini chatbot has the option to disable chat history and opt out of allowing one's data to be used in training its AI models. ChatGPT has similar controls.

Meta says it's rolling out incognito chats because users often ask chatbots sensitive questions or include private financial, personal, health or work data in their questions.

Were starting ask a lot of meaningful questions about our lives with AI systems, and it doesnt always feel like you should have to share the information behind those questions with the companies that run those AI systems, Will Cathcart, Metas head of WhatsApp, told reporters.

RELATED STORY | China blocks Meta from acquiring AI startup Manus

Incognito chat mode has safety features to prevent the chatbot from answering questions about harmful topics, Cathcart said.

It will steer the user towards helpful information if it can and then refuse (to answer) and eventually even just stop interacting with the user completely, Cathcart said.

Users will only be able to type in questions and get text responses; they won't be able to upload or generate images. They'll also have to confirm their age because Meta doesn't allow users under 13 on its platforms.

Google unveiled a new laptop line this week that will easily integrate with Android smartphones, similar to how iPhones pair with MacBooks.

The company calls the devices Googlebooks, describing them as designed to work seamlessly with the devices in your life and powered by premium hardware. Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo will manufacture the laptops, which are expected to launch this fall.

RELATED STORY | Apples latest drop: Cheaper iPhone 17e, faster MacBooks, smarter iPads

Google introduced its first Chromebook about 15 years ago, working with other computer makers to produce the cloud-based laptops centered on the Google Chrome browser.

While Chromebooks are known as a relatively inexpensive option, Google is touting the Googlebook as a higher-end device capable of handling more demanding computing tasks.

Every Googlebook will be built with premium craftsmanship and materials, coming in a variety of shapes and sizes, the company said. You will know its a Googlebook by the unique glowbar a statement that is both functional and beautiful.

The laptops will heavily incorporate Googles AI platform, Gemini Intelligence.

RELATED STORY | New Android feature could help 911 operators guide you through an emergency

Google said the overall goal is to make it easier for Android users to transition to using laptops for more tasks.

Being built on part of the Android tech stack allows us to bring new innovations much faster to all our users, including now on laptops, the company said. It also lets us provide a much better experience when you have multiple devices, which more and more people have nowadays.

The company has not announced pricing for the new laptops.

A system that thousands of schools and universities use to support instruction was back online Friday after it went down during a cyberattack that created chaos as students tried to study for final exams.

The hacking group named ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach at Canvas, said Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emisoft. Instructure, the company behind Canvas, said in an update late Thursday that the system was available for most users.

Canvas is used to manage grades, course notes, assignments, lecture videos and more. The hacking group posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed, Connolly said.

RELATED STORY | FBI warns infamous cybercriminal group 'Scattered Spider' is targeting US airlines

Screen shots Connolly provided showed that the group began threatening Sunday to leak the trove of data. By Friday, Instructure and Canvas had been removed from a dedicated leak site created by the ransomware group on the dark web to publish stolen data.

Canvas went down Thursday at the worst possible time. Students quickly took to social media, with many panicking that they could no longer view course materials housed within the platform to study for their final exams.

Teachers said they were having to find workarounds to help students study for exams and submit final assignments. And some schools, such as the University of Texas at San Antonio, announced they were pushing back finals scheduled for Friday in response to the outage.

Schools like Princeton University turned to X late Thursday to announce Canvas appears to be available again and that information technology staff was monitoring the situation.

Rich in digitized data, the nations schools are prime targets for far-flung criminal hackers, who are assiduously locating and scooping up sensitive files that not long ago were committed to paper in locked cabinets. Past attacks have hit Minneapolis Public Schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Instructure has not posted about the attack on its social media. The company didnt immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press asking whether it paid a ransom and inquiring about what happened with the compromised data.

Connolly said the Canvas attack is strikingly similar to a breach at PowerSchool, which also offers learning management tools. In that case a Massachusetts college student was charged.

Connolly described ShinyHunters as a loose affiliation of teenagers and young adults based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The group also has been tied to other attacks, including one aimed at Live Nations Ticketmaster subsidiary.

RELATED STORY | US cyberattack linked to Iran raises concerns about security on the home front

Denver is moving forward with an artificial intelligence software the city says will make reviewing construction permits more efficient.

Denver7 has previously heard from builders that the citys permitting process has been a huge pain, before covering this potential solution back in February.

Denver City Council then approved a five-year, $4.6 million contract with vendor CivCheck in March.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

While humans will still review all the permits, the CivCheck tool will automatically flag issues or missing information from uploaded materials so applicants can quickly fix them, with the goal of avoiding extra back-and-forth with city staff.

Julia Richman, VP of Government Relations for Clariti the company that acquired CivCheck said the tool will also help city staff sort through documents faster.

Helping the applicant get more complete information into the city to begin with is going to be super helpful, she told Denver7. And then, of course, we're in this time where the city has just made a lot of staffing cuts as a result of the budget deficit. And so you have a department who has tons and tons of work, a lot of pressure on them, and also, you know, not more teammates, right? And so our tool actually helps to automate the really low-value, high-time tasks.

Richman said the CivCheck tool offers different modules to handle different kinds of applications from residential to commercial. The $4.6 million deal represents the citys total spending authority over time, Richman said, noting the citys financial concerns.

I think it's really smart of the city to take bite-sized pieces, she said. They're making a smaller investment, seeing what happens and what results we deliver, and then can add more over time.

Richman also lives in Denver and endured a months-long wait on a building permit on her own home. She said in 2022, her plan for a gut renovation of her house took seven months for someone at the city to even look at her submitted permit.

There were a lot of departures from the department coming out of COVID, plus the sort of a glut of applications, and we just got stuck at a very bad time, she explained.

Richman called that experience painful and expensive, saying during that wait, the cost of her renovation project went up 20% while she also continued to pay both her mortgage and rent on a place to stay.

When she later joined Clariti, she was part of the effort to introduce Denver to the AI tool for more efficient permitting. The software is also being piloted in Mesa County and CivCheck has also partnered with other cities like Honolulu. Richman said the tool has previously cut review times by 60-70%.

She understands the skepticism around AI, but said this use of the technology can be beneficial without major drawbacks.

We're using what eventually becomes public information, in general, information from the plan sets, the municipal code, and we compare the two, she said. In a world where lots of different things are going to have AI, I would say that this is a really excellent application of pretty modern technology. And I'll be interested to hear, you know, people's experience with it, and welcome the feedback from the community.

The city previously told Denver7, its goal is to accept 80% of permit submissions on the first round. Last year, that number was only 37%.

April 15 also marked one year since Denvers executive order to establish a new permitting office for better efficiency. Since then, the city said on-time permit reviews defined as 180 days or less have increased from 77% in 2025 to 88% so far this year.

Last August, at the beginning of the school year, Denver7 interviewed computer science students at Metropolitan State University of Denver about being in the middle of a major shift because of artificial intelligence.

They discussed how AI was changing their classes, the job hunt and the industry as a whole.

PREVIOUS STORY: From 'stable' to 'a little scary,' AI is changing computer science class and the job hunt | Denver7 Your Voice

This week, Denver7 followed up with two of those students, both seniors now ready to graduate.

They said they are seeing AI more often in school and are getting more used to working with it.

I still think it's a tool, and I still think that there's a lot of hype around it, senior computer science major Monica Ball said. I think that it can be useful, but we need to be thoughtful in our application of it."

I think when it comes to generating code with large language models You're losing some of the critical thinking and you're not spotting bugs before they come up, she added.

Finding a balance, especially as a student, has been difficult, fellow senior Angela Fleenor said. Because I want to, like, exercise my brain on the base materials and really figure out the concepts and, like, have a solid foundation. At the same time, I know if I use AI, I can do an assignment faster. And with time pressure, what it is sometimes, that's the path I choose. And so I think I've been really intentional about thinking through, What do I really need to learn?

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The students said this year, theyve seen instructors change how theyre evaluating their classes, focusing more on the process to get an answer rather than just the answer alone.

I've noticed some teachers give paper handouts now, Ball said. They're trying to make it harder for students to be able to just copy-paste something into an LLM [large language model], which is interesting. I've also noticed that some professors are being more thoughtful in their approach to layering a problem, to kind of force a student to think through it, instead of just skipping to the end.

The skills we need aren't to write a line of code, Fleenor added. The skills we need are to see what the AI gives us and evaluate the veracity and the quality of the information.

Both Ball and Fleenor are evaluating their post-graduation plans, saying the job market is crazy and volatile, with a lot of hiring, firing and competition for a limited amount of entry-level developer roles. But they said theyre still optimistic about the future.

I think our school, Metro, is doing a good job at adjusting to AI's presence, Fleenor said. I think the teachers are very responsive to what they're seeing One of our strengths is flexibility.

I am happy that I studied computer science, because it's really fun and I really like it, Ball said. And I think that the industry is so disrupted right now [But] I think it's exciting to be on the cutting edge, and there will be new stuff to do, and I'm excited to do that.

Apple CEO Tim Cook plans to step down effective on September 1, 2026, the company announced in a press release on Monday.

Cook will become executive chairman of Apple's board. John Ternus, who is currently the company's senior vice president of hardware engineering, will take his place as CEO.

"It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company. I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people who have been unwavering in their dedication to enriching the lives of our customers and creating the best products and services in the world," Cook said in the release.

RELATED STORY | iPhone privacy report: How to check which apps are tracking you and accessing your data

Cook, who joined Apple in 1998, became CEO in 2011 after company co-founder Steve Jobs resigned for health reasons.

He was CEO for major Apple product launches including the Apple Watch and AirPods and significantly grew the company's reach and revenue.

With Tax Day approaching on Wednesday, April 15, taxpayers might be tempted to use artificial intelligence to prepare their returns. However, experts warn against relying on AI chatbots due to privacy risks and the potential for fabricated information.

Robert Persichitte, an accounting professor at MSU Denver, advises against using the technology for tax preparation just yet.

"First, these basic chatbots are not giving you privacy," Persichitte said. "You are uploading your information in a way that is not private and not secure."

WATCH: Experts warn against using artificial intelligence to prepare your taxes due to privacy and legal risks

Persichitte noted that AI cannot keep disclosed personal information secure.

"The first risk is privacy. If you're disclosing information that you want to keep private and the AI can't do that, that's going to be a problem," Persichitte said.

The second major issue is that AI struggles to apply the correct tax rules, which change annually and vary based on individual situations.

"The second problem that I see most frequently is the chatbots are really bad at determining which set of rules apply," he said. "Tax rules change from year to year, and the rules that apply to you can be very different based on what your situation is."

Another immediate threat is that AI might fabricate information or make blatant errors on tax returns do things that are blatantly wrong on your tax returns," Persichitte said.

WATCH: Persichitte warns AI could fabricate information on tax returns

Because a tax return is a legal document, taxpayers are ultimately responsible for the information submitted to the IRS, regardless of whether AI was used.

"You're standing behind that. It doesn't matter if you have AI or not. If the IRS comes back and audits you, you can't just say, 'Well I tried. I put it into AI.' You're still responsible for what it's putting out," Persichitte said.

If youre still using an old or embarrassing Gmail username you created years ago, theres now a way to change it.

Google is allowing users to change their Gmail address without creating an entirely new account, meaning you can update your email for professional use while keeping everything tied to your existing profile.

How to change your Gmail address

To update your Gmail username:

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Google unleashes A.I. Mode in new effort to change how users interact with its search engine

Make sure to pick something you can live with for at least the next year as you can only change your Gmail address once every 12 months.

What happens to your old emails?

Google says you wont lose any emails, contacts or data associated with your account.

In fact, both your old and new email addresses will still work, meaning messages sent to either address will land in the same inbox.

DENVER Four astronauts successfully returned to Earth Friday, splashing down just minutes after 6 p.m. to conclude a 10-day mission around the moon.

The crew traveled in the Orion spacecraft, which was developed by Lockheed Martin.

The company, which has more than 14,000 employees in Colorado according to its website, was awarded the contract to develop Orion two decades ago, building every piece of hardware and software, and conducting the analysis for the spacecraft.

WATCH: Four astronauts splash down following 10-day mission around the moon

"That's a Lockheed Martin product," Colorado-based Matt Cox said.

Cox is the program director for software and labs for Orion at Lockheed Martin.

"It's one of our flagship products as a corporation," Cox said.

People across the country and the world watched the thrilling moment when the spacecraft took off 10 days off.

He said it was nerve-racking at first.

"This is an incredible thing to see, and it has to go well, and it's really difficult," Cox said.

"It's been such a the greatest payoff you could have from a regular person job, I think, that you could ever have," he added.

On Friday, spectators also shared in the excitement of the historic mission. Billie Lusk attended an Artemis II splashdown watch party in Downtown Denver.

"It's kind of cool that Colorado is such a integral part of the space program and that that we will get to go back and explore more things about the moon," Lusk said.

When asked at what point the mission is deemed a success, Cox had a clear answer.

"When the astronauts open the door and walk out that that's where, that's where it is," Cox said.

WATCH: Artemis II crew members safely exit the capsule

The Artemis II crew splashed down off the coast of San Diego just after 8:07 p.m. Eastern Time, ending a historic nine-plus-day mission that included a lunar flyby.

The Orion spacecraft carried astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.

The reentry and splashdown proceeded as planned, according to NASA.

A large recovery operation began shortly after splashdown. Recovery teams worked to establish satellite phone communication with the spacrecraft, open its egress hatch and deploy a floating stabilizer to aid in extracting the crew to a recovery helicopter.

The astronauts were taken by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha to undergo post-mission medical evaluations, before they return to shore and travel to Johnson Space Center in Houston.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | New reentry strategy guides Artemis IIs historic return to Earth

Earlier in the day, the Orion spacecraft entered Earths atmosphere at about 25,000 mph and endured temperatures reaching roughly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit before descending into the Pacific Ocean.

A six-minute blackout period cut off contact with the spacecraft and crew during reentry, due to interference from superheated plasma that built up around the capsule as it descended through the atmosphere at more than 25,000 miles per hour.

NASA visually tracked the spacecraft during this period using airborne cameras near the splashdown site. Radio contact was reestablished on schedule and the crew reported a successful touchdown in the water.

Artemis II launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1. During the mission, the astronauts traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them, capturing new views of the moon during their flyby and a striking Earthrise.

A team of tech company founders will open a new space Thursday in the south metro to help the next generation of tech startups get off the ground or grow their businesses.

Step One 2 Launch is opening Thursday in Centennial. The 22,000 square foot building has typical desks, offices and conference rooms, but also features space for bigger teams and workbenches to build products.

Co-founder Kenneth Geyer said the facility plans to add 3D printers and other specialized machines along with a professional podcast and video studio space all of which can be rented out by companies who need those resources.

Geyer has seen this kind of space in other parts of the country, but he said its lacking in Colorado.

The vision for the future is to go to under-serviced areas like South Denver Metro, Colorado Springs, up and down the Front Range, and have more of these, Geyer told Denver7. To where a maker or an engineer or somebody with, just an inventor with a good idea, want to come to those places because of the ecosystem around them and what they're going to get and benefits.

Geyer said he started his first company in a small house in Arvada, lacking space and guidance to effectively scale up his business. He said a space like Step One 2 Launch would have saved him and his partners from making early mistakes.

Maybe you don't have the budget to go buy a $60,000 piece of equipment? Well, we'll look at doing it ,and then renting it to you so you can offset that, Not have to spend your money, Geyer said.

Membership at the tech startup incubator will also include a team of industry veterans sharing their expertise on everything from raising capital, to managing production and supply chains, to dealing with and winning government contracts.

You're a small company, you can't afford to have a full-time CFO or a full-time head of engineering or a project manager, Geyer said. We got guys that can surge in and help you, you know, a couple hours a week, or whatever you're needing, just to get you over that hump to where you have time to look for an individual to hire for that position.

Geyer co-founded Liteye Systems, a defense technology company, which he said built small displays for defense, thermal cameras for surveillance work, and then big systems for counter-drone systems. That company sold in 2022 to High Point Aerotechnologies. Geyer said he wants to help other entrepreneurs find similar success.

As a startup, you just, you're walking into this fast world, and you've got this great idea, Geyer said. But [youre wondering] How do I do all this?

Step One 2 Launch said memberships start at $299 a month, and include a desk and consultations with the SO2L founders, with options to rent additional space and resources. The facility has room for a few dozen companies, and Geyer said there are plans to expand the space even more.

As most of Colorado faces severe drought conditions or worse, water scarcity is becoming an important topic.

That is one of the main focuses for the Sustainability Hub, a website and database built by students at Metropolitan State University of Denver and overseen by associate professor of computer science Daniel Pittman.

The goal of the Sustainability Hub is to make it easier to find data and information about all kinds of sustainability topics.

Watch this story in the video player below:

When we started a couple of years ago, our goal was to make accessibility data accessible to the community, Pittman said. There's a lot of great work being done in the state around sustainability, and this is in all aspects of sustainability: social, economic, environmental.

RELATED: From 'stable' to 'a little scary,' AI is changing computer science class and the job hunt | Denver7 Your Voice

Pittman said that process included community-informed design.

We have faculty partners at other institutions whose entire job has been going out to the communities that interact with sustainability data, that collect this information and asking them, How do you interact with data? What would you want to see from a website like this? What is a good design for these kinds of features? he explained. So we really wanted to make sure it wasn't just us building something and giving it to people and saying, This is what you need, but more building something for what they want.

Now, those MSU students and faculty have built an artificial intelligence chatbot that can answer sustainability questions.

Bili, named after sustainability, pulls from the Sustainability Hubs data or from the internet and then cites its sources.

It can help answer questions like how to recycle better, save water or lower wildfire risk.

Pittman said more people making those small changes can really add up to a big impact.

With how much water and power these AI tools end up using, Pittman said he still believes Bili is a net positive for the environment.

My goal is that the good we do as a result of the Sustainability Hub helping policy makers make informed decisions around laws that they create, or helping community members be more effective in using the scarce resources we havewhatever it might be, if I can accomplish that, we've done more good than the cost in terms of energy, in terms of water, of using the AI to do the job, he said.

Pittman also explained how the tool has given computer science students valuable experience not only building this kind of AI tool, but also building something the public can use to get informed and make a difference.

Like the technology overall, Pittman said Bili and the Sustainability Hub are constantly evolving, with a new focus on mitigating wildfire risk in the works as the summer approaches.

DENVER After removing more than 130 traffic cameras around the state last summer, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has started a project to install new, state-managed cameras, including several in remote areas.

In September 2025, Denver7 began hearing from residents about the missing cameras, and reached out to CDOT to learn more about the issue. Charles Marsh, CDOT's northwest regional communications manager, explained that the department's contract with a third-party vendor expired in July 2025. The vendor operated 136 traffic cameras.

Read our previous in-depth story on this development below.

Ultimately, instead of working with another third party, CDOT decided to build and operate its own permanent, state-owned and state-managed camera system a process that was already underway back in September, Marsh told Denver7. That would start with replacing 66 of the original 136 cameras, he said, adding that the number was limited due to budget and infrastructure limitations.

In CDOT's press release Friday, it noted that only about 90 cameras were removed last summer. Denver7 is working to confirm which number is correct. We will update this story once we do.

Several of the new 66 cameras will go up in remote areas where people rely on them to view highway conditions, CDOT said. The department listened to public feedback when identifying where to place the new permanent cameras.

In the meantime, CDOT acknowledged that "coverage was critical" in some places, and travelers and residents needed a temporary fix. As a short-term and cost-effective solution, the department decided to position solar-powered cameras on existing infrastructure or portable trailers. That included Highway 40 on Berthoud Pass, Highway 40 on Rabbit Ears Pass, Highway 14 on Cameron Pass, Highway 133 on McClure Pass and the Nordic Center on Highway 65 in Mesa County.

In September, Denver7 received an email from one resident who was particularly concerned about the lack of cameras on Cameron Pass, which now has a temporary camera setup: "These are (or were) vital cameras near Cameron Pass, especially people who commute or work, using this major highway... Driving in the mountains can be dangerous, especially in the winter, and these cameras help us to know before we go."

In a press release issued on Friday, CDOT said it had started the installation project on Monday in south-central Colorado, specifically at the intersection of Highway 24 and Highway 285 at Antero Junction, as well as Highway 24 near Manitou Springs and Highway 67 near Cripple Creek.

Drivers won't feel major impacts from this, as most of the work will happen off of the roadway.

The 66 state-owned cameras are expected to be ready and live by fall 2027.

CDOT released the below map, which outlines where the new cameras will be installed. Click here to view the map in a new window.

However, travelers looking for insight on conditions on the roadways can still check COtrip.org by using the Road Conditions layer.

To find the Road Conditions layer on the map, go to COTrip.org, find the map, and locate the layers menu on the right side. Below is a screenshot of where to find this information.

Last week, a jury in Los Angeles found Google-owned YouTube and Meta the parent company of Facebook and Instagram negligent for designing their platforms in a way that harms young people.

Colorado mom Lori Schott, who is from the small town of Merino in Logan County, was not a plaintiff but attended the trial. Her daughter Annalee died by suicide when she was 18 years old.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Grieving parents push for social media changes after veto of sweeping Colorado bill

Schott who continues to call for more accountability from social media companies said her daughter was struggling with depression when social media led her into a spiral.

Meta and YouTube said they plan to appeal the Los Angeles jurys decision.

Also last week, a jury in New Mexico found Meta liable for endangering children and misleading users about the safety of its platforms.

After returning to Colorado, Schott spoke with Denver7 Monday. She called the LA jury decision a day for her and other tragedy-stricken parents to celebrate in memory of our kids.

We don't want any of our children's losses to be in vain, Schott said. For me to sit in that courtroom and see the evidence that was not only in the courtroom in LA, but the courtroom in New Mexico, that they knew what they were doing, they were harming children, and they charged ahead for profits, was in my heart validating for myself, our family, what happened to Anna, and so many other families. Not [only] in the United States. This court case was heard around the world.

Schott is part of a group advocating for federal legislation called the Kids Online Safety Act that would require more protections for kids on social media platforms. Schott said, specifically, she supports the U.S. Senate version of the bill and any other version is not acceptable because of big techs influence.

We need laws with teeth that protect kids, Schott said. You know, Big Tech has responsibility to us as parents. Their responsibility right now seems to just be making money. So we need something beyond that.

Even though her daughter was not there to see the verdict, Schott said Annalees story is leading to change.

She's a little girl that's made a big difference, Schott said. It was her day in court.

BOULDER, Colo. After Arctic sea ice grew through this past fall and winter, it reached its maximum extent on March 15 and it tied for the lowest maximum extent on record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Sea ice extent is defined, according to NSIDC and NASA, as the total area in which the ice concentration is at least 15% ice concentration. While some of it melts each year during the warmer months, most of it remains yearround. But in recent years, less new ice has been forming, NASA reported.

In total, the 2026 Arctic sea ice reached about 5.52 million square miles, edging just below 2025's record of 5.53 million square miles, NSIDC reported. This means the sea ice's maximum reach in 2026 tied for the lowest amount in the 48-year record since satellites were used to track this.

NSIDC said in a press release Thursday that values within 15,000 square miles are considered a tie.

This record low maximum gives a head start to the spring and summer melt season, explained NSIDC senior research scientist Walt Meier. "One or two record low years dont necessarily mean much by themselves, but in the context of the significant downward trend that we've observed since 1979, it reinforces the dramatic change to Arctic sea ice throughout all seasons.

The below video, created by NASA, shows the sea ice maximum extent in 2026. The video starts at the 2025 minimum.

These 2026 numbers are about half a million square miles below the average that was recorded from 1981 to 2010. That is about twice the size of Texas, NSIDC said.

This continues the downward trend that scientists have tracked over the last several decades, NASA said.

Nathan Kurtz, chief of the Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, said researchers also observed a change in ice thickness.

Based on what were seeing with NASAs ICESat-2 satellite, much of the ice in the Arctic is thinner this year, especially in the Barents Sea northeast of Greenland, he said. The Sea of Okhotsk that borders northern Japan and Russia also had relatively low ice this year a region that naturally experiences significant year-to-year variability.

NSIDC scientists said this data is considered preliminary as of Thursday, as upcoming weather could change the annual maximum ice extent.

Foreign-made routers are now effectively barred from being sold in the U.S. after federal regulators determined they pose a national security risk.

The move by the FCC comes after federal agencies warned that foreign-made routers could be exploited by cyberattackers to target American homes, businesses and critical infrastructure.

Recently, malicious state and non-state sponsored cyber attackers have increasingly leveraged the vulnerabilities in small and home office routers produced abroad to carry out direct attacks against American civilians in their homes," the national security determination said.

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The new rule applies broadly to routers based on where they are manufactured, regardless of the company that produces them.

Companies may seek exemptions through a conditional approval process by demonstrating their products do not pose security risks and outlining plans to shift manufacturing to the United States.

The FCC's action is part of a broader federal effort to secure communications infrastructure and reduce reliance on foreign technology deemed a potential threat.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Hackers say they wiped out $90 million from Iran cryptocurrency exchange

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. After staring up at a nest of baby peregrine falcons and their mother soaring overhead, Jerry Arni packs up his telescope, walks down a short trail and then he, too, flies.

His version just includes a harness and zip line over a river to his home.

Arni, 83, is one of the many volunteers with Jefferson County's raptor monitoring program. Since 2015, he has volunteered to walk a couple minutes from home to a vantage point along the North Fork South Platte River where he can safely monitor a peregrine falcon nest and any babies also called fledglings from afar.

For him, though, leaving the house is itself a unique experience, as it involves soaring across a rushing or frozen river, depending on the season.

Other Jeffco Parks and Open Space volunteers like him zip line or no zip line are tasked with reporting their observations about the raptors, their nests and possible fledglings. Arni is a self-described fanatic about peregrine falcons, which started when he saw his first one around 2015 across the river from his home.

"And there it was, standing up there, just beautiful," he told Denver7. "Well, you could see the whole thing. You could see the helmet that it has on it. The whole bird is just spectacular. So, the minute after that, I immediately signed up for being a raptor monitor for the Cathedral Spires."

It all stems down to the fact that I believe that raptors should be protected and be part of our lives forever, he continued.

The idea of compensation for all of his hours watching the peregrines made him scoff.

I couldn't even think of being rewarded for being here, Arni said, smiling. My reward is sort of in my heart.

Jefferson Countys raptor monitoring program has supported these birds of prey in the county for more than 20 years, relying on a group of dedicated volunteers who track raptor breeding patterns across more than 25 territories of the birds.

That includes species like great horned owls, golden eagles, red-tailed hawks and peregrines, and other predatory birds that keep other species' populations in check. The raptors mate in the winter or spring, and their fledglings learn to fly by late summer or fall.

Volunteers visit their designated sites where they can view the nests at least twice a month and submit reports on what they observe.

In 2025, about 40 volunteers spent more than 1,000 hours observing nests, surveying 93 in total, the county reported. Of those, about 30 nests were considered "active" and 52 fledglings were spotted.

The volunteers' reporting helps the county to determine when it can allow hikers and climbers back on certain trails that annually close when raptors begin nesting. This protects the animals, which will not lay eggs if they are stressed and disturbed by human presence. The trails only reopen once the fledglings are gone.

That's a world that Erickson Smith, natural resources specialist with Jeffco Parks and Open Space, gets to regularly dive into. He spoke with Denver7 during a walk around South Valley Park.

His career as a biologist kicked off by volunteering on public lands, so helping to manage the raptor monitoring program comes naturally to him. While some of the members are brand new, others have contributed their time since the program started 20 years ago.

"People's lives are really busy. And so seeing that commitment into something like conserving the natural resources in their community is really inspiring to me," Smith said. "And I feel like I need to pay it forward, because I was given the opportunity, once upon a time, and that got me here."

He explained that by tracking predators, biologists can learn what is happening across the broader landscape.

So, when Arni spotted newly hatched peregrines last year, it was a good sign.

Over the span of a few months, he zipped across the river and walked up to a safe viewing spot to watch the nest. Through all kinds of weather, he observed the fledglings' confidence increase and they began flapping their wings. To his knowledge, they all flew off, he said, noting that the 14- to 18-inch adults can fly 240 miles per hour, topping the list as the fastest animal on Earth.

"So last year, we absolutely were responsible for two more peregrine falcons being in the wild," he said. "And the parents hopefully will come back this year."

He told Denver7 on Tuesday afternoon that they had indeed returned.

When the adult peregrines are present, Arni said other raptors, like bald eagles and golden eagles, tend to leave the area.

"It's absolutely dominant," he said of the animal.

Golden eagles are another beloved raptor on Jefferson County's monitoring list.

Prior to our interview with Arni near his riverside home, Denver7 met with three other volunteers with the raptor monitoring program, including Tom Clark.

Clark had the rare chance to watch two golden eagles fledge at the same time. He has also witnessed a golden eagle snatch a crow from mid-air and bring it back to the nest to feed its young.

"That was pretty amazing," he said. "I'm very fortunate. It's not a job. It's an adventure."

Clark has volunteered with the program for eight years. Over that time, he has grown quite familiar with the species. He calls them dedicated and resilient parents that can endure anything from hailstorms and wildfires, to nearby traffic crashes and medevac helicopters flying overhead all while caring for their babies. Seeing them persevere through that difficulty to successfully raise their fledglings is part of what has kept him returning to volunteer.

"I intend to do it until I can't walk anymore," he said, grinning.

Third-year volunteer Danielle Duran also has her eyes to the sky something she has done her whole life before fully embracing her love for birds, especially raptors. However, the animals she watches are a little trickier to find during the day.

She monitors a great horned owl nest. Jeffco said the species had a "banner year" in 2025 with five of six monitored nests ending in success.

"I honestly do it because I find it fun and if I can spend my time doing something that I enjoy, that is also helping a bigger purpose, that's just a win," Duran said.

"The program is mostly made up of people who just love birds," she continued. "And if they got a chance to help out monitoring, ecology and habitats at the same time, it's kind of a win-win. But I think most of the volunteers, their first love is birds. And if it overlaps with volunteering, it's perfect."

Denver7 asked what has drawn her to these birds of prey.

"I don't do anything related to wildlife for my daily job. I work in marketing," Duran explained. "I think part of it is that they are so different from us. I feel like they're one of the animals that are the most opposite of say, a mammal like a primate. Their mannerisms, the way they interact with each other just feels so foreign."

Raptors feel mysterious and rare to her, she added.

"It feels like, when I get to watch them, getting a glimpse into a world that I don't normally get to see," she said.

Along a trail in South Valley Park, volunteer Erlinda Stafford explained how retirement has allowed her to spend more time outside. While she has committed to the program, she likes that she can choose when and how long she shows up. She monitors nests within that park and pointed a few of them out to Denver7.

"Oh, to watch the great horned owl fledglings," she said. "They are the cutest, fluffiest things you ever see. And then I also saw the fledglings down at the red-tailed hawks' nest. And they were gangly. They got these long legs. And you know, they're learning trying to learn to fly."

Stafford was trying something new too. She bought a new camera and has been learning photography while out watching the birds.

"When I first retired, I tried different volunteer things," she said. "And when I found this, I was like, 'Oh, this is my niche here.' Here we are. I get to be outside looking at birds, looking at nature, looking at all sorts of things and helping."

"I'm hooked. Hooked," she added. "I will keep doing this. Just as long as I can."

UPDATE (4/2): The University of Colorado rolled out school-sponsored Chat GPT to faculty and staff as planned this week, with the release for students delayed until Aug. 14.

Concerns from students and faculty about issues like data security and the quick timeline led the university to delay the rollout.

This week, Denver7 followed back up with CU Denver student Flynn Zook, who called that decision "huge."

"It means that students don't just have, like, mass access to this resource, without training, without a conversation happening about this," said Zook. "And it gives us in the arts and us on like the college campuses as a whole, a chance to actually spend some time, like, creating a code of ethics for how this is used in classrooms. And we can go about this in a way that's much more measured and much more helpful long term."

Zook added that artificial intelligence "is a fluctuating technology, so our guidelines and our ideas around it are going to have to fluctuate with it."

"A huge show of faith from the university would be to be so transparent about this contract, which they have failed to do in the prior month and a half since this was announced," said Zook. "And like, actually going through answering beat-for-beat, all of the faculty and student like questions and concerns and being very explicit about that... We need our concerns addressed if we're going to continue moving forward with this. Now you have time to answer the questions."

CU Denver associate professor Sasha Breger Bush sent Denver7 a statement reacting to the student rollout delay, which she calls a "good idea."

"The decision affords us more time to think, learn, debate, and strategize about the role of AI on campus and in our classrooms," said Breger Bush. "The decision also permits more time for shared discussion of the policies and other institutional infrastructure required to ensure ethical use of AI in support of the public service mission of the University of Colorado.

"My hope is that, in advance of any decision to renew the contract, all campus constituencies have substantive opportunities to share their feedback. Decisions of this magnitude require a proportionately large and robust community discussion."

The University of Colorado is delaying its plan to give Chat GPT Edu access to students across its campuses until August 14 around the start of the fall semester after pushback from the campus community.

The university said it will still roll out access to faculty and staff as planned on March 31.

CU sent Denver7 a statement explaining the decision, saying in part, This decision reflects faculty concerns about potential disruption to the learning environment, and we fully support faculty in setting expectations for their individual classrooms.

The universitys three-year contract with ChatGPT creator OpenAI is renewable annually and will cost CU roughly $2 million a year.

Before announcing the delay, CU told Denver7 the cost is worth it because it allows every student learn and engage with the technology before graduating and getting a job. CU also stressed that it is not requiring instructors to incorporate ChatGPT into their classes.

Hundreds of faculty signed a letter of dissent taking issue with the rollout.

Before CU announced it would be delaying the rollout, Denver7 heard from a student and a professor at CU Denver who shared some of those concerns, including the quick timeline for the systemwide rollout. They also worry the partnership sends the wrong message about academic integrity, with studies showing artificial intelligence can dull critical thinking skills.

My issue is not that you're trying to incorporate AI into the learning curriculum; my issue is how you're doing it, said Flynn Zook, a CU Denver animation and illustration student, especially concerned about the technologys impact on that field.

Zook also led an effort to survey students and faculty about the pending rollout and provide community updates.

That needs to be a conversation and not just a statement of: Is it our responsibility to just sit down and embrace this, or like, can we have a conversation about how this actually fits into our education and our lives as a whole? Zook added.

As a teacher, I'm really concerned about what I consider to be outsourcing critical thinking and cognition, said CU Denver associate professor Sasha Breger Bush. Im concerned that we're pretty close to a world where we're just awash in data, but we don't have the wisdom or the knowledge to make meaning and good use of it.

Faculty have also shared concerns about data privacy. CU says its agreement prevents OpenAI from using any CU environment to train its large language models. However, CU also confirmed to Denver7 that faculty using ChatGPT for university business might create records considered to be public through a Colorado Open Records Request (CORA). Student records and activity will be protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), CU says.

Theres also political pushback against partnering with OpenAI. The companys president donated $25 million to a super PAC supporting President Donald Trump, and the company also recently struck a deal to partner with the Trump administrations Department of Defense.

There's a war on now in Iran, and these technologies are actively being used to support that war, Breger Bush told Denver7. And I'm concerned that my university and a public university, Colorado's university, is directly financing those efforts.

Last week, Zook said CUs efforts to communicate the partnership felt very disingenuous to the community on this campus.

We have a lot of variety of people, thoughts, beliefs, and I think that's what makes this campus so cool, Zook said. They're saying that they care about their students and their community, and like they talk all the big administrative words about like we're doing this for you and choose to go with a company that actively goes against that ideology.

CU leaders did not sit down with Denver7 for an interview, but spokesperson Michelle Ames responded to the following questions via email:

Denver7: Why is this $2 million contract with OpenAI a worthy investment, as opposed to expanding financial aid, resources for at-risk students and faculty, increasing pay for graduate students or financing other university improvements?

CU: We recognize that access to emerging technologies is increasingly important for teaching, learning and research. We view this effort as a matter of equity in educational tools. This initiative is intended to help ensure that every student has the opportunity to learn this technology and be prepared to engage with it in a rapidly evolving workforce on graduation. For perspective, CU invests $375 million annually in institutional financial aid for students, more than the state of Colorado invests in financial aid for all of higher education.

Denver7: Why was this decision made without a longer conversation and process, including shared governance and more input from CU AI experts?

CU: Adoption of generative AI is already occurring across CU at significant scale. That created urgency around both equity in access as well as security of personal data. Right now, thousands of people across CU are already using commercial versions of ChatGPT (free and paid), so in that way, the community is broadly speaking on the use of generative AI and the use of this specific tool. A cross-campus working group discussed the institutional implications of generative AI and shared perspectives from across the campuses. Taking that input into account, and recognizing the scale of AI use already occurring, and the need to ensure AI usage protects the university and university community to the greatest extent possible, university leadership determined that an enterprise version of ChatGPT guarantees protections not available in the commercial versions.

Denver7: Some faculty are concerned that there are insufficient CU policies regarding academic dishonesty involving AI specifically, and insufficient training for instructors on how to effectively use this tool in courses as it is rolled out to the student population. What is your response to those who are concerned?

CU: All existing university policies including those outlining and prohibiting academic misconduct apply to all generative AI tools, whether the university provides them or not. Each Chancellor is standing up an AI advisory group that would, in part, be involved in resources to support faculty in their management of AI tools, which are already being used in significant numbers by students. In addition, the university is revising its current generative AI policies and our governing body, the CU Board of Regents is also adopting a high-level policy on this topic. All users will be required to take a mandatory training prior to gaining access to this environment.

Denver7: There is concern this partnership could end up subverting academic integrity for students and faculty. Why are the current trainings and guardrails enough to prevent this outcome?

CU: All existing university policies including those outlining and prohibiting academic misconduct apply to all generative AI tools, including the tools thousands of people are already using, whether the university provides the tool or not. Faculty retain authority over how generative AI may or may not be used in their courses. University policies and trainings will continue to evolve as generative AI continues to evolve and we are working toward a more training around issues such as ethical use for students that should launch in the fall.

Denver7: What is CUs policy and/or protocol for reporting data breaches to students, staff, and faculty? 

CU: CU has a data exposure response process that is invoked when a possible data exposure event is identified by CU staff or a third-party (including OpenAI) that handles CU data. This process investigates each situation and determines CUs actions regarding notifications to affected individuals and any relevant regulatory bodies.=

Denver7: Is there a requirement to notify the CU community or an involved party when OpenAI discloses data to law enforcement or as part of a legal process?

CU: OpenAI and CU would provide notifications as required by applicable law. Each response may be different based on the status of the individual involved and the applicable law. For example, under FERPA, if the University or OpenAI are disclosing a students education record in response to a judicial order or a lawfully issued subpoena the University has to make a reasonable effort to notify the eligible student of the order or subpoena in advance of compliance, unless the subpoena prohibits student notification.

Denver7: Are these ChatGPT chat logs subject to the Colorado Open Records Act, meaning public records requests could reveal any of this data? How is CU communicating this topic to users?

CU: The Colorado Open Records Act allows the public to view work-related records of public employees regardless of whether they are created through email, Microsoft Office, or ChatGPT, for example. How the record is created does not control whether a record is considered public or not. If you work for the university and use ChatGPT to conduct university business, the records you create might be considered public. We have highlighted this for staff in our existing FAQs.

Denver7: We've heard concern about partnering with OpenAI specifically, because of the company's ties to the Department of Defense and Open AI's president's financial support of the Trump administration. Does CU have a response to this concern?

CU: We have more than 30,000 CU email addresses using some form of ChatGPT right now, most of whom are using the free version. It is important to us we provide secure and equitable access to this environment for our students, faculty and staff, in addition to safeguarding our data.

Companies may be using data from your phone's apps to track your habits and monetize your information. Here's how to find out what's happening on your device.

When the software on my iPhone recently updated, I went through the new features and stumbled upon something called the "App Privacy Report." What I found was eye-opening.

Experts say, the report functions as a dashboard, showing which apps are accessing your personal data and how often. That includes your camera, contacts, location, media library and microphone.

FROM THE ARCHIVES | NSA Collects 5 Billion Phone Location Records Per Day

"It's not that there's a bad guy out there or some hacker out there listening to you. This is basically companies that are using that data at scale. They're monetizing it. So if it's something you said in a call, for instance, or you would record it or some photograph you took...any or all of that can be monitored," said Arun Vishwanath, a cybersecurity expert.

The App Privacy Report also shows when and how many times each app has accessed your camera, contacts, location, media library and microphone.

"So this is like a dashboard. It's telling you hey, here are all the apps, here's what this app is doing. It's looking at your contact history that you're giving it access to. It's looking at your photographs. You're giving it access to it. Important thing here is you gave it access to it," Vishwanath said.

Here's how to find the report on your iPhone:

Once enabled, the report will show you which apps are collecting your information. Vishwanath said the key is staying vigilant and checking your settings regularly.

"Every quarter, check your app permission list, right? What permission this very window that we're looking at it's a great opportunity to do that, right? Do it every quarter. Every quarter, check to see what apps you've given permission to. What if there are apps out there getting permission to your entire contact list for no other reason? You can take that back. Background data, information about where you are, your location information that's something most apps don't need access to, and there are different ways to prevent it, right? Apple gives you even Android gives you the opportunity to say, well, only use my background when I use the app, or is it all the time? You have to decide that," Vishwanath said.

For parents considering giving their children a phone, Apple allows you to set up a device based on your child's age. With those settings in place, children cannot download apps without your permission, giving you control over what your kids can access and who can access data about your kids.

Scrpps News Group in Buffalo.

Denver7 has been speaking with professors at Metropolitan State University Denver about how artificial intelligence is changing higher education.

Those professors have signaled that student assessment is something that needs to be re-evaluated to ensure academic honesty and make sure students are using AI as a tool to learn, not as a crutch.

Its not as if this is a new problem, MSUs Executive Director of Online Leaning Professor Sam Jay said. It's a problem that we're going to have to be willing to invest a lot of resources and time and effort into. And so I get excited about it because it's kind of time to right the ship anyway.

Jeff Loats, a professor and director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Design at MSU, said the university is faced with a huge shift in the ground beneath us.

We have this very, I think, noble mission of trying to offer higher education to a lot of people in a lot of circumstances, Loats explained. We are now suddenly faced with a situation where an online assessment whether it's for an in-person course or an online course if the assessment is online, we don't know how to do that in a valid way.

Loats went on to say he hopes higher education goes through a huge change in the next five years.

I think if we keep doing what we're doing now for the next five or 10 years, we're going to, it's going to break, it's going to fall apart, Loats said. People aren't going to trust what we do anymore.

Denver7s Ryan Fish brought those concerns to MSU Denver Vice Provost Shaun Schafer who is also a journalism professor. He said conversations about how to adjust student assessment in the age of AI have been happening for years, and continue now.

What AI has really shown for us was like, Yeah, our assessments were not nearly as solid as we thought, they were fragile, they were easy to overcome, Schafer said. And now that we know that, we have a really great opportunity to look at these different approaches that we can use.

Schafer said his own class has flipped from in-person lectures and online assignments to online lectures and videos and in-person assignments.

I suspect we'll see a lot more case studies, Schafer said. I think we'll see a lot more of like, Apply this to your life, apply this to your community, sort of assignments. Because those are much harder to do with AI.

Schafer acknowledged its difficult for instructors to drastically change how they teach their courses, and some are more bought into the idea of using AI as a learning tool than others.

The vice provost also said at this point, its impossible to have a definitive set of guidelines for all instructors across more than 100 majors to advise how to use AI as part of their courses and how to assess their students. He said MSU is looking at how to set some guidelines for general education classes first before getting more specific.

I don't want to give up on the human judgment component of evaluating people's work, because you are going to continue to work in a human market, Schafer said. And so I'm one of those people who's very reluctant to say, Oh, yeah, I can turn that over to AI. But I certainly understand how people go, Well, what if that took my grading from 10 to 15 hours a week down to one? And I now spent 10 to 15 more hours on my research or on improving what I teach in the class? And so, yeah, that's been pretty provocative.

The Town of Parker is considering an artificial intelligence camera system in O'Brien Park to combat vandalism.

Just off of Mainstreet, the park is a popular spot for families, especially on a sunny afternoon.

"I know my kids love coming here," said Daniel Auwerda, a father of three.

Meanwhile, town leaders say the park has also become popular for the wrong reasons. In a two-year stretch, Denver7 learned vandals caused $18,000 worth of damage in 28 different incidents, according to town officials.

Damage included a shopping cart perched 18 feet in the air, damaged restrooms and multiple acts of graffiti on the nearby light rail station.

There is currently a single camera in the middle of the parking lot, but the town said it has not been effective. They are hoping the AI system is a better solution.

The proposed AI camera system through Nureal.ai artificial intelligence would analyze park activity in real-time and could send abnormal activity directly to law enforcement.

"AI... most of what I see of it I hate," Auwerda said. "So if we can actually use it to be productive and protect our assets, yeah I think it's great."

Another parkgoer said they thought the system would be "a good investment."

The town is looking to land a nearly $260,000 grant to pay for the project, which could expand to other places in the future.

In a town council meeting earlier this month, Parkers deputy parks director said these cameras would not record video.

Still, there are questions about privacy and security regarding the new technology.

"Does a third party have any sort of access to it?" one town council member asked.

Nevertheless, some families are hopeful the system will provide extra protection at one of their favorite places.

"Whatever it takes to protect it and at a cost effective solution too, right?" Auwerda said.

Artificial intelligence is making college students reconsider what to study as the technology changes the job market.

Denver7s Ryan Fish spoke with Metropolitan State University Denver physics professor Jeff Loats, who is also executive director for the Center for Teaching, Learning and Design.

Loats believes AI can make people more effective and efficient when using it within their own expertise, but he said large language models like ChatGPT are not actually smart or reliable enough to

someone an expert in any given field.

The AI tools are blandly confident on every topic under the sun, because large language models, they don't know anything, right? They don't have a cognition like we do, Loats said. They're very fancy, incredibly impressive pattern matching algorithms. And so you can't tell from the AI whether it's on the right track or not, which you often can with a human..... As soon as we step out of our own expertise, it is very hard to tell whether or not the AI is giving us useful information. And I don't really expect that to change a lot.

For that reason, Loats contends that while AI will almost certainly disrupt certain white collar jobs, it wont eliminate them completely.

He said critical thinking is going to remain important, and its something college students should take seriously.

Their general studies programwhich many college students view as sort of a weird hoop you have to jump throughthat's actually the piece that the employers want more, Loats said. Because your senior level course in a particular field, in a very narrow situation, that might get hugely disrupted [by AI] two years from now. But the ability to talk with other humans, have teams work well, communicate effectively, get past difficulties or different perspectives, that's durable. That's going to last a long time.

Loats added that even college students morally opposed to using AI in certain situations should practice using the technology enough to become familiar with it and understand its capabilities.

He also is advocating for more honest and open communication around AI use. Loats said people should disclose how and when they use AI when communicating with each other because that uncertainty can erode trust, especially in a setting like college.

DENVER Colorados aerospace industry took center stage at the Capitol on Monday as companies from across the state highlighted their key role in NASAs upcoming Artemis II mission.

Martin Frederick, corporate director for civil space programs with Northrop Grumman, recalled his memories of the first moon landing.

"My father set up his camera on a tripod in front of our rickety old black-and-white television. He made sure we were awake and there. He took pictures of the screen as Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of another celestial body, just making history," said Frederick.

During the Artemis II mission, the second stage of NASA's program to return to the moon, a team of astronauts will be sent around Earth's natural satellite as a test flight. The Artemis IV mission eventually aims to accomplish a crewed lunar landing in 2028.

"It's an exciting time for our flight operations team. We will fly humans around the moon for the first time in over 50 years, sending them further than any humans since Apollo 13. This continues to pave the way for human exploration to the moon and beyond," said NASA's Flight Operations Director Norm Knight.

Frederick said Colorado's aerospace industry played a critical role in the program.

"With the work that's been done on the Orion crew vehicle and the SLS launch vehicle, and all of the systems that are in place to extend communications," said Frederick. "Probably the most significant thing you'll see in the Artemis II launch that is Northrop Grumman's are the two big solid rocket boosters on either side of the main core stage of the rocket. They're big rockets in and of themselves, 155 feet tall. They provide 75% of the thrust to get the astronauts off the ground and into deep space."

The company worked with contractors and talent across Colorado and the rest of the country. Even at times, collaborating with other aerospace giants.

"Amongst our companies, we'll call ourselves 'CompetiMates.' Sometimes we fight fiercely to get the contracts or the work that's coming. But once that's decided, it's all about the mission and about taking care of the astronauts. It's all about exploration, and we work together," said Frederick.

He hopes the same type of collaboration and unity is seen once the Artemis II launch happens and the astronauts head into space.

"We're going to be rooting for them as a country and as a world for 10 days, and nobody will rest until they're safely back on US soil and telling the tales of their journey to inspire the next generation," said Frederick.

He's hopeful the program as a whole will help inspire the next generation of space explorers.

"I believe that the whole space industry is going to grow dramatically over the next 5,10,15 years, Artemis being part of it, but also defending the country, defending our allies, and being able to use space for commercial purposes. That's all going to be inspired by Artemis II and accomplished by the next generation of students who are going to come into this field," he said.

In June 2025, Myles Gilbert of Colorado became the first pediatric patient in the United States to receive the fifth-generation Inspire device, a permanently implanted nerve stimulator being used to treat obstructive sleep apnea in children with Down syndrome.

The device, referred to by Dr. Norman Friedman at Childrens Hospital Colorado as a pacemaker for the tongue, senses breathing and delivers a small electrical stimulus that moves the tongue forward to keep the airway open during sleep. Friedman, surgical sleep program director at the hospital, said the implant eliminates the need for external chest leads and can be adjusted in clinic to find optimal settings for each patient.

For children with Down syndrome, [sleep apnea] is highly prevalent, Friedman said, noting that lower muscle tone and large tonsils or tongues often contribute to lifelong breathing difficulties. This is a very good alternative, especially for children that have larger tongues.

Myles' family said the implant has markedly improved his sleep and daytime function after years of unsuccessful trials with CPAP masks.

Hes definitely sleeping better, said Tim Gilbert, Myles father. Hes more awake during the days. Hes not falling asleep in the car on short drives. All those pieces just add to Myles quality of life.

The device is adjusted in follow-up visits and can be controlled with a remote control, and monitored with an app the family carries on their phones. Doctors can also remotely monitor usage and breathing data.

Beyond improved sleep, Myles said the change has helped him participate more in school and community activities. Hes active in unified sports, and loves being the equipment manager for the Arapahoe High School football team.

Math nerds and dessert enthusiasts unite to celebrate Pi Day every March 14, the date that represents the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi.

Representing the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, pi is approximately equal to 3.14159 but its digits go on forever. In school, you might have used it to calculate the area of a circle or the volume of a cylinder. But the applications of pi are endless and part of every corner of our world.

The holiday was created in 1988 by Larry Shaw, a physicist at the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco.

He had a very open and expansive view of the world and saw an opportunity with this number, mathematical concept, to invite people into the joy of mathematical learning, said Sam Sharkland, program director of public programs at the museum, who worked with Shaw before he died in 2017.

While it began as a small staff celebration featuring pie, it soon turned into a grand procession where hundreds of visitors marched around the pi shrine, each carrying a digit. Attendees often show up early to claim their favorite digit for the parade. One woman who has the symbol tattooed on her neck comes every year and marches near the front with a pi flag, Sharkland said.

RELATED STORY | 10 fascinating things to know about pi on Pi Day

The celebration begins at 1:59 p.m., signifying the next three digits of pi.

Here are a few ways pi is being used on the cutting edge of science.

In Artur Davoyan's field of mechanical and aerospace engineering, pi is so fundamental that it would be hard to pinpoint one use case for it, he said.

Pi is part of literally every single formula that you would use to do any calculation, like for spacecraft motion, for materials and how they work, or propulsion systems, said Davoyan, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Anything that is round or has cyclical or repeating properties such as radio waves involves pi. Even squares or irregular blobs can be broken down into a series of progressively smaller circles and calculated using pi, Davoyan said.

Davoyan's research looks at how to create new propulsion systems to send spacecrafts more quickly to the far reaches of the solar system to gather and send back information to Earth. He pointed to NASAs Voyager 1 and 2, which launched in 1977 but didn't reach interstellar space until 2012 and 2018.

To send a signal to those space probes, NASA must calculate Earth's exact position in orbit around the sun and design antennas for communication using pi. Then scientists use pi once more when receiving and breaking down complex signals that are being beamed back to Earth.

Say aliens send something to us, something that we dont know how to deal with, Davoyan said. So the very first thing that you would do, you would try to split it into simple functions... and turns out that when you do this operation, you will naturally have pis in it.

Pi also comes up frequently when studying small amounts of fluids.

Dino Di Carlo, chair of the bioengineering department at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, conducts research that involves creating little particles out of polymers that act as tiny test tubes for cells. This is used as an important tool to examine cells closely and learn about their functions and what's inside them.

The pi constant is used in calculating how to form those droplets, surface tension calculations that define how droplets can break up, and how researchers can control the size of those volumes, Di Carlo said.

Di Carlo is using this technique to find antibodies small proteins that fight diseases in your body that could block signals put out by cancer cells.

Pi is also an important part of calculations when looking at how liquids flow through tubes and barriers. One example is when the fluid sample slowly flows sideways in a take-home COVID-19 test.

Di Carlo used these properties to devise a new test for Lyme disease that can be completed in 20 minutes, rather than days or weeks like previously.

As an engineer and scientist, (pi) is just a part of life, Di Carlo said. Maybe Ive taken it for granted.

BOULDER, Colo. Denver7 is continuing to cover the future of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, also known as NCAR.

The federally-funded research organization, as part of the National Science Foundation, is one of the world's leading climate and weather labs.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis encouraged people to submit comments in support of NCAR by Friday.

"I grew up in Boulder County, I've lived here for close to 30 years, and NCAR has always been part of what Boulder is, and we've had a strong scientific community as long as I've been alive, shared Boulder resident Samuel Narvaez.

It's been nearly three months since the Trump administration announced plans to dismantle NCAR, and Coloradans continue to voice concerns over the potential closure of Boulder's premiere research facility.

"This part of Colorado really is the world's finest concentration of science in meteorology and climate science," described David Skaggs, former congressman for Colorado's 2nd Congressional District where NCAR is located. "So it's, it's a world class operation.

Skaggs isn't joking when he calls NCAR a world class operation.

NCAR employs roughly 830 people whose work helps explain some of the world's most pressing environmental questions like, 'why are hurricane's more intense? Why are sea levels rising? Why is the Earth's climate changing?'

Skaggs told Denver7's Tyler Melito that dismantling NCAR would be sheer idiocy, and hopes decision makers use common sense to keep the climate-research center open.

"I would hope that they would do a cost benefit analysis of this crazy decision, in which case, it is pretty apparent to everybody that's thought about it that the costs of closing NCAR are enormous," Skaggs detailed. "The benefits of keeping it are enormous."

Skaggs sent out the following letter to Mr. Brian Stone, Acting Director, and Dr. Simon Malcomber, Chief Science Officer at the National Science Foundation, on Thursday:

Ahead of Friday's deadline, the Boulder Chamber of Commerce weighed in as well.

"NCAR is the backbone of our weather economy, nationally and even internationally," explained Jonathan Singer, the senior director of policy programs for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. "So here in Boulder, this is $100 to multi-100-million dollar asset from everything from startups to the scientists that work there.

Singer told Melito that if NCAR does ultimately close its doors, it'll close its doors for good.

"We are part of a system, and once you start knocking over one domino, the rest are going to fall," Singer outlined. "Today, it could be Colorado. Tomorrow, we've got a data center that's up in Wyoming, red state. This is an all for one, one for all, fight."

But why are people so passionate about NCAR?

Narvaez said there is a real passion for science in the community he grew up in.

"Science has always been aligned with the working class in some sense, like the science that is done for the government and the science that is done for the military always ends up trickling out and infiltrating like, the normal population," Narvaez said.

Denver7 reached out the NCAR for comment. We were told the center did not have any comment and they directed us to the National Science Foundation, which also did not respond to our request for comment.

Denver7 also reached out to the office of Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse. They did not respond before our deadline, but earlier in the day Friday, sent out the following press release regarding support for NCAR.

Autonomous taxi company Waymo is still on track to start giving rides in Denver "later this year," despite a warm and dry winter, the company told Denver7 this week.

Waymo a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet announced in September that it plans to expand to Denver. It has been testing its self-driving SUVs and vans on city streets in recent months, with humans still sitting in the driver's seat.

The company told Denver7 its taxis have "years of experience navigating snow," and data from other, snowier cities this season will allow the entire fleet to handle harsher conditions moving forward.

Waymo also shared video of its autonomous cars driving on snow-covered roads this winter in different U.S. cities. The company has previously been active in warm-weather cities like Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but is now planning to expand to cities with colder climates.

While the company has shared data showing its taxis significantly reduced intersection crashes with injuries compared to human drivers, some in the community are hesitant about the idea of taking an autonomous taxi ride, especially in wintry weather.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that adult obesity rates may be slowing. The center has tracked trends over more than six decades and found numbers were leveling off.

It's important to note that it was leveling off after reaching records highs of 42.4% of adults in 2017-2018, which has lowered to the current state of 40.3%.

Denver7 talked to bariatric surgeon Dr. Katy Irani with HCA HealthONE Rose.

"It's really interesting to see that short little plateau that we're seeing," Dr. Irani said. "It's mind-blowing at how obesity has grown over the last 30 years. You know, it went from 20% of adults to 40% of adults, and that's obesity not being overweight. If you include the overweight category, it's 70% now."

Dr. Irani said to remember the variability in statistics and a lot depends on who was sampled. She said it will be important to see how these numbers play out in the long run.

She added that obesity was recognized as a disease in 2013, which has also helped lower the percentage.

"More dietitian and behavioral health or therapy coverage by insurance companies. So people have that resource now, and we're just becoming more aware of the food we eat and how important it is to move and so hopefully we see that trend continuing to plateau," Dr. Irani said.

While some experts think popular weight loss drugs are also impacting the change, Dr. Irani is more cautious.

"I'm not sure if we can see the effects of GLP-1s yet," she said. "Although they've been around for a really long time, they weren't really used widespread for obesity until about 2020 (or) 2021. This data we're seeing is from 2021 to 2023. So, hopefully, with the introduction of those medications, we'll see a continued decline."

Another CDC report did reveal an alarming trend that childhood and teen obesity rates have reached record highs, with one in five U.S. kids and teens.

Dr. Irani said different treatments like lifestyle intervention didn't really take off until more recently. She also pointed to the growth in technology and screen time. She said that is impacting how much kids move, how they eat and snack and much more.

"Screens become addictive, and so it leads to irritability, depression, not interacting with peers," she said. "I think screens have a big contributing factor to that rise in obesity."

However, she wanted to leave everyone with one important message.

"We've seen changes kind of have an effect on the obesity rates," she said. "Certainly, as a bariatric surgeon, I see so many patients come to me where they've been obese their entire life and now they're either normal BMI or getting close to it. They're active. They're running marathons. So, it's not hopeless."