The U.S. military’s unprecedented destruction of four objects floating through the upper reaches of North America’s atmosphere raises a difficult question: Is this stuff benign, or a genuine national security problem in the making?

From what we know now, the answer may be “both.” Current evidence released about the events of recent days has revealed a mixed picture. U.S. officials remain adamant that the first object was a large, sophisticated spy balloon from China. They have been careful to put the others in a different category, referring to them as smaller, less sophisticated devices traveling on lower-level winds.

But the spy balloon by itself remains a troubling portent for the Pentagon and U.S. defense overall, say some lawmakers, officials, and outside experts.

The State Department last week said the balloon, which China insists was a wayward weather balloon, is part of a sophisticated effort that has involved overflights of more than 40 countries across five continents. In recent years, China has breached U.S. airspace with balloons on at least five separate occasions, said officials.

U.S. radars have been recalibrated to look for slow-moving balloon-like objects. That is one major reason more are suddenly being detected. But dealing with the threat in the long term may require more radars, the modernization of existing systems, and more aircraft for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, says retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, former deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

“These intrusions should be a wake-up call to rebuild our air and space defenses,” says retired General Deptula, now dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, in an email.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims (right), director of operations for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, arrives for a closed briefing with lawmakers on the unknown aerial objects the U.S. military shot down this past weekend, at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 14, 2023. The incidents come a week after a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down off the South Carolina coast.

In the short term, some of the U.S. reaction to the radar readings of the last week seems, if not an overreaction, then an abundance of caution in a fast-moving situation where information remains incomplete.

U.S. officials have clearly put the three shoot-downs after that of the alleged Chinese spy balloon in a separate category. They have emphasized not just that the objects were small, but that they appeared incapable of maneuvering under their own power, and were blowing at such low altitudes that they endangered civilian aircraft.

Spy balloons – or properly functioning weather balloons – can rise to 60,000 feet or more, altitudes at which even military aircraft can have trouble operating.

Part of this reticence on the part of the United States is due to tension in its current relationship with China. The White House surely does not want to inflame an already difficult situation unless it has significant proof. Part of it is also due to the fact that thousands of weather and research balloons circle the world at all times. The National Weather Service alone launches some 60,000 such balloons a year, many of them bound for the stratosphere and up to the edge of space.

“There are just a lot more things in the atmosphere we have to worry about,” says retired Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, a former director of naval intelligence who is now an international affairs professor at Syracuse University.

North American Aerospace Defense Command radars have in the past been oriented toward detecting fast-moving aircraft and missiles. Setting them to also detect objects that are moving very slowly would greatly increase the number of radar returns and almost certainly rope in objects of no importance to U.S. national security.

The last three shoot-downs were all so small that it is likely they were virtually vaporized by the Sidewinder missiles that hit them, say experts. Also, unlike the Chinese spy balloon, they were all hit over places where searchers might find it difficult to recover debris – either remote frozen territory, or Lake Huron.

In the absence of proof otherwise, the U.S. intelligence community is indicating the objects may have been harmless, said National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby on Feb. 14.

“The intelligence community is considering as a leading explanation that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” Mr. Kirby told reporters.

Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Eric Moser/US Navy/Reuters

Sailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit 4 operate landing craft air cushions during recovery efforts for the remains of a high-altitude Chinese balloon shot down by the U.S. Air Force off South Carolina’s coast, Feb. 8, 2023.

Unidentified aerial phenomena

But some experts look at the balloon hunt of the last month in a different context. Given the rising numbers of unexplained aerial sightings by U.S. military pilots over recent years, is it possible that the downing of even one balloon deemed a spy aircraft is an indication that an adversarial surveillance program using balloons, drones, or other low-tech equipment already exists? 

Under pressure from Congress, the Defense Department in 2022 established a new organization to investigate unexplained aerial phenomena called the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office.

In part, the role of the AARO is to lessen the stigma for pilots of reporting things they cannot explain. In the past many have been derided for believing in aliens and extraterrestrials.

If nothing else, the office has shown that many military pilots see stuff in the wild blue yonder they cannot explain. AARO’s most recent study, released last month, reported 366 newly collected incidents of strange aerial sightings over a 12-month period.

Of those, 26 were characterized as drones. Six were radar clutter. And 163 were characterized as “balloons or balloon-like entities.”

The remaining 171 were characterized, basically, as unknowns – “uncharacterized and unattributed ... reports.”

Some of these “appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis,” the report said.

“There’s a vulnerability that’s clearly been revealed,” says Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a member of the Armed Services Committee.

And why they matter

In Congress, talking about mysterious objects in the sky once drew snickers and jokes about aliens. And there’s still a bit of that. “We didn’t kill E.T.,” quipped Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina after an all-senators classified briefing Tuesday.

But the topic of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) has suddenly become a serious matter on the Hill, with lawmakers from both parties pushing the administration for more transparency on what it knows – and what it’s doing about it. 

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who has been talking about UAPs for years, is frustrated that some are treating this like a new problem – including the White House, which announced a new interagency team to study UAPs. He was one of the senators who successfully pushed the Defense Department to establish AARO. 

“I don’t know why we’re reinventing that wheel,” says Senator Rubio. He and Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand from New York told the Monitor on their way out of an Intelligence Committee classified briefing Tuesday that they were collecting signatures to get AARO fully funded. 

Senator Gillibrand says it’s thanks to that work that the U.S. could trace and track the flight path of a Chinese spy balloon so effectively. “We know a lot more than we knew two years ago,” she says, thanks to mandating UAP incident reporting, which has reduced the long-standing stigma around doing so.

And while senators caution that the unidentified objects may turn out to be benign, there’s concern that adversaries are aware of some blind spots in the U.S. military’s capabilities. 

“They know we look for missiles, they know we look for planes, but are we really looking for slow-moving objects at 20,000 feet?” asks Senator Rubio. “And if we’re not, that’s what you would design.”

On an icy January morning, Superintendent Susan Enfield arrives at Marvin Moss Elementary School with three rubber ducks tucked discreetly in her purse.

She greets staff in the front office before making a beeline toward the wing containing some of the school’s youngest learners. There, she pops into a kindergarten classroom unannounced.

“What’s something you love about your teacher?” she asks the students.

Little hands shoot up. One by one, they share their thoughts, some pausing to find the right words.

“She is fun.”

“She plays with us outside.”

“She helps us learn new things.”

Their bite-size answers set the stage for the unveiling of the Ducky Award, Dr. Enfield’s signature way of recognizing Washoe County School District employees who deserve praise. In this case, a fellow colleague had nominated the school’s three kindergarten teachers for their hard work and dedication. Jodee McLean – the first teacher honored – blushes and smiles while accepting the small yellow duck. 

Her students aren’t the only ones who learn about the recognition. Later that day, Dr. Enfield shares photos of the kindergarten teachers on social media. They exist among other posts celebrating student accomplishments and showcasing programs.

As far as the superintendent is concerned, public schools are not always public enough about praising their own people or progress. So she’s on a mission to change that while also not glossing over room for improvement.

In an era of declining enrollment in K-12 public schools, Dr. Enfield considers it crucial to show “why the local public school is a school of choice.”

It’s more than just a sentimental statement. Enrollment dips cost the district money, which eventually can mean fewer services, programs, and resources for students.

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Susan Enfield, Washoe County School District superintendent, poses for a photo with students during her visit to Marvin Moss Elementary School on Jan. 31, 2023. Dr. Enfield's district is among those in the United States balancing changes in enrollment and financial needs.

Picture a funnel. Federal, state, and local money gather at the top before flowing to districts and, ultimately, schools on a per-pupil basis. Other funding streams exist, often earmarked for specific purposes, but district finances rely heavily on those per-pupil dollars.

Even slight deviations can cause financial problems. Case in point: The Washoe County School District budgeted for 61,923 students this academic year, but 1,145 students didn’t show up. The decline created a revenue shortfall of almost $8.4 million.

The district’s situation isn’t unique. Nationwide, U.S. school districts large and small are grappling with slumping enrollments that are putting a dent in budgets and, in some cases, forcing painful decisions about school closures. 

The latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that total enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools fell by more than a million students at the onset of the pandemic – from 50.8 million in fall 2019 to 49.4 million in fall 2020. The federal government expects an overall decline to continue, leading to 47.3 million prekindergarten through 12th grade students attending public schools in 2030.

There is no single explanation for the drop in public school students, some of whom have been called “missing kids” because they seemingly disappeared during the pandemic. Instead, education officials point to multiple factors, which can vary by region, including declining birthrates, the rise of home schooling, more families choosing private or charter schools, changing migration patterns, and older students who dropped out to join the workforce.

Parents opting to skip or delay their child’s kindergarten year may also be playing a role. 

“Changes in enrollment inevitably mean school districts are going to have to make hard choices,” says Ray Hart, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools.

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Students arrive in the morning at Sparks High School, part of the Washoe County School District, on Feb. 1, 2023, in Sparks, Nevada. Enrollment in the district has decreased 4.3% since the 2018-19 school year.

And that’s why Dr. Enfield – seven months into her tenure leading the Washoe County School District – is unabashedly boosting the good occurring in public classrooms while also calling for greater state investments. 

Better funding, she says, would enable the district to pay teachers more and provide smaller class sizes, thereby making the system a more enticing option for families. 

“A robustly funded public school system is going to be stronger and more appealing to families and serve kids better,” she says. “That’s just the reality.”

Chasing enrollment in Washoe County

Most of Washoe County lies on the eastern slope of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada. The Truckee River cuts through downtown Reno — the county seat nicknamed “the biggest little city in the world” – not far from casinos, parks, coffee shops, and eateries. The other large municipality in the county is Sparks, which sits east of Reno and has more housing, shopping, industrial areas, and a marina.

While small compared to its southern sister Las Vegas, whose metropolitan area makes up the lion’s share of Nevada’s population, much of Reno’s story over the past decade has revolved around growth. A massive industrial complex with tenants such as Tesla, Google, and Walmart brought scores of jobs and, in turn, people to northwest Nevada.

Migration from California and elsewhere also brought new residents. Housing prices soared as demand blossomed. And a Brookings Metro analysis labeled Reno as one of the few American cities that grew more rapidly in 2020-21 compared with the prior year.

But the same can’t be said for the Washoe County School District serving the region. The public school system’s enrollment has decreased 4.3% since the 2018-19 school year. 

“I don’t know that we can say it’s just a mass exodus from public education entirely,” says Dr. Enfield, who came to the district in July after serving as superintendent of Highline Public Schools in the Seattle area. “I think it’s an exodus based on need and a completely unanticipated reality that we were all forced to confront during COVID.”

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Most of Washoe County, which includes the city of Reno, lies on the eastern slope of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada.

A recent staff presentation to the school board pegged lower birthrates, inflated housing costs, and movement toward charter and private schools as the primary drivers. The district projects another loss of 1,099 students next school year tied to that combination of factors.

In Nevada, public charter schools can be sponsored by traditional public school districts or the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority. Since the 2019-20 academic year, enrollment at charter-authority-sponsored schools has grown by 10,250 students. Six of those brick-and-mortar charter schools operate within Washoe County. The Washoe County School District also sponsors several other charter schools.

“I want our schools to be excellent, and I want every district school to be excellent,” says Rebecca Feiden, executive director of the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority. “And I want families to have the difficult job of picking between a lot of excellent schools.”

As a whole, Nevada’s public school enrollment has seen a nearly 2% decline since the 2019-20 school year, according to an analysis by The Associated Press, Stanford University’s Big Local News project, and Stanford education professor Thomas Dee. Private school enrollment increased by 8% during that same time span. Home schooling likely contributed to the public school enrollment decline as well, though Nevada’s education department does not track that data.

Seventh grader Kylie Skolnick is one of the students the Washoe County School District lost. Her parents, unhappy with a variety of issues at the public middle school where Kylie attended sixth grade, began home-schooling her this year. 

Maria Skolnick, her mother, says concerns about curriculum direction, school safety, and what she and her husband viewed as an erosion of parental rights drove their decision. Core academic subjects, she says, seemed on the back burner as social justice and LGBTQ issues gained more prominence in the school setting.

“It was just this separation of allowing the school district to take charge of what they felt was necessary or deemed important for the kids to be learning,” says Mrs. Skolnick, who felt like it was “kind of pushing parents out.”

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Teacher and parent Kari Clauson leads a writing class offered by Light House Reno, Jan. 31, 2023. The home-school students meet for group classes once a week in a South Reno church.

Their younger daughter, a fourth grader, remains in a public elementary school because they have not observed the same issues there. Meanwhile, Kylie studies at home and once a week attends in-person classes with a home-school gathering called Light House Reno.

The group meets at a church, where, on a recent afternoon, teacher Kari Clauson leads a discussion about how to write short, impactful sentences. Fourth through eighth graders surround a table in the small classroom that contains a large, wooden cross in one corner.

Interest in Light House Reno, which serves roughly 35 children and charges fees based on the number of classes they attend, has surged since it launched at the beginning of this school year, says Rachel Radmacher, the group’s founder and administrator. She expects the number of children attending to double next year. 

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Rachel Radmacher (right) is the founder and administrator of Light House Reno, a home-schooling group that two of her three children attend, including her daughter Katelynn (left).

“We’re trying to figure out how to do it. We might split it into two days,” Mrs. Radmacher says. “And I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to offer more classes. I’d like to start a theater program and I would like to have a Spanish class.”

Two of Mrs. Radmacher’s three children are home-schooled and part of Light House Reno; her middle son, who has been diagnosed with autism, attends the public school district to receive support services. Ideological concerns about public school curriculum also drove her decision to home-school.

Seeking help from legislators

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to determine the degree to which ideological concerns and broader culture wars are influencing enrollment shifts. 

As a public school leader, Dr. Enfield says she encourages families to reach out and ask questions. She suspects some perceptions about public schools have evolved from hearsay.

Dr. Enfield says she can’t dwell on it, nor can she change every parent’s mind.

“I will never judge the choice a family makes for their child when it comes to their education,” she says. “They know their child. They know what their child needs. My job is to make sure that their public school is a viable option.”

But there is another group of impressionable people she hopes to sway: state lawmakers. 

Nevada’s citizen legislature, which meets every other year, convened in early February for its 120-day lawmaking session. A day after her visit to Marvin Moss Elementary School, which saw enrollment decline by 50 students at the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Enfield spoke with legislators in Carson City.

In her mind, adequate funding and enrollment have a “definite correlation” given the domino effect it would have on teacher recruitment, class sizes, and overall resources. That’s the message she has been sharing with state lawmakers.

“A lot of the things that families would like to see, we could provide if we had adequate funding,” she says.

Nevada’s public school enrollment decline is more modest than what other states are experiencing, including neighboring California. But its historically low per-pupil funding means districts were already operating on thin margins. A recent Education Law Center report gave Nevada F grades in three funding fairness measurements.

The problem with enrollment declines is that many fixed costs of running a school system – building and maintenance needs, for instance – remain the same, says David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center.

“What I would call lack of investment in Nevada’s public education system by successive legislators and governors for decades ... is going to come home to roost,” he says. “And these districts are really going to have a tough time.”

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Librarian Gayle Hadler (left) chats with Superintendent Susan Enfield at Marvin Moss Elementary School, Jan. 31, 2023.

The Washoe County School District overcame its budget shortfall this academic year by moving 60 teachers who had been on special assignment – doing various types of work, such as professional development or supporting staff – back to the classroom, saving more than $2 million, Dr. Enfield says. Contingency funds covered the remaining gap.

Other districts have turned to federal COVID-19 relief money to plug enrollment-related budget holes, says Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. The availability of those one-time federal funds – most of which must be spent by September 2024 – has created a situation, she says, where districts have not “reckoned with” the financial implications of enrollment declines.

The exodus of more than a million students from public schools nationwide, however, has led to school closures in places such as Oakland, California, and Jefferson County in Colorado. Bellevue School District in Washington is reviewing plans to do the same.

And while many education officials shy away from discussing that scenario, Dr. Roza says that can be a mistake.

“I think there is this wishful thinking happening that there’s got to be a better way than closing schools,” she says. “And the only other alternative is kids go to these zombie schools where there are very few services and very few adults who work there.”

If any city knows the effects of dwindling enrollment all too well, it’s Chicago. Mass migration out of the Windy City, among other factors, led to a 25% enrollment decrease within Chicago Public Schools over the past decade. 

In 2013, the school board voted to close 49 schools. Now, a moratorium on school closings in Chicago exists until 2025. 

While students may see smaller class sizes when enrollment shrinks, they often don’t have access to many electives or extracurricular activities, says Hal Woods, chief of policy at Kids First Chicago. The nonprofit organization has been studying the enrollment crisis and boosting parent engagement around the issue.

“It just sets up a very, very challenging environment for students to succeed – both the student outcomes but even being able to offer, like, a quality experience for students and faculty in the school building,” he says.

Consuelo Martinez, who lives in the South Side of Chicago, is part of a team affiliated with Kids First Chicago that has convened parents to discuss enrollment dips and study their root causes. Over more than a decade of having children in public schools, she says, through a translator, she has seen firsthand the effects of shrinking enrollment. At her son’s school, for example, first and second graders were taught in one room.

Her son, now 21, is in college. Her 19-year-old daughter, who has been diagnosed with autism, remains a Chicago Public Schools student and is receiving extended support services.

The group Ms. Martinez is working with plans to make recommendations for policy changes. It’s an acknowledgment that Chicago Public Schools cannot solve the problem on its own.

“This is going to actually require government, private sector, [and the] civic community coming together to really address some of these root causes – systemic issues – that are causing slower growth, but also causing families to leave the city of Chicago as well,” Mr. Woods says.

“We could be surprised”

Back in Nevada, public education leaders say school closures are not imminent in the state’s two largest districts.

The Clark County School District in the Las Vegas area saw its enrollment fall by nearly 2%, or roughly 5,800 students, this academic year. That puts its student count in the ballpark of 314,000, still keeping its position as the nation’s fifth-largest public school district.

Jason Goudie, the chief financial officer for the Las Vegas district, says he considers the decrease “somewhat flat.” In other words, it has not caused a fiscal panic.

“We are still an overcrowded district,” he says. “We still don’t have enough schools, enough capacity.”

Alfredo Sosa/Staff

Second grade teacher Katie Nightingale interacts with a student at Marvin Moss Elementary School, Jan. 31, 2023.

The Washoe County School District, meanwhile, is in the midst of a five- to 10-year facilities modernization plan. It will look at anticipated growth spots, where a new school may be warranted, while also evaluating whether any consolidation should occur, Dr. Enfield says.

The bottom line, the superintendent says, is about making smart decisions for how to allocate resources. She says this all with an air of optimism, though.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican who took office in January, has announced his proposed biennial budget, which would pump $2 billion more into public schools. He estimates it would increase per-pupil funding by more than $2,000.

Anything could happen, of course, as his budget wends its way through the state legislature, where competing funding requests go head to head. Dr. Enfield plans to make her presence felt in the state capital as an education messenger of sorts.

She’s also not ruling out the possibility of the enrollment situation reversing itself.

“I know that we’re predicted to be down,” she says. “And I still think we could be surprised in the other direction.” 

Children covered in dirt and grime, many shoeless, wait for food in a field outside a camp for internally displaced people in this southeastern Turkish city. Many of the children are Kurdish, many impoverished, and now, in the wake of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit this region last week, many are homeless.

They sleep in tents, curled up next to cousins and siblings, trying to stay warm.

Here in Gaziantep, they wait for aid. When the government supply truck arrives, usually once a day, they run toward its white, hulking form. The truck stops, and a young man, dressed in civilian clothes, leans out of the back.

The children scramble toward the open hatch, trying to climb inside. The man uses a stick to push them back. He throws a blanket or two into the teeming crowd, but no food.

As the truck lurches forward, children are still hanging from its back. Their shoeless feet drag on the ground as the truck speeds up, some running to try and keep up. Others try to clamber inside the moving vehicle.

As quickly as it arrives, the truck is gone, leaving a trail of fallen children in its wake.

“The children are hungry. They are scared,” says Kiraz Balik, who is alone in Gaziantep with her seven children – among some 200 estimated to be at this informal camp alone – because her husband is in prison.

Erin O'Brien

A young man walks between tents erected by Turkey’s disaster relief organization, AFAD, in Gaziantep City Stadium on Feb. 11, 2023.

The massive earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey last week has killed more than 41,000 people and displaced over a million more, according to Turkish government statistics. Among those affected are 7 million children living in the regions that were hit, according to UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, speaking to reporters in Geneva.

The images of children being rescued after days under collapsed buildings have captured the world’s attention. But thousands of children have died. Thousands more have lost a parent or caregiver or both, although no concrete estimates of that number yet exist.

Children face unique vulnerability after a natural disaster, and in this region their plight is overlapped with poverty, and across the border in Syria with displacement and civil war. But research also shows that children are uniquely poised to withstand tragedy, especially when support networks step in to provide care.

Finding the parents

For now, rescue workers are rushing to attend to their needs in the crucial days ahead.

“Urgently identifying unaccompanied children and those who may have been separated from parents and caregivers is absolutely critical,” UNICEF communications specialist Joe English told CNN. “Following these kinds of disasters, displaced children, especially those who are unaccompanied or separated from family, are vulnerable to violence, exploitation, and abuse, including the risk of trafficking or gender-based violence.”

Children rescued from under the rubble who have lost their families – many of them so shocked into silence they do not know their own names – have been left in the care of pediatricians.

Those with their families are dealing with the trauma of homelessness and hunger – and watching their caregivers suffer. Many more will soon be born into this tragedy. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that at least 214,000 pregnant women have been affected by the quake, and that 24,000 women could give birth in the next month. In the city of Islahiye, in Gaziantep province, rescue workers reported that women were giving birth in tents next to rescue sites.

Children display trauma in unique ways. According to research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, as part of a survey of stress reactions to the 9/11 attacks, “children are among the most vulnerable for long-term psychological disorders and impairment” in the aftermath of disaster. They often become anxious about leaving their caregivers, are unable to perform in school, and become hypervigilant. At least 35% of families surveyed in studies after 9/11 said their children displayed some symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Eloisa Lopez/Reuters

Children play at a park turned into a camp for displaced people in Iskenderun following the deadly earthquake, in Hatay province, Turkey, on Feb. 14, 2023.

The severity of response can also be directly linked to post-event exposure. In other words, if a child is left near rubble or bodies, or watches coverage of an event incessantly following a disaster, they are more likely to display PTSD symptoms.

Increasingly, however, mental health research is focused on their resilience. In a paper on pediatric responses to trauma, Dr. Froma Walsh from the University of Chicago found that “acute stress symptoms” are common in the immediate aftermath of an event. However, most people, including children, are resilient in coping and adaptation and exhibit transformation and positive growth, she finds.

That’s especially true with early interventions in community settings like schools or hospitals.

This will be complicated in Turkey and Syria, where many traditional institutional structures critical to children’s recovery – such as schools and hospitals – are currently inaccessible. Schools are closed until at least March 1, and even when they open, many displaced children will not be registered to attend. Hospitals are teeming and overcrowded with earthquake victims. In some cities, such as Antakya, almost all of them have been destroyed.

Dr. Walsh’s study also points to the importance of the family and community structure “when their strengths and potential are mobilized.” The symptoms of children who experience trauma, she writes, greatly depend on whether children can seek support within their networks.

Tightknit community

In a region such as southeast Turkey, where families are large and tightly knit, this is positive news. In the makeshift camp in Gaziantep, Genco Demir, a Kurdish man overseeing the tents, says that everyone here is related.

Suhaib Salem/Reuters

Children, whose house was destroyed during the war in Syria and later moved to Turkey, sit in a car next to a damaged building after their house was destroyed in Turkey's deadly earthquake, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, on Feb. 9, 2023.

“There are many people here watching other people’s children,” says Talibe Gezgin, a young mother at the camp who is four months pregnant.

On a recent day in the middle of the tent city, erected by this community of Kurdish migrant farmers on the first day after the earthquake, a group of nine children has made up a game. One girl, no more than 10 years old, wiggles a found piece of string on the ground, like a snake. Two groups of children – four on each side – squat on either side of the string. When she instructs, they jump over the rope.

They seem aware of some tragedy, some disruption, but they smile and hold each other close. They play all day. They talk about how they miss school – how they can’t wait to go back.

Their parents, circled around them, are worried. None of them can get the government aid they need to feed their children or take care of their own medical needs; the government has promised victims of the earthquake 10,000 lira, some $530, per family, but they do not know where to go to get it.

But amid the trash and tents, the children laugh.

Advances in artificial intelligence have long stirred ethical debates around intellectual and creativity property rights, but the recent arrival of ChatGPT – a search engine chatbot launched in November 2022 – has turbo-boosted those existential questions across classrooms and executive suites alike.

Big Tech is spurring the momentum behind a wave of user-friendly AI tools. OpenAI, the parent company behind ChatGPT, previously made DALL-E, an AI that generates digital images from written queries.

In late January, OpenAI secured a multibillion-dollar investment from Microsoft for ChatGPT, its newest groundbreaking algorithm, which is capable of crafting convincing prose in response to various prompts. 

How does ChatGPT work?

ChatGPT is currently available for free at OpenAI’s website. About 100 million people used ChatGPT in January, according to one estimate, which would be the fastest-growing user base ever. 

Once registered with an email account on the website, a user can start a text conversation with ChatGPT and receive results within seconds. The machine is fast and prolific, generating answers and expanding upon ideas on screen. First prompts for ChatGPT might be simple like: “What’s the square root of 324?,” “Give me the history of the United States,” or “Write me an essay about the Bermuda Triangle.” The bigger questions come later, like “What is ChatGPT?” 

“ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI that uses advanced artificial intelligence to generate
human-like text,” ChatGPT responded to such a prompt. “In simple terms, ChatGPT is a program that can understand and generate text, like a human, by learning patterns in language from vast amounts of text data.”

What are the benefits of ChatGPT?

People have been using the search engine algorithm to answer questions from the creative to the efficient, such as drafting project reports, writing basic legal contracts, and summarizing historical events. ChatGPT can also help teachers by developing study guides and creating quizzes. The chatbot’s potential could automate more jobs, too, replacing customer service operators with digital assistants.

It can even write poems about scanning groceries at the self-checkout in the style of Shakespeare.

Oh wondrous machine, with thy buttons and beeps,
Thou art a marvel, of technology’s leap.
At the self-checkout, I do stand in awe,
As I scan each item, and watch as thou dost saw.

Thy sensors doth read, each barcode with care,
And the numbers doth appear, with nimble repair.
I place each item, within thy basket fair,
And watch as thou dost count, with neither flaw nor snare.

That sounds cool and spooky. What are the concerns around using ChatGPT?

Not everyone is convinced that ChatGPT is ready for public use, and many argue there needs to be more human accountability and integrity in place before allowing anyone to log in and look for answers. Already educators in high school classrooms and on university campuses are raising concerns about plagiarism and academic integrity when they have discovered students using ChatGPT to complete homework assignments and provide answers on tests.

ChatGPT’s answers are also only as good as the information the AI learns from, which can include socially unacceptable material such as conspiracy theories, Nazi propaganda, or racist hate speech. While OpenAI has implemented filters in ChatGPT that should prevent it from using such material in its answers, some users have found ways to bypass those constraints and get the AI to produce all-too-human-sounding rants and screeds. 

“The answers [generated by ChatGPT] are clear and often pretty decently written, but you have no way of knowing if they’re true,” says Nir Eisikovits, director of the Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston. “People getting information from technology that has no conception of meaning and truth is problematic.” 

But ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence programs like it are being embraced by working professionals. In fact, 27% of professional workers – mostly in advertising and marketing – say they have used ChatGPT and other AI tools to help them with work-related tasks, according to a survey conducted by the social network Fishbowl. The prevalence in the workplace raises another host of concerns.

“[People] need to understand better the kind of data about the AI is trained on. They need to understand the predictive models assumptions that AI runs on,” cautions Professor Eisikovits. 

It’s a limit that even ChatGPT has been programmed to be aware of. “Although ChatGPT can provide information and answers,” the AI responded when prompted, “it’s important to understand that its responses are not always accurate, and should not be taken as fact without further verification.” 

On a sunny afternoon, a young woman named Ritu Saini serves tea to customers at Sheroes, a cafe managed and staffed by survivors of acid attacks. These resilient women have found a supportive place where they can move forward with their lives.  

Every year, hundreds of acid attacks are reported in India, with the majority of those aimed at women. The government has so far been unable to stop the violence, despite laws specifically criminalizing the attacks and restricting the sale of acid.    

Ms. Saini was a lively teenager before a cousin threw acid on her face for turning down his relationship proposal. She had to undergo extensive treatment, and the attack left her with a scar. 

Depressed, she confined herself at home. It took months of her mother’s encouragement for Ms. Saini to go out without covering her face. “That attack left a deep scar on my soul. If not for my mom’s persistence, I wouldn’t have been here today,” she says.

Ms. Saini is determined to empower other women. “I got many opportunities, thanks to the cafe,” she says.

Shefali Rafiq

Ms. Sufia (center) assists a customer paying his bill while Ms. Rajput (right) waits.

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(From left to right) Manani Bishnoi, Ms. Rajput, Ms. Sufia, and Mausami Haldar commute home from the cafe on their bicycles. They usually travel together.

She is joined by five other women, all of whom have stories of pain and resilience to share. Among them is Anshu Rajput. She was 15 when a man threw acid on her face. She underwent multiple surgeries to save her eyesight. “The harder part, though, was to overcome the numbness, and that is something I would not have been able to do without Sheroes,” she says.

The cafe is a project of the Chhanv Foundation, a nonprofit organization in India working for the rehabilitation of acid attack survivors.   

Ms. Rajput intends to become a motivational speaker and help people struggling with thoughts of suicide. “I want to tell people to never give up. No matter how hard life gets,” she says with a smile.

Another survivor, Seema Rajput (no relation), recently arrived at the cafe. She finds hope from working with her colleagues. “These girls are like my sisters,” she says. 

Customer Ajay Sharma says whenever he feels low, he heads to the cafe. “You see these girls running it; they are amazing and special. I have never witnessed such determination and grit in my entire life. They heal me,” he says. “They are like my daughters.”

Shefali Rafiq

Seema Rajput prepares chai inside the cafe kitchen.

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Ajay Sharma (left) is a regular customer at Sheroes cafe. He gives candies to Nagma Sufia (right), as Anshu Rajput tallies a check.

Shefali Rafiq

The cafe has become a place for residents to relax. “It is such a great initiative and I feel so proud to be a part of it,” a female customer says.

Shefali Rafiq

The women live together in a rented accommodation in Noida, a planned city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. On their Sunday off, Ms. Bishnoi (left) makes her bed while Ms. Sufia (right) sleeps.

Shefali Rafiq

Apart from working in the cafe, Ritu Saini enjoys extracurricular activities. Karate is among her favorite sports.

Reuters

A volunteer in the rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria, carries meals on Feb. 14 for people displaced by the earthquake.

Most wars are won by military advantage. Some are determined by something else. In Syria, after 12 years of a civil conflict, compassion toward the survivors of the Feb. 6 earthquake could provide a turning point that guns have not.

On Monday, President Bashar al-Assad agreed to open two border crossings from Turkey and allow humanitarian aid to flow into northern areas controlled by anti-regime rebels. His concession marks a breakthrough in the relief effort. Nearly 9 million people lack food, water, and shelter following the massive tremor. Truckloads of critical supplies are now reaching areas long isolated and pummeled by war.

The United Nations had to break through persistent resistance from the Assad regime and its principal backer, Russia, to keep just one aid corridor open. Now there are three. While the Assad regime may exploit its concession to gain international recognition, the aid flow could also help change the dynamics of diplomacy in the region.

Since the start of the civil war – triggered by peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011 – the government has sealed off northern Syria and treated its people there as enemies. Now Mr. Assad’s gesture on aid relief shows that even the most hardened dictators are not immune to the moral imperative to aid and protect innocent life.

A similar approach recently worked in nudging Russian President Vladimir Putin to back, however grudgingly, the resumption of grain and fertilizer shipments from Ukraine to countries facing famine. In Ethiopia’s civil war, the U.N. persuaded the regime to agree to a peace deal in November to provide relief in war-ravaged Tigray province.

Just a few weeks ago, it would have been hard to imagine the Syrian regime making this kind of statement through its ambassador to the U.N. “Syria supports the entry of humanitarian aid into the region through all possible cross points whatever – from inside Syria, or across the borders – for the period of three months to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to our people in ... northwestern Syria,” said envoy Bassam Sabbagh on Monday.

When a tragedy like an earthquake strikes, the suffering can soften hearts, temporarily curbing differences and leading to enough trust to make compromise possible.

The opening of aid corridors in Syria may be temporary. But it shows that aggression is an uncertain force. It ultimately backs down to humanity’s demand to aid and uplift.