Laurels & lances: New tech, new info

Laurel: To new access. We hear a lot about the dangers of technology, especially related to artificial intelligence.

Yes, there are valid questions to raise. Yes, Hollywood movies and science fiction books have postulated vivid scenarios.

But artificial intelligence also can give back accessibility that makes life easier. In some cases, it can give independence to a blind man and his best friend.

For Chris Donahue, 48, of Brighton Heights, AI lets him do something as simple as let his dog run outside.

Ray Ban AI Glasses can analyze Donahue’s environment and report to him about what is happening. When he looks into the yard and asks Meta AI if it sees his dog, a voice answers through a speaker in the glasses.

“There is a dog in the yard chewing a stick,” it says.

It can offer other freedoms too: reading labels, describing items, giving directions and more.

“It’s a game-changer,” said Erika Petach, president of VisAbility Pittsburgh.

The innovation here isn’t simply the ability for AI to “see” for the blind. It is also the unobtrusiveness of the assist. The glasses look no different than any other pair of black-lensed sunglasses, like millions sold since Tom Cruise popularized them in “Risky Business.” They don’t make a visual impairment stand out as a disability while still providing support.

Lance: To terrible actions. On Halloween, a dog attack in Tarentum as trick-or-treating began didn’t just create fear. It resulted in real injuries.

Michael Shutack, 60, of Tarentum was one of three people injured in the attack. He was off work for two months and bears scars on his face, hands and legs. His nerve damage is permanent.

He now knows the man who some credit with saving him from the two pit bulls was the person police say is responsible.

Shawn Flynn, 34, was one of the three injured. On Tuesday, Tarentum police charged him with two counts of aggravated assault, cruelty to animals, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.

This is an about-face from the immediate aftermath, when Flynn was the hero. Now police say video shows Flynn running from the North Ormand Street apartment of the dogs’ owners. One of those owners, Brandon Baynes, 36, initially was charged in the attacks, but those counts have since been dismissed.

Court documents reveal Flynn admitted this but says it was part of a larger plan with another tenant and the property’s landlord to let the dogs loose. Only Flynn has been charged to date.

Flynn’s case is just at its start, and the court must consider him innocent until proven guilty. The incident illustrates the importance of evolving information in an investigation.

But the new development is shockingly worse than it seemed in the bloody aftermath of the attack. What looked like negligence is now painted as intent, and the dogs that were the villains now appear to be more victims.