Another stab at privacy…

https://pogowasright.org/massachusetts-senate-committee-approves-robust-comprehensive-privacy-law/

Massachusetts Senate Committee Approves Robust Comprehensive Privacy Law

Seen at EPIC.org:

The Senate members of the Joint Committee on Advanced IT, Cybsecurity, and the Internet have given a favorable report to a redrafted version of the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act (“MDPA”). If enacted, MDPA would be the strongest state privacy law in the nation.

The Senate Committee bill, S.2516, uses many provisions from EPIC and Consumer Reports’ model state privacy bill. It builds on existing state laws and includes data minimization provisions that meaningfully limit the collection and use of personal data. The legislation also bans the sale of sensitive data such as precise geolocation data, data about minors, and health data. MDPA also includes strong enforcement mechanisms, including a private right of action, allowing consumers to hold companies accountable for violations of the law and encouraging compliance.

MDPA also includes a data broker registry, a one-stop mechanism for Massachsuetts residents to delete their data held by data brokers, and the Location Shield Act, which would give heightened protections to precise geolocation information.

“EPIC commends Senator Michael Moore and the Senate members of the Committee for advancing a bill that, if enacted, would provide Massachusetts residents with the privacy protections they need to stay safe online,” said EPIC Deputy Director Caitriona Fitzgerald. “We urge the Senate to quickly take up the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act to put a stop to the data abuse that is harming individuals’ wallets, rights, and opportunities.”

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-transcription-services/

The best transcription services we tested

If you're a medical or legal professional needing transcripts of dictations, a journalist looking to transcribe interviews with sources, or part of a team making use of real-time meeting notes, a transcription service can translate audio and video conversations onto paper for you. The best transcription services do this with a high degree of accuracy, whether you're relying on human transcriptionists or AI-powered features.

Will this be repeated in other states? (Will it work?)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/montana-becomes-first-state-close-law-enforcement-data-broker-loophole

Montana Becomes First State to Close the Law Enforcement Data Broker Loophole

Montana has done something that many states and the United States Congress have debated but failed to do: it has just enacted the first attempt to close the dreaded, invasive, unconstitutional, but easily fixed “data broker loophole.” This is a very good step in the right direction because right now, across the country, law enforcement routinely purchases information on individuals it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain.

What does that mean? In every state other than Montana, if police want to know where you have been, rather than presenting evidence and sending a warrant signed by a judge to a company like Verizon or Google to get your geolocation data for a particular set of time, they only need to buy that same data from data brokers. In other words, all the location data apps on your phone collect —sometimes recording your exact location every few minutes—is just sitting for sale on the open market. And police routinely take that as an opportunity to skirt your Fourth Amendment rights.

How could a manual check miss “an inaccurate title and inaccurate authors?” I’m more concerned that the expert relied on the AI which was trained on the work of other experts. Are we about to see a downward spiral?

https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/15/anthropics-lawyer-was-forced-to-apologize-after-claude-hallucinated-a-legal-citation/

Anthropic’s lawyer was forced to apologize after Claude hallucinated a legal citation

A lawyer representing Anthropic admitted to using an erroneous citation created by the company’s Claude AI chatbot in its ongoing legal battle with music publishers, according to a filing made in a Northern California court on Thursday.

Claude hallucinated the citation with “an inaccurate title and inaccurate authors,” Anthropic says in the filing, first reported by Bloomberg. Anthropic’s lawyers explain that their “manual citation check” did not catch it, nor several other errors that were caused by Claude’s hallucinations.

Anthropic apologized for the error and called it “an honest citation mistake and not a fabrication of authority.”

Earlier this week, lawyers representing Universal Music Group and other music publishers accused Anthropic’s expert witness — one of the company’s employees, Olivia Chen — of using Claude to cite fake articles in her testimony. Federal judge, Susan van Keulen, then ordered Anthropic to respond to these allegations.

I wonder if anyone had bothered to anticipate this ruling?

https://www.iccl.ie/digital-data/eu-ruling-tracking-based-advertising-by-google-microsoft-amazon-x-across-europe-has-no-legal-basis/

EU ruling: tracking-based advertising by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, X, across Europe has no legal basis

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, X, and the entire tracking-based advertising industry rely on the “Transparency & Consent Framework” (TCF) to obtain “consent” for data processing. This evening the Belgian Court of Appeal ruled that the TCF is illegal. The TCF is live on 80% of the Internet.[1]

… For seven years, the tracking industry has used the TCF as a legal cover for Real-Time Bidding (RTB), the vast advertising auction system that operates behind the scenes on websites and apps. RTB tracks what Internet users look at and where they go in the real world. It then continuously broadcasts this data to a host of companies, enabling them to keep dossiers on every Internet user.[2] Because there is no security in the RTB system it is impossible to know what then happens to the data. As a result, it is also impossible to provide the necessary information that must accompany a consent request.[3]

Today’s judgement confirms the Belgian Data Protection Authority’s 2022 decision. It applies immediately across Europe.

Dr Ryan of Enforce said “This decision is momentous. It creates a clear need for industry to innovate and move away from the dangerous, ineffective, and fraud-riddled tracking-based advertising. RTB can operate without personal data. This decision shows that it must. This good news for every person online, and for publishers, too.”

Building the culture...

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/video/philosophy-eats-ai-what-leaders-should-know/

Philosophy Eats AI: What Leaders Should Know

Ethics isn’t the only philosophical issue that organizations need to grapple with when developing and deploying AI. In fact, ethics and “responsible AI” are only a small part of the philosophical perspectives informing and guiding AI’s production, utility, and use.

In this insightful video, MIT Sloan’s Michael Schrage and MIT Sloan Management Review’s David Kiron explain why leaders need to rigorously cultivate philosophical conversation if they want to realize strong returns and competitive advantage from their organizations’ generative and predictive AI investments.

Building on a recent popular article they coauthored, Schrage and Kiron break down how philosophical frameworks shape what AI systems prioritize and produce. They also explain the critical concepts of teleology (purpose), epistemology (knowledge), and ontology (categorization), and detail how thinking through these concepts can temper the strategic risks that come from giving AI a more strategic role in the enterprise.

… For a deeper exploration of these concepts discussed in this video, read the full article, “Philosophy Eats AI.”

I like it!

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/12/house-of-lords-pushes-back-ai-plans-data-bill

House of Lords pushes back against government’s AI plans

The government has suffered another setback in the House of Lords over its plans to let artificial intelligence firms use copyright-protected work without permission.

An amendment to the data bill requiring AI companies to reveal which copyrighted material is used in their models was backed by peers, despite government opposition.

It is the second time parliament’s upper house has demanded tech companies make clear whether they have used copyright-protected content.

Apparently, this is irresistible.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/judge-slams-police-for-using-ai-to-write-legal-argument-citing-nonexistent-laws/

Judge slams police for using AI to write legal argument, citing nonexistent laws

‘I thought I had seen everything,’ says judge after defense says police investigators used AI to write bogus legal justification for keeping defendant’s seized phone

A summary.

https://www.bespacific.com/artificial-intelligence-2025-legislation/

Artificial Intelligence 2025 Legislation

NCLS – Artificial Intelligence 2025 Legislation Updated March 22, 2025 – “AI—the use of computer systems to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as learning and decision-making—has the potential to spur innovation and transform industry and government. As AI advances and widespread adoption of these tools increase,  government, business and the public are exploring the risks and benefits of using the system for different applications. State governments across the country are starting to use or examine how AI can be used to improve government services such as enhancing customer service; improving health care facility inspections; and improving roadway safety. Legislators, industry and other stakeholders have engaged in robust discussions regarding the concerns about potential misuse or unintended consequences of AI. Over the last few years, more and more states have introduced AI-related legislation. In the 2025 legislative session, so far, at least 45 states and Puerto Rico introduced at least 550 AI bills. Last year, Colorado passed the first-in-the nation comprehensive AI regulation focused on consumer protections and safety. In at least eight states thus far, legislators have introduced similar comprehensive AI regulation bills with a focus on high-risk systems and preventing algorithmic discrimination. Virginia passed the High-Risk AI Developer and Deployer Act recently. Texas introduced the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act which has similar elements to other algorithmic discrimination measures, but the bill also creates a regulatory sandbox for AI testing and includes workforce investments, among other unique elements. Other proposals from states target specific AI uses. For example, at least 19 states have introduced legislation related to setting rental housing prices through algorithms. This webpage covers key legislation related to AI issues generally. Legislation related solely to specific AI technologies, such as facial recognition, deepfakes or autonomous vehicles, is being tracked separately.”

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.bespacific.com/free-ai-image-editor/

Free AI Image Editor

Free AI image editor online to edit your images with AI. Create and edit unlimited images online for free.

Will this encourage more AI experimentation?

https://www.ft.com/content/1d35759f-f2a9-46c4-904b-4a78ccc027df

Insurers launch cover for losses caused by AI chatbot errors

Insurers at Lloyd’s of London have launched a product to cover companies for losses caused by malfunctioning artificial intelligence tools, as the sector aims to profit from concerns about the risk of costly hallucinations and errors by chatbots.

The policies developed by Armilla, a start-up backed by Y Combinator, will cover the cost of court claims against a company if it is sued by a customer or another third party who has suffered harm because of an AI tool underperforming.

The insurance will be underwritten by several Lloyd’s insurers and will cover costs such as damages and legal fees.

Companies have rushed to adopt AI to boost efficiency but some tools, including customer service bots, have faced embarrassing and costly mistakes. Such mistakes can occur, for example, because of flaws which cause AI language models to “hallucinate” or make things up.

Wrong thinking gets you fired.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fires-director-of-u-s-copyright-office-shira-perlmutter-sources/

Trump fires director of U.S. Copyright Office, sources say

… The firing of Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter came after Perlmutter and her office earlier this week issued part three of a lengthy report about artificial intelligence and expressed some concerns and questions about the usage of copyrighted materials by AI technology.

Perspective.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5243382

Generated Legal Texts

Generative AI’s sudden growth has transformed the production of data, images, videos, and especially text. And with that impact on text comes impact on law. From contracts to judicial opinions, from legislation to litigation, nearly every aspect of the law operates through text. Yet while there is much legal scholarship on AI, little work focuses on legal texts as the relevant unit of analysis.

We introduce the concept of “generated legal texts,” arguing that how these texts are deployed across different legal institutions creates common patterns and concerns—making them worthy of study in their own right. Through a broad empirical survey, we document the breadth and speed of generated legal texts’ integration into our institutions, revealing how they are already reshaping the legal landscape.

Next, we classify the types of these new generated legal texts, the forms of human co-production of these documents, the texts’ audiences, and the spectrum of regulations concerning generated legal texts. Generated legal texts raise concerns such as bias and inaccuracy that are common with AI. But they also raise distinctive new issues, like “floodgates” problems and concerns about sincerity. We identify and elaborate on those concerns, and then discuss the emerging putative solution of “ratification,” in which an individual or body assumes responsibility for the text by “ratifying” it. By drawing on embedded legal norms, ratification has many strengths as a tool for shaping the responsible use of generated legal texts. But it also has limitations, reflecting the need to pay close attention to generated legal texts going forward.