Human error or out of control AI?

https://www.huntonak.com/privacy-and-information-security-law/recent-texas-case-highlights-increasing-relevance-of-privacy-and-security-laws-to-e-discovery-process

Recent Texas Case Highlights Increasing Relevance of Privacy and Security Laws to E-Discovery Process

On November 6, 2024, a Texas state district court jury found that a large e-discovery vendor violated Title 7, Chapter 33 of the Texas Penal Code, which provides that accessing a computer without its owner’s permission is a Class B misdemeanor. This case highlights the importance for e-discovery vendors of considering data privacy and security requirements in the course of discovery proceedings.

The court awarded $50,000 in damages against the vendor, finding that the vendor ignored e-discovery protocol when accessing an individual’s personal email account to search for emails containing 12 search terms dating back to 2012. As a result, the vendor downloaded more than 34,000 emails from the individual’s email account that included sensitive information such as medical data, Social Security numbers and attorney-client privileged information. According to reports, if the vendor had not deviated from the e-discovery protocol, only 600 relevant emails would have been in scope of discovery.

Data minimization is a key feature of many privacy laws, including the recently enacted Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, and companies are generally required to limit the collection of personal data to what is adequate, relevant and reasonably necessary to the disclosed purpose for which the personal information will be processed.

Law for geeks?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-this-long-awaited-os-merger-muddles-dojs-case-against-google/

Why this long-awaited OS merger muddles DOJ's case against Google

Google's merger of ChromeOS and Android could transform ecosystems and complicate antitrust remedies while challenging regulators to balance innovation, competition, and consumer impact.

Can anyone be ‘smart’ under this formula?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-digital-self/202411/what-does-it-mean-to-be-intelligent-today

What Does It Mean to Be Intelligent Today?

In 2017, I explored the concept of Technology Quotient (TQ) as a measure of our ability to navigate the evolving digital world. The conversation was centered on a dichotomy: technology’s battle between IQ and EQ. Back then—a technological lifetime ago—TQ was framed as a way to capture our capacity to understand, interact with, and thrive in an increasingly technical society—a society still dominated by hardware, software, and user engagement.

Fast forward to today, and the world has shifted significantly. Large Language Models have reshaped the technological and human landscape, pushing us beyond my former perspective on TQ. These tools blur the lines between intellect, emotion, and creativity. They are not just technical systems we operate; they are collaborators that amplify human potential and even thought.

In light of these changes, it’s time to revisit and redefine my earlier thinking about TQ—not as a battle between IQ and EQ, but as a multidimensional framework that captures the symbiosis between humans and AI. This new TQ reflects the skills and literacies required to thrive in a world where technology is not just a tool, but an extension of our cognitive and even our emotional capabilities.

Could Hollywood create a ‘star’ from whole cloth?

https://variety.com/vip-special-reports/generative-ai-celebrity-deepfakes-digital-replicas-special-report-1236218083/

Generative AI, Celebrity Deepfakes & Digital Replicas: A Special Report

Generative AI represents a double-edged sword for talent in the entertainment industry, bringing creative and monetization opportunities but also challenging risks.

This special report from Variety Intelligence Platform offers a deep dive into how name, image, likeness and voice (NILV) of actors and artists will be protected from misuse, as talent agencies and employers aim to combat the online spread of nonconsensual celebrity deepfakes and synthetic content.

Meanwhile, AI digital replicas are also becoming available to exploit for celebrities’ creative and commercial use. As authorized AI versions of talent likeness increasingly appear in content, celebs will need assurances that technical systems are in place for them to engage safely and benefit from their digital replicas to create new content experiences.

Tools & Techniques. Because you never know when these might be handy.

https://www.bespacific.com/bookmark-calculator-soup/

Bookmark ‘Calculator Soup’

Lifehacker – For the Next Time You Need to Convert Just About Anything – “We all have a few go-to calculations that we find ourselves doing often, like converting ounces to cups or miles to kilometers—that sort of thing. When I need to do a quick conversion, I use Calculator Soup, a simple website offering hundreds of purpose-built calculators for things like inflation, unit conversion, gas mileage, algebra, and so much more. The site can be overwhelming at first glance, with its old-school aesthetic and list of categories, but it’s full with the kinds of tools you’d otherwise search for and find ad-ridden versions of. For example: if you’re trying to get the best possible car loan there’s a car loan calculator …”

Seems backward to me. Is this the slipperiest of slopes?

https://www.bespacific.com/feds-can-film-your-front-porch-for-68-days-without-a-warrant-says-court/

Feds Can Film Your Front Porch for 68 Days Without a Warrant, Says Court

Gizmodo: A federal court says your privacy is diminished due to the proliferation of video cameras throughout society. “…The federal court’s decision says that video cameras have become “ubiquitous,”  and have therefore diminished our expectations of privacy. Police officers wear body cameras now, cellphones have cameras, and many doorbells record your porch. The court isn’t wrong that cameras are everywhere. However, law enforcement has a long history of blurring the lines of privacy with modern recording technology.  Politico detailed how Ring handed over a full day’s worth of camera footage against a man’s will, in order to convict his neighbor of a crime. The network of Ring cameras also was used by law enforcement for years to obtain footage of criminals without search warrants …”

See also Hartzog, Woodrow and Selinger, Evan and Gunawan, Johanna, Privacy Nicks: How the Law Normalizes Surveillance (March 10, 2023). 101 Washington University Law Review 717 (2024), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4384541 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4384541

Is AI ever a better choice?

https://www.infodocket.com/2024/12/01/research-article-preprint-suspected-undeclared-use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-the-academic-literature-an-analysis-of-the-academ-ai-dataset/

Research Paper (Preprint): “Suspected Undeclared Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Academic Literature: An Analysis of the Academ-AI Dataset”

Since generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT became widely available, researchers have used them in the writing process. The consensus of the academic publishing community is that such usage must be declared in the published article. Academ-AI documents examples of suspected undeclared AI usage in the academic literature, discernible primarily due to the appearance in research papers of idiosyncratic verbiage characteristic of large language model (LLM)-based chatbots. This analysis of the first 500 examples collected reveals that the problem is widespread, penetrating the journals and conference proceedings of highly respected publishers. Undeclared AI seems to appear in journals with higher citation metrics and higher article processing charges (APCs), precisely those outlets that should theoretically have the resources and expertise to avoid such oversights. An extremely small minority of cases are corrected post publication, and the corrections are often insufficient to rectify the problem. The 500 examples analyzed here likely represent a small fraction of the undeclared AI present in the academic literature, much of which may be undetectable. Publishers must enforce their policies against undeclared AI usage in cases that are detectable; this is the best defense currently available to the academic publishing community against the proliferation of undisclosed AI.

Direct to Full Text Article

No good way?

https://www.ft.com/content/e2fa34b2-6987-494d-a81a-1bdb6693671f

The legal battle against explicit AI deepfakes

It is easier than ever to forge graphic videos and images. But campaigners hope that new laws could offer a template for controlling artificial intelligence

Deliberate dishonesty? How disturbing…

https://jasondeegan.com/uk-man-uses-chatgpt-to-eat-free-at-mcdonalds-for-months-with-a-simple-yet-effective-trick/#google_vignette

UK Man Uses ChatGPT to Eat Free at McDonald’s for Months with a Simple Yet Effective Trick

… The man, a creative young Brit, managed to exploit a system designed to gather customer feedback at McDonald’s. Most people likely toss their receipt surveys aside without a second thought, but he saw an opportunity where others didn’t. Every McDonald’s receipt includes a unique code that can be used to access a customer satisfaction survey. The more complaints, the more likely you are to receive compensation, usually in the form of vouchers for free food.

Here’s where the magic happened: instead of simply completing the survey himself, this enterprising customer turned to ChatGPT for help. He would ask the AI to draft a complaint about his experience—specifically about receiving a subpar sandwich. The request was simple: “Write a complaint about a bad experience with a sandwich, under 12,000 characters.”

With a few clicks, he had a complaint letter that sounded genuine enough to warrant a response. He would then copy and paste this text into the survey, submitting it under the unique code on his receipt. McDonald‘s, eager to resolve any negative feedback, would contact him with vouchers for free meals as compensation.

If the complaint wasn’t detailed or convincing enough, he could always ask ChatGPT for a little rewrite to spice it up. A few small tweaks and the complaint was ready to go again. Over time, this clever strategy allowed him to rack up dozens of free meals.

Ready, fire, aim?

https://www.bespacific.com/senators-say-tsas-facial-recognition-program-is-out-of-control/

Senators Say TSA’s Facial Recognition Program Is Out of Control

Gizmodo: “A bipartisan group of 12 senators has urged the Transportation Security Administration’s inspector general to investigate the agency’s use of facial recognition, saying it poses a significant threat to privacy and civil liberties. Their letter comes just before one of the busiest travel periods of the year when millions of Americans are expected to pass through the nation’s airports. “This technology will soon be in use at hundreds of major and mid-size airports without an independent evaluation of the technology’s precision or an audit of whether there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect passenger privacy,” the senators wrote. The letter was signed by Jeffrey Merkley (D-OR), John Kennedy (R-LA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Ron Wyden (D-OR),Steve Daines (R-MT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Peter Welch (D-VT). While the TSA’s facial recognition program is currently optional and only in a few dozen airports, the agency announced in June that it plans to expand the technology to more than 430 airports. And the senators’ letter quotes a talk given by TSA Administrator David Pekoske in 2023 in which he said “we will get to the point where we require biometrics across the board.”

Perspective.

https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/about/press-room/deloitte-globals-2025-predictions-report.html

Deloitte Global’s 2025 Predictions Report: Generative AI: Paving the Way for a transformative future in Technology, Media, and Telecommunications

Deloitte Global today released its “Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) 2025 Predictions” report, forecasting a pivotal gap year for Generative AI (GenAI) and the TMT sector—spanning from technical challenges for the industry to societal imperatives. By addressing challenges in infrastructure, gender equity, energy consumption, trust, and capabilities, the industry could be poised for a significant leap forward and is well positioned to determine the future of Al’s legacy. Key takeaways: 

(Related)

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4740920-artificial-intelligence-5-trends-to-watch-in-2025

Artificial Intelligence: 5 Trends To Watch In 2025

Insured property surveillance…

https://www.reinsurancene.ws/insurers-in-the-us-to-benefit-from-near-space-labs-enhanced-aerial-imagery/

Insurers in the US to benefit from Near Space Labs’ enhanced aerial imagery

Near Space Labs, an aerial imagery provider for insurance applications among others, has announced the deployment of stratospheric robots across the United States, which will contribute to delivering improved aerial imagery throughout the country.

With enhanced 7cm resolution capabilities that match or exceed conventional aerial survey quality, this achievement marks the establishment of the first network of stratospheric robots in the continental US, delivering ultra-high-resolution aerial imagery across the country, the firm stated.

Do they understand how this happened? Is TikTok that powerful?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/27/romanian-regulator-tiktok-suspended-cyber-interference-election-georgescu

Romania regulator calls for TikTok suspension amid vote interference fears

Far-right, pro-Moscow candidate Călin Georgescu came from 5% in polls to win presidential election’s first round

Romania’s telecoms regulator is asking for TikTok to be suspended as the country’s defence council prepares to discuss cyber risks to its elections, after a little-known ultranationalist came from nowhere  to win the first round of the presidential vote.

The country’s constitutional court will also examine two allegations of electoral fraud after Călin Georgescu, a Moscow-friendly, EU-sceptic and anti-Nato independent, topped the ballot in a result that upended Romanian politics.

Georgescu was polling at barely 5% days before Sunday’s vote but surged to a shock victory with a campaign heavily based on viral TikTok videos that were reportedly boosted by bot-like activity, raising fears of possible external interference.

Why?

https://apnews.com/article/australia-social-media-children-ban-safeguarding-harm-accounts-d0cde2603bdbc7167801da1d00ecd056

A social media ban for under-16s passes the Australian Senate and will soon be a world-first law

A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian Senate Thursday and will soon become a world-first law.

The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

… The platforms will have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.

The amendments bolster privacy protections. Platforms would not be allowed to compel users to provide government-issued identity documents including passports or driver’s licenses, nor could they demand digital identification through a government system.

Impossible law?

https://www.bespacific.com/the-law-of-digital-resurrection/

The Law of Digital Resurrection

Haneman, Victoria J., The Law of Digital Resurrection  (July 17, 2024). __ B.C. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2025)., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4899324 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4899324

The digital right to be dead has yet to be recognized as an important legal right. Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and nanotechnology have progressed to the point that personal data can be used to resurrect the deceased in digital form with appearance, voice, emotion, and memory recreated to allow interaction with a digital app, chat bot, or avatar that may be indistinguishable from that with a living person. Users may now have a completely immersive experience simply by loading the personal data of the deceased into a neural network to create a chatbot that inherits features and idiosyncrasies of the deceased and dynamically learns with increased communication. There is no legal or regulatory landscape against which to estate plan to protect those who would avoid digital resurrection, and few privacy rights for the deceased. This is an intersection of death, technology, and privacy law that has remained relatively ignored until recently. This Article is the first to respect death as an important and distinguishing part of the conversation about regulating digital resurrection. Death has long had a strained relationship with the law, giving rise to dramatically different needs and idiosyncratic legal rules. The law of the dead reflects the careful balance between the power of the state and an individual’s wishes, and it may be the only doctrinal space in which we legally protect remembrance. This Article frames the importance of almost half of a millennium of policy undergirding the law of the deceased, and proposes a paradigm focused upon a right of deletion for the deceased over source material (data), rather than testamentary control over the outcome (digital resurrection), with the suggestion that existing protections are likely sufficient to protect against unauthorized commercial resurrections.

Resistance is futile?

https://www.bespacific.com/surveillance-self-defense-tips-tools/

Surveillance Self-Defense Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications

We’re the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an independent non-profit working to protect online privacy for over thirty years. This is Surveillance Self-Defense: our expert guide to protecting you and your friends from online spying.  Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD) is a guide to protecting yourself from electronic surveillance for people all over the world. Some aspects of this guide will be useful to people with very little technical knowledge, while others are aimed at an audience with considerable technical expertise and privacy/security trainers. We believe that everyone’s threat model is unique.

• Read the BASICS to find out how online surveillance works.

• Dive into our TOOL GUIDES for instructions to installing our pick of the best, most secure applications.

• We have more detailed information in our FURTHER LEARNING sections.

• If you’d like a guided tour, look for our list of common SECURITY SCENARIOS.

(Related)

https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/podcast-the-ai-risks-your-business-should-avoid

Podcast: The AI Risks Your Business Should Avoid

Depending on the generative AI model you use, a simple prompt could be enough to jeopardize sensitive company data.

But that’s not the only harm AI stands to impose on businesses that aren’t careful, says Kristian Hammond, a computer science professor at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and director of the school’s Center for Advancing Safety of Machine Intelligence (CASMI). Hammond also helped start Kellogg’s MBAi program.

On this episode of The Insightful Leader: What leaders need to know.

Perspective.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/11/26/1107309/we-need-to-start-wrestling-with-the-ethics-of-ai-agents/

We need to start wrestling with the ethics of AI agents

… If such tools become cheap and easy to build, it will raise lots of new ethical concerns, but two in particular stand out. The first is that these agents could create even more personal, and even more harmful, deepfakes. Image generation tools have already made it simple to create nonconsensual pornography using a single image of a person, but this crisis will only deepen if it’s easy to replicate someone’s voice, preferences, and personality as well. (Park told me he and his team spent more than a year wrestling with ethical issues like this in their latest research project, engaging in many conversations with Stanford’s ethics board and drafting policies on how the participants could withdraw their data and contributions.)

The second is the fundamental question of whether we deserve to know whether we’re talking to an agent or a human. If you complete an interview with an AI and submit samples of your voice to create an agent that sounds and responds like you, are your friends or coworkers entitled to know when they’re talking to it and not to you? On the other side, if you ring your cell service provider or doctor’s office and a cheery customer service agent answers the line, are you entitled to know whether you’re talking to an AI?

(Related)

https://www.wired.com/story/linkedin-ai-generated-influencers/

Yes, That Viral LinkedIn Post You Read Was Probably AI-Generated

A new analysis estimates that over half of longer English-language posts on LinkedIn are AI-generated, indicating the platform’s embrace of AI tools has been a success.

An interest of mine.

https://www.bespacific.com/research-methodology-students-guide/

Research Methodology: Students’ Guide

Policy Research, Institute of Legal and, Research Methodology: Students’ Guide (August 24, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4935909 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4935909

Research is a complex process that involves systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data to advance knowledge. It requires meticulous planning, methodological rigor, and critical thinking. Effective reporting of findings is essential for knowledge dissemination. Research is a continuous inquiry, involving ongoing questioning and refinement of methods. The paper aims to equip researchers with the knowledge, skills, and tools for meaningful research. It emphasizes the importance of aligning research interests with inquiry approaches. The paper highlights that research is not just about collecting data but also about how that data is collected, interpreted, and communicated. Researchers must actively engage in various steps, including identifying research areas, formulating questions, conducting literature reviews, designing studies, and reflecting critically. Reflective thinking in research involves adopting a critical perspective, challenging assumptions, and exploring alternative viewpoints. The paper also discusses research as writing, emphasizing the importance of clear and persuasive communication of findings. The review of literature and collection of data are crucial steps in research, requiring careful selection and evaluation of sources. An annotated bibliography is a valuable tool for summarizing and evaluating sources, helping researchers understand their relevance and contribution to the field.