I think this is a huge underestimation of the total...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/24/crowdstrike-outage-companies-cost

CrowdStrike global outage to cost US Fortune 500 companies $5.4bn

Banking and healthcare firms, major airlines expected to suffer most losses, according to insurer Parametrix

… Companies in banking and healthcare are expected to be hit the hardest, according to the insurer Parametrix, as well as major airlines. The total insured losses for the non-Microsoft Fortune 500 companies could be between $540m and $1.08bn.

A variety of industries are still struggling to rectify the damage from CrowdStrike’s outage, which grounded thousands of flights, caused turmoil at hospitals and crashed payment systems in what experts have described as the largest IT failure in history. The outage exposed how modern tech systems are built on precarious ground, with faulty code in a single update able to bring down operations around the world.

… CrowdStrike – a Texas-based, multibillion-dollar company that has lost about 22% of its stock market value since the outage – has repeatedly apologized for causing the international tech crisis. The company issued a report on Wednesday detailing what went wrong in the update.

The primary cause of the failure stemmed from an update that CrowdStrike pushed to its flagship Falcon platform, which functions as a cloud-based service intended to protect businesses from cyber-attacks and disruptions. The update contained a bug which caused 8.5m Windows machines to crash en masse.

CrowdStrike stated in its postmortem that it plans to increase software testing before issuing updates in the future, and only roll out those updates gradually to prevent the widespread, simultaneous failures that took place last week. The company also plans to issue a more in-depth report on the causes of the outage in the coming weeks.

CrowdStrike is one of the world’s most prominent cybersecurity firms, and was valued at around $83bn before the outage. [83bn x .22 = 18.26bn Bob] It services about 538 of the Fortune 1000 companies, according to its website, and operates around the world. That ubiquity made the consequences of its botched update particularly severe, showcasing how many companies are reliant on the same products to keep operations running.

I thought this would have been obvious…

https://www.bespacific.com/ai-trained-on-ai-garbage-spits-out-ai-garbage/

AI trained on AI garbage spits out AI garbage

MIT Technology Review: “AI models work by training on huge swaths of data from the internet. But as AI is increasingly being used to pump out web pages filled with junk content, that process is in danger of being undermined. New research published in Nature shows that the quality of the model’s output gradually degrades when AI trains on AI-generated data. As subsequent models produce output that is then used as training data for future models, the effect gets worse. Ilia Shumailov, a computer scientist from the University of Oxford, who led the study, likens the process to taking photos of photos. “If you take a picture and you scan it, and then you print it, and you repeat this process over time, basically the noise overwhelms the whole process,” he says. “You’re left with a dark square.” The equivalent of the dark square for AI is called “model collapse,” he says, meaning the model just produces incoherent garbage. This research may have serious implications for the largest AI models of today, because they use the internet as their database. GPT-3, for example, was trained in part on data from Common Crawl, an online repository of over 3 billion web pages. And the problem is likely to get worse as an increasing number of AI-generated junk websites start cluttering up the internet…”

Tools & Techniques. (Could be a useful improvement.)

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/microsoft-unveils-bing-generative-search-enhanced-with-ai-its-a-complete-overhaul-of-traditional-search

Microsoft unveils Bing Generative Search — enhanced with AI, it's a complete overhaul of traditional search

Microsoft has announced a major update to Bing Search that overhauls the search results page with AI at the heart of its experience. Currently available to a small subset of users, Bing Search now incorporates AI-generated answers in addition to traditional search results directly on the search page.

At the very top of the page will be an AI-generated answer created by large and small language models that have reviewed millions of sources to provide the most accurate answer. It will break down that answer into a document index that can provide more information about particular subjects within that search query if you'd like to learn more.

… The search page will also list the sources that the AI-generated text was created from below the answer, and will even present traditional search results in a sidebar on the right for those who are uninterested in Bing's curated AI experience.

Once again an assumption has unintended consequences.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/24/crowdstrike_preliminary_incident_report/

CrowdStrike blames a test software bug for that giant global mess it made

… Whatever the Validator does or is supposed to do, it did not prevent the release of the July 19 Template Instance, despite it being a dud. That happened because CrowdStrike assumed that tests that passed the IPC Template Type delivered in March, and subsequent related IPC Template Instances, meant the July 19 release would be OK.

History tells us that was a very bad assumption. It "resulted in an out-of-bounds memory read triggering an exception."

"This unexpected exception could not be gracefully handled, resulting in a Windows operating system crash."

On around 8.5 million machines.

Why would anyone want to open this can of worms?

https://therecord.media/ftc-surveillance-pricing-inquiry

FTC launches probe into how companies use data to tailor what each customer pays

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Tuesday that it has launched an inquiry into how companies surveil consumers to set individualized pricing for the same products and services based on private data from their financial profiles.

The profiles are built from consumer demographics as well as web browsing, credit and geolocation histories, but sometimes harness even real-time data to determine what the agency refers to as “surveillance pricing.”

Eight companies — including Fortune 500 firms Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase and Accenture as well as the consulting firm McKinsey and Co. — have been ordered to explain how they gather and use consumers’ “characteristics and behavior” to set pricing, potentially undermining consumer privacy and marketplace competition, according to an FTC announcement.

When educators fail to learn…

https://pogowasright.org/uk-essex-school-reprimanded-after-using-facial-recognition-technology-for-canteen-payments/

UK: Essex school reprimanded after using facial recognition technology for canteen payments

From the Information Commissioner’s Office:

We have issued a reprimand to a school that broke the law when it introduced facial recognition technology (FRT).

Chelmer Valley High School, in Chelmsford, Essex, first started using the technology in March 2023 to take cashless canteen payments from students.

FRT processes biometric data to uniquely identify people and is likely to result in high data protection risks. To use it legally and responsibly, organisations must have a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) in place. This is to identify and manage the higher risks that may arise from processing sensitive data.

Chelmer Valley High School, which has around 1,200 pupils aged 11-18, failed to carry out a DPIA before starting to use the FRT. This meant no prior assessment was made of the risks to the children’s information. The school had not properly obtained clear permission to process the students’ biometric information and the students were not given the opportunity to decide whether they did or didn’t want it used in this way.

[...]

In March 2023, a letter was sent to parents with a slip for them to return if they did not want their child to participate in the FRT. Affirmative ‘opt-in’ consent wasn’t sought at this time, meaning until November 2023 the school was wrongly relying on assumed consent. The law does not deem ‘opt out’ a valid form of consent and requires explicit permission. Our reprimand also notes most students were old enough to provide their own consent. Therefore, parental opt-out deprived students of the ability to exercise their rights and freedoms.

Ms Currie added:

“A DPIA is required by law – it’s not a tick-box exercise. It’s a vital tool that protects the rights of users, provides accountability and encourages organisations to think about data protection at the start of a project.”

We have provided Chelmer Valley High School with recommendations for the future

Oh what a wicked web we weave…

https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/22/24203479/eu-meta-facebook-pay-or-consent-warning-consumer-protection-cooperation-cpc

EU threatens to fine Meta for saying Facebook is ‘free’

… Meta’s “pay or consent” model, which was introduced last year, gives users a choice: pay as much as €12.99 per month to use Facebook and Instagram without ads or consent to letting the company collect and use personal data to serve personalized ads. The EU doesn’t like what it sees as privacy-violating data usage and has already hit Meta separately with Digital Markets Act charges over its model and record fines under the GDPR for transferring user data overseas.

… They also say that calling the ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram “free” is misleading since it still requires users to consent to the use of their data for targeted ads.

Perspective.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91159180/the-first-wave-of-ai-innovation-is-over-heres-what-comes-next

The first wave of AI innovation is over. Here’s what comes next

… This is a cycle in innovation that repeats throughout history: For a long time, an almost undetectable amount of knowledge and craft builds up around an idea, like an invisible gas. Then, a spark. An explosion of innovation ensues but, of course, eventually stabilizes. This pattern is called an S-Curve.

… The AI revolution is following this curve. In a 1950 paper, Alan Turing was one of the first computer scientists to explore how to build a thinking machine, starting the slow buildup of knowledge. Seventy years later, the spark: A 2017 research paper, Attention Is All You Need, leads to OpenAI’s development of ChatGPT, which convincingly mimics human conversation, unleashing a global shock wave of innovation based upon generative AI technology.

… We believe the real breakthrough that will allow humanity to jump to the next S-Curve is data produced at work. Workplace data—e.g. product specifications, sales presentations, and customer support interactions—is of far higher quality than what’s left of public data for training purposes, especially compared to running the dregs of the internet through the transformer mill. (The results of which may be why a lot of AI-generated content is already being called “slop.”)

I do not plan to run. There, that should clear things up.

https://www.bespacific.com/a-week-of-nonstop-breaking-political-news-stumps-ai-chatbots/

A week of nonstop breaking political news stumps AI chatbots

Washington Post [unpaywalled ]: “In the hour after President Biden announced he would withdraw from the 2024 campaign on Sunday, most popular AI chatbots seemed oblivious to the news. Asked directly whether he had dropped out, almost all said no or declined to give an answer. Asked who was running for president of the United States, they still listed his name. For the past week, we’ve tested AI chatbots’ approach to breaking political stories and found they were largely not able to keep up with consequential real-time news. Most didn’t have current information, gave incorrect answers, or declined to answer and pushed users to check news sources. Now, with just months left until the presidential election and bombshell political news dropping at a steady clip, AI chatbots are distancing themselves from politics and breaking news or refusing to answer at all. AI chatbot technology burst onto the scene two years ago, promising to revolutionize how we get information. Many of the top bots tout their access to recent information, and some have suggested using the tools to catch up on current events. But companies that make chatbots don’t appear ready for their AI to play a larger role in how people follow this election…”

You can never have too much information.

https://www.bespacific.com/the-foia-gov-search-tool-updated/

The FOIA.gov Search Tool Updated

“FOIA.gov, the government’s central resource for information about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) now includes additional functionality to help users locate commonly requested law enforcement and related records. The FOIA.gov Search Tool was updated to add a “Law Enforcement records” pre-defined user journey that helps the public more quickly locate commonly requested information. This user journey supplements the existing journeys that help users identify agencies with some of the most common types of requested records, including Immigration/Travel records, Tax records, Social Security records, Medical records, Personnel records, and Military records. The new Law Enforcement records user journey not only helps requesters identify the multitude of federal law enforcement agencies subject to the FOIA, but also provides useful guidance for those seeking state and local records. Since the launch of the Search Tool in October 2023, nearly 99,000 queries have been recorded. More than half of users enter a predefined user journey, making the predefined journeys instrumental in helping requesters identify agencies and documents of interest. In introducing the new Law Enforcement user journey, the machine learning functionality used to power the Search Tool was retrained and benefitted from recent advancements. As a result, search results are anticipated to be more accurate and precise. As users continue to interact with the Search Tool, we will analyze usage data to further improve the quality of the results. The latest update now allows users to provide targeted feedback on the results they receive.”

It became necessary to destroy the town to save it. Have we given too much access for “fairness?”

https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/microsoft-tech-outage-role-crowdstrike-50917b90?st=pkas1bzrhcoj0os&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Blue Screens Everywhere Are Latest Tech Woe for Microsoft

… A Microsoft spokesman said it cannot legally wall off its operating system in the same way Apple does because of an understanding it reached with the European Commission following a complaint. In 2009, Microsoft agreed it would give makers of security software the same level of access to Windows that Microsoft gets.

(Related)

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/19/us/politics/crowdstrike-outage.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8k0._ZDj.e5unf_bqIJNo&smid=url-share

What Happened to Digital Resilience?

With each cascade of digital disaster, new vulnerabilities emerge. The latest chaos wasn’t caused by an adversary, but it provided a road map of American vulnerabilities at a critical moment.

You can’t object to an AI?

https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jolti/vol15/iss2/6/

Artificial Intelligence in the Courtroom: Forensic Machines, Expert Witnesses, and the Confrontation Clause

From traditional methods like ballistics and fingerprinting, to the probabilistic genotyping models of the twenty-first century, the forensic laboratory has evolved into a cutting-edge area of scientific exploration. This rapid growth in forensic technologies will not stop here. Considering recent developments in artificial intelligence (“AI”), future forensic tools will likely become increasingly sophisticated. To be sure, AI-enabled forensic tools are far from theoretical; AI applications in the forensic sciences have already emerged in practice. Machine learning-enabled acoustic gunshot detectors, facial recognition software, and a variety of pattern recognition learning models are already disrupting law enforcement operations across the country. Soon, criminal defendants will need to learn how to navigate a courtroom dominated by AI-enabled expert systems. Unfortunately, there is little guidance in the caselaw or in the Federal Rules of Evidence on how exactly criminal defendants should approach AI as evidence in the courtroom. Although a handful of scholars have taken up the task of exploring the intersection of AI and evidence law, these studies have primarily focused on issues in authentication or issues with applying the Daubert standard to AI evidence. This study contributes to this ongoing exploration of AI in the courtroom by providing an analysis of the rights of criminal defendants facing AI-generated testimony under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. This study will illustrate that, in a future where AI-enabled forensic tools are increasingly used to inculpate defendants in criminal prosecutions, the right to confrontation will become increasingly eroded. This is largely because courts have carved out a broad “machine-generated data” exception to the Confrontation Clause. Under this exception, data generated by a sufficiently autonomous machine will fall outside the ambit of constitutional protection. The rationale is that such transmissions are too autonomous to be attributed to any human actor, and the Confrontation Clause protects only statements made by a human rather than a machine learning model. This exception to the right to confrontation is significant. Practically, these limitations could have a measurable negative impact on a defendant’s capacity to test the reliability of an AI model in court. Normatively, this study illustrates that, in a world where AI algorithms proffer inculpatory evidence of criminal wrongdoing, the right to confrontation adds little value for criminal defendants. As courts and scholars reinterpret and refine the rules of evidence to better reflect technological realities, some attention should be given to the proper place of the right to confrontation.

I suspect that “Oops!” will not be an adequate response. What happened to testing updates on a standalone system first?

https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/19/24201864/crowdstrike-outage-explained-microsoft-windows-bsod

What is CrowdStrike, and what happened?

… The July 19th outage is tied to CrowdStrike’s flagship Falcon platform, a cloud-based solution that combines multiple security solutions into a single hub, including antivirus capabilities, endpoint protection, threat detection, and real-time monitoring to prevent unauthorized access to a company’s system.

The update in question appears to have installed faulty software onto the core Windows operating system, causing systems to get stuck in a boot loop. Systems are showing an error message that says, “It looks like Windows didn’t load correctly,” while giving users the option to try troubleshooting methods or restart the PC.

Tools & Techniques. Perhaps this could be useful for more than homework…

https://www.makeuseof.com/notebooklm-google-ai-custom-language-model-supercharge-my-studies/

How I Use Google's Custom Language Model to Supercharge My Studies

Google has a little-known AI tool called NotebookLM that’s perfect for students. It’s a free tool that uses Google Gemini to power its processing and output. NotebookLM can be a bit complicated to use effectively, but you can use it to supercharge your studies and research.

NotebookLM is a self-contained large language model (LLM) that uses the notes and documents you provide as sources. When you upload files—PDFs, Google Drive documents, web URLs, and more—it creates a summary of each source, which you can read by clicking on the source in the left menu.

If TSA says it’s optional, what they really mean is that it is not not mandatory.

https://pogowasright.org/opting-out-of-facial-recognition-at-airports/

Opting out of facial recognition at airports

Because a lot of people are stuck at airports today due to a CrowdStrike glitch affecting software, this might be a good time to talk about opting out of facial recognition at airports. Ed Hasbrouck recently wrote:

Next week the Algorithmic Justice League will be launching an awareness and sousveillance campaign focused on the use of facial recognition in airports by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and its airport and airline partners.

The #freedomflyers campaign includes efforts to make travelers aware that the TSA claims that submitting to facial recognition is “optional”. The campaign also includes a free online Freedom Flyers Summit on “Resisting Airport Face Scans” on July 19th and — perhaps most importantly — a scorecard for travelers to report what actually happens when they try to opt out of facial recognition at airports.

In many cases, staff or contractors of airlines, airport operators, or the TSA tell travelers that facial recognition is required. In other cases, facial recognition turnstiles are unattended by any staff, leaving no apparent way to opt opt. Some facial recognition turnstiles are attended only by “line-minders” or security guards or subcontractors with no authority to allow travelers to pass through without submitting to mug shots.

Read more on Papers, Please!

But use this to review your recovery plans…

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/global-technology-outage-crowdstrike/3597367/

Global technology outage: Flights impacted, businesses offline, what to know

The head of CrowdStrike, the company responsible for an update that took millions of people offline, said Friday the massive global outage was not a cyberattack nor a security incident

Tools & Techniques. More detail than reasonable? Not just for realtors.

https://www.bespacific.com/forewarn-app-real-estate-homebuyer-data/

How a little-known tool is sweeping the real estate industry by giving instant access to vast amounts of homebuyer data

The Record: “…Forewarn is primarily marketed to and used by the real estate industry, and it has been penetrating that market at a rapid clip. Although some real estate agents say the financial information it returns saves time when finding clients most likely to have the budget for the houses they’re looking at, most agents and associations tout it primarily as a safety tool because it also supplies criminal records. In addition to those records, the product — owned by the data broker red violet — also supplies a given individual’s address history; phone, vehicle and property records; bankruptcies; and liens and judgements, including foreclosure histories. Although such data could generally be gleaned from public records, Forewarn delivers it at the press of a button — a function real estate agents say allows them to gather publicly available information without having to visit courthouses and municipal offices, a process which would normally take days. The power of Forewarn’s technology has led to rapid adoption, but the company is still largely unknown outside the real estate industry. Several fair housing and civil rights advocates interviewed by Recorded Future News weren’t aware of its existence. The individuals whose data it sells also have no idea their information is being shared with real estate agents, who potentially might choose not to work with them because of what they discover on the app. Forewarn did not respond to multiple requests for comment, however, statements made by one of its executives suggest that the company intentionally keeps a low profile.

Do not tell the prospect that they are not permitted or unqualified to purchase or sell property because of information you obtained from Forewarn,” a company executive said at a recent training webinar with Illinois real estate agents. She emphasized that potential buyers “do not get notified” when they are screened with the app, a question she said many real estate agents ask. Real estate agents who, for example, discover a client has a lien filed against them, should consider telling the prospect they “obtained this information from a confidential service that bases their information on available public record information,” the executive added. As Forewarn continues to penetrate the real estate industry, one of the biggest questions for the company is whether it will be able to evade scrutiny and pushback by privacy advocates who say it is essentially mass profiling renters and potential homebuyers in silence, as well as regulators who have cracked down on similar practices…”

Tools & Techniques. I wonder if teachers could use this to play Defense? (Drop student essays into it and run the checkers.)

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/this-ai-writing-tool-could-be-a-students-best-friend-and-biggest-temptation/

This AI Writing Tool Could Be a Student's Best Friend, and Biggest Temptation

… Created as an AI writing tool to help students, Smodin has since added features like a plagiarism checker, which verifies that text is unique, as well as an AI content detector, which tells you whether the text is likely to be identified as AI-generated, and a homework helper, which provides answers for questions in subjects like geography, math, physics, biology and history.

I add this more for the source than this article…

https://www.bespacific.com/making-sense-of-rumors-about-the-trump-assassination-attempt/

Making sense of rumors about the Trump assassination attempt

2024 U.S. ELECTIONS RAPID RESEARCH BLOG This is part of an ongoing series of rapid research blog posts and rapid research analysis about the 2024 U.S. elections from the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public.

Sounds good. Let’s see how they comply.

https://pogowasright.org/detroit-takes-important-step-in-curbing-the-harms-of-face-recognition-technology/

Detroit Takes Important Step in Curbing the Harms of Face Recognition Technology

Tori Noble writes:

In a first-of-its-kind agreement, the Detroit Police Department recently agreed to adopt strict limits on its officers’ use of face recognition technology as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by a victim of this faulty technology.

Robert Williams, a Black resident of a Detroit suburb, filed suit against the Detroit Police Department after officers arrested him at his home in front of his wife, daughters, and neighbors for a crime he did not commit. After a shoplifting incident at a watch store, police used a blurry still taken from surveillance footage and ran it through face recognition technology—which incorrectly identified Williams as the perpetrator.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Detroit Police can no longer substitute face recognition technology (FRT) for reliable policework. Simply put: Face recognition matches can no longer be the only evidence police use to justify an arrest.

Read more at EFF.

Access to some encrypted phones now seems possible.

https://pogowasright.org/investigators-raced-to-crack-into-phone-used-by-trump-rally-gunman/

Investigators Raced to Crack into Phone Used by Trump Rally Gunman

Devlin Barrett and Emily Davies of The Washington Post report:

New, faster phone-cracking technology was used to access the phone of the Trump rally gunman, according to people familiar with the investigation who described the ongoing race to find any clues to the 20-year-old’s motive for trying to kill the former president.

Officials said Monday they were able to access a cell phone belonging to Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pa., but they did not describe the technology behind that effort. Investigators are also exploring the possibility the gunman may have used two phones, after agents recovered a cellphone in Crooks’s house with a dead battery, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe details of an ongoing investigation.

Read more at The Japan News.

(Related)

https://www.404media.co/leaked-docs-show-what-phones-cellebrite-can-and-cant-unlock/

Leaked Docs Show What Phones Cellebrite Can (and Can’t) Unlock

Cellebrite, the well-known mobile forensics company, was unable to unlock a sizable chunk of modern iPhones available on the market as of April 2024, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media.

The documents, which also show what various Android handsets and operating system versions Cellebrite can access, provide granular insight into the very recent state of mobile forensic technology. Mobile forensics companies typically do not release details on what specific models their tools can or cannot penetrate, instead using vague terms in marketing materials. The documents obtained by 404 Media, which are given to customers but not published publicly, show how fluid and fast moving the success, or failure, of mobile forensic tools can be, and highlights the constant cat and mouse game between hardware and operating manufacturers like Apple and Google, and the hacking companies looking for vulnerabilities to exploit.

Ah, but the trick is knowing how to deal with the tip…

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/07/17/ai-can-predict-tipping-points-before-they-happen

AI can predict tipping points before they happen

Anyone can spot a tipping point after it’s been crossed. Also known as critical transitions, such mathematical cliff-edges influence everything from the behaviour of financial markets and the spread of disease to the extinction of species. The financial crisis of 2007-09 is often described as one. So is the moment that covid-19 went global. The real trick, therefore, is to spot them before they happen. But that is fiendishly difficult.

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.bespacific.com/descrybe-ai-on-a-mission-to-democratize-legal-research/

Descrybe.AI On A Mission To Democratize Legal Research

Artificial Lawyer: “In this week’s AL TV Product Walk Through we take a tour of descrybe.ai a free genAI-powered legal research tool built by Richard DiBona and Kara Peterson, a husband and wife team who share an interest in technology, the law, and the democratization of information. By April 2024 they already had over 3 million judicial opinions from across the United States summarized and searchable. The aim is to have all available state supreme and appellate plus federal district, appellate, and supreme court cases loaded and searchable. DiBona brings deep experience in using emerging technology to solve complex problems, while Peterson is a communications expert with a special focus on social justice…”

Understanding before application? What a concept!

https://www.bespacific.com/artificial-intelligence-ai-large-language-models-and-law/

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Large Language Models, and Law

Surden, Harry, ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Large Language Models, and Law (March 31, 2024). Fordham Law Review, Vol. 92, 2024, Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4779694 – “This Article explores Artificial Intelligence (AI) Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT/GPT-4, detailing the advances and challenges in applying AI to law. It first explains how these AI technologies work at an understandable level. It then examines the significant evolution of LLMs since 2022 and their improved capabilities in understanding and generating complex documents, such as legal texts. Finally, this Article discusses the limitations of these technologies, offering a balanced view of their potential role in legal work.”

Tools & Techniques.

https://www.bespacific.com/examples-of-ai-prompts-written-by-subject-matter-experts/

Examples of AI Prompts Written by Subject Matter Experts

31 authors posted a lesson on how to write AI prompts via Vanderbilt University. The authors are all SMEs and include law students, health care professionals, data scientists, educators and engineers. The document is in Word, and the prompts are listed by author and include follow up prompts. An interesting document for your review.

Is this what we need, or what we want? (I’m thinking it’s neither.)

https://www.bespacific.com/governing-in-the-age-of-ai-a-new-model-to-transform-the-state/

Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State

Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State is a joint report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and Faculty.”… In this report, we describe an AI-enabled model of government in which every citizen has their own digital public assistant to help manage their relationship with the government, freeing up their time. Every public servant works alongside a team of AI co-workers and helpers, freeing them up to work on tasks that need their skills and dedication. Every minister or policymaker makes agile, aligned, strategic decisions with the help of a National Policy Twin, freeing them up to focus on unlocking prosperity and growth. Amid worry about the state of the public finances, a stagnant economy and crumbling public services, this moment might seem like the most limiting in living memory to be in government. In fact, considering the opportunities now presented by technology, it might yet be the most transformative. AI makes it possible to reimagine the state. The UK can again show leadership by demonstrating to the world what it means to govern in the age of AI…”

See also The Guardian UK: TechScape: Want to know how AI will affect government and politics? The bots have the answers. “Tony Blair’s powerful thinktank asked ChatGPT how AI might affect public sector jobs. Critics say the results were … wonky.”

Tools & Techniques.

https://venturebeat.com/ai/microsofts-new-ai-system-spreadsheetllm-unlocks-insights-from-spreadsheets-boosting-enterprise-productivity/

Microsoft’s new AI system ‘SpreadsheetLLM’ unlocks insights from spreadsheets, boosting enterprise productivity

Microsoft researchers have unveiled “SpreadsheetLLM,” a new AI model designed to understand and work with spreadsheets, in a significant development for the world of enterprise AI.

The research paper, titled “SpreadsheetLLM: Encoding Spreadsheets for Large Language Models,” was recently published on arXiv and addresses the challenges of applying AI to the widely used but complex spreadsheet format.

Resource.

https://www.kdnuggets.com/learn-computer-science-with-princeton-university-for-free

Learn Computer Science with Princeton University for FREE!

… In this blog, I will go through 6 courses that will provide you with the knowledge and skills required to develop a career in computer science.

 The pendulum swings again…

https://pogowasright.org/geofence-warrant-decision-exposes-hole-in-fourth-amendment-law/

Geofence Warrant Decision Exposes Hole in Fourth Amendment Law

Cassandre Coyer and Tonya Riley report:

A split appeals court opinion clearing the government’s acquisition of users’ mobile-device location data from Google of constitutional scrutiny will likely spark more friction between emerging technologies and the scope of law enforcement searches, attorneys warned.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in US v. Chatrie concluded, over a dissent, that the use of such geofencing doesn’t constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment.

It comes six years after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Carpenter v. United States, which held the government has to obtain a search warrant to access historical cell site location records covering a period of more than seven days. In that time, courts have continued to struggle with questions of digital surveillance and the scope of Fourth Amendment protections in the age of mobile devices.

Read more at Bloomberg Law.

Must we “dumb down” everything for the next generation because learning is hard?

https://nypost.com/2024/07/13/us-news/reading-for-idiots-app-simplifies-vocab-of-classic-books/

New app uses AI to dumb down, whitewash classic books

It’s McLiterature.

A newly-launched iPhone and iPad artificial intelligence app is abbreviating iconic literary works like “Moby Dick” and “A Tale of Two Cities” — while whitewashing classics like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

Magibook‘s website claims it utilizes artificial intelligence to simplify the language of books like “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “Crime and Punishment,” making them more accessible to all readers, “no matter your English level.”

… Seminal lines such as “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” are reduced to “It was a time when things were very good and very bad.”

The 219 now-controversial occurrences of the N-word in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” are replaced on Magibook with the noun “Helper.”

At this point, users of the free app, which launched July 1, can access five different versions of 10 classic books, including “Dracula,” “Robinson Crusoe,” “The Three Musketeers,” “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” and “The Great Gatsby” — from their original versions down to an “elementary version.”