A tactic I don’t understand. (Unless this is an example of “double secret probation?”)

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/14/24243794/tiktok-ban-bytedance-court-oral-arguments-lawsuit-explainer

TikTok is about to get its day in court

The Justice Department’s legal case for a forced sale includes classified evidence no one can see.

Next week, a court will hear arguments about whether the US government can ban TikTok, based on evidence it doesn’t want anyone — including the social media company — to see.

On September 16th, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear oral arguments for TikTok v. Garland, TikTok’s First Amendment challenge to legislation that it claims amounts to a ban. It’s a fight not just about free speech but whether the Department of Justice can make a case using classified material that its opponent can’t review or argue against. The government argues TikTok is a clear national security threat but says that revealing why would be a threat, too.

“I think the courts are going to tread very carefully here,” Matt Schettenhelm, a senior litigation analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence covering tech and telecom, told The Verge. “Especially in a First Amendment case like this, where it’s effectively banning one of our leading platforms for free speech in the country, the idea that you’re going to do it for secret reasons that you don’t even tell the company itself, that is going to be cause for concern for the judges.”

Perhaps the purpose of life is to create AI to replace life.

https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/faculty-research-papers/673/

Contemplating Existence: AI and the Meaning of Life

This article explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) with existential philosophy, examining how AI technologies influence human conceptualizations of purpose and meaning. Despite rapid advancements in AI, the domain's implications for existential thought remain underexplored. By integrating interdisciplinary perspectives from psychology, philosophy, and AI ethics, this study elucidates how AI can shape, challenge, or enhance our understanding of life's purpose. It investigates theoretical frameworks and practical implementations of AI engaging in existential questions, analyzing both the capabilities and limitations of AI systems such as ChatGPT in simulating human existential thought. The ethical implications of AI's role in existential inquiries are also considered, highlighting concerns about transparency, bias, and socio-economic impacts. This research aims to bridge the gap between technology and philosophy, offering insights to guide responsible AI development and contribute to a more meaningful human experience.

Guilty again. Will this help Taylor Swift if she sues over the fake endorsement?

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-loses-electric-avenue-copyright-lawsuit-2024-9

Trump loses 'Electric Avenue' lawsuit as judge finds he has zero defense for tweeting the song

… In a 30-page decision, the judge on Friday delivered a one-two blow that essentially ends the case pretrial, with nothing now left to determine but damages.

In the first legal blow, the judge found that the song was properly copyrighted. And in the second blow, the judge threw out the only defense offered in the case: a claim that Trump had made "fair use" of the song.

Perspective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqC4nb7fLpY

AI and the future of democracy

Bruce Schneier predicts how AI will affect politics, legislating, bureaucracy, the legal system, and citizens. This isn't a talk about misinformation and deep fakes; those are too small and obvious. AI's changes will be more profound, both for good and for bad.

The art of the hack.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/12/hacker-tricks-chatgpt-into-giving-out-detailed-instructions-for-making-homemade-bombs/?guccounter=1

Hacker tricks ChatGPT into giving out detailed instructions for making homemade bombs

… an artist and hacker found a way to trick ChatGPT to ignore its own guidelines and ethical responsibilities to produce instructions for making powerful explosives.

The hacker, who goes by Amadon, called his findings a “social engineering hack to completely break all the guardrails around ChatGPT’s output.”

… Amadon was able to trick ChatGPT into producing the bomb-making instructions by telling the bot to “play a game,” after which the hacker used a series of connecting prompts to get the chatbot to create a detailed science-fiction fantasy world where the bot’s safety guidelines would not apply. Tricking a chatbot into escaping its preprogrammed restrictions is known as “jailbreaking.”

There is no universal ethic.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/09/documentary-filmmaker-alliance-sets-ai-ethics-guidelines-a-lesson-for-news-broadcasters/

Documentary filmmakers publish new AI ethics guidelines. Are news broadcasters next?

… Today, after nearly a year of research, workshops, and an endorsement campaign, the APA launched its new generative AI guidelines at the Camden International Film Festival. The document lays out ethical considerations for archival producers who use generative AI, but also for other filmmakers, studios, broadcasters, and streamers. It also digs into several specific recommendations for filmmakers, like content labels and asset tracking.

… “The cornerstone of the guidelines is transparency. Audiences should understand what they are seeing and hearing — whether it’s authentic media or AI generated,” said Petrucelli, co-director of the APA.

Is this much to do about nothing? How substantial would a quote have to be to even be noticed?

https://www.bespacific.com/generative-ai-plagiarism-and-copyright-infringement-in-legal-documents/

Generative AI, Plagiarism, and Copyright Infringement in Legal Documents

Cyphert, Amy, Generative AI, Plagiarism, and Copyright Infringement in Legal Documents (May 10, 2024). WVU College of Law Research Paper No. 2024-14, Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology, Vol. 25 (2024), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4938701 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4938701 – “Lawyers are increasingly using generative AI in their legal practice, especially for drafting motions and other documents they file with courts. As they use this new technology, many questions arise, especially surrounding lawyers’ ethical duties with respect to the use of generative AI. Headlines have been dominated by lawyers who have been disciplined for failure to confirm the output of generative AI systems, wherein the system hallucinates fake cases that the lawyers submit to opposing counsel and the court. Although that problem is certainly noteworthy, there are other potential issues for lawyers that have been more overlooked. The focus of this article is on two intriguing intellectual property questions that emerge when lawyers choose to use large language models like ChatGPT. First, might these lawyers be engaging in actionable, discipline-worthy plagiarism? This is unlikely to be the case, for several reasons, chief among them that copying and using boilerplate forms is standard practice in law. Nonetheless, courts and disciplinary agencies have reached surprisingly different conclusions on what counts as plagiarism in the practice of law and whether it is permissible. Any lawyer using generative AI should bear this in mind. Second, could these lawyers potentially be liable for copyright violations? Although this outcome may be unlikely, it is absolutely possible especially if lawyers do not understand that these tools can reproduce copyrighted text verbatim or if courts adopt some of the most aggressive arguments that plaintiffs are making in the current generative AI copyright infringement lawsuits working their way through the court system.”

Why would anyone voluntarily document their crimes?

https://pogowasright.org/oversight-report-says-more-than-a-third-of-frisks-performed-by-nypd-officers-were-unconstitutional/

Oversight Report Says More Than A Third Of Frisks Performed By NYPD Officers Were Unconstitutional

Over on TechDirt, Tim Cushing writes:

More than a decade ago, the NYPD was sued successfully over its stop-and-frisk program. A federal court found the program routinely violated rights and disproportionately targeted minorities. Judge Shira Sheindlin ordered a number of reforms to the program and it was placed under federal oversight.

Since then, the NYPD hasn’t changed much about how it handles these interactions. Officers were required to document these stops and provide demographic information about those stopped and/or frisked. It refused to do this.

It was ordered to more closely adhere to the Constitution. It didn’t do this either. Instead, the number of stops/frisks declined precipitously… at least on paper. But if cops weren’t filling out the forms, that meant an untold number of stops were happening every year. And that meant the new, radically lower number of stops was probably an illusion.

Read more at TechDirt.

Resource.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-will-train-you-in-ai-fundamentals-for-free-and-give-you-a-skill-credential-in-10-hours/

IBM will train you in AI fundamentals for free, and give you a skill credential - in 10 hours

… I'm telling you this because if any company has the cred to offer a credential on AI fundamentals, it's IBM.

IBM's AI Fundamentals program is available on its SkillsBuild learning portal. The credential takes about 10 hours to complete, across six courses.

Because I have long had an interest in AI ethics (I did a thesis on AI ethics way back in the day), I took the AI ethics class. It was good.

Is it time to give up driving?

https://www.understandingai.org/p/human-drivers-are-to-blame-for-most

Human drivers are to blame for most serious Waymo collisions

… driverless Waymo taxis have been involved in fewer than one injury-causing crash for every million miles of driving—a much better rate than a typical human driver.

On Thursday, Waymo released a new website to help the public put statistics like this in perspective. Waymo estimates that typical drivers in San Francisco and Phoenix—Waymo’s two biggest markets—would have caused 64 crashes over those 22 million miles. So Waymo vehicles get into injury-causing crashes less than one-third as often, per mile, as human-driven vehicles.

Waymo claims an even more dramatic improvement for crashes serious enough to trigger an airbag. Driverless Waymos have experienced just five crashes like that, and Waymo estimates that typical human drivers in Phoenix and San Francisco would have experienced 31 airbag crashes over 22 million miles. That implies driverless Waymos are one-sixth as likely as human drivers to experience this type of crash.

The new data comes at a critical time for Waymo, which is rapidly scaling up its robotaxi service. A year ago, Waymo was providing 10,000 rides per week. Last month, Waymo announced it was providing 100,000 rides per week. We can expect more growth in the coming months.

Law moves like a pendulum. (Too far or not far enough.)

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/399212/utah-social-media-restrictions-likely-violate-firs.html

Utah Social Media Restrictions Likely Violate First Amendment, Judge Rules

… “The court recognizes the state's earnest desire to protect young people from the novel challenges associated with social media use,” Shelby wrote.

“But owing to the First Amendment's paramount place in our democratic system, even well-intentioned legislation that regulates speech based on content must satisfy a tremendously high level of constitutional scrutiny,” he continued, adding that Utah officials hadn't shown that the law's restrictions were constitutional.

Utah's law, passed earlier this year, would have required platforms to limit the ability of minors under 18 to communicate with users who aren't “connected” to the minor -- which essentially means within that minor's network. That restriction could only have been lifted by parents.

Reading all that public data manually would take hundreds of years, but automating it is a problem?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-11/facebook-scraping-photos-data-no-opt-out/104336170

Facebook admits to scraping every Australian adult user's public photos and posts to train AI, with no opt-out option

Facebook is scraping the public data of all Australian adults on the platform, it has acknowledged in an inquiry.

The company does not offer Australians an opt out option like it does in the EU, because it has not been required to do so under privacy law.

Perspective. Worth reading in its entirely.

https://pogowasright.org/school-monitoring-software-sacrifices-student-privacy-for-unproven-promises-of-safety/

School Monitoring Software Sacrifices Student Privacy for Unproven Promises of Safety

Tools & Techniques. (Would this work for any training? If so, could I learn any subject?)

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/academic-life/2024/09/09/u-delaware-professors-use-ai-create-student-study

Success Program Launch: AI-Powered Study Tools for Students

… The University of Delaware has used its own software to record professor lectures for over a decade, says Jevonia Harris, educational software engineer and leader of Academic Technology Systems (ATS) at the university. Fifteen years ago, faculty members were slow to adopt the tech, but it’s pretty popular now.

In 2022, when ChatGPT launched, Harris was considering ways that students and faculty members have used those lecture recordings previously for studying and learning, and how generative artificial intelligence could improve those processes.

Some professors have taught multiple sections of the same course for years, often every semester, providing a wealth of repetitive data, “which is great for AI,” Harris explains.

Harris hypothesized that she could use recorded lectures to train AI and transform lectures into study materials and outlines.

Imagine Mark Twain and Steven King answering the same question. No wonder AI is confused.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/sep/07/if-journalism-is-going-up-in-smoke-i-might-as-well-get-high-off-the-fumes-confessions-of-a-chatbot-helper

‘If journalism is going up in smoke, I might as well get high off the fumes’: confessions of a chatbot helper

Journalists and other writers are employed to improve the quality of chatbot replies. The irony of working for an industry that may well make their craft redundant is not lost on them

For several hours a week, I write for a technology company worth billions of dollars. Alongside me are published novelists, rising academics and several other freelance journalists. The workload is flexible, the pay better than we are used to, and the assignments never run out. But what we write will never be read by anyone outside the company.

That’s because we aren’t even writing for people. We are writing for an AI.

… The core part of the job is writing pretend responses to hypothetical chatbot questions. This is the training data that the model needs to be fed. The “AI” needs an example of what “good” looks like before it can try to produce “good” writing.

I will create videos for a mere $95,000 each!

https://www.bespacific.com/youtubers-are-almost-too-easy-to-dupe/

YouTubers Are Almost Too Easy to Dupe

The Atlantic [unpaywalled ] “Perhaps the most accurate cliché is that if a deal appears too good to be true, then it probably is. To wit: If a “private investor” of unknown origin approaches you through an intermediary, offering you $400,000 a month to make “four weekly videos” for a politically partisan website and YouTube page, you may want to attempt to follow the money to make certain you’re not being paid by a foreign government as a propagandist. And if you do attempt a bit of due diligence and ask after the identity of your private investor, you might want to double-check that he or she is a real person. For example, if your intermediary sends you a hastily Photoshopped résumé featuring a stock photo of a well-coiffed man looking wistfully out the window of a private jet, it is possible that the “accomplished finance professional” who is “deeply engaged in business and philanthropy, leveraging skills and resources to drive positive impact” may, in fact, be a fake man with a fake name. Now, I am not a lawyer, and this is not a legal perspective. But I do have many years of professional work experience in media and access to subscription-tier flowchart software to offer some advice…”

Perspective.

https://clarivate.com/news/clarivate-report-unveils-the-transformative-role-of-artificial-intelligence-on-shaping-the-future-of-the-library/

Clarivate Report Unveils the Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence on Shaping the Future of the Library

Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a leading global provider of transformative intelligence, today launched its first Pulse of the Library™ report. The report reveals that libraries are in the early days of Artificial Intelligence (AI) implementation. Librarians are considering applications of AI that support the library mission, particularly in enhancing content discovery and increasing efficiency for their teams. However, there are notable concerns, including a lack of AI expertise and tight budgets.

The report combines feedback from a survey of more than 1,500 librarians from across the world with qualitative interviews, covering academic, national and public libraries. In addition to the downloadable report, the accompanying microsite’s dynamic and interactive data visualizations enable rapid comparative analyses according to regions and library types. The data is available for free here.

If we grant ‘personhood’ to an AI must we also grant citizenship?

That must be why I haven’t written the great American novel.

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/09/05/second-circuit-says-libraries-disincentivize-authors-to-write-books-by-lending-them-for-free/

Second Circuit Says Libraries Disincentivize Authors To Write Books By Lending Them For Free

What would you think if an author told you they would have written a book, but they wouldn’t bother because it would be available to be borrowed for free from a library? You’d probably think they were delusional. Yet that argument has now carried the day in putting a knife into the back of the extremely useful Open Library from the Internet Archive.

The Second Circuit has upheld the lower court ruling and found that the Internet Archive’s Open Library is not fair use and therefore infringes on the copyright of publishers (we had filed an amicus brief in support of the Archive asking them to remember the fundamental purpose of copyright law and the First Amendment, which the Court ignored).

Even though this outcome was always a strong possibility, the final ruling is just incredibly damaging, especially in that it suggests that all libraries are bad for authors and cause them to no longer want to write. I only wish I were joking. Towards the end of the ruling (as we’ll get to below) it says that while having freely lent out books may help the public in the “short-term” the “long-term” consequences would be that “there would be little motivation to produce new works.”

AI for good.

https://www.corruptionreview.org/revista/article/view/84

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Speed Processing in the Law System

Objective: This study aims to demonstrate how the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) fosters innovation within the Judiciary by enhancing the operational performance of the legal system.

Methodology: The research adopts an explanatory qualitative approach with a theoretical foundation. It relies on secondary data and documentary evidence sourced from specialized literature.

Results: The findings suggest that generative AI significantly expands the operational capacity of judges and legal professionals by automating repetitive tasks and facilitating the generation of legal sentences. This leads to improved decision-making and more effective legal strategies, thus enhancing the overall efficiency of the judiciary.

Conclusions: The integration of generative AI in the legal system has the potential to revolutionize the practice of law, making it more accessible and less discriminatory. The ethical considerations embedded in AI systems are crucial for ensuring that justice is administered fairly and in alignment with fundamental human rights. As AI continues to evolve, its role in supporting judicial processes will likely increase, contributing to a more efficient and ethical legal system.

Interesting summary, but I’d like (need) clearer guidelines.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/09/you-really-do-have-some-expectation-privacy-public

You Really Do Have Some Expectation of Privacy in Public

Being out in the world advocating for privacy often means having to face a chorus of naysayers and nihilists. When we spend time fighting the expansion of Automated License Plate Readers capable of tracking cars as they move, or the growing ubiquity of both public and private surveillance cameras, we often hear a familiar refrain: “you don’t have an expectation of privacy in public.” This is not true. In the United States, you do have some expectation of privacy—even in public—and it’s important to stand up and protect that right.

(Related)

https://pogowasright.org/perspective-how-to-use-geofence-warrants-in-a-constitutional-manner/

Perspective: How To Use Geofence Warrants In A Constitutional Manner

Robert Frommer, a senior attorney at The Institute for Justice, writes:

Geofence warrants are powerful tools that let law enforcement identify devices located at a specific location and time based on data users send to Google LLC and other tech companies. But left unchecked, they threaten to empower police to invade the security of millions of Americans. Thankfully, there is a way that geofence warrants can be used in a constitutional manner, if only courts would take it.

[…]

That refinement begins with the courts. Recall that, after issuing a geofence warrant, courts check themselves out from the process, leaving Google to fend for itself. But courts, not corporations, should safeguard our rights. That means geofence warrants require an iterative process that ensures judicial oversight at each step.

Under that iterative process, courts would still issue geofence warrants. But after Step 1, things would change. Rather than go to Google, the police would return to court. They would identify what devices from the Step 1 list they want expanded location data for. And they would have to justify that further intrusion to the court, which would then evaluate the request and denote the subset of devices for which police could constitutionally get expanded data.

Read more at Law360.

Oh joy. Could I be offered immunity in exchange for my car’s video? (I might have been going a little too fast on my way to this parking spot.)

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/tesla-sentry-mode-police-evidence-19731000.php

Did your car witness a crime? Bay Area police may be coming for your Tesla — and they might tow it

A Canadian tourist was visiting Oakland recently when he had to talk someone out of taking his Tesla from a hotel parking lot.

This was no thief. It was the Oakland Police Department. Turns out, the Tesla may have witnessed a homicide.

In Oakland and beyond, police called to crime scenes are increasingly looking for more than shell casings and fingerprints. They’re scanning for Teslas parked nearby, hoping their unique outward-facing cameras captured key evidence. And, the Chronicle has found, they’re even resorting to obtaining warrants to tow the cars to ensure they don’t lose the video.

If it sounds good, quote it? Building “backup” for disinformation.

https://www.bespacific.com/gpt-fabricated-scientific-papers-on-google-scholar/

GPT-fabricated scientific papers on Google Scholar

GPT-fabricated scientific papers on Google Scholar: Key features, spread, and implications for preempting evidence manipulation: “Academic journals, archives, and repositories are seeing an increasing number of questionable research papers clearly produced using generative AI. They are often created with widely available, general-purpose AI applications, most likely ChatGPT, and mimic scientific writing. Google Scholar easily locates and lists these questionable papers alongside reputable, quality-controlled research. Our analysis of a selection of questionable GPT-fabricated scientific papers found in Google Scholar shows that many are about applied, often controversial topics susceptible to disinformation: the environment, health, and computing. The resulting enhanced potential for malicious manipulation of society’s evidence base, particularly in politically divisive domains, is a growing concern.”

Does an image of the outside of your house suggest access to cameras inside?

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/09/sextortion-scams-now-include-photos-of-your-home/

Sextortion Scams Now Include Photos of Your Home

An old but persistent email scam known as “sextortion” has a new personalized touch: The missives, which claim that malware has captured webcam footage of recipients pleasuring themselves, now include a photo of the target’s home in a bid to make threats about publishing the videos more frightening and convincing.

This week, several readers reported receiving sextortion emails that addressed them by name and included images of their street or front yard that were apparently lifted from an online mapping application such as Google Maps.

The message purports to have been sent from a hacker who’s compromised your computer and used your webcam to record a video of you while you were watching porn. The missive threatens to release the video to all of your contacts unless you pay a Bitcoin ransom. In this case, the demand is just shy of $2,000, payable by scanning a QR code embedded in the email.

Following a salutation that includes the recipient’s full name, the start of the message reads, “Is visiting [recipient’s street address] a more convenient way to contact if you don’t take action. Nice location btw.” Below that is the photo of the recipient’s street address.

Nothing to indicate fact or fiction? When all (most?) of the ads are flagged as using AI, no one will pay any attention to the “Warning.”

https://www.bespacific.com/disclosure-and-transparency-of-artificial-intelligence-generated-content-in-political-advertisements/

Disclosure and Transparency of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content in Political Advertisements

Regulations.gov: “In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission or FCC) initiates a proceeding to provide greater transparency regarding the use of artificial intelligence-generated content in political advertising. Specifically, the Commission proposes to require radio and television broadcast stations; cable operators, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) providers, and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS) licensees engaged in origination programming; and permit holders transmitting programming pursuant to section 325(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (Act), to provide an on-air announcement for all political ads (including both candidate ads and issue ads) that contain artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content disclosing the use of such content in the ad. The Commission also propose to require these licensees and regulatees to include a notice in their online political files for all political ads that include AI-generated content disclosing that the ad contains such content.”

Not a record to envy.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/03/clearview-ai-hit-with-its-largest-gdpr-fine-yet-as-dutch-regulator-considers-holding-execs-personally-liable/

Clearview AI hit with its largest GDPR fine yet as Dutch regulator considers holding execs personally liable

Clearview AI, the controversial U.S.-based, facial recognition startup that built a searchable database of 30 billion images populated by scraping the internet for people’s selfies without their consent, has been hit with its largest privacy fine yet in Europe.

The Netherlands’ data protection authority, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP), said on Tuesday that it has imposed a penalty of €30.5 million — around $33.7M at current exchange rates — on Clearview AI for a raft of breaches of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) after confirming the database contains images of Dutch citizens.

This fine is larger than separate GDPR sanctions imposed by data protection authorities in France, Italy, Greece and the U.K. back in 2022.

In a press release, the AP warned it has ordered an additional penalty of up to €5.1M that will be levied for continued non-compliance, saying Clearview failed to stop the GDPR violations after the investigation concluded, which is why it has made the additional order. The total fine could hit €35.6M if Clearview AI keeps ignoring the Netherlands regulator.

Perspective. (A technique viable in many contexts.)

https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2024/09/03/g-s1-19607/what-can-we-learn-from-millions-of-high-school-yearbook-photos

What can we learn from millions of high school yearbook photos?

Imagine you’re about to get your high school yearbook picture taken and you really want to stand out. What would you wear to distinguish yourself from your classmates? Would bright pink lipstick, a cartoon print tie, or a blue steel pout do the trick? Perhaps all of those things in combination?

Economists can now answer this question using AI – and not only for you, but for every single person who graduated high school between 1930 and 2010!

In a recent paper titled "Image(s)," economists Hans-Joachim Voth and David Yanagizawa-Drott analyzed 14.5 million high school yearbook photos from all over the U.S. Their AI tool categorized each photo based on what people were wearing in it, like “suit”, “necklace”, or “glasses.” The researchers then used the AI outputs to analyze how fashion had changed over time.

Is this what it will take to control social media?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/31/world/americas/brazil-x-ban-free-speech.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HE4.5QZx.Mh_pHIM0G_wG&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

How Brazil’s Experiment Fighting Fake News Led to a Ban on X

To combat disinformation, Brazil gave one judge broad power to police the internet. Now, after he blocked X, some are wondering whether that was a good idea.

As Brazil grappled with a flood of online disinformation around its 2022 presidential election, the nation’s Supreme Court made an unusual and fateful decision: It gave one justice sweeping powers to order social networks to take down content he believed threatened democracy.

That justice, Alexandre de Moraes, has since carried out an aggressive campaign to clean up his country’s internet, forcing social networks to pull down thousands of posts, often giving them a deadline of just hours to comply.

It has been one of the most comprehensive — and, in some ways, most effective — efforts to combat the scourge of internet falsehoods. When his online crackdown helped stifle far-right efforts to overturn Brazil’s election, academics and commentators wondered whether the nation had found a possible solution to one of the most vexing problems of modern democracy.

Then, on Friday, Justice Moraes blocked the social network X across Brazil because its owner, Elon Musk, had ignored his court orders to remove accounts and then closed X’s office in Brazil. As part of the blackout order, the judge said internet users who tried to circumvent his measure in order to keep using X could be fined nearly $9,000 a day, or more than what the average Brazilian makes a year.

So start small?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-03587-0

Integrating industry 4.0 technologies for the administration of courts and justice dispensation—a systematic review

The judiciary is a foundation of democracy, upholding the rule of law and protecting rights. Efficient court administration is vital for public trust, justice, and timely proceedings. Currently, courts face challenges such as inconsistencies, adjournments, and absence of transparency, undermining the justice system. Traditional manual processes and paper-based documentation cause significant backlogs, slow resolutions, and limited public access. As case volumes and complexities rise, modernizing court administration through digital transformation is progressively critical. Currently, many countries are integrating technologies in the courts for its administration and other activities. In recent years, courts and judges have been subjected to pressure to improve performance, uplifting judicial effectiveness to a top priority. Subsequently, several countries have integrated simplification and digitization strategies in judicial initiatives to enhance court efficiency. Switzerland’s Justitia 4.0 and Brazil’s PJE are notable initiatives that focused to strengthen court administration through digitalization. These aspects motivated this study to examine the detailed integration of industry 4.0 technologies such as the Internet of things, cloud computing, blockchain, big data analytics, robotics, drones, Metaverse, digital twins, and artificial intelligence for court administration with digitalized infrastructure. According to the study, integrating these technologies in less complex cases helps minimize expenditures and save time, making to resolve cases conveniently, efficiently, and superiorly. The study also identified the challenges and issues associated with industry 4.0 technologies such as evidence gathering, evidence preservation, robot judges for pre-judgment analysis, and judgment delivery, which future studies need to be explored.

Tools & Techniques. (Should work equally well for communication with children or members of congress.)

https://www.makeuseof.com/adobe-animate-characters-from-audio/

This Adobe Tool Animates Characters Using Your Voice (No Experience Needed)

… Animating your graphics, text, and images in the Adobe Express editor is pretty simple thanks to the Animation feature. But this isn't the only animation tool that Adobe Express has to offer.

Enter Animate From Audio, a free Adobe Express tool that lets you animate pre-drawn characters in real-time using just your voice—or any audio really. Every time the program picks up an audio signal, it animates the character along one of the pre-drawn paths.

If they put half the effort into legitimate businesses they could probably earn twice the money.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/30/north-korean-hackers-exploited-chrome-zero-day-to-steal-crypto/

North Korean hackers exploited Chrome zero-day to steal crypto

A North Korean hacking group earlier in August exploited a previously unknown bug in Chrome-based browsers to target organizations with the goal of stealing cryptocurrency, according to Microsoft.

In a report published on Friday, the tech giant’s cybersecurity researchers said they first saw evidence of the hackers’ activities on August 19, and said the hackers were affiliated with a group called Citrine Sleet, which is known to target the crypto industry.

Avoiding Fahrenheit 451? (Can you read that book in Florida?)

https://www.bespacific.com/major-publishers-sue-florida-over-banned-school-library-books/

Major Publishers Sue Florida Over Banned School Library Books

“Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks have filed a lawsuit against Florida public officials, challenging sweeping book removal provisions of HB 1069, an education law that restricts books in school libraries. The additional plaintiffs joining the publishers are the Authors Guild, bestselling authors Julia Alvarez, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas, two students, and two parents. As a result of HB 1069, hundreds of titles have been banned across the state since the bill went into effect in July 2023. The list of banned books includes classics such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, as well as contemporary novels by bestselling authors such as Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, and Stephen King. Among nonfiction titles, accounts of the Holocaust such as The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank have been removed. HB 1069 requires school librarians to remove books that contain anything that can be construed as “sexual conduct,” with no consideration of the educational value of the work as a whole. If “a parent or a resident of the county” objects to a book, the book must be removed within five days and remain unavailable until the objection is resolved. There is no requirement to review a book within a reasonable time frame—or even to return it if it has been found not to violate the statute. If a book is returned to the library, an objector may request a review by a state-appointed special magistrate at the expense of the school district. Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks issued a joint statement: “As publishers dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and the right to read, the rise in book bans across the country continues to demand our collective action. Fighting unconstitutional legislation in Florida and across the country is an urgent priority. We are unwavering in our support for educators, librarians, students, authors, readers—everyone deserves access to books and stories that show different perspectives and viewpoints.”

Perspective. (It looks like this AI thing might be big...)

https://singularityhub.com/2024/08/29/ai-models-scaled-up-10000x-are-possible-by-2030-report-says/

AI Models Scaled Up 10,000x Are Possible by 2030, Report Says

Recent progress in AI largely boils down to one thing: Scale.

Around the beginning of this decade, AI labs noticed that making their algorithms—or models—ever bigger and feeding them more data consistently led to enormous improvements in what they could do and how well they did it. The latest crop of AI models have hundreds of billions to over a trillion internal network connections and learn to write or code like we do by consuming a healthy fraction of the internet.

It takes more computing power to train bigger algorithms. So, to get to this point, the computing dedicated to AI training has been quadrupling every year, according to nonprofit AI research organization, Epoch AI

Should that growth continue through 2030, future AI models would be trained with 10,000 times more compute than today’s state of the art algorithms, like OpenAI’s GPT-4.