Once again I face a serious dilemma. Since I have no social media accounts to share with New York, will the state assume that I have no character? Should I create a social media page specifically to demonstrate how stable I am?

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/gun-applicants-new-york-will-hand-social-accounts-rcna37251

Gun applicants in New York will have to hand over social accounts

Some of the local officials who will be tasked with reviewing the social media content are asking whether they’ll have enough resources and whether the law is even constitutional.

As missed warning signs pile up in investigations of mass killings, New York state is rolling out a novel strategy to screen applicants for gun permits. People seeking to carry concealed handguns will be required to hand over their social media accounts for a review of their “character and conduct.”

It’s an approach applauded by many Democrats and national gun control advocacy groups, but some experts have raised questions about how the law will be enforced and address free speech concerns.

… Sheriffs haven’t received additional money or staffing to handle a new application process, said Peter Kehoe, the executive director of the New York Sheriffs’ Association. The law, he asserted, infringes on Second Amendment rights, and while applicants must list their social media accounts, he doesn’t think local officials will necessarily look at them.

“I don’t think we would do that,” Kehoe said. “I think it would be a constitutional invasion of privacy.”

The new requirement, which takes effect in September, was included in a law passed last week that sought to preserve some limits on firearms after the Supreme Court ruled that most people have a right to carry a handgun for personal protection. It was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, who noted shooters sometimes telegraph their intent to hurt others.

Must we wait for an AI to answer these questions?

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/privileges-personhood

Privileges of Personhood

The possibility of sentient AI raises new questions.

… First, what is sentience? Sentience is a malleable term derived from the word “sense,” meaning to perceive, to think, to feel. But who defines what it means to do these things? Any good definition of sentience would have to include many animal species, as noted above, including some that are regularly raised to be slaughtered as food. If sentience necessarily connotes personhood and its attendant rights, then we should be treating animals far differently than we do. Furthermore, if sentience does not connote personhood, then it may not really matter if an AI is sentient. Maybe we’re asking the wrong question.

Open source intelligence: available to anyone with an Internet connection and curiosity.

https://www.space.com/russia-anti-satellite-laser-facility-satellite-photos

Satellites spot construction of Russian anti-satellite laser facility: report

Anti-satellite technologies are on the rise as space becomes an increasingly vital domain for military activities.

Recent Google Earth images reveal construction at what appears to be a sophisticated laser system at a Russian space facility designed to blind adversary satellites.

The construction is taking place at the Russian Ministry of Defense's Krona space facility near Zelenchukskaya in Russia's far southwest, home of the massive RATAN-600 radio telescope. The existence of this new complex was brought to light in an in-depth open source investigation

(opens in new tab)

published by The Space Review that analyzed public satellite imagery, solicitation documents from Russian industrial contractors and Russian financial documents.

All of these sources lay out the construction of a project named Kalina, described in the financial documentation obtained by The Space Review as a laser system designed for "electro-optical warfare" that can permanently blind adversarial satellites by shining laser pulses so bright they can damage optical sensors. (This is distinctly different from other lasers known as "dazzlers," which are aimed at only temporarily blinding optics systems.)

A question awaiting resolution. Can clear language answer?

https://www.professionaljeweller.com/graff-paid-6m-ransom-fee-to-russian-hackers-behind-cyber-attack/

Graff paid £6m ransom fee to Russian hackers behind celebrity cyber attack

… Now it has been reported by Bloomberg that the jeweller paid $7.5 million (£6.3 million) by way of a ransom fee so that the data of its customers not be released.

Graff is also suing its insurance agency over the latter’s refusal to cover the ransom fee.

… On the topic of its legal case against its insurer, a Graff spokesperson was quoted by Mint as saying: “The criminals threatened targeted publication of our customers private purchases.

“We were determined to take all possible steps to protect their interests and so negotiated a payment which successfully neutralised that threat.

“We are extremely frustrated and disappointed by [insurer] Travelers’ attempt to avoid settlement of this insured risk.

“They have left us with no option but to bring these recovery proceedings at the High Court.”

Of course the RCMP is far more technologically advanced than our law enforcement agencies, so we have nothing to worry about.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/07/canada-police-spyware-admission-surveillance-experts

‘Asleep at the wheel’: Canada police’s spyware admission raises alarm

… During a parliamentary session in late June, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police submitted a document outlining how a special investigative team covertly infiltrates the mobile devices of Canadians. The tools, which have been used on at least 10 investigations between 2018 and 2020, give the police access to text messages, email, photos, videos, audio files, calendar entries and financial records. The software can also remotely turn on the camera and microphone of a suspect’s phone or laptop.

… The RCMP says it only uses the tools when less intrusive means have failed. In the document, the police force claims it needs to use spyware because new technologies, like end-to-end encryption, make it “exponentially more difficult for the RCMP to conduct court-authorized electronic surveillance”.

(Related)

https://americandragnet.org/

DATA-DRIVEN DEPORTATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

When you think about government surveillance in the United States, you likely think of the National Security Agency or the FBI. You might even think of a powerful police agency, such as the New York Police Department. But unless you or someone you love has been targeted for deportation, you probably don’t immediately think of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

This report argues that you should. Our two-year investigation, including hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests and a comprehensive review of ICE’s contracting and procurement records, reveals that ICE now operates as a domestic surveillance agency.

DOWNLOAD IN ENGLISH https://americandragnet.org/report-english

To hack or not to hack? A true no brainer… Expect lawsuits every time a car is hit from the rear or side...

https://www.engadget.com/eu-intelligent-speed-assistance-vehicles-anti-speeding-europe-000007992.html

EU will require all new cars to include anti-speeding tech by 2024

Every new car sold in the European Union will soon include anti-speeding technology known as intelligent speed assistance, or ISA. The EU regulation (part of the broader General Vehicle Safety Regulation ) goes into effect today, and states that all new models and types of cars introduced to the European market must include an ISA system.

… For those unfamiliar with ISA, the term describes a whole raft of systems that can detect road speed limits via front-mounted cameras, GPS data or both. Depending on the specific ISA and how it's configured by the driver, the technology can provide reminder feedback about the speed limit, automatically adjust cruise control to match the road's speed or even reduce power to the motor to slow speeding vehicles.

… According to a projection by the EU-funded PROSPER, a scenario such as this one, where ISA becomes mandated, could result in between 26 and 50 percent fewer fatalities.

As Autocar notes, ISA technology still isn’t perfect. During one test, the ISA system was occasionally “slow to respond” and at one point set the speed limit at 60 mph while driving through a quiet English village.

Another technology as a potential point of failure. Can’t wait to see what my Ethical Hackers can do with these. Imagine a plate that says, “Unlisted” or your favorite politician’s plate that says “stolen!”

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/legislature/digital-license-plates-coming-to-colorado/article_2cfb2a06-fd57-11ec-87b5-2ffdd50b0399.html?ana=9news

Digital license plates coming to Colorado

Digital license plates will soon be permitted on Colorado roads, thanks to a new law taking effect next month.

The legislation allowing the plates, House Bill 1162, was signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis in April. On Wednesday, the digital license plate developer Reviver announced it has complied with state requirements and will begin selling the plates in Colorado when the bill goes into effect.

… Though digital license plates are spreading throughout the country, they aren’t without their critics. The digital plates are significantly more expensive than metal plates and must be bought directly through Reviver, not the DMV. Reviver’s consumer digital license plate costs between $19.95 and $24.95 per month, and those who buy them will still have to buy the traditional metal plates, as well.

In addition, the digital plates emit a wireless signal used for tracking and digital monitoring services, which has raised some concerns about hacking and data privacy.

No doubt well intentioned, but does it open a massive can of worms?

https://gazette.com/health/polis-directs-colorado-agencies-to-withhold-data-from-states-that-may-impose-penalties-on-women/article_0cad12cc-4b07-5668-bebc-d93be6590eed.html

Polis directs Colorado agencies to withhold data from states that may impose penalties on women seeking abortion

Gov. Jared Polis announced Wednesday he has signed an executive order intending to protect the data of those who seek abortions in Colorado.

The order – D 2022 032 – directs state agencies to withhold data, including patient medical records and related billing information, to states that may impose criminal or civil penalties on those who seek or provide abortions.

[The order: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10zvLU35d47Y9DYmG0vFZzI7tJAlACXYg/view

(Related) I’m betting this one doesn’t get as far as finding the can, let alone opening it.

https://www.pogowasright.org/senators-sound-the-alarm-on-privacy-call-for-hipaa-update/

Senators sound the alarm on privacy, call for HIPAA update

Mike Miliard reports:

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on July 1, Senators Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., called on HHS to use its powers to ensure the HIPAA Privacy Rule is better positioned to protect the health information of patients seeking reproductive healthcare.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade has created “profound uncertainty for patients concerning their right to privacy when making the deeply personal decision to have an abortion,” said the senators.

Read more at HealthcareITNews

Questions, questions, questions. Only video is banned. Pictures and audio are Okay?

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/legislature/2022/07/06/recording-police-close-range-now-illegal-new-bill-signed/7816271001/

Close-range recordings of police illegal under bill signed into law by Ducey

People will no longer be allowed to take close-range recordings of Arizona police under a new bill signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday.

House Bill 2319, sponsored by Rep. John Kavanagh, makes it illegal for anyone within 8 feet of law enforcement activity to record police. Violators could face a misdemeanor, but only after being verbally warned and continuing to record anyway.

Exceptions were made for people at the center of an interaction with police, anyone standing in an enclosed structure on private property where police activity was occurring and occupants of a vehicle stopped by police as long as recording in those instances didn't interfere with police actions.

It goes into effect on Sept. 24.

Kavanagh wrote in an op-ed said HB 2319 was meant to protect officers from potential harm or distraction outside of the incident they were already involved in. He initially introduced the bill with a 15-foot restriction that was later amended down to address concerns it would be unconstitutional.

I suppose it’s something.

https://www.databreaches.net/63-million-opm-data-breach-settlement-proposed/

$63 Million OPM Data Breach Settlement Proposed

From the official settlement website at https://www.opmdatabreach.com/:

OPM Data Breach Settlement

In re: U.S. Office of Personnel Management Data Security Breach Litigation, No. 15-1394 (ABJ) (D.D.C.).

If You Were Subject to the Data Breaches of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and Its Contractor (Peraton Risk Decision Inc.), and You Experienced an Out-of-Pocket Loss After the Breaches, You Could Be Eligible for a Payment from a Class Action Settlement

You may be eligible to receive a payment from a proposed $63,000,000 class action settlement.

The lawsuit is about the data breaches of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) in 2014 and 2015 and its security contractor in 2013 and 2014 that allegedly compromised personal information of then-current and former federal government employees and contractors, as well as certain applicants for federal employment. The Defendants in the case—OPM and its contractor, known now as Peraton Risk Decision Inc. (“Peraton”) and previously as KeyPoint Government Solutions, Inc.—deny that they did anything wrong and dispute that they have any liability, but have agreed to settle the lawsuit.

To be eligible to make a claim for payment, your personal information must have been compromised in the data breaches, and you must also have suffered an out-of-pocket expense or lost compensable time:

1. to purchase a credit monitoring product, credit or identity theft protection product, or other product or service designed to identify or remediate the data breaches;

2. to access, freeze or unfreeze a credit report with a credit reporting agency; or

3. as a result of an identity theft incident or to mitigate an identity theft incident.

Eligible claimants under the Settlement will receive $700 or the actual amount of the claim—whichever is greater—up to a maximum of $10,000, unless the total value of all valid claims, plus any incentive awards to named plaintiffs, exceeds the amount of money in the fund.

The Settlement does not affect or release claims of anyone who was subject to the data breaches and who did not experience losses within any of the three categories listed above.

You can file your claim here. You can also opt out of or object to the Settlement.

OPM (as authorized by Congress) has made free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services available to all individuals whose personal information was compromised in the data breaches. If you have not signed up for these services but wish to do so, visit www.opm.gov/cybersecurity or call 1-800-750-3004 Monday through Saturday, between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Read more about your legal rights and options at https://www.opmdatabreach.com/

A press release can be found here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/a-63-million-settlement-has-been-reached-in-a-class-action-lawsuit-about-the-data-breaches-of-the-us-office-of-personnel-managemen t-and-its-security-contractor-301579362.html

The Office of Personnel Management resulted in years of media coverage and analyses. You can find some of the coverage by searching this site for “OPM breach.”

Another rule to “rule them all?”

https://www.insideprivacy.com/european-union-2/european-parliament-adopts-dsa/

European Parliament adopts DSA

On July 5, 2022, the European Parliament adopted the Digital Services Act (“DSA”) with 539 votes in favor, 54 votes against and 30 abstentions, following the political deal reached on April 23, 2022 (see our previous blog here ).

Key aspects

The DSA is addressed to providers of intermediary services (e.g., Internet service providers, cloud providers, search engines, social networks and other online platforms, and online marketplaces). The DSA will also apply to providers established outside the EU, to the extent they offer services to business and individual users established or located in the EU.

Perspective.

https://www.bespacific.com/91760-2/

Polycrisis

The Atlantic: “America and the world are living through what Adam Tooze, the internet’s foremost historian of money and disaster, describes as a “polycrisis.” As he sips a beer at a bar near Columbia University, where he is the director of the European Institute, Tooze talks through a long list of challenges: War, raising the specter of nuclear conflict. Climate change, threatening famine, flood, and fire. Inflation, forcing central banks to crush consumer demand. The pandemic, closing factories and overloading hospitals. Each crisis is hard enough to parse by itself; the interconnected mess of them is infinitely more so. And he feels “the whole is even more dangerous than the sum of the parts.” Not too long ago, Tooze was an obscure academic. Now he’s among the world’s most influential financial commentators, with loyal readerships in Washington, London, Paris, and Brussels, as well as on Wall Street. Tooze’s readers turn to him for his uncanny ability to know which numbers on a spreadsheet matter, or when a trend has hit the point at which it has started to shape history. He looks at trade, currency, equities, wage, employment, debt, and commodities data and somehow makes sense of it—not just in the moment but in the sweep of time. “Economic events have had such a huge influence on politics this century,” Robert Skidelsky, the John Maynard Keynes biographer, told me. Tooze “illustrates the interpenetration of economic policy and political events. It’s as simple as that…”

Perspective. Should every business be in a constant “slow-motion transformation?”  GDPR?

https://www.rtinsights.com/four-types-business-transformation/

Four Types of Business Transformation

A new study published in Harvard Business Review highlights four types of business transformation, providing further clarity for business leaders who are aiming to transition.

How will AI react to chants of “Kill the AI!” (Soon AI will surveil all sports!)

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jul/01/fifa-ai-powered-technology-var-offside-world-cup

AI-powered technology will be used to speed up VAR offside calls at World Cup

… During the World Cup offside reviews will be conducted by creating a 3D map of the goalscoring action, using a combination of 12 cameras and a hi-tech ball. The Adidas Al Rihla ball will be fitted with a sensor that sends out location data 500 times per second, which will be matched against player positions on camera, with synchronised devices tracking 29 points on players’ bodies and relaying information 50 times per second.

That data will be processed using AI technology devised in collaboration with a number of universities, including the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. After being sent to an SAOT operator it will be double-checked by a VAR. The VAR will then relay the verdict to the referee, who will make the final call but will, in theory, merely approve the decision. Collina said that in trials the time taken to make a decision, compared with the previous VAR system, had fallen to 25sec from an average of 70sec.

What information goes the other way?

https://www.pogowasright.org/uk-signs-deal-to-share-police-biometric-database-with-us-border-guards/

UK signs deal to share police biometric database with US border guards

Lindsay Clark reports:

The UK has signed up to a US plan for sharing police-held biometric data about citizens with US border officials.

According to a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), the body met “informally” with representatives of the US Department of Homeland Security this week to discuss the plans.

Read more at The Register.

Just in case you were being lulled into believing the lie…

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/07/huawei-launches-new-surveillance-legion-in-creepy-military-style-rally/

Huawei Launches New Surveillance ‘Corps’ in Creepy Military-Style Rally

During a bizarre, military-style ceremony that highlighted Huawei’s ties to China’s security state, the tech company launched a new internal business unit focused on developing artificial-intelligence-powered surveillance technology. The new unit will be focused on streamlining the embattled Chinese company’s efforts to become a worldwide leader in cutting-edge AI surveillance technology that can be deployed by cities around the world.

The ceremony puts the lie to Huawei’s global public-relations and lobbying campaigns that strive to dispel the well-founded notion that its ultimate loyalties are with the Chinese Communist Party.

Gosh! Maybe there is an App for anything…

https://www.bespacific.com/free-app-identifies-bird-species-by-sound/

Free App Identifies Bird Species by Sound

Sci-News: “The BirdNET app is a free bird sound identification app for Android and iOS that includes over 3,000 bird species. Ornithologists hope this app will reduce barriers to citizen science and generate tens of millions of bird observations globally…”

The ubiquity of smartphones combined with the power of new machine learning algorithms presents an opportunity to promote positive interactions between humans and birds and thus create new possibilities for avian research,” said lead author Dr. Connor Wood from the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and his colleagues…”

Tools & Techniques

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01830-9

Need web data? Here’s how to harvest them

Webscraping is a useful tool for gathering data from public websites, but researchers must develop some fundamental software skills to use it.

… The technical skill required isn’t trivial, but neither is it overwhelming — and the benefits can be immense, enabling researchers to collect large quantities of data rapidly without the errors inherent to manual transcription. “There’s so many resources and so much information available online,” Richards says. “It’s just sitting there waiting for someone to come and make use of it.”

Not all data breaches are the result of extensive or elaborate hacking.

https://www.databreaches.net/hackers-claim-police-information-stolen-in-chinas-biggest-data-breach/

Hackers claim police information stolen in China’s biggest data breach

The Bharat Express News reports:

Unknown hackers have claimed to have stolen data on up to a billion Chinese residents after hacking into a Shanghai police database, in what industry experts are calling the world’s biggest data breach. cybersecurity in the country’s history.

The person or group claiming the attack has offered to sell more than 23 terabytes of data stolen from the database, including names, addresses, birthplaces, national ID cards, phone numbers and information about criminal cases, according to an anonymous post on an online cybercrime forum. the week. The unidentified hacker demanded 10 bitcoins, worth around $200,000.

Read more of this Bloomberg report at The Bharat Express News

Update: It appears that this leak is real and was due to a developer’s error. Binance has subsequently tweeted:

Apparently, this exploit happened because the gov developer wrote a tech blog on CSDN and accidentally included the credentials.

Can’t wait to see where this one goes…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/04/first-thing-fox-and-friends-face-billion-dollar-us-lawsuits

First Thing: Fox and friends face billion-dollar US lawsuits

• What does Dominion say Fox Corp did? In the $1.6bn lawsuit, Dominion accuses Fox Corp, and the Murdochs specifically, of allowing Fox News to amplify false claims that the voting company had rigged the election for Joe Biden.

• Should Fox News be worried? Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a legal expert, thinks Dominion has a good case. “What’s particularly bad for Fox is [that] Dominion asked them to stop and correct the record in real time, and Fox persisted in spreading misrepresentations about the voting machine company,” she said.

Tools & Techniques.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/quantum-computing-for-dummies

Quantum Computing for Dummies

New guide helps beginners run quantum algorithms on IBM's quantum computers over the cloud

… The guide appeared online in March in the ACM Transactions on Quantum Computing. The code and implementations accompanying the guide can be found at https://github.com/lanl/quantum_algorithms.

It’s Congress, it will never make sense…

https://www.proquest.com/openview/bd67e526c0c95cd6a676608946742b2d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Why Congress Has Not Passed Facial Recognition Technology Legislation for Public Spaces

Facial recognition technology (FRT) in public spaces has been a political and social concern for more than 30 years. Conflict exists between the use of FRT for safety and security measures and its possible violation of the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Additional controversial issues surrounding the use of FRT in public spaces include technological development without standardization or regulations; biometric algorithms developed with bias; and the social issues of privacy intrusion, gender and racial bias, data security, accuracy, and privacy concerns. Researchers have concurred a national policy is needed to address FRT issues but have not explained why Congress has been unsuccessful. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the factors explaining this phenomenon. The narrative policy framework was used as the theoretical paradigm for this inquiry. Using Saldana’s method of coding, categorizing and theming descriptive narratives, transcripts from hearings conducted by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform tasked with formulating FRT legislation were analyzed. The result of the analysis was the emergence of 10 factors identifying why FRT legislation was stalemated in Congress. The summative assertion from the factors revealed members of the committee were overwhelmed with the complexities of FRT. Several strategies were recommended which may advance the passage of a national FRT policy. If Congress employed these strategies and passed a national policy that alleviated FRT issues to the extent possible, positive social change regarding FRT usage in public spaces may occur.

They do the hard part…

https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.11922

Worldwide AI Ethics: a review of 200 guidelines and recommendations for AI governance

In the last decade, a great number of organizations have produced documents intended to standardize, in the normative sense, and promote guidance to our recent and rapid AI development. However, the full content and divergence of ideas presented in these documents have not yet been analyzed, except for a few meta-analyses and critical reviews of the field. In this work, we seek to expand on the work done by past researchers and create a tool for better data visualization of the contents and nature of these documents. We also provide our critical analysis of the results acquired by the application of our tool into a sample size of 200 documents.

Interesting

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FP_20220621_surveillance_exports_peterson_hoffman_v2.pdf

GEOPOLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF AI AND DIGITAL SURVEILLANCE ADOPTION

… To continue addressing these policy challenges, this brief provides five recommendations for democratic governments and three for civil society.

Always amusing when a book kicks off heated rebuttals.

https://www.amazon.com/Reasonable-Robot-Artificial-Intelligence-Law/dp/1108459021

The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law

(Related)

https://academic.oup.com/jrls/article-abstract/25/1/1/6619260

The Law of AI: A Renegotiation or a Reproduction Commentary on Ryan Abbott, The Reasonable Robot Get access Arrow

Ryan Abbott’s “The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law” offers a functional approach to the law of Artificial Intelligence (AI) robots. Soon, if not already, AIs will compete with human employees in a variety of tasks and fields—from manufacturing and transportation to programming and medicine—prompting the fourth industrial revolution.1 But Abbott does not find this to be as alarming as it may appear. Instead, while the transition period requires some state intervention, he argues, “[h]istory has shown [that] fears [of technological unemployment] were misplaced, at least in regard to concerns about long-term unemployment” (p. 5).

What Abbott is concerned with is that competition between AIs and humans would be on equal footings. This concern is highlighted in the main theme of the book, the “principle of AI legal neutrality asserting that the law should not discriminate between AI and human behavior”

(Related)

https://academic.oup.com/jrls/article-abstract/25/1/18/6619262

The Interesting Robot: A Reply to Professor Abbott: Comments on The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence in the Law by Professor Ryan Abbott Get access Arrow

I had a philosophy professor in college, Bob Fogelin, who sorted classical arguments into four categories: (1) interesting and right, (2) interesting and wrong, (3) uninteresting and right, and (4) uninteresting and wrong. Very few arguments that stand the test of time fall in the last category. Even fewer fall into the first.1 Most worthwhile work falls somewhere in the middle.

Ryan Abbott has written a wonderful, interesting book about artificial intelligence and the law that happens to be wrong. The book is interesting (and ambitious) in that Abbott manages to articulate a nuanced conceptual framework for AI that spans at least four distinct legal contexts. Along the way, he makes any number of fascinating and trenchant observations regarding the interaction of law and technology. The book is wrong, or at least incomplete, insofar as it argues for a concept—“AI legal neutrality”—without satisfactory criteria of application.

(Related)

https://academic.oup.com/jrls/article-abstract/25/1/24/6619250

The Relational Robot: A Normative Lens for AI Legal Neutrality—Commentary on Ryan Abbott, The Reasonable Robot Get access Arrow

Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are told, is poised to disrupt almost every facet of our lives and society. From industrial labor markets to daily commutes, and from policing tactics to personal assistants, AI brings with it the usual promise and perils of change. How that change will unfold, however, and whether it will ultimately bestow upon us more benefits than harms, remains to be determined. A significant factor in setting the course for AI’s inevitable integration into society will be the legal framework within which it is developed and operationalized. Who will AI displace? What will it replace? What improvements will it bring? What damage will it do? The law has the power to shape the answers, but is it up to the task?