Is it ethical to charge for work done by an AI?

https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/the-fate-of-billable-hours-is-in-ais-hands

The fate of billable hours is in the hands of artificial intelligence

… If AI is capable of doing tasks in seconds that once took hours or days, then law firms are faced with a dilemma: continue depending on that timer, which will be cut significantly; or find alternative billing methods that account for the tasks done, rather than the time that it takes to do them.

Within five years, predicts Mathew Kerbis, the founding attorney at Subscription Attorney in Deerfield, Illinois, which offers legal advice and services to clients, the only way to profitably bill time via traditional billable hours in light of AI advancements will be to charge thousands if not tens of thousands per hour.

Hallucination free?

https://www.lawnext.com/2024/03/free-legal-research-startup-descrybe-ai-now-has-ai-summaries-of-all-state-supreme-and-appellate-opinions.html

Free Legal Research Startup descrybe.ai Now Has AI Summaries of All State Supreme and Appellate Opinions

descrybe.ai, a year-old legal research startup focused on using artificial intelligence to provide free and easy access to court opinions, has completed its goal of creating AI-generated summaries of all available state supreme and appellate court opinions from throughout the United States.

… It uses AI to generate summaries of court opinions and make them searchable. Opinions from 18 states so far also have AI-generated abstracts, highlighting the parties, issue, background, procedural history, analysis and holding.

… There is no cost or sign-up required to use the site, so if you are curious about it, give it a try.

Tools & Techniques. Not unlike forensic tools.

https://www.bespacific.com/online-investigative-tools-you-can-try-right-now/

Online Investigative Tools You Can Try Right Now

“The 2024 NICAR data journalism summit — hosted in Baltimore by Investigative Reporters and Editors — surfaced scores of innovative reporting resources and tools, primarily for US data reporters GIJN curated these tips and databases for ones that are transferable to investigative and data reporters around the world, and we will share these globally relevant techniques in several stories in the weeks to come. In this first story from NICAR24, we highlight some new, free investigative tools on fact-checking, topic briefing, and journalist safety that were the subject of significant interest in the hallways at NICAR, and which could help reporters in almost any country right now…”

Do lawyers need the truth?

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/ai-cant-handle-the-truth-when-it-comes-to-the-law/

AI can’t handle the truth when it comes to the law

Almost one in five lawyers are using AI, according to an American Bar Association survey.

But there are a growing number of legal horror stories involving tools like ChatGPT, because chatbots have a tendency to make stuff up. For example, legal precedents from cases that never happened.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Daniel Ho at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence about the group’s recent study on how frequently three of the most popular language models from ChatGPT, Meta and Google hallucinate when asked to weigh in or assist with legal cases.

The following is an edited transcript of their conversation

Lots of questions. What rules do we need? It’s sort of like, “Hey, that guy looks like Vladimir Putin but with a mustache!”

https://www.9news.com/article/news/investigations/police-use-colorado-dmv-facial-recognition-program/73-0c2d862c-a33c-4598-bc0a-e0d1a8ee287f

Police increasingly using Colorado DMV facial recognition program

… In a recent case, from October, federal records show ATF investigators requested an image scan at the Colorado DMV after security cameras captured a man walking out of a Denver gun shop with guns and ammo.

The face scan pointed to two men, including a 20-year-old man named Brayan Enriquez, according to a federal criminal complaint.

… Investigators also pointed out in the criminal complaint the face scan of the second suspect led to a man who didn’t have anything to do with the crime.

… DMV records also show a “possible match” comes up only about one-third of the time over the last four years.

I’ll have my AI contact your AI. They can schedule a virtual lunch to discuss your job offer.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/ai-is-changing-how-companies-recruit-how-candidates-respond/470912

AI Is Changing How Businesses Recruit for Open Roles — and How Candidates Are Gaming the System

AI is gaining a foothold in recruiting, with Jobscan research finding that 99% of Fortune 500 companies use the technology to automatically filter out applicants, and a Resume Builder survey projecting that 40% of companies will use AI to "talk" to candidates this year.

… On video calls with AI, applicants can use AI teleprompters such as Final Round AI, which listens to questions and generates answers during an interview in real-time based on a resume and cover letter.

If my AI called and asked enough questions, could it build a large language model sufficient to become an advice giving “lawyer substitute?”

https://www.bespacific.com/aba-free-legal-answers/

ABA Free Legal Answers

“The American Bar Association web program ABA Free Legal Answers, which gives income-eligible users the ability to pose civil legal questions to volunteer attorneys, has released a nationwide list of lawyers, law firms, corporate law departments, law schools and other legal organizations who in 2023 handled the most online questions. Launched in 2016, the program operates in 43 jurisdictions, including a federal portal that addresses veterans benefits and immigration questions. More than 13,500 attorneys nationally have registered to volunteer on ABA Free Legal Answers (FLA), which operates virtually. Of those, 148 attorneys in 2023 — an increase from 2022 — handled at least 50 civil legal questions each and are recognized as 2023 ABA Free Legal Answers Pro Bono Leaders. In addition, 36 law firms, corporate law departments and other legal organizations were recognized for answering at least 75 questions in 2023. The nationwide program has emerged as a no-cost way for eligible participants to obtain basic civil legal guidance, as pro bono lawyers have fielded more than 40,000 inquiries annually since 2019. Through last year, Free Legal Answers handled 330,221 total questions since its inception. The summary report for 2023 is here. “ABA Free Legal Answers has become a vital link to civil legal aid for those in need,” ABA President Mary Smith said. “The program exemplifies a commitment to access to justice, with over 330,000 questions responded to and thousands of attorneys offering their expertise on a volunteer basis since its inception in 2016. The platform stands as a testament to the impact of pro bono work in addressing the legal needs of low-income communities.” Geared to expand legal services for low-income communities, the service requires users to meet income eligibility guidelines applicable to each state or U.S. territory. While expanding access to legal services, ABA Free Legal Answers also expands pro bono opportunities for attorneys in a convenient way to match their schedules.’

…Free Legal Answers is an accessible way for our attorneys to be a resource to those in need at any time of the day,” said Margaret Richards, director of Pro Bono Services at Husch Blackwell LLP, whose attorneys handled 821 questions in 2023 on the California, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin sites. In addition to providing volunteer attorney time, Husch Blackwell is also an FLA funder, as the program relies on private contributions to keep this free service available for those needing legal assistance. Nationally, attorneys can volunteer their services by navigating to ABA Free Legal Answers and selecting “Attorney Registration.”

I would never suggest that the car’s driving log was a target for hackers, but if it could “prove” that I am a safe driver, deserving of the lowest insurance rates, it is clearly valuable.

https://www.bespacific.com/automakers-are-sharing-consumers-driving-behavior-with-insurance-companies/

Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies

The New York Times – unpaywalled: “Kenn Dahl says he has always been a careful driver. The owner of a software company near Seattle, he drives a leased Chevrolet Bolt. He’s never been responsible for an accident. So Mr. Dahl, 65, was surprised in 2022 when the cost of his car insurance jumped by 21 percent. Quotes from other insurance companies were also high. One insurance agent told him his LexisNexis report was a factor. LexisNexis is a New York-based global data broker with a “Risk Solutions” division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets. Upon Mr. Dahl’s request, LexisNexis sent him a 258-page “consumer disclosure report,” which it must provide per the Fair Credit Reporting Act. What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car. On a Thursday morning in June for example, the car had been driven 7.33 miles in 18 minutes; there had been two rapid accelerations and two incidents of hard braking. According to the report, the trip details had been provided by General Motors — the manufacturer of the Chevy Bolt. LexisNexis analyzed that driving data to create a risk score “for insurers to use as one factor of many to create more personalized insurance coverage,” according to a LexisNexis spokesman, Dean Carney. Eight insurance companies had requested information about Mr. Dahl from LexisNexis over the previous month. “It felt like a betrayal,” Mr. Dahl said. “They’re taking information that I didn’t realize was going to be shared and screwing with our insurance.”

Let’s hope we don’t look back in a few years and wish we had taken this report seriously…

https://www.bespacific.com/an-action-plan-to-increase-the-safety-and-security-of-advanced-ai/

An Action Plan to increase the safety and security of advanced AI

“In October 2022, a month before ChatGPT was released, the U.S. State Department commissioned the first-ever assessment of proliferation and security risk from weaponized and misaligned AI. In February 2024, Gladstone completed that assessment. It includes an analysis of catastrophic AI risks, and a first-of-its-kind, government-wide Action Plan for what we can do about them…”

Executive Summary – Defense in Depth: An Action Plan to Increase the Safety and Security of Advanced AI

Poor redaction technique makes this easier.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/03/using-llms-to-unredact-text.html

Using LLMs to Unredact Text

Initial results in using LLMs to unredact text based on the size of the individual-word redaction rectangles.

This feels like something that a specialized ML system could be trained on.

I had never heard of this. Would it be worth while to wack politicians on the head? (or just fun!)

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202403/the-mystery-of-sudden-genius

The Mystery of Sudden Genius

The phenomenon of acquired savant syndrome reveals what happens when brain damage unleashes brilliance.

… No single theory can explain all cases of savant syndrome. But one leading hypothesis, especially for acquired savant syndrome, is that anomaly or damage in the left hemisphere essentially rewires the brain, recruiting new capacity or releasing dormant ability from the intact right hemisphere—much as a person with a broken leg relies more heavily on their opposing, functioning limb, thereby strengthening it.

The distinction between the two brain hemispheres is often oversimplified, but differences do exist: The left hemisphere specializes in logical, sequential, language-based processes, while the right specializes in creative and artistic processes. Acquired savant syndrome overwhelmingly involves left hemisphere damage and right hemisphere specialty skills.

How privacy erodes…

https://petapixel.com/2024/03/08/germany-vs-google-how-street-view-won-the-privacy-battle-in-europes-most-private-country/

Germany vs Google: How Street View Won the Privacy Battle in Europe’s Most Private Country

For residents and tourists alike, Google Maps Street View is an exceptionally useful navigational tool. However, not every country has welcomed Google’s iconic Street View cars to their streets. One of these longtime holdouts, Germany, has only recently begun to change its tune after more than a decade of resistance. But why?

Using AI to write grant proposals to study AI? Pass this to your favorite academic.

https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011863

Ten simple rules to leverage large language models for getting grants

… As writers of scientific proposals, we believe that writing proposals is a very personal exercise where the final product is best when imbued with the ideas, style, and personality of the writer. The iterative process of drafting and refining also helps develop scientific writing skills [15 ], which are essential for a successful long-term career in academia. We also believe, however, that scientists can benefit immensely from including AI in this process, as assistants or makeshift reviewers, in particular as the algorithms that power these systems become better and more widely available. This article aims to strike a delicate balance—an enthusiastic yet cautionary tale outlining 10 best practice tips (summarized in Fig 1 ) for using LLMs during your grant writing journey.

Perspective.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10454111

Guest Editorial: Ethics in Affective Computing

Stunning advances in machine learning are heralding a new era in sensing, interpreting, simulating and stimulating human emotion. In the human sciences, research is increasingly highlighting the explanatory power of emotions, feelings, and other affective processes to predict how we think and behave. This is beginning to translate into an explosion of applications that can improve human wellbeing including methods to reduce stress and improve emotion regulation skills, techniques to support healthier social media use, pain monitoring in neonates, and decision-support tools that recognize emotional bias.

Yet these transformations raise legitimate concerns. Affective computing applications sometimes proceed independently from findings in affective science or a broader consideration of human well-being. For example, some “emotion recognition” products claim to reveal what a customer truly feels from a decontextualized image of their face alone (a capability that affective science has long deemed implausible). Other methods naively incorporate biases that would undermine individuals’ rights or fair access to resources. Even when a product has a strong scientific basis, there can be good reasons to restrict its use due to questionable societal value or concerns that its widespread use could undermine cherished rights.