Clearly Florida schoolchildren should learn about sex by trial and error, like their grandparents did.

https://www.bespacific.com/major-win-in-fight-against-dictionary-yanking-school-district/

‘Major Win’ in Fight Against Dictionary-Yanking School District

Newser: Federal judge allows lawsuit against Florida’s Escambia County School District to proceed – “A Florida school district is keeping students from accessing dictionaries which, in defining sex and other concepts, are considered to violate the state law prohibiting materials in schools that depict or describe sexual conduct, per the Messenger. Escambia County School District has pulled more than 1,600 books from school libraries while reviewing whether they violate state law HB 1069. At least five dictionaries—the American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary for Students, Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary, the Clear and Simple Thesaurus Dictionary, and the Dictionary of Costume—have been removed, according to a list shared by PEN America, which sued the district last May, alleging violations of the First and 14th amendments.” [h/t Pete Weiss ]

See also Florida law led school district to pull 1,600 books — including dictionaries [read free]: “…A Post analysis showed that books with LGBTQ characters or protagonists of color were most likely to be challenged nationwide — and that the wave of challenges came from a small handful of highly active adults. Half of challenged books return to schools. LGBTQ books are banned most. Just 11 people were responsible for more than 60 percent of schoolbook challenges filed nationwide in the 2021-2022 school year, The Post found. Almost half of challenged book are eventually returned to shelves, The Post found, although LGBTQ books are most likely to be banned.”

Is this the year we get a federal privacy law? (nah)

https://www.pogowasright.org/new-hampshire-legislature-passes-a-comprehensive-privacy-law/

New Hampshire Legislature Passes a Comprehensive Privacy Law, While NJ Bill Goes to the Governor’s Desk for Signature

Ali Jessani, Kirk Nahra, and Genesis Ruano of Wilmer Hale write:

On January 4, 2023, the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 255 (the “Act”) with amendments, setting the stage for New Hampshire to become the latest state with a comprehensive privacy law. The Act will now move on to the House and awaits Senate concurrence (the Senate already has passed a mostly similar version, so concurrence is expected). Assuming the Senate passes the latest version of the bill, it will then move to the New Hampshire Governor’s desk for signature. If enacted, the new privacy law would go into effect on January 1, 2025.

Assuming the Act makes it through the remaining legislative process, New Hampshire will become the first state in 2024 to pass “comprehensive” privacy legislation (joining California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia), though there is a chance that New Jersey beats it to the punch. Overall, the bill does not impose any new obligations on businesses that did not previously exist under other laws. Additionally, and like most of the other state laws, the Act is only enforceable by the state attorney general and provides a discretionary 60-day cure period for compliance violations. Despite its similarities to other laws, the Act adds to the complexity of the state privacy law landscape and demonstrates the need for companies to continuously reevaluate their privacy compliance programs to ensure compliance across rapidly evolving state laws.

In this post, we highlight key takeaways and provisions from the Act.

Read more at JDSupra.

In related news, “The New Jersey Senate and Assembly passed consumer privacy bill S332/A1971. The bill now goes to Governor Phil Murphy for his signature. If signed, the law will become the 13th state to pass a broadly applicable privacy bill.” Read more by Mark Brennan, Sophie Baum, and Harsimar Dhanoa at Hogan Lovells.

Not sure I agree with this approach. Is there any public review? Can a teen find information if he thinks a friend might be suicidal?

https://www.pogowasright.org/facebook-instagram-block-teens-from-sensitive-content-even-from-friends/

Facebook, Instagram block teens from sensitive content, even from friends

Ashley Belanger reports:

Meta has begun hiding sensitive content from teenagers under the age of 18 on Facebook and Instagram, a company blog announced on Tuesday.

Starting now, Meta will begin removing content from feeds and Stories about sensitive topics that have been flagged as harmful to teens by experts in adolescent development, psychology, and mental health. That includes content about self-harm, suicide, and eating disorders, as well as content discussing restricted goods or featuring nudity.

Read more at Ars Technica.

Are we likely to become too lazy to do any meaningful work?

https://teachprivacy.com/cartoon-ai-in-education/

Cartoon – AI in Education

Interesting, but this has been possible since a significant percentage of the population took up cell phones.

https://www.bespacific.com/jan-6-was-an-example-of-networked-incitement/

Jan. 6 was an example of networked incitement

Via LLRX – Jan. 6 was an example of networked incitement. The shocking events of Jan. 6, 2021, signaled a major break from the nonviolent rallies that categorized most major protests over the past few decades. What set Jan. 6 apart was the president of the United States using his cellphone to direct an attack on the Capitol, and those who stormed the Capitol being wired and ready for insurrection. Joan Donovan and her co-authors, a media and disinformation scholar, call this networked incitement: influential figures inciting large-scale political violence via social media. Networked incitement involves insurgents communicating across multiple platforms to command and coordinate mobilized social movements in the moment of action.

Nothing new. Intelligence gatherers have always gone where the data is. (Imagine hackers searching a neighborhood for someone who left a garage door open.)

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/russian-agents-hacking-residential-surveillance-cameras-to-gather-intel-in-ukraine/

Russian Agents Hacking Residential Surveillance Cameras to Gather Intel in Ukraine

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) is asking the public to cut off live feeds of residential and business surveillance cameras, as Russian hackers have been actively exploiting them as a means of scouting areas that their military intends to attack.

The hackers have reportedly accessed cameras in apartment buildings and parking facilities, and are most interested in those that are near critical infrastructure or air defense systems and can have their viewing angles changed remotely. The agency reports two recent compromises of surveillance cameras in Kyiv ahead of missile attacks on a nearby critical infrastructure facility.

This year’s biggest use for AI?

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/10/wef-ai-election-disruption-poses-the-biggest-global-risk-in-2024.html

Election disruption from AI poses the biggest global risk in 2024, Davos survey warns

As around half of the world’s adult population heads to the polls in a bumper year of elections, concern over the role of artificial intelligence in disrupting outcomes has topped the list of the biggest risks for 2024, according to a new report.

The World Economic Forum’s “Global Risks Report 2024,” released Wednesday, ranked AI-derived misinformation and disinformation — and its implications for societal polarization — ahead of climate change, war and economic weakness in its top 10 risks over the next two years.

Deepfake: It’s not just for elections!

https://www.404media.co/joe-rogan-taylor-swift-andrew-tate-ai-deepfake-youtube-medicare-ads/

Deepfaked Celebrity Ads Promoting Medicare Scams Run Rampant on YouTube

Shoddy AI clones of celebrities including Joe Rogan, Taylor Swift, Steve Harvey, Ice Cube, Andrew Tate, Oprah, and The Rock are hawking Medicare and Medicaid scams to millions of people on YouTube with seemingly little intervention from Google. Ads connected to this scam have been viewed more than 195 million times on YouTube according to a playlist of more than 1,600 videos compiled by a tipster who shared them with 404 Media.

A very common message, sent to a new industry…

https://www.lawnext.com/2024/01/thomson-reuters-message-to-law-firms-adapt-to-market-changes-or-become-the-pan-am-of-legal.html

Thomson Reuters’ Message to Law Firms: Adapt to Market Changes or Become the Pan Am of Legal

Remember Pan Am? It was the world’s largest international airline for much of the 20th century and an innovative pioneer in the modern airline industry. But when its management failed to appreciate the dramatic changes underway in the industry, it suffered a series of economic blows, and management’s last-ditch efforts to save it came too late.

The Thomson Reuters Institute, in its 2024 Report on the State of the US Legal Market, released today in partnership with the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law (whose URL returns a page not found), uses Pan Am’s story to drive home a simple point for U.S. law firms: Innovate or die.

“Law firm leaders who fail to respond to [changes in the legal market] and pivot quickly enough to prepare for the future may see their firms destined for the same fate as Pan Am,” the report warns.

And perhaps some tips on avoiding bogus citations?

https://www.bespacific.com/generative-ai-and-finding-the-law/

Generative AI and Finding the Law

Callister, Paul D., Generative AI and Finding the Law (December 8, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4608268 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4608268 – “Legal information science requires, among other things, principles and theories. The article states five principles or considerations that any discussion of generative AI large language models and their role in finding the law must include. The article concludes that law librarianship will increasingly become legal information science and require new paradigms. In addition to the five principles, the article applies ecological holistic media theory to understand the relationship of the legal community’s cognitive authority, institutions, techné (technology, medium and method), geopolitical factors, and the past and future to understand the changes in this information milieu. The article also explains generative AI, and finally, presents some examples of generative AI responses to various legal research problems and the issues that present themselves in such circumstances.”

Another way to shout “fire!” in a crowded theater. (How does reporting that the government made 3,456 requests impact any investigation?)

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-rejects-x-corps-surveillance-disclosure-challenge-2024-01-08/

US Supreme Court rejects X Corp's surveillance disclosure challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Elon Musk's X Corp to consider whether the social media company, formerly called Twitter, can publicly disclose how often federal law enforcement seeks information about users for national security investigations.

The justices declined to hear X's appeal of a lower court's ruling holding that the FBI's restrictions on what the company could say publicly about the investigations did not violate its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

Perhaps a bit too soon?

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/8/24027112/volkswagen-chatgpt-openai-voice-assistant-cars-ces

Volkswagen says it’s putting ChatGPT in its cars for ‘enriching conversations’

Get ready for some very spurious navigation directions.

… VW is using ChatGPT to augment its IDA in-car voice assistant to enable more naturalistic communication between car and driver. Vehicle owners can use the new super-powered voice assistant to control basic functions, like heating and air conditioning, or to answer “general knowledge questions.” (Though, given ChatGPT’s penchant for occasionally making stuff up, user discretion is advised.)

Disinformation has complex rules… Is following the law always right?

https://www.ft.com/content/0b33b19f-6ded-4458-be0b-b335cdf31f17

EU urges Big Tech to promote opposition media in Belarus

The European Commission is urging Google and other big technology companies to help dissident Belarusian media by promoting their stories higher than those published by pro-regime outlets, which opposition journalists argue are favoured by search algorithms.

Belarusian journalists in exile have complained to the commission that content critical of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko is failing to reach target audiences, in part because of search algorithms used by Google, Meta and others, which they claim wrongfully take into account Lukashenko’s media censorship rules.

Tip of the iceberg?

https://www.ft.com/content/38ab8068-9f09-4104-859d-111aa1dc47ad

Deloitte rolls out artificial intelligence chatbot to employees

Deloitte is rolling out a generative artificial intelligence chatbot to 75,000 employees across Europe and the Middle East to create power point presentations and write emails and code in an attempt to boost productivity.

The Big Four accounting and consulting firm first launched the internal tool, called “PairD”, in the UK in October, in the latest sign of professional services firms rushing to adopt AI.

However, in a sign that the fledgling technology remains a work in progress, staff were cautioned that the new tool may produce inaccurate information about people, places and facts.

Users have been told to perform their own due diligence and quality assurance to validate the “accuracy and completeness” of the chatbot’s output before using it for work, said a person familiar with the matter.

… Big Four rival PwC is using AI chatbots in its legal and tax divisions to speed up the work of its employees by summarising large documents and identifying compliance issues. Law firm Allen & Overy has also created an AI contract negotiation tool that drafts new agreements that lawyers can then amend or accept.

MIT webinars…

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/video/preparing-your-organization-for-a-generative-future/

Preparing Your Organization for a Generative Future

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/video/finding-transformation-opportunities-with-generative-ai/

Finding Transformation Opportunities with Generative AI

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/video/generative-ai-demystified-what-it-really-means-for-business/

Generative AI Demystified: What It Really Means for Business

Are we unsure there is a relationship?

https://www.humanamente.eu/index.php/HM/article/view/435

The Possible Relationship Between Law and Ethics in the Context of Artificial Intelligence Regulation

The latest academic discussion has focused on the potential and risks associated with technological systems. In this perspective, defining a set of legal rules could be the priority but this action appears extremely difficult at the European level and, therefore, in the last years, a set of ethical principles contained in many different documents has been published. The need to develop trustworthy and human-centric AI technologies is accomplished by creating these two types of rule sets: legal and ethical. The paper aims to critically analyse and compare these rule sets in order to understand their possible relationships in the regulation of legal problems, not only theoretically but also, where present, in some practical applications of AI, such as self-driving cars, smart toys, smart contracts and legal design. Indeed, the purpose is to identify how legal rules and ethical principles can interact for adequate regulation of AI, with particular regard to the fields of application that will be analysed.

Looks like there are some benefits.

https://cajmhe.com/index.php/journal/article/view/271

ADVANTAGES AND DRAWBACKS OF CHATGPT IN THE CONTEXT OF DRAFTING SCHOLARLY ARTICLES

Incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly ChatGPT, in academic endeavors has attracted significant interest due to its ability to optimize procedures and enhance human capacities. ChatGPT serves as an informed partner, assisting researchers in doing literature reviews, generating ideas, and even composing scholarly articles. Nevertheless, this revolutionary technology gives rise to ethical considerations in scientific investigation, namely authorship, information-data privacy, and bias. The article thoroughly examines the advantages and disadvantages of using ChatGPT for academic purposes. The benefits are seen in its effectiveness in retrieving information, surpassing language obstacles, boosting the synthesis of literature, easing the production of ideas, and assisting in the outlining of manuscripts. On the other hand, the complicated nature of using ChatGPT in scholarly activities is emphasized by worries about scientific integrity, the possibility of spreading disinformation, excessive dependence, and security and privacy issues. Finding a middle ground between utilizing the advantages of ChatGPT and maintaining academic integrity is crucial. Analyzing the dynamics will be crucial in navigating the changing junction of AI and research activities.

Resource.

https://www.databreaches.net/resources-breach-notification-laws-us-and-gdpr/

Resources: Breach notification laws: US and GDPR

The law firm of BakerHostetler has recently released several free resources of note:

• EU GDPR Data Breach Notification Interactive Map

• State Data Breach Notification Law Interactive Map

• PDF Version of State Data Breach Notification Laws

They have also released their annual Data Security Incident Response Report for 2023.

Does this help define “cyber war?”

https://www.databreaches.net/merck-settles-coverage-dispute-with-insurers-over-war-exclusion-in-notpetya-attack/

Merck Settles Coverage Dispute With Insurers Over War Exclusion in NotPetya Attack

Insurance Journal reports:

Merck & Co. Inc. has reportedly reached a deal with insurers over a closely-watched coverage dispute related to a massive cyberattack in 2017.

The New Jersey Supreme Court in July 2023 agreed to hear the case after a state appeals court ruled months prior against eight insurers, finding that a hostile/warlike action exclusion in an all risks property insurance policy did not apply to a Russian-linked cyberattack known as “NotPetya” on the pharmaceutical firm.

More than 30 insurers were involved in the case at the start, but many have since resolved their claims with Merck. Eight insurers that remained in the case included Ace American, Allianz, Liberty Mutual, QBE, XL and Lloyd’s syndicates. Merck’s property insurance program included the “all risks” property policies in a three-layer structure, with $1.75 billion in total limits above a $150 million deductible. The remaining eight insurers’ policies insured percentages of coverage in one, two or all three of the layers. In total, they disputed about $700 million in coverage or just under 40% of Merck’s total coverage for the policy period.

Read more at Insurance Journal. The case is Merck Co., Inc. v. ACE Am. Ins. Co., N.J., No. A-62/63-22, case settled 1/3/24.

Perspective.

https://the-decoder.com/a-survey-of-2778-researchers-shows-how-fragmented-the-ai-science-community-is/

A survey of 2,778 researchers shows how fragmented the AI science community is

The "2023 Expert Survey on Progress in AI" shows that the scientific community has no consensus on the risks and opportunities of AI, but everything is moving faster than once thought.

Even Issac Asimov considered the three laws as incomplete. He added a fourth law in “Robots and Empire.” “A robot cannot cause harm to mankind or, by inaction, allow mankind to come to harm.”

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/4/24025535/google-ai-robot-constitution-autort-deepmind-three-laws

Google wrote a ‘Robot Constitution’ to make sure its new AI droids won’t kill us

The data gathering system AutoRT applies safety guardrails inspired by Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.

(Related) Thinking about AI…

https://cosmosinstitute.substack.com/p/existential-pessimism-vs-accelerationism

Existential Pessimism vs. Accelerationism: Why Tech Needs a Rational, Humanistic "Third Way"

… As technologists, we should feel a sense of urgency at this moment. AI has opened a new continent, and humanity is setting foot on its shores. How we explore this unmapped terrain with its opportunities and dangers will shape the course of civilization.

A Mean Between Two Extremes

Two notions of technology currently dominate our culture: existential pessimism and accelerationism. I’ll argue that neither presents a genuinely positive vision for humanity's future.

Existential pessimism, an apocalyptic, almost eschatological warning of risk, animated by quantification, dominates many practitioner circles. Like Oppenheimer, some of AI’s earliest creators now denounce their creation in hubristic awe of their own power. They advocate for the rationalist remaking of society based on risk avoidance.

On the other hand, accelerationism argues that economic growth and technological progress are the sole ends of human life. Humanity is reduced to a variable in a thermodynamic equation, a link in an evolutionary chain. The dignity of the individual, rooted in both classical ideas of virtue and liberal notions of freedom, is forgotten. They say we must liberate AI from human guidance. That we must unleash its development. Material uplift becomes a shallow substitute for virtue and human flourishing.

Always amusing.

https://www.bespacific.com/disqualification-of-a-candidate-for-the-presidency-part-ii/

Disqualification of a Candidate for the Presidency, Part II

CRS Legal Sidebar, December 28, 2023: Disqualification of a Candidate for the Presidency, Part II: Examining Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment as It Applies to Ballot Access: “Numerous lawsuits across the country have sought or are seeking to prevent former President Donald Trump from appearing on state ballots for the upcoming presidential elections. In particular, these suits, filed in both state and federal courts, are requesting that various secretaries of state exclude the former President from the states’ ballots for the upcoming presidential primary and general elections. Plaintiffs allege that Trump’s efforts to impede the congressional certification of the 2020 electoral college vote by, among other things, urging his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, amount to “engag[ing] in insurrection” within the meaning of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Plaintiffs contend that the former President is therefore disqualified as a candidate for the presidency. Many of the lawsuits challenging Trump’s ability to be placed on state ballots have been dismissed by courts on jurisdictional grounds without reaching the merits of the constitutional claims. On December 19, 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court became the first court to hold that former President Trump is ineligible to appear on the ballot because he is constitutionally disqualified from holding the office of the President, and the court directed the Colorado secretary of state to exclude the former President’s name from the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot. That decision has been stayed until January 4, potentially enabling Trump the opportunity to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court before it goes into effect. (As of the date of this Sidebar, the Colorado Republican State Central Committee has reportedly filed a petition of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the state court ruling.)..”

(Related)

https://www.bespacific.com/tracking-section-3-trump-disqualification-challenges/

Tracking Section 3 Trump Disqualification Challenges

Lawfaremedia.org: “Almost immediately after Jan. 6, 2021, legal commentators began debating whether Section 3 of the 14th Amendment could be used to disqualify former President Donald Trump from running in the 2024 presidential election. They discussed, in particular, whether or not Section 3 applies to a former president, whether it is self-executing, and whether Jan. 6 could be considered an insurrection or rebellion. Since then, the issue has become less abstract, though no less contentious. In February 2021, the U.S. Senate acquitted Trump of an impeachment article for inciting insurrection, but with a bipartisan majority of the Senate voting to convict. Section 3 challenges have been mounted against several legislators, and one state-level county commissioner who participated in the attack was successfully ousted from his post under that provision. At the end of 2022, the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol made the argument that Trump did inspire an insurrection, referring him to the Justice Department for prosecution under multiple criminal statutes, including one prohibiting insurrection. The Special Counsel’s Office has since brought a criminal case in Washington, D.C. charging Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack. And some prominent legal conservatives have made the case for a strong, originalist reading of Section 3 that they argue would apply to Trump, immediately disqualifying him from office. Beginning in winter 2023, voters and advocacy groups have brought Section 3 challenges in courts across the country, attempting to block Trump’s name from appearing on ballots for state primaries and caucuses before the general election begins. On Dec. 19, the Colorado Supreme Court became the first in the nation to rule that Trump is disqualified under Section 3 and cannot be listed as a candidate on the state’s primary ballot. Petitions for certiorari are currently pending in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. This page is intended to track which states have active Section 3 litigation to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot. At the bottom is a selected reading of Lawfare‘s coverage on the issue. Note that the procedural posture and legal theories behind these challenges vary greatly, and a dismissal in any particular action does not necessarily bar other challenges from being brought in that same state.”

See also Vox: “The Supreme Court arguments for (and against) removing Trump from the ballot, explained. The Constitution has a right to defend itself, but Trump also has a right to due process.”

Politicians don’t have the ‘excuse’ that they hallucinate.

https://www.ft.com/content/5da52770-b474-4547-8d1b-9c46a3c3bac9

Forget technology — politicians pose the gravest misinformation threat

… Most recently, Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned of how “AI-created hyper-realistic bots will make the spread of disinformation easier and the manipulation of media for use in deepfake campaigns will likely become more advanced”. This is similar to warnings from many other public authorities, which ignore the misinformation from the most senior levels of domestic politics. In the US, the Washington Post stopped counting after documenting at least 30,573 false or misleading claims made by Donald Trump as president. In the UK, the non-profit FullFact has reported that as many as 50 MPs — including two prime ministers, cabinet ministers and shadow cabinet ministers — failed to correct false, unevidenced or misleading claims in 2022 alone, despite repeated calls to do so.

It’s an idea. Is it good or bad? Ask the psychbot?

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2024/01/02/rise-of-the-ai-psychbots-00133487

Rise of the AI psychbots

… The story of psychologist Martin Seligman and his AI counterpart “Ask Martin” forces us to think hard about some questions that current tech policy is ill-suited to handle, such as what part of ourselves we “own,” how the law diverges from our own instinctive sense of justice — and also, what digital version of us may survive into the future, whether or not we want it to.

The story published late last week in POLITICO Magazine and has already sparked conversations online among researchers, AI ethicists and copyright experts.

Here’s an excerpt:

Martin Seligman, the influential American psychologist, found himself pondering his legacy at a dinner party in San Francisco one late February evening. The guest list was shorter than it used to be: Seligman is 81, and six of his colleagues had died in the early COVID years. His thinking had already left a profound mark on the field of positive psychology, but the closer he came to his own death, the more compelled he felt to help his work survive.

The next morning he received an unexpected email from an old graduate student, Yukun Zhao. His message was as simple as it was astonishing: Zhao’s team had created a “virtual Seligman.”

Zhao wasn’t just bragging. Over two months, by feeding every word Seligman had ever written into cutting-edge AI software, he and his team had built an eerily accurate version of Seligman himself — a talking chatbot whose answers drew deeply from Seligman’s ideas, whose prose sounded like a folksier version of Seligman’s own speech and whose wisdom anyone could access.

Tools & Techniques. How should we slice up an industry? An AI guide might be worth developing…

https://www.neowin.net/news/ai-powered-microsoft-word-add-on-for-lawyers-raises-26-million-in-new-funding/

AI-powered Microsoft Word add-on for lawyers raises $26 million in new funding

… The company has developed a Microsoft Word add-on that uses generative AI to automate and speed up the process of drafting and negotiating contracts. It can also be used for pulling out key information from contract repositories using a search feature.

… If you are interested in trying out the software, Robin AI says you can find it for free by heading to its website.

Interesting in many ways. Is this China being subtle?

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/tiktok-editorial-analysis.html

TikTok Editorial Analysis

TikTok seems to be skewing things in the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. (This is a serious analysis, and the methodology looks sound.)

Conclusion: Substantial Differences in Hashtag Ratios Raise Concerns about TikTok’s Impartiality

Given the research above, we assess a strong possibility that content on TikTok is either amplified or suppressed based on its alignment with the interests of the Chinese Government. Future research should aim towards a more comprehensive analysis to determine the potential influence of TikTok on popular public narratives. This research should determine if and how TikTok might be utilized for furthering national/regional or international objectives of the Chinese Government.

A summary…

https://www.deweybstrategic.com/2023/12/standing-on-the-threshold-of-change-2023-in-review-a-somewhat-irreverent-review-of-the-ai-hysteria-that-swept-through-the-legal-industry.html

Standing on the threshold of change: 2023 in review (A somewhat irreverent review of the AI hysteria That Swept Through the Legal Industry)

I have lived through legal technology revolutions before. The conversion of legal research from print to online moved though law firms like slow rolling train. Lexis, the first commercial online legal research product launched in 1970. Many firms did not fully embrace online research and abandon print until the pandemic drove the profession to remote work, nearly 50 years later. Analytics in legal research provided dramatic new insights into the behavior of judges, courts, attorneys and clients. It took less than ten years following the launch of Lex Machina in 2013 for legal analytics to move from esoteric to essential. The promise of, if not the practice with Generative AI swept like a wildfire through the legal information market. When ChatGPT launched it took only five days to reach a million users and by January 2023 (2 months later) it had a 100 million users. Enter the “hype cycle.”

Probably not the best predictor of AI law…

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/can-driverless-cars-get-tickets-california-law-rcna131538

Driverless cars immune from traffic tickets in California under current laws

… “It seems like while they make fewer of the kind of mistakes that we see from human drivers, they make interesting new kinds of mistakes,” Raicu said. “It has the feel of a human subject mass experiment, right? Without the kind of consent that we usually want to see as part of that.”

… But NBC Bay Area has learned that when driverless cars break the rules of the road, there’s not much law enforcement can do. In California, traffic tickets can be written only if there is an actual driver in the car.

… Texas, which rivals California as another popular testing ground for autonomous vehicles, changed its transportation laws in 2017 to adapt to the emerging technology. According to the Texas Transportation Code, the owner of a driverless car is “considered the operator” and can be cited for breaking traffic laws “regardless of whether the person is physically present in the vehicle.”

Arizona, another busy site for autonomous vehicles, took similar steps. In revising its traffic laws, Arizona declared the owner of an autonomous vehicle “may be issued a traffic citation or other applicable penalty if the vehicle fails to comply with traffic or motor vehicle laws.”