VR transports users to notorious Venezuelan prison: ‘The world needs to know’; The Washington Post, September 22, 2023

María Luisa Paúl, The Washington Post ; VR transports users to notorious Venezuelan prison: ‘The world needs to know’

"The simulation was created by Voces de la Memoria — voices of memory — a nonprofit that uses technology to advocate for human rights and whose founder, Victor Navarro, was arbitrarily detained in El Helicoide, where he said he was tortured...

Then Navarro went through a virtual reality experience about Anne Frank’s time in the Secret Annex: “I felt like in any moment, the Nazis were going to take me to a concentration camp,” he said. “If I was able to empathize with Anne Frank, someone I don’t know and who lived in another time, maybe others would be able to empathize with what happened in El Helicoide.”.

Shortly after, Voces de la Memoria was born. By combining interviews with former detainees and input from psychologists, the organization put together “a virtual museum of terror designed to generate action,” said Francisco Marquez Lara, a senior adviser to the nonprofit who was detained in El Helicoide in 2016.

“Memory museums and experiences of this kind are usually done after the atrocities are over,” he said. “But we know that time makes people lose a bit of interest and sensitivity, and we don’t want this to keep happening. This tool is an innovation in the fight for human rights that has the potential to reach people wherever they are and immerse them into something that isn’t talked about enough.”"

Book Bans Are Rising Sharply in Public Libraries; The New York Times, September 21, 2023

 Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter, The New York Times ; Book Bans Are Rising Sharply in Public Libraries

"More than two years into a sharp rise in book challenges across the United States, restrictions are increasingly targeting public libraries, where they could affect not only the children’s section but also the books available to everyone in a community.

The shift comes amid a dramatic increase in efforts to remove books from libraries, according to a pair of new reports released this week from the American Library Association and PEN America, a free speech organization.

The A.L.A. found that nearly half the book challenges it tracked between January and August of this year took place in public libraries, up from 16 percent during the same period the year before. The association reported nearly 700 attempts to censor library materials, which targeted more than 1,900 individual titles — more than during the same period in 2022, a year that saw the most titles challenged since the organization began tracking the data.

Most of the challenged books were by or about people of color or L.G.B.T.Q. people.

“A year, a year and a half ago, we were told that these books didn’t belong in school libraries, and if people wanted to read them, they could go to a public library,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the A.L.A.’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Now, we’re seeing those same groups come to public libraries and come after the same books, essentially depriving everyone of the ability to make the choice to read them.”"

‘It’s almost magical’: how robotic pets are helping UK care home residents; The Guardian, September 1, 2023

 Robert Booth, The Guardian; ‘It’s almost magical’: how robotic pets are helping UK care home residents

"It is not the first time care homes have experimented with robots. With mixed results, Japan has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in developing potential devices such as Hug, a lifting robot; Paro, a robotic seal; and Pepper, a “lovable” humanoid robot. In 2021 it was reported that production of Pepper had been halted...

With one in 10 social care jobs vacant, a temptation may be to use the pets to free up pressed staff from spending time with residents. Care workers at Oak Manor, where the pets have been used for a year, said they must not be deployed in the same way some parents pacify children with iPads. Success comes when the pets provide a familiar focus when agitation and anxiety is rising and they encourage socialisation as residents pet them together."

Ariana Grande, Guillermo del Toro, Padma Lakshmi and More Sign Open Letter Denouncing Book Bans and Their “Chilling Effect” (Exclusive); The Hollywood Reporter, September 19, 2023

Abbey White, The Hollywood Reporter; Ariana Grande, Guillermo del Toro, Padma Lakshmi and More Sign Open Letter Denouncing Book Bans and Their “Chilling Effect” (Exclusive)

"The letter encourages signatories and readers to address challenges at the local level across U.S. school districts, while calling out book bans as “restrictive behavior” that is “antithetical to free speech and expression.” It also underscores the “chilling effect” these bans can have “on the broader creative field.”...

“It’s embarrassing that we are banning books in this country, in this culture, in this day and age. And it’s dangerous that a handful of individuals are deciding that any book with Black and queer people is divisive,” said Burton, executive producer of the 2023 documentary The Right to Read. “We are calling on everyone to join us in raising their voices to uphold artistic freedom, embrace multicultural history and put a stop once and for all to book bans.”"

ANALYSIS: Professional Integrity Tops Lawyers’ Ethics Wish List; Bloomberg Law News, September 20, 2023

Melissa Heelan, Bloomberg Law News ; ANALYSIS: Professional Integrity Tops Lawyers’ Ethics Wish List

"Lawyers have undergone some soul-searching in the wake of election fraud cases and the Jan. 6 raid on the US Capitol. So it stands to reason that they chose “maintaining the integrity of the profession” as the legal ethics category most in need of revision, according to a recent Bloomberg Law survey. 

The respondents, both in-house and law firm lawyers, also said that they want to see more guidance on artificial intelligence and technology.

The American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which provide the basis for state ethics rules, are divided into eight categories (in addition to a preamble), each comprised of anywhere between three (Counselor) and 18 (Client-Lawyer Relationship) rules."

Opinion: The world Is a mess. Embracing ethics might be our only hope; The Mercury News, September 19, 2023

 THOMAS G. PLANTE, The Mercury News; Opinion: The world Is a mess. Embracing ethics might be our only hope

"Perhaps our only hope to reverse these disturbing trends is to dramatically embrace better ethical decision making on a massive scale. This is no easy task, and our prognosis for doing so is poor. No one wants to be told what to do and to be criticized for their decisions. In fact, when I was recently shopping an ethics book proposal around to publishers, I was told by one editor that, “No one will read a book on ethics since no one thinks that they have an ethics problem. If anything, people think other people have ethical problems, not them.” Oy!

I believe that there are three critical ethical principles that we should all embrace for our well-being and survival."

Warren County tries to control local library in LGBTQ+ book debate; The Washington Post, September 15, 2023

 Gregory S. Schneider, The Washington Post; Warren County tries to control local library in LGBTQ+ book debate

"Warren County supervisors, under pressure from a group of conservative activists who want to remove LGBTQ+ materials from children’s sections of the library, withheld three-quarters of Samuels’s operating funds from the budget that went into effect July 1. Library leaders tightened parental controls, but the activists’ attacks broadened, until the county proposed a fundamental change in the way the library operates.

If the library cedes greater control to the county over which books stay and go, the budget woes would go away. But the Samuels board of trustees voted 11-1 Thursday to stand their ground, defending their book selection policies as protecting the interests of vulnerable minority groups in the community and fairly representing everyone.

“We don’t want to get sued and we don’t want to discriminate,” Melody Hotek, president of the board of trustees, said earlier in an interview with The Washington Post. “So we’re holding the line.”

The standoff in Front Royal is the first example in Virginia of attacks on books threatening the operation of a public library. Most fights over literature have taken place in school libraries, part of a national movement by conservative activists seeking to ban or restrict access to books they find objectionable. A few other Virginia counties have wrestled with objections to LGBTQ+ or sexually explicit content in public libraries, but none has yet resulted in a battle for funding."

Bizarre AI-generated products are in stores. Here’s how to avoid them.; The Washington Post, September 18, 2023

  Heather Kelly, The Washington Post; Bizarre AI-generated products are in stores. Here’s how to avoid them.

"However, in situations where AI’s involvement is not obvious or desired, a product can be a scam, outright fraud and even dangerous, experts say...

When it comes to books, incorrect information can be dangerous. Amazon recently removed a guide on foraging for mushrooms that some readers claimed was generated by AI and could have given incorrect advice about what mushrooms were edible or poisonous.

“The accuracy problem is real,” said Ravit Dotan, an AI ethics researcher and adviser. “People don’t understand that textual generated AI is not optimized to generate truth. It’s optimized to generate text that’s compelling.”"

Republican candidate for Missouri governor vows to burn books after viral flamethrower video; The Kansas City Star, September 18, 2023

KACEN BAYLESS , The Kansas City Star; Republican candidate for Missouri governor vows to burn books after viral flamethrower video

"Eigel’s remarkable comment promising to burn books comes as he embarks on a campaign for governor attempting to appeal to the staunch right wing of the Missouri Republican Party. Public book burnings typically illustrate extreme censorship related to political, cultural and religious materials. They often invoke historic atrocities such as burning of Jewish texts in Nazi Germany or racist bonfires by the Ku Klux Klan."

Red states quit nation’s oldest library group amid culture war over books; The Washington Post, September 17, 2023

 Hannah Natanson, The Washington Post ; Red states quit nation’s oldest library group amid culture war over books

"The American Library Association is facing a partisan firefight unlike anything in its almost 150-year history."

With self-driving cars, it's the ethics we have to navigate; The Japan Times, September 17, 2023

PETER SINGER, The Japan Times ; With self-driving cars, it's the ethics we have to navigate

"One important but often overlooked ethical issue raised by autonomous vehicles is whether they should be programmed to avoid hitting animals and, if so, which ones...How we should value the lives and interests of all sentient beings is a question that AI ethics needs to address."

America's Top Librarian on the Rise of Book Bans; The Ezra Klein Show, The New York Times, September 12, 2023

The Ezra Klein Show, The New York Times; America's Top Librarian on the Rise of Book Bans

"Public libraries around the country have become major battlegrounds for today’s culture wars. In 2022, the American Library Association noted a record 1,269 attempts at censorship — almost double the number recorded in 2021. Library events like drag story times and other children’s programming have also attracted protest. How should we understand these efforts to control what stories children can freely access?

Emily Drabinski is the president of the American Library Association and an associate professor at the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. She is steering an embattled organization at a moment when libraries — and librarians themselves — are increasingly under fire.

[You can listen to this episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” on the NYT Audio App, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.]

This conversation unpacks the political and cultural anxieties fueling the attacks on libraries. The guest host Tressie McMillan Cottom discusses with Drabinski how libraries are a bulwark against the increasing class divides of American life, how the “small infrastructure” of the public library differs from big infrastructure like highways and bridges, how library classification systems can entrench the status quo, the parallels between political attacks on the library and the U.S. Postal Service, how censorship attempts fit in the broader landscape of anti-queer and anti-trans legislation and much more."

'Empty shelves with absolutely no books': Students, parents question school board's library weeding process; CBC, September 13, 2023

Nicole Brockbank, Angelina King , CBC; 'Empty shelves with absolutely no books': Students, parents question school board's library weeding process

"Weeding books by publication date raises concerns...

Libraries not Landfills, a group of parents, retired teachers and community members says it supports standard weeding, but shares Takata's concerns about both fiction and nonfiction books being removed based solely on their publication date.

The group is also concerned about how subjective criteria like inclusivity will be interpreted from school to school in the later stages of the equity-based weeding process."

Moms for Liberty is winning its fight to remove books from one Maryland school district; The Baltimore Banner, September 13, 2023

Kristen Griffith , The Baltimore Banner; Moms for Liberty is winning its fight to remove books from one Maryland school district

"Carroll County is among a growing number of Maryland school systems seeing pushes to remove books from their libraries as a national movement takes root here. The American Library Association reported in March that 2022 saw the highest number of book challenges since the organization was founded 20 years ago. The 1,269 attempts nearly double the challenges in 2021.

The Maryland Association of School Librarians has supported librarians facing book challenges in Wicomico, Worcester, Calvert, Somerset and Baltimore counties. But Carroll is the only one to change its book selection procedure in response."

In Show of Force, Silicon Valley Titans Pledge ‘Getting This Right’ With A.I.; The New York Times, September 13, 2023

Cecilia Kang, The New York Times ; In Show of Force, Silicon Valley Titans Pledge ‘Getting This Right’ With A.I.

"Elon Musk warned of civilizational risks posed by artificial intelligence. Sundar Pichai of Google highlighted the technology’s potential to solve health and energy problems. And Mark Zuckerberg of Meta stressed the importance of open and transparent A.I. systems.

The tech titans held forth on Wednesday in a three-hour meeting with lawmakers in Washington about A.I. and future regulations. The gathering, known as the A.I. Insight Forum, was part of a crash course for Congress on the technology and organized by the Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York.

The meeting — also attended by Bill Gates, a founder of Microsoft; Sam Altman of OpenAI; Satya Nadella of Microsoft; and Jensen Huang of Nvidia — was a rare congregation of more than a dozen top tech executives in the same room. It amounted to one of the industry’s most proactive shows of force in the nation’s capital as companies race to be at the forefront of A.I. and to be seen to influence its direction."

Transcript: US Senate Judiciary Hearing on Oversight of A.I.; Tech Policy Press, September 13, 2023

Gabby Miller, Tech Policy Press; Transcript: US Senate Judiciary Hearing on Oversight of A.I.

"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is in the spotlight only a week into the U.S. Congress’ return from recess. On Tuesday, the Senate held two AI-focused Subcommittee hearings just a day before the first AI Insight Forum hosted by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY).

Tuesday’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law was led by Chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ranking Member Josh Hawley (R-MO), another of a series of hearings in the committee on how best to govern artificial intelligence. It also corresponded with their formal introduction of a bipartisan bill by Sens. Blumenthal and Hawley that would deny AI companies Section 230 immunity. 

• Woodrow Hartzog, Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law Fellow, Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law, Washington University in St. Louis (written testimony)
• William Dally, Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President of Research, NVIDIA Corporation (written testimony)
• Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft Corporation (written testimony)

(Microsoft’s Smith will also be in attendance for Sen. Schumer’s first AI Insight Forum on Wednesday and NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, will be joining him.)"

What You Need to Know About the Book Bans Sweeping the U.S.; Teachers College, Columbia University, September 6, 2023

Morgan Gilbard , Teachers College, Columbia University; What You Need to Know About the Book Bans Sweeping the U.S.

"What Could Happen Next?

American schools stand at a critical inflection point, and amid this heated debate, Rebell sees civil discourse at school board meetings as a paramount starting point for any sort of resolution. “This mounting crisis can serve as a motivator to bring people together to try to deal with our differences in respectful ways and to see how much common ground can be found on the importance of exposing all of our students to a broad range of ideas and experiences,” says Rebell. “Carve-outs can also be found for allowing parents who feel really strongly that certain content is inconsistent with their religious or other values to exempt their children from certain content without limiting the options for other children.”

But students, families and educators also have the opportunity to speak out, explains Douglass, who expressed concern for how her own daughter is affected by book bans. 

“I’d like to see a groundswell movement to reclaim the nation's commitment to education — to recognize that we're experiencing growing pains and changes in terms of what we stand for; and whether or not we want to live up to the democratic ideal of freedom of speech; different ideas in the marketplace, and a commitment to civics education and political participation,” says Douglass. 

As publishers and librarians file lawsuits to push back, students are also mobilizing to protest bans — from Texas to western New York and elsewhere. But as more local battles unfold, bigger issues remain unsolved. 

“We need to have a conversation as a nation about healing; about being able to confront the past; about receiving an apology and beginning that process of reconciliation,” says Douglass. “Until we tackle that head on, we'll continue to have these types of battles.”"

Jan. 6 shattered her family. Now they’re trying to forgive.; The Washington Post, January 9, 2023

Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, The Washington Post ; Jan. 6 shattered her family. Now they’re trying to forgive.

"After rioters stormed the Capitol, relatives and friends who disagreed with their actions faced a difficult choice: Should they turn their loved ones over to authorities? Could they continue to have relationships with people accused of trying to interfere with the peaceful transition of power?"

How industry experts are navigating the ethics of artificial intelligence; CNN, September 11, 2023

CNN; How industry experts are navigating the ethics of artificial intelligence

"CNN heads to one of the longest-running artificial intelligence conferences in the world, to explore how industry experts and tech companies are trying to develop AI that is fairer and more transparent."

The Supreme Court’s Growing Ethics Splits; The New Republic, September 12, 2023

Matt Ford, The New Republic; The Supreme Court’s Growing Ethics Splits

"A notable split is developing among the Supreme Court justices over the prospect of ethics reform, with two of the court’s nine members openly hostile to the reporting on ethics concerns...

In theory, eight of the justices could collectively decide to strip another justice of their vote in the most extreme circumstances. The Supreme Court took that extraordinary step just once in its history, when the other eight justices secretly agreed in 1975 to punt any case in which Justice William O. Douglas cast a deciding vote to the following term instead of handing down a ruling. Douglas, who was 76 years old at the time, was partially paralyzed by a series of strokes and refused to retire despite—or perhaps because of—his deteriorating mental condition, forcing the court’s hand. (He eventually stepped down that November.) Beyond that exceptional collective step, however, the individual justices have no ability to substantively check one another...

To that end, it’s not clear yet whether these public remarks fully reflect the stances that the justices are taking when talking amongst themselves. (As you may have gathered from a head count of the justices mentioned, not all of them have spoken publicly about it yet.) If this is the way the winds are blowing, however, then Thomas and Alito might find themselves in an uncomfortable position. It would be awkward, to say the least, for the two justices who’ve received the most scrutiny to be the ones most resistant to reform."

Inside Clean Up Alabama’s plan to jail librarians for giving LGBTQ+ books to kids; Alabama Political Reporter, September 7, 2023

 JACOB HOLMES, Alabama Political Reporter; Inside Clean Up Alabama’s plan to jail librarians for giving LGBTQ+ books to kids

"At Tuesday’s council meeting, Prattville residents affiliated with Clean Up Alabama, which began as Clean Up Prattville, pleaded with the council that their solutions were a “common sense” approach to inappropriate materials for minors.

But the local goals are just one part of a three-prong plan that Clean Up Alabama has to push the issue across the state, according to meeting minutes included in an email to subscribers.

The minutes detailed the group’s local goals, as well as its goals with the Alabama Public Library Service, primarily to dissociate from the American Library Association. Gov. Kay Ivey has sent a letter to APLS Director Dr. Nancy Pack expressing concerns that closely follow Clean-Up Alabama’s push over LGBTQ materials in library spaces intended for minors.

But the meeting also included three state legislative goals, which go much further than simply severing any ties with the ALA or asking librarians to move books to an adult section."

13 presidential libraries from Hoover to Obama warn of fragile state of U.S. democracy; Associated Press via PBS, September 7, 2023

 Gary Fields, Associated Press via PBS; 13 presidential libraries from Hoover to Obama warn of fragile state of U.S. democracy

"Concern for U.S. democracy amid deep national polarization has prompted the entities supporting 13 presidential libraries dating back to Herbert Hoover to call for a recommitment to the country’s bedrock principles, including the rule of law and respecting a diversity of beliefs.

The statement released Thursday, the first time the libraries have joined to make such a public declaration, said Americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and human rights around the world because “free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home.”

“But that interest,” it said, “is undermined when others see our own house in disarray.”

The joint message from presidential centers, foundations and institutes emphasized the need for compassion, tolerance and pluralism while urging Americans to respect democratic institutions and uphold secure and accessible elections."

Justice Kavanaugh says ethics changes may be coming to Supreme Court; The Washington Post, September 7, 2023

Robert Barnes, The Washington Post ; Justice Kavanaugh says ethics changes may be coming to Supreme Court

"Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said Thursday that he is “hopeful” the Supreme Court soon will take specific steps to deal with ethics issues at the court and boost public confidence in the institution.

Kavanaugh made the comments while speaking at a conference of judges and lawyers, after he was asked by Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit about “perceived ethics issues” at the high court."

DeSantis names Moms for Liberty co-founder to Florida ethics panel; Politico, September 6, 2023

 ANDREW ATTERBURY, Politico; DeSantis names Moms for Liberty co-founder to Florida ethics panel

"Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday appointed Tina Descovich, a co-founder of the conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty, to the Florida Commission on Ethics.

The move gives the Republican governor a staunch GOP ally on the panel responsible for weighing complaints against public officials in the state, which recently saw one remember resign after a conflict-of-interest violation. Aside from organizing the growing — and maligned — parental advocacy group, Descovich is a former school board member and runs a Florida political committee that helped some conservatives win local education elections in 2022."

Book ban push fuels library exodus from national association that stands up for books; Associated Press via ABC News, September 5, 2023

 MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press via ABC News ; Book ban push fuels library exodus from national association that stands up for books

"Kleinman last month launched an alternative to the ALA, the World Library Association, which he said will offer new policy guidelines for libraries.

“We’re going to return things to commonplace, community standards,” Kleinman said.

Butler and Campbell County Library Board Chairwoman Sage Bear, who did not return phone and email messages seeking comment, have joined as “team members” of the World Library Association. Butler said he hoped the new association will eventually offer librarian continuing education that Campbell County can no longer provide through the ALA.

So far, state library associations — private, professional organizations that resemble the American Library Association, but on a state level — are sticking with the American Library Association. Wyoming librarians don’t always see eye-to-eye with the ALA but the Wyoming Library Association has no plans to cut ties, President Conrrado Saldivar said."

USM tapped to develop ethics training in age of artificial intelligence; Portland Press Herald, September 5, 2023

LANA COHEN, Portland Press Herald; USM tapped to develop ethics training in age of artificial intelligence

"Thompson and other researchers at the Portland-based regulatory training and ethics center hope to better understand what is behind individuals’ tendencies to cut corners ethically and use that information to create training programs for businesses, nonprofits and colleges – including those in the UMaine System – that could help prevent cheating or other unethical conduct in research."

As Clarence Thomas faces record unpopularity, Americans want an ethics code for the Supreme Court; CNN, September 3, 2023

 Harry Enten, CNN; As Clarence Thomas faces record unpopularity, Americans want an ethics code for the Supreme Court

"But there is no significant partisan gap when it comes to whether there should be a formal ethics code for the high court justices.

A UMass Amherst poll conducted a few months ago (after Thomas’ trips financed by Crow first came to light) asked whether the Supreme Court should have a formal code of ethics like other federal courts.

About 90% of Americans said it should. Only about 10% said it should not...

In fact, north of 80% of every subgroup polled in the UMass survey said that the Supreme Court should have a formal ethics code. This includes 96% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans."

The big idea: how can we live ethically in a world in crisis?; The Guardian, September 4, 2023

 William MacAskill, The Guardian; The big idea: how can we live ethically in a world in crisis?

"Over the last 14 years, I’ve helped to develop and promote an idea called effective altruism – the use of evidence and reason to figure out how to do as much good as possible. A movement of people has emerged who take this idea seriously and act on it...

Unfortunately, the emergency scenario we live in will not end soon. Most likely, it will persist as long as you or I are alive. For that reason, acting ethically means looking after yourself, too. My grandmother worked at Bletchley Park during the second world war, where Alan Turing famously cracked the Enigma code. She worked extremely hard, and had a nervous breakdown as a result. But as a child I remember her describing, with some fondness, how they would dance in the evenings. She was right to dance.

If we want to improve the world, we cannot focus merely on how bad things are. Our attention, instead, should be on what we can do to make things better."

Clarence Thomas Acknowledges Undisclosed Real Estate Deal With Harlan Crow and Discloses Private Jet Flights; ProPublica, August 31, 2023

 Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica; Clarence Thomas Acknowledges Undisclosed Real Estate Deal With Harlan Crow and Discloses Private Jet Flights

"Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for the first time acknowledged that he should have reported selling real estate to billionaire political donor Harlan Crow in 2014, a transaction revealed by ProPublica earlier this year. Writing in his annual financial disclosure form, Thomas said that he “inadvertently failed to realize” that the deal needed to be publicly disclosed...

In a statement Thursday, an attorney for Thomas, Elliot Berke, said that “after reviewing Justice Thomas’s records, I am confident there has been no willful ethics transgression, and any prior reporting errors were strictly inadvertent.”"

Here’s my AI policy for students: I don’t have one; The Washington Post, August 29, 2023

Jonathan Zimmerman , The Washington Post; Here’s my AI policy for students: I don’t have one

"Most of all, I want you to decide what is real."

Copyright Office Issues Notice of Inquiry on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence; U.S. Copyright Office, August 30, 2023

 U.S. Copyright Office ; Copyright Office Issues Notice of Inquiry on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence

"Today, the U.S. Copyright Office issued a notice of inquiry (NOI) in the Federal Register on copyright and artificial intelligence (AI). The Office is undertaking a study of the copyright law and policy issues raised by generative AI and is assessing whether legislative or regulatory steps are warranted. The Office will use the record it assembles to advise Congress; inform its regulatory work; and offer information and resources to the public, courts, and other government entities considering these issues.

The NOI seeks factual information and views on a number of copyright issues raised by recent advances in generative AI. These issues include the use of copyrighted works to train AI models, the appropriate levels of transparency and disclosure with respect to the use of copyrighted works, the legal status of AI-generated outputs, and the appropriate treatment of AI-generated outputs that mimic personal attributes of human artists.

The NOI is an integral next step for the Office’s AI initiative, which was launched in early 2023. So far this year, the Office has held four public listening sessions and two webinars. This NOI builds on the feedback and questions the Office has received so far and seeks public input from the broadest audience to date in the initiative.

“We launched this initiative at the beginning of the year to focus on the increasingly complex issues raised by generative AI. This NOI and the public comments we will receive represent a critical next step,” said Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office. “We look forward to continuing to examine these issues of vital importance to the evolution of technology and the future of human creativity.”

Initial written comments are due by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday, October 18, 2023. Reply comments are due by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday, November 15, 2023. Instructions for submitting comments are available on the Office’s website. Commenters may choose which and how many questions to respond to in the NOI.

For more general information about the Copyright Office’s AI initiative, please visit our website."

Rural Washington library could be nation’s first to dissolve after book challenges, reshelving requests; OPB, August 26, 2023

 OPB, Courtney Flatt; Rural Washington library could be nation’s first to dissolve after book challenges, reshelving requests

"Librarians say this would be the first library in the country to dissolve following a book challenge, although many other libraries and school districts across the country and the Northwest have faced similar challenges."

Armed with traffic cones, protesters are immobilizing driverless cars; NPR, August 26, 2023

 Dara Kerr, NPR; Armed with traffic cones, protesters are immobilizing driverless cars

"An anonymous activist group called Safe Street Rebel is responsible for this so-called coning incident and dozens of others over the past few months. The group's goal is to incapacitate the driverless cars roaming San Francisco's streets as a protest against the city being used as a testing ground for this emerging technology."

Naomi Klein on following her ‘doppelganger’ down the conspiracy rabbit hole – and why millions of people have entered an alternative political reality; The Guardian, August 26, 2023

 Naomi Klein, The Guardian; Naomi Klein on following her ‘doppelganger’ down the conspiracy rabbit hole – and why millions of people have entered an alternative political reality

"This is a twist on the disaster capitalism I have tracked in the midst of earlier large-scale societal shocks. In the past, I have written about the private companies that descend to profit off the desperate needs and fears in the aftermath of hurricanes and wars, selling men with guns and reconstruction services at a high premium. That is old-school disaster capitalism picking our pockets, and it is still alive and thriving, taking aim at public schools and national health systems as the pandemic raged. But something new is also afoot: disaster capitalism mining our attention, at a time when attention is arguably our culture’s most valuable commodity. Conspiracies have always swirled in times of crisis – but never before have they been a booming industry in their own right...

Almost everyone I talk to these days seems to be losing people to the Mirror World and its web of conspiracies. It’s as if those people live in a funhouse of distorted reflections and disorienting reversals. People who were familiar have somehow become alien, like a doppelganger of themselves, leaving us with that unsettled, uncanny feeling. The big misinformation players may be chasing clout, but plenty of people believe their terrifying stories. Clearly, conspiracy culture is fueled by deep and unmet needs – for community, for innocence, for inside knowledge, for answers that appear, however deceptively, to explain a world gone wild.

“I can’t talk to my sister any more.” “My mother has gone down the rabbit hole.” “I am trying to figure out how to get my grandmother off Facebook.” “He used to be my hero. Now every conversation ends in a screaming match.”

What happened to them?

When looking at the Mirror World, it can seem obvious that millions of people have given themselves over to fantasy, to make-believe, to playacting. The trickier thing, the uncanny thing, really, is that’s what they see when they look at us. They say we live in a “clown world”, are stuck in “the matrix” of “groupthink”, are suffering from a form of collective hysteria called “mass formation psychosis” (a made-up term). The point is that on either side of the reflective glass, we are not having disagreements about differing interpretations of reality – we are having disagreements about who is in reality and who is in a simulation."

Two Justices Clash on Congress’s Power Over Supreme Court Ethics; The New York Times, August 26, 2023

Adam Liptak , The New York Times; Two Justices Clash on Congress’s Power Over Supreme Court Ethics

"Congress has enacted laws that apply to the justices, including ones on financial disclosures and recusal. In a way, the most telling ethics legislation came from the first Congress, in 1789, requiring all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, to take an oath promising “that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me.""