Alex Jones’ personal assets will be sold to help pay Sandy Hook debt as judge decides Infowars’ fate; AP, June 14, 2024

DAVE COLLINS AND JUAN A. LOZANO, AP; Alex Jones’ personal assets will be sold to help pay Sandy Hook debt as judge decides Infowars’ fate

"A federal judge on Friday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ′ personal assets but was still deciding on his company’s separate bankruptcy case, leaving the future of his Infowars media platform uncertain as he owes $1.5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax...

The relatives said they were traumatized by Jones’ comments and his followers’ actions. They have testified about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom confronted the grieving families in person saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave."

Stanford’s top disinformation research group collapses under pressure; The Washington Post, June 14, 2024

Joseph Menn , The Washington Post; Stanford’s top disinformation research group collapses under pressure

"The Stanford Internet Observatory, which published some of the most influential analysis on the spread of false information on social media during elections, has shed most of its staff and may shut down amid political and legal attacks that have cast a pall on efforts to study online misinformation...

The collapse of the five-year-old Observatory is the latest and largest of a series of setbacks to the community of researchers who try to detect propaganda and explain how false narratives are manufactured, gather momentum and become accepted by various groups. It follows Harvard’s dismissal of misinformation expert Joan Donovan, who in a December whistleblower complaint alleged the university’s close and lucrative ties with Facebook parent Meta led the university to clamp down on her work, which was highly critical of the social media giant’s practices."

What’s a book ban anyway? Depends on who you ask; NPR, June 10, 2024

Elizabeth Blair , NPR; What’s a book ban anyway? Depends on who you ask

""Book ban" is one of those headline-ready terms often used by the news media, including NPR, for stories about the surge in book challenges across the U.S.

The American Library Association launched its annual Banned Books Week in 1982. There are banned book clubs. States have introduced or passed lawsthat’ve been called bans on book bans. Meanwhile, many people fighting to get books removed from school libraries are not fans of the term book ban.

The practice of censoring books has been around for centuries. But what does it actually mean to ban a book today? The answer depends on who you ask. Here are a handful of definitions from people entrenched in the issue:"

At 17, She Fell in Love With a 47-Year-Old. Now She Questions the Story.; The New York Times, June 10, 2024

 Alexandra Alter, The New York Times; At 17, She Fell in Love With a 47-Year-Old. Now She Questions the Story.

"Ciment decided to perform an autopsy on her memoir. The exercise yielded a new memoir, titled “Consent,” which Pantheon will release on Tuesday. With almost clinical detachment, Ciment investigates the flaws and factual lapses in her earlier work, and in doing so, questions the artifice inherent in memoir as a literary form.

“The whole idea of writing truth in a memoir is so preposterous,” Ciment said. “You have these scattered memories, and you’re trying to carve a story out of them.”"

Clearview AI Used Your Face. Now You May Get a Stake in the Company.; The New York Times, June 13, 2024

Kashmir Hill , The New York Times; Clearview AI Used Your Face. Now You May Get a Stake in the Company.

"A facial recognition start-up, accused of invasion of privacy in a class-action lawsuit, has agreed to a settlement, with a twist: Rather than cash payments, it would give a 23 percent stake in the company to Americans whose faces are in its database.

Clearview AI, which is based in New York, scraped billions of photos from the web and social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram to build a facial recognition app used by thousands of police departments, the Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I. After The New York Times revealed the company’s existence in 2020, lawsuits were filed across the country. They were consolidated in federal court in Chicago as a class action.

The litigation has proved costly for Clearview AI, which would most likely go bankrupt before the case made it to trial, according to court documents." 

How Pope Francis became the AI ethicist for tech titans and world leaders; The Washington Post, June 14, 2024

 

Anthony Faiola

, 

Cat Zakrzewski

 and 

Stefano Pitrelli

, The Washington Post; How Pope Francis became the AI ethicist for tech titans and world leaders

"In the same way the pope sought to elevate the urgency of climate change, Francis now is zooming in on AI — a technology he has said poses “a risk to our survival” and could “endanger our common home.”

His concerns center less on sci-fi movie predictions of malevolent machines, or how the possibility of sentient AI might challenge the fundamental definition of life. Rather, he has focused on the apocalyptic potential of weaponized AI. He fears the elimination of human empathy as algorithms begin to decide the outcome of everything from asylum applications to bank loans. He has heralded “the exciting opportunities” of the technology, but frets over its power to deepen inequality within and among nations. Those risks, he insists, must be managed through a global treaty to regulate AI."

Ethical considerations for the age of non-governmental space exploration; Nature, June 11, 2024

Allen Seylani, 

Aman Singh Galsinh, 

Alexia Tasoula, 

Anu R I, 

Andrea Camera, 

Jean Calleja-Agius, 

Joseph Borg, 

Chirag Goel, 

JangKeun Kim, 

Kevin B. Clark, 

Saswati Das, 

Shehbeel Arif, 

Michael Boerrigter, 

Caroline Coffey, 

Nathaniel Szewczyk, 

Christopher E. Mason, 

Maria Manoli, 

Fathi Karouia, 

Hansjörg Schwertz, 

Afshin Beheshti & 

Dana Tulodziecki 

Nature; Ethical considerations for the age of non-governmental space exploration

"Abstract

Mounting ambitions and capabilities for public and private, non-government sector crewed space exploration bring with them an increasingly diverse set of space travelers, raising new and nontrivial ethical, legal, and medical policy and practice concerns which are still relatively underexplored. In this piece, we lay out several pressing issues related to ethical considerations for selecting space travelers and conducting human subject research on them, especially in the context of non-governmental and commercial/private space operations."

Republicans block bill requiring Supreme Court to adopt enforceable ethics code; The Hill, June 12, 2024

ALEXANDER BOLTON  , The Hill; Republicans block bill requiring Supreme Court to adopt enforceable ethics code

"Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other Republican senators on Wednesday blocked a bill requiring the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct and create a mechanism to enforce it in the wake of several high-profile controversies.

The legislation, the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act, would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a code of conduct, create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code and other laws and improve the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest."

Watch: Local Sinclair Anchors Read Same Shady Script on Biden’s Age; The New Republic, June 11, 2024

 Hafiz Rashid, The New Republic; Watch: Local Sinclair Anchors Read Same Shady Script on Biden’s Age

"Local television news broadcasters are airing suspiciously similar attackson Joe Biden’s mental acuity and how it will affect the coming election—and it appears to be part of a coordinated effort. 

The Sinclair Broadcast Group owns or operates 185 local television stations across the country, and dozens of their stations aired a segment from national correspondent Matthew Galka citing a Wall Street Journalarticle that makes dubious attacks on Biden’s age and mental awareness. The stations that aired the segment introduced it using startlingly similar, if not identical language, the Popular Information and Public Notice newsletters reported.

It’s not the first time Sinclair, owned by right-wing businessman David D. Smith, has appeared to be running a conservative propaganda campaign. Infamously in 2018, dozens of the company’s TV stations were caught airing an identical editorial about the dangers of biased and false news. This time around, the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, as well as Murdoch’s cable news stations Fox News and Fox Business, have gotten in on the act...

Earlier this year, Smith purchased The Baltimore Sun, insulting its staff and laying out a vision to steer it in the conservative direction of his TV stations. It’s quite obvious that Smith, Murdoch, and other conservative millionaires and billionaires are taking over as many media outlets as possible to push right-wing political propaganda, with the Biden age article and subsequent TV segments as examples of the end product they want. They’re finding vast opportunities in America’s declining news deserts, as well as the skeletal newspapers gutted by hedge funds and profit-seeking corporations. It doesn’t just bode well for the next election, but also portends a scary future for American democracy for decades to come."

Patently insufficient: a new intellectual property treaty does little to protect Māori traditional knowledge; The Conversation, June 9, 2024

David Jefferson, Senior Lecturer Above the Bar, University of Canterbury; Jesse Pirini, Senior Lecturer in Management, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Jessica C Lai, Professor of Commercial Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, The Conversation; ; Patently insufficient: a new intellectual property treaty does little to protect Māori traditional knowledge

"The problem of “biopiracy” – the misappropriation and patenting for profit of Indigenous knowledge – has been on the rise for some time. So a global treaty aimed at protecting traditional knowledge and genetic resources should be a welcome development.

In late May, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted the Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge. It is the first international agreement on intellectual property that includes provisions on Indigenous peoples’ knowledge. 

More than 20 years in the making, it represents the culmination of negotiations between the 193 WIPO member states since 2000. And on the face of it, the treaty appears to be an important intervention to prevent biopiracy. 

However, the new agreement is unlikely to lead to major changes to New Zealand law, or improve the rights of Māori to own or control their intellectual property and taonga (treasured possessions). Given the well-documented misappropriation of Māori knowledge and taonga, more substantive protections are still needed."

Adobe Responds to AI Fears With Plans for Updated Legal Terms; Bloomberg Law, June 12, 2024

Cassandre Coyer and Aruni Soni, Bloomberg Law; Adobe Responds to AI Fears With Plans for Updated Legal Terms

"“As technology evolves, we have to evolve,” Dana Rao, Adobe’s general counsel, said in an interview with Bloomberg Law. “The legal terms have to evolve, too. And that’s really the lesson that we’re sort of internalizing here.”

Over the weekend, some Adobe customers revolted on social media, crying foul at updated terms of use they claimed allowed Adobe to seize their intellectual property and use their data to feed AI models. 

The Photoshop and Illustrator maker responded with multiple blog posts over several days seeking to reassure users it wasn’t stealing their content, including a pledge to quickly rewrite its user agreement in clearer language. Rao said Tuesday that Adobe will be issuing updated terms of use on June 18 in which it will specifically state the company doesn’t train its Firefly AI models on its cloud content.

The unexpected online storm around the updates is the latest example of how sweeping technological changes—such as the rise of generative AI—have bolstered users’ fears of copyright violations and privacy invasions. That sentiment is part of the landscape the tech industry must navigate to serve a creator community increasingly on edge.

What happened is “more of a lesson in terms of how to present terms of use and roll out updates in a way that can address or alleviate customer concerns, especially in the era of AI and increased concern over privacy,” said Los Angeles-based advertising attorney Robert Freund." 

Book about book bans banned by Florida school board; The Guardian, June 11, 2024

Erum Salam , The Guardian; Book about book bans banned by Florida school board

"A book about book bans has been banned in a Florida school district.

Ban This Book, a children’s book written by Alan Gratz, will no longer be available in the Indian River county school district since the school board voted to remove the book last month."

Big Tech Launches Campaign to Defend AI Use; The Hollywood Reporter, June 6, 2024

 Winston Cho , The Hollywood Reporter; Big Tech Launches Campaign to Defend AI Use

"Chamber of Progress, a tech industry coalition whose members include Amazon, Apple and Meta, is launching a campaign to defend the legality of using copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence systems.

The group says the campaign, called “Generate and Create” and unveiled on Thursday, will aim to highlight “how artists use generative AI to enhance their creative output” and “showcase how AI lowers barriers for producing art” as part of an initiative to “defend the longstanding legal principle of fair use under copyright law.”"

Why G7 leaders are turning to a special guest — Pope Francis — for advice on AI; NPR, June 12, 2024

 Deepa Shivaram, NPR; Why G7 leaders are turning to a special guest — Pope Francis — for advice on AI

"Pope Francis himself has been at the receiving end of AI misinformation. Last year, a picture of the pope wearing a large white puffer coat went viral. The image was generated by AI, and it prompted conversations on deepfakes and the spread of disinformation through AI technology.

In his annual message on New Year's Day this year, the pope focused on how AI can be used for peace.

His work on the issue goes back several years, when the Vatican and tech companies like Microsoft started working together to create a set of principles known as the Rome Call for AI Ethics, published in 2020. Companies and governments that sign on to the call have agreed to voluntary commitments aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in AI development."

House Oversight Committee Democrats Discussion on Supreme Court Ethics; C-Span, June 11, 2024

C-Span; House Oversight Committee Democrats Discussion on Supreme Court Ethics

"Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a roundtable discussion with legal experts on Supreme Court ethics. Supreme Court ethics became a hot topic after news reports revealed ethics concerns with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito’s paid trips from Republican donors, Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s book sales, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s concert tickets from Beyonce. Additionally, Justice Alito was under scrutiny for controversial political flags flown at two of his homes and a recent secret audio recording where the justice was talking to a liberal activist about religion and politics." 

AI Copyright Issues ‘on Shifting Sands’ but Legal Protections Are Coming, Experts Tell PGA Produced By Conference; The Wrap, June 9, 2024

 Sharon Knolle, The Wrap; AI Copyright Issues ‘on Shifting Sands’ but Legal Protections Are Coming, Experts Tell PGA Produced By Conference

"Renard T. Jenkins — a former Warner Bros. Discovery exec who’s now president and CEO of I2A2 Technologies, Labs and Studios — said his company is working to help create an infrastructure to help with authenticating content.

“Back in the old days, you had watermarks,” he said, noting that file-based content can be altered to remove information about the original creator. “What we are attempting to do is create an infrastructure and ecosystem that would allow us to track every single iteration of a piece of content from its origins all the way through the distribution.” 

For that to happen, the PGA and other organizations would have to agree to a new standard. “It’s a very heavy lift,” he said, comparing the necessary level of cooperation to a cross-mafia agreement, describing it as the “five families of Hollywood coming together.”

He also suggested that blockchain technology could be used to “audit and track” every change to a piece of content. It’s the same tech used for Bitcoin and the much-maligned NFT digital assets." 

NJ Bar Association Warns the Practice of Law Is Poised for Substantial Transformation Due To AI; The National Law Review, June 4, 2024

 James G. Gatto of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, The National Law Review; NJ Bar Association Warns the Practice of Law Is Poised for Substantial Transformation Due To AI

"The number of bar associations that have issued AI ethics guidance continues to grow, with NJ being the most recent. In its May 2024 report (Report), the NJ Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and the Law made a number of recommendations and findings as detailed below. With this Report, NJ joins the list of other bar associations that have issued AI ethics guidance, including Florida, California, New York, DC as well as the US Patent and Trademark Office. The Report notes that the practice of law is “poised for substantial transformation due to AI,” adding that while the full extent of this transformation remains to be seen, attorneys must keep abreast of and adapt to evolving technological landscapes and embrace opportunities for innovation and specialization in emerging AI-related legal domains.

The Task Force included four workgroups, including: i) Artificial Intelligence and Social Justice Concerns; ii) Artificial Intelligence Products and Services; iii) Education and CLE Programming; and iv) Ethics and Regulatory Issues. Each workgroup made findings and recommendations, some of which are provided below (while trying to avoid duplicating what other bar associations have addressed). Additionally, the Report includes some practical tools including guidance on Essential Factors for Selecting AI Products and Formulating an AI Policy in Legal Firms, provides a Sample Artificial Intelligence and Generative Artificial Intelligence Use Policy and Questions for Vendors When Selecting AI Products and Services, links to which are provided below.

The Report covers many of the expected topics with a focus on:

• prioritizing AI education, establishing baseline procedures and guidelines, and collaborating with data privacy, cybersecurity, and AI professionals as needed;
• adopting an AI policy to ensure the responsible integration of AI in legal practice and adherence to ethical and legal standards; and
• the importance of social justice concerns related to the use of AI, including the importance of transparency in AI software algorithms, bias mitigation, and equitable access to AI tools and the need to review legal AI tools for fairness and accessibility, particularly tools designed for individuals from marginalized or vulnerable communities.

Some of the findings and recommendations are set forth below."

If Supreme Court won't act to reform its ethics, Congress should step in; Chicago Sun Times, June 7, 2024

CST Editorial Board, Chicago Sun Times; If Supreme Court won't act to reform its ethics, Congress should step in

"When the U.S. Supreme Court justices in November announced new ethics rules that had no teeth, they said it would “dispel” the “misunderstanding” the justices “regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.”

Well, that didn’t work. It’s time for Congress to step in as new revelations about questionable ethics keep popping up...

At a time when the nation is polarized, we need a court that is an honest arbiter of disputes. Without an enforceable ethics code, we can’t hope to get one."

Supreme Court Set to Decide Landmark Cases Amid Ethics Controversies; KQED, June 10, 2024

Mina Kim , KQED; Supreme Court Set to Decide Landmark Cases Amid Ethics Controversies

"With its term drawing to a close, the U.S. Supreme Court is getting ready to rule on major issues like abortion access, gun regulations, and whether former president Trump has immunity from civil litigation. Meanwhile, Justice Samuel Alito is still facing questions – and calls for recusal– over political flags flown at his houses. We’ll discuss the ethics controversies swirling around the court and look at what the upcoming rulings could mean for the presidential election… the country… and you.

Guests:

Vikram Amar, professor of law, UC Davis School of Law - He clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court.

Mary Ziegler, professor of law, UC Davis School of Law - Her most recent book is "Roe: The History of a National Obsession.""

Supreme Court Ethics Lapses Aren’t a Partisan Issue; Bloomberg, June 7, 2024

Gabe Roth, Bloomberg; Supreme Court Ethics Lapses Aren’t a Partisan Issue

"Ethics reform at the Supreme Court is not a partisan issue. Nor is it a cynical attempt to shame or bully the court. It’s true that the justices most in the news for ethical lapses — Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — are staunch conservatives. But liberal justices have had their issues, too."

Alex Jones lashes out after agreeing to sell assets to pay legal debt to Sandy Hook families; NBC News, June 7, 2024

 Erik Ortiz, NBC News; Alex Jones lashes out after agreeing to sell assets to pay legal debt to Sandy Hook families

"Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said their fight is far from over.

“Alex Jones has hurt so many people,” Mattei said in a statement. “The Connecticut families have fought for years to hold him responsible no matter the cost and at great personal peril. Their steadfast focus on meaningful accountability, and not just money, is what has now brought him to the brink of justice in the way that matters most.”

Jones had previously sought a bankruptcy settlement with the families, but that was rejected.

In the wake of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults, Jones repeatedly suggested the massacre was a hoax. At his trial in Texas in 2022, he generally blamed “corporate media” for twisting his words and misportraying him, but did not specify how."

You Can Create Award-Winning Art With AI. Can You Copyright It?; Bloomberg Law, June 5, 2024

 Matthew S. Schwartz, Bloomberg Law; You Can Create Award-Winning Art With AI. Can You Copyright It?

"We delved into the controversy surrounding the use of copyrighted material in training AI systems in our first two episodes of this season. Now we shift our focus to the output. Who owns artwork created using artificial intelligence? Should our legal system redefine what constitutes authorship? Or, as AI promises to redefine how we create, will the government cling to historical notions of authorship?

Guests:

• Jason M. Allen, founder of Art Incarnate
• Sy Damle, partner in the copyright litigation group at Latham & Watkins
• Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and director of the US Copyright Office"

Justice Clarence Thomas Acknowledges He Should Have Disclosed Free Trips From Billionaire Donor; Pro Publica, June 7, 2024

Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, Pro Publica; Justice Clarence Thomas Acknowledges He Should Have Disclosed Free Trips From Billionaire Donor

"Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged for the first time in a new financial disclosure filing that he should have publicly reported two free vacations he received from billionaire Harlan Crow...

Legal ethics experts said that Thomas appeared to have violated the law by failing to disclose the trips and gifts."

Angry Instagram posts won’t stop Meta AI from using your content; Popular Science, June 5, 2024

 Mack DeGeurin, Popular Science; Angry Instagram posts won’t stop Meta AI from using your content

"Meta, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned tech giant behind Instagram, surprised many of the app’s estimated 1.2 billion global users with a shock revelation last month. Images, including original artwork and other creative assets uploaded to the company’s platforms, are now being used to train the company’s AI image generator. That admission, initially made public by Meta executive Chris Cox during an interview with Bloomberg last month, has elicited a fierce backlash from some creators. As of writing, more than 130,000 Instagram users have reshared a message on Instagram telling the company they do not consent to it using their data to train Meta AI. Those pleas, however, are founded on a fundamental misunderstanding of creators’ relationship with extractive social media platforms. These creators already gave away their work, whether they realize it or not."