AI could be an existential threat to publishers – that’s why Mumsnet is fighting back; The Guardian, September 28, 2024

Justine Roberts , The Guardian; AI could be an existential threat to publishers – that’s why Mumsnet is fighting back

"After nearly 25 years as a founder of Mumsnet, I considered myself pretty unshockable when it came to the workings of big tech. But my jaw hit the floor last week when I read that Google was pushing to overhaul UK copyright law in a way that would allow it to freely mine other publishers’ content for commercial gain without compensation.

At Mumsnet, we’ve been on the sharp end of this practice, and have recently launched the first British legal action against the tech giant OpenAI. Earlier in the year, we became aware that it was scraping our content – presumably to train its large language model (LLM). Such scraping without permission is a breach of copyright laws and explicitly of our terms of use, so we approached OpenAI and suggested a licensing deal. After lengthy talks (and signing a non-disclosure agreement), it told us it wasn’t interested, saying it was after “less open” data sources...

If publishers wither and die because the AIs have hoovered up all their traffic, then who’s left to produce the content to feed the models? And let’s be honest – it’s not as if these tech giants can’t afford to properly compensate publishers. OpenAI is currently fundraising to the tune of $6.5bn, the single largest venture capital round of all time, valuing the enterprise at a cool $150bn. In fact, it has just been reported that the company is planning to change its structure and become a for-profit enterprise...

I’m not anti-AI. It plainly has the potential to advance human progress and improve our lives in myriad ways. We used it at Mumsnet to build MumsGPT, which uncovers and summarises what parents are thinking about – everything from beauty trends to supermarkets to politicians – and we licensed OpenAI’s API (application programming interface) to build it. Plus, we think there are some very good reasons why these AI models should ingest Mumsnet’s conversations to train their models. The 6bn-plus words on Mumsnet are a unique record of 24 years of female interaction about everything from global politics to relationships with in-laws. By contrast, most of the content on the web was written by and for men. AI models have misogyny baked in and we’d love to help counter their gender bias.

But Google’s proposal to change our laws would allow billion-dollar companies to waltz untrammelled over any notion of a fair value exchange in the name of rapid “development”. Everything that’s unique and brilliant about smaller publisher sites would be lost, and a handful of Silicon Valley giants would be left with even more control over the world’s content and commerce."

US Trademark Office cancels Marvel, DC's 'Super Hero' marks; Reuters, September 26, 2024

Blake Brittain , Reuters; US Trademark Office cancels Marvel, DC's 'Super Hero' marks

"A U.S. Trademark Office tribunal has canceled a set of "Super Hero" trademarks jointly owned by comic giants Marvel and DC at the request of a London-based comic book artist, according to a Thursday order.

The USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled for S.J. Richold's Superbabies Ltd after Disney's Marvel and Warner Bros' DC did not file an answer to Superbabies' request to invalidate the marks.

Spokespeople and attorneys for Marvel and DC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Superbabies attorney Adam Adler of Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg said in a statement that the ruling was "not just a win for our client but a victory for creativity and innovation."

"By establishing SUPER HEROES' place in the public domain, we safeguard it as a symbol of heroism available to all storytellers," Adler said."

Pulling Back the Silicon Curtain; The New York Times, September 10, 2024

Dennis Duncan, The New York Times; Pulling Back the Silicon Curtain: 

Review of NEXUS: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI, by Yuval Noah Harari

"In a nutshell, Harari’s thesis is that the difference between democracies and dictatorships lies in how they handle information...

The meat of “Nexus” is essentially an extended policy brief on A.I.: What are its risks, and what can be done? (We don’t hear much about the potential benefits because, as Harari points out, “the entrepreneurs leading the A.I. revolution already bombard the public with enough rosy predictions about them.”) It has taken too long to get here, but once we arrive Harari offers a useful, well-informed primer.

The threats A.I. poses are not the ones that filmmakers visualize: Kubrick’s HAL trapping us in the airlock; a fascist RoboCop marching down the sidewalk. They are more insidious, harder to see coming, but potentially existential. They include the catastrophic polarizing of discourse when social media algorithms designed to monopolize our attention feed us extreme, hateful material. Or the outsourcing of human judgment — legal, financial or military decision-making — to an A.I. whose complexity becomes impenetrable to our own understanding.

Echoing Churchill, Harari warns of a “Silicon Curtain” descending between us and the algorithms we have created, shutting us out of our own conversations — how we want to act, or interact, or govern ourselves...

“When the tech giants set their hearts on designing better algorithms,” writes Harari, “they can usually do it.”...

Parts of “Nexus” are wise and bold. They remind us that democratic societies still have the facilities to prevent A.I.’s most dangerous excesses, and that it must not be left to tech companies and their billionaire owners to regulate themselves."

Why the nonprofit behind Little Libraries is tackling banned books, including in Nashville; The Tennessean, September 25, 2024

Angele Latham, The Tennessean ; Why the nonprofit behind Little Libraries is tackling banned books, including in Nashville

"The national network of Little Free Libraries — tiny cupboards perched outside homes holding free books — is partnering with Banned Books Week, PEN America and the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom to raise awareness of literary access for all with an interactive map displaying all little libraries across the country, overlaid with the number of book ban attempts made in each state.

Although the libraries may be small in size, they are not small in number. The network, which began in 2009, now boasts over 70,000 stations around the world, with 1,369 in Tennessee alone.

Little Free Libraries Executive Director Greig Meitzer said the web of libraries — and the access they provide — perfectly represents the ideals and goals behind Banned Books Week.

“Book access is kind of a core aspect of our mission,” he said. “Getting more books to more people, and especially a broad range in diversity of books, gives people increased opportunities to find themselves in a book, to read and get excited.”"

Should You Be Allowed to Profit From A.I.-Generated Art?; The New York Times, September 27, 2024

Kwame Anthony Appiah, The New York Times; Should You Be Allowed to Profit From A.I.-Generated Art?

[Excerpt]

"We attempt to attribute art whenever we can, and anything that’s only for purchase we either avoid or pay for. This particular piece seems to be available only in an Etsy shop, where the creator apparently uses A.I. prompts to generate images. The price is nominal: a few dollars. Yet I cannot help thinking that those who make A.I.-generated art are taking other artists’ work, essentially recreating it and then profiting from it. 

I’m not sure what the best move is...Name Withheld

From the Ethicist:

There’s a sense in which A.I. image generators — such as DALL-E 3, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion — make use of the intellectual property of the artists whose work they’ve been trained on. But the same is true of human artists. The history of art is the history of people borrowing and adapting techniques and tropes from earlier work, with occasional moments of deep originality...

Maybe you’re worried that A.I. image generators will undermine the value of human-made art. Such concerns have a long history. In his classic 1935 essay, ‘‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,’’ the critic Walter Benjamin pointed out that techniques for reproducing artworks have been invented throughout history. In antiquity, the Greeks had foundries for reproducing bronzes; in time, woodcuts were widely used to make multiple copies of images; etching, lithography and photography later added new possibilities. These technologies raised the question of what Benjamin called the ‘‘aura’’ of the individual artwork...

As forms of artificial intelligence grow increasingly widespread, we need to get used to so-called ‘‘centaur’’ models — collaborations between human and machine cognition."

5 Days With Elon Musk on X: Deepfakes, Falsehoods and Lots of Memes; The New York Times, September 27, 2024

Stuart A. Thompson , The New York Times; 5 Days With Elon Musk on X: Deepfakes, Falsehoods and Lots of Memes

"Experts who monitor falsehoods and conspiracy theories have long feared that Mr. Musk would use his ownership of X to further pollute the online ecosystem. Since he bought the platform known as Twitter in 2022, he has shown a willingness to elevate unfounded claims as he has embraced a more conservative political posture, including by endorsing Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign in July.

Nearly a third of his posts last week were false, misleading or missing vital context. They included misleading posts claiming Democrats were making memes “illegal” and falsehoods that they want to “open the border” to gain votes from illegal immigrants. His misleading posts were seen more than 800 million times on X, underscoring Mr. Musk’s unique role as the platform’s most-followed account and a significant source of its misleading content."

These two states are responsible for most of the nation’s school book bans; The 19th, September 24, 2024

Nadra Nittle, The 19th; These two states are responsible for most of the nation’s school book bans

"More than a dozen new state and local policies contributed to the escalation of book bans over the past year. They include Iowa’s SF 496,which took effect last year and has been interpreted to mean that books with sexual or gender themes should be barred. According to PEN America, the law prompted thousands of book bans during the 2023-’24 school year, compared with just 14 bans in the state during the previous school year. 

Florida’s HB 1069, which also took effect last year, mandates that books challenged for “sexual conduct” must be removed as they undergo review. PEN America said the statutory process the law created for book banning and “the state guidance building on it” has led to a spike in statewide book bans. In Florida and Iowa combined, roughly 8,000 book bans were recorded. 

In Wisconsin, the Elkhorn Area School District banned more than 300 books for months on end, PEN America found. The books were removed after a single parent challenged them, but after the district reviewed the titles, they were eventually returned to the shelves, albeit with restrictions such as parental permission to check out certain titles. The organization expects newly enacted laws such as Utah’s HB 29, South Carolina’s Regulation 43-170 and Tennessee’s HB 843 to cause more book bans this school year. 

The Utah law requires all schools in the state to ban a book once three school districts have found it objectionable. South Carolina’s regulation bans books with sexual subject matter and gives the state Board of Education the ability to censor works statewide. The Tennessee law requires schools to remove books with gratuitous violence or sexual content...

Censorship is an issue that has drawn attention from the 2024 presidential candidates. Former President Donald Trump’s campaign platform accusesPresident Joe Biden’s administration of “using the public school system to push their perverse sexual, racial and political material on our youth.” In July, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, criticized book bans while speaking to the American Federation of Teachers union in Texas.  

“While you teach students about our nation’s past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation’s true and full history,” she said. “We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books. Can you imagine?”

Artist sues after US rejects copyright for AI-generated image; Reuters, September 26, 2024

 Blake Brittain, Reuters; Artist sues after US rejects copyright for AI-generated image

"Artist Jason M. Allen asked a Colorado federal court on Thursday to reverse a U.S. Copyright Office decision that rejected copyright protection for an award-winning image he created with artificial intelligence...

A Copyright Office tribunal affirmed the decision last year, finding the image as a whole was not copyrightable because it contained more than a minimal amount of AI-created material.

The office has previously rescinded copyrights for images that artist Kris Kashtanova created using Midjourney. It also rejected a copyright application for an image that computer scientist Stephen Thaler said his AI system created autonomously. Thaler has since appealed...

The case is Allen v. Perlmutter, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, No. 1:24-cv-02665."

Perspectives in Artificial Intelligence: Ethical Use; Marquette Today, September 20, 2024

Andrew Goldstein  , Marquette Today; Perspectives in Artificial Intelligence: Ethical Use

"Ethical application 

While artificial intelligence unlocks broad possibilities for positive change, unethical actors have access to these same tools. For instance, companies hoping to grow cigarette sales can target people who are prone to smoking or trying to quit with greater precision. Deepfake videos allow scam callers to imitate the faces and voices of loved ones.  

In this world, it is more important than ever that students be trained on the limits of AI and its proper use cases. 

“We need to think about the societal impact of artificial intelligence; who gets this data, what it’s being used for and how we steer people toward value-creating activities,” Ow says. “Using AI has the potential to improve your life and to provide insights and opportunities for the individual, the community and society."

OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon among first AI Pact signatories; Euronews, September 25, 2024

Cynthia Kroet, Euronews; OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon among first AI Pact signatories

"OpenAI, Microsoft and Amazon are among 100 companies who are the first to sign up to a voluntary alliance aiming to help usher in new AI legislation, the European Commission said today (25 September)...

The Commission previously said that some 700 companies have shown interest in joining the Pact – which involves voluntary preparatory commitments to help businesses get ready for the incoming AI Act...

The Pact supports industry's voluntary commitments related to easing the uptake of AI in organisations, identifying AI systems likely to be categorised as high-risk under the rules and promoting AI literacy.

In addition to these core commitments, more than half of the signatories committed to additional pledges, including ensuring human oversight, mitigating risks, and transparently labelling certain types of AI-generated content, such as deepfakes, the Commission said...

The AI Act, the world’s first legal framework that regulates AI models according to the risk they pose, entered into force in August."

Why Do People Like Elon Musk Love Donald Trump? It’s Not Just About Money.; The New York Times, September 25, 2024

Chris Hughes, The New York Times; Why Do People Like Elon Musk Love Donald Trump? It’s Not Just About Money.

"Mr. Trump appeals to some Silicon Valley elites because they identify with the man. To them, he is a fellow victim of the state, unjustly persecuted for his bold ideas. Practically, he is also the shield they need to escape accountability. Mr. Trump may threaten democratic norms and spread disinformation; he could even set off a recession, but he won’t challenge their ability to build the technology they like, no matter the social cost...

As much as they want to influence Mr. Trump’s policies, they also want to strike back at the Biden-Harris administration, which they believe has unfairly targeted their industry.

More than any other administration in the internet era, President Biden and Ms. Harris have pushed tech companies toward serving the public interest...

Last year, Mr. Andreessen, whose venture capital firm is heavily invested in crypto, wrote a widely discussed “manifesto” claiming that enemy voices of “bureaucracy, vetocracy, gerontocracy” are opposed to the “pursuit of technology, abundance and life.” In a barely concealed critique of the Biden-Harris administration, he argued that those who believe in carefully assessing the impact of new technologies before adopting them are “deeply immoral.”

Hillary Clinton: To err is human, to empathize is superhuman; The Washington Post, September 25, 2024

 Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Washington Post; Hillary Clinton: To err is human, to empathize is superhuman

"Back in the 1990s, from the time she was 15 until she was 20, Shannon was active in the violent white supremacy movement. She attended Ku Klux Klan rallies, tagged public property with swastikas, assaulted people of color, tear-gassed an LGBTQ nightclub and underwent paramilitary training to prepare for the race war her neo-Nazi leaders promised was imminent. Her comrades were white supremacists like the fanatics who years later carried torches through Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us!” and like many of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Then, remarkably, she managed to get herself out and change her life. Now, Shannon helps people escape violent extremism. She’s seen how the dangerous, hateful movement has metastasized. The rise of social media allowed white power leaders to more easily reach and radicalize thousands of recruits."

NSF and philanthropic partners invest more than $18M to prioritize ethical and societal considerations in the creation of emerging technologies; U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), September 23, 2024

 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF); NSF and philanthropic partners invest more than $18M to prioritize ethical and societal considerations in the creation of emerging technologies

"The U.S. National Science Foundation announced an inaugural investment of more than $18 million to 44 multidisciplinary, multi-sector teams across the U.S. through the NSF Responsible Design, Development and Deployment of Technologies (NSF ReDDDoT) program. NSF ReDDDoT invests in the creation of technologies that promote the public's well-being and mitigate potential harms by seeking to ensure that ethical, legal, community and societal considerations are embedded in the lifecycle of technology's creation and use. NSF launched this program in collaboration with leading philanthropic partners including the Ford Foundation, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and Siegel Family Endowment.

"NSF is committed to creating mutually beneficial research collaborations among diverse partners who contribute their expertise and resources to accelerating technology innovation that positively addresses pressing national, societal and geostrategic challenges," said Erwin Gianchandani, assistant director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships. "Through a robust public-private partnership with philanthropies, NSF's investment in ReDDDoT aims to ensure that TIP advances the design, development and deployment of new technologies responsibly. This investment is consistent with the 'CHIPS and Science Act of 2022,' in which Congress called upon TIP to invest in exactly this approach when pursuing the key technology areas listed in that law."

NSF awarded 30 teams Phase 1 funding: 21 teams will receive planning grants of up to $300,000 each for up to two years to facilitate collaborative transdisciplinary and multi-sector activities to plan for submission of larger proposals, while an additional nine teams will receive Phase 1 funding of up to $75,000 each to plan and host workshops designed to raise awareness and identify relevant approaches and needs in the key technology areas identified in the "CHIPS and Science Act of 2022."

Additionally, NSF awarded Phase 2 funding to 14 teams that demonstrated maturity in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, or natural and anthropogenic disaster prevention or mitigation, key technology areas in the statute that TIP emphasized for ReDDDoT funding. Each Phase 2 team will receive up to $1.5 million over three years to expand upon their identified experience in use-inspired and translational activities in responsible design, development and deployment of innovative technology.

The ReDDDoT program invited proposals from teams that examined and demonstrated the principles, methodologies and impacts associated with ethical, legal, community and societal considerations of technology's creation and use, especially those specified in the "CHIPS and Science Act of 2022."NSF anticipates issuing a second ReDDDoT funding opportunity in the future that will build on this round of funding to ensure ethical, legal, community, and societal considerations are embedded in the lifecycle of technology’s creation.

NSF ReDDDot Awardees

Awardees are grouped by award type and then listed in alphabetical order by organization. The full award list can be found on NSF Award Search webpage."

Mark Zuckerberg Is Done With Politics; The New York Times, September 24, 2024

Theodore Schleifer and Mike Isaac, The New York Times; Mark Zuckerberg Is Done With Politics

"Instead of publicly engaging with Washington, Mr. Zuckerberg is repairing relationships with politicians behind the scenes. After the “Zuckerbucks” criticism, Mr. Zuckerberg hired Brian Baker, a prominent Republican strategist, to improve his positioning with right-wing media and Republican officials. In the lead-up to November’s election, Mr. Baker has emphasized to Mr. Trump and his top aides that Mr. Zuckerberg has no plans to make similar donations, a person familiar with the discussions said.

Mr. Zuckerberg has yet to forge a relationship with Vice President Kamala Harris. But over the summer, Mr. Zuckerberg had his first conversations with Mr. Trump since he left office, according to people familiar with the conversations."

Mark Zuckerberg Isn’t Done With Politics. His Politics Have Just Changed.; Mother Jones, September 24, 2024

 Tim Murphy, Mother Jones; Mark Zuckerberg Isn’t Done With Politics. His Politics Have Just Changed.

"On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that one of the world’s richest men had recently experienced a major epiphany. After bankrolling a political organization that supported immigration reform, espousing his support for social justice, and donating hundreds of millions of dollars to support local election workers during the 2020 election, “Mark Zuckerberg is done with politics.”

The Facebook founder and part-time Hawaiian feudal lord, according to the piece, “believed that both parties loathed technology and that trying to continue engaging with political causes would only draw further scrutiny to their company,” and felt burned by the criticism he has faced in recent years, on everything from the proliferation of disinformation on Facebook to his investment in election administration (which conservatives dismissively referred to as “Zuckerbucks”). He is mad, in other words, that people are mad at him, and it has made him rethink his entire theory of how the world works.

It’s an interesting piece, which identifies a real switch in how Zuckerberg—who along with his wife, Priscilla Chan, has made a non-binding pledge to give away a majority of his wealth by the end of his lifetime—thinks about his influence and his own ideology. But there’s a fallacy underpinning that headline: Zuckerberg isn’t done with politics. His politics have simply changed."

Meta Fails to Block Zuckerberg Deposition in AI Copyright Suit; Bloomberg Law, September 25, 2024

 Aruni Soni, Bloomberg Law; Meta Fails to Block Zuckerberg Deposition in AI Copyright Suit

"A federal magistrate judge opened the door to a deposition of Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a copyright lawsuit over the tech company’s large language model, denying the social media giant’s bid for a protective order.

Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson denied the request to block the deposition because the plaintiffs supplied enough evidence that Zuckerberg is the “chief decision maker and policy setter for Meta’s Generative AI branch and the development of the large language models at issue in this action,” he said in the order filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District."

OpenAI Training Data to Be Inspected in Authors’ Copyright Cases; Hollywood Reporter, September 24, 2024

  Winston Cho, Hollywood Reporter; OpenAI Training Data to Be Inspected in Authors’ Copyright Cases

"For the first time, OpenAI will provide access to its training data for review of whether copyrighted works were used to power its technology.

In a Tuesday filing, authors suing the Sam Altman-led firm and OpenAI indicated that they came to terms on protocols for inspection of the information. They’ll seek details related to the incorporation of their works in training datasets, which could be a battleground in the case that may help establish guardrails for the creation of automated chatbots...

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria at a hearing on Friday questioned whether the attorneys can adequately represent the writers.

“It’s very clear to me from the papers, from the docket and from talking to the magistrate judge that you have brought this case and you have not done your job to advance it,” Chhabria said, according to Politico. “You and your team have barely been litigating the case. That’s obvious… This is not your typical proposed class action. This is an important case. It’s an important societal issue. It’s important for your clients.”

‘War Game,’ political violence, and the risk of extremism in the armed forces; 1A, WAMU, September 24, 2025

Michael Falero, 1A, WAMU; ‘War Game,’ political violence, and the risk of extremism in the armed forces

"One of the hallmarks of American democracy is upholding the principle of the peaceful transfer of power. Key to that principle is the word “peaceful.”

On Jan. 6, 2021 that principle was tested. Insurrectionists, some organized, tried and failed to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election.

What if that violence happened in a future American election? What if extremist groups who felt democracy was at risk included a small number of active members of the military or National Guard? 

A new documentary, “War Game,” follows an effort to play out that scenario, to see how bipartisan participants, including former politicians and retired military officers, would react to election violence from a fake White House situation room. 

What are the risks in responding to violence around an election outcome? How would that situation become more complicated if a handful of members of the military were involved in trying to overturn an election? And how common is it for extremism to enter the ranks of branches of the military?

We discuss those questions and the film, spoiler free.

Janessa Goldbeck

CEO, Vet Voice Foundation

Jesse Moss

co-director and producer, “War Game"

Nikki Wentling

disinformation and extremism reporter, The Military Times...

• [Interviewer Jen White] So we hear there from your own experience, Janessa, that part of this exercise is about your experience with your father, and you connect it to the weakening of democratic institutions. If this is an exercise looking at the strength of our institutions, like our branches of government, what did you take away from the scenario about their resilience in the face of political violence and the resilience of the leaders within those institutions?

• 
  

  [Janessa Goldbeck, CEO, Vet Voice Foundation]

  You know, one thing that folks always come up to me after screenings, about is is this part of the film in particular. So many Americans around the country are facing a deep divide within their own homes. Someone in their family who is, very invested in a conspiracy theory or an ideology that feels completely alien. You know, and I obviously have experienced that with my own father. I think a lot of people have some a family member, someone they love that, is ascribed to a belief system that feels just impossible to wrap your your hands around. And I think that's something that isn't necessarily going to be solved by government alone. It's something that we need to invest in, programs and ways that we can actually just kinda build bridges in this country. I think, you know, that surgeon general of the United States for the first time has declared loneliness an epidemic in this country. And I think that some of that loneliness is is building is providing or or fueling this need for people to connect, and they find that connection, in spaces where conspiracy theories and extremist ideology flourish. So I don't know that it's necessarily a problem for government to solve on its own. It's certainly a challenge. I don't have all the answers, but I think more conversation is required, and war game is a provocation for that conversation."

New State Laws Are Fueling a Surge in Book Bans; The New York Times, September 23, 2024

Elizabeth Harris , The New York Times; New State Laws Are Fueling a Surge in Book Bans

"Books have been challenged and removed from schools and libraries for decades, but around 2021, these instances began to skyrocket, fanned by a network of conservative groups and the spread on social media of lists of titles some considered objectionable...

PEN considers any book that has been removed from access to have been banned, even if the book is eventually put back...

The American Library Association also released a report on Monday based on preliminary data. The group gathers its own information, and relies on a different definition of what constitutes a book ban. For the library association, a book must be removed — not just temporarily, while it is reviewed — to count as being banned...

The library association and PEN America both emphasized that these numbers were almost certainly an undercount. Both groups rely on information from local news reports, but in many districts across the country, there is no education reporter keeping tabs."

PEN America: Books bans doubled in 2023-2024 school year, most from Florida, Iowa; Florida Times-Union, September 24, 2024

 C. A. Bridges, Florida Times-Union; PEN America: Books bans doubled in 2023-2024 school year, most from Florida, Iowa

"In the 2022-2023 school year, Florida led the nation in the surge of book challenges and bans, according to free expression advocacy group PEN America. This year, the number of bans has more than doubled.

Research by the nonprofit organization found more than 10,000 instances of book bans across the country, with 8,000 of them from Florida and Iowa, according to preliminary findings released Monday at the start of Banned Books Week. This was largely due to new state laws, PEN America's Kasey Meehan and Sabrina Baêta said.

Florida's HB 1069, which went into effect July 2023, required that any book challenged for "sexual conduct" must be removed during the review process and empowered parents and guardians to challenge books without providing ways for parents or guardians to defend them. That led to a "significant rise in book bans" during the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America said."

AI Art Copyright Stays Doubtful After Appeals Court Argument ; Bloomberg Law, September 19, 2024

Kyle Jahner, Aruni Soni , Bloomberg Law; AI Art Copyright Stays Doubtful After Appeals Court Argument 

"The first federal appeals court battle over the boundaries of copyright law’s application to AI-generated works carries huge implications for creative industries given the rapid proliferation of the technology. The circumstances upon which copyright vests in work wholly or partly created by AI and who gets to control and enforce that right will hinge on interpretations of cases like Thaler’s."

Censorship Throughout the Centuries; American Libraries, September 3, 2024

Cara S. Bertram , American Libraries; Censorship Throughout the Centuries

"American Libraries travels through time to outline our country’s history of censorship—and the library workers, authors, and advocates who have defended the right to read."

American Library Association reveals preliminary data on 2024 book challenges; American Library Association (ALA), September 23, 2024

 American Library Association (ALA); American Library Association reveals preliminary data on 2024 book challenges

"New data shows a slowdown in challenge reports

The American Library Association has released preliminary data documenting attempts to censor books and materials in public, school, and academic libraries during the first eight months of 2024 in preparation for Banned Books Week (September 22-28, 2024).

Between January 1 and August 31, 2024, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 414 attempts to censor library materials and services. In those cases, 1,128 unique titles were challenged. In the same reporting period last year, ALA tracked 695 attempts with 1,915 unique titles challenged. Though the number of reports to date has declined in 2024, the number of documented attempts to censor books continues to far exceed the numbers prior to 2020. Additionally, instances of soft censorship, where books are purchased but placed in restricted areas, not used in library displays, or otherwise hidden or kept off limits due to fear of challenges illustrate the impact of organized censorship campaigns on students’ and readers’ freedom to read. In some circumstances, books have been preemptively excluded from library collections, taken off the shelves before they are banned, or not purchased for library collections in the first place.

“As these preliminary numbers show, we must continue to stand up for libraries and challenge censorship wherever it occurs,” said American Library Association President Cindy Hohl. “We know library professionals throughout the country are committed to preserving our freedom to choose what we read and what our children read, even though many librarians face criticism and threats to their livelihood and safety. We urge everyone to join librarians in defending the freedom to read. We know people don’t like being told what they are allowed to read, and we’ve seen communities come together to fight back and protect their libraries and schools from the censors.”

The Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles data on book challenges from reports by library professionals in the field and from news stories published throughout the United States. Because many book challenges are not reported to the ALA or covered by the press, the 2024 data compiled by ALA represents only a snapshot of book censorship throughout the first eight months of the year. 

As ALA continues to document the harms of censorship, we celebrate those whose advocacy and support are helping to end censorship in our libraries."

LinkedIn is training AI on you — unless you opt out with this setting; The Washington Post, September 23, 2024

Chris Velazco , The Washington Post; LinkedIn is training AI on you — unless you opt out with this setting

"To opt out, log into your LinkedIn account, tap or click on your headshot, and open the settings. Then, select “Data privacy,” and turn off the option under “Data for generative AI improvement.”

Flipping that switch will prevent the company from feeding your data to its AI, with a key caveat: The results aren’t retroactive. LinkedIn says it has already begun training its AI models with user content, and that there’s no way to undo it."

Looking for a Superhero? Check the Public Library.; The New York Times, September 23, 2024

Margaret Renkl, The New York Times; Looking for a Superhero? Check the Public Library.

"One of the most absorbing books I’ve read this year is “That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America” by Amanda Jones, a school librarian’s account of being targeted by right-wing extremists in Louisiana for speaking in defense of diverse books...

There are actual groomers among us, a crime Ms. Jones takes care to decry, but the only “crime” she committed was speaking in defense of intellectual freedom at a public meeting. For that she was bombarded with unrelenting condemnation and death threats...

“All members of our community deserve to be seen, have access to information, and see themselves in our public library,” she said when it was her turn to speak at the meeting. “Just because you enter a library, it does not mean that you will not see something you don’t like. Libraries have diverse collections with resources from many points of view, and a library’s mission is to provide access to information for all users.”"

Generative AI and Legal Ethics; JD Supra, September 20, 2024

Craig Brodsky, Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann, LLP, JD Supra; Generative AI and Legal Ethics

 "In his scathing opinion, Cullen joined judges from New York Massachusetts and North Carolina, among others, by concluding that improper use of AI generated authorities may give rise to sanctions and disciplinary charges...

As a result, on July 29, 2024, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional issued Formal Opinion 512 on Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools. The ABA Standing Committee issued the opinion primarily because GAI tools are a “rapidly moving target” that can create significant ethical issues. The committee believed it necessary to offer “general guidance for lawyers attempting to navigate this emerging landscape.”

The committee’s general guidance is helpful, but the general nature of Opinion 512 it underscores part of my main concern — GAI has a wide-ranging impact on how lawyers practice that will increase over time. Unsurprisingly, at present, GAI implicates at least eight ethical rules ranging from competence (Md. Rule 19-301.1) to communication (Md. Rule 19-301.4), to fees (Md. Rule 19-301.5), to confidentiality, (Md. Rule 19-301.6), to supervisory obligations (Md. Rule 19-305.1 and Md. Rule 305.3) to the duties of a lawyer before tribunal to be candid and pursue meritorious claims and defenses. (Md. Rules 19-303.1 and 19-303.3).

As a technological feature of practice, lawyers cannot simply ignore GAI. The duty of competence under Rule 19-301.1 includes technical competence, and GAI is just another step forward. It is here to stay. We must embrace it but use it smartly.

Let it be an adjunct to your practice rather than having Chat GPT write your brief. Ensure that your staff understands that GAI can be helpful, but that the work product must be checked for accuracy.

After considering the ethical implications and putting the right processes in place, implement GAI and use it to your clients’ advantage."