Author archives

How A.I., QAnon and Falsehoods Are Reshaping the Presidential Race

The New York Times [unpaywalled]: “This year’s presidential election has been polluted with rumors, conspiracy theories and a wave of artificial intelligence imagery. Former President Donald J. Trump has continued to sow doubts about election integrity as his allies across the country have taken steps to make election denial a fixture of the balloting process. …

Subjects: Congress, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

A National Study of Sexual Harassment and Assault in the United States

Raj A, Rao N, Patel P, Kearl H. #MeToo 2024: A National Study of Sexual Harassment and Assault in the United States. Newcomb Institute. Tulane University. September 2024. https://newcomb.tulane.edu/content/metoo-research.  New research from Tulane University’s Newcomb Institute found that not only have most American women experienced sexual harassment or assault before even reaching adulthood, but very …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Health Care, Legal Research

Google will begin labeling AI-generated images in Search

Digital Trends: “AI-generated images have become increasingly predominant in the results of Google searches in recent months, crowding out legitimate results and making it harder for users to find what they’re actually looking for. In response, Google announced on Tuesday that it will begin labeling AI-generated and AI-edited image search results in the coming months. …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

A bottle of water per email: the hidden environmental costs of using AI chatbots

Washington Post [unpaywalled]: AI bots generate a lot of heat, and keeping their computer servers running exacts a toll. Roughly a quarter of Americans have used ChatGPT since the chatbot’s 2022 release, according to the Pew Research Center — and every query exacts a cost. Chatbots use an immense amount of power to respond to …

Subjects: AI, Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law

What Is a Digital Footprint? Here’s What to Know About Your Online Trail

MakeUseOf: Key Takeaways: Digital footprints include active and passive data, influencing personalized ads and account security. Your online presence affects credit scoring, job applications, and criminal investigations. Minimize your digital footprint by cleaning up social media, using multiple emails, and avoiding easy login options. From your early days as an internet newbie to your current …

Subjects: E-Records, Internet, Privacy, Social Media

UNESCO Data Browser

“The UIS is excited to introduce the new UIS Data Browser which brings together all our data on education, science, and culture, making it a convenient resource for everyone, from policymakers to researchers. With a refreshed interface, users can easily view and download customized data for their needs. The new browser also offers better tools for exploring metadata …

Subjects: Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Art words

Data is Plural: “The Getty Vocabularies, published by the Getty Research Institute, “contain structured terminology for art, architecture, decorative arts, archival materials, visual surrogates, art conservation, and bibliographic materials.” They provide definitions, relationships, translations, and disambiguations for a broad range of terms and entities. Their Art & Architecture Thesaurus, for example, describes 57,000+ generic concepts …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries

DuckDuckGo Joins AI Chat, Promises Enhanced Anonymity

Tech Republic: “DuckDuckGo, a search company, launched a free and anonymous AI Chat service in June 2024. AI Chat joins DuckAssist, which generates answers based on Wikipedia, as a way to explore topics with AI. AI Chat operates with the widely used prompt-and-response process popularized by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. But DuckDuckGo’s AI Chat …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines

(Dis)Information Wars

(Dis)Information Wars. Adrian Casillas, Maryam Farboodi, Layla Hashemi, Maryam Saeedi, and Steven Wilson NBER Working Paper No. 32896 September 2024 Over the past decade, social media platforms have emerged as prominent vehicles for displaying dissent. In response, various actors have increasingly spread fake news on these platforms to impair the opposition—the (dis)information war. We analyze …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

Scientists just figured out how many chemicals enter our bodies from food packaging

Washington Post: “Shrink-wrap sealed around a piece of raw meat. Takeout containers filled with restaurant leftovers. Plastic bottles filled with soft drinks. These are just a few types of food packaging that surround humans every day. And a new study released Monday shows the chemical toll of all that wrapping — and how it might …

Subjects: Environmental Law, Food and Nutrition, Health Care

FBI Publishes 2023 Cryptocurrency Fraud Report

“The FBI on September 9 released its Cryptocurrency Fraud Report for 2023. In 2023, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 69,000 complaints from the public regarding cyber-enabled crime and financial fraud involving the use of cryptocurrency, with over $5.6 billion in reported losses. Criminal actors exploit cryptocurrencies for all schemes, to include tech …

Subjects: Cryptocurrency, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research