Author archives

Canon warns printer users to manually wipe Wi-Fi settings before discarding

Ars Technica: “Printer manufacturer Canon is warning that sensitive Wi-Fi settings don’t automatically get wiped during resets, so customers should manually delete them before selling, discarding, or getting them repaired to prevent the settings from falling into the wrong hands. “Sensitive information on the Wi-Fi connection settings stored in the memories of inkjet printers (home …

Subjects: E-Records, Privacy, Wireless Web

Hopkins researchers discover a new technique to ground a large language model’s answers in reality

Johns Hopkins University Hub: “Asking ChatGPT for answers comes with a risk—it may offer you entirely made-up “facts” that sound legitimate, as a New York lawyer recently discovered. Despite having been trained on vast amounts of factual data, large language models, or LLMs, are prone to generating false information called hallucinations. This may happen when …

Subjects: AI, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Search Engines

IRS Launches Paperless Processing Initiative

“Taxpayers will have the option to go paperless for IRS correspondence by 2024 Filing Season, IRS to achieve paperless processing for all tax returns by Filing Season 2025. IRS Paperless Processing Initiative will eliminate up to 200 million pieces of paper annually, cut processing times in half, and expedite refunds by several weeks. Paper-based processes …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

Embracing Artificial Intelligence in the Legal Landscape: The Blueprint

Tąkiel, Maciej and Wagner, Dominik and Maksym, Błazej and Tarczyński, Tomasz, Embracing Artificial Intelligence in the Legal Landscape: The Blueprint (June 22, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4488199 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.448819 “This innovative case study outlines a blueprint for strategic transformation based on the example of a real-life law firm operating in Germany, using AI tools and …

Subjects: AI, Courts, Economy, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Hey Google, Does Voice Search Yield Better Results Than Typing?

Knowledge@Wharton: “New research from Wharton marketing professor Shiri Melumad reveals that the method of query makes a big difference in the quality of search results. When consumers use voice technology to dictate their search, rather than type it, their search yields better answers that are more precisely tailored to what they are looking for online. …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Search Engines

DOE Critical Materials Assessment July 2023

Politico: “The Energy Department this week unveiled its final list of “critical materials,” a determination that could shape how the agency spends billions of dollars to thwart climate change and bolster a shift to electric vehicles and renewable energy like offshore wind and solar. The assessment deems more than a dozen materials critical, including the …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Transportation

A jargon-free explanation of how AI large language models work

Ars Technica: “When ChatGPT was introduced last fall, it sent shockwaves through the technology industry and the larger world. Machine learning researchers had been experimenting with large language models (LLMs) for a few years by that point, but the general public had not been paying close attention and didn’t realize how powerful they had become. …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Fortune Global 500

“The corporations on our annual list of the world’s largest companies showed their muscle in 2022, delivering record-high aggregate revenues of $41 trillion. But the Fortune Global 500 has been anything but static, as technological change and scientific breakthroughs threaten established leaders and elevate new winners. Walmart remains No. 1 for the 10th consecutive year, …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Food and Nutrition, Health Care

The Live Music Archive Lets You Stream

Open Culture: Download More Than 250,000 Concert Recordings–for Free: “The Internet Archive maintains an enormous Live Music Archive of concert recordings, not all of them by the Grateful Dead. There are more than 17,000 such recordings in its Grateful Dead collection — 2,000 more than when last we featured it here on Open Culture — …

Subjects: Internet

We’re now finding out the damaging results of the mandated return to the office

Fortune: “And it’s not a pretty picture. A trio of compelling reports—the Greenhouse Candidate Experience report, the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), and Unispace’s Returning for Good report—collectively paint a stark picture of this brewing storm. Unispace found that nearly half (42%) of companies with return-to-office mandates witnessed a higher level …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Health Care, Transportation