Author archives

The 20 companies that get the most money from the US government, ranked by contract value

Data is Beautiful – VeridionData – Top 20 Federal Government Contractor by Contract Value Sources: SAM.gov/FPDS FY2023 all-federal contract obligations, supplemented with FY2024 DoD data from Defense Security Monitor and Washington Technology Top 100. FY2023 because it’s the latest complete all-agency dataset publicly available. Subsidiaries rolled up under parent companies. I handle the sector labels; some companies straddle …

Subjects: E-Government, Economy, Financial System

These Apps Can Help You Find the Cheapest Gas

Lifehacker: “In the wake of the U.S.-Iran conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the price of crude oil has risen sharply on the international market. Now, it’s starting to impact gasoline and diesel prices in the U.S., with increases at the pump of as much as 30% in some areas. Gas prices …

Subjects: Economy, Energy, Transportation

Apple’s Siri Isn’t Just Going to Use One Chatbot. It’s Going to Use All of Them

Gizmodo: “Siri has gone from in a relationship with OpenAI to in an open relationship. According to Bloomberg, Apple has decided to forgo an exclusive deal with OpenAI to allow Siri to run queries through ChatGPT and will instead opt to open the platform up to competing chatbots, including Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini. Per …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management

Google just patented the end of your website

Forbes: A patent granted to Google on January 27, 2026 titled “AI-generated content page tailored to a specific user” describes a system that evaluates your company’s landing page in real time and, if it decides the page won’t perform well enough for a specific user, replaces it with an AI-generated version assembled on the fly. …

Subjects: Patent and Trademark

Map showing light pollution across the world

Map showing light pollution across the world – www.lightpollutionmap.info is a mapping application that displays light pollution related content. The primary use was to show VIIRS/DMSP data in a friendly manner, but over the many years it received also some other interesting light pollution related content like SQM/SQC measurements, Sky brightness, almost realtime clouds, aurora prediction …

Subjects: Climate Change, E-Government, Environmental Law, Search Engines

What 81,000 people want from AI

Anthropic: “Last December, tens of thousands of Claude users around the world had a conversation with our AI interviewer share how they use AI, what they dream it could make possible, and what they fear it might do. For the first time, AI has enabled us to collect rich, open‑ended interviews at extraordinary scale. We …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Search Engines

When Your Biggest Client Starts Eating Your Firm

Via LLRX – When Your Biggest Client Starts Eating Your Firm – Josh Kubick⁠ identifies a significant risk that will impact large law firm services to global enterprise wide clients. As Kubicki details, the single largest buyer of elite legal services in the world is now funding the construction of an AI law firm designed to …

Subjects: AI, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Marketing

Claude Meets Westlaw and Lexis

Seth Chandler – “Something remarkable has happened in the last few months, and most of the legal academy has not noticed. Anthropic’s Claude—the AI assistant many of us have experimented with for drafting, brainstorming, and analysis—can now directly control a web browser. That means Claude can log into Westlaw or Lexis, run searches, read cases, …

Subjects: AI, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

Trump showed off a classified map during a 2022 plane trip, letter from Democratic lawmaker alleges

Scott McFarlane/AP – Memos, documents released under GOP-led Arctic Frost probe raise new questions about Mar-a-Lago classified records case. In an inquiry released this morning, the ranking member of the US House Judiciary Committee alleges the investigation into then-ex-President Trump’s retention of classified records at Mar-a-Lago found possible evidence Trump showed a classified map to …

Subjects: Congress, Defense, Government Documents, Legal Research

EFF Sues for Answers About Medicare’s AI Experiment

EFF – Little Is Known About AI That Could Affect Millions of Seniors’ Care: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seeking records about a multi-state program that is using AI to evaluate requests for medical care. “Tasking an …

Subjects: AI, Health Care, Legal Research, Medicine

How to Spot AI Hallucinations Like a Reference Librarian

Via LLRX – How to Spot AI Hallucinations Like a Reference Librarian – Hana Lee Goldin is a expert “human” pathfinder who shares her extensive knowledge with an expanding cadre of people seeking to adopt AI in all facets of work and life. In her article, Goldin deftly illuminates one of the major risks of ChatGPT. …

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

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