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Category Archives: Legal Research

AI Can Tell Your Political Affiliation Just by Looking at Your Face

Gizmodo: “A study recently published in the peer-reviewed American Psychologist journal claims that a combination of facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology can accurately assess a person’s political orientation by simply looking at that person’s blank, expressionless face. The study was authored by researchers at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Researchers write that, prior to the experiment, they had 591 participants answer a political questionnaire that provided insights into their political beliefs. Those same participants were then scanned by researchers’ AI algorithm, which attempted to assess where they fell on the political spectrum. The algorithm could generally tell what a person’s political orientation was with a high degree of accuracy, even when that person’s identity was “decorrelated with age, gender, and ethnicity,” researchers write. The “algorithm’s predictive accuracy was even higher” when it had access to “participants’ age, gender, and ethnicity,” researchers write. The levels of accuracy were broken down in different situations and expressed in formulas, but the researchers summarized it as being “on par with how well job interviews predict job success, or alcohol drives aggressiveness.”

Mozilla AI Intersections Database

“This searchable AI database maps intersections between the key social justice and human rights areas of our time and documented AI impacts and their manifestations in society. Further, the database catalogs civil society organizations, social movement actors, researchers, and other entities that are either actively doing work at these intersections, or are well suited for… Continue Reading

US Supreme Court to Parse Official Acts in Trump Immunity Fight

Bloomberg Law [paywall but most of the article is available free]: “The US Supreme Court is poised to reckon with what constitutes an official presidential act in weighing former President Donald Trump’s claim that he’s immune from being criminally prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Trump argues the charges are all based on… Continue Reading

The Man Who Killed Google Search

Where’s Your Ed Act via Metafilter – “Edward Zitron has been reading all of google’s internal emails that have been released as evidence in the DOJ’s antitrust case against google.  Zitron concludes that Google Search died on February 5th, 2019. It was on that date at Google’s HQ evil lair an emergency meeting, aka a… Continue Reading

The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Research in the Legal Profession

Biresaw, Samuel Maireg, The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Research in the Legal Profession (December 15, 2023). Upcoming in International Journal of Law and Society, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4727017 – “Legal research is an indispensable skill for lawyers. It is always necessary for lawyers to engage in legal research in due course to solve various legal… Continue Reading

FTC’s Noncompete Rule: What You Should Know

Under the final Noncompete Rule, the FTC adopts a comprehensive ban on new noncompetes with all workers, including senior executives. The final rule provides that it is an unfair method of competition—and therefore a violation of Section 5—for employers to enter into noncompetes with workers. Note: The regulation’s effective date is 120 days after Federal… Continue Reading

A National Security Insider Does the Math on the Dangers of AI

Wired [unpaywalled]: “Jason Matheny is a delight to speak with, provided you’re up for a lengthy conversation about potential technological and biomedical catastrophe. Now CEO and president of Rand Corporation, Matheny has built a career out of thinking about such gloomy scenarios. An economist by training with a focus on public health, he dived into… Continue Reading

DOJ Launches Updated Voting Rights and Elections Website

“The Justice Department announced today that it has updated www.justice.gov/voting, a one-stop resource providing voting and elections information for voters as well as state and local elections officials. As part of the update, the Civil Rights Division published two new informational guides on voting rights and updated five other guides. The Department’s longstanding practice is… Continue Reading

America’s Highest Value International Exports, by State

OnDeck: “The U.S. trade deficit hit nearly $1 trillion in 2022, as America imported some $948.1 billion more than it exported. This $103 billion increase on the previous year’s deficit came as the U.S. and its partners sought to restructure and redefine global supply chains following pandemic disruption and trade barriers with China — with… Continue Reading

Inside Amazon’s Secret Operation to Gather Intel on Rivals

WSJ via MSN: “For nearly a decade, workers in a warehouse in Seattle’s Denny Triangle neighborhood have shipped boxes of shoes, beach chairs, Marvel T-shirts and other items to online retail customers across the U.S. The operation, called Big River Services International, sells around $1 million a year of goods through e-commerce marketplaces including eBay,… Continue Reading