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WHAT: Speak Up for Justice Forum, “Global Threats to the Justice System: A Warning to America.” A powerful, nonpartisan international forum where judges who’ve lived through authoritarian crackdowns will share urgent warnings about what happens when courts are attacked—and how it signals a broader collapse of democracy. Featuring rare remarks by U.S. Supreme Court Justice …
The New York Times no paywall – “Since the explosion of generative artificial intelligence over the last two years, the technology has demeaned or defamed opponents and, for the first time, officials and experts said, begun to have an impact on election results. Free and easy to use, A.I. tools have generated a flood of …
The Register: “Ring doorbells and cameras are using AI to “learn the routines of your residence,” via a new feature called Video Descriptions. It’s part of Amazon’s — really, all of the tech giants are doing this — ongoing effort to stuff AI into everything it makes. This particular feature will use generative AI to …
“Newspaper revenue has been in decline for decades, and most Americans now prefer to get news from digital devices. In this environment, many news organizations – and not just newspapers – put paywalls on their websites or apps, blocking access to articles or other content unless news consumers pay or subscribe. The vast majority of …
State Capacitance – Before Toyota, there was the Social Security Administration – “Some people claim that hard times make strong men. Perhaps it is true. In any event, World War II was a hard time that made organizations stronger, where the war demanded peak efficiency from agencies such as the Social Social Security Board (now …
404 Media: “A new site, FuckLAPD.com, is using public records and facial recognition technology to allow anyone to identify police officers in Los Angeles they have a picture of. The tool, made by artist Kyle McDonald, is designed to help people identify cops who may otherwise try to conceal their identity, such as covering their …
Via LLRX – Unholy Counsel: Stephen Miller, the Constitution, and the Vampiric Assault on States’ Rights – In this Mostly Lawful deep dive, we’ll examine how Trump (abetted by his most ghoulish advisor, Stephen Miller – basically Trump’s Count Dracula with a law degree and a hate for due process) has clashed with legal limits and states’ …
Simon Willison’s Weblog – Anthropic wins a major fair use victory for AI — but it’s still in trouble for stealing books. Major USA legal news for the AI industry today. Judge William Alsup released a “summary judgement” (a legal decision that results in some parts of a case skipping a trial) in a lawsuit …
First Branch Forecast – “The House of Representatives is poised to inflict catastrophic damage on its own institutional capacity. Today, the House Appropriations Committee released its proposed funding levels for the Legislative Branch, which would slash the Government Accountability Office’s budget by 50 percent and the Library of Congress by 12 percent from FY 2024 …
Anthropic Paper – Highlights We stress-tested 16 leading models from multiple developers in hypothetical corporate environments to identify potentially risky agentic behaviors before they cause real harm. In the scenarios, we allowed models to autonomously send emails and access sensitive information. They were assigned only harmless business goals by their deploying companies; we then tested whether …
Bloomberg – no paywall: “Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prepare a memo on how to abolish itself and create a re-branded, radically smaller disaster response organization, according to a copy of the document reviewed by Bloomberg News. As recently as last week, President Donald Trump and Noem said …
The Verge: “Google Earth will now let you look at historical imagery from Street View. The update, which comes as part of the tool’s 20th anniversary, allows you to see how a location has changed over time. Google Earth already offers the ability to switch to Street View while viewing satellite imagery, but now you …
