Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance: “A massive public dataset used to build popular artificial intelligence image generators contains at least 1,008 instances of child sexual abuse material, a new report from the Stanford Internet Observatory found. LAION-5B, which contains more than 5 billion images and related captions from the internet, may also include thousands of additional… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: September 2024
Your tax dollars are funding a $64 billion scam
Raw Story: “…Medicare Advantage is not Medicare. These plans are private health insurance provided by private corporations, who are then fully reimbursed by the Medicare trust fund regardless of how much their customers use their insurance. Thus, the more they can screw their customers and us taxpayers by withholding healthcare, the more money they make.… Continue Reading
Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Law Libraries: Mid-Atlantic Roundtable Report
Laskowski, Casandra and Miguel-Stearns, Teresa M. and Ching, Tina and Florio, Emily and Lohmeier, Kerry and O’Grady, Jean and Postar, Adeen and Williams, Austin and Wolek, Kristin, Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Law Libraries: Mid-Atlantic Roundtable Report (July 31, 2024). Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 24-25, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4955870 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4955870 – On… Continue Reading
LinkedIn Is Training AI on User Data Before Updating Its Terms of Service
TechCrunch: “LinkedIn may have trained AI models on user data without updating its terms. LinkedIn users in the U.S. — but not the EU, EEA, or Switzerland, likely due to those regions’ data privacy rules — have an opt-out toggle in their settings screen disclosing that LinkedIn scrapes personal data to train “content creation AI… Continue Reading
Big publishers think libraries are the enemy
citation needed, Molly White – Big publishers think libraries are the enemy. The recent Second Circuit decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is only the latest battle in the war on libraries and the freedom to read: “I’ve seen quips to the effect of “if public libraries were invented today, they’d be outlawed.” The joke… Continue Reading
Social Media and News Fact Sheet
Pew Research Center: “Digital sources have become an important part of Americans’ news diets – with social media playing a crucial role, particularly for younger adults. Overall, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, up slightly compared with the last few years. News consumption on… Continue Reading
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.… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
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.… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
Redesigned NOAA Library website rolled out
NOAA Library offers access to over 9,000 journals, a combined 120,000 ebooks from Overdrive, ProQuest’s Ebook Central and Wiley Online Library, and 36 different databases. Watch the video and learn how to navigate Primo and find these resources. Continue Reading
