EFF- Cory Doctorow: “Privacy First” is a simple, powerful idea: seeing as so many of today’s technological problems are also privacy problems, why don’t we fix privacy first? Whether you’re worried about kids’ mental health, or tech’s relationship to journalism, or spying by foreign adversaries, or reproductive rights, or AI deepfakes, or nonconsensual pornography, you’re… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Legislation
Everything you need to know to prepare for the EU’s AI Act
sifted: “EU lawmakers finally came to an agreement on the AI Act at the end of 2023 — a piece of legislation that had been in the works for years to regulate artificial intelligence and prevent misuses of the technology. Now the text is going through a series of votes before it becomes EU law… Continue Reading
Wyden’s Gets FTC To Protect Data Of 1.6 B People Tracked By Now-Bankrupt Data Broker
TechDirt: “There are two major reasons that the U.S. doesn’t pass an internet-era privacy law or regulate data brokers despite a parade of dangerous scandals. One, lobbied by a vast web of interconnected industries with unlimited budgets, Congress is too corrupt to do its job. Two, the U.S. government is disincentivized to do anything because it exploits… Continue Reading
State of the Union
USA Facts: In Numbers – A nonpartisan, data-driven snapshot of the state of our union. “Article II of the US Constitution mandates that the president periodically inform Congress about the “state of the union,” including budget reports and legislative proposals. It is also a chance for the president to review their achievements, with not just… Continue Reading
CivicSearch
“CivicSearch is a search and discovery tool for everything that is said in local government meetings, texts, and laws. It covers 545 cities and towns in the US and Canada. Included is recent content from LocalView, a data set of transcripts from city councils and other local government bodies around the US. The data is… Continue Reading
Their States Banned Abortion
ProPublica – Doctors Now Say They Can’t Give Women Potential Lifesaving Care. “…Most medical exceptions in abortion bans only allow the procedure to “save the life of the mother.” But there is a wide spectrum of health risks patients can face during pregnancy, and even those that are potentially fatal could fall outside of the… Continue Reading
The impact of generative AI in a global election year
Brookings – Valerie Wirtschafter: “The influence of the online ecosystem in shaping democratic discourse is well-documented, with the expanded reach of generative artificial intelligence (AI) representing a novel challenge in a historic election year. Generative AI enables the creation of realistic images, videos, audio, or text based on user-provided prompts. Given the potential exploitation of… Continue Reading
Digital Policy Alert – CLaiRK BETA
“CLaiRK is the latest initiative of the Digital Policy Alert team. Over the first half of 2024, we aim to build a comprehensive tool that will help you navigate the rapidly changing landscape of artificial intelligence rules. Our mission is to help policymakers, legal professionals, journalists and citizens better understand the nuances of digital regulations… Continue Reading
Judge rejects most ChatGPT copyright claims from book authors
Ars Technica: “A US district judge in California has largely sided with OpenAI, dismissing the majority of claims raised by authors alleging that large language models powering ChatGPT were illegally trained on pirated copies of their books without their permission. By allegedly repackaging original works as ChatGPT outputs, authors alleged, OpenAI’s most popular chatbot was just… Continue Reading
Atrocious Air
First Street: “Since the middle of the last century, the United States has witnessed significant changes in air quality, driven by industrialization, technological advancements, regulatory measures, and public awareness. The most important of these interventions was the Clean Air Act of 1963, which served as the first federal legislation addressing air quality concerns. While air… Continue Reading
New York State Passes Law That Could Have Counted Trump’s Actions as Rape
Mother Jones: “On Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation broadening the state’s definition of rape, eliminating the penile penetration requirement. The bill, “Rape Is Rape,” expands the law to include nonconsensual anal, oral, and vaginal sexual contact. Starting in September, New York will be like many other states: The penal code will not limit rape to… Continue Reading
13 percent of AI chat bot users in the US just want to talk
“Two new Consumer Reports surveys explore the use of and attitudes toward text-based generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots by consumers in the United States. Artificial intelligence is being used every day across the country and is increasingly being integrated in the lives of Americans, from customer service to online medical advice. CR conducted two separate… Continue Reading
