Consent in Crisis: The Rapid Decline of the AI Data Commons. July 2024. Data ProvenanceL General-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) systems are built on massive swathes of public web data, assembled into corpora such as C4, RefinedWeb, and Dolma. “To our knowledge, we conduct the first, large-scale, longitudinal audit of the consent protocols for the web… Continue Reading
Griffin, Lisa Kern, Being an Icon: Reflections on Sandra Day O’Connor (May 01, 2024). 76 Stanford Law Review (2024), Duke Law School Public Law & Legal Theory Series No. 2024-44, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4874503 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4874503 – “Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s passing in December inspired an outpouring of tributes to the rancher’s daughter who blazed… Continue Reading
Harvard Business Review: “Today the workforce is getting older, and the number of younger workers in positions of senior management is growing. These two developments might appear to spell trouble, in that they seem to set the generations against one another, but the author of this article argues that in fact they represent an important… Continue Reading
EDJNet – The European Data Journalism Network: “Italy convinced the world that it was the king of liquid gold by selling Spanish oil, but now Spain has appropriated ‘Made in Italy’. With 283 million olive trees, Spain dominates the global olive oil market: in the 2021/22 season, the last one before drought destroyed its harvest,… Continue Reading
The American Bar Association’s Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence released a report today titled “Year I Report on the Impact of AI on the Practice of Law” that details the work of the group over the past year. The AI Task Force, created in August 2023 by ABA President Mary Smith, brought together… Continue Reading
The New York Times [unpaywalled]: “Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search, a federal judge ruled on Monday, a landmark decision that strikes at the power of tech giants in the modern internet era and that may fundamentally alter the way they do business. Judge Amit P. Mehta of U.S. District Court… Continue Reading
My Book On Web Typography – Typography is your design’s voice and the most powerful tool you have to communicate with your readers. Learn how to wield type with care and wit: how to evaluate typefaces, consider technical constraints, create flexible typographic systems, and put together your own collection of favorite faces. Download for free Continue Reading
ProPublica: The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans – As Donald Trump tried to disavow the politically toxic project, its director, Paul Dans, stepped down. But the plans and massive staffing database that he prepared — to replace thousands of members of the “deep state” with MAGA loyalists — remain…But then again, his resignation… Continue Reading
Available online 31 July 2024 – “Post-COVID-19 condition (also known as long COVID) is generally defined as symptoms persisting for 3 months or more after acute COVID-19. Long COVID can affect multiple organ systems and lead to severe and protracted impairment of function as a result of organ damage. The burden of this disease, both… Continue Reading
“The Center for American Progress has periodically analyzed statements by sitting members of Congress to determine whether they deny the existence of human-caused climate change. This analysis of the 118th U.S. Congress found that 123 elected officials are climate deniers—23 percent of 535 total members. These 100 representatives and 23 senators wield significant influence on… Continue Reading
EFF: “Last month’s unprecedented global IT failure should be a wakeup call. Decades of antitrust inaction have made many industries dangerously reliant on the same tools, making such crises inevitable. We must demand regulators break up the digital monocultures that are creating a less competitive, less safe, and less free digital world. The Federal Trade… Continue Reading
Washington Post via Yahoo: “…Apple deserves credit for making many privacy protections automatic with Safari, which you probably use to browse the web if you have an iPhone, Mac computer or iPad. But Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said Safari is no better than the fourth-best web browser for… Continue Reading