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Daily Archives: May 16, 2023

YouTube Leads Young Gamers to Videos of Guns, School Shootings

Tech Transparency Project: “YouTube says it delivers ‘responsible’ video recommendations. But its algorithms steered accounts for young gamers toward content on guns, school shootings, and a serial killer.
Key points from this report:

  • YouTube recommended hundreds of videos about guns and gun violence to accounts for boys interested in video games, according to a new study.
  •  Some of the recommended videos gave instructions on how to convert guns into automatic weapons or depicted school shootings.
  •  The gamer accounts that watched the YouTube-recommended videos got served a much higher volume of gun- and shooting-related content.
  •  Many of the videos violated YouTube’s own policies on firearms, violence, and child safety, and YouTube took no apparent steps to age-restrict them.
  •  YouTube also recommended a movie about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to minor accounts, the study found.

YouTube’s algorithms are pushing boys interested in video games to scenes of school shootings, instructions on how to use and modify weapons, and even a movie about notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, according to a study by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) that raises new questions about the safety of YouTube’s recommendation system…”

Can ChatGPT Decipher Fedspeak?

Hansen, Anne Lundgaard and Kazinnik, Sophia, Can ChatGPT Decipher Fedspeak? (March 24, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4399406 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4399406  – Yes! This paper investigates the ability of Generative Pre-training Transformer (GPT) models to decipher Fedspeak, a term used to describe the technical language used by the Federal Reserve to communicate on monetary policy decisions. We… Continue Reading

The Hottest Online Game: Hunting for Classified Documents

WSJ – [free to read]  “The government secrets leaked on Discord have become fodder for users seeking fun and attention – “Videogame enthusiasts are scouring popular social-media platforms in the hope of finding classified U.S. military documents, turning the recent national-security crisis over leaked secrets into a global scavenger hunt. The competition pits online users… Continue Reading

Law Firm Newswire Launches Free AI Press Release Writer for Lawyers

May 15, 2023 (Law Firm Newswire via COMTEX)  “Law Firm Newswire (LFN) has developed an AI press release writer that can help lawyers and law firms write quality press releases. AI learns by example; thus LFN’s engineers used world-class legal journalism, court opinions, and some of LFN’s best-performing press releases as a foundation to create… Continue Reading

S.1564 – AI Leadership Training Act

S. 1564 – To require the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to establish, or otherwise ensure the provision of, a training program on artificial intelligence for Federal management officials and supervisors, and for other purposes. May 11, 2023. “U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and… Continue Reading

Oversight of A.I.: Rules for Artificial Intelligence

Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing. May 15, 20223 – Oversight of A.I.: Rules for Artificial Intelligence – Hearing video Witnesses – Samuel Altman, CEO OpenAI San Francisco, CA – Download Testimony: “…OpenAI is a leading developer of large language models (LLMs) and other AI tools. Fundamentally, the current generation of AI models are large-scale statistical prediction… Continue Reading

The Rule of Law

Sunstein, Cass R., The Rule of Law (March 30, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4405238 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4405238– “The concept of the rule of law is invoked for purposes that are both numerous and diverse, and that concept is often said to overlap with, or to require, an assortment of other practices and ideals, including democracy, free… Continue Reading