NPR: “Lately, it’s felt like technological change has entered warp speed. Companies like OpenAI and Google have unveiled new Artificial Intelligence systems with incredible capabilities, making what once seemed like science fiction an everyday reality. It’s an era that is posing big, existential questions for us all, about everything from literally the future of human… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: May 2023
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Turn Toward Tyranny
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Turn Toward Tyranny. May 4, 2023 by Heidi Li Feldman. Keynote for the Ontario Bar Association Legal Conference, “Cross Borders.” Lecture notes prepared by Heidi Li Feldman Part One: Outline of Remarks [snipped] 1. Overview of the current state of U.S. Supreme Court A. Composition of the current Supreme Court bench… Continue Reading
Jury Convicts Four Leaders of the Proud Boys of Seditious Conspiracy Related to U.S. Capitol Breach
DOJ: “All Defendants Convicted of Multiple Felonies. A jury in the District of Columbia today returned guilty verdicts on multiple felonies against five members of the Proud Boys, finding four of the defendants guilty of seditious conspiracy for their actions before and during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. According to… Continue Reading
Yet Another Problem With Recycling: It Spews Microplastics
Wired – “Recycling was already a mess. Now a study finds that one facility may emit 3 million pounds of microplastics a year. The plastics industry has long hyped recycling, even though it is well aware that it’s been a failure. Worldwide, only 9 percent of plastic waste actually gets recycled. In the United States, the rate… Continue Reading
HHS Launches New Website to Help People Find Support for Issues with Mental Health, Drugs, or Alcohol
“A video guide of FindSupport.gov is available for download and use in reporting, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As part of continuing efforts by the Biden-Harris Administration to increase access to mental health and substance use resources, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today launched FindSupport.gov,… Continue Reading
The decline of time-based law firms
Jordan Furlong: “Feeling apocalyptic about the impact of legally trained Large Language Models (LLMs) on the future of law firms? No? Allow this excerpt from Corporate Counsel to help you with that. [T]here’s reason to believe a boatload of tasks could be replaced by AI—about 44% of legal tasks within the U.S., according to Goldman Sachs’… Continue Reading
Justice Thomas, gift reporting rules, and what a Supreme Court code of conduct would and wouldn’t accomplish
Brookings: “Recent revelations of Justice Clarence Thomas’s rocky relationship with gift and income reporting rules have heightened attention to the arcane and often misunderstood federal judicial ethics regime and quickened the drumbeat for a Supreme Court code of conduct. My goal in this post is to (1) summarize the statutes and rules that govern federal… Continue Reading
How to Automatically Edit and Enhance Your Smartphone Photos
The New York Times: “In today’s world of socially shared images, the urge to post a “perfect” photo, free of distractions and blemishes, is nothing new — the practice of manipulating photographs can be traced back to the 19th century. But instead of using laborious darkroom techniques and other manual methods, artificial intelligence and machine… Continue Reading
Goldman’s Role in Failed SVB Deal Under Review in US Probe
Bloomberg (alternative free link) sold portfolio to Goldman at a loss, sought firm’s help Bank’s failure helped push regional lenders into turmoil “Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s role in Silicon Valley Bank’s attempt to raise funds in March is under review by US governmental agencies, which are looking into the failed transaction that helped push the… Continue Reading
Bank Regulation: Preliminary Review of Agency Actions Related to March 2023 Bank Failures
Bank Regulation: Preliminary Review of Agency Actions Related to March 2023 Bank Failures. GAO-23-106736 Published: Apr 28, 2023. Publicly Released: Apr 28, 2023. “Risky business strategies along with weak liquidity and risk management contributed to the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. In both banks, rapid growth was an indicator of risk.… Continue Reading
5 Free AI Content Detectors (GPT / ChatGPT)
Hongkiat: “As the use of AI in content creation continues to rise, it has become increasingly challenging to differentiate AI-generated content from human-written content. Fortunately, free AI content detectors are now available to help us distinguish between the two. These detectors use machine learning models like GPT and ChatGPT to analyze text and determine the… Continue Reading
Google Announces 8 New Top Level Domains Including One For Lawyers
Search Engine Journal: “Google announced the release of eight new top level domains (TLDs), including one which may have a high commercial potential for law firms, others that are useful for academics and two top level domains that are based on file extensions, which might be problematic from a security standpoint..” Continue Reading
