Toronto Metropolitan University – The Dais – Waiting For Takeoff, December 2024: “Executive Summary – Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most discussed technology of recent years. Advocates promise that it will help overcome productivity challenges and radically transform the economy through increased wage gains and higher economic output, among other benefits. This conversation about the… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legal Research
We’re about to enter the Digital Dark Ages
The Business Insider – Online archives are vanishing — and they’re taking our history with them. “The long-promised digital apocalypse has finally arrived, and it was heralded by a blog post. Published on July 18, the post’s headline sounded pretty arcane. “Google URL Shortener links will no longer be available,” it declared. I know, I… Continue Reading
Guide to Abortion Privacy – Digital Defense Fund
Keep Your Abortion Private & Secure – This page is organized into different security-related threats. You can jump to the ones that most concern you. Along with each scenario is a list of digital security tips to neutralize the threats. These are possible concerns you might have: Seeing advertisements related to pregnancy/abortion Tech companies like… Continue Reading
Washington Post Leverages ‘AI’ To Undermine History And Make Search Less Useful
TechDirt: “While “AI” (language learning models) certainly could help journalism, the fail upward brunchlords in charge of most modern media outlets instead see the technology as a way to cut corners, undermine labor, badly automate low-quality, ultra-low effort, SEO-chasing clickbait, and rush undercooked solutions to nonexistent problems to market under the pretense of progress. For example,… Continue Reading
Oceanic Impunity
Cody, Stephen, Oceanic Impunity (July 31, 2024). Southern California Law Review, Vol.97, No.3, p.637, 2024, Suffolk University Law School Research Paper No. 24-10, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4912229 – “Ocean protection is essential to avoid climate disaster. Phytoplankton,seaweeds, and sea grasses produce more than half of Earth’s oxygen—exceeding all terrestrial forests and plants combined—and absorb about… Continue Reading
Location data firm helps police find out when suspects visited their doctor
Ars Technica: “A location-tracking company that sells its services to police departments is apparently using addresses and coordinates of doctors’ and lawyers’ offices and other types of locations to help cops compile lists of places visited by suspects, according to a 404 Media report published today. Fog Data Science, which says it “harness[es] the power… Continue Reading
Dow Jones negotiates AI usage agreements with nearly 4,000 news publishers
NiemanLab: “…Last month, Factiva announced it had signed generative AI usage agreements with nearly 4,000 publishers around the world. The agreements are for the business intelligence platform and news database, which houses articles by online outlets, newspapers, magazines, and transcripts of radio shows. Among the thousands of publishers who signed the agreements are The Associated… Continue Reading
Verification and Digital Investigations Resources
Mike Reilley – Maintained by Craig Silverman of ProPublica (@CraigSilverman). This is by no means a totally comprehensive list, but it covers what I consider to be essential plugins and tools for general OSINT/online research work. There are also links to other resources to go deeper. Continue Reading
Why is printer ink so expensive?
Digital Rights Bytes – “Few liquids are more precious than printer ink, but that’s not because ink is expensive to make. How can HP— and its handful of competitors in the highly concentrated printer market—get away with charging these kinds of markups? Simple: It’s a combination of monopoly power, wacky laws, and consumer-hostile tech… So… Continue Reading
Plastic Pollution and Policy Considerations: Frequently Asked Questions
CRS – Plastic Pollution and Policy Considerations: Frequently Asked Questions, December 5, 2024. “Global and domestic plastic production has increased substantially since the mid-20th century—doubling in the last two decades. The durability, moldability, and versatility of plastic have led to its ubiquitous use, benefiting many aspects of society, including the food, medical, technology, textile, and… Continue Reading
CREAT: Census Research Exploration and Analysis Tool
The Census Research Exploration and Analysis Tool CREAT is a data tool from the Center for Economic Studies (CES) at the US Census Bureau that uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence tools to analyze, categorize, and sort the economic research contained in the CES working paper series. The goal of this project is to… Continue Reading
The Ocean Investigations Guide
Via Ian Urbina: “Investigative reporting about activities at sea is a unique specialty requiring distinct tools and tactics. How can I find open-source footage evidence of human rights abuses or illegal fishing on ships? Is it possible to connect ships to the specific seafood buyers? Is there a way to track ships even when they… Continue Reading
