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Category Archives: Legal Research

NO FAKES – A Dream for Lawyers, a Nightmare for Everyone Else

EFF: “Performers and ordinary humans are increasingly concerned that they may be replaced or defamed by AI-generated imitations. We’re seeing a host of bills designed to address that concern – but every one just generates new problems. Case in point: the NO FAKES Act. We flagged numerous flaws in a “discussion draft” back in April,… Continue Reading

Collecting federal .gov databases

“Please help us by submitting the agency name and url of your favorite agency’s queryable database. We will attempt to harvest that information for the 2024 crawl. We appreciate your time in assisting us in collecting those .gov databases. Please feel free to forward this email to other interested people/communities/lists. For questions, please email me… Continue Reading

OpenTheBooks.com – Every Dime. Online. In Real Time.

“At OpenTheBooks.com, we work hard to capture and post all disclosed spending at every level of government – federal, state, and local. In 2022, we filed 50,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and captured 25 million public employee pension and salary records. We also broke open the California state checkbook for the first time… Continue Reading

Biggest US companies warn of growing AI risk

FT.com [unpaywalled] – “Study finds more than half of Fortune 500 groups cited new technology as a potential hazard in their latest annual reports. More than half of the US’s biggest companies see artificial intelligence as a potential risk to their businesses, according to a new survey of corporate filings that highlights how the emerging… Continue Reading

The Economist US election forecast model

The Economist’s model of America’s presidential election estimates each major candidate’s chances of winning each state and the overall electoral college. Developed with a team of scholars at Columbia University, the forecast combines national and state-level polls with fundamental data about the state of the economy, historical voting patterns and the demographics of each state… Continue Reading

U.S. Congress Legislative Status Steps Image added to Congress.gov

In Custodia Legis: “July was a great month for Congress.gov. Robert shared news of our first release of the month and I blogged about the second. Andrew Reiter detailed how we modernized treaty documents. Cassidy Charles discussed all of the appropriations information on Congress.gov and highlighted the new appropriations resources video. With today’s release there is… Continue Reading

Yale Library – Objects from 200-plus collections are new online

“April 1 through June 30 of this year, more than 8,500 new object landing pages were created. These pages contain 30,000-plus images of individual items, including handwritten letters, manuscripts, photographs, maps, and more. The Lewis Walpole Library alone added digital images for more than 2,000 items, including objects from the British Theatrical and Literary Prints… Continue Reading

NationalPublicData.com Hack Exposes a Nation’s Data

Krebs on Security: “A great many readers this month reported receiving alerts that their Social Security Number, name, address and other personal information were exposed in a breach at a little-known but aptly-named consumer data broker called NationalPublicData.com. This post examines what we know about a breach that has exposed hundreds of millions of consumer… Continue Reading

Etsy for Guns?

Court Watch: A 3D Etsy print shop sells ghost gun parts. “When we think about products typically sold on Etsy, it conjures up images of lovely espresso martini scented candles or maybe even drink coasters you can customize as mini vinyl records with your favorite album covers. After all, Etsy describes itself as “the global… Continue Reading

Microsoft Tweaks Fine Print To Warn Everyone Not To Take Its AI Seriously

The Register – “Microsoft is notifying users that its AI services should not be taken too seriously, echoing prior service-specific disclaimers – an update to the IT giant’s Service Agreement, which takes effect on September 30, 2024, Redmond has declared that its Assistive AI isn’t suitable for matters of consequence. “AI services are not designed,… Continue Reading