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Category Archives: Marketing

FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power

Tech Crunch: “Attorneys general from 17 states joined the FTC in the lawsuit, alleging that Amazon leverages a “set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies” to maintain a monopoly. The states that signed onto the FTC’s action are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.”

Tech Crunch: What is Amazon’s [redacted] ‘Project Nessie’ algorithm? “The FTC’s lawsuit against Amazon alleging anti-competitive practices is largely full of things we already knew in a general sense: price hikes, pressure to use Amazon fulfillment and so on. But then we get to a sea of redactions and the mysterious “Project Nessie.” What is it, and could it possibly be as alarming as the unredacted sections make it sound? The project, product or process is referred to more than a dozen times in the complaint filed by the FTC. And it’s one of those situations where the redactions probably make it sound scarier than it actually is. Probably. The first reference comes on page 6: Amazon has also [redacted] through a [redacted] operation called “Project Nessie.” [redacted] Amazon’s Project Nessie has already extracted over [redacted] from American households. What is it extracting? Money? Data? Something quantifiable, or else the document would not say “over.” Though I wouldn’t put it past Amazon, the context does not suggest anything physical or private, like video or biometrics. An Amazon blog post from 2018 spotted by GeekWire describes Nessie as “a system used to monitor spikes or trends on Amazon.com.” Much of the timeline in the lawsuit takes place since then, however, so this definition (such as it is) may no longer be accurate, if it ever was…”

September 2023 Issue of LLRX

LLRX Articles and Columns for September 2023 Adding a ‘Group Advisory Layer’ to Your Use of Generative AI Tools Through Structured Prompting: The G-A-L Method – The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) in legal research signifies a transformative shift – Dennis Kennedy Keeping Up With Generative AI in the Law – Rebecca Fordon AI in… Continue Reading

DOJ finally posted that “embarrassing” court doc Google wanted to hide

Ars Technica: “The US Department of Justice has finally posted what Judge Amit Mehta described at the Google search antitrust trial as an “embarrassing” exhibit that Google tried to hide from the public. The document in question contains meeting notes that Google’s vice president for finance, Michael Roszak, “created for a course on communications,” Bloomberg… Continue Reading

The Lies in Your Grocery Store

The New Yorker [read free]: “…Most people accept the gimmicks of food labelling. One lawyer can’t stomach them…Sheehan, forty-four, specializes in consumer-protection class-action suits. Specifically, he focusses on packaged foods, and on the authenticity of their ingredients and flavors. Sheehan has sued the makers of frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts (dearth of real strawberries), Hint of Lime… Continue Reading

Generative AI Conversations Are a Peek Into the Legal Tech ‘Boys’ Club’

Law.com – Isha Marathe: “Many legal tech panels on generative artificial intelligence are still dominated by a homogenous group: white men. It’s a glimpse into the more insidious barriers that stand in the way of women tech founders fighting to make it in the industry. In a phenomenon that carries through from college classrooms to boardrooms… Continue Reading

Generative AI Is a Catalyst for Law Firms and Talent Development

Bloomberg Law: “There are broad possibilities around generative AI, and it’s here to help law firms operate. Cleary Gottlieb’s Michael Gerstenzang and Sixth Street’s David Stiepleman outline how law practices need to rethink their judgment and experiences with AI. Generative artificial intelligence and large language models are here. And soon enough, they won’t be optional.… Continue Reading

Business Adopting AI Risk a ‘Trust Gap’ with Customers

Salesforce Report: “Businesses could soon face an AI trust gap with customers, according to a new survey of more than 14,000 consumers and business buyers across 25 countries. As brands increasingly adopt AI to increase efficiency and meet increasing customer expectations, nearly three quarters of their customers are concerned about unethical use of the technology.… Continue Reading

We Found 650,000 Ways Advertisers Label You

Via LLRX – We Found 650,000 Ways Advertisers Label You – If you spend any time online, you probably have some idea that the digital ad industry is constantly collecting data about you, including a lot of personal information, and sorting you into specialized categories so you’re more likely to buy the things they advertise… Continue Reading