Lawyer Ex Machina #24: Happy holidays
This is the last newsletter for this year ... hope to see you all in 2023.
Artificial Intelligence
(Credit to attorney David Shulman prompting ChatGPT to "write a rap song about the rules against perpetuities")
Social media blew up over the weekend when ChatGPT became available to the public ...
How generative AI is coming for the current homework model, but isn't ready for legal self-help ... yet.
Amazon is starting to issue service cards to accompany cloud-service software that address concerns with algorithmic bias in facial recognition or audio transcription processes.
TSA is testing facial recognition software for ID verification at 16 major airports (including LAX), with potential nationwide rollout as early as next year. [Washington Post ($)]
Cryptocurrency
The New York Times has a full transcript of Sam Bankman-Fried's interview at last week's Dealbook Summit. [($)]
Related: how FTX's collapse is rippling outward to affect AI research. And maybe it's a good thing that effective altruism's influence on AI development may be curtailed. [Wired ($)]
The chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, testifying in front of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, urged lawmakers to pass legislation to create a regulatory framework for digital assets. [Hearing: "Why Congress Needs to Act: Lessons Learned from the FTX Collapse" | C-SPAN coverage]
The European Central Bank has published a blog post on bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulation that has sparked a lot of attention ...
"For bitcoin proponents, the seeming stabilization signals a breather on the way to new heights. More likely, however, it is an artificially induced last gasp before the road to irrelevance – and this was already foreseeable before FTX went bust and sent the bitcoin price to well below USD16,000."
How facial recognition glitches in worker authentication systems have locked out some gig workers, a few permanently. [MIT Technology Review ($)]
Miscellaneous
Two women are suing Apple in the Northern District of California for negligence (including strict liability), arguing that Apple's AirTags are unsafe and make it too easy for stalkers to illegally track their victims. [Docket | Complaint]
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has changed course and voted to deny approval for an SFPD equipment policy that would allow for the use of robots to exercise lethal force.