Lawyer Ex Machina #50: Not getting a Nissan now
AI
Another class action lawsuit has been filed against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of violating a number of privacy laws by scraping personal data of Internet users and training ChatGPT with the data. [Reuters | Bloomberg Law ($) | Law360 | Docket]
Related: An update on the prior lawsuits filed against developers of GenAI products (both text and image)
A recent California Supreme Court holding that certain third-party entities that "carries out FEHA-regulated activities on behalf of an employer" may be liable for employment discrimination has some observers wondering if that would also apply to vendors of algorithmic software used for employment screening [Opinion | Law.com ($)]
Artist Jason Allen, who won last year's Colorado State Fair digital arts prize with a work created with the AI image generator MidJourney, is appealing the U.S. Copyright Office decision to deny a copyright registration for the work, Théâtre D’opéra Spatial [Axios | Bloomberg Law ($) | Colorado Public Radio]
The Attorneys General of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories, have sent a letter to House and Senate leaders in Congress to request the formation of an expert commission to investigate the potential use of AI to generate exploitive material based on children (CSAM) [Ars Technica]
California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order for state agencies to "study the development, use, and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) technology throughout the state and to develop a deliberate and responsible process for evaluation and deployment of AI within state government"
Blockchain
According to the New York Times [$], lawyers, accountants and other corporate turnaround specialists have billed over $700 million arising from bankruptcies of cryptocurrency firms.
Data Privacy
UK lawmakers have to delay enforcement of a provision of the new UK Safety Bill that would have required tech companies to scan all messages, regardless of encryption, for harmful content, finding that the requirement is technically infeasible.
The Mozilla Foundation has issued a report finding that car makers collect far too much personal information and have very lax privacy policies about what they can do with the data they collect. From Politico:
researchers found that Japanese car manufacturer Nissan said it could sell information about drivers and passengers’ sexual activity, intelligence and health diagnosis to data brokers, law enforcement agencies and other companies. German manufacturer Volkswagen said it could record drivers’ voices to profile them for targeted ads.
Events
9/27/2023 - 10:30 - 4:00 p.m. ET - The USPTO is hosting a virtual and in-person meeting on "various IP policy issues with respect to AI tools and data."