November 22, 2023

Lawyer Ex Machina #61: The early Thanksgiving ed.

AI

• Politico is reporting that the opposition to regulating foundation AI models by France, Germany, and Italy is strengthening and may block the AI Act from final passage

• The Washington Post goes into detail on lawyers using AI for legal services, from e-discovery software to ChatGPT

• The Board of Trustees for the State Bar of California has publication of the Practical Guidance for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law, developed by the Committee of Professional Responsibility and Conduct

• An attempted class action suit against DoNotPay, which promised AI-based legal help for consumers, was dismissed from federal court for lack of standing

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Blockchain/digital currency

• Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder of Biance cryptocurrency exchange, has pled guilty to one count of money laundering and will pay a $50 million fine and resign as CEO from the company; Biance will also pay a $4.3 billion fine for "engaging in anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violations"

• The SEC is suing the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken for selling unregistered securities, as well as commingling corporate and customer funds [Complaint | SEC Release]

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Data Privacy

• Lawmakers are considering the addition of a warrant requirement for law enforcement to access data on "US persons" based on FISA Section 702

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Miscellaneous

• From Bleeping Computer: "The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware operation has taken extortion to a new level by filing a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint against one of their alleged victims for not complying with the four-day rule to disclose a cyberattack"

• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn't have "a good way to collect public complaints of unsafe autonomous vehicle driving," and thus has no solid number on how many incidents involving pedestrians and Cruise driverless taxis there are