Outlaw AI Country
A small newsletter on legaltech
AI
The Trump Administration has drafted an executive order that would create a task force to challenge state AI regulation and withhold federal funds from states that have passed AI laws deemed “onerous”; at the same time Congress is considering a provision to federally pre-empt AI regulation to be included in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2026 [WSJ ($) | State Scoop | Draft of Executive Order | Fisher Phillips blogpost | The Hill]
Clio has completed its acquisition of vLex (which includes Fastcase and Vincent.AI for US$1 billion, putatively the large legaltech deal to date
OpenAI lost a copyright lawsuit in the Munich Regional Court of Germany over song lyrics [Court press release (German) | Opinion (German) | Reuters ($) | The Guardian ($) | Bird & Bird blogpost | Grellas Shah blogpost | Norton Rose Fulbright blogpost]
From Business Insider: “I went to a closed-door retreat for top lawyers. The message was clear: Don't fear AI — use it”
From Artificial Lawyer: “‘I’d Rather Use AI Than Give Work To A Junior Lawyer’”
Chinese hackers used Anthropic’s AI tools to automate a series of attacks against foreign corporations and governments [WSJ ($)]
Mike Collins, who is running for the Georgia Senate seat currently held by Jon Ossoff, unveiled a deepfake ad featuring Sen. Ossoff with speech scripted by Collins’ campaign
“Walk My Walk,” by Breaking Root, is the first AI-generated song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Country Digital Song Sales chart [Newsweek | Whiskey Riff]
Carolyn Elefant has an explainer on how lawyers can use the business tier versions of ChatGPT while protecting client confidentiality [LinkedIn post]
Fabrication Follies
Blockchain & Digital Currency
From Reuters [$]: “Saudi luxury real estate developer Dar Global hopes to fund much of its latest Trump hotel in the Maldives by selling blockchain-based crypto tokens to U.S. retail investors, its CEO told Reuters on Tuesday”
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which released The Panama Papers, has a series of investigations on money laundering with the cyrpto industry called The Coin Laundry
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Jack Reed (D-RI) have written a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessett and Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for an investigation of cryptocurrency company World Library Financial, which has been accused of selling its tokens “to buyers that conducted business with North Korean state-sponsored hackers, sanctioned Russian money-laundering entities, and other illicit actors” [CNBC | Letter]
Miscellaneous
The Director of the Congressional Budget Office reported this week that the cyberattack on the agency from two weeks ago has been “contained” and no further information from the agency’s email system has been accessed by the hackers
Lawyers from EFF and the ACLU are suing San Jose, CA in state court for the city’s deployment of Flock’s Automated License Plate Readers, arguing in its complaint that San Jose’s program “stands apart in its invasiveness,” with close to 500 cameras across the city, location records retained for a year, and no warrant required for searches [404 Media ($) | Courthouse News | EFF | Complaint]
Long Reads
Lemley, Mark A. and Ouellette, Lisa Larrimore, Plagiarism, Copyright, and AI (August 20, 2025). University of Chicago Law Review Online, forthcoming 2025, Stanford Public Law Working Paper, https://ssrn.com/abstract=5399463, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5399463, or https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archive/plagiarism-copyright-and-ai