Spooky Season Returns
A small newsletter on legaltech
AI
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 1047, saying that the AI safety measure only targeted the largest, most expensive models while doing nothing to curtail the potential dangers of smaller models.
The plaintiff who sued California over one of the new election deepfake bills signed into law last month has been granted a preliminary injunction to prevent its enforcement [Docket | Order]
A law review comment from Susan Azyndar, Senior Associate Director of the Kresge Law Library at Notre Dame Law School: “The Limits of Generative AI in Administrative Law Research” (H/T to Rebecca and Jenny)
“At least four major Texas hospitals have been providing their patients’ healthcare data in real time to Pieces so that its generative AI product can ‘summarize’ patients’ condition and treatment for hospital staff. An investigation conducted by the Texas Attorney General found that Pieces made deceptive claims about the accuracy of its healthcare AI products, putting the public interest at risk”
An artist who was denied a copyright registration in his visual piece created with the AI image generator MidJourney has filed suit against the Copyright Office in federal court for a declaratory judgment that his work is copyrightable. [9News | CreativeBloq | Docket | Complaint]
From Harvard Business Review: “Gen AI Makes Legal Action Cheap — and Companies Need to Prepare”
Blockchain/Digital Currency
A CoinDesk investigation has found that over a dozen cryptocurrency firms have “unknowingly” hired workers from North Korea, inadvertently violating U.N. sanctions and U.S. law
Miscellaneous
From The Verge: “FCC is offering $200 million to protect schools and libraries from hackers” [FCC/Dept. of Ed. Resource Guide]
The Center for Democracy and Technology has a report based on a survey of teens, parents, and teachers on issues of non-consensual intimate imagery, both authentic and those created by deepfakes
From Ars Technica: “Public records systems that courts and governments rely on to manage voter registrations and legal filings have been riddled with vulnerabilities that made it possible for attackers to falsify registration databases and add, delete, or modify official documents”
Long Reads
Lee, Katherine and Cooper, A. Feder and Grimmelmann, James, Talkin’ ‘Bout AI Generation: Copyright and the Generative-AI Supply Chain (July 27, 2023). Forthcoming, Journal of the Copyright Society 2024, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4523551 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4523551
Charlesworth, Jacqueline, Generative AI's Illusory Case for Fair Use (August 13, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4924997 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4924997