Lock down that Venmo
A small newsletter on legaltech
AI
Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post are suing the developer of Perplexity.ai, for copyright infringement [Variety | Docket]
In the 2024 survey Future Ready survey by Wolters Kulwer, 68% of legal professionals in law firms and 76% of legal professionals in corporate legal departments report using GenAI tools at least once a week, with a third saying they use such tools daily, despite acknowledged challenges in integration [LawSites summary | WK highlights | Survey download page]
A woman is suing Character.ai over the death of her teenage son, claiming that the developer “knowingly designed, operated, and marketed a predatory AI chatbot to children” [CW: self-harm] [NY Times ($) | The Guardian ($) | Docket]
This year, “nearly 700 pieces of AI legislation” were introduced in state legislatures, according to a new report
Blockchain/digital currency
Politico is predicting that the next Congress will be chock full of pro-crypto legislators
Fintech payments process Stripe is in talks to acquire Bridge, a stablecoin platform for payments, for US$1 billion
A new documentary to air on HBO has named a Canadian developer as Satoshi Nakamoto, the psuedonymous creator of Bitcoin [Politico | Wired ($)]
For lawyers interested in careers in cryptocurrency & blockchain: some advice from Justin Wales, via Above the Law
The person who hacked the SEC’s Twitter account to post a false message about Bitcoin ETFs has been indicted by a grand jury
Data Privacy
Consumer Reports finds some famous people who didn’t keep their Venmo transactions private, in an attempt to convince you to do so
Miscellaneous
From TechCrunch: “Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software under investigation by federal safety regulator”