Welcome 2024!
AI
The Federal Judicial Center has published the following guide: An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence for Federal Judges
The Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act has been re-introduced in Congress [Statement by Rep. Morelle | WSJ ($)]
Michael Cohen admitted in a declaration that he mistakingly gave cases generated by Google's AI chatbot, Bard, to his attorney, who used them in a court filing without verification - those cases turned out to be fictitious [NY Times ($) | NBC News]
Related: "Hallucinating Law: Legal Mistakes with Large Language Models are Pervasive" [Bloomberg Law ($)| Stanford Law Summary | Full paper] [ed. note: Thanks to Lee Peoples and Brian Raphael for sending this to me]
A couple of contemporary psychologists have had AI models trained on their writings and speeches to develop chatbots that give therapeutic advice, without prior knowledge or consent
In the case against GitHub and Microsoft over its AI-based code-generated CoPilot feature, Judge Tigar as dismissed some but not all claims against the defendants, allowing the suit to go forward
Law librarian Jennifer Wondracek has shared some AI prompting worksheets for legal professionals, using general and legal-specific GenAI products
From Politico: "A new bill from Democratic Assemblymember Marc Berman ... would update the state’s penal code to criminalize the production, distribution or possession of [child sexual abuse] material, even if it’s fictitious."
Blockchain/Digital Currency
From Reuters: "US SEC approves bitcoin ETFs in watershed for crypto market"
It's been confirmed that a cryptocurrency hedge fund hired an actor to pose as its CEO
Data Privacy
Google has settled a $5 billion class action suit alleging privacy violations around whether using Chrome in "incognito mode" still allowed tracking of users [IAPP | Daily Security Review]
Abusive partners are using apps connected to cars to stalk and harass victims
Long Reads/Listens
Christine Haight Farley, Trademarks in an Algorithmic World, 98 Wash. L. Rev. 1123 (2023)
Law School Toolbox has a podcast episode featuring the founders of Paxton.AI, a free "AI legal assistant" based on LLM technology
The Geek in Review podcast has an episode focusing on "Projections for Legal Tech and Innovations in 2024"
Events
01/22/24 - 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET: v|lex is hosting a webinar on Emerging Legal Tech Trends and Predictions for 2024
01/25/24 - 12:00 pm – 4:30 pm ET: The FTC is hosting a virtual tech summit focused on AI; no registration required