Jeremiah 9:23-24 New International Version — from biblegateway.com
23 This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.
Many Americans aren’t aware they’re being tracked with facial recognition while shopping — from techradar.com by Anthony Spadafora
You’re not just on camera, you’re also being tracked
Excerpt:
Despite consumer opposition to facial recognition, the technology is currently being used in retail stores throughout the US according to new research from Piplsay.
While San Francisco banned the police from using facial recognition back in 2019 and the EU called for a five year ban on the technology last year, several major retailers in the US including Lowe’s, Albertsons and Macy’s have been using it for both fraud and theft detection.
From DSC:
I’m not sure how prevalent this practice is…and that’s precisely the point. We don’t know what all of those cameras are actually doing in our stores, gas stations, supermarkets, etc. I put this in the categories of policy, law schools, legal, government, and others as the legislative and legal realm need to scramble to catch up to this Wild Wild West.
Along these lines, I was watching a portion of 60 minutes last night where they were doing a piece on autonomous trucks (reportedly to hit the roads without a person sometime later this year). When asked about oversight, there was some…but not much.
Readers of this blog will know that I have often wondered…”How does society weigh in on these things?”
Along these same lines, also see:
DC: What doors does this type of real-time translation feature open up for learning?https://t.co/beOXFjGZs9#learningfromthelivingclassroom #education #K12 #highereducation #training #learning #lifelonglearning #globallearning #languages #translation https://t.co/TV5InkWHwn pic.twitter.com/MGblMzQbBL
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 4, 2021
From DSC:
For that matter, what does it open up for #JusticeTech? #Legaltech? #A2J? #Telehealth?
Oregon Considering 2 Alternates to Bar Exam for Attorney Licensing — from lawandmore.typepad.com
Excerpt:
“In early July, the Oregon State Supreme Court took a major step in providing potential new ways to gain licensure as an attorney in the state. More specifically, it held a public hearing to consider a Oregon State Bar Board of Bar Examiners proposals to add two new ways to gain attorney licensure in the state: i) an experience-based learning pathway; and ii) a supervised practice pathway.” – Natalie Runyon, Thomson Reuters, July 23, 2021.
Legaltech Careers Guide: roles, organisations and routes into legaltech jobs — from lawtomated.com
Excerpt:
How do I get a job in legaltech? What guidance can you provide regarding legaltech careers? These are questions we get asked a lot. The people asking are both legal and other professionals looking to enter this increasingly diverse sector.
To scale our advice we’ve created this guide to careers in legaltech, legal ops and innovation roles, whether in law firms, vendors or in-house legal teams.
We aim to maintain this guide and update it as the market evolves, and as we learn new things about the people hiring and seeking roles in legaltech, legal ops and legal innovation.
Also see:
Gartner Legal Tech Hype Cycle 2021 – Some Thoughts — from artificiallawyer.com
Excerpt:
Gartner has published its annual hype cycle report for legal tech and compliance products for 2021. As with last year, this site has taken a look at the main graphic, which they have shared, and considers what it tells us.
Smaller Firms Have More Advantages Than Ever Before — from abovethelaw.com by Jordan Rothman
Advances in technology have lowered barriers of entry at smaller shops.
Excerpt:
In the past, practicing law was an often onerous profession that required extensive time and resources to accomplish the most basic tasks. Since legal research and writing often involved so much work, bigger law firms had numerous advantages since they could marshal the resources needed to handle a given project. However, with technological advances in the past decade or two, law firms do not need to possess as many resources to complete work, and the cost of legal tasks has plummeted. As a result of all of these changes, smaller firms have more advantages than ever before.
Also see:
Does it Take 10,000 Hours to Become a Legal Tech Expert? — from legaltalknetwork.com
Learn how to develop a personal legal tech learning plan with Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell’s helpful tips.
20 Tips in 20 Minutes! — from legaltalknetwork.com
Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell offer up simple tips to help you make the most of your time and technology.
NLADA Welcomes DOJ’s Advice to Chief Justices to Ensure Fair Process to Keep Families in Their Homes — from nlada.org
Excerpts:
NLADA welcomes the Associate Attorney General’s letter urging Chief Justices and State Court Administrators to consider eviction diversion strategies that can help families avoid the disruption and damage that evictions cause. Together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to extend the eviction moratorium and the additional steps announced by the White House, this letter is an important tool in a package of federal resources to help our country and courts navigate this crisis.
The housing crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic, disproportionally affects women and communities of color. More than 80 percent of people facing eviction are Black. We know that when families have access to counsel provided by civil legal aid attorneys, approximately 80 percent of families stay in their homes, and that rates of homelessness have had a direct correlation to coronavirus rates. These numbers represent men, women and children who are integral to communities across the country, and we are pleased by today’s actions to help families and communities struggling in our nation.
Black College Grads Borrow 35% More for a Public Education but Earn 22% Less Than Their Peers — from Kamaron McNair with thanks to Frankie Rendón for this resource
Census data shows that Black millennials with a Bachelor’s earn 22% less ($44,498 versus $56,731) on average than other degree-holding millennials.
Black millennials outpaced their peers in just three states — Oregon, Maine and Alaska. But only by an average of 2% — or roughly $1,200.
The earnings gap for recent graduates widened in more than half of U.S. states. From 2014 to 2019, the earnings gap for graduates widened in 28 states and the District of Columbia. The gap widened by more than 29 percentage points in Vermont, the most of any state.
The worst wage gap for Black millennials was in Montana, where Black bachelor’s degree graduates working full time earn 50.3% less on average than non-Black workers.
North Dakota recorded the smallest earnings gap at 2.7%. Here, Black millennial bachelor’s degree-holders earn just $1,400 less on average than non-Black earners.
Black students borrowed more in student loans than their fellow students. At four-year public schools, Black students and their families borrowed 35% more. Non-Black families contributed an average of $14,434 to their student’s education, more than double the $5,545 Black families contributed.
Also see:
Design is a particularly white profession. Depending on the poll, only 3% to 4.8% of designers are Black. But a powerful new collective of design companies is looking to change that.
DC: Good deal. Thanks @keesav for the resource.https://t.co/DkEFTGhTi4
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) June 21, 2021
Addendum on 6/23/21:
16 BigLaw firms have no Black partners, including firm ranked No. 1 for diversity — from abajournal.com by Debra Cassens Weiss
Excerpt:
Many law firms that ranked relatively well on the American Lawyer’s 2021 Diversity Scorecard have no Black partners, including an immigration law firm ranked No. 1 for diversity.
The number of Black partners increased only slightly last year, rising from 2.1% to 2.2%, Law.com reports.
Law firms with no Black partners that ranked well on the 2021 Diversity Scorecard are: Berry Appleman & Leiden ranked No. 1 on the diversity scorecard; Wood Smith Henning & Berman, ranked No. 6 on the diversity scorecard; Kobre & Kim ranked No. 8 on the diversity scorecard; Irell & Manella; ranked No. 9 on the diversity scorecard; and Knobbe Martens, ranked 15th on the scorecard.
Law firms surveyed for the scorecard are among the nation’s 200 top grossing firms (the Am Law 200) and the nation’s 250 largest law firms (the National Law Journal 250).
June 2021: Rethinking Lawyer Regulation — by Jim Sandman
Excerpts:
The National Center for State Courts estimates that in 76 percent of civil cases in state courts, at least one party is unrepresented. That figure does not include family law cases. If it did, the percentage would be even higher. It is common for more than 90 percent of tenants facing eviction in the United States to be without counsel, even though more than 90 percent of landlords have lawyers. It is common for more than 80 percent of domestic violence victims seeking protection orders to be without counsel.
The model on which our adversary system of justice is based – with each party represented by counsel who present evidence and arguments on behalf of their clients – is a fiction in the majority of civil cases in the United States today. Unrepresented litigants fend for themselves in tens of millions of cases every year involving the most basic of human needs: shelter (evictions and foreclosures), family stability (child custody child support, adoptions, and guardianships), personal safety (protection orders against abusers), and economic subsistence (access to unemployment insurance, health care, food, and other benefits programs). The lack of access to counsel affects not just low-income people, but the middle class and small businesses, too.
Our nation is defaulting on its foundational promise of justice for all. We need solutions commensurate with the magnitude and the urgency of the problem, and those solutions must include regulatory reform.
Microsoft President Warns of Orwell’s 1984 ‘Coming to Pass’ in 2024 — from interestingengineering.com by Chris Young
Microsoft’s Brad Smith warned we may be caught up in a losing race with artificial intelligence.
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
The surveillance-state dystopia portrayed in George Orwell’s 1984 could “come to pass in 2024” if governments don’t do enough to protect the public against artificial intelligence (AI), Microsoft president Brad Smith warned in an interview for the BBC’s investigative documentary series Panorama.
During the interview, Smith warned of China’s increasing AI prowess and the fact that we may be caught up in a losing race with the technology itself.
“If we don’t enact the laws that will protect the public in the future, we are going to find the technology racing ahead, and it’s going to be very difficult to catch up,” Smith stated.
From DSC:
This is a major heads up to all those in the legal/legislative realm — especially the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Bar Associations across the country! The ABA needs to realize they have to up their game and get with the incredibly fast pace of the twenty-first century. If that doesn’t occur, we and future generations will pay the price. Two thoughts come to my mind in regards to the ABA and for the law schools out there:
Step 1: Allow 100% online-based JD programs all the time, from here on out.
Step 2: Encourage massive new program development within all law schools to help future lawyers, judges, legislative reps, & others build up more emerging technology expertise & the ramifications thereof.
Google’s plan to make search more sentient — from vox.com by Rebecca Heilweil
Google announces new search features every year, but this time feels different.
Excerpt:
At the keynote speech of its I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google revealed a suite of ways the company is moving forward with artificial intelligence. These advancements show Google increasingly trying to build AI-powered tools that seem more sentient and that are better at perceiving how humans actually communicate and think. They seem powerful, too.
Two of the biggest AI announcements from Google involve natural language processing and search.
…
Google also revealed a number of AI-powered improvements to its Maps platform that are designed to yield more helpful results and directions.
Google’s plans to bring AI to education make its dominance in classrooms more alarming — from fastcompany.com by Ben Williamson
The tech giant has expressed an ambition to transform education with artificial intelligence, raising fresh ethical questions.
Struggling to Get a Job? Artificial Intelligence Could Be the Reason Why — from newsweek.com by Lydia Veljanovski; with thanks to Sam DeBrule for the resource
Excerpt:
Except that isn’t always the case. In many instances, instead of your application being tossed aside by a HR professional, it is actually artificial intelligence that is the barrier to entry. While this isn’t a problem in itself—AI can reduce workflow by rapidly filtering applicants—the issue is that within these systems lies the possibility of bias.
It is illegal in the U.S. for employers to discriminate against a job applicant because of their race, color, sex, religion, disability, national origin, age (40 or older) or genetic information. However, these AI hiring tools are often inadvertently doing just that, and there are no federal laws in the U.S. to stop this from happening.
These Indian edtech companies are shaping the future of AI & robotics — from analyticsinsight.net by Apoorva Komarraju May 25, 2021
Excerpt:
As edtech companies have taken a lead by digitizing education for the modern era, they have taken the stance to set up Atal Tinkering Labs in schools along with other services necessary for the budding ‘kidpreneurs’. With the availability of these services, students can experience 21st-century technologies like IoT, 3D printing, AI, and Robotics.
Researchers develop machine-learning model that accurately predicts diabetes, study says — from ctvnews.ca by Christy Somos
Excerpt:
TORONTO — Canadian researchers have developed a machine-learning model that accurately predicts diabetes in a population using routinely collected health data, a new study says.
The study, published in the JAMA Network Open journal, tested new machine-learning technology on routinely collected health data that examined the entire population of Ontario. The study was run by the ICES not-for-profit data research institute.
Using linked administrative health data from Ontario from 2006 to 2016, researchers created a validated algorithm by training the model on information taken from nearly 1.7 million patients.
Project Guideline: Enabling Those with Low Vision to Run Independently — from ai.googleblog.com by Xuan Yang; with thanks to Sam DeBrule for the resource
Excerpt:
For the 285 million people around the world living with blindness or low vision, exercising independently can be challenging. Earlier this year, we announced Project Guideline, an early-stage research project, developed in partnership with Guiding Eyes for the Blind, that uses machine learning to guide runners through a variety of environments that have been marked with a painted line. Using only a phone running Guideline technology and a pair of headphones, Guiding Eyes for the Blind CEO Thomas Panek was able to run independently for the first time in decades and complete an unassisted 5K in New York City’s Central Park.
Deepfake Maps Could Really Mess With Your Sense of the World — from wired.com by Will Knight
Researchers applied AI techniques to make portions of Seattle look more like Beijing. Such imagery could mislead governments or spread misinformation online.
Law Firm Deregulation Programs Pick Up Speed in Utah, Arizona — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Sam Skolnik
Excerpt:
Efforts to allow non-lawyers to own law firms in Arizona and Utah are picking up steam, as participating companies say it’s inevitable that more states will be following similar paths.
Utah’s regulatory “sandbox” and Arizona’s “alternative business structures” program are being closely watched by the country’s largest law firms like Snell & Wilmer, which is actively weighing the possible benefits.
“Snell & Wilmer has considered and is considering opportunities that these changes may present to a traditional law firm,” said Mark Morris, a Salt Lake City-based partner with the firm, which also has offices in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. The firm, he said, “is closely watching the successes and failures of others who are actively participating in these programs to help guide any future decisions.”
