2023 Higher Education Trend Watch — from educause.edu
Also see:
2023 Strategic Trends Glossary — from educause.edu
Excerpts:
Radar Trends to Watch: September 2022 Developments in AI, Privacy, Biology, and More — from oreilly.com by Mike Loukides
Excerpt:
It’s hardly news to talk about the AI developments of the last month. DALL-E is increasingly popular, and being used in production. Google has built a robot that incorporates a large language model so that it can respond to verbal requests. And we’ve seen a plausible argument that natural language models can be made to reflect human values, without raising the question of consciousness or sentience.
For the first time in a long time we’re talking about the Internet of Things. We’ve got a lot of robots, and Chicago is attempting to make a “smart city” that doesn’t facilitate surveillance. We’re also seeing a lot in biology. Can we make a real neural network from cultured neurons? The big question for biologists is how long it will take for any of their research to make it out of the lab.
How will the Metaverse Influence Business and Legal Processes? — from jdsupra.com
Excerpt:
While some will be hesitant to use the metaverse and adoption is difficult to predict, it is not going away and will undoubtedly affect internal processes, business dealings, case strategy, and more. Organizations should start thinking about the possibilities now to be better prepared for future challenges. Below are some predictions on how the metaverse will influence operations, strategy, and investments across different areas of the enterprise.
Lawyers & the Metaverse — from joetechnologist.com by Elizabeth Beattie and Joseph Raczynski
Excerpt:
In a new Q&A interview, Thomson Reuters’ technologist and futurist Joseph Raczynski offers his insight about the Metaverse and how it will impact the legal industry.
I have likely spoken to thousands of lawyers over the last several years. They are extraordinarily bright, but with one limiting factor — their dedication to their craft. This means that they do not have the time to lift their heads to see what is coming. All these emerging technologies will impact their practices in some way, as well as the business of law. At a minimum, lawyers need the opportunity to focus on the big four: AI, blockchain, workflow, and the grab bag of general emerging technology. There are a multitude of places to learn about these things, but I would include some of the classics such as Google Alerts, Twitter threads on these topics, and magazines like Wired, which should be a staple for everyone.
These legal issues should be on college business officers’ radars — from highereddive.com by Rick Seltzer
A panel at the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ annual meeting covered legal questions spanning many offices on campus.
Let’s not presume that virtual hearings are the best solution in family law — from canadianlawyermag.com by John Silvester
Excerpts:
Proponents argue that virtual hearings are less expensive for clients, leading to enhanced access to justice for those who cannot afford to pay for their lawyers to travel to a courthouse and then sit and wait for hearings to commence. Sounds reasonable, right?
Not so fast.
…
Virtual hearings are advantageous in some scenarios, but there are at least three reasons why moving to an almost entirely virtual legal world may prove problematic.
LawNext Podcast: CALI Executive Director John Mayer on Using Tech to Advance Legal Education and Access to Justice — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi and John Mayer
Excerpt:
In this episode of LawNext, Mayer joins host Bob Ambrogi to discuss the history and mission of CALI and to share his thoughts on the use of technology to enhance legal education. They also talk about how and why A2J Author was developed and how it is used by courts and legal services organizations to help those who are without legal representation. Mayer also shares his thoughts on the future of innovation in law and on the future of CALI.
Louisiana Approves Virtual Custody Services and Proposes Virtual Currency Business Licensing Rules — from natlawreview.com by Moorari Shah and A.J. S. Dhaliwal
Excerpt:
Recently, the Louisiana lawmakers and regulators have taken steps to legalize operations in the state involving virtual currencies. On June 15, the Louisiana governor signed a bill that, effective August 1, 2022, will allow financial institutions and trust companies to provide virtual currency custody services to their customers as long as they satisfy certain requirements on risk-management and compliance. On June 20, the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions (OFI) published proposed rules on licensing and regulation of virtual currency businesses in the state pursuant to the Louisiana Virtual Currency Business Act, which went into effect on August 1, 2020.
You Can Now Ask Google to Remove Personal Info From Searches — from lifewire.com by Rob Rich
But that won’t remove the information at its source
Excerpt:
Google is taking a more active role in stopping the spread of sensitive and personal information by allowing you to request its removal from searches.
The new policy applies to what Google refers to as personally identifiable information (PII), such as details that could be used for identity theft or more direct harm. Info like bank account or credit card numbers, medical records, personal contact details, social security numbers, and so on. Whether or not it acts on these requests is discretionary, however.
Also relevant/see:
The Hidden Role of Facial Recognition Tech in Many Arrests — from wired.com by Khari Johnson
The technology is spreading fast among police, and often wrong. But people charged with crimes are rarely told an algorithm came into play.
Excerpt:
Across most of the US, neither police nor prosecutors are required to disclose when facial recognition is used to identify a criminal suspect. Defense attorneys say that puts them at a disadvantage: They can’t challenge potential problems with facial recognition technology if they don’t know it was used. It also raises questions of equity, since studies have shown that facial recognition systems are more likely to misidentify people who are not white men, including people with dark skin, women, and young people.
Meet The Secretive Surveillance Wizards Helping The FBI And ICE Wiretap Facebook And Google Users — from forbes.com by Thomas Brewster
A small Nebraska company is helping law enforcement around the world spy on users of Google, Facebook and other tech giants. A secretly recorded presentation to police reveals how deeply embedded in the U.S. surveillance machine PenLink has become.
Excerpts:
PenLink might be the most pervasive wiretapper you’ve never heard of.
…
With $20 million revenue every year from U.S. government customers such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and almost every other law enforcement agency in the federal directory, PenLink enjoys a steady stream of income. That doesn’t include its sales to local and state police, where it also does significant business but for which there are no available revenue figures. Forbes viewed contracts across the U.S., including towns and cities in California, Florida, Illinois, Hawaii, North Carolina and Nevada.
China Is About to Regulate AI—and the World Is Watching — from wired.com by Jennifer Conrad
Sweeping rules will cover algorithms that set prices, control search results, recommend videos, and filter content.
Excerpt:
On March 1, China will outlaw this kind of algorithmic discrimination as part of what may be the world’s most ambitious effort to regulate artificial intelligence. Under the rules, companies will be prohibited from using personal information to offer users different prices for a product or service.
The sweeping rules cover algorithms that set prices, control search results, recommend videos, and filter content. They will impose new curbs on major ride-hailing, ecommerce, streaming, and social media companies.
Technology We Need: Documenting the complete Learner Record — from gettingsmart.com by Nate McClennen and Rebecca Midles
Key Points
From DSC:
The above posting reminds me of the following graphic:
The DOJ’s $3.6B Bitcoin Seizure Shows How Hard It Is to Launder Crypto — from wired.com by Andy Greenberg
A couple allegedly used a “laundry list” of technical measures to cover their tracks. They didn’t work.
Excerpt:
“What was amazing about this case is the laundry list of obfuscation techniques [Lichtenstein and Morgan allegedly] used,” says Ari Redbord, the head of legal and government affairs for TRM Labs, a cryptocurrency tracing and forensics firm. Redbord points to the couple’s alleged use of “chain-hopping”— transferring funds from one cryptocurrency to another to make them more difficult to follow—including exchanging bitcoins for “privacy coins” like monero and dash, both designed to foil blockchain analysis. Court documents say the couple also allegedly moved their money through the Alphabay dark web market—the biggest of its kind at the time—in an attempt to stymie detectives.
From DSC:
Easy to follow/understand, isn’t it!?! Not.
