LLRX February 2025 Issue

  • Empowering Education: The Transformative Role of AI in Inclusive Learning – Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing every field it touches, and education is no exception. AI offers extraordinary opportunities to tailor learning by providing critical support through engaging educational tools, adaptive technologies, and personalized learning aids. While some schools are utilizing these tools, others are determined to maintain AI-free classrooms. By banning AI, schools would not only hinder these advancements but also exacerbate educational inequalities. As schools navigate AI adoption, Kyra Strick advocates the position that it is imperative to recognize the transformative potential of AI in fostering an inclusive and effective learning environment.
  • AI in Finance and Banking, January 31, 2025 – This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, conferences, industry white papers and reports, academic papers and speeches, and central bank actions on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links provided are to the primary sources, and as available, indicate links to alternate free versions. Five highlights from this post: As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to shape industries worldwide, its role in banking has quietly evolved behind the scene; Research: How Gen AI Is Already Impacting the Labor Market; Governance of AI adoption in central bank; AI will have a major impact on labor markets. Here’s how the US can prepare; and How Artificial Intelligence Will Affect Asia’s Economies.
  • Fake papers are contaminating the world’s scientific literature, fueling a corrupt industry and slowing legitimate lifesaving medical research – Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus scholarly research, undermining the literature that everyone from doctors to engineers rely on to make decisions about human live. To better understand the scope, ramifications and potential solutions of this metastasizing assault on science, Frederik Joelving,contributing editor at Retraction Watch, a website that reports on retractions of scientific papers and related topics, and two computer scientists at France’s Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier and Cyril Labbé, and Guillaume Cabanac, Université Grenoble Alpes who specialize in detecting bogus publications – spent six months investigating paper mills.
  • Deferred Resignation Email to Federal Employees, January 28, 2025 / Updated Continuously as more information is available – Effort to force federal civil service employees to resign uses format and statement Elon Musk sent to Twitter employees in 2022 asking them to pledge to being “extremely hardcore” or resign.” Agencies throughout the federal government, including the military and intelligence communities, are now in receipt of similar emails which are resignation offer letters.
  • Career civil service across the government fired, programs suspended – list continues to grow – Democracy, the Constitution, the Federal Government – All At Risk. Since his inauguration on January 20, 2025 Donald Trump has rapidly implemented key recommendations of Project 2025 using actions executed by non career government personnel as well conservative public policy think tank members to create chaos, instill fear in the workforce, and freeze the delivery of health and medical services, food and nutrition programs, critical scientific and medical research, and the security of our homeland. In light of the ongoing issuance of directives, orders, firings, freezes to government funding, immigration raids, threats of action against specific groups and communities, and the list goes on, this report by Sabrina I. Pacifici will be published in several parts, with updates added to include new documents, actions by courts and Congress, and additional details on programs impacted.
  • Automakers are collecting sensitive data and selling it without your permission – The public is increasingly familiar with the scale of data collection, surveillance, marketing and sale, and privacy violations that routinely occur when using apps, browsers, social media, the internet, and cell phones. But extensive data collection and privacy violations also routinely occurs when we use cars and trucks [regardless of manufacturer], much if not all of it likely without our knowledge or consent. Sabrina I. Pacifici’s article will inform you about how, where, when and by whom your transportation data is collected, and ways in which is it used, including sale by data brokers.
  • 10 Tips for Prosperity and Pleasure in 2025Jerry Lawson suggests 10 ways to work effectively, safely and incorporate innovation and AI into your law practices.
  • Even 1 drink a day elevates your cancer risk – an expert on how alcohol affects the body breaks down a new government report – The past few decades, mounting scientific evidence has shown that as little as 1-2 alcoholic drinks per day can lead to increases in the likelihood of several cancers. This prompted the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, to release a new Surgeon General Advisory on Jan. 3, 2025, warning about the link between alcohol and cancer. Nikki Crowley, Professor of Biology, Biomedical Engineering and Pharmacology at Penn State highlights the evidence and associated with the call for new cancer warning labels on alcoholic beverages.The association between alcohol and cancer isn’t new news – scientists have been trying to determine the link for decades – yet most people aren’t aware of the risks and may only associate drinking with liver disease like cirrhosis. In a 2019 survey from the American Institute for Cancer Research, less than half of Americans identified alcohol as a risk factor for cancer.
  • Lie About Your Birthday 🎂 Your birth date, like your phone number (get a burner number), is personal information that scammers can use to steal your identity or target you for fraud. Sisi Wei asks you to think back: How many times have you been asked to verify your date of birth in serious situations, like when recovering your login from your bank, or getting your medical information from your doctor office?
  • Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 26, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: The double-edged sword of AI and cybersecurity; Trump Seeks to Paralyze Independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Watchdog; Cybersecurity Alert: Users Deceived By Fake Google CAPTCHA Pages; Candy Crush, Tinder, MyFitnessPal: See the Thousands of Apps Hijacked to Spy on Your Location; and Your phone is listening. Do you care?.
  • Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 18, 2025Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Apps That Are Spying on Your Location; AI-supported spear phishing fools more than 50% of targets; Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), once celebrated as an unbreakable defense, is crumbling under the weight of its outdated technology; NSA Warns iPhone And Android Users – Disable Location Tracking; and Chinese Innovations Spawn Wave of Toll Phishing Via SMS.
  • AI in Finance and Banking, January 15, 2025 – This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, conferences, industry white papers and reports, academic papers and speeches, and central bank actions on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links provided are to the primary sources, and as available, indicate links to alternate free versions. Six highlights from this post: Wall Street Faces 200,000 Job Cuts as AI Transforms the Workforce; Can We Statically Locate Knowledge in Large Language Models? Financial Domain and Toxicity Reduction Case Studies; AI Financial Advisers Target Young People Living Paycheck to Paycheck; How AI is changing banking jobs: Rise of the ‘AI whisperer’; Your AI credit models are fine, but their training data is problematic; and Great Southern loan officers use gen AI to ‘chat’ with data.
  • Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 11, 2025Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: A Day in the Life of a Prolific Voice Phishing Crew; 33 Chrome extensions that have been found to have malware; Experian Conducted ‘Sham Investigations’ Into Errors in Its Credit Reports; and Lie About Your Birthday.
  • Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 4, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: A Day in the Life of a Prolific Voice Phishing Crew; 33 Chrome extensions that have been found to have malware; Experian Conducted ‘Sham Investigations’ Into Errors in Its Credit Reports; and Lie About Your Birthday.

LLRX.com® – the free web journal on law, technology, knowledge discovery and research for Librarians, Lawyers, Researchers, Academics, and Journalists. Founded in 1996.

Subjects: KM

A Digital Extension of Historical Bias: Arab Americans and the New Frontier of Algorithmic Discrimination

The integration of artificial intelligence into U.S. national security operations has automated and amplified discriminatory practices established in the post-9/11 era, creating unprecedented barriers for Arab Americans. This paper by Natalie Abdou examines how AI systems deploy overlapping forms of bias through facial recognition technology, language processing, and automated screening, producing a uniquely destructive form of compound discrimination that is more pervasive and harder to challenge than traditional bias.

Subjects: 9-11-2001, AI, Civil Liberties, Patriot Act, Privacy, Technology Trends, Travel

How to find climate data and science the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see

Research librarian Alejandro Paz and policy scholar Eric Nost, who belong to a network called the Public Environmental Data Partners, a coalition of nonprofits, archivists and researchers who rely on federal data in our analysis, advocacy and litigation, are working to ensure that data remains available to the public.

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Resources, Legal Research

NOAA’s vast public weather data powers the local forecasts on your phone and TV – a private company alone couldn’t match it

Atmospheric scientists Christine Wiedinmyer and Kari Bowen, who is a former National Weather Service forecaster, explain NOAA’s central role in most U.S. weather forecasts. They underscore why the Trump/DOGE plan to eliminate these two critical agencies and replace them with one private company to provide comprehensive weather data in a reliable way that is also accessible to the entire public, is not a reasonable plan.

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Government Resources

AI in Finance and Banking, February 17, 2025

This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, conferences, industry white papers and reports, academic papers and speeches, and central bank actions on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links provided are to the primary sources, and as available, indicate links to alternate free versions. Four highlights from this post: AI and Women’s Employment in Europe; Digital Innovations for Increasing Financial Inclusion: CBDC, Cryptocurrency, Embedded finance, Artificial Intelligence, WaaS, Fintech, Bigtech, and DeFi; 2025 Global Outlook for Banking and Financial Markets; and AI in Finance Summit New York, April 15-16, 2025.

Subjects: AI in Banking and Finance, Cryptocurrency, Economy, Financial System

Climate and DEI Deleted From Government Websites, Federal Workers Fired

Since January 20, 2025 America has been catapulted into an unimaginable inflection point. Sabrina I. Pacifici chronicles seismic events in recent weeks which have upended America’s democracy, jeopardized our economy, financial system, national security, science and medical communities, and fractured our national identity, at home and around the world. This is a commentary, and a guide written by a law librarian and former federal employee who was the target of a similar purge by Trump in 2018, to what and who has been targeted and purged, an overview of the process used to do so, and a perspective on the impact of these sweeping, deeply damaging and likely illegal actions.

Subjects: Climate Change, Constitutional Law, CRS Reports, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Digital Archives, Economy, Education, Ethics, Financial System, Government Resources, Healthcare, Legal Research, Privacy, United States Law

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, February 15, 2025

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: How to Clear Your Personal Data From a Car; Federal workers say they increasingly distrust platforms like Facebook; Pairwise Authentication of Humans; Attacks on password managers increased drastically in 2024; and Judge blocks Musk’s DOGE from accessing Treasury materials.

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Encryption, Legal Research, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, February 8, 2025

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Federal workers: Here’s how to lock down your communications; Why rebooting your phone daily is your best defense against zero-click hackers; EFF – Basics | Surveillance Self-Defense; Even the US government can fall victim to cryptojacking; and Federal immigration officials have extensive technology at their disposal.

Subjects: Communications, Cryptocurrency, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Legal Research, Privacy

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, February 1, 2025

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: UnitedHealth now says 190 million impacted by 2024 data breach; A Tumultuous Week for Federal Cybersecurity Efforts; TikTok took a huge scoop of American users’ data and stored it in China – DeepSeek makes TikTok’s security issues look like child’s play; CVS Is Turning Locked Shelves Into an Excuse to Make You Download Its App; and Backdoor found in two healthcare patient monitors, linked to IP in China.

Subjects: AI, Big Data, Cryptocurrency, Cybersecurity, Email Security, Healthcare, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media