AI in Finance and Banking, April 30, 2024

This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, industry white papers, academic papers and speeches 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: Banks told to anticipate risks from using AI, machine learning; Banks don’t talk about the energy AI guzzles. Here’s why they should; Chatbot answers are all made up. This new tool helps you figure out which ones to trust; and AI is becoming a big deal for big banks.

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Subjects: AI in Banking and Finance, Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Financial System, Legal Research

Violence Against Women and International Law, April 2024 Update

This is the April 2024 update to first installment of the guide Sabrina I. Pacifici published on November 23, 2023. The initial guide had 8 pertinent sources on this topic comprising government reports, academic papers, reviews of UN/NGO programs, news, databases, analysis and commentary. Part 2 of this series, posted December 31, 2023, expanded the original guide with more than a dozen new sources. The February 2024 update to this guide, added new links to over two dozen sources.
This update comprises recent news, reporting, and social media postings. It also includes a report issued by the UN acknowledging, despite months of denial, prevarication and statements to the contrary in official communications as well as action by various representatives of the organization that…”Based on the information it gathered, the mission team found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity.”

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Subjects: Civil Liberties, Criminal Law, International Legal Research, Legal Research

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 27, 2024

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. Four highlights from this week: Why Microsoft is a national security threat; You Should Make Your Apple ID Recoverable Right Now; How to change your Social Security Number; and Cops Are Now Using AI to Generate Police Reports.

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Subjects: AI, Big Data, Criminal Law, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Healthcare, Privacy, Social Media

Move Over Law Professors? AI Likes to Write Law Review Articles Too!

Sarah Gotschall describes this deep dive into how AI is used to write law review articles, with illustrations that detail the complexity and limitations of the effort. Claude (aka the illustrious author Claudia Trey) penned a 77-page extensively footnoted law review article on SSRN entitled “Bloodlines Over Merits: Exposing the Discriminatory Impact of Legacy Preferences in College Admissions.” Though not setting the world on fire in the sense that the article is interesting or that anyone wants to read it, it showcases Claude’s abilities. Now, we all know that AI text generators can churn out an endless stream of words on just about any topic if you keep typing in the prompts. However, Claude can not only generate well-written text, but it can also provide footnotes to primary legal materials with minimal hallucination, setting it apart from other AI text generators such as ChatGPT-4. And, although Claude’s citations to other sources are generally not completely accurate, it is usually not too difficult to find the intended source or a similar one based on the information supplied.

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Subjects: AI, Education, Legal Education, Legal Profession, Legal Research

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 20, 2024

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. Four highlights from this week: 1st-of-its-kind law protects ‘neural data’; Chinese Mafias’ New US Goldmine: Gift Cards; Fair Digital Finance Framework; and The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat.

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Subjects: AI, Criminal Law, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Financial System, Government Resources, Healthcare, Legal Research, Legislative, Privacy, United States Law

TikTok fears point to larger problem: Poor media literacy in the social media age

In the past few years, Professor Nir Eisikovits and his colleagues at UMass Boston’s Applied Ethics Center have been studying the impact of AI systems on how people understand themselves. Here’s why I think the recent move against TikTok misses the larger point: Americans’ sources of information have declined in quality and the problem goes beyond any one social media platform.

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Subjects: AI, Data Mining, Internet Trends, Privacy, Social Media, Spyware

Removing PFAS from public water systems will cost billions and take time

PFAS – perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are now either suspected or known to contribute to thyroid disease, elevated cholesterol, liver damage and cancer, among other health issues. Dr. Kyle Doudrick’s team at the University of Notre Dame works on solving problems involving contaminants in water systems, including PFAS. We explore new technologies to remove PFAS from drinking water and to handle the PFAS waste. Here’s a glimpse of the magnitude of the challenge and ways you can reduce PFAS in your own drinking water.

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Subjects: Energy, Environmental Law, Government Resources, Healthcare

AI chatbots refuse to produce ‘controversial’ output − why that’s a free speech problem

Jordi Calvet-Bademunt and Jacob Mchangama are policy researchers who study free speech, as well as executive director and a research fellow at The Future of Free Speech, an independent, nonpartisan think tank based at Vanderbilt University. In a recent report, they found that generative AI has important shortcomings regarding freedom of expression and access to information.

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Subjects: AI, Education, Free Speech

AI in Finance and Banking, April 15, 2024

This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government reports, NGO/IGO papers, industry white papers, academic papers, conferences and speeches 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: Economics of Artificial Intelligence: Political Economy Challenges; Artificial Intelligence Ethics for the Estate Planner; AI Could Soon Replace Entry-Level Wall Street Analysts; Economics of Artificial Intelligence: Political Economy Challenges; Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Financial Services; and City of London leaders turn to AI bots to fight financial crime.

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Subjects: AI in Banking and Finance, Cybercrime, Economy, KM
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