Category «AI»

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 23, 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: Foundations for OT Cybersecurity: Asset Inventory Guidance for Owners and Operators; How poisoned data can trick AI − and how to stop it; This Is How They Know You’re Using a VPN; Swedish startup unveils Starlink alternative — that Musk can’t switch off; and Burner Phone 101 Workshop.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Privacy

AI slop and the destruction of knowledge

Iris van Rooij is Professor of Computational Cognitive Science at the School of Artificial Intelligence in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Her research focuses on the computational foundations of cognitive science. Recently she was looking for information on what cognitive scientists mean when they speak of ‘domain-general’ cognition. To her surprise and dismay, she hit upon a ScienceDirect page that ‘defined’ the concept using, as she terms it, AI Slop. She shares the thread of her email communications with the Elsevier Helpdesk that detail her concerns about AI generated definitions, and links within articles, and the fact that authors cannot say ‘no’ to their work being used for AI training and AI generated texts. In addition, she includes references and recommended readings about AI’s impact on education and the future of academia.

Subjects: AI, KM, Legal Research, Technology Trends

Beyond the Tool: Why True AI Literacy is About Critical Thinking, Not Prompting

Michael G. Wagner, a technology educator with more than 30 years experience in higher education, contends that the nature of AI literacy is largely misunderstood within the education community. Ultimately, the goal of AI literacy should not be to make students better at using AI, but to empower them to be more discerning thinkers, more ethical citizens, and more self-aware human beings in a world where AI exists. Analyzing the relationship between artificial and human intelligence requires two components: understanding how LLMs work, and understanding how human cognition works. Wagner says we understand neither well enough to make informed judgments. The uncomfortable truth is that confident dismissal of AI’s intelligence often just reveals a deeper misunderstanding of our own.

Subjects: AI, Communication Skills, Education

How poisoned data can trick AI − and how to stop it

Hadi Amini and Ervin Moore discuss how the quality of the information that the AI offers depends on the quality of the data it learns from. But if someone tries to interfere by tampering with their training data – either the initial data used to build the system or data the system collects as it’s operating to improve – trouble could ensue.

Subjects: AI, Cybersecurity, KM, Legal Research, Search Engines, Technology Trends

Another Brilliant Idea! the Hidden Dangers of Sycophantic AI

Jordan Furlong’s article expands analysis on the already noted risks arising from lawyers using AI. Generative AI can be incredibly, and dangerously, sycophantic. This is particularly worrisome for lawyers, because if they lose intellectual skills, what will they left to offer people? Furlong notes that the similarities between lawyer thinking and AI “thinking” should be a cause for alarm within the legal profession.

Subjects: AI, Communication Skills, Communications, Legal Education, Legal Profession, Legal Research, Management

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 16, 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: Leading AI Agents Like ChatGPT Are Vulnerable to Hacking, Security Firm Finds; FBI Alert: This New Smartphone Scam Can Steal All Your Data; A Bug at Social Security Admin Has Been Rerouting Phone Calls to Random Offices; Leading AI Agents Like ChatGPT Are Vulnerable to Hacking, Security Firm Finds; and Crypto Security and Scams.

Subjects: AI, Congress, Cryptocurrency, Cybersecurity, Economy, Financial System, Legislative, Privacy, Social Media

AI In Finance and Banking, August 16, 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: Algorithmic Coercion with Faster Pricing; Forrester – The Future Of Digital Experiences In Banking; Empowering Sustainable Finance with Artificial Intelligence: A Framework for Responsible Implementation; The Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Banking; BIS – Financial stability implications of artificial intelligence; The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will launch a Supercharged Sandbox to help firms experiment safely with AI to support innovation; and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Corporate Finance.

Subjects: AI, AI in Banking and Finance, Legal Research

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 9, 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: States Have More Data About You Than the Feds Do. Trump Wants to See It; Instagram Map lets your friends, and possibly exes, track your every move; Samsung phones can detect AI voice phishing attacks with One UI 8; Uber Gets Report of Sexual Misconduct Every 8 Minutes; and Home Depot and Lowe’s Share Data From Hundreds of AI Cameras With Cops.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Email Security, Federal Legislative Research, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines