Category «Technology Trends»

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, November 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. Four highlights from this week: Cut Through GenAI Confusion: Eight Definitive Reads; AI Glossary – Artificial Intelligence Term Guide 2025; AI Incident Database; and Wi-Fi can accurately identify people, even if they aren’t carrying a phone or computer.

Subjects: AI, Congress, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Legal Research, Legislative, Technology Trends, United States Law

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 11, 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: People are poorly equipped to detect AI-powered voice clones; Meta [Facebook, Instagram] is preparing another way to show you targeted ads and you can’t opt out; Gmail stopped loading hidden trackers when I changed this one setting; Opt Out October: Daily Tips to Protect Your Privacy and Security; and Employees regularly paste company secrets into ChatGPT.

Subjects: AI, Cybersecurity, E-Commerce, Financial System, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media, Technology Trends, Travel

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

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

Book Review: The AI Con – A Critical Look At AI Hype

Jerry Lawson reviews Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna’s new book, The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want (Harper 2025).

Subjects: AI, Book Reviews, KM, Legal Research, Legal Technology, Technology Trends

How to Get AI Out of Your Google Search Results

John R. Platt, Editor of the The Revelator, a news and ideas initiative of the Center for Biological Diversity, reports on how three simple keystrokes will deliver search results that consume less energy and water — and probably contain better information.

Subjects: AI, Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Legal Research, Search Engines, Search Strategies, Technology Trends

Fair Use in the Age of AI: When Training Isn’t Copying, and Licensing Isn’t the Law

Kyle K. Courtney, both lawyer and librarian, is the Director of Copyright and Information Policy for Harvard Library. He guides us through the rapidly evolving legal landscape around artificial intelligence and copyright where two district court opinions now serve as early landmarks. As a result of these recent decisions, he concludes that the case is even stronger, and far more compelling, for libraries doing the same work in service of research, education, and public access.

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Courts & Technology, Legal Research, Libraries & Librarians, Search Engines, Social Media, Technology Trends, United States Law

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 7, 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: Deepfake Scams Are Distorting Reality Itself; Why does Amazon use palm scanners at Whole Foods and doctors’ offices? Crypto news: Why shocking and violent “wrench attacks” are going to get worse; Privacy Alarm: Meta Caught De-Anonymizing Android Web Activity; and When the FBI Has a Phone It Can’t Crack, It Calls These Israeli Hackers.

Subjects: AI, Big Data, Cryptocurrency, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Financial System, Government Resources, Privacy, Shopping, Social Media, Technology Trends

The fallacy of the calculator

Jordan Furlong shares salient, focused and actionable thoughts about the future relationship between Gen AI and the legal profession. Furlong states that the more you study how Generative AI works, the more parallels emerge with how lawyers think — and that has implications. With Gen AI getting better every day, we need to get our act together, fast.

Subjects: AI, Information Management, KM, Law Firm Marketing, Legal Technology, Technology Trends

AI in Finance and Banking, April 30, 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. Five highlights from this post: The rise of the AI investment banker; AI and Productivity in Europe; The Global Impact of AI: Mind the Gap; AI tools mostly fumble basic financial tasks, study finds; and The CFO Imperative How Finance Leaders Are Staying Ahead In A Volatile World.

Subjects: AI in Banking and Finance, Economy, Education, Financial System, Leadership, Management, Technology Trends