‘Unmasking AI’ and the Fight for Algorithmic Justice

Nabiha Syed is the chief executive officer of The Markup. She interviews Dr. Joy Buolamwini who has been thinking about collective harm and AI for years, especially when it comes to algorithmic accountability and justice. Her new book, “Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines,” is a must-read exploration of how broad swaths of humanity are vulnerable in a world that is rapidly adopting AI tools. We, like Buolamwini, are optimists: We can demand a better path than the one we’re on, but that requires us thinking collectively, participating, and innovating in a different way than we have in the past.

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, Labor Law, Legal Research, Privacy

Research Guide: Law of International Armed Conflict

High emotions generated by the Israel-Hamas conflict make this a time of wild claims and counterclaims. Few subjects are timelier and more critical than the Law of Armed Conflict, (LOAC), frequently referred to as the Law of War, (LOW). The concept is sometimes referred to by a better name, International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Researching LOAC/LOW/IHL can challenge U.S. researchers and lawyers. There are no codified statutes or well-organized case law of the types familiar to most U.S. researchers. This guide to the ongoing war, by Jerry Lason and Sabrina I. Pacifici, identifies significant applicable documents and relevant resources and will be updated moving forward.

Subjects: Legal Research

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, November 18, 2023

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: ChatGPT Has Been Turned Into A Social Media Surveillance Assistant; Zelle Begins Refunding Scam Victims in Major Tone Shift; New York to crack down on hospital cybersecurity; and Microsoft lays hands on login data: Beware of the new Outlook.

Subjects: AI, Cybersecurity, E-Commerce, Economy, Healthcare, Privacy, Social Media

AI in Banking and Finance, November 16, 2023

This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government reports, 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. Each entry includes the publication name, date published, article title and abstract. Four highlights from this post: AI Guide for Government, A Living and Evolving Guide to the Application of Artificial Intelligence for the U.S. Federal Government; The A.I. Dilemma: Growth versus Existential Risk; The world is locked in a race, and competition, over dominance in AI; and Nontraditional Data, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing in Macroeconomics.

Subjects: AI in Banking and Finance

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, November 11, 2023

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: Every car is a smart car, and it’s a privacy nightmare; Cybercriminals Are Using Siri and Google Voice Assistants To Scam People; NIST releases revised cyber requirements for controlled unclassified information; and DELETE Act closes ‘big loophole’ and tightens regulations on data brokers.

Subjects: Cybersecurity, Data Mining, Federal Legislative Research, Financial System, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

Israel-Hamas War Project

With our new Israel-Hamas War Project – read the first article here –  we are doing what we can to help Truth catch up with Falsehood. Our goal is to document accurate, timely and actionable resources for researchers. We hope that providing this guide will assist policymakers, diplomats, analysts, journalists, scholars, and the public. Improved understanding of the law of war should raise the level of public discussion and facilitate better decision-making at this critical time.

Subjects: Criminal Law, Government Resources, International Legal Research, KM, Legal Research, Military, Refugees, Terrorism

The Tech at ‘Cop Con’: Cigarette Carton Trackers, VR for School Shootings, and ‘Peacekeeper Batons’

Ese Olumhense a reporter at The Markup gives us an overview of how the International Association of Chiefs of Police brings police leadership and tech vendors together at its annual conference, where clear trends about the future of law enforcement emerged.

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Data Mining, Human Rights, Legal Research, Privacy

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, November 4, 2023

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: New Law Library Report Examines Cybersecurity Laws of Several Countries; Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month Toolkit; Microsoft Exposes Octo Tempest, One of the Most Dangerous Financial Threat Actors to Date; and People Search Data Brokers, Stalking, and ‘Publicly Available Information’ Carve-Outs.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Financial System, Government Resources, Libraries & Librarians, Privacy

LLRX October 2023 Issue

Articles and Columns for October 2023 Research Guide: Law of Armed Conflict – In this period of wild claims and counterclaims, the subject of the Law of Armed Conflict, (LOAC), often referred to as International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or the Law of War (LOW), is a timely subject. Researching LOAC can challenge U.S. researchers and …

Subjects: KM

AI in Banking and Finance, October 31, 2023

This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government reports, 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. Each entry includes the publication name, date published, article title and abstract. Four highlights from this post: President Biden issued a landmark Executive Order to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence; Economic Growth under Transformative AI; Bank of England – Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; and Financial intermediation and technology: what’s old, what’s new?

Subjects: AI in Banking and Finance, Financial System, Government Resources, Legal Research