In today’s News of Note, we examine how quantum computers are aiding scientific research and forcing governments to upgrade their cybersecurity defense programs, new AI tools and the continued debate on the ethics of their use, the latest cryptocurrency scams, and much more. Materials that promise to make quantum computers…
Yesterday, the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a joint study on IP issues related to NFTs. This follows a Congressional request by senators Leahy and Tillis that the Offices explore these issues. Today, the Offices will publish a Notice of Inquiry (unpublished version…
In today’s News of Note, anxieties continue to grow over AI-generated art, effective cybersecurity for the high-tech era, and the impact of facial recognition and gunshot detection technology on human rights. An AI-generated homage to South Korean illustrator Kim Jung Gi sparks outrage among his fans and the anime community…
In today’s News of Note, AI’s increased presence in traditional human roles stirs debate over the future of artists and actors, CISA advises organizations to develop cybersecurity plans for quantum computers, Atari moves into The Sandbox metaverse, and more. The new CHIPS and Science Act gives quantum computing a boost.…
Though we recently touched on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling that only natural beings, which do not include artificial intelligence, can be an inventor under the U.S. Patents Act, the decision merits additional discussion. Defining artificial intelligence (AI) can be a challenging task due to…
AI technology dominates the news cycle with news of DeepMind’s groundbreaking discovery of almost all structures of known proteins, an ethical dilemma prompted by a chess-playing robot that broke its young opponent’s finger, the artistic possibilities that DALL-E’s text-to-picture art tool may deliver, and more. The DOJ announces the extradition…
It’s no secret that every move you make on the internet can be tracked. Even when you are not actively searching, scrolling through a social media feed, or using your phone to navigate to a new local restaurant, your digital behavior can be tracked, analyzed, stored, marketed, and sold. But…
Who are you, really? Identity can be hard to define. In the real world, we don different (often overlapping) masks depending on the situation—family, work, public service or private play. Online, the distance between the “real you” and these masks is often more pronounced. We adopt pseudonyms, handles, avatars and…
On May 4, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-9-22 to create a coordinated state regulatory approach for cryptocurrency and blockchain, with the further aim of harmonizing the state’s laws with those (potentially) enacted at a federal level. Another goal of the Order is to determine the usage…
In this week’s News of Note, ransomware continues to ravage institutions—including a 157-year-old college and the government of Costa Rica—AI learns to accurately predict a patient’s race based on their medical images, cryptocurrency crashes, and more. Threat intelligence research firm AdvIntel claims that the Conti ransomware organization has splintered into…