Addressing legal issues with the latest technological developments and social media trends.
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GettyImages-1432104539-e1678373650565-300x252On February 21, 2023, the Copyright Office eclipsed its prior decisions in the area of AI authorship when it partially cancelled Kristina Kashtanova’s registration for a comic book titled Zarya of the Dawn. In doing so, the Office found that the AI program Kashtanova used—Midjourney—was primarily responsible for the visual output that the Office chose to exclude from Kashtanova’s registration. (Midjourney is an AI program that creates images from textual descriptions, much like OpenAI’s DALL-E.) The decision not only highlights tension between the human authorship requirements of copyright law and the means of expression that authors can use, but it also raises the question: Can AI-generated works ever be protected under U.S. copyright law?

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GettyImages-cloud-security-300x200On February 8, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a report citing its “findings on the current state of cloud adoption in the sector, including potential benefits and challenges associated with increased adoption.” Treasury acknowledged that cloud adoption is an “important component” of a financial institution’s overall technology and business strategy, but also warned the industry about the harm a technical breakdown or cyberattack could have on the public given financial institutions’ reliance on a few large cloud service providers. The Treasury also noted that “[t]his report does not impose any new requirements or standards applicable to regulated financial institutions and is not intended to endorse or discourage the use of any specific provider or cloud services more generally.”

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NewsofNote-300x250Today in News of Note, an innovation may pave the way for real-world quantum computing, plus we look at the latest generative AI debuts, how the world is addressing safety concerns with AI in the military, robotic chefs and much more.

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Last week, Twitch banned an AI-generated production based on Seinfeld called “Nothing, Forever” from the platform for 14 days after a character named Larry Feinberg—a Jerry Seinfeld clone—made transphobic statements during his standup routine. The show’s creators blamed OpenAI’s Curie model, an older, more rudimentary version, for generating the offensive remarks. More specifically, Curie’s baked-in algorithmic bias caused it to generate the hateful comments. While jarring, the incident is by no means surprising to anyone familiar with the issue of algorithmic bias in the development and use of AI systems.

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Hermès is a luxury fashion brand famously known for its iconic Birkin handbag. Since 1986, Hermès has sold over $1 billion worth of these handbags in the United States, including over $100 million worth in the past 10 years. Even the entry-level Birkin bags sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Exotic Birkins such as the Himalaya Birkin and the special edition Faubourg Birkins fetch well over a $100,000, and as such, Birkin bags have been considered the epitome of luxury handbags. Currently, the most popular size of the Hermès Birkin is its smallest—a 25 cm Birkin lovingly nicknamed “the baby Birkin.”

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GettyImages-1364050120-300x200Though ChatGPT and the far-reaching consequences of AI-powered chatbots are seizing both imaginations and headlines, many industries have been capitalizing on the use of chatbots for decades. Amid cybersecurity questions and legal discourse, chatbots have gained a stronghold in key business sectors looking to maximize manpower and provide speedy customer service. Their use is common across a large range of industries spanning education and government, to manufacturing and recruitment, and everything in between. Ahead, we look at some of the industries that are leading the way in their use of chatbots.

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NewsofNoteMain-300x250In today’s News of Note, we look at a potential boon for Sweden in the race for rare earth metals. We also ponder whether copyrights are solely for humans, or whether AI deserves equal protection for its artistic endeavors, plus the many unexpected applications (and pitfalls) surfacing as AI generators take the world by storm, and much more.

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You have probably heard of Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) created by Yuga Labs. These NFTs are owned by A-list celebrities and exploded in popularity in 2021. Currently, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs can sell for millions of dollars and are arguably one of the most popular and successful NFT collections in existence. As of January 4, 2022, it is estimated that sales of BAYC NFTs have surpassed one billion dollars. Ryder Ripps, a self-proclaimed “conceptual artist,” created his own NFT collection called the Ryder Ripps Bored Ape Yacht Club (RR/BAYC) in May 2022 using the same online digital images as the BAYC NFT collection, by generating new NFTs using the URLs embedded in the Bored Ape Yacht Club smart contracts. In July 2022, Yuga Labs, Inc. filed a lawsuit in California claiming Ryder Ripps et al. has misused trademarks owned and used by Yuga Labs since April 2021 (the BAYC Marks).

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NewsofNote-300x250In 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.

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Logos-USPTO-Copyright-300x169Yesterday, 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 can be found here), with a notice-and-comment period to follow, seeking stakeholder/private industry feedback on the following topics:

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