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Takeaways From the Supreme Court’s Hearing in Blockbuster Internet Speech Case
Supreme Court justices appeared broadly concerned Tuesday about the potential unintended consequences of allowing websites to be sued for their automatic recommendations of user content, highlighting the challenges facing attorneys who want to hold Google accountable for suggesting YouTube videos created by terrorist groups.
For nearly three hours on Tuesday, the nine justices peppered attorneys representing Google, the U.S. government and the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, an American student killed in a 2015 ISIS attack, with questions about how the court could design a ruling that exposes harmful content recommendations to liability while still protecting innocuous ones.
How — or if — the court draws that line could have significant implications for the way websites choose to rank, display and promote content to their users as they seek to avoid a litigation minefield. A big concern of the justices seems to be the waves of lawsuits that could happen if the court rules against Google. “Lawsuits will be nonstop,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said at one point.
As Justice Amy Coney Barrett mentioned, there’s another big tech case on the Supreme Court’s docket Wednesday. The case, Twitter v. Taamneh, is not about Section 230 directly. Instead, the justices are considering whether social media companies can be sued for aiding and abetting an act of international terrorism after hosting content that generally expressed support for ISIS but that did not refer to a specific act of terror.
Together, the two tech cases the justices are hearing this week have the potential to transform the landscape of the internet. The Supreme Court’s rulings in the cases are expected by early summer.
Healthcare Vaccine Mandate Remains as Some Push for an End
At Truman Lake Manor in rural Missouri, every day begins the same way for every employee entering the nursing home’s doors — with a swab up the nose, a swirl of testing solution and a brief wait to see whether a thin red line appears indicating a positive COVID-19 case. Only the healthy are allowed in to care for virus-free residents.
Despite those precautions, a coronavirus outbreak swept through the facility late last year. An inspector subsequently cited it for violating the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement for healthcare facilities.
One year after it began being enforced nationwide on Feb. 20, 2022, the vaccination requirement affecting an estimated 10 million healthcare workers is the last remaining major mandate from President Joe Biden’s sweeping attempt to boost national vaccination rates. Similar requirements for large employers, military members and federal contractors all have been struck down, repealed or partially blocked.
The healthcare vaccination mandate is scheduled to run until November 2024. But some contend it’s time to stop now, citing fewer severe COVID-19 cases, healthcare staffing shortages and the impending May 11 expiration of a national public health emergency that has been in place since January 2020.
AI Is Going to Ruin Humanity — Just Not in the Way You Might Expect
If AI keeps seeping into every aspect of our lives, and we start to rely on it more and more, the dangers it poses to human intelligence should not be understated.
I’m not going to immediately disregard the potential benefits of AI for human society. There are plenty of tasks that are already carried out by computers (or low-paid human workers) that could be better automated via the use of specialized machine-learning tools. We’ve already seen the advantages of ‘virtual assistants’ such as Siri and Cortana; AI could provide huge advancements for these programs.
But I’d like you to think about the generations of children — most of them probably not even born yet — who will grow up in a world of AI-assisted software. I don’t want to sound like some tech-averse parent who thinks Fortnite is going to turn their kids into killing machines, but we can’t disregard the impacts of technology on human growth and development.
There have been plenty of studies examining the consequences of tech use on brain health, and while there isn’t a scientific consensus on the subject, there’s at least some evidence to suggest that heavy tech use isn’t good for our minds and bodies.
This particular study from the University of California took a wide-angled look at the possible effects, considering the impacts that digital technology use could have on sleep, attention span, emotional intelligence and cognitive development. All of these were found to be areas where heavy tech use could cause severe issues for the affected individuals, and the study also examined technology addiction as a resultant effect.
White Castle Could Face Multibillion-Dollar Judgement in Illinois Privacy Lawsuit
Illinois’ highest court on Friday said companies violate the state’s unique biometric privacy law each time they misuse a person’s private information, not just the first time, a ruling that could expose businesses to billions of dollars in penalties.
The Illinois Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision said fast food chain White Castle System Inc must face claims that it repeatedly scanned the fingerprints of nearly 9,500 employees without their consent, which the company says could cost it more than $17 billion.
The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) imposes penalties of $1,000 per violation and $5,000 for reckless or intentional violations. The law requires companies to obtain permission before collecting fingerprints, retinal scans and other biometric information from workers and consumers.
Washington State Lawmakers Push to Rehire Government Workers Fired Over Vaccine Mandate
Two lawmakers in Washington state want the state and local governments to bring back employees who were fired because they didn’t comply with COVID-19 pandemic vaccine mandates.
King County Council member Reagan Dunn introduced a motion that would prioritize the rehiring of county workers that were dismissed.
At the state level, Yakima Republican Rep. Chris Corry introduced a House bill that would create hiring preferences for bringing back state workers that were fired, and give those workers a chance to catch up on contributions to the state retirement plan.
It’s unclear just how much support these efforts will have from Gov. Jay Inslee, who strongly backed vaccine mandates for government workers.
Evangeline Lilly Reveals Disney & Marvel Supported Her Over Controversial Vaccine Mandate Views
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” actress Evangeline Lilly claimed that Disney supported her after the backlash she received for taking part in vaccine mandate protests.
The “Lost” and “Hobbit” star appeared on the “Happy, Sad, Confused” podcast on Thursday to discuss her latest movie when the topic shifted to her outspoken position against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Canada. After Lilly, who is Canadian, revealed that she took part in protests against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, many predicted the actress would soon be “canceled” like many actors before her.
However, Lilly informed host Josh Horowitz that Disney and Marvel actually notified her that they would continue to support her despite her views.
In Jan. 2022, Lilly penned a lengthy Instagram post showing herself among several other protesters voicing support for the Canadian truckers opposing Trudeau’s vaccine mandate.
Kroger Knows Every Purchase You’ve Ever Made — and Says It Could Make Millions of Dollars Selling Your Data
Major grocers aren’t just moving produce or TV dinners anymore: Many are also selling detailed information about customers’ purchasing habits.
The data is valuable to big food brands, which advertise to consumers and don’t have detailed information about who is buying their products once they make it to supermarkets, according to a story that nonprofit technology newsroom The Markup published on Thursday.
Supermarket chains are filling that void by selling those brands the information that they collect from customers, including when shoppers place a delivery order online or use a loyalty card at a checkout in-store, The Markup reported.
For the grocers, the rewards are potentially significant: Kroger, one of the U.S.’s largest grocery chains, has said that data is one of a few “alternative profit” businesses that could add $1 billion in profit to the company. Right now, those businesses generate about $150 million in profit, The Markup reported. Kroger operates grocery stores under several names, including Mariano’s and Ralph’s.
Chatbots Trigger Next Misinformation Nightmare
New generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft‘s BingGPT and Google‘s Bard that have stoked a tech-industry frenzy are also capable of releasing a vast flood of online misinformation.
Why it matters: Regulators and technologists were slow to address the dangers of misinformation spread on social media and are still playing catch-up with imperfect and incomplete policy and product solutions.
Now, experts are sounding the alarm faster as real-life examples of inaccurate or erratic responses from generative AI bots circulate.
The big picture: Generative AI programs like ChatGPT don’t have a clear sense of the boundary between fact and fiction. They’re also prone to making things up as they try to satisfy human users’ inquiries.
