Goto

Collaborating Authors

 Law


Big Tech bent the knee for Trump in 2025

Engadget

Tech companies may have lost their moral standing, but at least they added shareholder value. Elon Musk holds up a chainsaw onstage during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., February 20, 2025. Sure, we've seen millions poured into lobbying and other means of influence during every presidency, but the last two years set a whole new bar. Business leaders, including those from almost every Big Tech company, stepped over themselves to prove fealty to Donald Trump's second administration. It's easy to see why: Their kowtowing was meant to secure regulatory favors, gain tax and tariff advantages and avoid Trump's ire.


DEI Died This Year. Maybe It Was Supposed To

WIRED

My position feels more precarious than ever. It's a question that I sometimes toss out in the company of friends who--like me, and maybe like you--have a complicated relationship to their job. I've worked at WIRED as a writer for eight years, and with much success. Eight years is also an eternity in news media, and especially if you are Black. All industries suffer from unique growing pains. Ours just so happens to have laughably high turnover rates, a distaste for racial and gender diversity, and the dubious distinction of being perpetually on the verge of extinction. So on nights when friends and I gather, trading war stories of workplace microaggressions and corporate mismanagement under damp bar lighting, we wonder how we've lasted as long as we have. The only reason I've survived, I joke, is because I'm Black. It's a silly thing to say, particularly because I have no actual proof of it other than the occasional feeling. What I do know is that I've been The Only One in more spaces than I care to remember, and rarely by choice.


AI Scraping and the Open Web

Communications of the ACM

Tussles between websites and scrapers are not new. Almost since there has been a web to scrape, people have been scraping it and using the data to make search engines, caches and archives, analytics platforms, research datasets, and more. And for almost as long, some websites have objected and tried to stop the scraping with a mix of technical and legal measures. Broadly speaking, scrapers cause two kinds of problems for websites. First, they create bad traffic: millions of automated requests that no human will ever see.


The Morning After: Roomba maker iRobot files for bankruptcy

Engadget

After Amazon's acquisition fell apart, it ran out of options. It plans to sell all assets to its primary supplier, the Chinese company Picea Robotics. Investors "will experience a total loss and not receive recovery on their investment" if the deal is approved, iRobot said. The company didn't discuss how the move might affect its employees in the US or elsewhere. Amazon dropped its $1.7 billion acquisition of the company last year after a veto threat from European regulators, leaving the Roomba maker with no other option.


Boost for artists in AI copyright battle as only 3% back UK active opt-out plan

The Guardian

A campaign fronted by popstars including Elton John and Dua Lipa to protect artists' works from being mined to train AI models without consent has received a boost after almost every respondent to a government consultation backed their case. Ministers subsequently dropped that preference in the face of a backlash. Liz Kendall, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, told parliament on Monday there was "no clear consensus" on the issue and the government would "take the time to get this right", and promised to make policy proposals by 18 March 2026. "This means keeping the UK at the cutting edge of science and technology so UK citizens can benefit from major breakthroughs, transformative innovation and greater prosperity. "It also means continuing to support our creative industries, which make a huge economic contribution, shape our national identity and give us a unique position on the world stage."


Ben & Jerry's row deepens as three board members removed

BBC News

Ben & Jerry's row deepens as three board members removed Three members of Ben & Jerry's independent board will no longer be eligible to serve in their roles, after the ice cream company introduced a new set of governance practices. These include a nine-year limit set on board members' terms. Chair Anuradha Mittal, who earlier said she had no plans to resign under pressure, is among those affected. The move was criticised by the company's co-founder Ben Cohen, who called it a blatant power grab designed to strip the board of legal authority and independence. His remarks are the latest in a long-running row between Ben and Jerry's and its owner over the Cherry Garcia maker's social activism and the continued independence of its board.


Contributor: Rob Reiner reshaped how California understands and invests in children

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Hollywood director Rob Reiner engineered Proposition 10, a 1998 tobacco tax that created First 5 California, generating more than $11 billion for early childhood programs statewide. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . After his tragic death Sunday, the world remembers Rob Reiner as a cinematic force -- and he was one, as an unforgettable presence on the ambitious 1970s sitcom "All in the Family" and later as the director of beloved films. I came to know him differently: as a restless thinker who transformed his own life story into bold public policy, reshaping how California understands and invests in its youngest children.


Petco confirms major data breach involving customer data

FOX News

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper .


Becoming a Centenarian

The New Yorker

Like The New Yorker, I was born in 1925. Somewhat to my surprise, I decided to keep a journal of my hundredth year. The author, who was born on December 17, 1925, notes that the magazine's first issue came out ten months before he did. Old age is no joke, but it can feel like one. You look everywhere for your glasses, until your wife points out that you're wearing them. I turn a hundred this year. People act as though this is an achievement, and I suppose it is, sort of. Nobody in my family has lived this long, and I've been lucky. I'm still in pretty good health, no wasting diseases or Alzheimer's, and friends and strangers comment on how young I look, which cues me to cite the three ages of man: Youth, Maturity, and You Look Great. On the other hand, I've lost so many useful abilities that my wife, Dodie, and I have taken to calling me Feebleman. Look, up in the sky! No, it's Dodie doesn't want me to know how old she is, but she's nearly three decades younger than I am, and I become ...


AI might not be coming for lawyers' jobs anytime soon

MIT Technology Review

AI might not be coming for lawyers' jobs anytime soon Generative AI might have aced the bar exam, but an LLM still can't think like a lawyer. When the generative AI boom took off in 2022, Rudi Miller and her law school classmates were suddenly gripped with anxiety. "Before graduating, there was discussion about what the job market would look like for us if AI became adopted," she recalls. So when it came time to choose a speciality, Miller--now a junior associate at the law firm Orrick--decided to become a litigator, the kind of lawyer who represents clients in court. She hoped the courtroom would be the last human stage. "Judges haven't allowed ChatGPT-enabled robots to argue in court yet," she says.