As artificial intelligence moves into the courtroom, much has been written about sentencing algorithms with hidden biases. Daniel L. Chen, a researcher at both the Toulouse School of Economics and University of Toulouse Faculty of Law, has a different idea: using AI to help correct the biased decisions of human judges. Chen, who holds both a law degree and a doctorate in economics, has spent years collecting data on judges and US courts. "One thing that's been particularly nagging my mind is how to understand all of the behavioral biases that we've found," he says. For example, human biases that can tip the scales when making a decision.

Government shutdown or not, plaintiffs' lawyers haven't stopped filing new crypto lawsuits. This week we look at three new complaints, one involving lost crypto and a demand for a fork (the software kind), another that says that pre-sold mining hardware contracts were actually securities, and last but not least artificial intelligence on the blockchain (but not so much, it turns out). Disclaimer: These summaries are provided for educational purposes only by Nelson Rosario [twitter: @nelsonmrosario] and Stephen Palley [twitter: @stephendpalley]. They are not legal advice. These are our opinions only, aren't authorized by any past, present or future client or employer.

Researchers using artificial intelligence and "big data" plan to develop new algorithms that they say will enable them to identify, locate – and eventually predict – crimes committed in the world's oceans, from illegal fishing off the Patagonia shelf to drug smuggling in Central America to slave labor and human trafficking in the Indian Ocean. The perpetrators of these illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) activities collectively use vessels called "the dark fleet," not just because of their criminal activity, but because they try to hide their location by turning off their GPS tracking systems and navigating between legally operating and visible boats. "IUUs include all kinds of terrible things," said James Watson, a marine scientist expert at Oregon State University, and a principal investigator on the project. "We came into this thinking primarily about illegal fishing, but that turns out to be just the tip of the iceberg. It is much, much bigger."

Amazon investors are turning up the heat on CEO Jeff Bezos with a new letter demanding he stop selling the company's controversial facial recognition technology to police. The shareholder proposal calls for Amazon to stop offering the product, called Rekognition, to government agencies until it undergoes a civil and human rights review. It follow similar criticisms voiced by 450 Amazon employees, as well as civil liberties groups and members of Congress, over the past several months. 'Rekognition contradicts Amazon's opposition to facilitating surveillance,' the letter states. '...Shareholders have little evidence our company is effectively restricting the use of Rekognition to protect privacy and civil rights.

Facial recognition technology has progressed to point where it now interprets emotions in facial expressions. This type of analysis is increasingly used in daily life. For example, companies can use facial recognition software to help with hiring decisions. Other programs scan the faces in crowds to identify threats to public safety. Unfortunately, this technology struggles to interpret the emotions of black faces.

With over 7.5 billion people on the planet, finding energy sources is always at the forefront of the scientific community. Electric-powered cars are a perfect example. With technology like this, businesses and consumers can both save money on fuel costs while doing the environment a favor. Solar power is already saving people a lot of money on energy bills, and the technology will continue to get even better in the future. Efficiency is key for any business to save money.

That's the news from Microsoft, which announced recently that Azure Cognitive Services now supports containers. The marriage of AI and containers is a technology story, of course, but it's a potentially even bigger business story, one that affects where and how you can do business and gain competitive advantage. That's because they boost the agility and flexibility with which a business can roll out new tools to employees and new products and services to customers. With containers, a business can get software releases and changes out faster and more frequently, increasing its competitive advantage. Because containers abstract applications from their underlying operating systems and other services--like virtual machines abstracted from hardware--those applications can run anywhere: in the cloud, on a laptop, in a kiosk or in an intelligent Internet-of-Things (IoT) edge device in the field.

The U.S. healthcare industry is looking less like a special case, a large segment of the U.S. economy with its own unique quirks, and is beginning to behave like other industries, according to "Top health industry issues of 2019: The New Health Economy comes of age," the 13th annual healthcare report from consulting giant PwC. So for PwC Health Research Institute's latest report, rather than focusing on issues only U.S. health organizations face, it for the first time is examining how healthcare is adapting to factors common to all industries: deals, business and tax strategy, risk and regulatory issues, workforce trends and digital transformation. The details may be specific to healthcare, but the business issues are shared with many other parts of the economy. In 2019, new entrants and biopharmaceutical and medical device companies will bring to market new digital therapies and connected health services that can help patients make behavioral changes, give providers real-time therapeutic insights, and give insurers and employers new tools to more effectively manage beneficiaries' health, the PwC report said. "The arrival of digital therapeutics – an emerging health discipline that uses technology to augment or even replace active drugs in disease treatment – is reshaping the landscape for new medicines, product reimbursement and regulatory oversight," PwC said. "This means that new data sharing processes and payment models will be established to integrate these products into the broader treatment arsenal and regulatory structure for drug and device approvals." As digital therapeutics and connected devices have transitioned from concept to reality, investors have poured $12.5 billion into digital health ventures in 2017 and 2018, PwC reported.

Why the American Civil Liberties Union is calling out Amazon's facial recognition tool, and what the ACLU found when it compared photos of members of Congress to public arrest photos. A group of Amazon shareholders is pushing the tech giant to stop selling its controversial facial recognition technology to U.S. government agencies, just days after a coalition of 85 human rights, faith, and racial justice groups demanded in an open letter that Jeff Bezos' company stop marketing surveillance technology to the feds. Over the last year, the "Rekognition" technology, which has been reportedly marketed to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has come under fire from immigrants' rights groups and privacy advocates who argue that it can be misused and ultimately lead to racially biased outcomes. A test of the technology by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) showed that 28 members of Congress, mostly people of color, were incorrectly identified as police suspects. According to media reports and the ACLU, Amazon has already sold or marketed "Rekognition" to law enforcement agencies in three states.

A group of Amazon shareholders has filed a resolution requesting the company stop selling its facial recognition technology to government agencies until a review can determine whether it has the potential to violate civil rights. Organized by the non-profit Open MIC and filed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, the resolution is supported by a total of five shareholder groups that hold $1.32 billion of Amazon shares. In the resolution, the shareholders express concern over current use of the technology -- called Rekognition -- and they cite statements made by Amazon in the past opposing government-conducted surveillance. They also say they have "little evidence" that Amazon is "effectively restricting the use of Rekognition to protect privacy and civil rights."