How far have smart speakers come? Amazon has 10000 employees dedicated to Alexa — here are some of the areas they’re working on. Speaking of Alexa: Amazon team taps millions of Alexa interactions to reduce NLP error rate. Story here. (Ask yours who will win the Super Bowl.)
This is kinda fun from Above the Law: You’ll Eat A McRib, But You Won’t Try Machine Learning? What Gives?
- Here’s some A2J news from Mary Juetten: Free Legal Research For All: AnyLaw. “AnyLaw was established to provide a no-cost alternative solution to the unnecessary – and exclusionary — expense of legal research.”
I have friends and relatives who are GMU grads, so here’s George Mason students have a new dining option: Food delivered by robots.
- This story is from Singapore’s Channel NewsAsia: The Big Read: Rise of the machine — how technology is disrupting Singapore’s law firms. “Singapore is playing catch up to embrace technological adoption in the legal and judicial world. Legal professionals say tech may also reduce the number of legal roles.”
It seems the US government shutdown is impacting AI: China To US Tech Investment Plunges 79% To Lowest Level In 7 Years Amid DC Crackdown. “In the BAT’s case, that means U.S. transactions centered on artificial intelligence, e-commerce and games — exactly the sorts of deals they made in the U.S. during 2018.” Story here.
This, from the WSJ: Driverless Cars Tap the Brakes After Years of Hype. “Developers take a more cautious, low-key approach in testing and talking about autonomous vehicles after Uber crash.”
And there’s more about autonomous vehicles in this article:How AI Is Transforming The Next Generation Of Vehicles. “The headliner of this year’s CES in Las Vegas wasn’t the futuristic concepts of robocars. Instead, it was the production-ready technologies that will infuse AI into the next generation of cars for safer, more efficient driving in the near term.”
From the always astute Jordan Furlong, this piece: Why law firms need to think differently – and smarter – about AI. “…(W)e need to go back to basics and deconstruct what we are trying to achieve with this technology, and why.”
This NYT story is thought provoking: How Do You Govern Machines That Can Learn? Policymakers Are Trying to Figure That Out. “The subject was artificial intelligence, and his students last week were mainly senior policymakers from countries in the 36-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.”
This ABA piece is a well-annotated deep dive into several of the big issues in legal AI: Pros and Pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence in IP and the Broader Legal Profession. “(S)trong and efficient practitioners must learn to harness the power of AI, but must be wary of overreliance on these technologies.”
Law firm posts (blockchain included):
John Weaver of McLane Middleton posted: Everything Is Not Terminator: Public-Facing Artificial Intelligence Policies – Part 2.
Jocelyn S. Paulley and David Brennan of Gowling WLG posted: The Role Of The Centre For Data Ethics And Innovation – What It Means For The UK.
Laurent De La Vaissiere of KPMG Luxembourg posted: Ten Trends Driving Cyber Security In 2019.
- Noëlle Lenoir and Hélène Bérion of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel posted: Digitalization And The Challenge Of KYC For Financial Institutions.
Hubert de Vauplane, Victor Charpiat and Mathieu Hejduk of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel posted: France Adds The Missing Piece To The Law Allowing Blockchain Technology To Be Used To Register And Transfer Unlisted Securities.
- Samantha V. Ettari of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel posted: Handling Internet Of Things Data In Litigation.
Harriet Territt of Jones Day posted: Jones Day Presents: What General Counsel Need To Know About Blockchain (Video).
- Mark W. Rasmussen of Jones Day posted: What Is Blockchain And How Is It Used? (Video).
Jennifer M. Driscoll and Karl E. Herrmann of Reed Smith posted: Algorithms, AI And Antitrust: The Next Frontier Of Regulatory Challenges.
- Peter Vogel of Foley & Lardner posted: Wow!! Cows Are Being Milked By Robots!
- Shang Kong and Katrina Nelson of Foley & Lardner posted: Autonomous Vehicle Federal Regulation.
Colin J. Zick of Foley Hoag posted: Massachusetts Amends Its Data Breach Response Law.
- David K. Brown of BakerHostetler posted: Massachusetts Enacts Significant Changes To Its Data Breach Notification Law.
Simone O. Otenaike of BakerHostetler posted: New Cryptocurrency Financial Products And Platforms Announced.
- Roger M. Brown and Nicholas C. Mowbray of BakerHostetler posted: Tax Analysis: Impact Of Increases To Crypto Trading And Organized Exchanges.
Scott H. Kimpel of Hunton Andrews Kurth posted: Blockchain Legal Resource: Texas Issues Updated Guidance For Virtual Currency Businesses.
Scott S. Addison of Lincoln Derr posted: Legal Tech Tips.
Brett Schwab of Proskauer Rose posted: New York Approves Nationwide Licensing Tool For Virtual Currency Business Activity Companies.
Hogan Lovells posted: Cryptocurrencies: building the ecosystem.
Herbert Smith Freehills posted: What will law firms look like in 2049?
This is a large and useful post from Gibson Dunn: Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems Legal Update (4Q18).
Megan Seabourne of British law firm VWV, this post: Would you trust a robot to write your will? “More than seven out of ten people would not want their will to be drafted using artificial intelligence (AI), according to VWV’s latest survey and as law firms are increasingly adopting AI in legal matters.”
Sunil Thacker senior partner at Dubai’s STA is heavily quoted in this piece: Space, AI, renewable energy to get priority as sectors open for more foreign investment in 2019.
From Artificial Lawyer:
- Artificial Lawyer Announces Launch of Legal Innovators Conference. Post here.
- Neota Logic Partners With Actuate Law To Develop New Legal Tech Tools. Post here. More coverage here.
CLOC London – Getting To Grips With Data + Better Contracting. Post here.
- M&A Due Diligence Will Get Much Faster – Survey by OCR Co. Merrill. Post here.
- Law Company Elevate Buys Yerra Managed Legal Services Co. As M&A Binge Continues. Post here.
- Mitratech Launches TeamConnect Essentials in Legal Ops Drive. Post here.
- Disputly – Solving the Consumer Legal Challenge One App at a Time. Post here.
Press Releases and sponsored content:
From ThoughtRiver: Turning The Future Vision Of The GC Into Today’s Reality. “Access our new eGuide to discover how automated contract pre-screening technology can transform the role of the GC’s team – and therefore business performance.” Release here.
- Also from ThoughtRiver: Why has the legal profession been slow to embrace AI technology? Release here.
Actuate Law Debuts New Legal Tech Subsidiary, Quointec LLC. “Quointec will collaboratively build next-generation legal and compliance tools that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to provide clients with innovative and more cost-effective solutions.” Release here.
BLOCKCHAIN:
Here’s some news re blockchain payments: MIT, Stanford and others to build blockchain payments network to rival VisaNet: “Seven universities are collaborating to create a blockchain-based online payment system that will solve issues of scalability, privacy, security and performance, enabling up to 10,000 transactions per second.”
This, from Marketplace: The blockchain is coming to Wall Street. “(F)uture ICOs and their digital coins might start to look a lot more like good old-fashioned stock, except traded on the blockchain. And that has big ramifications for Wall Street.”
Here are the findings of a statistically reliable survey: Deloitte’s 2018 Global Blockchain Survey: Blockchain Is “’Getting Closer To Its Breakout Moment’. “…(O)ut of all of the participants surveyed, 65% reported that their organization will invest $1 million or more in blockchain technology in the coming year. The enterprises with the largest investments will be coming from Mexico, France, and Canada respectively.”
Securitize To Join IBM’s Blockchain Accelerator To Modernize $82T Corporate Debt Market. Story here.
CanadianLawyer published: Blockchain justice. “Crypto-currency and blockchain will increasingly be the subjects of litigation in Canada.”
- Crude oil is about to be traded on a blockchain platform backed by five of the top 10 oil companies. “Chevron, Total and Reliance Industries are backing VAKT, a digital platform for crude oil trading based on blockchain that launched late last year. They join a consortium of investors that includes BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Equinor as well as traders Gunvor, Mercuria and Koch Supply & Trading.” Story here.
Speaking of oil & gas, here’s a piece that probably belongs above under AI, but here it is! The Incredible Ways Shell Uses Artificial Intelligence To Help Transform The Oil And Gas Giant.