Blog Posts

The best thing about the pandemic? I’ve discovered podcasts. One of the best is Lex Fridman’s, called, simply, Lex Fridman Podcast.
Fridman is a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology specializing in machine learning. He began the podcast in...

Max Tegmark remains one of the most interesting scientists alive. His book, Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (2017), is must reading for those wanting a quick and accessible survey of how artificial intelligence is changing, and will challenge, the way we...

Viktor Frankenstein had a vision, a dream, really. Could he create life? He left his hometown of Geneva, Switzerland for a local university. The world learned of his exploits in 1818. Mary Shelley tells his tale in Frankenstein.
I reread the book every so often, and...

I remain hopeful that come Wednesday, November 4, 2020, the republic will still exist, and that the winner of this year’s presidential election will be declared. I even harbor the hope, and the belief, that should President Trump lose, there will be a peaceful transition.
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As I watch the nation transform itself into the Failed States of America, I struggle with what the future will hold. My best guess? Long after the union has crumbled, we’ll be coping with, and relying upon, artificial intelligence (AI).
Indeed, I spend a fair...

The development and adoption of the automobile changed forever personal injury law. The common law era of horses and buggies gave way to manufacturing, high speeds and unforeseen injuries. First came the car, then the law involving accidents with cars. Technology is always a step or two...

Machine learning transforms computers from tools performing rote operations to devices sharing attributes we associate with human creativity, such as finding novel solutions to problems. Computers have bested top competitors at chess and Go, and they have beaten champions at Jeopardy....

In the last post in this series, Alexa made you happy, wealthy and safe, but by means you might not have foreseen. Your worst enemy was mauled in a traffic accident, one million dollars appeared in your bank account, and you lay strapped to a gurney with a morphine drip.
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Artificial intelligence, that is, the ability of a computer to learn and either to augment or to replace human activity presents profound legal challenges for the criminal law. What to do when your computer assists you in accomplishing a goal, and the result turns out to be a violation...

I am convinced that I am an artificial intelligence alarmist for the same reason that I like dystopian and apocalyptic literature. What I don’t understand is why the secret hope for catastrophe. The current pandemic has certainly called my bluff. Be careful what you wish for, I...