“What goes around, goes around, goes around, comes all the way back around, yeah.” From What Goes Around…/… Comes Around” written by Danja, Timbaland & Justin Timberlake.
Two stories today from our ever-expanding legal file. Aren’t you lucky?
Yesterday (Sunday), California governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the artificial intelligence safety bill that was passed by his state legislature, blocking what the New York Times calls “the most ambitious proposal in the nation aimed at curtailing the growth of the new technology.”
On its face, this sounds like a dumb move politically in a place like California. I doubt there are many other states that warehouse as many individuals that could lose their jobs due to the massive proliferation of artificial intelligence. Writers, artists, musicians, actors (likeness rights), lawyers — yes, even our sainted lawyers! — all stand to have their income liquidated by software that does not have agents and rarely complains about how they’re being treated. Yup, that’s a euphemism for “ripped off.”
As I frequently engage in asides, here’s another. Personally, I do not understand the difference between “artificial” and “real” intelligence. How is intelligence that is created by software any different from intelligence that is harvested or created by human beings? Peter David forgive me, but I digress. Both software and humanware are capable of lying, of plagiarism, and of deceit. A.I. didn’t create bullshit, humans did. Well, and bulls too, but my digression digresses.
The bill vetoed by Newsom required safety testing of large A.I. models prior to their public release. “It also gave the state’s attorney general the right to sue companies over serious harm caused by their technologies, like death or property damage,” sez the NYT. “It mandated a kill switch to turn off A.I. systems in case of potential biowarfare, mass casualties, or property damage.” Gee, that sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it?
Governor Newsom said “I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology… Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it.” So the vetoed bill protected, what, young thieves living in their mother’s basement from swiping stuff and passing it off as their own?
I dunno. Maybe he’s right. But it won’t be long before A.I. figures out most humans do not have six fingers on each hand. This bill would have imposed the most sweeping A.I. anti-theft regulations in the nation. This is now just a work-in-progress that gives the industry moguls more time to hire lobbyists to stop legislation that imposes honesty upon programmers.
Maybe the “revised” bill will be written by A.I. We don’t need legislators. Just ask MAGA.
The second bit of legal news is long overdue, but probably won’t affect us much. According to IP Watchdog, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancelled four super-hero trademarks owned by Marvel and DC after writer S.J. Richold challenged their validity after DC accused the writer of infringement by trying to register the phrase “Superbabies.”
This all started back in 1967, when Marvel and DC started to possess that term. They declined to answer Richold’s motion to dismiss the trademarks. I suspect they did because they knew they didn’t stand a chance in hell of preserving their claims.
Two separate and competitive companies sharing such a trademark was iffy at best — particularly when those two companies composed a virtual duopoly. Today there are a lot of comic book outfits that own a lot of superheroes, it seems to me like duopoly were anti-competitive, particularly in the licensing fields.
Indeed, back in the day when I was with First Comics, we used that phrase without paying any heed to their noxious claim. An attorney with Marvel called me to bitch and moan in a rather unseemly manner. I responded “Hey, pal, my company is largely owned by lawyers. Let’s say you sued us. What would happen if you lost? Then the whole world will know you don’t own shit! You’d be running quite a risk, wouldn’t you?”
We never heard from that lawyer again. Hey, at least I had my moment of fun.
