Tag Archives: litigation

Sci-Tech

OPED: Made by Human: The Threat of Artificial Intelligence on Human Labor

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This Article is 95.6% Made by Human / 4.4% by Artificial Intelligence

One of the most concerning uncertainties surrounding the emergence of artificial intelligence is the impact on human jobs.

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Let us start with a specific example – the customer support specialist. This is a human-facing role. The primary objective of a Customer Support Specialist is to ensure customer satisfaction.

The Gradual Extinction of Customer Support Roles

Within the past decade or so, several milestone transformations have influenced the decline of customer support specialists. Automated responses for customer support telephone lines. Globalization. And chat-bots. 

Chat-bots evolved with the human input of information to service clients. SaaS-based products soon engineered fancy pop-ups for everyone. Just look at Uber if you want a solid case-study – getting through to a person is like trying to contact the King of Thailand. 

The introduction of new artificial intelligence for customer support solutions will make chat-bots look like an AM/FM frequency radio at the antique market. 

The Raging Battle: A Salute to Those on the Front Lines

There are a handful of professions waging a battle against the ominous presence of artificial intelligence. This is a new frontier – not only for technology, but for legal precedent and our appetite for consumption. 

OpenAI is serving our appetite in two fundamental ways: text-based content (i.e. ChatGPT) and visual-based content (i.e. DALL·E). How we consume this content boils down to our own taste-buds, perceptions and individual needs. It is all very human-driven, and it is our degrees of palpable fulfillment that will ultimately dictate how far this penetrates the fate of other professions. 

Sarah Silverman, writer, comedian and actress sued the ChatGPT developer OpenAI and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta for copyright infringement. 

We need a way to leave a human mark. Literally, a Made by Human insignia that traces origins of our labor, like certifying products as “organic”.

If we’re building the weapon that threatens our very livelihood, we can engineer the solution that safeguards it. 

The Ouroboros Effect

If we seek retribution for labor and the preservation of human work, we need to remain ahead of innovation. There are several action-items that may safeguard human interests:

  • Consolidation of Interest. Concentration of efforts within formal structures or establish new ones tailored to this subject;
  • Litigation. Swift legal action based on existing laws to remedy breaches and establish legal precedents for future litigation;
  • Technological Innovation. Cutting-edge technology that: (a) engineers firewalls for preventing AI scraping technologies; (b) analyzes human work products; and (c) permits tracking of intellectual property.
  • Regulatory Oversight. Formation of a robust framework for monitoring, enforcing and balancing critical issues arising from artificial intelligence. United Nations, but without the thick, glacial layers of bureaucracy.  

These front-line professionals are just the first wave – yet if this front falls, it will be a fatal blow to intellectual property rights. We will have denied ourselves the ideological shields and weapons needed to preserve and protect origins of human creativity. 

At present, the influence of artificial intelligence on labor markets is in our own hands. If you think this is circular reasoning, like some ouroboros, you would be correct. The very nature of artificial intelligence relies on humans.

Ouroboros expresses the unity of all things, material and spiritual, which never disappear but perpetually change form in an eternal cycle of destruction and re-creation.

Equitable Remuneration 

Human productivity will continue to blend with artificial intelligence. We need to account for what is of human origin versus what has been interwoven with artificial intelligence. Like royalties for streaming music, with the notes of your original melody plucked-out. Even if it’s mashed-up, Mixed by Berry and sold overseas. 

These are complex quantum-powered algorithms. The technology exists. It is along the same lines of code that is empowering artificial intelligence. Consider a brief example: 

A 16-year old boy named Olu decides to write a book about growing-up in a war torn nation. 

✅ Congratulations on your work, Olu! 

47.893% Human /  52.107% Artificial

Meanwhile, back in London, a 57-year old historian named Elizabeth receives an email:

✅ Congratulations Elizabeth, your work has been recycled! 

34.546% of your writing on the civil war torn nation has been used in an upcoming book publication. Click here to learn more.

We need a framework that preserves and protects sweat-of-the-brow labor. 

As those on the front-line know: Progress begets progress while flying under the banner of innovation. If we’re going to spill blood to save our income streams – from content writers and hand models to lawyers and software engineers – the fruit of our labor cannot be genetically modified without equitable remuneration. 

Politics

RICO EXPERT COMMENTS ON TRUMP’S RECUSAL BID 

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Los Angeles, CA … Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday asked the federal judge presiding over his election subversion case in Washington to recuse herself, saying her past public statements about the former president and his connection to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol call into question whether she can be fair. 

“Regardless of anyone’s personal opinion on the matter, Donald Trump’s motion for recusal has merit under the express provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 455, which requires a judge to recuse himself or herself in any proceeding in which [her] impartiality might reasonably be questioned. It is irrelevant whether the judge is actually biased. The U.S. Supreme Court squarely addressed this issue in Liljeberg v. Health Services Acquisition Corp., 486 U.S. 847, 860, which held that recusal is required even when a judge lacks actual knowledge of the facts indicating his interest or bias.

Judge Chutkan

Here, Judge Tanya Chutkan has made previous comments such as ‘Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not a President’ and, in a December 2021 sentencing hearing, she stated, ‘the issue of who has or has not been charged is not before me. I don’t have any influence on that. I have my opinions, but they are not relevant.’ She has therefore publicly acknowledged her bias, which, at the very least, creates an appearance of partiality. This is nevertheless an uphill battle, as the motion has been submitted to Judge Chutkan, who will rule on this motion.

Having litigated this issue extensively in Angelica Limcaco v. Steve Wynn, Case No. 19-15949 (9th Cir. 2020), Donald Trump has to navigate a difficult path because the optics are problematic for him. The Justice Department will likely argue that Judge Chutkan has no financial interest, or something to that effect. Of course, if the motion is denied, the decision could result in an interlocutory appeal that may delay the case,” explained Jordan Matthews, a litigation partner at Weinberg Gonser LLP.

Culture

Families That Fight Over Inheritance

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The recently deceased don’t always ingratiate themselves with their survivors when it comes time to read the will.

“People want to control things from the grave, not just throw a bunch of money in a beneficiary’s lap,” says family wealth guru John Pankauski, author of the new book, “Pankauski’s Trustee’s Guide: 10 Steps to Family Trustee Excellence.”

It’s their money so that’s their right.Fighting Over Money

But family members aren’t always crazy about how the deceased divided up the money or, if the inheritance was put into a trust, the restrictions that are placed on how the money is spent.

And often ill feelings among family members can bubble to the surface when money is at stake.

“I deal with sibling rivalries, petty jealousies and childhood grudges played out by adults who are decades older, but no more mature,” says Pankauski, founder of the Pankauski Law Firm (www.pankauskilawfirm.com), which specializes in trust and estate law. “It makes me think that part of my job is to be a wealth psychologist.”

Often, an inheritance isn’t doled out immediately. Instead, it’s placed in a trust with a trustee to oversee it, making decisions on when and how to distribute the money based on the terms of the trust.

In many situations, that works out fine. But in seriously dysfunctional families, that can make a bad situation borderline intolerable.

Sense Of Entitlement

Pankauski says any number of factors can lead to family feuds or general disgruntlement over an inheritance. Here are just a few:

•  Sense of entitlement. Many beneficiaries have a misplaced sense of entitlement to an inheritance. They just expect that mom or dad will leave them money or property. In their minds, it’s what they have coming to them. “The truth is, you can dispose of your property any way you want,” Pankauski says. “There is no right to an inheritance and just about anyone can be disinherited.”

So if people want to leave their money in a trust for a family pet, or bequeath everything to a neighbor, a mistress or a charity, they have every right to do so, assuming they are competent and know what they are doing. “It’s their money,” Pankauski says. “They can do with it as they wish.” Other than dealing with a spouse, there are almost no restrictions.

•  The audacity of the trust. Family members often become frustrated and angry when they realize they inherited money, but it’s in a trust and there are strings attached.  “The beneficiaries view trusts as handcuffs on their money,” Pankauski says. “A trust takes all those family members’ personal feelings and emotions, all that baggage, and adds money to create a financial stew into which the beneficiaries are thrown.”

Often, because beneficiaries don’t like it that a trustee gets to make decisions on when and how they get a portion of their inheritance, family members will seek counsel and try to “bust the trust.”

•  An implied accusation of financial irresponsibility. At some point it may begin to dawn on beneficiaries that one reason the inheritance was placed in a trust is that the deceased didn’t view them as responsible with money. “That may seem insulting, but it doesn’t have to be,” Pankauski says. “Many would argue that most people are irresponsible with money, particularly a large sum of inherited money that appears out of the blue, much like winning a lottery.”
Sometimes at least a portion of the family animosity might be avoided by better planning when the will is being written and the trust created.
“When beneficiaries don’t get along,” Pankauski says, “it may make more sense to cut their financial ties by either creating multiple separate shares within the trust or creating separate trusts altogether.”

For the Silo, John Pankauski, LLP.

 

Culture

Ontario Lawyer Book Outlines Path To Successful Divorce

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Noted family lawyer Russell Alexander has written a book outlining the path to a successful divorce, taking readers step-by-step through the process from finding a lawyer to handling post- litigation issues. This one of the few books that touches exclusively on Ontario divorce law.

“It made me realize how much hunger there is for information on how divorces work,” said Alexander. “No one ever expects to get a divorce, so it’s not a subject that people spend much time learning about until they are facing one. It can be hard to catch up at such a stressful time.”

In 300+ pages, Alexander’s book, “The Path to a Successful Divorce,” aims to give readers a solid grounding on the key questions about family law that they’ll face as they go through a divorce, including whether they’ll need a separation agreement first, how courts view adultery and why representing yourself is a bad idea.

Using his knowledge of Canadian case law, Alexander also peppered the book with interesting anecdotes about real divorces that illustrate how some of these issues play out, such as a father who sent abusive text messages and a couple who were married in front of 500 people but never obtained a marriage license.

“Every divorce is unique,” Alexander said. “But there are principles that underlie the process that you need to understand before you move forward in a divorce. This is one case where what you don’t know can hurt you. Hopefully this book will help readers avoid that problem.”

The book is now available for purchase on Amazon Kindle and will be available in print on Amazon and on the firm’ s website later this spring. For more details, contact:  marketingdirector@thesilo.ca

Russell Alexander Family Lawyers is committed to practicing exclusively in the area of family law in Ontario dealing with all aspects, including separation and divorce, child custody and access, spousal support, child support, and division of family property. A team of lawyers provide guidance from start to finish, helping clients identify and understand the legal issues as well as the options and opportunities available through the transition. The firm has offices in Lindsay, Whitby, and Markham, Ontario. For the Silo, Alison Beckwith .