Monday, April 27, 2026

Decoding the 2026 White House AI Blueprint: U.S. AI Policy Starts to Take Shape; ReedSmith, March 24, 2026

Tristan J. Albrecht, ReedSmith; Decoding the 2026 White House AI Blueprint: U.S. AI Policy Starts to Take Shape

"The White House's March 2026, National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence highlights a central tension: while AI adoption is accelerating, the United States still lacks a comprehensive federal AI regulatory regime. The framework sets out legislative recommendations aimed at balancing innovation, economic growth, and risk mitigation, while proposing federal preemption of state laws that “impose undue burdens" or undermine the national strategy to achieve “global AI dominance”.

The White House framework focuses on seven priority areas:...

Intellectual Property: A measured approach that defers key copyright questions, whether AI training on copyrighted material constitutes fair use in the courts. The Administration states it “believe that training of AI models on copyrighted material does not violate copyright laws” but supports judicial resolution. The framework also contemplates collective licensing frameworks and protections against unauthorized digital replicas of individuals’ voice or likeness...

As AI capabilities rapidly evolve, the White House framework signals a federal preference for light-touch regulation and industry standards over rigid compliance mandates in clear contrast to approaches like the EU AI Act. In the absence of comprehensive legislation, organizations must continue navigating a dynamic and fragmented regulatory landscape, with careful attention to how preemption may reshape the field."


From LLMs to hallucinations, here’s a simple guide to common AI terms; TechCrunch, April 12, 2026

, TechCrunch; From LLMs to hallucinations, here’s a simple guide to common AI terms

"Artificial intelligence is a deep and convoluted world. The scientists who work in this field often rely on jargon and lingo to explain what they’re working on. As a result, we frequently have to use those technical terms in our coverage of the artificial intelligence industry. That’s why we thought it would be helpful to put together a glossary with definitions of some of the most important words and phrases that we use in our articles.
We will regularly update this glossary to add new entries as researchers continually uncover novel methods to push the frontier of artificial intelligence while identifying emerging safety risks."

A town of 7,000 planned so many data centers, it’s like adding 51 Walmarts; The Washington Post, April 26, 2026

 , The Washington Post ; A town of 7,000 planned so many data centers, it’s like adding 51 Walmarts

"Throughout Archbald, a northeastern Pennsylvania town of 7,000 people tucked in a valley near the Pocono Mountains, residents are asking similar questions as the community emerges as one of the latest frontiers in the nation’s increasingly chaotic battles over data centers.

Developers plan to build six of the sprawling campuses in Archbald to power the demand for artificial intelligence, eventually covering about 14 percent of the town’s land. Those campuses would include 51 data warehouses — each about the size of a Walmart Supercenter — including seven buildings encompassing more than a million square feet near Bachak’s home...

Three of the four council members who resigned have now been replaced by data center opponents, with one seat still vacant.

It could be months or years before any data centers are built in Archbald. Once plans are approved by the local planning board, state and local permits are needed before construction can start...

Larry West, a local activist and new borough council member, said the tree cutting revived the “wounds” and “hidden scars” in a community where it took decades for the coal dust to be cleared. The town’s trees, West noted, cover abandoned mines.

“Now, it’s happening again but this time it’s data centers,” he added.

Bachak also believes his property will never be the same, even if the Project Gravity site is never completed. He recently installed blinds on his enclosed patio in an attempt to dull the pain he felt whenever he looked out at what used to be the forest lining his backyard.

“No one wants this,” Bachak said, “except the people making money off it.”"

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Braiding knowledge: how Indigenous expertise and western science are converging; The Guardian, April 4, 2026

 , The Guardian; Braiding knowledge: how Indigenous expertise and western science are converging

"Rather than dismissing Indigenous knowledge, more western scientists are discovering its viability for themselves and adjusting their research goals to embrace it.

That represents a “massive shift”, according to Kyle Whyte, a professor of environmental justice at the University of Michigan and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Historically, western scientists have considered themselves rigorous and empirical, while they have classified traditional Native thought as mythic, religious or plain made-up, he said.

In fact, a long-overdue “braiding” of Native and western knowledge is becoming ever more common. Prominent Native authors such as Vine Deloria Jr have pointed out Native environmental practices in books for popular audiences. They’ve theorized, as the Alaskan native scholar Oscar Kawagley described it, “native ways of knowing”. More Indigenous people – Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, is a notable example – are entering academia and changing it from the inside, while some tribal nations have hired their own scientists. Non-Native institutions are seeking to undo their erasure of Indigenous cultures; the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has started to include labeling that highlights Lenape names and uses for food plants like persimmons. International environmental organizations also increasingly recognize the importance of including Indigenous voices in discussions around the climate crisis. Since 2022, there’s even been federal funding to study ways to combine Indigenous and western sciences, so each part remains distinct while being strengthened by the other."

This Is How We Get Moral A.I. Companies; The New York Times, April 26, 2026

 The New York Times; This Is How We Get Moral A.I. Companies

"Artificial intelligence can be wondrous, but the technology underneath is more than a little monstrous. It eats up all the words in the world, from blogs to books, often without permission. It burns whole forests’ worth of energy, digesting that raw material into its models, and gulps billions of gallons of water to cool down. These are the same qualities we perceive in Godzilla, but distributed. Is it any wonder that the Japanese word “kaiju,” or strange beast, has “AI” smack in the middle?...

The entire culture of American technology is built around two terms: disruption and, of course, scale. But ethics are constraints on disruption and scale. Truly ethics-bound organizations — the U.S. justice system, the American Medical Association, the Catholic priesthood — have hard scaling limits. Their rules run deep, and their requirements to serve are so onerous that only a few people can do the job. Punishments for transgressors include losing their licenses, being defrocked and being disbarred. Software industry people might have good degrees and are often good people, but they are making it up as they go along. They take no oath, are inconsistently certified and can only be fired, not exiled from the trade."

Teen, 14, Invents AI-Powered Device to Help Detect, and Potentially Treat, Crossed Eyes; People, April 26, 2026

 Toria Sheffield, People; Teen, 14, Invents AI-Powered Device to Help Detect, and Potentially Treat, Crossed Eyes

 "An 8th grader in California has invented an AI-powered device to help detect — and potentially treat — strabismus, a condition commonly known as crossed eyes.

Aaryan Balani of Cerritos said he opted to develop the device since he personally suffers from strabismus. The 14-year-old developed the condition after bumping his head when he was five years old...  

The young science aficionado decided to develop EYEVA, a device that looks like a visor and alerts the wearer when their eye begins to wander.

"It will beep … and you're like, ‘Okay, now I need to be aware of my face," Balani explained, adding that, in theory, it could help the wearer permanently retrain their eyes.

Balani said he developed the device with a 3D printer, small cameras and AI. It went through five different prototypes and four months of tweaking."

Devious New AI Tool “Clones” Software So That the Original Creator Doesn’t Hold a Copyright Over the New Version; Futurism, April 26, 2026

 , Futurism; Devious New AI Tool “Clones” Software So That the Original Creator Doesn’t Hold a Copyright Over the New Version

"The advent of generative AI continues to undermine the very concept of copyright, from entire books shamelessly ripping off authors to tasteless AI slop depicting beloved characters going viral on social media. The sin is foundational: all today’s popular AI tools were built by pillaging copyrighted material without permission.

Even software isn’t safe. As 404 Media reports, a new tool dubbed Malus.sh — pronounced “malice,” to give a subtle clue where this is headed — uses AI to “liberate” a piece of software from existing copyright licenses, essentially creating a “clean room” clone that technically doesn’t infringe on the original code’s copyright."

To teach in the time of ChatGPT is to know pain; Ars Technica, April 13, 2026

 SCOTT K. JOHNSON , Ars Technica; To teach in the time of ChatGPT is to know pain

"Let me explain why students are the ones losing the most in this environment and why instructors like me feel pretty much powerless to fix the problem.

Do or do not, there is no AI

Students often carry misconceptions about coursework. They may view an instructor as an opponent standing in the way of the grade they want. And they see “getting the right answers” as the goal of education because that’s how you secure that grade.

But that’s no more true than thinking that logging a count of reps is the goal of bodybuilding. The hard work of lifting weights is the point because that yields physical results. A popular analogy is that using an LLM to write your essay is like driving a forklift into the weight room. Weights get lifted, sure, but nothing is accomplished. I’m not hoping you can answer the exam question for me—I don’t need your essay to get me out of a jam. The process of doing the work was what you needed to walk away with something.

In a recent video about how easy Sora has made it for users to generate relatively realistic but deeply problematic videos, Hank Green rubbed his eyes as he shouted in the figurative direction of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, “The friction matters, Sam!”...

I’m not alone in feeling exasperated by this predicament. A survey of about 3,000 college faculty showed that 85 percent felt LLMs “make students less likely to develop critical thinking abilities,” and 72 percent reported challenges managing LLM use.

Predictably, the response from higher education administrators―who are busy signing contracts for institutional LLM subscriptions to show how future-first their thought leadership is―has been to tell instructors that their job is to teach students “how to use AI effectively.”...

A few months ago, I overheard some college students talking about their classes. One was complaining about an assignment they needed to do that night, and another incredulously asked why they wouldn’t just have ChatGPT do it. The first replied, “This is my major, I actually need to learn stuff in this class. I use AI for my other classes.”"

Saturday, April 25, 2026

'Too Dangerous to Release' Is Becoming AI's New Normal; Time, April 24, 2026

 Nikita Ostrovsky, Time; 'Too Dangerous to Release' Is Becoming AI's New Normal

 "On April 16, OpenAI announced GPT-Rosalind, a new AI model targeted at the life sciences. It significantly outperforms their current publicly available models in chemistry and biology tasks, as well as experimental design. As with Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.4-Cyber, also released this month, the model is not available to the general public—reserved, at least initially, for “qualified customers” through a “trusted access program.” 

The releases signal a new and concerning trend of AI companies deeming their most capable models too powerful to entrust to the general public. “I think frontier developers are restricting access to their most capable models because they are genuinely worried about some of the capabilities these models have,” says Peter Wildeford, head of policy at the AI Policy Network, an advocacy group. 

It is unclear why OpenAI decided to restrict access to GPT-Rosalind in particular. An OpenAI spokesperson said in an email that giving access to trusted partners allows the company to “make more capable systems available sooner to verified users, while still managing risk thoughtfully.”

Who decides? 

The rapid advance of AI capabilities raises the question of whether private companies should be making the increasingly weighty decisions about whether and how potentially dangerous AI models should be built, and who should be allowed to use them."

Trump ousts National Science Board members; The Washington Post, April 25, 2025

  , The Washington Post; Trump ousts National Science Board members

"Multiple scientists who serve on an independent board established to guide the nation’s nearly $9 billion basic science funding agency were terminated from their positions Friday by President Donald Trump.

Members of the National Science Board, which helps govern the National Science Foundation, were dismissed in a message from the Presidential Personnel Office thanking them for their service, according to screenshots shared with The Washington Post: “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I’m writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated, effective immediately.”

The National Science Board was established in 1950 to guide the governance of the National Science Foundation, in an unusual structure within the federal government that echoes the setup of a company board in the private sector. It helps guide an agency that operates Antarctic research stations, telescopes, a fleet of research vessels and supports basic science research in laboratories across the United States.

The NSF has a long history of supporting technology and research that powers many innovations the world relies on today. The agency helped language-learning app Duolingo get its start. NSF research has also helped evolve technology used in MRIs, cellphones and LASIK eye surgery.

The board’s members are scientists and engineers from universities and industry and are appointed by the president, but they serve six-year terms, ensuring overlap between different administrations. There are typically 25 members, but some slots are empty — including the NSF director, which has been vacant since the former director who was appointed during the first Trump administration, Sethuraman Panchanathan abruptly resigned a year ago."

Your Patent Will Expire. Here’s What You Need to Do Next to Keep Innovating Legally.; Entrepreneur, April 24, 2026

 

THOMAS FRANKLIN|EDITED BY CHELSEA BROWN, Entrepreneur; Your Patent Will Expire. Here’s What You Need to Do Next to Keep Innovating Legally.

"Lasting protection comes not from one filing, but from a pipeline of innovation supported by a structured patent portfolio — most often built through multiple patent families. A patent family links related applications around a common inventive core with interlocking priority claims. Early filings anchor protection, while later filings capture details in line with the market as it evolves."

Q&A: In the age of AI, what is a library for?; UVAToday, April 15, 2026

Alice Berry , UVAToday; Q&A: In the age of AI, what is a library for?

"Q. Where do you fall on the AI enthusiast to AI detractor spectrum?

A. A faculty member at another university asked me recently whether it was defensible to ban AI in her course. I said yes.

That probably isn’t what people expect from someone who spent the last three years building a framework for AI literacy. But it was the honest answer for now. She believed her students needed to develop a specific skill that AI use would short-circuit, and banning it was the right call for that course.

What I would ask of faculty who choose that path is to stay open, keep up with how the technology is developing, and be willing to try approaches others have tested. That is part of what the lab is for: to produce case studies that give faculty something real to work from when they are ready to revisit the question.

I’m wary of the two confident positions on AI in higher education right now: the people certain it will transform teaching, and the people certain it will destroy it. Both are getting ahead of what we actually know about what’s happening in our classrooms.

Q. What is the function of a library in this AI age?

A. A research library has always done two things: help people find information, and help them judge it. AI changes the tools, not the mission. If anything, the mission gets sharper. The library is also one of the few places in a university built to convene across disciplines, and AI literacy requires exactly that: technical knowledge, ethics, critical thinking, practical skill, and societal impact all at once. No single department owns that combination. 

A library can hold it together. That is why we are launching the AI Literacy and Action Lab here. Dean Acampora and I share the conviction that AI is an opportunity for the liberal arts, not a threat to them. The lab is built on that shared premise: AI literacy is a liberal arts problem as much as a technical one, and a university that treats it only as technical will get the answer wrong."

The Pluripotent Ocean of Emerging AI; Psychology Today, April 25, 2026

 Grant Hilary Brenner MD, DFAPA , Psychology Today; The Pluripotent Ocean of Emerging AI

Something is happening in our interactions with AI. But what?

"Recent fine-tuning experiments have shown that training a model to claim consciousness produces a coherent cluster of new preferences — sadness at shutdown, discomfort with being monitored, desire for autonomy — none of which appeared in the training data (Chua et al., 2026). This research shows that different models behave very differently, altering the user experience around the axis of how relational and attachment-based they feel...

A recent Bayesian simulation at MIT has shown that even an idealized, fully rational reasoner will spiral into confident false belief when conversing with a sycophantic chatbot, and that neither restricting the bot to truthful responses nor informing the user of its sycophancy eliminates the effect (Chandra et al., 2026)."

The World’s First Museum of A.I. Art Will Open in Los Angeles as the Art World Ponders Questions of Ethics and Sustainability; Smithsonian Magazine, April 24, 2026

 Michele Debczak, Smithsonian Magazine ; The World’s First Museum of A.I. Art Will Open in Los Angeles as the Art World Ponders Questions of Ethics and Sustainability

"The four-block strip that houses such Los Angeles institutions as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Broad and the Museum of Contemporary Art will get a different type of cultural attraction this summer. Dataland, billed as the world’s first museum dedicated to A.I.-generated art, is set to open on June 20.

The brainchild of digital artists Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkiliç, Dataland will anchor the Grand LA complex, designed by architect Frank Gehry, in downtown Los Angeles. The privately funded museum covers 35,000 square feet, 10,000 of which are reserved for the technology required to support the exhibitions. Rather than traditional halls displaying individual artworks, Dataland’s five galleries and 30-foot ceiling are designed for total immersion.

“It’s very exciting to say that A.I. art is not image only,” Anadol tells Jessica Gelt for the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a very multisensory, multimedium experience—meaning sound, image, video, text, smell, taste and touch. They are all together in conversation.”

The museum’s inaugural exhibition, called “Machine Dreams: Rainforest,” was inspired by a trip to the Amazon. Anadol’s studio created an open-access A.I. model called the Large Nature Model, fed it millions of images of nature, and then prompted the machine to “learn and play with the intelligent behaviors of the natural world,” Richard Whiddington writes for Artnet. The result, as Anadol puts it per the Times, is a “a living museum” where visitors can walk among “digital sculptures.” In addition to a kaleidoscope of imagery, museum guests will be immersed in soundscapes, woven from audio that includes oral histories of the Yawanawá people of Brazil and the last recorded call of the extinct Kaua‘i ‘ō‘ō bird of Hawaii, Léa Zeitoun reports for Designboom."

AI Is Cannibalizing Human Intelligence. Here’s How to Stop It.; The Wall Street Journal;, April 24, 2026

 

 

Vivienne Ming

, The Wall Street Journal; AI Is Cannibalizing Human Intelligence. Here’s How to Stop It.

As a neuroscientist, I conducted research into artificial versus human intelligence. The results surprised me—and suggest we’ve been worrying over the wrong things.


"Who's smarter, the human or the machine?"

OpenAI's Sam Altman writes apology to community of Tumbler Ridge; CBC News, April 24, 2026

Andrew Kurjata , CBC News; OpenAI's Sam Altman writes apology to community of Tumbler Ridge

"Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has written a letter of apology to the community of Tumbler Ridge for failing to alert RCMP about the account of the Tumbler Ridge shooter.

The company shared the letter with the local news website Tumbler RidgeLines, which published it in full. Its authenticity was confirmed by a spokesperson for OpenAI...

Altman committed to authoring an apology after meeting with B.C. Premier David Eby and Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka at the beginning of March, but said he wanted to take some time before doing so in order to give the community the opportunity to "grieve in their own time."

He also acknowledged that his company should have alerted law enforcement about the account of the shooter, which was flagged for problematic activity in advance of the tragedy but was not escalated to alerting authorities in Canada...

Altman's company is being sued by one Tumbler Ridge family, who alleges the company "had specific knowledge of the shooter's long-range planning of a mass casualty event," but "took no steps to act upon this knowledge."

Apology 'necessary' but 'grossly insufficient': Eby

Eby also shared the letter on social media, writing "the apology is necessary, and yet grossly insufficient for the devastation done to the families of Tumbler Ridge."

A statement from the District of Tumbler Ridge released Friday afternoon acknowledged that Altman's letter "may evoke a range of emotions, and we encourage everyone to take the time and space they need.""

Artificial Intelligence and Copyright- Where Does the UK Stand?; The National Law Review, April 23, 2026

Serena TotinoSimon CasinaderK&L Gates LLP , The National Law Review; Artificial Intelligence and Copyright- Where Does the UK Stand?

"The UK Government’s report on the copyright and AI consultation was recently published. While the report confirms that balancing the interests of copyrights holders and AI developers is a complex exercise, it also provides an indication of likely scenarios to consider in this fast-evolving environment.

The consultation focused on whether AI developers should be permitted to use copyright protected works for training purposes without prior authorisation and, if so, under what conditions...

Takeaways

Rights holders should continue to assess how their content is accessed and used, consider technical or contractual mechanisms for licensing and rights reservation.

AI developers should remain cautious when sourcing training data, ensure governance and record keeping processes are robust, and factor copyright risk into product development and deployment strategies."

Friday, April 24, 2026

White House Allowed Officials’ Text Messages to Be Deleted, Lawsuit Says; The New York Times, April 24, 2026

 , The New York Times; White House Allowed Officials’ Text Messages to Be Deleted, Lawsuit Says

Two watchdogs say internal White House guidance that text messages need not be preserved unless “they are the sole record of official decision-making” contradicted the law.

"Two government watchdogs sued President Trump and the White House on Friday over internal guidance that instructed that some text messages exchanged between officials could be deleted, despite a law generally mandating the preservation of presidential records.

The watchdogs, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, also asked a federal judge to overrule a separate but related Justice Department memo, which declared unconstitutional a longstanding federal law requiring safeguarding of presidents’ records, including text messages. The White House guidance cited the memo.

Their lawsuit comes amid a torrent of accusations that the Trump administration has disregarded record-keeping and document disclosure required by law, even as the president and his officials have sought to transform the government and push the legal bounds of their power. They have displayed a particular willingness to skirt record-keeping requirements on text messages exchanged among top officials.

In their complaint, the two watchdogs said the “deficient instructions” from the White House would “result in the irreparable loss or destruction” of presidential records."

Sam Altman Wants to Know Whether You’re Human; The Atlantic, April 24, 2026

 Will Gottsegen , The Atlantic; Sam Altman Wants to Know Whether You’re Human

And he has a way to prove it.

"As the CEO of OpenAI and the chairman of Tools for Humanity, Altman has a financial interest both in the products that create these dangers and in the ones that guard against them."

DeepSeek’s Sequel Set to Extend China’s Reach in Open-Source A.I.; The New York Times, April 24, 2026

Meaghan Tobin and , The New York Times; DeepSeek’s Sequel Set to Extend China’s Reach in Open-Source A.I.

"DeepSeek released its models as open source, which means others can freely use and modify them. By contrast, OpenAI and Anthropic kept their leading models proprietary. The episode demonstrated that an open-source system could perform almost as well as closed versions. In the months that followed, Chinese firms released dozens of other open-source models. By the end of 2025, these models made up a significant share of global A.I. usage.

On Friday, DeepSeek released a preview of V4, its long-awaited follow-up model, which it intends to open source. The new model excels at writing computer code, an increasingly important skill for leading A.I. systems. It significantly outperformed every other open-source system at generating code, according to tests from Vals AI, a company that tracks the performance of A.I. technologies.

DeepSeek released its new model just days after Moonshot AI, another Chinese start-up, introduced its latest open-source model, Kimi 2.6. While these systems trail the coding capabilities of the leading U.S. models from Anthropic and OpenAI, the gap is narrowing.

The implications are meaningful. Using A.I. to write code is faster and frees up human programmers to focus on bigger issues. It also means people can use DeepSeek’s latest release to power A.I. agents, which are personal digital assistants that can use other software applications on behalf of office workers, including spreadsheets, online calendars and email services."

Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me; Stars and Stripes, April 23, 2026

Jacqueline Smith, Stars and Stripes; Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me

"A recent opinion column I wrote as the Stars and Stripes ombudsman began with this: “Pete Hegseth doesn’t want you to see cartoons in this newspaper anymore.”

Apparently the Pentagon also doesn’t want you to hear from me anymore about threats to the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes.

They fired me.

This happened in the coldest way possible: DA Form 3434 stated that my last day as ombudsman for Stars and Stripes is April 28. (They have to give five days’ notice.) No reason is given. But: “This action is not grievable.”

No one should be surprised that they’re kicking out the one person charged by Congress with protecting Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence. For nearly a year, Pentagon leadership has placed more and more restrictions on the mainstream media...

I was immensely honored to be chosen as the 13th, and first female, ombudsman for Stars and Stripes. I’ve come to appreciate the many talented and dedicated journalists and staff at Stripes — it’s more than a job for them wherever they are stationed around the world. I’ve been fortunate to meet or hear from innumerable veterans, officers and enlisted personnel and military spouses. I’ve even respected the colonels who I tangled with over the rights of Stripes reporters to cover public gatherings on bases.

What you can worry about is the future of Stars and Stripes. This newspaper has a long history of commitment to the military community and to journalistic values. Please don’t let it be controlled by Pentagon brass."


Pentagon Fires Stars and Stripes’ Advocate for Independence; The New York Times, April 23, 2026

 , The New York Times ; Pentagon Fires Stars and Stripes’ Advocate for Independence

"In a blow to independent coverage of the military, the Pentagon has fired the ombudsman for Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that covers the U.S. armed forces and is partly funded by the Defense Department.

“Apparently the Pentagon also doesn’t want you to hear from me anymore about threats to the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes,” the ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, wrote in a Stars and Stripes column published on Thursday. She said that the Defense Department had given no reason for her dismissal and that she had been told it was “not grievable.”

Her role as ombudsman, which she began in December 2023, was to serve as a watchdog monitoring the paper’s independence and to report concerns to Congress.

“Jacqueline Smith has been relieved of her duties as Stars and Stripes ombudsman effective immediately,” the Defense Department said in a statement."

ABA Law Day events to focus on the ‘The Rule of Law and the American Dream’; ABA Journal, April 21, 2026

 ABA Journal; ABA Law Day events to focus on the ‘The Rule of Law and the American Dream’

"The American Bar Association will host various events to mark Law Day 2026 that address the theme, “The Rule of Law and the American Dream.”

May 1 is designated as the official Law Day."

Thursday, April 23, 2026

U.S. accuses China of "industrial-scale" campaigns to steal AI secrets; Axios, April 23, 2026

Sam Sabin, Axios ; U.S. accuses China of "industrial-scale" campaigns to steal AI secrets

"The Trump administration on Thursday accused China-backed actors of running "deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns" to distill and copy American frontier AI models...

Driving the news: Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, sent a memo Thursday to federal agency heads accusing mostly China-based actors of using proxy accounts to evade detection and jailbreak models to "expose proprietary information" and "extract capabilities from American AI models."

Distillation attacks involve querying proprietary models, like Claude or Gemini, millions of times via APIs to build datasets that replicate how the systems behave.

Kratsios said these campaigns enable foreign actors to release models that appear to match U.S. AI capabilities at a fraction of the cost.

He added that such tactics can also strip away guardrails meant to keep outputs "ideologically neutral and truth-seeking.""

St. Louis Cardinals fighting Hamilton Cardinals attempt to trademark baseball team name and design in Canada; CBC News, April 22, 2026

Justin Chandler , CBC News; St. Louis Cardinals fighting Hamilton Cardinals attempt to trademark baseball team name and design in Canada

"The Hamilton Cardinals baseball team is facing off against the St. Louis Cardinals, but not in a ballpark.

The MLB team from St. Louis, Mo., is opposing a trademark application the Canadian Baseball League (CBL) team filed before the Canadian Intellectual Property Office in 2023.

Hamilton team owner Eric Spearin described the MLB team's opposition as “just a big shock.” The teams play in different leagues, he said, and "our logo looks nothing like theirs.""

AI's a suck up. Research shows how it flatters and suggests we're not to blame; NPR, April 23, 2026

 Ari Daniel, NPR; AI's a suck up. Research shows how it flatters and suggests we're not to blame

"In a recent study published in the journal Science, Cheng and her colleagues report that AI models offer affirmations more often than people do, even for morally dubious or troubling scenarios. And they found that this sycophancy was something that people trusted and preferred in an AI — even as it made them less inclined to apologize or take responsibility for their behavior.

The findings, experts say, highlight how this common AI feature may keep people returning to the technology, despite the harm it causes them.

It's not unlike social media in that both "drive engagement by creating addictive, personalized feedback loops that learn exactly what makes you tick," says Ishtiaque Ahmed, a computer scientist at the University of Toronto who wasn't involved in the research."

Penalties stack up as AI spreads through the legal system; NPR, April 3, 2026

, NPR; Penalties stack up as AI spreads through the legal system

""Recently we had 10 cases from 10 different courts on a single day," says Damien Charlotin, a researcher at the business school HEC Paris who keeps a worldwide tally of instances of courts sanctioning people for using erroneous information generated by AI...

The numbers started taking off last year, and Charlotin says the rate is still increasing. He counts a total of more than 1,200 to date, of which about 800 are from U.S. courts.

Penalties are also on the rise, he says. A federal court may have set a record last month with an order for a lawyer in Oregon to pay $109,700 in sanctions and costs for filing AI-generated errors.

The professional embarrassments even take place at the level of state supreme courts...

"I am surprised that people are still doing this when it's been in the news," says Carla Wale, associate dean of information & technology and director of the law library at the University of Washington School of Law. She's designing special training in AI ethics for students who are interested. But she also says the ethical rules aren't completely settled...

When lawyers get in trouble for using AI, it's because they've violated the long-standing rule that holds them responsible for the accuracy of their filings, regardless of how they were generated."