Judge approves $1.5 billion copyright settlement between AI company Anthropic and authors; AP, September 25, 2025

BARBARA ORTUTAY , AP; Judge approves $1.5 billion copyright settlement between AI company Anthropic and authors

" A federal judge on Thursday approved a $1.5 billion settlement between artificial intelligence company Anthropic and authors who allege nearly half a million books had been illegally pirated to train chatbots.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued the preliminary approval in San Francisco federal court Thursday after the two sides worked to address his concerns about the settlement, which will pay authors and publishers about $3,000 for each of the books covered by the agreement. It does not apply to future works."

Letters to The Derrick (Oil City, PA) - The News-Herald (Franklin, PA), September 26, 2025

Betty M, Hepler, Letters to The Derrick (Oil City, PA) - The News-Herald (Franklin, PA), September 26, 2025; Tax proposal needs to 'die' with the library

[Kip Currier: The following is my response to a 9/26/25 Letter to the Editor (see transcribed letter below) in The Derrick and The News-Herald newspapers that serve the Oil City and Franklin areas in Northwestern Pennsylvania.

"Libraries support all of us -- and need our support too!"

The "Letter to the Editor" transcribed below could not be more wrong or misguided about the state of American libraries and the incredible value they contribute to our lives and communities: libraries are a vital necessity and community anchor in towns and cities throughout this entire nation. (See https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/06/21/millennials-are-the-most-likely-generation-of-americans-to-use-public-libraries/) :

1. Libraries provide information and resources that help to educate citizens at all levels of our communities -- from blue collar to white collar workplaces and everything in between. See https://www.ala.org/pla/initiatives/workforce 

2. Research studies demonstrate that libraries are economically beneficial to businesses that are located nearby. See https://www.imls.gov/research-evaluation/evaluations-research-studies/public-libraries-role-workforce-small-business-development

3. Research studies also show that libraries are a very good "return on investment" (ROI): 

for every dollar of support to a library, users of libraries are able to save hundreds of dollars by being able to check out and use thousands of books, movies, songs, videogames, and more that a library provides to users at no charge. See https://slol.libguides.com/LibraryStatistics/PublicLibraryROI

4. Today's libraries offer all kinds of life-enhancing activities and services -- like storytime for kids; book discussion groups for teens, adults, and seniors; access to free WiFi and computers; and in-person classes and virtual webinars on topics like “where to find jobs”, "starting your own business", and “how to use AI chatbots”. See https://action.everylibrary.org/creative_library_programs_you_don_t_know_about

5. Libraries have been a part of human life and history for thousands of years. They are essential tools and places that can benefit our lives, enable us to think, learn, and grow from our yesterdays, and fuel our hopes and dreams for better todays and tomorrows.

Libraries continue to change and evolve to better suit and meet our needs, just as humans and societies must change, adapt, and evolve in order to survive and thrive. Each of us knows that we need to take good care of ourselves to live the best lives we can. Let's take good care of the libraries that support and serve us too. See https://www.ala.org/future/trends

Long live the library!]

[Letter transcribed (under a copyright law fair use rationale of commentary purpose) because newspaper paywall prevents access without a subscription]

Betty M. Hepler, Cranberry

Editor, I am amazed that we are trying to keep alive a mostly dead memory -- the library. We have been propping them up for decades.

The Encyclopedia salesman has lost his job; books are not being sold at the same rate as before, being available on tape or kindle now; libraries and bookstores have fallen to the side of the road.

Wake up! Most things have a time to shine but lose out to progress. Now we are trying to keep alive something that needs to admit its death.

The overburdened taxpayers of the country are having the blame and responsibility thrown on their shoulders.

On the front side, one may think it is a charge of $12.50. But my understanding is the cost is $12.50 per every $50,000 in assessment. All properties for the most part, have seen a dramatic rise in their assessment; so this is a lot of money for something that is dead.

Let it die!

Turn it into a museum. No more taxes.

‘Heartbroken’: staff laid off as California TV station abruptly closes newsroom; The Guardian, September 25, 2025

 Dani Anguiano, The Guardian; ‘Heartbroken’: staff laid off as California TV station abruptly closes newsroom

[Kip Currier: This is another stark indicator of the dangers that media consolidation represents. Media consolidation impedes the ability of citizens to access information, particularly local information. Informed citizenries are vital for functioning democracies.]

[Excerpt] 

"This week KION-TV, a broadcast news outlet on California’s central coast that’s been on the air for more than 50 years, announced it was entering a “new chapter” with a San Francisco CBS affiliate to bring expanded coverage to its viewers...

“Our partnership with KPIX ensures that viewers across the Monterey, Salinas and Santa Cruz region continue to receive the high-quality local journalism they deserve,” Rall Bradley, an executive at the News-Press & Gazette, said...

Meanwhile, workers report that Telemundo 23, which was housed at KION, is also shutting down, leaving an area with a majority-Latino population without a Spanish-language news show.

Local news has collapsed across the US in recent decades, with a 75% drop in local journalists since 2002, according to a report from Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News, which describes the decline as “alarming and widespread”. One in three US counties do not have the equivalent of one full-time local journalist, and an average of 2.5 newspapers shut down each week.

Monterey County Now described the development as a “devastating blow” to local journalism. Jeanette Bent, the station’s managing editor, told the outlet: “It’s a disservice to this community and we’re all heartbroken.”"

Content Creators Want Congress To Revamp Decades-Old Copyright Law; Inc., September 25, 2025

BEN BUTLER , Inc., Content Creators Want Congress To Revamp Decades-Old Copyright Law

"“There’s a growing practice of using the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] takedown tools built into platforms to restrict and shut down competition [which] are considered traditionally unfair trade practices,” Kayla Morán, a lawyer specializing in trademark and contract law, said last week during a hearing examining content creators and entrepreneurship before the House Committee on Small Business...

As content creation becomes more lucrative, creators can protect their IP by filing as LLCs, Morán said, shifting the liability from the person to the business. LLCs protect business assets from the owner of the business, creating a distinction between the two. Social media accounts can be protected as business assets, thus giving creators more legal protections if a podcast name gets stolen, for example, or in cases of impersonation.

But filing as an LLC as opposed to being a sole proprietorship requires registration fees and higher costs, which vary by state. And filing as an LLC doesn’t prevent the IP from being stolen, it would protect it from being pursued as an asset in a personal lawsuit against the creator. 

Morán and Christina Brennan, who runs a social media management company, said entrepreneurs they work with don’t have the knowledge of contract law and how taxes on social media earnings work.

One way to help bridge the disconnect, Morán suggests, would be for the Small Business Administration to provide guidance, plus access to lawyers that can advise on common challenges that bubble up for content creators, like with protecting IP."

Gotta Deport ‘Em All? How Should Nintendo Respond To Immigrant-Hunting Social Media Post From DHS?; Above The Law, September 24, 2025

Steven Chung , Above The Law; Gotta Deport ‘Em All? How Should Nintendo Respond To Immigrant-Hunting Social Media Post From DHS?

"Last Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a one-minute video on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media platforms, splicing together clips from the Pokémon anime intro with footage of border patrol agents arresting individuals, all set to the first season’s theme song.

The post’s caption was the famous tagline “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!” At the video’s end, it displayed Pokémon cards featuring photos of convicted criminals facing potential deportation...

Reactions were sharply divided: some users found it hilarious and praised its creativity, while others condemned it as dehumanizing and inappropriate, especially for using a children’s franchise to promote immigration enforcement.

Commenters from both sides speculated on how Nintendo would respond, given the company’s reputation for aggressively enforcing its intellectual property rights — evidenced by actions like issuing DMCA takedowns against over 8,500 GitHub repositories for the Yuzu emulator in 2024 and targeting hundreds of fan games on platforms like Game Jolt in multiple waves since 2016. As of now, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have not issued any public statement on the matter, despite requests for comment from media outlets. However, Nintendo has at least three viable options."

Copyright and AI: Controlling Rights and Managing Risks; Morgan Lewis, September 23, 2025

 JOSHUA M. DALTON, Partner, Boston; COLLEEN GANIN, Partner, New York; MICHAEL R. PFEUFFER, Senior Attorney, Pittsburgh, Morgan Lewis; Copyright and AI: Controlling Rights and Managing Risks

"The law on copyright and AI is still developing, with courts and policymakers testing the limits of authorship, infringement, and fair use. Companies should expect continued uncertainty and rapid change in this space."

AI as Intellectual Property: A Strategic Framework for the Legal Profession; JD Supra, September 18, 2025

co-authors:James E. Malackowski and Eric T. Carnick , JD Supra; AI as Intellectual Property: A Strategic Framework for the Legal Profession

"The artificial intelligence revolution presents the legal profession with its most significant practice development opportunity since the emergence of the internet. AI spending across hardware, software, and services reached $279.22 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 35.9% through 2030, reaching $1.8 trillion.[i] AI is rapidly enabling unprecedented efficiencies, insights, and capabilities in industry. The innovations underlying these benefits are often the result of protectable intellectual property (IP) assets. The ability to raise capital and achieve higher valuations can often be traced back to such IP. According to data from Carta, startups categorized as AI companies raised approximately one-third of total venture funding in 2024. Looking only at late-stage funding (Series E+), almost half (48%) of total capital raised went to AI companies.[ii]Organizations that implement strategic AI IP management can realize significant financial benefits.

At the same time, AI-driven enhancements have introduced profound industry risks, e.g., disruption of traditional business models; job displacement and labor market reductions; ethical and responsible AI concerns; security, regulatory, and compliance challenges; and potentially, in more extreme scenarios, broad catastrophic economic consequences. Such risks are exacerbated by the tremendous pace of AI development and adoption, in some cases surpassing societal understanding and regulatory frameworks. According to McKinsey, 78% of respondents say their organizations use AI in at least one business function, up

from 72% in early 2024 and 55% a year earlier.[iii]

This duality—AI as both a catalyst and a disruptor—is now a feature of the modern global economy. There is an urgent need for legal frameworks that can protect AI innovation, facilitate the proper commercial development and deployment of AI-related IP, and navigate the risks and challenges posed by this new technology. Legal professionals who embrace AI as IP™ will benefit from this duality. Early indicators suggest significant advantages for legal practitioners who develop specialized AI as IP expertise, while traditional IP practices may face commoditization pressures."

What is AI slop? A technologist explains this new and largely unwelcome form of online content; The Conversation, September 2, 2025

 Adam Nemeroff, Assistant Provost for Innovations in Learning, Teaching, and Technology, Quinnipiac University, The Conversation ; What is AI slop? A technologist explains this new and largely unwelcome form of online content

"You’ve probably encountered images in your social media feeds that look like a cross between photographs and computer-generated graphics. Some are fantastical – think Shrimp Jesus – and some are believable at a quick glance – remember the little girl clutching a puppy in a boat during a flood? 

These are examples of AI slop, low- to mid-quality content – video, images, audio, text or a mix – created with AI tools, often with little regard for accuracy. It’s fast, easy and inexpensive to make this content. AI slop producers typically place it on social media to exploit the economics of attention on the internet, displacing higher-quality material that could be more helpful.

AI slop has been increasing over the past few years. As the term “slop” indicates, that’s generally not good for people using the internet...

Harms of AI slop

AI-driven slop is making its way upstream into people’s media diets as well. During Hurricane Helene, opponents of President Joe Biden cited AI-generated images of a displaced child clutching a puppy as evidence of the administration’s purported mishandling of the disaster response. Even when it’s apparent that content is AI-generated, it can still be used to spread misinformation by fooling some people who briefly glance at it.

AI slop also harms artists by causing job and financial losses and crowding out content made by real creators."

Screw the money — Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement sucks for writers; TechCrunch, September 5, 2025

Amanda Silberling , TechCrunch; Screw the money — Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement sucks for writers

"But writers aren’t getting this settlement because their work was fed to an AI — this is just a costly slap on the wrist for Anthropic, a company that just raised another $13 billion, because it illegally downloaded books instead of buying them.

In June, federal judge William Alsup sided with Anthropic and ruled that it is, indeed, legal to train AI on copyrighted material. The judge argues that this use case is “transformative” enough to be protected by the fair use doctrine, a carve-out of copyright law that hasn’t been updated since 1976.

“Like any reader aspiring to be a writer, Anthropic’s LLMs trained upon works not to race ahead and replicate or supplant them — but to turn a hard corner and create something different,” the judge said.

It was the piracy — not the AI training — that moved Judge Alsup to bring the case to trial, but with Anthropic’s settlement, a trial is no longer necessary."

If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies review – how AI could kill us all; The Guardian; September 22, 2025

 David Shariatmadari, The Guardian; If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies review – how AI could kill us all

"“History,” they write, “is full of … examples of catastrophic risk being minimised and ignored,” from leaded petrol to Chornobyl. But what about predictions of catastrophic risk being proved wrong? History is full of those, too, from Malthus’s population apocalypse to Y2K. Yudkowsky himself once claimed that nanotechnology would destroy humanity “no later than 2010”.

The problem is that you can be overconfident, inconsistent, a serial doom-monger, and still be right. It’s important to be aware of our own motivated reasoning when considering the arguments presented here; we have every incentive to disbelieve them.

And while it’s true that they don’t represent the scientific consensus, this is a rapidly changing, poorly understood field. What constitutes intelligence, what constitutes “super”, whether intelligence alone is enough to ensure world domination – all of this is furiously debated.

At the same time, the consensus that does exist is not particularly reassuring. In a 2024 survey of 2,778 AI researchers, the median probability placed on “extremely bad outcomes, such as human extinction” was 5%. Worryingly, “having thought more (either ‘a lot’ or ‘a great deal’) about the question was associated with a median of 9%, while having thought ‘little’ or ‘very little’ was associated with a median of 5%”.

Yudkowsky has been thinking about the problem for most of his adult life. The fact that his prediction sits north of 99% might reflect a kind of hysterical monomania, or an especially thorough engagement with the problem. Whatever the case, it feels like everyone with an interest in the future has a duty to read what he and Soares have to say."

Can AI chatbots trigger psychosis? What the science says; Nature, September 18, 2025

 Rachel Fieldhouse, Nature; Can AI chatbots trigger psychosis? What the science says

 "Accounts of people developing psychosis — which renders them unable to distinguish between what is and is not reality — after interacting with generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have increased in the past few months.

At least 17 people have been reported to have developed psychosis, according to a preprint posted online last month1. After engaging with chatbots such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, some of these people experienced spiritual awakenings or uncovered what they thought were conspiracies.

So far, there has been little research into this rare phenomenon, called AI psychosis, and most of what we know comes from individual instances. Nature explores the emerging theories and evidence, and what AI companies are doing about the problem."

The 18th-century legal case that changed the face of music copyright law; WIPO Magazine, September 18, 2025

 Eyal Brook, Partner, Head of Artificial Intelligence, S. Horowitz & Co , WIPO Magazine;The 18th-century legal case that changed the face of music copyright law

"As we stand at the threshold of the AI revolution in music creation, perhaps the most valuable lesson from this history is not any particular legal doctrine but rather the recognition that our conceptions of musical works and authorship are not fixed but evolving.

Imagine what would have happened had Berne negotiators decided to define the term in 1886. The “musical work” as a legal concept was born from Johann Christian Bach’s determination to assert his creative rights – and it continues to transform with each new technological development and artistic innovation.

The challenge for copyright law in the 21st century is to keep fulfilling copyright’s fundamental purpose: to recognize and reward human creativity in all its forms. This will require not just legal ingenuity but also a willingness to reconsider our most basic assumptions about what music is and how it comes into being.

Bach’s legacy, then, is not just the precedent that he established but the ongoing conversation he initiated – an unfinished symphony of legal thought that continues to evolve with each new technological revolution and artistic movement.

As we face the challenges of AI and whatever technologies may follow, we would do well to remember that the questions we ask today about ownership and creativity echo those first raised in a London courtroom almost 250 years ago by a composer determined to claim what he believed was rightfully his."

Five Copyright Office Resources You May Not Know Exist; Library of Congress Blogs, September 19, 2025

Ashley Tucker , Library of Congress Blogs, Copyright Creativity at Work; Five Copyright Office Resources You May Not Know Exist

"The U.S. Copyright Office provides a wide range of resources to support creators, educators, and other copyright users, but some of the most valuable tools can fly under the radar. Here are five lesser-known Office resources that can help you better understand, register, and manage your creative works."

Americans are ‘deer in the headlights’ in face of Trump assault on free speech, Maria Ressa tells Jon Stewart; The Guardian, September 19, 2025

 Jonathan Yerushalmy , The Guardian; Americans are ‘deer in the headlights’ in face of Trump assault on free speech, Maria Ressa tells Jon Stewart

[Kip Currier: How smart for Jon Stewart to talk with 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa at this break-the-glass and Call-911 moment, when American free speech and independent non-state-run media are under attack by the Trump 2.0 administration. Ressa was awarded the 2021 Peace Prize with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov for free speech advocacy in their respective Philippines and Russia.

Ressa's phone number should be on speed dial for any American reporter, politician, and civil watchdog group committed to championing freedom of the press and free speech by learning from her first-hand experiences with authoritarianism and dictators, like the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte. Her 2022 book How To Stand Up To A Dictator serves as a battle-seasoned anti-totalitarianism fighter's counter-playbook to the now-predictable authoritarian playbooks of autocrats like Hungary's Viktor Orban and Russia's Vladimir Putin.

The notes feature on my phone is full of practical insights from Ressa, too, on the dangers of unchecked social media and disinformation, which are more recent tools for opponents of democracy and informed citizenries:

"By design social media divides and radicalizes." Fresh Air, 12/1/22

"Disinformation is like cocaine."

"Silence is consent."

"Cynicism and hopelessness are the tools of a tyrant."

"Inspiration spreads as fast as anger". Ressa gave the example of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy choosing not to flee when Russia invaded Ukraine on 2/24/22.

"What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth?"]

[Excerpt]

"The Nobel prize winner Maria Ressa has said Americans are like “deer in the headlights” amid the collapse of US institutions and free speech under the Trump administration, particularly after Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.

Speaking to Jon Stewart on the satirical news programme The Daily Show, the journalist and author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator said the speed at which Donald Trump had “collapsed” US institutions happened much faster than she anticipated.

She drew comparisons between the Trump administration and the government of the former president Rodrigo Duterte in her home country of the Philippines, saying: “If you don’t move and protect the rights you have, you lose them. And it’s so much harder to reclaim them.”...

Ressa, who won the 2021 Nobel peace prize for her fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines, told Stewart people the world over were electing “illiberal leaders democratically because of insidious manipulation … [which] starts with the manipulation and corruption of our public information ecosystem”.

She said “there is a ‘dictator’s playbook’”, comparing the Trump administration’s attacks on alleged Venezuelan drug boats to former president Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal crackdown on drug-dealing in the Philippines.

When asked by Stewart what happens next, Ressa pointed to her own work as a journalist in the Philippines, saying: “We just kept doing our jobs, we kept putting one foot in front of the other.”"

Trump Seeks Full Court Rehearing on Copyright Chief Perlmutter; Bloomberg Law, September 18, 2025

Kyle Jahner

, Bloomberg Law; Trump Seeks Full Court Rehearing on Copyright Chief Perlmutter

"The Trump Administration asked the full D.C. Circuit to rehear a successful bid by Shira Perlmutter to be temporarily restored as the head of the US Copyright Office."

AI could never replace my authors. But, without regulation, it will ruin publishing as we know it; The Guardian, September 18, 2025

Jonny Geller, The Guardian ; AI could never replace my authors. But, without regulation, it will ruin publishing as we know it

[Kip Currier: This is a thought-provoking piece by literary agent Jonny Geller. He suggests an "artists’ rights charter for AI that protects two basic principles: permission and attribution". His charter idea conveys some aspects of the copyright area called "moral rights".

Moral rights provide copyright creators with a right of paternity (i.e. attribution) and a right of integrity. The latter can enable creators to exercise some levels of control over how their copyrighted works can be adapted. The moral right of integrity, for example, was an argument in cases involving whether black and white films (legally) could be or (ethically) should be colorized. (See Colors in Conflicts: Moral Rights and the Foreign Exploitation of Colorized U.S. Motion Pictures) Moral rights are not widespread in U.S. copyright law because of tensions between the moral right of integrity and the right of free expression/free speech under the U.S. Constitution (whose September 17, 1787 birthday was yesterday). The Visual Artists Rights Act (1990) is a narrow example of moral rights under U.S. copyright law.

To Geller's proposed Artists' Rights Charter for AI I'd suggest adding the word and concept of "Responsibilities". Compelling arguments can be made for providing authors with some rights regarding use of their copyrighted works as AI training data. And, commensurately, persuasive arguments can be made that authors have certain responsibilities if they use AI at any stage of their creative processes. Authors can and ethically should be transparent about how they have used AI, if applicable, in the creation stages of their writing.

Of course, how to operationalize that as an ethical standard is another matter entirely. But just because it may be challenging to initially develop some ethical language as guidance for authors and strive to instill it as a broad standard doesn't mean it shouldn't be attempted or done.]

[Excerpt]

"The single biggest threat to the livelihood of authors and, by extension, to our culture, is not short attention spans. It is AI...

As a literary agent and CEO of one of the largest agencies in Europe, I think this is something everyone should care about – not because we fear progress, but because we want to protect it. If you take away the one thing that makes us truly human – our ability to think like humans, create stories and imagine new worlds – we will live in a diminished world.

AI that doesn’t replace the artist, or that will work with them transparently, is not all bad. An actor who is needed for reshoots on a movie may authorise use of the footage they have to complete a picture. This will save on costs, the environmental impact and time. A writer may wish to speed up their research and enhance their work by training their own models to ask the questions that a researcher would. The translation models available may enhance the range of offering of foreign books, adding to our culture.

All of this is worth discussing. But it has to be a discussion and be transparent to the end user. Up to now, work has simply been stolen and there are insufficient guardrails on the distributors, studios, publishers. As a literary agent, I have a more prosaic reason to get involved – I don’t think it is fair for someone’s work to be taken without their permission to create an inferior competitor.

What can we do? We could start with some basic principles for all to sign up to. An artists’ rights charter for AI that protects two basic principles: permission and attribution."

Trump celebrates TikTok deal as Beijing suggests US app would use China’s algorithm; The Guardian, September 16, 2025

Guardian staff and agencies , The Guardian; Trump celebrates TikTok deal as Beijing suggests US app would use China’s algorithm

[Kip Currier: Wasn't fears about the Chinese government's potential ability to manipulate U.S. TikTok users via the TikTok algorithm one of the chief rationales for the past Congress and Biden administration's banning of TikTok? How does this Trump 2.0 deal materially change any of that?

Another rationale for the ban was concerns about China's potential to access and leverage the personal data and impinge the privacy interests of TikTok users in the U.S. How does this proposed arrangement substantively address these concerns, particularly without comprehensive federal data and privacy legislation to give Americans agency over their own data?

The American people need maximal transparency and oversight of any kind of financial deal like this.]

[Excerpt]

"One of the major questions is the fate of TikTok’s powerful algorithm that helped the app become one of the world’s most popular sources of online entertainment.

At a press conference in Madrid, the deputy head of China’s cyber security regulator said the framework of the deal included “licensing the algorithm and other intellectual property rights”.

Wang Jingtao said ByteDance would “entrust the operation of TikTok’s US user data and content security.”

Some commentators have inferred from these comments that TikTok’s US spinoff will retain the Chinese algorithm."

AI will make the rich unfathomably richer. Is this really what we want?; The Guardian, September 16, 2025

 Dustin Guastella , The Guardian; AI will make the rich unfathomably richer. Is this really what we want?

"Socially, the great gains of the knowledge economy have also failed to live up to their promises. With instantaneous global connectivity, we were promised cultural excellence and social effervescence. Instead, we’ve been delivered an endless scroll of slop. Smartphone addictions have made us more vicious, bitter and boring. Social media has made us narcissistic. Our attention spans have been zapped by the constant, pathological need to check our notifications. In the built environment, the omnipresence of touchscreen kiosks has removed even the slightest possibility of social interaction. Instead of having conversations with strangers, we now only interact with screens. All of this has made us more lonely and less happy. As a cure, we’re now offered AI companions, which have the unfortunate side effect of occasionally inducing psychotic breaks. Do we really need any more of this?"

Ethical AI Design and Implementation: A Systematic Literature Review; AIS eLibrary, August 2025

Katia Guerra, AIS eLibrary; Ethical AI Design and Implementation: A Systematic Literature Review

"Abstract

This study analyzes to what extent information systems (IS) research has investigated artificial intelligence (AI) applications and the ethical concerns that these applications pose in light of the EU AI Act and the recommendations and guidelines provided by other institutions, including the White House, UNESCO, OECD, and Université de Montréal. A systematic literature review methodology and a semantic text similarity analysis will be employed to conduct this investigation. The results of such investigation will lead to contributions to IS researchers by synthesizing previous IS studies on ethical AI design and implementation and proposing an agenda and future directions for IS research to make it more oriented toward the compliance of AI systems with current ethical provisions and considerations. This study will also help practitioners to be more aware of AI ethics and foster technical and managerial solutions that could be developed in compliance with current institutional ethical demands."

Google's top AI scientist says ‘learning how to learn’ will be next generation's most needed skill; Associated Press via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 12, 2025

 DEREK GATOPOULOS, Associated Press via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Google's top AI scientist says ‘learning how to learn’ will be next generation's most needed skill

"A top Google scientist and 2024 Nobel laureate said Friday that the most important skill for the next generation will be “learning how to learn” to keep pace with change as artificial intelligence transforms education and the workplace.

Speaking at an ancient Roman theater at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s DeepMind, said rapid technological change demands a new approach to learning and skill development...

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis joined Mr. Hassabis at the Athens event after discussing ways to expand AI use in government services. Mr. Mitsotakis warned that the continued growth of huge tech companies could create great global financial inequality.

“Unless people actually see benefits, personal benefits, to this (AI) revolution, they will tend to become very skeptical," he said. "And if they see ... obscene wealth being created within very few companies, this is a recipe for significant social unrest.”

Internet Archive ends legal battle with record labels over historic recordings; San Francisco Chronicle, September 15, 2025

 Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle; Internet Archive ends legal battle with record labels over historic recordings

"The case, UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Internet Archive, targeted the Internet Archive’s Great 78 Project, an initiative to digitize more than 400,000 fragile shellac records from the early 20th century. The collection includes music by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, and has been made available online for free public access.

Record labels including Universal, Sony Music Entertainment and Capitol Records had sought $621 million in damages, arguing the Internet Archive’s streaming of these recordings constituted copyright infringement.

The lawsuit drew widespread attention from musicians and preservationists."

Protecting Your Intellectual Property: What You Need to Know About Copyright; Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), September 11, 2025

Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware®, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) ; Protecting Your Intellectual Property: What You Need to Know About Copyright

"Copyright is a complex subject about which there are many misconceptions.

I was reminded of that this week, thanks to an email from an author who discovered that several of their books were included in one of the databases of pirated works used by the AI company Anthropic for AI training. The author wanted to know whether they were eligible to be part of the gigantic $1.5 billion settlement Anthropic has agreed to pay to compensate writers for its misuse of their intellectual property. (You can read more about the lawsuit, and the settlement, here.)

One of the criteria for eligibility, set by the court, is that copyrights to the pirated works must have been properly registered with the US Copyright Office before Anthropic downloaded the databases. And indeed, the author’s books were all registered in a timely manner…but not with the Copyright Office. Instead, the author used a website called Copyrighted.com, which offers a kind of faux registration using timestamps and its own certificates.

I had to tell the author that no, they weren’t eligible for compensation for their pirated books. In the United States, there’s no equivalent or substitute for the US Copyright Office’s official registration process. The author couldn’t even use the materials they’d gotten from Coprighted.com as prima facie evidence of copyright ownership. Again, only official registration provides that.

In this article, I’m going to cover the basics of copyright, offer some warnings, and dispel some myths. I know that much of what follows will be familiar to a lot of readers—but as the example above shows, knowledge gaps not only exist, but can be damaging…and as always in the writing biz, knowledge is your greatest ally and your best defense. I hope even the most copyright-savvy readers will find something useful here."

Preparing faith leaders to prepare others to use artificial intelligence in a faithful way; Presbyterian News Service, September 4, 2025

 Mike Ferguson , Presbyterian News Service; Preparing faith leaders to prepare others to use artificial intelligence in a faithful way

"It turns out an engineer whose career included stops at Boeing and Amazon — and who happens to be a person of deep faith — has plenty to say about how faith leaders can use artificial intelligence in places of worship.

Jovonia Taylor-Hayes took to the lectern Wednesday during Faithful Futures: Guiding AI with Wisdom and Witness, which is being offered online and at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. The PC(USA)’s Office of Innovation is among the organizers and sponsors, which also includes The Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Think of all the varied ways everyday people use AI, Taylor-Hayes said, including as an aid to streamline grocery shopping and resume building; by medical teams for note-taking; for virtual meetings and closed-captioning, which is getting better, she said; and in customer service.

“The question is, what does it look like when we stop and think about what AI means to me personally? Where does your head and heart go?” she asked. One place where hers goes to is scripture, including Ephesians 2:10 and Psalm 139:14. “God has prepared us,” she said, “to do what we need to do.”

During the first of two breakout sessions, she asked small groups both in person and online to discuss questions including where AI shows up in their daily work and life and why they use AI as a tool."