Mealey's Artificial Intelligence : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Artificial Intelligence

October 01, 2024
Judge Dismisses Suit Disputing Coverage For BIPA Claims Over AI Food Phone Orders

CHICAGO — Following receipt of a businessowners insurer’s notice of voluntary dismissal, a federal judge in Illinois dismissed the insurer’s lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that it owes no coverage for two underlying putative class action lawsuits alleging that its insured and two franchise restaurants violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) when they used the insured’s voice artificial intelligence technology to handle phone orders from customers.
September 30, 2024
California Governor Vetoes Artificial Intelligence Model Oversight Legislation

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 29 vetoed legislation requiring developers of artificial intelligence models to ensure that safeguards and policies are in place that can prevent critical harms and creating an oversight board, saying the “stringent standards” imposed by the bill do not recognize the delicate balance required for regulating the growing industry. The legislation underwent several amendments but largely breezed through the Senate and Assembly.
September 30, 2024
California Governor Signs 17 AI-Related Laws, Creates Task Force

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who recently signed 17 bills governing artificial intelligence, took yet another step toward regulation on Sept. 29, announcing the creation of new initiatives designed to ensure safe and responsible use of the technology.
September 30, 2024
Judge Reprimands Counsel, Says Only Use Of AI Explains Briefing Errors

DALLAS — While plaintiff’s attorneys in a proposed employment class action acknowledged and apologized for miscited case law, quotes and other errors, their claim of poor procedures and lack of proper oversight explain only a portion of the mistakes, a federal judge in Texas said in reprimanding counsel after concluding that despite protests to the contrary, artificial intelligence must have been used to craft the response brief.
September 26, 2024
AI Lawyer Service Among Targets Of FTC Enforcement Actions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An artificial intelligence company made “lofty claims” that its chatbot could replace human lawyers and craft valid legal documents but could not deliver on those promises, never tested its chatbot’s outputs and employed no lawyers, the Federal Trade Commission alleged in announcing that it reached a $193,000 settlement with the company as part of a five-prong enforcement action targeting deceptive schemes using the new technology.
September 25, 2024
Judge Dismisses ‘Magic Avatars’ AI Biometric Data Case After Period To Amend Ends

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois dismissed an action in which a man claimed that his photographs and other biometric information are included in datasets used to train a third-party artificial intelligence that powers an image rendering application after the man failed to file an amended complaint in the wake of dismissal of his action.
September 24, 2024
Cigna, Insureds Debate ERISA, UCL Impact On AI Claims Denial Case

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Individuals allegedly denied coverage by an artificial intelligence algorithm employed by Employee Retirement Income Security Act insurer Cigna Corp. debated whether the program’s use violated plan terms on how the company would review claims, preemption and whether California unfair competition law claims were properly pleaded in briefing over a motion to dismiss a third amended complaint.
September 20, 2024
Social Media User: California AI Political Deepfake Laws Are Unconstitutional

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two newly enacted laws requiring removal or labeling of artificial intelligence-created and other parody and fake content are unconstitutional and violate First Amendment protections on political satire, a man alleges in a complaint filed the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation into law.
September 18, 2024
Judge Consolidates Suits By Journalists Challenging AI, Denies Motions To Compel

NEW YORK — In a six-page order addressing more than 20 outstanding motions and letter briefs in six artificial intelligence copyright cases, a federal judge in New York consolidated two suits brought by news entities and others, granted motions to set and extend deadlines and otherwise generally denied requests to compel certain evidence, including a request that The New York Times Co. produce evidence demonstrating that its stories were original works.
September 18, 2024
DOD Must Explain FOIA Exemption In AI Usage Case, Judge Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Defense (DOD) has not adequately explained how a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by a journalist seeking information about the use of artificial intelligence implicates the critical infrastructure exemption on which it relies for withholding 5,000 pages of otherwise responsive documents, a federal judge in the District of Columbia said in denying without prejudice cross-motions for summary judgment.
September 17, 2024
Parties To Music Publishers’ AI Suit Brief Injunction, Motion To Dismiss

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Music publishers said an artificial intelligence company’s motion to dismiss is “rife with misdirection” and urged a court to impose a narrow preliminary injunction that would protect their rights while not unduly imposing restrictions on the company. But in its own briefing, Anthropic PBC said there is no evidence that its AI ever produced copyrighted works as portrayed by the plaintiffs and that there is certainly no evidence that its newest models would do so while urging the court to dismiss ancillary claims it says have not fared well in similar cases.
September 17, 2024
AI Copyright Plaintiffs Want Midjourney’s Trade Dress Clarification Reply Stricken

SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiff artists asked a federal judge in California to strike a reply brief that artificial intelligence creator Midjourney Inc. filed in support of its motion for clarification about what “concrete elements” the judge saw in the plaintiffs’ trade dress claim, with the artists saying local rules do not permit such a filing.
September 16, 2024
Parties To GitHub AI Suit Involving DMCA Ruling Brief Need For Immediate Appeal

OAKLAND, Calif. — Plaintiffs in an artificial intelligence copyright suit involving code posted to online coding repository GitHub and related defendants wrapped briefing over whether a federal judge in California’s ruling requiring identicality under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) warrants interlocutory appeal of a federal California judge’s ruling.
September 16, 2024
Google, Author Wrap Briefing On Dismissal Of Trimmed AI Copyright Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — An author and Google LLC grappled in briefing on a motion to dismiss filed in a federal court in California, with the woman saying her amended complaint sufficiently alleges that the company illegally took and used her copyrighted work to train artificial intelligence. However, Google responded by saying that while the second amended complaint appears to try to strip away irrelevant allegations, it only serves to point out the ongoing problems with the Copyright Act claims.
September 12, 2024
Government Seeks Rehearing After Appeals Court Revives AI Image Program Vendor’s Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel erred in concluding that courts have jurisdiction over a suit brought by a commercial vender of an artificial intelligence image and geospatial data program and in holding that the vender constituted an interested party despite never bidding on the project, the government tells the court in a petition for rehearing.
September 11, 2024
AI Copyright Plaintiffs Oppose Midjourney’s Request For Trade Dress Clarification

SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs in an artificial intelligence image copyright suit told a court its ruling on several motions to dismiss already rejected AI creator Midjourney Inc.’s arguments, leaving nothing to address in the company’s motion for the court to clarify what “concrete elements” are in the plaintiffs’ trade dress.
September 10, 2024
Judge Allows Experts’ Opinions On LLMs In Alexa Patent Case

RICHMOND, Va. — An expert’s opinions on the availability of large language models (LLMs) when Amazon.com first released its Alexa assistant product are admissible, a federal judge in Virginia said in denying three motions to exclude under Daubert in a patent infringement lawsuit.
September 09, 2024
California Poised To Give Celebrity Beneficiaries Protections From AI

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Celebrity beneficiaries are one step closer to having a cause of action for unauthorized artificial intelligence reproductions after both houses of the California Legislature passed a measure seeking to update the so-called “expressive works” exemption to the right of publicity.
September 09, 2024
Criminal Indictment: Man Used AI Music To Steal $10M From Streaming Services

NEW YORK — A man stole approximately $10 million in royalty payments from music streaming services through the use of billions of streams created by registering thousands of bot accounts and directing them to stream hundreds of thousands of artificial intelligence-created songs, according to an indictment filed in a federal court in New York.
September 06, 2024
Concurring 11th Circuit Judge: AI May Have Role In Word, Phrase Interpretation

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Despite some variability in their answers, artificial intelligences and large language models (LLMs) have a role to play in interpreting words and phrases and “may well serve a valuable auxiliary role as we aim to triangulate ordinary meaning,” an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge said in a Sept. 5 concurrence to an opinion affirming a two-level sentencing enhancement for physical restraint during an armed robbery case.
September 04, 2024
California Assembly, Senate Pass Legislation Imposing Oversight Of AI Models

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California appears poised to enact legislation imposing safety guiderails on artificial intelligence models after a bill that underwent a series of amendments but largely breezed through committees passed the California Senate. The vote sends the legislation to Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign.
September 03, 2024
AI-Crafted Closing Argument Can’t Free Fugees Rapper From Lobbying Law Conviction

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Artificial intelligence used in organizing a criminal case and crafting closing arguments attributed a song to the wrong artist, but a former rapper with the band Fugees accused of lobbying violations never explains how such an error prejudiced him or otherwise resulted in his conviction, a federal judge in the District of Columbia said Aug. 30 in denying a motion for a new trial.
August 20, 2024
COMMENTARY: You Can’t Spell Claim Construction Without AI

By Jonah Mitchell and Charlie Rieder
August 30, 2024
Judge Relates Suits Over YouTube Video AI Training

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California related two California unfair competition law (UCL) cases brought by a man who claims companies illegally downloaded and transcribed YouTube videos for use in training their artificial intelligences.
August 29, 2024
Judge Denies Motion To Dismiss SEC’s ‘Pyramid Scheme’ Claims Against AI Company

ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida denied an artificial intelligence startup and its founder’s motion to dismiss claims brought against them by the Securities and Exchange Commission, finding that the SEC adequately alleged that the company and its founder lured investors with false promises of early access to profits from an AI “ecosystem.”