News of the Cyber World

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AI News

Judges in England and Wales are Given Cautious Approval to Use AI in Writing Legal Opinions

England´s 1,000-year-old legal system – still steeped in traditions that include wearing wigs and robes – has taken a cautious step into the future by giving judges permission to use artificial intelligence to help produce rulings.

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary last month said AI could help write opinions but stressed it shouldn´t be used for research or legal analyses because the technology can fabricate information and provide misleading, inaccurate and biased information.

“Judges do not need to shun the careful use of AI,” said Master of the Rolls Geoffrey Vos, the second-highest ranking judge in England and Wales. “But they must ensure that they protect confidence and take full personal responsibility for everything they produce.”

At a time when scholars and legal experts are pondering a future when AI could replace lawyers, help select jurors or even decide cases, the approach spelled out Dec. 11 by the judiciary is restrained. But for a profession slow to embrace technological change, it’s a proactive step as government and industry – and society in general – react to a rapidly advancing technology alternately portrayed as a panacea and a menace.

“There´s a vigorous public debate right now about whether and how to regulate artificial intelligence,” said Ryan Abbott, a law professor at the University of Surrey and author of “The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law.”

“AI and the judiciary is something people are uniquely concerned about, and it´s somewhere where we are particularly cautious about keeping humans in the loop,” he said. “So I do think AI may be slower disrupting judicial activity than it is in other areas and we´ll proceed more cautiously there.”

Abbott and other legal experts applauded the judiciary for addressing the latest iterations of AI and said the guidance would be widely viewed by courts and jurists around the world who are eager to use AI or anxious about what it might bring.

Honestly, this sounds a lot like they want to be lazy and irresponsible. Guys, we're talking about human lives being affected here. Some lawyers in New York courts already proved how dangerous and disrespectful it is to rely on AI's accounts of legal rulings. How many times could the British people see attorneys trying to fool  judges by coming up with fake jurisprudence or judges' rulings lacking the necessary depth and judicial knowledge to justify throwing anybody in jail for a very long time.

UAE State Institute to Open A.I. Research Center in Israel

The Abu Dhabi Technological Innovation Institute (TII) announced on Monday that it will open a new research center in Haifa, Israel, headed by a former Amazon executive named Yoelle Maarek.

Maarek applauded the announcement as both an exciting development in A.I. research and a landmark in warming relations between Israel and the Arab nations of the Abraham Accords.

TII is a state-run institution founded by the Advanced Technology Research Council of the Abu Dhabi government in 2020. TII styles itself as a “disruptor in science” with a network of international partners.

The TII’s flagship product to date is Falcon 180B, an advanced open-source language model for A.I. systems released in September.

Falcon is the biggest, fastest Large Language Model (LLM) available to programmers today — in essence, it is the component of an artificial intelligence system that talks to human users in conversational language rather than program code. LLMs are not written in quite the same way as other software applications — they must be “trained,” or grown, by feeding them a huge database of human language interactions from which they can learn.

The latest iteration of Falcon is not far behind the freely available version of the famed GPT chatbot, and its open-source coding could make it more compatible with heavily regulated markets like the European Union.

Apple Begins Payouts over Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit for Slowing Down iPhones

BBC News reports that in 2017, Apple admitted to intentionally slowing down certain iPhone models as they aged, citing concerns over aging batteries that could affect device performance and longevity.

This sparked public outrage and legal challenges, which led to a settlement in 2020. Despite denying any wrongdoing, Apple agreed to pay a substantial sum from a $500 million fund to claimants, averaging around $92 per claim.
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“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices,” the company declared, explaining, “Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.”

“Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions,” Apple continued. “We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”

Some users on Twitter, however, alleged Apple were slowing down older devices in an effort to force customers to upgrade.
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Now, a similar lawsuit is currently underway in the UK, with approximately 24 million iPhone users seeking £1.6 billion in compensation. The lawsuit, initiated by Justin Gutmann in June 2022, alleges that Apple intentionally shortened the lifespan of its products and degraded user experience to encourage upgrades.

Hackers Exploit Third-Party Cookies to Access Google Accounts Without Passwords

The Independent reports the alarming security breach, first announced on a Telegram channel by a hacker in October 2023, exploits vulnerabilities in third-party cookies. Specifically, it targets Google authentication cookies, which are normally used to streamline user access without repeated logins.

Hackers have devised a method to extract these cookies, allowing them to bypass password-based security and even two-factor authentication mechanisms to access user accounts.

This exploit is a major risk for all Google accounts as it allows for ongoing access to Google services, even after a user’s password has been changed. An analysis by the cybersecurity firm CloudSEK indicates that several hacking groups are actively experimenting with this technique.

The widespread use of Google Chrome, one of the most popular web browsers in the world which allows users to log in to a browser “profile” with their Google account, makes this exploit particularly dangerous.

In response to this threat, Google issued a statement highlighting their efforts, stating: “We routinely upgrade our defenses against such techniques and to secure users who fall victim to malware.