Monthly Archives: March 2024

 Effingham, Illinois has a plan to protect its property values from the impact of a forthcoming crypto mine.  The plan establishes regulations to protect property values, energy and water supplies, and noise. Effingham Public Works Director Greg Koester describes the regulations as “It provides definitions for cryptocurrency mine, cryptocurrency mining, data mining, data center, high-density […]

A unanimous Supreme Court determined that elected officials can block social media followers under very specific circumstances— that is their private account and then only if it has nothing to do with their government position. What’s the practical effect- yes, elected officials can be sued for violating  the First Amendment when they block their critics. […]

Part of me feels like I’m pointing out the obvious here, but airline wifi is public and has the same inherent risks of public wifi. This includes hacking and malware. A VPN and visiting only https sites can help. WSJ | How Secure Is an Airplane’s Wi-Fi?

A Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance post gives us a handy rundown of AI risks. Let’s take a peek: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance | Artificial Intelligence: An engagement guide

AI use requires more data center capacity, which thereby requires more energy use. A staggering amount of additional energy use.   @bloomberggreen

Investment in AI increased by 268.4% last year according to the BoF Professional Summit. This accounts for 691 generative AI deals for a total investment of $29.1 billion. @bof

Florida is the 1st state to ban cell phones during classes. A National Center for Education Statistics at IES report says 3/4 of all schools prohibit nonacademic use of cell phones during class. Other states working on similar statewide legislation: Indiana, Oklahoma SB 1314 (2024 | OK), Kansas HB 2641 (2024 | KS) , Vermont […]

Bonjour Chief AI Officer, CAIO. A 2023 report in Oklahoma recommended a state level CAIO. Federal agencies must hire CAIOs by the end of 2024 based on this fall 2023 Executive Order. Who is next to create CAIOs? Most likely your state. Route Fifty | ‘Early days’ for state-level response to Biden’s AI executive order

Washington State Legislature has passed SB5838 (2024 | WA) to create an AI Task Force. The Task Force will consist of 19 members and be housed in the state Attorney General’s Office. AL, MA, NJ and WI have created similar AI Task Forces. Speaker Johnson in the US House created an AI Task Force a couple weeks […]

Rhode Island ‘s Governor created a new AI task force by executive order. The AI Center of Excellence will create a standard of ethics code for AI and develop a risk analysis and safeguards for the use of AI. GOVTECH | Rhode Island Creates AI Task Force, Data Centers