Authors' lucky break in court may help class action over Meta torrenting Judge gave authors an easier attack on Meta’s torrenting. Meta hopes SCOTUS ruling will block it.

If any copyright experts wanna chat about Meta hoping that SCOTUS ruling that ISPs aren’t liable for piracy will help defeat AI training data torrenting claims, I am all ears. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Bill Orcutt’s Music in Continuous Motion is the evening wind-down music I needed.

Meta loses trial after arguing child exploitation was “inevitable” on its apps Meta plans to appeal as it faces down two other child safety trials.

I think it's hard for NCMEC to discuss platform failings outside of these big lawsuits. So it interested me that NCMEC joined law enforcement in testifying that Meta's CSAM reporting is "useless" due to an over-reliance on AI:
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Meta loses trial after arguing child exploitation was “inevitable” on its apps Meta plans to appeal as it faces down two other child safety trials.

“At trial, Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified that ‘harms to children, such as sexual exploitation and detriments to mental health, were inevitable on the company’s platforms due to their vast user bases…’”

Thanks for noting, I updated the story to remove the reference and noted the correction.

Users hate it, but age-check tech is coming. Here's how it works. On-device face scans and cross-platform age keys decrease privacy risks, but trust issues abound.

Nobody wants age gates, especially when they don't understand how the age gates work. I tried to get the next wave of age check tech makers to talk directly about what's coming and why it's no longer acceptable to just say "trust us": arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

New feature digs into the age check tech that Discord endorsed following widespread backlash.

Bottom line: On-device checks—if they work as they claim—are more privacy-preserving, but privacy advocates still don't think age verification laws are effective enough to justify any of it:

As recently as January, Musk was insistent that he had seen "literally zero" examples of Grok CSAM, despite research flagging it. Girls suing hope this lawsuit will force Musk to finally confront that it exists and fix the problem, instead of allegedly profiting off kids' trauma.

Backlash may end up getting much bigger once “naughty chats” roll out and users get more curious about how age checks work…

Imagining chatbots trained to emote like Kristen Wiig’s Surprise Party Sue www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ Feature The feature, which Grammarly shut down Wednesday, presented editing suggestions as if they came from established authors and academics—without their consent.

I'm suing Grammarly over its paid AI feature that presented editing suggestions as if they came from me - and many other writers and journalists - without consent.

State law requires consent before someone's name can be used for commercial purposes.

www.wired.com/story/gramma...

I can tell I put too much brain energy into my latest feature because when I finished, I went to pick up dog food and I was unable to contain my geeked, star-struck expression each time I passed ::checks notes:: a dog that looked vaguely like Indy from Good Boy.

Nintendo sues to prevent Trump from dodging full tariff refunds Nintendo may face pressure to share refunds with gamers who helped pay tariffs.

I wondered why Nintendo felt they had to sue over tariff refunds and the answer seems to be a suspicion that Trump might try to keep any tariffs that have already been finalized by arguing firms missed their window to challenge them. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Tech industry is in tariff hell, even if refunds are automated Trade groups urge court to create a simple blueprint for tariff refunds.

Billions in tariff refunds could be automated, the Consumer Technology Association and Chamber of Commerce argued this week.
But Trump instead is dragging out repayments that each month cost the US another $700M in interest, one conservative estimate says.
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

xAI spent $7M building wall that barely muffles annoying power plant noise “Temu sound wall” not enough to quell fury over xAI’s power plant.

Residents complained about the noise so xAI built a basically useless wall.

Residents complained the wall was lame so now they are building ANOTHER wall.

A local group told me why they’re skeptical walls will do anything to reduce the loud incessant roaring. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

xAI spent $7M building wall that barely muffles annoying power plant noise “Temu sound wall” not enough to quell fury over xAI’s power plant.

A coalition fighting to block xAI's permitting in Mississippi told me that nobody thinks Musk's second sound barrier is gonna help end torturous noise disturbances.

The walls are one of the costliest ways to avoid engaging with a community that I've seen so far in data center fights.