@michael-thomas.bsky.social hey there! Emma here with MLex. I'd love to ask you a few questions about your behind-the-meter report. Let me know if there's a good way to connect!

The New 'Poor Door': Amenity Fees Are Too High for Affordable Housing Tenants - City Limits Tenants who get affordable housing through the city’s lottery or a rental assistance voucher often can’t afford amenity fees in new mixed-income luxury buildings, creating what one described as a "two...

Late to this @patrickspauster.com @citylimitsnews.bsky.social story, but it's excellent and maddening. Seems like NYC should just fix this with some new law!

"At Bruckner House, residents say the divider between the rich and poor is not a doorperson, but a key fob."

Thanks for sharing, Adam! Not BLaw though, MLex!

@OpenAI.com owes Magistrate Judge Ona Wang an answer tomorrow re why it shouldn't be required to produce not a mere 20 million user output logs, as previously negotiated with/ @NYTimes.com, but up to *78* million such records that plaintiffs claim it has long known of but withheld, says @MLex.com:

A discovery dispute between OpenAI and news outlets over the production of 20 million anonymized ChatGPT conversations in a copyright infringement case hit a new snag on Wednesday after US Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang revealed that OpenAI may have disclosed related confidential communications.

A discovery dispute between OpenAI and news outlets over the production of 20 million anonymized ChatGPT conversations in a copyright infringement case hit a new snag after a magistrate judge revealed that OpenAI may have disclosed related confidential conversations. with @eawhitford.bsky.social

support our effort to secure a fair retirement! #youpaywestay

Today we’re telling management #YouPayWeStay— come through on retirement so we can build actual careers doing work we care about!
www.instagram.com/reel/DQWyPHV...

Dear Teresa, Richard and Tony, Two weeks ago at our last bargaining session, we offered to create a standing date for bargaining because scheduling has been chaotic and slow. We’re still waiting for new dates to be proposed, and our offer to create a standing time remains. Meanwhile, we’ve decided to put in writing our response to the company’s wage proposals and inappropriate title proposals that shunt our members into salary bands that do not correspond with their experience levels. We intend to bargain and win higher salaries for our lowest-paid coworkers. They are reporters. They do the work of reporters, and MLex has been benefiting from underpaying them for their work for too long. MLex’s value proposition to our readers is “reliable legal news and predictive analysis.” This promise is increasingly critical in a world of ever-expanding, complex and interconnected laws and regulations. It is deeply disappointing that the company is willing to entrust us with providing unbiased, timely insights into complex economic and legal disputes, but at the same time rejects our evidence-based, firsthand accounts of the work we do every day. The best way for MLex to show its commitment to editorial excellence and employee satisfaction is to put the company’s money where its mouth is. Instead, management has dangled raises over new and younger employees’ heads as an enticement to join our ranks, only to later deny doing so. Management has also failed to adequately train reporters to build their skills, while MLex Guild members have stepped up to do so in their absence. It’s become clear that management never intended to give us the salaries we deserve, matching our Law360 colleagues’ fair standards. MLex, FTCWatch and Law360 know we’re stronger together. In order to ensure a successful integration, and salaries reflective of our skills and potential, we will continue to fight with our collective might for the contract we deserve. Sincerely, Members of the MLex Guild and Law…

Hello everyone! We're the union for MLex and we're expanding our fight for a fair contract to Bluesky! Today we delivered this letter to management demanding they stop misclassifying members of our unit, with 100% of our membership signing.

This is fantastic news for Patrick and NYC. Some of my favorite stories at City Limits were our collabs. This beat needs stars and Patrick is one!!

"We look forward to the opportunity to present to the jury... how OpenAI and Microsoft are profiting wildly and exorbitantly from stealing the original content of newspapers across the country."

On today's order preserving copyright infringement claims: content.mlex.com#/content/164...

This week, I got a crash course in FERC and the power grid. So much to unpack here! content.mlex.com#/content/163...

"It comes down to who profits from new data centers and who pays for the energy and infrastructure costs for data centers."

HUD cuts, layoffs will "devastate" communities, worsen housing crisis, observers say HUD staff and budget are already stretched too thin, and more will exacerbate a national housing crisis, observers say

I wrote about what potential #HUD budget cuts and layoffs will mean for #housing programs around the country. With thanks to Mayor @melaniekebler.bsky.social, @mollygoodman.bsky.social , and others.
#HousingCrisis

"That sounded more like a politician than a science guy, but OK."

Coverage from Michael Kratsios' confirmation hearing to head Trump's Office of Science and Technology Policy: content.mlex.com#/content/163...

Much to mull in the Judge's nearly 70-page decision, but @mlexclusive.com's @eawhitford.bsky.social broke down the import of the Judge's key finding down nicely:

From my colleague @realchoonsik.bsky.social, who spoke with the director of South Korea's AI Safety Institute.

Per their convo, US AISI did have a rep at the Paris action summit, though it wasn't widely advertised: content.mlex.com#/content/163...

From @frankhersey.bsky.social, on what he saw in Paris:

"US Vice President JD Vance summed it up in his speech: 'I'm not here this morning to talk about AI safety, which was the title of the conference a couple of years ago. I'm here to talk about AI opportunity.'"

@markey.senate.gov at State of the Net, talking about tech's "walled garden":

"Big Tech threatens to become Big AI" and "AI should stand for All Included. That's not going to be the goal of these Big Tech CEOs."

He also gives a shoutout to Bluesky, gives props to decentralized platforms

MLex is keeping up with the DOGE-related data privacy lawsuits flooding in. Here's a new one:

Elon Musk’s DOGE is feeding sensitive federal data into AI to target cuts Department of Government Efficiency workers embedded in the Education Department have been processing sensitive agency data using artificial intelligence.

"The use of AI inside the Department of Education... shows how Musk’s group, which includes former employees from his tech empire, is tapping the favorite tool of Silicon Valley as part of its mission to drastically slash the size and functions of the federal government."

🚨NEWS: A temporary order has been issued blocking the Labor Dept. from sharing any data with DOGE, after a group of unions, including AFGE, sued DOGE and held a major protest outside DOL yesterday.

Here's the union's email:

From my colleagues @alexwilts.bsky.social & @amyailaw.bsky.social, covering Musk's suit against OpenAI:

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said it was “a stretch to claim irreparable harm in this case,” characterizing the matter before her as “billionaires versus billionaires.”

Us in one place:

The release of an impressive artificial intelligence product by Chinese firm DeepSeek last month has the US government eager to guard both the computing and intellectual property behind its most advanced AI technology, but there are certain limitations to how that can be done using federal export controls. DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot, which the Hangzhou, China-based company said was trained at a much lower cost and requires far less energy than competing US models, has sparked a furious US response effort. House lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to expand chip controls. And at his Senate confirmation hearing last week, Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Commerce, said the US will be “rigorous in our pursuit of restrictions... to keep us in the lead.” Should he be confirmed, Lutnick will face challenges both familiar and novel in doing so. or several years, the US has used its export control authorities to limit China’s access to advanced AI chips — the hardware necessary to process data at a high volume and speed, and effectively the oil that fuels the AI industry. But these controls aren’t very nimble. For example, the Biden administration announced chip controls in October 2023 and updated them a year later. But in the interim, certain imports kept flowing. That’s not to say these tools are entirely ineffective. Chip controls likely forced DeepSeek to be creative in ways that paid off for them, said Brookings Institute fellow Valerie Wirtschafter. But they would still be in a more competitive position without those chip constraints imposed by the US. At the same time, the US government has old-fashioned capacity constraints. Observers say the Bureau of Industry and Security, an office in Commerce dedicated to enforcing export controls, saw its responsibilities expand under President Joe Biden, in part thanks to new controls targeting Russia in response to the war with Ukraine.

The release of DeepSeek's AI product has the US government eager to guard both the computing and intellectual property behind its technology, but there are limitations to how it can be done using export controls.

With @emmawhitford.bsky.social:

www.mlex.com/mlex/artific...

NYC (Central Park) recorded 1.8" of snow overnight and this morning. This is NYC's first measurable snowfall in December since 2021.

This looks to be the story Penny's team referenced. It's an AI-written article by "The Pinnacle Gazette," a site run by a popular Turkish science company.

The jury is anonymous, but "Martin Beck" is not one of their names, according to Penny's lawyers.

AI in journalism, folks.

pekingese named tricki woo with no eyes or legs or face

TRICKI WOO

Can’t take credit - my father-in-law’s doing!

First fried turkey

First flakes of snow in DC area Friday morning? Possible. But they won't accumulate with temps well above freezing.
But if you go to the mountains 150 miles to the west, some peaks could see more than a foot.

Read more: www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024...