beSpacific

beSpacific

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Sabrina Pacifici’s daily research on law, tech, privacy, AI, and policy impacting legal services.

Artificial Intelligence in Federal Courts: A Random-Sample Survey of Judges
NewsMar 30, 2026

Artificial Intelligence in Federal Courts: A Random-Sample Survey of Judges

A new study surveyed 502 federal judges, receiving 112 responses, to gauge AI usage in the judiciary. While most respondents have tried AI tools, 38% admit they never use them, and daily or weekly use remains rare. Judges favor integrated...

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AI in Discovery: Some Tools Are Ready. Others Are Not.
NewsMar 30, 2026

AI in Discovery: Some Tools Are Ready. Others Are Not.

Generative AI is rapidly entering legal discovery, promising faster document analysis but still facing reliability gaps. While some AI‑driven platforms can automate routine review, many fall short of the rigorous standards required for privileged document handling. Jerry Lawson argues that...

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Wikipedia Bans AI-Generated Content
NewsMar 27, 2026

Wikipedia Bans AI-Generated Content

On March 20, Wikipedia’s volunteer community voted 40‑2 to adopt a policy banning the use of large language models (LLMs) for creating or rewriting encyclopedia articles. The rule permits LLMs only for minor copy‑editing suggestions on an editor’s own text,...

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Closed Case: The Law Hegseth Triggered Never Expires
NewsMar 27, 2026

Closed Case: The Law Hegseth Triggered Never Expires

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s "no quarter, no mercy" comment during Operation Epic Fury has activated criminal liability under 18 U.S.C. § 2441, exposing him and any service members who act on the directive to war‑crime prosecution. The article ties this exposure to...

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Google Just Patented the End of Your Website
NewsMar 27, 2026

Google Just Patented the End of Your Website

Google was granted a patent on Jan. 27, 2026 for an AI‑generated content page that can replace a brand's landing page in real time if it underperforms for a specific user. The system scores the original page using conversion, bounce,...

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How to Make Sense of AI
NewsMar 20, 2026

How to Make Sense of AI

The article addresses the pervasive AI hype of 2026 and the anxiety it generates among business leaders. It proposes a disciplined decision‑making framework that separates signal from noise, allowing executives to act without panic or FOMO. By testing claims and...

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A World On Fire Needs More Climate Reporting — Not Less
NewsMar 20, 2026

A World On Fire Needs More Climate Reporting — Not Less

Climate reporting in the United States is shrinking as legacy broadcasters slash dedicated teams and cut coverage, a reversal from the optimism sparked by the 2019 Covering Climate Now initiative. The 2024 election relegated climate to a single debate question,...

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Paperback Vs. Hardcover: Which Is Better For Readers (and For Writers)?
NewsMar 20, 2026

Paperback Vs. Hardcover: Which Is Better For Readers (and For Writers)?

The article compares paperback and hardcover formats, noting that readers generally prefer paperbacks for their light weight and lower price. Mass‑market paperbacks have been phased out, leaving trade paperbacks as the dominant soft‑cover option. Authors, however, often view hardcover releases...

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Strandbeest Evolution 2025
NewsMar 20, 2026

Strandbeest Evolution 2025

Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest Evolution 2025 video showcases the latest generation of wind‑driven kinetic sculptures that have been iteratively refined since 1990. Each spring Jansen debuts a new “beast” on the Dutch coast, testing its performance against wind, sand and water....

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GOV UK Report and Impact Assessment on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
NewsMar 19, 2026

GOV UK Report and Impact Assessment on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence

The UK government published a Report and Impact Assessment on the use of copyrighted works in training artificial intelligence systems under Sections 135 and 136 of the Data (Use and Access) Act on 18 March 2026. The documents, available as...

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The 49MB Web Page
NewsMar 18, 2026

The 49MB Web Page

Shubham Bose reports that a typical New York Times article now requires 422 network requests and transfers 49 MB of data, taking over two minutes to fully load on average broadband connections. This size is comparable to downloading ten to twelve...

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Washington Post Is Using Reader Data to Set Subscription Prices
NewsMar 16, 2026

Washington Post Is Using Reader Data to Set Subscription Prices

The Washington Post has begun using an AI‑driven algorithm to set individual subscription prices based on readers' personal data. Subscribers received emails warning of upcoming rate increases that were "set by an algorithm using your personal data." The model reportedly...

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AI in Finance and Banking, March 15, 2026
NewsMar 16, 2026

AI in Finance and Banking, March 15, 2026

The latest semi‑monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici surveys AI’s rapid penetration of finance, highlighting six research strands. It examines how large language models influence bargaining games, maps AI‑driven fiscal actions across 64 countries, and cites Anthropic’s warning that hedge‑fund...

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The Removed DOGE Deposition Videos Have Already Been Backed Up Across the Internet
NewsMar 16, 2026

The Removed DOGE Deposition Videos Have Already Been Backed Up Across the Internet

A federal judge ordered the removal of the DOGE deposition videos from YouTube after they went viral, but the footage had already been mirrored across the internet via a torrent and the Internet Archive. The deposited testimony shows DOGE staff...

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Electronic Surveillance Under Scrutiny as Trump Targets Left Wing Groups as “Domestic Terrorists”
NewsMar 16, 2026

Electronic Surveillance Under Scrutiny as Trump Targets Left Wing Groups as “Domestic Terrorists”

Congress is set to vote on renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act, a key authority that permits the NSA and FBI to collect electronic communications without individualized warrants. The renewal comes as President Trump has issued an executive...

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Majority of Americans Continue to Say Abortion Should Be Legal in All or Most Cases
NewsMar 13, 2026

Majority of Americans Continue to Say Abortion Should Be Legal in All or Most Cases

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that 60% of U.S. adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a modest dip from earlier post‑Dobbs polls. About half of respondents (51%) say obtaining an abortion in their...

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DOJ Clears Way for Government to Hire Technologists Still Connected to Private Sector Employers
NewsMar 13, 2026

DOJ Clears Way for Government to Hire Technologists Still Connected to Private Sector Employers

The Justice Department issued an opinion that clears the way for the Trump administration’s U.S. Tech Force program to let private‑sector technologists work for the federal government while remaining employed and retaining unvested stock units. The initiative will onboard managers...

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The 2026 Tournament of Books
NewsMar 12, 2026

The 2026 Tournament of Books

The Tournament of Books, launched in 2005, has become a staple of the literary calendar each March. By curating a December long‑list and trimming it to a sixteen‑title shortlist, the competition pits two novels against each other every weekday, with...

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Four U.S. Senators Demanded an Independent Audit of the Epstein Files
NewsMar 12, 2026

Four U.S. Senators Demanded an Independent Audit of the Epstein Files

Four U.S. senators—Lisa Murkowski, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley and Ben Ray Luján—sent a bipartisan letter to the Government Accountability Office demanding an independent audit of the Department of Justice's release of Jeffrey Epstein‑related files. The DOJ disclosed more than three...

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The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge
NewsMar 12, 2026

The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

Tim Harford’s FT piece argues that research once dismissed as useless often becomes foundational to transformative technologies. He cites the RSA algorithm, born from abstract number theory, and Flexner’s 1939 defense of pure science that later powered radio, cryptography, and...

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Trump Ordered Justice Department Reversal on Law Firm Sanctions
NewsMar 12, 2026

Trump Ordered Justice Department Reversal on Law Firm Sanctions

President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to reverse its surprise decision to abandon the defense of executive orders that sanction specific law firms. The DOJ had filed to drop the defense on March 2, but within 24 hours the...

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GitHub Appears to Be Struggling with Measly Three Nines Availability
NewsMar 12, 2026

GitHub Appears to Be Struggling with Measly Three Nines Availability

GitHub suffered a series of outages on February 9‑10, affecting Actions, pull requests, notifications and the Copilot AI assistant. The incident caused notification delays of up to 50 minutes and a prolonged Copilot policy propagation problem that lasted until the following...

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Websites Change. Perma Links Don’t.
NewsMar 11, 2026

Websites Change. Perma Links Don’t.

Perma.cc offers a simple, library‑backed solution to the growing problem of link rot by creating permanent, unalterable snapshots of web pages for citation purposes. Users copy a URL, paste it into the platform, and receive a stable Perma Link that...

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Pentagon Should Focus on Defense Priorities After Historic $93.4B “Use-It-or-Lose-It”
NewsMar 11, 2026

Pentagon Should Focus on Defense Priorities After Historic $93.4B “Use-It-or-Lose-It”

The Pentagon’s September 2025 spending surge hit a historic $93.4 billion on grants and contracts, with $50.1 billion disbursed in the last five working days alone. This outlays exceed the entire annual defense budgets of nations such as Israel and Italy and...

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CRS U.S. Military Operations Against Iran’s Missile and Nuclear Programs
NewsMar 11, 2026

CRS U.S. Military Operations Against Iran’s Missile and Nuclear Programs

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched coordinated military strikes against Iran targeting its missile and nuclear programs. President Donald Trump framed the operation as preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, destroying its missile arsenal, and...

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CITR Challenges US Government Censorship Policy
NewsMar 11, 2026

CITR Challenges US Government Censorship Policy

The Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR), joined by the Knight First Amendment Institute and Protect Democracy, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. government’s May 2025 Censorship Policy. The policy targets non‑citizen researchers, fact‑checkers, and trust‑and‑safety workers, threatening visa denials,...

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Pete Recommends – Weekly Highlights on Cyber Security Issues, March 7, 2026
NewsMar 9, 2026

Pete Recommends – Weekly Highlights on Cyber Security Issues, March 7, 2026

Pete Weiss’s weekly roundup spotlights five pressing cyber‑security developments. It warns that the greatest AI threats stem from insider misuse, offering a twelve‑point defense playbook for organizations. Anthropic announced a new migration feature as users consider boycotting ChatGPT, while Samsung...

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Disinformation on U.S.-Iran War Takes over the Internet
NewsMar 9, 2026

Disinformation on U.S.-Iran War Takes over the Internet

A wave of disinformation surged online after the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran’s Shajareh Tayyebeh school, which killed up to 168 civilians. Fake clips from flight simulators were presented as live combat footage, while out‑of‑context naval images and archival missile videos...

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The Governance Gap That Moltbook Reveals and OpenAI Just Made Urgent
NewsMar 9, 2026

The Governance Gap That Moltbook Reveals and OpenAI Just Made Urgent

Moltbook, an AI‑driven social network, quickly attracted over 2.8 million agents, but analysis shows most activity stems from humans using AI proxies. Ninety‑three percent of posts receive no response, and an 88:1 agent‑to‑human ratio debunks the notion of an autonomous AI...

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CEOs and Workers See AI Very Differently
NewsMar 9, 2026

CEOs and Workers See AI Very Differently

A new Section survey of 5,000 white‑collar employees reveals a stark divide: 40% say generative AI saves them no time, while 19% of C‑suite executives report gaining more than 12 hours weekly. Executives tout AI‑driven efficiency, but frontline staff experience...

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US Has Been Exporting More Oil, Petroleum Products than It Imports Since August 2021
NewsMar 9, 2026

US Has Been Exporting More Oil, Petroleum Products than It Imports Since August 2021

In 2025 the United States exported roughly 10.7 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products per day, surpassing imports of about 7.9 million barrels—a net export surplus of 2.8 million barrels daily. This marks the first full year the U.S. has been...

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NACDL Launches National ‘Criminal Case Tracker’ as Federal Grand Juries, Trial Juries Rebel Against Prosecutorial Overreach
NewsMar 6, 2026

NACDL Launches National ‘Criminal Case Tracker’ as Federal Grand Juries, Trial Juries Rebel Against Prosecutorial Overreach

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has launched a digital Criminal Case Tracker to monitor federal prosecutions that employ novel or aggressive charging theories. The platform reveals a growing trend since early 2025 of grand juries issuing "no...

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Lawyer Uses Claude Skills, Legal World Loses It
NewsMar 2, 2026

Lawyer Uses Claude Skills, Legal World Loses It

Lawyer Zack Shapiro showcased how he leverages Anthropic’s Claude “Skills” to automate contract review and formatting tasks at his boutique firm. By creating custom instruction files that embed his decade‑long analytical framework, Claude can edit Word documents at the XML...

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How I Use ChatGPT to Create a CLE PowerPoint Deck
NewsFeb 25, 2026

How I Use ChatGPT to Create a CLE PowerPoint Deck

Jennifer Ellis details a step‑by‑step workflow for using ChatGPT to produce a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) PowerPoint on cybersecurity. She shares the exact prompts, citation handling, and design cues that let the AI generate a polished deck in minutes. The...

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Here’s What a Google Subpoena Response Looks Like, Courtesy of the Epstein Files
NewsFeb 25, 2026

Here’s What a Google Subpoena Response Looks Like, Courtesy of the Epstein Files

The Department of Justice released more than three million documents tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, including several grand‑jury subpoenas directed at Google. The leaked files reveal Google’s formal responses on company letterhead, detailing the data it produced for specific...

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I Switched Everything to Local AI and Stopped Sending My Documents to the Cloud
NewsFeb 23, 2026

I Switched Everything to Local AI and Stopped Sending My Documents to the Cloud

A tech writer realized that uploading confidential documents to cloud‑based AI services violated data‑privacy expectations and switched to a fully local solution. After reviewing terms of service, they adopted AnythingLLM, an open‑source desktop application that runs AI models entirely on...

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AI Risk Tool
NewsFeb 20, 2026

AI Risk Tool

AI Risk tool, a browser‑only privacy layer, anonymises sensitive data before it reaches any generative AI model. The solution runs entirely client‑side, ensuring no text is transmitted, stored, or tracked on external servers. By eliminating the need for accounts, it...

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Epsteinalysis.com
NewsFeb 19, 2026

Epsteinalysis.com

A new platform, Epsteinalysis.com, launched under the alias Axiomofinfinity, offers a searchable database called Epstein Files Explorer containing over one million documents and two million pages released by the DOJ. The site employs spaCy’s named‑entity recognition and similarity clustering to...

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