As we enter 2024 at Socially Aware, here are a few items we’ve been tracking on the social media and AI fronts from the end of last year and the beginning of this year.
The European Union voted to enact a new law to harness artificial intelligence (AI). While the new law cites the positives of AI, in the ruling it also warns of potential harms such as “automating jobs, spreading misinformation online and endangering national security” (according to The New York Times). Our colleagues also covered these activities in a recent client alert: Interpreting the EU’s Political Agreement on the AI Act: What Does It Mean and What’s Next?
Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report detailing the results of a virtual roundtable of working creative professionals from October 2023 about their concerns regarding generative AI and its potential impact on their work, including data collection without consent, nondisclosure issues, competition with AI, style mimicry, and fake endorsements.
‘Tis the season for copyright infringement claims. Sony Music recently filed a lawsuit against cosmetics brand Ofra for using recordings by Mariah Carey and Britney Spears in social media ads without permission. Here’s the full filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Ownership of AI-generated content continues to raise questions in legal circles about copyright infringement, permission of use, and human-manipulated artifacts generated from AI. PC Magazine’s recent article explores these topics in depth.
Finally, New York Attorney General Letitia James shut down a New York orthopedic surgeon’s alleged activity of suppressing negative reviews and artificially inflating positive reviews about his practice on various social media platforms, including ZocDoc, Google, Yelp, Healthgrades, Vitals, Md.com, RateMds.com, and the Better Business Bureau. James secured $100,000 in penalties against Dr. Mark Mohrmann and his Manhattan-based practice, Highline Orthopaedics.