Adi Robertson

Github Copilot is an AI-powered programming tool trained on publicly accessible code, and like many AI projects, it’s raised all kinds of legal and ethical questions. NYU Law School’s Michael Weinberg comes at it from a perspective I find particularly helpful: the non-expert coder who’s already using Google and StackOverflow as a low-tech AI helper. It’s a helpful way to consider the difference between human-scale copy-pasting and the kind enabled by machine learning.

Meta is betting everything on its VR and AR initiative, so I talked to Austin’s NPR station about it... and they’re understandably dubious!

Not sure how to feel about Meta’s new VR headset and the motion-captured avatar legs revealed this week?

Okay, actually I’m just glad the court is finally hearing Warhol v. Goldsmith, a lawsuit over whether Andy Warhol could fairly rework a photographer’s picture of Prince without permission. It’s a case that will help define the boundaries of copyright fair use for everyone, inside and outside the fine art world, and I’m eagerly waiting for a ruling.

Former eBay employees’ stalking campaign against EcommerceBytes is absolutely mind-boggling to me, both for its bizarre specifics (live cockroaches, a bloody pig mask), its horrible impact on its targets, and how high into eBay management it reached. Two more participants are awaiting sentencing — but we still don’t know if eBay itself will face meaningful consequences.