The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
The robot apocalypse -- and you!
Episode 360 of the Cyberlaw Podcast
Our interview is with Kevin Roose, author of Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation. Kevin debunks most of the comforting stories we use to anaesthetize ourselves to the danger that artificial intelligence and digitization pose to our jobs. Luckily, he also offers some practical and very personal ideas for how to avoid being caught in the oncoming robot apocalypse.
In the news roundup, Dmitri Alperovich and I take a few moments to honor Dan Kaminsky, an extraordinary internet security and even more extraordinarily decent man. He died too young, at 42, as Nicole Perlroth demonstrates in one of her career-best articles.
Maury Shenk and Mark MacCarthy lay out the EU's plan to charge Apple with anti-competitive behaviour in running its app store. Under regulation-friendly EU competition law, rather than the more austere US version, it sure looks as though Apple is going to have trouble escaping unscathed.
Mark and I duke it out over Gov. DeSantis's Florida bill on content moderation reform. We agree that it will be challenged as a violation of the First Amendment and as preempted by federal section 230. Mark thinks it will fail that test. I don't, especially if the challenge ends up in the Supreme Court, where Justice Thomas at least has already put out the "Welcome" mat.
Dmitri and I puzzle over the statement by top White House cyber official Anne Neuberger that the US reprisals against Russia are so far not enough to deter further cyberattacks. We decide it's a "Kinsley gaffe" – where a top official inadvertently utters an inconvenient truth.
This Week in Information Operations: Maury explains that China may be hyping America's racial tensions not as a tactic to divide us but simply because it's an irresistible comeback to US criticisms or Chinese treatment of ethnic minorities. And Dmitri explains why we shouldn't be surprised at Russia's integrated use of hacking and propaganda. The real question is why the US has been so bad at the same work.
In shorter pieces:
- Mark covers the slooow rollout of an EU law forcing one-hour takedowns of terrorist content.
- Dmitri tells us about the evolution of ransomware into full service doxtortion, as sensitive files of the D.C. Police Department are leaked online
- Dmitri also notes the inevitability of more mobile phone adtech tracking scandals, such as the compromise of US military operations
- Maury and I discuss the extent to which China's internet giants find themselves competing, not for consumers, but for government favor, as China uses antitrust law to cement its control of the tech sector
- Finally, Dmitri and I unpack the latest delay in DOD's effort to achieve cybersecurity maturity through regulatory-style compliance, an effort Dmitri believes is doomed
And more!
Download the 360th Episode (mp3)
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