Maryland Is First to Ban A.I.-Driven Price Increases in Grocery Stores; The New York Times, May 1, 2026

 John S.W. MacDonald, The New York Times; Maryland Is First to Ban A.I.-Driven Price Increases in Grocery Stores

"Maryland this week became the first state in America to ban grocery stores and third-party delivery services like DoorDash from using customers’ personal data to set higher prices.

The practice — supported by artificial intelligence and known as dynamic pricing or surveillance pricing — can lead to two consumers paying different amounts for the same item from the same retailer, at roughly the same time. If a store knows, for example, that one of those customers lives in a wealthier neighborhood, it can charge that person a higher price.

The bill enforcing the ban, the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act, goes into effect on Oct. 1. Merchants face fines of $10,000 for running afoul of the law, and penalties of $25,000 for repeat offenses.

“At a time when technology can predict what we need, when we need it, when we’ll pay for it and also when we’ll pay more for it,” Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a Democrat, said at a signing ceremony for the bill on Tuesday. “And at a time when we are watching how big companies are then using those analytics against us to make record profits, Maryland is not just pushing back. Maryland is pushing forward.”"

Celebrating World IP Day 2026: Sports, Innovation and Intellectual Property; JDSupra, April 24, 2026

 Baker,Hostetler, Jeffrey Lyons, JDSupra; Celebrating World IP Day 2026: Sports, Innovation and Intellectual Property

"Another year, another opportunity to celebrate intellectual property (IP) on World Intellectual Property Day! This year, the World Intellectual Property Organization turns the global spotlight on “IP and Sports: Ready, Set, Innovate,” highlighting how IP rights support innovation, creativity and investment in sports...

As sports continue to intersect with artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, immersive media and global brands, IP considerations will only grow in importance. World IP Day is a reminder that innovation does not happen in isolation; it depends on legal structures that reward creativity while enabling responsible growth.

Happy World IP Day 2026!"

The AI spending frenzy is so huge that it makes no sense; The Washington Post, November 7, 2025

 Shira Ovide, The Washington Post; The AI spending frenzy is so huge that it makes no sense

" In just the past year, the four richest companies developing AI — Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta — have spent roughly $360 billion combined for big-ticket projects, which included building AI data centers and stuffing them with computer chips and equipment, according to my analysis of financial disclosures.

(Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

That same amount of money could pay for about four years’ worth of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the federal government program that distributes more than $90 billion in yearly food assistance to 42 million Americans. SNAP benefits are in limbo for now during the government shutdown...

Eight of the world’s top 10 most valuable companies are AI-centric or AI-ish American corporate giants — Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Broadcom, Meta and Tesla. That’s according to tallies from S&P Global Market Intelligence based on the total price of the companies’ stock held by investors."

1.5M people in Ohio rely on SNAP: Map shows which towns will be hardest hit by shutdown; WLWT5, October 31, 2025

 Emily Sanderson, WLWT5;  1.5M people in Ohio rely on SNAP: Map shows which towns will be hardest hit by shutdown

"More than 1 million Ohio residents will lose federal food support on Saturday when SNAP benefits expire because of the government shutdown.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps, helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries.

Cincinnati families are facing uncertainty as the SNAP food assistance program has been suspended due to the government shutdown, affecting nearly 100,000 residents in Hamilton County who rely on federal food benefits...

Governor DeWine has indicated that there is no mechanism for Ohio to directly fund SNAP payments, regardless of the source of the money."

Tech giant Palantir helps the US government monitor its citizens. Its CEO wants Silicon Valley to find its moral compass; The Conversation, July 28, 2025

 Noel Castree Professor of Society & Environment, University of Technology Sydney , The Conversation; Tech giant Palantir helps the US government monitor its citizens. Its CEO wants Silicon Valley to find its moral compass

"Critics of those who misuse power tend to be outsiders. So, it’s striking that Alexander Karp, co-founder and CEO of data analytics giant Palantir Technologies, has written a book, with Palantir’s head of corporate affairs Nicholas Zamiska, calling on Silicon Valley to find its moral compass...

Karp has described Palantir’s work as “the finding of hidden things”. The New York Times described its work as sifting “through mountains of data to perceive patterns, including patterns of suspicious or aberrant behavior”.

Palantir has worked closely with United States armed forces and intelligence agencies across Democratic and Republican governments for 14 years. It has been criticised for enabling heightened government surveillance and loss of privacy among US citizens."

Who uses libraries? Even in the stacks, there’s a political divide.; The Washington Post, October 4, 2024

 Andrew Van Dam, The Washington Post; Who uses libraries? Even in the stacks, there’s a political divide.

"When we took a look at the nation’s declining reading habits, our struggling bookstores and the prodigious number of books consumed by America’s top 1 percent of readers, scores of you wrote in with a singular question: What about the libraries?!

You people sure do love libraries! You wanted to know everything. Who are the biggest library users? How many of our books do we get from libraries? What else do we use libraries for?

We scoured all the government sources we could think of before turning to the cabal of polling prodigies over at YouGov to see what they could gin up.

As usual, YouGov exceeded our expectations, asking at least 50 library-related questions of 2,429 U.S. adults in April. They touched on just about everything: librarian approval ratings, restrictions on drag queen story times, number of books read. They also asked about the library services we actually use, up to and including how many of us avail ourselves of the library restrooms."

What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team; New York Times, 2/25/16

Charles Duhigg, New York Times; What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team:

"The technology industry is not just one of the fastest growing parts of our economy; it is also increasingly the world’s dominant commercial culture. And at the core of Silicon Valley are certain self-mythologies and dictums: Everything is different now, data reigns supreme, today’s winners deserve to triumph because they are cleareyed enough to discard yesterday’s conventional wisdoms and search out the disruptive and the new.

The paradox, of course, is that Google’s intense data collection and number crunching have led it to the same conclusions that good managers have always known. In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs.

The fact that these insights aren’t wholly original doesn’t mean Google’s contributions aren’t valuable. In fact, in some ways, the ‘‘employee performance optimization’’ movement has given us a method for talking about our insecurities, fears and aspirations in more constructive ways. It also has given us the tools to quickly teach lessons that once took managers decades to absorb. Google, in other words, in its race to build the perfect team, has perhaps unintentionally demonstrated the usefulness of imperfection and done what Silicon Valley does best: figure out how to create psychological safety faster, better and in more productive ways."

Unblinking Eyes Track Employees: Workplace Surveillance Sees Good and Bad; New York Times, 6/21/14

Steve Lohr, New York Times; Unblinking Eyes Track Employees: Workplace Surveillance Sees Good and Bad:

"A digital Big Brother is coming to work, for better or worse.

Advanced technological tools are beginning to make it possible to measure and monitor employees as never before, with the promise of fundamentally changing how we work — along with raising concerns about privacy and the specter of unchecked surveillance in the workplace.

Through these new means, companies have found, for example, that workers are more productive if they have more social interaction. So a bank’s call center introduced a shared 15-minute coffee break, and a pharmaceutical company replaced coffee makers used by a few marketing workers with a larger cafe area. The result? Increased sales and less turnover.

Yet the prospect of fine-grained, digital monitoring of workers’ behavior worries privacy advocates. Companies, they say, have few legal obligations other than informing employees. “Whether this kind of monitoring is effective or not, it’s a concern,” said Lee Tien, a senior staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco."