Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.
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Canadian Lawyer invites readers to complete the annual Readers’ Choice Survey
The 2020 edition of the Canadian Lawyer's Readers' Choice Survey is officially open! The annual survey determines which vendors and service providers are the best at what they do in helping legal professionals. We're pleased to share that Ricoh Canada has been nominated in four categories. The survey will be open until next Friday, August 21st. Cast your votes here.
2035's Biggest A.I. Threat Is Already Here
The danger of artificial intelligence may seem to be forever stuck in the future, but according to Inverse, it may already be here. A team of academics, policy experts and private sector stakeholders have identified 18 AI threats we should worry about in the next 15 years. Learn how they ranked each use of AI and why they believe deep fakes show the greatest overall threat.
Rollout of COVID Alert app faces criticism over accessibility
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The Canadian government's COVID-19 exposure notification app is facing criticism for its download requirements, which restrict some Canadians from accessing and using the app. The free "COVID Alert" app is designed to track the location of phones relative to each other without collecting personal data anywhere centrally. The app has quickly become the most downloaded free app in Canada, topping the charts of both Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store, with more than 1.18 million Canadians downloading the app as of last week.
There are, however, some downfalls. According to CBC, the app may be inaccessible for older Canadians and marginalized groups. For the app to work properly, it requires 65 to 80 per cent of all Canadians to use it.
The lawyer who could be the first female US President
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden named Kamala Harris as his running mate on Tuesday, meaning we could see a lawyer become the first female President of the United States. At 77, many believe Biden will see out only one term should he be elected; leaving his number two, Harris, 55, to take the top job. Harris, who represents California in the US Senate and previously served as the state’s attorney general, would be the first Black and Indian American woman in the role of Vice-President should they win. Learn more about Harris in Legal Cheek's recent article.
Most Lawyers Want to Come Back to the Office, Survey Says
According to a survey by Gensler, the vast majority of lawyers in the US want to work in the office. The survey taken between April 16 and May 4 found that some 74 per cent of respondents would prefer returning to the office for at least the majority of their week. The remainder want a more flexible work arrangement. The survey also found that 46 per cent of respondents want to go back to the office full-time, and only 10 per cent want to work from home completely. Read all the highlights of the survey on Commercial Observer.
An Alexa Bug Could Have Exposed Your Voice History to Hackers
New research into vulnerabilities in Amazon's Alexa platform has highlighted the importance of thinking about the personal data your smart assistant stores about you — and minimizing it as much as you can. According to Wired, a security firm has revealed that Alexa's web services had bugs that a hacker could have exploited to grab a target's entire voice history, meaning their recorded audio interactions with Alexa. Amazon has patched the flaws, but the vulnerability could have also yielded profile information, including home address, as well as all of the "skills," or apps, the user had added for Alexa. An attacker could have even deleted an existing skill and installed a malicious one to grab more data after the initial attack.
The Philosophy of Design: How UI Adds Value to Legal Tech
There is a lot of excitement and anticipation around Relativity's new Aero UI and how it will make life easier for many eDiscovery and internal investigation teams. The philosophy behind Aero is to make Relativity "simply powerful". But how does design philosophy translate to greater efficiency and productivity — and why is now the right time to foster this evolution? Check out Relativity's latest blog to learn how UI will support dramatic growth in data volumes, proliferation in collection points and the increasing complexity of matters caused by changing regulations.
Facebook’s new A.I. takes image recognition to a whole new level
More than 20 years after its creation, The Matrix is being used as part of a Facebook demo to show some of the company’s groundbreaking AI image recognition technology. Through a demo recounted by Luke Dormehl of Digital Trends, the 2D footage of Keanu Reeves had been transformed into a 3D model. This means Facebook’s AI algorithms can watch a regular video and, as it is playing, figure out how to turn it into a fully-3D scene, frame by frame.
ServiceNow will provide cloud services to the Government of Canada through Shared Services Canada
ServiceNow has signed a framework agreement with the Government of Canada, meaning federal departments will be able to use the company’s Now platform to accelerate cloud adoption, automate workflows and stand up services. These services will be available to Shared Services Canada (SSC) and Government of Canada institutions entitled to purchase via SSC, which is responsible for providing a light-touch, cloud-brokering service by implementing contracts with cloud service providers. Read the full story on IT World Canada.
