A six-year-old federal program designed to help the smallest American businesses cut debt and get a fresh start has set a record for the number of cases filed, court data show. More than 2,200 people and small firms filed bankruptcy this year under the so-called Subchapter V rules, which make it cheaper and faster to […]

EFF intern Alexandra Halbeck contributed to this blog When people talk to a chatbot, they often reveal highly personal information they wouldn’t share with anyone else. Chat logs are digital repositories of our most sensitive and revealing information. They are also tempting targets for law enforcement, to which the U.S. Constitution gives only one answer: get a warrant. AI companies have a responsibility to their users to make sure the warrant requirement is strictly followed, to resist unlawful bulk surveillance requests, and to be transparent with their users about the number of government requests they receive. Chat logs are deeply personal, just like your emails. Tens of millions of people use chatbots to brainstorm, test ideas, and explore questions they might never post publicly or even admit to another person. Whether advisable or not, people also turn to consumer AI companies for medical information, financial advice, and even dating tips. These conversations reveal people’s most sensitive information. Without privacy protections, users would be chilled in their use of AI systems. Consider the sensitivity of the following prompts: “how to get abortion pills,” “how to protect myself at a protest,” or “how to escape an abusive relationship.” These exchanges can reveal everything from health status to political beliefs to private grief. A single chat thread can expose the kind of intimate detail once locked away in a handwritten diary. Without privacy protections, users would be chilled in their use of AI systems for learning, expression, and seeking help. Chat logs require a warrant. Whether you draft an email, edit an online document, or ask a question to a chatbot, you have a reasonable expectation of privacy in that information. Chatbots may be a new technology, but the constitutional principle is old and clear. Before the government can rifle through your private thoughts stored on digital platforms, it must do what it has always been required to do: get a warrant. For over a century, the Fourth Amendment has protected the content of private communications—such as letters, emails, and search engine prompts—from unreasonable government searches. AI prompts require the same constitutional protection. This protection is not aspirational—it already exists. The Fourth Amendment draws a bright line around private communications: the government must show probable cause and obtain a particularized warrant before compelling a company to turn over your data. Companies like OpenAI acknowledge this warrant requirement explicitly, while others like Anthropic could stand to be more precise. AI companies must resist bulk surveillance orders. AI companies that create chatbots should commit to having your back and resisting unlawful bulk surveillance orders. A valid search warrant requires law enforcement to provide a judge with probable cause and to particularly describe the thing to be searched. This means that bulk surveillance orders often fail that test. What do these overbroad orders look like? In the past decade or so, police have often sought “reverse” search warrants for user information held by technology companies. Rather than searching for one particular individual, police have demanded that companies rummage through their giant databases of personal data to help develop investigative leads. This has included “tower dumps” or “geofence warrants,” in which police order a company to search all users’ location data to identify anyone that’s been near a particular place at a particular time. It has also included “keyword” warrants, which seek to identify any person who typed a particular phrase into a search engine. This could include a chilling keyword search for a well-known politician’s name or busy street, or a geofence warrant near a protest or church. Courts are beginning to rule that these broad demands are unconstitutional. And after years of complying, Google has finally made it technically difficult—if not impossible—to provide mass location data in response to a geofence warrant. This is an old story: if a company stores a lot of data about its users, law enforcement (and private litigants) will eventually seek it out. Law enforcement is already demanding user data from AI chatbot companies, and it will only increase. These companies must be prepared for this onslaught, and they must commit to fighting to protect their users. In addition to minimizing the amount of data accessible to law enforcement, they can start with three promises to their users. These aren’t radical ideas. They are basic transparency and accountability standards to preserve user trust and to ensure constitutional rights keep pace with technology: commit to fighting bulk orders for user data in court, commit to providing users with advanced notice before complying with a legal demand so that users can choose to fight on their own behalf, and  commit to publishing periodic transparency reports, which tally up how many legal demands for user data the company receives (including the number of bulk orders specifically).

Antares is designing and building small modular reactors that it plans to deploy for commercial, space, and defense applications.

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Venezuela’s ruler, Nicolas Maduro, is rallying support for a war with the United States. As tensions flare, Maduro appears to become increasingly defiant of the U.S.’s posturing and threats. Brandishing a sword and dressed in camouflage fatigues, Maduro said: “We must be ready to defend every inch of this blessed land from imperialist threat or …

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Keith Richards was one of the first British guitarists of his generation to enter Rock history as one of the players who helped shape the Rock and Roll revolution of the 60s. Alongside The Beatles, the Rolling Stones opened the doors for many new groups, who would later stand with them as the main British bands that changed the course of Rock music during that decade. There were many incredible guitar players in the UK who would eventually become known worldwide. Over the years, Richards has given his opinion on many of his peers, including Eric Clapton. What is Keith Richards' opinion on Eric Clapton Keith Richards is a fan and good friend of Eric Clapton and once defined him as a guitarist who is always searching for something. "Cream, Jack and Ginger, who I knew really well, as well as I knew Eric, if not better, you know. Eric is a searcher, that's what I think and he doesn't stop searching. Sometimes it takes him into some morose areas, which I think (he should) cheer up, bloody millionaire guitar player, you should be miserable? (Laughs)." "I think Eric is always searching for himself, which I think is a great thing, you know. Hence the changes in persona and look, there's kind of an outward sign. But hey, that's what the whole thing is about: searching. It's not a life of milk and honey, this stuff, you know what I mean? On the surface, from outside, I can understand (what) everybody (say) 'You're a millionaire, a Rock star'. But the fact is that Eric still got to get to the crossroads, so do I, you know? Because there's not just one, there are several crossroads. If you think there's just one, well, look out, pal," Keith Richards said in the documentary "Standing At The Crossroads" (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Eric Clapton’s biggest flaw according to Keith Richards To Keith, Clapton is a guitar player who has "got it all", but he has a flaw: he depends on others to push him forward in his playing and songwriting, much like former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor. “Eric wanted to jump in after Mick Taylor, but never did say so. But he expected us to call, although I only just found out. There are certain guys that are band players and there’s certain guys that ain’t. If there’s anybody lazier than me, it’s Eric. He’s got it all, but Eric’s like Mick Taylor in a way. He needs to hire guys to play with him to kick him up the arse,” Keith Richards said. The two had already shared the stage many times over the years, including back in 1968, when they were both part of the short-lived supergroup Dirty Mac, led by John Lennon during the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. Although Clapton didn't replace Taylor in the Stones, he ended up recording with them in 2016. He was part of their covers album “Blue & Lonesome”. Eric played the slide guitar in the track “Everybody Knows About My Good Thing” and lead electric guitar in “I Can’t Quit You Baby”. The letter from Keith Richards that Clapton never forgot Eric Clapton tragically lost his four-year-old son Conor in 1991, after the child fell from the 53rd-floor window of an apartment in New York City that belonged to a friend of his mother. Fifteen years earlier, in 1976, Keith Richards had also lost a son, Tara, who died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. When the Rolling Stones guitarist heard what had happened to Conor, he sent Clapton a letter. Eric later said he never forgot what Keith wrote and that receiving a message like that at such a moment meant a great deal to him. "There’s no question that losing a child is the worst thing that can ever happen, which is why I wrote to Eric Clapton when his son died, knowing something of what he was going through. When that happens you go totally numb for a while. It’s only very slowly that the possibilities of your love for the little chap emerge." He continued: "You can’t deal with it all at once. And you can’t lose a kid without it coming to haunt you. Everything’s supposed to go in its natural order. I’ve seen my mum and my dad off, and that’s the natural order. But seeing a baby off is another thing. It never lets you rest. Now it’s a permanent cold space inside me," Keith Richards said in his autobiography "Life". Just a few months after the tragedy, Clapton told Rolling Stone how he felt about what Keith had written to him. "Funnily enough, the first person I heard from was Keith Richards. He wrote me a fantastic letter, and I called him right away. He just said, “Well, I’m here, you know, if there’s anything I can do…. “ In his autobiography, Eric said he will always be grateful for that gesture. "One of the first I opened was from Keith Richards. It just said, 'If there’s anything I can do, just let me know.' I’ll always be grateful for that," he said. Keith's famous Telecaster guitar was a present from Eric Clapton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6en4pj4dpCU&pp=ygUha2VpdGggcmljaGFyZHMgY2xhcHRvbiBjcm9zc3JvYWRz The famous Telecaster guitar owned by Keith Richards, nicknamed “Micawber,” was actually a gift from Eric Clapton. It was with that instrument that the Stones recorded classic songs such as “Before They Make Me Run,” “Brown Sugar,” and “Honky Tonk Women.” The 1950s model was given to Keith on his 27th birthday, and its name came from a fictional character in Charles Dickens’ novel "David Copperfield". The character is described as an optimist who always believed that “something will turn up.” The two musicians remained friends over the decades and performed together many times, including when Richards asked Clapton to deliver the speech and introduce him as the “Living Legend” in the late 80s. That night, they shared the stage playing “Keep A-Knockin’ (But You Can’t Come In),” a song originally recorded by John Henry “Perry” Bradford. In more recent years, Keith took part in Clapton’s Crossroads Festival, where they performed the blues standard “Key to the Highway.” But as in any friendship, they don't agree on everything. During the Pandemic, Richards was asked by Rolling Stone about Clapton’s anti-vaccine comments. The Stones guitarist said that his friend should do what the doctors were saying. “I love Eric dearly. I’ve known him since forever. We’ve had ups and downs, but, um, you never know. This Covid thing, it’s split people up. It made people sometimes go awry for awhile, you know? I just want to get rid of this damn thing. The only way I can see is everybody does as doctor says,” Keith Richards said.The post Keith Richards’ opinion on Eric Clapton appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.