Linked Democracy 3.0 - Global machine translated legislation and compliance in the age of artificial intelligence

This paper outlines the efforts made by Global-Regulation, a world legislation search engine, to engage artificial intelligence in two ways: (i) employing machine translation to translate the world’s legislation to English and, (ii) creating an automated system to identify compliance clauses and extract penalties from legislation. This paper describes Global- Regulation’s vision and technology in the context of linked democracy and the democratization of artificial intelligence

A note on science, legal research and artificial intelligence

This paper discusses the principles of scientific research and in turn review legal research that was done using Artificial Intelligence arguing that it is the tools (Artificial Intelligence) that take center stage while the meaning (legal research) is left back stage. In turn, this kind of research does not adhere to the fundamentals of scientific research nor comply with scientific and industry ethical codes

GDPR Impact on Computational Intelligence Research

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will become a legal requirement for all organizations in Europe from 25th May 2018 which collect and process data. One of the major changes detailed in Article 22 of the GDPR includes the rights of an individual not to be subject to automated decisionmaking, which includes profiling, unless explicit consent is given. Individuals who are subject to such decision-making have the right to ask for an explanation on how the decision is reached and organizations must utilize appropriate mathematics and statistical procedures. All data collected, including research projects require a privacy by design approach as well as the data controller to complete a Data Protection Impact Assessment in addition to gaining ethical approval. This paper discusses the impact of the GDPR on research projects which contain elements of computational intelligence undertaken within a University or with an Academic Partner

Changing the (video) game: Innovation, user satisfaction and copyrights in network market competition

This paper explores the emerging trend of user-generated content and innovation in the development of new products and ideas, breaking the traditional producer-consumer paradigm that once dominated the marketplace. In particular, the paper evaluates and compares the relationship between innovation and user satisfaction within the video game industry. To do so, the paper assesses data collected from the online communities of two very different games, Minecraft and Call of Duty in order to determine if there is a link between user-innovation and user-satisfaction in a product. The authors predict that more innovation in a game leads to more user satisfaction. The results of the research do not support this prediction. As observed in the online communities of the two games, there is no clear connection between high levels of innovation with higher user satisfaction. In fact, there is no direct connection between innovation and user satisfaction. However, Minecraft was found to be the more innovative game of the two and did have an overall higher level of user satisfaction than compared to Call of Duty. The data also suggests that Minecraft players experience a greater fluctuation in their enjoyment of the game compared to the players of the game with less innovation, Call of Duty. Finally, “radical innovation” was only found in Minecraft and not in the game with less player-control. This paper then goes on to discuss the role of innovation and user-generated digital content within the realm of intellectual property law and the resulting copyright implications for video game producers and players alike

A substantial eastern disjunction of Douglas’ Knotweed (Polygonum douglasii Greene, Polygonaceae) in New Brunswick, Canada

We report an isolated population of the native annual Douglas’ Knotweed (Polygonum douglasii Greene) from a dry, south-facing outcrop of conglomerate and sandstone at Big Bluff, near Sussex Corner, New Brunswick, Canada, consisting of about 2500 plants in 2018 and 2022. This occurrence is disjunct by ~450 km from the eastern limit of the known range of Douglas’ Knotweed in southwestern Maine, USA. The nearest known occurrence in Canada is in southern Quebec, ~660 km from Big Bluff. Several lines of evidence indicate that the population in New Brunswick is native. New state records for Wisconsin and Alaska found in online data sources are also verified

Rethinking Global-Regulation: world’s law meets artificial intelligence

This article takes a critical look at Machine Translation of legal text, especially global legislation, through the discussion of Global-Regulation, a state of the art online search engine of the world’s legislation in English. Part 2 explains the rationale for an online platform such as Global-Regulation. Part 3 provides a brief account of the history of the development of machine translation, and it describes some of the limits of the use of statistical machine translation for translating legal texts. Part 4 describes Neural Machine Translation (NMT), which is a new generation of machine translation systems. Finally, Parts 5 and 6 outline the ‘big sky’ thoughts on future directions for Global-Regulation

Appendix: National Redress Scheme Victims Support

The Commonwealth recently announced better support services for National Redress Scheme (NRS) applicants, following recommendations from the Kruk Review into the National Redress Scheme. An analysis of the number of potential Redress applicants originally suggested an estimate of 60,000 survivors which was later re-estimated at 40,0000, however this does not differentiate between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) applicants and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants. At the end June 2020, just 2,726 applicants had received payments averaging at $82,000. By 31 October 2020, 9117 applications had been received. The Royal Commission originally estimated that the number of applications would be in the region of 20,000 between 2019-2021. The significantly small number of applications that were assessed and remunerated by the end of June 2020 is a serious concern and implies several shortcomings of the scheme for all survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, particularly ATSI survivors who continue to face trauma caused by the Stolen Generation in addition to the trauma of institutional child sexual abuse.This paper considers the key problems and shortcomings associated with the NRS and the application process for ATSI applicants. It considers issues such as lack of cultural support and safety, and re-experiencing trauma as aspects as to why ATSI survivors are not seeking financial redress, and recommends a way forward based on submissions from groups who work closely with ATSI survivors