Posts by Cecilia Young
Rite Aid Banned From AI Facial Recognition by FTC After Misuse
(Bloomberg) Rite Aid Corp. must stop using facial recognition for the next five years as part of a privacy settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission, which said the pharmacy chain misused the technology to mistakenly tag consumers as shoplifters. In a complaint filed in federal court Tuesday, the FTC said Rite Aid used a facial recognition…
Read MoreArtists Lose First Round of Copyright Infringement Case Against AI Art Generators
(The Hollywood Reporter) Artists suing generative artificial intelligence art generators have hit a stumbling block in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit over the uncompensated and unauthorized use of billions of images downloaded from the internet to train AI systems, with a federal judge’s dismissal of most claims. U.S. District Judge William Orrick on Monday found that copyright…
Read MoreThe world is missing its lofty climate targets. Time for some realism
(The Economist) To accept that the world’s average temperature might rise by more than 1.5°C, declared the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands in 2015, would be to sign the “death warrant” of small, low-lying countries such as his. To widespread surprise, the grandees who met in Paris that year, at a climate conference like…
Read MoreWarren Buffett Faces Renewed Climate Change Challenge by Investors
(The New York Times) Mr. Buffett has repeatedly resisted shareholders who want Berkshire to provide detailed climate disclosures that encompass the whole company, not just parts of it, and spend more on sustainability. His stand may seem odd to some people, given that he has at times backed progressive causes, including higher taxes on the…
Read MoreOur climate solutions are failing – and Big Oil’s fingerprints are all over them
(The Guardian) People who do not spend their days reading climate reports or scouring the archives of oil companies are often surprised to hear that the fossil-fuel industry has been part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since its inception. And it’s not just the IPCC. Oil companies have been involved in the…
Read MoreCongress just passed an extremely important bill protecting victims of sexual misconduct
(Vox) The Senate passed a significant bill on Thursday that effectively prevents employers, universities, and other institutions from immunizing themselves from lawsuits alleging sexual harassment or assault. The bill passed the House on Monday, and President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law. The bill, known as the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual…
Read MoreCalif. Senate passes bill requiring large companies to report Scope 3 emissions
(S&P Global) Corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue would be required to disclose all scopes of their greenhouse gas emissions to the California Secretary of State’s office under a first-of-its-kind bill the state Senate passed Jan. 26. The Climate Corporate Accountability Act now goes to the lower legislative chamber, known in California…
Read MorePwC advised DWS on sustainability while investigating greenwashing claims
(Financial Times) PwC was advising DWS on sustainability at the same time as the accounting firm was investigating and dismissing whistleblower allegations of large-scale greenwashing at the asset manager, raising questions over the independence of the probe. The allegations were made in mid-March by DWS’ former head of sustainability Desiree Fixler. Shortly after being sacked,…
Read MoreSustainable Investing Works: It’s about managing risk, not “goodness”
(Morningstar) The grievances are legion lately: Perceived greenwashing in the fund industry is one. This week’s salvo came from Aswath Damodaran, a well-regarded New York University finance professor, who, in a widely read blog post, denounced environmental, social, and governance investing as “a mistake that will cost companies and investors money, while making the world…
Read MoreVice Media faces uncertain future after SPAC talks fall through
(New York Post) The once bright star of Vice Media could now face a darkening future after talks to go public through a special acquisition company fell through. Read more here.
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