Category: Blog Posts Page 38 of 79

By: Cam Kollar

While on quarantine, some people are currently bored while others are baking bread. As a law student, my quarantine days are spent eating, reading, and writing. Rinse, wash, repeat. The world has been on quarantine for about two months going on five years. A little over a month ago, a young man was of the mind to conduct his own social experiment on Facebook.[1] The goal of his social experiment was simple, he wanted to prove how important it was for people to be educated and do their own research before assuming everything they read or hear is true.[2] But the way that he went about it was to draft a Facebook post telling his family and friends that he had tested positive for coronavirus.[3] In his post he also stated that the doctors had told him that the virus was now airborne.[4] The problem was that he had made the whole thing up.[5]

Although we have the right of free speech, it is not without limits.[6] As the Court explained in Schenck, “[t]he most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.” Although this is a common statement that is often repeated, it no longer carries the same impact it did when it was first used.[7] During the preceding time period when the Schenck opinion was written, there were some significant theater fires, notably the 1903 Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago.[8] The devastating fire resulted in more than 600 dead, due to flames, smoke, and being trampled during the massive panic to escape the building.[9] When the Schenck court incorporated the rhetorical device in their opinion, it evoked strong imagery and powerful emotions.[10] Until the quarantine, the modern day equivalent analogy would have been ‘you don’t shout he has got a gun at a school.’[11]

Few things come to mind that are able to cause mass hysteria, but I vividly remember the time shortly after September 11, 2001, when the fear of anthrax laden mail gripped the public’s attention.[12] The anthrax attacks of 2001 and 2002 used anthrax spores enclosed in mailing envelopes and were mailed to several news agencies and then in a second round, mailed anthrax envelopes to a pair of senators.[13] Extremely dangerous, inhalation of those anthrax spores was 90 % fatal unless the victim is treated immediately with massive doses of antibiotics.[14] Untreated, death can occur within three to twenty-four hours, even from extremely low quantities of exposure.[15] Significantly contributing to the widespread fear, some experts estimated that a single gram of effectively distributed anthrax could kill more than one-third of the U.S. population.[16] Ultimately from these mailings, 22 people were sick with anthrax and five died.[17] In the midst of the legitimate anthrax attacks, adding to the paranoia were the fake attacks where envelopes filled with flour, sugar, cornstarch, Tylenol, sand, talcum powder, body deodorant, or even parmesan cheese were sent in the mail.[18] In fact, more than 15,000 anthrax hoaxes were made nationwide between September 2001 and August 2002.[19] In response to these threats, large volumes of mail were put into quarantine by the U.S. Postal Service.[20]

No matter the year, there are always dangers that can cause mass panic. As a result, some states have laws to protect the public from themselves. Texas is one such state. In Texas, there is a criminal law which penalizes the false alarm or report if someone knowingly initiates, communicates, or circulates a report of a past, present, or future offense or other emergency that he knows is false or baseless and that would ordinarily cause action by an official or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies, place a person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury, or prevent or interrupt the occupation of a place to which the public has access.[21] The Facebook post that the young man drafted, spread quickly across the county where he resided, with anxious people calling the local hospital.[22]

The social experiment may have been about trying to teach a lesson in not always believing what you read online[23], but instead it became a lesson in responsible behavior. While none are appropriate behavior, unlike yelling fire when there isn’t one or sending fake anthrax spores, covid-19 is a virus-something that you can’t see without a microscope. The lies about the virus’s capabilities, especially in these times, irresponsibly impacts hospital resources that are already heavily taxed. Furthermore, unlike most other social experiments, people did not realize they were being tested on, and the lies spread with no way to contain the “experiment.” The young man has been charged with the offense of False Alarm or Report.[24] We may have a right to say almost anything, but that privilege is not without responsible limits.

Using the best analogy to explain first amendment limitations: in 1919, “You don’t scream fire in a crowded theater;” in 2018, “You don’t scream he has a gun, in a school;” in 2020, “You don’t lie about Covid-19 airborne transmissions for social experiments on social media.”

[1] Joe Tidy, Coronavirus: ‘I Faked Having Covid-19 on Facebook and Got Arrested’, BBC (Apr. 24, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52397294.

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] E.g., Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, 52 (1919).

[7] See Fire in a Crowded Theater, Legal Talk Network (June 28, 2018), https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/make-no-law/2018/06/fire-in-a-crowded-theater (explaining the common catchphrase as ‘You can’t yell fire in a crowded theater’).

[8] See id.

[9] See id.

[10] See id.

[11] See Legal Talk Network, supra note 7.

[12] See Jackson Landers, The Anthrax Letters That Terrorized a Nation Are Now Decontaminated and on Public View, Smithsonian Mag. (Sept. 12, 2016), https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/anthrax-letters-terrorized-nation-now-decontaminated-public-view-180960407.

[13] See id. (describing the anthrax spores in these anthrax envelopes as looking like baby powder).

[14] See Ira P. Robbins, Anthrax Hoaxes, 54 Am. U.L. Rev. 1, 5 (2004).

[15] See id.

[16] See id.

[17] See Landers, supra note 12.

[18] See Robbins, supra note 14 at 4.

[19] See Ira P. Robbins, Anthrax Hoaxes, 54 Am. U.L. Rev. 1, 3-4 (2004).

[20] See Landers, supra note 12.

[21] See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 42.06 (West 2019).

[22] See Tidy, supra note 1.

[23] See id.

[24] See id.

image source: https://www.gutenberg.org39280/39280-h/39280-h.htm

By: Patrick Macher

The Bad:

“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine,” President Donald Trump reassured the public on January 22, 2020.[1] At the time, COVID-19 seemed like an other-worldly issue, but less than fifty days later, the United States got a taste of the impact the rest of the world had already learned to fear.[2] On March 09, 2020, the largest point plunge in history for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tore through the hopes of bullish traders as the reality of the inevitable spread of coronavirus set in and dropping oil prices foreshadowed the looming recession.[3] The Dow dropped so fast that the point loss triggered a “circuit breaker,” which is a fifteen minute automatic trade halt after a 7% loss.[4] The stock market turned bearish falling over 20% from the recent highs.[5] The Dow hit its March low on the 16th as it traded for a measly $22.00, a far cry from the $48.76 it was trading for a month prior.[6] In 8 calendar days COVID-19 flipped the Dow Jones, a blue-chip market index, on its head and sent American investors straight into self-quarantine.

The Worse:

The unemployment rate is a lagging recession indicator, meaning that once it starts to drop, the economy is already amidst the recession.[7] The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 4.4% in March as the number of unemployed went from 1.35 million to over 7 million in the span of a few weeks.[8] The rate is projected to rise in April as March’s numbers stem from a mid-March, largely pre-quarantine, survey.[9] Unemployment numbers demonstrate household economic risk, but perhaps equally important is the real economy of credit, which drives the commercial economy.[10] As the financial system faces shock, liquidity problems hamper credit investment lines, which damage capital formation and ultimately growth.[11] The ugly end result is a crippled commercial sector with a damaged household profile unable to spend companies out of the recession, ultimately paralyzing any prospect of economic growth.[12]

The Hopeful?

It would be great to say the economy is going to bounce right back to pre-quarantine highs once the fear of coronavirus subsides, but there are simply too many uncertainties and unknowns.[13] The government has feverishly fought to combat the recession with drastic rate cuts and the largest financial emergency stimulus package in history.[14] On March 15, the Federal Reserve cut lending rates to virtually zero in an attempt to mitigate the damage to the economy and encourage credit lending.[15] On March 27, President Trump signed a historic $2 trillion legislation aimed at helping American workers, small businesses, and industries grappling with the economic disruption, such as the utterly halted airline industry.[16] Dow investors seem to be optimistic to the influx of household capital and lowered credit rates as it has climbed to the $36.56 mark just less than a month after its historic $22.00 low.[17] Opportunistic investors are hawking to take advantage of a historically low market and this may be falsely stabilizing the economy.[18] Unfortunately for most investors and the U.S. economy, uncertainty and unknown run rampant in this unprecedented global pandemic.[19] The most important unknown is the most obvious: the course of the virus.[20] If the virus is successfully controlled and economic restrictions are lifted in the next month, experts predict the economy could bounce back within the first half of the year.[21] However, if the virus is not contained and the economy must endure the effects of social distancing through the course of the summer, McKinsey consultants predict that it could take up to two years for the GDP to recover.[22]

[1] See Linda Qiu et al., The President vs. the Experts: How Trump Played Down the Coronavirus, N.Y. Times (Mar. 18, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/18/us/trump-coronavirus-statements-timeline.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes.

[2] See Kimberly Amadeo, How Does the 2020 Stock Market Crash Compare with Others? the balance (Mar. 17, 2020), https://www.thebalance.com/fundamentals-of-the-2020-market-crash-4799950.

[3] See id.

[4] See Yun Li, Plungiung Stocks Triggered a Key Market ‘Circuit Breaker’ –Here’s What That Means, CNBC (Mar. 16, 2020, 4:06 PM), https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/15/the-sp-500-futures-hit-limit-down-at-5-percent.html

[5] See id.

[6] See Dow Inc., Yahoo Finance (Apr. 12, 2020, 9:53 PM), https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/Dow

[7] See Kimberly Amadeo, Unemployment Rate, Effect, and Trends: Why Every Jobless Person is Not Counted as Unemployed, the balance (May 06, 2019) https://www.thebalance.com/unemployment-rate-3305744

[8] See United States Unemployment Rate, Trading Economics, https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate (last visited Apr. 13, 2020).

[9] See id.

[10] See Carlsson-Szlezak et al., Understanding the Economic Shock of Coronavirus, Harvard Business Review (Mar. 27, 2020), https://hbr.org/2020/03/understanding-the-economic-shock-of-coronavirus

[11] See id.

[12] See id.

[13] See Annalyn Kurtz, How Quickly Can the U.S. Economy Bounce Back? That Depends on the Virus, Cnn Business (Apr. 02, 2020, 6:23 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/economy/recession-how-long-will-it-be/index.html

[14] See Foran et al., Trump Signs Historic $2 Trillion Stimulus After Congress Passes It Friday, Cnn Politics (Mar. 27, 2020, 7:00 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/politics/coronavirus-stimulus-house-vote/index.html

[15] See James Royal, Winners and Losers From the Fed’s Emergency Rate Cut, Bankrate (Mar. 15, 2020), https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/interest-rate-decrease-winners-losers/

[16] See Foran et al., supra note 15.

[17] See Dow Inc., supra note 7.

[18] See Klein et al., COVID-19 and Shareholder Activism–The Impact, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (Mar. 31, 2020), https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/03/31/covid-19-and-shareholder-activism-the-impact/

[19] See Kurtz, supra note 14.

[20] See id.

[21] See id.

[22] See id.

image source: https://twistedsifter.com/2020/03/empty-times-square-covid/

By: Sheridan Maxey

Since the emergence of the internet, fads have come and gone in waves. Today the most widely known internet fad is TikTok. Just a few years ago, before Tike Tok, the platform known as Vine was widely popular among younger individuals.[1] On Vine, many individuals would post comedic videos, post their rants, or just talk to their fans.[2] In 2017, Twitter pulled the plug on Vine opting to convert it into a camera app; this rendered the original Vine app as an archive for the old videos that were posted.[3] A China based app which was previously known as Musical.ly was changed to TikTok in 2018.[4] This began TikTok’s rise to notoriety, becoming one of the top downloaded apps in the Apple and Google Play stores.[5] One can argue that the popularity of Vine helped pave the way for TikTok to become such a hit with the masses. Vine, being as popular as it was, did not go without its own issues though. Originally, Vine had a virtually unfiltered search engine which allowed users, underage and of the age of majority, to hardcore pornographic videos with just a few choice keywords.[6] This issue caused one explicit video to be labeled an “Editors Pick” on the app, which was quickly removed.[7] Similarly, TikTok’s ascension to fame has not come without some scrutiny.

TikTok has had its share of legal troubles around the world, one notably in India where the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology banned TikTok from the Apple and Google Play stores, asserting that the platform was promoting pornography and illicit content.[8] Additionally, back in 2019, the United States’ Federal Trade Commission levied a $5.7 million fine on TikTok for illegally collecting personal information of children under age thirteen.[9] The fine was coupled with a requirement that TikTok remove all videos created by children under thirteen.[10] Both the United States Army and Navy have also been prohibited from using TikTok due to rising security concerns.[11] Some of the lawmakers argued that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, may be forced to relay intelligence to the Chinese Communist Party.[12] In November 2019, TikTok refused to speak with a congressional committee about the service’s relationship with China.[13] Instead, the company stated that it did not store the information obtained from the United States in China, and that the TikTok data was not subject to Chinese law.[14] TikTok’s denial of appearing before a congressional panel and its light reassurance cause more concerns over the service and whether its privacy policies are adequate.[15] As of now, there have not been any reports of TikTok’s stored data being sold or relayed to China or other nations. However, it is beginning to appear that people are more worried about this China-based internet fad than its predecessor. Perhaps actions like the fines from the FTC and the ban from Indian app stores will be enough to dissuade TikTok from eventually using its service maliciously, or perhaps TikTok will fade away similarly to how Vine did. Only the tick-tock of the clock can tell.

[1] See Jim Tobin, What is TikTok’s Shelf Life, Considering Vine Withered And Died?, Forbes (Feb. 10, 2020), https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/02/10/what-is-tiktoks-shelf-life-considering-vine-withered-and-died/#5c135a2d4a86 (stating that Vine was the popular platform for young people before TikTok).

[2] See Casey Newton, Why Vine Died, The Verge (Oct. 28, 2016), https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/28/13456208/why-vine-died-twitter-shutdown (detailing the numerous uses for the service).

[3] See Janko Roettgers, It’s Official: Twitter Has Shut Down Vine, Variety (Jan 17, 2017), https://variety.com/2017/digital/news/twitter-vine-shut-down-1201961620/ (highlighting Twitter’s shutting down of the previous Vine app).

[4] See Dami Lee, The Popular Musical.ly App Has Been Rebranded As TikTok, The Verge (Aug. 2, 2018), https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/2/17644260/musically-rebrand-tiktok-bytedance-douyin (noting that Musical.ly became TikTok on August 2, 2018).

[5] See Usman Qureshi, TikTok, ZOOM Top the List of World’s Most Downloaded Apps in March 2020, iPhone in Canada (Apr. 8, 2020), https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/tiktok-zoom-most-downloaded-apps-2020/.

[6] See Garett Sloane, Porn Problem for Twitter’s Vine App, New York Post (Jan. 29, 2013), https://nypost.com/2013/01/29/porn-problem-for-twitters-vine-app/ (stating that a simple search of the keyword “#porn” resulted in pornographic videos).

[7] Id.

[8] See Ingrid Lunden, TikTok Downloads Ordered to be Blocked On iOS and Android in India Over Porn and Other Illegal Content, TechCrunch (Apr. 16, 2019), https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/16/tiktok-india/.

[9] See Sherisse Pham, TikTok Hit With Record Fine for Collecting Data On Children, CNN Business (Feb. 28, 2019), https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/28/tech/tiktok-ftc-fine-children/index.html (detailing the fine that TikTok was made to pay).

[10] See Todd Spangler, TikTok to Pay Record $5.7 Million FTC Fine for Alleged Violations of Children’s Privacy Law, Variety (Feb. 27, 2019), https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/tiktok-musically-ftc-fine-violating-child-privacy-law-1203151078/ (stating that TikTok must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).

[11] See Nicole Gaouette and Ryan Browne, US Army Bans Soldiers Drom Using TikTok Over Securuty Worries, CNN Politics (Dec. 30, 2019), https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/30/politics/army-tiktok-banned/index.html (stating that the Army, Navy, and lawmakers were concerned about the security risks of using TikTok).

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

By: Jacob Newton

Playing casino style slot machines in Virginia may soon become a reality. House Bill 4 Lottery Board; regulation of casino gaming (the “Bill”), proposes an amendment to the Code of Virginia, which would expand gambling and gaming rights throughout the Commonwealth to include classic slot machine casino gambling.[1] The Bill will give the power to grant gambling to localities and Virginians across the Commonwealth will get the chance to vote if they want casino gambling inside local communities.[2] The Bill is still subject to the Governor’s approval, but Virginia lawmakers have given approval to the Bill to allow voters in Bristol, Danville, Richmond, Norfolk and Portsmouth to hold local referendums later this year to approve casinos.[3] The Governor has until 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020 to take action on the Bill.[4]

Lawmakers are conflicted by the desire to keep the revenue of Virginian gamblers inside the state’s economy,^[5] and the negative morality associated with gambling. Due to this conflict, they have been continuously making exceptions to Virginia Code § 18.2-326, the statute penalizing illegal gambling.^[6] Even though lawmakers have been making exceptions to the general rule against gambling, they have been reluctant to legalize the most common type of gambling, the casino style slot machine^[7]

Gambling machines that look and operate similar to the classic casino style slot machine are common within Virginia, even though the casino style slot machine is currently illegal in within the state’s borders.[8] The legality of these casino-like slot machines are possible because the exceptions to Virginia Code § 18.2-326 have been expanded or exploited to make the machines fit under specific exceptions.[9] The advancement of technology has transformed the gambling industry and created gray areas in need of defining.^[10] One prevalent example of these exceptions to Virginia Code § 18.2-326 is Va. Code Ann.§ 18.2-340.15 (the charitable gaming exception).

The charitable gaming exception was legalized in 1973, making it the earliest exception to the criminality imposed upon gambling in Virginia.[11] It provides charitable gaming shall be permitted in the Commonwealth as a means of funding qualified organizations.[12] A qualified “organization” is defined by the statute as a volunteer emergency services organization operated exclusively for religious, charitable, community or educational purposes; athletic association or booster club; veterans; fraternal association or corporation operating under the lodge system; local chamber of commerce; or any other nonprofit organization that raises funds by conducting raffles that generate annual gross receipts of $40,000 or less, provided such gross receipts from the raffle, less expenses and prizes, are used exclusively for charitable, educational, religious or community purposes.[13] The list of qualified organizations is implicitly an exhaustive list meant to target specific types of organizations.

The types of gambling allowed under the exception permits qualified organizations to conduct raffles, bingo, network bingo, and instant bingo games.[14] Instant bingo closely resembles the classic slot machine and is provided for by statute.[15] Electronic pull-tabs are an electronic version of a single instant bingo card or pull-tab. The electronic pull-tab is a predetermined game outcome in electronic form, distributed on-demand from a finite number of game outcomes by a distributed pull-tab system.[16] The specifics of the machines are highly regulated by the charitable gaming board, but the machines still resemble a slightly watered down version of a classic slot machine because they operate at the press of a button and display symbols in the form of a crisscross.[17]

Some companies are charging potential gamblers a nominal lifetime membership fee to use the electronic pull tab machines and claiming to fall under the lodge system definition of qualifying organizations.[18] Specific companies are not listed because they do not advertise this on any platform. Companies using this method have essentially placed themselves in this category already carved out by the charitable gaming statute, and the Charitable Gaming Board has yet to condemn or approve this method. This is just one example of a gray area surrounding the legal boundaries of gambling in Virginia.

The legislative trend is moving toward complete legalization of casino slot style gambling in Virginia. However, “dancing” around compete legalization puts stress on local government and law enforcement to maintain the gray boundaries of the expanding amount of exceptions. If the Governor signs House Bill 4 Lottery Board; regulation of casino gaming, then Virginia will be one step closer to alleviating the pressure of maintaining those boundaries.

[1] Va H.R. 4, 1127 Leg. Session (2020).

[2] See id.

[3] See Associate Press, Virginia to expand gambling options, legalize casinos, WHSV 3 (Mar. 08, 2020, 4:48 PM), https://www.whsv.com/content/news/Virginia-to-expand-gambling-options-legalize-casinos-568611311.html

[4] See HB 4 Lottery Board; regulation and control of casino gaming, Virginia’s Legislative Information System (last visited Oct. 6, 2008), https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+HB4.

[5] See Gregory S. Schneider, ‘Boring’ no more? Virginia has already begun embracing casino-style gaming, Wash. Post (July 7, 2019, 1:00 PM), https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-news/boring-no-more-virginia-has-already-begun-embracing-casino-style-gaming/2019/07/07/79477f62-9db1-11e9-85d6-5211733f92c7_story.html.

[6] See Va. Code Ann.§ 18.2-340.15; Va. Code Ann.§ 18.2-334.3; Va. Code Ann.§ 59.1-364.

[7] Riverboat Gaming Commission with riverboat gaming, Va H.R. 2400, 1110 Leg. Session (1995).

[8] See generally House Bill 1609 (describing the functions of the historic horse racing machines); 11 Va. Admin. Code § 15-40-410 (2019) (describing electronic pull-tab bingo).

[9] See Va. Code Ann.§ 18.2-340.15; Va. Code Ann.§ 18.2-334.3; Va. Code Ann.§ 59.1-364.

[10] See IN THIS ISSUE: CULTURAL PRODUCTION IN A DIGITAL AGE: Digital Gambling: The Coincidence of Desire and Design, 597 Annals 65.

[11] See Va. Code Ann.§ 18.2-340.15.

[12] See id.

[13] See Va. Code Ann.§ 18.2-340.16.

[14] See Va. Code Ann.§ 18.2-340.22.

[15] See id.

[16] See 11 Va. Admin. Code § 15-40-410 (2019).

[17] See id.

[18] See Va. Code Ann.§ 18.2-340.16.

image source: https://thesportsdaily.com/2019/06/04/free-slot-machine-games/

By: Ryan Leonard

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a buzz-phrase of sorts that refers to at least two classifications of computational technology.[1]  First, there is weak AI, which refers to the a computer system (broadly defined) with the ability to perform a specific task, better (more accurately, more efficiently, etc., depending on the task) than its human counterparts.[2]  For example, in 1997, a program was developed that could defeat the world’s best chess players in a game of chess.[3]  In 2016, Tesla Motor Company unveiled cars capable of driving more safely than their human counterparts.[4]

The second broad category of AI is strong AI, which refers to a not-yet-existent technology that is capable of performing all tasks better than its human counterparts.[5]  Because of the rate of advancement in computational technology,[6] strong AI is likely to be developed unless humanity is destroyed, or severely incapacitated, first.[7]

Strong AI has the potential to have a snowball effect because, logically, it would be able to build more sophisticated AI than humans were able to build in the first place.[8]  The AI that was built by AI would itself be able to produce a superior version of itself, ad infinitum.  Putting aside spooky hypotheses that such advancement would leave humanity at the mercy of its robot overlords, there is still the issue of how the US economy, or any economy for that matter, would operate.

Weak AI alone is already, at least for the time being, a threat to certain low-skill jobs.[9]  Truck drivers, toll booth operators, among others, can, and to some extent, already have seen their jobs taken over by machines.[10]  Strong AI poses a threat not just to low-skill repetitive jobs, but to highly complex jobs as well.[11]  Therefore, in theory, strong AI would be able to produce engineers, surgeons, and programmers with skills far superior to any human that has every lived.  In a world in which computer-powered machines can do everything better than humans, there would not be a single job that a human would be better suited to perform than a computer (by definition).  And yet, with machines doing the farming, the building, the transporting, the diagnosing, etc., there would be no shortage of goods or services.  In a world of perfect abundance, but 100% unemployment, Congress will need to change all currently existing laws relating to social programs and supplant them with new legislation establishing a universal basic income (UBI).

UBI, if implemented, would be a program that would send a specified amount of money to all citizens and permanent residents in regular intervals.[12]  In contemporary politics, UBI, as recently popularized by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, would set that specified amount at $1,000 per month for every adult.[13]  In a world with strong AI, Congress would need to consider an amount far higher, as the amount would need to be an income that could be entirely relied upon by everyone.  Among many serious scientists, the emergence of strong AI is considered a viable possibility, if not a certainty.[14]  Congress should begin considering the appropriate legal framework for keeping a functioning economy in place.

[1] See Kathleen Walch, Rethinking Weak vs. Strong AI, Forbes (Oct. 4, 2019, 6:30 AM), https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/10/04/rethinking-weak-vs-strong-ai/#740863696da3.

[2] See id.

[3] See Samuel Gibbs, AlphaZero AI Beats Champion Chess Program After Teaching Itself in Four Hours, Guardian (Dec. 7, 2017, 7:41 AM), https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/07/alphazero-google-deepmind-ai-beats-champion-program-teaching-itself-to-play-four-hours.

[4] See Marco della Cava, Tesla Announces Fully Self-Driving Cars, USA Today (Oct. 19, 2016, 8:05 PM), https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/10/19/tesla-announces-fully-self-driving-fleet/92430638/.

[5] See Walch, supra note 1.

[6] See David Chandler, How to Predict the Progress of Technology, MIT (March 6, 2013), http://news.mit.edu/2013/how-to-predict-the-progress-of-technology-0306.

[7] See Sam Harris, Can We Avoid Digital Apocalypse?, Sam Harris (Jan. 16, 2015), https://samharris.org/can-we-avoid-a-digital-apocalypse/.

[8] See Kelsey Piper, Why Elon Musk Fears Artificial Intelligence, Vox (Nov. 2, 2018, 12:10 PM), https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/2/18053418/elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-google-deepmind-openai.

[9] See Gwen Moran, Your Job Will Be Automated – Here’s How to Figure Out When AI Could Take Over, Fortune (Aug. 1, 2019, 6:00 AM), https://fortune.com/2019/08/01/predicting-job-automation-ai/.

[10] See id.

[11] See Harris, supra note 7.

[12] See Abby Vesoulis, This Presidential Candidate Wants to Give Every Adult $1,000 a Month, Time (Feb. 13, 2019), https://time.com/5528621/andrew-yang-universal-basic-income/.

[13] See id.

[14] See Piper, supra note 7.

image source: https://assetsds.cdnedge.bluemix.net/sites/defaultstyles/very_big_2/public/news/images/universal_basic_income2.jpg?itok=kjhwIDi4