Latest news with #BlakeBrittain
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Judge denies US Copyright Office director's request to halt her firing
By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday rejected U.S. Copyright Office Director Shira Perlmutter's emergency bid to block the Trump administration from firing her. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled during a hearing that Perlmutter had not shown she would be irreparably harmed if not immediately reinstated as the case continues. Kelly said Perlmutter's loss of her job was not significant enough to grant her emergency request. He said recent rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit "gave a side-eye" to the idea that the harm of her firing would justify a restraining order against the administration. Attorneys for Perlmutter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. A spokesperson for the Copyright Office declined to comment. The administration had terminated Perlmutter from her position by email on May 10, which she called "blatantly unlawful" in a lawsuit filed on May 22. The Copyright Office, a department of the Library of Congress, confirmed on May 12 that the administration had fired Perlmutter. Her removal sparked a backlash from Democratic politicians, who said that Congress had "purposely insulated" the Copyright Office from politics. The administration, in a court filing responding to the lawsuit, said the Library of Congress is "not an autonomous organization free from political supervision," but did not give a specific reason for Perlmutter's firing. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that the president "reserves the right to remove employees within his own Executive Branch who exert his executive authority." The administration also fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on May 9, citing her advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Perlmutter's firing came one day after the Copyright Office released a report on the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law. The office said in the report that technology companies' use of copyrighted works to train AI may not always be protected under U.S. law.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Google, AI firm must face lawsuit filed by a mother over suicide of son, US court says
By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -Alphabet's Google and artificial-intelligence startup must face a lawsuit from a Florida woman who said chatbots caused her 14-year-old son's suicide, a judge ruled on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Anne Conway said the companies failed to show at an early stage of the case that the free-speech protections of the U.S. Constitution barred Megan Garcia's lawsuit. The lawsuit is one of the first in the U.S. against an AI company for allegedly failing to protect children from psychological harms. It alleges that the teenager killed himself after becoming obsessed with an AI-powered chatbot. A spokesperson said the company will continue to fight the case and employs safety features on its platform to protect minors, including measures to prevent "conversations about self-harm." Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the company strongly disagrees with the decision. Castaneda also said that Google and are "entirely separate" and that Google "did not create, design, or manage app or any component part of it." Garcia's attorney, Meetali Jain, said the "historic" decision "sets a new precedent for legal accountability across the AI and tech ecosystem." was founded by two former Google engineers whom Google later rehired as part of a deal granting it a license to the startup's technology. Garcia argued that Google was a co-creator of the technology. Garcia sued both companies in October after the death of her son, Sewell Setzer, in February 2024. The lawsuit said programmed its chatbots to represent themselves as "a real person, a licensed psychotherapist, and an adult lover, ultimately resulting in Sewell's desire to no longer live outside" of its world. According to the complaint, Setzer took his life moments after telling a chatbot imitating "Game of Thrones" character Daenerys Targaryen that he would "come home right now." and Google asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit on multiple grounds, including that the chatbots' output was constitutionally protected free speech. Conway said on Wednesday that and Google "fail to articulate why words strung together by an LLM (large language model) are speech." The judge also rejected Google's request to find that it could not be liable for aiding alleged misconduct.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Google, AI firm must face lawsuit filed by a mother over suicide of son, US court says
By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -Alphabet's Google and artificial-intelligence startup must face a lawsuit from a Florida woman who said chatbots caused her 14-year-old son's suicide, a judge ruled on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Anne Conway said the companies failed to show at an early stage of the case that the free-speech protections of the U.S. Constitution barred Megan Garcia's lawsuit. The lawsuit is one of the first in the U.S. against an AI company for allegedly failing to protect children from psychological harms. It alleges that the teenager killed himself after becoming obsessed with an AI-powered chatbot. A spokesperson said the company will continue to fight the case and employs safety features on its platform to protect minors, including measures to prevent "conversations about self-harm." Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the company strongly disagrees with the decision. Castaneda also said that Google and are "entirely separate" and that Google "did not create, design, or manage app or any component part of it." Garcia's attorney, Meetali Jain, said the "historic" decision "sets a new precedent for legal accountability across the AI and tech ecosystem." was founded by two former Google engineers whom Google later rehired as part of a deal granting it a license to the startup's technology. Garcia argued that Google was a co-creator of the technology. Garcia sued both companies in October after the death of her son, Sewell Setzer, in February 2024. The lawsuit said programmed its chatbots to represent themselves as "a real person, a licensed psychotherapist, and an adult lover, ultimately resulting in Sewell's desire to no longer live outside" of its world. According to the complaint, Setzer took his life moments after telling a chatbot imitating "Game of Thrones" character Daenerys Targaryen that he would "come home right now." and Google asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit on multiple grounds, including that the chatbots' output was constitutionally protected free speech. Conway said on Wednesday that and Google "fail to articulate why words strung together by an LLM (large language model) are speech." The judge also rejected Google's request to find that it could not be liable for aiding alleged misconduct. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amgen owes $406 million for monopolizing cholesterol drug market, US jury says
By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -A federal jury in Delaware said on Thursday that biotech company Amgen owes competitor Regeneron more than $406 million for engaging in anticompetitive behavior to increase sales of its cholesterol-reduction drug Repatha at the expense of Regeneron's rival drug Praluent. The jury agreed with Regeneron that Amgen unlawfully bundled Repatha with two of its blockbuster anti-inflammatory drugs to persuade pharmacy benefit managers to buy it instead of Praluent. The verdict includes $271.2 million for Regeneron in punitive damages. Amgen said in a statement that it "has always competed fairly and in compliance with the antitrust laws" and "look[s] forward to post-trial proceedings." "Larger companies should not be allowed to use anticompetitive tactics to push competitors out of the market," Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer said in a statement. Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Regeneron filed the lawsuit in 2022, accusing Amgen of engaging in an anticompetitive scheme to drive Amgen's drug out of the market. Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen denied the allegations and countered that Regeneron's business decisions caused lost Praluent sales. Regeneron earned more than $241 million from sales of Praluent in the U.S. last year, while Amgen made over $1.1 billion from U.S. Repatha sales, according to company reports.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Dangerous' migrants require immediate deportation, US government says
By Blake Brittain (Reuters) - The Trump administration told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday that "dangerous behavior" from a group of Venezuelan migrants detained by the federal government in Texas justified lifting a court order blocking their immediate deportation. The administration said in a court filing that 23 migrants at a Texas detention facility had "recently barricaded themselves in a housing unit for several hours and threatened to take hostages and harm ICE officers." The Supreme Court last month temporarily blocked the government from deporting dozens of migrants after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union asked it to intervene on an emergency basis. The administration's Monday filing said the 23 detainees behind the alleged disruption at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, were moved to the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on May 4. Lee Gelernt, the ACLU's lead attorney in the case, declined to comment on the government's new filing. White House spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. President Donald Trump has invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport accused members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang originating from Venezuelan prisons that his administration labels a terrorist group. The administration already has deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador more than 200 Venezuelan and Salvadoran men it claims are gang members. The ACLU said the Alien Enemies Act historically has been employed only in wartime, and that the administration had not given the men a realistic opportunity to contest their removal. The Supreme Court blocked the administration on April 19 from removing the detainees from the U.S. until further notice from the court. Trump's administration asked the high court to lift its order later that day. U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices in the administration's Monday filing that the government should be allowed to deport at least some of the migrants immediately under other federal immigration laws. The government also said that moving the detainees to other U.S. facilities "creates ongoing risks of prison recruitment and expansion of Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang activities within the United States."
