Rebecca Crootof
@crootof.bsky.social
I tend to write about #TechLaw (see www.techlawbook.com), war and military AI (especially #WarTorts), and bizarre torts hypos. Nancy Litchfield Hicks Professor of Law, University of Richmond; Affiliate Fellow, Yale ISP; 2024 ELSI Visiting Scholar, DARPA.
I just came across this today when @tressiemcphd.bsky.social posted it on Instagram. I’m sharing it with my statistics students, some of whom clearly used AI on their first homework. My TAs and I will not police AI use, and this is why I’m giving an in-class midterm and final for the first time.
Isle McElroy@islemcelroy.bsky.social · 3w agoI start teaching at the Columbia mfa today. Here’s the AI statement from my syllabus. Feel free to borrow.
***ALERT STRUCTURAL RIGHT AT RISK ALERT*** (For readings on structural rights, see docs.google.com/document/d/1...)
An AI “mind-reading” tool can reconstruct what you’re looking at from a brain scan
Scientists hope it could be used to reconstruct a person’s inner thoughts, mental images, or even dreams.
technologyreview.com
"Whenever a person delegates a decision to an LLM, they are trying to off-load accountability for that decision, and if a company that sells an LLM portrays the product as having a moral center, it is offering a way for its customers to abdicate their responsibilities." - Ted Chiang
No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious
Taken to its logical conclusion, this line of thinking is absurd—and damning.
theatlantic.com
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day He passed in 2017. As Encyclopedia Britannica puts it, “He is survived by his two children, two grandchildren, and the entire human race.” If you don't know his story, please take 3 minutes now to learn it. @gchalliance.bsky.social @docsforclimate.bsky.social
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day
Take five minutes to not destroy civilization
sammatey.substack.com
I reviewed @markpmckenna.bsky.social and @hartzog.bsky.social's excellent piece in @jotwell.bsky.social:
Jotwell@jotwell.bsky.social · 3w agoJotwell TechLaw: Rebecca Crootof, Different Kinds of Differences in Kind, JOTWELL (September 18, 2026) (reviewing Mark McKenna & Woodrow Hartzog, Taking Scale Seriously in Technology Law, 61 Wake Forest L. Rev. 393 (2026)), cyber.jotwell.com/different-ki....
Discworld QOTD, from Monstrous Regiment “Stopping a battle is much harder than starting it. Starting it only requires you to shout ‘Attack!’ but when you want to stop it, everyone is busy.”
Micah@rincewind.run · 4w agoDiscworld QOTD, from Thief of Time 'Every society needs a cry like that, but only in a very few do they come out with the complete, unvarnished version, which is “Remember-The-Atrocity-Committed-Against-Us-Last-Time-That-Will-Excuse-The-Atrocity-That-We’re-About-To-Commit-Today!"'
I think we'd see a lot more urgency about regulating AI in Silicon Valley if the AI agents suddenly developed a sense of restorative justice, and instead of them threatening humanity with total extinction, they just wanted to redistribute wealth and reverse power hierarchies.
@jeffhorwitz.bsky.social apparently I can't message you so . . .
tweety fish oh wow like a chimera or something spoooky@sifu.tweety.fish · last mo.a specific thing I like about this is the knowledge worker unemployment prediction, coming as it does alongside basically weekly announcements from the big labs of their models doing stupid shit because they didn't have competent humans steering and monitoring them
Truly so excited that this labor of love w/@bjard.bsky.social is now publicly available.
A new framework for understanding technology law
Law professor Rebecca Crootof’s new book helps define and teach the emerging field of technology law.
news.richmond.edu
i love that this has had literally no impact on my day lol
MacRumors.com@macrumors.bsky.social · last mo.ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok Are Down
TL;DR: Norway is considering a ban on camera-enabled wearable devices, known as 'pervert glasses,' citing significant privacy risks that necessitate regulation.
Norway considers ban on camera-enabled wearable 'pervert glasses' | TechCrunch
The Nordic country says wearable camera headsets need to be regulated given their privacy risks.
techcrunch.com
Of anyone I know, folks who have served are some of the most insistent about the importance of Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response practices. www.propublica.org/article/hegs...
Top Commanders Told Hegseth Not to Cut Civilian Protection Program, Poll Showed. He Did It Anyway.
The U.S. military has killed hundreds of noncombatants since gutting its Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response mission last year. After significant blowback, the Defense Department is considering part...
propublica.org
The NYT piece is IMO both too scary and not scary enough, in that the AI targeting tech used in these Russian drones isn’t a big surprise - but we also cannot assume at all that adding AI to drones will REDUCE civilian casualties. It is just as (if not more) likely to do the opposite. On purpose.
And the Conclusion is up! That's a wrap for Edition 1! (Now time to get started on Edition 2 . . .)
Rebecca Crootof@crootof.bsky.social · 2mo agoOur Conclusion invites you to help refine our work - the chapters are on the website (techlawbook.com) and online as googledocs; we're hoping readers will drop comments with better examples, links to relevant papers, and corrections to errors. This has been a joy. We hope you find it useful!
www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...
Editor of military news outlet that first revealed US aircraft carrier crisis says he was fired over interview – live
Erik Slavin says he was dismissed for insubordination after objecting to potential censorship in wake of furor sparked by reported conditions on USS Abraham Lincoln
theguardian.com
OK wait I just thought of something. If you were an intelligence agent for China or Iran and you wanted to bait some U.S. officials into coughing up military secrets, you could maybe do worse than creating a prediction market around the specific question you want the answer to…. ?
Hits WAY too close to home. Especially in late August -
Ashley ShooOOOooo@ashleyshoo.bsky.social · 2mo agoIf you get enough projects in the air, you can always be procrastinating and working way too hard at the same time.
If you get enough projects in the air, you can always be procrastinating and working way too hard at the same time.
While I can't hope to fill Stephen Dycus's shoes, I'm delighted to be joining the stellar team of authors of National Security Law (Bill Banks, Emily Berman, Peter Raven-Hansen & @stevevladeck.bsky.social) I teach from this book, and it's an honor to be able to contribute to it going forward.
National Security Law, Eighth Edition
Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook on Casebook Connect, including academic lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabili...
aspenpublishing.com
i’m on that slithy tove shit, i’m gimbaling in the fuckin wabe baby
Chapter 13 is up! And note that we're intentionally posting these chapters as googledocs open to comments, as we welcome suggested additions and citations. Get access to the whole book at techlawbook.com!
Technology Law
techlawbook.com
Rebecca Crootof@crootof.bsky.social · 2mo agoAssuming the law has 'run out', Chapter 13 reviews the techlaw questions relevant to proposing new rules. Thanks to Brad Greenberg, @birnhack.bsky.social @paulohm.bsky.social for excepts that complicate the choice between more tech-neutral or tech-specific content. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
New from ISP Fellows BJ Ard and @crootof.bsky.social! Read “The Challenge of Generativity,” Chapter 9 of Technology Law, and explore the book’s website: Chapter 9: docs.google.com/document/d/1... Book website: www.techlawbook.com
TL Chapter 9: The Challenge of Generativity
Technology Law Chapter 9: The Challenge of Generativity BJ Ard and Rebecca Crootof Last updated February 2026. Comments welcome! Cite as: BJ Ard & Rebecca Crootof, The Challenge of Generativity, in T...
docs.google.com
New from ISP Fellows BJ Ard and @crootof.bsky.social, The Precautionary Approach, Chapter 10 of Technology Law. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
TL Chapter 10: The Precautionary Approach
Technology Law Chapter 10: The Precautionary Approach BJ Ard and Rebecca Crootof Last updated May 2026. Comments welcome! Cite as: BJ Ard & Rebecca Crootof, The Precautionary Approach, in Technology ...
docs.google.com
An excellent example of the rhetorical power of techlaw analogies! (Discussed as a concept in Technology Law Chap 12 docs.google.com/document/d/1...)
TL Chapter 12: Stretch Existing Law
Technology Law Chapter 12: Stretch Existing Law BJ Ard and Rebecca Crootof Last updated July 2026. Comments welcome! Cite as: BJ Ard & Rebecca Crootof, Stretch Existing Law, in Technology Law (2026)....
docs.google.com
Ethan Mollick@emollick.bsky.social · 2mo agoBig Tech should have either kept calling them server farms (agricultural, quaint) or started calling them supercomputing facilities (futuristic, exciting). Data centers (whose data? why is it centralized by you?) was the worst possible choice.
