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This Week's Updates:
Leonard Leo Confronts Freedom of Speech in Maine
During July of last year, a small group of pro-choice protesters gathered outside of right-wing judicial activist Leonard Leo’s vacation home on Mount Desert Island, Maine. They carried signs that read “democracy, not theocracy,” and told local reporters that they were there to educate the public about Leo’s role in building the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority. 21-year-old Eli Durand-McDonnell and his mother were driving to the protest when they recognized Leo, who was walking through town with his wife and daughter. Durand-McDonnell, who sat in the passenger seat, yelled through the car window to tell Leo he was a “fascist.” Later, at the protest, Durand-McDonnell was arrested by Mount Desert police for disorderly conduct.
While the charges against Durand-McDonnell were dropped, he claims that the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Department carried out a retaliatory arrest on behalf of Leo, who told officers that the man seemed “unstable” and “hateful.” Durand-McDonnell has chosen to sue the police department for infringing on his freedom of speech – a right that Leo has zealously defended in the form of unlimited, anonymous political spending.
Earlier this year, CfA filed an IRS complaint regarding seven non-profits associated with Leo, which appeared to be siphoning large amounts of money to businesses he owned. CfA’s complaint observed that, following the first multi-million-dollar transfer to one of his companies, Leo’s spending habits suddenly shifted; in addition to paying off an existing mortgage in Virginia, he purchased the properties on Mount Desert Island. If Leo was indeed enriching himself through these tax-exempt organizations, he would be violating IRS rules and subject to financial penalties.
Tech Corporations Set their Sights on Journalism AI
On Tuesday, OpenAI announced that it would be donating $5 million to local journalism initiatives, including trainings to help reporters experiment with AI tools. Google followed up a day later by pitching an AI product capable of writing news articles to the publishers of major papers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Google confirmed that its product was “not intended to” replace journalists, and had been designed “in partnership with news publishers.” Regardless of Google’s intent, anonymous news executives said they were unsettled by the product.
Since 2010, Google has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to news organizations, which CfA’s Tech Transparency Project tracked in a 2019 report. More recently, platform governance researcher Charis Papaevangelou released an updated tracker for both Meta and Google’s news initiatives. In each report, a clear relationship emerged between regulatory threats and Big Tech’s journalism spending – an arrangement which, ultimately, leaves outlets dependent on their corporate funders. For smaller newsrooms that serve local markets, a combined financial and technical reliance on AI companies could be cause for concern.
CFPB Cracks Down on Predatory Tech Bootcamp
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued a tech sales bootcamp called Prehired, which charged up to $30,000 for a 12-week training program and encouraged consumers to pay off their debt with steep income-sharing agreements. The agency, joined by several state attorneys general, claims that Prehired misled students into believing they wouldn’t have to begin payments until they got a tech job paying more than $60,000. In fact, Prehired transferred ownership of its financing agreements to debt collectors, which then pursued consumers who hadn’t gotten relevant jobs or met the income threshold. While Prehired is farfromthefirst tech bootcamp to take advantage of consumers, CFPB’s lawsuit could discourage future scammers and help make Prehired’s victims whole.
