The Goodson Blogson

In 2019, engineer Phillip Wang launched a website called "This Person Does Not Exist," which harnessed the StyleGAN AI system to generate realistic-looking photographs of nonexistent people. Although Wang's original website is now defunct, scores of similar sites do exist, including a variation of This Person Does Not Exist and a variety of generators designed for such diverse uses as helping programmers look busy at work , creating a geography guessing game out of Google Street View , and introducing made-up dictionary definitions into the lexicon . Just a few years later, large language model (LLM) chatbots are the hottest trend in generative AI technology, with OpenAI's ChatGPT , Microsoft's Bing Chat (powered by ChatGPT), and Google's Bard the best-known of their kind. It's easy to see their appeal – type a quick prompt and almost instantly generate a wall of convincing-sounding text, complete with citations. Sound too good to be true? Alas, it ...

Whether you are graduating from Duke Law this May or continuing your legal studies next year, your access to legal research services and other campus databases may change this summer. Below is a summary of policies for the major legal research databases that you might wish to access over the summer. Continuing Students Westlaw allows continuing students to use Thomson Reuters products, including Westlaw® and Practical Law, over the summer for non-commercial research (i.e., "to gain understanding and build confidence in your research skills, but you cannot use them in situations where you are billing a client"). Examples of permissible uses for your academic Westlaw password include summer coursework, Research Assistant assignments, research for journal/law review or moot court, non-profit/clinic work, or an externship sponsored by the school. Your Westlaw summer access will continue automatically - no action is needed on your part. Lexis : All returning students have auto...

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of The American Law Institute (ALI) , whose mission is "to clarify, modernize, and improve the law" through its highly respected publications and projects . While the Restatements of the Law are likely the ALI's best-known publications (due to their frequent citation and endorsement by courts, which can "adopt the Restatement view" of a particular topic), the ALI has also developed important codifications like the Model Penal Code and the Uniform Commercial Code , among other publications, studies, and projects. The Goodson Law Library is joining the celebration of the ALI Centennial with an exhibit on Level 3 of the Library. From Monday, March 20 through the end of spring semester classes, visit the main floor of the library and the Riddick Rare Books and Special Collections Room (accessible on weekdays from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm) to learn more about the history of the ALI and of Duke Law faculty contributions to their semin...

The end of 2022 also marked the end of a long-running government publication series, when the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register published a rule announcing the discontinuation of the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States . The Public Papers book series began in 1957, after the National Historical Publications Commission recommended the creation of an official government publication that brought together the various speeches, remarks, and writings for a particular presidential administration. Prior to the Public Papers , access to presidential materials was less consistent and less timely, with some materials published decades later at the direction of Congress (such as Richardson's 20-volume set A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789 – 1897 ), and other materials privately published (such as the Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin Delano Roosevelt ). The Public Papers has covered the administration of every U.S. preside...