lexus-nexus or in this corner

The always brilliant programmer behind AI Weirdness Janelle Shane’s latest foray into machine mentorship begins with a nice and reflective acknowledgement about one primary, force majure why bloggers blog in the first place: to be introduced to process and jargon outside of field of speciality and indulge in learning something new.
This latest episode (see previously) involved in rem jurisdiction—a concept in legal code that imbues an inanimate object status and agency rather than its minders or responsible parties, a type of legal fiction that has resulted in some preposterous sounding suits such as the United States v. One Book Called Ulysses or the United States v. Four Hundred Twenty-Two Casks of Wine. Given that those actual are precedential cases on the books, Shane wondered what her neural network might glean from studying millions of legal proceedings related to seizure and customs violations to create epic courtroom battles. Quite the courtroom artists, Shane has illustrated some of the less abstract ones like Texas v. One Small Dog with a Napkin Near It—quite a surreal enough judgement—but there were others that far exceeded rendering like South Dakota v. an Apparition at a Shoe Store.