Alex Allen-Franks
@alexallenfranks.bsky.social
280 followers 180 following 81 posts
Senior Lecturer at Auckland Law School. PhD University of Cambridge. Intellectual Property; Law of Evidence; Human Rights stuff 👩🏻‍🏫
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alexallenfranks.bsky.social
Graduated with my PhD a year ago. And 5 years before that, my LLM. Now I’m about to wake my twins up.
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
My babies have started laughing with each other. It is precious
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
There’s so much lost by not reading the source material, whether you’re reading someone else’s summary (eg a case head note) or a summary created without human input
lottelydia.bsky.social
Even more annoying is that the original poster is using the LLM to “wade through a mountain of papers for a systemic review”. Which means feeding a lot of academic material into the plagiarism machine that always lies, without the consent of the authors.
desfitzgerald.bsky.social
Seeing people nonchalantly post stuff like makes me feel like I'm going crazy honestly.
Reposted by Alex Allen-Franks
lottelydia.bsky.social
Even more annoying is that the original poster is using the LLM to “wade through a mountain of papers for a systemic review”. Which means feeding a lot of academic material into the plagiarism machine that always lies, without the consent of the authors.
desfitzgerald.bsky.social
Seeing people nonchalantly post stuff like makes me feel like I'm going crazy honestly.
A post from an academic on blue sky that says: "I'm learning about "prompt engineering" when asking LLMs to extract data. I now add this to all instructions:

Style
Be concise, analytic, and specific (cite page/figure if provided). If essential info is missing, keep going but flag Unclear and exact data needed. Never invent data.
 
#academicsky"
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
It’s their response to Tamiefuna v R
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
nap time and one baby wakes so you pick that baby up to rock back to sleep, but then the other baby wakes up. So you try to get first baby back into cot without waking to deal with second baby and end up with two awake babies who should really be asleep for another hour
a man in a striped shirt is laying on his back on the floor holding a piece of paper
ALT: a man in a striped shirt is laying on his back on the floor holding a piece of paper
media.tenor.com
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
They are 6 months old today and I am still trying to finish this 🫠
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
It’s really something trying to finish a revise and resubmit with infant twins. I do like 5 mins a day, every couple of days. At this rate I’ll be finished by the time they start school 🙃
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
Can rec knitting patterns but not crochet unfortunately! Congrats and good luck.
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
What’s the justification? Foreign judges are “better”?
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
It really bothers me how the skill of summarising is devalued. It is a hard thing to do well and it is important to learning. Ughhhhhhhhhhhh
michae.lv
Oxford University Press is introducing an AI summarisation & quizzing asst. into their law textbook ‘trove’: it took considerable effort from our Fac+Library to have them engineer in a license-level off switch (they initially refused!). They did not clock how important the skill of summarisation is.
davidveevers.bsky.social
I enjoyed it when the student said it doesn't damage her critical thinking skills, and then 2 paragraphs later says she uses it to summarise difficult topics.

Students don't know how much this is going to ruin the key skills they're paying a premium at University to develop.
Reposted by Alex Allen-Franks
who.int
WHO @who.int · Sep 13
It’s World #Sepsis Day
Sepsis kills 11 million people each year.

Symptoms incl.:
🔸Fever or shivering
🔸Confusion
🔸Shortness of breath
🔸Rash that does not fade when pressed
🔸Extreme discomfort
🔸Sweaty skin

Seek medical care as soon as possible when an infection is not getting better.
What is sepsis?
Sepsis arises when a person has an infection, and the body's reaction to it injures tissues and organs
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
“The 'do minimum' option would cover work to improve the electrical system and maintenance technology, and deal with asbestos a bit.”

I think it’s time for me to finally write up my complaint about the state of facilities and care. Not sure how I will find the time but JFC.
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
This is despicable. I spent 3 weeks in Auckland City Hospital & the state of the facilities was appalling. My broken window was propped up by a [clean] piss pot in a room that had no other ventilation and was 26°. In another room the bathroom door didn’t shut and screws were hanging from the lock.
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
It’s really something trying to finish a revise and resubmit with infant twins. I do like 5 mins a day, every couple of days. At this rate I’ll be finished by the time they start school 🙃
Reposted by Alex Allen-Franks
davidallengreen.bsky.social
You see, the great thing about law is that it comes down to what the law says, regardless of how “distinguished” or “leading” or “expert” a lawyer may be.

It is a curiously egalitarian subject, where a cat can speak to a king, or at least to the king’s counsel.
Reposted by Alex Allen-Franks
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Ongoing impact of Tamiefuna v R:

"In the Quarter 3 plan the government has signalled its clear intent to change the law, so that police have the lawful ability to collect, use and retain information about individuals in public places for lawful policing purposes"
Government promises to give police more information-collecting powers, details scant
But details on the upcoming law change are still scant.
www.rnz.co.nz
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Ongoing impact of Tamiefuna v R:

"In the Quarter 3 plan the government has signalled its clear intent to change the law, so that police have the lawful ability to collect, use and retain information about individuals in public places for lawful policing purposes"
Government promises to give police more information-collecting powers, details scant
But details on the upcoming law change are still scant.
www.rnz.co.nz
Reposted by Alex Allen-Franks
afedercooper.bsky.social
From this, we realized we could generate large portions of some books with certain models, like a near-pristine copy of Harry Potter using Llama 3.1 70B.

This work is ongoing; preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2505.12546

More to come (hopefully soon)!
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
Reposted by Alex Allen-Franks
afedercooper.bsky.social
I’m excited to share that my paper with @jtlg.bsky.social , "The Files are in the Computer: On Copyright, Memorization, and Generative AI" (April 2024), is out in the AI Disrupting Law symposium issue of the Chicago-Kent Law Review!

The full issue is here: scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/
Chicago-Kent Law Review | Chicago-Kent College of Law
scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu
Reposted by Alex Allen-Franks
drjoemcintyre.bsky.social
This should be a major disciplinary matter EVERY SINGLE TIME. No excuses. You are misleading the court.

As far as I am concerned there are NO legitimate use cases for genAI is law.
Reposted by Alex Allen-Franks
rtushnet.bsky.social
Transformative work of the day, footlong edition
shawnfarrell.bsky.social
Quiznos? Cosi? Subway? Jimmy John's? Jersey Mike's? Any sub shop I visit from this day forward will be judged not only on the taste & value of its sandwiches, but their weight, velocity, & stability of their wrapping.
alexallenfranks.bsky.social
This article is irresponsible reporting. As Eddie states below, when relevant evidence is not put before a jury because a judge has ordered that it shouldn’t be, there are good reasons for it. We are all to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and we all have the right to a fair trial.
dreddieclark.bsky.social
This is absolutely *deranged* reporting.

"Witnesses did not tell the whole truth!!!"

...due to standard, established evidence admissibility rules designed to ensure a fair trial.

www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/3...
Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz