Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

information labs @informationlabs.org · 7d

Generative AI didn’t start with ChatGPT. 🚫
From ELIZA (1960s) → GANs (2014) → Transformers (2017), the foundations were laid long before the hype.
informationlabs.org/beyond-the-h...
#AIHistory #GenAI

information labs @informationlabs.org · 8d

information labs August-September 2025 recap

🔗 www.linkedin.com/pulse/august...

AI LAB
- Reflections on:
• The Danish Presidency’s #AI conference
• #Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement
• #Cloudflare’s “pay-per-crawl” plan
• The #Gikii2025 conference

& more!

AI in Education - Reflections from the Google Cloud Education Policy Series Roundtable

information labs @informationlabs.org · 12d

"AI in education is not a tech problem. It’s a cultural challenge, a democratic challenge, and a governance challenge," Caroline De Cock reflects after a recent Google Cloud #Education Policy Series Roundtable in Brussels.
Learn more: www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-edu...
#AI

1. Between Bans and Breakthroughs It started with a casual remark in a conversation about the use of AI in certain colleges, where I discovered AI tools had been banned altogether.

www.linkedin.com

information labs @informationlabs.org · 14d

Still thinking about the Gikii 2025 conference. The "Villain Era" theme was fun, but it shows a common policy trap: regulating technology.
My take: We need tech-neutral laws on harmful behavior—Anything else is writing rules that are obsolete.
informationlabs.org/is-technolog...
#Gikii2025

Is Technology Really in its Villain Era? Reflections from Gikii 2025 @ IVIR Amsterdam

There’s a certain magic to the Gikii conference, and this year’s gathering at the University of Amsterdam’s @Institute for Information Law (IViR) was no exception….

Walling Off the Web: How Cloudflare’s Plan to ‘Save’ Content Could Break the Internet

information labs @informationlabs.org · 15d

🔥 Another #FairShare push? 8 EU telecom CEOs call for ambitious #DigitalNetworksAct (DNA) to boost investment, echoing Draghi’s report.
The EC's choice: side with telcos or listen to opposition against payment obligations.
A reminder of the DNA stakes: informationlabs.org/ceci-nest-pa...

information labs @informationlabs.org · 21d

🚧 Cloudflare’s “pay-per-crawl” sounds like a win for creators. But it risks breaking the open web—blocking archives, accessibility, and research while creating a 2-tier internet.
The cure may kill the patient.
👉 informationlabs.org/walling-off-...
#OpenWeb #Cloudflare #AI

The economics of the open web are changing at a breathtaking pace. For two decades, the implicit bargain was simple: creators produce content, and in…

Anthropic’s $1.5 Billion Settlement: Not the AI Copyright Reckoning You Think It Is

information labs @informationlabs.org · Sep 8

Anthropic's $1.5B settlement is NOT the AI copyright reckoning you think it is.
It's a story about data sourcing and a punitive legal system, NOT the illegality of AI training itself. A HUGE distinction.
Read more: informationlabs.org/anthropics-1...
#AI #Copyright #FairUse #Anthropic

You’ve probably seen the headlines: AI company Anthropic has agreed to a landmark $1.5 billion settlement with book authors and publishers. It’s been hailed as…

An Echo Chamber in Copenhagen: The Danish Presidency’s AI Conference Forgets Who Creates the Future

information labs @informationlabs.org · Sep 3

The Danish Presidency's AI & Copyright conference is pure policy capture: an echo chamber for Big Tech & entertainment, with zero voices from research, education, or libraries. The EU needs a bigger table, not a louder echo chamber.
Read more: informationlabs.org/an-echo-cham...
#AI #Copyright #EU

On September 18th, the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union will host a Conference on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence in Copenhagen. An…

☀️ Summer Reading Picks (July 2025): AI, Copyright, and the Cult of Creativity

information labs @informationlabs.org · Aug 21

☀️ August summer reading picks: AI, copyright, deepfakes & media in flux. 5 standout pieces show how law, policy & audience shifts collide to reshape creativity & information — A landscape in motion.
🔗 www.linkedin.com/pulse/summer...

information labs @informationlabs.org · Aug 7

🚨 Italy just reclassified #CDNs as telecom networks.
AGCOM’s decision risks slower services, stifled innovation & higher costs — all to serve legacy telcos.
CDNs ≠ telcos. This isn’t fair regulation — it’s protectionism.
🔗 www.agcom.it/provvediment...
#OpenInternet #AGCOM #NetNeutrality #TechPolicy

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 30

AI isn’t just rewriting the rules—it’s forcing us to rethink creativity itself. My July reading list explores copyright, culture & compensation in the age of AI.
📚 Read more: linkedin.com/pulse/summer...

This summer's reading selection reveals a complex reality: we're experiencing a fundamental rethinking of creativity itself, one that forces us to examine not just legal frameworks but the very founda...

linkedin.com

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 29

🔥 Will the US-EU trade deal put a stop to #NetworkFees? Don’t celebrate just yet!
This might change nothing as the EC switched to "dispute resolution," not fees. Moreover, the EC claims it made “no commitment on digital regulation”.
🔗 www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...
#DigitalNetworksAct

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 25

4/ 🤖 AI lab
🔸 Reflections on:
Japan's approach
The research sector’s missing voice
labelling & the EU AI Act
AI & journalism
🔸 Publications: A @techdirt.com blog post series on rethinking the intersection of AI, creativity & policy

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 25

3/ 🌐 internet lab
Hot Item with Benoît Felten unpacking a @plumconsulting.bsky.social report on dispute resolution & EU’s #DigitalNetworksAct (DNA)
Reflection on the ‘level playing field’ ideas in the DNA

©️ copyright lab
Reflection on the Article 15 #DCDSM missing money trail

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 25

2/ 🧠 innovation lab
New #5thFreedom capsules in collaboration with @knowledgerights21.org ‬
Kurt Deketelaere | LERU
Julien Chicot | @guildeu.bsky.social
Sergej Možina | Slovenian EU Permanent Representation/#ERAForum
Thomas Sturm | ICREA/@uab.cat
Peter Spyns | @vlaamseoverheid.bsky.social

1 1 1

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 25

1/ 🗞️ information labs June-July 2025 recap
🔗 www.linkedin.com/pulse/june-j...
☀️ Summer: We're back in late August
📢 Our Future Memory campaign: Learn about this initiative by the @internetarchive.eu & our take on why libraries need a #DigitalFairnessAc to #ProtectOurFutureMemory

The Missing Money Trail: Why Article 15’s Story Hides a Democratic Failure

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 24

🔥 20 European telco CEOs push network fees disguised as “mandatory arbitration” in new letter to EC. Same old Big Telco playbook, demanding a “fair share" while framing it as a “level playing field.” Learn why a majority considers this a bad idea: www.linkedin.com/posts/inform...

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 16

Article 15 was supposed to save journalism by making Big Tech pay.

5 years later: millions paid, zero accountability. No one knows where the money went.

New blog on the democratic failure no one’s tracking.👇
informationlabs.org/the-missing-...

#EU #Article15 #Journalism #Copyright #AIpolicy

When European policymakers championed Article 15 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DCDSM), they painted a compelling picture. Here was legislation…

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 11

2/ #DigitalNetworksAct statements:
2️⃣Concerns on access regulation by leading national & European pro-competitive telecom associations, who caution against abandoning Europe’s current model, benefiting European consumers and businesses
🔗 www.ectaportal.com/news/ecta-pr...
#DigitalEU

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 11

1/🔥 It’s joint statement season with the EC call for evidence on the #DigitalNetworksAct (DNA) closing today, 11 July!
1️⃣ Call to preserve #NetNeutrality by a broad-based group of 84 stakeholders rejecting large telcos’ #FairShare/#NetworkFees push
🔗 www.beuc.eu/letter/joint...

#ProtectOurFutureMemory: Why Libraries Need Fair Contracts

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 9

EU Libraries are renting knowledge under Delaware law, barred from AI, and liable for student clicks.
It’s 2025, not a dystopian novel.
The #DigitalFairnessAct must end this circus—memory institutions guard our future memory.
📚 informationlabs.org/protectourfu...
#ProtectOurFutureMemory

information labs was proud to participate in the launch of the “Our Future Memory” campaign at LIBER 2025 in Lausanne, where library professionals, researchers, and…

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 7

🔥Hot Item: Dispute Resolution or Regulatory Trojan Horse?🔥
A new @plumconsulting.bsky.social report unpacks how EU’s Digital Networks Act could backfire.
w/ insights from @fibreguy.bsky.social
📺 Watch:: youtu.be/BWE2CCVZBtQ
📄 Report: plumconsulting.co.uk/study-on-the...
#DigitalEU #TechPolicy

Ceci n’est pas un Level Playing Field

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 3

Can Europe make the 5th Freedom a reality? 🇪🇺
In our new #5thFreedom episode, Peter Spyns breaks down how the #ERA, the "knowledge cube," and real policy tools can turn vision into action.
🎧 share.transistor.fm/s/ddb7c684
📺 youtu.be/N6cHOlkFzT4
#EUPolicy #OpenScience

information labs @informationlabs.org · Jul 2

“Ceci n’est pas un Level Playing Field.”
The @ec.europa.eu is opening the door to a gatekeeper internet. Dispute resolution? A telco power play. Clarification? A threat to #OpenInternet.
📢 Have your say here: ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet...
📝 Full blog: informationlabs.org/ceci-nest-pa...

In Magritte’s famous painting, a pipe is not a pipe. In Brussels today, a “level playing field” is not a level playing field. It is…