Monthly Archives: May 2025

UM Police Want You to Know about the Crocodile in the Lake

American Crocodile

Wikipedia’s American Crocodile

Email this morning from UM Police:

The University of Miami is aware that a crocodile has recently been seen in Lake Osceola. [MF note: the lake in the center of campus.] Signs are posted around Lake Osceola and near the canals on campus as a reminder of their presence. They may appear docile and calm as they bask in the sun near the rocks or just along the surface of the water, but they should not be approached, and their space should be respected.

Individuals and anyone with pets are strongly advised to remain clear of the edge of the water and not attempt to feed or interact with these animals, if observed.

In Florida, crocodiles and alligators, can be found in any body of water, and they easily navigate into various waterways. The University has worked with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for guidance on alligators and crocodiles in our community in the past and more information can be found on their website.

This is far from our first crocodile.  See, e.g.,

 

Posted in U.Miami: Crocs | Leave a comment

Robot Law II is Now Available! (In Hardback)

Edited by Ryan Calo,  A. Michael Froomkin and Kristen Thomasen

Robot Law: Volume II assembles cutting-edge scholarship from leading experts, many of whom are regular contributors to the prestigious We Robot Conferences. This timely volume offers incisive analysis of pressing legal and ethical challenges posed by AI and robots; from autonomous machines to algorithmic-generated issues. This is an indispensable resource for interested scholars, policymakers, and anyone grappling with the societal impacts of emerging technologies.’

– Fumio Shimpo, Keio University, Japan

Here’s a free chapter: Abeba Birhane and Jelle van Dijk, Robot rights? Let’s talk about human welfare instead

I think this terrific paper should be read by anyone who is even flirting with the idea that robots (or AIs!) are the sort of thing that are entitled to any rights, much less human-like rights.

Yes, I’ll bracket out two scenarios: one, maybe someday we build an AI that really seems to be sentient. Not holding my breath, but if we get there, we can cross that bridge.

Second, and more realistic, we might decide that humanoid robots, or animal-like robots, should be entitled to some protections from abuse not because they ‘deserve’ it, but because we discover that allowing abuse of machines that look like living things might have bad effects on the abusers that they then carry over to their interactions with animals and people. In other words, if kicking robot dogs trains you to kick real ones, or abusing very humanoid robots habituates you to abusing people, we might want to do something about that. A similar argument is that we might find it expedient to treat AIs as having ‘rights’ for the same reasons (some of us) think the legal fiction makes sense for corporations: namely it advances some human social goals.

But I’ve gotten away from my point, which was to invite you to ask your library to buy our expensive book, or to invite you to buy the much more reasonably priced e-copy.  Give your librarian this info:

The electronic edition should be available, I’m told, within a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, here’s the entire wonderful table of contents:

Great stuff!
Posted in AI, Robots, Writings | 2 Comments