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2024 Technology, Media, & Privacy Law Conference

2024 Technology, Media, & Privacy Law: Large Language Models (LLMs) and Their Impact on Law and Journalism

Friday, March 1, 2024 8:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET

About the Technology, Media, & Privacy Law Conference

The annual Technology, Media, & Privacy Law Conference (TMPL) addresses how technological advancements are reshaping privacy and free speech issues in the fields of law, journalism, and public policy. The rapid adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) across the legal and journalism fields raises a host of urgent legal and ethical policy choices for lawyers and the press. Large Language Models are forms of Artificial Intelligence wherein the LLMs use text-based learning to train themselves to generate text. They are artificial neural networks pre-trained on large amounts of data. The evolution of technology has forever altered how lawyers and the press approach the use of LLMs and raises critical legal and ethical policy considerations. This conference brings together leading scholars and practitioners to introduce LLMs to lawyers and journalists who may not be familiar with them and to explore the opportunities and risks of entrusting crucial decisions to automation via LLMs.

The TMPL conference is hosted by the Center for Governmental Responsibility (CGR) at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

You may find speaker biographies here.

The 2024 Technology, Media, & Privacy Conference will be held in-person in Gainesville and virtually via Zoom. The Conference is being held at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom in Holland Hall 180. Green Parking restrictions will be lifted for the event and lunch will be served.

Registration is free; please register here. Please note that although the registration link is through Zoom, you can indicate if you will attending virtually or in-person on the registration form.

This conference has been approved for 8.5 General CLE credits and 8.5 Technology CLE credits by the Florida Bar.

2024 Conference Schedule:

Friday, March 1, 2024
  • 8:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. ET | Welcome Address and Introductions
  • 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. ET | Session 1: LLMs & Hallucinations/Introduction to Artificial Intelligence  
    • Jane Bambauer, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Professor of Law and Brechner Eminent Scholar Chair, College of Journalism and Communications (Moderator)
    • Vincent Binschaedler, University of Florida Warrington College of Business, Computer & Information Science & Engineering Assistant Professor
  • 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. ET | Session 2: LLMs & the Law  
    • Jane Bambauer, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Professor of Law and Brechner Eminent Scholar Chair, College of Journalism and Communications (Moderator)
    • Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Raymond & Miriam Ehrlich Chair in U.S. Constitutional Law
    • Jennifer Walker Elrod, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Judge
    • William F. Hamilton, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Senior Legal Skills Professor
    • Jon L. Mills, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Dean Emeritus
  • 12:30 p.m.– 2:00 p.m. ET | Luncheon and Session 3: LLMs and Privacy  
    • Jasmine McNealy, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and Senior Fellow – Tech Policy at Mozilla (Moderator)
    • Courtney Radsch, Center for Journalism and Liberty, Open Markets Institute, Director
    • Amy Sanders, University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and Media, Associate Professor
    • Jared Schroeder, University of Missouri School of Journalism, Associate Professor
  • 2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. ET |  Keynote Address: Trust & Safety in an AI Dominated World 
    • Anika Collier Navaroli, Columbia University Journalism School, Tow Center for Digital Journalism,  Fellow
  • 3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET | Session 4: LLMs & Changing Professional Environments  
    • Jonathan Marshfield, University of Florida Levin College of Law, Associate Professor (Moderator)
    • Alex Kirkpatrick, USDA-NIFA National AI Institute for Transforming Workforce and Decision Support, Science Communication Specialist
    • Mark Klingensmith, Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal, Judge
    • Renee Thompson, Upchurch Watson White and Max, Mediator
The speaker lineup is subject to change.

Published: February 6th, 2024

Category: Events

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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.