Latest news with #Westlaw
Time Magazine
10-07-2025
- Business
- Time Magazine
Canada's Best Companies of 2025
C anadian brands like lululemon and Aritzia have become increasingly commonplace to U.S. and global consumers. To assess which companies are helping Canada carve out a place in the global market, a new TIME and Statista study ranked the top Canadian companies based on metrics like sustainability transparency, positive employee reviews, and continuous revenue growth in the last three years where complete financial data were available. Out of the 125 companies ranked on the list, the industries most represented are resource generation, infrastructure, and utilities—all of which are likely to see business disruptions in 2025 due to tariffs and geopolitical tensions. Outside of the large legacy industries in Canada like natural resources, automotives, forestry, and agriculture, digital tech and IT companies have been steadily growing, and two Canadian cities rank in the top ten tech talent markets, according to a CBRE report. Notably, analysts and legal experts predict that digital services will be largely resistant to tariffs. Companies like Shopify (no. 6 on the list), which is capitalizing on the booming creator economy to compete with Amazon, and TELUS (no. 7), which plans to launch a sovereign AI factory in Canada, lead the charge. They're followed by older companies like Thomson Reuters (no. 22) and Blackberry (no. 80), both of which have had to evolve their approach to technology. Thomson Reuters, which today calls itself a content-driven technology company, was formed in 2008 from the merger of Canada-based Thomson Corp and London-based Reuters Group. It's now focused on three main business segments: technology for lawyers including the research and analytics tool Westlaw, software for tax and accounting purposes, and the Reuters newswire service. During its shift from content provider to content-driven tech, it also started exploring generative AI initiatives in its law and tax products starting late 2022. Importantly, 'we have the underlying content and expertise…to ensure that the AI output is very accurate,' says Steve Hasker, CEO of Thomson Reuters. The company won a major lawsuit in February against Ross Intelligence, which scraped its Westlaw platform's legal summaries to train a competing AI product. The ruling, which protected proprietary content within the Westlaw platform, could make original data more valuable and set a precedent for what is 'fair use' for AI models. As a media tech conglomerate, it's figured out how to make money off of AI as well as good quality human-generated content by licensing factual, bias-free news generated by Reuters to foundation model providers. 'It is a unique, proprietary content source that's very expensive to generate, and Reuters needs to be paid for that,' Hasker says. BlackBerry, often still associated with its once-iconic tactile keyboard phone, made the pivot from handset to software around seven years ago. Its business is organized into two categories: software in cars, and secure communications for enterprises and governments. The software, which the company initially acquired to use in the BlackBerry phones, now controls fundamental features in cars from Stellantis, BMW, and Mercedes, including their safety, autonomous driving, and infotainment systems. It also underlies robots roaming in warehouses, as well as medical and surgical equipment, says John de Boer, senior director of government affairs and public policy at BlackBerry. The company has additionally developed a software platform certified by the Canadian government and the NSA called BlackBerry critical events management platform that can help government bodies communicate with personnel or respond to disasters like wildfires. 'There's a whole bunch of verticals that are increasingly becoming software defined,' de Boer says. 'We're one of the only companies that guarantee data sovereignty in many of our products.' The company raised its earnings forecast due to cybersecurity demands in June following a surprisingly profitable 2024. But Canadian companies that make physical products, especially those that are frequently exported, may see some challenges to growth in the coming years. 'The roller coaster ride of tariffs has created an unprecedented uncertainty that we've seen, and that itself is really paralyzing decision makers, particularly business investment,' says Tony Stillo, director of Canada Economics at Oxford Economics. Most Canadian businesses are heavily tied to the U.S., says Stillo. 'When we went to this free trade agreement with the U.S. in the late 80s, we built an integrated North American production system.' Auto part maker Magna (no. 14) and fuel distributor Parkland Corp (no. 20) are some of the Canadian companies most exposed to U.S. tariffs, according to BNN Bloomberg. Other companies on this list include fertilizer maker Nutrien (no. 69), natural gas operator TC Energy (no. 71), dairy company Saputo (no. 87), and aerospace manufacturer Bombardier (no. 11). Firms that are USMCA-compliant, part of a specific agreement around material origins, are somewhat buffered against the impact of tariffs. In a first-quarter 2025 report, Magna told investors that 75% to 80% of their parts crossing the border were USMCA-compliant, which puts their tariff impact estimate at about $250 million. The company said that it is working on increasing USMCA compliance to mitigate tariff impacts, but that may require design modifications. Another auto company, Linamar (no. 33), told shareholders in April that it expects minimal impacts from tariffs since virtually all of their parts are compliant. —Charlotte Hu See the full list below.
Ammon
06-07-2025
- Ammon
Justice in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Who Rules, Man or Machine? 1-2
In a landmark ruling issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on May 2025, a real-world example error of AI hallucination. The story began when a visiting attorney from California, alongside a local Florida lawyer, submitted a legal brief citing a judicial decision from the Delaware Court. But the shock came when the court discovered that the cited ruling never existed. It was fabricated by an AI tool used for legal research. This alarm highlight an existential challenge that threatens the core principles of justice and accountability within the legal system. Which is the necessity for fairness, integrity, and infallibility in justice? Generative artificial intelligence becomes a formidable, disruptive force within courtrooms, law offices, and legislative bodies. Today, AI actively participates in drafting contracts, generating complex legal arguments, editing judicial decisions, and even producing preliminary legislative texts. This is not simply a technical breakthrough; it is a paradigm shift that redefines the very structure of our legal systems. Recent studies reveal that AI-generated legal texts now span a vast array of critical documents—from commercial contracts and legal pleadings to judicial rulings, legislative proposals, legal complaints, and even preliminary police reports. These are produced using advanced tools like ChatGPT, Westlaw, and CoCounsel, creating a new legal reality where algorithmic power converges with human intention. Law firms increasingly rely on AI to rapidly produce draft contracts, while courts use it to analyze case patterns and predict outcomes. Some legislatures have even begun accepting draft bills generated by AI tools, subject only to final human review. This dependency raising critical questions of responsibility, review, and consequences. Who is accountable for errors? Who verifies the content? Who bears the legal implications of a misstep? Amid this enthusiasm for technological progress, deeper challenges emerge—ones that extend far beyond technical concerns to strike at the heart of ethical and philosophical questions about justice itself. Foremost among these challenges are the dangers of hallucinations and bias. As clearly demonstrated by the Florida case, AI tools, despite their computational power, can generate fictitious citations and entirely false legal precedents. This is not a minor technical glitch—it undermines the foundation of legal fairness and equality before the law. Bias embedded in training data may skew legal analysis, raising profound philosophical concerns about how justice can be achieved when the algorithm's foundation is inherently flawed. A second looming threat is the phenomenon of legal floodgates. The ease with which AI can generate vast volumes of legal text may lead to an overwhelming influx of redundant or unnecessary documents. Courts may become buried under irrelevant data, straining judicial efficiency and potentially damaging public trust in the legal system. The justice process may become clogged with voluminous yet valueless content, diluting the importance of professional legal judgment and undermining procedural clarity. A third and equally troubling issue is that of authenticity and authorship. Here arises a fundamental question that strikes the moral fabric of the legal profession: Who truly authored a given legal text? Does a document reflect the considered intention of an attorney or the deliberation of a judge—or is it merely the product of an algorithm, devoid of human intent or ethical responsibility? This issue plunges us into the domain of moral philosophy and legal theory, where the 'original intent' behind a legal document is paramount. When human authorship is obscured, the chain of accountability becomes dangerously unclear, threatening the legal system's foundational principles. Legal institutions across the globe vary in how they approach these transformations, exposing a troubling regulatory gap. Some courts—particularly in the United States, as illustrated by the Florida decision—now explicitly prohibit the submission of AI-generated legal briefs or rulings unless thoroughly reviewed by a human. Meanwhile, other jurisdictions require only clear disclosure of AI usage and mandate human review prior to official submission. This divergence reveals the lack of a unified regulatory framework to govern such technologies. On the other side of the equation, tech companies have initiated voluntary self-regulation, embedding safeguards to limit AI output in sensitive legal contexts. While such efforts are commendable, they lack legal enforcement and are largely driven by internal ethics and market realities. This reveals the limitations of self-regulation and underscores the urgent need for external legislative intervention to foster long-term trust in legal institutions. Justice today is no longer solely written by the pens of lawyers and the verdicts of judges—it is increasingly authored in lines of code and AI-generated prompts. This transformation is not merely technical; it is deeply philosophical, changing how we understand law, its origins, and the scope of accountability. The question is no longer 'Should we use AI?' but rather 'How do we use it in a way that ensures justice, protects truth, and preserves the irreplaceable role of human conscience in legal decision-making?' law is not a static script; it is the living spirit of justice. It must not be distorted by algorithms nor misled by artificial minds. Professional integrity must remain indivisible and untouchable, no matter how advanced the tools we wield.
Chicago Tribune
03-07-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
After nearly a quarter century helping run the La Grange library, a chapter is ending for longtime trustee
After dedicating her entire working life to libraries, La Grange Library Trustee Becky Spratford has decided that after 24 years, it's time to end the chapter and retire. Spratford is no longer a librarian and is retiring from her board role, but she said she's still committed to serving the community. 'I feel really good about stepping away,' Spratford said. 'I'm going to stay involved because I love the library. I'm very involved with Pillars (Community Health), my husband and I are extremely involved, both financially and with our time.' Spratford was born in New Jersey and went to Amherst College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies and met her husband, Eric Spratford, now a doctor practicing out of Westchester. They married in 1998 and moved to La Grange the same year, where she began working for the law libraries of two separate law firms in Chicago. 'It was a really fun time to be in law libraries because it was the end of the Twentieth Century,' Spratford said. 'Westlaw, Lexis, all the databases for them to use … it was the switching from doing the book research to computer research and we were the ones that had to do it for them. So we were involved in all the fun stuff. It was a great training ground when I went to Dominican to get my masters degree in Library Information Science.' In the Summer of 2000, Spratford got her first official job as a certified librarian at the Berwyn Public Library. But she was also looking for an opportunity to give back to the community, which led her to throw her hat into the ring for an open seat on the La Grange library's Board of Trustees. 'I was looking for places to volunteer,' she said. 'I noticed in the fall that the Citizens Council was looking for someone to run for the Library Board, and I thought, well, I'm going to try this. I never thought of myself as a politician, but I'm not a politician if I'm helping the library.' In 2001, she won her first of six terms, serving at different times as trustee, board secretary, treasurer, vice president and president. Spratford is also a member of the Illinois Library Association and the La Grange board's liaison to that organization, as well as the Reaching Across Illinois Library Association and a member of the American Library Association. She also previously served on the ILA Conference Planning Committee and participated in training for the Illinois Trustee Forum. No matter what office she held, she always took time to serve on the Finance Committee. 'My goal was to always be efficient and effective with everyone's money,' Spratford said. 'Efficient without ever going over (budget), but also effective, because I understood that when staff would come and say 'we need this,' I was able to ask questions that really got to the heart of the service for the patrons.' Over the years, Spratford kept running for reelection because, as she said, because 'either no one was running, or something big was happening.' Some of those big things involved participating in searches for three new library directors, as well as several strategic planning processes. Another was the process and construction of a new library building in 2007. 'Our building was small and our community was growing,' Spratford said. 'La Grange had been going through some down times, and we were coming back. It wasn't just that the old library was tired, it was too small.' A new building required a significant infusion of cash, which, due to the Illinois property tax cap, required a referendum. Spratford said she was proud that during the time the main building was closed, she was in charge of the relocation of services to a location on Shawmut Avenue and the library operated without a break in service. 'We were able to relocate the library and have every book come there and every service still go,' she said. Spratford stressed the financial efficiency of the board in the roughly 20 years since the building opened. 'For those first 20 years we made sure we saved some money, so that's how we renovated the first floor,' she said. 'We're looking now at doing some renovations on the second floor. 'One of the things I made sure we did was we did an assessment of every system here and we have enough money that if every single system failed, the roof, the boiler, all the systems, we can fix it. You can't forget about those things … our job is to keep this building open and running.' Spratford said that she wanted to serve on the Board until the original building bonds were paid off, which happened earlier this year, saying 'it was my time to go when the building was paid off.' She might be retiring from the Board of Trustees, but she will definitely stay busy with freelance writing and her business. The roots of Spratford's business — RA for All — date back to when she was first hired as a full-time librarian at the Berwyn Public Library. 'I started at the Berwyn Public Library in a department called Readers Advisory,' she said. 'It's basically reading recommendations for adults. Spratford's web page, announces the business's purpose on its main page: 'Training Library Workers to Help Leisure Readers.' Spratford also edited a book coming out shortly, 'Why I Love Horror,' a collection of essays from 16 of the country's most distinguished writers of horror fiction. And, just in case she's not busy enough, there's also one final library matter she wants to address. 'One of the things we're missing here that other libraries of our prestige and size and use have, is that we don't have a foundation,' Spratford said. Separate from the Friends of the Library, she said a foundation would be a 'next step; it's a larger thing. It's more of an endowing organization that ensures the financial health of the library. The director and I have already had talks with local people who are involved with foundations. We'd love to have that start in 2027, at the twentieth year anniversary of opening the building … it's going to be a multi-year process.'
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Thomson Reuters introduces agentic AI CoCounsel
Content-driven technology conglomerate Thomson Reuters has launched its agentic AI platform, CoCounsel, for tax, audit, and accounting professionals. Unlike conventional AI assistants, agentic AI systems can plan, reason, act, and react within real workflows, completing complex, multi-step tasks with the required transparency, precision, and accountability, states the company. Thomson Reuters chief product office David Wong said: 'Agentic AI isn't a marketing buzzword. It's a new blueprint for how complex work gets done.' 'We're delivering systems that don't just assist but operate inside the workflows professionals use every day. The AI understands the goal, breaks it into steps, takes action, and knows when to escalate for human input — all with human oversight built in to ensure accountability and trust." Developed over a year and bolstered by the acquisition of Materia, the AI copilot startup, Thomson Reuters agentic platform is now live across products used by some of the accounting firms in the US. These systems are integrated into legal, tax, risk, and compliance platforms, designed for high-stakes environments where accuracy and trust are paramount. Instead of creating standalone tools, Thomson Reuters is re-architecting core product experiences by leveraging content from Checkpoint, Westlaw, and Practical Law. This strategy is claimed to enable the new agentic systems to act and reason within established industry best practices, enhanced with generative AI capabilities. Wong added: 'We're not just rebranding AI assistants. We're engineering full agentic systems — backed by trusted content, custom-trained models, and real domain expertise.' 'What others are calling agentic, we've already had in the market. What we're launching now sets a new bar: this is what AI looks like when it's built with real content, trained with real experts, and trusted by the professionals who do real work.' CoCounsel automates tasks such as client file review, memo drafting, and compliance checks, providing explainable outputs. It unifies firm knowledge, Checkpoint, IRS code, and internal documents into a cohesive AI-guided workspace. Early adopters are already stated to have been witnessing significant advantages from this innovation. The company has said that the next product to be launched is Ready to Review, an agentic tax preparation application that redefines professional-grade AI. Built on the GoSystem Tax Engine, it is purported to not only assist with tax returns but also draft them, adapting to feedback, and autonomously resolving diagnostics. In February 2025, Thomson Reuters unveiled its second Corporate Venture Capital Fund, Thomson Reuters Ventures Fund 2, valued at C$150m ($104.58m). This fund will focus on early-stage technology companies within legal technology, tax and accounting, fintech, and other markets. "Thomson Reuters introduces agentic AI CoCounsel" was originally created and published by International Accounting Bulletin, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawyers for a journalist accused of hacking Fox News blame AI for error-filled legal brief
Timothy Burke is accused of grabbing unaired Fox News footage using someone else's credentials. A judge scolded his lawyers for misrepresenting and making up legal precedents in an attempt to get the case thrown out. A lawyer for Burke admitted to using ChatGPT and Westlaw's AI features without checking their output. A lawyer for Timothy Burke, the journalist indicted over leaked Fox News footage, admitted in a court filing Monday that he used ChatGPT and other AI tools to write an error-filled legal brief. Last week, Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle said a filing by Burke's lawyers contained "significant misrepresentations and misquotations" and demanded an explanation. On Monday, the lawyers, Michael Maddux and Mark Rasch, said the errors happened because of Rasch's research and edits. The judge cited nine examples of "non-existent quotes and miscited propositions" that appeared to come from federal appellate rulings and a Congressional committee report. She also said their brief had six errors that may have been less egregious, as well as other "miscellaneous problems." Rasch's process "included the use of Westlaw, Westlaw's AI features, Google, Google Scholar, as well as the 'deep research' feature of the Pro version of ChatGPT version 4.5," the brief said. The lawyers said Rasch used a feature on the legal research platform Westlaw called Quick Check to vet the brief, but didn't do so again after accidentally adding unvetted sections from previous drafts. Maddux, the lawyers added, was busy with another case. Maddux, Rasch, and Burke didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, or Thomson Reuters, which makes Westlaw, responded to requests for comment. The proliferation of AI and the high cost of legal research has led to a number of attorneys being called to the mat by judges over errors in their legal arguments, often a result of generative AI systems' tendency to "hallucinate." Often, the mistakes are made by solo practitioners or lawyers from small firms, though big firms have also been found using AI. A Latham & Watkins attorney said the AI system Claude was to blame for giving the wrong name and authors for an article cited in an expert's report, though the content was otherwise correct. Last week, attorneys from the firms K&L Gates and Ellis George were told to pay $31,000 after their submissions were found to contain made-up citations. Burke, a former Deadspin editor now working as a media consultant, faces charges of hacking into a streaming system used by broadcasters. The case has attracted attention from press freedom advocates, with his lawyers arguing Burke committed no crime since the URLs he visited to download clips of Fox News footage were public. The footage, which included antisemitic remarks by the rapper Ye and behind-the-scenes comments by Tucker Carlson about sex, his "postmenopausal" viewers, and issues with the Fox Nation streaming service, was never aired on the network. When the clips appeared online in 2022 and 2023, it aroused suspicions that a Fox employee had leaked them. In 2023, however, federal investigators zeroed in on Burke, who was indicted last year. Read the original article on Business Insider
