In an industry characterized by roller-coaster fluctuations, the sudden downfall of one of cryptocurrency’s biggest stars might have been anticipated. Yet, even seasoned crypto enthusiasts and experts were taken aback by the swift and shocking collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried who, as the former CEO of FTX, ran what was once the third-largest crypto exchange in the world. Sam Bankman-Fried (widely recognized as “SBF”) initially made his fortune as the founder of Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm that actively traded in cryptocurrency markets. SBF steered Alameda to success w ..read more

Volume-25.4-Front-Pages ..read more

Brown-Final As remote work has become integral to the American workforce, the inefficient taxation mechanics of the “convenience of the employer” rule have been exposed. Instead of allowing nonresident employees to recognize remote work-related savings, certain states subject them to double taxation with nearly unsatisfiable exceptions. Unsurprisingly, constitutional challenges to the rule have repeatedly failed, so states have resorted to engaging in inefficient tax “fights.” Tax “fights,” however, are an improper solution, as they do not solve the burdens on state taxation, employment opport ..read more

Giles-Final Tens of thousands of people use data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau for everything from drawing voting districts, to allocating government funds, to conducting research. But in 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau began using controversial new disclosure avoidance methods. These methods better protected the privacy of the people described by the Census Bureau’s data. Unfortunately, they also decreased the data’s accuracy, raising concerns such as whether voting districts drawn using 2020 census data will distort the 2024 election.  This Article argues that the Census Bureau’s hand ..read more

Waters-Final Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) has surged in popularity over recent years, especially in its accessibility to the public. Increased productivity and the automation of simple tasks has clearly displayed the benefits of AI in everyday life. However, AI has several drawbacks. Since AI algorithms are written by humans, they are influenced by the qualities that humans prioritize, either intentionally or unintentionally. This Article argues that AI shares similarities with other systems built by humans, as it is susceptible to the implantation of bias and heavily influenced by the syste ..read more

Volume-25.3-Front-Pages ..read more

Haque-Final This Article examines the challenges and prospects of crowd‑sourcing generative artificial intelligence (“GenAI”) systems in patent law as human and machine creativity become seamless. As GenAI technologies like GPT-4 become ubiquitous, AI-generated solutions will be less innovative and will complicate tenets about patentability. An evolution of patent law’s non-obviousness standard provides an elegant solution––borrowing from philosophy, a “razor”––to address the impact of advanced artificial intelligence (“AI”) on the innovation process. This Article’s thesis is distinct from the ..read more

Kivus-Final The Article discusses the challenges and implications of applying existing copyright law to a subset of artificial intelligence (“AI”) that creates new data known as generative AI (“Generative AI”). Specifically, the Article examines the mismatch between copyright law and the unique legal complexities that arise from the training and use of Generative AI. The Article argues that this mismatch could lead to an increased privatization of copyright enforcement.  Additionally, this Article discusses: (1) copyright law fundamentals crucial to understanding the law’s application to ..read more

Villasenor-Final  Artificial intelligence (“AI”) systems can operate in ways that their designers may not fully understand. This creates a series of important questions regarding trade secrets. This Article argues that AI system designers should be able to hold trade secret rights in AI algorithms even when they are unable to articulate how those algorithms operate. However, to assert a misappropriation claim, trade secret owners must be able to acquire information enabling them to describe the algorithm at issue in sufficient detail. This Article also explores compliance with regulatory ..read more

Last summer, UNC’s law journals tasked prospective student staff members with writing a note. The subject was to be State v. Gaddis, a criminal case involving a finding of harmless error. The harmless error doctrine holds that when a trial court errs, but the error does not affect the case’s outcome, an appellate court will not reverse the trial court’s decision. This doctrine is controversial. We can never know for certain what would have happened without an error. The safest option would be to remand every case where a trial judge erred for a new trial. But this would be inef ..read more