It certainly didn't take long for AI's other shoe to drop, what with the emergent technology already being perverted to commit confidence scams and generate spam content. We can now add censorship to that list as the Globe Gazette reports the school board of Mason City, Iowa has begun leveraging AI technology to cultivate lists of potentially bannable books from the district's libraries ahead of the 2023/24 school year. In May, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed, and Governor Kim Reynolds subsequently signed, Senate File 496 (SF 496), which enacted sweeping changes to the state's education curriculum. Specifically it limits what books can be made available in school libraries and classrooms, requiring titles to be "age appropriate” and without “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act,” per Iowa Code 702.17.But ensuring that every book in the district's archives adhere to these new rules is quickly turning into a mammoth undertaking. "Our classroom and school libraries have vast collections, consisting of texts purchased, donated, and found," Bridgette Exman, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Mason City Community School District, said in a statement. "It is simply not feasible to read every book and filter for these new requirements." As such, the Mason City School District is bringing in AI to parse suspect texts for banned ideas and descriptions since there are simply too many titles for human reviewers to cover on their... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2023-08-14 20:25:41 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#sexual content
#important things
#part-time indian
#libraries
It certainly didn't take long for AI's other shoe to drop, what with the emergent technology already being perverted to commit confidence scams and generate spam content. We can now add censorship to that list as the Globe Gazette reports the school board of Mason City, Iowa has begun leveraging... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-08-14 20:25:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#sexual content
#important things
#part-time indian
#libraries
The suit, filed on behalf of six parents of minor children and two students who are over the age of 18 in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough school district, seeks the return of 56 books said to be improperly banned from school shelves. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-21 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book bans
#school shelves
PEN America and publisher Penguin Random House filed a law suit today against a school district for book bans. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-05-17 16:28:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pen america
#book bans
#school district
#publisher penguin
#penguin random house
PEN officials called the suit a "first-of-its-kind challenge to unlawful censorship," bringing together concerned parents, authors, and a major publisher. "Censorship, in the form of book bans like those enacted by Escambia County, are a direct threat to democracy and our Constitutional rights,"... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pen america
#book bans
#major publisher
#penguin random house
A parent complained about the book because it had a rainbow on the cover, which they assumed meant it had LGBTQ content. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-04-14 14:03:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#picture book
Public libraries need to prepare for what's happening at school libraries to happen to them. That, plus this week's book censorship news. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-12 11:40:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book banning
#school libraries
#libraries
#public libraries
Five more publishers, including the remaining Big Five publishers, have now joined as plaintiffs to help defend against the state’s bid to lift the block on appeal on Iowa's book banning law, SF 496. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
The report, 'Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis,' reports 4,349 book bans recorded from July to December 2023, with more book bans recorded during the first half of the current school year than in all of the last school year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#record levels
#school year
A federal judge has blocked two key portions of an Iowa law that sought to ban books with sexual content from Iowa schools and to bar classroom discussion of gender identity and sexuality for students below the seventh grade. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-29 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#federal judge
#iowa law
#ban books
#sexual content
#gender identity
#seventh grade
A federal judge is set to rule before the end of the year on two lawsuits seeking to block a controversial new Iowa law, SF 496, that would ban books with sexual content from Iowa classrooms and school libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#federal judge
#iowa law
#ban books
#sexual content
#school libraries
The publishing world made plenty of news in 2023, but not only because of the books themselves Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2023-12-08 14:55:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#publishing world
Amid a historic surge in book challenges in schools and school libraries, the Fight Book Bans Act would offer federal funding to support school districts fighting challenges to books and educational materials. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-06 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book challenges
#school libraries
#educational materials
Penguin Random House and the Iowa State Education Association, along with four bestselling authors and five plaintiffs from the state of Iowa, have sued the state to block key provisions of its sweeping new law banning books with sexual or LGBTQ+ content in schools. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#bestselling authors
#penguin random house
Signed by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in May, SF 496, among its provisions, bans books with depictions of written or visual sex from school libraries, and prohibits instruction and materials involving gender identity and sexual orientation for students through sixth grade. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-29 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#school libraries
#sexual orientation
"Amid a growing climate of censorship, school book bans continue to spread through coordinated campaigns by a vocal minority of groups and individual actors and, increasingly, as a result of pressure from state legislation," the report finds. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-21 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#report finds
BookmarkED claims to help schools and parents navigate book bans. But where and how the app gets is information is a secret. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-08-28 14:02:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book bans
#libraries
H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger said whoever decided to use the software to pull his book from the Mason City school district is a "complete idiot." Continue reading at The Huffington Post
[ The Huffington Post | 2023-08-18 15:13:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#complete idiot
Valerie Koehler says that if her book shop is forced to comply with a new state law regulating public school literature, she might go out of business. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2023-07-26 21:13:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#valerie koehler
#book shop
#bookseller
A free-speech organization and the country’s largest book publisher said the district violated the First Amendment and the equal protection clause. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-05-17 17:45:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#largest book
At a three-hour hearing yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties investigated the jump in book bans in schools and the danger these bans mean for the protection of the First Amendment. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-04-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book bans
#civil rights