Farid, a UC Berkeley computer science professor who recently departed to teach at Dartmouth, is best known for his work as a deepfake detective, analyzing videos and images for traces of manipulation by digital or AI tools. Over the past year, deepfake content has grown at a rate of roughly 900%, according to the cybersecurity firm Deepstrike, driven by the rise of generative AI apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, ElevenLabs and Google’s Veo 3.

Div. One of the First District Court of Appeal has held that although a marital settlement agreement provided that the wife would be awarded the marital home and would be responsible for “all debts thereon,” there was no implied obligation that the husband’s name be removed from the mortgage.

Div. One of the First District Court of Appeal yesterday upended a defendant’s conviction for arson of “grassland” where the fire in question was set to a green patch adjacent to a sidewalk on a busy residential street, saying that the presence of natural turf is insufficient to trigger the enhanced criminal sanctions applicable where the blaze affects certain types of natural features.

Div. One of the First District Court of Appeal has held that a trial judge did not err in denying a mid-trial continuance to a defendant after his lead attorney announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19, finding no abuse of discretion in the determination that a second-chair lawyer with allegedly limited civil experience could take over the case involving a car collision for a few days while she recovered in isolation.