AI and Artworks: Legal and Technical Issues

The issue of intellectual property rights protection connected to AI development is a new and difficult road for the law to tread. Unprepared, and at times unequipped to handle the extremely rapid development of AI, in particular generative AI, lawmakers are just now beginning to investigate the concerns of artists and creative workers.

Associations’ Legal Standing Before the Court of Justice of the European Union in Actions for Annulment

This annotation analyses the General Court’s Order in Case T-1126/23, which declared inadmissible an action for annulment brought by a Romanian association Commission Decision 1786 repealing the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.

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*Ace Combat: Zero, How to Learn Geopolitics While Flying Jets

What relation is there between the fictional nation of Belka, its invasion of the similarly fictitious country of Ustio, and the current Ukraine war? What about the Belkan Seven Pillars and their frightening similarity to Russian nuclear threats and the Korean War? Are we going to have to face, in the near or far future, our own version of A World With No Boundaries?These are the questions that nobody is actually asking, but that I aim to answer in this essay, in order to explore a complex topic with the help of a staple piece of videogame history.

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Into the Rabbit Hole: Simulated Worlds and a Warning from Jameson and Baudrillard

Like Alice falling into Wonderland, and Neo taking the red pill from Morpheus, I propose a dive into the concept of simulated worlds and the metaverse, the warnings posited by Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard in regard to them, and make comparisons to popular media (namely, Ready Player One and SOMA) to learn what dangers we could possibly face and what the future holds on the topic of virtual reality for business and social life.

Legal Personhood of AI as seen in Star Trek

How does the concept of legal personhood manifest in artificial intelligence, and how can media help us understand the future this subject holds? Could the concept of “artificially created person” be conceived in addition to natural and legal persons? In this short essay, I will provide some examples of this as seen in Star Trek, to analyze
what writers and artists believe the future will look like, and to compare Roddenberry’s idealistic society to ours.

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1. Disco Elysium

A deeply life changing experience. Masterfully crafted writing, compelling story, stellar voice acting and memorable beats. Harry DuBois, despite being a drunk, a violent man and a downright disgusting person, can be redeemed if you choose to. And I did.Watching the world's ruins slowly piece back together around him gave me hope that maybe, even in our darkest times, we too can climb back from the brink and see the light. Nothing is ever lost, and while our lives aren't perfect, we only have one. This one.

2. Signalis

There are no happy endings in Signalis.Despite the overabundance of King in Yellow references in recent media, which might become tiring, Signalis manages to convey a truly horrifying eldritch story about a classic "dug too deep" moral.Within the framing of a very under-represented space empire, the player must unite an android and the woman she fell in love with, going through actual, unironic hell to do so.And as I said, there are no happy endings.

3. Cyberpunk 2077

To release a game so hated by its fanbase, and to turn it into the best roleplaying game ever released is simply miraculous, but CD Projekt Red is clearly magical in nature.A perfectly paced story, impeccable environments and incredible performances, only elevated massively in the DLC, Phantom Liberty - which I dug into for 14 hours straight only recently.There is little to say about Cyberpunk. It is simply flawless: perfect mechanics, writing, execution, perfect... everything. Very rarely do games leave me with the excited desire to go talk about them to my friends. This is one of them.Meet Hanako at Embers.

4. SOMA/Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs

A dramatic fourth place tie, but it is impossible to rank either above the other.SOMA explores the idea of humanity, immortality, what it means to be alive and what happens when that definition is stretched far too thin. It is gruesome, depressing and grim.Amnesia hit quite hard for a WWI enthusiast, and is in this spot mostly for the ending speech, in which your "evil" alter ego, having seen the 20th century, the Holocaust, the atom bomb, begs you to simply let humanity die before then.

5. Fallout: New Vegas

Quite easily the second best roleplaying game in history, only recently dethroned by Cyberpunk as the first.The Fallout lore, atmosphere, storytelling and environment are simply at their peak in New Vegas. It is funny, dark, thoughtful, and one of very few games with an ending that is truly conflicting.While the mechanics suffered, and the performance is notoriously poor, it is all forgiven in the face of the greatest post-apocalyptic character: the Courier.

6. Red Dead Redemption 2

RDR2 made me cry. Plain and simple. It made me cry many times.It is only in 6th place due to the Online mode's disappointing execution and the sometimes dragged on segments, and maybe in part due to how mainstream it would otherwise make me look if I were to rank it higher.Nevertheless, it is a beautiful story about redemption (no way!), about progress and about forgiveness. Even a cowboy gangster can get to Heaven if he really, really tries.

7. Hades II

I never would've thought that a game would simultaneously be so much fun to play and also awaken my high school Percy Jackson phase.Hades II is sublime and just plain addicting. And in addition to the gameplay, Supergiant blesses players with 300.000 words of script that shine through every time one dies (often) and talks to one of the obscenely attractive NPCs (very often). And to tie it all together, Darren Korb's incredible soundtrack.Death to Chronos.

8. Destiny 2

The placement really doesn't matter, because Destiny 2 has had a deep, intrinsic impact on my life. I made friends and grew up alongside it.It has certainly had its issues, and its recent end of service announcement was certainly expected, at least in my opinion, but...Destiny is special. Destiny is, as the name suggests, about finding ours. It is about perseverance no matter what, about pushing on even when all hope seems lost. Destiny may be a tiresome, grindy shooter, but its major themes and stories will always occupy a very soft tricorn-shaped spot in my heart.

9. Titanfall 2

Even if Titanfall 2 did not have smooth, extremely satisfying gameplay, it would still be in my Top 10.Titanfall 2 was a short, sweet experience that stabbed me in the stomach on its way out. And I wanted to crawl towards it for more. It builds your relationship with BT, and ends it with such bittersweet perfection that I can't help but be mad at Respawn for how well-crafted the story was.And for focusing all their efforts on Apex Legends.

10. Project Wingman

This one is really a bit shameless. I have no philosophical reason to enjoy it. It's just fun.And even still, the story of a mercenary group caught in a civil war, the scenery the game presents right before nuking it to orange mist, the glorious music Jose Pavli accompanies the whole adventure with, all make it an endlessly replayable experience, if only to hear the voice lines and music again.The DLC was a cherry on top, showing the war from the enemy's side and teasing or outright letting the player face people they were allied with during the main story. As the youth say: peak.