True Journalism with Tom Martin and Richard Schreiber
Episode 22 - When a Machine Acts Who Answers With Larry Bridgesmith
Larry Bridgesmith spent more than thirty years representing employers in labor and employment litigation before deciding the courtroom was solving the wrong problem. An adjunct professor of law and coordinator of the Program on Law and Innovation at Vanderbilt Law School, and a faculty associate at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, he has spent the years since pushing the legal industry to price for value instead of time. This week he sits down with Richard Schreiber and Tom Martin to explain why AI, more than any reform before it, may finally force that shift — and who answers when the decision being questioned wasn't made by a lawyer, or even a person, at all. The conversation moves from a Ninth Circuit ruling that found no existing legal framework for who is responsible when an AI shopping agent acts on a person's behalf, to a president's media company charging traders up to $100,000 a month for early access to his social posts, to courts now sanctioning lawyers for citing cases that generative AI invented outright. Bridgesmith, who this year became an advisor to the post-quantum cybersecurity firm Armored Quantum, connects all three to one open question: when a system acts on your behalf, who is left standing to answer for it. This is a conversation about accountability, not technology — about who bears responsibility when a decision gets made by something that cannot be sued, fired, or held in contempt. Topics Covered Who Answers for the Agent: The Ninth Circuit's ruling in Amazon.com Services v. Perplexity AI, which vacated an injunction against Perplexity's AI shopping tool and held that, on the record before it, it is the user — not the AI company — who is deemed to have "accessed" Amazon's systems, leaving the broader liability question for another day. Trading on the President's Feed: Trump Media's "Truth API" sells traders early access to the president's posts for up to $100,000 a month — which Boston College law professor Renée Jones told NPR looks like misappropriated information, and which Senators Warren and Schiff have asked the SEC to investigate as an "outrageous abuse" of office. A Government Contractor's 1.4% Tax Rate: A report from the Center for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research found that Palantir Technologies, one of the government's largest software contractors, paid no U.S. federal income tax last year, with a global effective tax rate of just 1.4 percent. The Hallucination Bill Comes Due: Courts have sanctioned lawyers for citing fake, AI-generated cases — $2,500 in the Fifth Circuit, $7,500 combined in the Southern District of Ohio, and $30,000 combined against two Tennessee attorneys in the Sixth Circuit for more than two dozen fabricated citations, per the ABA Journal. Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: Bridgesmith, who advises the cybersecurity firm Armored Quantum, describes nation-state and criminal actors already stockpiling encrypted legal, financial, and health data today so they can decrypt it once quantum computers are powerful enough to break it. Access to Justice by Chatbot: Bridgesmith says consumer AI tools, including Claude, are already letting ordinary people arrive at a lawyer's office understanding their own basic rights — a shift he argues could finally open up a justice system he says today serves mostly the wealthiest one percent. Billing by the Clock's Last Stand: Bridgesmith traces how corporate clients, armed with AI that can draft a contract in minutes, are pushing outside law firms to abandon the billable hour for legal project management and value-based pricing — a shift he helped pioneer decades before AI made it unavoidable. About the Hosts Richard Schreiber Richard Schreiber is a strategic AI consultant, journalist, autism advocate, and fiction writer based in New York City. With a background spanning investigative reporting, technology consulting, and over 25 years in legal technology and procurement, Richard brings a rare combination of real-world experience and analytical depth to every conversation. He is the founder of a growing autism advocacy foundation and the author of multiple books, including Autism Care Revolution . His journalism is guided by one principle: facts first, always. Tom Martin Tom Martin is a veteran television news producer with more than 20 years at some of the most respected names in broadcasting. He got his start at the CBS News Washington Bureau in 1982 — where he witnessed history firsthand, including being in the room when Nixon delivered his infamous "I am not a crook" statement. The son of a legendary newspaper editor who helped launch USA Today, Tom grew up believing journalism is a sacred public trust. He carries that belief into every story he tells. Guest: Larry Bridgesmith Larry Bridgesmith is an adjunct professor of law and coordinator of the Program on Law and Innovation at Vanderbilt Law School and co-founder of DASH4Law DAO. He spent more than thirty years representing employers in labor and employment litigation before founding Lipscomb University's Institute for Conflict Management and later chairing the Tennessee Supreme Court's Alternative Dispute Resolution Commission. He now advises the post-quantum cybersecurity firm Armored Quantum and says he will soon publish a memoir on mediation and influence, tentatively titled The Life of Learning the Hard Way . His career sits at the intersection this episode explores: the collision between what the legal industry has always billed for and what AI now makes possible. Our Mission True Journalism exists because facts still matter. The press is a watchdog — not a lapdog — and the American public deserves reporting that shines a light rather than throws a shadow. This is not a political show. We do not have a party. We have one principle: if it is not a verified fact, we will say so.
