Category: 404 Media

Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that spotted a blast from the past, opened a portal between realms, yakked it up, and rose from the ashes.   First, scientists have spotted a mysterious radio signal from the primordial universe that could illuminate cosmic evolution (it’s not ...

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss AI and spirituality. JASON: I think we’ve generally carved out a pretty good lane for ourselves in the broader AI debate, writing ...

In response to a 404 Media investigation, Sen. Ron Wyden is demanding more information about how a federal license plate reader camera program works. Last month, we reported on the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program’s license plate reader database, which mirrors data from city license plate reader programs onto ...

An Iowa man has kicked off controversy over religious freedom in the small town of Ottumwa, Iowa by opening a city council meeting with a prayer to Satan, which then kicked off a debate about the proper time in the meeting agenda to undo the “curse.”  On Tuesday night, Ottumwa ...

Body camera footage obtained by 404 Media reveals the first Flock camera searches ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, and highlights how the system has turned otherwise mundane traffic stops into interrogations for drivers. On Friday, we reported that a federal judge ruled the use of license plate reader systems ...

We got the bodycam and in-car footage from the unconstitutional Flock search. Also now you can basically have sex with Claude Code? ...

We start this week with a story from our old friend Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, about how cops can bypass the inactivity reboot on iPhones. After the break, Jason tells us how people are losing their minds over an LLM ‘torture’ prison. In the subscribers-only section, Sam explains what happened in a ...

Howdy, it’s hump day and we’re rolling along. Today we’ve got an update on a very strange case involving a man whose image was resurrected from the dead via AI and made to appear in front of a judge to announced “forgiveness” of his murderer. 404 Media contributor Matthew Gault ...

Jonathan the tortoise, the world’s oldest living land animal, is still chugging along at the ripe age of roughly 194. Now, scientists have discovered some of the secrets to Jonathan’s longevity by sequencing his genome for the first time, according to a study published Wednesday in Science Advances. Jonathan, a ...

A man convicted of manslaughter in Arizona will be resentenced because an AI-generated video of his victim speaking from beyond the grave was ruled to have carried “undue emotional weight” as an impact statement. An appellate court in Arizona ruled that the manslaughter charge will remain, but the judge must ...