Users of the chatbot app Character.ai have been melting down on Reddit and begging the company to stop messing with the app after a series of changes that users say has completely ruined the app. The feedback is so negative that I have never seen a community or user base ...
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Podcast: How Deepfakes Destroyed a High SchoolPodcast: How Deepfakes Destroyed a High School
We start this week with Sam’s deeply reported story on how deepfakes rocked a high school, and how those kids were failed at each step. After the break, Joseph tells us about BusPatrol, a company that plans to turn school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles. In the subscribers-only section, Jason ...
‘BusPatrol’ Put AI Cameras in Tens of Thousands of School Buses. Now They Want to Give Cops Access‘BusPatrol’ Put AI Cameras in Tens of Thousands of School Buses. Now They Want to Give Cops Access
BusPatrol, a company that has installed AI-powered cameras in tens of thousands of school buses around the U.S., now plans to turn those cameras into automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), capturing the location of every vehicle the buses drive past, and give that data to law enforcement, 404 Media has ...
Millions of People Are Installing Malware on Their Partners’ Phones (with Zack Whittaker)Millions of People Are Installing Malware on Their Partners’ Phones (with Zack Whittaker)
This week Joseph speaks to Zack Whittaker, an editor at TechCrunch. Zack has been leading coverage into the spouseware or stalkerware industry. This is malware sold to ordinary people, which they then often install on their girlfriend’s or someone else’s phone. Zack talks about the crazy scope of this problem. ...
An Incomplete List of Successful Anti-Data Center LegislationAn Incomplete List of Successful Anti-Data Center Legislation
Opposition to the massive data centers that power AI is bipartisan and growing across the country. From Maine to California, more states and local communities are passing moratoriums and bans on construction of the noisy, power and water hungry buildings. People are getting arrested for speaking too long at town ...
‘Corpse Point’ In the Arctic Is Melting, Disturbing Centuries-Old Bodies‘Corpse Point’ In the Arctic Is Melting, Disturbing Centuries-Old Bodies
Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that felt the heat, left their mark, survived a cataclysm, and watched cows watch TV. First, the bones of long-dead whalers are spilling out their Arctic graves due to human-driven climate change. Then: a trip to “where the snakes ...
Here’s the Bodycam Footage of the Cybertruck That Drove Into a LakeHere’s the Bodycam Footage of the Cybertruck That Drove Into a Lake
📄 This article was primarily reported using public records requests. We are making it available to all readers as a public service. FOIA reporting can be expensive, please consider subscribing to 404 Media to support this work. Or send us a one time donation via our tip jar here. On ...
Behind the Blog: The Attention WarsBehind the Blog: The Attention Wars
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 Spencer Pratt, bricking phones, and the FTC. JASON: I have watched mostly in horror as Spencer Pratt has taken over the internet ...
The Oldest Evidence of Animal Sex Has Been Found, and It’s Mind-BogglingThe Oldest Evidence of Animal Sex Has Been Found, and It’s Mind-Boggling
Scientists have discovered the oldest fossilized evidence of sexual reproduction and locomotion in animals at a remote site in Canada’s Northwest Territories that dates back 567 million years to the Ediacaran period, according to a study published on Wednesday in Science Advances. According to researchers, the finding pushes the origins ...
This Archivist Has Saved 175,000 Articles from 30 Years of Writing about Magic: The GatheringThis Archivist Has Saved 175,000 Articles from 30 Years of Writing about Magic: The Gathering
I have been playing Magic: The Gathering on and off since I was a child and in that time I’ve read countless articles and websites about the game. Much of it is lost to time and internet churn. Sites are deleted and even the strongest hobby writing vanishes if it ...