Category: 404 Media

🌘 Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week. Ancient fossils have revealed that the earliest animals to walk on land more than 300 million years ago did not experience a metamorphosis similar to modern ...

Salesforce has an internal dashboard which tracks each team’s use of AI, including which teams are using specific tools such as ChatGPT and how much, with the company also handing out digital badges that describe its employees as a “Champion,” “Innovator,” and “Legend” depending on the AI training courses they’ve ...

In a viral essay about how ludicrous the idea that LLMs are conscious is, science fiction writer Ted Chiang asked us to consider Microsoft Word: “Being open to the possibility that LLMs are conscious is the same as being open to the possibility that Microsoft Word is conscious, or, more ...

We start this week with Joseph’s story about the FCC’s wild proposal to require peoples’ government ID numbers to even get a phone plan. The FCC is doing it to curb robocalls, but also said it would be useful for a bunch of other stuff. After the break, Jason tells ...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appears to be purchasing records related to immigrants’ tax identifiers from a data broker, potentially skirting a court order that banned ICE from sourcing such information, according to Senator Ron Wyden and government procurement records reviewed by 404 Media. The contract, worth nearly $10 million, ...

Hackers have long targeted Roblox accounts to steal a player’s valuable items, which can sometimes be worth many tens of thousands of very real dollars. But that wasn’t enough for some. Now, hackers are taking over Roblox developer accounts and stealing ownership of entire video games and digital worlds. Multiple ...

Hackers have published data stolen from Madison Square Garden online for anyone to download, including what they say is customers’ personal information. A sample reviewed by 404 Media includes files mentioning specific sports teams, and specifically Knicks-related personalities, with fields such as “address,” “claim to fame,” “cost of talent,” and ...

*This article contains spoilers for Disclosure Day* Disclosure Day a perfectly entertaining, fun blockbuster movie built around the wildly flawed premise that the human race could be brought together by being shown blurry videos of aliens on primetime news programming—or that they would believe it at all. Its core delusional ...

This week, I’m thrilled to be joined by Imani Thompson. Imani is a digital security trainer and host of a series of events called Cache Me Outside, where she and partner orgs help people understand their personal security, divest from big tech platforms, and learn how to stay safe online. ...

A tiny snippet of user-generated text as short as 13 words long is often enough to manipulate the AI agents that power tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI search, new research shows. The study suggests that it is trivially easy for brands to inject promotional content on sites like Reddit, ...