AI
Alibaba's 'Animate Anyone' Is Trained on Scraped Videos of Famous TikTokers
The new image-to-video model went viral this week because people saw potential to replace TikTok personalities, but ripping content creators' work is already baked into the tech.
sex
The Quantified Clit: This Urologist Is Making a Smart Wearable for the Clitoris
Penises have all kinds of data-gathering wearable options. What about the clitoris?
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Pickleball Drama, Auto-Generated Women, and Really Big Drone Contracts
This week, we discuss uncovering government defense contracts, revealing fake "auto-generated" female speakers, and thoughts on FOIA.
Programming
Male Tech Conference Founder Is Behind Popular Woman Coding Influencer Account
IP logs show that accounts for Coding Unicorn, a female tech influencer who's built a following based on her coding advice and Instagram influencer posts, are run by a male developer and conference organizer.
News
Tech Conference Collapses After Organizer Admits to Making Fake ‘Auto-Generated’ Female Speaker
Viral allegations that Devternity founder Eduard Sizovs fabricated female speakers to boost diversity have caused several big-name speakers to publicly drop out of the conference.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Disney Copyright, Singing Xi, and the Wizarding World of Effective Altruists
This week, we're looking at OpenAI-adjacent Harry Potter fanfic, Disney's AI generated copyright, and questions about Hugging Face's selectively-enforced terms.
AI
Bing Generates Disney Logos, Definitely Won’t Incur Disney’s Wrath
Microsoft recently pledged to cover the legal costs of customers who infringe on copyright while using its AI-generated content services.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: The TikTok Letter, Brand Safety, and AI Girlfriends Gone Offline
This week, we discuss the bin Laden TikTok controversy, how brand safety shapes the internet, and Instagram's enforcement of its own rules (or lack thereof).
advertising
Elon Musk Is Making His Advertising Crisis a Problem for Sex Workers
Adult content creators are seeing an influx of "sensitive content" labels on Twitter, which could be tied to the site's newly implemented sensitivity settings for advertisers.
scams
Why Does Wildlife Photographer Paul Nicklen Have Dozens of Catfish Scam Impersonators?
People are editing Paul Nicklen into hospital bed pictures, faking his passports, and scamming fans out of thousands of dollars through social media impersonation.
News
Pornhub ‘Deeply Regrets’ Hosting Girls Do Porn Content
Pornhub’s parent company has reached an agreement with the US Attorney’s office after an FBI investigation.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: RIP Omegle, Refund Scams, and Tablet Thieves
This week, we discuss a groundbreaking investigation into Labcorp labor issues, the role of court records in our reporting, how "brand safety" has doomed the news industry, and the demise of a controversial website.