The internet as we know it is changing fast. Over the last few months we have documented how generative AI tools are flooding every internet platform with junk content designed to monetize loopholes in already fraying social media companies and deceive users. AI-generated influencers that steal content from real people, fake images of suffering children, and the endless parade of harmful Instagram ads is a toxic media ecosystem that puts profits first and the wellbeing of real people last. Google search is sending less traffic than ever to sites like ours, and is injecting yet more AI into its search products. Media companies are increasingly turning to AI-generated garbage too.
As a paying subscriber, you know that we are building an alternative: media for humans, made by humans. As a reminder of how important it is that the internet is a home for humans and not just machines, we wanted to show you what your support has helped us do in the last few months:
- Uncovered how hackers dox doctors to order and resell opioids and adderall
- Revealed that ElevenLabs’s technique to prevent voice cloning that can interfere with the upcoming election doesn’t work
- Revealed that the New York Times is using copyright takedowns to kill hundreds of games
- Revealed that Amazon’s Chatbot recommended Nazi literature to users
- Revealed that massively popular safes have secret backdoors
- Revealed that scientific journals are publishing AI-generated papers, and that AI is used in academic peer review
- Exposed a service that is using AI to create nonconsensual porn of regular people
- Wrote several stories that resulted in Apple and Google removing nonconsensual porn apps from their app stores.
- Exposed a tool that was spying on Discord users, which resulted in that tool being killed by Discord.
- Revealed how companies are using AI to plant ads in Reddit threads and make them seem like authentic comments.
- Revealed a tool that was exposing Telegram users location.
Most importantly, support from our subscribers has allowed us to achieve what we’ve set out to do: create a sustainable and responsible vehicle for our journalism. We truly appreciate your continued support, and we have much, much more to come.
Joseph, Jason, Emanuel, and Sam.
