News
‘Things Are Going to Get Intense:’ How a Musk Ally Plans to Push AI on the Government
404 Media has obtained audio of a meeting held by Thomas Shedd, a Musk-associate who is now heading a team of government coders. In the call one employee pushed back and said one of the planned moves is an “illegal task.”
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: How About Them Eggs
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 talk about traffic, a return to Azeroth, egg prices and bullying.
Black Friday
Happy Affiliate Marketing Day to All Who Celebrate
Black Friday: A good encapsulation of why the internet is the way it is.
Redbox
The Redbox Removal Team
Redbox left 24,000 abandoned DVD rental kiosks. These are some of the people recovering them.
News
Russian Disinformation Campaign Spreads Lies About Ukraine's ‘Stalker 2’
A Russian disinformation operation has set its sights on Stalker 2, which has become a symbol of Ukrainian perseverance.
Overemployment
Are Overemployed ‘Ghost Engineers’ Making Six Figures to Do Nothing?
"We have data on the performance of >50k engineers from 100s of companies. ~9.5% of software engineers do virtually nothing: Ghost Engineers.”
Podcast
Podcast: Pokémon Go to The Military Industrial Complex
Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go, is building an AI model based on user data; we discuss the rise of AI pimping, and a phone sold the U.S. military is expanding to the public.
Bluesky
Someone Made a Dataset of One Million Bluesky Posts for 'Machine Learning Research'
A Hugging Face employee made a huge dataset of Bluesky posts, and it’s already very popular.
X
X's Objection to the Onion Buying InfoWars Is a Reminder You Do Not Own Your Social Media Accounts
"X CORP. OWNS THE X ACCOUNTS."
advertising
WTF Is Stake, the Online Casino Using Viral Posts to Advertise Its Gambling Site
Stake is an online casino and sportsbook that's using watermarks on viral meme accounts to advertise on social media. But it goes deeper than that.
News
Steam Removes Oct 7 Game at Request of UK Counter-Terrorism Unit
The creator of a game that allows players to recreate “Operation al-Aqsa Flood” says it’s no different than Call of Duty.
News
Pokémon Go Data ‘Adding Amplitude to War Is Obviously an Issue,’ Niantic Exec Says
A Niantic executive said he could see governments and militaries buying Niantic geospatial AI trained on player data, but the company said it’s still early days.
News
Tether Has Become a Massive Money Laundering Tool for Mexican Drug Traffickers, Feds Say
Tether is being used on a massive scale by large scale drug traffickers, to the point where Tether is sold cheaper in Mexico due to its links to drugs, according to court records reviewed by 404 Media.