AI
‘BLOCKADE’: The Right Is Using AI Content Scanners to Try to Supercharge Book Banning
Groups that challenge books have begun using Gemini, ChatGPT, xAI, and other AI tools to try to get books banned.
The Abstract
What Really Doomed Napoleon’s Army? Scientists Find New Clues in DNA
DNA from the teeth of French soldiers that died in the disastrous 1812 retreat from Moscow revealed previously unidentified pathogens.
News
AI Dataset for Detecting Nudity Contained Child Sexual Abuse Images
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection found more than 120 images of identified or known victims of CSAM in the dataset.
News
a16z-Backed Startup Sells Thousands of ‘Synthetic Influencers’ to Manipulate Social Media as a Service
Andreessen Horowitz is funding a company that clearly violates the inauthentic behavior policies of every major social media platform.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Making Things for Humans
This week, we discuss Pavlovian Chartbeat response, when to say "cum," and the wave of making things for humans, by humans.
ICE
DHS Tries To Unmask Ice Spotting Instagram Account by Claiming It Imports Merchandise
There is no evidence the Instagram and Facebook account, called Montcowatch, sells anything. Lawyers from the ACLU say the move is "wildly outside the scope" of DHS' authority.
The Abstract
Breathing Through Our Butts Declared Safe After First Human Trial
The first application of enteral ventilation—aka breathing through the bum—to humans proved the technique is safe.
Deepfakes
New Research Shows Deepfake Harassment Tools Spread on Social Media and Search Engines
An analysis of how tools to make non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes spread online, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, shows X and search engines surface these sites easily.
Privacy
A $60 Mod to Meta’s Ray-Bans Disables Its Privacy-Protecting Recording Light
Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses usually include an LED that lights up when the user is recording other people. One hobbyist is charging a small fee to disable that light, and has a growing list of customers around the country.
tea
Apple Removes Women Dating Safety App from the App Store
The app, which went viral before facing multiple data breaches, is currently unavailable on the Apple App Store.
News
The AWS Outage Bricked People’s $2,700 Smartbeds
When Amazon Web Services went offline, people lost control of their cloud-connected smart beds, getting stuck in reclined positions or roasting with the heat turned all the way up.
Podcast
Podcast: Hackers Dox ICE
Hackers targeting ICE and other agencies; Wikipedia's AI problem now has some data; and OpenAI's inevitable pivot to sex bot.
News
Anthropic Promises Trump Admin Its AI Is Not Woke
After condemnation from Trump’s AI czar, Anthropic’s CEO promised its AI is not woke.