Generative AI
AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality
Generative AI spammers are brute forcing the internet, and it is working.
News
The Secret Service Spent $50,000 on OpenAI and Won’t Say Why
As the White House plans to force federal agencies to be more transparent with their use of AI, the Secret Service won’t say why it’s already spending tens of thousands of dollars on the tech.
Deepfakes
Schools Are Failing to Protect Students From Non-Consensual Deepfakes, Report Shows
A survey of teachers, students and parents showed that schools are unprepared for non-consensual imagery, AI generated or otherwise, spreading throughout communities of young people.
Podcast
Podcast: Telegram is Working With the Cops
Telegram says it will now provide user data to the police; the walls are closing in on the Snowflake hacker; and why Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld is bad (and Nintendo will probably win).
Piracy
Major Private Music Torrenting Site Suffers ‘Massive Peer Scraping Attack’
Orpheus Network tells users: "With great displeasure we need to inform you that a malicious actor has successfully carried out a massive peer scraping attack on our tracker."
News
Ghost, Encrypted Phone for Criminals, Was an ‘Absolute Mess’
A security researcher managed to pull a list of Ghost users, resellers, and even customer support messages from an exposed server. It shows how as organized criminals move to making their own encrypted platforms, they might make vulnerable products.
News
Google Serving AI-Generated Images of Mushrooms Could Have 'Devastating Consequences'
AI-generated images of mushrooms that look nothing like the real species could spread misleading and dangerous information.
News
Privacy Service Optery Faces Backlash After Plan to Send OpenAI User Data
Optery initially planned to send users' data to OpenAI by default, but walked back the decision over the weekend.
News
Telegram Changes Policy, Says It Will Provide User Data to Authorities
In an update to its privacy policy, Telegram says it will now share IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities in response to valid orders. The change is a dramatic switch for the social network app, which has become a hotbed for criminals.
News
The Lost Isle of Moo-Deng-Sized Hippos
Also in The Abstract this week: world-vaporizing cosmic jets and “assisted sexual recruits” are fortifying coral reefs against heat waves.
Features
The Walls Are Closing in on the Snowflake Hacker
As security researchers circle around Judische, and authorities takedown his servers, how much longer will a hacker responsible for breaching Ticketmaster, AT&T, and many more companies remain free?
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Good Dogs and Joyous Games
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 discuss good dogs, good games, getting documents and netsex.
News
‘Cold-Blooded Business’: Nintendo Is Patent Trolling Palworld Because It Got Too Big
Japan games industry analyst explains why Nintendo is going after Palworld, and why it’s probably going to win.