Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Foolishness and Breaking Through
This week, we discuss getting fooled, the 'one big story' of the week, and Ghibli.
News
Police Hack Into ‘Ghost’, An Encrypted Platform for Criminals
Operation Kraken is a sign that organized criminals are moving away from larger encrypted phone companies to a decentralized collection of smaller players and consumer access apps that the rest of us use.
Lebanon
Experts: Lebanon Pager Explosions Likely Not Lithium Batteries Alone
Lithium-ion battery fires are dangerous, but small batteries alone don't usually cause this much damage.
News
Snapchat Reserves the Right to Use AI-Generated Images of Your Face in Ads
Snapchat’s “My Selfie” by default reserves the right to use your likeness in ads.
Oracle
Larry Ellison's AI-Powered Surveillance Dystopia Is Already Here
"Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on."
News
Google Serves AI Slop as Top Result for One of the Most Famous Paintings in History
A Google Search for “Hieronymus Bosch” returned an AI-generated version of The Garden of Earthly Delights pulled from an AI slop blog.
FOIA
The Air Force Is Researching a ‘MAD.AI’ That Would Adapt Drones to New Environments
The Air Force has contracted with a company called Qylur, whose tool is designed to continuously improve the AI systems of autonomous devices such as drones and UAVs.
News
Neanderthals Would Rather Die than Talk to You
Welcome to The Abstract, a new weekly column from 404 Media about new, mind blowing scientific studies.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Risks, Attention, and Telegram
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 communicating risks, brain rot, and the arrest of Telegram's CEO.
Stalker Allegedly Created AI Chatbot on NSFW Platform to Dox and Harass Woman
"If another user interacting with the chatbot asked the ‘Victim’ where she lived, the chatbot could provide the Victim’s true home address followed by ‘Why don’t you come over?'"
News
Historic Newspaper Uses Janky AI Newscasters Instead of Human Journalists
Hawaii’s The Garden Island newspaper is producing video news segments with AI. The union at its parent company calls it “digital colonialism.”
AI
AI-Generated Deepfakes Pushed Taylor Swift to Endorse Kamala Harris
Taylor Swift is one of the most deepfaked women in the world, but AI-generated images showing her and her fans endorsing Donald Trump were her last straw.
Podcast
Podcast: Fraudsters Say 'We Know Where You Live'
The new wave of scary sextortion emails that include your address; the rise of right to repair for your body; and a years old Reddit mystery solved.