Privacy
FBI Couldn’t Get into WaPo Reporter’s iPhone Because It Had Lockdown Mode Enabled
Lockdown Mode is a sometimes overlooked feature of Apple devices that broadly make them harder to hack. A court record indicates the feature might be effective at stopping third parties unlocking someone's device. At least for now.
Podcast
Podcast: Unmasking Deepfakes Kingpins (with Kolina Koltai)
Bellingcat's Kolina Koltai talks about OSINT investigations into synthetic abuse imagery sites, and seeing them go down because of her work.
News
I Replaced My Friends With AI Because They Won't Play Tarkov With Me
What began as a joke got a little too real. So I shut it down for good.
memes
How Right Wing Influencers Used AI Slop to Turn Renee Good Into a Meme
A look at “necromemetics” and the meme economy in the aftermath of violence.
The Abstract
Scientists Discovered a Cow That Uses Tools Like a Chimpanzee
Veronika, a brown cow in Austria, uses sticks and brushes as multipurpose tools to scratch hard-to-reach spots
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Signs of the Times
This week, we discuss stances on AI, a conference about money laundering, and signs about slavery coming down.
The Abstract
Scientists Got Men to Rate Penises by How Intimidating They Are. This Is What They Found.
Why is the human penis so big? Scientists probed the evolution of penis size through sexual selection and mate competition in a first-of-its-kind study
AI Porn
Aliens and Angel Numbers: Creators Worry Porn Platform ManyVids Is Falling Into ‘AI Psychosis’
“Ethical dilemmas about AI aside, the posts are completely disconnected with ManyVids as a site,” one ManyVids content creator told 404 Media.
Podcast
Podcast: Here’s What Palantir Is Really Building
We talk ELITE, the tool Palantir is working on; how AI influencers are defaming celebrities; and Comic-Con's ban of AI art.
Amateur Radio Operators in Belarus Arrested, Face the Death Penalty
"My local community is being systematically liquidated in what I can only describe as a targeted intellectual genocide."
News
Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback
The famed convention's organizers have banned AI from the art show.
Podcast
How Wikipedia Will Survive in the Age of AI (With Wikipedia’s CTO Selena Deckelmann)
The Wikimedia Foundation’s chief technology and product officer explains how she helps manage one of the most visited sites in the world in the age of generative AI.
Alleged Mail Thief Arrested After Bragging About Crimes On Instagram Stories
On the same day he allegedly robbed a mail carrier, Jordan McCorvey posted photos of himself flipping through stacks of letters still in the USPS tray.