Features
44 posts
Features
‘HELLO BOSS’: Inside the Chinese Realtime Deepfake Software Powering Scams Around the World
404 Media has obtained a copy of ‘Haotian AI’, a popular piece of realtime deepfake software marketed to scammers. It can turn a fraudster's face into anyone else's on WhatsApp, Zoom, and Teams.
News
How a University’s Censorship Conference Got Censored
Presenters say that Weber State University’s legal team adopted a narrow construction of a state law designed to withhold funding from public institutions suspected of practicing DEI.
News
Iran Is Winning the AI Slop Propaganda War
“White House videos—AI or otherwise—are like group-chat in-jokes aimed at keeping cohesion.”
Features
An Adrenaline Junkie Millionaire’s Quest to Become a Cocaine Kingpin
Marty Tibbitts made millions as a Detroit telecommunications executive. But he wanted more.
Features
How Ruby Went Off the Rails
What happened to RubyGems, Bundler, and the Open Source drama that controls the internet infrastructure.
Features
How Lofi Girl Became a Chill Beats Empire
How the iconic looping video of a studying anime girl and stream of chill music became a big business.
Features
Inside the Underground Trade of ‘Flipper Zero’ Tech to Break into Cars
“Kia Boys will be Flipper Boys by 2026,” one person in the reverse engineering community said.
Features
How Tea’s Founder Convinced Millions of Women to Spill Their Secrets, Then Exposed Them to the World
A 404 Media investigation reveals how the man who started Tea, the ‘women dating safety’ app, tried to hire a female ‘face’ for the company and then hijack her grassroots community.
Features
Inside the Discord Community Developing Its Own Hair Loss Drugs
HairDAO is a “decentralized autonomous organization” trying to cure hair loss.
Features
How Video Game Sex Scenes Are Made
Game developers use intimacy coordinators, velcro, and juicy oranges to make better sex in games.
Features
The Age of Realtime Deepfake Fraud Is Here
Fraudsters are able to change their race, facial hair, voice, and more during live video calls with very little effort. Scammers are already fooling the elderly and verification systems.
Features
‘Elon Musk’ Was a Prolific Money Launderer for Hackers and Drug Traffickers. It Was Secretly the FBI
In 2023 the FBI quietly arrested a notorious money launderer called ElonmuskWHM. Then the FBI secretly ran his operation for nearly a year to catch (and give money to) more criminals.