Jason Koebler

journalist at 404 Media

Public Key

npub14u2edduffvdjfdmuflsz7eqgq8pszy7l3at0z6uanghdqpspgz0q538yy2

NIP-05 Address

jasonkoebler_at_mastodon.social@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs279vkk7y5kxeyka7ylcp0vsyqrscpz00c74h3dwwe5tksqcq5p8sprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wdmksetjv5hxxmmdqyt8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnwdaehgu3wvfskueqm2l3c2

Publishing to

relay.noswhere.com

relay.nostr.band

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub14u2edduffvdjfdmuflsz7eqgq8pszy7l3at0z6uanghdqpspgz0q538yy2

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Last Notes

2024-08-06 14:17:06

After months of digging and reporting, I have learned where Facebook's bizarre AI spam (like "Shrimp Jesus") comes from, who is making it, how it works, and how it is monetized.
Turns out Meta is directly paying people to spam FB with this stuff
https://www.404media.co/where-facebooks-ai-slop-comes-from/

2024-07-25 13:41:44

New: We obtained a gigantic spreadsheet of videos used to train the AI video generator Runway without permission.
Thousands of YouTube videos and channels from major influencers, big brands, specific keywords. Movie and anime piracy sites also listed.
https://www.404media.co/runway-ai-image-generator-training-data-youtube/

2024-07-23 14:52:26

Private orgs are now claiming to be buying the specific phone locations of specific people to track their movement over time, which is a wild, wild development regardless of who is being tracked
https://www.404media.co/heritage-foundation-claims-to-use-location-data-to-track-trump-shooters-movements/

2024-07-22 14:33:03

At a border security conference, DHS tells law enforcement it has a dog robot it has modified to do Denial of Service attacks on smarthome devices to disable internet of things "booby traps" in homes they're raiding
https://www.404media.co/dhs-has-a-ddos-robot-to-disable-internet-of-things-booby-traps-inside-homes/

2024-07-19 16:30:52

if you have the c-00000291.sys file itself can you send it to me; signal is 202-505-1702

2024-07-19 15:06:20

what in the priceline hell
https://www.404media.co/ai-hell-is-begging-a-chatbot-for-a-5-discount-on-a-light-fixture/

2024-07-19 14:44:26

Affected by CrowdStrike outage? Simply try rebooting 15 consecutive times, Microsoft suggests
https://www.404media.co/to-fix-crowdstrike-blue-screen-of-death-simply-reboot-15-straight-times-microsoft-says/

2024-07-18 14:57:05

green hats back in stock by popular demand (!!)
https://404media.myshopify.com/products/baseball-cap
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/808/075/141/073/785/original/b9c8a2cd88d49484.png

2024-07-17 17:34:33

On the heels of the FBI unlocking Trump shooter phone, we have a doc showing which phones Cellebrite (and its police customers) can unlock
Turns out ..... almost any updated phone released in the last 4 yrs cannot be unlocked using its software
https://www.404media.co/leaked-docs-show-what-phones-cellebrite-can-and-cant-unlock/

2024-07-16 17:07:21

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We also have an upcoming event in Santa Barbara (https://www.instagram.com/p/C9deWvcSMA5/), will be at XOXO in Portland, and hopefully will have a party in Los Angeles at some TBD time.
Doing this party as a test, hopefully more to come in more cities/places

2024-07-16 16:48:28

BROOKLYN!!!
404 Media is having a First Anniversary party September 5 at The Woods. Open Bar!
Free for paying subscribers.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/404-medias-first-anniversary-tickets-939033152437

2024-07-12 17:06:31

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This one of Goldman Sachs' top analysts: "This is not a matter of just some tweaks being required here and there; despite its expensive price tag, the technology is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to be useful for even such basic tasks."
Goldman Sachs ran an experiment where they had AI do a task and also did a task manually and found that it cost six times as much to have AI do the same task as humans. Cites "illegible and nonsensical results"

2024-07-12 17:06:30

A blistering Goldman Sachs research report wonders if the massive investment in Generative AI will ever pay off, says stock gains are already baked in "outside of the most bullish AI scenario," and posits that Gen AI is likely a bubble: https://www.404media.co/goldman-sachs-ai-is-overhyped-wildly-expensive-and-unreliable/

2024-07-10 15:18:41

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TUAW has now changed its "writers' names" to random other things. "Christina Warren" is now "Mary Brown."
So now it has "just" bastardized the work of these journalists and is polluting the internet, but at least is not stealing their names and poisoning their search results ...... success?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/762/861/602/264/869/original/254c108e1646b70f.png

2024-07-03 14:57:08

Google's researchers would like you to know that AI is polluting the internet
https://www.404media.co/google-ai-potentially-breaking-reality-is-a-feature-not-a-bug/

2024-06-25 13:26:36

We spent $365 to build an AI news site that publishes 50 times a day, plagiarizes directly from our original reporting, uses services like Fiverr and popular WordPress plugins, is SEO optimized for Google and Adsense & breaks the rules of none of them
https://www.404media.co/i-paid-365-63-to-replace-404-media-with-ai/

2024-06-24 18:06:17

Pretty amazing stuff from the Udio/Suno lawsuits. Record labels were able to basically recreate versions of very famous songs with highly specific prompts, then linked to them in the lawsuits. I made a short compilation here:
https://www.404media.co/listen-to-the-ai-generated-ripoff-songs-that-got-udio-and-suno-sued/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/672/923/138/293/093/original/77eeb84d34d1fa5e.mp4

2024-06-24 15:41:21

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Sarah Roberts, prof whose work in content mod is widely cited, calls it the "deindustrialization" of FB: "There’s not a lot of financial gain to be had in propping up FB with new stuff, but it’s not like it disappears or its footprint shrinks. It just gets filled with scams. And then poor content moderation begets scammers begets this useless crap content, AI-generated stuff, uncanny valley stuff that people don’t enjoy and it just gets worse and worse.”

2024-06-24 15:10:54

Facebook is in its 'fuck around find out' era. A colossal, decaying platform emboldened by Musk telling advertisers to go fuck themselves. Experts it used to consult with on hard issues say they haven't heard from the company in years
https://www.404media.co/has-facebook-stopped-trying/

2024-06-20 14:52:06

The potential ban on DJI drones is maddening. The 'spying' infrastructure is tech that was introduced years ago *to comply with US government regulations*
https://www.404media.co/the-dji-drone-ban-a-uniquely-american-disaster/

2024-06-17 16:12:33

The rise of passive investing means Vanguard and other investment firms now control a significant part of most American companies and people saving for retirement rarely have any say in what they do with that power
https://www.404media.co/you-probably-unwittingly-voted-to-give-elon-musk-a-huge-raise/

2024-06-13 15:04:30

Police in Ohio just dumped the location history of a random person's car in response to a FOIA request
https://www.404media.co/cops-released-a-cars-travel-history-to-a-total-stranger/

2024-06-12 14:32:16

A user asked Perplexity a basic question about the South China Sea and it launched into an infinite loop convo between a "human" and an AI that appears to show it trying to sanitize the answer
https://www.404media.co/perplexity-malfunction-reveals-ai-answer-about-south-china-sea-is-sanitized/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/604/134/444/181/685/original/cd0e5f438502637a.png

2024-06-12 13:32:59

A hacker broke into Tile, which sells AirTags-like location tracking devices. Had the ability to ping all Tile users, had access to a tool used by law enforcement to make requests: "Basically I had access to everything"
https://www.404media.co/hacker-accesses-internal-tile-tool-that-provides-location-data-to-cops/

2024-06-11 17:41:54

If we want journalism to survive we need to move away from the model where dozens of humans write the same exact blog about an errant Elon Musk tweet in hopes of appeasing an algorithm that is actively changing to kill this exact business model
https://www.404media.co/elon-musk-tweeted-a-thing/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/599/217/750/832/988/original/5d27f64dd66af9b2.png

2024-06-11 16:08:44

New: Hackers embedded malware in a Stable Diffusion extension hosted on GitHub and have been hacking people generating AI images
"You have committed one of our sins: Art Theft"
https://www.404media.co/hackers-target-ai-users-with-malicious-stable-diffusion-tool-on-github/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/598/851/415/351/822/original/15910db68bad321d.jpg

2024-06-11 13:31:29

Adderall and Ozempic are getting so hard to find that a startup will let you pay $50 and their workers in the Philippines will call pharmacies until they find one with your meds in stock
https://www.404media.co/people-in-the-philippines-are-calling-us-pharmacies-to-help-americans-find-adderall/

2024-06-06 15:42:26

New: Tamagotchi collector world buzzing after someone figured out how to unlock a secret character on a 27-year-old Tamagotchi released in 1997
https://www.404media.co/a-27-year-old-tamagotchi-mystery-has-been-solved/

2024-06-05 13:48:43

should we do 404 Media branded circular saw blades
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/564/326/948/083/321/original/e7d2f0ba42f32aed.png

2024-06-03 13:36:46

New: We obtained an internal database of employee-reported privacy incidents at Google that shows the huge breadth of data it has and the run-of-the-mill and spectacular ways it mishandles it all the time
https://www.404media.co/google-leak-reveals-thousands-of-privacy-incidents/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/552/951/825/574/898/original/bce89ee2555b3c1b.png

2024-05-30 20:22:01

EXCITING!!
Four people on Discord have, after years of searching, found where the original "The Backrooms" creepypasta image was taken. Break in the story came when they found the image's filename
https://www.404media.co/internet-sleuths-trace-the-backrooms-creepypasta-to-an-rc-car-race-track-in-wisconsin/

2024-05-29 13:07:01

My explainer of exactly what's happening in the Ticketmaster monopoly case and why Live Nation is so powerful in the first place
https://www.404media.co/the-monopoly-case-against-ticketmaster-explained/

2024-05-28 13:30:54

Google's own researchers now say AI is a top vector of disinfo, in a paper that severely and obviously undercounts the problem
https://www.404media.co/google-says-ai-now-leading-disinformation-vector-and-is-severely-undercounting-the-problem/

2024-05-23 15:41:16

$60 million well spent
https://www.404media.co/google-is-paying-reddit-60-million-for-fucksmith-to-tell-its-users-to-eat-glue/

2024-05-23 13:45:52

Cory Doctorow on Red Lobster is an instant click from me https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/ @npub1hyk…3p33

2024-05-23 13:23:11

Scoop: I obtained the contract Samsung requires independent shops to sign to buy phone repair parts from them.
It requires:
- "Daily" dumps of customer data
- The "immediate destruction" of any phones a shop comes across that has third-party parts
https://www.404media.co/samsung-requires-independent-repair-shops-to-share-customer-data-snitch-on-people-who-use-aftermarket-parts-leaked-contract-shows/

2024-05-15 16:05:42

AI generated, fully nude hentai is viral all over Facebook. Hundreds of accounts, thousands of likes, lots of it linking to scam/spam sites. Same as Shrimp Jesus, etc.
https://www.404media.co/ai-generated-hentai-is-viral-all-over-facebook/

2024-05-14 14:47:42

Can't make this up: Some Amazon warehouses are now selling neck fans to employees so they don't overheat while they work. They can only buy them with "SWAG Bucks," which are earned for good behavior
https://www.404media.co/amazons-swag-store-sells-neck-fans-to-prevent-workers-from-overheating/

2024-05-14 14:01:34

My deep dive on the current state of John Deere's tractor repair monopoly. DRM & software locks make it impossible for farmers to fix things they own. But a class-action lawsuit is bringing judicial & federal scrutiny
https://www.404media.co/the-walls-are-closing-in-on-john-deeres-tractor-repair-monopoly/

2024-05-14 04:52:50

does anyone know a good tenants' rights lawyer / group in LA? pls lmk

2024-05-12 13:57:06

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This, from a John Deere dealer, is wild. They warn that affected tractors operated during this time will likely have made maps that are wrong, which will be wrong throughout the growing system, and which are wrong in an inconsistent way
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/428/464/357/771/952/original/f5098e779005cc24.png

2024-05-12 13:56:54

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One farmer called it a "shitshow." Another: "All the tractors are sitting at the ends of the field right now shut down because of the solar storm." Another said their systems that are normally centimeter-accurate were off by 3-6 feet and tractor kept "wandering off" and had to be constantly corrected.

2024-05-12 13:48:06

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This is a reminder of how much modern tractors rely on satellite and internet connections. Many farmers can't or won't plant right now bc tractors have been highly automated to increase yield. Rows are planted so tightly together that humans can't navigate them w/o killing crops
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/428/429/019/661/681/original/93fe1df3dda8de8e.png

2024-05-12 13:42:25

Scoop: Solar storm is causing farmers' tractor GPS systems to go haywire. Many have shut down planting altogether during a critical period. A Deere dealer said accuracy is "extremely compromised"
https://www.404media.co/solar-storm-knocks-out-tractor-gps-systems-during-peak-planting-season/

2024-05-09 20:03:11

New: OpenAI—a company that has indiscriminately scraped vast amounts of human knowledge to build a company valued at roughly $80 billion—has made a copyright complaint against the ChatGPT subreddit because it used OpenAI’s logo.
https://www.404media.co/openai-files-copyright-claim-against-chatgpt-subreddit/

2024-05-07 17:44:06

Facebook / Instagram, which are doing absolutely horrible, horrible, horrible jobs of moderating AI content of all sorts, is either tricked by or celebrating AI generated pics of Katy Perry
https://www.404media.co/generative-ai-stuns-and-fools-viewers-at-met-gala/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/401/045/474/386/613/original/a21d231fbb08203c.png

2024-05-07 16:41:07

Ticket brokers are selling Billie Eilish's supposedly "untransferrable" tickets, designed to prevent scalping. I explain how they're doing it, and how untransferrable tickets are transferred all the time:
https://www.404media.co/billie-eilishs-untransferable-tickets-immediately-resold-by-ticket-resellers/

2024-05-03 14:30:54

Utah set up a complaint form to enforce its transphobic "Bathroom Bill" and left the database connected to it open to the public, which shows that it has been used exclusively for memes and trolling
https://www.404media.co/utah-bathroom-bill-hotline-form/

2024-05-02 20:12:25

The NYPD produced a dramatically edited propaganda video about Columbia University arrests within 24 hours. I am still waiting on basic FOIA responses from them and Mayor Adams' office years after I've filed them
https://www.404media.co/there-is-no-transparency-in-new-york-city-nypd-arrests-columbia/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/373/317/181/577/768/original/d993a27da4aec2ff.png

2024-05-01 17:16:11

very interesting that the cops who have never in their lives helped someone get their stolen bike back seem to know nothing about the steps bikers have to take to keep their bikes safe in the city
https://www.404media.co/nypd-bike-lock-chain-kryptonite-columbia-university-protests/

2024-04-30 17:16:56

AI-generated child gore, child suffering, dying children, and otherwise mutilated children are going viral on Facebook. The company's recommendation engine, which Zuckerberg bragged about last week, is injecting these into users' feeds.
https://www.404media.co/ai-images-of-dying-drowning-mutilated-children-go-viral-on-facebook/

2024-04-29 15:14:25

The Russian government copy pasted Wikipedia to a new site, censored the articles, then banned the original Wikipedia. Head of new Russian government Wikipedia is the old admin of real Russian Wikipedia
https://www.404media.co/russia-clones-wikipedia-censors-it-bans-original/

2024-04-29 13:47:47

Tech companies have realized that their AI models are trained on children and are enabling CSAM so they're going to try to iterate their way out of it regardless of the wreckage
https://www.404media.co/tech-companies-promise-to-try-to-do-something-about-all-the-ai-csam-theyre-enabling/

2024-04-23 23:23:14

pinning "i know what enshittification is, that's why i wrote the article" to all of my social media accounts

2024-04-23 17:08:06

does anyone know of any reverse video search tools? or something that would approximate this? i assume not, for a variety of reasons? but lmk

2024-04-23 13:52:38

If you add "reddit" to the end of search terms so that you can find posts by a real person, I have bad news: AI is beginning to poison Reddit in an effort to game Google results
https://www.404media.co/ai-is-poisoning-reddit-to-promote-products-and-game-google-with-parasite-seo/

2024-04-22 14:23:37

smart as always from @npub1hyk…3p33 on how closed platforms and social media companies screw over *everyone*, not just their users
https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/22/kargo-kult-kaptialism/#dont-buy-it

2024-04-22 13:25:55

Instagram and Facebook are both decaying platforms that don't just enable criminal behavior but actively profit from it and either don't know or don't care how to stop it
https://www.404media.co/instagram-advertises-nonconsensual-ai-nude-apps/

2024-04-19 16:14:28

Like the NY Times, 404 Media has also invested in games
https://aftermath.site/new-york-times-wordle-connections-puzzmo-games
(game avail here: https://www.404media.co/doom/)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/298/771/150/236/190/original/59c242caf0e92e21.png

2024-04-18 19:48:17

This is a great piece, and confirms the broader scale of a piece I did a long time ago: Apple has "must shred" agreements with e-waste recyclers that require them to destroy devices that could easily be repaired/refurbished/reused after having data wiped
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-04-18/apple-iphone-recycling-program-has-secrets?embedded-checkout=true

2024-04-17 15:16:35

New: Facebook's AI chatbot told a parent in a group asking for advice from other parents that it has a gifted, disabled child who attends school in New York City
https://www.404media.co/facebooks-ai-told-parents-group-it-has-a-disabled-child/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/287/218/077/712/907/original/5b65e70af61b8942.jpeg

2024-04-17 13:19:02

A spy tool is scraping the messages of thousands of Discord servers and selling the data. This is letting people track users across servers, shows when they joined voice chats, which servers they're in, etc: https://www.404media.co/a-spy-site-is-scraping-discord-and-selling-users-messages/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/286/756/774/510/275/original/fa26f621a857a7ca.jpg

2024-04-15 14:45:38

The Cass report, an incredibly influential document used to limit gender affirming care in the UK, uses AI-generated stock images of children from a series in which every nonbinary teen has pink hair and the same haircut
https://www.404media.co/uk-gender-affirming-care-ai-generated-children/

2024-04-15 14:07:25

"Fuck you, Wayne": Amazon drivers have named all of their bad bosses nationwide "Wayne" as a way to vent about their terrible work conditions safely without being identified:
https://www.404media.co/bad-amazon-bosses-wayne/

2024-04-11 19:29:03

Google announced its AI discovered "millions of new materials." This was v hyped.
A new analysis argues it actually "does not report any new materials." One researcher said "there are many examples of predicted materials that are clearly nonsensical"
https://www.404media.co/google-says-it-discovered-millions-of-new-materials-with-ai-human-researchers/

2024-04-11 16:49:05

Democracy in action: Apple announced it magically figured out how to do something it argued it couldn't do weeks after Oregon passed a law banning its current repair practices
https://www.404media.co/apple-announces-half-measure-to-make-iphones-more-repairable-immediately-after-law-banned-its-repair-practices/

2024-04-09 13:45:41

The chicken shop that outsourced its cashier job to a woman on Zoom in the Philippines has the Zoom meeting ID and password taped to a computer on the front desk, facing everyone:
https://www.404media.co/sansan-chicken-zoom-cashier/

2024-04-04 14:24:04

Today in AI dystopia: A "law firm" of AI-generated lawyers is sending fake copyright threats to website owners as part of a scam to get SEO backlinks
https://www.404media.co/a-law-firm-of-ai-generated-lawyers-is-sending-fake-threats-as-an-seo-scam/
first spotted by @npub1w9a…04m0

2024-04-01 14:20:40

Widely available, competitively priced and independent car repair is being threatened by software DRM, and new types of diagnostics and parts calibration that can only be done by dealers:
https://www.404media.co/the-car-repair-apocalypse-could-soon-be-upon-us/

2024-03-29 14:37:52

New: The AI weapons scanning company Eric Adams said will be used by the NYC subway was sued this week by a class action of shareholders who allege it "does not reliably detect knives or guns" and say exaggerated claims have caused them to lose $$$
https://www.404media.co/shareholders-sue-evolv-ai-weapon-detecting-company-because-it-fails-to-detect-weapons/

2024-03-27 20:34:57

New: Oregon's gov has signed the strongest right to repair law ever passed, which forbids Apple's "parts pairing" regime for iPhones. this is a v big deal
https://www.404media.co/oregon-passes-right-to-repair-bill-that-would-make-apple-redesign-the-iphone/

2024-03-26 14:25:38

The well-funded and Samsung-backed AI image generator Leonardo is being used to make deepfakes of celebrities by the same people who spammed Taylor Swift deepfakes on X. Not responding to media requests etc. good stuff
https://www.404media.co/samsung-backed-ai-image-generator-produces-nonconsensual-porn/

2024-03-22 21:58:10

The destruction of good websites at the hands of private equity & overpaid executives is excruciating.
But at the same time, these know-nothings have been making people's lives miserable for a long time and will soon find that they own nothing at all
https://www.404media.co/behind-the-blog-coffee-in-keyboards-and-venture-capitalists/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/141/578/237/198/576/original/174ad9f2a2303ce3.png

2024-03-21 18:10:37

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Now Kotaku's EIC has resigned after being told by execs there that the site could only write game guides: "“I firmly believe that the decision to ‘invert’ Kotaku's editorial strategy to deprioritize news in favor of guides is fundamentally misguided"
https://aftermath.site/kotaku-eic-resigns-over-new-editorial-edict

2024-03-15 13:33:18

Things continue to go very well on Facebook. There are now pages that post AI-generated breastfeeding mothers so they can technically comply with FB's moderation policies. But the babies and the moms are often horrifically zombified
https://www.404media.co/horrific-ai-generated-breastfeeding-images-on-facebook-bypass-moderation/

2024-03-14 18:39:55

Pornhub has just blocked itself in the state of Texas:
https://www.404media.co/pornhub-blocked-texas/

2024-03-12 14:28:05

Amazon has a new tool for searching user reviews but is actually just an AI chatbot that will make up things about Amazon working conditions and will recommend Nazi literature
https://www.404media.co/amazons-hidden-chatbot-recommends-nazi-books-and-lies-about-amazon-working-conditions/

2024-03-11 19:53:03

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case in point: This piece explaining how American TikTok influencers have become the biggest peddlers of Chinese counterfeits via an affiliate marketing and "agent" system where a middleman buys the product domestically in China then ships it to US
https://www.wired.com/story/influencers-paid-promote-designer-knockoffs-from-china/

2024-03-05 19:23:46

New: Oregon has passed a right to repair bill that bans "parts pairing" over the objection of Apple lobbyists. This will require Apple to fundamentally rework how iPhone repairs work and will be a huge win for consumers:
https://www.404media.co/oregon-passes-right-to-repair-bill-that-would-make-apple-redesign-the-iphone/

2024-03-05 15:52:31

I went deep into the world of TikTok spammers who claim to makes 5 figures a month posting stolen and AI-generated clips through its partner program. This community is very wild.
There are 80,000 people sitting in a Discord talking about how to turn Reddit posts, fun facts, redpill clips, Would You Rather, Minecraft gameplay into $$$. Entire industry has popped up around it. People selling clips, tools, US-based TikTok accounts, GPT prompts, ideas
https://www.404media.co/inside-the-world-of-tiktok-spammers-and-the-ai-tools-that-enable-them/

2024-03-01 16:02:43

Automattic edited a developer page in September to explicitly allow for AI companies to buy access to a "firehose" of a million WordPress posts per day through a company called SocialGist. How does this work and what are the safeguards? Automattic will not say, will not talk.
https://www.404media.co/wordpress-firehose-allows-ai-companies-to-buy-access-to-a-million-posts-a-day/
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2024-02-28 14:40:34

many many AI-generated Kara Swisher biographies, including "KARA SWISHER BOOK" are flooding Amazon if you search "Kara Swisher" the week that her own book comes out
https://www.404media.co/ai-generated-kara-swisher-biographies-flood-amazon/

2024-02-27 18:25:45

NEW: Tumblr and Wordpress are preparing to sell user data to Midjourney and OpenAI for AI training, according to internal documentation we've reviewed at 404 Media
https://www.404media.co/tumblr-and-wordpress-to-sell-users-data-to-train-ai-tools/

2024-02-27 14:24:01

A bunch of ghost kitchens are advertising food on DoorDash and Grubhub with AI-generated images that create impossible dishes
https://www.404media.co/ghost-kitchens-are-advertising-ai-generated-food-on-doordash-and-grubhub/

2024-02-26 15:09:45

New: We published body camera footage of a sheriff in Idaho hunting for 'obscene' books at the library to use for a political stunt last year in which he announced he was holding two stolen books hostage at a public meeting.
Those books were actually stolen from another library. The sheriff returned them mutilated, and they have not been returned to circulation
https://www.404media.co/police-bodycam-shows-sheriff-kootenai-idaho-hunting-for-obscene-books-at-library/

2024-02-24 17:40:58

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@npub1hyk…3p33 I started at vice maybe two years before this. Motherboard specifically went from making 4-5 30-minute, in the field documentaries that got millions of views and were beloved to hiring a bunch of people to make a TV pilot. I think they spent $2 million hiring people to make and shoot four episodes of a tv show that executives hated (but was objectively good, and would have done well on YT), that they literally threw in the trash and never aired anywhere

2024-02-24 17:33:39

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@npub1hyk…3p33 this is spot on as always, and very kind to us.
The only thing I would quibble with/add is to note that VICE was really early to video (for a news org) and made high quality documentaries that the audience loved and that were making tons of money via YouTube and were leading to sponsored, but still not shitty, documentaries. This is a model that was working. And then they decided to make a cable tv channel (????????), which *everyone* thought was dumb at the time

2024-02-21 14:24:56

p good
https://www.404media.co/chatgpt-started-speaking-gibberish/
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2024-02-20 15:42:40

Scammers are spinning up fake "funeral livestreams" that try to trick grandpa into giving them his credit card number
https://www.404media.co/fake-funeral-live-stream-scams-are-all-over-facebook/

2024-02-20 15:41:42

This is a devastating indictment of Google and major media outlets—and of what Private Equity, SEO manipulation, and affiliate link spamming has done to the internet, search, and media
https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/

2024-02-16 00:56:11

This nails the moment we’re in. You should read and subscribe to my friend and the very excellent journalist @npub143c…59ma: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/torching-the-google-car-why-the-growing

2024-02-15 19:16:12

Leaked emails show that Hugo Awards self censored the awards so as to not upset China:
https://www.404media.co/leaked-emails-show-hugo-awards-self-censoring-to-appease-china/

2024-02-15 16:37:42

University of Michigan is selling student papers and audio of lectures, study groups, and office hours to train AI: https://www.404media.co/university-of-michigan-sells-recordings-of-study-groups-and-office-hours-to-train-ai/

2024-02-13 16:41:16

thank you to our subscribers who have made this work so far, we don't take your support for granted. we're in a spot right now where we feel we can keep doing this for the long term and it is thanks to the support you've shown us and your understanding and patience as we've been figuring out the (many!) things we need to do behind the scenes
https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/six-months-in-journalist-owned-tech-publication-404-media-is-profitable/

2024-02-12 17:39:41

The Taliban has begun reoperating Afghanistan's ".af" TLD after years of inactivity. Today, it disabled the "queer.af" domain, which has had the effect of breaking a queer Mastodon community:
https://www.404media.co/taliban-shuts-down-queer-af-domain-breaking-mastodon-instance/

2024-02-07 19:47:57

The smart toothbrush botnet story, as others have also pointed out, is almost certainly not real. If it is real, Fortinet needs to say something / provide some sort of evidence ASAP
https://www.404media.co/the-viral-toothbrush-ddos-botnet-story-almost-certainly-isnt-real/

2024-02-01 03:25:53

Must read from on the dark places that AI generated nonconsensual nudes are taking us. AI vultures and social media platforms have completely failed to reign this in and the entire open internet is going to suffer
https://www.404media.co/taylor-swift-deepfakes-ai-generated-porn/

2024-01-26 19:05:59

We’ve begun to put our articles behind an email registration wall. We tried to articulate why this is:
- AI stealing our articles
- AI spam destroying discoverability on search
- Fracturing of social
- Collapse of programmatic ad market
We are actively working on a solve for paid subscribers who use RSS, or ways for real humans to tap into a full text RSS feed
https://404media.co/why-404-media-needs-your-email-address/
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2024-01-24 19:18:47

TIL Iceland is having its own AI George Carlin moment after the national broadcaster there deepfaked a beloved comedian for a New Year's Eve comedy show. The country is now considering a ban on deepfaking the dead w/o family permission:
https://www.404media.co/iceland-considers-laws-against-deepfaking-the-dead-after-ai-resurrects-beloved-comedian/

2024-01-22 16:08:38

There are Over 9,000 dick pics on Wikimedia Commons, most of which have been subject to the same debates about noteworthiness and copyright as every other part of Wikipedia:
https://www.404media.co/wikimedias-pornographers/