Jeff Bezos learns being good at YouTube is not so easy.
404 Media
• Jason Koebler
At Least We Know the Washington Post Isn't Buying Views
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404 Media
404 Media is an independent media company founded by technology journalists Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox.
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404 Media
• Matthew Gault
War and Data Centers Are Driving Up the Cost of Fiber-Optic Cable
Spools of cable are critical for internet infrastructure and jam-proof drones but skyrocketing costs are making it hard to field them.
404 Media
• Joseph Cox
Podcast: The Chinese Deepfake Software Powering Scams
We got Haotian AI, the Chinese-language deepfake software powering scams. We also talk about a man finding $1 million of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and how the AI hard drive shortage is impacting internet archiving.
404 Media
• Emanuel Maiberg
Software Developers Say AI Is Rotting Their Brains
“It's making me dumber for sure.”
404 Media
• Joseph Cox
ICE Agents Have List of 20 Million People on Their iPhones Thanks to Palantir
The comments made by a senior ICE official at a trade show highlight how Palantir is increasing the speed at which ICE operates. Most people detained by ICE have no criminal conviction.
404 Media
• Emanuel Maiberg
How the World Became a Casino
The logic behind Polymarket, Kalshi and sports betting apps can be traced back to the inner workings of the slot machine.
404 Media
• Jason Koebler
Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain
AI writing is impossible to avoid, is making everything sound the same, and is driving us crazy.
404 Media
• Samantha Cole
Students Boo Commencement Speaker After She Calls AI the ‘Next Industrial Revolution’
A commencement speaker at the University of Central Florida was booed, with graduating humanities students yelling out, "AI SUCKS!"
404 Media
• Becky Ferreira
Scientists Studied 906 Mafia Marriages and Found Something Surprising
Scientists analyzed over 900 marriages within the ’Ndrangheta, one of the most infamous mafia syndicates, to understand how “matrimonial ties relate to power and cohesion within the organization.”
404 Media
• Matthew Gault
University Claims Withholding Water From Nuclear Weapons Data Center Is 'Unlawfully Discriminatory' to Data Centers
The University promised “to pursue all rights and claims for necessary relief” if a small Michigan community won’t pump water into a data center.
404 Media
• Samantha Cole
Behind the Blog: Storage Woes and RSS
This week, we discuss storage, RSS, and a big reporting project.
404 Media
• Jason Koebler
'The Biggest Student Data Privacy Disaster in History': Canvas Hack Shows the Danger of Centralized EdTech
Messages could include "medical circumstances, accessibility accommodations, disputes, sexual assault allegations," and more.
404 Media
• Joseph Cox
ICE Plans to Develop Own Smart Glasses to ‘Supplement’ Its Facial Recognition App
A DHS official and another person who attended a recent conference described the plans to 404 Media.
404 Media
• Joseph Cox
‘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.
404 Media
• Becky Ferreira
Scientists Gave ‘Aggressive’ Fish Psychedelic Drugs. A Breakthrough Came Next
“We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into,” said one researcher involved in the first-of-its-kind study that dosed fish with psilocybin, the component in magic mushrooms.
404 Media
• Joseph Cox
Podcast: Flock Used Cameras at a Children’s Gymnastics Center for a Sales Pitch
A Flock sales pitch; a retracted paper on ChatGPT; and Chinese interference in RightsCon.
404 Media
• Matthew Gault
Man Finds $1 Million Worth of Yu-Gi-Oh Cards in a Dumpster
It was already a sordid tale of online drama, blurry photographs, and erratic TikToks. Then his mom started posting.
404 Media
• Samantha Cole
UK iPhone and iPad Users Can Watch Porn Again
Following the latest iOS update which requires UK mobile Apple device users to verify their ages, Pornhub’s parent company Aylo is lifting its ban—but only for people using iPads and iPhones.
404 Media
• Jason Koebler
The AI Hard Drive Shortage Is Making It More Expensive and Harder to Archive the Internet
The Internet Archive, Wikimedia, academics, and hobby archivists are having trouble finding hard drives or are having to pay extremely high prices for them.
404 Media
• Emanuel Maiberg
'Nature' Retracts Paper on the Benefits of ChatGPT in Education
“What educators, parents and policy officials really needed was high quality data and evidence to help guide them. What they have had to deal with instead is some substandard research.”
404 Media
• Samantha Cole
OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft Back Bill to Fund ‘AI Literacy’ in Schools
A new bill introduced by Senators Adam Schiff and Mike Rounds would award grants to the National Science Foundation—which has endured massive funding cuts under the Trump Administration for science research—to put “AI literacy” in schools.
404 Media
• Claire Woodcock
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.
404 Media
• Becky Ferreira
This Personality Trait Makes Dreams More Bizarre, Scientists Discover
Scientists analyzed thousands of self-reported dreams and discovered that our sleeping visions are influenced by personality traits and external events, such as the pandemic.
404 Media
• Matthew Gault
China Pressure Canceled World’s Largest Digital Human Rights Conference
RightCon's organizers said Beijing was upset over over the inclusion of speakers from Taiwain.
404 Media
• Samantha Cole
Behind the Blog: Big Questions of Consciousness
This week, we discuss a wild message, a new anthology, and a visit to a museum.
404 Media
• Joseph Cox
People Are Selling Kills of Marathon’s Hardest Boss on eBay
The Compiler takes a serious amount of time, skill, and luck to get to. Someone on eBay is selling an easy fix.
404 Media
• Jason Koebler
City Learns Flock Accessed Cameras in Children's Gymnastics Room as a Sales Pitch Demo, Renews Contract Anyway
Residents of Dunwoody, Georgia are furious about the city's surveillance contract with Flock. Do their elected officials care?
404 Media
• Matthew Gault
Japan Is Building Cardboard Suicide Drones
AirKamuy is shipping flatpacked drones made of paper that cost around $2,000.
404 Media
• Matthew Gault
World’s Largest Digital Human Rights Conference Suddenly 'Postponed'
RightsCon was delayed by Zambia's Ministry of Information for "thematic issues" and problems with speakers.
404 Media
• Joseph Cox
DHS Plans to Buy More Predator-Style Drones
CBP is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on more high-powered surveillance drones, and other components of DHS may start their own fleet of MQ-9 drones as well.