Features
The Confessions of an AI Fraud Kingpin
Yuriy Nazarenko created ‘OnlyFake’, a site that let anyone churn out realistic fake IDs with AI. Then the North Koreans came knocking.
Podcast
Podcast: Proton’s CEO Is Putting AI Before Security
Inside Proton's AI reckoning, the AO3 outage, and why we're not tech support.
News
Republicans Learn X Is the Echo Chamber
It turns out you can’t post Malfoids and Anakin when diesel is $6 a gallon and expect America to vote for you.
Newsletters
An AI Fraud Kingpin’s Confessions
An AI fraud kingpins rise and fall; voters rejected data centers; and a new fear unlocked.
Features
The Confessions of an AI Fraud Kingpin
Yuriy Nazarenko created ‘OnlyFake’, a site that let anyone churn out realistic fake IDs with AI. Then the North Koreans came knocking.
News
American Voters Overwhelmingly Reject AI Data Centers
Data centers were on the ballot in dozens of races last night. They lost most of them.
Election 2026
‘There Is One Fight’: American Voters Reject Tech Oligarchy
Tuesday's election was a wholesale rejection of Silicon Valley's worldview and AI-powered kleptocracy.
Newsletters
America Votes: 'CEKEVPATIVG EDELDOA'
Slopfest 2k26 continues with an election, a fanfic fiasco, and World of Slopcraft.
AI
World of Warcraft: Forever Is Already Overrun with AI Slop
The vibe-coded addon problem is getting so bad that Warcraft Logs is changing its API and developers are dealing with theft of their work.
ao3
Vibe Coded AO3 Clone Site Down After Fanfic Authors Buried It With 2,000 Takedown Notices in a Single Day
ao3.life was scraping and repackaging fanfiction’ works and turning them into audiobooks for sale without the original authors’ permission.
voting
Voting in 2026 Is Getting an AI Slop 'I Voted' Sticker
My polling place was handing out AI slop to midterm voters.
Newsletters
Reaping and sowing, CEO edition
Also: Consider the Apple slop, Texas data center troubles, and more from 404 Media around the web.
The Abstract
People Used to Drink Wine Made From Ground-Up Mummies. Now, Scientists Are Studying It
In a new study perfectly timed for Halloween, scientists dug into the chemical properties of a once-popular beverage with purported medicinal benefits: wine made with ground-up Egyptian mummies.
