Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Doing Whatever
This week, we discuss a new pod setup, video games, and Elon's spending habits.
AI
Cops Used AI Generated Photos of a Child to Lure Out a Suspected Predator
Christopher Thomas Mertens, a high school maintenance worker, was arrested after attempting to meet up with an AI persona that he thought was a 15 year old boy.
Newsletters
Dubstep and BookTok, a perfect match?
New music genre just dropped. Also: A Tesla locks out cops, and more from around the web.
TikTok
The Creator of ‘Smutstep’ Wants You to ‘Let Your Freak Flag Fly’
DARQ DAGR combined BookTok romantasy and dubstep to create something new and somewhat controversial. “It’s accepting and embracing what you're into within a safe and healthy space," he said. "I think that's a really beautiful thing.”
Newsletters
Cops can creep on Airbnb
That washer/dryer combo could be used by cops to identify a property.
Newsletters
'Undue emotional weight'
AI-generated political slop, a farewell to a good bird, and more.
Newsletters
Muse escapes containment
“Indiscriminate mass surveillance," a Meta Muse scoop, and more in today's daily newsletter.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Freaking Out
This week, we discuss inbox slop, Claude cults, and more.
Newsletters
'Everything but censorship'
A look at the state of student journalism in light of the Cornell sexual assault case, and much more.
AI
Lawyer Cites ChatGPT-Invented Fake Witnesses in Murder Appeal
"Do you watch the news? Do you listen to the radio? Do you read anything about what's going on in the world?” one of the judges asked the lawyer, who submitted false testimony and witnesses after using ChatGPT.
Deepfakes
Internet Infrastructure Services Empower Deepfake Abuse, New Study Finds
Cloudflare, Google, and Proton were among the "dominant" infrastructure providers to sites dedicated to hosting abusive content, the study found.