News
Are Public Libraries Becoming Children’s Libraries?
Books written for younger audiences are being relocated to adult sections at alarming rates. We asked experts to predict what that means for the rest of us.
News
Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta's Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers
The technology, which marries Meta’s smart Ray Ban glasses with the facial recognition service Pimeyes and some other tools, lets someone automatically go from face, to name, to phone number, and home address.
Podcast
Podcast: AI Companies Are Opting You In By Default
LinkedIn, Udemy, PayPal, they've all had weird opt-in, opt-out stories. And, a dangerous side effect of Waymo's driverless cars.
News
Hurricane Helene Knocked One of the World’s Largest Climate Data Archives Offline
NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), which is headquartered in Asheville, has been down for days.
News
A Network of AI ‘Nudify’ Sites Are a Front for Notorious Russian Hackers
Fin7 has made multiple ‘nudify’ sites that promise to use AI to undress photos of people but which are actually vehicles for malware, according to researchers. 404 Media found one advertised on one of the web's biggest porn aggregators.
waymo
Men Harassed A Woman In A Driverless Waymo, Trapping Her In Traffic
Two men stood in front of the autonomous vehicle, operated by ride-hailing company Waymo, and literally tipped a fedora at her while she told them to move out of the way.
Projects
Hidden ‘BopSpotter’ Microphone Is Constantly Surveilling San Francisco for Good Music
“This is culture surveillance. No one notices, no one consents. But it's not about catching criminals. It's about catching vibes."
paypal
Paypal Opted You Into Sharing Data Without Your Knowledge
Here's how to opt out of sharing data for "Personalized shopping."
News
NASA Bought Facial Recognition Tech Clearview AI
The oversight body of NASA bought access to the powerful facial recognition tool, according to U.S. government procurement data.
AI
Massive E-Learning Platform Udemy Gave Teachers a Gen AI 'Opt-Out Window'. It's Already Over.
Teachers are surprised they have been opted into having their classes scraped for AI training.
The Abstract
An Update on the End of the World
Cannibalism, the cheese mummy, and a star-broiled Earth.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Secretive Service and Being Taken Seriously
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss being taken seriously, the Secret Service being secretive, and doing business while doing journalism.
News
AI Avatars Are Doing Job Interviews Now
“This HR AI avatar is a perfect demonstration of late stage capitalism,” Jack Ryan, someone who was interviewed by a tool called Fairgo.ai, told 404 Media.