News
Iran Is Winning the AI Slop Propaganda War
“White House videos—AI or otherwise—are like group-chat in-jokes aimed at keeping cohesion.”
conspiracy theories
The Editor's Note on Kate Middleton Cancer Announcement Video Doesn't Mean It's Fake
The Getty Images "handout" disclaimer on the video of the Princess of Wales' video statement about her cancer diagnosis is pretty common, actually—and not proof of a conspiracy.
repair
The Car Repair Apocalypse Could Soon Be Upon Us
The widespread availability of independent car repair needs to be protected from software-based DRM.
xz backdoor
The Xz Backdoor Highlights the Vulnerability of Open Source Software—and Its Strengths
The backdoor highlights the politics, governance, and community management of an ecosystem exploited by massive tech companies and largely run by volunteers.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Amplification and Heavy Breathing
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 weirdness in the FOIA world, the idea of "amplification," and breathing heavily.
AI
Shareholders Sue AI Weapon-Detecting Company, Allege It 'Does Not Reliably Detect Knives or Guns'
Evolv, which will be used by the NYC subway, is under investigation by the FTC and SEC, and also had to retract a claim that the UK government validated its product.
Crypto
‘Poof You’re a Millionaire’: Scammer Convinced Investors to Send Him $1.5 Million to Build Magic Money Making Bot
Surprise: The crypto-trading bot didn't exist and the scammer used the money to buy a $204,000 Denver Broncos suite, a luxury Jeep, and a Bahamas vacation, the FBI says.
computing
Scientific Journal Bans Images of ‘Lena,’ Researchers’ Favorite Centerfold
"Starting 1 April, new manuscript submissions will no longer be allowed to include the Lena image,” a message from IEEE to engineers announced.
News
‘IRL Fakes:’ Where People Pay for AI-Generated Porn of Normal People
A Telegram user who advertises their services on Twitter will create AI-generated porn of anyone for a price, and has also targeted minors.
News
Criminals Are Weaponizing Child Abuse Imagery to Ban Discord Servers
Criminals are deliberating uploading child abuse material to rival hacking and fraud related Discord servers to have them shut down.
age verification
Kansas Is About to Pass the Most Extreme Age Verification Law Yet
The bill would make sites with more than 25 percent adult content liable to fines, and lumps homosexuality into "sexual conduct."
News
YouTube Issues Cease and Desist to Bizarre Chinese YouTube Clone
Gan Jing World is linked to the Falun Gong, and has been cloning popular YouTube channels in the name of providing "wholesome content for all."
Podcast
Podcast: The Shaky Science of License Plate Readers
On this week's episode we talk about a shaky study into Flock; what people are doing now that Pornhub has pulled out of some states; and how we dug into the new owners of Deadspin.