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.”
TikTok
Inside the World of TikTok Spammers and the AI Tools That Enable Them
This is where AI generated formats, Minecraft splitscreens, Reddit stories, 'Would You Rather' videos, and deep sea story spam come from.
News
Google’s Gemini AI Doesn’t Want to Talk About Palestine
Google’s supposedly “woke” AI will also not say where Gaza is, but will locate Israel and Tel Aviv.
nypd
That Cosplay Steampunk Gun Blade the NYPD Confiscated Could Be Yours
The gun blade is for sale on Amazon and other retailers, but maybe don't go swinging it around in Queens.
News
A Small Steam Game Shows How LLMs Could Kill the Dialogue Tree
Verbal Verdict is the best use of generative AI I’ve seen.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Corporate PR Stonewalling and The Sandwich Simulacrum
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 the corporate PR strategy of stonewalling the press, digital comradery, and the AI sandwich simulacrum.
automattic
A WordPress ‘Firehose’ Allows AI Companies to Buy Access to a Million Posts a Day
There is a complex chain of companies buying access to WordPress and Tumblr posts through a company called SocialGist.
YouTube
Unionized YouTube Workers Learn Google Laid Them All Off During City Council Meeting
“They just laid us all off. Our jobs are ended today. Effective immediately.” A bell rings. “I’m sorry, your time has expired."
News
Israeli Soldiers Are Posting Tinder Profile Pictures From Gaza
“This is contributing to the whole normalizing of anti-Palestinian racism, and downgrading of Palestinians as if they are not human beings.”
doom
Watch This Guy Play ‘Doom’ on a Toothbrush
The three million toothbrush botnet wasn’t real, but this toothbrush hacked for blasting demons between brushes is.
News
Amazon Turkers Who Train AI Say They’re Locked Out of Their Work and Money
“Our labor is what makes AI work, and it could not function without us. We are the data that makes the machine work.”
TikTok
TikTok Literally Silences Cat Janice, Pop Star Who Died of Cancer, Because of Licensing Dispute
The fallout of a TikTok licensing dispute with Universal Music Group is not just the loss of backing soundtracks, but things like Janice talking about her fight with cancer, over music that she herself created.
etsy
Fanfiction Community Rocked By Etsy Sellers Turning Their Work Into Bound Books
Several popular shops, which clearly violated Etsy's terms of use and IP laws, were deleted after 404 Media reached out for comment.