News
Bodycam Shows Moment Cops Arrested a Man for Speaking Too Long at Data Center Meeting
We spoke to Darren Blanchard, the man arrested while speaking out against data centers at a community meeting. He's sharing the bodycam footage of his arrest for the first time with 404 Media.
News
Google Bans Face Swap App for Inviting Users to Make Deepfake Porn
After 404 Media reporting, Google banned an app that advertised its ability to “Make any porn you want” on a deepfake porn site.
News
ChatGPT Looms Over the Peer-Review Crisis
Research shows that academics might be using generative AI tools to cut corners on a fundamental pillar of the scientific process.
FOIA
Officer Screamed ‘Stop Shooting Her’ While Police Killed Unarmed Teen After Car Chase
404 Media has obtained newly released video and audio material related to the 2022 killing of Savannah Graziano.
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.