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.”
News
How the “Surveillance AI Pipeline” Literally Objectifies Human Beings
A preprint study covering 20,000 computer vision papers and patents over three decades shows “The Surveillance AI Pipeline,” and why the field needs more interdisciplinary studies.
Podcast
Podcast: Ticket Scalpers, The New Frontier of AI Chat Bots, and Mass Doxing on TikTok
In this week's episode, Joseph, Sam, Emanuel, and Jason chat about, among a host of other things, Jason's failed attempt at being a ticket scalper.
News
Lobbyists Push Self-Driving Trucks Law Through California, No Safety Operators Required
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes driverless truck safety bill after autonomous vehicle interests spent big on lobbying and wined and dined his top aides.
News
Big Tech Lobbyist ‘Stunned’ People Think Planned Obsolescence ‘Conspiracy’ Is Real
"There seems to be an underlying assumption that manufacturers want to sell as many products and have them die as quickly as possible."
News
Amazon Has Turned Into an Monopolistic Shithole Littered With Pay-to-Play Ads, FTC Lawsuit Solemnly Argues
"Amazon shifted gears so that it now litters its storefront with pay-to-play advertisements. In addition to overcharging its customers, Amazon is degrading the services it provides them."
Et Tu, Bing? Microsoft’s AI Image Generator Blocks Prompts for Julius Caesar
Bing Image Creator won't let you generate images of “Julius Caesar” and “Marcus Aurelius.”
FOIA
U.S. Counterintel Buys Access to the Backbone of the Internet to Hunt Foreign Hackers
Getting information from the NSA would take too long, according to internal documents from a counterintelligence agency. So it turned to Team Cymru to buy netflow data that can allow analysts to track activity through virtual private networks.
News
Kick Revisits Moderation Policy After CEO Laughs at Sex Worker ‘Prank’ Stream
Twitch’s competitor, known for its loose moderation policy, is reconsidering its choices after Ice Poseidon streamed a sex worker cornered in a hotel room.
Features
The End of Privacy is a Taylor Swift Fan TikTok Account Armed with Facial Recognition Tech
A viral account is using off-the-shelf facial recognition tech to dox random people on the internet for the amusement of millions of viewers. One victim said they “felt a bit violated really.”
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Busted Slots and Shadowy Surveillance
Joseph talks about why he focused on a surveillance vendor's politics, and Emanuel on the fallout from Google surfacing an AI-generated "selfie" of the infamous Tank Man.
News
iOS 17 Could Break Crucial Diabetic Glucose Monitor Alerts, Manufacturer Warns
The maker of the FreeStyle Libre 3 glucose monitor is warning users to 'disable automatic system updates on your iPhone' because it could break a core functionality of the device.
News
Why Scalpers Can Get Olivia Rodrigo Tickets and You Can't
Ticketmaster's "Verified Fan" system doesn't help fans. It helps scalpers who have hundreds of accounts, use special internet browsers, and have dozens of credit cards.