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.
23andMe
Annual Reminder: 23andMe Is a Dangerous Christmas Gift That Could Have Unforeseen Impacts on Your Entire Family, Your Children, Etc.
The ever-worsening 23andMe hack shows the inherent vulnerability of genetic databases designed to show connections between people.
Podcast
Podcast: a16z Funded AI Platform Generated Images That “Could Be Categorized as Child Pornography,” Leaked Documents Show
On this week's episode we focus on Emanuel's new investigation into OctoML, the engine behind the a16z funded AI startup Civitai and how it generated images that “could be categorized as child pornography,” according to internal Slack chats.
News
Here's a Warrant Showing the U.S. Government is Monitoring Push Notifications
The findings come on the heels of a letter from Senator Ron Wyden warning that governments are demanding data related to push notifications from Apple and Google.
News
Hidden Cameras, GPS Data, and License Plate Readers: How the USPIS Tracks Down Mail Thieves
A court record shows how the oft overlooked United States Postal Inspection Service turned to all manner of tech to investigate someone stealing from mailboxes.
AI
Alibaba's 'Animate Anyone' Is Trained on Scraped Videos of Famous TikTokers
The new image-to-video model went viral this week because people saw potential to replace TikTok personalities, but ripping content creators' work is already baked into the tech.
Features
a16z Funded AI Platform Generated Images That “Could Be Categorized as Child Pornography,” Leaked Documents Show
OctoML, the engine that powers a16z funded Civitai, thought the images could qualify as “child pornography,” but ultimately decided to keep working with the company anyway, internal Slack chats and other material shows.
Artificial Intelligence
Asking ChatGPT to Repeat Words ‘Forever’ Is Now a Terms of Service Violation
A technique used by Google researchers to reveal ChatGPT training data is now banned by OpenAI.
sex
The Quantified Clit: This Urologist Is Making a Smart Wearable for the Clitoris
Penises have all kinds of data-gathering wearable options. What about the clitoris?
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Pickleball Drama, Auto-Generated Women, and Really Big Drone Contracts
This week, we discuss uncovering government defense contracts, revealing fake "auto-generated" female speakers, and thoughts on FOIA.
News
The Mystery Customer for Palmer Luckey’s Aircraft-Killing Drone Is U.S. Special Forces
Records reviewed by 404 Media reveal that U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has signed at least $12.5 million to buy the new autonomous aircraft.
FOIA
'FYI Pickleball DRAMA': Local Governments Overwhelmed By Tennis-Pickleball Turf Wars, Documents Show
What I learned about the pickleball lobby and pickleball turf wars by reading thousands of pages of documents from inside local government.
FOIA
Our Second FOIA Forum! 11/30, 1PM EST
We are hosting our second FOIA Forum at the end of November. Join the livestream, file FOIAs with us, get tips, and more.