Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Sinkholes and Site Seizures
This week, we discuss a ransomware gang, book bans, and infrastructure.
News
Google AI Falsely Says YouTuber Visited Israel, Forcing Him to Deal With Backlash
YouTuber Benn Jordan has never been to Israel, but Google's AI summary said he'd visited and made a video about it. Then the backlash started.
pornhub
Pornhub Will Pay $5 Million Over Allegations of Hosting Child Sexual Abuse Material
Pornhub's parent company Aylo and its affiliates settled a lawsuit with the FTC and Utah that alleged the company "deceived users" about abuse material on the site.
AI
AI Generated 'Boring History' Videos Are Flooding YouTube and Drowning Out Real History
"These AI videos are just repeating things that are on the internet, so you end up with a very simplified version of the past."
Luigi Mangione
Shein Used Luigi Mangione’s AI-Generated Face to Sell a Shirt
United Healthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione is not, in fact, modeling floral button-downs for Shein.
The Abstract
They Were Some of Earth’s Last Stable Glaciers. Now, They’re Melting.
Glaciers in Central Asia have remained intact even as other parts of the world have seen rapid glacial loss. A new study shows that may be changing.
Podcast
Podcast: Trump Take LEGO
How Trump's tariffs are impacting all sorts of hobbies; how OnlyFans piracy is ruining the internet for everyone; and ChatGPT's reckoning.
AI
Hackers Threaten to Submit Artists' Data to AI Models If Art Site Doesn't Pay Up
Artists&Clients, a website for connecting artists with gigs, is down after a group called LunaLock threatened to feed their data to AI datasets.
Deepfakes
Almost Every State Has Its Own Deepfakes Law Now
Michigan just became the 48th state to enact a law addressing deepfakes, imposing jail time and penalties up to the felony level for people who make AI-generated nonconsensual abuse imagery of a real person.
News
How OnlyFans Piracy Is Ruining the Internet for Everyone
Innocent sites are being delisted from Google because of copyright takedown requests against rampant OnlyFans piracy.
The Abstract
This Stunning Image of the Sun Could Unlock Mysterious Physics
The world’s best solar telescope snapped unprecedented shots of a solar flare, revealing new details of these mysterious explosions.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Dogfooding and Datasets
This week, we discuss our top games, “dense street imagery," and first-person experiences with apps.
News
Trump Take LEGO
The popular Pick a Brick service let LEGO fanatics get the exact piece they wanted. It’s no longer available to US customers.