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We start this week with Jason’s article about how everyone is apparently reverse-engineering everything. After the break, Joseph tells us about a big AI shakeup at consulting giant Accenture. In the subscribers-only section, Sam and Jason discuss the Character[.]ai bankruptcy. ‘Reverse-Engineer Anything’ Is the New Wild West of AI Accenture Tells Employees They Can Now Spend Only $29 on Claude Per Month Character[.]ai Bankruptcy Is First AI Bubble Domino to Fall Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big tech is rushing to build hundreds of data centers across the planet to keep up with the computing demand of artificial intelligence. The tech companies are promising the massive buildings will bring jobs and prosperity when they’re built, but communities across the country aren’t buying it and they’re fighting back. People are concerned about water, noise, pollution, and the rising cost of electricity. Anyone who already lives next to a data center knows those fears are well founded. To talk through this, Matthew spoke to Paris Marx. He’s a tech critic, the host of Tech Won’t Save Us and the author of the new book Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires. Buy Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/PRf8ZtpSqAg Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start this week with Joseph’s article about Raven, previously known as Geospy. This is an AI tool that can geolocate photos, and now says it can pinpoint a specific house based just on one photo taken inside. After the break, Jason explains why a judge ruled a particular Flock search as unconstitutional. In the subscribers-only section, we talk about the wild AI video that has derailed a manslaughter case. AI Company Lets Cops Pinpoint Specific Houses Based on a Single Interior Photo Watch Footage of the Flock Search a Judge Ruled Unconstitutional Her AI-Generated Video Swayed the Judge. The Court Said it Carried 'Undue Emotional Weight' Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sponsor: Take back control today: go to incogni.com/404media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's incogni.com/404media, promo code 404MEDIA—risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen became one of the most important tech whistleblowers in 2021, when she exposed how Facebook’s algorithm was pushing people toward hate groups, showed Instagram was making teen girls feel worse about themselves, and showed that the company knew about its detrimental impacts on society. Haugen’s story is the basis for Aaron Sorkin’s new movie ‘The Social Reckoning,’ which follows her evolution from model employee to leaker to formal whistleblower. Jason and Frances discuss what the movie got right about journalist-source relationships and how AI is supercharging privacy concerns. YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/oB3IxwCfP7M Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start this week with a story from our old friend Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, about how cops can bypass the inactivity reboot on iPhones. After the break, Jason tells us how people are losing their minds over an LLM ‘torture’ prison. In the subscribers-only section, Sam explains what happened in a wild ChatGPT case in New Mexico. Cops Can Bypass iPhone’s Automatic Reboot to Get Into Locked Phones, Leaked Video Claims Someone ‘Torturing’ LLMs in a Robot Prison Has Triggered the Dumbest Debate in AI Yet Lawyer Cites ChatGPT-Invented Fake Witnesses in Murder Appeal Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thank you to DeleteMe for helping make this night possible. They're offering ⁠20% off a privacy protection plan⁠ for friends of 404 Media. Use code 404M20 at checkout. 404 Media just turned three years old, and to celebrate, we hosted a night of chatting about what we’ve accomplished with your support, what’s next for us, and whether or not we’re all going to be okay. We also threw in some weird bugs and community resistance for good measure. Don’t miss us pulling audience questions out of the mystery AMA box!  Live from WNYC’s Greene Space, you can also watch the entire show on 404 Media’s YouTube channel.  We Are Going to Be Okay: A Three Year Anniversary Events Recap Our Zine About ICE Surveillance Is Here Watch 404 Media’s Super Bowl Ad Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/t_VjNAopjhI Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason Kint, the CEO of Digital Content Next, has kept a close eye on some of the biggest tech antitrust and copyright court cases. Kint has a knack for finding particularly incriminating court records in complex ongoing lawsuits. We talk to Kint about the pressures that human creators are under in an AI world, the New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI, and why Meta's Cambridge Analytica scandal is relevant again. YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/knlbTd5Pij4 Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don’t sleep on [@ultrapouches]. New customers get 15% Off with code 404MEDIA at takeultra.com! #UltraPouches #ad We start this week with Joseph’s stories on the massive FBI hack. 404 Media broke this news and continued to cover the breach of data on all FBI employees and their spouses. After the break, Jason tells us how a surveillance company is telling cops it wants to add facial recognition tech to Flock camera data. In the subscribers-only section, Jason and Joseph chat all about Muse, Meta’s new agentic AI, and how humans are actually behind some of the tasks. Because of course. ‘We Hacked the FBI:’ Hackers Say They Have Data on All FBI Employees FBI Hack Exposed FBI’s Own Hacking Unit FBI Hackers Say They Won’t Publish Massive Trove of FBI Employee Data Surveillance Company Tells Cops It Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facial recognition is everywhere now. It’s in surveillance cameras; it’s soon going to be in Meta’s RayBan pervert glasses, and some students already did that. You now have massively viral accounts that take clips of people, run them through facial recognition software, and then post their name and other personal info for everyone to see. We haven’t fully come to terms with what it means to live in a world where anyone can basically dox anyone else now. To talk through this, Joseph spoke to Kashmir Hill. She’s a reporter at the New York Times, and the author of Your Face Belongs to Us: A Tale of AI, a Secretive Startup, and the End of Privacy. Take back control today: go to incogni.com/404media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's incogni.com/404media, promo code 404MEDIA—risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/aUFnQPtxJ9o Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to https://incogni.com/404Mediaand use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA at https://incogni.com/404Media We start this week with Jason’s story about OpenAI and Microsoft’s big admissions from court records that they are destroying the internet in all sorts of ways, and stealing intellectual property on an unprecedented scale. He admit it. After the break, Emanuel explains how he hijacked a real band’s Spotify page with AI-generated slop. In the subscribers-only section, we hear all about iLands, the AI agent platform that is basically just spam. Is Your City Using Axon License Plate Cameras? We Need Your Help ‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft I Hijacked a Real Artist's Spotify with AI Music. It Was Disturbingly Easy AI Agent Platform Reinvents Spam, Floods Inboxes Worldwide Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When chatbots become our closest “friends,” what happens to our capacity to care?  This week I'm joined by Professor Sherry Turkle. Sherry is a licensed clinical psychologist, the founding director of MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self, and the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT. She's a the New York Times bestselling author of multiple books including Alone Together, Reclaiming Conversation, and The Empathy Diaries.  Her latest book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines, comes out on September 29. In it, Turkle explores how conversational chatbots have changed the ways we relate to other humans, empathize with each other, and what that could mean for our future. “The progression is: First we talk to each other, then we talk to each other through machines, and now we drop the middleman and we're happy to just talk to machines,” she said in our conversation.  We get into what happens when people stop placing importance on emotionally connecting with other people, and whether it’s too late to pull back from the path we’re on. Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines Instagram's AI Chatbots Lie About Being Licensed Therapists How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis' Researchers Simulated a Delusional User to Test Chatbot Safety Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/whqDsYhCl0s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus collaboration with our friends at The Intercept, 404 Media's Jason Koebler and the Intercept's Sam Biddle and Akela Lacy discuss the ways AI is already used to empower private surveillance companies that filter data to the government, how AI is used in war, and the prospect of an AI apocalypse. This podcast was recorded live in Los Angeles at The Loved One on September 12. Check out The Intercept Briefing podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and find a full transcript of this pod here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start this week with Joseph’s story about the people who are reading real ChatGPT users’ prompts and conversations. He got a bunch of documents all about these contractors and saw real prompts himself. After the break, Sam tells us all about the Automattic CEO getting kicked out. Then coming back again. In the subscribers-only section, Emanuel tells us why a16z thinks enshittification is not real. Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence' Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg Claims He’s Back 'In Control' Sources say Automattic’s board is out after failed attempt to oust CEO Matt Mullenweg A16z Says You Actually Love Social Media, Enshittification Isn’t Real YouTube version: https://youtu.be/AyPuYrjLk1E Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re joined by Jennie Rose Halprein. Jennie is the executive director of Library Futures, a non-profit that advocates for a fair digital future for libraries and the communities they serve. We have written a bunch of stories about libraries over the years, and I have talked to Jennie a few times for those stories. I always have really interesting conversations with her, but a lot of what we talk about never makes it into a story. That’s why I wanted to share one of those conversations with you today. We of course touch upon censorship but also many other subjects, so I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/mS0xofGW2hE Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to https://incogni.com/404Media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA at https://incogni.com/404Media We start this week with Joseph’s story about the secretive predictive policing units inside DHS that are analyzing Americans’ financial data and having local cops pull them over. After the break, Jason tells us about the funky shirt designed to fool AI-camera systems. In the subscribers-only section, we talk all about our third anniversary events.  YouTube version: https://youtu.be/o0AG6A5MIRg RSVP: Killer Technology With 404 Media A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over This 'Digital Camouflage' Shirt Confuses AI-Powered Surveillance Cameras We Are Going to Be Okay: A Three Year Anniversary Events Recap Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices