We start this week's episode with a mystery: where did a 17-second music snippet that has puzzled online sleuths for years really come from? Sam breaks it down. After the break, Joseph explains how an online service was scraping and selling Discord server messages for as little as $5. Then in the subscribers-only section, Jason takes us into the world of influencers who are using AI livestream apps, complete with fake audiences, and how they're being used to target women. Long Lost Song...

This is a long one! First Joseph previews his upcoming book, DARK WIRE. Go to the link below and enter "DW20" for 20% off! Also make sure to redeem your preorder behind-the-scenes bonus content. As for this week's stories, we start off with Jason explaining why we can, we must, dunk on the Humane Ai Pin, a piece of hardware that is AI's Juicero moment. After the break, Emanuel shows that Instagram is advertising deepfake nudify apps, the sort that are being abused right now in schools. In the...

We start this episode with Joseph's latest fly-on-the-wall investigation into the Com, the nebulous online entity and culture that is linked to some of the most high profile and brazen data breaches in recent history. Joseph sat in their chatrooms while rival hackers and criminals doxed and physically robbed one another. A true melding of digital and physical crime. After the break, Jason breaks down why some researchers are calling out Google on some of its AI science research. In the...

We start the episode with an announcement: we've brought on our first 404 Media fellow Jules Roscoe! They did amazing work at Motherboard, and we're stoked to have them on board to cover labor for us and getting our work to audiences wherever they are. As for this week's stories, we start with Jason's wild one about grifters who are taking influencer's videos, deepfaking an AI face onto them, and then driving people to OnlyFans-style accounts. After the break, Sam talks about the couple who...

This is a super fun episode with a lot of labor themes throughout. Jason starts off by describing the totally wild Xz backdoor which, in a way, was an open source labor issue. Then Emanuel takes us through how AI might be sneaking into the peer-review process. Then in the subscribers-only section, Sam explains why a major journal has decided to stop the use of an infamous image in its papers. The Xz Backdoor Highlights the Vulnerability of Open Source Software—and Its StrengthsChatGPT Looms...

A jam packed episode this week. First, Jason explains how a 'study' that says surveillance company Flock is “instrumental in solving 10 percent of reported crime in the US” is heavily flawed. He got a bunch of internal emails and spoke to those involved. After the break, Sam and Emanuel tell us how people are being pushed to far sketchier parts of the web after Pornhub pulled out of Texas. Then in the subscribers-only section, Jason and Joseph detail how they dug into the new owners of...

Shrimp Jesus. Shrimp Jesus. Shrimp Jesus. That is what the first story is about! We now have robust academic research into the mass of AI-generated garbage flooding Facebook. Jason takes us through what this era of Facebook means. After the break, Sam explains why Pornhub pulled out of Texas. In the subscribers-only section, Joseph shows how two of the biggest safe lock manufacturers in the world have put backdoors into their products. Facebook’s Algorithm Is Boosting AI Spam That Links to...

Somehow we filled a whole hour and it felt like five minutes! First Joseph explains his deep story on how hackers and fraudsters are injecting themselves into the electronic prescription system to order mountains of drugs. Then Emanuel breaks down how 404 Media, bizarrely, is included in a fake Netflix trailer that was probably made for the benefit of the Russian state. Then in the subscribers-only section, the group chats about ElevenLabs, and how Emanuel bypassed the company's "no-go voice"...

We go long (and play some bonus audio) for Jason's story inside the wild world of TikTok and Instagram hustlers who are using AI to swarm platforms with automatically generated garbage content. Some of them are making a killing in the process. After the break, we talk about Sam's story on Etsy sellers stealing fan fiction writers' work. Then in the subscriber-only section, Jason breaks down why a right to repair victory in Oregon is a massive deal for Apple globally. Inside the World of...

Tumblr and WordPress are set to sell posts to OpenAI and Midjourney. And cops are wearing body cameras in libraries. In this episode, Jason, Sam, and Emanuel try to explain what it means for OpenAI and Midjourney to scrape Tumblr's posts, broader chaos at the company, and whether AI is going to run out of things to ingest. Then we talk about the war on libraries, which is taking place all over the country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New format alert! We are experimenting with publishing additional interview episodes! These will not replace the normal weekly show. Rather, we'll upload an interview with people we find interesting whenever we feel a good opportunity comes up. Subscribers as usual get early and ad-free access. This episode is with Byron Tau, an investigative journalist and author of the new book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State....

A ton of stuff to talk about this week. We start with Jason and Emanuel's dive into how a deepfake nudify app rocked a high school. We got a copy of the police report, and more than anything else it shows we're simply not ready for what deepfakes will mean for ordinary people. Then Joseph talks about uncovering a network of fake funeral livestream scams on Facebook. In the subscribers-only section, we talk about Jason and Sam's very serious investigation into whether a certain brand of...

We've got a real variety this week. First, Emanuel talks about Paradox.ai, a tool that massive brands like McDonald's, CVS, and FedEx are using to screen job applicants. It uses a bit of AI, but really this is more of a labor story. Then Jason breaks down Stract, an open source search engine that is trying to do search better than the increasingly bad experience of Google. In the subscribers-only section, the group goes long on how a viral story about a botnet of toothbrushes turned out to...

This week we start with Joseph's investigation into OnlyFake, an underground website that lets anyone generate convincing photos of fake IDs at the click of a mouse. Joseph successfully used one of these to bypass the identity verification process at a cryptocurrency exchange. This really will have massive implications for crime and cybersecurity more generally. After the break, we have a double feature with a story about AI audio porn and then a likely low tech response to the ongoing...

(I went in and fixed the audio issue! Please make sure your podcast client has the latest version downloaded. Okay, back to working on an investigation now, thank you for bearing with us) This week's episode is a banger. First, we go long with Sam and Emanuel, the two journalists who have followed deepfakes and generative AI more closely than anyone. Their latest piece talks about what is going to happen next: a clampdown in the AI and social media industries that may be an overcorrection,...

We're doing something a little different this episode. For the whole free section of the podcast, we're talking all about the degradation of Google. That includes AI-generated articles making their way onto Google News, and how researchers found that, yes, Google search really is getting worse. This is a long, rich, and fun discussion. Then in the subscribers-only section, Joseph breaks down his latest investigation into a phone spying capability that is monitoring billions. Google (to their...

Well, that was a pleasant surprise: Google has formally endorsed right to repair! Jason not only broke this news but then had a long conversation with Google about why it made the change (spoiler: it was the concerted effort of consumers, activists, and journalists). Jason explains why this change matters in the first part of the show. After the break, Sam takes us through a pretty unusual court case and what it means for online dating. Then in the subscribers-only section, Joseph talks about...

Jason decided to publish our first story minutes before recording, so here is some hot off the presses material. That piece was about scam ads on YouTube involving deepfaked celebrities. After the break, Sam discussed a very bizarre FOIA response from Texas. Then in the subscribers-only section, Jason tells the long and very entertaining saga of the Polish hackers who fixed a bunch of trains, and faced legal threats in response. Deepfaked Celebrity Ads Promoting Medicare Scams Run Rampant on...

We are back for 2024! We hit the ground running this week with a story about charges against a man for allegedly orchestrating a massive, nationwide Airbnb scam. Then Sam speaks about how Pornhub is blocking access to visitors in North Carolina and Montana, who are now (predictably) using VPNs as a workaround. Then in the subscribers-only section we talk about the life and death of the encrypted app Wickr. RIP Wickr. Real Estate ‘Visionary’ Allegedly Behind Massive, Viral Airbnb Fraud ChargeI...

In this week's show, we start with a couple of articles about how companies might *actually* be listening to conversations through smart device microphones to target ads. Plenty of questions remain, but we discuss everything we know so far. After the break, Sam explains a new Stanford study which has resulted in one of AI's most important datasets being taken offline (check the article itself for a clarification on Google's connection to the story which we learned after recording). In the...

A really bizarre mystery this week. We broke the news that a man somehow flew into LAX without a ticket or passport and DHS is totally stumped. Who knows how he got there? No one, apparently. Then Sam breaks down the latest Patreon ban hammer against a misunderstood community. In the subscriber's only section, Joseph explains a massive mistake by Verizon potentially put a person's physical safety at risk, and what this means for why he doesn't use a phone. Civitai and OctoML Introduce Radical...

A content warning for the free section of this episode. Emanuel explains a massive investigation of his into how Civitai, the a16z funded AI platform, generated images that “could be categorized as child pornography,” according to internal Slack chats and more. This is a difficult, complicated, but important story. I'll leave it at that. Then in the subscriber's only section, we talk about Jason's investigation into pickleball turf wars. Remember to check out the video archive of our recent...

So much drama this episode but with an important message behind it all. For the first half, Sam and Jason break down their stories about Eduards Sizovs, a tech conference founder who listed a fake, "auto-generated" woman as a conference speaker. Sizovs is also behind a highly popular woman-in-tech account. There are layers here.  After the break, Jason explains how Plex is leaking users' viewing habits to one another. Then in the subscribers-only section, Joseph runs us through how an...

Well that was a lot of drama in the world of OpenAI. Fear not, we have a unique angle on how the person in the running to be OpenAI's new CEO was a character in a Harry Potter fanfic that was written deliberately as a recruiting tool to the effective altruist movement. That's definitely a sentence. After the break Sam talks about how Twitter is pushing sex workers into a black hole, then in the subscribers-only section Joseph explains how he found that SIM swappers are gambling stolen Bitcoin...