Welcome to the podcast from 404 Media where Joseph, Sam, Emanuel, and Jason catch you up on the stories we published this week. 404 Media is a journalist-owned digital media company exploring the way technology is shaping–and is shaped by–our world. We bring you unparalleled access to hidden worlds both online and IRL through investigative reporting, smart blogging, and breaking news. At 404 Media you’ll read, and hear, stories you can’t find anywhere else written by journalists who are leading experts on their beats. Subscribe to 404 Media at 404media.co to gain access to an ad-free version of this podcast, as well as a bonus podcast episodes. Subscribers are the bedrock of building a sustainable business for our journalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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June 15, 202653 min
Meet Me at the Opsec Rave (with Imani Thompson)
This week, I’m thrilled to be joined by Imani Thompson. Imani is a digital security trainer and host of a series of events called Cache Me Outside, where she and partner orgs help people understand their personal security, divest from big tech platforms, and learn how to stay safe online. She recently hosted a “de-Googling” party and a self-doxxing rave.
We get into how platforms have tried to make surveillance cute, why that damn Duolingo owl emotionally manipulates you, and why learning about privacy best practices when surrounded by community works.
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A 'Self-Doxing' Rave Helps Trans People Stay Safe Online
Now you can break up with big tech at a bar: ‘cybersecurity disguised as a party’
Fix It With Piggy
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/C4WVYBEIgzM
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June 10, 202635 min
Google Employees Meme About How Bad Their AI Is
We start this week with Emanuel’s story about the internal memes Google employees are making all about AI. Definitely check out some of the examples in the article or on YouTube. After the break, Jason tells us how Microsoft explicitly wants to “make people addicted” to its new AI assistant, according to an internal document. In the subscribers-only section, Jason explains how companies are using Reddit to manipulate AI search results and big LEGO drama.
Google Employees Internally Share Memes About How Its AI Sucks
Microsoft Wants to 'Make People Addicted' to its New AI Assistant, Internal Documents Reveal
Companies Are Using Reddit to Manipulate ChatGPT and Google AI Search
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June 8, 20261 hr 1 min
It’s So Not Over for Hollywood (with Devindra Hardawar)
Emanuel talks to Devindra Hardawar about AI in Hollywood and the state of the movie industry.
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I didn’t plan it this way, but it’s a good coincidence that my interview with Devindra Hardawar is coming out on the week that the first Star Wars movie in years is being crushed at the box office by two low budget horror movies. Something is extremely off at Hollywood, or at least the old studio executives and streamers who control most of the money that funds movies.
This week we’re joined by Devindra Hardawar. Devindra is a senior editor at Engadget and a co-host of The Filmcast, a podcast about film I’ve been listening to for 15 years. We’ve covered the intersection of the movie industry and AI here and there on 404 Media, but Devindra lives at that intersection. He’s the perfect person to talk to about AI and film, but also the state of the industry more broadly, how to fit movies into your life in the age of the infinite scroll, how to introduce kids to film, and more.
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/imCSQkhFkoM
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June 3, 202639 min
Hackers Asked Meta AI To Let Them In. It Worked
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We start this week with Jason’s story about one of the wildest hacking stories in a while. Hackers simply asked Meta’s AI to change the email address on a target Instagram account, and the chatbot did so. Insane. After the break, Emanuel tells us about Amazon’s internal leaderboard for tracking AI usage and how it was cheated. In the subscribers-only section, we provided an update on our lawsuit against ICE.
Hackers Simply Asked Meta AI to Give Them Access to High-Profile Instagram Accounts. It Worked
Amazon Shuts Down Internal AI Leaderboard After Employees Cheated
We Sued ICE to Get Its Spyware Contract. The Agency Is Redacting Essentially Everything
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June 1, 202638 min
A Repairable, No-Tech Tractor
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Ursa Ag is an Alberta, Canada-based company that is selling a repairable, no tech tractor. It’s not often we have companies on this podcast, but listeners of the show will know we have been covering the right to repair movement for years. One of the things I’ve written about most is the frustration that farmers feel with agriculture giant John Deere, which has made their tractors very difficult to repair by loading it up with tech, lobbying against right to repair legislation, and making parts and diagnostic tools and repair guides hard to access. When we write about right to repair, people often say - why don’t people just vote with their dollars and buy something else? Well, all the major tractor companies have more or less done the same thing Deere has done - add software locks, sensors, and digital rights management to their tractors. There wasn’t any other alternative.
Doug Wilson of Ursa Ag has built an alternative. Ursa Ag is selling a repairable dumb tractor specifically to provide an alternative in the market. We spoke with Doug about how one creates a tractor company, how it all works, and what the response has been.
00:00 Doug Wilson Introduction
00:02:05 Why IRSA Ag Exists
00:04:24 Modern Tractors & Repair Locks
00:07:40 Demand for Older Tractors
00:08:46 The $800K Tractor Story
00:09:37 Building a Repairable Tractor
00:12:56 Precision Ag vs Simplicity
00:20:45 Starting a Tractor Company
00:22:52 AI & Everyday Farm Work
00:27:21 Viral Response & Demand
00:28:52 Expansion Plans
00:31:56 Why Farmers Want Simpler Machines
00:34:11 Farm Consolidation
00:35:48 Tech Overload Beyond Farming
00:36:57 What’s Next
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/wYM4Ho-Ma9w
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May 27, 202650 min
How Deepfakes Destroyed a High School
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We start this week with Sam’s deeply reported story on how deepfakes rocked a high school, and how those kids were failed at each step. After the break, Joseph tells us about BusPatrol, a company that plans to turn school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles. In the subscribers-only section, Jason explains why a councilmember crashed out over Flock.
LA Made x 404 Media Presents: How AI is Threatening the Future of Media
How Deepfakes Tore a High School Apart
‘BusPatrol’ Put AI Cameras in Tens of Thousands of School Buses. Now They Want to Give Cops Access
After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet and Phone Ban
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May 25, 202649 min
Millions of People Are Installing Malware on Their Partners’ Phones
This week Joseph speaks to Zack Whittaker, an editor at TechCrunch. Zack has been leading coverage into the spouseware or stalkerware industry. This is malware sold to ordinary people, which they then often install on their girlfriend’s or someone else’s phone. Zack talks about the crazy scope of this problem.
Behind the stalkerware network spilling the private phone data of hundreds of thousands
Spyzie stalkerware is spying on thousands of Android and iPhone users
Stalkerware tag on TechCrunch
This Week In Security Newsletter
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/BLb46310iLs
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May 20, 202645 min
Boo-sters
We start this week with Sam telling us all about the commencement speeches where speakers have been praising AI, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. That did not go down well! After the break, Jason tells us how he was offered the chance to buy a bunch of images of poop to train AI (really). In the subscribers-only section, Joseph explains how researchers planned to stick cameras onto preschool teachers to train AI.
Students Boo Commencement Speaker After She Calls AI the ‘Next Industrial Revolution’
Internet of Shit: AI Poop Analysis App Offered to Sell Me Database of Its Users' Poops
Researchers Wanted Preschool Teachers to Wear Cameras to Train AI
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/VE0EtqQLcgY
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May 18, 202638 min
The Physical Politics of the Internet with Britt Paris
This week, I’m delighted to be joined by Britt Paris. Britt is a critical informatics scholar and Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University’s School of Communication & Information. Her work focuses on Internet infrastructure, artificial intelligence-generated information objects, digital labor, civic data, and social epistemology. She’s also a fellow with AI Now. Her book Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up just came out in February.
Britt tells us about how her great-great-great uncle started a telecommunications cooperative in rural Missouri before the city even had connection, how examples like NEMR show us an alternative to monopolies that provide internet access and let people decide how they want their internet to work for them, and what’s giving her hope as she helps bargain for educators’ rights at Rutgers.
Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up
The American Association of University Professors on AI
University Professors Disturbed to Find Their Lectures Chopped Up and Turned Into AI Slop
Community Votes to Deny Water to Nuclear Weapons Data Center
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/5twr0EUo2YE
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May 13, 20261 hr 4 min
The Chinese Deepfake Software Powering Scams
We start this week with Joseph’s story about how we obtained Haotian AI, a sought-after piece of realtime video deepfake software that lets you turn into anyone else during Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, or Zoom calls. After the break, Matthew tells us about some insane Yu-Gi-Oh trading card drama. In the subscribers-only section, Jason explains how the hard drive shortage is impacting those archiving the internet.
‘HELLO BOSS’: Inside the Chinese Realtime Deepfake Software Powering Scams Around the World
Man Finds $1 Million Worth of Yu-Gi-Oh Cards in a Dumpster
The AI Hard Drive Shortage Is Making It More Expensive and Harder to Archive the Internet
YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/O_d1VxuBdAU
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