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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September 7, 202637 min
This Innocent Woman Spent 13 Days in Jail Because of a False Flock Hit
This week Jason talks to Lindsey Isaacs and her lawyer, Patrick McGeehan. Last year, Lindsey was falsely arrested and imprisoned after authorities used Flock’s license plate reader system to pull over the wrong person in a hit-and-run that killed three people. Lindsey spent 13 days in jail because of this screwup. This all happened because authorities were looking for a black dodge Durango, and used Flock’s freeform search to look for a black SUV. Lindsey happened to be driving a black dodge Durango 3 miles west of where the crash happened a few minutes beforehand. Lindsey was arrested even though there was no damage to her car. She again, spent 13 days in jail before the charges against her were dropped. This is one of the worst cases of Flock-related policing screwups we’ve ever seen, and an innocent person had their life upended because of it. We spoke to Lindsey and Patrick about what happened, the case, Flock surveillance, and their lawsuit against the police who did this to her. Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
September 2, 202640 min
We Spoke to an Amazon Worker Destroying Books for AI
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 Emanuel’s follow-up to his Amazon book scanning story, in which he spoke to someone who worked in the Amazon warehouse which destroys books to train Amazon’s AI products. After the break, Emanuel and Sam tell us about the same few names appearing in LLM output over and over again. In the subscribers-only section, Joseph tells us why ICE is buying loads of data about ‘voter fraud’. You're Invited: 404 Media's Third Anniversary Live Podcast and Party! Inside the Warehouse Where Amazon Scans and Destroys Books for AI Training The AI ‘Ghosts’ Contaminating Academic Publishing ICE Plans to Spend Millions on Boston Dynamics Dog Robots ICE Wants the Country’s Voter Data Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/PcNdLnLF7mo Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 31, 202642 min
How Cyber Sleuths Tracked Down a Nigerian Scammer
This week Joseph talks to Paul Raffile, a cybercrime researcher, and Erin West, founder of Operation Shamrock. The pair recently traveled to Nigeria to track down a scammer and meet a bunch more. This conversation is some fascinating insight into how scammers live, how they can be identified, and platforms like Meta’s responsibility. I Hunted the Men Who Blackmail Children Online Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/973m4leS25c Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 26, 202633 min
Cops Are Making Fake Flock Cameras and Amazon Packages
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 piece on a cop making a fake Flock camera to catch a vandal. How can you be charged with destroying expensive property if… the camera wasn’t real? After the break, Sam tells us about how Darth Vader loves Flock. In the subscribers-only section, we talk a bit about three years of 404 Media. You're Invited: 404 Media's Third Anniversary Live Podcast and Party! RSVP: Killer Technology With 404 Media Man Charged With 3 Felonies For Breaking 3D-Printed ‘Decoy’ Flock Camera The Man Behind the Anti-Flock Darth Vader Mask Wants to Know: 'When Will This End?' YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/rYCvhAOGAjM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 24, 202647 min
Your AI Companion Doesn’t Love You with Bridget Todd
Go to https://surfshark.com/404Media or use code 404Media at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark! Tech companies want you to believe that the chatbots they profit from are the always ready, never judgemental, constantly affirming friend in our pockets. But are the people using them as companions under some kind of deep self-delusion? Or are they seeking something else? This week I’m joined by Bridget Todd. Among many other projects and accomplishments, Bridget is the creator and host of the award winning podcast There Are No Girls on the Internet, is a Fellow at the MacArthur Foundation, and an affiliate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Her new audiobook, Love at First Prompt: AI and the Future of Intimacy, launched in July with coauthor Michael Amato. We talk about her work interviewing people who use chatbots to fill an emotional need, how people who engage in romantic, intimate and erotic roleplay with LLMs are mocked for it, and how tech companies are implicated in all of this. In her new book, you’ll hear from experts in the field of AI companionship, but also from people who have nuanced, interesting interactions with chatbots every day. Bridget’s book is her most vulnerable work yet: She unpacks and critiques her own use of ChatGPT during a crisis, and reveals what she learned about herself, her friendships and real-life relationships, and what it means to maintain human connections in a world where tech companies are constantly trying to exploit our innermost worlds. Love at First Prompt: AI and the Future of Intimacy New Study Reveals the Manipulative ‘Dark Patterns’ of AI Chatbots ‘It’s Hurting Like Hell’: AI Companion Users Are In Crisis, Reporting Sudden Sexual Rejection ChatGPT’s Hail Mary: Chatbots You Can Fuck Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/qCk-7r7lp8Y Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 19, 202653 min
Amazon is Destroying Rare Books to Train AI
Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go tohttps://incogni.com/404Mediaand use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA athttps://incogni.com/404Media We start this week with Emanuel’s big story about Amazon buying, and destroying, masses of books to train AI. After the break we talk about a couple of wild cases where people are using AI. In the subscribers-only section, we talk about Meta’s new smart glasses patent and research into how perverts are using them. We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility ‘Show How 3M Is 0% at Fault:’ Expert Witness Used ChatGPT to Write Report Defending Company in Deadly Explosion Lawsuit Person Hides Prompt Injection in Legal Filing Telling AI to Side With Them Meta Patents AI Glasses to Use Facial Recognition to Identify People, Make Highlight Reels of Your Dinner Party Researchers Show How Meta's 'Pervert Glasses' Are Used to Harass Women YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/_sf2VoKvxBk Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 17, 202646 min
The Future of Deepfakes and the Decline of Reality with Hany Farid
The past, present, and future of deepfakes, as seen by the world’s leading expert on synthetic media. I think we’re pretty good at telling the difference between an AI generated image and a real photograph, but when I need help I call Hany Farid. Farid is the cofounder of GetReal, a company that specializes in detecting deepfakes and other AI-generated images, and is the developer of PhotoDNA, a perceptual hashing algorithm that helps companies automatically detect and remove some of the worst images that exist online, and that is now being used by every serious internet platform in the world. We started talking to Hany regularly in 2017, when Sam first reported on deepfakes. As that technology evolved and changed how we perceive reality, so have our conversations. I wanted to talk to him today on the podcast so you could hear of those conversations, and so that Hany and I could zoom out, reflect on the past few years, and speculate about where we might be headed. YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/0xVxK5o4P48 Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 12, 202648 min
Mark Zuckerberg’s 'Superintelligent' AI Future That No One Wants
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 Jason’s article about Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for Meta’s AI agents. They don't sound fun at all. After the break, Emanuel tells us how a company offering “100% human-written” medical research is actually all AI. In the subscribers-only section, Joseph explains why some cities are ditching Flock then immediately replacing those cameras with Axon ones. Mark Zuckerberg Posts Deranged 6,500-Word Essay About Giving Everyone AI Superintelligence Company Offering ‘100% Human-Written, Never AI’ Peer Review Is Entirely AI Cities Are Ditching Flock, Immediately Replacing It With Axon License Plate Readers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 10, 202653 min
How to Surveil the Police (with William Gude)
Go to https://surfshark.com/404Media to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN, with the reassurance of a 30-day money-back guarantee, or just use code 404MEDIA at checkout. That's https://surfshark.com/404Media. This week, we talk to William Gude, who runs Film the Police LA. Film the Police LA is a YouTube channel, Instagram account, and Twitter account where William does exactly what it says in the name: He films police in Los Angeles to hold them accountable. William has been doing this for years, and has captured a series of police abuses during what are supposed to be routine traffic stops or other encounters that don’t need to be so tense. What I like about William’s work is that it’s a mix of very serious accountability journalism mixed with some humor—William is a funny guy whose rapport with cops in the videos he makes often palpably brings the tension down between the police and the people they have pulled over. William also documents surveillance in Los Angeles, and has taken to filming and talking to the Serve delivery robots in and around Hollywood as they often screw up, get stuck, or are messed with. We talk about the utility of filming the police, how people can get into police watching, what he’s learned over the years, the state of the LAPD, the spread of surveillance, and what it means to surveil the police right back. This week, we talk to William Gude, who runs Film the Police LA. Film the Police LA is a YouTube channel, Instagram account, and Twitter account where William does exactly what it says in the name: He films police in Los Angeles to hold them accountable. William has been doing this for years, and has captured a series of police abuses during what are supposed to be routine traffic stops or other encounters that don’t need to be so tense. What I like about William’s work is that it’s a mix of very serious accountability journalism mixed with some humor—William is a funny guy whose rapport with cops in the videos he makes often palpably brings the tension down between the police and the people they have pulled over. William also documents surveillance in Los Angeles, and has taken to filming and talking to the Serve delivery robots in and around Hollywood as they often screw up, get stuck, or are messed with. We talk about the utility of filming the police, how people can get into police watching, what he’s learned over the years, the state of the LAPD, the spread of surveillance, and what it means to surveil the police right back. 00:00 Intro: William Gude 03:06 How George Floyd Protests Changed His Life 04:31 Documenting Traffic Stops & Police Accountability 07:56 Why Civilian Filming Matters 09:22 How Police React to Being Filmed Today 12:03 The Copyright Music Tactic 13:41 Filming Protests & Police Stops 20:50 Delivery Robots, Waymo & Everyday Surveillance 24:23 Flock License Plate Readers & False Stops 30:30 The Biggest Problem with LAPD 35:33 Pokémon GO Cops & Public Records Delays 42:30 ICE Raids & Facial Recognition 45:27 Memorable Police Encounters 47:42 Has Police Accountability Improved? 48:58 Advice for New Cop Watchers YouTube version: https://youtu.be/aIfe9XQzpYY Find William on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@FilmThePoliceLA This is a production of 404 Media, a journalist-owned tech website. Learn more and subscribe at: htttps://404media.co Listen to our weekly podcasts: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-404-media-podcast/id1703615331?ref=404media.co Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0F3oY47l2XgoBMaAmIaw29?ref=404media.co Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzL3RoZS00MDQtbWVkaWEtcG9kY2FzdA?ref=404media.co Become a paid subscriber for access to bonus content: https://404media.co/membership Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 5, 202650 min
This Man Might Go to Prison for Wiping His Phone
Get 15% off OneSkin with the code 404 at https://oneskin.co/404 We start this week with Joseph’s article about Samuel Tunick, the man charged with allegedly wiping his phone before DHS officials could search it. It’s a wild case with a lot to unpack. After the break, Jason tells us all about a TikTok Shop scheme powered by AI. In the subscribers-only section, we talk about possibly the dumbest AI tool ever made. You're Invited: 404 Media's Third Anniversary Live Podcast and Party! ‘The Government Hopes To Set a Precedent’: An Interview With the Man Charged for Allegedly Wiping His GrapheneOS Phone Inside an AI TikTok Shop Slop Factory That Shills Supplements Recalled By the FDA Google Earth’s New AI Lets Anyone Fabricate Completely Bullshit Satellite Images Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/lmikqHw1lX8 This is a production of 404 Media, a journalist-owned tech website. Learn more and subscribe at: htttps://404media.co Listen to our weekly podcasts: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-404-media-podcast/id1703615331?ref=404media.co Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0F3oY47l2XgoBMaAmIaw29?ref=404media.co Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzL3RoZS00MDQtbWVkaWEtcG9kY2FzdA?ref=404media.co Become a paid subscriber for access to bonus content: https://404media.co/membership Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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