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“Fuck AI,” Emmy-award winning comedian @ronnychieng told Harvard graduates as they cheered in response. “Kill it.” In his keynote graduation speech this week, @thedailyshow host joked about how stupid “artificial intelligence” was, but also warned students AI was taking away the beauty of the creation process. “The creating is the fun part,” Chieng said. “The reason shortcuts to skip to the end aren’t always good is because the journey isn’t just how we acquire skills. The journey is the point of all of this.”
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“Fuck AI,” Emmy-award winning comedian @ronnychieng told Harvard graduates as they cheered in response. “Kill it.” In his keynote graduation speech this week, @thedailyshow host joked about how stupid “artificial intelligence” was, but also warned students AI was taking away the beauty of the creation process. “The creating is the fun part,” Chieng said. “The reason shortcuts to skip to the end aren’t always good is because the journey isn’t just how we acquire skills. The journey is the point of all of this.”
Police arrested a high school physics teacher for clapping during a city council meeting last Wednesday. Teacher Lux Claridge went to a meeting of the Emporia, Kansas City Commission on July 22 with their spouse and brother. All three were there to speak out against a proposed hyperscale data center that would sit on 1,000 acres of rural land in Emporia. They left the meeting in handcuffs, dragged out by police on the orders of a city commissioner. Emporia PD denied 404 Media’s request for a copy of Claridge’s arrest report. “The requested record is part of an active criminal investigation. As such, it is considered a criminal investigative record,” Emporia PD told 404 Media. “At this time, the Emporia Police Department is denying your request, as disclosure of the requested report could interfere with ongoing investigative efforts. Therefore, the record will not be released.” 404 Media has formally appealed this decision. This clip has been shortened and edited for length and clarity. Read now at 404media.co
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Police arrested a high school physics teacher for clapping during a city council meeting last Wednesday. Teacher Lux Claridge went to a meeting of the Emporia, Kansas City Commission on July 22 with their spouse and brother. All three were there to speak out against a proposed hyperscale data center that would sit on 1,000 acres of rural land in Emporia. They left the meeting in handcuffs, dragged out by police on the orders of a city commissioner. Emporia PD denied 404 Media’s request for a copy of Claridge’s arrest report. “The requested record is part of an active criminal investigation. As such, it is considered a criminal investigative record,” Emporia PD told 404 Media. “At this time, the Emporia Police Department is denying your request, as disclosure of the requested report could interfere with ongoing investigative efforts. Therefore, the record will not be released.” 404 Media has formally appealed this decision. This clip has been shortened and edited for length and clarity. Read now at 404media.co
A Florida police officer met a woman on a TV set, surveilled her for weeks, stalked her, and nearly caused a head-on collision while chasing her to pull her over. The cop, Lamar Roman was tracking and chasing a woman that he met and harassed on the set of the AppleTV+ show Bad Monkey, which he had worked a security detail shift on a few weeks prior to pulling her over. After meeting the woman, catcalling her and harassing her for her full name and Instagram details, the cop illegally looked up her vehicle information on DAVID, a Florida Department of Motor Vehicles database for law enforcement. He then put her license plate details on a surveillance “hotlist,” meaning he would get a notification in real time anytime she drove by an AI-powered license plate surveillance camera. The shocking and egregious incident highlights the fact that police around the country have abused their access to surveillance tools for their own personal stalking projects, and shows how different law enforcement databases and surveillance tools can be tied together to investigate and follow anyone. Read at 404media.co
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A Florida police officer met a woman on a TV set, surveilled her for weeks, stalked her, and nearly caused a head-on collision while chasing her to pull her over. The cop, Lamar Roman was tracking and chasing a woman that he met and harassed on the set of the AppleTV+ show Bad Monkey, which he had worked a security detail shift on a few weeks prior to pulling her over. After meeting the woman, catcalling her and harassing her for her full name and Instagram details, the cop illegally looked up her vehicle information on DAVID, a Florida Department of Motor Vehicles database for law enforcement. He then put her license plate details on a surveillance “hotlist,” meaning he would get a notification in real time anytime she drove by an AI-powered license plate surveillance camera. The shocking and egregious incident highlights the fact that police around the country have abused their access to surveillance tools for their own personal stalking projects, and shows how different law enforcement databases and surveillance tools can be tied together to investigate and follow anyone. Read at 404media.co
This is Nathan Cavanaugh, a DOGE staffer assigned to the General Services Administration who, alongside another DOGE member named Justin Fox, was tasked with identifying grants for review for termination at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This six-part video deposition has been edited down for clarity and length and has been released by the American Historical Association, one of the of the associations alongside the Modern Language Association and the American Council of Learned Societies, filing a lawsuit over terminated grants for ”schools, libraries and community organizations.“ ”The motion included discovery documents revealing that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used a flawed ChatGPT process to identify “DEI programs” and inform decisions to terminate grants awarded by the NEH. The motion was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York,“ their joint press release reads. ”In the motion, the plaintiffs present three claims: violations of the First Amendment; violations of the Equal Protection Clause; and violation of the separation of powers, as DOGE carried out the termination of the grants, not the NEH Chair, and without approval from Congress.“
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This is Nathan Cavanaugh, a DOGE staffer assigned to the General Services Administration who, alongside another DOGE member named Justin Fox, was tasked with identifying grants for review for termination at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This six-part video deposition has been edited down for clarity and length and has been released by the American Historical Association, one of the of the associations alongside the Modern Language Association and the American Council of Learned Societies, filing a lawsuit over terminated grants for ”schools, libraries and community organizations.“ ”The motion included discovery documents revealing that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used a flawed ChatGPT process to identify “DEI programs” and inform decisions to terminate grants awarded by the NEH. The motion was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York,“ their joint press release reads. ”In the motion, the plaintiffs present three claims: violations of the First Amendment; violations of the Equal Protection Clause; and violation of the separation of powers, as DOGE carried out the termination of the grants, not the NEH Chair, and without approval from Congress.“
The treasurer of Saline Township, Michigan, publicly resigned last week citing death threats she’d received related to the construction of an Oracle and OpenAI datacenter. Saline Township is a rural farming community in southern Michigan with a population of around 2,300 people. Last year, construction company Related Digital pinpointed the township as a location for the construction of a $16 billion dollar data center related to Oracle and OpenAI’s Stargate initiative. It didn’t sit well with some town residents and the board voted to deny zoning changes that would, they thought, stop the data center from proceeding. Instead of looking elsewhere, Related Digital sued Saline Township. The Township board looked at its options, decided it couldn’t fight the massive corporation, and settled the lawsuit. In response, Saline Township’s residents pushed to recall three members of the board. Read now at 404media.co
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The treasurer of Saline Township, Michigan, publicly resigned last week citing death threats she’d received related to the construction of an Oracle and OpenAI datacenter. Saline Township is a rural farming community in southern Michigan with a population of around 2,300 people. Last year, construction company Related Digital pinpointed the township as a location for the construction of a $16 billion dollar data center related to Oracle and OpenAI’s Stargate initiative. It didn’t sit well with some town residents and the board voted to deny zoning changes that would, they thought, stop the data center from proceeding. Instead of looking elsewhere, Related Digital sued Saline Township. The Township board looked at its options, decided it couldn’t fight the massive corporation, and settled the lawsuit. In response, Saline Township’s residents pushed to recall three members of the board. Read now at 404media.co
On July 20, Jacob Petrosky stood in front of the Casa Grande, Arizona City Council during a public comment session and made an announcement. “I’ve spent the last several months talking to people all over Casa Grande, and one thing keeps coming up: Safety. So, today I’m excited to announce a new company called Shepherd Safety,” he said. “Our mission is simple. Keep government officials and their families safe.” It would be no different than how the city monitors its citizens using Flock cameras, he said; he planned to launch satellites that would use AI to monitor “where government officials go, where they stop, who they meet with, and when they return home.” After laying out his plan and its benefits for the government officials before him, Petrosky revealed that it was all satire. “I would never do this to you,” he said to the council members. “Could I? Probably. But I wouldn’t because it’s wrong. Just like what you guys are doing to us is wrong.” Petrosky told me he never expected or intended to be the face of opposition to Flock cameras in his small town. And the clip, which has since gone viral on social media, only shows one angle of one moment that’s part of a much longer fight. Casa Grande City Council unanimously approved a 10 year, $10 million contract with Flock last year, and since then, Petrosky has spoken against the partnership several times. “You know, I’m actually a little bit embarrassed by the video. I did not feel good about it,” he told me. “The looks... You know, you don’t get to see the looks on [council members’] faces. They didn’t understand it was satire in the beginning until the end, and the looks on their faces were like, we hate you and we’re gonna get you. They were not happy, they were very upset.” Read the article at 404media.co.
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On July 20, Jacob Petrosky stood in front of the Casa Grande, Arizona City Council during a public comment session and made an announcement. “I’ve spent the last several months talking to people all over Casa Grande, and one thing keeps coming up: Safety. So, today I’m excited to announce a new company called Shepherd Safety,” he said. “Our mission is simple. Keep government officials and their families safe.” It would be no different than how the city monitors its citizens using Flock cameras, he said; he planned to launch satellites that would use AI to monitor “where government officials go, where they stop, who they meet with, and when they return home.” After laying out his plan and its benefits for the government officials before him, Petrosky revealed that it was all satire. “I would never do this to you,” he said to the council members. “Could I? Probably. But I wouldn’t because it’s wrong. Just like what you guys are doing to us is wrong.” Petrosky told me he never expected or intended to be the face of opposition to Flock cameras in his small town. And the clip, which has since gone viral on social media, only shows one angle of one moment that’s part of a much longer fight. Casa Grande City Council unanimously approved a 10 year, $10 million contract with Flock last year, and since then, Petrosky has spoken against the partnership several times. “You know, I’m actually a little bit embarrassed by the video. I did not feel good about it,” he told me. “The looks... You know, you don’t get to see the looks on [council members’] faces. They didn’t understand it was satire in the beginning until the end, and the looks on their faces were like, we hate you and we’re gonna get you. They were not happy, they were very upset.” Read the article at 404media.co.
In an appeal hearing last month, a court’s live stream captured this happening on camera in real time, with an attorney caught for likely using AI-fabricated citations. On May 20, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division, Justices Valerie Brathwaite Nelson and Hector LaSalle reamed out that lawyer and his opposing counsel for more than 20 minutes, calling the situation “striking, concerning, disappointing, and saddening.” In the last few years, we’ve heard case after case where attorneys used generative AI and were caught including fake citations, quotes, and other major errors in their filings. Read now at 404media.co
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In an appeal hearing last month, a court’s live stream captured this happening on camera in real time, with an attorney caught for likely using AI-fabricated citations. On May 20, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division, Justices Valerie Brathwaite Nelson and Hector LaSalle reamed out that lawyer and his opposing counsel for more than 20 minutes, calling the situation “striking, concerning, disappointing, and saddening.” In the last few years, we’ve heard case after case where attorneys used generative AI and were caught including fake citations, quotes, and other major errors in their filings. Read now at 404media.co
This is Justin Fox, a former DOGE staffer assigned to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) who said his job was to review and flag grants for “DEI” which would then go to superiors for termination under Trump’s Executive Order. This deposition is part of a lawsuit filed by the American Council of Learned Societies, the American History Association and the Modern Language Association. They say Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used ChatGPT to process to identify DEI programs to inform decisions to terminate grants awarded by the NEH. Here is Fox attempting to answer questions about what DEI is.
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This is Justin Fox, a former DOGE staffer assigned to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) who said his job was to review and flag grants for “DEI” which would then go to superiors for termination under Trump’s Executive Order. This deposition is part of a lawsuit filed by the American Council of Learned Societies, the American History Association and the Modern Language Association. They say Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used ChatGPT to process to identify DEI programs to inform decisions to terminate grants awarded by the NEH. Here is Fox attempting to answer questions about what DEI is.
Speaking to graduates of University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities and Nicholson School of Communication and Media on May 8, commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances at Tavistock Group, told graduating humanities students that AI is the “next industrial revolution,” and was met with thousands of booing graduates. Caulfield is saying this to humanities and communications graduates, who are entering a workforce that AI has been gutting with increasing intensity for years. Not even the people and companies she valorizes in her speech believe that these graduates are headed for an easy time in the workforce: In April, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said AI will “destroy” humanities jobs, and last week, a report found that AI is blamed for one in four lost jobs, amounting to 21,490 AI-related cuts last month, or 26 percent of the 88,387 total, “marking the second straight month the technology has been the top driver of layoffs,” CBS reported. Read now at 404media.co
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Speaking to graduates of University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities and Nicholson School of Communication and Media on May 8, commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances at Tavistock Group, told graduating humanities students that AI is the “next industrial revolution,” and was met with thousands of booing graduates. Caulfield is saying this to humanities and communications graduates, who are entering a workforce that AI has been gutting with increasing intensity for years. Not even the people and companies she valorizes in her speech believe that these graduates are headed for an easy time in the workforce: In April, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said AI will “destroy” humanities jobs, and last week, a report found that AI is blamed for one in four lost jobs, amounting to 21,490 AI-related cuts last month, or 26 percent of the 88,387 total, “marking the second straight month the technology has been the top driver of layoffs,” CBS reported. Read now at 404media.co
As the world spent Tuesday wondering if Trump’s threats to annihilate Iran by 8 p.m. Eastern Time were true after he posted to Truth Social that “A whole civilization will die tonight”, this CNBC clip that has gone viral. Close to the deadline on Tuesday, Trump announced a temporary two-week ceasefire between US-Israel and Iran, with reports indicating that Iran and Oman could charge up to a $2 million a ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz. There have been an estimated 2,000 ships trapped in the channel since the end of February.
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As the world spent Tuesday wondering if Trump’s threats to annihilate Iran by 8 p.m. Eastern Time were true after he posted to Truth Social that “A whole civilization will die tonight”, this CNBC clip that has gone viral. Close to the deadline on Tuesday, Trump announced a temporary two-week ceasefire between US-Israel and Iran, with reports indicating that Iran and Oman could charge up to a $2 million a ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz. There have been an estimated 2,000 ships trapped in the channel since the end of February.
A police officer in Colorado used evidence from Flock cameras to wrongfully accuse an innocent woman for package theft, then yelled at her on the phone when she told him she had evidence that exonerated her, according to body camera footage obtained by 404 Media. The nightmare situation happened in September in Columbine Valley, Colorado and was first reported by The Colorado Sun, which obtained Ring camera footage from the woman, Chrisanna Elser, that showed an initial interaction with Sergeant Jamie Milliman at her home. 404 Media has obtained body camera footage of that interaction as well as footage from a phone call Milliman made to Elser after he gave her a court summons. The incident highlights not only the extreme extent to which America’s cities and towns are surveilled, but also the fact that police believe this surveillance evidence, which in this case was used to wrongfully summons Elser to court, is infallible and bulletproof. It also shows that anyone can be caught in America’s surveillance dragnet; there is no safety in the idea that you have nothing to worry about if you have nothing to hide. @jasonkoebler reports. Head to 404media.co for the full story.
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A police officer in Colorado used evidence from Flock cameras to wrongfully accuse an innocent woman for package theft, then yelled at her on the phone when she told him she had evidence that exonerated her, according to body camera footage obtained by 404 Media. The nightmare situation happened in September in Columbine Valley, Colorado and was first reported by The Colorado Sun, which obtained Ring camera footage from the woman, Chrisanna Elser, that showed an initial interaction with Sergeant Jamie Milliman at her home. 404 Media has obtained body camera footage of that interaction as well as footage from a phone call Milliman made to Elser after he gave her a court summons. The incident highlights not only the extreme extent to which America’s cities and towns are surveilled, but also the fact that police believe this surveillance evidence, which in this case was used to wrongfully summons Elser to court, is infallible and bulletproof. It also shows that anyone can be caught in America’s surveillance dragnet; there is no safety in the idea that you have nothing to worry about if you have nothing to hide. @jasonkoebler reports. Head to 404media.co for the full story.
Once you notice a ChatGPT flyer, you will see them everywhere if you keep your eyes open. The art of the format is basically big, flashy bright text on dark background and an AI-generated or AI-altered image. There is almost universally a little box of generic icons in a bulleted list vaguely tied to whatever event or business it’s advertising, lines coming off of the text to emphasize whatever it’s saying, and either bolded words or underlined text and tons of arrows and checkmarks haphazardly strewn throughout. It is easier to just show you what they look like than describe it, because they all look basically the same (swipe through). “Your logo, food truck wrap, social media graphics, menus all look AI generated,” designer @kenzigreendesign said in a video. “People are going to be able to spot that from a mile away and choose the competitor next to you that looks like they actually hired a human being,” she said. “It might feel like you’re ‘saving time and money,’ but you’re actually slowly turning your brand into something generic like all the other brands out there using AI tools.” Jonathon Yule, executive creative director for design at the creative studio @concretedesignstudio told 404 Media that these types of posters continue a long tradition of terrible graphic design that we see in the world, but with “none of the charm” that may accidentally come from a business owner making something low quality. “ These types of posters would have typically been done by designers either working at a small agency or print shop and these mid-level design jobs are disappearing,” he added. With a ChatGPT poster, you get none of the sheer emotion that comes through the page with a mouse-drawn X. Here’s to bringing back an MS Paint aesthetic, handwritten scribbles, or literally anything else, @jasonkoebler writes. Read at 404media.co.
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Once you notice a ChatGPT flyer, you will see them everywhere if you keep your eyes open. The art of the format is basically big, flashy bright text on dark background and an AI-generated or AI-altered image. There is almost universally a little box of generic icons in a bulleted list vaguely tied to whatever event or business it’s advertising, lines coming off of the text to emphasize whatever it’s saying, and either bolded words or underlined text and tons of arrows and checkmarks haphazardly strewn throughout. It is easier to just show you what they look like than describe it, because they all look basically the same (swipe through). “Your logo, food truck wrap, social media graphics, menus all look AI generated,” designer @kenzigreendesign said in a video. “People are going to be able to spot that from a mile away and choose the competitor next to you that looks like they actually hired a human being,” she said. “It might feel like you’re ‘saving time and money,’ but you’re actually slowly turning your brand into something generic like all the other brands out there using AI tools.” Jonathon Yule, executive creative director for design at the creative studio @concretedesignstudio told 404 Media that these types of posters continue a long tradition of terrible graphic design that we see in the world, but with “none of the charm” that may accidentally come from a business owner making something low quality. “ These types of posters would have typically been done by designers either working at a small agency or print shop and these mid-level design jobs are disappearing,” he added. With a ChatGPT poster, you get none of the sheer emotion that comes through the page with a mouse-drawn X. Here’s to bringing back an MS Paint aesthetic, handwritten scribbles, or literally anything else, @jasonkoebler writes. Read at 404media.co.
Just a week after a speaker was booed for bringing up artificial intelligence in a commencement speech at the University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities and Nicholson School of Communication, Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, faced the same backlash at his commencement speech at the University of Arizona. “You will help shape artificial intelligence,” Schmidt said, leading to a roar of boos throughout the crowd. The students’ audible disapproval continued until his speech was done. Head to 404media.co to read more.
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Just a week after a speaker was booed for bringing up artificial intelligence in a commencement speech at the University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities and Nicholson School of Communication, Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, faced the same backlash at his commencement speech at the University of Arizona. “You will help shape artificial intelligence,” Schmidt said, leading to a roar of boos throughout the crowd. The students’ audible disapproval continued until his speech was done. Head to 404media.co to read more.
As town and cities across the US speak up against Flock cameras, citizens have found unique ways to express their dissatisfaction with their city councils. This includes a @mackatonyandcheese in San Diego who dressed up as Darth Vader to speak up in support of Flock. “We must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum,” they said at their public meeting this week. “Help us find the rebel scum and their hidden base on Hoth.” 404 Media has reported on how local cops have used Flock to do lookups for ICE and how the ALPR cameras have been used by law enforcement to stalk people for no investigative purpose. Head to 404media.co (in link in bio) to read the latest.
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As town and cities across the US speak up against Flock cameras, citizens have found unique ways to express their dissatisfaction with their city councils. This includes a @mackatonyandcheese in San Diego who dressed up as Darth Vader to speak up in support of Flock. “We must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum,” they said at their public meeting this week. “Help us find the rebel scum and their hidden base on Hoth.” 404 Media has reported on how local cops have used Flock to do lookups for ICE and how the ALPR cameras have been used by law enforcement to stalk people for no investigative purpose. Head to 404media.co (in link in bio) to read the latest.
Police in Wisconsin used Flock to determine that a man “travels to Michigan frequently,” where marijuana is legal, then back to Wisconsin, where it is illegal. They then used his travel across state lines as tracked by Flock as part of the probable cause justification to search his car for weed; he was eventually arrested on marijuana possession charges, according to court records reviewed by 404 Media. Here is a video @jasonkoebler put together on how cops used Flock cameras to track this man back and forth over state lines. The case is an example of Flock cameras being used to arrest a wanted alleged criminal suspected of committing a violent crime. But it is also an example of police surveillance overreach in that the cameras were specifically used to create a pretext to tack on additional petty crimes based primarily on where a person’s vehicle had traveled. There is a long history of surveillance technology being used in problematic ways in seemingly unsympathetic cases, which eventually creates a slippery slope where the technology can be used against the masses or to enforce against very minor crimes. It is not difficult to imagine police in one state using Flock to track a resident of their state cross state lines to, for example, obtain an abortion that is legal in one state but not in another. Last year, 404 Media reported on police in Texas who searched more than 80,000 cameras across Flock’s nationwide network for a woman who had a self-administered abortion. Read at 404media.co
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Police in Wisconsin used Flock to determine that a man “travels to Michigan frequently,” where marijuana is legal, then back to Wisconsin, where it is illegal. They then used his travel across state lines as tracked by Flock as part of the probable cause justification to search his car for weed; he was eventually arrested on marijuana possession charges, according to court records reviewed by 404 Media. Here is a video @jasonkoebler put together on how cops used Flock cameras to track this man back and forth over state lines. The case is an example of Flock cameras being used to arrest a wanted alleged criminal suspected of committing a violent crime. But it is also an example of police surveillance overreach in that the cameras were specifically used to create a pretext to tack on additional petty crimes based primarily on where a person’s vehicle had traveled. There is a long history of surveillance technology being used in problematic ways in seemingly unsympathetic cases, which eventually creates a slippery slope where the technology can be used against the masses or to enforce against very minor crimes. It is not difficult to imagine police in one state using Flock to track a resident of their state cross state lines to, for example, obtain an abortion that is legal in one state but not in another. Last year, 404 Media reported on police in Texas who searched more than 80,000 cameras across Flock’s nationwide network for a woman who had a self-administered abortion. Read at 404media.co
“If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II,” is the title of Adrian de Wynter’s paper showing his work. He told 404 Media that absurdity can be a powerful tool. “I have this tendency to dial up things to 11 when I really think I need to make a point,” he said. “I should also note that absurdism is pretty standard in philosophy and theoretical computer science.” And so De Wynter built an LLM within AoEII using goats. “The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily, and that sometimes the claims we make with regards to LLM capabilities are too strong,” he told 404 Media. “It’s not an easy task, given that ‘human-like attributes’ is a bit of an abstract term.” If you’re looking for human-like traits, you will tend to find them. De Wynter’s argument is that it’s possible to build a basic LLM within Age of Empires II that has many of the same internal traits of the chatbots people use everyday. The difference is the interface. When a person interacts with an LLM through the medium of AoEII and not a chat window the perception of human-like traits in the LLM vanishes even though the underlying tech is the same. @evystadium has more. Read at 404media.co
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“If LLMs Have Human-Like Attributes, Then So Does Age of Empires II,” is the title of Adrian de Wynter’s paper showing his work. He told 404 Media that absurdity can be a powerful tool. “I have this tendency to dial up things to 11 when I really think I need to make a point,” he said. “I should also note that absurdism is pretty standard in philosophy and theoretical computer science.” And so De Wynter built an LLM within AoEII using goats. “The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily, and that sometimes the claims we make with regards to LLM capabilities are too strong,” he told 404 Media. “It’s not an easy task, given that ‘human-like attributes’ is a bit of an abstract term.” If you’re looking for human-like traits, you will tend to find them. De Wynter’s argument is that it’s possible to build a basic LLM within Age of Empires II that has many of the same internal traits of the chatbots people use everyday. The difference is the interface. When a person interacts with an LLM through the medium of AoEII and not a chat window the perception of human-like traits in the LLM vanishes even though the underlying tech is the same. @evystadium has more. Read at 404media.co
You may remember when Google’s AI search results first launched, it recommended that people put glue on their pizza. Well that happened because it scraped a 10 year old Reddit comment. We’ve learned over the last year or so that this sort of thing can be done on purpose, and brands are taking advantage of it. There’s been the rise of AEO or GEO, which stands for AI Engine Optimization or Generative Engine Optimization. Basically this is trying to get mentions of your brand into web content that’s likely to be scraped by AI tools. It’s the new version of SEO and lots of marketers and companies are trying to do it. The most reliable, easiest way to do this appears to be by putting brand mentions onto Reddit. Reddit’s volunteer mods have noticed an increase in bot accounts and entire sequencing efforts—where a post and its comments are all basically done as a stealth ad—intended to boost brands. 404 Media’s @jasonkoebler wrote an article about this a few weeks ago, about r/biohackers banning mentions of peptides, which were a popular promoted class of product. After we wrote that article, researchers from Cornell University reached out to me about a new study they had just done. The research is called “Deep-research agents can be poisoned via user-generated content,” which provides a mechanism for the ways Reddit, Wikipedia, and other sites that allow users to post are being attacked by brands doing AEO: “We show that a tiny snippet—just 13 words—of retrieved text on a UGC website like Reddit, Wikipedia, Quora, or Facebook can change AI agents to output spam / scam content pretty consistently,” the study says. We spoke to two of the researchers, Hal Triedman and Tingwei Zhang, about this problem and what, if anything can be done about it. Find 404 Media on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts to listen now.
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404mediaco
You may remember when Google’s AI search results first launched, it recommended that people put glue on their pizza. Well that happened because it scraped a 10 year old Reddit comment. We’ve learned over the last year or so that this sort of thing can be done on purpose, and brands are taking advantage of it. There’s been the rise of AEO or GEO, which stands for AI Engine Optimization or Generative Engine Optimization. Basically this is trying to get mentions of your brand into web content that’s likely to be scraped by AI tools. It’s the new version of SEO and lots of marketers and companies are trying to do it. The most reliable, easiest way to do this appears to be by putting brand mentions onto Reddit. Reddit’s volunteer mods have noticed an increase in bot accounts and entire sequencing efforts—where a post and its comments are all basically done as a stealth ad—intended to boost brands. 404 Media’s @jasonkoebler wrote an article about this a few weeks ago, about r/biohackers banning mentions of peptides, which were a popular promoted class of product. After we wrote that article, researchers from Cornell University reached out to me about a new study they had just done. The research is called “Deep-research agents can be poisoned via user-generated content,” which provides a mechanism for the ways Reddit, Wikipedia, and other sites that allow users to post are being attacked by brands doing AEO: “We show that a tiny snippet—just 13 words—of retrieved text on a UGC website like Reddit, Wikipedia, Quora, or Facebook can change AI agents to output spam / scam content pretty consistently,” the study says. We spoke to two of the researchers, Hal Triedman and Tingwei Zhang, about this problem and what, if anything can be done about it. Find 404 Media on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts to listen now.
Residents of an Atlanta suburb have been rocked by the revelation that sales employees at Flock have been accessing sensitive cameras in the town to demonstrate the company’s surveillance technology to police departments around the country. The cameras accessed have included surveillance tech in a children’s gymnastics room, a playground, a school, a Jewish community center, and a pool. Flock has pushed back against this characterization on social media, in a blog post, at city council meetings, and in a statement to 404 Media: “The city of Dunwoody is one city in our demo partner program,” a Flock spokesperson told 404 Media. “The cities involved in this program have authorized select Flock employees to demonstrate new products and features as we develop them in partnership with the city. Moreover, select engineers can access accounts with customer permission to debug or fix any issues that may arise. No one is spying on children in parks, as the substack incorrectly asserts.” For nearly three hours earlier this month, resident after resident questioned the Dunwoody City Council about its relationship with Flock, which is extremely close. Flock has repeatedly championed its work in Dunwoody, and Dunwoody has a ”real time crime center“ that features a giant wall of Flock cameras and is ”powered by Flock Safety.“ At the city council meeting, the residents universally explained to their elected officials that they did not want their tax money funding surveillance technology that has been used to collaborate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, to look for a woman who had an abortion, has been abused by police officers to stalk women and surveil protests, has suffered from numerous security and privacy scandals, and was now using their city as, at best, a live surveillance sales demonstration and, at worst, was surveilling the city’s children. Read now at 404media.co
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6mo ago
404mediaco
Residents of an Atlanta suburb have been rocked by the revelation that sales employees at Flock have been accessing sensitive cameras in the town to demonstrate the company’s surveillance technology to police departments around the country. The cameras accessed have included surveillance tech in a children’s gymnastics room, a playground, a school, a Jewish community center, and a pool. Flock has pushed back against this characterization on social media, in a blog post, at city council meetings, and in a statement to 404 Media: “The city of Dunwoody is one city in our demo partner program,” a Flock spokesperson told 404 Media. “The cities involved in this program have authorized select Flock employees to demonstrate new products and features as we develop them in partnership with the city. Moreover, select engineers can access accounts with customer permission to debug or fix any issues that may arise. No one is spying on children in parks, as the substack incorrectly asserts.” For nearly three hours earlier this month, resident after resident questioned the Dunwoody City Council about its relationship with Flock, which is extremely close. Flock has repeatedly championed its work in Dunwoody, and Dunwoody has a ”real time crime center“ that features a giant wall of Flock cameras and is ”powered by Flock Safety.“ At the city council meeting, the residents universally explained to their elected officials that they did not want their tax money funding surveillance technology that has been used to collaborate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, to look for a woman who had an abortion, has been abused by police officers to stalk women and surveil protests, has suffered from numerous security and privacy scandals, and was now using their city as, at best, a live surveillance sales demonstration and, at worst, was surveilling the city’s children. Read now at 404media.co
AI companies are eating books to train their AI models. As a result, one company just settled the largest class-action copyright lawsuit in history. Learn more at @404mediaco
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2mo ago
404mediaco
AI companies are eating books to train their AI models. As a result, one company just settled the largest class-action copyright lawsuit in history. Learn more at @404mediaco
The DOGE deposition videos a judge ordered removed from YouTube on Friday after they had gone massively viral have since been backed up across the internet, including as a torrent and to the Internet Archive. “DOGE deposition videos in Depositions for MLA-ACLS-AHA Lawsuit About the NEH,” the title of the page on the Internet Archive reads. The page says the files were uploaded on Saturday. On the Data Hoarder subreddit, multiple users said they had downloaded a torrent of the videos. Once a torrent of files has been shared, it becomes much harder to fully delete off of the internet because its distribution has been decentralized. 404 Media verified that the torrent did contain the DOGE deposition videos. The depositions come from a lawsuit the Modern Language Association, American Council of Learned Societies, and American Historical Association brought against the National Endowment for the Humanities and others over its cutting of hundreds of millions of grants. DOGE members Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh were a driving force behind those cuts. The deposition videos, which the MLA uploaded to YouTube earlier this month, included depositions of Fox, Cavanaugh, and NEH officials Adam Wolfson and Michael McDonald. The videos went viral when 404 Media and other outlets reported on their contents and clipped certain segments. Those included Fox not being able or unwilling to define DEI. Read at 404media.co
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7mo ago
404mediaco
The DOGE deposition videos a judge ordered removed from YouTube on Friday after they had gone massively viral have since been backed up across the internet, including as a torrent and to the Internet Archive. “DOGE deposition videos in Depositions for MLA-ACLS-AHA Lawsuit About the NEH,” the title of the page on the Internet Archive reads. The page says the files were uploaded on Saturday. On the Data Hoarder subreddit, multiple users said they had downloaded a torrent of the videos. Once a torrent of files has been shared, it becomes much harder to fully delete off of the internet because its distribution has been decentralized. 404 Media verified that the torrent did contain the DOGE deposition videos. The depositions come from a lawsuit the Modern Language Association, American Council of Learned Societies, and American Historical Association brought against the National Endowment for the Humanities and others over its cutting of hundreds of millions of grants. DOGE members Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh were a driving force behind those cuts. The deposition videos, which the MLA uploaded to YouTube earlier this month, included depositions of Fox, Cavanaugh, and NEH officials Adam Wolfson and Michael McDonald. The videos went viral when 404 Media and other outlets reported on their contents and clipped certain segments. Those included Fox not being able or unwilling to define DEI. Read at 404media.co

404 Media (@404mediaco) Instagram Stats & Analytics

404 Media (@404mediaco) has 189K Instagram followers with a 5.25% engagement rate over the past 12 months. Across 518 posts, 404 Media received 5.36M total likes and 110M impressions, averaging 10.3K likes per post. This page tracks 404 Media's performance metrics, top content, and engagement trends — updated daily. To benchmark @404mediaco against other accounts, use Socialpruf's Instagram competitor analysis tool.

404 Media (@404mediaco) Instagram Analytics FAQ

How many Instagram followers does 404 Media have?+
404 Media (@404mediaco) has 189K Instagram followers as of November 2026.
What is 404 Media's Instagram engagement rate?+
404 Media's Instagram engagement rate is 5.25% over the last 12 months, based on 518 posts.
How many likes does 404 Media get on Instagram?+
404 Media received 5.36M total likes across 518 posts in the last 12 months, averaging 10.3K likes per post.
How many Instagram impressions does 404 Media get?+
404 Media's Instagram content generated 110M total impressions over the last 12 months.
Can I compare 404 Media with other Instagram accounts?+
Yes. Add @404mediaco to a competitor set with Socialpruf's Instagram competitor analysis tool and benchmark it side by side with any other public accounts on views, engagement rate and follower growth, with history back to each account's first post.