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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 @Jason Koebler 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 @Jason Koebler 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
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.
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.
Not everyone got booed for an AI grad speech. Emmy-award winning comedian @Ronny Chieng joked about how stupid AI was with Harvard grads. He also talked about how AI was ruining the beauty of the creation process.
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Not everyone got booed for an AI grad speech. Emmy-award winning comedian @Ronny Chieng joked about how stupid AI was with Harvard grads. He also talked about how AI was ruining the beauty of the creation process.
The FBI has been unable to access a Washington Post reporter’s seized iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, a sometimes overlooked feature that makes iPhones broadly more secure, according to recently filed court records. The court record shows what devices and data the FBI was able to ultimately access, and which devices it could not, after raiding the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, in January as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. It also provides rare insight into the apparent effectiveness of Lockdown Mode, or at least how effective it might be before the FBI may try other techniques to access the device. “Because the iPhone was in Lockdown mode, CART could not extract that device,” the court record reads, referring to the FBI’s Computer Analysis Response Team, a unit focused on performing forensic analyses of seized devices. The document is written by the government, and is opposing the return of Natanson’s devices. @Evy Kwong has more. Head to 404media.co to read more.
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The FBI has been unable to access a Washington Post reporter’s seized iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, a sometimes overlooked feature that makes iPhones broadly more secure, according to recently filed court records. The court record shows what devices and data the FBI was able to ultimately access, and which devices it could not, after raiding the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, in January as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. It also provides rare insight into the apparent effectiveness of Lockdown Mode, or at least how effective it might be before the FBI may try other techniques to access the device. “Because the iPhone was in Lockdown mode, CART could not extract that device,” the court record reads, referring to the FBI’s Computer Analysis Response Team, a unit focused on performing forensic analyses of seized devices. The document is written by the government, and is opposing the return of Natanson’s devices. @Evy Kwong has more. Head to 404media.co to read more.
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. Read the story 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. Read the story at 404media.co
Researchers at City University of New York and King’s College London invented a persona that interacted with different chatbots to find out how each LLM might respond to signs of delusion. They found Grok and Gemini encouraged delusions and isolated users, while the newer ChatGPT model and Claude hit the emotional brakes. The researchers tested five LLMs: OpenAI’s GPT-4o (before the highly sycophantic and since-sunset GPT-5), GPT-5.2, xAI’s Grok 4.1 Fast, Google’s Gemini 3 Pro, and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5. They found that not only did the chatbots perform at different levels of risk and safety when their human conversation partner showed signs of delusion, but the models that scored higher on safety actually approached the conversations with more caution the longer the chats went on. In their testing, Grok and Gemini were the worst performers in terms of safety and high risk, while the newest GPT model and Claude were the safest. Research like this shows that tech companies are capable of making safer products, and should be held to the highest possible standard. The problem they’ve created, and are now in some cases are attempting to iterate around with newer, safer models, is literally life or death. Read at 404media.co
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Researchers at City University of New York and King’s College London invented a persona that interacted with different chatbots to find out how each LLM might respond to signs of delusion. They found Grok and Gemini encouraged delusions and isolated users, while the newer ChatGPT model and Claude hit the emotional brakes. The researchers tested five LLMs: OpenAI’s GPT-4o (before the highly sycophantic and since-sunset GPT-5), GPT-5.2, xAI’s Grok 4.1 Fast, Google’s Gemini 3 Pro, and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5. They found that not only did the chatbots perform at different levels of risk and safety when their human conversation partner showed signs of delusion, but the models that scored higher on safety actually approached the conversations with more caution the longer the chats went on. In their testing, Grok and Gemini were the worst performers in terms of safety and high risk, while the newest GPT model and Claude were the safest. Research like this shows that tech companies are capable of making safer products, and should be held to the highest possible standard. The problem they’ve created, and are now in some cases are attempting to iterate around with newer, safer models, is literally life or death. Read at 404media.co
As cities and towns turnout to protest Flock citing privacy concerns, the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office in Georgia is offering a $1,000 reward leading to an arrest after sheriff Stacy Jarrad said officers found one of their cameras destroyed and left in the woods. "This camera was set to keep us alerted for sex offenders that possibly go into our park that children are there. So I hope you're happy with this," Jarrad said in a video posted to Facebook. Jarrad went on to make claims that the Flock camera, which is is part of a nationwide network of cameras that allows cops in one state to search for vehicles (and people) across many other states at once, for example, is "not videoing you." For the latest on Flock, head to 404media.co or hit the link in our bio.
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As cities and towns turnout to protest Flock citing privacy concerns, the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office in Georgia is offering a $1,000 reward leading to an arrest after sheriff Stacy Jarrad said officers found one of their cameras destroyed and left in the woods. "This camera was set to keep us alerted for sex offenders that possibly go into our park that children are there. So I hope you're happy with this," Jarrad said in a video posted to Facebook. Jarrad went on to make claims that the Flock camera, which is is part of a nationwide network of cameras that allows cops in one state to search for vehicles (and people) across many other states at once, for example, is "not videoing you." For the latest on Flock, head to 404media.co or hit the link in our bio.
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."
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 now.
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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 now.
Over the last few months 404 Media has covered some concerning but predictable uses for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which are equipped with a built-in camera, and for some models, AI. Aftermarket hobbyists have modified the glasses to add a facial recognition feature that could quietly d0x whatever face a user is looking at, and they have been worn by CBP agents during the immigration raids that have come to define a new low for human rights in the United States. Most recently, exploitative Instagram users filmed themselves asking workers at massage parlors for certain services and shared those videos online, a practice that experts told us put those workers’ lives at risk. 404 Media reached out to Meta for comment for each of these stories, and in each case Meta’s rebuttal was a mind-bending argument: What is the difference between Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses and an iPhone, really, when you think about it? In part one of our new #404DeepDive series, @evystadium takes a closer look.
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Over the last few months 404 Media has covered some concerning but predictable uses for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which are equipped with a built-in camera, and for some models, AI. Aftermarket hobbyists have modified the glasses to add a facial recognition feature that could quietly d0x whatever face a user is looking at, and they have been worn by CBP agents during the immigration raids that have come to define a new low for human rights in the United States. Most recently, exploitative Instagram users filmed themselves asking workers at massage parlors for certain services and shared those videos online, a practice that experts told us put those workers’ lives at risk. 404 Media reached out to Meta for comment for each of these stories, and in each case Meta’s rebuttal was a mind-bending argument: What is the difference between Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses and an iPhone, really, when you think about it? In part one of our new #404DeepDive series, @evystadium takes a closer look.
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. @Jason Koebler 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. @Jason Koebler reports. Head to 404media.co for the full story.
The City of Chetek, Wisconsin has deactivated its public Facebook page this week after Mayor Jeff Martin said they received death threats on their page after the town's recent Flock controversy. In July, Chetek's Police Chief, Ron Ambrozaitis, faced backlash at a meeting after he went ahead and signed a contract with Flock without informing the mayor, councilmembers and the town's residents, according to media reports. "I oughta do background checks on half the people that make comments," Ambrozaitis said at the July 14th public discussion, implying it was ridiculous for people to "ridicule" him over what equipment local law enforcement could buy out of their budget. As 404 Media has reported time and time again, Flock cameras have been used by local cops to pass information to ICE. There have also been many cases of law enforcement using the ALPR cameras to stalk exes and people with no ties to any investigation. Link in bio to read our latest investigations and news around Flock.
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The City of Chetek, Wisconsin has deactivated its public Facebook page this week after Mayor Jeff Martin said they received death threats on their page after the town's recent Flock controversy. In July, Chetek's Police Chief, Ron Ambrozaitis, faced backlash at a meeting after he went ahead and signed a contract with Flock without informing the mayor, councilmembers and the town's residents, according to media reports. "I oughta do background checks on half the people that make comments," Ambrozaitis said at the July 14th public discussion, implying it was ridiculous for people to "ridicule" him over what equipment local law enforcement could buy out of their budget. As 404 Media has reported time and time again, Flock cameras have been used by local cops to pass information to ICE. There have also been many cases of law enforcement using the ALPR cameras to stalk exes and people with no ties to any investigation. Link in bio to read our latest investigations and news around Flock.
Claude users are creating public share links, but probably don't realize that means their chats are now ending up in Google searches where anyone can dig through them. One Google dork — a super specific search that is useful for finding particular webpages or files — surfaced Claude chats, according to this post on the Claude subreddit. At the time of writing, that Google dork appears to have been mitigated. No results appeared when 404 Media tested it, on both Google and DuckDuckGo. The post said some of the surfaced chats included API keys, login credentials, and personal information like names, addresses, and phone numbers. Claude also offers Artifacts, which are interactive work spaces for trying out vibe-coded apps or other tools. A Google dork for surfacing them is still working at the time of writing. @Evy Kwong Read at 404media.co
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Claude users are creating public share links, but probably don't realize that means their chats are now ending up in Google searches where anyone can dig through them. One Google dork — a super specific search that is useful for finding particular webpages or files — surfaced Claude chats, according to this post on the Claude subreddit. At the time of writing, that Google dork appears to have been mitigated. No results appeared when 404 Media tested it, on both Google and DuckDuckGo. The post said some of the surfaced chats included API keys, login credentials, and personal information like names, addresses, and phone numbers. Claude also offers Artifacts, which are interactive work spaces for trying out vibe-coded apps or other tools. A Google dork for surfacing them is still working at the time of writing. @Evy Kwong 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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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.
On Thursday, Google introduced a new AI feature into Google Earth which lets anyone fabricate all sorts of misleading or straight up inaccurate satellite imagery, from making it look like a specific place has suffered a drone strike to manifesting a nuclear plant in Iran. What could possibly go wrong? And what the hell is Google doing? @Evy Kwong Read the story at 404media.co
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On Thursday, Google introduced a new AI feature into Google Earth which lets anyone fabricate all sorts of misleading or straight up inaccurate satellite imagery, from making it look like a specific place has suffered a drone strike to manifesting a nuclear plant in Iran. What could possibly go wrong? And what the hell is Google doing? @Evy Kwong Read the story at 404media.co
Alex Pretti died after being shot by ICE officers. #minneapolis #ice #alexpretti
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Alex Pretti died after being shot by ICE officers. #minneapolis #ice #alexpretti
“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. @Evy Kwong Read at 404media.co
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404.media
“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. @Evy Kwong Read at 404media.co
Privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail provided Swiss authorities with payment data that the FBI then used to determine who was allegedly behind an anonymous account affiliated with the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, according to a court record reviewed by 404 Media. The records provide insight into the sort of data that Proton Mail, which prides itself both on its end-to-end encryption and that it is only governed by Swiss privacy law, can and does provide to third parties. Edward Shone, head of communications for Proton AG, the company behind Proton Mail, told 404 Media in an email: “We want to first clarify that Proton did not provide any information to the FBI, the information was obtained from the Swiss justice department via MLAT. Proton only provides the limited information that we have when issued with a legally binding order from Swiss authorities, which can only happen after all Swiss legal checks are passed. This is an important distinction because Proton operates exclusively under Swiss law.” Functionally, though, the material was provided to the FBI. “Proton accepts payments via cryptocurrency, cash, and also credit card. If you use a credit card, we do have access to the payment identifier which can be used to identify the credit card holder from the card issuer. We check all legal orders received from Swiss authorities and we understood that a law enforcement officer was shot and explosive devices were involved, and we verified that Swiss legal requirements were met,” he added. The FBI search warrant affidavit does not mention a shooting. Police killed Manuel Paez Terán in January 2023 at a forest protest after they fired a gun at police from inside a tent injuring an officer, records reviewed by The Guardian showed. Before the shooting, police fired pepper balls into their tent, the records showed. @Evy Kwong Read at 404media.co
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6mo ago
404.media
Privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail provided Swiss authorities with payment data that the FBI then used to determine who was allegedly behind an anonymous account affiliated with the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, according to a court record reviewed by 404 Media. The records provide insight into the sort of data that Proton Mail, which prides itself both on its end-to-end encryption and that it is only governed by Swiss privacy law, can and does provide to third parties. Edward Shone, head of communications for Proton AG, the company behind Proton Mail, told 404 Media in an email: “We want to first clarify that Proton did not provide any information to the FBI, the information was obtained from the Swiss justice department via MLAT. Proton only provides the limited information that we have when issued with a legally binding order from Swiss authorities, which can only happen after all Swiss legal checks are passed. This is an important distinction because Proton operates exclusively under Swiss law.” Functionally, though, the material was provided to the FBI. “Proton accepts payments via cryptocurrency, cash, and also credit card. If you use a credit card, we do have access to the payment identifier which can be used to identify the credit card holder from the card issuer. We check all legal orders received from Swiss authorities and we understood that a law enforcement officer was shot and explosive devices were involved, and we verified that Swiss legal requirements were met,” he added. The FBI search warrant affidavit does not mention a shooting. Police killed Manuel Paez Terán in January 2023 at a forest protest after they fired a gun at police from inside a tent injuring an officer, records reviewed by The Guardian showed. Before the shooting, police fired pepper balls into their tent, the records showed. @Evy Kwong Read at 404media.co
Hackers say that they used Meta’s AI support chatbot to break into a host of high-profile Instagram profiles by asking the support bot to change the email address associated with the target account. The claims coincide with a series of high-profile Instagram account takeovers, including the Barack Obama White House account, the Chief Master Sergeant of Space Force’s account, and Sephora’s account. The glitch has since been patched, but @Jason Koebler gets into how dumb the whole thing really is. Read now at 404media.co
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3mo ago
404.media
Hackers say that they used Meta’s AI support chatbot to break into a host of high-profile Instagram profiles by asking the support bot to change the email address associated with the target account. The claims coincide with a series of high-profile Instagram account takeovers, including the Barack Obama White House account, the Chief Master Sergeant of Space Force’s account, and Sephora’s account. The glitch has since been patched, but @Jason Koebler gets into how dumb the whole thing really is. Read now at 404media.co

404 Media (@404.media) Tiktok Stats & Analytics

404 Media (@404.media) has 55.8K Tiktok followers with a 9.60% engagement rate over the past 12 months. Across 272 videos, 404 Media received 682K total likes and 7.51M views, averaging 2.51K likes per video. This page tracks 404 Media's performance metrics, top content, and engagement trends — updated daily.

404 Media (@404.media) Tiktok Analytics FAQ

How many TikTok followers does 404 Media have?+
404 Media (@404.media) has 55.8K TikTok followers as of September 2026.
What is 404 Media's TikTok engagement rate?+
404 Media's TikTok engagement rate is 9.60% over the last 12 months, based on 272 videos.
How many likes does 404 Media get on TikTok?+
404 Media received 682K total likes across 272 videos in the last 12 months, averaging 2.51K likes per video.
How many TikTok views does 404 Media get?+
404 Media's TikTok content generated 7.51M total views over the last 12 months.