This week we start with Jason's story about anyone being able to push updates to DOGE.gov website. Then we talk about other stories with the DEI.gov and Waste.gov sites. After the break, Sam tells us all about some lawyers who get caught using AI in a case. In the subscribers-only section, we chat about a true crime documentary YouTube channel where the murders were all AI-generated.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/wqjeDFk9LMo

• Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov Website
• Researcher Captures Contents of ‘DEI.gov’ Before It Was Hidden Behind a Password
• Elon Musk's Waste.gov Is Just a WordPress Theme Placeholder Page
• Lawyers Caught Citing AI-Hallucinated Cases Call It a 'Cautionary Tale'
• A ‘True Crime’ Documentary Series Has Millions of Views. The Murders Are All AI-Generated
• 
  

Subscribe at 404media.co for bonus content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we discuss a new Microsoft study that finds using generative AI is "atrophying" people's cognition and critical thinking skills and the right's war on Wikipedia.

Articles discussed:

Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared”

Wikipedia Prepares for 'Increase in Threats' to US Editors From Musk and His Allies

You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We dedicate the whole free section of this episode to Musk’s takeover of the federal government. We got audio from a meeting in which a Musk ally laid out their plans for AI across the government, and revealed who is now the head of HR for DOGE. In the subscribers only section, we talk about how your public library probably already has a bunch of AI slop.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/fTgHpq4-psQ

• ‘Things Are Going to Get Intense:’ How a Musk Ally Plans to Push AI on the Government
• Musk’s DOGE Brings in HR Consultant Focused on ‘Non-Woke’ DEI 'Aligned With Our Faith’
• AI-Generated Slop Is Already In Your Public Library

Subscribe at 404media.co for bonus content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start this week with Emanuel's rundown on the DeepSeek situation, the Chinese-made AI that has rocked stock markets and the wider AI industry. After the break, Sam explains how metadata in U.S. government memos lists Project 2025 members as the memo authors. In the subscribers-only section, Jason and Sam explain how GitHub is showing the U.S. government's purging of information in real time.

YouTube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=351BmM2SaXY

• DeepSeek Mania Shakes AI Industry to Its Core
• Memos to Federal Employees Were Written By People With Ties to Project 2025, Metadata Shows
• Trump’s Administration Is Taking Down Sites About Gender Identity All Over the Internet
• GitHub Is Showing the Trump Administration Scrubbing Government Web Pages in Real Time

Subscribe at 404media.co for bonus content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this special guest episode of the 404 Media Podcast, Sam talks to Alexzandra Kekesi, VP of Brand and Community at Pornhub. Kekesi started in her current role in August 2023, after working for Pornhub and its parent company for more than a decade. She joined us from Montreal, where Pornhub is headquartered. They discuss the stigma facing the adult industry, Luigi Mangione porn, the trad wife to feet pics pipeline, and algorithms that shut you down for showing side boob. Kekesi also breaks down Pornhub’s choice to pull out of states in more than a third of the U.S., following regressive age verification laws.

• Pornhub Sees Surge of Interest in Tradwife Content, ‘Modesty,’ and Mindfulness
• Pornhub Is Now Blocked In Almost All of the U.S. South
• Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the Internet

Subscribe at 404media.co for bonus content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start this week with the TikTok ban: how we got here, what happened, and, most importantly, why it means we need more decentralized services. Jason runs us through it. After the break, Joseph breaks down a site called GeoSpy which is marketing geolocation technology to the cops. In the subscribers-only section, we all scroll through an archive of old Nokia (yes, Nokia) designs. Good stuff in there.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/DOXnpENi8Sg

• 02:27 Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy
• The U.S. Wants to Ban TikTok for the Sins of Every Social Media Company
• 27:31 The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds
• Nokia’s Weird Y2K Designs Show the Future We Could Have Had

Subscribe at 404media.co for bonus content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've got much more on what is happening inside Meta with the company's recent speech policy changes. Jason runs us through it. After the break, Joseph explains how thousands of apps have been hijacked to steal your location data, possibly without the app developers' knowledge. In the subscribers-only section, we talk about various stories intersecting with the LA fires, such as Amazon delivery drivers and AI images.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/ItOENEWAy3s.

• ‘It’s Total Chaos Internally at Meta Right Now’: Employees Protest Zuckerberg’s Anti LGBTQ Changes
• Meta Deletes Trans and Nonbinary Messenger Themes
• Candy Crush, Tinder, MyFitnessPal: See the Thousands of Apps Hijacked to Spy on Your Location
• Online Behavioral Ads Fuel the Surveillance Industry—Here’s How
• People Think AI Images of Hollywood Sign Burning Are Real
• An Amazon Delivery Confirmation Photo Is the Last Time a Palisades Resident Saw Her Burnt Down House
• ‘We’re Fine’: Lying to Ourselves About a Climate Disaster

Subscribe at 404media.co for bonus content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back! And holy moly what a start to the year. We just published a bunch of stories. First, Jason talks about blowback inside Meta to its new board member, and Meta's subsequent censoring of those views. We also chat about those mad Meta AI profiles. After the break, Sam explains why Pornhub is blocked in most of the U.S. south. In the subscribers-only section, Joseph talks about why the government is planning to name one of its most important (and at risk) witnesses.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/avuq1NXe6DM

• Facebook Deletes Internal Employee Criticism of New Board Member Dana White
• Meta's AI Profiles Are Indistinguishable From Terrible Spam That Took Over Facebook
• Pornhub Is Now Blocked In Almost All of the U.S. South
• Government to Name ‘Key Witness’ Who Provided FBI With Backdoored Encrypted Chat App Anom

Subscribe at 404media.co for bonus content.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's a special year in review episode! We riff on the last year in AI, media, journalism, and more. We'll be back with a normal news show in the new year!

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/t5RuHgk52MM

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a re-upload that was previously only for paying subscribers! It gives a lot more context on the how and why we cover AI they way we do. Subscribe at 404media.co for more bonus content like this. Here's the original description of the episode:

We got a lot of, let's say, feedback, with some of our recent stories on artificial intelligence. One was about people using Bing's AI to create images of cartoon characters flying a plane into a pair of skyscrapers. Another was about 4chan using the same tech to quickly generate racist images. Here, we use that dialogue as a springboard to chat about why we cover AI the way we do, the purpose of journalism, and how that relates to AI and tech overall. This was fun, and let us know what you think. Definitely happy to do more of these sorts of discussions for our subscribers in the future.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Jason, as both a drones and aliens reporter, tells us what is most likely happening with the mysterious drones flying over New Jersey. After the break, Joseph explains how cops in Serbia are using Cellebrite phone unlocking tech as a doorway to installing malware on activists' and journalists' phones. In the subscribers-only section, Sam tells us all about an amazing art project using traffic cameras in New York City.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/T_JVUHbAzf4

• WTF Is Going on With the New Jersey Mystery Drones? Maybe Mass Panic Over Nothing
• The No-Win 'Mystery Drone' Clusterfuck
• Cellebrite Unlocked This Journalist’s Phone. Cops Then Infected it With Malware
• Traffic Camera 'Selfie' Creator Holds Cease and Desist Letter in Front of Traffic Cam

Subscribe at 404media.co.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices