This week on the pod we’re joined by Mike Isaac a tech reporter who has been at the New York Times for more than a decade and who just recently announced he’s joining The Atlantic. Isaac  also is the author of Super Pumped, a book about Uber that was adapted into a TV show. Isaac and 404 Media cover the same companies and technologies but we come at them from pretty different angles. He has a very deep background in business reporting and he’s also very well sourced in the valley. We spent a lot of time talking about how the AI race looks right now from his perspective, the challenges in covering it, and also the reemergence of Uber’s founder, Travis Kalanick.

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We start this week with Jason’s article about how everyone is apparently reverse-engineering everything. After the break, Joseph tells us about a big AI shakeup at consulting giant Accenture. In the subscribers-only section, Sam and Jason discuss the Character[.]ai bankruptcy.

• ‘Reverse-Engineer Anything’ Is the New Wild West of AI
• Accenture Tells Employees They Can Now Spend Only $29 on Claude Per Month
• Character[.]ai Bankruptcy Is First AI Bubble Domino to Fall

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Big tech is rushing to build hundreds of data centers across the planet to keep up with the computing demand of artificial intelligence. The tech companies are promising the massive buildings will bring jobs and prosperity when they’re built, but communities across the country aren’t buying it and they’re fighting back. People are concerned about water, noise, pollution, and the rising cost of electricity. Anyone who already lives next to a data center knows those fears are well founded.

To talk through this, Matthew spoke to Paris Marx. He’s a tech critic, the host of Tech Won’t Save Us and the author of the new book Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires.

Buy Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires

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We start this week with Joseph’s article about Raven, previously known as Geospy. This is an AI tool that can geolocate photos, and now says it can pinpoint a specific house based just on one photo taken inside. After the break, Jason explains why a judge ruled a particular Flock search as unconstitutional. In the subscribers-only section, we talk about the wild AI video that has derailed a manslaughter case.

• AI Company Lets Cops Pinpoint Specific Houses Based on a Single Interior Photo
• Watch Footage of the Flock Search a Judge Ruled Unconstitutional
• Her AI-Generated Video Swayed the Judge. The Court Said it Carried 'Undue Emotional Weight'

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Sponsor: Take back control today: go to incogni.com/404media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's incogni.com/404media, promo code 404MEDIA—risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen became one of the most important tech whistleblowers in 2021, when she exposed how Facebook’s algorithm was pushing people toward hate groups, showed Instagram was making teen girls feel worse about themselves, and showed that the company knew about its detrimental impacts on society. Haugen’s story is the basis for Aaron Sorkin’s new movie ‘The Social Reckoning,’ which follows her evolution from model employee to leaker to formal whistleblower. Jason and Frances discuss what the movie got right about journalist-source relationships and how AI is supercharging privacy concerns.

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/oB3IxwCfP7M

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We start this week with a story from our old friend Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, about how cops can bypass the inactivity reboot on iPhones. After the break, Jason tells us how people are losing their minds over an LLM ‘torture’ prison. In the subscribers-only section, Sam explains what happened in a wild ChatGPT case in New Mexico.

• Cops Can Bypass iPhone’s Automatic Reboot to Get Into Locked Phones, Leaked Video Claims
• Someone ‘Torturing’ LLMs in a Robot Prison Has Triggered the Dumbest Debate in AI Yet
• Lawyer Cites ChatGPT-Invented Fake Witnesses in Murder Appeal

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Thank you to DeleteMe for helping make this night possible. They're offering ⁠20% off a privacy protection plan⁠ for friends of 404 Media. Use code 404M20 at checkout.

404 Media just turned three years old, and to celebrate, we hosted a night of chatting about what we’ve accomplished with your support, what’s next for us, and whether or not we’re all going to be okay. We also threw in some weird bugs and community resistance for good measure. Don’t miss us pulling audience questions out of the mystery AMA box! 

Live from WNYC’s Greene Space, you can also watch the entire show on 404 Media’s YouTube channel. 

• We Are Going to Be Okay: A Three Year Anniversary Events Recap
• Our Zine About ICE Surveillance Is Here
• Watch 404 Media’s Super Bowl Ad

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Jason Kint, the CEO of Digital Content Next, has kept a close eye on some of the biggest tech antitrust and copyright court cases. Kint has a knack for finding particularly incriminating court records in complex ongoing lawsuits. We talk to Kint about the pressures that human creators are under in an AI world, the New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI, and why Meta's Cambridge Analytica scandal is relevant again.

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/knlbTd5Pij4

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Don’t sleep on [@ultrapouches]. New customers get 15% Off with code 404MEDIA at takeultra.com! #UltraPouches #ad

We start this week with Joseph’s stories on the massive FBI hack. 404 Media broke this news and continued to cover the breach of data on all FBI employees and their spouses. After the break, Jason tells us how a surveillance company is telling cops it wants to add facial recognition tech to Flock camera data. In the subscribers-only section, Jason and Joseph chat all about Muse, Meta’s new agentic AI, and how humans are actually behind some of the tasks. Because of course.

• ‘We Hacked the FBI:’ Hackers Say They Have Data on All FBI Employees
• FBI Hack Exposed FBI’s Own Hacking Unit
• FBI Hackers Say They Won’t Publish Massive Trove of FBI Employee Data
• Surveillance Company Tells Cops It Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras
  

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Facial recognition is everywhere now. It’s in surveillance cameras; it’s soon going to be in Meta’s RayBan pervert glasses, and some students already did that. You now have massively viral accounts that take clips of people, run them through facial recognition software, and then post their name and other personal info for everyone to see. We haven’t fully come to terms with what it means to live in a world where anyone can basically dox anyone else now.

To talk through this, Joseph spoke to Kashmir Hill. She’s a reporter at the New York Times, and the author of Your Face Belongs to Us: A Tale of AI, a Secretive Startup, and the End of Privacy.

Take back control today: go to incogni.com/404media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's incogni.com/404media, promo code 404MEDIA—risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to https://incogni.com/404Mediaand use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA at https://incogni.com/404Media

We start this week with Jason’s story about OpenAI and Microsoft’s big admissions from court records that they are destroying the internet in all sorts of ways, and stealing intellectual property on an unprecedented scale. He admit it. After the break, Emanuel explains how he hijacked a real band’s Spotify page with AI-generated slop. In the subscribers-only section, we hear all about iLands, the AI agent platform that is basically just spam.

• Is Your City Using Axon License Plate Cameras? We Need Your Help
• ‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft
• I Hijacked a Real Artist's Spotify with AI Music. It Was Disturbingly Easy
• AI Agent Platform Reinvents Spam, Floods Inboxes Worldwide

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