AI-Generated Biography on Amazon Tries to Capitalize on the Death of a Beloved Writer Kaleb Horton

On September 27, several writers published obituaries about writer and photographer Kaleb Horton, who recently died. The obituaries were written by friends, acquaintances, and colleagues, but all of them revered him as a writer and photographer, whose work has appeared in GQ, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and VICE.  Some of these obituary writers were shocked…

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OpenAI’s Sora 2 Copyright Infringement Machine Features Nazi SpongeBobs and Criminal Pikachus

Within moments of opening OpenAI’s new AI slop app Sora, I am watching Pikachu steal Poké Balls from a CVS. Then I am watching SpongeBob-as-Hitler give a speech about the “scourge of fish ruining Bikini Bottom.” Then I am watching a title screen for a Nintendo 64 game called “Mario’s Schizophrenia.” I swipe and I…

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Kodak Is Selling Its Own Film Again for the First Time in a Decade

Kodak announced two new stocks of color film on Wednesday, in a move that has excited the photography world and which indicates that the photography giant is directly distributing still photography film again. “To help meet the growing demand for film, Kodak is excited to announce the launch of two color-negative films, KODACOLOR 100 and…

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Podcast: Landlords Demand Your Workplace Logins to Scrape Paystubs

We start this week with Joseph’s article about landlords and income verification companies demanding login details from potential renters so the companies can log in and scrape their paystubs. That has some potential legal issues for everyone involved! After the break, 18 lawyers tell us why they used AI. In the subscribers-only section, Emanuel breaks…

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ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has bought access to a surveillance tool that is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data from hundreds of millions of mobile phones, according to ICE documents reviewed by 404 Media. The documents explicitly show that ICE is choosing this product over others offered by the contractor’s…

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In Unhinged Speech, Pete Hegseth Says He’s Tired of ‘Fat Troops,’ Says Military Needs to Go Full AI

Last week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called America’s Generals to Quantico to meet for an unknown reason. America’s top civilian military leader calling the generals home all at once is strange and unprecedented. It’s the kind of move that often presages something like a major war. But that’s not what he wanted. During a…

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Google Just Removed Seven Years of Political Advertising History from 27 Countries

Google’s Ad Transparency tool no longer shows political online advertisements that ran on its platforms, in the past or present, from any countries in the European Union, making seven years of data from 27 different countries inaccessible. Liz Carolan, who publishes Irish technology and politics newsletter The Briefing, spotted the change on September 28. Carolan…

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