A team of researchers who say they are from the University of Zurich ran an “unauthorized,” large-scale experiment in which they secretly deployed AI-powered bots into a popular debate subreddit called r/changemyview in an attempt to research whether AI could be used to change people’s minds about contentious topics. The bots made more than a…
Employees working for the agency now known as DOGE have been ordered to stop using Slack while government lawyers attempt to transition the agency to one that is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, 404 Media has learned. “Good morning, everyone! As a reminder, please refrain from using Slack at the moment while…
🌘 Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week. A major mystery about a long-lost legend that was all the rage in Medieval England but survives in only one known fragment has been solved, according to a study published on…
Carleigh Beriont is running for Congress, and if you know about her campaign, it’s definitely not for the same reason you’ve learned about other local politicians in recent years. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become a household name in part because of her ability to use social media and livestreams to talk to people directly. Zohran Mamdani…
You can see the specific steps that a government agency is taking to comply with the Trump administration’s policies against diversity, equity, and inclusion on the agency’s GitHub, which shows it frantically deleting and editing various documents, employee handbooks, Slack bots, and job listings across everything the agency touches. 18F is a much-hyped government agency…
The hackers behind the massive breach of AT&T data last year hunted through the data for phone numbers and records associated with top officials and their families, including members of the Trump family such as Melania and Ivanka Trump; Kamala Harris; and Marco Rubio’s wife, people familiar with the matter told 404 Media. The news…
When Google’s AI Overview search feature launched in May, it was generally regarded as a mess. It told people to eat glue and rocks, libeled newsworthy figures, plagiarized journalists’ work, and was so bad Google added a feature to turn it off entirely. In the nearly 10 months since AI Overview launched, it’s still getting…
🌘 Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week. It’s not the vibes; Earth is literally getting darker. Scientists have discovered that our planet has been reflecting less light in both hemispheres, with a more pronounced darkening in the Northern…
The shed-sized post office opposite a Baptist Church 40 miles outside of Louisville, Kentucky, was an unlikely starting point for one of the most significant undercover FBI operations in recent years. Inside that post office on September 17, 2021, sat a package that had arrived a few days earlier. On the face of it that…
Doublespeed, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) that uses a phone farm to manage at least hundreds of AI-generated social media accounts and promote products has been hacked. The hack reveals what products the AI-generated accounts are promoting, often without the required disclosure that these are advertisements, and allowed the hacker to take control…
