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Podcast: The Rise of AI Book Ripoffs
We start this week’s episode with Joseph finding out someone basically ripped off his book with a potentially AI-generated summary. Emanuel also updates us on some of the impact his reporting on AI in libraries has had. After the break, Sam tells us all about a Y Combinator supported startup that is straight-up dehumanizing factory…
Y Combinator Supports AI Startup Dehumanizing Factory Workers
A venture capital-backed “AI performance monitoring system for factory workers” is proposing what appears to be dehumanizing surveillance of factories, where machine vision tracks workers’ hand movements and output so a boss can look at graphs and yell at them about efficiency. In a launch video demoing the product, Baid and Mohta put on a…
Former Heritage Foundation Staffer Orders Treasury Employees to Respond to Elon Musk’s Email
Workers around the federal government are scrambling to figure out how and if they should respond to an all-government email sent Saturday at the behest of Elon Musk asking them to list five things they did at work within the last week. During the confusion caused by Musk’s email, workers at the Treasury Department received…
AI Video of Trump Sucking Musk’s Toes Blasted on Government Office TVs
An AI-generated video of President Donald Trump sucking on Elon Musk’s feet, overlaid with the text “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING,” played on TV screens at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) headquarters in Washington, D.C., multiple journalists are reporting on social media. Journalist Marisa Kabas posted the video on Bluesky, writing, “this…
All 50 States Have Now Introduced Right to Repair Legislation
Right to repair legislation has now been introduced in all 50 states, a milestone that, despite not all passing, shows the power of the grassroots political movement. Thursday, Wisconsin became the final state in the country to introduce a right to repair bill. So far, right to repair laws have been passed in Massachusetts, New…
A Slop Publisher Sold a Ripoff of My Book on Amazon
Like some (many? most? all?) authors I sometimes check how my book is doing on Amazon and other booksellers. Recently while doing that, I came across another listing on the online retailer: “SUMMARY OF JOSEPH COX’S DARK WIRE,” referring to the book I spent years researching, investigating, and writing. It cost $4.99. Curious whether this…
Scientists Discover Ancient Farms in the Deep Sea
Welcome back to the Abstract! It’s hard to keep up with all the news about all the giant gassy orbiters out there. I’m speaking, of course, about hot Jupiters, a class of planets that takes the concept of “inhospitable” to dazzling and creative new levels, and which had an epic news week. Then, what did…
Behind the Blog: Chatbots as Gospel, Books and Birds
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss the new Murderbot show, ChatGPT for journalism, and birdwatching from afar. EMANUEL: Yesterday Apple released the first two images from its upcoming sci-fi show, Murderbot, and announced…
‘The Bigotry Is Astounding:’ Engineers Waste Time and Money Scanning .Gov Sites for ‘Transgender’ and Other Terms
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is wasting workers’ time and taxpayer dollars on “a witch hunt to find any content deemed ‘bad,’” according to a source familiar with the work and internal communications viewed by 404 Media. Specifically, people who work on HHS websites are spending days scanning those sites and…