New from 404 Media: Google is serving AI images of mushrooms when users search for some species. Very risky, potentially fatal error for foragers who are trying to find what mushrooms are safe to eat. Could have "devastating consequences" one expert said

404 Media

Google Serving AI-Generated Images of Mushrooms Could Have 'Devastating Consequences'

AI-generated images of mushrooms that look nothing like the real species could spread misleading and dangerous information.

New from 404 Media: in a massive shift, Telegram says it now *will* provide user data to authorities in response to legal orders. Includes IP addresses and phone numbers. Yesterday privacy policy said just terror suspects. Now it is crimes more broadly

404 Media

Telegram Changes Policy, Says It Will Provide User Data to Authorities

In an update to its privacy policy, Telegram says it will now share IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities in response to valid orders. The ...

With news that pager explosions are the work of Israeli front company making the devices, of course reminded of when the FBI made its own front company for phones for criminals. Stakes (and collateral) higher in Lebanon, obviously. But this is how the trade-offs were discussed

New: a project analyzing human language usage by scraping the web is shutting down because "generative AI has polluted the data." It's going to become much harder to analyze human use of language with the rise of AI-generated stuff being everywhere

404 Media

Project Analyzing Human Language Usage Shuts Down Because ‘Generative AI Has Polluted the Data’

Wordfreq shuts down because "I don’t think anyone has reliable information about post-2021 language usage by humans.”

New from 404 Media: a police report we obtained shows a Starship food delivery robot abruptly changed direction, ran into a person, and knocked her down/injured her. Robot then headed in her direction again. Company offered victim promo codes as apology

404 Media

Delivery Robot Knocked Over Pedestrian, Company Offered ‘Promo Codes’ to Apologize

When a Starship employee talked to the police, the report says, he asked for the employee’s information “so he could contact her and offer thei...

New from 404 Media: LinkedIn is training AI on users before updating its terms of service. People noticed a new setting on generative AI. I asked LinkedIn, they said they're updating their terms "shortly." They went ahead and trained AI w/o updating

404 Media

LinkedIn Is Training AI on User Data Before Updating Its Terms of Service

Multiple LinkedIn users on Wednesday noticed a setting that showed LinkedIn was using user data to improve its generative AI. LinkedIn told 404 Med...

Multiple experts we spoke to with experience recycling/handling lithium batteries say the pager explosions in Lebanon are likely not from just batteries alone; combination with explosives more likely

404 Media

Experts: Lebanon Pager Explosions Likely Not Lithium Batteries Alone

Lithium-ion battery fires are dangerous, but small batteries alone don't usually cause this much damage.

New: Snapchat is reserving the right to use your own, AI-generated likeness in ads that can then target you. The setting is on by default according to our tests

404 Media

Snapchat Reserves the Right to Use AI-Generated Images of Your Face in Ads

Snapchat’s “My Selfie” by default reserves the right to use your likeness in ads.

Today in AI slop, Google serves AI slop as top result for one of the most famous paintings in history. When you searched for the artist Hieronymus Bosch, the top result was an AI generated version of the Garden of Earthly Delights

404 Media

Google Serves AI Slop as Top Result for One of the Most Famous Paintings in History

A Google Search for “Hieronymus Bosch” returned an AI-generated version of The Garden of Earthly Delights pulled from an AI slop blog.

New: earlier today we got court records which show a stalker allegedly made an AI chatbot version of a woman on sex bot site that was used to dox and harass her. Bot programmed with victim's address; anyone could use the bot and have it output the address

404 Media

Stalker Allegedly Created AI Chatbot on NSFW Platform to Dox and Harass Woman

"If another user interacting with the chatbot asked the ‘Victim’ where she lived, the chatbot could provide the Victim’s true home address fo...