New from 404 Media: source familiar with engineers spending days of their time scanning .gov sites for "transgender" and other terms. "It is not efficient to take engineers off their work to scan old content for any keywords this new administration hates."
404 Media
'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.
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New: a public library ebook service is removing AI-generated books from its platform after a 404 Media investigation. We found public libraries were being swarmed with low quality AI-generated books. Now going to change.
404 Media
Public Library Ebook Service to Cull AI Slop After 404 Media Investigation
Hoopla has emailed librarians saying it’s removing AI-generated books from the platform people use to borrow ebooks from public libraries.
New from 404 Media: a Musk ally has demanded administrative access to Notify.gov, a system that lets the government text the public. The access would give them large swathes of the publics' personal data too. A worker has resigned in protest rather than give access
404 Media
Musk Ally Demands Admin Access to System That Lets Government Text the Public
A worker resigned in protest rather than giving Thomas Shedd access to Notify.gov, which they said would allow him to see "all personally identifia...
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A government contractor that works with the Air Force, Navy, Department of Energy etc wants to buy some iPhone hacking tech for a military customer. So, they asked us? A group of journalists? Sure why not. More here:
404 Media
Why Is a Government Contractor Trying to Buy iPhone Hacking Tech From Us?
A contractor for the Air Force and other government agencies wanted to get a good deal on some Graykeys from us (we're journalists FYI).
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New from 404 Media: anyone can push updates to the Doge.gov site. Two sources independently found the issue, one made their own decision to deface the site. "THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN."
404 Media
Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov Website
"THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN."
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New from 404 Media: a true crime documentary YouTube channel went viral for its wild stories about grizzly murders, other cases. Except, all of the stories, murders, photos, etc are AI generated. On truth, entertainment, and what matters in 'true' crime:
404 Media
A ‘True Crime’ Documentary Series Has Millions of Views. The Murders Are All AI-Generated
The creator of a viral "true crime" series where the murders were all invented by AI explains how he did it.
New from 404 Media: we've identified which specific company is powering the surveillance of U.S. military personnel through location data. It's Eskimi, an Adtech company you've probably never heard of but which has a massive presence in the advertising ecosystem
404 Media
The Murky Ad-Tech World Powering Surveillance of US Military Personnel
A Florida data broker told a US senator it obtained sensitive data on US military members in Germany from a Lithuanian firm, which denies involveme...
New from 404 Media: inside the gov meeting where Musk ally laid out plans for data sharing across gov/AI. We got audio. In the call an employee pushed back and said the plan would be “illegal.” Musk ally said “we should still push forward and see what we can do.”
404 Media
‘Things Are Going to Get Intense:’ How a Musk Ally Plans to Push AI on the Government
404 Media has obtained audio of a meeting held by Thomas Shedd, a Musk-associate who is now heading a team of government coders. In the call one em...
OpenAI is furious that DeepSeek might have stolen all of the data OpenAI stole from all of us
404 Media
OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us
OpenAI shocked that an AI company would train on someone else's data without permission or compensation.
New from 404 Media: the hackers behind the massive AT&T/Snowflake breach mined the stolen records for data associated with the Trump family, Kamala Harris, and Marco Rubio's wife. Shows how catastrophic this breach was, massive natsec risk
404 Media
Hackers Mined AT&T Breach for Data on Trump's Family, Kamala Harris
Hackers behind the breach of “nearly all” of AT&T customers’ metadata searched for records associated with members of the Trump family, Kamal...