A short-statured human relative that lived on a lush island probably didn’t wield fire or hunt big game, but it did walk in the footsteps of dragons, according to a new study.

This week, we discuss the Supreme Court, the private jet, and AI on the TV.

Sources and leaks from Amazon, Adobe, Atlassian, Citi, and more show what is really happening with AI right now: companies are trying to rein in AI use as costs spiral out of control. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. @josephcox.bsky.social story: www.404media.co/companies-ar...

new plants just dropped: www.404media.co/scammers-sel...

New from 404 Media: we've got leaks from Amazon, GitHub, Adobe, Citi, and more. The big takeaway is that companies in all industries are suddenly throttling their employees' AI use because AI is actually too expensive. Cutting off access to some models entirely www.404media.co/companies-ar...

we talked to employees at multiple companies that are pumping the brakes on AI because it's so expensive to use www.404media.co/companies-ar...

Data centers spike the cost of power for everyone who lives nearby. Often, people building new projects promise they’ll build out power infrastructure to make up the cost and prevent normal people from footing the bill. That's not how it works. @mjgault.bsky.social: www.404media.co/henrico-virg...

Sources and leaks from Amazon, Adobe, Atlassian, Citi, and more show what is really happening with AI right now: companies are trying to reign in AI use as costs spiral out of control.

How companies are burning through their AI tokens; and the fake AI-generated flowers all over Etsy, eBay, and Amazon.

Researchers discovered that people found AI impersonators to be more authentic, coherent, and relevant than the real politicians, raising alarm bells around the potential for public deception.

Companies are scrambling to stop spending so much on AI after it turns out people are just using it to convert PDFs to presentations. This is the tokenpocalypse. Watch here and subscribe for more every single week: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sia4...

After pushing staff to use AI on the job, companies are realizing that employees are using it for things like converting PDF files and burning through tokens doing so. @josephcox.bsky.social gets into it. Watch now: youtube.com/watch?v=…

New: there is a major vulnerability with Apple’s Hide My Email feature that lets attackers discover peoples’ real emails. Verified it works on my own email. We’re not disclosing how it works because Apple has not fixed it. But Apple has known for more than a year www.404media.co/apple-hide-m...

”Hide My Email users deserve to know that it may be possible for attackers to discover their hidden email addresses,” the person who reported the issue said.

”Hide My Email users deserve to know that it may be possible for attackers to discover their hidden email addresses,” the person who reported the issue said.

Meta's new Starfire AI glasses, made in partnership with Kylie Jenner, are giving me the creeps.

Henrico County is a major hub for data centers in Virginia. Its officials said it expects a 25% rise in electricity costs next year, and advised workers to close the blinds and turn off their computers to make up for it.

Ebay, Amazon, and Etsy are unable to stop the flood of AI-generated seed scams.

“It makes the model speak less like a polite chatbot and more like a terse tool." Companies are deliberately making their AI tools speak like cavemen in an attempt to stop burning through AI tokens, @evystadium.bsky.social has more. @josephcox.bsky.social story here: www.404media.co/companies-ar...

These AI generated flowers might seem obviously fake but thousands of people are falling for it and buying these seeds on Amazon, Etsy, and Ebay www.404media.co/scammers-sel...

A senior OpenAI employee has contributed code to the project, simply called 'caveman.'

New from 404 Media: companies are deliberately making Claude and Codex talk like cavemen because it can curb the skyrocketing cost of AI. The 'caveman' plugin keeps LLM answers very, very brief. Got leaked memo showing it's being used; OpenAI dev contributed code too www.404media.co/companies-ar...

NEW: Companies are deliberately making their AI tools speak like cavemen in an attempt to stop burning through AI tokens and curb their massive expenditure on AI, 404 Media has found. “Caveman save you token, save you money.”

Buy 404 Media's course: www.404media.co/how-i-bought...

I used to be poor and stupid, but then I took Jason's class about blogging and now I'm rich!!! www.404media.co/how-i-bought...

My journey inside the world of LARPing, where hustlebros pretend to be rich for TikTok.

Spotify competitor Tidal built a reputation by collaborating with musicians and focusing on audio quality. How will it handle the era of AI-generated slop?

I went to Cannes, where everything is an ad for the concept of advertising. Some really great innovation happening here, such as: www.404media.co/inside-canne...

not directly rewarding slop on your platform seems like it would result in less slop, and a healthier ecosystem generally (and more users jumping from your competitors). will be interesting to see if it plays out that way for tidal www.404media.co/tidal-says-i...

NEW: As Spotify embraces AI artists, allowing those artist accounts to monetize on streams, Tidal on Monday said it wouldn't pay royalties for AI-generated music.

This is how easy it is to poison Google's AI search with Reddit comments Watch here and subscribe for more of this every single week: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uG8...

This week, 404 Media's @jasonkoebler.bsky.social talks to researchers Hal Triedman and Tingwei Zhang about how marketing companies are poisoning AI search results by manipulating Reddit. And yeah, it's really just that simple. Watch now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uG8...

Reporting from Microsoft Gardens, next to Salesforce Beach, Amazon Port, and the Canva Creative Cabana.

Physicists theorize that a massive star could collapse into a different type of compact object, dominated by dark energy, which could trigger the birth of a mini-universe inside of it, according to a new study. www.404media.co/scientists-p...

The data contains a list of "talent," including former Knicks players and coaches, and whether other celebrities are considered "Low Risk" or "High Risk." www.404media.co/hackers-publ...

“The issue here is that these capabilities and claims thereof are very strongly tied to marketing—after all, a lot of these models are products." www.404media.co/if-ai-is-sen...

The document, titled “Facial Recognition Activists.docx,” includes specific activists’ comments about MSG's facial recognition program and tweets criticizing it. www.404media.co/madison-squa...

These cases repeatedly show that, because there are few limits on what police can use Flock for, they are often able to abuse the system for months or years before being caught. www.404media.co/cops-keep-ge...

“All he has done is try to start a right-wing/conservative pressure group within Wikipedia.” www.404media.co/wikipedia-co...

Recordings of laughter from humans and other great apes suggest that the distinctive rhythm of "ha ha ha" emerged in a common ancestor that lived at least 15 million years ago.

Some companies who told their staff to use AI now are asking employees to reduce usage after, for example, Accenture found that non-technical workers were using it to convert PDFs into different file types. www.404media.co/the-tokenpoc...

“Whether it is rising utility bills, unsustainable demands on our water, nonsensical tax incentives or the loss of farmland and rural ways of life, people are asking a very basic question: who is this ultimately serving?” www.404media.co/bodycam-foot...

This week, we discuss talking aloud to computers, Cannes, and “Engineering Creativity: Guac Is Extra."

Madison Square Garden has deployed facial recognition technology since 2018 to identify people entering the venue—and it's been used to block entry to all sorts of people. @josephcox.bsky.social explains more. Watch now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlWJ...

finally spoke with Darren Blanchard, the farmer arrested for speaking too long at a community meeting about data centers. We've also got the bodycam footage from his arrest

If AI is conscious, then so is Age of Empires II Here's how someone built the fundamentals of an LLM in the classic video game, breaking down the whole 'are LLMs conscious' debate Watch and subscribe here for more every week: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlWJ...

@mjgault.bsky.social spoke to Darren Blanchard, the man arrested while speaking out against data centers at a community meeting. He's sharing the bodycam footage of his arrest for the first time with 404 Media. Read now: www.404media.co/bodycam-foot...

We spoke to Darren Blanchard, the man arrested while speaking out against data centers at a community meeting. He's sharing the bodycam footage of his arrest for the first time with 404 Media.

The Microsoft AI researcher's point is that it’s possible to build a neural network in "Age of Empires II" that works the same as the ones underlying Claude, ChatGPT, CoPilot, and all the rest. @mjgault.bsky.social explains in todays podcast: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlWJ...

Physicists have discovered that the dark matter structures that scaffold the universe—known as the “cosmic web”—are far larger and more persistent than expected, challenging a core assumption about the universe.