We start this week with Sam's piece about a massive leak of an AI chatbot, and how it showed that people were taking ordinary women’s yearbook photos and using them to make AI porn. After the break, Jason explains how a recent change on X exposed a bunch of grifters all around the world. In the subscribers-only section, we talk about how our reporting contributed to the shut down of a warrantless surveillance program.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/UgOtR_bDft4

Timestamps:

1:23 - Intro: Please, please do our reader survey

3:57 - Story 1: Massive Leak Shows Erotic Chatbot Users Turned Women’s Yearbook Pictures Into AI Porn

34:42 - Story 2: America’s Polarization Has Become the World's Side Hustle

SUBSCRIBER'S STORY: Airlines Will Shut Down Program That Sold Your Flights Records to Government

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Jason talks to Chris Gilliard, the author of the upcoming book Luxury Surveillance. Gilliard has studied the rise of companies like Ring and Flock, as well as the dynamics that lead people to surveil themselves and each other.

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/4kBgnjn5cC0

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We start this week with a rant from Jason about how the latest dump of Epstein emails were released. It would be a lot easier to cover them if they were published differently! After the break, we talk about Joseph’s piece about a contractor hiring essentially randos off LinkedIn to physically track immigrants for $300. In the subscribers-only section, Sam tells us about a new adult industry code of conduct that has been a long time coming.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro

3:08 - First Segment

34:23 - Second Segment

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/_6tVI4jh__Y

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The video game industry has had a turbulent few years. The pandemic made people play more and caused a small boom, which then subsided, resulting in wave after wave of massive layoffs. Microsoft, one of the major console manufacturers, is shifting its strategy for Xbox as the company shifts its focus to AI. And now, Electronic Arts, once a load-bearing publisher for the industry with brands like The Sims and Madden, is going private via a leveraged buyout in a deal involving Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner.

Video games are more popular than ever, but many of the biggest companies in the business seem like they are struggling to adapt and convert that popularity into stability and sustainability. To try and understand what the hell is going on, this week we have a conversation between Emanuel and Jason Schreier, who reports about video games for Bloomberg and one of the best journalists on this beat.

Jason helps us unpack why Microsoft is now aiming for higher-than-average profit margins at Xbox and why the company is seemingly bowing out of the console business despite a massive acquisition spree. We also talk about what the EA deal tells us about other game publishers, and what all these problems tell us about changing player habits and the future of big budget video games.

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/6ydF7hD6cFI

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Microsoft Pushes Xbox Division to Hit Higher Profit Margins

EA's Deal to Go Private Could Be Good for Investors, Bad for Employees

EA Buyout Highlights Gaming Struggles as Growth Slows

The Video-Game Industry Has a Problem: There Are Too Many Games

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We start with Matthew Gault’s dive into a battle between a small town and the construction of a massive datacenter for America’s nuclear weapon scientists. After the break, Joseph explains why people are 3D-printing whistles in Chicago. In the subscribers-only section, Jason zooms out and tells us what librarians are seeing with AI and tech, and how that is impacting their work and knowledge more broadly.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/rHk580uKwHw

6:03 - Our New FOIA Forum! 11/19, 1PM ET
7:50 - A Small Town Is Fighting a $1.2 Billion AI Datacenter for America's Nuclear Weapon Scientists
12:27 - 'A Black Hole of Energy Use': Meta's Massive AI Data Center Is Stressing Out a Louisiana Community
21:09 - 'House of Dynamite' Is About the Zoom Call that Ends the World
30:35 - The Latest Defense Against ICE: 3D-Printed Whistles

SUBSCRIBER'S STORY: AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge

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If you’ve been to a national park in the U.S. recently, you might have noticed some odd new signs about “beauty” and “grandeur.” Or, some signs you were used to seeing might now be missing completely. An executive order issued earlier this year put the history and educational aspects of the parks system under threat–but a group of librarians stepped in to save it. 

This week we have a conversation between Sam and two of the leaders of the independent volunteer archiving project Save Our Signs, an effort to archive national park signs and monument placards. It’s a community collaboration project co-founded by a group of librarians, public historians, and data experts in partnership with the Data Rescue Project and Safeguarding Research & Culture. 

Lynda Kellam leads the Research Data and Digital Scholarship team at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and is a founding organizer of the Data Rescue Project. Jenny McBurney is the Government Publications Librarian and Regional Depository Coordinator at the University of Minnesota Libraries. In this episode, they discuss turning “frustration, dismay and disbelief” at parks history under threat into action: compiling more than 10,000 images from over 300 national parks into a database to be preserved for the people.

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/xrCElwgY5Co

‘Save Our Signs’ Archive and Submission Site

'Save Our Signs' Wants to Save the Real History of National Parks Before Trump Erases It

‘Save Our Signs’ Preservation Project Launches Archive of 10,000 National Park Signs

Archivists Work to Identify and Save the Thousands of Datasets Disappearing From Data.gov

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We have something of a Meta Ray-Bans smart glasses bumper episode this week. We start with Joseph and Jason’s piece on a $60 mod that disables the privacy-protecting recording light in the smart glasses. After the break, Emanuel tells us how some people are abusing the glasses to film massage workers, and he explains the difference between a phone and a pair of smartglasses, if you need that spelled out for you. In the subscribers-only section, Jason tells us about the future of advertising: AI-generated ads personalized directly to you.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/tAmhRnHc16Q

1:00 - A $60 Mod to Meta’s Ray-Bans Disables Its Privacy-Protecting Recording Light

18:03 - Meta's Ray-Ban Glasses Users Film and Harass Massage Parlor Workers

SUBSCRIBER'S STORY: The Future of Advertising Is AI Generated Ads That Are Directly Personalized to You

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Joseph speaks to Joshua Aaron, the creator of ICEBlock. Apple recently removed ICEBlock from its App Store after direct pressure from the Department of Justice. Joshua and Joseph talk about how the idea for ICEBlock came about, Apple and Google’s broader crackdown on similar apps, and what this all means for people trying to access information about ICE.

ICEBlock Owner After Apple Removes App: ‘We Are Determined to Fight This’

Google Calls ICE Agents a Vulnerable Group, Removes ICE-Spotting App ‘Red Dot’

Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/WLpyObHkPqc

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We start this week with Jason’s explanation of what Grokipedia is, and how it compares to the very much human-made Wikipedia. After the break, we talk all about the hell of updating Windows PCs and what that means specifically for Windows 10 users. In the subscribers-only section, Emanuel explains what a16z is doing with a ‘speedrun’ to a wholly AI-generated world.

Intro
0:00 - Merch drop
2:38 - Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever (use code WIRE20 for 20% off)
3:25 - First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens

Stories
5:00 - Grokipedia Is the Antithesis of Everything That Makes Wikipedia Good, Useful, and Human
10:48 - Elon Musk's Grokipedia Pushes Far-Right Talking Points
23:04 - The End of Windows 10 Support Is an E-Waste Disaster in the Making
32:00 - Nathan Proctor interview

Subscriber's Stories:

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/LqYMoK7dlDA

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We start this week with Joseph’s articles about a hacking group that doxed DHS, ICE, FBI, and DOJ officials. The group then sent us the personal data of officials from the NSA and a bunch of other government agencies. After the break, Emanuel revisits Wikipedia’s AI problem. In the subscribers-only section, Sam explains OpenAI’s inevitable path to an AI sex bot.
0:00 - Intro
0:50 - How Artists Are Keeping 'the Lost Art' of Neon Signs Alive
4:42 - Hackers Dox Hundreds of DHS, ICE, FBI, and DOJ Officials

13:53 - Hackers Say They Have Personal Data of Thousands of NSA and Other Government Officials

31:58 - Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors

SUBSCRIBER'S SEGMENT: OpenAI Catches Up to AI Market Reality: People Are Horny

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/7P2a4Y7P5UE
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