The 404 Media Podcast

Big tech is rushing to build hundreds of data centers across the planet to keep up with the computing demand of artificial intelligence. The tech companies are promising the massive buildings will bring jobs and prosperity when they’re built, but communities across the country aren’t buying it and they’re fighting back. People are concerned about water, noise, pollution, and the rising cost of electricity. Anyone who already lives next to a data center knows those fears are well founded. To talk through this, Matthew spoke to Paris Marx. He’s a tech critic, the host of Tech Won’t Save Us and the author of the new book Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires. Buy Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/PRf8ZtpSqAg Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sponsor: Take back control today: go to incogni.com/404media and use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's incogni.com/404media, promo code 404MEDIA—risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen became one of the most important tech whistleblowers in 2021, when she exposed how Facebook’s algorithm was pushing people toward hate groups, showed Instagram was making teen girls feel worse about themselves, and showed that the company knew about its detrimental impacts on society. Haugen’s story is the basis for Aaron Sorkin’s new movie ‘The Social Reckoning,’ which follows her evolution from model employee to leaker to formal whistleblower. Jason and Frances discuss what the movie got right about journalist-source relationships and how AI is supercharging privacy concerns. YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/oB3IxwCfP7M Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thank you to DeleteMe for helping make this night possible. They're offering ⁠20% off a privacy protection plan⁠ for friends of 404 Media. Use code 404M20 at checkout. 404 Media just turned three years old, and to celebrate, we hosted a night of chatting about what we’ve accomplished with your support, what’s next for us, and whether or not we’re all going to be okay. We also threw in some weird bugs and community resistance for good measure. Don’t miss us pulling audience questions out of the mystery AMA box!  Live from WNYC’s Greene Space, you can also watch the entire show on 404 Media’s YouTube channel.  We Are Going to Be Okay: A Three Year Anniversary Events Recap Our Zine About ICE Surveillance Is Here Watch 404 Media’s Super Bowl Ad Youtube Version: https://youtu.be/t_VjNAopjhI Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don’t sleep on [@ultrapouches]. New customers get 15% Off with code 404MEDIA at takeultra.com! #UltraPouches #ad We start this week with Joseph’s stories on the massive FBI hack. 404 Media broke this news and continued to cover the breach of data on all FBI employees and their spouses. After the break, Jason tells us how a surveillance company is telling cops it wants to add facial recognition tech to Flock camera data. In the subscribers-only section, Jason and Joseph chat all about Muse, Meta’s new agentic AI, and how humans are actually behind some of the tasks. Because of course. ‘We Hacked the FBI:’ Hackers Say They Have Data on All FBI Employees FBI Hack Exposed FBI’s Own Hacking Unit FBI Hackers Say They Won’t Publish Massive Trove of FBI Employee Data Surveillance Company Tells Cops It Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to https://incogni.com/404Mediaand use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA at https://incogni.com/404Media We start this week with Jason’s story about OpenAI and Microsoft’s big admissions from court records that they are destroying the internet in all sorts of ways, and stealing intellectual property on an unprecedented scale. He admit it. After the break, Emanuel explains how he hijacked a real band’s Spotify page with AI-generated slop. In the subscribers-only section, we hear all about iLands, the AI agent platform that is basically just spam. Is Your City Using Axon License Plate Cameras? We Need Your Help ‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft I Hijacked a Real Artist's Spotify with AI Music. It Was Disturbingly Easy AI Agent Platform Reinvents Spam, Floods Inboxes Worldwide Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus collaboration with our friends at The Intercept, 404 Media's Jason Koebler and the Intercept's Sam Biddle and Akela Lacy discuss the ways AI is already used to empower private surveillance companies that filter data to the government, how AI is used in war, and the prospect of an AI apocalypse. This podcast was recorded live in Los Angeles at The Loved One on September 12. Check out The Intercept Briefing podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and find a full transcript of this pod here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re joined by Jennie Rose Halprein. Jennie is the executive director of Library Futures, a non-profit that advocates for a fair digital future for libraries and the communities they serve. We have written a bunch of stories about libraries over the years, and I have talked to Jennie a few times for those stories. I always have really interesting conversations with her, but a lot of what we talk about never makes it into a story. That’s why I wanted to share one of those conversations with you today. We of course touch upon censorship but also many other subjects, so I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/mS0xofGW2hE Subscribe at 404media.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Take control of your data footprint risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go tohttps://incogni.com/404Mediaand use code 404MEDIA for 60% off an annual plan. That's code 404MEDIA athttps://incogni.com/404Media This week Joseph speaks to Jonathan Paz, a former Flock employee and now candidate for Congress in Massachusetts’ 5th District. They talk all about Paz’s work at Flock, how he was tasked with trying to convince cities to buy Flock cameras, and when he ultimately quit the company. It’s a rare peek inside a company that so many people are talking about. ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/BKYYpLC9u5I This is a production of 404 Media, a journalist-owned tech website. Learn more and subscribe at: htttps://404media.co Listen to our weekly podcasts: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-404-media-podcast/id1703615331?ref=404media.co Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0F3oY47l2XgoBMaAmIaw29?ref=404media.co Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5hY2FzdC5jb20vcHVibGljL3Nob3dzL3RoZS00MDQtbWVkaWEtcG9kY2FzdA?ref=404media.co Become a paid subscriber for access to bonus content: https://404media.co/membership Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices