The 404 Media Podcast

This week, I’m thrilled to be joined by Imani Thompson. Imani is a digital security trainer and host of a series of events called Cache Me Outside, where she and partner orgs help people understand their personal security, divest from big tech platforms, and learn how to stay safe online. She recently hosted a “de-Googling” party and a self-doxxing rave. We get into how platforms have tried to make surveillance cute, why that damn Duolingo owl emotionally manipulates you, and why learning about privacy best practices when surrounded by community works. Follow Imani on Instagram A 'Self-Doxing' Rave Helps Trans People Stay Safe Online Now you can break up with big tech at a bar: ‘cybersecurity disguised as a party’ Fix It With Piggy YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/C4WVYBEIgzM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emanuel talks to Devindra Hardawar about AI in Hollywood and the state of the movie industry. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code 404MEDIA at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/404media I didn’t plan it this way, but it’s a good coincidence that my interview with Devindra Hardawar is coming out on the week that the first Star Wars movie in years is being crushed at the box office by two low budget horror movies. Something is extremely off at Hollywood, or at least the old studio executives and streamers who control most of the money that funds movies. This week we’re joined by Devindra Hardawar. Devindra is a senior editor at Engadget and a co-host of The Filmcast, a podcast about film I’ve been listening to for 15 years. We’ve covered the intersection of the movie industry and AI here and there on 404 Media, but Devindra lives at that intersection. He’s the perfect person to talk to about AI and film, but also the state of the industry more broadly, how to fit movies into your life in the age of the infinite scroll, how to introduce kids to film, and more. YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/imCSQkhFkoM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Sam talks to Emily Bender and Alex Hanna about the marketing ploys of “artificial intelligence,” why ridicule works to keep big tech’s claims in check, and what makes them hopeful for the future. They’re the authors of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want.Dr. Alex Hanna is a writer and sociologist of technology, labor, and politics. She’s the Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and a Lecturer in the School of Information at the University of California Berkeley. Dr. Emily M. Bender is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington where she is also the Faculty Director of the Computational Linguistics Master of Science program and affiliate faculty in the School of Computer Science and Engineering and the Information School.They also host the The Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 podcast which “deflates AI hype and draws attention to the real harms of the automation technologies we call ‘artificial intelligence’.” Flood of AI-Generated Submissions ‘Final Straw’ for Small 22-Year-Old Publisher The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want Emily’s cartoon Questioning the Normalization of Surveillance by the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown You Are Not a Parrot at NY Mag YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/UwBZiuH-1QY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices