Technology

X’s reverse eternal September

Why the onetime global town square now feels more like a clubhouse

Platformer · EN

The states come for OpenAI

Will the approach that beat Meta in New Mexico work against ChatGPT?

Platformer · EN

Joel Kaplan leaves Meta

Long a voice for Republicans inside the company, he played a leading role in pushing Meta to the right

Platformer · EN

Introducing Machine Gods

Why we're betting on AI realism. PLUS: The hell of PHP2Shell

Platformer · EN

The AI election that wasn't

Voters have other things on their minds — for now. PLUS: OpenAI’s clever policy to fight deepfakes, and the Anthropic S-1

Platformer · EN

What Google and Reddit's bad days have in common

AI search is underperforming for Google, and it's killing Reddit's traffic. What now?

Platformer · EN

Apple Is Entering Its Slop Era

I might finally buy an iPhone now that Apple has been taken down a peg.

404 Media · EN

Behind the Blog: Tech Support

This week, we discuss customer service and Proton fallout.

404 Media · EN

Proton’s CEO Cancels AI ‘Re-Interviews’

The move came after 404 Media published an investigation into how Proton CEO Andy Yen was aggressively pushing AI across Proton despite security concerns and the culture of fear he has created.

404 Media · EN

Scientists Analyzed Thousands of Psychedelic Trips. They Found Something Disturbing

A newly released database of more than 25,000 anonymized calls from the Fireside Project’s Psychedelic Support Line opens a rare window into psychedelic experiences outside of clinical settings.

404 Media · EN

‘Wake Up Call:’ Fanfiction Writers and Readers React to AO3 Outage

Writer and readers share what they're feeling and doing in the aftermath of the AO3 outage. It's anything but Wattpad.

404 Media · EN

People Used to Drink Wine Made From Ground-Up Mummies. Now, Scientists Are Studying It

In a new study perfectly timed for Halloween, scientists dug into the chemical properties of a once-popular beverage with purported medicinal benefits: wine made with ground-up Egyptian mummies.

404 Media · EN

Reaping and sowing, CEO edition

Also: Consider the Apple slop, Texas data center troubles, and more from 404 Media around the web.

404 Media · EN

Voting in 2026 Is Getting an AI Slop 'I Voted' Sticker

My polling place was handing out AI slop to midterm voters.

404 Media · EN

BYD expands EV shipping fleet as wars upend freight costs and key trade routes

China’s EV giant says a shortage of ships is holding back its exports.

Rest of World · EN

What the West can learn from AI optimists in the rest of the world

The developing world’s enthusiastic adoption of AI and necessity-driven innovations offer lessons for an anxiety-ridden West.

Rest of World · EN

Western open-weight models still can’t beat China

Chinese open-weight AI models offer high capability at significantly lower costs than U.S. frontier systems, but face monetization and compute challenges, experts said at a Rest of World event in San Francisco.

Rest of World · EN

Will developing nations be able to handle millions of AI agents?

It may be some time before AI agents can fully navigate the complexities and cultural nuances of developing nations.

Rest of World · EN

Big Tech’s thirst for water is sparking a global resistance

In his new book “Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires,” writer Paris Marx examines how local communities are resisting the growing demand for water to cool data centers.

Rest of World · EN

AI models cost more when you don’t use English

Some languages require far more tokens for AI models to process, raising costs and reducing context for the people who use them.

Rest of World · EN

Why Africa needs its own AI off switch

Africa must develop AI systems with local control to protect critical infrastructure such as mobile money networks from growing AI-powered cyberthreats.

Rest of World · EN

Startups recalibrate Chinese AI for the West

A growing number of startups are editing powerful Chinese open-weight models for Western businesses that are concerned about censorship and security.

Rest of World · EN

Social Media When Elections Are Close: Doing the Impossible Better

Everyone knows, or should, that perfect (balanced, targeted, transparent, swift and swiftly appealable) content moderation at scale is impossible. That doesn’t mean powerful social platforms don’t have to try to get at least reasonably close, especially when access to good information can have a profound effect on political participation and speech. That’s why so many people, including the Meta Oversight Board , criticized Meta for suspending a major political Instagram account for hours during a huge early voting push on October 17; and for allegedly boosting one candidate in Brazil’s recent

EFF Deeplinks · EN

💾 Fighting DOGE's Data Grab | EFFector 38.19

When we give our private information to the government to pay taxes, apply for a job, or vote, we should be able to trust that our data won't later be used against us. But in a betrayal of that trust, the federal government has been pooling the information it has about us on an unprecedented scale—and using it for purposes we never agreed to. EFF and other groups are fighting back. In our latest EFFector newsletter , we're talking about a recent victory in our lawsuit against the government for sharing federal workers' confidential personnel files with DOGE . JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER For over 35 ye

EFF Deeplinks · EN