Matthew Gault

Columbia

Nukes, weird tech, conflict. @gizmodo @motherboard forever Host of @angryplanetpod and @rabbith0lepod tips: [email protected] signal: 347 762-9212

Articles

Even the U.S. Government Says AI Requires Massive Amounts of Water

20 hours ago | 404media.co | Matthew Gault

Generative AI is a power and water hungry beast. While its advocates swear it’ll change the world for the better, the tangible benefits today are less clear and the long term costs to both society and the environment may be enormous. Even the federal U.S. government knows this, according to a new report published Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan watchdog group that answers to Congress.
Even the U.S. Government Says AI Requires Massive Amounts of Water

20 hours ago | flipboard.com | Matthew Gault

Adobe Did it AgainToday at Adobe Max London, the company is announcing a bunch of new things for the creative cloud and for Firefly. The company, which has come under …
The Man Who Wants AI to Help You ‘Cheat on Everything’

1 day ago | 404media.co | Matthew Gault

Last month, Roy Lee was suspended from Columbia after he was accused of using AI to “cheat” on technical job interviews for Amazon, Meta, and TikTok. On Sunday, he announced that he raised $5.3 million to start Cluely, a new startup that aims to allow users to similarly “cheat on everything.” Cluely went viral when it launched earlier this week thanks to a commercial Lee posted on X. In the video, Lee bumbles his way through a date.
Business Insider Founder Creates AI Exec For His New Newsroom, Immediately Hits On Her

2 days ago | 404media.co | Matthew Gault

On Monday, the co-founder of Business Insider Henry Blodget published a blog on his new Substack about a “native-AI newsroom.” Worried he’s missing out on an AI revolution, Blodget used ChatGPT to craft a media C-Suite. Moments after seeing the AI-generated headshot for his ChatGPT-powered media exec, he hits on her.
Judge Rules Blanket Search of Cell Tower Data Unconstitutional

6 days ago | 404media.co | Matthew Gault

This article was produced in collaboration with Court Watch, an independent outlet that unearths overlooked court records. Subscribe to them here. A judge in Nevada has ruled that “tower dumps”—the law enforcement practice of grabbing vast troves of private personal data from cell towers—is unconstitutional. The judge also ruled that the cops could, this one time, still use the evidence they obtained through this unconstitutional search.
Scammers Used OpenAI to Flood the Web with SEO Spam

2 weeks ago | 404media.co | Matthew Gault

AkiraBot is a program that fills website comments sections and customer service chat bots with AI-generated spam messages. Its goal is simple: it wants you to sign up for an SEO scheme that costs about $30 a month. For that low price it swears it can enchant Google’s algorithms to get you on the frontpage. But it’s a scam.
Inside a Powerful Database ICE Uses to Identify and Deport People

2 weeks ago | archive.ph | Jason Koebler |Matthew Gault |Joseph Cox

A powerful Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database, parts of which have been seen by 404 Media, allows the federal government to search for and filter people by hundreds of different, highly specific categories.
U.S. Army Says It Could Acquire Targets Faster With ‘Advanced AI’

2 weeks ago | 404media.co | Matthew Gault

The U.S. Army told the government it had a lot of success using AI to “process targets” during a recent deployment. It said that it had used AI systems to identify targets at a rate of 55 per day but could get that number up to 5,000 a day with “advanced artificial intelligence tools in the future.”The line comes from a new report from the Government Accountability Office—a nonpartisan watchdog group that investigates the federal government.
Framework Stops Selling Some of Its Laptops in the U.S. Due to Tariffs

2 weeks ago | 404media.co | Matthew Gault

Framework—a company that makes upgradeable and repairable laptops—has said it will pause sales on several versions of one of its models in America thanks to Trump’s tariffs. “Due to the new tariffs that came into effect on April 5th, we’re temporarily pausing US sales on a few base Framework Laptop 13 systems (Ultra 5 125H and Ryzen 5 7640U). For now, these models will be removed from our US site. We will continue to provide updates as we have them,” Framework said in a post on X.
Elon Musk Is Hounded by Haters in Path of Exile 2 Chat

2 weeks ago | 404media.co | Matthew Gault

On Saturday Elon Musk sat in his personal jet and tested out Starlink’s in-air WiFI by streaming some Path of Exile 2. Less than five minutes into the stream, someone in game chat asked him to “jerk off mr trump so he dies of a heart attack!” For the next hour and 40 minutes, the world’s richest man frowned his way through a livestream while people yelled at him. Path of Exile 2 is an action role-playing game and Musk loves it, but he’s terrible at it.