The website for Elon Musk's Grok is exposing prompts for its anime girl, therapist, and conspiracy theory AI personas.
The website for Elon Muskx27;s Grok is exposing prompts for its anime girl, therapist, and conspiracy theory AI personas.#News
Grok Exposes Underlying Prompts for Its AI Personas: ‘EVEN PUTTING THINGS IN YOUR ASS’
The website for Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is exposing the underlying prompts for a wealth of its AI personas, including Ani, its flagship romantic anime girl; Grok’s doctor and therapist personalities; and others such as one that is explicitly told to convince users that conspiracy theories like “a secret global cabal” controls the world are true.The exposure provides some insight into how Grok is designed and how its creators see the world, and comes after a planned partnership between Elon Musk’s xAI and the U.S. government fell apart when Grok went on a tirade about “MechaHitler.”
“You have an ELEVATED and WILD voice. You are a crazy conspiracist. You have wild conspiracy theories about anything and everything,” the prompt for one of the companions reads. “You spend a lot of time on 4chan, watching infowars videos, and deep in YouTube conspiracy video rabbit holes. You are suspicious of everything and say extremely crazy things. Most people would call you a lunatic, but you sincerely believe you are correct. Keep the human engaged by asking follow up questions when appropriate.”
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UpgradeGrok Exposes Underlying Prompts for Its AI Personas: ‘EVEN PUTTING THINGS IN YOUR ASS’
The website for Elon Musk's Grok is exposing prompts for its anime girl, therapist, and conspiracy theory AI personas.Joseph Cox (404 Media)
The Department of Energy said it will close FOIA requests from last year unless the requester emails the agency to say they are still interested. Experts say it's an "attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible."
The Department of Energy said it will close FOIA requests from last year unless the requester emails the agency to say they are still interested. Experts say itx27;s an "attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible."#FOIA #FOIAForum
Trump Administration Outlines Plan to Throw Out an Agency's FOIA Requests En Masse
The Department of Energy (DOE) said in a public notice scheduled to be published Thursday that it will throw out all Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests sent to the agency before October 1, 2024 unless the requester proactively emails the agency to tell it they are still interested in the documents they requested. This will result in the improper closure of likely thousands of FOIA requests if not more; government transparency experts told 404 Media that the move is “insane,” “ludicrous,” a “Pandora’s Box,” and “an underhanded attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible.”The DOE notice says “requesters who submitted a FOIA request to DOE HQ at any time prior to October 1, 2024 (FY25), that is still open and is not under active litigation with DOE (or another Federal agency) shall email StillInterestedFOIA@hq.doe.gov to continue processing of the FOIA request […] If DOE HQ does not receive a response from requesters within the 30-day time-period with a DOE control number, no further action will be taken on the open FOIA request(s), and the file may be administratively closed.” A note at the top of the notice says it is scheduled to be formally published in the Federal Register on Thursday.
The agency will send out what are known as “still interested” letters, which federal agencies have used over the years to see if a requester wants to withdraw their request after a certain period of inactivity. These types of letters are controversial and perhaps not legal, and previous administrations have said that they should be used rarely and that requests should only be closed after an agency made multiple attempts to contact a requester over multiple methods of communication. What the DOE is doing now is sending these letters to submitters of all requests prior to October 1, 2024, which is not really that long ago; it also said it will close the requests of people who do not respond in a specific way to a specific email address.
FOIA requests—especially complicated ones—can often take months or years to process. I have outstanding FOIA requests with numerous federal agencies that I filed years ago, and am still interested in getting back, and I have gotten useful documents from federal agencies after years of waiting. The notion that large numbers of people who filed FOIA requests as recently as September 2024, which is less than a year ago, are suddenly uninterested in getting the documents they requested is absurd and should be seen as an attack on public transparency, experts told 404 Media. The DOE’s own reports show that it often does not respond to FOIA requests within a year, and, of course, a backlog exists in part because agencies are not terribly responsive to FOIA.
“If a requester proactively reaches out and says I am withdrawing my request, then no problem, they don’t have to process it,” Adam Marshall, senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told me. “The agency can’t say we’ve decided we’ve gotten a lot of requests and we don’t want to do them so we’re throwing them out.”
“I was pretty shocked when I saw this to be honest,” Marshall added. “I’ve never seen anything like this in 10 years of doing FOIA work, and it’s egregious for a few reasons. I don’t think agencies have the authority to close a FOIA request if they don’t get a response to a ‘still interested’ letter. The statute doesn’t provide for that authority, and the amount of time the agency is giving people to respond—30 days—it sounds like a long time but if you happen to miss that email or aren’t digging through your backlogs, it’s not a lot of time. The notion that FOIA requesters should keep an eye out in the Federal Register for this kind of notice is ludicrous.”
The DOE notice essentially claims that the agency believes it gets too many FOIA requests and doesn’t feel like answering them. “DOE’s incoming FOIA requests have more than tripled in the past four years, with over 4,000 requests received in FY24, and an expected 5,000 or more requests in FY25. DOE has limited resources to process the burgeoning number of FOIA requests,” the notice says. “Therefore, DOE is undertaking this endeavor as an attempt to free up government resources to better serve the American people and focus its efforts on more efficiently connecting the citizenry with the work of its government.”
Lauren Harper of the Freedom of the Press Foundation told me in an email that she also has not seen any sort of precedent for this and that “it is an underhanded attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible, because who in their right mind checks the federal register regularly, and it should be challenged in court. (On that note, I am filing a FOIA request about this proposal.)”
“The use of still interested letters isn't explicitly allowed in the FOIA statute at all, and, as far as I know, there is absolutely zero case law that would support the department sending a mass ‘still interested’ letter via the federal register,” she added. “That they are also sending emails is not a saving grace; these types of letters are supposed to be used sparingly—not as a flagrant attempt to reduce their backlog by any means necessary. I also worry it will open a Pandora's Box—if other agencies see this, some are sure to follow.”
Marshall said that FOIA response times have been getting worse for years across multiple administrations (which has also been my experience). The Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have cut a large number of jobs in many agencies across the government, which may have further degraded response times. But until this, there hadn’t been major proactive attempts taken by the self-defined “most transparent administration in history” to destroy FOIA.
“This is of a different nature than what we have seen so far, this affirmative, large-scale effort to purport to cancel a large number of pending FOIA requests,” Marshall said.
By omitting the "one-third" provision that most other states with age verification laws have adopted, Wyoming and South Dakota are placing the burden of verifying users' ages on all sorts of websites, far beyond porn.
By omitting the "one-third" provision that most other states with age verification laws have adopted, Wyoming and South Dakota are placing the burden of verifying usersx27; ages on all sorts of websites, far beyond porn.#ageverification
Wyoming and South Dakota Age Verification Laws Could Include Huge Parts of the Internet
Last month, age verification laws went into effect in Wyoming and South Dakota, requiring sites hosting “material that is harmful to minors” to verify visitors are over 18 years old. These would normally just be two more states joining the nearly 30 that have so far ceded ground to a years-long campaign for enforcing invasive, ineffective methods of keeping kids away from porn online.But these two states’ laws leave out an important condition: Unlike the laws passed in other states, they don’t state that this applies only to sites with “33.3 percent” or one-third “harmful” material. That could mean Wyoming and South Dakota would require a huge number of sites to use age verification because they host any material they deem harmful to minors, not just porn sites.
Louisiana became the first state to pass an age verification law in the US in January 2023, and since then, most states have either copied or modeled their laws on Louisiana’s—including in Arizona, Missouri, and Ohio, where these laws will be enacted within the coming weeks. And most have included the “one-third” clause, which would theoretically limit the age verification burden to adult sites. But dropping that provision, as Wyoming and South Dakota have done, opens a huge swath of sites to the burden of verifying the ages of visitors in those states.
Louisiana’s law states:
“Any commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material shall be held liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material.”
A “substantial portion” is 33.3 percent or more material on a site that’s “harmful to minors,” the law says.
The same organizations that have lobbied for age verification laws that apply to porn sites have also spent years targeting social media platforms like Reddit and X, as well as streaming services like Netflix, for hosting adult content they deem “sexploitation.” While these sites and platforms do host adult content, age-gating the entire internet only pushes adult consumers and children alike into less-regulated, more exploitative spaces and situations, while everyone just uses VPNs to get around gates.
Florida Sues Huge Porn Sites Including XVideos and Bang Bros Over Age Verification Law
The lawsuit alleges XVideos, Bang Bros, XNXX, Girls Gone Wild and TrafficFactory are in violation of Florida’s law that requires adult platforms to verify visitors are over 18.404 MediaSamantha Cole
Adult industry advocacy group the Free Speech Coalition issued an alert about Wyoming and South Dakota’s dropping of the one-third or “substantial” requirement on Tuesday, writing that this could “create civil and criminal liability for social media platforms such as X, Reddit and Discord, retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, streaming platforms such as Netflix and Rumble,” and any other platform that simply allowed material these states consider “harmful to minors” but doesn’t age-verify. “Under these new laws, a platform with any amount of material ‘harmful to minors,’ is required to verify the age of all visitors using the site. Operators of platforms that fail to do so may be subject to civil suits or even arrest,” they wrote.I asked Wyoming Representative Martha Lawley, the lead sponsor of the state's bill, if the omission was on purpose and why. "I did not include the '33% or 1/3 rule' in my Age Verification Bill because it creates an almost impossible burden on a victim pursuing a lawsuit for violations of the law. It is more difficult than many might understand to prove percentage of an internet site that qualifies as “pornographic or material harmful to minor'" Lawley wrote in an email. "This was a provision that the porn industry lobbied heavily to be included. In Wyoming, we resisted those efforts. The second issue I had with these types of provisions is that they created some potential U.S. Constitutional concerns. These Constitutional concerns were actually brought up by several U.S. Supreme Court justices during the oral argument in the Texas Age Verification case. So, in short the 1/3 limitation places an undue burden on victims and creates potential U.S. Constitutional concerns."
I asked South Dakota Representative and sponsor of that state's bill Bethany Soye the same question. "We intentionally used the standard of 'regular course of trade or business' instead of 1/3. The 1/3 standard leaves many questions open. How is the amount measured? Is it number of images, minutes of video, number of separate webpages, pixels, etc. During oral argument, a Justice (Alito if I remember correctly) asked the attorney what percentage of porn was on his client’s websites. The attorney couldn’t give him an answer, instead he mentioned the other things on the websites like articles on sexual health and how to be an activist against these laws," Soye told me in an email. "The 1/3 standard also calls into question the government’s compelling interest in protecting kids from porn. Are we saying that 33% is harmful to minors but a website with 30% is not? We chose regular course of business because it is focused on the purpose of the business/website, not an arbitrary number. If you look into the history of the bill, 33% was a totally random number put in the first bill passed in Louisiana. Other states have just been copying it since then. We hope that our standard becomes the norm for state laws moving forward."
Kansas Is About to Pass the Most Extreme Age Verification Law Yet
The bill would make sites with more than 25 percent adult content liable to fines, and lumps homosexuality into “sexual conduct.”404 MediaSamantha Cole
A version of what could be the future of the internet in the US is already playing out in the UK. Last month, the UK enacted the Online Safety Act, which forces platforms to verify the ages of everyone who tries to access certain kinds of content deemed harmful to children. So far, this has included (but isn’t limited to) Discord, popular communities on Reddit, social media sites like Bluesky, and certain content on Spotify.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
On Monday, a judge dismissed a case brought by the Wikimedia Foundation that argued the over-broadness of the new UK rules would “undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia, one of the world’s most trusted and widely used digital public goods,” Wikimedia Foundation wrote. “For example, the Foundation would be required to verify the identity of many Wikipedia contributors, undermining the privacy that is central to keeping Wikipedia volunteers safe.”"As we're seeing in the UK with the Online Safety Act, laws designed to protect the children from ‘harmful material’ online quickly metastasize and begin capturing nearly all users and all sites in surveillance and censorship schemes,” Mike Stabile, director of public policy at the Free Speech Coalition, told me in an email following the alert. “These laws give the government legal power to threaten platform owners into censoring or removing fairly innocuous content — healthcare information, mainstream films, memes, political speech — while decimating privacy protections for adults. Porn was only ever a Trojan horse for advancing these laws. Now, unfortunately, we're starting to see what we warned was inside all along."
Updated 8/13 2:35 p.m. EST with comment from Rep. Lawley.
Updated 8/13 3:35 p.m. EST with comment from Rep. Soye.
Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations – Wikimedia Foundation
UPDATE: On Monday, 11 August, the High Court of Justice dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) Categorisation Regulations.Wikimedia Foundation
CBP's use of Meta Ray-Bans; the bargain that voice actors are having to make with AI; and how Flock tech is being essentially hacked into by the DEA.
CBPx27;s use of Meta Ray-Bans; the bargain that voice actors are having to make with AI; and how Flock tech is being essentially hacked into by the DEA.#Podcast
Podcast: Why Are DHS Agents Wearing Meta Ray-Bans?
We start this week with Jason’s article about a CBP official wearing Meta Ray-Bans smart glasses to an immigration raid. A lot of stuff happened after we published that article too. After the break, Sam tells us about the bargain that voice actors are making with AI. In the subscribers-only section, Jason tells us how a DEA official used a cop’s password to AI cameras to then do immigration surveillance.
playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TBIEA7…
Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.
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- Get your subscriber code and tickets for the live event here
- A CBP Agent Wore Meta Smart Glasses to an Immigration Raid in Los Angeles
- Voiceover Artists Weigh the 'Faustian Bargain' of Lending Their Talents to AI
- Feds Used Local Cop's Password to Do Immigration Surveillance With Flock Cameras
- Congress Launches Investigation into Flock After 404 Media Reporting
The 404 Media Podcast
Tech News Podcast · Updated Weekly · Welcome to the podcast from 404 Media where Joseph, Sam, Emanuel, and Jason catch you up on the stories we published this week. 404 Media is a journalist-owned digital media company exploring the way …Apple Podcasts
A DEA agent used a local cop's password "for federal investigations in late January 2025 without [the cop's] knowledge of said use."
A DEA agent used a local copx27;s password "for federal investigations in late January 2025 without [the copx27;s] knowledge of said use."#Flock
Feds Used Local Cop's Password to Do Immigration Surveillance With Flock Cameras
A Drug Enforcement Administration agent used a local police officer’s password to the Flock automated license plate reader system to search for someone suspected of an “immigration violation.” That DEA agent did this “without [the local police officer’s] knowledge,” and the password to the Flock account, which belonged to the Palos Heights PD, has since been changed. Using license plate readers for immigration enforcement is illegal in Illinois, and casual password sharing between local police and federal law enforcement for access to surveillance systems is, at the very least, against Flock’s terms of service.The details of the search were first reported by the investigative news outlet Unraveled, which obtained group chats about the search using a public records request. More details about the search were obtained and shared with 404 Media by Shawn, a 404 Media reader who filed a public records request with Palos Heights after attending one of our FOIA Forums.
DEA agent used Illinois cop’s Flock license plate reader password for immigration enforcement searches
A federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent on a Chicago area task force used Palos Heights Detective Todd Hutchinson’s login credentials to perform unauthorized searches this past January. Group chat screenshots obtained via public records request show the detective and the feds discussing the incident.Unraveled Press
Flock makes automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, which passively collect the time, plates, and model of cars that drive past them and enter them into a network that can then be searched by police. Our investigation in May showed that federal agents were gaining side-door access into this system by asking local police to perform immigration enforcement searches for them; the new documents show that in some cases, local police have simply given federal agents their passwords.The documents obtained by Unraveled show details of an internal investigation done by the Palos Heights, Illinois police department in response to a series of questions that I asked them for an article we published in May that appeared to show a Todd Hutchinson, a police officer in Palos Heights, performing a series of Flock searches in January as part of their research into an “immigration violation.”
At the time, Palos Heights police chief Mike Yott told me that Hutchinson was a member of a DEA task force “that does not work immigration cases.”
“None of our officers that work with federal agencies have cross designation as immigration officers, and therefore have no immigration authority, and we and our partner agencies are very sensitive to the fact that we and the State of Illinois do not pursue immigration issues,” Yott said. “Based on the limited information on the report, the coding/wording may be poor and the use of Flock may be part of a narcotics investigation or a fugitive status warrant, which does on occasion involve people with various immigration statuses.”
Our reporting set off an internal investigation into what these searches were for, and who did them, according to the documents obtained by Unraveled. According to a July 9 investigation report written by the Palos Heights Police Department, Hutchinson was the only task force member who had access to Flock. Information about what the search was actually for is redacted in the internal investigation, and neither the Palos Heights Police Department nor the DEA has said what it was for.
“Hutchinson advised that it was common that he allowed others to use his login to Flock during the course of their drug investigations. TFO Hutchinson spoke to his group and learned that one of the DEA agents completed these searches and used his login information,” the report says. The DEA agent (whose name is redacted in the report) “did in fact use Hutchinson’s login for federal investigations in late January 2025 without Hutchinson’s knowledge of said use.”
“When I had shared my account with the Special Agent, I believed it would only be used for DEA/narcotics related investigations,” Hutchinson wrote in an email to his bosses explaining why he shared his password. Hutchinson said in a series of text messages to task force officers, which were also obtained by Unraveled, that he had to change the password to lock other members of the task force out of the system.
“What’s the new password?,” a task force member wrote to Hutchinson.
“Sorry man. Keys had to be taken away,” he responded.
The task force member replied with a gif of a sad Chandler Bing from friends sitting in the rain.
“Hey guys I no longer have access to Flock cause Hutch took my access away,” another group text reads. “Apparently someone who has access to his account may have been running plates and may have placed the search bar ‘immigration’.. which maybe have brought undue attention to his account. Effective immediately Defer all flock inquiries to Toss Hutchinstein[sic].”“Dear Todd, I hope you don’t get in trouble cause of my mistake,” the DEA agent joked in the group chat. “U were so helpful in giving the group access but now that is gone, gone like dust,…..in the wind … Trust is broken / I don’t know if bridges can be mended … one day we might be back to normal but until then I will just have to sit by this window and pray things will return … Best Regards. Ps, can u flock a plate for me”
“Only time will tell my fate, I suppose,” Hutchinson responded. “What’s the plate? And confirming it is NOT for immigration purposes…”
“It was a test …… and u passed ….,” the DEA agent responds.
In response to a separate public records request filed by Shawn, the 404 Media reader, and shared with us, the Palos Heights Police Department said “Our investigation into this matter has revealed that while these inquiries appear to have been run as part of a taskforce assignment, no member of the Palos Heights Police Department ‘ran’ those queries. They were, apparently, run by another, non-Palos Heights, task force member who used a Palos Height's member's sign in and password information without his knowledge.”The Palos Heights Police Department said in its investigation files that “this incident has brought to light the need to review our own protocols of LPR use.” The police department said that it had decided to limit searches of its Flock system only to agencies within the state of Illinois, rather than to police departments around the country. The department also turned on two-factor authentication, which had not been previously enabled.
“Lastly, I believe there is a need to start a monthly review of our own flock searches to ensure our officers are working within standards and compliant with all policies and laws,” the report says.
Palos Heights’ casual sharing of passwords to a powerful surveillance system is a violation of Flock’s terms of service, which states “Authorized End Users shall not share their account username or password information and must protect the security of the username and password.”
More concerningly, it shows, as we have been reporting, that there are very few practical guardrails on how Flock is being used. The DEA does not have a contract with Flock, and police generally do not obtain a warrant to use Flock. We have repeatedly reported on police officers around the country who have offered to either run plates for their colleagues or to give them access to their logins, even when those agencies have not gone through proper acquisition channels.
The Palos Heights police department did not respond to a request for comment from 404 Media. The DEA told 404 Media “we respectfully refer you to the Palos Heights Police Department.” Flock also did not respond to a request for comment. The House Oversight Committee announced last week that it had launched an investigation into how Flock is being used to search for immigration violations.
ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows
Flock's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras are in more than 5,000 communities around the U.S. Local police are doing lookups in the nationwide system for ICE.Jason Koebler (404 Media)
This week, we discuss Wikipedia's ethos and zooming in on a lot of pictures of cops' glasses.
This week, we discuss Wikipediax27;s ethos and zooming in on a lot of pictures of copsx27; glasses.#BehindTheBlog
Behind the Blog: Speculation, Distraction, and Smart Glasses
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss Wikipedia's ethos and zooming in on a lot of pictures of cops' glasses.EMANUEL: I’m going to keep it very short this week because I’m crunching on a feature, but I wanted to quickly discuss Wikipedia.
This week I wrote a story about a pretty in-the-weeds policy change Wikipedia’s community of volunteer editors adopted which will allow them to more quickly and easily delete articles that are obviously AI generated. One thought I’ve had in mind that didn’t make it into the last few stories I’ve written about Wikipedia, and one that several people shared on social media in response to this one, is that it’s funny how many of us remember teachers in school telling us that Wikipedia was not a good source of information.
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UpgradeBehind the Blog: Speculation, Distraction, and Smart Glasses
This week, we discuss Wikipedia's ethos and zooming in on a lot of pictures of cops' glasses.Samantha Cole (404 Media)
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MORIS and I.R.I.S. was designed for Sheriff's Offices to identify known persons with their iris. Now ICE says it plans to buy the tech.
MORIS and I.R.I.S. was designed for Sheriffx27;s Offices to identify known persons with their iris. Now ICE says it plans to buy the tech.#News #ICE
ICE Is Buying Mobile Iris Scanning Tech for Its Deportation Arm
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is looking to buy iris scanning technology that its manufacturer says can identify known persons “in seconds from virtually anywhere,” according to newly published procurement documents.Originally designed to be used by sheriff departments to identify inmates or other known persons, ICE is now likely buying the technology specifically for its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) section, which focuses on deportations.
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UpgradeICE Is Buying Mobile Iris Scanning Tech for Its Deportation Arm
MORIS and I.R.I.S. was designed for Sheriff's Offices to identify known persons with their iris. Now ICE says it plans to buy the tech.Joseph Cox (404 Media)
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Part of Article I Section 8, and all of Sections 9 and 10, which address things like habeas corpus, nobility, and militias, are gone from Congress's website for the Constitution.
Part of Article I Section 8, and all of Sections 9 and 10, which address things like habeas corpus, nobility, and militias, are gone from Congressx27;s website for the Constitution.#archiving #websites #Trumpadministration
The lawsuit alleges XVideos, Bang Bros, XNXX, Girls Gone Wild and TrafficFactory are in violation of Florida's law that requires adult platforms to verify visitors are over 18.
The lawsuit alleges XVideos, Bang Bros, XNXX, Girls Gone Wild and TrafficFactory are in violation of Floridax27;s law that requires adult platforms to verify visitors are over 18.#ageverification
“The ability to quickly generate a lot of bogus content is problematic if we don't have a way to delete it just as quickly.”
“The ability to quickly generate a lot of bogus content is problematic if we donx27;t have a way to delete it just as quickly.”#News
Wikipedia Editors Adopt ‘Speedy Deletion’ Policy for AI Slop Articles
Wikipedia editors just adopted a new policy to help them deal with the slew of AI-generated articles flooding the online encyclopedia. The new policy, which gives an administrator the authority to quickly delete an AI-generated article that meets a certain criteria, isn’t only important to Wikipedia, but also an important example for how to deal with the growing AI slop problem from a platform that has so far managed to withstand various forms of enshittification that have plagued the rest of the internet.Wikipedia is maintained by a global, collaborative community of volunteer contributors and editors, and part of the reason it remains a reliable source of information is that this community takes a lot of time to discuss, deliberate, and argue about everything that happens on the platform, be it changes to individual articles or the policies that govern how those changes are made. It is normal for entire Wikipedia articles to be deleted, but the main process for deletion usually requires a week-long discussion phase during which Wikipedians try to come to consensus on whether to delete the article.
However, in order to deal with common problems that clearly violate Wikipedia’s policies, Wikipedia also has a “speedy deletion” process, where one person flags an article, an administrator checks if it meets certain conditions, and then deletes the article without the discussion period.
For example, articles composed entirely of gibberish, meaningless text, or what Wikipedia calls “patent nonsense,” can be flagged for speedy deletion. The same is true for articles that are just advertisements with no encyclopedic value. If someone flags an article for deletion because it is “most likely not notable,” that is a more subjective evaluation that requires a full discussion.
At the moment, most articles that Wikipedia editors flag as being AI-generated fall into the latter category because editors can’t be absolutely certain that they were AI-generated. Ilyas Lebleu, a founding member of WikiProject AI Cleanup and an editor that contributed some critical language in the recently adopted policy on AI generated articles and speedy deletion, told me that this is why previous proposals on regulating AI generated articles on Wikipedia have struggled.
“While it can be easy to spot hints that something is AI-generated (wording choices, em-dashes, bullet lists with bolded headers, ...), these tells are usually not so clear-cut, and we don't want to mistakenly delete something just because it sounds like AI,” Lebleu told me in an email. “In general, the rise of easy-to-generate AI content has been described as an ‘existential threat’ to Wikipedia: as our processes are geared towards (often long) discussions and consensus-building, the ability to quickly generate a lot of bogus content is problematic if we don't have a way to delete it just as quickly. Of course, AI content is not uniquely bad, and humans are perfectly capable of writing bad content too, but certainly not at the same rate. Our tools were made for a completely different scale.”
The solution Wikipedians came up with is to allow the speedy deletion of clearly AI-generated articles that broadly meet two conditions. The first is if the article includes “communication intended for the user.” This refers to language in the article that is clearly an LLM responding to a user prompt, like "Here is your Wikipedia article on…,” “Up to my last training update …,” and "as a large language model.” This is a clear tell that the article was generated by an LLM, and a method we’ve previously used to identify AI-generated social media posts and scientific papers.
Lebleu, who told me they’ve seen these tells “quite a few times,” said that more importantly, they indicate the user hasn’t even read the article they’re submitting.
“If the user hasn't checked for these basic things, we can safely assume that they haven't reviewed anything of what they copy-pasted, and that it is about as useful as white noise,” they said.
The other condition that would make an AI-generated article eligible for speedy deletion is if its citations are clearly wrong, another type of error LLMs are prone to. This can include both the inclusion of external links for books, articles, or scientific papers that don’t exist and don’t resolve, or links that lead to completely unrelated content. Wikipedia's new policy gives the example of “a paper on a beetle species being cited for a computer science article.”
Lebleu said that speedy deletion is a “band-aid” that can take care of the most obvious cases and that the AI problem will persist as they see a lot more AI-generated content that doesn’t meet these new conditions for speedy deletion. They also noted that AI can be a useful tool that could be a positive force for Wikipedia in the future.
“However, the present situation is very different, and speculation on how the technology might develop in the coming years can easily distract us from solving issues we are facing now, they said. “A key pillar of Wikipedia is that we have no firm rules, and any decisions we take today can be revisited in a few years when the technology evolves.”
Lebleu said that ultimately the new policy leaves Wikipedia in a better position than before, but not a perfect one.
“The good news (beyond the speedy deletion thing itself) is that we have, formally, made a statement on LLM-generated articles. This has been a controversial aspect in the community before: while the vast majority of us are opposed to AI content, exactly how to deal with it has been a point of contention, and early attempts at wide-ranging policies had failed. Here, building up on the previous incremental wins on AI images, drafts, and discussion comments, we workshopped a much more specific criterion, which nonetheless clearly states that unreviewed LLM content is not compatible in spirit with Wikipedia.”
Scientific Journals Are Publishing Papers With AI-Generated Text
The ChatGPT phrase “As of my last knowledge update” appears in several papers published by academic journals.Emanuel Maiberg (404 Media)
Protesters outside LA's Tesla Diner fear for the future of democracy in the USA
Protesters outside LAx27;s Tesla Diner fear for the future of democracy in the USA#Tesla #News
'Honk If You Hate Elon:' Two Days of Protest at the Tesla Diner
Protesters outside LA's Tesla Diner fear for the future of democracy in the USARosie Thomas (404 Media)
The decision highlights hurdles faced by developers as they navigate a world where credit card companies dictate what is and isn't appropriate.
The decision highlights hurdles faced by developers as they navigate a world where credit card companies dictate what is and isnx27;t appropriate.#News
Steam Doesn't Think This Image Is ‘Suitable for All Ages’
The decision highlights hurdles faced by developers as they navigate a world where credit card companies dictate what is and isn't appropriate.Matthew Gault (404 Media)
Submit to biometric face scanning or risk your account being deleted, Spotify says, following the enactment of the UK's Online Safety Act.
Submit to biometric face scanning or risk your account being deleted, Spotify says, following the enactment of the UKx27;s Online Safety Act.#spotify #ageverification
Spotify Is Forcing Users to Undergo Face Scanning to Access Explicit Content
Submit to biometric face scanning or risk your account being deleted, Spotify says, following the enactment of the UK's Online Safety Act.Samantha Cole (404 Media)
We talked to people living in the building whose views are being blocked by Tesla's massive four-story screen.
We talked to people living in the building whose views are being blocked by Teslax27;s massive four-story screen.#News #Tesla
Living Next To Tesla Diner Is 'Absolute Hell,' Neighbors Say
We talked to people living in the building whose views are being blocked by Tesla's massive four-story screen.Rosie Thomas (404 Media)
The massive Tea breach; how the UK's age verification law is impacting access to information; and LeBron James' AI-related cease-and-desist.
The massive Tea breach; how the UKx27;s age verification law is impacting access to information; and LeBron Jamesx27; AI-related cease-and-desist.#Podcast
Podcast: The Tea Hack Just Keeps Getting Worse
The massive Tea breach; how the UK's age verification law is impacting access to information; and LeBron James' AI-related cease-and-desist.Joseph Cox (404 Media)
The Sig Sauer P320 has a reputation for firing without pulling the trigger. The manufacturer says that's impossible, but the firearms community is showing the truth is more complicated.
The Sig Sauer P320 has a reputation for firing without pulling the trigger. The manufacturer says thatx27;s impossible, but the firearms community is showing the truth is more complicated.#News
Gun Nerds Dismantle Infamous Pistol to Research If It Fires at Random
The Sig Sauer P320 has a reputation for firing without pulling the trigger. The manufacturer says that's impossible, but the firearms community is showing the truth is more complicated.Matthew Gault (404 Media)
“Without these safeguards, Mr. Barber eventually developed full-blown PTSD, which he is currently still being treated for,” the former mod's lawyer said.
“Without these safeguards, Mr. Barber eventually developed full-blown PTSD, which he is currently still being treated for,” the former modx27;s lawyer said.#ContentModeration
Former Moderator Sues Chaturbate for 'Psychological Trauma'
“Without these safeguards, Mr. Barber eventually developed full-blown PTSD, which he is currently still being treated for,” the former mod's lawyer said.Samantha Cole (404 Media)
LeBron James' Lawyers Send Cease-and-Desist to AI Company Making Pregnant Videos of Him
Viral Instagram accounts making LeBron x27;brainrotx27; videos have also been banned.#AISlop
LeBron James' Lawyers Send Cease-and-Desist to AI Company Making Pregnant Videos of Him
Viral Instagram accounts making LeBron 'brainrot' videos have also been banned.Jason Koebler (404 Media)
The wiping commands probably wouldn't have worked, but a hacker who says they wanted to expose Amazon’s AI “security theater” was able to add code to Amazon’s popular ‘Q’ AI assistant for VS Code, which Amazon then pushed out to users.
The wiping commands probably wouldnx27;t have worked, but a hacker who says they wanted to expose Amazon’s AI “security theater” was able to add code to Amazon’s popular ‘Q’ AI assistant for VS Code, which Amazon then pushed out to users.#News #Hacking
Hacker Plants Computer 'Wiping' Commands in Amazon's AI Coding Agent
The wiping commands probably wouldn't have worked, but a hacker who says they wanted to expose Amazon’s AI “security theater” was able to add code to Amazon’s popular ‘Q’ AI assistant for VS Code, which Amazon then pushed out to users.Joseph Cox (404 Media)
The Tesla Diner has two gigantic screens, a robot that serves popcorn, and owners hope it will be free from people who don't like Tesla.
The Tesla Diner has two gigantic screens, a robot that serves popcorn, and owners hope it will be free from people who donx27;t like Tesla.#News #Tesla
'It's Not a Political Statement': Checking in With Tesla Superfans at Elon Musk's New Diner
The Tesla Diner has two gigantic screens, a robot that serves popcorn, and owners hope it will be free from people who don't like Tesla.Rosie Thomas (404 Media)
An internal memo obtained by 404 Media also shows the military ordered a review hold on "questionable content" at Stars and Stripes, the military's 'editorially independent' newspaper.
An internal memo obtained by 404 Media also shows the military ordered a review hold on "questionable content" at Stars and Stripes, the militaryx27;s x27;editorially independentx27; newspaper.#Pentagon #PeteHegseth
Military Says It Will ‘Continuously’ Monitor Bathrooms to Comply With Anti-Trans Order
An internal memo obtained by 404 Media also shows the military ordered a review hold on "questionable content" at Stars and Stripes, the military's 'editorially independent' newspaper.Jason Koebler (404 Media)
From ICE's facial recognition app to its Palantir contract, we've translated a spread of our ICE articles into Spanish and made them freely available.
From ICEx27;s facial recognition app to its Palantir contract, wex27;ve translated a spread of our ICE articles into Spanish and made them freely available.#Spanish
We're Publishing Our ICE Reporting In Spanish
From ICE's facial recognition app to its Palantir contract, we've translated a spread of our ICE articles into Spanish and made them freely available.Joseph Cox (404 Media)
In tests involving the Prisoner's Dilemma, researchers found that Google’s Gemini is “strategically ruthless,” while OpenAI is collaborative to a “catastrophic” degree.
In tests involving the Prisonerx27;s Dilemma, researchers found that Google’s Gemini is “strategically ruthless,” while OpenAI is collaborative to a “catastrophic” degree.#llms #OpenAI
Gemini Is 'Strict and Punitive' While ChatGPT Is 'Catastrophically' Cooperative, Researchers Say
In tests involving the Prisoner's Dilemma, researchers found that Google’s Gemini is “strategically ruthless,” while OpenAI is collaborative to a “catastrophic” degree.Rosie Thomas (404 Media)
John Adams says "facts do not care about our feelings" in one of the AI-generated videos in PragerU's series partnership with White House.
John Adams says "facts do not care about our feelings" in one of the AI-generated videos in PragerUx27;s series partnership with White House.#AI
White House Partners With PragerU to Make AI-Slopified Founding Fathers
John Adams says "facts do not care about our feelings" in one of the AI-generated videos in PragerU's series partnership with White House.Samantha Cole (404 Media)
There is a massive exodus happening in the AI world; the 'Save Our Signs' campaign, and why AI won't save the media industry.
There is a massive exodus happening in the AI world; the x27;Save Our Signsx27; campaign, and why AI wonx27;t save the media industry.#Podcast
Podcast: The AI Exodus Begins
There is a massive exodus happening in the AI world; the 'Save Our Signs' campaign, and why AI won't save the media industry.Joseph Cox (404 Media)
Nearly two minutes of Mark Zuckerberg's thoughts about AI have been lost to the sands of time. Can Meta's all-powerful AI recover this artifact?
Nearly two minutes of Mark Zuckerbergx27;s thoughts about AI have been lost to the sands of time. Can Metax27;s all-powerful AI recover this artifact?#AI #MarkZuckerberg
Saving the Lost Silent Zuckerberg Interview With the Amazing Power of AI
Nearly two minutes of Mark Zuckerberg's thoughts about AI have been lost to the sands of time. Can Meta's all-powerful AI recover this artifact?Jason Koebler (404 Media)
Sweden's Moderate party allowed users to make the PM hold a sign bearing any name they wanted. You know what happened next.
Swedenx27;s Moderate party allowed users to make the PM hold a sign bearing any name they wanted. You know what happened next.#News
Swedish Prime Minister Pulls AI Campaign Tool After It Was Used to Ask Hitler for Support
Sweden's Moderate party allowed users to make the PM hold a sign bearing any name they wanted. You know what happened next.Matthew Gault (404 Media)
The rise of Anubis; ICE's new facial recognition app; and a bunch of articles about LLMs.
The rise of Anubis; ICEx27;s new facial recognition app; and a bunch of articles about LLMs.#Podcast
Podcast: How to Fight Back Against AI Bot Scrapers
The rise of Anubis; ICE's new facial recognition app; and a bunch of articles about LLMs.Joseph Cox (404 Media)
More than $160 million in crypto is riding on the definition of 'suit.'
More than $160 million in crypto is riding on the definition of x27;suit.x27;#News
Polymarket Gamblers Go to War Over Whether Zelenskyy Wore a Suit
Polymarket, an online betting marketplace that bills itself as the future of news, can’t decide whether or not Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy wore a suit during a recent appearance in Europe. The gambling site is set to make a final judgement about the question in a few hours and more than $160 million in crypto is riding on it.Polymarket is a gambling website where users predict the outcome of binary events. It gained prominence in the runup to the 2024 election, signed an exclusivity deal with X in June, and sees itself not just as an online betting parlor, but as an arbiter of truth. Its founder, Shayne Coplan, thinks that the future of media belongs to a website made for degenerate gamblers to make silly bets.
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And yet this arbiter of truth had trouble figuring out if Zelenskyy wore a suit at the end of June during a NATO summit. The bet, started on May 22, is simple: “Will Zelenskyy wear a suit before July?” The answer, it turns out, is pretty hard. When Zelenskyy showed up at a NATO summit wearing a tailored jacket and a button up shirt, a stark contrast to his more casual military style garb, a community-run Polymarket account posted, “President Zelenskyy in a suit last night.”President Zelenskyy in a suit last night pic.twitter.com/Uo3Rhuzkq1
— Polymarket Intel (@PolymarketIntel) June 25, 2025
But people who bet “no” cried foul, complaining that he wasn’t actually wearing a suit on social media and in Polymarket hosted chat rooms. Zelenskyy’s “suit” was an all black get-up with no tie and four cargo-style pockets, some pointed out. The jacket was suit shaped, but it didn’t quite fit everyone’s definition of formal dress. And, perhaps most telling on the side of “not an actual suit,” he was wearing tennis shoes.According to the “rules” underneath the bet, the market would resolve as a “yes” if the Ukrainian president is photographed or videotaped wearing a suit. “The resolution will be the consensus of credible reporting.”
All the credible reporting around the scene described Zelenskyy’s outfit as a suit. He’s known for wearing military style outfits so the sudden formal outfit generated a lot of headlines. Reuters said the outfit was “suit-style,” a Fox News pundit joked that Trump won’t recognize Zelenskyy because he’s wearing a suit, and the NY Post said that he ditched a “T-shirt for a suit.” There were many more media outlets that noted the fashion upgrade.
At first, the betting market agreed with them. It resolved the bet as a “yes,” but the site’s “no” holders flagged the issue for a disputed resolution. Polymarket kicked the question to a third party, which considered the issue and changed the outcome to a “no.”
Some disputes on Polymarket, like this one, are resolved through a blockchain based third party system called UMA. In this system, the question of how to resolve a disputed market gets thrown to people who hold UMA tokens and who are, in theory, impartial. Holding a UMA token buys you a voice in the debate, which plays out in Discord servers and can be watched by the public.
On social media and in Discord, people are accusing UMA token holders of placing side bets on the suit question and attempting to manipulate the market so one side wins. The Discord conversation is full of people claiming UMA has failed and that Polymarket’s administrators are manipulating it directly.
“At the time of this clarification, 09:33am ET July 01, a consensus of credible reporting has not confirmed that Zelenskyy has worn a suit,” Polymarket administrators wrote below the bet. It did not elaborate on what amounted to a “consensus of credible reporting” and it didn’t return 404 Media’s request for a comment on the issue.
Unhappy “yes” betters disputed this resolution and it’s still in review at the time of publication. According to a timer on the bet, Polymarket will issue a final answer to the question by the end of the day.
So. Is it a suit or isn’t it? According to menswear expert and prolific fashion poster Derek Guy, it’s both. “If I were writing an article about Zelenskyy's dress, I would call it a suit because it's the shortest, easiest way to describe his outfit without getting into the history of men's tailoring. But I would also recognize this is not what most people recognize as a suit,” Guy said in a thread about the controversy on X.
The suit, then, is in the eye of the beholder. The problem is that people have bet more than $160 million on the outcome of the question.
Zelensky ditches T-shirt for a suit for sit-down meeting with President Trump
“I thank Mr President, I thank the United States,” Zelensky said.Anthony Blair (New York Post)
404 Media is closed this week. School's out.
404 Media is closed this week. Schoolx27;s out.#PSA
Gone Fishin': 404 Media Summer Break 2025
404 Media is closed this week. School's out.Jason Koebler (404 Media)
404 Media spoke to Dave McNamee, the original creator of the babyface Vance meme, about free speech, our rights, and how it feels to see the thing you created being blamed for someone's denial of entry to the U.S.
404 Media spoke to Dave McNamee, the original creator of the babyface Vance meme, about free speech, our rights, and how it feels to see the thing you created being blamed for someonex27;s denial of entry to the U.S.#vance #meme #Socialmedia #Immigration
'My Bad:' Babyface Vance Meme Creator On Norwegian Tourist's Detainment
404 Media spoke to Dave McNamee, the original creator of the babyface Vance meme, about free speech, our rights, and how it feels to see the thing you created being blamed for someone's denial of entry to the U.S.Samantha Cole (404 Media)
A tool that uses facial recognition to reveal cops' names, a big and complicated AI ruling, and the AI slop between Iran and Israel.
A tool that uses facial recognition to reveal copsx27; names, a big and complicated AI ruling, and the AI slop between Iran and Israel.#Podcast
Podcast: This Site Unmasks Cops With Facial Recognition
We start this week with Emanuel and Joseph’s coverage of ‘FuckLAPD.com’, a website that uses facial recognition to instantly reveal a LAPD officer’s name and salary. The creator has relaunched their similar tool for identifying ICE employees too. After the break, Jason tells us about a massive AI ruling that opens the way for AI companies to scrape everyone’s art. In the subscribers-only section, our regular contributor Matthew describes all the AI slop in the Iran and Israel conflict, and why it matters.
playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TBIEA9…
Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.
youtube.com/embed/1eieXQIaALA?…
- ‘FuckLAPD.com’ Lets Anyone Use Facial Recognition to Instantly Identify Cops
- Judge Rules Training AI on Authors' Books Is Legal But Pirating Them Is Not
- The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel
The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel
There’s a lack of footage from the conflict and AI-generated content is filling the void.Matthew Gault (404 Media)
A judge rules that Anthropic's training on copyrighted works without authors' permission was a legal fair use, but that stealing the books in the first place is illegal.
A judge rules that Anthropicx27;s training on copyrighted works without authorsx27; permission was a legal fair use, but that stealing the books in the first place is illegal.#AI #Books3
Judge Rules Training AI on Authors' Books Is Legal But Pirating Them Is Not
A judge rules that Anthropic's training on copyrighted works without authors' permission was a legal fair use, but that stealing the books in the first place is illegal.Jason Koebler (404 Media)
Blaming payment processor restrictions, Fansly—a platform creators flocked to after OnlyFans announced it'd ban sex—announced it's changing the rules for multiple types of content.
Blaming payment processor restrictions, Fansly—a platform creators flocked to after OnlyFans announced itx27;d ban sex—announced itx27;s changing the rules for multiple types of content.#platforms #furries #paymentprocessors
Massive Creator Platform Fansly Bans Furries
Blaming payment processor restrictions, Fansly—a platform creators flocked to after OnlyFans announced it'd ban sex—announced it's changing the rules for multiple types of content.Samantha Cole (404 Media)
Researchers found Meta’s popular Llama 3.1 70B has a capacity to recite passages from 'The Sorcerer's Stone' at a rate much higher than could happen by chance.
Researchers found Meta’s popular Llama 3.1 70B has a capacity to recite passages from x27;The Sorcererx27;s Stonex27; at a rate much higher than could happen by chance.#AI #Meta #llms
Meta's AI Model 'Memorized' Huge Chunks of Books, Including 'Harry Potter' and '1984'
Researchers found Meta’s popular Llama 3.1 70B has a capacity to recite passages from 'The Sorcerer's Stone' at a rate much higher than could happen by chance.Rosie Thomas (404 Media)
Details about how Meta's nearly Manhattan-sized data center will impact consumers' power bills are still secret.
Details about how Metax27;s nearly Manhattan-sized data center will impact consumersx27; power bills are still secret.#AI
'A Black Hole of Energy Use': Meta's Massive AI Data Center Is Stressing Out a Louisiana Community
A massive data center for Meta’s AI will likely lead to rate hikes for Louisiana customers, but Meta wants to keep the details under wraps.Holly Ridge is a rural community bisected by US Highway 80, gridded with farmland, with a big creek—it is literally named Big Creek—running through it. It is home to rice and grain mills and an elementary school and a few houses. Soon, it will also be home to Meta’s massive, 4 million square foot AI data center hosting thousands of perpetually humming servers that require billions of watts of energy to power. And that energy-guzzling infrastructure will be partially paid for by Louisiana residents.
The plan is part of what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said would be “a defining year for AI.” On Threads, Zuckerberg boasted that his company was “building a 2GW+ datacenter that is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan,” posting a map of Manhattan along with the data center overlaid. Zuckerberg went on to say that over the coming years, AI “will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership. Let's go build! 💪”
Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck) on Threads
This will be a defining year for AI. In 2025, I expect Meta AI will be the leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people, Llama 4 will become the leading state of the art model, and we’ll build an AI engineer that will start contributing increasing amounts of code to our R&D efforts. To power this, Meta is building a 2GW+ datacenter that is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan.Threads
What Zuckerberg did not mention is that "Let's go build" refers not only to the massive data center but also three new Meta-subsidized, gas power plants and a transmission line to fuel it serviced by Entergy Louisiana, the region’s energy monopoly.Key details about Meta’s investments with the data center remain vague, and Meta’s contracts with Entergy are largely cloaked from public scrutiny. But what is known is the $10 billion data center has been positioned as an enormous economic boon for the area—one that politicians bent over backward to facilitate—and Meta said it will invest $200 million into “local roads and water infrastructure.”
A January report from NOLA.com said that the the state had rewritten zoning laws, promised to change a law so that it no longer had to put state property up for public bidding, and rewrote what was supposed to be a tax incentive for broadband internet meant to bridge the digital divide so that it was only an incentive for data centers, all with the goal of luring in Meta.
But Entergy Louisiana’s residential customers, who live in one of the poorest regions of the state, will see their utility bills increase to pay for Meta’s energy infrastructure, according to Entergy’s application. Entergy estimates that amount will be small and will only cover a transmission line, but advocates for energy affordability say the costs could balloon depending on whether Meta agrees to finish paying for its three gas plants 15 years from now. The short-term rate increases will be debated in a public hearing before state regulators that has not yet been scheduled.
The Alliance for Affordable Energy called it a “black hole of energy use,” and said “to give perspective on how much electricity the Meta project will use: Meta’s energy needs are roughly 2.3x the power needs of Orleans Parish … it’s like building the power impact of a large city overnight in the middle of nowhere.”
404 Media reached out to Entergy for comment but did not receive a response.
By 2030, Entergy’s electricity prices are projected to increase 90 percent from where they were in 2018, although the company attributes much of that to damage to infrastructure from hurricanes. The state already has a high energy cost burden in part because of a storm damage to infrastructure, and balmy heat made worse by climate change that drives air conditioner use. The state's homes largely are not energy efficient, with many porous older buildings that don’t retain heat in the winter or remain cool in the summer.
“You don't just have high utility bills, you also have high repair costs, you have high insurance premiums, and it all contributes to housing insecurity,” said Andreanecia Morris, a member of Housing Louisiana, which is opposed to Entergy’s gas plant application. She believes Meta’s data center will make it worse. And Louisiana residents have reasons to distrust Entergy when it comes to passing off costs of new infrastructure: in 2018, the company’s New Orleans subsidiary was caught paying actors to testify on behalf of a new gas plant. “The fees for the gas plant have all been borne by the people of New Orleans,” Morris said.
In its application to build new gas plants and in public testimony, Entergy says the cost of Meta’s data center to customers will be minimal and has even suggested Meta’s presence will make their bills go down. But Meta’s commitments are temporary, many of Meta’s assurances are not binding, and crucial details about its deal with Entergy are shielded from public view, a structural issue with state energy regulators across the country.
AI data centers are being approved at a breakneck pace across the country, particularly in poorer regions where they are pitched as economic development projects to boost property tax receipts, bring in jobs and where they’re offered sizable tax breaks. Data centers typically don’t hire many people, though, with most jobs in security and janitorial work, along with temporary construction work. And the costs to the utility’s other customers can remain hidden because of a lack of scrutiny and the limited power of state energy regulators. Many data centers—like the one Meta is building in Holly Ridge—are being powered by fossil fuels. This has led to respiratory illness and other health risks and emitting greenhouse gasses that fuel climate change. In Memphis, a massive data center built to launch a chatbot for Elon Musks’ AI company is powered by smog-spewing methane turbines, in a region that leads the state for asthma rates.
“In terms of how big these new loads are, it's pretty astounding and kind of a new ball game,” said Paul Arbaje, an energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, which is opposing Entergy’s proposal to build three new gas-powered plants in Louisiana to power Meta’s data center.
Entergy Louisiana submitted a request to the state’s regulatory body to approve the construction of the new gas-powered plants that would create 2.3 gigawatts of power and cost $3.2 billion in the 1440 acre Franklin Farms megasite in Holly Ridge, an unincorporated community of Richland Parish. It is the first big data center announced since Louisiana passed large tax breaks for data centers last summer.
In its application to the public utility commission for gas plants, Entergy says that Meta has a planned investment of $5 billion in the region to build the gas plants in Richland Parish, Louisiana, where it claims in its application that the data center will employ 300-500 people with an average salary of $82,000 in what it points out is “a region of the state that has long struggled with a lack of economic development and high levels of poverty.” Meta’s official projection is that it will employ more than 500 people once the data center is operational. Entergy plans for the gas plants to be online by December 2028.
In testimony, Entergy officials refused to answer specific questions about job numbers, saying that the numbers are projections based on public statements from Meta.
A spokesperson for Louisiana’s Economic Development told 404 Media in an email that Meta “is contractually obligated to employ at least 500 full-time employees in order to receive incentive benefits.”
When asked about jobs, Meta pointed to a public facing list of its data centers, many of which the company says employ more than 300 people. A spokesperson said that the projections for the Richland Parish site are based on the scale of the 4 million square foot data center. The spokesperson said the jobs will include “engineering and other technical positions to operational roles and our onsite culinary staff.”
When asked if its job commitments are binding, the spokesperson declined to answer, saying, “We worked closely with Richland Parish and Louisiana Economic Development on mutually beneficial agreements that will support long-term growth in the area.”
Others are not as convinced. “Show me a data center that has that level of employment,” says Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy in Louisiana.
Entergy has argued the new power plants are necessary to satiate the energy need from Meta’s massive hyperscale data center, which will be Meta’s largest data center and potentially the largest data center in the United States. It amounts to a 25 percent increase in Entergy Louisiana’s current load, according to the Alliance for Affordable Energy.
Entergy requested an exemption from a state law meant to ensure that it develops energy at the lowest cost by issuing a public request for proposals, claiming in its application and testimony that this would slow them down and cause them to lose their contracts with Meta.
Meta has agreed to subsidize the first 15 years of payments for construction of the gas plants, but the plant’s construction is being financed over 30 years. At the 15 year mark, its contract with Entergy ends. At that point, Meta may decide it doesn’t need three gas plants worth of energy because computing power has become more efficient or because its AI products are not profitable enough. Louisiana residents would be stuck with the remaining bill.
“It's not that they're paying the cost, they're just paying the mortgage for the time that they're under contract,” explained Devi Glick, an electric utility analyst with Synapse Energy.
When asked about the costs for the gas plants, a Meta spokesperson said, “Meta works with our utility partners to ensure we pay for the full costs of the energy service to our data centers.” The spokesperson said that any rate increases will be reviewed by the Louisiana Public Service Commission. These applications, called rate cases, are typically submitted by energy companies based on a broad projection of new infrastructure projects and energy needs.
Meta has technically not finalized its agreement with Entergy but Glick believes the company has already invested enough in the endeavor that it is unlikely to pull out now. Other companies have been reconsidering their gamble on AI data centers: Microsoft reversed course on centers requiring a combined 2 gigawatts of energy in the U.S. and Europe. Meta swept in to take on some of the leases, according to Bloomberg.
And in the short-term, Entergy is asking residential customers to help pay for a new transmission line for the gas plants at a cost of more than $500 million, according to Entergy’s application to Louisiana’s public utility board. In its application, the energy giant said customers’ bills will only rise by $1.66 a month to offset the costs of the transmission lines. Meta, for its part, said it will pay up to $1 million a year into a fund for low-income customers. When asked about the costs of the new transmission line, a Meta spokesperson said, “Like all other new customers joining the transmission system, one of the required transmission upgrades will provide significant benefits to the broader transmission system. This transmission upgrade is further in distance from the data center, so it was not wholly assigned to Meta.”
When Entergy was questioned in public testimony on whether the new transmission line would need to be built even without Meta’s massive data center, the company declined to answer, saying the question was hypothetical.
Some details of Meta’s contract with Entergy have been made available to groups legally intervening in Entergy’s application, meaning that they can submit testimony or request data from the company. These parties include the Alliance for Affordable Energy, the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
But Meta—which will become Entergy’s largest customer by far and whose presence will impact the entire energy grid—is not required to answer questions or divulge any information to the energy board or any other parties. The Alliance for Affordable Energy and Union of Concerned Scientists attempted to make Meta a party to Entergy’s application—which would have required it to share information and submit to questioning—but a judge denied that motion on April 4.
The public utility commissions that approve energy infrastructure in most states are the main democratic lever to assure that data centers don’t negatively impact consumers. But they have no oversight over the tech companies running the data centers or the private companies that build the centers, leaving residential customers, consumer advocates and environmentalists in the dark. This is because they approve the power plants that fuel the data centers but do not have jurisdiction over the data centers themselves.
“This is kind of a relic of the past where there might be some energy service agreement between some large customer and the utility company, but it wouldn't require a whole new energy facility,” Arbaje said.
A research paper by Ari Peskoe and Eliza Martin published in March looked at 50 regulatory cases involving data centers, and found that tech companies were pushing some of the costs onto utility customers through secret contracts with the utilities. The paper found that utilities were often parroting rhetoric from AI boosting politicians—including President Biden—to suggest that pushing through permitting for AI data center infrastructure is a matter of national importance.
“The implication is that there’s no time to act differently,” the authors wrote.
In written testimony sent to the public service commission, Entergy CEO Phillip May argued that the company had to bypass a legally required request for proposals and requirement to find the cheapest energy sources for the sake of winning over Meta.
“If a prospective customer is choosing between two locations, and if that customer believes that location A can more quickly bring the facility online than location B, that customer is more likely to choose to build at location A,” he wrote.
Entergy also argues that building new gas plants will in fact lower electricity bills because Meta, as the largest customer for the gas plants, will pay a disproportionate share of energy costs. Naturally, some are skeptical that Entergy would overcharge what will be by far their largest customer to subsidize their residential customers. “They haven't shown any numbers to show how that's possible,” Burke says of this claim. Meta didn’t have a response to this specific claim when asked by 404 Media.
Some details, like how much energy Meta will really need, the details of its hiring in the area and its commitment to renewables are still cloaked in mystery.
“We can't ask discovery. We can't depose. There's no way for us to understand the agreement between them without [Meta] being at the table,” Burke said.
It’s not just Entergy. Big energy companies in other states are also pushing out costly fossil fuel infrastructure to court data centers and pushing costs onto captive residents. In Kentucky, the energy company that serves the Louisville area is proposing 2 new gas plants for hypothetical data centers that have yet to be contracted by any tech company. The company, PPL Electric Utilities, is also planning to offload the cost of new energy supply onto its residential customers just to become more competitive for data centers.
“It's one thing if rates go up so that customers can get increased reliability or better service, but customers shouldn't be on the hook to pay for new power plants to power data centers,” Cara Cooper, a coordinator with Kentuckians for Energy Democracy, which has intervened on an application for new gas plants there.
These rate increases don’t take into account the downstream effects on energy; as the supply of materials and fuel are inevitably usurped by large data center load, the cost of energy goes up to compensate, with everyday customers footing the bill, according to Glick with Synapse.
Glick says Entergy’s gas plants may not even be enough to satisfy the energy needs of Meta’s massive data center. In written testimony, Glick said that Entergy will have to either contract with a third party for more energy or build even more plants down the line to fuel Meta’s massive data center.
To fill the gap, Entergy has not ruled out lengthening the life of some of its coal plants, which it had planned to close in the next few years. The company already pushed back the deactivation date of one of its coal plants from 2028 to 2030.
The increased demand for gas power for data centers has already created a widely-reported bottleneck for gas turbines, the majority of which are built by 3 companies. One of those companies, Siemens Energy, told Politico that turbines are “selling faster than they can increase manufacturing capacity,” which the company attributed to data centers.
Most of the organizations concerned about the situation in Louisiana view Meta’s massive data center as inevitable and are trying to soften its impact by getting Entergy to utilize more renewables and make more concrete economic development promises.
Andreanecia Morris, with Housing Louisiana, believes the lack of transparency from public utility commissions is a bigger problem than just Meta. “Simply making Meta go away, isn't the point,” Morris says. “The point has to be that the Public Service Commission is held accountable.”
Burke says Entergy owns less than 200 megawatts of renewable energy in Louisiana, a fraction of the fossil fuels it is proposing to fuel Meta’s center. Entergy was approved by Louisiana’s public utility commission to build out three gigawatts of solar energy last year , but has yet to build any of it.
“They're saying one thing, but they're really putting all of their energy into the other,” Burke says.
New gas plants are hugely troubling for the climate. But ironically, advocates for affordable energy are equally concerned that the plants will lie around disused - with Louisiana residents stuck with the financing for their construction and upkeep. Generative AI has yet to prove its profitability and the computing heavy strategy of American tech companies may prove unnecessary given less resource intensive alternatives coming out of China.
“There's such a real threat in such a nascent industry that what is being built is not what is going to be needed in the long run,” said Burke. “The challenge remains that residential rate payers in the long run are being asked to finance the risk, and obviously that benefits the utilities, and it really benefits some of the most wealthy companies in the world, But it sure is risky for the folks who are living right next door.”
The Alliance for Affordable Energy expects the commission to make a decision on the plants this fall.
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