404 Media

2026-03-09 13:26:08

I Visited the ‘Freedom Truck’ to Meet PragerU’s AI Slop Founders

In the parking lot of Seven Oaks Element school in South Carolina on one of the first hot days of the year I watched an AI-generated George Washington talk about the American revolution. “Our rights are a gift from God, not a favor from kings or courts,” slop Washington told me. It spoke from a screen that stretched floor to ceiling, trimmed by a fancy frame.

The intended effect is to make it appear as if the founding father is a painting come to life, a piece of history talking to the viewer. The actual effect was to remind that the AI slop aesthetic is synonymous with the Trump presidency and has become part of the visual language of fascism. Which is fitting because AI George Washington is the result of a collaboration between the Trump White and online content mill PragerU.
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The AI slop founding father is part of a touring exhibit of Freedom Trucks commissioned by PragerU in honor of the 250th anniversary of American independence. The trucks are a mobile museum exhibit meant to teach kids about the founding of the country. It’s pitched at kids—most of the “content,” as staff on site called it, is meant for a younger audience but the trucks have viewing hours open to the general public. Nick Bravo, a PragerU employee on hand to answer questions, told me that there are six Freedom Trucks and that the plan is to have them travel the 48 contiguous United States over the next year.

I was drawn to the Freedom Truck because I’d heard they contained AI-generated recreations of Revolutionary figures like Washington, Betsy Ross, and the Marquis Lafayette, similar to the ones on display at the White House. To my disappointment, the AI generated videos in the Freedom Truck are remarkably boring.

As I watched the AI George Washington deliver a by-the-books version of the American story, I thought about Jerry Jones. The famously vain owner of the Dallas Cowboys commissioned an AI version of himself for AT&T stadium in 2023. Fans who make the pilgrimage to the stadium can watch a presentation and ask the AI Jones questions. The AI wanders a big screen while it talks to the audience.

Other than the lazy AI generated videos, the Freedom Truck doesn’t have much to offer. I signed a digital copy of the Declaration of Independence on a touchscreen and took a quiz that asked leading questions designed to find out if I was a “loyalist or patriot.”

“The British Army sends soldiers to Boston. How do you react?” Answer 1: “View them as occupiers violating colonial liberty.” Answer 2: “Welcome them as defenders of law and order.” With ICE and the National Guard patrolling American cities, I wondered how supporters of the current administration would answer that one.

PragerU is known for its “America can do no wrong” view of US history. Its short form video content offers a cartoon version of the past stripped of nuance and context where the country lives up to the myth that it is a “Shining City On a Hill.” According to PragerU, white people abolished slavery and dropping the atomic bomb on Japan was a necessary thing that “shortened the war and saved countless lives.” Now PragerU is taking its view of history on tour across the country. School children in every state will wander these trucks and encounter an AI slop version of the past.

Bravo told me that all the truck’s content was generated as part of a partnership between PragerU and Michigan’s Hillsdale College—a Christian university that helped craft Project 2025. There were, of course, hints of Project 2025 around the edges of the child-friendly AI-generated videos. Slavery isn’t ignored but the stories of early African Americans like poet Phillis Wheatley focus on her celebration of America rather than how she arrived there. On the museum’s “Wall of Heroes,” Whittaker Chambers is nestled between architect Frank Lloyd Wright and painter Norman Rockwell.

A small note near the floor at the exit of the truck notes the collaboration of PragerU and Hillsdale College, and claims that “neither institution received any federal funds and both generously contributed their own resources to help create this educational exhibit.” It also said “this truck was made possible through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services,” which is, of course, a federal agency.

Every AI-generated video ended with a title card showing the White House and PragerU’s logo. “The White House is grateful for the partnership with PragerU and the US Department of Education for the production of this museum,” the card said. “This partnership does not constitute or imply a US Government or US Department of Education endorsement of PragerU.”

Trump attempted to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) via executive order in 2025, but the courts blocked it. Libraries and Museums have since reported that the IMLS grant process has taken on a “chilling” pro-Trump political turn. The administration has also attempted to dismantle the Department of Education.

Trump’s voice was the last thing I heard as I wandered into the bright afternoon sun. “I want to thank PragerU for helping us share this incredible story,” he said in a recorded video that played on a loop in Freedom Truck. “I hope you will join me in helping to make America’s 250th anniversary a year we will never forget.”

Grant Guidelines for Libraries and Museums Take “Chilling” Political Turn Under Trump

Former Institute of Museum and Library Services leaders from both political parties expressed concern that the new funding guidelines could encourage a more constrained or distorted view of American history.

^{Alex.Bandoni@propublica.org (ProPublica)}

404 Media

2026-03-03 19:22:26

New Podcast Alert: The Globe-Spanning, Multi-Newsroom Hunt for Mr. Deepfakes

Mr. Deepfakes was the biggest website in the world for sharing AI-generated abuse imagery, swapping tips and tricks for more realistic results, and posting endless, fake, nonconsensual videos of everyone from celebrities to everyday people. In a new podcast by the CBC, I got to tell the tale of how deepfakes started, what targets go through, and where we go next.

It's called Understood: Deepfake Porn Empire. It's about the decades-long rise of non-consensual deepfake porn, the targets who are fighting back, and what it takes to stop its proliferation. Check it out here and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

The first three episodes are already up, so you can binge them all before the finale next Tuesday.

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In the first episode, "The Dawn of Fake Porn," you’ll get a fascinating history of the decades of cultural and technological standards that set the stage for AI-generated nonconsensual imagery as we know it today. I learned a lot in this episode myself, including about a guy who went by “Lux Lucre” who ran two Usenet groups dedicated to fake nudes of celebrities in the 90s. This stuff goes so much farther back than you might realize.

In episode two, “So You’ve Been Deepfaked,” I got the chance to talk to Taylor, who discovered she’d been targeted by AI images while at university, working in a male-dominated field. Instead of hoping it’d go away, she set out to find her harasser, and found his other targets in the process. It all led back to one place: the biggest deepfake site in the world, Mr. Deepfakes.

Episode three just came out today: “The Notorious D.P.F.K.S.” is a romp through the investigative highs and lows that led a team of journalists scattered around the world to the door of Mr. Deepfakes himself. I was so thrilled to talk to investigative journalist Ida Herskind, OSINT specialist Zakaria Hameed, and Bellingcat’s Ross Higgins in this episode. Come for the How I Met Your Mother references, stay for the gripping chase.

Episode four, the series finale, launches next week. It’s a true crime story with CBC reporters on stakeouts and infiltrating hospitals, and legal and social experts breaking down what it all means now that we’re in a post-Mr. Deepfakes world—but far from a post-AI abuse landscape. Follow the Understood feed wherever you listen to get it when it comes out on Tuesday.

If you liked this season, head back to catch up on another series I hosted with the CBC: Pornhub Empire, on the rise and fall of the porn monolith.

Tune in and let me know what you think!

The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Pornhub

In a new series by CBC Podcasts, hosted by 404 Media's Sam Cole, former employees, performers, and the new owners themselves speak out about Pornhub's influence on the industry and beyond.

^{Samantha Cole (404 Media)}

404 Media

2026-03-02 15:59:51

Amazon Data Centers on Fire After Iranian Missile Strikes on Dubai

Amazon’s cloud services are down in some of the Middle East after “objects” hit data centers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) causing “sparks and fire.” Around 60 services tied to AWS are down in the region, affecting web traffic in the UAE and Bahrain. The outage comes following Iranian attacks on the UAE as retaliation for US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Customers in Bahrain and the UAE began to report outages tied to the mec1-az2 and mec1-az3 clusters in AWS’ ME-CENTRAL-1 Region on March 1 after Iranian ballistic missiles and drones struck targets in and around Dubai. Amazon did not confirm that AWS was down in the Middle East due to an Iranian attack and instead referred 404 Media to its online dashboard.
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“At around 4:30 AM PST, one of our Availability Zones (mec1-az2) was impacted by objects that struck the data center, creating sparks and fire,” AWS said on its health dashboard. “The fire department shut off power to the facility and generators as they worked to put out the fire. We are still awaiting permission to turn the power back on, and once we have, we will ensure we restore power and connectivity safely. It will take several hours to restore connectivity to the impacted AZ.”

As of this morning at 9:22 AM ET, the damage had spread. “We are expecting recovery to take at least a day, as it requires repair of facilities, cooling and power systems, coordination with local authorities, and careful assessment to ensure the safety of our operators,” AWS said. “We recommend customers enact their disaster recovery plans and recover from remote backups into alternate AWS Regions, ideally in Europe.”

Amazon later shared more information about the attack and confirmed it was the result of drones. “Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, both affected regions have experienced physical impacts to infrastructure as a result of drone strikes. In the UAE, two of our facilities were directly struck, while in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impacts to our infrastructure,” it said. “These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage. We are working closely with local authorities and prioritizing the safety of our personnel throughout our recovery efforts.”

On Saturday, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury and struck targets inside of Iran, killing several political and military leaders including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s Supreme Leader. In retaliation, Iran launched drone and missile attacks against Israel and multiple US-allied targets in the Middle East.

According to the Emirati defense forces, Iran attacked the country with two cruise missiles, 165 ballistic missiles, and more than 540 drones. The UAE and its capital city Dubai are often seen as a safe and stable destination in the Middle East. The country hosts wealthy people from across the region and influencers from across the world. Footage shared on social media showed the neon towers of the UAE backlit by missiles and munitions.

It’s unclear how long it will take for Amazon to restore services to the region or how far the damage will spread. Amazon’s dashboard is promising to bring things back up in “at least a day” but the war is far from over. Iran continues to strike targets in the Middle East and it’s unclear what America’s plan of attack is or how long this war might grind on.

Update 2/2/26: This story has been updated with more specifics about the attack from Amazon.

https://health.aws.amazon.com/health/status

View the overall status and health of AWS services using the AWS Health Dashboard.

^{health.aws.amazon.com}

404 Media

2026-02-26 17:02:16

Company Helps Men Scrub Negative Posts About Them from Tea App

Tea App Green Flags, a service that claims it can “protect your digital reputation,” will remove negative posts about men from private online groups where women share “red flags” about men they’ve dated in order to help other women.

The service is another escalation in the age of online dating, women attempting to protect each other from other men in the dating pool, and instances of men fighting against those efforts. It also shows how some of these allegedly private women’s groups, especially the Tea app, are regularly infiltrated and manipulated by men.

When I reached out to an email listed on Tea App Green Flags’s site, I got a call from a man behind the operation who identified only as Jay. He said he started the service about two years ago, and that he initially focused on the Are We Dating the Same Guy Facebook groups. For the past year, he’s been offering services specifically for the Tea app, a “dating safety” app for women that suffered a devastating breach last year, and which my investigation revealed, was founded by a man who wanted to monetize the Are We Dating the Same guy phenomenon. The site also claims it can remove posts from Tea app copycat for men TeaOnHer, as well as posts on Instagram.

Jay declined to say how much revenue the site generates, but claims he gets about 50 to 60 calls a day and currently has six employees. On its website, Tea App Green Flags claims it has removed more than 2,500 posts on the Tea app for 759 clients. Jay said that most of his clients are men, but that some are women who are trying to take down posts about their husbands or boyfriends.

Potential clients can pay $1.99 to report one account and up to $79.99 to report 25 accounts.

“We just want to take down posts about people who are being defamed,” Jay told me. “And when I say defamed, it means like, ‘this guy has a small penis,’ or ‘this guy smells.’ That doesn't fit the mission statement of what the Tea app was for, which is to warn women against people who are harmful, who are abusive, who are cheaters. We've noticed that a lot of the individuals that come to us, almost all of them, come to us for little stupid things.”

Clients interested in Tea App Green Flags’s services go to the site and fill out a form with their information and information about the posts they want removed. The company reviews the case and then starts the “takedown process,” which can take between 21-30 days. Tea App Green Flags says it will then continue to monitor posts about the client and remove them for three months.

💡
Were you impacted by the Tea hack? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at ‪@emanuel.404‬. Otherwise, send me an email at emanuel@404media.co.

When I asked Jay how this “takedown process” works he said “I can’t give that info. That’s the business.”

Jay told me that he would not work with clients who have been accused of sexual assault by multiple people on the Tea app, or by one person in one of the Are We Dating the Same Guy Facebook groups who used their real name and face in a profile picture.

“Sometimes we find along the process that there are pedophiles or people who actually did what they did, and they're very bad,” Jay said. “So we say, we're not doing this. We can't take a rap for that. We're ethical. We just want to take down people who are being defamed.”

Jay told me he understands why Facebook groups like Are We Dating the Same Guy are necessary and thinks they are a good idea, but the anonymous nature of the Tea app "causes a cesspool of defamation.”

When I asked Jay what he thinks about the fact that some women don’t feel safe sharing information about some dangerous men unless they can do so anonymously, he said it would be better if women showed their face, or if the Tea app at least gave women that option.

“I have a Tea app account. I'm a dude. All my reps have Tea app accounts. They're men,” Jay said. “How much can you trust these people and what they're doing?”

One reason the Tea app hack was so dangerous is because the app used to ask women to upload a picture of their face in order to verify that they are women. Those images were posted all over the internet because of the hack, putting those women at risk and leading to more harassment.

Tea App Green Flags is far from the first attempt from men trying to fight back against these types of groups. In 2024, for example, we wrote about a man who tried to sue women who posted about him in Are We Dating the Same Guy Facebook groups. His first case was dismissed, and he refiled days later as a class action lawsuit; later that year, he was sent to prison for tax fraud.

Tea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

'Are We Dating the Same Guy' Guy Imprisoned for Tax Fraud

After suing 27 women and multiple platforms because people he'd dated warned others not to date him, he filed a class action lawsuit against them. Now, he's headed to federal prison.

^{Samantha Cole (404 Media)}

404 Media

2026-02-26 15:45:29

The Islamic State Is Using AI to Resurrect Dead Leaders and Platforms Are Failing to Moderate It

The Islamic State’s online warriors are still posting. It’s been almost a decade since the group lost the Battle of Raqqa and saw its IRL territorial ambitions thwarted. Unable to hold territory in the real world, the group renewed its focus on posting and has started using AI to resurrect dead leaders. And, because social media platforms have gutted their content moderation operations, the terror group’s strategy is working.

The Islamic State’s online success is detailed in a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), an independent research institution that studies extremist movements. For the study, researchers tracked IS accounts on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Element, and SimpleX. It found videos posted in Discord channels dedicated to video games and tracked how the groups have modified old content to fit on new platforms.
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Like many others posting online in 2026, the Islamic State has found success by talking about the Epstein Files, using AI to create new videos of dead leaders, and has begun taking its message to video games like Minecraft and Roblox.

“They are very adept at exploiting platforms [and] spreading messages,” Moustafa Ayad, a researcher at ISD and author of this study, told 404 Media. He noted that the group has been active online for 10 years and that part of their success is a willingness to experiment.

Ayad said that Facebook remains a central hub for IS, despite its push into new spaces. His research discovered 350 IS accounts on Facebook that generated tens of thousands of views. One video of an IS fighter talking to camera had more than 77,000 views and 101 shares. The Islamic State branding is blurred to defeat the site’s auto-moderation.

According to Ayad, Islamic State’s engagement numbers are up across the board. “Trust and safety teams have been rolled back over the past few years…a lot of this is outsourced to third party companies who aren’t necessarily experts in understanding if a piece of content came from the Islamic State,” he said.

Social media companies like Meta used the election of Donald Trump as an excuse to cut back on moderating their platforms. Meta said this would mean “more speech and fewer mistakes.” No policies around terrorism have changed, but broadly speaking the largest social media platforms are doing a worse job at moderating their sites. In practice it’s turned Facebook into a place where a group like the Islamic State can spread its message without falling afoul of content moderation teams. Even three years ago, IS influencers wouldn’t have lasted long on the site.

This rollback of moderation has coincided with a spike in views for IS accounts, the report argues. “Individual IS ‘influencer’ accounts are experiencing higher engagement rates on terrorist content than previously recorded by ISD analysts,” the report said. “It is unclear if this uptick is due to moderation gaps, platform mechanics or specific tactical adjustments by IS supporters and support outlets and groups.”

“We’re not talking about content where there’s a gray area,” Ayad said. “It’s very clearly branded Islamic State…supports violence, supports the killing of minorities, the celebration of bombings, the pillaging that is happening in Sub Saharan Africa.”

Something new is the adoption of AI systems to resurrect dead leaders. Ayad described a video where the deceased IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered speeches again.

“It’s a sanctioned version of using AI for a ‘beloved leader’ or taking him out of context and placing him in a meadow, surrounded by beautiful flowers, paying homage,” he said. “Some of these circles are strange.”

Another popular topic in current IS propaganda is the Epstein Files. According to Ayad, an AI-generated photo of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton canoodling in bed makes frequent appearances on IS accounts across platforms. The picture is, supposedly, pulled from the Epstein files but it’s a popular fake. Ayad said Epstein has been a perfect springboard for IS to talk about “western degeneracy.”

Ayad has also seen Islamic State videos created using Minecraft and Roblox. “They’re creating these virtual worlds that mimic the Islamic State’s caliphate, literally calling it something like Wilayat Roblox [the Province of Roblox] … and they’ll completely mimic the video styles of well-known Islamic State Videos using Roblox characters. This includes faux executions. It includes Arabic and English voiceover in the same cadence as an Islamic State narrator.”

One of the most famous pieces of Islamic State propaganda is a film called Flames of War: The Fighting Has Just Begun. Ayad has seen multiple 1 for 1 recreations of the film using Roblox characters. “They’re often tied to Discords where a number of users are creating this content. They always claim it’s fake or a LARP,” he said. “To see them in this video game skin is odd, to say the least.”

What drives an Islamic State poster? “It’s done very much for the love of the game,” Ayad said. It’s done for the fact that, as a user, ‘I might not be able to participate in physical Jihad but I can participate in electronic Jihad.’”

Keeping Islamic State off of major social media platforms is a constant battle, but one frustrating finding of the study is that the tactics for avoiding moderation haven’t changed much.

“Techniques included the use of alternative news outlets to rebrand IS news, as well as purchasing or hijacking channels with high subscriber bases. These were then repurposed to share IS content. IS supporters, groups and outlets also use coded language: they sometimes referred to the group as ‘black hole’ or the ‘righteous few’ to confound moderation efforts.”

To fight back against IS online, Ayad said that platforms needed to be better at coordination. Often a group is kicked off of Facebook so it moves to TikTok or another platform where it flourishes. He also said that all the companies need to be more transparent about who they’re kicking off their platform and why.

“Europol does these big takedown days and they’re effective to a certain degree but the fact of the matter is that the Islamic State is spread across an expanse of different platforms and messaging applications,” he said. “They’re able to shift operations to another place, wait it out and regenerate on that platform…it’s not like you’re dealing with an average user, you’re dealing with a user that’s determined to spread their ideology and exploit your platform to their own ends.”

And then there’s the old problem of language. “There needs to just be better moderation of under-moderated languages,” Ayad said. Facebook and other platforms have long been terrible at moderating non-English languages. A lot of rancid content online gets a pass because it’s in Arabic or Bengali.

More Speech and Fewer Mistakes

We're ending our third party fact checking program and moving to a Community Notes model.

^{Meta Newsroom (Meta)}

404 Media

2026-02-11 20:53:57

Free Tool Says it Can Bypass Discord's Age Verification Check With a 3D Model

A newly released tool claims it can bypass Discord’s age verification system by allowing users to control a 3D model of a computer-generated man in their browser instead of scanning their real face.

On Monday, Discord announced it was launching teen-by-default settings globally, meaning that more users may be required to verify their age by uploading an identity document or taking a selfie. Users responded with widespread criticism, with Discord then publishing an update saying, “You need to be an adult to access age-restricted experiences such as age-restricted servers and channels or to modify certain safety settings.”

The tool, however, shows those age verification checks may be bypassed. 404 Media previously reported kids said they were using photos of Trump and G-Man from Half Life to bypass the age verification software in the popular VR game Gorilla Tag. That game uses the service k–ID, which is the same as what Discord is using.

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Free Tool Says it Can Bypass Discord's Age Verification Check With a 3D Model

The tool presents users with a 3D model they can then manipulate to, the creator says, bypass Discord's age verification system.

^{Joseph Cox (404 Media)}

404 Media

2026-02-04 14:05:33

FBI Couldn’t Get into WaPo Reporter’s iPhone Because It Had Lockdown Mode Enabled

The FBI has been unable to access a Washington Post reporter’s seized iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, a sometimes overlooked feature that makes iPhones broadly more secure, according to recently filed court records.

The court record shows what devices and data the FBI was able to ultimately access, and which devices it could not, after raiding the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson, in January as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. It also provides rare insight into the apparent effectiveness of Lockdown Mode, or at least how effective it might be before the FBI may try other techniques to access the device.

💡
Do you know anything else about phone unlocking technology? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.

This post is for subscribers only

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FBI Couldn’t Get into WaPo Reporter’s iPhone Because It Had Lockdown Mode Enabled

Lockdown Mode is a sometimes overlooked feature of Apple devices that broadly make them harder to hack. A court record indicates the feature might be effective at stopping third parties unlocking someone's device. At least for now.

^{Joseph Cox (404 Media)}

404 Media

2026-01-26 16:30:07

Podcast: Unmasking Deepfakes Kingpins (with Kolina Koltai)

In this week's interview episode, Sam talks to Kolina Koltai. Kolina is an investigator, senior researcher and trainer at Bellingcat. Her investigations focus on the people and systems behind AI companies and platforms that peddle non-consensual deepfake explicit imagery.

Kolina walks us through how a OSINT investigation into non-consensual AI imagery site administrators work, why it's up to journalists to find these guys, and how it feels to see real, important impact from her investigations. She shares how she found herself in this field, and a behind the scenes look into her recent investigation uncovering the man behind two deepfake porn sites.
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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/CbmUwwVGaf4?…

• Unmasking MrDeepFakes: Canadian Pharmacist Linked to World’s Most Notorious Deepfake Porn Site
• Profiting From Exploitation: How We Found the Man Behind Two Deepfake Porn Sites
• Behind a Secretive Global Network of Non-Consensual Deepfake Pornography

Behind a Secretive Global Network of Non-Consensual Deepfake Pornography - bellingcat

An online video game marketplace says it has referred user accounts to legal authorities after a Bellingcat investigation found nonconsensual pornographic deepfake tokens were being surreptitiously sold on the site.

^{Kolina Koltai (bellingcat)}

404 Media

2026-01-21 17:39:08

Podcast: Here’s What Palantir Is Really Building

We start this week with Joseph’s article about ELITE, a tool Palantir is working on for ICE. After the break, Emanuel tells us how AI influencers are making fake sex tape-style photos with celebrities, who can’t be best pleased about it. In the subscribers-only section, Matthew breaks down Comic-Con’s ban of AI art.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
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/b-QHWpqjD-E?…

• ‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
• Instagram AI Influencers Are Defaming Celebrities With Sex Scandals
• Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback

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}

404 Media

2026-01-21 14:00:25

Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback

San Diego Comic-Con changed an AI art friendly policy following an artist-led backlash last week. It was a small victory for working artists in an industry where jobs are slipping away as movie and video game studios adopt generative AI tools to save time and money.

Every year, tens of thousands of people descend on San Diego for Comic-Con, the world’s premier comic book convention that over the years has also become a major pan-media event where every major media company announces new movies, TV shows, and video games. For the past few years, Comic-Con has allowed some forms of AI-generated art at this art show at the convention. According to archived rules for the show, artists could display AI-generated material so long as it wasn’t for sale, was marked as AI-produced, and credited the original artist whose style was used.

“Material produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be placed in the show, but only as Not-for-Sale (NFS). It must be clearly marked as AI-produced, not simply listed as a print. If one of the parameters in its creation was something similar to ‘Done in the style of,’ that information must be added to the description. If there are questions, the Art Show Coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability,” Comic-Con’s art show rules said until recently.

These rules have been in place since at least 2024, but anti-AI sentiment is growing in the artistic community and an artist-led backlash against Comic-Con’s AI-friendly language led to the convention quietly changing the rules. Twenty-four hours after artists called foul the AI-friendly policy, Comic-Con updated the language on its site. “Material created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show,” it now says. AI is now banned at the art show.

Comic and concept artist Tiana Oreglia told 404 Media Comic-Con’s friendly attitude towards AI was a slippery slope towards normalization. “I think we should be standing firm especially with institutions like Comic-Con which are quite literally built off the backs of artists and the creative community,” she said. Oreglia was one of the first artists to notice the AI-friendly policy. In addition to alerting her circle of friends, she also wrote a letter to Comic-Con itself.

Artist Karla Ortiz told 404 Media she learned about the AI-friendly policy after some fellow artists shared it with her. Ortiz is a major artist who has worked with some of the major studios who exhibit work at Comic-Con. She’s also got a large following on social media, a following she used to call out Comic-Con’s organizers.

“Comic-con deciding to allow GenAi imagery in the art show—giving valuable space to GenAi users to show slop right NEXT to actual artists who worked their asses off to be there—is a disgrace!” Ortiz said in a post on Bluesky. “A tone deaf decision that rewards and normalizes exploitative GenAi against artists in their own spaces!”

According to Ortiz, the convention is a sacred place she didn’t want to see desecrated by AI. “Comic-Con is the big mecca for comic artists, illustrators, and writers,” she said. “I organize and speak with a lot of different artists on the generative AI issue. It’s something that impacts us and impacts our lives. A lot of us have decided: ‘No, we’re not going to sit by the sidelines.’”

Oritz explained that generative AI was already impacting the livelihood of working artists. She said that, in the past, artists could sustain themselves on long projects for companies that included storyboarding and design. “Suddenly the duration of projects are cut,” she said. “They got generative AI to generate a bunch of references, a bunch of boards. ‘We already did the initial ideation, so just paint this. Paint what generative AI has generated for us.’”

Ortiz pointed to two high profile examples: Marvel using AI to make the title sequence for Secret Invasion and Coca-Cola using AI to make Christmas commercials. “You have this encroaching exploitative technology impacting almost every single level of the entertainment industry, whether you’re a writer, or a voice actor, or a musician, a painter, a concept artist, an illustrator. It doesn’t matter…and then to have Comic-Con, that place that’s supposed to be a gathering and a celebration of said creatives and their work, suddenly put on a pedestal the exploitative technology that only functions because of its training on our works? It’s upsetting beyond belief.”

“What is Comic-Con trying to tell the industry?” She said, “It’s telling artists: ‘Hey you, you’re exploitable and you’re replaceable.’”

Ortiz was heartened that Comic-Con changed its policy. “It was such a relief,” she said. “Generative AI is still going to creep its nasty way in some way or another, but at least it’s not something we have to take lying down. It’s something we can actively speak out against.”

Comic-Con did not respond to 404 Media’s request for comment, but Oreglia said she did hear back from art show organizer Glen Wooten. “He basically told me that they put those AI stipulations in when AI was just starting to come around and that the inability to sell AI-generated works was meant to curtail people from submitting genAI works,” she said. “He seems to be very against genAI but wasn't really able to change the current policy until artists voiced their opinions loudly which pressured the office into banning AI completely.”

Despite changing policies and broad anti-AI sentiment among the artistic community, Oreglia has still seen an uptick of AI art at conventions. “Although there are many cons that ban it outright and if you get caught selling it you basically will get banned.” This happened to a vendor at Dragon Con last September. Organizers called police to escort the vendor off the premises.

“And I was tabling at Fanexpo SF and definitely saw genAI in the dealers hall, none in the artists alley as far as I could see though but I mostly stuck to my table,” she said. “I was also at Emerald City Comic Con last year and they also have a no-ai policy but fanexpo doesn't seem to have those same policies as far as I know.”

AI image generators are trained on original artwork so whatever output a tool like Midjourney creates is based on an artist’s work, often without compensation or credit. Oreglia also said she feels that AI is an artistic dead end. “Everything interesting, uplifting, and empowering I find about art gets stripped away and turned into vapid facsimiles based on vibes and trendy aesthetics,” she said.

'Secret Invasion' AI Opening Cost No Artists Their Jobs

Method Studios clarifies reports that sparked a social media backlash, stating AI tools "complemented and assisted our creative teams."

^{Carolyn Giardina (The Hollywood Reporter)}

404 Media

2026-01-14 14:00:53

Podcast: The ICE Tool That Tracks Entire Neighborhoods

We start this week with Joseph’s article about Webloc, a tool ICE bought that can monitor phones in entire neighborhoods. After the break, Emanuel and Sam talk about their recent coverage of Grok. In the subscribers-only section, Jason explains how police inadvertently unmasked millions of their surveillance targets through a Flock redaction error.
playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TBIEA3…
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/rurJo6vPhUY?…
Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro

2:50 - First Story

23:00 - Second Story

• ⁠Inside ICE’s Tool to Monitor Phones in Entire Neighborhoods⁠
• ⁠DHS Is Lying To You⁠
• ⁠Inside the Telegram Channel Jailbreaking Grok Over and Over Again⁠
• ⁠Masterful Gambit: Musk Attempts to Monetize Grok's Wave of Sexual Abuse Imagery⁠
• ⁠Police Unmask Millions of Surveillance Targets Because of Flock Redaction Error

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}

404 Media

2026-01-07 14:00:13

Podcast: The People Tracking America's AI Data Centers

We start this week with Matthew’s story about an organization tracking the location of AI data centers around the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. After the break, Jason tells us all about what Grok got up to over the holiday break, and we ruminate on what the breakdown in the information ecosystem means. In the subscribers-only section, we talk about how we bought ⁠404media.com⁠!
playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TBIEA5…
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/zT9lEyHnZIk?…
Timestamps:

1:38 - ⁠Researchers Are Hunting America for Hidden Datacenters⁠

25:58 - ⁠Grok's AI CSAM Shitshow⁠

Subscriber's Story: ⁠We Bought 404media.com

404 Media

404 Media is an independent media company founded by technology journalists Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox.

^{404 Media}

404 Media

2025-12-26 14:00:43

Behind the Blog: We Have Recommendations For You

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 our recommendations for the year.

SAM: Whenever we shout out a podcast, book, TV show, or other media or consumable product on our own podcast or in a Behind the Blog, you guys seem to enjoy it and want more. To be totally real with you, I get a ton of great recommendations from you, the readers and listeners, all year long and am always learning a lot from the things you throw in the comments around the site and on social media. The 404 Media community has good taste.

We talked through some of our top recommendations of the year in this week’s podcast episode, but here’s a more complete list of what each of us has enjoyed this year, and thinks you might also find worth digging into.

This post is for subscribers only

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Behind the Blog: We Have Recommendations For You

This week, we discuss history repeating itself, a phone wipe scandal, Meta's relationship with links and more.

^{Samantha Cole (404 Media)}

404 Media

2025-12-22 17:42:58

Podcast: Marisa Kabas on Landing Big Scoops as an Independent Journalist

Marisa Kabas is the founder of The Handbasket, an independent newsletter and website that has been breaking stories left and right about government workers, the media business, and Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Please go subscribe to The Handbasket here!

In this episode of the podcast, Jason and Marisa share notes Marisa about doing journalism without a big newsroom, how the media business has changed over the last decade, and why sources often prefer to talk to journalists who don’t work for mainstream media.
playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TBIEA5…
Stories discussed:

Truth, morality and independence in journalism under the second Trump regime
My full remarks to students and faculty at Grinnell College.
The HandbasketMarisa Kabas

Breaking: The Handbasket is first to report catastrophic OMB funding memo
Posted on Bluesky earlier this evening, other major outlets have since confirmed.
The HandbasketMarisa Kabas

Move fast and break people
For Elon Musk’s government, the psychological warfare is the point.
The HandbasketMarisa Kabas

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.

Or watch it here:
youtube.com/embed/e73spvZnc9s?…

Move fast and break people

For Elon Musk's government, the psychological warfare is the point.

^{Marisa Kabas (The Handbasket)}

404 Media

2025-12-19 16:10:49

Behind the Blog: Resisting Demoralization

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 history repeating itself and Meta's relationship with links.

JOSEPH: I wanted to add a little bit from behind the scenes of this piece: Man Charged for Wiping Phone Before CBP Could Search It. As I said on the podcast this week, there are and continue to be many questions around the case. Especially why CBP stopped Samuel Tunick in the first place.

In the piece I did not focus on Tunick’s activism because frankly we don’t know yet how big a role it played in CBP stopping him. I mentioned it but didn’t focus on it. I think regardless, someone being charged for allegedly wiping a phone is interesting essentially no matter who they are.

Yes, it absolutely may turn out that he was stopped specifically because of his activism. Maybe lots of people think it’s very likely that’s the reason. But I can’t frame a story because it feels like that’s maybe the case. I have to go on what actual evidence I have at the moment.

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Behind the Blog: Resisting Demoralization

This week, we discuss history repeating itself, a phone wipe scandal, Meta's relationship with links and more.

^{Samantha Cole (404 Media)}

404 Media

2025-12-17 14:00:08

Podcast: Is Wiping a Phone a Crime?

Joseph had to use a different mic this week, that will be fixed next time! We start this week talking about a very unusual case: someone is being charged for allegedly wiping a phone before CBP could search it. There are a lot of questions remaining, but a super interesting case. After the break, we talk about Matthew’s article on an Anthropic exec forcing AI onto a queer gamer Discord. In the subscribers-only section, we all chat about the Disney and OpenAI deal.
playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TBIEA8…
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/tOpIpReZPoM?…
Timestamps:
00:48 - Man Charged for Wiping Phone Before CBP Could Search It
17:44 - Anthropic Exec Forces AI Chatbot on Gay Discord Community, Members Flee
41:17 - Disney Invests $1 Billion in the AI Slopification of Its Brand

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}

404 Media

2025-12-16 14:58:37

Anthropic Exec Forces AI Chatbot on Gay Discord Community, Members Flee

A Discord community for gay gamers is in disarray after one of its moderators and an executive at Anthropic forced the company’s AI chatbot on the Discord, despite protests from members.

Users voted to restrict Anthropic's Claude to its own channel, but Jason Clinton, Anthropic’s Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and a moderator in the Discord, overrode them. According to members of this Discord community who spoke with 404 Media on the condition of anonymity, the Discord that was once vibrant is now a ghost town. They blame the chatbot and Clinton’s behavior following its launch.

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Become a member to get access to all content
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Anthropic Exec Forces AI Chatbot on Gay Discord Community, Members Flee

“We’re bringing a new kind of sentience into existence,” Anthropic's Jason Clinton said after launching the bot.

^{Matthew Gault (404 Media)}