New
AI field signal
Development
3h ago
⚡ 3 h early
companies scramble cut AI token spending
11 experts across 6 network communities independently surfaced this.
11 experts
6 communities
1 sources clustered
“TIL from https://t.co/349k1txWLV that a material chunk of Accenture's token spend is non-engineers using LLMs to convert PDFs into markdown! https://t.co/lWkPqhJ0QI”
“Companies encouraged employees to use AI and now they’re spending gobs of cash on tokens for employees to convert documents to PDF😅 “Leaked audio from Accenture says a big source of AI token ‘chewing’ is people just converting PDFs to presentation slides” w…”
2 experts discussed this · 2 posts
404 Media: Leaked audio from Accenture says a big source of AI token ‘chewing’ is people just converting PDFs to presentation slides. They're not the only company now telling staff to slow down on AI use @evy…
Teresa Heffernan: Leaked audio from Accenture says a big source of AI token ‘chewing’ is people just converting PDFs to presentation slides. They're not the only company now telling staff to slow down on AI use @evy…
Open the full discussion →
New
AI field signal
Analysis
21h ago
⚡ 6 h early
reverse engineer AI wild west essay
6 experts across 3 network communities independently surfaced this.
6 experts
3 communities
1 sources clustered
Concern & critique
1 expert
Risks, limits and unintended consequences.
“An excellent article by 404 Media's Jason Koebler runs down some of these hacks, including drop-in replacements for smart TV software that blocks the endless ads and surveillance that have made TVs all but unusable: www.404media.co/reverse-engi...”
Opportunity & adoption
1 expert
New capabilities, benefits and practical upside.
“What this promises is a way to easily clone and modify other people’s products. One of the main problems? AI-powered, cloned software often has bugs that the person using the AI doesn’t understand or know how to fix, but they're unleashing into the world an…”
Established
AI field signal
Development
4d ago
⚡ 8 h early
Character.ai bankruptcy documents reveal
9 experts across 3 network communities independently surfaced this.
9 experts
3 communities
1 sources clustered
Policy & governance
3 experts
Rules, institutions and accountability.
“Character[.]ai financials: - $13.8m on compute a month, then $10m a month - bringing in $2.8m in subscriptions, sometimes less than $1m - revenue from all sources $5.3m a month Its bankruptcy shows the economics of AI don't work: www.404media.co/character-a…”
Concern & critique
1 expert
Risks, limits and unintended consequences.
“The circumstances of CharacterAI’s bankruptcy “are exactly what critics of AI have been saying would happen”— @jasonkoebler.bsky.social They, lit money on fire running its product, did not earn much revenue, & faced huge legal fees after causing harm. Enshi…”
2 experts discussed this · 2 posts
Joseph Cox: Character[.]ai financials: - $13.8m on compute a month, then $10m a month - bringing in $2.8m in subscriptions, sometimes less than $1m - revenue from all sources $5.3m a month Its bankruptcy shows…
SwiftOnSecurity: GenZ has no money to goon
Dr J. Rosenbaum: Character[.]ai financials: - $13.8m on compute a month, then $10m a month - bringing in $2.8m in subscriptions, sometimes less than $1m - revenue from all sources $5.3m a month Its bankruptcy shows…
Open the full discussion →
Established
AI field signal
Development
10d ago
⚡ 2 h early
humans reading Microsoft Copilot prompts
10 experts across 2 network communities independently surfaced this.
10 experts
2 communities
1 sources clustered
“Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users’ prompts and uploaded images, according to internal documents obtained by 404 Media. The contractors are also bombarded with users’ requests for sexual AI images. www.404media.co/humans-readi...”
“Crucially these contractors are not hired to filter out offensive content. They are hired to report whether Copilot successfully made a good AI image. So if the request is, make this person's breasts larger, they have to review based on whether it did or no…”
Established
AI field signal
Development
3d ago
⚡ 4 h early
Accenture cuts Claude monthly spend limit
6 experts across 3 network communities independently surfaced this.
6 experts
3 communities
1 sources clustered
“If an employee goes over the allocated $29 workers have to find a specific project or team (called a Work Breakdown Structure or WBS at Accenture) to fund the rest of the usage. www.404media.co/accenture-te...”
“New: Accenture has told employees it will only fund $29 per month of Claude use. Meaning that employees who often spend as much as $1,000 a month are now scrambling to find ways to keep access to the tool. A sign of the continuing crack down of AI www.404me…”
2 experts discussed this · 2 posts
Joseph Cox: New: Accenture has told employees it will only fund $29 per month of Claude use. Meaning that employees who often spend as much as $1,000 a month are now scrambling to find ways to keep access to t…
e.w. niedermeyer: seems like poor leadership, perhaps they could hire some kind of business consultancy to help provide a more consistent management structure
404 Media: New: Accenture has told employees it will only fund $29 per month of Claude use. Meaning that employees who often spend as much as $1,000 a month are now scrambling to find ways to keep access to t…
Open the full discussion →
Established
AI field signal
Development
3d ago
⚡ 8 h early
AI tool police homes interior photo
5 experts across 3 network communities independently surfaced this.
5 experts
3 communities
1 sources clustered
Concern & critique
1 expert
Risks, limits and unintended consequences.
“Probably nothing to worry about for homeowners unless there are a bunch of other devices taking images in your home and making that data available for sale. Good thing no one would do that.”
Context & explanation
1 expert
Background, chronology and why it matters.
“In other words, from a single photo, Raven appears to be able to quickly find the specific home it was taken in, without using location data or other metadata attached to the image. www.404media.co/ai-company-l...”
Chestnut Grove data center community fight
5 experts across 2 network communities independently surfaced this.
5 experts
2 communities
1 sources clustered
Concern & critique
1 expert
Risks, limits and unintended consequences.
“An endangered American Chestnut grove is under threat from a proposed data center. West Virginia governor wants to simply move the trees, says they will die anyway. Good stuff: www.404media.co/west-virgini...”
Policy & governance
1 expert
Rules, institutions and accountability.
“After this backlash, Nscale is saying they've never planned to "bulldoze" the trees, as viral social media posts claimed. But they and the governor's office do plan to move them, which experts say will almost definitely kill them within a few years. www.404…”
Building & implementation
1 expert
How teams are shipping and applying it.
“In addition to being overwhelmingly unpopular with the communities where they’re built, and despite the trillions of dollars dumped into their development, data center projects and the industry at large around the world are starting to flounder.”
AI video sways judge court ruling
6 experts across 3 network communities independently surfaced this.
6 experts
3 communities
1 sources clustered
“A man convicted of manslaughter in Arizona will be resentenced because an AI-generated video of his victim speaking from beyond the grave was ruled to have carried “undue emotional weight” as an impact statement. www.404media.co/her-ai-gener...”
“We spoke to the family that made the AI avatar of a killed man. They said the point of the video was to sway the judge. “Isn’t that what you want human connection to be?” The convicted man in the case is now being resentenced because of the use of the AI vi…”
Accelerating
AI field signal
Signal
3h ago
3 directory members surfaced this signal.
3 experts
1 community
1 sources clustered
Concern & critique
3 experts
Risks, limits and unintended consequences.
“'Black October:' The PHP vulnerabilities and a series of other hacks and bugs have cybersecurity experts freaking out and unsure what happens next.”
ChatGPT ad targeting prompts investigation
5 experts across 3 network communities independently surfaced this.
5 experts
3 communities
1 sources clustered
“So ChatGPT lets basically anyone target ads to people simply based on email, phone number, or unique phone identifier. @josephcox.bsky.social tried it and successfully ran an ad about how humans are reading your ChatGPT prompts in like 5 minutes. Read more:…”
“Here is my beautiful ad I pushed into peoples' ChatGPT sessions, telling them that ChatGPT is not private, and human contractors are hired to read real users' ChatGPT prompts. I targeted the ad to people asking ChatGPT about privacy, AI, whether chats are p…”
OpenAI AI trainers fired using AI
8 experts across 2 network communities independently surfaced this.
8 experts
2 communities
1 sources clustered
“OpenAI has thousands and thousands of contractors helping improve the company's AI models. Multiple contractors have been fired for using AI to train the AI. www.404media.co/people-train...”
“At least we get plenty of irony these days. #AIEthics Very revealing quote: “I felt no joy in the work or that I was contributing to society in any way.” www.404media.co/people-train...”
2 experts discussed this · 2 posts
Joseph Cox: New: OpenAI has thousands of contractors improving its AI, including reading ChatGPT users' prompts We've found many of those contractors have been fired for themselves using AI to train the AI. Pe…
Alex Hanna: New: OpenAI has thousands of contractors improving its AI, including reading ChatGPT users' prompts We've found many of those contractors have been fired for themselves using AI to train the AI. Pe…
Open the full discussion →
LLM robot prison roleplay debate
4 experts across 2 network communities independently surfaced this.
4 experts
2 communities
1 sources clustered
“The "AI Torture Chamber" has opened an upsetting and absurd window into the effective altruist obsession with "model welfare." www.404media.co/someone-tort...”
“People who believe LLMs are conscious are having one of the biggest AI meltdowns yet because someone is running a Saw-like torture chamber for LLMs on GitHub. Just before we published, GitHub took it down. GitHub hasn't said why www.404media.co/someone-tort...”
2 experts discussed this · 9 posts
Jason Koebler: i regret to inform you that people have absolutely lost it www.404media.co/someone-tort...
Jason Koebler: for real though the "model welfare" people who are worried about the ethical treatment of nonsentient computer programs are absolutely deranged, very well-funded, and extremely dangerous; is also t…
404 Media: i regret to inform you that people have absolutely lost it www.404media.co/someone-tort...
Open the full discussion →
Meta Muse VM escape vulnerability fixed
4 experts across 2 network communities independently surfaced this.
4 experts
2 communities
1 sources clustered
Concern & critique
3 experts
Risks, limits and unintended consequences.
“New: in the immediate lead up to Muse's launch, Meta scrambled to fix multiple serious vulnerabilities in the AI agent, including a VM escape that could have let a hacker break out of Muse and into Meta's own sensitive databases. It was escalated to Zuckerb…”
New
AI field signal
Signal
2h ago
2 directory members surfaced this signal.
2 experts
1 community
1 sources clustered
Policy & governance
2 experts
Rules, institutions and accountability.
“The people who write the Laws of Armed Conflict want to put guardrails on AI weapons systems. Will the world listen?”
New
AI field signal
Signal
3h ago
2 directory members surfaced this signal.
2 experts
1 community
1 sources clustered
“In June, 404 Media obtained leaked audio from Accenture where execs shared that a big source of AI token ‘chewing’ is people just converting PDFs to presentation slides. Now, they're capping use to $29 a month. Employees are stressed. @josephcox.bsky.social…”
“The AI boom is too expensive for companies. We previously got leaked audio saying workers burning through AI budgets by using it to convert PDFs to presentations. Now Accenture is limiting some employees' Claude spend to just $29 a month Watch more, subscri…”
Established
AI field signal
Development
6d ago
⚡ 5 h early
police AI child photos predator sting
2 experts are actively discussing the implications.
3 experts
1 community
1 sources clustered
“Christopher Thomas Mertens, a high school maintenance worker, was arrested after attempting to meet up with an AI persona that he thought was a 15 year old boy.”
“Cops used AI images to pose as a kid to lure out a suspected child predator. Was done by a unit called the Livonia Undercover Resistance to Exploitation Unit, or LURE. www.404media.co/undercover-c...”
2 experts discussed this · 3 posts
Joseph Cox: Cops used AI images to pose as a kid to lure out a suspected child predator. Was done by a unit called the Livonia Undercover Resistance to Exploitation Unit, or LURE. www.404media.co/undercover-c...
Sam Cole: yeah, we name a few other examples in the story too. it's wild that this one is just the latest
Sam Cole: I remember when that happened thinking it was so sci-fi 💀
Open the full discussion →
404media AI anxiety editorial
2 directory members surfaced this signal.
2 experts
1 community
1 sources clustered
“This week, we discuss inbox slop, Claude cults, and more.”
“Wrote about how tips I get in my email inbox from ordinary ppl are increasingly AI generated. words like "evidence packet". I think this is how ChatGPT/Claude *thinks* journalists talk, but it's not. Because most tips to journos are not public so can't be s…”
