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Tackling The AI Bots That Threaten To Overwhelm The Open Web

1 month 1 week ago
It is a measure of how fast the field of AI has developed in the three years since Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) was published that the issue of using copyright material for training AI systems, briefly mentioned in the book, has become one of the hottest topics in the copyright world, as numerous […]
Glyn Moody

Twitter Is Dead, X Is Elon’s Personal Propaganda Platform, Where Grok Checks His Feed Before Answering

1 month 1 week ago
Last week, Elon Musk’s Grok AI started spewing extreme antisemitism, calling itself “MechaHitler” and pushing conspiracy theories about Jewish people. But that wasn’t the most revealing part of the story. The real smoking gun came courtesy of AI researcher Simon Willison, who discovered something far more insidious: when you ask Grok controversial questions, it quietly […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: Coding With Python Bundle

1 month 1 week ago
The Coding with Python Bundle is great training for aspiring developers. The 6 courses cover Python basics, how to build web apps, how to work with APIs, how to automate software testing, and more. The bundle is on sale for $50. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of […]
Daily Deal

Verizon Wants Trump To Kill Phone Unlocking. Consumer Groups Say That Will Drag U.S. Wireless Back To The Stone Age

1 month 1 week ago
With the Trump administration openly destroying whatever is left of U.S. federal corporate oversight, regulatory independence, and consumer protection standards, Verizon sees an opportunity. It’s asking the Trump FCC to roll back longstanding phone unlocking requirements, something consumer groups say will drag America back to the dark ages of cell phone enshittification. Longtime Techdirt readers probably […]
Karl Bode

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

1 month 1 week ago
This week, both our top winners on the insightful side come in response to our post about DOGE and the disaster in Texas. In first place, it’s That Anonymous Coward with a reaction to the government’s response: Devoting a large portion of a press conference to patting themselves on the back & praising the god […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: July 6th – 12th

1 month 1 week ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, we looked at the encryption dilemma created by the EARN IT Act, while a federal case showed that cops already had plenty of options when dealing with device encryption. There was pushback against the Trump administration’s attempt to corrupt the Open Technology Fund, the FCC’s assault on a […]
Leigh Beadon

Oregon Appeals Court Says Bullet Cartridge Matching Is Just More Junk Science

1 month 1 week ago
This isn’t the first state court to reach this conclusion, but so few courts bother to examine the science-y sounding stuff cops trot out as “evidence” that this decision is worth noting. There’s no shortage of junk science that has been (and continues to be) treated as actual science during testimony, ranging from the DNA […]
Tim Cushing

Prepare For A New Dodgy Trump-Era Tax On Netflix And Other Streaming Services

1 month 1 week ago
Two weeks ago the Supreme Court rejected an effort by a dodgy right wing activists to destroy an $8 billion FCC program that connects poor and rural communities to the internet. The plaintiff in the case, a fake right wing “consumer group,” had tried to argue that the bipartisan subsidy (the Universal Service Fund, or […]
Karl Bode

The Magical Thinking That’s Killing Our Humanity

1 month 1 week ago
There is an epidemic of magical thinking. An unwillingness to confront reality. Because reality is scary. This affliction cuts across all ideological lines, manifesting in different forms but serving the same function: allowing us to avoid the difficult truths about what it will actually take to preserve human dignity, meaning, and freedom in the face […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022

1 month 1 week ago
Visual Studio Professional 2022 is a fully featured development environment that developers around the world know and love. The 64-bit IDE makes it easier to work with even bigger projects and more complex workloads. Enhance your productivity, write high-quality code, and re-imagine collaboration with an advanced suite of tools and built-in integrations to tackle the […]
Daily Deal

Trump Administration Sends In The Marines… To Do Paperwork?

1 month 1 week ago
Martial law still appears to be the plan. The rollout has been limited, but the wholly unnecessary deployment of military troops to California sent a message our performative president wanted to get across. Trump sent an even more explicit one days later, following up on DHS boss Kristi Noem’s quasi-declaration of war on this “democrat” […]
Tim Cushing

Comcast Forced To Retreat From Broadband Data Caps (Sort Of) Due To Competition From 5G Wireless And Community Fiber

1 month 1 week ago
Techdirt has always made it very clear that broadband usage caps on fixed-line broadband are bullshit. The costly and confusing restrictions serve no legitimate technical function. They don’t help your ISP “manage congestion.” They exist simply as a way for giant companies like Comcast to nickel-and-dime captive customers in uncompetitive broadband markets. Market failure created […]
Karl Bode

CA Sheriff Who Ran As A Reformer Now Facing Removal From Office

1 month 1 week ago
Sheriff Christina Corpus is on the cusp of being an ex-sheriff and the first sheriff removed from office in San Mateo County via a county board vote. But her term as sheriff started a lot more promisingly. Running as a reformer, Corpus won the primary and the job, defeating Carlos Bolanos, who had definitely done […]
Tim Cushing

Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Move Fast And Mistake Things

1 month 1 week ago
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed. In this week’s round-up of the latest news in online […]
Mike Masnick

Idaho AG Office Forces Schools To Take Down ‘Everyone Is Welcome’ Signs For Being ‘Political’

1 month 1 week ago
It’s been interesting to watch the current administration and its GOP backers contort themselves into logical pretzels to explain to Americans why their policies, which are clearly either steeped or tinged with racist elements, are not in fact racist. Immigration policies and practices that are conducted without such annoyances as due process are waved off […]
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