The sun was already beginning to set as Portlanders in weatherproof jackets and fleeces lined up around Revolution Hall. It wasn’t yet 5PM on a Wednesday but the crowd was gathering well before the town hall was scheduled to begin. Just a day earlier, news outlets reported that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison had been […]
Around 800 artists, writers, actors, and musicians signed on to a new campaign against what they call “theft at a grand scale” by AI companies. The signatories of the campaign – called “Stealing Isn’t Innovation” – include authors George Saunders and Jodi Picoult, actors Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson, and musicians like the band R.E.M., […]
As masked and armed men in combat armor swarmed throughout the Twin Cities, Gov. Tim Walz took to primetime television to ask Minnesotans to film ICE. The videos, he said, would “create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans – not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution.” […]
The WeChat channel 纽约移民记事网Documented (or the New York Immigrant Chronicle) is part newsfeed and part public service. The channel, run by the nonprofit newsroom Documented NYC, is filled with local news for Chinese speakers in New York: stories about healthcare and immigration arrests, but also information on local events like toy giveaways, places where families […]
X is suing music publishers and their trade group, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), accusing them of attempted coercion in their ongoing battle over licensing, as reported earlier by The Hollywood Reporter. The Elon Musk-owned platform accuses music publishers of colluding with the NMPA to “coerce X into taking licenses to musical works from […]
The launch of an AI image editing feature on xAI’s Grok has caused chaos on X after it was used to generate a flood of nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes. As Hayden Field wrote, “screenshots show Grok complying with requests to put real women in lingerie and make them spread their legs, and to put small children […]
The clips are filmed from different angles. Some are zoomed in, making them indecipherably grainy, and others are slowed down. Some are 20 seconds while others are longer, sandwiched by commentary from users on social media platforms like X, Bluesky, Reddit, and TikTok. Each video – depicting the moment an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent […]
On December 31st, a brand-new account on Polymarket placed a bet: Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, would be out of office by the end of January. It was the first in a series of increasing bets. On January 3rd, the US bombed the Venezuelan capital, kidnapped Maduro and his wife, and killed at least […]
Some years ago, I was writing a science fiction short story in which I wanted to incorporate verses from a 1928 song, “Button Up Your Overcoat.” However, when I sold the story, my editor told me that since the song was still copyrighted, it was safer not to include the verses. If I had written […]
PayPal’s Honey browser extension has been lauded for years as an easy way to find coupons online. But some are calling it a “scam” after a deep dive from YouTuber MegaLag, who accused Honey of “stealing money from influencers,” and returned one year later with a second video that says Honey targeted minors, collected data […]