The 404 Media Podcast

Emanuel talks to Devindra Hardawar about AI in Hollywood and the state of the movie industry.

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I didn’t plan it this way, but it’s a good coincidence that my interview with Devindra Hardawar is coming out on the week that the first Star Wars movie in years is being crushed at the box office by two low budget horror movies. Something is extremely off at Hollywood, or at least the old studio executives and streamers who control most of the money that funds movies.

 

This week we’re joined by Devindra Hardawar. Devindra is a senior editor at Engadget and a co-host of The Filmcast, a podcast about film I’ve been listening to for 15 years. We’ve covered the intersection of the movie industry and AI here and there on 404 Media, but Devindra lives at that intersection. He’s the perfect person to talk to about AI and film, but also the state of the industry more broadly, how to fit movies into your life in the age of the infinite scroll, how to introduce kids to film, and more. 

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We start this week with Jason’s story about one of the wildest hacking stories in a while. Hackers simply asked Meta’s AI to change the email address on a target Instagram account, and the chatbot did so. Insane. After the break, Emanuel tells us about Amazon’s internal leaderboard for tracking AI usage and how it was cheated. In the subscribers-only section, we provided an update on our lawsuit against ICE.

Hackers Simply Asked Meta AI to Give Them Access to High-Profile Instagram Accounts. It Worked

Amazon Shuts Down Internal AI Leaderboard After Employees Cheated

We Sued ICE to Get Its Spyware Contract. The Agency Is Redacting Essentially Everything

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Ursa Ag is an Alberta, Canada-based company that is selling a repairable, no tech tractor. It’s not often we have companies on this podcast, but listeners of the show will know we have been covering the right to repair movement for years. One of the things I’ve written about most is the frustration that farmers feel with agriculture giant John Deere, which has made their tractors very difficult to repair by loading it up with tech, lobbying against right to repair legislation, and making parts and diagnostic tools and repair guides hard to access. When we write about right to repair, people often say - why don’t people just vote with their dollars and buy something else? Well, all the major tractor companies have more or less done the same thing Deere has done - add software locks, sensors, and digital rights management to their tractors. There wasn’t any other alternative.

Doug Wilson of Ursa Ag has built an alternative. Ursa Ag is selling a repairable dumb tractor specifically to provide an alternative in the market. We spoke with Doug about how one creates a tractor company, how it all works, and what the response has been.

00:00 Doug Wilson Introduction
00:02:05 Why IRSA Ag Exists
00:04:24 Modern Tractors & Repair Locks
00:07:40 Demand for Older Tractors
00:08:46 The $800K Tractor Story
00:09:37 Building a Repairable Tractor
00:12:56 Precision Ag vs Simplicity
00:20:45 Starting a Tractor Company
00:22:52 AI & Everyday Farm Work
00:27:21 Viral Response & Demand
00:28:52 Expansion Plans
00:31:56 Why Farmers Want Simpler Machines
00:34:11 Farm Consolidation
00:35:48 Tech Overload Beyond Farming
00:36:57 What’s Next

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We start this week with Sam’s deeply reported story on how deepfakes rocked a high school, and how those kids were failed at each step. After the break, Joseph tells us about BusPatrol, a company that plans to turn school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles. In the subscribers-only section, Jason explains why a councilmember crashed out over Flock.

LA Made x 404 Media Presents: How AI is Threatening the Future of Media

How Deepfakes Tore a High School Apart

‘BusPatrol’ Put AI Cameras in Tens of Thousands of School Buses. Now They Want to Give Cops Access

After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet and Phone Ban

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This week Joseph speaks to Zack Whittaker, an editor at TechCrunch. Zack has been leading coverage into the spouseware or stalkerware industry. This is malware sold to ordinary people, which they then often install on their girlfriend’s or someone else’s phone. Zack talks about the crazy scope of this problem.

Behind the stalkerware network spilling the private phone data of hundreds of thousands

Spyzie stalkerware is spying on thousands of Android and iPhone users

Stalkerware tag on TechCrunch

This Week In Security Newsletter

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/BLb46310iLs

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