The 404 Media Podcast

The Wikimedia Foundation’s chief technology and product officer explains how she helps manage one of the most visited sites in the world in the age of generative AI. 

Wikipedia is turning 25 this month, and it’s never been more important. 

The online, collectively created encyclopedia has been a cornerstone of the internet decades, but as generative AI started flooding every platform with AI-generated slop over the last couple of years, Wikipedia’s governance model, editing process, and dedication to citing reliable sources has emerged as one of the most reliable and resilient models we have. 

And yet, as successful as the model is, it’s almost never replicated. 

This week on the podcast we’re joined by Selena Deckelmann, the Chief Product and Technology Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia. That means Selena oversees the technical infrastructure and product strategy for one of the most visited sites in the world, and one the most comprehensive repositories of human knowledge ever assembled. Wikipedia is turning 25 this month, so I wanted to talk to Selena about how Wikipedia works and how it plans to continue to work in the age of generative AI.  

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/39LR9ouJR3c

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Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. 


Wikipedia’s value in the age of generative AI


The Editors Protecting Wikipedia from AI Hoaxes


Wikipedia Pauses AI-Generated Summaries After Editor Backlash


Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors


Jimmy Wales Says Wikipedia Could Use AI. Editors Call It the 'Antithesis of Wikipedia'

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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.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
2:50 - First Story
23:00 - Second Story

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/rurJo6vPhUY

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

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This week, Jason is talking to YouTuber Benn Jordan, who has done some of our favorite reporting on Flock, the automated license plate reader surveillance company. A couple months ago, he found vulnerabilities in some of Flock’s license plate reader cameras. I have been following Benn’s work for a while, and soon after that video came out, he reached out to me to tell me he had learned that some of Flock’s Condor cameras were left live-streaming to the open internet. In this episode, we discuss how he discovered the issue and what happened next.

YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/tSd0nXolnIs

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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!

Timestamps:

1:38 - Researchers Are Hunting America for Hidden Datacenters

25:58 - Grok's AI CSAM Shitshow

Subscriber's Story: We Bought 404media.com

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/zT9lEyHnZIk
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On this special guest episode of the 404 Media Podcast, Sam talks to Alexzandra Kekesi, VP of Brand and Community at Pornhub. Kekesi started in her current role in August 2023, after working for Pornhub and its parent company for more than a decade. She joined us from Montreal, where Pornhub is headquartered. They discuss the stigma facing the adult industry, Luigi Mangione porn, the trad wife to feet pics pipeline, and algorithms that shut you down for showing side boob. Kekesi also breaks down Pornhub’s choice to pull out of states in more than a third of the U.S., following regressive age verification laws.

Pornhub Sees Surge of Interest in Tradwife Content, ‘Modesty,’ and Mindfulness

Pornhub Is Now Blocked In Almost All of the U.S. South

Age Verification Laws Drag Us Back to the Dark Ages of the Internet

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