404 Media
Jason Koebler, Samantha Cole, Joseph Cox, Emanuel Maiberg — Journalist-owned tech publication, founded after Vice/Motherboard
404 Media is an independent media company founded by technology journalists Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox.
404media.coIn a kleptocracy, there is no reason for a billionaire to own an adversarial news outlet.
Four journalists who covered tech at Vice's Motherboard went independent and built something sharper than what came before. 404 Media breaks stories on surveillance, hacking, AI abuse, and internet culture with genuine investigative muscle — their reporting has triggered telecom fines, congressional investigations, and platform policy changes. The tone is direct, occasionally darkly funny, and never hedges when something deserves to be called out.
Written by Jason Koebler, Samantha Cole, Joseph Cox, Emanuel Maiberg since 2023.
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Behind the Blog: DOGE Bros and Data Labelers
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss traveling for reporting and watching way too much DOGE bros.JOSEPH: I just wanted to write some brief notes about the DOGE depositions and the piece I Watched 6 Hours of DOGE Bro Testimony. Here's What They Had to Say For Themselves. Much of the reason I managed to watch all of this testimony was because I was on a couple of long flights...
People Hate Datacenters, Survey Finds
A new study from the Pew Research Center asked Americans about their feelings toward datecenters and it’s not positive. Pew published the study the day after Sen. Bernie Sanders called for a moratorium on the construction of datacenters in the United States amid mounting public concern around the building’s impacts on local communities.Pew surveyed 8,512 adults in January and asked them a broad range of questions about how they felt about datacenters. Most of the respondents said t...
I Watched 6 Hours of DOGE Bro Testimony. Here's What They Had to Say For Themselves
Over the course of a six hour long or so deposition, Justin Fox, a former investment banker turned DOGE bro, refused to define what he believes counts as DEI; admitted he used ChatGPT to scan government contracts for terms such as “Black” and “homosexual” but not “white” or “caucasian;” and said that one of the grants he helped slash was “not for the benefit of humankind” before walking that claim back.I watched all of Fox...
'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back
Every day, Michael Geoffrey Asia spent eight consecutive hours at his laptop in Kenya staring at porn, annotating what was happening in every frame for an AI data labeling company. When he was done with his shift, he started his second job as the human labor behind AI sex bots, sexting with real lonely people he suspected were in the United States. His boss was an algorithm that told him to flit in and out of different personas.“It required a lot of creativity and fast thinking. Because i...
Here’s the Memo Approving Gemini, ChatGPT, and Copilot for Use in the Senate
A top Senate administrator approved OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot for official use in the Senate, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. 404 Media has obtained the full text of the memo and is publishing it below.“The Sergeant at Arms (SAA) office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has approved the use of three Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms with Senate data,” the memo starts. It also says the SAA will provid...
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