UK Prime Minister says ‘we will take action’ on Grok’s disgusting deepfakes
UK Prime Minister says ‘we will take action’ on Grok’s disgusting deepfakes

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the country will take action against X following reports that the platform’s Grok AI chatbot is generating sexualized deepfakes of adults and minors, as reported earlier by The Telegraph and Sky News. “It’s disgusting,” Starmer says during an interview with Greatest Hits Radio. “X need[s] to get their act […]

MAGA Is Already Rewriting the ICE Shooting in Minneapolis

The federal government’s narrative of the Minneapolis shooting conflicts wildly with video footage of the incident shared online.

The MAGA-approved video of an ICE killing
The MAGA-approved video of an ICE killing

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 […]

People Are Using AI to Falsely Identify the Federal Agent Who Shot Renee Good

Online detectives are inaccurately claiming to have identified the federal agent who shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minnesota based on AI-manipulated images.

Blood for stonks
Blood for stonks

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 […]

X’s deepfake machine is infuriating policymakers around the globe
X’s deepfake machine is infuriating policymakers around the globe

X’s Grok chatbot hasn’t stopped accepting users’ requests to strip down women and, in some cases, apparent minors to AI-generated bikinis. According to some reports, the flood of AI-generated images includes more extreme content that potentially violates laws against nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Even in the US, where X […]

Election Deniers Think the Venezuela Attack Is All About 2020

Election deniers are sure that the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is proof that the Venezuelan government rigged the 2020 election in Joe Biden’s favor.

Venezuela Is the First Big Test for the Pentagon’s Influencer Press Corps—and It’s Failing

Mainstream reporters are out at the Pentagon, and right-wing influencers are in. The results are predictable, and oddly reminiscent of Iraq War-era warblogging.

Jake Sullivan is furious that Trump destroyed his AI foreign policy
Jake Sullivan is furious that Trump destroyed his AI foreign policy

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about Big Tech, Big Government, and the big paradigm shifts that result from their collision. Not a subscriber yet? It’s a new year, so why not treat yourself? In 2022, Jake Sullivan, then national security adviser under President Joe Biden and a powerful figure in […]

Influencer content is fuel for an internet-obsessed administration
Influencer content is fuel for an internet-obsessed administration

Just a day after publishing a 40-minute video alleging fraud at Minnesota daycare centers, Nick Shirley had the vice president’s attention. In Shirley’s video, he and another man identified only as “David” roam Minneapolis with cameras and microphones, demanding entrance to daycare centers they say are operated by members of the local Somali community. With […]