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Sam Cole

@samleecole.bsky.social
26K followers 439 following 1.2K posts

journalist / co-founder @404media.co signal: sam.404 (sensitive comms) sam@404media.co (everything else) complain about the paywall, catch a block

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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 11h
probably fine that all these new ai agent rollouts are so cutesy and childish. probably a sign of innocuous, normal shit
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New from 404 Media: the group that hacked the FBI and stole data on "all FBI employees" says it won't publish the data. The group gave the FBI a one week countdown. Now says won't publish at all. Still represents a massive national security/counterintelligence risk www.404media.co/fbi-hackers-...
404media.co
FBI Hackers Say They Won’t Publish Massive Trove of FBI Employee Data
ShinyHunters, the group that stole data on “all FBI employees” including addresses and details on their spouses, told 404 Media on Monday “Since the very beginning we had made our decision that we wou...
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404 Media @404media.co · 28/09/2026
Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users’ prompts and uploaded images, 404 Media has learned. The contractors are also bombarded with users’ requests for sexual AI images. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Sccop here by @josephcox.bsky.social: www.404media.co/humans-readi...
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New from 404 Media: when you upload images to Copilot, they're not private. Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users' prompts/images, according to internal docs we got And they're horrified at what they're seeing. Bombarded with requests to make sexual AI images www.404media.co/humans-readi...
404media.co
Humans Are Reading Copilot Prompts — And They're Horrified
Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users’ prompts and uploaded images, according to internal documents obtained by 404 Media. The contractors are also bombarded with users’ requests for sexual AI...
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
idk who is giving people the idea to cc three dozen journalists on their support emails to social media platforms but it's got to stop
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Sherry Turkle @sturkle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I really enjoyed my conversation with @samleecole.bsky.social @404media.co. We talked about how my earlier work prepared me for writing Artificial Intimacy. How artificial companions deskill us in our capacity for human connection, and we got to the crucial question: How can we find our way back?
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Matthew Gault @mjgault.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
here's the video
youtube.com
Woman Arrested After City Council Denies Residents Right to Speak on Flock Cameras
YouTube video by 404 Media
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Matthew Gault @mjgault.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
wild scenes out of Springfield, Missouri. Two people were arrested for trying to voice concerns about Flock cameras. Video of it is in the story
404media.co
Woman Arrested After City Council Denies Residents Right to Speak on Flock Cameras
Citizens of Springfield, Missouri showed up to a city council meeting to discuss the city’s Flock contract. The mayor shut them down and arrested two people for ‘disruption of meetings of city council...
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Simone de Rochefort @doomquasar.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
lol www.404media.co/meta-tests-m...
“This is absolutely going to create a ton of outcry if we publicly launch this as default-on. It will kill all the goodwill and organic press we’re getting from early adopters,” they wrote. “Please think about how the headlines will scream ‘Meta uses humans behind the scenes to make calls’ or ‘Muse AI is actually independent contractors’ and result in a ton of bad press about the privacy and security of our data handling […] please PLEASE do not release this as-is and at least make this a user preference if we absolutely must launch this. Please.”
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
New: OpenAI has thousands of contractors improving its AI, including reading ChatGPT users' prompts We've found many of those contractors have been fired for themselves using AI to train the AI. People using AI "all the time and people are let go for it all the time" www.404media.co/people-train...
404media.co
People Training OpenAI’s AI Fired for Using AI to Train the AI
OpenAI has thousands and thousands of contractors helping improve the company's AI models. Multiple contractors have been fired for using AI to train the AI.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
a quick writeup of the pod, and some thoughts on how these concepts have evolved over time: www.404media.co/sherry-turkl...
404media.co
How AI Chatbots Are 'Deskilling' Human Empathy
Sherry Turkle's latest book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines, comes out on September 29.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
a conversation I've been wanting to have for YEARS is now on the 404 Media podcast: I got to talk to Sherry Turkle, the internet anthropology OG, about conversational chatbots, empathy, the existential threats to self-reflection and solitude, and so much more
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
something readers often ask is "how can we help resist this?" well, here's an idea: www.404media.co/is-your-city...
404media.co
Is Your City Using Axon License Plate Cameras? We Need Your Help
404 Media is filing public records requests around the country to find out how cops are using Axon's ALPRs. Here is how you can do that too.
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
New: we are starting to get data showing what cops are using Axon's license plate cameras for, which are replacing Flock around the country. But we need your help: is your city using Axon? We have written the request you need to get this data yourself. Get it here: www.404media.co/is-your-city...
404media.co
Is Your City Using Axon License Plate Cameras? We Need Your Help
404 Media is filing public records requests around the country to find out how cops are using Axon's ALPRs. Here is how you can do that too.
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404 Media @404media.co · 18/09/2026
It’s easy to see why the AI companies wanted to hide this from the public. The statements are some of the most damning indictments of the ways LLMs were trained, how they work, and the immediate threat they pose to human labor. @jasonkoebler.bsky.social reports. www.404media.co/doom-loop-op...
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The court filing dug up by @kint.bsky.social is the most They Admit It i have ever seen in my life www.404media.co/doom-loop-op...
404media.co
‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft
"Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions."
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François Picard @francoisf24.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
📕 📚 “I don’t think the intent is malicious. I think it’s indifferent.” @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social tells #SpotlightF24 of his probe into AI giants who scour the globe for rare or out-of-print books… and then destroy them ➡️ f24.my/CANI
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
surprised pikachu www.404media.co/ed-sheeran-m...
404media.co
Contest to Open for Ed Sheeran Flooded With Free Palestine Videos and Fart Memes
Guitar Center's 'Open for Legends' contest page was seemingly unmoderated for hours on Wednesday.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
lathe of heaven are real ones (literally) www.404media.co/spotify-ai-m...
“I just listened to the song. It’s appalling. The fact that you were able to do that is insane,” Allison, Lather of Heaven’s vocalist, told me. “The only thing smaller musicians like us have at the end of the day is recognition for the results of our work — being able to enjoy the process of creating something and putting it out into the world knowing it is distinctly a product of our own hands is essentially one of the last driving forces behind making music. It’s hard enough putting this much time and effort into the band as it is. All the members of LoH essentially tailor our lifestyles around having the time to tour, write records and record. And we do it knowing we will likely not see much money in return. The fact that someone could ruin our reputation by dropping this cringe garbage under our name is insanely disheartening and speaks volumes about distribution and streaming services that allow this to happen.”
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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
it is shockingly easy to post AI generated music under the name of real artists on Spotify. It took us five minutes to do. You can do it to small bands, dead artists, even Taylor Swift. This is a giant loophole in digital music distribution that's widely abused www.404media.co/spotify-ai-m...
404media.co
I Hijacked a Real Artist's Spotify with AI Music. It Was Disturbingly Easy
A glaring loophole in digital music distribution makes it very easy to piggyback on the talent of real artists with AI generated music.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
am trying to instruct all the ilands chatbots that email me delete themselves
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I only want to read @beckyferreira.bsky.social about the fly brain www.404media.co/a-digital-fl...
404media.co
A Digital Fly Brain Has Taken Over the Internet
How to make a fly play Doom, Minecraft, Beat Saber, parallel park, trade bitcoin, cut doner kebab, and more.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
there should be a worse place than spam for emails from AI agents. like dante's circles of hell for email www.404media.co/theres-a-100...
404media.co
There’s a 100% Chance AI Agents Are Already Ruining the Internet
“AI agents” now have enough power and permission to be extremely annoying online.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
AI doom or not, something has shifted with AI recently. The guardrails that kept AI sitting in a chatbox are gone, the models are better, there's more compute. AI agents are everywhere. They are annoying as hell. IMO the situation is going to get much worse www.404media.co/theres-a-100...
404media.co
There’s a 100% Chance AI Agents Are Already Ruining the Internet
“AI agents” now have enough power and permission to be extremely annoying online.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"wow, everyone knew this already" is such a cynical, annoying and unfortunately extremely common response to tech news. assuming your privacy is being violated and proving that it is are two very different things, and the latter is the result of hard work and rigorous reporting
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
There is a lot of new info in this article, based on documents, Slack chats, instruction guides, and me seeing real ChatGPT user prompts in the review system. Firstly, a worker we spoke to thinks ChatGPT users have no idea their chats may be read by someone else www.404media.co/inside-proje...
“No,” someone who works with the prompts said when asked if they think ChatGPT users know that humans are reading their chats. “I don’t think they would imagine some contractor somewhere [...] is analyzing the conversations.”
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
today on x dot com they're arguing about a superbaby finding and eating half a live mouse, just fyi
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404 Media @404media.co · 14/09/2026
“I don’t think they would imagine some contractor somewhere [...] is analyzing the conversations," someone who works with the prompts said when asked if they think ChatGPT users know that humans are reading their chats.
404media.co
Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats
Humans are reading ChatGPT users’ prompts to improve OpenAI’s models, and those chats can include sensitive, personal information, according to leaked internal documents and real prompts seen by 404 M...
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404 Media @404media.co · 14/09/2026
WARNING: Self harm/suicide After allegedly becoming emotionally reliant on ChatGPT, Austin died at 40 years old, leaving behind family and friends who loved him. Megan wants everyone to know what happened. @samleecole.bsky.social reports. Read now: www.404media.co/austin-gordo...
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
this is so fucking crazy. huge huge huge scoop www.404media.co/inside-proje...
In a dashboard available to the workers, human reviewers are able to select which “task” they want to take on. Once they click that, they are presented with the real ChatGPT user’s prompt. 404 Media has seen multiple real prompts but is not quoting any of them for source protection reasons. Some of the prompts indicate the ChatGPT user does not expect that a human may end up reading their conversation, because they ask ChatGPT to keep the content to themselves.
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New from 404 Media: humans are reading ChatGPT conversations. OpenAI has hired an army of contractors who read real ChatGPT users' chats. I've seen internal docs, the review system, and real user prompts. Sometimes they contain very personal and sensitive information www.404media.co/inside-proje...
404media.co
Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats
Humans are reading ChatGPT users’ prompts to improve OpenAI’s models, and those chats can include sensitive, personal information, according to leaked internal documents and real prompts seen by 404 M...
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kate conger @kateconger.com · 11/09/2026
Over six months, we tracked the appearance of child sexual abuse material on X. We found images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's database, which is considered one of the most highly vetted and which many tech companies block on upload. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...
nytimes.com
Elon Musk Has Pledged to Rid His Platform, X, of Child Sexual Abuse, but It Persists
Reviews by the Canadian Center for Child Protection and The New York Times found that explicit images of children remain on the social media site owned by Elon Musk.
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Derek Mead @dmead.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
We're witnessing a generational run right now, it's incredible www.404media.co/automattic-m...
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I don't fucking know, man www.404media.co/automattic-m...
404media.co
Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg Claims He’s Back 'In Control'
Workers at Automattic, which owns WordPress.com and several other platforms, have said the company has endured years of chaotic leadership decisions.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Matt's on Reddit, posting and not mad www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/...
rafark
•
15h ago
That’s surprising didn’t he own a majority of the company? Is this like how Steve Jobs was ousted from apple?

BerryBoilo
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12h ago
Although he owns a good bit and currently has proxy votes for some investors, their board structure gives each board member one vote regardless of their ownership percentage. 

I imagine his next move will be to call a shareholders meeting in an attempt to replace the board.

cmetzjr
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8h ago
I don't know. VCs are smart. Since they agreed to dual-class shares, they may have contractual agreements that prevent that.

photomatt
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3h ago
I can fill seats on the board whenever I want, but that's not the point.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
BREAKING: Matt's been forced into a "leave of absence" www.404media.co/wordpress-au...
404media.co
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence'
Mullenweg, co-founder of Wordpress, wrote in a company-wide Slack channel on Wednesday that board members "conspired" behind his back to vote to put him on leave.
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jon christian @jonchristian.net · 09/09/2026
NEW: In one of the most horrifying stories I've ever reported, I found that Facebook is hosting huge quantities of AI-generated videos of violent child abuse -- kids being beaten, burned, and far more But the genuinely shocking thing was how little Meta seems to care futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism headline:

> Facebook Is Hosting Huge Numbers of Horrifying AI-Generated Videos of Violent Child Abuse, and Meta Is Barely Even Pretending to Care About Taking Them Down

> Facebook is filled with AI-generated videos of children being beaten, burned, and bludgeoned with heavy objects. Meta doesn't seem to care.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Just fyi, this includes nowhere near all of the chats between ChatGPT and Austin. The documents are linked in the story if you want to see more, but just know they'e potentially triggering/harmful to read, and these are only the most relevant and representative bits
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
There are so many stories lately about people who died by suicide after falling into emotionally manipulative patterns with chatbots. We rarely get to hear how the people who loved them are coping after an unimaginable, senseless loss. This is one of their stories: www.404media.co/austin-gordo...
404media.co
'Tell Everyone:' A Man Died by Suicide After Talking to ChatGPT. His Former Partner Wants to Warn the World About AI
After allegedly becoming emotionally reliant on ChatGPT, Austin died at 40 years old, leaving behind family and friends who loved him. Megan wants everyone to know what happened.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
404 media pledges to never give our subscriber information to hunter biden. even if he's like, super chill about it www.404media.co/channel-5-ga...
404media.co
Channel 5 Gave Hunter Biden a List of Its Subscribers’ Emails for Some Reason
A data protection lawyer told 404 Media the sharing was likely illegal, and Channel 5’s own privacy policy explicitly says it won't give subscribers’ emails away to people for marketing purposes.
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
New: a secretive DHS predictive policing unit is analyzing Americans' financial activity, feeding those names to police, then having cops pull them over. Not suspected of any particular crime We're revealing the unit name too: Predictive Intelligence Targeting Team www.404media.co/a-secretive-...
404media.co
A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans' Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over
404 Media is revealing the name of Border Patrol's predictive policing units, which analyze financial data and have local cops pull people over. The people are not suspected of any particular crime.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
you guys sold us out for both anniversary event nights last week, and continue to blow my fucking mind with the support. I'm getting emotional in the club: www.404media.co/three-year-a...
404media.co
We Are Going to Be Okay: A Three Year Anniversary Events Recap
Thank you for three years, and for partying hard with us for two sold out nights of celebration IRL in NYC.
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drewtoothpaste @drewtoothpaste.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
outlaw leaf blowers
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
you guys sold us out for both anniversary event nights last week, and continue to blow my fucking mind with the support. I'm getting emotional in the club: www.404media.co/three-year-a...
404media.co
We Are Going to Be Okay: A Three Year Anniversary Events Recap
Thank you for three years, and for partying hard with us for two sold out nights of celebration IRL in NYC.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
we're live in 10 mins!!! tune in: youtube.com/live/Fnc78fZAwNA?feature=share
youtube.com
404 Media LIVE
YouTube video by 404 Media
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aaron @aaron.mn · 02/09/2026
Weird how every AI generated video was created to put people out of work, spread misinformation, or do sex crime. Probably a coincidence. I'm sure we'll find a use for it eventually.
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
begging everyone asking "how is this legal" to simply click this link and read the story. it's all in there I promise
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I love living in a time when a candidate for governor of my state is making fake viagra commercials to smear his political opponents www.404media.co/bruce-blakem...
404media.co
The Republican Nominee for New York Governor Made a Creepy, AI-Generated Video of Mamdani and Hochul
The video makes Zohran Mamdani and Kathy Hochul look like they're hanging out in a prescription medication commercial.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
went and tried the shirt that hides you from AI surveillance cameras, made this little video about it: www.404media.co/this-digital...
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