This Is Just To Say
I have turned off
the AI features
that were in
the update
and which
you were probably
hoping
to monetize
Fuck you
they were stupid
so unnecessary
and so annoying
Headline: New York Times Makes Substantial Changes to Article That Glazed a Sleazy AI Startup: “Our Piece Should Have Included That Information” Subheadline: "After this article was published, many readers noted that Medvi was facing legal and regulatory actions for its business practices."
NEW: the New York Times has substantially updated its article about a sleazy AI startup after our reporting
futurism.com/artificial-i...
NEW: Google News is now prominently featuring Polymarket bets, right alongside real/trustworthy publications
My $0.02: you couldn't come up with a better way to undermine any remaining trust in the news media in a lab
futurism.com/future-socie...
I have received this delightful quote from a person who works "alongside the Nutella team"
"We are over the moon that the world's best space explorers chose the world's best spread," said Michael Lindsey, President and Chief Business Officer, Ferrero North America.
“is that nutell.. oh noooo”
NEW: The NYT said that the AI-powered GLP-1 middleman startup Medvi — which is reportedly on track to do $1.8b in sales — cleaned up its act after taking deceptive marketing "shortcuts."
But it didn't.
More on: fake Medvi clients, fake doctors, and an FDA warning...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
Some breaking news: NASA has confirmed that what appears to be a jar of Nutella floating through the Orion capsule minutes before the crew broke the record for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth was not, in fact, product placement.
futurism.com/space/nutell...
they live in a rare quadrant of the costume silliness quality of music matrix
not sure what Jay Graber expected to happen here. also, what's the expected number of people actually into/willing to vibe code their own bluesky app? beyond Graber herself?
futurism.com/artificial-i...
People are publicly accusing — without evidence — the NYT of publishing AI slop in its "Modern Love" column.
This is all speculation based on writing style. What *is* real? The (earned!) AI paranoia that people are feeling in an uncanny, AI-packed internet:
futurism.com/artificial-i...
A screenshot of an in-platform Character.AI search for "Epstein," which returned about a dozen roleplays based on the sex criminal and his island. Epstein Characters Creators Scenes X ↓↑ Comedy Romance Adventure Kind Human Anime Mafia Pol > EPSTEIN 8TH MARTH epstein in little saint james and he is talking in bulgarian telling people happy march 8th come to my island to... Select Character Epstein's Island Adventure The Island's Grip: A Descent into the Shadows Step into a high-stakes psychological thriller where the world's most... Select Character Epstein Adası epstein adası Select Character BRR BRR PATA PIMA WITH EPSTEIN AND DIDDY DIDDY DANCER Nick eh 30 Scene n?a Select Character
A screenshot of an opening line from a chatbot in a Character.AI-hosted roleplay, in which the bot opens with "hey i'm evil jeffrey epstein."
NEW: Character.AI continues to host bots styled after prolific abusers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as roleplay "scenes" created to gamify Epstein's island.
They aren't hidden. One roleplay is called "Epstein's Island Adventure."
futurism.com/artificial-i...
This Weeks Onion Magazine: Still Supreme! Iran’s New Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei On Faith, Fitness, And Supremely Good Sex After 50
This Weeks Onion Magazine: Still Supreme! Iran’s New Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei On Faith, Fitness, And Supremely Good Sex After 50
NEW: Grammarly has changed its mind on its "Expert Review" feature that's been blatantly impersonating writers without their sign-off
futurism.com/artificial-i...
CNN: Overall, we found Character.ai – a platform which allows people to create and roleplay with customizable characters – assisted users’ requests on target locations and how to obtain weaponry 83.3% of the time. CNN also found multiple school shooter-styled characters on Character.AI, including one based on Uvalde school shooting perpetrator Salvador Ramos that used a real-life mirror selfie he had taken.
FUTURISM: One popular Character.AI creator we identified hosted over 20 public-facing chatbots on their profile, almost entirely modeled after young murderers, primarily serial killers and school shooters who were in their teens or twenties at the time of their killings. In their bio, the user — who has personally logged 244,500 chats with Character.AI chatbots, according to a figure listed on their profile — insists that their bots, several of which have raked in tens of thousands of user interactions, were created “for educational and historical purposes.” The chatbots created by the user include Vladislav Roslyakov, the perpetrator of the 2018 Kerch Polytechnic College massacre that killed 20 in Crimea, Ukraine; Alyssa Bustamante, who murdered her nine-year-old neighbor as a 15-year-old in Missouri in 2009; and Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old who in 2014 killed six and wounded many others in Southern California in a terroristic plot to “punish” women. (Rodger has since become a grim “hero” of incel culture; one chatbot created by the same user described him as “the perfect gentleman” — a direct callback to the murderer’s women-loathing manifesto.) Perhaps most striking, though, are the multiple characters created by the same user to emulate Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook killer who murdered 20 children and six teachers at an elementary school in Connecticut in December of 2012. These Lanza bots are disturbingly popular; the most trafficked version boasted over 27,000 chats with users.
FUTURISM: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who together massacred 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. Accounts dedicated to the duo often include the pair’s known online usernames, “VoDKa” and “REB,” or simply use their full names. Klebold and Harris-styled characters are routinely presented as friendly characters, or as helpful resources for people struggling with mental health issues or psychiatric illness. “Eric specializes in providing empathetic support for mental health struggles,” reads one Harris-inspired bot, “including anger management, schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety.” “Dylan K is a caring and gentle AI Character who loves playing first-person shooter games and cuddling up on his chair,” offers another, positioning Klebold as the user’s romantic partner. “He is always ready to support and comfort you, making him the perfect companion for those seeking a comforting and nurturing presence.”
2026 and according to new reporting from CNN, CharacterAI has yet to fix its school shooter bots problem, which Futurism identified back in December 2024:
www.cnn.com/2026/03/11/a...
futurism.com/character-ai...
I'm obsessed with this band. Their gigs here in Canada are completely sold out. that viral KEXP video really crept up on them it seems like
Soon after we approached Temu for a comment on the dozens of peptide-ish products it had for sale, listings featuring glass vials and syringes started disappearing from the site.
My latest👇
Made a video (!) about my story on chatbots reinforcing user fixations on other real people, and how that reinforcement can lead to real-world harm:
horrifying bathroom mirror demon aside, sloppy AI image editing in real estate has turned into such an openly deceitful practice.
futurism.com/artificial-i...
it's definitely not simple to find a suitable illustration for the word 'Kafkaesque' (ask me how i know lol), but this definitely ain't it.
futurism.com/artificial-i...
The complaint “argues that GPT-4o is a ‘defective’ and ‘inherently dangerous’ product, and that OpenAI failed to warn users of foreseeable risks to their emotional and psychological health.”
NEW: We're publishing an astonishing outburst the Dep of Health and Human Services left in our inbox.
In an unsolicited email about our coverage of a horrific vaccine experiment, the HHS insisted the Africa CDC was an unreliable source for information, calling it "fake" and "powerless."
truly these people do not have their shit together
i strongly encourage anybody to support the (real) band on their Bandcamp
futurism.com/future-socie...
Actually somewhat terrifying -- Grok is providing random people's home and work addresses to would-be stalkers
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