In this collaboration with our friends at The Intercept, 404 Media's Jason Koebler and the Intercept's Sam Biddle and Akela Lacy discuss the ways AI is already used to empower private surveillance companies that filter data to the government, how AI is used in war, and the prospect of an AI apocalypse. This podcast was recorded live in Los Angeles at The Loved One on September 12.

Check out ⁠The Intercept Briefing⁠ podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and find a ⁠full transcript of this pod here⁠.

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 just doing it, machines that eat the internet, and an eavesdropping watch.

EMANUEL: It is a foundational, defining feature of 404 Media, but I sometimes forget that when I’m having trouble with a story, I need to just do it. 

This is most of all true when it comes to reporting. I spent a couple of weeks looking into AI generated music on Spotify appearing under the names of real artists. It’s an issue I and many other publications have reported on in the past, but whenever I look into it I am shocked by how prevalent the issue is. If you talk to any musician or spend some time clicking around music platforms yourself, you’re going to quickly find hundreds of examples of this abuse of the digital music distribution system.