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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector

Capital

Climate

Margin Of Error

Policing

The Machines

Politics

Albert Burneko

Humanoid robot practices typing at the Data Collection Center of AgiBot on March 20, 2025 in Shanghai, China.

Chicago Sun-Times And Philadelphia Inquirer Publish Huge Summer Insert Of Pure, Uncut Chatbot Slop [UPDATE]

The obnoxious Grok logo, on a phone screen, in a hand silhouetted against a neon green background.

Elon Musk’s Idiot Chatbot Goes Full Boer

Luis Paez-Pumar

Four-year-old Antonia Salmon with one of her birthday presents,a computer which used to belong to her father.

Restart Your Computer!

Only Kevin Roose’s Editors Despise Him More Than I Do

Painting of Science Fiction Scene with Robot Woman by Anton Brzezinski

Media Meltdowns

Henry Blodget Invents, Hires, Sexually Harasses, Blogs About Nonexistent AI Subordinate

A mugger approaches two victims, holding out his hat, ostensibly to beg, but carrying a large club in his other hand, circa 1790. The image is captioned: 'Honest friend, I'll borrow a little silver of you. He who hath gold hath fear. He who hath none hath sorrow'.

This Is So Stupid

Not Enough People Are Taking The Wallet Inspector Seriously

Ali Domrongchai

An illustration of a fake social media page depicting uncanny vegetables being sliced by a hand with too many fingers

Glossy, Gunky And Ready In Minutes: AI Meal Recipes Are Overrunning The Internet

Alan Kluegel

The actor Matthew McConaughey looking slightly deranged while sitting at an outdoor restaurant table, in the dark, under a torrential downpour.

Salesforce Is Using A Hallucination To Sell AI

Kelsey McKinney

An artistic interpretation of artificial intelligence, showing a stack of books surrounding a laptop with a pixelated face on it

There’s No Shortcut To Publishing A Book

Barry Petchesky

Dubliners line the sidewalks waiting for a Halloween parade that will never begin.

Thousands Turn Out For Nonexistent Halloween Parade Promoted By AI Listing

Rachelle Hampton

Portrait of professional road racing cyclist David Millar taken on May 16, 2011. (Photo by Joby Sessions/Procycling Magazine via Getty Images)

Arts And Culture

Writing Is An Act, Not An Aesthetic

Presentation by two secretaries of the typing robot at the exhibition 'Happiness in the office', in Paris, France, on October 13, 1960.

ESPN Masks Cynical AI Pivot As Benevolent Coverage Of “Underserved” Sports

Argentina, Patagonia, Rio Pinturas, Cueva de las Manos

Whatever AI Looks Like, It’s Not

<p>Justin McHenry is an archivist and historian from West Virginia, and the author of <i><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/lemuria-the-true-story-of-a-fake-place/19663689">Lemuria: A True Story of a Fake Place</a> </i>and the upcoming book, <i><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/raising-philadelphia-the-making-of-america-s-first-great-city-1750-1775-justin-mchenry/20390701?ean=9781955041201">Raising Philadelphia: The Making of America&#8217;s First Great City</a>.</i></p>


Justin McHenry

MILL CREEK, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 6: Smoke shrouds Mt. Shasta as the Park Fire burns on August 6, 2024 in Mill Creek, California. (Photo by Ethan Swope/Getty Images)

History

How AI Copyright Law Is Being Guided By Spirits From Atlantis

Patrick Redford

Gambling

‘ESPN Bet’ Is A Black Hole

Lauren Theisen

Youtube logo with a stop symbol instead of a play button

This YouTube Trend Is Getting Increasingly More Annoying

A drone flies over a forest with a tree house.

Olympics

No, Canada!

jacked man with midlength hair sittting at a laptop

Why is AI Jesus So Fucking Jacked?

David Roth

Al Michaels looks at an iPhone prior to the game between the Tennessee Titans and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau on November 17, 2022.

AI Is Now Advanced Enough To Blow Al Michaels’s Mind

A Tesla Cybertruck parked on the street in New York.

I Would Like To Put Lunchmeat On The Cybertruck

<p>Heather Chen is a former Defector intern and the managing editor at the <em>Columbia Daily Spectator</em>. She loves hockey, photography, and the good ol’ state of Michigan.</p>


Heather Wei-Xi Chen

Elon Musk, with blue bar stating "Your likes are private. Only you can see them." over his eyes

Please Let Me See Your Twitter Likes

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<div class="p-rich_text_section">Tom Scocca is the editor of <a href="http://indignity.net">Indignity</a>, a subscription-supported newsletter of news, essays, and commentary.</div>
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Tom Scocca

19th October 1964: A robot designed by Claus Scholz of Vienna answers the phone, unfortunately he can't speak.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

<p>Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas.</p>


Nicholas Russell

Conner O'Malley performing in his latest stand-up special

Conner O’Malley’s New Special Exposes The Dark Heart Of Techno-Optimism

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during the Stanford Business, Government, and Society Forum at Stanford University in April of 2024.