My cursor was hovering over the button. I’d just had a conversation with John Ross, a friendly acquaintance of mine, about something weird that happened to him recently. On DSP artist pages for his band Wild Pink, there appeared a song called “Vibe Check.” Wild Pink’s album covers look appealingly homespun. This one featured a queasy-slick image of a few bottle-service DJs camped out high in the hills above L.A. The music could be described as Minor Lazer: vaguely Caribbean rhythms, weak-ass synth horn breakdowns, an uncanny-valley voice delivering lyrics about partying “‘til we can’t feel our legs.” Ross didn’t make “Vibe Check” and didn’t know who did. It sounded nothing like Wild Pink. It seemed like an obvious AI scam, but he didn’t understand exactly how someone had managed to force it onto his streaming profiles. He wondered: Should he change his Spotify password? That probably wouldn’t help, I told him. I’d been recording our interview, as is my usual practice as a journalist. A few days later, I opened my account on DistroKid, the service I use to distribute my own songs to streaming, which costs me $3.75 a month. I uploaded the interview audio. I chose Wild Pink as the artist name. When DistroKid pulled up Ross’s artist photo and the name of his most recent album, asking me whether this was the Wild Pink I was looking for, I responded in the affirmative. I typed in “John Talks AI Slop Takeover” as the song title. I checked the boxes at the bottom of the form reading “I recorded this music, and am authorized to sell it in stores worldwide & collect all royalties,” and “I'm not using any other artist's name in my name, song titles, or album title, without their approval.” And I hovered my cursor over the button that read “Continue.”

Andrew Cuomo started his political life exploiting bigotry. He is now ending it the same sordid way.

In dozens of cases ProPublica reviewed, judges found that some doctors working for these companies engaged in “selective readings” of medical evidence and “shut their eyes” to medical opinions opposing their conclusions.

The astronomical community is horrified at plans made by a for-profit company to flood the night sky with sunlight.

Three wild-born northern hairy-nosed wombats born in Powrunna State Forest mark a new chapter in the species' recovery from near extinction.

Nearly 42 million people in danger as federal government shutdown continues and Snap funding to end 1 November

“There is nowhere that will escape the wrath of this storm,” said Evan Thompson of Jamaica’s Meteorological Service. Melissa is already blamed for four deaths.

Looking at some of the videos people have made — starring me — a little red light went off in my mind: This looks like fetish content.

Lamont Mealy died of dehydration in an isolation cell at Western Correctional Institution in 2023. A lawsuit claims state officials covered it up.

Pete Hegseth is a modern-day Narcissus: preoccupied with image, extravagantly unqualified for his position yet extraordinarily self-assured, morally bankrupt, intellectually barren and as empty as a shattered amphora.

Establishment Democrats spent a full year complaining the Left forced them to be “woke.” But then a left populist, Graham Platner, threatened to win in Maine, so they went right back to trying to cancel someone over old internet posts.

I had to try it out for myself.

US border patrol is asking companies to submit plans to turn standard 4x4 trucks into AI-powered watchtowers—combining radar, cameras, and autonomous tracking to extend surveillance on demand.

With energy affordability set to dominate national politics, Peter Hubbard and Brionté McCorkle explain why a down-ballot Georgia race is ground zero for the fight.

Authorities in Florida are searching for suspects who investigators say pulled off an elaborate heist to steal thousands of dollars in shoes from a Martin County mall this week. The thieves reportedly cut through Treasure Coast Mall’s concrete roof before dropping into a Champs Sporting Goods location sometime between midnight and 8 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators said the suspects stole hundreds of pairs of Nike shoes, bagged them and loaded up a getaway vehicle parked outside before leaving the scene.

Dear members of the University of Michigan’s Honorary Doctoral Degree Committee, It is with trembling hands and a certain degree of anxiety that we are writing to make the inevitable nomination of President Donald Trump for an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Michigan. We cannot imagine a more appropriate candidate in the current historical moment. Trump represents our University’s values and ethical convictions like no other. He has not only provided the political climate and resources for the University to turn into the empty shell that it now is, but has also given so many in our leadership the inspiration to crack down on civil and constitutional rights, attack academic freedom and turn their back on common human decency. Many have characterized Trump as an amoral person who is incapable of understanding actions that are not guided by pure self-interest. By this criterion, the University is now quintessentially Trumpian

Thirteen people were shot dead and at least 15 others injured on Bloody Sunday in January 1972 at a civil rights demonstration in the Bogside area of Derry.

Pipeline giant TC Energy urged CSIS to brief Canada’s biggest companies on security threats — raising concerns about surveillance

Baltimore county high schools have gun detection system that alerts police if it sees what it deems suspicious

By the time the cops showed up to arrest him for sharing a derisive meme responding to the killing of Charlie Kirk, Larry Bushart Jr. had posted on Facebook more than 100 times on Sunday alone. It was past 11 p.m. on September 21, and Bushart, 61, was still up with his wife at their home in Lexington, Tennessee, a small city halfway between Nashville and Memphis. It had been a normal weekend. On Saturday, they went to see a community theater performance of “Arsenic and Old Lace.” The next day, they moved furniture to prepare for a new carpet delivery. And, as he did almost every day, Bushart spent hours on his phone, posting on Facebook a torrent of liberal memes. Born and raised in West Tennessee, Bushart worked as a police officer and sheriff’s deputy for 24 years, then spent another nine with the Tennessee Department of Correction before retiring from law enforcement last year. His politics made him an outlier among his neighbors. Like many people, he reserved his most strident opinions for the internet. On Facebook, Bushart slammed President Donald Trump and his followers, whom he likened to a cult. He quarreled with vaccine skeptics and fought with election deniers. As things took a darker turn during Trump’s second term, Bushart posted memes decrying the president’s increasingly authoritarian moves. After Kirk’s killing on September 10, Bushart posted furiously, repeatedly, about why the right-wing activist did not deserve to be lionized — and warning about the escalating assault on free speech. His posts were not limited to his own feed. That Saturday morning, in a Facebook group called “What’s Happening in Perry County,” Bushart spotted a thread about an upcoming candlelight vigil honoring Kirk in the county seat of Linden, a small town some 45 minutes away. He fired off a rapid series of trollish memes. One showed a scene from “The Sopranos.” “Tony, Charlie Kirk died,” Carmela Soprano says. “Who gives a shit,” Tony replies. Another quoted Kash Patel’s press conference after Kirk’s murder, where he said, “I’ll see you at Valhalla,” depicting the FBI director in a Viking costume and holding a rubber chicken. The most vulgar meme appeared to capture the moment Kirk was shot, accompanied by the words, “Release the Epstein Files.” But it was a more innocuous post that would soon send Bushart’s life spiraling out of control. It was an image he had previously posted to his own feed to little response: a photo of Trump alongside a quote, “We have to get over it.” The meme, which had been circulating for more than a year, drew from remarks Trump made after a January 2024 school shooting in Perry, Iowa. Beneath the quote was a line providing context: “Donald Trump, on the Perry High School mass shooting, one day after.” Above the image were the words “Seems relevant today.”