AkiraBot is a program that fills website comments sections and customer service chat bots with AI-generated spam messages. Its goal is simple: it wants you to sign up for an SEO scheme that costs about $30 a month. For that low price it swears it can enchant Google’s algorithms to get you on the frontpage. But it’s a scam.

A new report from researchers at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne documented how scammers deployed AkiraBot, the tool’s use of OpenAI generated messages, and how it avoided multiple CAPTCHA systems and network detection techniques. According to the report, the bot targeted 420,000 unique domains and successfully spammed 80,000.

Whoever runs AkirBot operates their SEO company under a bunch of different names, but they all tend to use the words “Akira” or “ServiceWrap.” SentinelOne says the tool finds websites crafted by third party software like Wix or Squarespace and spams comments sections and automated chatbots with a promise to get the site on the frontpage of various search engines. If you have a small business that exists on the web or have run a WordPress-based website in the last 15 years, you’ve likely seen messages like those AkiraBot crafts. 

The Pentagon is working to incorporate AI into everything and it has given investigators a status update.

Framework—a company that makes upgradeable and repairable laptops—has said it will pause sales on several versions of one of its models in America thanks to Trump’s tariffs.

“Due to the new tariffs that came into effect on April 5th, we’re temporarily pausing US sales on a few base Framework Laptop 13 systems (Ultra 5 125H and Ryzen 5 7640U). For now, these models will be removed from our US site. We will continue to provide updates as we have them,” Framework said in a post on X.

On Saturday Elon Musk sat in his personal jet and tested out Starlink’s in-air WiFI by streaming some Path of Exile 2. Less than five minutes into the stream, someone in game chat asked him to “jerk off mr trump so he dies of a heart attack!” For the next hour and 40 minutes, the world’s richest man frowned his way through a livestream while people yelled at him. 

Path of Exile 2 is an action role-playing game and Musk loves it, but he’s terrible at it. He has claimed he’s one of the top players in the world and later admitted he’s paid people to help keep his account leveled up and full of the high-end gear it needs to play the game at the highest level.

Over the weekend, in his jet, he was playing the game in hard core mode. When a player dies in this mode they cannot progress any further. Essentially, players have one life. Musk died a lot. The stream’s entire vibe was fucked. This is the richest man in the world sitting in a private jet playing a game by himself for an audience of strangers while techno music blasted through the speakers. Streaming on a platform he owns using technology he owns in a jet he owns, he sat stone-faced and grinded his way through the early portions of Path of Exile 2 while other players yelled at him.

To be free, learn to embrace RSS feeds.

A new study detailed all the problems with plans to shoot a missile out of the sky.

The proposed system would use AI connected surveillance systems to identify threats and take them down.

Someone set fire to a Tesla dealership in Rome and destroyed 17 vehicles.

OpenAI's new 4o image generation model loves to paint itself as a generic Bay Area programmer with glasses.

The Trump administration planned a military strike in Yemen the way normal people plan a surprise birthday party: in a group chat. 

As detailed by The Atlantic earlier this week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and other senior officials used a Signal group to discuss an attack on Houthi targets, sharing details that included the movement of American assets in advance of their deployment. The news leaked because one member, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, made the bizarre mistake of inviting Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg into the discussion. But even before that moment, Hegseth and the rest were doing something dangerous and far outside the bounds of normal military planning — while using an app that, for ordinary people, is still one of the best ways to have a private chat.

Signal is an end-to-end encrypted chat service used for many private communications, including conversations between sources and journalists at outlets like The Verge. But the Houthi attack group chat demonstrates the limits of any conventional electronic communications. Military security is a life-and-death matter, and attack plans are being constantly sought …

Read the full story at The Verge.

A new study from Yale confirms what everyone already knew: we’re all judging you when your mic sounds cheap and bad on a conference call.

Best get to puffing.

Roy Lee made a tool that used AI to help him pass technical interviews. He says his University has suspended him for using it.

In a 3 hour long session, the Justices grilled a conservative group's lawyer about the consequences of declaring the practice unconstitutional.

Reuters published new details about the storied past of 19-year-old Doge staffer Edward Coristine.

Hegseth sent: '1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier 'Trigger Based' targets)' to a group chat with a journalist before the bombs started falling.

The military wants to use rockets to move supplies around the world ‘lightning fast.’

MIT and OpenAI teamed up to study how AI chatbots are making people feel. Where users ended up depends on where they started.

Kat Abughazaleh launched her campaign online and will challenge an 81 year old incumbent Democrat.

“Our foundation was the trust and respect of our customers, and they were always the guiding light on how we made decisions,” the company's former CEO said after years of eroding public trust.