What's going on here?

[Gast]

@jalefkowit @mttaggart Big same. Decades now.

They need to respond fast or I'm out.

[Gast]

@j_s_j @mttaggart Aurich said in the comments that they are investigating, but probably won't have a response until Monday.

It had better be a good one

[Gast]

@theotherbrook @mttaggart I just have a text file.

[Gast]

@theotherbrook @mttaggart the site wouldn't download, so i did copy paste

[Gast]

@hackillu @mttaggart There's now a thread on the open forum.

EDIT: Oh, but it's been locked. I've bumped heads with Aurich about some stuff but I do trust him to be pretty open when they are ready to talk about it.

https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/journalistic-standards.1511650/

[Gast]

@mttaggart so, ars technica is now merely slop as well?

[mttaggart@infosec.exchange]

Putting this here so all can see it. Ars forum thread where the pull and investigation are mentioned: https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/journalistic-standards.1511650/

[Gast]

@theotherbrook @mttaggart it still exists in their forum.

https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name.1511649/

[mttaggart@infosec.exchange]

Aaand the full comments thread from the original story: https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name.1511649/

[Gast]

@mttaggart Locking the comments seems pretty... bad? I mean, one of their authors generated slop, and one of their editors approved slop. Is it more complicated or...? (I'm being a little flippant, but this is a terrible look for Ars already.)

[mttaggart@infosec.exchange]

@theorangetheme I think the lock might be SOP for a pulled story. And mods tend not to like rampant speculation.

[Gast]

@mttaggart

AI isn't intended to be accurate, useful, or productive.

It's just automated information pollution like Steve Bannon's version of Russian "flood the zone with sh*t" disinformation.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/12/jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-russia-emails-00648919

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article312917423.html

https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/in-putins-orbit-the-crypto-politics

Look at the investors behind AI.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE
They don't have to fly planes into buildings anymore to destroy democracy & fry the planet.

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/02/future-of-military-ai-in-saudi-arabia-ai-enhanced-or-ai-native/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/technology/saudi-arabia-ai-exporter.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-06/saudis-plan-100-billion-ai-powerhouse-to-rival-uae-s-tech-hub

1/

[Gast]

2/

Russia & Putin
Putin deluded himself that AI-enabled warfare will solve his manpower problems & population bottlenecks. 1.3 million dead soldiers so far in Ukraine.
https://www.neimagazine.com/news/putin-links-nuclear-buildout-to-russias-ai-ambitions/

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/putin-wanted-ai-supremacy-now-russia-is-struggling-to-stay-in-the-race-0e0deeb6

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/how-technophobe-putin-led-russia-to-surrender-in-the-ai-arms-race-xk6hrn96l

[Gast]

@SnoopJ @aud it isn’t *quite* a milkshake duck in degree, but maybe in spirit

[Gast]

@bnys @mttaggart Yep, when you add the Transphobic pieces a few year back and Aurich moderation that tends to let the polite fascist slide while banning people calling out fascist, they lost my sub, which Siracusa had earned them.

[Gast]

3/

Koch Network
Building a White Supremacist Constitution one brick at a time over 60 years.

The hate is now automated, corrupt, & well funded.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/us/politics/koch-network-2024-election-trump.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2025/07/17/bill-gates-charles-koch-and-three-other-billionaires-are-giving-1-billion-to-enhance-economic-mobility-in-the-us/

https://www.desmog.com/2025/12/11/the-koch-network-is-pushing-trump-to-accelerate-ai-documents-show/

https://progressive.org/latest/like-dad-charles-koch-bircher-new-documents/

With AI, the wealthy skip paying for hate-for-hire campaigns like Facebook, Tenet Media, or the Russian Internet Research Agency

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/top-facebook-exec-sheryl-sandberg-just-apologized-for-racist-ad-targeting/

https://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/8/kochs_anti_civil_rights_roots

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/who-sponsored-the-hate

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5326284-birchers-conspiracies-trump-legacy/

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/did-the-john-birch-society-win-in-the-end

[Gast]

@mttaggart @catsalad wait, was there *any* truth in there whatsoever? Like, it sounds like it was 100% made up?

Just like the Daily Mail is known for?

[Gast]

@mttaggart ALAS, THE MOONSHARK HAS EATEN YOUR LINK.

[Gast]

4/

https://arlenegoldbard-1818.medium.com/flood-the-zone-25e592e1fc39

https://www.vice.com/en/article/steve-bannon-jan-6-trial-arguments/

https://www.wral.com/this-infamous-steve-bannon-quote-is-key-to-understanding-americas-crazy-politics/19984533/

https://www.persuasion.community/p/trumps-firehose-of-falsehood

Pam Bondi's performance in congressional hearings was an excellent example of Russian-style media manipulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood

Firehosing & automation
https://mediamanipulation.org/definitions/distributed-amplification/

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/6/391

[Gast]

@mttaggart this seems so unlike Benji Edwards, I'm really surprised