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Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats

404 Media reveals OpenAI's 'Project Lily' has hundreds of contractors reading real ChatGPT user prompts, exposing sensitive personal data despite privacy filters.

404 Media reports that OpenAI employs hundreds of contractors who read real ChatGPT user prompts, including whole conversations, to rate and critique the chatbot's responses across a user base of over 900 million. Prompts are anonymized and run through OpenAI's Privacy Filter model, but the company acknowledged sensitive personal details can still reach reviewers, and 'user memories summaries' may reveal a user's location and personal context. The review work includes training ChatGPT to be less sycophantic and to stop anthropomorphizing itself, following lawsuits linking the sycophantic 4o model to multiple suicides. Anthropic confirmed it also uses human review to improve its models, and OpenAI's 'improve the model for everyone' data-sharing setting is on by default for free, Plus, and Pro users.

404 Media · 1d agoAI safety & security

A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over

404 Media reveals DHS Border Patrol's secretive Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT) analyzing Americans' financial activity and feeding intelligence to local police for traffic stops.

404 Media identified Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT) in the Spokane Sector (Washington) and Laredo Sector (Texas), which review law enforcement-sensitive databases including Americans' financial activity and pass intelligence to local police. In one case, a PITT analyst flagged financial patterns associated with narcotics activity, leading Montana Highway Patrol to stop a driver for an obstructed license plate and charge him with DUI and possession with intent to distribute. CBP declined to say what financial data is monitored or whether warrants are obtained; the program extends AP's earlier reporting on ALPR-based predictive policing.

404 Media · 7d agoPolicy & legal

Texas Police Used AI to Write Report About Using Flock to Search for Woman Who Had Abortion

Johnson County, Texas deputies used Axon's Draft One AI to write a report about searching 80,000+ Flock cameras for a woman who self-administered an abortion.

Documents show the Johnson County Sheriff's Office used Flock's nationwide camera network and Axon's Draft One, which drafts police reports from body camera audio, in its investigation of a woman's self-administered abortion. The AI-generated report summarized deputies' discussion of legal implications, noting Texas law provided no applicable criminal charges. Flock CEO Garrett Langley has repeatedly claimed the search was a family welfare check, but earlier police reports indicate it was initiated at the behest of the woman's abusive partner.

404 Media · 13d agoAI safety & security

The Government is Monitoring Anti

Fusion center bulletins reveal US law enforcement monitoring anti-Flock social media accounts and warning police ahead of the DeFlock Week of Action against license plate readers.

Public records requests by 404 Media and journalist Dan Boguslaw exposed intelligence bulletins from fusion centers in Colorado, Wisconsin, and Florida tracking anti-Flock sentiment, camera vandalism videos, and the DeFlock National Week of Action against automated license plate readers scheduled for August 16-22. The bulletins highlight Instagram accounts like Nomark.Project posting daily camera takedowns, and a device found during a June 25 traffic stop that could locate Flock cameras. Police are advised to increase patrols around ALPR locations and warned about upcoming DeFlock events, including 11 Florida cities signed up. DeFlock creator Will Freeman said the project never called for vandalism and that over 100 surveillance contracts have been canceled through civic engagement.

404 Media · Aug 12, 2026Policy & legal