The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (MDSO) and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) have bought access to GeoSpy, an AI tool that can near instantly geolocate a photo using clues in the image such as architecture and vegetation, with plans to use it in criminal investigations, according to a cache of internal police emails obtained by 404 Media.

The emails provide the first confirmed purchases of GeoSpy’s technology by law enforcement agencies. On its website GeoSpy has previously published details of investigations it says used the technology, but did not name any agencies who bought the tool.

“The Cyber Crimes Bureau is piloting a new analytical tool called GeoSpy. Early testing shows promise for developing investigative leads by identifying geospatial and temporal patterns,” an MDSO email reads.

Waymo, Google’s autonomous vehicle company, and DoorDash, the delivery and gig work platform, have launched a pilot program that pays Dashers, at least in one case, around $10 to travel to a parked Waymo and close its door that the previous passenger left open, according to a joint statement from the company given to 404 Media.

The program is unusual in that Dashers are more often delivering food than helping out a driving robot. It also shows that even with autonomous vehicles, and the future they promise of metropolitan travel without the need for a driver, a human is sometimes needed for the most simple and yet necessary tasks.

“Waymo is currently running a pilot program in Atlanta to enhance its AV fleet efficiency. In the rare event a vehicle door is left ajar, preventing the car from departing, nearby Dashers are notified, allowing Waymo to get its vehicles back on the road quickly,” the statement said. “DoorDash is always looking for new and flexible ways for Dashers to earn, and this pilot offers Dashers an opportunity to make the most of their time online. Waymo's future vehicle platforms will have automated door closures.”

Waymo said the partnership started earlier this year. It declined to share details about how Dashers are paid, such as whether they may receive tips or which entity is paying for these jobs, but said, “the payment structure is designed to ensure competitive and fair compensation for Dashers.”

(Waymo said the response was on background, but 404 Media never agreed to such a condition. It is standard journalistic practice for both a company and a reporter to need to agree that a conversation is on background or off the record beforehand; this is to prevent companies simply saying something is off the record when answering basic questions.)

404 Media contacted both Waymo and DoorDash for comment after an apparent Dasher posted on Reddit about receiving such a job. 

“Craziest Offer,” the thread starts. It includes a screenshot of the DoorDash app, saying the Dasher is guaranteed $6.25 for the work, with $5 extra “upon verified completion.” The job would see the Dasher travel around 0.7 miles, according to the screenshot.

“Close a Waymo door,” the job reads. “No pickup or delivery required.”

DoorDash and Waymo have already partnered on other projects. In October, the companies announced an autonomous delivery service in Phoenix.

Jesse Van Rootselaar, the 18-year-old suspected of killing eight people and injuring 25 in a mass shooting in a secondary school in Canada, created a Roblox game that allowed players to simulate a mass shooting in a level that looks like a shopping mall, Roblox has confirmed. 

“We have removed the user account connected to this horrifying incident as well as any content associated with the suspect,” Roblox told 404 Media in an email. “We are committed to fully supporting law enforcement in their investigation.”

Van Rootselaar’s account and Roblox game were initially discovered by users in the online forum Kiwi Farms. Videos of the Roblox game or “experience,” as they’re called on the platform, show a Roblox character picking up various weapons and shooting other Roblox characters in a shopping mall, made their way to X before Roblox removed the game. 

Roblox said Van Rootselaar’s account and any content they created was removed from Roblox yesterday. The shooting Van Rootselaar is accused of committing took place at a school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia on February 10. Roblox added that the “Mall experience” could only be accessed through Roblox Studio, a separate app that developers use to design games. Because of this, Roblox said, the experience had only seven visits.

There’s a long history of mass shooters and their experience with video games, which are often used as scapegoats for mass shootings as opposed to gun manufacturers or weak gun control laws. Columbine Shooter Eric Harris had designed custom levels for Doom. During his first administration, Trump suggested video games lay at the root of mass shootings. Repeated studies of the subject have shown there’s no link.

As we recently discussed on the podcast, Roblox is nearly ubiquitous among young people and is more like a social platform than other, traditional online games. Roblox allows players to create nearly anything they can imagine, but crudely. Much like every other Roblox experience, videos of Van Rootselaar’s mall game features blocky, cartoonish characters, and is in no way photorealistic or very graphic. 

Roblox told us it uses a combination of AI and a team of “safety specialists” to review everything uploaded to the platform before it is ever shown to another user. It also said that while no system is perfect, it’s committed to safety and will continue to strengthen its protections.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
The worst part is the movie goes on for weeks but never finishes.

Mein damaliger Handballtrainer fuhr eine Zeit lang so einen Polski Fiat in braun und wir als Jungen konnten dort hin und wieder drin mitfahren wenn es mal wieder auswärts ging. Ich mochte die knuffige Form damals und kann ihr auch heute noch was abgewinnen. Über die Geschichte und das Drumherum habe ich mir nie Gedanken gemacht, aber gucken wir mal rein.

Aleksandra Czerska kommt aus Polen und lebt schon lange in Frankreich. Sie erzählt uns von einem legendären polnischen Auto, zu dem ihre polnischen Landsleute eine ähnliche Beziehung pflegen wie die Deutschen zum VW-Käfer und die Franzosen zur 2CV-Ente. Kommen Sie mit auf eine Spritztour in einem echten Polski Fiat.

(Direktlink)

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
I knew Grimm's fables were pretty dark, but some of them seem to have been written purposefully as a time capsule to frighten the future.