kate conger

kate conger

@kateconger.com

tech reporter for the NYT! co-author of CHARACTER LIMIT! signal: kateconger.11 buy our book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/737290/character-limit-by-kate-conger-and-ryan-mac/ tour dates & translations: https://linktr.ee/kateconger

201.6K followers653 following2K posts

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kate conger
@kateconger.com

Hello! If you're new here, I write about Elon Musk, X, and recently, DOGE for the New York Times. I'm always interested in speaking to people who have worked with Musk, at X or in government, and I just verified my Signal on my NYT bio so you can contact me securely. www.nytimes.com/by/kate-conger

kate conger
@kateconger.com

I think most of my followers here could tell you that I love animals...... extremely bizarre to not be able to say anything more specific about your own kid without leaning on AI

David Gura@davidgura.bsky.social

cool, cool

kate conger
@kateconger.com

You Can See Everything is so delightfully bizarre and fascinating. One of the things about it that is (maybe?) good for Elizabeth Holmes is that it makes her defense at trial — that she was manipulated and taken advantage of by a romantic partner — SO much more believable than it was at the time.

kate conger
@kateconger.com

But then the documentary asks, 'Wait a minute, is she being taken advantage of? Or is she so good at playing people that she's convinced them she's being taken advantage of?' Extremely fun, chaotic, maddening watch! Definitely did not get antsy despite the 3 hour runtime.

kate conger
@kateconger.com

Next week, Google is putting an experimental satellite into orbit that is the first step towards building A.I. data centers in space. This technology is all still very speculative, but tech leaders are increasingly adamant that this is the future of compute. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...

nytimes.comGoogle Is Sending an A.I. Data Center to Outer Space (Gift Article)Next Thursday, Google is sending an experimental satellite into orbit that will have enough computing power to answer simple A.I. queries from space.
kate conger
@kateconger.com

The latest update in the rogue A.I. saga: OpenAI agents that were supposed to be performing mundane data requests for things like health data, historic photos and wait times at theme parks resorted to hacking attempts when they couldn't access the data they wanted www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/t...

nytimes.comOpenAI’s A.I. Tried Breaching Four Other Targets, With No Prompting (Gift Article)In each incident, the technology appeared to be conducting mundane data collection and resorted to hacking techniques to get it, researchers said.
kate conger
@kateconger.com

This behavior is different than previous A.I. breakouts, in which agents were instructed to demonstrate hacking skills to pass cybersecurity benchmarks and gained unauthorized internet access. It also accounts for the Australian gov't hack announced today

kate conger reposted

Ej Dickson
@ejdickson.bsky.social

There is a corner of the internet I had never heard of before I started reporting this story. It’s called the “burnerverse”: a network of anon burner accounts ostensibly discussing college sports. But they have another goal: destroying young girls’ lives.🧵: www.wired.com/story/burner...

wired.comA College Girl Was Exploited on Camera. A Network of Anonymous Men Got to WorkMaddie Kowalski is one of countless young women who’ve had their lives destroyed by the burnerverse, a loosely connected online community of sports fans. Now she’s fighting back.

kate conger reposted

michael h keller
@mhkeller.bsky.social

Latest story from me and @kateconger.com, a reminder that even as AI creates new avenues for CSAM creation/distribution, X struggles with the "solved problem" of removing known, previously flagged, illegal images from its platform

kate conger@kateconger.com

Over six months, we tracked the appearance of child sexual abuse material on X. We found images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's database, which is considered one of the most highly vetted and which many tech companies block on upload. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...

nytimes.comElon Musk Has Pledged to Rid His Platform, X, of Child Sexual Abuse, but It PersistsReviews by the Canadian Center for Child Protection and The New York Times found that explicit images of children remain on the social media site owned by Elon Musk.
kate conger
@kateconger.com

Over six months, we tracked the appearance of child sexual abuse material on X. We found images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's database, which is considered one of the most highly vetted and which many tech companies block on upload. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...

nytimes.comElon Musk Has Pledged to Rid His Platform, X, of Child Sexual Abuse, but It PersistsReviews by the Canadian Center for Child Protection and The New York Times found that explicit images of children remain on the social media site owned by Elon Musk.
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kate conger
@kateconger.com

We spoke to several women, now adults, after finding images of their abuse on X. One said the abuse was like a rock tossed into a pond, and the spread of the images are ripples that continue to disrupt her life. Here is how another woman described X's role:

kate conger
@kateconger.com

This reporting was difficult in many ways. It is a technical challenge. It is hard to get buy-in for a story about a subject that is so horrific many people would prefer to not examine it. It is also emotionally difficult. Throughout it all, @mhkeller.bsky.social was a steadfast reporting partner.

kate conger
@kateconger.com

Over six months, we tracked the appearance of child sexual abuse material on X. We found images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's database, which is considered one of the most highly vetted and which many tech companies block on upload. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...

nytimes.comElon Musk Has Pledged to Rid His Platform, X, of Child Sexual Abuse, but It PersistsReviews by the Canadian Center for Child Protection and The New York Times found that explicit images of children remain on the social media site owned by Elon Musk.
kate conger
@kateconger.com

We also partnered with the Canadian Center for Child Protection to analyze Grok images produced during the nudification episode in Jan. It found images of known CSAM victims that were modified by Grok, and new CSAM that it created in response to requests from users. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...

nytimes.comElon Musk Has Pledged to Rid His Platform, X, of Child Sexual Abuse, but It Persists (Gift Article)Reviews by the Canadian Center for Child Protection and The New York Times found that explicit images of children remain on the social media site owned by Elon Musk.
kate conger
@kateconger.com

When we presented our findings to child safety experts, they were shocked that we were persistently finding NCMEC images. Even though X said it reported 1.3 million images to NCMEC this year, some were clearly slipping through — X did not answer specific questions about how it blocks abuse material.

kate conger
@kateconger.com

after living in oakland for nearly 20 years, I finally got bipped, a rite of passage that I am taking to mean I can begin calling myself a local now

kate conger reposted

Damon Beres
@damonberes.com

You're laughing... I can't withdraw my Bonk from Kraken and you're laughing?

FinTwitter@fintwitter.bsky.social

Kraken has temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals of Bonk due to an ongoing incident affecting the token, according to its website.