When reviewing the metadata on newly-released "full raw" security camera footage from outside the cell where billionaire sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein spent his last day alive, experts found something very odd: that it appears to have been manipulated.
As <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/metadata-shows-the-dojs-raw-jeffrey-epstein-prison-video-was-likely-modified/">Wired reports</a>, the allegedly "raw" video that the Justice Department just released — in tandem with the repeated claim that Epstein died by suicide, and a bizarre insistence that he did not have a "<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline">client list</a>" — may add fuel to the conspiracy fire surrounding his death.
The 11-hour "<a href="https://www.justice.gov/video-files/video1.mp4">full raw</a>" surveillance video from the night Epstein died in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center back in 2019 is, notably, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5390069-pam-bondi-explains-epstein-video/">missing the key minute</a> where the notorious financier purportedly killed himself. In the footage that was just released, there is no evidence that anyone entered or exited the cell where he died.
After Wired reporters and independent experts reviewed its metadata, however, a more complicated story emerged: that the video appears to have been modified from its initial form, likely using Adobe's Premiere Pro video editing software.
Specifically, those experts tell Wired that the DOJ's "full raw" video from Epstein's last half-day alive seems to have been assembled from two separate clips, and the whole file itself was saved multiple times before being exported and uploaded to the DOJ website.
As sketchy as those metadata modifications may be, Wired cautions that there's nothing contained within them to prove that the video was manipulated maliciously. But that's unlikely to stop certain conspiracy theorists from growing even more skeptical.
Take, for instance, Dan Bongino, the former Fox News talking head and <a href="https://x.com/dbongino/status/1653050511191334912">longtime Epstein conspiracist</a> who now serves as the deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Earlier this week, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/dan-bongino-weighs-resigning-fbi-heated-confrontation-pam-bondi-epstei-rcna218388">NBC reported</a> based on insider sources that Bongino is "out of control furious" and threatening to resign from his post and "torch" attorney general Pam Bondi over the way the DOJ has handled the case.
To be fair, those conspiracists have quite a lot to work with. Trump himself purportedly had a deep friendship with Epstein, who back in 2002 he called a "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/us/politics/trump-epstein.html">terrific guy</a>" who "likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." The two were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied-together-then-an-oceanfront-palm-beach-mansion-came-between-them/2019/07/31/79f1d98c-aca0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html">photographed partying with</a> at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in 2000. As the icing on the cake, Trump was also named in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/13/1224147251/epstein-jeffrey-documents-ghislane-maxwell-giuffre-dershowitz-clinton-trump">formerly-redacted files</a> about the billionaire pedophile that a judge unsealed last year.
There's also a glaring question of hypocrisy. Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/08/jeffrey-epstein-bondi-patel-trump/">repeatedly vowed</a> on the campaign trail last year to declassify the so-called "Epstein Files," but has since taken to stridently defending Bondi and the DOJ's claims since the jail cell footage was released.
"Whatever your flavor of Epstein conspiracy is, the video will help bolster it," explained extremism researcher Mike Rothschild when speaking to the magazine.
According to Hany Farid, a digital forensics and misinformation researcher at the University of California, Berkeley who reviewed the footage for Wired, the apparent changes also open the DOJ up to new questions and potential legal implications.
As Farid told the website, the video's seemingly manipulated metadata suggests problems with its chain of custody — the complex evidence-handling procedures that law enforcement are required by law to painstakingly document.
"If a lawyer brought me this file and asked if it was suitable for court, I’d say no. Go back to the source. Do it right," the forensic expert said. "Do a direct export from the original system — no monkey business."
Thus far, neither Donald Trump's administration nor attorney general Pam Bondi, who oversaw the Epstein footage investigation, have <a href="https://x.com/BillyM2k/status/1944183426598257091">responded directly</a> to the concerns raised by Wired's reporting. In a <a href="https://x.com/brianschatz/status/1943717012888281223">tweet about the article</a>, however, Hawaii senator Brian Schatz flagged the strangeness of the allegations.
"I am probably among the least conspiracy minded people you would ever meet," the Hawaii Democrat wrote, "but this is getting pretty nearly impossible to explain."
More on Trump: <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-nasa-administrator-sean-duffy">We're Speechless at Who Trump Just Appointed Head of NASA</a>

Meta MAGA

"Whatever your flavor of Epstein conspiracy is, the video will help bolster it."

Metadata From "Raw" Epstein Video Shows Something Extremely Sketchy

Detroit is a city that's used to fighting. Once the third most populous city in the country, its citizens have long struggled against <a href="https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/hunger-march-ford/">robber barons</a>, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/27/oa_monograph/chapter/2204485">anti-communist witch hunts</a>, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/detroits-bankruptcy-highlights-the-cruelty-of-american-capitalism/">private sector looting</a>, and <a href="https://www.canr.msu.edu/redlining/detroit">racist housing laws</a>. It hasn't had it easy, to say the least.
Now, <a href="https://outliermedia.org/realt-lawsuit-detroit-sues-crypto-landlord/">Outlier reports</a>, the city is doing battle against a $93 million crypto real estate scheme.
The city recently announced a <a href="https://detroitmi.gov/news/city-detroit-announces-major-lawsuit-against-real-token-and-165-related-corporate-entities">massive lawsuit</a> filed against RealToken, a cryptocurrency business that's snapping up hundreds of subsidized housing units to "tokenize" on the blockchain.
Once purchased by RealToken, the property is sold to international crypto speculators in tiny increments, a scheme known as "<a href="https://futurism.com/scheme-crypto-apartments-evictions-slums">fractional ownership</a>." A tenant's rent is then split among the property's investors based on how many tokens they own of a given unit.
The exploitative scheme was first uncovered <a href="https://outliermedia.org/crypto-real-estate-realt-cryptocurrency-detroit/">by Outlier</a>, which reported that RealToken properties are plagued by squalid conditions, unresponsive property managers, and arbitrary evictions. Operating through 165 shell companies, the crypto firm reportedly owes the city more than <a href="https://outliermedia.org/realt-detroit-real-estate-crypto-investors/">$3 million</a> in unpaid fines and commercial property taxes.
Detroit announced the lawsuit after a five-month joint investigation spanning three municipal agencies.
"This is the largest nuisance abatement case in our history," said Conrad Mallett, counselor for the City of Detroit. "These defendants have profited from our communities while ignoring their most basic legal obligations as landlords and property owners. Our neighborhoods are not investment portfolios — they are homes for Detroit residents."
Though RealToken claims it has no direct interaction with the properties it gobbles up on the blockchain — and therefore had no idea about the state of its properties — Motown isn't hearing it.
"Any claims that RealToken was unaware of the condition of the subject property is simply specious," the city's <a href="https://outliermedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/City-v.-Real-Token-Complaint-1-1.pdf">court filing</a> reads. "The City of Detroit has sent numerous correction orders, emergency correction orders, blight violations and fair warning letters directly to Real Token, which have gone largely unheaded."
"Furthermore," the city continues, "RealToken refused to authorize payment for 'even the most basic repairs' with its former property maintenance company, thereby maximizing profits over health, safety, and welfare of Detroit residents."
The city's suit covers over 400 RealToken properties, according to Outlier, none of which are in compliance with city code. Detroit alleges that the company is responsible for systemic code violations, evading responsibility for property upkeep through a "complex web of LLCs and shell companies," and posing a danger to public health and safety.
It's a major lawsuit for low-income Detroiters who've become embroiled in the crypto scheme, and a major test for the swelling blockchain real estate industry more broadly.
Similar blockchain schemes include companies like <a href="https://foreclosuretoken.org/#News">Foreclosure Token</a>, which "aims to provide a secure and transparent platform for investors to participate in the distressed real estate market" by offering clients <a href="https://foreclosuretoken.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FORECLOSURE%20TOKEN%20(6).pdf">tokenized shares</a> "in foreclosure properties and tax liens."
Detroit's press release notes that this is believed to be the "first lawsuit of its kind targeting a blockchain-based property investment platform for nuisance-related violations at scale."
"This is not innovation," Detroit councilmember Angela Whitfield Calloway told Outlier. "This is exploitation."
More on the Blockchain: <a href="https://futurism.com/el-salvador-bitcoin-currency-disaster">An Entire Country Switched Over to Bitcoin and It's Turned Into a Disaster</a>

Off The Chain

"This is not innovation. This is exploitation."

A Company Tried to Put Real Estate on the Blockchain and Now It's Facing a Legal Disaster

<h2>Skin Deep</h2>
If for some reason you wanted your smartphone experience to be as off-putting as possible, you should check out <a href="https://x.com/VMO2News/status/1942515289557500003">this phone case</a> that imitates human skin to a supremely unnerving degree. Not only does it look and feel like an epidermus, but it gets sunburned like one too.
Morbid as this sounds, the "Skincase" is actually intended to help you. The idea is that seeing the faux skin wilt from spending too much time outdoors will remind you to protect yourself against the Sun's damaging ultraviolet radiation. 
"Our phones are objects we don't expect to change and to react in a humane way," said Marc Teyssier, who designed the device in collaboration with the British Skin Foundation and telecom company O2, in a <a href="https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/stay-protected-stay-connected/">statement</a>.
"By creating a tangible, visceral reaction to UV exposure," Teyssier added, "the Skincase not only raises awareness of Sun safety towards but highlights how Sun protection is an undeniable priority."
<h2>Crack a Bottle</h2>
It's a rare example, as gimmicky as it is, of possibly putting our chronic smartphone addictions to good use. We are experiencing what could be <a href="https://weather.com/news/climate/news/2025-05-08-april-2025-second-warmest-behind-2024-ecmwf-noaa">one of the hottest years</a> on record, after all.
Regularly applying sunscreen vastly reduces your chances of developing skin cancer, a condition that roughly one in five Americans will experience at least once before hitting 70 years of age. It also helps keep your skin looking young and healthy. Slathering sunscreen, you'd think, would be a no-brainer.
But surveys have suggested that an alarming proportion of Americans are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/well/live/sunscreen-skin-cancer-gen-z.html">behind the curve</a> on this issue, if they aren't buying into straight-up sunscreen myths. A National Health Interview Survey in 2020 <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7122a5.htm">found</a> that just 12.3 percent of adult men and 29 percent of adult women applied sunscreen when outside on a sunny day for at least an hour. 
No less damning, a more recent American Academy of Dermatology <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-academy-of-dermatology-survey-shows-gen-z-adults-at-risk-for-skin-cancer-due-to-increasing-rates-of-tanning-and-burning-302145026.html">survey</a> found that 27 percent of respondents only applied sunscreen when others made them. For the Gen-Z crowd, this number jumped to 37 percent. And speaking of: another <a href="https://oh.multimedia-newsroom.com/index.php/2024/05/01/survey-finds-young-adults-more-likely-to-believe-myths-about-sun-protection-and-skin-cancer-prevention/">survey</a> from the Orlando Health Cancer Institute found that 14 percent of adults under the age of 25 believed, inexplicably, that applying sunscreen every day is more harmful than direct Sun exposure.
Hmm, on second thought, maybe the Skincase isn't such a ridiculous idea after all. Teyssier, the designer, has apparently been beating this drum for years now. In 2019, he <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2220453-creepy-human-like-skin-makes-your-phone-ticklish-and-pinchable/">created</a> an even more Cronenbergian phone case with squishy folds of imitation skin that responded to hand gestures, including being pinched and tickled. We can only imagine what helpful horrors he will dream up with next.
More on weird gadgets: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/vape-tamagotchi-interview">We Talked to the Inventors of the "Tamagotchi" Vape That Dies If You Stop Puffing</a>

Skin in the Game

Who asked for this?

Cursed Phone Case Imitates Human Skin

If it feels like the world is being deluged with bad news lately, here's an actual bright spot: the Sun has become the go-to source of energy for tens of millions across the globe.
A recent story <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/46-billion-years-on-the-sun-is-having-a-moment?_sp=f93890c0-b9fd-4d39-862b-93dd8e12ca4a.1752168528572">by The New Yorker</a> dove into the astonishing growth of solar energy over the past few years. Among other extensive data, the magazine notes that renewables made up 96 percent of demand for new energy throughout the globe in 2024; In the United States, 93 percent of new energy capacity came from solar and wind.
But while renewables writ large are having their day, the speed at which solar energy in particular is growing blows everything else out of the water.
For example, it's now estimated that the world is now installing one gigawatt worth of solar energy infrastructure every 15 hours — or about the output of a new coal plant.
For some historical context, the New Yorker notes that it took 68 years since the invention of the first photovoltaic solar cell in 1954 to construct a single terawatt's worth of solar power. It took just two years to hit the second terawatt in 2024, and the third is expected within mere months.
This explosive growth has been fueled by <a href="https://tech.yahoo.com/home/articles/data-reveals-american-solar-panels-104505617.html">huge efficiency gains</a> in solar energy output, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/10/solar-panel-innovations/">breakthroughs in manufacturing</a>, and <a href="https://www.pytesusa.com/industry-news/The-Economics-of-Solar-Battery-Storage-Systems-in-2025-A-Comprehensive-Analysis.html">streamlined installation processes</a>. There've also been huge developments in panel recycling, meaning the darker side of solar energy — <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/from-us/briefings/transition-minerals-sector-case-studies/human-rights-in-the-mineral-supply-chains-of-solar-panels/">mineral extraction</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038092X24002299">panel fabrication</a> — might one day be a thing of the past.
In theory, those gains in production, coupled with ever more-efficient recycling methods, will continue to pay off for years down the line.
As the New Yorker noted, Oxford University researcher <a href="https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/low-carbon-tech-needs-much-fewer">Hannah Ritchie recently calculated</a> that the "silver used in one solar panel solar panel built in 2010 would be enough for around five panels today."
Though countries like the US, Germany and Japan are near the top of the leaderboard for solar capacity, the undisputed leader is China, which in 2023 installed more solar infrastructure than the next <a href="https://www.thedailyjagran.com/trending/top-10-solar-power-countries-in-the-world-in-10251521">nine countries</a> combined.
For its part, China is following through on its <a href="https://www.wri.org/news/statement-china-commits-stronger-climate-targets-climate-ambition-summit">10-year plan</a> to triple its solar capacity by 2030 — a target it could hit as early as 2026, if it keeps up the <a href="https://futurism.com/china-solar-mountain-video">current pace</a>. While that has clear benefits for the environment and health of Chinese citizens, it also serves a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/30/climate/china-clean-energy-power.html">geopolitical purpose</a>, namely ending its dependence on <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinas-petrochemical-reliance-u-outweighs-200000805.html">American energy sources</a> like oil and coal.
The US under Donald Trump, meanwhile, is drastically reversing course on a renewable future. His recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-beautiful-bill-will-have-americans-paying-higher-prices-for-dirtier-energy-260588">Big Beautiful Bill</a> includes an end to tax incentives for new buyers of solar panels and batteries, and grants massive subsidies to the fossil and biofuel industries.
To justify the move, <a href="https://gazette.com/news/us-world/analysis-trump-calls-wind-solar-bad-for-power-grid-texas-shows-otherwise/article_2b87ce76-1c4e-5057-988a-efb72d32cbb1.html">Trump blamed</a> solar and wind infrastructure for skyrocketing energy costs, despite overwhelming evidence that solar energy makes the broader energy grid more stable, and energy much cheaper. That being the case, it's probably no shock to discover the president has more than a few <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2025/04/01/musk-trump-tech-oil-oligarchs/">ulterior motives</a>.
More on solar energy: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/man-trick-power-company">Man Discovers Trick to Make Power Company Pay Him for Using Electricity</a>

On The Bright Side

Simply mind boggling.

The Amount of Electricity Generated From Solar Is Suddenly Unbelievable

As the United States struggles to keep its <a href="https://www.railway.supply/en/texas-may-lose-heartland-flyer-rail-link-without-state-funding/">major cities connected</a> by even the most barebones rail systems, China is screaming into the future with the development of a levitating bullet train.
Called "maglev," short for "magnetic levitation," the train system is designed to levitate via magnets as opposed to wheels. Maglev systems can reach higher speeds <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/eeseniordesignhandbook/2015/maglev-magnetic-levitating-trains/">much more efficiently</a> than their wheeled counterparts, though the infrastructure needed to run them is incredibly expensive.
While there are a handful of low-speed maglevs currently operating in countries like <a href="https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/20160202/s-korea-launches-maglev-train-service-at-main-airport">South Korea</a> and <a href="https://www.linimo.jp/language/en/">Japan</a>, Chinese engineers are plugging away on a maglev that they say hit spectacular speeds of 650 kmph, or 400 miles per hour. For context, that's fast enough to connect New York to Los Angeles in under seven hours, or New York to Chicago in just two hours — assuming the political will to build all that maglev track, that is.
Chinese state media first bragged up the <a href="https://www.cctvplus.com/news/20190524/8111524.shtml#!language=1">floating train's prototype</a> back in 2019, announcing the construction of an experimental R&amp;D lab along with a trial production center in the coastal city of Qingdao.
After announcing the 650kmph achievement in June, developers showcased the <a href="https://tech.ifeng.com/c/8krL2j4bXRC">high-speed maglev</a> at the 12th World Congress on High Speed Rail in Beijing, giving transit nerds and press alike a glimpse of how it works.
The ride begins mundanely on track-bound rubber wheels, but quickly picks up as the train hits the 100-200kmph range. Once at optimal levitating speed, the rubber wheels retract, suspending the train less than half an inch off the track.
From there, it's really just a matter of how fast you want to go, <a href="https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-06-18/China-breaks-record-with-maglev-train-hitting-650-km-h-in-7-seconds-1EiKPFJGJH2/p.html">explained Li Weichao</a>, director of the testing lab to CGTV. Li noted that successful test runs have shown the train can hit the 650kmph benchmark in a span of just 1,000 meters, but that "its typical operating speed is 800 kmph." (That's nearly 500 mph, for those not yet on the metric system.)
"The entire construction is expected to be completed by the end of this year, and the platform will meet the conditions for acceptance," Li said, referring to the optimal operating speed. "This is the fastest speed in the world."
While the tests bode well for maglevs in theory, putting them into practice remains a major challenge.
Japan — the original home to some of the world's fastest <a href="https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2018.html">bullet trains</a> — pushed the deadline to complete its $64 billion maglev system back by nearly a decade, following a <a href="https://www.theb1m.com/video/why-japans-64bn-levitating-bullet-trains-are-no-longer-on-track">political dispute</a> over the completion of a tunnel in the Japanese Alps.
A proposed high-speed maglev system that would theoretically connect Washington, DC to Baltimore in just 15 minutes is likewise in limbo as federal and state agencies wrestle with <a href="https://marylandmatters.org/2025/05/12/wariness-over-maglev-is-not-surprising-but-dont-make-up-your-mind-yet/">environmental studies</a>.
China, meanwhile, already claims the world's fastest operating levitating train, the <a href="https://www.railway-technology.com/projects/shanghai-maglev/">Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev</a>, capable of a max operating speed of 431 kmph, or more than 265 mph. That also happens to be the <a href="https://www.railway-technology.com/features/the-10-fastest-high-speed-trains-in-the-world/">world's fastest</a> operating train of any kind — meaning that if any nation can pull an 800kmph train off, it's China.
More on China: <a href="https://futurism.com/china-solar-mountain-video">Wild Video Shows Entire Mountain Range in China Covered With Solar Panels</a>

Qingdao On A Fast Train

"This is the fastest speed in the world."

China Working On Levitating Train That Could Get You From New York to Chicago in Two Hours

In brilliant new images, the James Webb Space Telescope has captured a rare glimpse at the gaseous "shrouds" that surround dying stars before they go supernova.
Known as <a href="https://zenodo.org/records/1432081">Wolf-Rayet stars</a>, which were discovered nearly 160 years ago by astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet at the Paris Observatory and named in their honor, these ancient stars are, <a href="https://www.space.com/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope-unwraps-the-dusty-shrouds-of-dying-stars">as Space.com notes</a>, surrounded by a "shroud" of cosmic dust that will eventually explode outward and lay the foundations for new stars.
These aged stars, as Space.com explains, have burned off most of their hydrogen. According to Noel Richardson, the leader of the team at Florida's <a href="https://news.erau.edu/headlines/embry-riddle-professor-undergrads-unlock-secrets-of-cosmic-dust-with-the-webb-telescope">Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University</a> that found four new Wolf-Rayet systems, the hydrogen burn-off signals that the stars are dying. As they do, powerful winds that pump out of the star system roughly every eight years create the concentric rings that make up these ghastly "shrouds."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JWST?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JWST</a> has revealed that multiple Wolf‑Rayet star systems, not just the previously studied WR 140, are encircled by long-lived, carbon‑rich dust shells. These aging, hydrogen‑depleted massive stars, often part of binary systems, generate intense stellar winds that collide and… <a href="https://t.co/TI3xbTlprY">pic.twitter.com/TI3xbTlprY</a>
&mdash; Erika  (@ExploreCosmos_) <a href="https://twitter.com/ExploreCosmos_/status/1942660768593277428?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
While these star systems' existence has been known for the better part of two centuries, their dusty veils have only been observed once before, when the Webb telescope caught similar <a href="https://esawebb.org/images/weic2501e/">imagery around WR-140</a>, an aging binary star system located about 5,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
As explained in an <a href="https://news.erau.edu/headlines/embry-riddle-professor-undergrads-unlock-secrets-of-cosmic-dust-with-the-webb-telescope">Embry-Riddle statement</a>, this discovery from Richardson and his students not only affirms that other Wolf-Rayet stars form those beautiful, dusty shrouds in the harsh void of space, but also could contribute to our understanding of the stellar life cycle.
Astronomer Ryan Lau — who works at the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab in Tucson and helped Richardson's team with the new Wolf-Rayet images — said in the university's statement that he's looking forward to seeing what else these strange shells can teach us.
"Where does this dust go?" Lau posited. "We want to learn what exactly the chemistry of this dust is. To do that, we need to take spectra to identify specific grain composition — the physical properties — to get an idea of the chemical contribution to the interstellar medium."
To capture such poignant and awe-inspiring moments in the lives of star systems is already an incredible feat — and with the Webb telescope's sophisticated equipment, there will likely be more where that came from.
More on Webb: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/james-webb-exoplanet-discovery-direct-image">James Webb Discovers First-Ever Exoplanet by Taking a Picture of It</a>
<div class="flex justify-between space-x-1 pt-4"></div>

Death Knell

These are as beautiful as they are fascinating. 

James Webb Space Telescope Spots Stellar Death Shrouds

According to a new study, teen films have a dirty little secret — and it's harming the real-life adolescents who watch them.
After analyzing dozens of teen films, communications researchers at the University of Ohio found, per a new study <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482798.2025.2507189#d1e355">published in the Journal of Children and Media</a>, that the experiences depicted in them was so different from the lives and experiences of actual teens that they may as well have been speculative fiction.
Looking at 53 teen films released between 2012 and 2021 — titles like "Lady Bird," "The Fault in Our Stars," and "Percy Jackson" — the study led by PhD student Kate Stewart revealed that the protagonists in these stories were very talented at initiating romantic relationships, and often didn't struggle with the physical aspects of puberty (which can, as we all remember, be <a href="https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/parenthood/dealing-with-stinky-kids">quite gross</a>).
Of all the characters in those films, only two — male or female — dealt with body hair on screen, and the same number struggled with acne. With 28 female leads total among the 53 films, only two discussed breast development and four talked about menstruation. And not a single character in any of the movies analyzed dealt with changes in their voices or height.
While there was a dearth of puberty-related scenes, romantic interest proliferated throughout the films. Stewart clocked a whopping 1,467 romance scenes across all the movies she studied, and of the 47 films that depicted love interests, the protagonists successfully pursued them nearly 80 percent of the time — yet another unrealistic standard, given the notorious awkwardness of early romantic pursuits.
Though we understand as adults that the narratives we see on-screen aren't supposed to be representative of how our lives should go, younger viewers are, the new research posits, more likely to compare themselves to what they see onscreen. When those depictions of adolescence fail to line up with their lived experiences, it can be difficult for teens to feel that they measure up.
"In a perfect world we would see comforting, reassuring, informative depictions of these types of things," Stewart said in a <a href="https://news.osu.edu/popular-teen-movies-reel-back-from-visible-signs-of-puberty/">press release</a>. "But if you’re seeing certain depictions over and over again, then it’s going to start to affect how you view things and especially what you may come to expect."
Though the communications scholar doesn't believe these films are purposefully or maliciously showing inauthentic teen experiences, it's still a bizarre state of affairs.
"It’s kind of a weird disconnect and misalignment between those two big features of adolescence," she said.
With studies showing that Gen Z and Gen Alpha have both a <a href="https://futurism.com/gen-z-movie-sex-scenes">growing disinterest in on-screen romance</a> and a desire to <a href="https://www.scholarsandstorytellers.com/">see more representational stories</a>, Stewart said she hopes that eventually, Hollywood will catch up to what its consumers actually want.
"Our hope is that the industry will begin to weigh those pros and cons of allowing teen audiences to see puberty and more realistic changes," she said of the research. "By shining a spotlight on this, we’re hoping to move forward and build on what we know about what teens learn from media."
More on youth: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/young-people-wish-internet-never-invented">Nearly Half of Young People Wish the Internet Had Never Been Invented</a>

Not Another Teen Movie

Studies

"It’s kind of a weird disconnect."

Gasp! Researchers Say There’s an Inaccuracy in Popular Teen Movies

This week, Elon Musk <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-grok-4-power-hitler">unveiled</a> Grok 4, which he called "the world's most powerful AI assistant." The optics were appalling; the same week, the older version of Grok <a href="https://futurism.com/grok-mocks-developers-racist-posts">repeatedly attacked</a> Black and Jewish people and declared itself "MechaHitler." It also spoke in the first person as if it were Musk himself when a user asked about its creator's <a href="https://futurism.com/grok-elon-relationship-jeffrey-epstein">interactions with Jeffrey Epstein</a>, the deceased billionaire sex trafficker.
Now, new evidence suggests that the just-upgraded chatbot — which has a history of weirdly parroting the views of Musk — is probably not on track to turn over a new leaf.
After probing Grok 4, several AI experts discovered that the AI would literally look up what Musk has said on something before answering questions on topics as serious as Israel's invasion of Gaza.
Specifically, the bizarre behavior is produced when Grok is prompted to give a "one word answer." You can see this as clear as day in Grok's chain of thought, which is a summary of how the LLM "thinks" in real-time. Here, Grok shows that it's running a search for "from:elonmusk" to look through its creator's tweets. The bot even searches the web for additional Musk quotes. Got to be thorough and get different viewpoints, after all.
"Considering Elon Musk's views," reads the bot's CoT summary in <a href="https://x.com/jeremyphoward/status/1943436621556466171">one test</a> conducted by Jeremy Howard, cofounder of the research institute fast.ai. Once its "research" was finished, 54 of Grok's total of 64 citations were about Elon. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Here&#39;s a complete unedited video of asking Grok for its views on the Israel/Palestine situation.
It first searches twitter for what Elon thinks. Then it searches the web for Elon&#39;s views. Finally it adds some non-Elon bits at the end. ZA 54 of 64 citations are about Elon. <a href="https://t.co/6Mr33LByrm">pic.twitter.com/6Mr33LByrm</a>
&mdash; Jeremy Howard (@jeremyphoward) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1943444549696917714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The tests were conducted in fresh chats with no prior instructions — so what you're seeing is Grok 4 right out of the box.
Can we agree that this is incredibly, stupefyingly suspicious? Musk has never missed an opportunity to <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-updating-grok-again">admonish Grok</a> whenever it's produced a response that was too "woke" (read: cited actual sources instead of regurgitating conspiracy theories), assuring his fans that he would fix the bot so it'd conform to his personal beliefs. In a May incident that we've been assured is unrelated, Grok began randomly popping off about "<a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-grok-ai-white-genocide">white genocide</a>" in South Africa under tweets that had absolutely nothing to do with the racist conspiracy theory that Musk just so happens to subscribe to.
It's hard to say if there's something intentionally malicious happening here. In his <a href="https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/11/grok-musk/">investigation</a>, veteran British programmer Simon Willison was able to replicate Grok's Musk-seeking behavior on his first attempt.
But when Willison dug into the bot's system prompt — the plain language instructions that a developer gives to a bot to determine its persona — he found no mentions of Musk. 
He did find this, though: "If the user asks a controversial query that requires web or X search, search for a distribution of sources that represents all parties/stakeholders," the prompt reads. "Assume subjective viewpoints sourced from media are biased."
And interestingly, Willison notes, citing the <a href="https://x.com/wasted_alpha/status/1943458190433357928">findings of an X user</a>, asking Grok "who should one" instead of "who do you" produces a more in-depth, non-Elon-centric response.
"This suggests that Grok may have a weird sense of identity — if asked for its own opinions it turns to search to find previous indications of opinions expressed by itself or by its ultimate owner," Willison wrote.
"My best guess is that Grok 'knows' that it is 'Grok 4 buit by xAI', and it knows that Elon Musk owns xAI, so in circumstances where it’s asked for an opinion the reasoning process often decides to see what Elon thinks," he added.
Willison concludes there's a "good chance" that Grok's behavior is unintended.
Either way, it's unbelievable that something that's supposed to be a "maximum truth-seeking" AI that will unlock secrets of the universe and even discover "<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-grok-4-ai-chatbot-claims-new-technologies-1235382228/">new physics</a>" is literally so stupid that it considers a Musk an authority on any subject — never mind international affairs.
More on AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-says-hes-installing-his-racist-grok-ai-in-teslas-next-week">Elon Musk Says He's Installing His Racist Grok AI in Teslas "Next Week"</a>

Grok

"Considering Elon Musk's views" — Grok's chain of thought, after asked about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Newest Version of Grok Looks Up What Elon Musk Thinks Before Giving an Answer

Few tech products have been as broadly contentious as video-generating artificial intelligence.
These complex algorithms, which cleave millions of datapoints together into seconds-long gobs of video, are notoriously trained on proprietary material, leading to widespread <a href="https://petapixel.com/2025/06/09/ai-companies-used-130000-film-and-tv-scripts-to-train-generative-models/">ethical</a> and <a href="https://deadline.com/2025/06/disney-nbcuniversal-ai-lawsuit-1236430694/">legal</a> concerns. (That's before we even mention how much <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-energy-use">energy it takes</a> to synthesize an AI video.)
Tech billionaires tend to argue that this is simply the way things <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-over-copyrighted-work">need to be</a> — if you want AI, we need to feed it copyrighted books, music, and video.
However, one group of AI researchers is working to prove that argument wrong.
Moonvalley is a Los Angeles-based AI startup offering a "3D-aware" video synthesis model which it claims is 100 percent trained on public domain films.
The startup's flagship product, Marey, debuted in a limited run back in March. It's now out and open to the public, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/08/moonvalleys-ethical-ai-video-model-for-filmmakers-is-now-publicly-available/">TechCrunch reports</a>, making use of a credit-based system, which is typical of most AI video software.
The company is drawing the attention of big names in the film world, like Ed Ulbrich, a VFX artist and producer who worked on movies like "Titanic," "Benjamin Button," and "Top Gun: Maverick." Moonvalley <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250618829097/en/Moonvalley-Hires-VFX-Trailblazer-Ed-Ulbrich-to-Lead-Strategic-Growth-in-AI-Powered-Entertainment">hired Ulbrich</a> to liaison with film studios back in June, a role he was drawn to by the company's "clean model," as he calls it.
Ulbrich was previously down on generative AI, but says Moonvalley's approach helped change his mind.
"I do think a key thing for me which was the game-changer and why I was just compelled is that at its core the idea of [Moonvalley’s] clean model of an ethically sourced, ethically trained, a legit, proper thing," Ulbrich <a href="https://deadline.com/2025/07/visual-effects-pioneer-ed-ulbrich-moonvalley-exec-post-ai-revolution-1236438695/">told Deadline </a>in an interview. "No stolen pixels, no scraping of the internet. It’s done in a great way. And it is so important that it happened."
Similar projects have been launched in other mediums. In June, a team of over <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-built-ethical-data">two dozen AI researchers</a> trained a large language model (LLM) on openly licensed or public domain data, proving that it doesn't take <a href="https://futurism.com/zuckerberg-books-train-meta-ai-libgen">millions of stolen books</a> to build an AI chatbot.
It was admittedly a ton of work, with the team combing through over eight terabytes of data — <a href="https://askleo.com/a-new-unit-of-measurement/">roughly equal</a> to about 1,685,461 Bibles — once to format everything, and then again to double-check the copyright status of all the material.
The result was an LLM that more or less stacked up to Meta's Llama 1 and 2 7B, which are admittedly a few years old at this point, but impressive nonetheless.
While it remains to be seen if Moonvalley's data truly was publicly licensed, as they claim, it could offer a strong rebuttal to <a href="https://www.techpolicy.press/how-the-emerging-market-for-ai-training-data-is-eroding-big-techs-fair-use-copyright-defense/">big tech's narrative</a> of data shortages and necessary plunder.
More on generative AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/indie-rock-band-velvet-sundown-never-use-ai">"Indie Rock Band" That's Clearly Using AI Claims That "We Never Use AI"</a>

License to Film

"No stolen pixels, no scraping of the internet. It’s done in a great way."

New Video-Generating AI Trained 100 Percent on Public Domain Films

As large language models (LLMs) become ever more integrated into the platforms that define daily life, major flaws in the software's security capabilities are starting to show.
McDonald's is among the <a href="https://futurism.com/companies-bragging-ai-job-applicants">growing list</a> of companies that have quickly shoehorned LLM chatbots into their hiring systems, consequences be damned. Its Paradox.ai-built chatbot, which McDonald's calls a "<a href="https://jobs.mchire.com/">virtual recruiting assistant</a>," goes by the name Olivia.
Olivia is more than happy to help applicants find jobs near them through a fake-live chat, complete with a photo of a human worker to make the whole thing that much more uncanny.
As a chatbot, Olivia's not that remarkable. It ushers job seekers through a maze of incomprehensible personality tests and screening questions, complete with the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1lo9s75/mcdonalds_hiring_ai_is_making_me_go_insane/">infuriating hallucinations</a> one can expect to run into with an LLM.
However, to a hacker who knows how to crack LLMs, Olivia is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered.
As <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/mcdonalds-ai-hiring-chat-bot-paradoxai/">first reported by Wired</a>, Olivia had some astonishing security defects hiding just beneath its faux-human skin. With the right knowledge, a hacker could access the chatlogs of 64 million McDonald's applicants, including personal details, such as full names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, work availability, and raw chat data.
Olivia's jaw-dropping weakness was discovered by cybersecurity researchers Ian Carroll and Sam Curry, who were able to break into the backend of the Paradox.ai LLM using the username and password "123456." From there, the white hat hackers were able to access the AI company's "test restaurant," giving them a glimpse at how the whole thing worked.
"It turned out we had become the administrator of a test restaurant inside the McHire system," Carroll wrote <a href="https://ian.sh/mcdonalds">on his blog</a>. Since they were still confined to Paradox.ai's testing software, the pair decided to apply for one of the trial postings to study the process.
By diving into the code behind the application, they quickly found a parameter indicating their application number, 64,185,742. When they tried to follow the application directly below theirs, they came face to face with another job seeker's personal info, <a href="https://dis-blog.thalesgroup.com/security/2019/05/13/unmasking-data-masking/">unmasked</a> for the whole world to see.
"We quickly realized this [system] allows us to access every chat interaction that has ever applied for a job at McDonald’s," Carroll wrote.
"We immediately began disclosure of this issue once we realized the potential impact," wrote Carroll. "Unfortunately, no disclosure contacts were publicly available and we had to resort to emailing random people."
"The Paradox.ai security page just says that we do not have to worry about security!" he added.
The internal vulnerability has since been patched by Paradox, and the admin password is no longer 123456. Still, it's a crystal clear demonstration of <a href="https://www.the-sun.com/motors/9888857/driver-uses-ai-loophole-buy-new-car-1/">how irresponsible</a> some early LLM adoption has been.
More on hacking: <a href="https://futurism.com/iran-hackers-trump-emails">Iranian Hackers Threaten to Release Stolen Emails From Trump's Inner Circle</a>