Zoë Schiffer: Deviance and freaks, the brand new identify of our podcast. And that is, I imply, simply going again to pink teaming, that is work {that a} belief and security group usually does. And people groups—
Leah Feiger: We do not have these anymore.
Zoë Schiffer: They don’t seem to be as large as they was. There’s simply not as a lot work. So yeah, I imply, will probably be attention-grabbing to see how this performs out. Clearly inside Meta, we have been speaking to people this week who form of met the information with SI. The corporate has simply laid off a big portion of the workforce. We have written about that. We have talked about that. And I checked in with folks being like, “Properly, how’s it going now?” The hack was form of an excuse to speak to folks, see how they’re doing. And so they’re like, “I imply, as you’d count on, we’re requested to do two jobs now as a substitute of on.” So you may think about how that is enjoying out.
Brian Barrett: I additionally, we have been speaking about AI regulation earlier and all this emphasis on nationwide safety and these excessive degree issues, however once more, not as a lot on shopper going through merchandise, which might be should you had say some kind of bureau that taken care of shopper funds and defending that, that may be useful to have on this second as properly. We used to have a type of. Technically, I assume we nonetheless do, probably not. So all of this broader deregulation is coming at this second when the instruments that have been as soon as out there usually are not. These new instruments are very fallible. We’ll see much more of this.
Leah Feiger: Can I convey us to a subject that has nothing to do with AI, guys?
Brian Barrett: Please.
Zoë Schiffer: Wow. I did not know one existed, however sure, go off, queen.
Brian Barrett: Additionally, I feel we are able to most likely attempt to discover a option to tie it again in.
Zoë Schiffer: We are able to. We are able to.
Leah Feiger: No, completely not. Properly, OK. This story is one thing that now we have been enthusiastic about, overlaying, taking a look at for a very long time, however it’s all a few DOGE whistleblower who simply filed a lawsuit in opposition to Elon Musk. This all actually began final 12 months. On April 14th, 2025, Dan Berulis, an IT staffer on the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, the NLRB, filed a whistleblower grievance with a large declare. He mentioned that DOGE had compromised the company’s knowledge and seemed to be exfiltrating it out of the NLRB.
Archival audio: A whistleblower is coming ahead with claims that DOGE not solely accessed knowledge from his company, but additionally took a considerable quantity of delicate knowledge with them. In accordance with a disclosure shared with Congress, “Round 10 gigabytes of knowledge, the equal of a full stack of encyclopedia is value if somebody printed these recordsdata as exhausting copy paperwork.”
Leah Feiger: This was a large declare, particularly similtaneously you guys very a lot bear in mind, DOGE groups have been firing federal employees and accessing delicate knowledge throughout the nation. We have been within the peak of this final 12 months in April. Berulis went public in an NPR article. His identify was hooked up to it and he claimed a threatening be aware had been taped to his door and he was already scared about talking out. Quick-forward a little bit bit, Berulis has now filed a defamation lawsuit in a DC court docket in opposition to Elon Musk. He mentioned that Musk made him a goal of additional violence by falsely stating that Berulis’s whistleblower declare in opposition to DOGE was pretend. This can be a actually intense declare for a wide range of causes and what this all actually harkens again to is Musk final 12 months re-sharing an expose from a right-wing influencer claiming that DOGE had been cleared and that this whistleblower’s testimony was pretend mainly. After that occurred—
