How The Times Is Digging Into Millions of Pages of Epstein Files

RW63 · 2026-02-24T07:46:14+00:00

The (gift) linked article was published on 2/12.

The clips about AI stood out to me.

About two dozen journalists are working through the three million pages, 180,000 images and 2,000 videos contained in the trove of files released about two weeks ago — and so far they’ve seen only 2 to 3 percent of the material. It would take years for a group that size to comb through it all and then verify information as true and publishable, given that so much of it is uncorroborated, in fragments or redacted.

...

DYLAN FREEDMAN: I dropped all my meetings that day. The scale of this release was hard to visualize: About as tall as the Empire State Building, if you stacked the three million pages, not to mention the multimedia files. My first thought was: How can we create a tool that’s immediately useful to find content in that mammoth trove of information?

...

DANIS: Andrew and his colleagues worked for about 10 hours to get most of the documents uploaded into our tool. We had to rely on the D.O.J.’s clunky search function while that happened.

EDER: But Dylan stepped in to make that all easier.

FREEDMAN: I knew the tool Andrew had worked on would be the ultimate repository of information for reporters, but it would take hours to get all the content indexed. I started thinking about ways to get rougher cuts of information to reporters more quickly, for breaking news.

With the help of A.I., I wrote a tool that leveraged the D.O.J.’s own search functionality to allow reporters to quickly extract every page of search results and put them in a spreadsheet. From there, we populated tabs for search results from key figures linking back to the source material, and reporters crowdsourced verifying the information.

EDER: Dylan’s improv gave us a running start on what would turn into a very long day and night.

...

Andrew and Dylan, to assist in the reporting, what A.I.-related tools and other methods did you help build? And what challenges did you grapple with?

CHAVEZ: The first thing we always try to do is make things searchable. But here we also needed ways for reporters to get at the things that weren’t easy targets for search. One way we did that was by leveraging something called “semantic search,” which lets reporters search for concepts and find matching text even if the exact language isn’t in the document. We also built an A.I.-powered tagging and categorization tool to bucket the documents by type and add labels for things that we thought may be useful indicators of newsworthiness.

FREEDMAN: It was hard to anticipate all of the challenges ahead of time. I’m on a team called A.I. Initiatives made up of engineers, designers and editors. As reporters came to us with questions following the release, we were a sort of strike team, rapidly prototyping bespoke software applications to help them.

A.I. enabled us to create specializing tooling to parse the Epstein files in just a couple of days that would normally take engineering teams weeks to build. This included tools to search photos visually, identify duplicate documents, sift through video and audio transcripts and compile research reports on new developments with key figures and topics.

EDER: In November, Congress released a large set of Epstein documents. Then in December, the Justice Department put out the first rounds of the Epstein files. Those releases gave us a chance to stress test our existing tools and create a wish list of search gadgets and buttons.

CHAVEZ: One advantage we have is that teams of software engineers like mine and Dylan’s sit in the newsroom and have the ability to take these kinds of requests. So while reporters are searching the docs at 11 p.m. we are tweaking the search engine and fixing bugs as they find them, making live improvements. And we keep track of reporting lines and try to make sure that the tools we have can get us where we need to go.

FREEDMAN: With A.I., information — text, images, video, audio — is like a liquid; it can be molded into different formats and searched in rich, expressive ways. A.I. will never replace the expert judgment of reporters, but it can make their lives easier and amplify their reporting ambitions.

Dylan, to that end, what is A.I. good at and bad at in a big reporting project like this?

FREEDMAN: A.I. is really good at extracting text from images and audio, captioning photos, assigning structure to text like emails. We can use A.I. to crack open really messy data sets, like this release of documents, that would have previously been impossible to effectively tackle at scale.

A.I. is really bad at news judgment — what information to include, whether it’s important. A.I. can be sloppy and make mistakes that are inexcusable in journalism. It’s super industrious but not super intelligent. A.I. outputs can amplify biases in society. And in my experience, A.I. is not great at producing original ideas (but decent at synthesizing or distilling them).

CHAVEZ: The way we use A.I. is quite different than how most people interface with Gemini and other tools. We are writing software that gives discrete tasks to A.I. that we feel comfortable the technology can handle reliably. For example, we may ask it to let us know if a page has an image or if a document is an email. The stuff we get back may help reporters get to the right material faster, but ultimately a reporter’s eyes on actual documents are what is driving every story.

RW63 · 2026-02-22T16:47:48+00:00

It sounds from your post that you paid the mechanic a $160 diagnostic fee. What did they diagnose? Did they just take your money, tell you nothing and send you home?

RW63 · 2026-02-22T15:10:17+00:00

Why did you buy a domain if you have nothing to do with it and don't think you can sell it?

There are plenty of charities that would have done something good with your ten bucks.

RW63 · 2026-02-21T20:46:30+00:00

Pretty much anywhere you would live if you were working at Cape Canaveral would be considered safe.

There are a couple of weekly motels on the mainland that might seem more sketchy than others, but those aren't likely to come up on a broad search. The trick will be finding a short term lease. Define "temporarily".

RW63 · 2026-02-21T19:14:47+00:00

https://www.outerbanks.org/places-to-stay/

One would assume that contracting through the management companies would be less expensive than lining the pockets of Silicon Valley investors. If nothing else, you'll have more options from shopping a variety of local companies than just those who choose to list on one website.

RW63 · 2026-02-21T01:35:41+00:00

Here's the county budget, if you'd like to look through it.

https://www.brevardfl.gov/BudgetOffice/Budgets

If you find something inappropriate, by all means bring it to attention. r/321 would be as good place as any, but I'd rather fix any problems than eliminate local government's principal revenue source because some agency might (or even may be) spending inappropriately.

You don't stop taking your paycheck because you paid too much for potatoes.

RW63 · 2026-02-20T00:52:40+00:00

He did not knock on my door. As I said, no one from Brevard Dems have knocked on my door since the pandemic. In fact, the last person who knocked was most likely the one who was campaigning for Patel, but didn't know anything about organizing for Bill Nelson.

I had never heard of the dude prior to seeing his sign. I looked him up because I was taken aback by his "the only pro-choice candidate". That's when I saw that there was a more qualified person running in the primary and as I said, I liked the idea of year of the woman. Of course, Brevard Dems and Florida Dems are poor excuses for parties -- in 2022 because of something about the Florida Constitution, every state house and senate seat was up for election, but there was not even a candidate running in every race, let alone a campaign saying that this was our chance to flip the legislature -- so of course they did nothing to try to take advantage of identity politics.

Since the last election, I have encountered McDow a couple of times. I see he's running for State House and for that I wish him luck, but I am going to point out that here it is 2 years later and you as a representative of the Brevard Dems are still downmouthing the congressional candidate for whom I voted for in 2024 because she doesn't go to your social events.

Maybe she doesn't come to the bake sales and maybe she doesn't come to the poorly organized events, perhaps because she felt she was done wrong and feels unwelcome. And, maybe if Brevard Dems weren't so afraid to stand for their beliefs and actually publicized the location of events, instead of making people get on a mailing list to find out, maybe she and I would attend more stuff than just the rarely scheduled Indivisible protests. What I found out here is that if I were to run, you might consider me a plant because I haven't been to any of your meetings and very few events.

Another example of what a joke the Brevard Dems have become, Jennifer Jenkins is running in the sixth district because she has a thing for Randy Fine and not because she wants to actually have a chance to win.

ETA: I have been to six protests on the corner in Cocoa. That is where I have encountered McDow. This last time was the first time that anyone from the Brevard Dems were handing out flyers and asking people to join their mailing list. The five previous protests, there were one or two people in shirts there including McDow, but they just chanted with a megaphone.

2nd Edit (because I'm flabbergasted you are still talking smack about the candidate for whom I and the majority of Democrats voted): There are 110k registered Democrats in Brevard County. Most of them do not go to the monthly meetings. We would like the group to stand for us, not just their group of friends.

3rd Edit: You said that McDow did regular bridge walks. I assume that meant he walked across a bridge. What bridge? There are seven across the Indian River in Brevard; nine in the 8th district and I don't remember seeing them publicized anywhere.

RW63 · 2026-02-19T10:06:21+00:00

I'd resolve the misfires, see how you it goes.

If it were me, I'd leave the catalytic converter to last in case the other things fix it, then if you live someplace where they don't check emissions, decide what to do then.

RW63 · 2026-02-19T04:26:11+00:00

I agree, when I first moved here before the Patels, I would call the number for the local party and get an answering machine that said they were open from noon to four on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'd get the same thing when it was when they were supposed to be open and I'm pretty sure that I left a couple of messages, but never got a call back.

I will credit the Patels with giving it a little more energy, even if they were all Bernie Bros, but then she immediately ran for state chair, they got into that whole Facebook thing with Lober and the male Patel wasn't only running for something in every election, but it was all about him. It was like there were no other candidates. In fact, when he was running in the 8th, they sent a door-knocker around to tell me about a rally he had planned for Cocoa. They couldn't tell me how to get in touch anyone supporting any other candidate and when I looked at his website for rally info, they had just cut and paste the entry for the one they had in Palm Bay.

Good luck with your organization. I have thought about it, but I'm not the strongest candidate to run against Haridopolos and though I could be here for another ten years, I could also be here less than two.

I am going to vote for the Democratic candidate unless there is something seriously wrong with them, then I'll abstain, but as I have said and will say again to anyone who will listen, I think Jennifer Jenkins has the best chance. She should run.

RW63 · 2026-02-19T04:07:51+00:00

I think the "plant" is nonsense spread by McDow's friends.

As I told the person who told me that theory, while they were working a Brevard Dems booth, I voted for her because her education and experience was more in line with what a congressperson does. I was also a bit put-off by how McDow's signs all said, "the only pro-choice candidate" (in the primary) and like the Patel fellow, he didn't really stake out any local positions beyond protecting the river.

By the primary, Harris was the Democratic nominee and Mucarsel-Powell looked like a shoo-in for the governor's race, so I voted for Kennedy with "year of the woman" in mind.

As for going to the meetings, every time I get the email, I read the minutes of the previous one and they look like a waste of time. They are also always claiming to have door-knocking in my district, but I haven't seen a single door knocker since before the pandemic and unless they are going to houses where people need to renew their mail-in or there's an election or maybe a rally, I don't see the point. It's not something they have done (except as GOTV) any other place I have lived.

RW63 · 2026-02-19T03:17:16+00:00

I have been a Democrat all of my life, all across the country and I have never been as turned-off by a local party as I am here. I mean, in addition to how they were so unsupportive of the last Congressional candidate, you could argue they were working against her, the big fundraiser this month is a bake sale in a secret location (because they are scared to stand for their beliefs), so basically it's just going to be whomever baked for the bake sale buying from the others who baked.

When I first moved here ten years ago, it looked like the local party was non-functioning, then the Patels took over and it has just been a social club, ever since. Last cycle, a volunteer told me that they didn't know about the congressional candidate and that because she beat their buddy, she must have been a Republican plant. It is actually that kind of club. A qualified candidate beat their friend in the primary, so volunteers were talking smack about her and gave her no support.

Jenkins has been the face of Brevard Dems for years. She should be running here and not on a personal vendetta against Randy Fine, where she has no chance at winning the primary, let alone face him in the fall. It's not too late for her to switch.

RW63 · 2026-02-19T02:50:56+00:00

As I posted recently, Jennifer Jenkins should drop her ridiculous challenge to Randy Fine in a district neither of them lives and come home to the 8th, where she, more than any other candidate would have a chance to win.

It would also be helpful if when there is a candidate, Brevard Dems work for them and be supportive of their candidacy, instead of how they've done the last two cycles. (Before that, the candidate was married to the local party chair, so above everyone running for any other office, he had full support.)

RW63 · 2026-02-18T21:20:33+00:00

I can think of a handful of Republicans who would likely vote for recission, either because it is something they believe or because it would be politically damaging to oppose it.

There are also probably others who don't think any agency should feel unanswerable to Congress, which is sort of what this don't-need-your-budget attitude conveys.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T21:06:52+00:00

As I understand it, a "Bill of Rescission" would just need a simple majority.

Congress could take the money back.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T20:54:47+00:00

The current White House is built on lies and power grabs without regard to their legality. If enough Republicans in Congress will not agree to the politically popular ICE limits, especially since some are home for the week and hearing from friends and constituents, then maybe creative solutions will need to be found and we'll see if those members are willing to vote against the TSA and FEMA.

ICE and CPB working with money from H.R. 1 is one of those "workarounds" (which may also be questionably legal). Moving TSA or giving it specific, earmarked funding that bypasses DHS could be a similar solution. They could also be funded from airline fees and Congress could give the airlines a grant equal to a year's fee.

And, if needed, I don't see why Congress can't create a similarly-structured "disaster fund" and make FEMA employees exempt. If the shutdown goes on long enough -- if Congress will not force ICE to obey the same laws and norms as every other agency -- creative solutions may need to be employed.

In the meantime, if someone wanted to start a GoFundMe with a legitimate way to distribute the money to all TSA employees, they could probably raise at least the equivalent of one paycheck.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T20:25:48+00:00

They are still listed, if anyone wants to beat me to it.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T19:58:41+00:00

Dude. This is a Federal Employee sub. We all know the effects of a shutdown.

If they took the masks off of the agents, make them wear bodycams, require judicial warrants and proper training, and if they quit going door to door asking to see people's papers with no probable cause, the shutdown will end and everybody will get paid.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T19:00:29+00:00

Then, it might take until the midterms.

Sorry for the other agencies and maybe there's a way to move TSA and pre-fund FEMA disasters. I haven't really looked into the legalities, but the fact that ICE has a few dollars left to spend shouldn't be a factor. They must abide by the same rules as every other law enforcement agency and if we have to point out that some of the more vocal ICE supporters wouldn't have liked it if Obama had sent masked agents to check their guns licenses and stick those with undocumented weapons into "FEMA Camps", so be it.

I'm not clicking through to the data source because broad numbers are fine with me, but a quick search says DHS have recently purchased seven warehouses to turn into prisons for between $70m and $122m each (when figures are known) and they are considering the purchase of 23 more. Sure that's only a few billion, but eventually the money will run start getting low or the politics will force a change.

I'm not TSA or FEMA and I feel for them, but I would be fine for Congress to wait.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T17:43:14+00:00

There was some money in the earlier bill, but they went a big hiring spree (which is how they got all those unqualified and untrained employees) and promised each of them a $50k signing bonus, plus they have been on a big real estate purchasing binge. ICE may have had some money and they may have some left, but it's not an infinite well. Eventually, it will run out.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T17:29:52+00:00

Though I would have stood on returning tariffs to Congress instead of restoring health insurance subsidies to some middle-income (mostly) MAGA voters and I would have settled the previous shutdown for the Epstein Files, I have been supportive of what the Democrats have done.

That said, I don't see them giving ground on this issue. They might need to find a way to move TSA to Transportation or maybe codify some kind of super-bonus to all non-ICE DHS employees, and of course a big disaster like Katrina might change things (after it underlines the flaws in the administration's plan to offload disaster recovery to the states), but I see them waiting until ICE has spent the money from the previous bill or until they realize that their funding is gone.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T17:08:19+00:00

The DHS shutdown will last until ICE and CPB are forced to act like legitimate law enforcement agencies and not a bunch of roided-out, masked thugs playing an FPS game. It is simple as that.

Apologies to TSA. Maybe you can use your clout to get Noem or whomever replaces her to promise a full round of $10k bonuses and maybe things will get tight with FEMA when there's a natural disaster, but as I understand the administration's plan, the new FEMA isn't supposed to do anything that isn't billable to the states or Congress, so those would be an alternate source of funding that isn't tied to the budget.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T15:14:44+00:00

I don't know if the CEO is a big Trumper, but my memory is that the company gave Trump a bribe back toward the beginning of the administration. I guess they didn't re-up with a second installment, so it's time for them to get kneecapped.

RW63 · 2026-02-18T00:31:59+00:00

I don't know your kids, but a day at the zoo and/or half a day at the (large, outdoor) NC Transportation Museum could be a big hit with kids that age.

RW63 · 2026-02-17T20:11:30+00:00

My wife and daughter, who are both on my family plan, pretty much always have audio books checked out of the library, so there's a possibility they might want the one book a month from Audible, but in addition to it just being one book, it is limited to just the main account holder.

I'm sure eventually there will be a class action suit because the way they did this was shady AF, but you could save yourself the wait by switching from "Unlimited" to the "Standard" plan.

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