 | Edition 2460 |
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The News |
Australia wants all our public servants to use AI as much as our national security chief does |
The federal government is giving every public servant access to a generative AI chatbot to try supercharge its uptake (AFR, $). Yesterday, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher released the Australian Public Service AI plan (Finance Department). The plan includes giving everyone access to a government AI platform chatbot called — what else — GovAI Chat and for every department to appoint a chief AI officer. |
But we already know that AI is being used in the government: |
Friend of the Sizzle Josh Taylor reported for the Guardian that the NDIA is already using machine learning to help develop NDIS plans. And, in an Australian first, I used FOI to get hold of the Department of Home Affairs’ national security chief’s Microsoft Copilot logs (Crikey, $) which showed how he was using it to ghost-write speeches, to write messages to colleagues and “first drafts” of “intergovernmental” communications 👀 .
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 | so funny to just see this written |
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The Sizzle: Oh great, another big, fat government policy document about AI uptake 🙄 . It’s funny that one of the Department of Home Affairs’ reasons to exempt some documents from being released to me was because they feared that exposing AI chat logs would discourage public servants from using it. I can understand why — but the idea that there’s oversight into your use of a technology seems to be a pretty reasonable expectation to me! Maybe that’s being too idealistic but, hear me out, maybe we should know how public servants are using this new tool — complete with its own biases and problems — to decide what our government is doing. |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Valve is getting back into the console wars |
A decade after Valve’s first attempt flopped, the gaming platform (and occasional game maker) is getting back in the game — literally — with new gaming hardware (Verge). Valve is releasing the Steam Machine, a gaming PC running its Linux-based SteamOS that’s essentially an Xbox or Playstation competitor (Polygon). It’s also dropped a wacky looking controller and, perhaps most intriguingly, a VR headset called the Steam Frame that can run games locally or actually stream gameplay directly from a gaming platform using a proprietary wireless dongle (Verge). Prices and release dates aren’t clear yet, but it’s expected it’ll be in 2026 (PC Gamer). |
The Sizzle: I bet you the folks at Xbox HQ aren’t stoked about more competition! |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Is it helpful to report obscure bugs and not help fix them? |
There’s been an interesting fight brewing in the open source community: the people who run the video processing software FFmpeg project (which is used by pretty much every major media player) have complained about Google reporting bugs to them (The New Stack). Weird, right? Well, their problem is that Google has launched a new AI agent that is finding incredibly niche bugs (“an issue with decoding LucasArts Smush codec, specifically the first 10-20 frames of Rebel Assault 2, a game from 1995”). |
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FFmpeg says that it’s not at all useful to be told about these issues while projects like this are run by unpaid volunteers. Massive companies relying on free resources that they do nothing/very little to assist is nothing new — but it seems like making an AI that inundates people with very esoteric problems is pushing people closer to the breaking point. |
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Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Leftovers |
Australia: |
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Rest of the world: |
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Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
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Oh, Also |
A rebuttal to the dead internet theory |
With bots now everywhere, you may have heard about the “dead internet theory” which is the idea that most of the stuff you see online is coming from non-alive things. In response, someone called Spencer has built a project using the Internet Archive that proves that “the internet will always be filled with real people”. |
 | whatever you think about this you can’t deny it’s alive |
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Hard to explain, but worth a try! |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
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Bargains |
Electrical & Electronics |
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Computing |
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Mobile |
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The End |
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius. |
🤖 We love robots at the Sizzle but this newsletter has always been and will always be written by humans for humans. Also by Aussies for Aussies — so all prices are in dollarydoos, of course. |
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Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land |
The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present. |
