The News

Wikipedia could come under the teen social media ban which seems not ideal

The Australian arm of the Wikipedia Foundation thinks that the online encyclopedia could be technically part of the teen social media ban, saying that it has been unable to get official confirmation from the government to the contrary (Crikey, $). While the government has focused on major social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook as the intended subjects of its ban, the legislation’s definition says that any platform with a sole or primary purpose of connecting users is supposed to comply. Wikimedia Australia, which represents and supports Australian Wikipedia users, says it believes that it’s possible that the Wiki platforms are “in scope” and, despite having spoken to various government bodies, has yet to receive anything official that would deem it to be free from the requirements to ban children under sixteen and to check the ages of its users — or face up to a $49.5 million fine.

The Sizzle: I’ll give the government the benefit of the doubt and say that it seems unlikely that the law was written to include Wikipedia, or that it will be interpreted that way. That’s easy for me to say — but for someone who runs something like Wikipedia, a footy forum, an online forum for an Australian tech newsletter? All things that might qualify but seem unlikely to be the target of enforcement? This law, intentionally written to be broad and give the government discretion over a fast-changing space, is a huge, if unlikely, risk for a lot of people who run online spaces that we cherish.

As I’ve been saying time and time again: even if you agree with the intentions or even the mechanism of the ban, you should still be concerned that it’s being done in such a haphazard way.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Meta does the inevitable to its AI chatbot

Meta will start using user conversations with its AI products to target them with advertisements (WSJ, gift link). Starting December 16, Meta will “personalise” its advertisements based on people’s chats with its AI services, excluding conversations on topics including religion, politics, sexual orientation, health and race. This won’t roll out in the UK, South Korea or EU — not clear about Australia.

The Sizzle: This is the least surprising thing ever, but I can’t say I’m not feeling a bit grim that this moment has come to fruition. We’re officially at a new frontier with AI: extracting everything from what feels like a private conversation with something meant to feel like a human companion. I’m on the record offering a defence of the ad-supported internet and content generally: it has supported the creation and distribution of a lot of great stuff. But the incentives of ad-supported AI chatbots are pretty scary. As in, it makes complete business sense to create a product that not only encourages you to spend lots of time on it, but also divulge your every thought and intention. That is a pathway to a scary, scary future.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Should Australia have an official ‘social media referee’?

Australia should have a “social media referee” to take on customer complaints with social media platforms — and the telco regulator is volunteering to set it up (SmartCompany). The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has joined others in calling for an independent social media platform ombudsperson to investigate user claims that they had been unfairly blocked or treated by these platforms. The TIO already gets heaps of complaints about these platforms, it says, and so would happily set up a “scalable, consumer-focused (external dispute resolution scheme) for digital platforms”.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Leftovers

Australia:

Rest of the world:

Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Oh, Also

I can’t believe Microsoft didn’t do this to its AI chatbot

Microsoft is rolling out “Portraits” — aka digital avatars — as the face of its AI chatbot product Copilot (The Verge). That’s fine, I guess, but my real issue with this whole announcement is:

Where’s Clippy?

I find the idea of AI avatars vaguely creepy. I don’t actually want to think of AI as a human, because it’s not and that’s psychotic. In fact, I think this is the company pulling at our emotions so it can juice revenue.

And yet, all of that would melt away if Microsoft just brought back Clippy as its Copilot avatar. I don’t want to give the bad guys a good idea… but, you gotta admit, Clippy AI assistant would go so hard. Turns out that other people are on the same wavelength. So, let me ask again.

Where’s Clippy?

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Bargains

Electrical & electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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