| Issue 2302 - Monday 31 March 2025 | Hello and happy Monday! Two quick things. | Forum emails are working again so please sign up to the forum, reset your password or fiddle with email alerts to your heart’s content. Thank you to Daniel, Samuel and James who all sent me a screenshot of their AI bots recommending the Sizzle; and no thanks to Ben who showed me ChatGPT 4o suggesting a competitor.
| | The News | Elon Musk offloads X to his xAI company, sticking his AI company’s investors with his stinky social media company | You could be forgiven for looking at the headline “Elon Musk’s xAI firm buys social media platform X for $33bn” (The Guardian) and thinking, gee, Elon’s wiggled his way out of trouble again. But a little context casts this move — which, btw, I predicted a month ago (Bluesky) — as looking desperate.
Tesla stock is down significantly, which has people wondering when there’ll be margin calls on the stocks used as collateral for the $12 billion loan he used to buy Twitter (Newsweek). (Margin calls are when your broker says “hey, you need to have more money/whatever you’re using as collateral because it’s looking more likely you might need it”). Last week, X’s head of engineering left (The Verge). Now, Elon Musk has “bought” X using xAI stock which values the social network Very Coincidentally at the exact same amount Musk bought it for ($45 billion minus the $12 debt used to buy it). Where do these two valuations come from? They “were determined during negotiations between the two musk arms, which had the same advisors” (WSJ, $). TLDR: Musk offloaded his stinky social network by lumping it into his hot AI startup at an inflated value so he could save face and spread his losses to his AI investors. TBH, not a bad option if it’s available… | Election shenanigans have already begun… | The starting pistol has only just gone off and already some of the political players are doing some election trickery. Both the Coalition and Labor have brought back their faux postal vote application websites which look and sound like they’d help you sign up for a postal vote but… instead farm your details for their parties. This is an old trick that goes back to physical mailers, but was digitised a while back (Guardian Australia). |  | Both major parties’ fake postal vote websites |
| Similarly, both parties sent out text messages promoting these websites. As it turns out, you don’t need to put your electoral authorisation — this is authorised by Cam Wilson, 1 Sizzle Lane, New Sizzle Wales — on a text message as long as it’s in the website that you link to. As always, if you see anything like this, please send me an email or Signal message! | Oracle got hacked. Not that hack, which they deny. I’m talking about another hack. | Oracle’s healthcare division appears to have suffered a cyberattack in which hackers stole patient data (Reuters). The FBI is now investigating what appears to be a scheme to extort medical providers, and it’s not known how many patients and providers have been affected. Confusingly, this is a separate incident to the purported Oracle Cloud hack which I’ve posted a few stories about in last week’s Leftovers. Cybersecurity firms say they’re getting ready to treat the other breach as real (Cybersecurity Dive). Researchers continue to turn up evidence suggesting that the Oracle Cloud hack could be real (The Register) but Oracle has remained steadfast: no hacking here, they say. | Leftovers | TikTok shuts down more than 200 accounts targeting students in Sydney (Daily Telegraph, $) Australia’s Age Assurance Technology Trial solidifies list of participants, adds Google (Biometric Update) eSafety statement: eSafety to appeal Administrative Review Tribunal finding (eSafety) The offshore wind debate could influence this federal election and it's already an 'absolute blood-fest' (ABC News) Apple Readies Its Biggest Push Into Health Yet With New AI Doctor (Bloomberg, archived) Kink and LGBT dating apps exposed 1.5m private user images online (BBC) Samsung’s 2025 Bespoke appliances are going all in on AI (Engadget) Agencies found to be using Kaspersky despite adverse advice (InnovationAus, $) Bloomberg Has a Rocky Start With A.I. Summaries (NYT, $) Beyond Bluesky: These are the apps building social experiences on the AT Protocol (TechCrunch) FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado (Ars Technica)
| | Oh, Also | What it means if your company gives you a Lenovo Thinkpad | This TikTok contains more insight than 80% of business columns and segments I’ve read and seen (Bluesky mirror). |  | Watch now on TikTok | @1sugelight | #jobsecurity #laptop #lenovo #thinkpad #lenovothinkpad |
|
|
| | Bargains | Electrical & Electronics | | Computing | | Mobile | | | The End | 😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius. | 🗣️ Have any feedback, a tip or just want to chat? Send me an email or Signal message. I promise to reply! | 💬 Want to hang out with other Sizzlers? There’s a subscriber-only Slack server and forum if you want to procrastinate and chat about tech-related news. | 🗣️ The Sizzle is on Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn if you’re feeling social. | 💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the Beehiiv customer portal. | 🎁 Make someone's day and gift them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle. | 💔 Don’t want this any more? I won’t take it personally. There’s a unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email or here’s a guide. | 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. |
|
