Plus: Don't ask. Just click play. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

October 29, 2025 | Read online
# The 'robot guy' era begins, police target COM and OpenAI gets what it wanted Plus: Don't ask. Just click play.
Edition 2449
"computer time" (Flickr: hmong_goose)
# The News
### We’re entering the robot guy era
Good news for those of you with dreams of having a sweater-wearing, human-sized robot doing chores excruciatingly slowly in your house! US company 1X Technologies has announced Neo, the “first consumer-ready humanoid robot design to transform life at home” (PCMag).
wow that house is so clean there’s nothing in it anymore!
It’s 5'6’’, weighs about 30KG, and is dextrous enough to do tasks like getting a bottle of water from a fridge, folding a shirt or putting things into a dishwasher. You can use voice or an app to control it, and Neo will figure out how to do the task using AI or… call in a remote staff member in a VR headset somewhere to control it...! All this for just about $30k Australian outright, or $750 of rent a month, to be delivered by 2026 — if you get accepted into their program.
The Sizzle: OK, so obviously I don’t love the idea of “random company employees surveilling controlling human-like machine in my house” even if it does have features like automatically blurring faces before video is transmitted. And it’s insanely expensive and slow. WSJ’s Joanna Stern has a great hands-on piece.
But… I feel like we’re finally here! This is a legit humanoid robot that appears to have the physical ability to do actual household tasks. Prices will come down. The big question is whether our current paradigm of AI capabilities puts us a straight line of progression towards truly unmanned robots in the home that can do all these tasks without supervision — or whether we’re still waiting for another breakthrough. I’m not worried about a humanoid robot scanning my home any more than a Roomba.
I Tried the First Humanoid Home Robot. It Got Weird. | WSJ
Although, as the boys at the Down Round podcast often say, the idea of buying some guy just to be in our house will take a bit of getting used to. Would you like a robot guy? Let me know!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Police are targeting online COM child abuse groups
Australian federal police will target online networks of men who are radicalising young children into violence against themselves and others, its new chief says (ABC News). AFP commissioner Krissy Barrett says “sadistic” online groups “gamifying abuse” in online spaces like Roblox are the focus of a new taskforce (SMH, $). It seems as though she’s talking about COM groups which are the decentralised, international and loose networks that have been linked to school shootings and other horrific violence (FBI).
The Sizzle: I’ve been writing a lot about the teen social media ban and how there’s pretty spotty evidence that it’s going to help young Australians. That doesn’t mean I’m not really worried about what young people are experiencing online. It’s shocking to think that 1 in 10 Australian teens have been sextorted (eSafety). We know there are extremist groups who are trying to use online spaces to recruit young people. Australian authorities have been sounding the alarm about how many of the people they’re investigating are very young. I’m really glad this problem is being taken seriously and not to beat a dead horse can’t help but think that making it naughty for teens to go on social media is going to send them into unregulated spaces and make them less likely to reach out for help if they do get into trouble .
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### OpenAI gets what it wanted
OpenAI has gotten what it wanted and will complete its for-profit transformation (WSJ, gift link). After nearly a year of hurdles, the ChatGPT-maker has officially turned its existing non-profit subsidiary into a “public good corporation” controlled by OpenAI non-profit (OpenAI). All it had to do to achieve this is to extend Microsoft’s exclusive rights to its creations until 2032 and promise to buy $380B of Azure credits, and pinky-promise that its for-profit arm will never put profits ahead of safety (CA AG). And in return, it’s about to get a lot easier for OpenAI to access cash — as if that was an issue — and for its employees to cash out. Oh, and, probably not a coincidence that Altman says he’s hoping to start spending $1.5 trillion a year on infrastructure now (Axios).
Further reading: OpenAI Gets Their Cake and Microsoft Gets Their Stake (Spyglass)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Tech giants hold their copyright line after government rebuke (Australian Financial Review, $) AirTrunk inks $4.5b Saudi data centre deal, plans more expansion (Australian Financial Review, $) A popular electronics company doing under the table deals with online reviewers (ABC Media Watch) Chinese and Russian tech scrubbed from govt supply chains (InnovationAus, $) Python Software Foundation Shows Everyone What Integrity Looks Like (PivotNine)
Rest of the world:
A year from now, Chrome will ask for the user's permission before the first access to any public site without HTTPS (Google Security Blog) Samsung makes ads on $3,499 smart fridges official with upcoming software update (Ars Technica) JPMorgan offers staff AI chatbot to help write performance reviews (Financial Times, $) 'There isn't really another choice:' Signal chief explains why the encrypted messenger relies on AWS (The Verge) The AirPods Pro 3 Flight Problem (Basic Apple Guy) Apple's Services expected to top $100 billion annually — for now (AppleInsider) GenAI Image Editing Showdown Grokipedia and the Coup Against Reality Itself (The Dissident) Fedora Linux 43 Now Available For Download (Phoronix) Optical drive I bought on AliExpress had a little surprise in it... (Reddit) The bench at my local Mac maintenance store (Reddit)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Don’t ask. Just click play
If you gave me a million dollars, I couldn’t tell you how I ended up here — but it’s worth it.
Slug Eating Spaghetti Time Lapse (With Stopwatch Timer)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
OPPO SUPERVOOC 80W Charger (Eco Packaging) - $24.95 at OPPO Apple MagSafe Charger (2m) - $69 at Amazon AU Brother PT-D610BT Desktop Label Maker/Printer - $142 at Officeworks Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer (Gen 1) - $329 at Western Eyez (Save $160 off RRP!)
Computing
Rapoo EV250 Silent Vertical Ergonomic Mouse - $22.79 at LH-Rapoo-US-DirectStore Amazon AU HP Omen 27q 27" QHD IPS Gaming Monitor at HP Official Store eBay 165Hz for $239.20 27q G2 180Hz for $279.20 Bosgame Mini PC Win11 AMD Ryzen 5 16GB Ddr4 512GB SSD - $285 at Amazon AU AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D 5.5GHz AM5 12-Cores 24-Threads - $764 at australianseller-2013 eBay Intel Core i3-13100F, RTX 5050, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB SSD Gaming PC - $899 at G-ONE Computer
Mobile
30-Day 10GB Prepaid Mobile - $15 at E.Tel Oppo Reno refurbs at Phonebot Oppo Reno8 for $229 Reno8 Pro for $259 Reno10 for $319 Reno9 for $329 Reno10 Pro for $369
# The End
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