Plus: If you’re reading this, your degree has been revoked ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

October 08, 2025 | Read online
# OpenAI doing everything, Google AI mode comes to Australia & AN0M is legal Plus: If you’re reading this, your degree has been revoked
Edition 2434
"It's a surprisingly small thing considering when it came from. Most home computers back then were much larger. Then again, most of them had full-sized keyboards and were a little more complex than this thing. It doesn't even have sound." (Flickr: fyberoptic)
# The News
### What is OpenAI?
OpenAI is not not merely a company that sells people access to its fun little chatbot (that occasionally turns people psychotic). It’s already — or plans to become — all of the following:
An enterprise provider of AI models and compute. A government contractor with clients including the Australian federal government as I first reported this morning at Crikey. A builder and mass consumer of data centres with AU$1.5 trillion of deals signed this year (Reuters). A new attempt at being the “everything app” now that developers can build their own apps inside ChatGPT as a platform (The Verge). Social network — as well as mass deepfake creator and copyright violator — with its Sora 2 videos (Guardian). A jobs platform a la Linkedin or Seek and a training provider (TechCrunch). A personal assistant and news gatherer with its ChatGPT Pulse that will proactively ping you with information (Bleeping Computer). An ad network (Sources). A device-maker if Jony Ive can deal with the “series of technical issues” that are afflicting its creation (Ars Technica). An e-commerce ticket clipper with the launch of a feature that allows users to buy from the ChatGPT platform (CNBC) A “good” dealmaker and stock market hype arbittragueur (Bloomberg’s Matt Levin has a good explanation). And a bunch of stuff that I’ve presumably forgotten.
That’s a lot of stuff in the OpenAI org chart. When you look at their finances, the shape of OpenAI becomes a bit more clear: Based on what’s been reported, OpenAI still makes the vast majority of its income through ChatGPT subscriptions. API access kicks in a bit more. The rest of the functions? It either doesn’t exist or isn’t yet bringing in money in any ways other than funnelling back to subs.
But there’s one other number on that spreadsheet explains exactly why all those other things exist: AU$6.5 billion. That’s the amount of revenue that OpenAI booked in the first half of 2025 per the Information. That’s less than the AU$10.2 billion it spent just to keep the lights on. It’s certainly less than tens of billions of dollars it has raised so far, or the hundreds of billions it’s committed to projects in the future.
The fact that OpenAI needs to make a lot of money is hardly news. Some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies have been unprofitable right until the moment that they became very profitable. But I think it puts all these madcap plans to revolutionise every type of commerce into context. OpenAI doesn’t think it will win in each of these arenas, but it makes sense for it to buy as many lottery tickets as possible in the hope that one pays off.
The image that keeps coming to mind is Gromit, from Wallace and Gromit, desperately building a toy train track in front of him as he rides a train along it:
Gromit placing tracks for 1 hour
Sam Altman and OpenAI keep throwing out more plans, borrowing more money, just to get to the next idea and fundraising round. At this point, they’re too big to fail — right?
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Google’s AI search mode comes to Australia
Google is rolling out its chatbot interface for search in Australia, meaning that local searchers will start getting answers rather than the traditional ten blue links (Google blog). After first being rolled out in the US earlier this year, now Australians visiting Google will have the option to use “AI mode”. This new feature will combine different web searches, analyse photos, and serve up an AI response.
Meet AI Mode - Try a whole new way to search
This expands on the “AI Overviews” panels that show at the top of traditional search. An ABC News article published to coincide with the launch of AI mode shows that traffic to Australian publishers has plummeted since the introduction of AI overviews, which remove the need for someone searching something to click through to the information source.
Looks bad!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### It’s not illegal wiretapping if you can convince parliament to pass a law retrospectively making it legal
A High Court challenge to Australian police’s use of data from secret honeypot messaging app has failed (High Court PDF). Earlier this year, two South Australian alleged bikies legally challenged the admissibility of messages obtained through a supposedly encrypted messaging app that was secretly run by the AFP and FBI, claiming it was unlawfully intercepted (ABC News). The High Court unanimously found that a law passed by the parliament during the appeal process that retroactively made all AN0M messages legal confirmed that the evidence was admissible, and rejected the claim that it was an unconstitutional law.
The Sizzle: No one is going to shed any tears that alleged criminals caught using AN0M will not be able to challenge key evidence used in their prosecutions. But it is darkly funny that, facing questions whether AN0M was legal or not, parliament just passed a law that more or less said, simply, “whether or not this was lawfully obtained, it’s legal now” (Guardian). Not great lawmaking — let’s hope it doesn’t become a habit!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Policy Advisory: Official Information – Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Protective Security Policy Framework) ”A Treasury review says Australia’s consumer laws are equipped to respond to many of the harms arising from artificial intelligence, and in some instances offer better protections than comparable jurisdictions overseas.” (InnovationAus, $) Govt can’t pin down the bots it says are upending FOI (InnovationAus, $) Apple’s Qld-born camera chief shares iPhone photography revolution secrets (The Australian, $)
Rest of the world:
Gemini can now use your computer (Google) NYSE Owner Near Deal for $2 Billion Stake in Polymarket (The Wall Street Journal, $) This can only end well What TikTok’s algorithm does to your brain (The Washington Post, $) Disrupting malicious uses of AI by state-affiliated covert influence operators (OpenAI) Australia mentioned! (but not for bad reasons) California passes law to quiet down those incredibly loud streaming service ads (The Verge) Police Said They Surveilled Woman Who Had an Abortion For Her 'Safety.' Court Records Show They Considered Charging Her With a Crime. (404 Media) Become Unbannable From Your Email/Gmail (Karboosx) Alternative app store AltStore raises $6M, connects with the fediverse (TechCrunch) Can you remotely unjam my printer? (Reddit)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### If you’re reading this, your degree has been revoked
Western Sydney University students have been bombarded with scam emails claiming that their degrees have been revoked or that they’ve been kicked out of university (Cyber Daily). It sounds as though these emails have phishing links in them, and they’ve been linked to WSU’s previous hacks. Even people who say they graduated 15 years ago have been getting the emails too (feels like one of those recurring nightmares I have)!
Uni Degree revoked : r/AskAcademia
www.reddit.com/r/AskAcademia/comments/1nzdl48/uni_degree_revoked/?share_id=l9ykw-zqlXgX7wwNvGTlS&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1
All this goes to show that you should never check your email. (Except for the Sizzle).
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 (4 Pack) Bluetooth Tracker - $88.20 at KS Computer via Amazon AU Xiaomi 212w Hypercharge Power Bank 25000mAh - $129 at Amazon AU (Down from $219) Fosi Audio P4 Mini Preamplifier - $129 at Fosi Audio AKG N5 Hybrid ANC IEM & N9 Hybrid ANC Over-ear Headphone at JB Hifi N5 Hybrid ANC IEM (Black & White) for $139 N9 Hybrid ANC Over-ear Headphone (Black only) for $199 Edifier MR3 Studio Monitors - White - $149 at Centre Com Apple AirPods 4 at Amazon AU Apple AirPods 4 for $178 with Active Noise Cancellation for $268 Reolink Argus PT Ultra 4K PTZ Camera & Solar Panel - $188 at Reolink Amazon AU Reolink Duo 3V PoE 16MP UHD IK10 Vandal-Proof PoE Camera with 180° Panorama - $206 at Reolink AU (Down from 309.99) Roborock Q7B Robot Vacuum - $249 at Roborock via Amazon AU Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 Smart Bluetooth Earbuds - $265 at Amazon AU Eureka E10s 2 in 1 Robot Vacuum w/ Bagless Auto Empty Dock - $369 at Eureka Amazon AU Eufy S1 Pro Robot Vacuum - $959 at goodbuyz Sony 65" X90L BRAVIA XR Full Array LED 4K HDR Google TV (XR65X90L) - $1749 at Amazon AU LG 77" OLED EVO C5 AI UHD 4K Smart TV (2025) - $4085 at Appliance Central
Computing
Crucial 16GB DDR5 SODIMM 5600MHz CL46 Notebook Laptop RAM Memory - $67.25 at Amazon UK via AU MSI MAG 244F Gaming Monitor, 24" FHD, IPS, 200HZ and 0.5ms - $143 at Amazon AU EnGenius ECW516L BE13700 2.5GbE Cloud Managed Wireless Access Point + 10GbE PoE++ Injector - $199 at Amazon AU Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM - $253 at Amazon US via AU Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen 5 M.2 NVMe SSD - $291 at Amazon US via AU 4tb M.2 Gen5 Samsung SSD 9100 PRO with Heatsink - $632 at Amazon US via AU TP-Link Deco BE95 BE33000 Quad-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 7 Router (1-Pack) - $726 at Amazon AU TP-Link Deco BE65 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Mesh Router System (3-Pack) - $817 at Amazon AU Amazon eero 7 Pro Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Mesh System (3-Pack) - $839 at Amazon AU HP OmniBook X Flip 16" at Amazon AU Ultra 5 16GB/512GB for $1249 Ultra 7 3K OLED 32GB/1TB for $1899
Mobile
Google Pixel 9a 128GB (new customers must add plan from $30/28-Day) - $624 at amaysim
# The End
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