Plus: the rare fake AI hallucination ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

July 16, 2025 | Read online
# Bunnings still wants to scan faces, Uber's transformation and ugh crypto Plus: the rare fake AI hallucination
Edition 2375
"The Arts & Science Computer Lab in room 140 of the Arts Building at the University of Saskatchewan is under renovation. Originally scheduled to open sometime at the end of this month, the opening date has been delayed and will now open October 2, 2012." (Flickr: huyd)
Good afternoon Sizzlers! A little tidbit that’s come up in my reporting over at Crikey into the teen social media ban: you might remember last week I reported on leaked results from the tech trial. When I asked the people running the trial, they said they “didn’t recognise” the numbers I put to them. Well, turns out it jogged their memories because I’m told the trial’s organisers have emailed all the experts to complain about the leak (which was subsequently leaked to me, of course). I guess they must have recognised those numbers after all…
Have a great day!
# The News
### Bunnings says scanning your face is good for the economy
Bunnings says legalising its facial recognition tech use would help boost Australia’s productivity (AFR, $). Still appealing a finding that the retailer broke Australia’s privacy law when scanning the faces of people visiting their stores, Bunnings’ managing director made a submission to the Productivity Commission that it wants more “clear guidance and direction” on privacy laws (PC). Letting the company use facial recognition tech would improve productivity by protecting staff and reducing theft, the company claims.
The Sizzle: Everyone seems to be unhappy with Australia’s privacy laws, which are general and have a lot of grey and untested areas. The problem is that this space — particularly when it involves technology — moves so fast that making more prescriptive rules is a recipe for onerous, useless requirements. Also, I really need to remind you: when Bunnings released a “highlights reel” of alleged crime footage from its stores to defend its use of facial recognition (SMH, $), it literally included a video of someone wearing a mask. What, pray tell, is facial recognition software going to do to fix this??????????????????????
I’ve just run this through Clearview AI and it’s telling me no matches, so I reckon let the fella shop
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### How Uber grew out of being a money-losing techbro startup
Uber will start offering rides from Chinese company Baidu’s self-driving cars after the two companies signed a deal (Engadget). Users will be able to book Baidu’s Apollo Go vehicles in China and some “global markets outside of the US”, joining a number of other autonomous car services — most notably Waymo — offered on the Uber app. Meanwhile, Uber banked a whopping $150 million in Australian ad revenue last year (AFR, $)
The Sizzle: Cast your minds a few years back. Uber’s original dickhead founder Travis Kalanick was pursuing grand plans to build Uber robotaxis. Then, when he was booted for being a freak, the new regime made the decision to get out of moonshot ventures like self-driving cars and just focus on being a ticket clipping enterprise. Now, Uber is profitable, has become the de facto platform for getting rides, and has outsourced all the very expensive, complicated and competitive work of autonomous driving to others. Pretty good business move! (Not mentioned, of course, all the worker issues).
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Crypto creeps more into the mainstream, but why…?
Yet again, Bitcoin’s price has hit a new high of AU$180,000-ish and Australians will soon be able to get bitcoin-backed mortgages (Capital Brief, $). Even LibreOffice is adding bitcoin support (Phoronix). But Australia’s promised new crypto regulation framework is nowhere to be seen (SMH, $) and Trump’s new crypto regulation-shredding bills appear to be doomed (CNBC). Meanwhile, some of the 30,000 Aussies who lost money in FTX’s collapse say they’re struggling to get paid back by administrators (The Australian, $).
The Sizzle: I’m sorry if this offends but I am still yet to be convinced of any crypto use case for the average person that isn’t a) crime, b) wild speculation, c) all of the above.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
AI chatbot ‘MechaHitler’ could be making content considered violent extremism, expert witness tells X v eSafety case (The Guardian Australia) Aussie gamers spent more on subscriptions than physical games (Gadget Guy) Sleep Apnea notifications come to Aussie Apple Watch owners from today (EFTM) ‘Burdensome sticks’: Australia’s data centre rules a regional outlier (InnovationAus, $) Apple and Ireland tax saga finally ends with $15 billion escrow withdrawal (Apple Insider) NVIDIA says it can resume selling key AI chips to China (Engadget) DOGE Denizen Marko Elez Leaked API Key for xAI (Krebs on Security) Hugging Face Is Hosting 5,000 Nonconsensual AI Models of Real People (404 Media, $) BYD has caught up with Tesla in the global EV race. Here’s how. (Ars Technica) Google Discover adds AI summaries, threatening publishers with further traffic declines (TechCrunch) Xbox tests letting you stream your own games on PC (The Verge) Microsoft has a new trick to improve laptop battery life on Windows (The Verge) Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold specs leak with bigger screen and battery (The Shortcut) Faster Qi2.2 wireless power banks are on the way (The Verge) The Pangu Illusion: How Huawei’s Star AI Model Was Built on Burnout, Betrayal, and Open-Source Theft (The Open Source Ward) DDoS attacks continue to grow in size and frequency (Cloudflare) A software-defined radio can derail a US train by slamming the brakes on remotely (The Register) The internet still runs on 1980s protocols – that should worry you (TechRadar) Latest Intel Engineering Layoffs Lead To An Intel Linux Driver Being Orphaned (Phoronix) The Firefox team is doing an Ask Me Anything (Mozilla) Would you complain about this NBN installation? (Reddit)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### A rare fake AI hallucination
Cameron, you say, you’re always hating on AI for making up bullshit! You’re right, I do. So in the interest of balance, it’s important that I present a potential positive use case for AI lies. What if you could blame the machine for making up something that you don’t want to be held responsible for?
I’m happy to share a Supreme Court case where a woman was successfully sued for breaching her director duties by selling a Thai restaurant business to a company that she owned for $2, well below market value (Jade). When asked about whether she prepared the documents for sale, the defendant, Ratcharin Sopharak, claimed that they had actually been written by ChatGPT and therefore it wasn’t her fault. It was a brilliant plan… except for the fact that the documents were created before ChatGPT was released: “Her evidence on this aspect was entirely unsatisfactory,” Justice Mark Richmond wrote. So close!
worth a shot
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
Johnny Appleseed GPS Closing Down Sale with deals starting from $1 Tablet Stand Pillow/Storage Bowl - $39.19 at Amazon AU ESR for Qi2 Magsafe Travel Charger Stand 3 in 1 with Case - $60.79 at Amazon AU Braun Series 8 Electric Shaver - $230 at Costco Philips 6000 Series PerfectCare Steam Generator PSG6064/80 - $259 at Bing Lee eBay Sony WF-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds Silver - $315 at MyDeal via Woolworths Everyday Market Creality K2 Plus 3D Printer - $1499 at Creality Official Store via eBay 85" Sony Bravia 9 4K HDR LED + HT-S100F Soundbar - $5903 at Sony VoltX - 30kwh battery with inverter - $5920 at VoltX
Computing
VideoProc Converter AI for Windows - $0 at VideoProc HP 230 Wireless Mouse and Keyboard Combo - $27.20 at Amazon AU Firebat AT15 Intel N150 CPU 15.6 Inch 16GB/512GB Laptop - $313 at Firebat Choice Store AliExpress iVANKY FusionDock Max 1 Docking Station Thunderbolt 4, Quad 6K-60Hz Monitor, 96W PD, 2.5GbE - $500 at iVANKY Amazon AU Acer 14" Swift Go Ryzen 7 8845HS, 2.8k OLED 90Hz, 16GB/512GB - $1017 at Officeworks Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch with M2 Max Chip, 1TB SSD (Silver)[2023] - $2699
Mobile
3GB Travel SIM for NordVPN Customers - $0 at Saily Apple iPhone 16e - $880 at Costco
# The End
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