Plus: No thoughts, only Doom ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 02, 2026 | Read online
# Trump's AI surveillance/killing demand, AI-washing and eSafety deadline Plus: No thoughts, only Doom
Edition 2512
"Steve Jobs and Macintosh computer, January 1984, by Bernard Gotfryd - edited" by Photo: Bernard Gotfryd - Edited from tif by Cart is licensed under Public domain
Good afternoon! A lot has happened since the last Sizzle. What a crazy time. Today is a bit top-heavy on the US/AI stuff, but we'll be back to normal tomorrow -- CW
Mentioned in today’s edition: Anthropic, Sam Altman, Google, Jack Dorsey, Canva, Cortical Labs, Drake and Doom. Plus, deals on Sony earbuds, UE speakers and Kogan prepaid plans.
# The News
### The US government doesn't want AI companies to prevent them from using their tech to do surveillance or to kill autonomously
On Friday, the Trump administration ordered all US agencies to stop using Anthropic's tools after the AI company refused to scrap safeguards against mass surveillance and autonomous weapons (ABC News). This was the culmination of a long-simmering dispute about what the Pentagon could use Claude for. The dispute reportedly came down to Anthropic's refusal to let the US military "analyze bulk data collected from Americans" or to only use it in the cloud ??? (Atlantic). Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the agency will declare Anthropic a "supply chain risk". Meanwhile OpenAI's Sam Altman says he signed a deal with the Pentagon that includes what Anthropic was asking for ... (Guardian).
Hours later, the US attacked Iran. Oh, and the US military ended up using Anthropic's AI for the Iran attack anyway (Engadget).
The Sizzle: It's not an exaggeration to say this is one of the craziest things to happen in AI and tech generally. This is the government using all its might to either force a company to make tech to surveil and kill people, or face what an ex-Trump admin member called "attempted corporate murder" (X). Casey Newton's Platformer edition on this is an excellent read.
A few things that are swirling around this issue:
Did OpenAI really get the deal that Anthropic wanted? Altman claims that he did, but close observers think that it seems like OpenAI's agreement has no actual protection against the Trump admin doing whatever they want with ChatGPT. For example, what's to stop the Trump admin from dumping a bunch of data into ChatGPT and asking it to analyse it? It's not like data comes attached with "domestic-surveillance" metadata. What are Big Tech staff going to do now? OpenAI and Google staff have signed open letters saying that their tools shouldn't be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons either (FT, $). Will staff flex their muscle and down tools like they did in the first Trump admin? What does this mean for Australia? Based on a bit of research I've done, Australia doesn't automatically need to follow the US' decision re: Anthropic being a supply chain risk (noting that AFAIK no actual declaration has been made yet). But, as anyone paying attention to the news knows, Australia has kept in complete lockstep with the Trump administration. The federal government's GovAI system currently has access to Claude. Will that change?
A few other related links: Hundreds of millions of dollars were wagered on Polymarket/Kalshi about the Iran strikes (The Verge), Hacked Prayer App Sends “Surrender” Messages to Iranians Amid Israeli Strikes (WIRED), A UAE AWS server was hit by a drone and you can follow the issue notice on the status page (AWS).
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Are companies AI-washing their layoffs?
Financial payments tech company Block laid off close to half of its employees late last week, with CEO Jack Dorsey citing AI as a major reason (Guardian, Dorsey's letter). Block has a lot of Aussie employees since its Afterpay acquisition, and they literally went on a staff retreat two days before layoffs (AFR, $). This plus Wisetech's layoffs led friend of the Sizzle, David Swan, to call this "the week AI came for Australian jobs". Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that experts are raising the possibility that companies are "AI-washing" cuts to their companies, rather than owning up to having hired too many people and underperforming.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Australia's new AI age check rules start next week — and most services aren't compliant.
Just nine of the top 50 most popular AI services have rolled out or announced age check systems ahead of next week's Australian deadline (Reuters). It's been nearly six months since the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant locked in the tech industry's proposed regulation on AI providers, which includes a new requirement for AI chatbots to restrict sexual and violent content from children. But, as some great reporting from Reuters shows, most of these services aren't compliant. Let's see how hard eSafety goes at enforcing this.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
ASD is "using increasingly complex intelligence" to track if other departments have been hacked (Canberra Times, $) "91 per cent of surveyed Australian employers say they use software to monitor the location of remote workers, only 9 per cent of workers believe such technology is deployed in their own roles." (AFR, $) Instagram to alert parents of teen suicide searches (ABC News) Australian data centre emissions are up 16% in a year (InnovationAus) Firmus watch: Firmus lands $600m-plus tech giant deal as it eyes ASX float (AFR, $) and From jail to the C-suite: The AI firm co-founded by a former insider trader (SMH, $) Canva refutes job loss reports amid Leonardo.Ai integration (SmartCompany)
Rest of World:
US court blocks landmark law limiting social media use for children (Financial Times, $) Australian-owned crypto casino Stake pays Drake and other stars to gamble online, with clips of big wins spreading to impressionable gamblers. The numbers show surprising luck at work (Bloomberg, $) Clicks Communicator will have more physical keyboards, updates through Android 20 on Dimensity 8300 (9to5Google) Turning a cast iron radiator into a water cooled PC (Hackaday)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### No thoughts, only Doom
It's a bit of a heavy news cycle, so I'm very glad to share the news that Australian company Cortical Labs says it's taught brain cells to play Doom. The backstory is that the company has created "neuron-powered computer chips", which is a bunch of human brain cells grown on top of some micro-electrode arrays (New Scientist). Now, Cortical Labs has built a way to run Python on these chips -- so naturally, the only thing to do was to teach it to play Doom.
Living Human Brain Cells Play DOOM on a CL1
Apparently the chip plays better Doom than a randomly firing player but, the NS writeup dryly notes, its "performance is not up to par with humans".
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
Arlec 30W GaN PD USB-C Wall Charger And Cable Bundle Pack - $10 at Coles (Down from $30) 1More Sonoflow Pro ANC Wireless Bluetooth Headphones (Black) - $81.12 at Amazon (Down from $150) UE Boom 3 Bluetooth Speaker - $88 at Logitech Shop eBay Store (Down from $229) Sony WF-1000XM6 Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds - $299 at Sony Partner Store (Down from $499) eufy Eufycam S3 Pro 4-Camera Kit - $1398 at Harvey Norman (Down from $1999) LG 48" C5 4K OLED EVO Smart TV (2025) - $1587 at Joyce Mayne (Down from $2499)
Computing
Horaco 5-Port 2.5gbe Network Switch With 10G SFP+ Port AU Plug - $30.25 at Horaco Direct Store AliExpress (Down from $70) AMD Ryzen 7 7700 CPU - $269 at Binary Tech Store AliExpress (Down from $479) Team T-Force Z44A7 M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD 4TB - $399 at PC Case Gear (Down from $599) LG UltraGear 32GX850A-B 32inch 165Hz 4K UHD OLED - $999 at SCORPTEC (Down from $2099) Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 5080 Solid Core 16GB GDDR7 Graphics Card - $1709 at PC Case Gear (Down from $2099)
Mobile
Kogan Mobile 365 Days Prepaid SIMs at Kogan Mobile 250GB for $149 (Down from $300) 500GB for $189 (Down from $400) Vodafone 300GB 12-Month Prepaid Plus Starter Pack SIM plus 30% cash back - $199 before cash back at TopCashback AU (Down from $320)
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
🤖 We love robots at the Sizzle but this newsletter has always been and will always be written by humans for humans. Also by Aussies for Aussies — so all prices are in dollarydoos, of course.
🗣️ 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.
🦺 The Sizzle has been tested to meet and exceed ISO 3533 standards.
## 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.
Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here © 2026 The Sizzle PO Box 351 Bacchus Marsh, VIC 3340, Australia
Powered by beehiiv
Terms of Service