Plus: This website will either put you to sleep or frustrate you so much you never sleep again ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

February 19, 2026 | Read online
# AI's climate 'hoax', NBN's Amazon satellite price promise and OpenAI's lobbying Plus: This website will either put you to sleep or frustrate you so much you never sleep again
Edition 2505
"Columbia Supercomputer - NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility" by Trower, NASA is licensed under Public domain
Mentioned in today’s edition: Australia's Space Agency, OpenAI, Amazon Leo, social media ban, JavaScript and PlayStation Portal. Plus, deals on Monster entertainment systems, FIIO audio and Lian Li cases.
# The News
### Tech companies say AI will help the environment. It's just not the type of AI that they're building.
Tech companies are touting the future environmental benefits of AI but that's not the kind of AI that these companies are pouring money into, a new report by (Sizzler) Ketan Joshi revealed. Joshi looked into the vague claims of companies like Google about how AI will one day help the climate (WIRED, $). He found these claims, often based on pretty flimsy evidence, were typically about "traditional" AI, and not the recent generative AI boom that 1) consumes significantly more energy and 2) is the focus of the $100s of billions of dollars of spend by the big tech companies.
The Sizzle: Joshi nails the sleight-of-hand that's trotted out to defuse questions about the clearly significant environmental impact of this massive AI infrastructure buildout. Zooming out, I think this also speaks to this broader sickness that's afflicted tech over the past 15 years.
All the incentives push you to build bullshit. Realistically speaking, you're more likely to make money creating another useless platform to clip the ticket on commerce than trying to create something new, real and transformative like a vaccine or a new gadget. Some of the greatest technical minds are putting all their energy into the problem of "how do we increase time on platform by 0.7%" because, well, that's actually worth guaranteed billions of dollars to tech companies. As I've said before, generative AI clearly has productive uses. But we should be skeptical about how productive it is overall, especially when companies are completely opaque about one of the major costs: the environmental impact.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### NBN's new satellite internet will start as the same price as Sky Muster
NBN Co will offer Amazon's satellite internet at the same price as its existing Sky Muster program — at least for the early customers (IT News). NBN is consulting with telcos over its plans to withdraw Sky Muster by the end of 2028 and replace it with faster Amazon Leo internet (née Project Kuiper). It's planning on charging the same wholesale rates as it does now and to provide equipment free of charge — but only if customers sign up within 90 days of it launching. Meanwhile, Amazon had a good week: it launched 32 of its satellites and got US government sign off to send up another 4,500 satellites into orbit (Bloomberg, $)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### How OpenAI lobbied Australia to water down our proposed AI laws
While OpenAI was promising $115 billion of economic benefit for Australia over the next 5 years, federal bureaucrats were quietly warning that AI's wider benefits had "yet to emerge" (Crikey, $). I got my hands on some internal government briefings and emails between public servants showing how they prepared for OpenAI's lobbying efforts to give them money, to water down Australia's copyright laws and to avoid strict AI regulation. Interestingly, it seems like OpenAI has had some success gaining access to parts of the government's national security apparatus (and they have some deep pockets...)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
Is It Smarter to Have a Dumb Home? 'We've Seen Clients Unable to Flush Toilets' (The Guardian) The federal government has wound up its Space Agency advisory board (InnovationAus) Some great reporting on the, um, remarkable claims by Australia's hottest data centre company Firmus (Capital Brief, $) Queensland Premier Cranks Heat on PsiQuantum Delays (InnovationAus) EXPLAINER: Australia is posturing to regulate Roblox. How? Why? And where to from here?( (Infinite Lives) Google Pixel 10a: Quick Thoughts, Specifications and Australian Pricing (Alex Reviews Tech)
Rest of World:
US Plans Online Portal to Bypass Content Bans in Europe, Elsewhere (Reuters, $) this story is wild lol EU Parliament Blocks AI Features Over Cyber Privacy Fears (Politico EU) Mark Zuckerberg Testifies in Landmark Social Media Addiction Trial (NBC News) Hazardous Substances Found in Headphones (The Guardian) Tesla Using FSD Tries to Drive Its Owner Into a Lake (The Driven) Tesla drops 'Autopilot' branding in California after DMV order (The Register) Snapchat, which now has 25m paying subscribers, has written an open letter saying that Australia's teen social media ban is an "experiment" (FT, $) Waymo denies using remote drivers after Senate testimony goes viral (The Verge) Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand Search Party Surveillance Beyond Dogs (404 Media, $) Microsoft Says Bug Causes Copilot to Summarize Confidential Emails (Bleeping Computer) Is the bug affecting non-confidential emails too? 15+ years later, Microsoft morged my diagram (nvie)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### This website will either put you to sleep or frustrate you so much you never sleep again
I've been having some trouble sleeping lately. When I was looking for some solutions, I stumbled across this GitHub project, Bedtime, that promises to lull you into slumber using a Javascript spinner. Here's the premise: it tells you a bedtime story, piece by piece, and every time you want to read the next section, it loads showing a spinner that takes just a little longer each time.
It's a cute concept and I will give it a go (but imma be real with you... I think spending time waiting for loading is more likely to spike my blood pressure than my melatonin).
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
Monster Vision 2 Portable Entertainment System 15.6" 1080p 60W Audio - $314 at gizmoo (Down from $699) FIIO K15 DAC/Headphone Amp - $548 at Addicted to Audio (Down from $899) Apple Watch Series 11 GPS at Amazon S/M Band 42mm for $547 46mm for $599 Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow Robot Vacuum & Mop - $1799 at The Good Guys / JB Hi-Fi (Down from $2499)
Computing
TP-Link LS108GP Gigabit Desktop Ethernet Switch With 8-Port PoE+ - $39.20 at Amazon Lian Li SUP01 White 45L Case - $99 at Scorptec (Down from $180) Asrock B850M Pro RS Wi-Fi White Motherboard - $216 at Scorptec Elgato StreamDeck XL (32-Key) - $269 at Amazon Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 RAM 96GB (2x48GB) 6000MHz CL36-44-44-96 1.4V Desktop Computer Memory - $1169 at Amazon (Down from $1321)
Mobile
UGREEN Nexode Power Bank 25000mAh at Gadget Hive AU] (Down from $179) 165W for $90 200W for $99.90 Apple Airtag 4-Pack - $109 at digiDirect (Down from $180)
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
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