Plus: Want to see police's desktop wallpaper? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

October 30, 2025 | Read online
# AI chatbot platform bans kids, earnings szn and Aussie ex-spook sold secrets to Russians Plus: Want to see what desktop backgrounds are used by police?
Edition 2450
"Controlman 2nd Class Daniel Louis Denayer, from San Juan Capistrano, Calif., operates an optical sight system for routine navigation in the Combat Information Center of the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56)." (Flickr: U.S. Pacific Fleet)
Hello!
Just a little note: Since the middle of the year, I’ve given out about 15-20 free and discounted subscriptions to people who aren’t able to afford the Sizzle right now.
One of the reasons I’m able to do that is because of everyone else who subscribes, and especially thanks to the people who’ve signed up for the “exactly the same but more expensive” Sizzle Subscriber tier. Thanks for your support! (And if you want to gift someone else a sub, you can do it here)
# The News
### Popular AI virtual character maker bans kids as regulation comes to the industry
Popular AI chatbot platform Character.ai will ban teens from talking with its virtual characters (BBC). As the company deals with lawsuits over its role in teenager suicides, Character.ai — which reportedly has 160,000 monthly active users in Australia — will begin limiting teen users’ conversations until eventually banning them by the end of November. Character.ai had attracted controversy for its bots’ behaviours like grooming children (Futurism) and for allowing people to make AI chatbot versions of murdered kids (Washington Post, $). Teens will still be able to generate videos of the characters on the platform.
The Sizzle: The pressure on AI companies to take steps to identify and protect children means they’re implementing safeguards much earlier than we saw with with social media. Australia has been early on this with eSafety setting rules for AI chatbots that restrict sexual and violent conversations (ABC News).
I’ve been thinking about how kids should be able to use AI chatbots, and I reckon a good philosophy is that they can be used to get information but not as companions that replace social interaction. How this might work in practice:
AI chatbots can only have a stock standard “personality” — as in, neutral, robotic — and not assume characters. They can’t pretend to be a human or alive. They can’t have a “memory", meaning that they can’t retain information on a user that they use to customise their responses between sessions. They can’t suggest further prompts or questions (Would you like me to suggest XYZ? or whatever ) as a way of juicing engagement. They shouldn’t be able to proactively message or prompt users, only respond to questions.
Essentially, you absolutely not be able to do this: This mom’s son was asking Tesla’s Grok AI chatbot about soccer. It told him to send nude pics, she says (CBC)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Earnings szn: Alphabet fears overblown, Microsoft up despite outage and Meta’s surprise tax bill
It’s earnings time again! Here’s what we got today:
In spite of fears that AI was going to eat its search business, Alphabet reported strong earnings on the back of jumps in search revenue and its cloud business (WSJ, gift link). It says Gemini now has 650 million monthly users and says queries have tripled since Q2. Microsoft’s cloud business is going gangbusters, clocking 40% growth, as the company beat expectations (Guardian). A surprise $24 billion tax charge from Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill has led Meta’s stock to dive but the underlying performance remains strong with growth and is ramping up AI infrastructure spend even more (Reuters).
TL;DR: Everyone is going to spend even more on AI data centres. It’s still the people selling the shovels — or I guess, renting the shovels — who are making money so far.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Former Australian spy agency worker guilty of selling hacking tool secrets to Russians
A former Australian intelligence agency worker has pleaded guilty to stealing surveillance technology from his company and selling it to a Russian hack broker (Guardian). L3Harris’s former general manager Peter Williams pled guilty to two charges of stealing trade secrets over a three years at the hacking tool company. The US’ DOJ says he sold “at least eight sensitive and protected cyber-exploit components” to an unnamed broker which is known to sell to the Russian government (Justice dot gov). Friend of the Sizzle Patrick Gray also revealed that Williams used to work for the Australian Signals Directorate (Risky Business).
The Sizzle: It’s just so inspirational to see Aussies making it big on the world stage.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Tim Ayres signals 'more expansive' national AI strategy (InnovationAus, $) Someone mentioned to me a few months back that the government was discussing rebranding it from a “national AI capability plan” to a “national AI plan” to show these wider ambitions. AUSTRAC fines crypto ATM operator CryptoLink in scams crackdown (ABC News) Australian police building AI to translate emoji used by 'crimefluencers' (The Register) lmao I missed this yesterday Liberals fume over Tech Council chair’s $2m Climate 200 donations (AFR, $) Honda to launch its City EV in Australia in 2026, with noises to mimic gear changes (The Driven) Australia Post unveils its first heavy-duty electric truck (The Driven)
Rest of the world:
Microsoft: DNS outage impacts Azure and Microsoft 365 services (BleepingComputer) Threads reaches 150 million daily users and is ramping up ads (Engadget) Aisuru Botnet Shifts from DDoS to Residential Proxies (Krebs on Security) YouTube is taking down videos on performing nonstandard Windows 11 installs (Reddit) Despite Risks, the UK's Justice System Will Be Powered by ChatGPT (Tech Policy Press) Hacking India's largest automaker: Tata Motors (Eaton Works) Apple's Family Sharing Helps Keep Children Safe—Until It Doesn't (Wired, $) Got this in for repair today. "My trackpad isnt working" (Reddit)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Want to see police’s desktop wallpapers?
Someone FOI’d the desktop backgrounds used by the AFP! Sadly, it’s just the corporate ones but, even still, they’re worth a look.
My favourite is the promotion for the AFP’s in-house true crime podcast CRIME INTERRUPTED (which is up to a third season, somehow)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Ottocast Carplay Adapter - $49.50 at ebay TP-LINK Tapo-D210 2K Wireless Video Doorbell w/Chime via Price Check Button - $102 at The Good Guys Sony Wireless Party Speaker SRSXV500B - $368 at PocketShop Australia eBay (Down from $409) Apple AirPods Pro 3 - $385 at Techciti eBay Reolink Camera Bundle - $799 at Costco (Down from $999) Sony X90L Bravia Full Array LCD TVs and extra $150 off with new signup at Sony AU 55” for $1799 65” for $1999 75” for $2499 85” for $3499
Computing
16% Cashback on Lenovo at TopCashback AU MANBASNAKE X Attack Shark X87 2.4GHz/BT/USB-C Mechanical Keyboard - $64.49 at FELICON via Amazon AU Lenovo Legion 5 (15.1", OLED, 1600p, RTX 5060, Ryzen 7 260, 24GB RAM, 1TB) - $1959 at Centre Com Gaming PC: R7-7800X3D, RX 9070 XT 16GB, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVME - $1988 at TechFast
# The End
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