### Issue 1847 - Wednesday 17th May, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Comms minister hints at government mandated digital ID age verification for online adult content
- Tesla hints at new vehicle, shows off latest humanoid robot, JB Straubel returns & more from shareholder meeting
- OpenAI tells US Congress to regulate them, with licences and audits, to keep AI from going wrong
- Apple clears out more announcements pre-WWDC, cool iOS 17 accessibility features
- Cheap Dell monitor, iPhone 14, AirPods Pro, Seagate 20TB/18TB HDD, Cygnett HomeKit smart plugs, Blitzwolf monitor arms, Orico HDD enclosure, WD 2TB portable HDD, Kingston SSD, Pixel 7a, Ultimate eGift Cards, 10% off storewide* at JB Hi-Fi, Jabra Elite 7 earbuds

## The News

### Comms minister hints at government mandated digital ID age verification for online adult content

The eSafety Commissioner submitted a report on mandatory age verification for accessing adult content online to the government back in March, but it is not public yet. When asked yesterday when that report will be made public, the Communications Minister said that'll happen in the "near future" and that "we do not want young people having unfettered access to pornography" - which I don't think anyone does, but gives the government and the eSafety Commissioner an excuse to introduce mandatory age verification via some sort of government ID that anyone with half a brain will be able to circumvent. Then we need to worry about how the government will react when the prudes and wowsers decide VPNs and other privacy protection tools are evil because they let you look at naked people.

### Tesla hints at new vehicle, shows off latest humanoid robot, JB Straubel returns & more from shareholder meeting

Tesla's annual shareholder meeting took place in Texas today (entire thing is on YouTube), so there's a bit of Tesla news around:

- They teased a new model car that is actually getting "built" (probably a prototype, not mass production) right now according to Elon. The silhouette teaser looks like a smaller Model 3/Y. No timeframe around the expected release date.
- The Tesla Bot can now move around unassisted and pick things up. I don't know shit about robotics and haven't seen any expert opinions, so until then, I assume it's still a vanity project to entice engineering students to work at Tesla.
- JB Straubel, co-founder and former CTO, is back at Tesla after leaving in 2019 to start a battery recycling company. He will sit on the board and is widely regarded as the brains that allowed Musk to go and convince investors to fund Tesla.
- Telsa is infamous for not paying for advertising, but now that Musk owns a failing advertising company called Twitter, Tesla "will try a little advertising and see how it goes". Twitter will be full of Tesla ads in a few weeks I assume.
- Musk was interviewed post-meeting by CNBC and the topic got to his weird tweets that honestly, I can't be fucked describing here because it's so sad and pathetic. Watch the clip in this article and see Elon's big brain in action for yourself.

### OpenAI tells US Congress to regulate them, with licences and audits, to keep AI from going wrong

OpenAI boss Sam Altman got up in front of US Congress and told them that if AI "goes wrong, it can go quite wrong" and that "we want to work with the government to prevent that from happening". His solution? "a new agency in the US could regulate the industry - including giving out and taking away permits for AI companies" and "firms like OpenAI should be independently audited". You don't often see ~US$30b businesses asking for regulation unless that regulation benefits them in some way. Sure, the government should probably regulate AI before it gets out of hand, but Altman only wants it because it'll add a nice little moat for his business against smaller competitors, even if there's a carveout for companies under a certain threshold.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Apple clears out more announcements pre-WWDC, cool iOS 17 accessibility features

Apple has unloaded even more product announcements silently overnight prior to WWDC in a few weeks time. They previewed a huge range of new accessibility features presumably coming in iOS 17, with the main one being Live Speech combined with Personal Voice, that'll let someone generate an AI model of their voice that can be used to do text to speech on the device and used in calls. There's also "concert discovery features" in Apple Maps and Apple Music, and Tap to Pay on iPhone is now a thing in Australia. This lets anyone with a Westpac or Tyro Payments merchant account download an app and use their iPhone to accept contactless payments. Stripe and others will be "available in the coming months". Meanwhile, Apple has registered "xrOS" as a wordmark in NZ. An "extended reality" device and operating system would be the exact kinda thing that would soak up an entire WWDC keynote.

## Bargains

- Dell P2723QE 4K 27" monitor with USB-C PD 90W & Gigabit Ethernet - $499 from Scorptec
- iPhone 14 128GB/256GB/512GB - $1197, $1377, $1697 at Officeworks
- Apple AirPods Pro (2nd-gen) - $349 from Amazon (could also get OW to price beat)
- Seagate Exos 3.5" SATA HDD 20T/18TB - $549.95, $449.95 from digi-matrix's eBay store
- Cygnett Smart Wi-Fi Plug with HomeKit support - $10.45 from Big W
- BlitzWolf BW-MS1 monitor arm or BW-MS3 dual monitor arm - $29/$40 from Banggood AU
- Orico 2.5" SATA enclosure USB-C or USB 3.0 - $8.40/$6.65 from Orico's Aliexpress store
- WD Black 2TB portable HDD - $74.45 from Mwave
- Kingston KC3000 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD - $199 from Centrecom
- Google Pixel 7a 5G 128GB & bonus $150 JB Hi-Fi gift card - $674.10 from JB Hi-Fi
- 8% off Ultimate eGift cards (EB, JB, Officeworks, Good Guys) at Giftz.com.au
- 10% off storewide at JB Hi-Fi (usual exclusions like Mieie, Apple, Xbox/PlayStation, etc)
- Jabra Elite 7 wireless noise cancelling earbuds - $161.10 at JB Hi-Fi

## Image Of The Day

One of the most noteworthy exhibits in the parade was the Robotron PC 1715, a workstation computer. In a time when computers were not as widespread as they are today, the Robotron PC 1715 was cutting-edge technology and a symbol of the GDR's industrial and technological achievements. (Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum)

## The End

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