### Issue 1774 - Monday 30th January, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Streaming services operating in Australia soon to be be subject to local content quotas
- National Roundtable on Online Dating Safety starts conversation around regulation of dating apps
- US Surgeon General reckons 13 is far too young for kids to be using social media
- MusicLM is to music what ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion are to words and images
- Cheap Crucial SSDs, PlayStation 5, Age of Empires 3, North Bayou monitor arm, refurb iPhone SE, Pixel 6a, Intel Arc A770 GPU

## The News

### Streaming services operating in Australia soon to be be subject to local content quotas

Disney, Netflix, Amazon and other streaming video services operating in Australia will soon have to start churning out Australian made content as part of the new National Cultural Policy launched today. Details are sparse, but effectively the government wants the same rules that apply to free-to-air TV networks regarding a certain number of hours per year of new Aussie content to be applied to streaming platforms. The plan is for industry consultation "in the first half of 2023" and for a law to take effect by the 1st July 2024. The "industry" (i.e: everyone except the streaming platforms) reckons 20% of local revenue should be spent on Aussie productions - so if Netflix generates $1b/year in revenue here, then they should spend $200m/yr making Australian made TV shows and movies.

### National Roundtable on Online Dating Safety starts conversation around regulation of dating apps

Last week the Communications Minister and Social Services Minister hosted a "National Roundtable on Online Dating Safety" with representatives from Match, Bumble and Grindr attending. I don't think I need to go into detail about all the horrible shit that goes on with dating apps, but a study by the Australian Institute of Criminology found sexual violence and harassment via dating apps is way more widespread than most people think. The roundtable was mostly a getting to know you type of thing, but the government did float the idea of yet another set of industry codes plus mandatory background checks and ID checks as one way to limit the problem. Sounds good in theory, but unless it's done properly there's major privacy implications - like a database of marginalised groups, that if leaked, would be a total shitshow.

### US Surgeon General reckons 13 is far too young for kids to be using social media

The USA's Surgeon General (kinda like our Chief Medical Officer I guess?) told CNN recently that "I, personally, based on the data I've seen, believe that 13 is too early... It's a time where it's really important for us to be thoughtful about what's going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children". Hard not to agree with that take when you consider social media as Instagram or TikTok or Snapchat. When I was 13 I was using forums and IRC regularly and without the internet during my teen years, I think I would have developed into a pretty boring adult. The internet was a very different place in 1997 though.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### MusicLM is to music what ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion are to words and images

MusicLM is the latest AI powered behemoth that's going to take away a bunch of creative worker's livelihoods and unleash a fresh torrent of bland AI generated content on the world. Like what ChatGPT did for words and Stable Diffusion did for images, MusicLM is Google's attempt to turn a text prompt into music - e.g: "The main soundtrack of an arcade game. It is fast-paced and upbeat, with a catchy electric guitar riff. The music is repetitive and easy to remember, but with unexpected sounds, like cymbal crashes or drum rolls". They have a few samples on their website. The market for generic sounding, uncreative music is already saturated and easy to access. MusicLM makes it easier to ask for something that suits your needs instead of having to go looking for something?

## Bargains

- Crucial P3 Plus 4TB Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD - $419.19 from Amazon USA (buy 2x for an extra 5% off)
- PlayStation 5 Disc Console - $763.04 from Amazon
- Crucial MX500 4TB 2.5" SATA SSD - $379 + delivery & surcharge from Centre Com
- Age of Empire 3: Definitive Edition for PC - $7.48 on Steam
- North Bayou F80 9kg Gas Strut Monitor Arm - $31.96 from Amazon
- Refurbished iPhone SE (2020) 64GB - $269 from Coles
- Google Pixel 6a 5G 128GB - $529 + delivery from MyDeal (possible Officeworks price match)
- ASRock Intel Arc A770 Phantom Gaming D 8GB OC Video Card - $469 + delivery from PCByte

## Image Of The Day

Hackers is a 1995 American crime thriller film directed by Iain Softley and starring Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Renoly Santiago, Lorraine Bracco, and Fisher Stevens. The film follows a group of high school hackers and their involvement in a corporate extortion conspiracy. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios)

## The End

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