Plus: This sick new Aussie game turns payphones into a capture-the-flag game ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

April 23, 2026 | Read online
# Microsoft's $25b Copilot-chella, Elon's Tesla lie and what kinds of bugs is AI finding? Plus: This sick new Aussie game turns payphones into a capture-the-flag game
Edition 2548
not technically a computer but it’s a CRT and it’s my last week so it counts
Mentioned in today’s edition: Satya Nadella, Elon Musk, Anthropic, Canva, David Swan, Cursor, Apple and Payphone Tag. Plus, deals on LG OLED TVs, Logitech gaming mice and HP laptops.
# The News
### I went to Copilot-chella and all I got was $25 billion of Microsoft money
I went to Microsoft's Sydney stop of its "AI Tour" — or, as I have dubbed it, Copilot-chella — and the big announcement was CEO Satya Nadella saying the company will spend $25 billion in Australia over the next four years (Reuters). This money will be spent on data centres, training and AI safety measures, the company says (Microsoft). Also, in coincidental timing — or maybe not ;) — Microsoft will also be excluded from Australia's new version of the news media bargaining code, saving them potentially hundreds of millions of dollars (SMH, $).
The Sizzle: A few disparate thoughts:
Microsoft's eagerness to spend money here is further proof that companies are climbing over themselves to build data centres in Australia. For all the fearmongering about us missing out on the AI revolution, it's pretty clear that our stable, well-resourced and highly skilled nation has a bit of negotiating leverage for tech companies who want to set up shop in the southern hemisphere. Two little wiggle points in that $25 bil: Microsoft said it's "aligned" with Australia's new AI principles — hmm — and, as friend of the Sizzle David Swan points out "the announcement was noticeably light on physical details [... and] mounting questions of how much of the foreign capital flowing into Australia's data centre boom actually stays in the local economy" (SMH, $) Just a vibe check from Copilot-chella: it was packed at the ICC in Sydney which has thousands of seats. It was, predictably, a lot of talk about Copilot in its many different meanings. Like sentences about using Copilot in your Copilot app. Also, I literally don't remember Windows being mentioned once.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Elon Musk just admitted Tesla has been lying for years to millions of its customers
Tesla has taken a break from its awful earnings run to post a nice little quarter, with better revenue and earnings thanks in part to the Iran war boosting EV sales (WSJ, $). That's fine but money's all made up, so I think the real fucking controversy is that Elon Musk has admitted that he was lying for years when he promised that the HW3 Teslas (2019-2022-ish) will get unsupervised full-self driving**** (Verge). How a major company CEO can get away with completely bullshitting about the capabilities of 4 million vehicles, including some whose owners literally paid up front for the capabilities, is beyond me. It's more than just misplaced optimism. He's just a liar-liar pants on fire.
*** not actually unsupervised full-self driving
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### What kinds of bugs are these AI models finding?
Looping back to Anthropic's sPoOkY model, Mythos: while places like the UK's AI Safety Institute have vouched for its cyber prowess, there's also been a contra take that posits that Mythos is a step up but still in line with existing models’ abilities. The reason it's turning up "271 flaws in Firefox" (The Register), the case goes, is because they're just blasting it at every piece of software now and that these bugs could be found with any other model if you did the same thing (Aisle). The more interesting critique to me was on the excellent Risky Business podcast which argued that the model can rack up huge numbers of "bugs" found, but what would be really useful would be identifying and making the higher order changes that would systematically stop all those bugs (YouTube).
Related reading: The boy that cried Mythos: verification is collapsing trust in Anthropic (Flying Penguin)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
Telstra's boardroom gets an AI upgrade to navigate data deluge (The Australian Financial Review, $) TelstraBoardBot, tell me how to offshore jobs. Make no mistakes The head of the federal police gave a speech at the Australian Information Industry Association where she spoke about wanting to use AI to sort through data (AFP) About 2,000 fines withdrawn since AI road safety cameras introduced in WA (ABC News) Nice newsletter about Canva's tough road ahead (Capital Brief, $) MOU between the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the eSafety Commissioner in relation to co-operation and information sharing (OAIC)
Rest of World:
Microsoft's LinkedIn makes executive Daniel Shapero its new CEO (CNBC) SpaceX says has agreement to acquire Cursor for $60 billion (Bloomberg, $) New gas-powered data centers could emit more greenhouse gases than entire nations (Wired, $) Scam messages offering ships safe transit through Hormuz, security firm warns (Reuters, $) lol Apple fixes bug that cops used to extract deleted chat messages from iPhones (TechCrunch) Apparently the new open weight Qwen3.6-27B is a banger (Qwen)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### This sick new Aussie game turns payphones into a capture-the-flag game
Payphone Tag is such a cool, fun idea by an Australian developer. This website turns the scores of pretty redundant payphones into a capture-the-flag-type game. The premise is simple: you go to a payphone, ring a number and enter your assigned code to "claim" that phone and earn points. And if someone else has already claimed one, you can go and steal it from them. Extra points for doing adjacent payphones.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
JBL Bar 500 MK2 5.1 Soundbar (White) - $399 at The Good Guys (Down from $769) LG 42" OLED Evo AI C5 4K UHD Smart TV 2025 - $1094 at Amazon (Down from $1291) Roborock Saros 10 Robotic Vacuum - $1269 at The Good Guys (Down from $1688) Hisense C2 4K Trichroma Laser Mini Projector C2H - $1711 at Appliances Online TCL 75" C8K Premium QD Mini LED Google TV 2025 - $1850 at The Good Guys (Down from $2995) TCL 98" P7K 4K UHD QLED Google TV (2025) - $2516 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $2961) TCL 98" C7K 4K UHD QD-Mini LED Google TV (2025) - $3247 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $3830)
Computing
KARUZA Micro-ATX Gaming Case With LCD - Black - $69 at Centre Com D-Link Aquila Pro AI M30 Smart Mesh Router System 3-Pack - $75.13 at Bunnings Lenovo Mainstream L27i-4E 100Hz Monitor - $148 at Amazon Logitech G502 X Plus Wireless RGB Gaming Mouse, White - $163 at Amazon (Down from $199) Jabra Speak2 55 Wireless Speakerphone (MS Teams Certified) - $186 at Amazon (Down from $269) HP Envy X360 2-In-1 Laptop 16" 2K Touch IPS AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS 16GB DDR5 1TB SSD - $999 at HP Official Store eBay
# The End
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.
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