Plus: People make AI do caveman speak save tokens ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

April 07, 2026 | Read online
# Where does data centre money go? LinkedIn's browser scanning and pro-Iranian lego slopaganda Plus: People make AI do caveman speak save tokens
Edition 2536
"2019-08-04 Apple I computer" by Maksym Kozlenko is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Mentioned in today’s edition: Anthropic, LinkedIn, Sam Altman, Donald Trump, Netflix, ePassports, Meta and Claude. Plus, deals on JBL speakers, Apple AirPods and Boost prepaid eSIMs.
# The News
### How much of the $$$ promised by AI companies would stay in Australia?
With eye-watering dollar figures about the economic benefits of AI data centres being thrown around, how much of this actually stays in Australia? (SMH, $). Friend of the Sizzle SMH/Age's David Swan has a nice piece critically crunching the numbers. He notes that a lot of the capex value goes overseas because the biggest expense is the graphics cards (of which, all the profit is going elsewhere); that the data centres have relatively few ongoing staff and that many AI companies don't pay much tax in Australia. On the other hand, AI companies and data centre operators say that there's a lot of diffuse economic benefits for having these big boxes filled with GPUs housed in Australia.
The Sizzle: Even putting to the side that all economic modelling is (at best) educated guesswork, these astronomical AI data centre figures being spruiked are still very alluring to politicians et al. when considering changing laws to pave the way for AI companies to set up shop in Australia. For all the gripes about our regulations, the fact that companies like Anthropic or OpenAI keep wanting to set up shop here should tell us that, clearly, Australia has some appeal due to things like our political stability, infrastructure and talented workforce. Given that enthusiasm, I think it's reasonable to believe that Australia should get real concessions from these companies and not just vague promises of big numbers.
One idea raised with me? Well, if AI companies want to build here, then maybe they should offer up equity so Australia can be part-owners in these operations — both for the benefits, but also so we have a say in how they work.
Related reading: NEXTDC lands 1b for data centre build-out with 100-year bond (Australian Financial Review, $) Aussie AI firm pleases Wall Street with 1.8bn data centre deal (Cyber Daily)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### LinkedIn is scanning browsers for extensions and collecting device data
LinkedIn checks your browser for more than 6,000 different extensions and records other device data points when you visit their platform (BleepingComputer). A new group which claims to represent commercial LinkedIn users, Fairlinked e.V., says that LinkedIn is scanning users' browsers for extensions so it can use the info to assemble lists of customers for various companies (Browsergate). LinkedIn doesn't deny the browser extension checks but says it's an anti-scraping measure. Either way, it's pretty common for platforms to check for extensions but also we know that this kind of fingerprinting can tell a lot about a person.
On a slightly different but similar note: auDA has had a (minor) privacy breach
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### AISlopdate: pro-Iranian Lego videos calling Donald Trump a child abuser
Move over sexy fruit, the latest hot AI video trend is Iranian Lego-style videos that humiliate the US (New Yorker)! YouTube and Instagram have taken down accounts belonging to Explosive Media, a group that claims to be student-run whose videos have been going viral since the US first struck Iran. Its juvenile AI-produced videos show Trump and Netanyahu figurines, reference Epstein, and have been backed with AI rap music tracks. What a time to be alive.
Viral propaganda creates the atmosphere through which a conflict is perceived: it shapes what feels salient, what seems ridiculous, who seems triumphant, what feels righteous.
Renee DiResta on the Lego slop
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
Advertising on social media and online video apps will be limited to accounts where the user is verified as being aged over 18, and all users will have the option to opt out of seeing gambling ads (AFR, $) Rowland mulling copyright reforms for the age of AI (Australian Financial Review, $) Netflix has launched a games app for kids in Australia (The Verge) Optus, Vodafone follow suit with mobile price increases (Pickr) CBA onboards customers with NFC scans of ePassports (iTnews) this is pretty handy Charging queues return as Easter road trips test Australia's EV infrastructure (techAU) Click Frenzy, Power Retail in liquidation as global conflict hits travel sales (SmartCompany)
Rest of World:
As usual, there's a shitload of OpenAI news, most of it bad: there's a New Yorker Sam Altman profile which makes him look bad, Altman is apparently at odds with his CFO and Iran is apparently threatening to target OpenAI's data centres Amazon imposes 3.5% fuel surcharge for many online merchants (Bloomberg, $) iPhone Fold Enters Trial Production Phase Ahead of 2026 Launch (MacRumors) Apple may have scraped YouTube videos without permission for AI training (AppleInsider) NASA Artemis II photos shot on iPhone 17 Pro Max (MacRumors) The first hands-on look at that cute little EV Slate truck (The Verge) Meta's AI crawler scraped my site 7.9 million times in 30 days. 900+ GB of bandwidth and massive server logs before I noticed, cool cool cool (Reddit) I Tried Vibing an RSS Reader and My Dreams Did Not Come True (Jim Nielsen's Blog)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### People make AI do caveman speak save tokens
I first saw this pop up on Reddit over the weekend, but it's taken on a life of its own: people are instructing Claude and other AI models to talk like a caveman to drastically reduce the amount of tokens it takes to do tasks.
The conceit is simple: removing unimportant things like "conjunctions" and "articles" reduces the resources required to run tasks. Users claim they're saving between 20-80(!)% of tokens on certain tasks (GitHub). It's not just limited to output either, apparently it also includes compressing things like memory files without any performance loss.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
JBL Flip Essential 2 Speaker Black - $50 at Officeworks (Down from $149.95) Ultimate Ears Everboom Portable Bluetooth Speaker - $147 at Officeworks (Down from $297) Apple AirPods 4 - $149 at Amazon (Down from $239) Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro - $267 at Officeworks (Down from $399) Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Smartwatch - $349 at Amazon (Down from $529) Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20+ - $479 at Xiaomi Australia (Down from $629) Apple AirPods Max 2 Midnight - $856 at MediaForm (Down from $999)
Computing
JBL Quantum 350 Wireless Gaming Headset - $29 at Officeworks (Down from $149.95) Trezor Safe 3 Crypto Hardware Wallet - $67.20 at Amazon (Down from $130) Mercusys Halo H85X AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh System 3 Pack - $190 at Amazon (Down from $299) Eufy Homebase 3 S380 - $200 at Amazon (Down from $349) Xiaomi Pad 8 - $489 at Xiaomi Australia (Down from $698) Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB DDR6 Graphics Card - $499 at Centre Com (Down from $599) Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra 14.6" Wi-Fi 256GB Grey - $1049 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $2099)
Mobile
10GB 7-Day Prepaid eSIM - $1 at Boost Mobile (Down from $13) Apple Watch Ultra 3 GPS + Cellular 49mm Natural Titanium Case - $1298 at Amazon (Down from $1549) Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 256GB - $1539 at Samsung (Down from $2199)
# The End
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