Plus: What if Wikipedia were a trading card game? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 19, 2026 | Read online
# UK ditches AI copyright reform, FBI using data brokers to track Americans and CYBER COCKROACHES Plus: What if Wikipedia were a trading card game?
Edition 2525
"2 SOPS space systems operator 040205-F-0000C-001" by United States Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Mike Meares is licensed under Public domain
Mentioned in today’s edition: Google, Kash Patel, Oppo Find N6, Meta, Sam Bankman-Fried, Wikipedia and cyber cockroaches. Plus, deals on Bose headphones, Dell Latitude laptops and Alienware gaming monitors
Hello all, the Sizzle is all about accountability so I have to fess up. It turns out yesterday's feature image was AI SLOP. I had pulled it from Wikimedia under its Creative Commons license, and I foolishly believed that it was a real image.
Only one person emailed n to alert me — thank you Zac — but I know that I let you all down. I let myself down. As punishment, I will be docking my pay this week, demoting myself to Australia's second favourite tech journalist (friend of the Sizzle Josh Taylor has taken the throne for now) and I pledge to make sure this never happens again.
OK, have a great day!
# The News
### UK has backed down on letting AI train on copyright data. In Australia, turns out that might be a live issue
The UK government has walked back its proposal to let AI companies train their models on copyright material after a fierce campaign by creatives (BBC). A report published by its government politely concedes that there is "no consensus" around its original plan to make AI training allowed as the default with an option for copyright holders to opt out (Gov dot uk). Now, creative industries are pushing for AI companies to pay them through formalised "collective licensing schemes".
The Sizzle: It's a big backflip from the UK. It’s particularly significant and timelly given what's happening in Australia.
As a refresher, the Albanese government ruled out a "text and data mining exemption" in copyright law late last year. I reported last week that Australia's business lobby had drafted a plan to redefine copyright to let AI companies train without paying (Crikey, $). Now here's the new bit: it hasn't been reported but I've heard whispers that there is currently a push from some high up in the government to change the law to find a way to allow AI to train on Australian copyrighted material. Suddenly, that push gets a little bit harder if it's not in line with what the UK is doing.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Governments are using our adtech panopticon to get around laws against surveilling citizens
The FBI has admitted that it is circumventing legal protections against surveilling Americans without a warrant by buying location data from commercial brokers — and it has no plans to stop (The Verge). I've included reporting suggesting that this was the case in the Sizzle before, but this time it's director Kash Patel officially admitting it in front of a Senate hearing. America actually has stronger protections against this stuff because of their Fourth Amendment, and in 2018 the Supreme Court ruled that it was unlawful for the government to get data from telcos directly for this purpose. So, now the FBI is just getting it from middlemen and doing it anyway! It's almost like all of our laws aren't fit for the digital advertising panopticon that we all exist within.
Only tangentially related but also in Kash Patel news this week
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### I am so excited to tell you about "cyber cockroaches"
Singaporean researchers are decking out Madagascan hissing cockroaches with robotic backpacks to help find people in disaster zones (FT, $). Apparently Singapore's Nanyang Technological University has spent a decade figuring out the best way to train and control cyborg cockroaches going through pipes and other tight spaces using a handheld device that "looks as if it should be attached to a 1990s game console". The device jammed into the cockroach's nervous system also includes a battery and torch.
Watch swarms of cyborg cockroaches avoid obstacles
On one hand, this is metal as hell. On the other hand, it does sound a little bit like the start of a horror movie.
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
Fines loom for social media giants as kids give ban 100-day fail mark (The Australian Financial Review, $) Australia gets the Oppo Find N6, a powerful and sleek foldable (GadgetGuy) The European Commission president will be here soon and she's going to talk to Albo about the teen social media ban (Prime Minister of Australia)
Rest of World:
Google developing options to allow AI opt-out in search (iTnews) UK urged to ban crypto donations as US and others seek influence (Bloomberg, $) """Prediction market""" Kalshi has been charged with illegal gambling in Arizona (CoinDesk) Meta will pay Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators with big followings to post on Facebook (CNBC) Sam Bankman-Fried's bankrupt exchange FTX set to repay creditors $2.2 billion this month (CoinDesk) Two great Meta stories: A Meta agentic AI sparked a security incident by acting without permission (Engadget) Meta's latest creator push comes with $3,000 bonuses for posting on Facebook (Engadget) The Jehovah's Witnesses are back abusing copyright law to unmask their critics. Again. (Techdirt) AI coding is gambling (Visaint)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### What if Wikipedia were a trading card game?
The official Wikipedia Bluesky account shared Wikigacha, an online trading card game based on Wikipedia. Japanese developer Haruka Sugiyama made the platform, which doles out "cards" based on articles that are given attack and defence stats based on how popular and how long the articles are. For example, I just opened up a pack with cards for the 1990 Serbian general election (ATK: 4843 DEF: 12558). You can just collect these or even battle others? Anyway, check it out and tell me what you think!
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
HIFIMAN Edition XS Planar Magnetic Headphones - $213 at HiFi Audio Brand Store AliExpress (Down from $449) Reolink TrackFlex Floodlight WiFi, Dual-Lens 4K PTZ Security Camera With Local AI - $279 at Reolink AU (Down from $399) Bose QuietComfort Ultra Noise Cancelling Headphones - $389 at Kogan (Down from $699) [LG 77" Oled EVO C5 Clearance at JB Hi-Fi] Display Models for $2604 (Extra 30% off) TCL 98" C8K QD-Mini LED UHD Google TV (2025) - $4485 at TGG (Down from $4995)
Computing
Logitech K380S Pebble 2 Combo Wireless Keyboard & Mouse (Graphite) - $55 at Amazon (Down from $99) GL.iNet Comet Pro (GL-RM10) Remote KVM Over Wi-Fi - $216 at Amazon [Dell Latitude 5320 I5-1135g7 16GB RAM 256GB SSD Win 11 PRO (Refurbished) at Value Gadgets] Good for $259 Very Good for $309 Alienware 27" 4K QD-OLED Gaming Monitor - AW2725Q - $745 at Dell KLEVV CRAS V RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000MHz C30 RAM - $599 at Mwave (Down from $1331) PowerColor Radeon Reaper RX 9070 XT 16GB GDDR6 Graphics Card - $829 at Centre Com eBay Alienware 34" 240Hz QD-OLED Ultrawide Gaming Monitor AW3425DW - $932 at Dell Australia
# The End
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