### Issue 1773 - Friday 27th January, 2023

## In Today's Issue

- Buzzfeed bets big on AI-generated content as the future of their business
- Facebook & Instagram remove ban Donald Trump's ban, put him on probation
- Tesla make biggest yearly profit yet, built & sold 1.4m cars in 2022
- Don't forget Zeiss when talking about semiconductors alongside TSMC & ASML
- Friday Forum Update
- Cheap Alienware QD-OLED monitor, Rode wireless mics, Intel NUC laptop, Pixel Buds Pro, PlayStation 5

## The News

### Buzzfeed bets big on AI-generated content as the future of their business

Buzzfeed sent a memo to employees outlining how it is going big on using AI-generated content. CEO Jonah Peretti reckons "the creative process will increasingly become AI-assisted and technology-enabled" and that "our industry will expand beyond AI-powered curation (feeds), to AI-powered creation (content)". As an example of such content, Buzzfeed told the Wall Street Journal that "AI-powered quizzes would produce individual results". When asked by employees if this means fewer jobs, the boss said "that the tools are an opportunity to make full-time employees more efficient and creative, not a workforce reduction strategy". Buzzfeed's stock price doubled in value (from a very low base) since this announcement, so if anything, the market is keen to see how this goes.

### Facebook & Instagram remove ban Donald Trump's ban, put him on probation

Meta decided to let Donald Trump back on Instagram and Facebook, old mate will have his accounts back "in the coming weeks". Apparently "the risk has sufficiently receded" and there's no reason to ban Trump anymore. That said if "Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation". Trump's response to the news on Truth Social: "FACEBOOK, which has lost Billions of Dollars in value since 'deplatforming' your favorite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account” further adding "THANK YOU TO TRUTH SOCIAL FOR DOING SUCH AN INCREDIBLE JOB" - so I guess he's pleased and might use Facebook, unlike Twitter where he has refused to post. Shame really, he was one of the best to ever post there.

### Tesla make biggest yearly profit yet, built & sold 1.4m cars in 2022

You can't make fun of Tesla for being unprofitable any longer as they've generated a full year profit of US$12.6b off US$71.5b of revenue - the third year in a row they've ended with a profit. They built almost 1.4m cars, 1.3m of which were the Model 3 or Model Y. The vast majority of Tesla's revenue came from cars, not solar or domestic/grid batteries and their margin on each car is dropping (~25.9%, still relatively high). Elon let loose some other info during the financial results conference call, like a new hardware stack for "full self driving" coming soon that will be 500-600% safer than a human driver (lol), that the Cybertruck will probably go on sale late-2023/early-2024 and how 127 million followers on Twitter "speaks for itself" as to how popular Tesla is despite his antics with the social media platform.

## Something I Saw On The Internet

### Don't forget Zeiss when talking about semiconductors alongside TSMC & ASML

TSMC and ASML get heaps of attention for creating the tiniest transistors and making the equipment that makes the tiniest transistors, but don't forget about Carl Zeiss - the 177 year old company that makes the mirrors, projectors and illumination source required for ASML's photolithography machines. I'm not gonna go into detail about extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV - plenty of that on YouTube if you're keen), but without Carl Zeiss and their Starlith-3000 series products, ASML wouldn't be able to sell TSMC the TWINSCAN NXE:3600D lithography system and TSMC wouldn't be able make Apple and AMD and Nvidia the best microprocessors in the world.

## Friday Forum Update

Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.

- Clayton.Lee wants to take their CPAP machine off-grid, needs help choosing a battery
- gurgle kicked off a thread for people to show off what they do with Home Assistant
- funcitonretrun wants to get some network connectivity to a shed 50m from their home
- decryption posted some embarassing photos of their attendance at Sydney's Apple Store grand opening in 2008
- Baa shared some info on a canary credit card service to detect for breaches on PayPal, Amazon, etc

## Bargains

- Alienware AW3423DW 34" Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor - $1679 at JB Hi-Fi
- RØDE Wireless GO II Wireless Microphone System - $300 from Amazon
- Intel NUC M15 15.6" laptop (1080p, i5-1240P, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) & bonus accessories (bag, mouse, BT speaker, cables) - $999 + delivery & CC surcharge at Shopping Express
- Google Pixel Buds Pro Charcoal/Fog - $249 at JB Hi-Fi
- Purchase a PlayStation 5 & Get a Bonus $100 Voucher for Your Next Eligible Purchase of Minimum $350 from Sony

## Image Of The Day

Written by Ed Simpson. Published by Owen Publishing Company in 1987. Found at a flea market. (fleaslikeus / Internet Archive)

## The End

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