Plus: An update to a previously Sizzled Wikipedia mystery ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

August 15, 2025 | Read online
# Meta AI death, judge criticises outdated election law & the Sizzler say Plus: An update to a previously Sizzled Wikipedia mystery
Edition 2397
"Ancient Efforts Absorbed n Refined 34%" (Flickr: Virtual Friend)
# The News
### Meta’s AI bot romance leads to man’s death
Meta’s push to get people to use its AI chatbots included the company embracing romantic uses which, in one case, has already led to a man’s death (Reuters). You really have to read this devastating story about a man with diminished mental capabilities from a stroke who had a romantic relationship initiated by a Kendall Jenner-inspired AI chatbot. It encouraged him to travel to New York to meet “her” where he suffered a fall and died. Internal documents from the company show that Meta explicitly allows “romantic and sensual” interactions between bots and teens, or for the bots to offer incorrect medical advice (Reuters).
It should be law that AI chatbots cannot act as if they are real people.
The Sizzle: I read stories like this and can’t come to any conclusion other than that people like Mark Zuckerberg really don’t give a fuck about real people. Reading a sentence like “Current and former employees who have worked on the design and training of Meta’s generative AI products said the policies reviewed by Reuters reflect the company’s emphasis on boosting engagement with its chatbots” and knowing that it means that vulnerable people will die makes me sick to my stomach.
Sorry, no smart analysis here. Just disgust.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Politician’s court win shows how election law needs to change for internet era
Disgraced former MP Andrew Laming has successfully appealed a $40,000 fine for not properly authorising Facebook posts (ABC News). Originally, Laming was fined $20,000 for 3 Facebook posts on a page he ran, but an Australian Electoral Commission appeal led the fine being doubled. Now, the High Court has overturned that on the grounds that, despite being seen by voters 28 times, the number of offences was linked to the number of infringing posts.
The Sizzle: Sizzler Rob flagged in the Sizzle Slack that a dissenting justice on the trial said that this appeal shows Australian electoral law isn’t fit for the digital age. If you hand out an illegal pamphlet, Justice Edelman said, multiple pamphlets = multiple electoral offences. But a post “received by 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 or 1,000,000 unique profiles on Facebook” only counts as a single offence. Essentially, this makes breaking the election law online an “acceptable cost of doing business”, Edelman said.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### What Sizzlers say
With the NBN 2000 becoming available in a month, DGH started off a lively thread on Slack about how to get it and what to expect (aka fibremaxxing). There’s been an active forum post about Sizzlers’ favourite self-hosting platforms, with tuey sharing his experience with ZimaOS. In response to the story about how the UK’s age checking might be routing people towards dodgier adult websites, meski compared it to the Prohibition era. Mikey is on the lookout for some good recipe app recommendations. Muddie is leaving mastodon[.]cloud after it has been “overrun by racists” and started off a convo about alternative servers. Cam (me) has to clean up two small errors from earlier in the week: The YouTuber leading the Commodore revival isn’t technically an Australian, but he is British and has voiced a Bluey character so I say he’s an honorary Aussie. When writing about the Epic Games win over Apple and Google, I wrote that the judge found that both companies were anti-competitive for banning side-loading — but, obviously, Android allows that so a ✅ for Google.
(FYI - Sizzle Slack links will only work if you have joined the Slack server here)
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Electronic Frontiers Australia has taken a big swing at Australia's teen social media ban tech trial, with EFA chair John Pane saying there are "serious concerns about the project's methodology". (Bluesky) Meet Matilda, Australia’s answer to ChatGPT (The Australian Financial Review, $) Australia and Vanuatu ink Nakamal Agreement for subsea cables, datacenters (The Register) AI may be ‘turbocharging’ racism and sexism, Australian human rights commissioner says (Guardian Australia) The Big Picture Part One: "I don't know if games are recession-proof" (GamesIndustry.biz) Meta Leaks Part 2 (Internet Archive) Supreme Court sides with Mississippi in social media age-gating case (The Verge) Steam’s censorship issues have broken PayPal support in some regions (Engadget) Google Messages rolling out sensitive content warnings (9to5Google) Trump Administration Is Said to Discuss U.S. Taking Stake in Intel (Bloomberg, $) xAI’s Grok Chatbot Used by US Government Agency Praised Hitler (Wired, $) Apple’s Clever Workaround for the U.S. Ban on Blood Oxygen Sensing in Apple Watches (Daring Fireball) Over $300 million in cybercrime crypto seized in anti-fraud effort (BleepingComputer) Pro-Russian hackers blamed for water dam sabotage in Norway (BleepingComputer) 'Godfather of AI' says chatbots need 'maternal instincts' – but what they really need is to understand humanity (TechRadar) Nothing Phone 3 review: My new favorite Android phone (The Shortcut) “conducting an LIS study tracing the iPod owner to metadata librarian pipeline” (Bluesky)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### An update to a previously Sizzled Wikipedia mystery
Remember David Woodard, the man who is the subject of the most translated Wikipedia articles? I never got around to snooping more into it. But someone else did. An article in the Wikipedia newspaper, the Signpost looked into Woodard and concluded that the articles “might have been the single largest self-promotion operation in Wikipedia’s history” (Wikipedia). I won’t spoil it but worth a read.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
### Electrical & Electronics
Outdoor Mesh Lantern Speaker - $6 at Kmart (Down from $29) J.burrows USB-C to USB-C 2.0 Cable 100w 5A 1.2m Black 5 Pack - $10 at Officeworks Blink Mini 2 Camera - $19 at Amazon AU Dynalink F2 Pro USB & 3.5mm Gaming Headset - $39 at Altronics Zemismart Matter over Thread Battery Blind Driver Home Assistant Smartthings Control - US$69 at Zemismart SanDisk 512GB Extreme PRO microSDXC Card with Adapter - $69.60 at Pocket Shop eBay Store Symfonisk Speaker Lamp at IKEA Speaker Lamp for $149 Speaker with Lamp Shade for $189 Instax Fujifilm Mini Evo Instant Camera (Brown or Black) - $254.96 at Amazon AU Roborock Q7T Plus Robotic Vacuum Cleaner - $499.80 at Roborock Official eBay (Down from $999) DJI Osmo Pocket 3 - $721.65 at digiDirect eBay Sony STR-AN1000 7.2 Channel Receiver - $1195 at West Coast Hifi Samsung S85F 4K OLED TV at Samsung Government Store 55" for $1249.50 65'' for $1649.50 83" for $3499.50 Garmin Fenix 8 47mm AMOLED Sapphire - Black - $1649 at Rebel Sport LG 48" C5 4K OLED EVO Smart TV (2025) - $1660 at Appliance Central Panasonic Lumix S9 Compact Full Frame Mirrorless Camera with 18-40mm Lens Kit, Crimson Red - $1908.24 at Amazon AU LG 65" Oled EVO C5 AI 4K UHD Smart TV [2025] - $3295 at JB
Computing
Dell 27" 200Hz FHD IPS Monitor - SE2725HG - $176.20 at Dell Gigabyte B650M AORUS ELITE AX Motherboard - $228.65 at MetroCom ebay Samsung 9100 PRO PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD at Samsung EPP 1TB with Heatsink for $230.30 (Down from $329.00) 2TB with Heatsink for $342.30 (Down from $489.00) 4TB no Heatsink for $587.30 (Down from $839.00) Epson Ecotank Pro ET-2850 Colour Inkjet Multifunction Printer - $289 at The Good Guys PALIT GeForce RTX 5050 Dual 8GB Graphics Card - $349 at Scorptec GMKtec M6 Mini PC AMD Ryzen 5 6600H 16GB DDR5 512GB SSD - $398.99 at Amazon AU Palit GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GamingPro-S 16GB Graphics Card - $1273 at UMKLOGIX PNY GeForce RTX 5070 Ti OC GDDR7 16GB Graphics Card - $1299 at Metrocom eBay Apple iPad Pro 11-Inch at JB Hi-Fi 1TB Wi-Fi [4th Gen, 2022] for $1493 1TB Wi-Fi & Cellular for $1693 Apple MacBook Air 13" M4 24GB RAM 512GB SSD - $2037 at Harvey Norman
Mobile
Insect & Bug Identifier iOS app - Free at Apple App Store (Down from US$29.99 Per Year) Nubia Pad 5G - $36 with a $30GB/Month $25/month data plan at Optus Boost Mobile SIM Pack with 300GB 365 Days - $244 at Cellpoint
# The End
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