Plus: Using AI to catch politicians on their phones in parliament ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March 07, 2025 | Read online
# Private weather forecasters rely on government tech, Aussie digital services tax & using AI to catch 'un-American' behaviour Plus: Using AI to catch politicians on their phones in parliament
Issue 2286 - Friday 7 March 2025
TGIF! It’s been a great week. Have a break and let’s do it all again. (PS — if you haven’t already, I recommend checking out the Sizzle Slack server and forum to chat about each edition & more)
# The News
### “Independent” weather forecasters still rely on government data and technology
With Cyclone Alfred about to hit, some people are turning to alternative “independent” weather forecasters (SMH, $). These range from organisations like Weatherzone, which has its own models relying on data from the Bureau of Meteorology and other sources; to the cranks like Higgins Storm Chasing (which alarmingly has more Facebook followers than BOM). As you can probably tell from my tone, I think most of these alternative sources are not very good, not transparent and often rely on the hard, thankless work and technology of BOM and other global government weather agencies. Also relevant, the federal government’s promised mobile national emergency alert system that can deliver a “message to any device with a SIM card, targeting a location to within 160 metres, and overriding ‘do not disturb’ settings” is not yet operational despite a 2024 deadline. (ABC News)
### Digital service tax on global tech companies & defining Australian companies
The Greens want a European-style digital services tax on the $27 billion in revenue made by top tech companies in Australia each year (The Guardian Australia). Research done by the parliamentary budget office for Senator Sarah Hanson Young reckons we’d get $11 billion over the medium term by slapping the tax on tech companies earning more than $20m in Australia and $750m worldwide each year. This is the type of tax that prompted the Trump executive order that I wrote about a few weeks ago. A treat for the real procurement nerds here, the federal government has finally defined exactly what it means to be an “Australian business” so we can start tracking exactly how many contracts are awarded to local companies (Information Age).
Their definition:
50%+ Australian owned or mostly traded on the Australian equities market; have Australian tax residency; principal place of business in Australia.
### US is going to use AI to catch un-American behaviour from visa holders
A follow-up to the story about the Trump administration wanting to start demanding prospective citizens’ social media accounts linked in the Leftovers yesterday — btw have you been enjoying the Leftovers section? Let me know! — is that the US government now wants to use AI to review visa holders’ social media accounts to see if they support Hamas (Axios). This is a terrifying: using an error-prone technology monitoring a highly nuanced topic run by a government that has shown little interest in avoiding errors or appreciating nuance. Even if you have little sympathy for those who might be caught up in this, you should be worried because who knows what other purposes this technology would be used for. Speaking of Trump, the pause on the US TikTok ban is set to expire less than a month… and there’s been no discussion between the owners and prospective buyers (Axios). Sounds like ByteDance and China are daring the US to ban it again.
#### Leftovers
New CSIRO Chair announced (Minister for Industry and Science) Apple's First Foldable iPhone to Feature Book-Style Design, Sell for Over $2,000: Analyst (MacRumours) VW is testing its robotaxis in snowy, icy Norway (Ars Technica) UK quietly scrubs encryption advice from government websites (TechCrunch) US communications agency to explore alternatives to GPS systems (Reuters) Oh Brother. Printer giant denies dirty toner tricks as users cry foul (The Register) A quarter of startups in YC’s current cohort have codebases that are almost entirely AI-generated (TechCrunch) Revealed: Israeli military creating ChatGPT-like tool using vast collection of Palestinian surveillance data (The Guardian) New Data Shows Just How Badly OpenAI And Perplexity Are Screwing Over Publishers (Forbes) Cybercrime 'crew' stole $635,000 in Taylor Swift concert tickets (Bleeping Computer)
# Oh, Also
### Using AI to catch politicians on their phones in parliament
This is a few years old, but just came across my feed again: a Belgian art project that uses AI to monitor and post whenever it detects that politicians are using their phones while parliament is in session (Dries Depoorter). Personally, I think there are legit reasons why MPs might be on their phones (there is a lot of boring parliament). I think the more interesting thing about this artwork is how it turns surveillance technology on politicians for once. As one commenter noted: “This same tech is about to be rolled out en masse to surveil workers everywhere (if it hasn't already been). I further suspect that by applying this to the people in charge of creating regulations, the artist is trying to drive new regulations.” (Hacker News)
Smile, you’re on camera (and more!)
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Anker Prime 25W Super Fast Charging USB-C Charger - $17 at AnkerDirect AU via Amazon AU Skullcandy Indy/Jib True Wireless In-Ear Earbuds - $29 at Phonebot UGREEN 65W Nexode 4-Port 2C2A GaN Charging Station - $42 at UGREEN via Amazon AU REDTIGER Dash Cam 4K Front and Rear with Free 64GB SD Card - $103 at Redtigertech eBay Fosi Audio ZA3 Stereo Amplifier - $133 at Fosi Audio eBay PowMr 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery - $176 Shipped at PowMr-Top eBay VTOMAN Jump 600X 299Wh 600W (1200W Surge) LiFePO4 Portable Power Station - $243 at carshop2022 eBay Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation - $259 at BIG W DJI Osmo Action 4 Camera Standard Combo - $329 at JB Hi-Fi Apple AirPods Pro 2 with Magsafe Case (USB-C) - $329 at BIG W Canon EOS R5 Mark II Mirrorless Camera (Body Only) - $5049 at Ryda via Catch
Computing
SanDisk 1TB E30 Gen 2 Portable SSD - $99 Kmart Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 CU7-155H, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD, Arc 8, 14" WUXGA OLED 400nits - $1297 at Officeworks Apple MacBook Air 13.6" M4 - 10 Core CPU, 8 Core GPU, 256GB SSD, 16GB RAM (preorder) - $1549 at Apple Education Store Apple iPad Air M2 11" Wi-Fi 128GB - $799 at Costco Apple Mac Studio M4 Max (Preorder) - $3071 at Apple On Campus
Mobile
1 Year Perplexity Pro (GPT-4 Omni + Mistral, Claude Sonnet+Opus) - Free at Moj Telekom HR amaysim 28-Day 42GB Prepaid SIM Starter Pack - $12 at Woolworths 336-Day Prepaid Mobile Plan - $180 (New Customers Only) at Lyca Mobile
# The End
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