Good afternoon! I write to you from SXSW Sydney, where I just saw a government minister dick around with a lunar rover using an Xbox controller.

The News

OpenAI says it’s cured AI psychosis, now ChatGPT can get horny

OpenAI says it’s fixed fuelling users’ psychosis and will soon roll out a friendlier version of the chatbot that will sext! OpenAI’s Sam Altman says the company will get rid of some of the safety features for mental health issues now that it’s been able to “mitigate” those issues. Sure. They’re going to put out a new ChatGPT version that will be more personal, like its old ChatGPT 4o, and will even be capable of “erotica for verified adults.” 

The Sizzle: Whatever is going on at OpenAI, it feels like they’re in their “fuck it let’s just do it” stage. I would characterise the reaction to this as pretty negative (404 Media, $)

I don’t think people are being unfairly worried, but I want to focus on something different: Altman specifically cites OpenAI joining the trend of age checking their users as one of the reasons they can be a bit saucy with ChatGPT.

I think this is a good principle. For the past 10-15 years, the majority of the most popular social media platforms have been sex-negative spaces that are hostile to sex educators, sex workers or even just normal people talking about the most human and natural activity that everyone does. This is because of fear-mongering that children could see sexual content (god forbid!). One of the silver linings of the age-gating of the internet should be that maybe, just maybe, we actually should “treat adults like adults” as Altman said.

We should be apprehensive. Lord knows that OpenAI doesn’t have a great track record of being safe, despite AI safety being its supposed raison d'être. But I don’t think we should confuse legitimate concerns about its implementation with the principle that, hey, maybe sex shouldn’t be banished from mainstream online life!

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Prime Minister among powerful Australians whose details have been exposed

Anthony Albanese, Chris Minns and Sussan Ley are among the people whose personal phones numbers are reportedly exposed on the website of a contact aggregator company (Ette Media). Independent outlet Ette Media found out about ContactOut when founder (and friend of the Sizzle) Antoinette Lattouf was told her private number was on the website. The company, founded by an Aussie but based in US, claims that it scrapes the internet to find phone numbers and email address of people that it sells access to (AFR). The AFP have reportedly asked the company to take down the prime minister’s phone number (Guardian).

The Sizzle: An interesting question is “where on the internet did this company scrape the phone number from?” These phone numbers may have come from third parties disclosing them — people sharing emails with signature blocks from the prominent people or even publishing media releases online. Or it’s possible that they’ve come from leaked databases that this company has just sucked up with no regard for the ethics.

Fundamentally, it doesn’t matter. In an age where it’s seemingly simple to scrape everything online, all it takes is one person’s ill-advised or unintentional disclosure to expose your sensitive information and potentially put you at risk. It’s not a completely futile fight — things like right to be forgotten could help — but man it sucks that the decks are stacked against us trying to have any semblance of privacy. 

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Privacy version of Android could be gaining a bit of momentum

Privacy-focused Android version GrapheneOS says it will be used on the flagship device of a “major” smartphone maker (Android Authority). For those not familiar, GrapheneOS is a fork of Android that rips out most of the Google apps and, so far, has (ironically) only run on Pixel devices. GrapheneOS remains extremely niche but I wonder if it will become more popular with Google’s new changes for developers that will restrict side-loading unless the developer has identified themselves. 

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Leftovers

Australia:

Rest of the world:

Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Oh, Also

AI scammers, please stop picking on our local councils

I feel bad for the poor Noosa Council. They were defrauded of $2.3 million dollars — although had $400,000 returned by the banks — using AI to “imitate personalities” (ABC News). We don’t know many details, but targeting a local council feels like scamming my tech illiterate uncle. Sure you might make a lot of money, but it feels mean!

Anyway, the mayor says they will “update [the council’s] software” so I’m sure that will solve everything…

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobil

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

🤖 We love robots at the Sizzle but this newsletter has always been and will always be written by humans for humans.

🗣️ Have any feedback, a tip or just want to chat? Send me an email or Signal message. I promise to reply!

💬 Want to hang out with other Sizzlers? There’s a subscriber-only Slack server and forum if you want to procrastinate and chat about tech-related news.

🌐 The Sizzle is on Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn if you’re feeling social.

💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the Beehiiv customer portal.

🎁 Make someone's day and gift them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle.

💔 Don’t want this any more? I won’t take it personally. There’s a unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email or here’s a guide.

🦺 The Sizzle has been tested to meet and exceed ISO 3533 standards.

Always Was, Always Will Be Aboriginal Land

The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.