Issue 2287 - Monday 10 March 2025

In Today’s Issue

The News

Apple’s Siri delay shows the company’s big AI headache

Things aren’t great in Apple AI land. The company is struggling to execute its promise for a souped-up Siri this year (Bloomberg, archived), which now means it is pushing back its Alexa-rival wall tablet that was slated for release this month (Bloomberg, archived). This Siri is not to be confused with Apple’s Siri 2.0 which is supposed to launch next year with all of those whizz bang generative AI features but also looks a bit shaky.

I owe a bit of a Sizzle mea culpa on this topic. My coverage last month of the Alexa upgrades framed it as Amazon catching up but the truth is that no one yet has successfully taken these next gen LLM-powered AI advances and put them in smart phone devices yet (including Amazon, which hasn’t let anyone use its new Alexa). The problem Amazon, Apple and Google are all grappling with is that smart home stuff needs to work all the time. It’s a bad experience if you say “Siri turn on my lamp” and it doesn’t, or it opens your garage door, even 10% of the time. Generative AI stuff just doesn’t work or makes things up sometimes, and incorporating that into home hub devices actually risks making them worse. This is the same problem writ large for Apple. Its polished “just works” philosophy is at odds with gen AI’s inconsistency — hence why Apple Intelligence is such a disappointing product.

Australia’s new EVs and current charging problems

At the Sydney Everything Electric show late last week, yes, there was a Cybertruck and some desperate-sounding Tesla staff telling people that sales were about to pick up (AFR, $) amid its well-publicised drop-off (The Guardian Australia). What was more interesting was the rest of the vehicle lineup: the Driven’s David Leitch had a short write-up of Saturday’s show (The Driven) with highlights including the surprisingly cheap SUV Skyworth BE11, the more spenny Zeekr 009 and this general observation:

I was also alarmed to see this over the weekend: maintenance of EV chargers, particularly those in regional areas, appears to be an issue for some according to TechAU reporting on a seemingly abandoned EV network provider Everty (TechAU). Have you come across problems like this? LMK.

Reddit’s new AI rule breaking flagging and a Luigi error

Here’s a one-two punch of Reddit-related moderation stories:

1. Reddit is testing a way to let you know if your post breaks a subreddit’s rules before posting (Reddit Blog).
2. Someone trying to post about 2019 Switch game Luigi’s Mansion 3 found that Reddit is flagging the word Luigi as potentially “indicating violating content”, presumably because of UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione (The Verge).

My swerve is: this is probably fine? Using AI in a way that flags content before it is posted and explaining why is a transparent use the technology. In the case of Luigi-posting, the flagging kicked in because the subreddit, r/popculture, only had a single mod which means Reddit automatically steps up its moderation options to handle the load, and it didn’t actually remove the Luigi’s Mansion 3 content. It’s good that tech companies are coming up with creative ways to use tech to help with content moderation, and we should encourage them to try this stuff when the errors are limited to flagging and suggestions, not actual censorship.

Leftovers

Oh, Also

What if you were on your phone?

From the person who brought you ‘It is as if you were doing work’ (Pippinbarr) and ‘It is as if you were making love’ (Pippinbarr), comes the new — err… game? Sure — that’s taking the internet by storm: It is as if you were on your phone (Pippinbarr).

If you’ve run out of newsletters to read, or can’t be bothered scrolling through anymore TikToks, this phone simulator lets you feel like you are using your phone without the effort of actually using your phone. This eerily nails a feeling that I’ve felt but never even thought to express before.

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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

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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.