Issue 2328 - Friday 9 May 2025

The News

Wikipedia takes on the UK

Wikipedia is suing the UK government over its new ‘burdensome’ internet regulations that treat it like TikTok or Facebook (Wikimedia). The UK’s updated Online Safety Act requires Wikipedia to give users tools to block “all unverified users from fixing or removing any content they post” (Medium). Intended as an anti-online abuse mechanism, Wikipedia argues that this ironically would make the website much worse by people using this ability to stop the legion of anonymous editors from removing “vandalism, disinformation or abuse” unless they revealed their identity. It’s a pretty perilous time for Wikimedia, as the Trump administration threatens to take away its not-for-profit status for “propaganda” (Washington Post, $) and with its CEO set to leave later this year (Axios)

Students use ChatGPT to cheat. So what?

New York Magazine dropped a big piece yesterday on how every US college student is using ChatGPT to cheat (Intelligencer). It’s not exactly a news flash that kids will cheat, but it’s a good read that captures how students are missing out on learning and developing their skills. I think bigger question is: how do universities (or businesses trying to hire people) test someone’s abilities in a post-generative AI world? One teaching assistant said they realised they were “grading people on their ability to use ChatGPT.” This is a bit trolly but — is that not something worth testing? In the same way that we also test people on their abilities to use calculators?

I think kids should learn how to think, research and communicate, but I also think that universities are so vulnerable to this stuff because, as friend of the Sizzle @rhtebooks pointed out, their curricula are designed to turn “actual accomplishment into numbers in a spreadsheet” (Bluesky). Which makes it, as it turns out, easy to fake with a computer.

Australia’s science minister dumped

Ed Husic has been dumped as the federal industry and science minister as part of a post-election factional reshuffle (The Guardian). Husic has been responsible for some big tech decisions like the government’s half a billion dollar investment in PsiQuantum (SmartCompany) and was stewarding a review of our R&D system. Asking around, Husic was generally liked by the tech industry even as it grew a bit frustrated by the lack of action on things like a national AI plan and the Future Made in Australia scheme’s focus on physical production and not digital production. Mooted successors include Dan Mulino, Jess Walsh and Andrew Charlton.

Leftovers

Oh, Also

I added the Pope on Facebook

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been elected to become the next pope. Taking the name “Pope Leo XIV”, he represents many firsts: the first pope to be born in the US and the first Boomer pope. But more important than any of these is that Pope Leo XIV appears to be the first pope with a personal Facebook account (Facebook). There’s not much on his account other than a picture of him on a donkey, which makes it the perfect Boomer Facebook account. Naturally, I have sent the account a friend request and will update you if I hear back from him. (Also, he might have the ignoble honour of being the first pope to have tweets “resurface” — specifically for criticising Trump).

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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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.