The News

Apple plans to win the AI race with Robot Siri and smart home gear

Apple is set to launch a robot Siri, a home iPad and other smart home gear as its way of getting back into the AI game (Bloomberg, archived). The Apple Oracle Mark Gurman says that Apple is targeting 2027 to release a bunch of new devices with the plan of “owning the home”. These include an iPad on a robot arm that can “reposition itself to follow users in a room”, a stripped down, arm-less version of the home iPad device, security cameras and a smart lock that will unlock using Face ID.

The Sizzle: Some of this stuff seems like a no-brainer. I’m a baby Apple HomeKit user with only a few smart lightbulbs, and even I’ve looked to see if there are compatible security cameras. I’m sure the Home iPad and Robot Siri will sell like hotcakes because there’s already a clear use case even if there’s no improvement over the existing capabilities of Dumb Siri. Whether they become a true smash hit will depend if Apple can do what Amazon has struggled with Alexa Plus: make an AI vocal assistant that is as dependable as Dumb Siri but has the ability of a ChatGPT-like Smart Siri.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

UK age check law looks like it’s driven people to dodgier adult websites

Visits to major p*rn websites dropped by half in the UK after the companies introduced the legally-mandated age check measures (Guardian). Social media websites which introduced the same measures didn’t see a dip.

The Sizzle: I actually think this is incredibly damning. The fact that major p*rn traffic dropped while social media didn’t suggests that a lot of people are now going to non-compliant adult websites. Think about it: there’s no real competition to major social media platforms because of the network effects. When it comes to p*rn, there are a LOT of options. This should worry people because, say what you want about some of the dodgy behaviour of major adult websites, the more obscure ones are probably even worse.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Opening up Big Tech’s black box is a no brainer

The Albanese government is considering whether AI companies should be forced to reveal their model training data as part of enforcing copyright (AFR, $). Attorney-General Michelle Rowland is mulling this policy, after senior members of the government also indicated that it’s not too keen on giving AI companies a carve-out for copyright law for training despite the tech lobby acting like we’re falling behind (Guardian).

The Sizzle: Some of the low hanging fruit for Australian tech regulation is forcing transparency. Silicon Valley has an upper hand in public debate about tech policy because their services are black boxes, opaque to the rest of us. I know it’s complicated by trade secrets and the nature of technology itself, but I think the first step in any regulation should be making sure everyone understands what the fuck is actually happening online.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Leftovers

Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Oh, Also

Originally I was going to share this Windows XP running in a web browser with you. But then I realised, it’s not an actual emulation.

Here at the Sizzle HQ, we have standards. We don’t accept pretenders. Only the best for my Sizzlers. So, in lieu, here is Windows 95 actually being emulated in a browser.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

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.