Issue 2313 - Tuesday 15 April 2025

The News

EU is giving burners to diplomats because it is worried the US will hack them

The European Commission is giving staff burner phones and laptops when they travel to the US out of fears of espionage (FT, $). Once just a protocol for staff going to China, those Brussels bureaucrats are apparently so worried about declining relations that they fear that their devices will be bugged or seized at the border. (Sizzler mnarkbc shared this EFF guide to protecting your device if you’re going to the US in the Slack). I’d love to hear from any Sizzlers if you use burners while you travel and, if so, what the best burner set up is. Meanwhile, new data shows that Apple took the No. 1 spot in a somehow still growing global smartphone market thanks to increases in markets like Japan, India, etc (Counterpoint). But they predict an overall decline in sales this year because — you guessed it —  all the Trump turmoil.

Let me explain Apple’s new AI technique using KFC

Apple is using a pretty fascinating approach to training AI that it claims balances its privacy promise with the benefits of personalised data (Bloomberg, $). In a blog post (Apple) it explains that it takes a sample of data on your device — your emails, messages, etc — and then compares it to the synthetic dataset to find its data that’s most in line with your data. Here’s the best analogy I could come up with: you’re the Colonel from the KFC and you invite a friend over to try your delicious 11 herbs and spices fried chicken. Inspired by the experience, your friend researches a delicious meal to cook for you when you come over to your house. Now, your friend doesn’t know the secret recipe, but they’ve been able to customise the meal to your taste, hopefully doing a better job of serving you. Except, in this scenario, that bucket of hot, salty KFC original recipe is Apple Intelligence. 

(Also in AI news: OpenAI is launching a new model GPT-4.1 (Verge), Meta is starting training its AI on EU data (Engadget) and could Pokémon be an AI benchmark (TechCrunch)?)

Roblox has a safety problem. Is it only up to Roblox to fix it?

Children using Roblox are still being exposed to some pretty full-on content and can be contacted by adults despite the game’s promise to improve kid safety on the game (The Guardian). Research by the Guardian and a “digital behaviour” group found that Roblox’s AI-powered real-time voice moderation wasn’t stopping sex sounds and that people were pretty easily able to get around the game’s attempt to stop people from procuring contact details for different platforms. I always get a bit instinctively defensive when I see something resembling moral panics (freaking out about cartoon characters peeing on each other). On the other hand, online environments built for children do attract predators and freaks, and platforms, particularly ones that are designed to be open and interactive, need to be proactive about stopping this. I want to see Roblox do more, but also we need to instil in parents that they need to be actively involved in monitoring how children are using these platforms, in the same way they would if their kid was playing in a physical space.

Leftovers

Oh, Also

Did you know the US tried to launch a terrorism prediction market?

I really enjoying The Verge’s podcast Decoder, hosted by its editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, and the most recent episode with the head of consumer trading app Robinhood is no exception (The Verge). The company is trying to argue a prediction market is different to gambling — i.e. I will — and it reminded me of a crazy thing that happened: the US government was seriously developing a terrorism prediction market in the early 2000s (NBC News).

It was called the “Policy Analysis Market” and idea was to let people bet on whether things like terrorist attacks or coups would happen in 8 Middle Eastern countries. The benefit was, supposedly, that if someone knew something bad was about to happen, then they would bet on the market and spike the prices — tipping the rest of us off that something was afoot. The program got shut down because of opposition before it launched but the cool thing now is that private prediction markets have popped up so now anyone can have a flutter on whether Trump will be assassinated on a Friday (CoinDesk).

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. 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.