| Issue 2281 - Friday 28 February, 2025 | Enjoy your weekend Sizzlers! | In Today’s Issue | New AI models underwhelm, despite being overpriced Apple’s first step towards OS-level age verification Privacy watchdog staff slashed, Centrelink AI tests and Defence data delays: final estimates wrap-up Do kebabs get worse the closer you get to a train station? A GIS investigation. Deals on HDMI cables, wireless USB adaptors, Logitech mice and webcams, Sonos and Samsung soundbars, Narwal robot vacuum and mop, Samsung and Hisense smart TVs, GALAPOWER mini gaming PCs and more.
| | The News | New AI models underwhelm, despite being overpriced | Still reeling from the DeepSeek R1 release, the big western AI companies have dropped a few new models in the last few weeks: Open AI’s “more natural” feeling non-reasoning model GPT 4.5 (OpenAI), Anthropic’s “hybrid reasoning” model Claude 3.7 (Anthropic) and xAI’s Grok 3 with features like “sexy mode” — don’t ask — and is “not woke” (xAI). These updates feel very minor. The most substantial differences come from new features like Elon Musk deciding models should tell people how to make chemical weapons of mass destruction (X). Meanwhile, the technical improvements coming out of the companies’ massive training costs aren’t really moving the needle and are also expensive for users.
Even big AI boosters admit “everything is a little bit better and it’s awesome, but also not exactly in ways that are trivial to point to.” (X) There’s some tricky wording in OpenAI’s own materials that would lead people to believe it had made progress on the ‘ AI generating bullshit’ problem, but doesn’t actually say that: | “Early testing shows that interacting with GPT‑4.5 feels more natural… We also expect it to hallucinate less.” | | | | OpenAI |
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| From the outside, it seems like these companies assumed the fundamental flaws with generative AI large language models that make them unsuited to many tasks were fixable. So far, all the money and compute has been unsuccessful. This doesn’t mean the technology isn’t useful, but it does place a ceiling on just how useful it can be. | Apple’s first step towards OS-level age verification | Apple is making it possible for apps to check a child user’s age as verified by a parent (The Guardian Australia). The company announced it will introduce this iOS API along with a handful of other new child safety features (Apple paper, Apple Insider write-up). I hate to agree with Meta, Snap et al., but I’ve always thought that operating system-level age verification makes way more sense than having every dinky little app need to ask for your birth certificate, especially since Apple and Google already have a lot of the information it would require to verify someone’s age. Apple’s announcement comes amid the on-going development of Australia’s teen social media ban which, as I’ve been reporting on, continues to have some baffling, seemingly arbitrary decisions. Like deciding that WhatsApp is a messaging app but Snapchat isn’t, despite having near identical features (Crikey, $). | Privacy watchdog staff slashed, Centrelink AI tests and Defence data delays: final estimates wrap-up | Senate estimates is finished, almost certainly for last time for this parliament. Here’s some tech-related highlights: | Services Australia confirms it is testing machine learning to catch identity theft and deciding which debts to go after (IT News), following an Information Age report that discovered the trials, but says they’re “non-decision making”. Employment Department secretary Natalie James says she won’t pause the welfare mutual obligation system despite apologising for IT faults that caused 1300 people to be illegally penalised and admitting that she is not satisfied that some of the department’s computer programs are acting lawfully (InnovationAus, $). The Office of the Australian Information Commission has lost 30% of its staff, going from 200 in July to just under 140 full time staff because of a funding drop-off (InnovationAus, $). Cool, not like we have any privacy issues to deal with atm. The long-awaited OneDefence Data platform — that is supposed to bring together the Defence Department’s datasets (Defence Minister, 2022) — has yet again been delayed (ITNews) until March or April at a “minimum viable capability” level. Hmm…
| | Oh, Also | Do kebabs get worse the closer you get to a train station? | I love kebabs. I also love empirical research. I particularly love people putting an enormous amount of time into something and publishing the results on the internet for no real benefit. So that’s why I was smitten with this blog post that solves a question posed in a French TikTok posted to the GIS subreddit: "The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab" - A "Study" (jmspae.se) |  | Paris by kebab shop by James Pae |
| I won’t spoil the results but I appreciate the thoroughness. | | Bargains | | Computing | | | The End | 😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday afternoon. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius. | 💬 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. | 🗣️ Have any feedback, a tip or just want to chat? Send me an email or Signal message. I promise to reply! | 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. |
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