Plus: Do you want to rotate a 3D kangaroo skeleton? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

June 11, 2025 | Read online
# AI's missing pay-off, anti-EV lies and Telegram might be a Russian honeypot Plus: Do you want to rotate a 3D kangaroo skeleton?
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Edition 2350
Flickr: sdasmarchives
# The News
### Silicon Valley spends billions on AI and threatens the open web — so where’s the pay-off?
Why is Meta spending $22.7b to buy 49% of AI startup Scale AI (Reuters)? The owner of Facebook and Instagram says it’s to pursue “superintelligence”. I’m told that’s one step above another jargon term, “artificial general intelligence”. This move is at least partly prompted by the company’s recent embarrassing releases of subpar AI products covered in previous Sizzles. Think about that number — 22.7 BILLION — at the same time as you think about these other stories.
News publishers say Google traffic has disappeared as the search company is becoming an AI “answer engine” (WSJ, gift link) but Google hasn’t figured out how to make money from that yet. Apple hasn’t figured out how to roll out an AI Siri that works yet (WSJ, gift link). Even the million people who’ve gotten early access to Amazon’s souped up AI Alexa still don’t have access to its more conversational voice assistant (The Verge).
I’m not an AI hater, but like, why the rush? I know none of these companies want to be left behind but none of this really works or makes money yet at a consumer level (other than AI as a platform itself i.e. ChatGPT), but it’s roll-out threatens to kill the open web.
### Everyone is falling for anti-EV bullshit
Most Australians — even many Australian EV owners — believe in myths and bullshit that have been spread about the vehicles, research has found (ABC News). Academics in countries, including Australia, found that “demonstrably false” claims about EVs are pervasive, including believing that EVs put out harmful EMG radiation, that they produce more carbon emissions than an ICE car, and that they are more likely to catch fire (Nature). Who’s to blame? The paper says “Conservative communication channels” have focused on EVs as a cultural war point. Which is why governments like Queensland’s LNP state government feel fine about dumping EV-friendly policies (ABC News).
### Telegram is not encrypted and may even be a Russian honeypot
Telegram has become super popular with a billion users around the world using the largely unmoderated platform to follow people’s accounts, like on Twitter, or to take part in mass group chats. A weird thing is that Telegram claims to be “more secure” than WhatsApp despite admitting that most of its use isn’t encrypted by default (cryptographyengineering blog) which is so sketchy. That’s why I’m not surprised to see this investigative report that claims that one of Telegram’s top employees, its main network engineer, also has another company that works for the Russian Intelligence Agency (IStories). Now, why would Vladimir Putin want to pay someone who has access to all of Telegram’s unencrypted traffic…
#### Leftovers
Australian Cyber Network is winding up (LinkedIn) Stronger support for telco customers experiencing domestic and family violence (Department of Communications) Albanese staunch on under-16s social media ban and defence spending as possible Trump meeting loom (The Guardian Australia) Big buy now, pay later reforms start today. Here’s what you need to know (SmartCompany) ACT Policing flags system upgrades for use-of-force tracking (ITNews) How digital identities challenge traditional espionage (The Strategist) Macron says France will ban social media access for under-15s if EU takes no action (EuroNews) UK regulator investigates possible online safety breaches at 4chan and other platforms (Reuters) Snap plans to sell lightweight, consumer AR glasses in 2026 (TechCrunch) Peep show: 40K IoT cameras worldwide stream secrets to anyone with a browser (The Register) Airlines Don’t Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS (WIRED, $) Android 16 is here, but its big redesign isn’t ready (The Verge) OpenAI’s Sora is now available for FREE to all users through Microsoft Bing Video Creator on mobile (VentureBeat) Sam Altman claims an average ChatGPT query uses ‘roughly one fifteenth of a teaspoon’ of water (The Verge) Mozilla shuts down even more Firefox services you might still be using (Neowin) Mario Kart World review: Getting there is half the game (Ars Technica) 1.5 TB of James Webb Space Telescope data just hit the internet (The Register) First Video of driverless Model Y running FSD (Unsupervised) in Austin ahead of Robotaxi (Tech AU) Tesla’s Robotaxis Are Rolling Out Soon—With One Big Unanswered Question (WIRED, $) Silicon Valley led the quest for driverless cars. But Chinese robotaxis are catching up fast (Rest Of World)
# Oh, Also
### Do you want to rotate a 3D kangaroo skeleton?
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: if only there was an open-access collection of 3D scans of Australian vertebrate bones with rich metadata! Well, buddy, I’ve got just the news for you: Flinders University has released OzBoneviz, which has 1600+ specimens of bones belonging to Australian wildlife like the kangaroo and the emu, that you can peruse either on Morphosource or on the much more user-friendly Sketchfab.
Sick
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# The End
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