Plus: This One Weird Trick that gets you out of traffic fines (self-driving) ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

October 01, 2025 | Read online
# Amazon's new smart speakers, AI training pushback and insider threat offer Plus: This One Weird Trick that gets you out of traffic fines (self-driving)
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Edition 2430
"Jamming in the computer lab." (Flickr: Blair-Preston Public Library)
# The News
### Can Amazon actually get people to use their smart speakers for anything other than timers and playing music?
Amazon has beefed up its Alexa smart home products to make them capable of using its new generative AI features. The Verge has the best wrap-up of all the hardware upgrades, but the takeaway is that everything is getting faster and better screens.
Introducing the next generation of Echo devices, designed for Alexa+
The more interesting thing is the features that Amazon claims its Alexa+ — which is now being rolled out to more existing Alexa owners (Verge) — can do via these smart devices. On top of new integrations with various other platforms that you can order from your speaker, Alexa+ uses “a 13-megapixel camera on new Echo Show devices, audio, ultrasound, Wi-Fi radar, accelerometer, and Wi-Fi channel state information” to register and respond to things happening in your house. An example that was given was ambiently recognising that a dog hasn’t been fed by midday, and bringing it up with someone when they come into the room.
The Sizzle: By all accounts, the Alexa+ rollout to existing devices has not gone well (Wirecutter). As previously Sizzled, everyone wants to integrate these new generative AI features into smart phone devices, but no one has done it successfully yet. And yet… Can I say that the “ambient AI” stuff, if it works, finally feels like we’re getting somewhere with this technology? The biggest problem with Alexa and smart home assistants at the moment is that most owners have no idea how to use their features. If AI has the capability to prompt you with context relevant information and decisions, we could be cooking.
You may have noticed a lot of “ifs”. If, if, if. Good luck following through, Amazon! I won’t be first in line to get these devices.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Government think tank didn’t think about the consequences of letting AI companies steal copyright data before backing it
The Productivity Commission has no idea how giving AI companies free reign to train on Australian copyrighted material without paying will affect anything, but that hasn’t stopped it from suggesting it (The Guardian). A parliamentary inquiry yesterday heard that the government’s in-house think tank hasn’t modelled or asked anyone in the creative industry about how a data mining exemption would affect them before recommending it. While saying that Australia’s copyright laws are “not fit for purpose in the age of AI”, the head of the commission Stephen King said Australia is not getting the benefits if AI models are being trained on copyrighted material overseas.
The Sizzle: I’m going to resist the temptation to get sucked into a discussion about “what is productivity, anyway”, and just say that King and the Commission are misrepresenting what is happening with AI training and copyright around the world. There is no major country, to my knowledge, that has greenlit AI training on copyrighted material. At best, these companies are existing in grey legal areas and regulatory paralysis. Meanwhile, AI companies are playing everyone against each other, whispering that “you could be left behind” as they become the most valuable companies on earth. I’m actually open to the idea of copyright reform — but not on the terms of “let us do this or else”.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### How much would someone need to offer you before you helped a hacker into your company?
A BBC reporter humoured a request of cybercriminals who wanted him to break them into the broadcaster’s systems (BBC). Joe Tidy says he was propositioned by an pseudonymous character who offered him 25% of whatever money they were able to hack, and claimed to have had success with insider attacks in the past.
After playing along for a while, the supposed hacker started bombing him with multi-factor authentication requests when Tidy stopped co-operating. Once he told the BBC, Tidy was locked out of its systems as a precaution. Then he got another message.
"The team apologises. We were testing your BBC login page and are extremely sorry if this caused you any issues."
The hacker
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
I spoke about AI workslop, TrumpTok and, of course, conspiracy theories with the excellent Burning Platforms podcast Tech companies consider giving up efforts to combat misinformation online in Australia (The Guardian) Google Workspace adds AI ransomware detection and sync-pausing for Drive (iTnews) Compensating creators is a ‘business choice’: Maincode chief (InnovationAus, $) We’re improving verification (Tryst)
| ally @allyhennessy.bsky.social |
made a playable zine for FREAKON that incorporates a whole heap of stories of how games media helped feed our community
3:04 AM • Oct 1, 2025
17 Likes 2 Reposts | 1 Reply
Rest of the world:
Britain's policing minister punts facial recog nationwide (The Register) PayPal’s Honey to integrate with ChatGPT and other AIs for shopping assistance (TechCrunch) lol Apple wants to use your mattress as a body temperature sensor (AppleInsider) Trump Makes It Very Clear They’re Going To Turn TikTok Into A Right-Wing Propaganda Machine (Techdirt) Making sure AI serves people and knowledge stays human: Wikimedia Foundation’s Human Rights Impact Assessment on the interaction of AI and Machine Learning (Diff) Imgur pulls out of UK after data regulator warns of fines (TechCrunch) Organize your Slack channels by how often, not what (aggressivelyparaphrasing.me)
Introducing Sora 2
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### This One Weird Trick that gets you out of traffic fines (self-driving)
Last week, officers in San Bruno, California, pulled over a car for the routine traffic infringement of making an illegal U-Turn. It was then that they discovered that it was a Waymo vehicle with no driver. Police subsequently realised that they couldn’t issue a ticket because “our citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot’”, according to a Facebook post from the department. So, they instead contacted the company to let them know
San Bruno Police Department
🚔 DUI Enforcement… with a plot twist. During a grant-funded DUI enforcement operation, our officers observed something unusual: an autonomous vehicle made an illegal U-turn right in front of them at...
www.facebook.com/sanbrunopolice/posts/pfbid02bxuVSm8Wjr8tzpGf8916Y6Auxaq3q4CMDHkfeBdHbcMDUx9oEQKPQWJ6FdrQiTuNl
There is apparently legislation in train that would let police issue tickets to self-driving vehicles. But until then? Sounds like crime is legal as long as you’re a self-driving car. Cool!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
Ring Battery Video Doorbell - $75 at Amazon AU Garmin Venu 2S (Mist Grey/Passivated), GPS & Running Watch - $350 at Hub by Triforce Bauhn 4K Ultra HD WebOS Smart TVs at ALDI 55" for $429 70" for $629 Reolink RLK8-800TM4 4K Dual-Lens PoE Security System with Auto-Zoom Tracking - $1056 at Reolink AU (Down from $1508)
Computing
Blackview & C Idea Android Tablets (Kids & Smart Tabs, 32GB–256GB) - from $69 at Phonebot (Like New/Open Box) Elgato Stream Deck Plus - $236 at Amazon MINISFORUM AI X1 Pro Mini PC (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX370, Radeon 890M, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD) - $1519 at MINISFORUM Amazon AU
Mobile
$50 cashback on dodo Mobile Services 20% off Coles mobile recharge vouchers at Coles amaysim 28-Day Prepaid SIM Starter Pack 50GB - $10 at 7-Eleven via App (Down from $30) Xiaomi 15T Pro 12GB/512GB + Redmi Pad 2 11" 2.5K 8GB/256GB + Sound Pocket (Pre-Register by 9/10) - $1099 at Xiaomi AU
# The End
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