 | Edition 2450 |
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Hello! |
Just a little note: Since the middle of the year, I’ve given out about 15-20 free and discounted subscriptions to people who aren’t able to afford the Sizzle right now. |
One of the reasons I’m able to do that is because of everyone else who subscribes, and especially thanks to the people who’ve signed up for the “exactly the same but more expensive” Sizzle Subscriber tier. Thanks for your support! (And if you want to gift someone else a sub, you can do it here) |
The News |
Popular AI virtual character maker bans kids as regulation comes to the industry |
Popular AI chatbot platform Character.ai will ban teens from talking with its virtual characters (BBC). As the company deals with lawsuits over its role in teenager suicides, Character.ai — which reportedly has 160,000 monthly active users in Australia — will begin limiting teen users’ conversations until eventually banning them by the end of November. Character.ai had attracted controversy for its bots’ behaviours like grooming children (Futurism) and for allowing people to make AI chatbot versions of murdered kids (Washington Post, $). Teens will still be able to generate videos of the characters on the platform. |
The Sizzle: The pressure on AI companies to take steps to identify and protect children means they’re implementing safeguards much earlier than we saw with with social media. Australia has been early on this with eSafety setting rules for AI chatbots that restrict sexual and violent conversations (ABC News). |
I’ve been thinking about how kids should be able to use AI chatbots, and I reckon a good philosophy is that they can be used to get information but not as companions that replace social interaction. How this might work in practice: |
AI chatbots can only have a stock standard “personality” — as in, neutral, robotic — and not assume characters. They can’t pretend to be a human or alive. They can’t have a “memory", meaning that they can’t retain information on a user that they use to customise their responses between sessions. They can’t suggest further prompts or questions (Would you like me to suggest XYZ? or whatever ) as a way of juicing engagement. They shouldn’t be able to proactively message or prompt users, only respond to questions.
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Essentially, you absolutely not be able to do this: This mom’s son was asking Tesla’s Grok AI chatbot about soccer. It told him to send nude pics, she says (CBC) |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Earnings szn: Alphabet fears overblown, Microsoft up despite outage and Meta’s surprise tax bill |
It’s earnings time again! Here’s what we got today: |
In spite of fears that AI was going to eat its search business, Alphabet reported strong earnings on the back of jumps in search revenue and its cloud business (WSJ, gift link). It says Gemini now has 650 million monthly users and says queries have tripled since Q2. Microsoft’s cloud business is going gangbusters, clocking 40% growth, as the company beat expectations (Guardian). A surprise $24 billion tax charge from Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill has led Meta’s stock to dive but the underlying performance remains strong with growth and is ramping up AI infrastructure spend even more (Reuters).
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TL;DR: Everyone is going to spend even more on AI data centres. It’s still the people selling the shovels — or I guess, renting the shovels — who are making money so far. |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Former Australian spy agency worker guilty of selling hacking tool secrets to Russians |
A former Australian intelligence agency worker has pleaded guilty to stealing surveillance technology from his company and selling it to a Russian hack broker (Guardian). L3Harris’s former general manager Peter Williams pled guilty to two charges of stealing trade secrets over a three years at the hacking tool company. The US’ DOJ says he sold “at least eight sensitive and protected cyber-exploit components” to an unnamed broker which is known to sell to the Russian government (Justice dot gov). Friend of the Sizzle Patrick Gray also revealed that Williams used to work for the Australian Signals Directorate (Risky Business). |
The Sizzle: It’s just so inspirational to see Aussies making it big on the world stage. |
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
Leftovers |
Australia: |
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Rest of the world: |
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Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
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Oh, Also |
Want to see police’s desktop wallpapers? |
Someone FOI’d the desktop backgrounds used by the AFP! Sadly, it’s just the corporate ones but, even still, they’re worth a look. |
 | My favourite is the promotion for the AFP’s in-house true crime podcast CRIME INTERRUPTED (which is up to a third season, somehow) |
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Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. |
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Bargains |
Electrical & Electronics |
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Computing |
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The End |
😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius. |
🤖 We love robots at the Sizzle but this newsletter has always been and will always be written by humans for humans. |
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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. |
