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The News

An increasingly stinky OpenAI says Australia’s copyright law doesn’t matter

OpenAI is lining up to open up its chequebook in Australia even if we don’t decide to hand over all of our intellectual property, its international exec says (Guardian Australia). The ChatGPT-maker’s vice president of global affairs Chris Lehane told SXSW last week that “we are going to be in Australia one way or another”, splitting from the tech lobby group Tech Council of Australia’s campaign to give free rein to train AI on copyrighted data.

It comes at the end of a pretty bad week for OpenAI, which included:

The Sizzle: OpenAI is trending dangerously closely to the “stinky” zone. Consider the difference between Google and Meta. Both are big tech companies with the same business model. Both have had some big problems. But Meta is severely unpopular, while Google still has some sheen. (This, by the way, is one of the reasons I believe Google/YouTube has pushed so hard against being in the teen social media ban — they do not want YouTube lumped in with Facebook as a “dangerous social network for teens”).

In short, Meta is stinky. The problem with being in stinky zone is that non-stinky people, businesses and governments ARE loath to work with stinky companies. In Meta’s case, they’re one of two of the biggest ad networks so they’re fine. But with OpenAI? Facing competition products like Gemini, Claude, every open source AI model, the company needs to have the prestige of a Google or Apple. But — as I think a little unfairly — when you’re talking about how your office productivity software can also suck users off… Well, you’re at risk of stink.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Why is everyone starting a bank?

Sony is the latest household name to move to start their own cryptocurrency bank (Nikkei). The Japanese company filed paperwork in the US under its subsidiary Connectia Trust and has indicated it intends to release a stablecoin. It follows YouTuber Mr Beast, whose company trademarked “MrBeast Financial” (Rolling Stone), and Republican tech billionaires Palmer Luckey and Peter Thiel who are both backing Erebor Bank (MSNBC)

The Sizzle: The obvious reason that everyone seems to be setting up a bank is that the Trump administration passed stablecoin ““““““regulations””””” which make it easier to do so. But, even still, why do it? This Bloomberg article from earlier in the year sums up the appeal:

Should we start a Sizzle Bank? Much to consider.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Wikipedia needs to deal with both AI and guns

Wikipedia is facing two very different threats. Firstly, AI is siphoning away its traffic while draining its servers (Gizmodo). Wikimedia Foundation’s Marshall Miller wrote a blog post saying that its seeing an 8% year-on-year decrease in traffic! While Wikimedia does make data available for scraping, it also needs visitors on its platforms to contribute to it — or it faces withering away.

And if that wasn’t enough, a gunman who burst onto the stage of WikiConference North America late last week (NYT, $). The would-be attacker seemed to be under some bizarre delusion about Wikipedia and pedophilia but — thankfully — two volunteers grabbed him and wrestled the gun from him. And, naturally, the page for the event has already been updated to reflect the news.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Leftovers

Australia:

Rest of the world:

Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Oh, Also

The government is cracking down on stingy pubs

I follow the RSS feed for the National Measurement Institute. It’s a government body that exists to create Australian standards for measurements and enforce them.

This week, the NMI will be sending inspectors to do random checks at 350 venues across Australia to ensure “pot, schooner, middie, pint, nip, shot and glass poured is correct when sold by measurement.” (Industry dot gov).

How is this technology, you ask? Well, they will test “measuring devices, automated liquor dispensers and trading practices”, noting that a whopping 1 in 4 failed their last round of inspections back in 2022. Godspeed NMI!

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

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.