Plus: Consultants caught cheating on in-house AI training with AI ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

February 16, 2026 | Read online
# EV subsidy facing cuts for being too popular, Meta's sketchy smart glasses plans and job test malware Plus: Consultants caught cheating on in-house AI training with AI
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Edition 2502
"Pug in front of keyboard". Licensed under Public domain
In this edition: Meta, BYD, the Consumer Data Right, Peter Thiel, Australian data centres, Nintendo Switch emulators, Claude and Deloitte. Plus, deals on Google Pixel smartphones, Anker wall chargers and Samsung soundbars.
# The News
### Should we cut EV subsidy scheme for being too popular?
The knives are out for the tax benefit used by 100,000+ Australians to get an electric vehicle (The Driven). A 2022 policy that removed fringe benefits tax from EVs under $90,000 was projected to be used by just 5,000 people. But it's ended up helping 20x that amount, with about half of them reporting having income over $150,000 (AFR, $). During that time, EV market share has gone from 1.4% to 8.3% (AFMA). Now the subsidy is being reviewed by the government (AFR, $). Even some climate think tanks want to means test it (AFR, $) while others want to scrap the scheme altogether.
The Sizzle: This EV subsidy scheme is being attacked as "a handout for high income earners" (Sky News) which is just your normal culture war bullshit opposed to anything that isn't guzzling fuel. The point of the policy is to get people into EVs, including wealthier workers! Even with Australia's EV uptake increasing to 12%-ish of new sales (EV Council), we're still behind the rest of the world (IEA). Also, the spike in EV purchases is creating a bigger (and cheaper) second-hand EV market.
I'm all for fiddling with the settings especially as Australia is getting cheap — and pretty sexy — EVs like BYD Atto 3 or the Geely EX2. But if the problem with the scheme is that too many well off people are transitioning to EVs, maybe the answer should be "well, how do we make it even easier for low income people?"
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### Meta has cartoonishly evil plan for launching facial recognition on its smart glasses
Out of everything Metaverse-related, Meta's major — and really only — hit has been its smart glasses. There's already been some predictable privacy nightmares with people using them to film unsuspecting others (ABC News). Now, Meta reportedly is considering rolling out facial recognition in the glasses to let you scan the faces of anyone you see and recognise the face of anyone with whom you're Facebook friends (Futurism). Meta's internal memo has a cartoonishly evil part where it says that all the fucked up stuff happening in the US will distract people from protesting the feature...
"We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns"
Internal Meta memo
Related reading: Here's an interesting paper by Australian researchers about smart glasses and what we'll all have to contend with as they get more popular
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
### North Korea is tricking job applicants into running malware
Here's a new thing that you've got to worry about when you're applying for a new job: bad guys are creating companies so they can make potential hires do "interview tasks" that will install malicious dependencies (Bleeping Computer). Researchers from Reversing Labs believe that North Korean hackers set up fake crypto companies, created job listings, all so they could get candidates to unwittingly install malware on their own computers. As if the job market wasn't already scary enough...
hmm
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Leftovers
Australia:
Google has just appointed SEC Newhouse as its federal lobbyists Crawler bots overloaded parliamentary website, says DPS CIO (Mandarin) Treasury has halved the team working on Consumer Data Right, the project aiming to make it easier for people to move bank (or other service providers that lock you in with all your data) (Capital Brief, $) Australia's hottest new AI data centre company Firmus might face some tricky questions over co-CEO Oliver Curtis' insider trading conviction (The Australian, $) Assistant Minister Andrew Charlton makes some generic comments re: AI use in Australia before the government appears at this week's India AI Impact Summit (InnovationAus)
Rest of World:
There's a big global AI summit kicking off in New Delhi today US Expected to Add Alibaba, Others to List of Firms Allegedly Aiding China's Military (Reuters, $) The Pentagon and Anthropic are fighting because Anthropic won't let the US government use Claude for mass surveillance or to power autonomous weapons... which is a breaking point for the government :/ (Axios) Google is now rolling out Android 17 Beta 1 for Pixel (9to5Google) Nintendo just DMCA'd every Switch emulator (again), but it's not over yet (Android Authority) Discord Distances Itself From Age Verification Firm After Ties To Palantir’s Peter Thiel Surface (Kotaku) The guy who invented Clawdbot/Moltbot/OpenClaw is going to work for OpenAI (steipete.me) AI Is Slowly Munching Away My Passion (whynot.fail) You Wouldn't, Right? (Reddit)
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Oh, Also
### Consultants caught cheating on in-house AI training with AI
Look, a consulting firm other than Deloitte has had an AI-related fuck-up: KPMG found that more than two dozen staff had used AI to cheat on in-house training courses (AFR, $). Incredibly, this included a partner who cheated on an AI-related course. Chef’s kiss!
The best bit is that KPMG has just run "sponsored" article (AKA a paid article) in the AFR titled "AI gives graduates an edge, opening new career pathways" which includes quotes like how "KPMG Australia has embedded AI into its graduate program, so trainees can gain the skills, judgment and ethical grounding to apply AI confidently and responsibly and drive improved outcomes for clients." Another chef's kiss!
Discuss in Slack or Forum.
# Bargains
Electronics
INIU Power Bank 10000mAh Slim USB C Portable Charger - $25.48 at Amazon (Down from $62.99) Anker 100w GaN Wall Charger Silver A121BT41 - $73.85 at Origin Energy (Down from $119.95) Sangean DT800 Pocket Sized Rechargeable AM/FM Radio - $109 at Anaconda (Down from $149) DJI Osmo Nano Standard Combo at Amazon 64GB for $426 128GB for $456 (Down from $573) Bowers Wilkins Px7s3 - $516 at Bowers & Wilkins (Down from $699) Fujifilm X-HF1 Camera Black - $748 at Amazon (Down from $1199) Samsung HW-Q990F/XY Dolby Atmos Soundbar - $999 at Samsung EPP Store (Down from $1999)
Mobile
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL 5G Direct Import at Kogan eBay 256GB Rose Quartz for $866 Porcelain for $911 (Down from $2047) Google Pixel 10 Pro XL 256GB As New - $1262 at Green Gadgets (Refurbished) (Down from $1998)
# The End
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