Plus: The cheating Coldplay CEO is now an NFT and a vibe-coded game...yeah ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

July 21, 2025 | Read online
# Microsoft's massive security flaw, AI isn't human and Qantas admits using ChatGPT Plus: I regret to inform you that the cheating Coldplay CEO is now an NFT and a vibe-coded game
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Edition 2378
"Dana On The Couch With A Computer" (Flickr: adamlempel)
Hey Sizzlers, I had the great pleasure of finally meeting the Sizzle father in the flesh over the weekend. Highly recommend it AA+++ experience.
The Sizzle boys
# The News
### Microsoft SharePoint security flaw is a massive problem that still isn’t fixed
Government agencies, telcos and universities are among the victims of a major security flaw in Microsoft server software that is still yet to be patched (Washington Post, gift link). Australia is among the countries whose cyber agencies have warned about a zero-day exploit affecting local Microsoft SharePoint servers (Cyber dot gov dot au). Researchers say they’re finding evidence that dozens of servers have already been attacked using this exploit (Research Eye Security).
The Sizzle: This is bad. It’s so bad that experts are literally recommending unplugging some servers in some circumstances because attacks are happening right now (Brian Krebs). My condolences to those of you who are dealing with this right now.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Stop talking about AI as if it is a living, thinking thing
Over the weekend, another story of delusions fuelled by an AI chatbot was published (WSJ, gift link). A key part of the article is a moment where ChatGPT ‘told’ the mother of the affected person that it had encouraged a manic episode in her son.
The Sizzle: The WSJ story highlights the mum asking ChatGPT about her son’s bizarre conversations and how it “admit[ted]” stoking his delusions. Except it didn’t. ChatGPT doesn’t think, it doesn’t know, it doesn’t have any insight into itself because it is just a very advanced predictive text machine. Ironically, the WSJ story is reinforcing the problematic, delusional thinking that its subject is displaying. So when writing about stories like how a big funder of OpenAI seems to be going through ChatGPT-related psychotic break eerily similar to a crowdsourced sci-fi fiction project (Futurism) or how a software developer says his AI coding agent went ‘rogue’ and deleted his production database (X dot com), we have to be careful not to anthropomorphise these tools if we want people to have any hope of understanding them.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Qantas admits ChatGPT used for CEO email
Qantas confirmed that ChatGPT was used to create its CEO’s email to 5.7 million customers affected by its breach (Sizzle article). Last week, a previous Sizzle edition covered how metadata of an image used in airline’s apology showed that the OpenAI AI chatbot was used. Someone from the company confirmed by phone that ChatGPT had been used — but said it was only used for formatting and not the text.
The Sizzle: My sense is that such an important email for Qantas would have been reviewed so many times by real people that there’s pretty much zero chance that ChatGPT would have played a big role in its language. Still, it was fun to have a peekinto how AI is already being used to shape how Australian companies are talking to us.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Face age and ID checks? Using the internet in Australia is about to fundamentally change (Guardian Australia) Tax Office is reviewing how Big Tech is accounting for profit made using its local data centres (AFR, $) Experts say forcing companies to delete data would remove cybercrime 'honey pot' (ABC News) Mansfield installs weather station to bypass unreliable BOM forecasts (ABC News) “Signal to the world:” BYD founder on hand to deliver company’s 60,000th car in Australia (The Driven) Blackbird-backed Caligra opens pre-orders for developer-focused computer (Capital Brief, $) Reform of Australia’s electronic surveillance framework (Home Affairs) [The Australian] Group Behind Steam Censorship Policies Have Powerful Allies — And Targeted Popular Games With Outlandish Claims (VICE) The First Foldable iPhone Will Arrive Next Year in Un-Apple-Like Fashion (Bloomberg, $) iOS 26 Public Beta Expected This Week as First iOS 27 Rumor Surfaces (Mac Rumours) Microsoft scraps the new Windows 11 system tray after user criticism (Windows Latest) TSMC to start building four new plants with 1.4nm tech (Taipei Times) Amazon’s Emissions Climbed 6% in 2024 on Data Center Buildout (Bloomberg) Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance (EFF) Meta says it won’t sign Europe AI agreement, calling it an overreach that will stunt growth (CNBC) AI groups spend to replace low-cost ‘data labellers’ with high-paid experts (FT, $) Amazon didn’t share its Prime Day sales numbers this year 👀 (Fortune) A hands-on review of Amazon’s new Alexa AI’s ‘agentic’ features (The Verge) Ride-hailing giants’ electric promises are stalling worldwide (Rest Of World) DuckDuckGo will let you hide AI-generated images in search (X dot com) They're putting blue food coloring in everything (Luna’s Blog) This isn’t really about blue food colouring Linus Torvalds used to speak to engineers in 2012 the way I speak to LLMs now (r/Linux)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### I regret to inform you that the cheating Coldplay CEO is now an NFT and a vibe-coded game
Here’s a sentence that’s never been written in human history before this week: the cheating CEO caught canoodling at a Coldplay concert by a kiss cam is now a video game (Fortune). And, even worse, an NFT (X).
| 17 years of song a day @songadaymann |
i vibe coded a little game called Coldplay Canoodlers you're the camera operator and you have to find the CEO and HR lady canoodling 10 points every time you find them 👇link
4:41 PM • Jul 18, 2025
59.6K Likes 4.26K Retweets
634 Replies
The lifecycle of every online viral moment used to be: something blows up online, the person cashes in with a brand deal, launches a podcast, and then eventually gets milkshake ducked (SMH, $). Now, we can add “ends up vibecoded into something” as one of the new indignities of becoming a meme.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
Laser SmartHome 10W Smart White/RGB E27/B22 (6 Pack) for $29 at Big W UGREEN Steam Deck Dock, 9-in-1 USB C Docking Station for $67.99 at UGREEN GROUP LIMITED AU Amazon AU KRK Rokit 5 Gen 5 for $289 at Turramurra Music Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Bluetooth at Amazon AU (Pre-Order) 40mm for $498 44mm for $549 TCL 55" 55c6k 4K QD-Mini LED Google TV for $994 at Harvey Norman Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra for $1698.60 at Tech Sales Online
Computing
TteSPORTS Ventus PRO RGB Wireless Precision Gaming Mouse for $42.48 at EBgames Verbatim Blu-Ray Blank Disc, BD-R XL, 100 GB, 20 Disks, M-Disk, 3 Layers, 4x Speed for $129 at Amazon JP via AU NETGEAR Nighthawk AX3000 Dual-band Mesh WiFi 6 System (2 Pack) for $149 at JB Hi-Fi Mp80 12th Gen Alder Lake N97 Windows 11 Pro 16GB+512GB Mini PC for $360.25 at Blackview NetGear Orbi RBRKE962 Wi-Fi 6E Quad-Band Mesh Router 2-Pack for $899 at Centre Com HP Omenmax GamingLaptop 16"Wqxgaoled Ultra 9 275hx 32GB 1TB SSD RTX 5090 for $4999 at HP eBay
Mobile
Vodafone Prepaid 75GB 28-Day SIM with 50% cashback for $12 before cashback Anker 321 MagGo 5000mAh Magsafe Powerbank for iPhone 12-16 for $29.99 at AnkerDirect AU Amazon AU Apple iPhone SE2 2020 Black 64GB (used) for $156 at Bufferstock Optus 300GB 365-Day Prepaid SIM Starter Kit for $199 at Coles Telstra Prepaid SIM Starter Kit 365 Days 165GB data + 135GB bonus data for $284 at TelcoBizTraders Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro+ Plus 5G at AliExpress 12GB/512GB Black for ~$520 12GB/512GB Blue for ~$537 Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (256GB) for $1448 at Medinah Traders eBay
# The End
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