Plus: The internet’s favourite erotica author has issued an AI apology ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

October 23, 2025 | Read online
# Internet Archive milestone, smart mattress outage mode, Tinder face scans Plus: The internet’s favourite erotica author has issued an AI apology
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Edition 2445
"Xerox PC" (Flickr: Volodymyr Osypov)
# The News
### The Internet Archive is pretty bloody big
The Internet Archive has hit the incredible milestone of 1 trillion pages captured (Internet Archive). Since starting nearly thirty years ago, the Archive has kept copies of web pages, obviously, but also books, images, audio, radio transmissions, maps, TV shows, movies — you name it, it’s probably archived. It even briefly ran a credit union (Credit Union Times).
The Internet Archive has been a truly crucial piece of internet infrastructure to countless people, saving knowledge and culture while holding people accountable. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve relied on it as a journalist, but also just as a normal internet user trying to find something that’s disappeared. It’s easy to take it for granted but it’s not a guarantee that something like the Internet Archive exists now or in the future — we should all be thankful (and think about what we might be able to do to help it).
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Smart mattress maker responds to AWS bricking by offering outage mode
When AWS suffered an outage last week, BOM, myGov and other Australian government technology systems hosted on Amazon were unaffected (InnovationAus, $). But — as mentioned earlier in the week — smart devices like internet-connected mattresses or water purifiers were rendered useless, driving their customers mad. Now, Silicon Valley-darling Eight Sleep says it’s releasing an “outage mode” feature that will let its smart mattress run locally with some basic features when it can’t reach the cloud (The Verge)
| Indra @IndraVahan |
when your smart water purifier won’t give you drinking water because aws is down
11:12 AM • Oct 22, 2025
25.7K Likes 900 Retweets
207 Replies
The Sizzle: Good to see Eight Sleep doing this but I don’t think this should be left to companies to do out of the goodness of their heart. Providing customers with the ability for basic functionality for smart devices unable to connect to the cloud should be a basic expectation for any product whether it’s to deal with a temporary outage or a company going bust. Maybe this is a pipe-dream, but I’d love to see some regulation that forces companies to build for this before something goes wrong — ideally when they come to market.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Tinder is starting to require all users to scan their face
Tinder is mandating facial scans for new American users as part of its efforts to crack down on fake profiles (WIRED, $). Ex-Twitter trust & safety lead famously outed by Musk, Yoel Roth, announced that Tinder would expand its optional Face Check feature and make it a requirement. This feature matches your live scan to the images to make sure it’s really you in the photos. Currently, 98% (!) of Tinder’s moderation is getting rid of fake accounts which use other people’s images, typically to try and scam other users.
The Sizzle: I’m going to say something that maybe will surprise people: I don’t really see an issue with this. Think about how people use Tinder: you join up, you upload a bunch of photos already for anyone on the app to see. Why not use technology to make sure this isn’t bullshit? I think a lot of people feel inherently uncomfortable about facial scans, but in this situation I can’t really think of a downside considering everyone on the platform is already uploading their face by choice.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Urgent calls to replace or update older Samsung phones amid Triple Zero call concerns (EFTM) Data Centres Will Soon Make Up 12 Per Cent of Energy Demand: AEMO (The Australian Financial Review, $) CBA retains faith in the cloud despite AWS Crash (The Australian Financial Review, $) Pokémon GO City Safari Comes to Sydney: Catch 'Em All Across the Harbour City (techAU) Supporting safer AI adoption: updated guidance for Australian business (Australian Government Department of Industry) auDA's 2024-25 Annual Report: Strengthening .au for a resilient digital future (auDA)
Rest of the world:
Apple's pulling back on iPhone Air production (Nikkei) Europe's plan to ditch US tech giants is built on open source - and it's gaining steam (ZDNET) How Sam Altman Tied Tech’s Biggest Players to OpenAI (The Wall Street Journal, $) It’s mildly worrying that everyone is just saying now that OpenAI is too big to fail OpenAI prioritised user engagement over suicide prevention, lawsuit claims (Financial Times, $) Meta removes AI video purporting to show Catherine Connolly quitting presidential race after 12 hours (The Irish Times, $) AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time (BBC) Apple pulls hacked women’s dating safety app Tea over privacy concerns (AppleInsider) Reddit sues Perplexity for scraping data to train AI system (Reuters) Meta slashes jobs in its older AI operations (Axios) ChatGPT's Atlas: The Browser That's Anti-Web (Anil Dash) People Who Say They're Experiencing AI Psychosis Beg the FTC for Help (Wired, $) The security paradox of local LLMs (Quesma Blog) Fedora Council approves AI-assisted contributions policy (LWN.net) Fake home invasion vid lands woman in real trouble (The Register) FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT Laptop owner wondered why there were occasionally ants on her screen. (Reddit)
| Cristina Criddle @CristinaCriddle |
OpenAI has sent a legal request to the family of Adam Raine, the 16yo who died by suicide following lengthy chats with ChatGPT, asking for a full attendee list to his memorial, as well as photos taken or eulogies given. His lawyers told the FT this was "intentional harassment"
7:37 PM • Oct 22, 2025
1.3K Likes 291 Retweets
51 Replies
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### The internet’s favourite erotica author has issued an AI apology
Chuck Tingle is an internet famous satirical queer erotica author whose absurdist, meme-y books have found a cult following for their distinctive premises and covers. Some examples:
Domald Tromp Pounded In The Butt By The Handsome Russian T-Rex Who Also Peed On His Butt And Then Blackmailed Him With The Videos Of His Butt Getting Peed On My Lesbian Twice Baked Potato Ski Instructor Eats My Ass The Handsome Physical Manifestation Of Autumn Turns Me Gay
This week, he issued a formal apology because the cover of one of his recent books — My Neighbor’s Twelve-Foot-Tall Decorative Halloween Skeleton Gets Me Off Also She Is A Lesbian — appears to have included a stock image that may be AI-generated.
“could have easily just left it and i think 99 percent of buckaroos would never notice, but this is something i care about a lot. there are authors i will not name that i get tagged with all the time who proudly slop around with their AI, and i will never do that. the soul of these books is not theft”, Tingle wrote on Instagram.
| chucktingle 66K followers |
chucktingle
Add a comment... |
Given that other authors have been caught out using AI to churn out their books, I’m glad to see that Chuck Tingle remains committed to handcrafting his artisanal filth.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
15% off Good Guys appliances, health, fitness & beauty, computers, audio & home security eufy 2k Dual Camera Doorbell T8213g11 - $244 at Bunnings HOVERAir X1 Self-Flying Camera Combo - $298 at Harvey Norman eufy Security Solocam S220 (4-Pack) with Homebase 3 - $599 at JB Hi-Fi Sennheiser HDB 630 Closed Back ANC Over-Ear Headphones preorder - $899 at JB Hi-Fi (Down from $999) Samsung 42" S90f Oled 4K Smart AI TV [2025] - $1196 at JB Hi-Fi TCL 85C7K 85” TV - $2236 at JB Hi-Fi Sony 65-Inch Bravia 8 4K HDR OLED TV (Bonus $300 HN E-Gift Card) - $2790 at Harvey Norman TCL 98" P7K Qled 4K UHD Google TV 2025 + Bonus HN $300 Gift Card - $2947 at Harvey Norman
Computing
Kogan 40" Curved WUHD (5120x2160) 75Hz IPS USB-C Monitor - $579 at Kogan REDMAGIC Astra Gaming Tablet (12GB RAM+256GB ROM, 9.06'') at Amazon AU Silver for $855.78 Black for $867.54
Mobile
Telstra Prepaid 300gb SIM 12-Month Plan + Free $35 Vodafone 55gb 28 days expiry - $299 at Mobilexpress AU bizarre deal but ok Google Pixel 9 at JB Hi-Fi 128GB for $697 256GB for $847
# The End
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