Plus: Mushroom murder trial mentioned an app. Its users aren’t happy ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

May 15, 2025 | Read online
# Chip bans are out, Telstra's Starlink trial and Grok's conspiracy theory obsession Plus: Mushroom murder trial mentioned an app. Its users aren’t happy
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Flickr: DanMelinger
Issue 2332 - Thursday 15 May 2025
# The News
### Chip bans are out so it’s time to let AI rip
It’s time we dip our toes back into the surprisingly political world of chips. The US government is making scary noises about “criminal penalties” for anyone who uses Huawei’s new AI chips because they say it uses US tech (FT). At the same time, the Trump administration is calling off restrictions that would have stopped Nvidia from selling its chips to non-allied countries (The Verge). And the chipmaker is taking advantage of this by selling a gazillion chips to Saudi Arabia, announced as part of Trump’s tour of the Middle East (Business Insider). This is a big reversal from a plan I wrote about early in my Sizzle tenure to try and slow down China’s AI development by stopping the country from getting the best AI gear. Instead, Trump is pulling out all the stops to protect Nvidia and letting AI rip. Here’s the thing: smart people say that the chip ban was a flawed plan that created some short term pain while incentivising China to create its own independent chip-making industry — a big geopolitical strategic advantage for them (Stratechery).
BTW here’s a picture from the trip of Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy shaking hands with Mohammed Bin Salman who ordered the assassination of another one of Jeff Bezos’ employees, Washington Post’s Jamal Khashoggi
### Telstra’s Starlink trial triumph and RCS follow-up
Telstra is plowing ahead with plans to launch its Starlink satellite-to-mobile text messaging service this year after successful tests of the technology (ITNews). Company executive Channa Seneviratne wrote a blog saying it had sent 500+ messages as part of a trial in NT, WA, Queensland and NSW areas not covered by mobile network (Telstra blog). I’ve also got two updates on yesterday’s bit about RCS. Firstly, Sizzler Rohan shared a 2024 report he wrote in CommsDay that explains that telcos were wary about supporting RCS because of a fear of being reliant on Google (Bluesky). Secondly, another little birdy mentioned that Telstra is still planning on rolling it out this year, saying internally that it’ll be in the “coming months” 👀.
### Why Grok’s obsession with a neo-nazi conspiracy theory should make us all worried about AI
People using Grok this week noticed that the Elon Musk-founded AI chatbot seemed to be shoehorning mentions of “white genocide” in South Africa into its answers to unrelated questions. (The Guardian) If you are blessed enough not to know why a Musk AI would want to say that, all you need to know is that neo-nazis have spent a decade pushing a conspiracy theory that white South Africans are being targeted, and now Trump and Elon are talking about it. The more interesting point is: this is a really obvious case of how the people who run AI chatbots that are becoming the central distributors of knowledge can just change it to say whatever they want. We have no transparency into how these bots are programmed: what they’re told to say or how they’re told to say it. With Grok’s sudden obsession with South African farm attacks, it’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer — so what other things are they being programmed to say that aren’t as obvious, and how can we trust what these bots are telling hundreds of millions of people?
Also Max is changing its name again
#### Leftovers
Up to 100 Australian jobs to go as part of Microsoft’s global workforce cull (AFR, $) Breaking: Personal information exposed by Australian Human Rights Commission data breach (Cyber Daily) Gilmour Space Technologies flight delayed (LinkedIn) Australian-made underwater glider drones equipped with artificial intelligence could soon bolster UK naval surveillance (ABC News) Youth support for tracking apps raises red flag for coercive control (eSafety Commissioner) EU ruling: tracking-based advertising by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, X, across Europe has no legal basis (Irish Council for Civil Liberties) Hacker advertises alleged database of 89 million Steam 2FA codes, source of leak unknown (TechRadar) SoundCloud changes its TOS again after an AI uproar (The Verge) OpenAI adds GPT-4.1 to ChatGPT amid complaints over confusing model lineup (Ars Technica) Meta is making users who opted out of AI training opt out again, watchdog says (Ars Technica) SMS 2FA is not just insecure, it's also hostile to mountain people (stillgreenmoss) Critical Warning for External Purchases in Apple App Store (mjtsai) Microsoft starts testing ‘Hey, Copilot!’ in Windows (The Verge) Microsoft Cuts Off Access to Bing Search Data as It Shifts Focus to Chatbots (WIRED, $) Meta releases new data set, AI model aimed at speeding up scientific research (Semafor) Nintendo Switch 2: final tech specs and system reservations confirmed (EuroGamer) Netflix’s ad tier is growing really fast — and that means more ads (The Verge) The Internet’s Biggest-Ever Black Market Just Shut Down Amid a Telegram Purge (WIRED, $) From Death Row to LLC: The Dark Economy of Inmate Identity Theft (SentiLink) Databricks to Buy Startup Neon for $1 Billion (WSJ, $)
# Oh, Also
### Mushroom murder trial mentioned an app. Its users aren’t happy
Firstly, a disclosure: the following passage does not assume or imply the guilt of anyone, and is sharing claims made but not yet proven in an on-going legal case. If you are a juror in this trial, thanks for subscribing to the Sizzle but do NOT read this just in case. In the on-going mushroom murders trial, the prosecution has alleged that Erin Patterson killed her former in-laws by baking them a lunch featuring killer death cap mushrooms (ABC News). They have claimed that Patterson used the iNaturalist app, a nearly two-decade old website and app for crowdsourcing plants, animals and, of course, fungi. I thought I would check in on the app to see how its users were responding (iNaturalist). As it turns out, they are feeling very defensive about the app. “Mushrooms don’t kill people; people kill people,” said user sedgequeen. So true…
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Smart Wi-Fi Indoor Camera Pan and Tilt 1080P with 2 Way Audio - $45 at Kmart Xiaomi Redmi Watch 5 Active Smartwatch - $57.76 at Amazon JP via AU Sony WF-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds (refurb) - $201 at Sony Australia eBay Zero X Pulsar Pro Drone - $249.99 at BCF Sony WH-1000XM4 Noise Cancelling Headphones (damaged box) - $288 at Sony Australia eBay (Box Damaged) Sony X90L Full Array LED 4K HDR TV 65” (box damaged) - $1344 at Sony Aus eBay TCL 75" C8K 4K UHD Premium QD-Mini LED TV - $3295 at JB Hi-Fi
Computing
GL.inet Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) Wi-Fi 6 Router - $198 at GL.inet ASUS ZenWiFi XD4S AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router (3-Pack) - $219 at Amazon AU LG 32" QHD IPS Monitor with USB-C 100MHz - $244 at Retravision Intel Core i5-14600K - $381 at smarthomestoreau eBay Ubiquiti UniFi Routers at Scorptec Express 7 for $399 Dream Router 7 Wi-Fi 7 Tri-Band for $529 Alienware 16 Area-51 Gaming Laptop (275HX/11 Pro/5090/64GB RAM/2TB Gen5 SSD/CherryMX) - $7635 at Dell
Mobile
Free 1 Month Subscription OZ Pricemate app which tracks prices at Coles and Woolworths Google Pixel 7 5G 128GB - $499 at JB Hi-Fi
# The End
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