Issue 2333 - Friday 16 May 2025

A small apology — this edition ended up being a little bit of a downer because of some heavy news. Things aren’t all bad, I promise.

Talk or see some loved ones this weekend, enjoy a beer or sarsaparilla and see you on Monday for another Sizzle ❤️ 

The News

Coinbase got seriously pwned

Hackers are demanding a $20 million ransom from Coinbase after obtaining customer information by bribing employees (Bloomberg, $). The Goldman Sachs of crypto announced the wild details of the hack: attackers paid off customer service workers in countries like India to give data on what seems to be about 100,000 Coinbase customers over most of this year. It estimates the hack will cost $400 million, including a promise to repay any stolen funds. The aim of the hack seems to be to obtain personal info of some of the biggest, often anonymous crypto holders to target them with scams or attacks. It comes at a rather unfortunate time: Coinbase just got added to the S&P 500 index, and the crypto industry is trying to shake the (fair) reputation of being rife with crime and abuse.

The fact that I could ask you “did you hear about the gang crypto kidnapping?” and you might reasonably say “which one?” (Bloomberg and France24) suggests you’ve got a bit of a problem.

Snapchat’s child abuse problem

Friend of the Sizzle Josh Taylor has an unpleasant story about an 11-year-old Australian girl who was sexually abused by a 23-year-old stranger she added on Snapchat (The Guardian). The pair were connected online when the girl used its Quick Add feature which suggests to add other Snapchat users based on algorithmic decision-making. Snapchat says it has introduced new safety features limiting who teens will be recommended to add.

Here’s why I highlight this: like Josh, I have daily alerts for Australian legal judgements that mention certain keywords. I reckon I get two alerts a week minimum about child sexual abuse cases that involve Snapchat, far, far more than any other app. I don’t have the space to fully flesh it out here but — while I’m fairly critical of the teen social media ban — it’s clear that Snapchat and other apps need to do more to disrupt this kind of behaviour.

AI chatbots are surveillance honeypots

Following on from the ChatGPT psychosis story in a previous Sizzle edition, my former colleague and newsletter Garbage Day author Ryan Broderick mentioned in an edition (Garbage Day) and then did a podcast (Panic World) about his experiences using AI as a therapist. Yes, he knows it’s a bad idea but Ryan is smart enough to understand how the tech works and self-reflective enough to explain how it felt using the chatbot — and why people are getting addicted to it.

Even if you ignore the issues trusting a word prediction machine to give you psychological feedback, I am really troubled by the amount of personal and sensitive info that people are telling these chatbots. What happens if someone gets their hands on what you tell it? The Verge had a great article this week talking through how AI therapy bots are honey pots for surveillance-loving autocratic governments (The Verge). Unlike with a real therapist, there’s no patient-doctor privilege that even needs to be waived to get access to your chat log.

Leftovers

Oh, Also

ChatGPT’s coffee fortune prediction leads to divorce

This morning I came across a story published in the Greek City Times that seemed too good to be true. Now, I don’t mean to disparage my Hellenic peers but I ended up spending way too long tracking down a Greek morning television segment and translating it to see if it was legit — that’s what you’re paying me for!

Late last month, To Proino shared a letter from a distraught viewer explaining that their wife was ending their 12-year-marriage because of ChatGPT (Greek City Times). The story goes that the couple did a viral TikTok trend where they asked the AI chatbot to interpret the grounds of their Greek coffee to tell the future. When they did, ChatGPT supposedly said the husband’s cup showed that he was “intensely” thinking about a younger woman whose name has an “E” initial, and that the wife’s cup showed that she was being cheated on.

Well, the wife allegedly threw the husband out of the house and launched divorce proceedings. His lawyer, who appeared on the show, said that the husband was “innocent until proven guilty” (although would we really be surprised by the conduct of a European man?) Anyway, yet another cautionary tale about using AI…

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.