 | Edition 2357 |
| | The News | People don’t love that platforms are training their AI replacements | This week, people uploading content to the world’s most popular video and video editing apps were confronted with the reality that they’re training their replacements. YouTube creators (CNBC) and users of the wildly popular short video editing app CapCut (Mashable) were both upset by new T&C’s or product releases that show how each company is training AI on their content.
For cynical internet people — not my sweet Sizzlers, of course — it’s tempting to roll your eyes and say well, duh, if you upload your content to someone else’s computer, it ain’t yours anymore. Except how the fuck was the average person who uploaded a clip of their music in 2007 supposed to know it will be used 20 years later by one of the most powerful companies to replace you. This isn’t a crazy hypothetical: Spotify already makes some music in-house to save on royalties (Harper’s). You can only imagine how some tech execs are salivating at the thought of generating content that keeps you on their platform without the baggage of “paying people for art”. | Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. | If you use a cloud ‘security’ product, you’re the one being surveilled | I’ve always been a bit anti-personal surveillance products like home video cameras. There’s definitely cases in which they can be necessary but, to me, they seem to create opportunities for misuse (sharing footage of people unnecessarily, for example). 404 Media has been doing lots of great reporting on one such company, Flock. Their latest story is how US police are illegally sharing the data they’ve accessed from the company to carry out the country’s immigration raids (404 Media). Continuing the theme of “who owns your data”, it’s crazy to me how many people use cloud-based surveillance tools in their own house! Do you guys have any locally-run security products? Let me know. |  | Love to pay for the honour of creating a spy in my house that will be used against vulnerable people |
| Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. | This stat shows how web traffic is becoming overwhelmingly bots | Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince shared some fascinating stats on the changing balance in web traffic of real people looking at websites versus robots (Axios): |  | Imagine where it’s going to be six months from now! |
| The previous story was about putting your content on other people’s platforms, but this shit happens even if you’re not. If these trends continue, I really fear we’re seeing the end of the open web as we know it. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to write more about what I think could be coming next. | Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. | Leftovers | VPNs and naughty parents: Teen social media trial isn’t testing some ways kids will get around the ban (Crikey, $) Technology to enforce teen social media ban is ‘effective’, trial says. But this is at odds with other evidence (The Conversation) Multilingual AI chatbot being developed for Aussie emergency departments (Cyber Daily AU) ASD signs $70 million AWS cloud contract (IT News) Palmer Luckey’s defence startup Anduril is on an Australian hiring spree (Capital Brief, $) Trump Adviser David Sacks Says China Adept at Evading Chip Curbs (Bloomberg, $) Tesla’s robotaxi ambitions face a reality check after launch (FT, archived link) SpaceX Starship rocket explodes in latest setback to Musk's Mars mission (ABC News) Honda successfully launched and landed its own reusable rocket (The Verge) The Fairphone 6 leaks ahead of its rumored late June launch (Engadget) macOS Tahoe Beta Drops FireWire Support (MacRumours) Hands-On: How Apple’s New Speech APIs Outpace Whisper for Lightning-Fast Transcription (MacStories) Steam Beta finally enables Proton on Linux fully, making Linux gaming simple (GamingonLinux) Is it really FOSS? (isitreallyfoss.com) The Seven Deadly UX Sins of the Fediverse Web Experience (To Fix) (Tim Chambers)
| Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum. | | Oh, Also | This is just Google search | Continuing this week’s theme of de-enshittification, I came across a new, working version of a stripped back Google, udm14.com, with no ads, AI answers, knowledge panels or even Google branding. It might sound familiar because there was a similar one circulated last year that no longer works, but gee, it feels almost calming to use this.
Or, if you’re sick of their shit, privacy-focused, paid search engine Kagi is just about to start offering free accounts for a limited, but decent, amount of searches (Mastodon). | Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum. | | Bargains | Electrical & Electronics | | Computing | | | The End | 😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius. | 🤖 We love robots at the Sizzle but this newsletter has always been and will always be written by humans for humans. | 🗣️ Have any feedback, a tip or just want to chat? Send me an email or Signal message. I promise to reply! | 💬 Want to hang out with other Sizzlers? There’s a subscriber-only Slack server and forum if you want to procrastinate and chat about tech-related news. | 🌐 The Sizzle is on Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn if you’re feeling social. | 💳 Paid subscriber looking to manage your billing info, change email address or cancel your subscription? Visit the Beehiiv customer portal. | 🎁 Make someone's day and gift them a 12 month gift subscription to The Sizzle. | 💔 Don’t want this any more? I won’t take it personally. There’s a unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email or here’s a guide. | 🦺 The Sizzle has been tested to meet and exceed ISO 3533 standards. | 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. |
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