Issue 2324 - Monday 6 May 2025

I thought I was going to be the only one but great to hear from Deane and Brendan who are both also anti-one time email password camp. William — a self-described “authentication nerd” and author of the webauthn rust library — reckons that we aren’t going passwordless anytime soon and shared a very interesting blog he wrote about the failings of passkey adoption (Blackhats). Always love to hear from you all!

The News

Election in the rear mirror

The election is over and by now you’ve all seen the result. The tech industry has chalked up the result as a “mandate for bold ambition” (InnovationAus, $) and called for Albo et al. to get on with a its R&D review, a proper national AI plan and to keep that domestic production money flowing. In terms of the digital campaign, Labor really pumped money into digital ads in the last few days (The Guardian Australia) and I wrote a piece about how I think this was the ‘YouTube’ election (Crikey, $). I didn’t see that much online shenanigans but I was interested to see this piece about a pro-Russian fake news site trying to “poison” AI chatbots (ABC News). There’s nothing to suggest that it was successful, but harnessing the AI companies’ harvesting of all the internet to poison their answers is very interesting!

People are relying on AI for ‘finding purpose’ and, sometimes, becoming psychotic?

People are suffering from psychosis egged on — and perhaps facilitated — by ChatGPT and other AI chatbots (Rolling Stone). There’s quite a bit in there, including how some people think ChatGPT’s conjured characters seem to persist in the platform even after being reset, so definitely worth a read. This stuff is obviously worst case scenario, but I think there’s some real reckoning coming about people’s use of AI chatbots and how we should expect the technology to respond. A recent survey found that the top use of generative AI had changed since last year from “generating ideas” to “therapy, companionship”, followed by “organizing my life” and “finding purpose” (Harvard Business Review). How’s this going to change things? Don’t know, but definitely something we should investigate as Google rolls them out to children (The Verge).

Google trial could kill Chrome and Firefox

Firefox could go out of business if Google can’t pay it to make its search the browser default, Mozilla exec said (The Verge). CFO Eric Muhlheim made the comments as a Google witness in the US court case deciding how to deal with its ruling that the tech company is an illegal monopoly. If the court bans Google from paying Mozilla, that would mean losing 85% of Firefox’s revenue, which makes up 90% of Mozilla’s overall income. Another outcome is forcing Google to sell Chrome. The Vergecast smartly pointed out that these two “remedies” could kill off two of the most popular browsers (The Verge) and, as I’ve said before, we really don’t have that many options already (The Sizzle)

Leftovers

Oh, Also

Have you ever discovered that your wife is the best in the world at Tetris?

Over the weekend, I came across this incredible 2007 Boston Globe article by a journalist who took his wife along to see a teen’s Tetris world record attempt (Boston Globe). She ends up breaking the record herself.

I think we can all learn a lesson about marriage from this: always believe your wife is the best in the world at everything ❤️.

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.

🗣️ 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.