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AI's use and abuse, posting drought, Immutable and mega AWS government contract

Plus: Who's up for a DadLan?

Author

Cam Wilson
May 22, 2025

Issue 2337 - Thursday 22 May 2025

The News

What if AI’s problem is the people using and abusing it?

To balance out yesterday’s Google AI fest, here are a few of the less positive news: Internal docs show Google execs decided to force web publishers to let them train AI on their content if they wanted the website included in Search (Bloomberg, $). Meanwhile the company won’ break out the metrics of its new AI search in its analytics for publishers, meaning there’s no way for punters to see if AI Mode is actually stealing their clicks (LinkedIn). In other AI news: OpenAI’s crawlers continue to crush websites with 12x more traffic than Google (LinkedIn) and MIT Technology Review published a really comprehensive article trying to understand how much energy AI is using (MIT Tech Review). IMO this is behind a lot of the anti-AI vibes — It’s not just the tech itself, but it’s how some of the biggest and most powerful companies on Earth are choosing to use (and abuse) it.

Just a post-script: Sam Altman’s OpenAI is buying ex-Apple design chief Jony Ive’s AI device company io for AU$10b+ (Bloomberg, $). Like many AI stories it’s hard to know what’s real because the company hasn’t made anything yet, but if this announcement video (OpenAI) is anything to go by: it’ll be unlike anything we’ve seen before.

How would you describe this vibe?

Immutable and government’s AWS mega-contract are both weird Australian tech stories

Immutable is an “Australian tech success” story that’s a bit weird. On paper, it sounds pretty good: it’s a crypto gaming company valued at $3.5 billion that is cutting staff costs using AI. But the company’s 2022 valuation is a few years old from the peak of the crypto hype. Now, the company has now reportedly cut one-third of its staff (AFR, $) and a little birdy tells me it might even be more. I know there are parts of gaming industry that very lucrative but don’t get much attention — like mobile gaming — but I still have never really heard of anyone normal talk about crypto gaming, or even made a case for why it needs to exist? Speaking of weird Australian tech business news, Australia’s digital agency will not say how much its three-year, whole-of-government deal with Amazon Web Services will cost (InnovationAus, $). 🤔🤔🤔 

How Mark Zuckerberg is dealing with people deciding they don’t want to post anymore

Do you post on Facebook or Instagram anymore? Instagram’s own CEO says now people mostly share content privately in group chats rather than posting to the main feed (Business Insider). The initial Facebook idea of a public permanent record built on your images, likes and comments is a deeply weird idea, so it’s not surprising that over time people realised it’s a bad idea and stopped. This leaves social media platforms in the awkward position of needing to find more content to show people (so they can show more ads). That’s why the TikTokification of showing random content and not posts from friends has taken off, and that’s the real reason Mark Zuckerberg wants AI friends (Ars Technica). After all, AI friends aren’t worried about oversharing and will come up with an infinite amount of content to keep you hooked (even if they aren’t protected by the First Amendment)

Leftovers

  • Russian GRU targeting Western logistics entities and technology companies (Cyber dot gov) 

  • Circles.Life fined over identity checking failures during mobile porting (ITNews) 

  • Virtual girlfriends and dopamine loops: Venture capital is chasing AI hype instead of real solutions (SmartCompany) 

  • “To help parents protect their kids from gambling-like content, the Australian Government has introduced new classifications for video games” (eSafety Commissioner) 

  • Musk says he will stay at Tesla, wonders why EV customers would care about his politics (The Driven) 

  • Microsoft says 394,000 Windows computers infected by Lumma malware globally (CNBC) 

  • Signal says no to Windows 11’s Recall screenshots (The Verge) 

  • Google carves out cloudy safe spaces for nations nervous about America's reach (The Register) 

  • Spotify says support for external payments on iOS has already boosted subscriptions (TechCrunch) 

  • Apple Pay increasing in popularity online as shoppers seek speed & security (Apple Insider)

  • The Enhanced Games Has a Date, a Host City, and a Drug-Fueled World Record (WIRED, $) 

  • I have the Android 16 beta – 7 features that upgrade your phone in a big way (The Shortcut) 

  • Researchers Scrape 2 Billion Discord Messages and Publish Them Online (404Media, $) 

  • I really don’t like ChatGPT’s new memory dossier (Simon Willison’s blog)

Oh, Also

Who’s up for a DadLan?

Did you know there is a thriving DadLan scene across Australia (DadLan). From Sydney to Perth, the boys meet up monthly to relive the glory days of LAN gaming parties to play games like Unreal Tournament 2004 (now THAT was a game) to Civ 6 (I mean, of course they’re playing C6, this is for dads after all) (TechAU). Or, if you can’t make one in person, there’s also a remote meetups too. The point of it is to connect fellow fellas and even ask each other for advice etc. Very cute, very cool.

Go off kings

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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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.

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