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Canva wants to eat Microsoft and Google, fetish game pulled and Aussie Clearview AI founder ousted

Plus: another AI company turns out to secretly be powered by people in developing countries

Author

Cam Wilson
April 11, 2025

Issue 2311 - Friday 11 April 2025

Folks, have a great weekend! (And a belated welcome to new Sizzlers Christine, Cam Smith, Kerrie, Patrick, Josh, Ron and Kurt!)

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The News

Canva is racing to eat Microsoft and Google, before AI eats it

Canva is evolving from the ‘whip up an Instagram graphic’ app into an all-consuming office suite SaaS company as it positions itself to go public (AFR, $). At the Australian company’s US product release conference, Canva dropped spreadsheet and chart-making tools as part of its Visual Suite 2.0 (SmartCompany), as well as jamming AI into everything as is industry standard. Canva also reported that its annual recurring revenue is up to nearly $5 billion, too, as it waits for the right time to go public. Much like every other office SaaS company, Canva’s growth strategy has been to expand its features and functions to eat into Microsoft, Google and Adobe’s offerings — and it’s been working tremendously well for the Aussie company so far. But, as the fellas at the Aussie biz/tech podcast Down Round (Linktr.ee) pointed out recently, ChatGPT (with its image generating ability) and other AI-first products are a looming threat to replace Canva — so they’d better get that IPO quick smart.

Here’s the full keynote if you’re interested in having a watch!

Unsavory fetish game pulled in Australia, then globally

A game depicting the player raping his family members has been pulled from Steam in Australia, and subsequently the world (SMH, $). After a backlash, the game No Mercy — described as a “choice-driven, adult visual novel with a huge focus on blackmail and male domination” — was taken off Steam in Australia because it was unclassified by our Classification Board. The game’s studio voluntarily took it off Steam not long afterward, and called on critics to be “a bit more open about human fetishes that don’t harm anyone” (Cyber News). Steam is famous for its laissez-faire moderation that allows just about any game as long as it isn’t illegal.

I’ll be honest, I’m a bit conflicted. I fundamentally believe that people can engage in fantasy entertainment without real life risk — for example, I don’t think violent video games make violent people — and I think it’s weird that video games get treated differently to other formats like movies. But am I aggrieved that No Mercy was removed after public opposition? I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

Facial recognition company Clearview AI Aussie founder ousted as it pivots to Trump

The Australian co-founder of the so-controversial-that-feels-lacking-to-call-them-controversial facial recognition software company Clearview AI has been ousted (Forbes). Hoan Ton-That has been removed from the board after stepping down as CEO in December and as president last month. The remaining CEO, Hal Lambert, is a major Republican fundraiser who has said he wants to use Clearview AI to “take down these lefties” and to use the software to prove an election fraud conspiracy theory, according to a bombshell report that also came out this week (Mother Jones). The context to all of this is that Clearview AI, which was built on billions of photos scraped from the internet, is being used by the new Trump administration in nefarious ways. (About a year ago, I reported for Crikey that the company is still collecting Australians’ photos, too)

Leftovers

  • AustralianSuper to speed up MFA rollout (Information Age)

  • Australia's eSafety Commissioner announces a "thorough evaluation" of the effects of the teen social media ban set to come into effect in December. Stanford University's Social Media Lab will be the "lead academic partner", alongside Aus and international academics. (me on Bluesky)

  • ACMA’s quarterly Telco complaints-handling performance (ACMA)

  • Australian-designed weapon trialled by Israel's military ahead of potential purchase (ABC News) 

  • Bluesky’s latest update adds chat reactions and an Explore page, similar to X (TechCrunch) 

  • You'll have to wait until April 24 to know if Motorola was brave enough to make a wooden Razr (Engadget) 

  • Google Pixel 9a vs Pixel 9: which should you buy? (The Shortcut)

  • 5 ways to use Gemini Live with camera and screen sharing (Google) 

  • In Secret Meeting, China Acknowledged Role in U.S. Infrastructure Hacks (WSJ, $) 

  • Hundreds of Video Game Workers Join New Union as Trump Attacks Labor Rights (WIRED, $)

  • Waymo readies autonomous cars for first international tests in Japan (The Verge) 

  • The 2025 AI Index Report (Stanford)

  • AI is set to drive surging electricity demand from data centres while offering the potential to transform how the energy sector works (International Energy Agency)

  • Behind the scenes, Siri's failed iOS 18 upgrade was a decade-long managerial car crash (Apple Insider) 

  • After Bluetooth, China wants to replace HDMI connectors with a faster, more powerful port that could even support 16K (TechRadar) 

  • Illegal Casinos, Sports Books Reap Most Online US Gaming Revenue (Bloomberg, $)

Oh, Also

Oh look! Another AI company turns out to secretly be powered by people in developing countries

The founder of an AI company that promised to use the technology to let people buy from ecommerce sites with a single click has been charged with fraud because, well, it wasn’t AI doing it (TechCrunch). The company, Nate, had raised US$50 million for its technology which actually turned out to be using “hundreds of contractors, or “purchasing assistants,” in a call center located in the Philippines to manually complete purchases” (Department of Justice). It’s just mechanical turks all the way down…

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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