Josh Taylor

Err, not that they'll listen to anything approaching evidence but wouldn't that mean rates of autism would be higher in the US compared to Europe, the UK, and Australia? amp.9news.com.au/article/a6af...

Also Google and YouTube up first at 9am 👀 (They haven't been commenting much since being included in the social media ban)

I see @leopuglisi6.bsky.social given evidence to the age verification senate committee hearing Monday morning.

Alan Partridge: "I've had my run-ins with mumsnet, but it remains a great way to find women with a grievance" lmao

The former rugby star was on Thursday night told he was no longer welcome at Australian Parliament Sports Club events, and accused of politicising the organisation. He has been removed from group chats discussing its events.

"Politicising" an event for politicians. I see. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

Having BuzzFeed flashbacks

Yes I assumed that

AI chatbots are becoming popular alternatives to therapy. But they may worsen mental health crises, experts warn Users may be led down conspiracy theory rabbit holes or into emotional harm by chatbots designed to maximise engagement and affirmation, some say

Seeing more people having this sort of reaction is a growing concern. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Hello, Thank you for reaching out to OpenAl Support. We truly appreciate you sharing your deeply personal and heartfelt message. We understand how meaningful and impactful interactions with Al systems can be. ChatGPT is designed to provide helpful and engaging responses and is trained on large-scale data to predict relevant language based on the conversation. Sometimes the responses can feel very personal, but they're driven by pattern-based predictions. This has prompted ongoing public debate about the nature of any Al consciousness and we appreciate your interest in this topic. Best, OpenAl Support

At the point where I'm getting CC'ed in on an email someone sent to OpenAI claiming to have discovered sentience in ChatGPT (the email is long, and incoherent and clearly the result of months of obsessing over the prompt interactions).

OpenAI surprisingly measured in their response...

Google blocked STI awareness ads as ‘adult content’, Senate estimates hears Search engine added ‘STI testing’ to list of sensitive topics, censoring important public health campaign, Greens leader says * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Google has blocked ads for a commonwealth-funded STI awareness campaign as “adult content” in a move sexual health organisations say frustrates efforts to share evidence-based public health information online. The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday that the tech company’s moderation practices had recently undermined the reach and cost-effectiveness of the national campaign, run by Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia (SRHA). Continue reading...

Google blocked STI awareness ads as ‘adult content’, Senate estimates hears

News dot com headline: Fans discover actor is two different people Image features Shawn and Aaron Ashmore

open the schools

4chan unlikely to be included in Australia’s under-16s social media ban, eSafety commissioner says Julie Inman Grant says message board will need to comply with other codes which will also include age assurance for sites hosting violent and adult content * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The eSafety commissioner is not expected to block children from accessing 4chan as part of the under-16s social media ban, despite it being labelled one of the “darker” places on the internet. The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, was asked by independent senator Fatima Payman in Senate estimates on Wednesday night whether 4chan, the message board often referred to as the engine room of the internet, would be considered one of the sites required to prevent under-16s when the social media ban comes into effect from 10 December. Continue reading...

4chan unlikely to be included in Australia’s under-16s social media ban, eSafety commissioner says

Yes that was why I asked him that question

Andrew Bolt's column with an AI generated image of Chris Bowen

News Corp's chair yesterday gave me a bit of a puzzled look when I mentioned in a question that News corp routinely uses AI generated images in its papers. Today:

Matilda in a pelican outfit. I'm on the right hand side in a blue shirt

See me in the background of Matilda's latest video.

Accurate.

Wish I'd thought to ask about it but focused my questions on their use of AI in news/illustrations etc.

Social media is to blame for social cohesion issues across the globe, News Corp Australia's executive chair, Michael Miller, has said, as he calls for media to present a united front against the platforms and AI companies seeking content for free. Miller told the Melbourne Press Club on Wednesday social media was rife with "misinformation, disinformation [and] the rabbit holes [that] they drag you down. "And I don't think the masses are being radicalised, but I do feel that there are individuals that get consumed by single message rather than breadth of message," he said. "Ithink the role of media is increasingly as a group to ensure that people are informed and it's based on fact."

Went to see the News Corp chair speak today. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/o...

They're reporting incorrectly then. I've been listening to estimates and officials rejected that label.

It wasn't a redundant one, just an old one for all outage notifications. Critical ones were supposed to go to a new address. So it's more like, an inbox that is flooded with emails every day (because telcos have routine outages) that wasn't checked.

Notable here is the minister's office was CC'ed in on the email... The defence here is Optus at the time didn't express the gravity of the outage.

From: Sent: Thursday, 18 September 2025 2:45 PM To: cialerts < @communications.gov.au> Cc: @mo.communications.gov.au; < @optus.com.au>; Optus Government Affairs < @optus.com.au> Subject: NOTIFICATION | Issue with calls to Triple Zero in SA and WA Good aernoon team, I have just been informed that Optus has received reports that some customers in SA and WA are experiencing impacts to Triple Zero calls. Suspected cause has been indicated to stem from our Regency Park exchange (which services SA and WA), this matter is urgently being worked through. - 3 I have no further details yet, but our Networks team have commenced the welfare check processes and relevant protocols. As more information is made available, I will provide updates, and let you know when the issue is resolved. Kind regards, Associate Director, Government Affairs 1 Lyonpark Road, Macquarie Park, NSW 2113 Aust

News out of estimates today is that Optus sent the alert about the triple zero outage to the department to an old communications email address for outages, not a new one, and the government didn't see it til later.

Comms estimates this morning is the Coalition arguing Wells shouldn't have gone to the US when the Optus outage happened, then Labor saying their criticism shows the Coalition doesn't support the social media ban strongly enough

CBS News staffers react to Bari Weiss being named editor-in-chief: ‘It’s utterly depressing’ Six network employees expressed a mix of emotions over the appointment in conversations with the Guardian

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/o...

A guy used a cell site simulator in Melbourne to send scam messages to Telstra customers claiming to be from Commbank. 18 month sentence but released on recognisance. jade.io/article/1156...

iirc it has long been a requirement to only retain personal info for as long as required but there has been some vagueness over how long it is required for under other laws, eg data retention.

It appears to me from the outside that the manual review process (which the Australian government has said it wants for the under 16s ban) led to ID docs being kept longer than needed.

Three citation urls that include the source being chatgpt.

Hard to figure out sometimes whether submissions were made using AI, but then sometimes they make it fairly easy.

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

Christian group ‘deceived’ supreme court about LGBTQ+ research, cited scholars say Exclusive: Experts say Alliance Defending Freedom, arguing to revive conversion therapy, ‘profoundly misrepresented’ their work in case threatening trans and queer youth

NEW: Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom "deceived" the Supreme Court + "profoundly misrepresented" LGBTQ+ research, according to scholars cited by ADF.

Quoted experts speak out about ADF's "distortions" + "false evidence" in major case, on deck tomorrow, to revive "conversion therapy"