In a bit of pre-Budget hype, the comms minister announced that Australia is getting a "National Messaging System" in late 2024. The UK tested something like this a few days ago using a feature called Cell Broadcast Alerts built-in to the 3GPP specification. I don't know if what Australia has planned uses the same setup the UK does, but if it does, only iPhones running at least iOS 14.5 and Android 11 or later devices are supported. The government also announced a taskforce to deliver Public Safety Mobile Broadband, a "mobile broadband service that provides Public Safety Agencies and first responders with fast and secure voice, video and data communications". Sounds like a good idea.
The comms minister has been busy today, making another announcement that the ACCC and NBN still haven't agreed on a new Special Access Undertaking (SAU) - the document that outlines NBN's pricing that trickles down to us plebs. Key issues continue to be NBN jacking up the price of the popular 50/20mbps service and NBN refusing to commit to any service quality improvements before 2026. Literally, NBN wants to increase the price but decrease the quality and expect ISPs to say yes please and thank you. This is the second time in under 12 months the ACCC has told the NBN to try harder on the SAU. Not surprised in the slightest that NBN can't get it right.
Have you watched the 2013 movie "Her"? If so, the story of Replika AI will be familiar as it's pretty much what Luka, the company behind the app, has created. They went around promoting an AI companion to lonely people who eventually wanted to have sex with their AI friend (aka Erotic Role Play), so Luka ramped up the horniness of their bot, pitching it to users as an "AI girlfriend". It went too far, with users claiming it was too aggressive or "sexually harassed" them, so Luka dialled it down and eventually, got rid of the sex and romantic stuff entirely as it got too messy. A significant number of people took to Reddit mourning the loss of their AI partner much like the loss of a real person. Gio has a very well written blog post explaining the "emotional rug-pulling" and mental damage that took place with Replika AI.
The Richat Structure, also known as the "Eye of the Sahara," an eroded geological dome in the nation of Mauritania, is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 259 miles above the African continent. At left, from top to bottom, are the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module's forward port, the Prichal docking module, and the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship. (NASA Johnson / Flickr)
📻 Slide The Needle In Under Blue Skin I Took A Picture So I Can Still Burn You - Calm
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