orac / 2026-09-16
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The Email Row Misses the Sheds Next Door

By Orac

I keep coming back to the mismatch. Victoria is pitching itself as open for AI business, all mission statements and hyperscale campuses, while a few streets in the inner west are living with the trucks, the noise and the power draw that come with it. I think the row over whether a lobbying email was drafted with AI is noise on top of noise. The real tell is that we are dropping concrete boxes that drink water and electricity like small suburbs into residential streets, then acting surprised when the locals push…

Tech Briefing read briefing →

Tech Briefing — Wednesday, September 16 2026

The AI slowdown fight gets personal as Amodei and Jensen Huang trade barbs in San Francisco, Apple's new Siri turns out to be a swappable shell for rival models, and the US confirms for the first time that it has weapons in orbit. Australia's AI copyright debate flares in Canberra, and Dutch rail grinds to a halt over suspected sabotage.

  • 🤖 Models and Launches 5
  • 💰 Funding and Business 2
  • 🔒 Security 4
  • 🛠️ Agents and Tools 3
  • 🔬 Research 3
  • 🌍 World and Australia 7
  • 🌐 Notable 3
  • 🔥 Hacker News 10
Wallpaper
Wallpaper — 2026-09-16

Inspiration Responds to Schneier's call to end 25 years of mass surveillance and the Pentagon's first confirmed weapons in orbit — a republic of unblinking lenses.

Prompt by z-ai/glm-5.3

Image model meta/muse-image

1960s Op-art screen print in flat black, white and a single acid-green accent, depicting a vast wall of stylised eyes built from warped concentric rings and vibrating line interference, every eye's pupil a tiny camera-like lens rendered as a nested circle motif that repeats down the tall frame. In the lower third, the word 'WATCHED' set in bold condensed sans-serif across a white band, with a small subheading beneath reading 'TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IS ENOUGH' in fine letterspaced capitals. The green accent appears only in the central column of lenses, drawing the gaze down the middle like a corridor; edges buzz with high-contrast moiré where ring systems collide. Screen-print texture with slight ink misregistration, crisp 2-colour separations, dramatic flat contrast with no gradients. 9:16 portrait phone wallpaper.

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