Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 33m

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

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.

3 2 12

Reposted by Josh Taylor

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 23h

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

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.

270 6.5K 20K

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 4h

Having BuzzFeed flashbacks

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 5h

You won’t believe what degrading practice the Pope just condemned

Communication must be freed from clickbait and misguided thinking, head of Catholic church tells journalists The Pope has condemned clickbait as a “degrading” part of journalism, at a private audience with global newswires. Australian media representatives were among those to hear directly from Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Thursday with about 150 members of newswire alliance MINDS International. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

3 1 22

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 5h

Yes I assumed that

1

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 7h

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

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

www.theguardian.com

3 11

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 7h

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...

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

3 4 18

Reposted by Josh Taylor

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 21h

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...

www.theguardian.com

2 20 40

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 22h

open the schools

News dot com headline: Fans discover actor is two different people

Image features Shawn and Aaron Ashmore

29

Reposted by Josh Taylor

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 1d

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...

www.theguardian.com

21 17 45

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Yes that was why I asked him that question

1 3

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

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:

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

11 14 88

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

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

Accurate.

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

21

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

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

3

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

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

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."

10 17

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2d

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

3

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2d

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.

1 1

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2d

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.

3

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2d

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.

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

7 10 22

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2d

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

2 5

Reposted by Josh Taylor

Stephanie Kirchgaessner @skirchy.bsky.social · 2d

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

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

3 6

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2d

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...

CDirector of Public Prosecutions v Low [2025] VCC 1172 - BarNet Jade

The smart way to search, annotate and share Australian legal judgments, decisions and statutes!

jade.io

3 11

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2d

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.

2 2 3

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 3d

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.

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 3d

Proof-of-age ID leaked in Discord data breach

Video game chat platform tells users that driver’s licences and passports were among the forms of data accessed via a third-party customer service provider Video game chat platform Discord has suffered a data breach, informing users that their personal information – including identity documents of those required to prove their age – were compromised. The company stated last week that an unauthorised party had compromised one of Discord’s third-party customer service providers, leading to the access of “a limited number of users” who had been in contact with the customer service or trust and safety teams. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

7 33 57

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 3d

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

Three citation urls that include the source being chatgpt.

4 15 48

Reposted by Josh Taylor

Chibdm @chibdm.bsky.social · 3d

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

130 7.3K 19K