Legal
Police investigate intimidation attempt on Nick McKenzie
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Sarah Danckert reports that police are investigating a break-in at investigative reporter Nick McKenzie’s Melbourne home, suspected to be an act of intimidation.
The Age, Herald and 60 Minutes journalist discovered someone had tried to disable his CCTV. Taskforce Hawk, which probes organised crime, is leading the investigation.
Media
ABC heads to court over Play School dispute
Aunty is heading to trial after mediation with the MEAA broke down over its use of fixed-term contracts.
As Calum Jaspan details in The Sydney Morning Herald, the case began with Play School’s Tom Scott but has since grown, with 150 staff made permanent – moves some see as quiet admissions of fault.
AI
Amazon Web Services apologises after global outage
The BBC’s Liv McMahon writes that Amazon Web Services has apologised after a major outage on Monday knocked out more than a thousand sites, including Snapchat, and Reddit.
The glitch stemmed from AWS’s North Virginia hub, where internal system errors stopped websites from connecting to their IP addresses.
Google faces lawsuit over AI-generated fake news claims
Conservative US commentator Robby Starbuck (yes, apparently that is his real name) has filed a defamation suit against Google, accusing its AI of fabricating news stories that falsely linked him to sexual assault and other crimes.
Charlie Nash from Mediaite writes that Starbuck claims the AI cited made-up articles from major outlets including Newsweek, and The New York Post – none of which ever existed.
Spotify users frustrated as AI ‘slop’ floods Discover Weekly
Spotify’s promise to curb AI-generated “slop” hasn’t stuck, according to Digital Music News’ Ashley King.
Users are now reporting their Discover Weekly playlists are still full of synthetic tracks. This comes despite the platform pledging to protect “authentic artists”.
Entertainment
The Louvre jewel heist gets the film treatment
Some have the Roman Empire, this writer, however, has the Lourve Heist.
The immediate meme machine saw thieves, disguised as construction workers, steal millions in French Crown jewels from the Lourve. The cherry on top? All this took place during the very sophisticated hour of 930am. C’est magnifique.
As Variety’s Ethan Shanfeld reports, CNN is now turning its lens on the heist, and will air a documentary unpacking how they managed to pull off a $100 million robbery in just seven minutes – right under the museum’s nose.
