Good morning, and happy Friday to you all. Today is my last day with Gizmodo Australia and I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of you for making this site the success it is. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you and I hope I’ve given you at least one giggle in the 2-plus years I’ve been at the helm of the Australian outpost. A tiny team of two (yep, there’s just two of us) couldn’t possibly survive without you all, so thank you for having our backs. I will miss you. With that out of the way…. The stuff you came here for.
1. OpenAI saga part 4 (5, 6, 10?)
Although it’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., the country is still delivering some tech news this morning, with the Sam Altman-OpenAI saga continuing today. The palace intrigue and boardroom drama of Sam Altman’s ousting by the OpenAI board (and his victorious reinstatement yesterday) will doubtlessly go down in history as one of the most explosive episodes to ever befall Silicon Valley. Today, though, the news is that a project called Q* (Q star) could be a breakthrough in the startup’s search for what’s known as artificial general intelligence (AGI). Is this all a *bit* to get people talking about the ChatGPT company once again?
2. ‘Self-proclaimed ‘gay furry hackers’ breach nuclear lab’ (real headline)
We came across this article from Engadget yesterday and genuinely could not find a single thing that we would change. Please read.
3. Millions spent on spectrum
The ACMA yesterday announced that the 3.4/3.7 GHz bands allocation process has finished. Yipee, right? Well, it’s not as dry as it seems. A total of $721,766,300 was spent on this by TPG infrastructure subsidiary Mobile JV, NBN Co, Optus Mobile, and Telstra. Per iTnews, Telstra shelled out nearly $546 million on 326 spectrum lots, TPG spent just over $128 million for 44 lots, NBN took 200 lots for $14.4 million, and Optus spent $33.5 million on four lots.
4. Government pauses no more ransomware payments plan
Staying with the folks at iTnews for a second and yesterday they published a piece on the government’s plans to pause its plans to ban the payment of ransoms to cybercrime groups for at least two years. Per the report, Minister for cybersecurity Clare O’Neil said the government had decided that more groundwork needed to be laid before any ban on payments could be initiated.
5. Breaking: Elon Musk tweets
Ending with the man that has brought so much content to 5 Things over its 323 editions only feels right. This guy. Your mate. Not a single good take. So here’s another one.
BONUS ITEM: Last bonus item is the last piece I wrote for Gizmodo Australia, simply because I can.
Bye, friends!