Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: AO3 exits beta after 17 years, OpenAI acquires tech show + Australia's youth social media ban flops

Transcript

MINI TECH SCROLL: AO3 exits beta after 17 years, OpenAI acquires tech show + Australia's youth social media ban flops · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:03
  culture podcast bring you the biggest stories from social
• 0:05
  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
• 0:09
  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
• 0:11
  My name is Annabelle and I am your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
• 0:14
  host and also the deputy editor of the Australian youth digital
• 0:18
  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Tech Scroll
• 0:22
  for another week. I really don't have too much to
• 0:25
  say at the top of this week's episode, so I think we should
• 0:28
  just get right into the stories. But before that, Please remember
• 0:32
  to rate, review, and subscribe and feel free to check out our
• 0:35
  Patreon if you want more behind the scenes content of Centennial
• 0:39
  world. But yes, let's get into it
• 0:41
  because I have a lot of notes for today.
• 0:44
  My first story for today is that Open AI is making headlines for
• 0:48
  purchasing A viral online talk show.
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  Last week it was announced that Open AI had a by TBPN, which is
• 0:55
  billed as Technology's Daily Show.
• 0:58
  If you're unfamiliar with TBPN, let me give you some context.
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  So TBPN stands for Technology, Business Programming Network.
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  And I will say the acronym is kind of hard to say, so I'm
• 1:09
  sorry if I sound like I'm stumbling over it.
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  But it's basically a live show hosted by two men, one being
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  John Coogan and the other being Geordie Hayes.
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  And they cover the latest development in tech and
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  business. And it is live, live every day
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  between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM Pacific Time.
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  So the show isn't like the biggest tech news show podcast
• 1:32
  situation, but it's definitely super culty.
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  It seems to be a really popular within Silicon Valley and kind
• 1:40
  of tech bro circles and especially on X where it is
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  frequently live streamed among other platforms.
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  It also hasn't been around that long.
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  The first episode available on their RSS feed was from October
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  2024. What is interesting about this
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  show though is both the men don't consider themselves to be
• 1:58
  journalists despite covering the news, but of course that has
• 2:00
  become less and less common in today's creator economy anyway.
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  They do have a background in business and tech though, and in
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  saying that they are quite tech positive which may be why guests
• 2:13
  like Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman and other people who are high up
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  in US tech and politics circles choose to appear on their show.
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  As Mike Isaac put it for an article for the New York Times
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  quote, the TBP and formula is simple. 2 self aware fellows who
• 2:31
  treat techno capitalism like a fantasy Football League
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  chronicling a ticket tape dribble of executive moves.
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  Corporate acquisitions, initial public offerings and venture
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  capital funding, call it Sports Center for the terminally online
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  NBA grad. So now that we have a bit of
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  context on TBPN, that brings us to the news from last week when
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  it was announced, like I already mentioned that Open AI had
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  acquired the live show Fiji Simo, who is Open AI as CEO of
• 2:59
  applications and it's actually just been reported to be on
• 3:01
  medical leave, but that's besides the point.
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  She shared a message with the company about the acquisition,
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  and I will read some of it quote.
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  This acquisition brings a team with strong editorial instincts,
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  deep audience understanding, and a proven ability to convene
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  influential voices across tech, business and culture.
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  As I've been thinking about the future of how we communicate at
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  Open AI, one thing that becomes clear is that the standard
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  communications playbook just doesn't apply to us.
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  We're not a typical company. We're driving a really big
• 3:31
  technological shift, and with our mission to ensure artificial
• 3:35
  general intelligence benefits all of humanity comes the
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  responsibility to help create a space for real, constructive
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  conversation about the changes AI creates with builders and
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  people using the technology at the center.
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  That's exactly what TBP N has built.
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  So rather than trying to recreate it ourselves, it made a
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  lot of sense to bring them in, support what they're doing, and
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  help them scale. Do you also shared in this
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  message that under the acquisition, TBPN would remain
• 4:00
  editorially independent? And that's something that Sam
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  Altman also doubled down on in the tweet writing quote.
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  TBPN is my favorite tech show. We want them to keep that going
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  and for them to do what they do so well.
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  I don't expect them to go any easier on us.
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  I'm sure I'll do my part to help enable that with occasional
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  stupid decisions. So this has definitely been a
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  point of discussion among TBP and fans and just kind of people
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  in tech circles online because even though they say that they
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  will remain editorially independent, who knows how this
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  will play out in practice. I'm sure there will be moments
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  where the TVPN team feels kind of tested about how to cover
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  certain things. But at the same time, though,
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  this podcast is not the most critical of open AI or AI more
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  broadly, so their editorial instincts may not be critical in
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  the same way as other independent networks would be.
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  Anyway, back to open a is message.
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  A statement from Jody Hayes, who was one of the Co hosts was also
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  included and it read quote. Over the past year, we've had a
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  front row seat not just to open AI, but to the entire ecosystem
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  covering the Daily News announcements and launches in
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  real time. While we've been critical of the
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  industry at times, after getting to know Sam and the Open AI
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  team, what stood out most was that openness to feedback and
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  commitment to getting this right.
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  Moving from commentary to real impact in how this technology is
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  distributed and understood globally is incredibly important
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  to us. And unfortunately, what everyone
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  probably wants to know, the financials of the deal were not
• 5:35
  disclosed in this message or have yet to be disclosed to the
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  public. OK.
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  So I thought this story was really interesting for a couple
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  of reasons. The 1st is because this is like
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  really the first time we've seen Open AI kind of venture into
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  media in this way. And upon first, it might seem
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  like a little bit of a surprise. The idea of Open AI buying a
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  much smaller media company seems a bit odd, especially when we
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  think about the fact that Open AI kind of seems to be moving
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  away from the space, especially since they've just shut down
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  Sora. And I've seen so many different
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  outlets and experts position this patches as a tool for Open
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  AI to kind of dictate the narrative or establish some
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  cultural influence in some way. And I can partially see how that
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  makes sense the current climate and the way Open AI is being
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  perceived. Open AI is having APR crisis for
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  a lack of a better time at the moment.
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  Between the deal with the Department of War in the US to
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  the quit GPT movement, Open AI just does not have a good PR.
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  On top of this, it is pretty common sentiment among tech
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  executives and tech Bros to be kind of skeptical of mainstream
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  media and how they present their industry.
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  So in theory, this could be one way to go on a positive press
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  coverage without being engaged with that part of the media.
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  And to be fair, we have seen a fair few tech companies kind of
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  do a similar thing and work with new media and social media
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  platforms. I mean, Elon Musk is the obvious
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  example when he patches Twitter back in 2022.
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  With that being said though, we've also seen tech executives
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  do this with mainstream traditional media, like when
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  Jeff Bezos purchased the Washington Post.
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  In an article for the Sydney Morning Herald, journalist Tim
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  Biggs kind of discussed this and I wanted to read a quote from
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  it. As he wrote, quote, Google
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  already owns YouTube and Meadow already owns Instagram, which
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  gives them their own influence on news.
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  And practically every tech giant is pushing to have their AI
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  agents digest and mediate news from the web to feed directly to
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  the audience. All of this taken together means
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  that down the track, pro technology voices could dominate
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  platforms. This tech positive agenda can
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  obviously skew coverage and honestly that is not new.
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  Well that is kind of what every form of media does.
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  There is no unbiased media, it's just a question of whether they
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  disclose their position or not. We do speak about that quite
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  often on this podcast. I do think it's interesting to
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  see these tech companies place value on media when the industry
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  hasn't been in decay for years with AI only working to disrupt
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  it further. It's like a bit hypocritical
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  anyway, while so many media outlets are running with the
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  idea that Open AI is buying influence with the purchase of
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  TBPN. I'm not 100% sure I agree fully
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  because the demographics that these AI companies should be
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  seeking approval from and influence over are not the
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  people that in listening to this podcast.
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  Of course we don't know everything about the audience
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  breakdown of TBPN. Exactly, but based on everything
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  you can kind of gather about this podcast, it does seem to be
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  mostly catered towards technologists, founders,
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  entrepreneurs. It's not a mainstream audience.
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  These people are likely to already be pro technology and AI
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  to some degree. With this in mind, it does seem
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  like this purchase could be a way to kind of like preach to
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  the choir for a lack of a better time.
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  I have seen some experts make this claim, with a lot of them
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  pointing to the fact that TBPN doesn't necessarily have a
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  widespread reached where they average around 70 K viewers per
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  episode across various online platforms.
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  And obviously that is significant.
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  But like I said, the following does seem rather concentrated
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  within a certain demographic. And I also think it's
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  interesting to consider the AI gender gap here.
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  I don't know how popular this podcast would be with women,
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  which is a group that Open AI and AI more generally have a
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  problem with and kind of rightfully so considering how AI
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  has already been used against women.
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  To kind of illustrate this .1 Harvard study that I found while
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  researching for this episode found that women have about a
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  22% lower odds of using generative AI tools than men.
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  Although I will say there are studies that I did come across
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  from Open AI and Deloitte that did kind of show more equal
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  usage of AI in the US across genders, but of course that
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  isn't universal. Anyway, the question of who this
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  purchase is catering to is definitely a significant one,
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  and Ryan Broderick shared his opinions on it in a recent
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  edition of the Garbage Day newsletter.
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  Quote Open AI Sunset, the AI video app Sora and then
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  immediately turned around purchased a live stream produced
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  by human beings. The one thing they literally
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  cannot replace with their software.
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  Which is why I do not see this as a story about the Whittle
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  podcast that could be getting a big payday.
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  Instead this is an AI company buying a fresh piece of Internet
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  real estate that hasn't been poisoned by the toxic waste they
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  unleashed. I've read a bunch of arguments
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  that Open AI was buying influence, but I actually think
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  they were buying the exact kind of trust or authenticity they've
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  worked so hard to destroy, and they'll likely destroy it
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  anyways. So yeah, I'm definitely curious
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  to hear what you guys think about this purchase.
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  Let's move on to our next story for today, and this one is for
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  our fanfic. Golly's AO3 is officially out of
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  beta 17 years later. This story is just a quick one
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  because I felt like we needed a little bit of a palate cleanser
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  after that fast one. And also I want to say once
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  again I don't know if it's beta or beta.
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  As an Australian I feel like we were taught to say beta but it
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  just sounds wrong. I don't know anyway so please
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  sound it out in the comments because I don't know what is
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  correct. But let's first explain what
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  beta is. When a tech product or platform
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  in this case is in beta, it generally means that the product
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  is in a pre release stage. It's seen as a functional but
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  not completely finished. So sometimes it can be released
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  to a group of beta test is or to the public, but the main goal is
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  to kind of test its functionality and performance so
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  that improvements can be made and bugs can be fixed.
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  OK, now I feel like I should explain what AO3 is in case you
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  are unfamiliar. But AO3 or Archive of Our Own in
• 12:02
  full is probably the go to fanfiction website for many
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  Internet users. We did cover this in our deep
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  dive on a fanfiction, which is honestly one of my favorite deep
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  dive so you should go check it out.
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  But the idea was kind of first proposed in 2007 and then it
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  went on to be launched the following year with the goal to
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  quote, serve the interests of fans by providing access to and
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  preserving the history of fan works and fan culture in its
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  myriad forms, which is from its about page.
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  And since then, in February, it hit 10 million registered users,
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  which is just crazy. Last week though, it has reached
• 12:40
  another achievement and that is officially exiting the beta
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  phase, A blog post from the platform reads.
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  No, we're excited to announce that we're exiting open beta.
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  We've come a long way from when we announced and launched AO3
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  open beta in 2009. At launch, there were just 347
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  AO, three accounts, and 6598 works.
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  Well, we started growing very quickly.
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  We were originally much more limited in what we could do.
• 13:06
  So over the years that AO3 has been in beta, they have been
• 13:10
  able to expand their tagging system, which many users praise,
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  and improve and introduce other features, whether that be
• 13:17
  downloading works or even having stronger privacy settings.
• 13:21
  That doesn't mean that the updates will stop, though.
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  Now that they're out of beta, they will continue to make
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  updates as they see fit. This is something that the blog
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  post acknowledges writing. End Quote.
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  The change is mostly cosmetic and does not indicate that
• 13:34
  everything is finalized or perfectly working.
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  So even though this is largely symbolic, because AO3 has been
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  stable for so long, social media users are so excited about it.
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  And that's what I thought was really interesting about this
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  story. I had a look on Reddit to see
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  what some users are saying about it, and I thought I would
• 13:52
  include some of the responses. 1 user wrote Quote my suite AO3.
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  I did not think that I'd see that beta symbol ever disappear
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  in my lifetime. I genuinely stared at the screen
• 14:03
  in shock before running on AO3 and confirming it.
• 14:06
  Congrats to them for finally making it out of beta.
• 14:09
  I'm curious what it will mean for the site now.
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  And another user in the same Reddit thread said quote.
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  They say the change is mostly cosmetics since the website has
• 14:18
  been stable for a while and that they're going to keep improving
• 14:20
  the website. So the only thing that's
• 14:22
  changing is that now we can celebrate that the website is no
• 14:25
  longer in beta. I thought these sponsors were
• 14:28
  fascinating because the level of almost ownership that these
• 14:31
  users have over the platform is so unique and it really just
• 14:35
  does show how deep the love for fan fiction runs and what this
• 14:40
  side of the Internet does for the community.
• 14:43
  And I'm sure this is something that only will become more
• 14:46
  important and more appreciated with AI.
• 14:48
  But this ownership aspect is so interesting because I feel like
• 14:52
  we often see platforms, especially the mainstream ones,
• 14:55
  as the villain. So I I feel like it's a bit
• 14:58
  unusual to see how much people love turning to this platform
• 15:03
  and engaging with it. Granted, this is a much more
• 15:05
  niche platform than say something like TikTok or Reddit,
• 15:09
  but that is probably why people love it.
• 15:10
  Speaking of platforms, that brings us to my last story for
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  today, and it's a bit of an update about the under 16 social
• 15:17
  media ban here in Australia because it doesn't seem to be
• 15:21
  working too well. I have covered the under
• 15:23
  sixteens ban many times here on mini tech scroll almost as many
• 15:28
  times as the US TikTok ban. But as usual, I will give some
• 15:32
  context in case this is your first time tuning in.
• 15:35
  Last year Australia introduced what is being called a quote UN
• 15:38
  quote ban for under 16 year olds on social media.
• 15:41
  Before the ban became official in December 2025, social media
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  platforms were given around a year to start rolling out what
• 15:49
  they called quote UN quote reasonable measures to make sure
• 15:52
  that no one under the age of 16 could make an account or use an
• 15:55
  account on a variety of platforms.
• 15:58
  This policy has been touted as a world fast and since then we
• 16:02
  have seen more and more discussions around the world
• 16:04
  talking about similar policies and the possibility of age
• 16:08
  gaining social media more generally.
• 16:10
  And side note, if you want to see how many different countries
• 16:14
  are talking about this topic, the tech policy Press has a
• 16:17
  tracker. I'll link it below because I do
• 16:19
  think it's quite interesting to see it all laid out globally.
• 16:22
  Anyway, back to Australia social media ban.
• 16:24
  There have been 10 platforms that have been impacted,
• 16:27
  including Facebook, Instagram, Threads X YouTube, Snapchat,
• 16:31
  Reddit, Kik, Twitch and TikTok. And it's being repeatedly said
• 16:35
  that this list is dynamic and that more platforms can be
• 16:39
  added. So the E safety commissioner is
• 16:41
  the independent regulator that's enforcing Australia's social
• 16:45
  media age restrictions. And last week the first detailed
• 16:48
  compliance update report on the rollout has been released.
• 16:52
  So I thought it could be interesting to go through some
• 16:55
  of the points that were made. But to boil it down for you,
• 16:58
  while some action has been taken, there are a number of
• 17:01
  compliance concerns that remain with a majority of under 16 year
• 17:05
  olds retaining access to their accounts.
• 17:08
  So it hasn't been a resounding success.
• 17:11
  The report begins by noting that platforms have taken steps to
• 17:15
  comply with the legislation where quote at the start of
• 17:19
  March 2026 / 310 thousand additional age restricted
• 17:23
  accounts were prevented from accessing platforms.
• 17:25
  So there is definitely a progress being made here, though
• 17:29
  E Safety does admit that gaps remain where many children
• 17:32
  continue to have access to their accounts, which is something
• 17:35
  that has been a consistent point of conversation here in
• 17:38
  Australia from the first day that the ban became official.
• 17:42
  I did cover this in mini tech in December of last year.
• 17:45
  At that time it was reported that 4.7 million accounts were
• 17:49
  restricted. But this number doesn't reflect
• 17:51
  the amount of individuals that may no longer have access to
• 17:55
  their accounts because people can have more than one account
• 17:58
  on a social media platform. So where a 15 year old, let's
• 18:01
  say, may have access to their TikTok account, they might still
• 18:06
  have access to their Snapchat account, or perhaps they have
• 18:08
  more than one account on these platforms.
• 18:11
  From polling conducted by E Safety at the beginning of this
• 18:14
  year, it's been revealed that around 7 in 10 under 16 year
• 18:18
  olds have managed to retain access to their social media,
• 18:22
  showing just how difficult it has been to enforce the ban.
• 18:26
  As the report reads. Quote Of the parents who
• 18:28
  reported their child had an account on each platform prior
• 18:31
  to the 10th of December 2025, around 7 in ten reported that
• 18:35
  their child still had an account on Facebook 63.6%, Instagram
• 18:40
  69.1%, Snapchat 69.4% and Take Park 69.3%.
• 18:46
  And from this research, a majority of parents revealed
• 18:48
  that the key reason why their children have managed to retain
• 18:52
  their social media account is because they haven't been asked
• 18:55
  to verify their age yet. Four months in.
• 18:58
  Of course, this wasn't going to happen overnight, but four
• 19:01
  months in, it does seem pretty egregious that this is what a
• 19:04
  majority of parents are saying. As for the children who remain
• 19:08
  online, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a notable
• 19:11
  change in quote, the number of cyberbullying and image based
• 19:14
  abuse complaints since the ban has been enacted.
• 19:17
  And that's compared to previous years at the same time.
• 19:20
  So this definitely shows that there are systemic issues on
• 19:23
  social media that the ban does not address.
• 19:26
  The report has also added that five investigations are already
• 19:29
  underway about non compliance from platforms, specifically in
• 19:33
  relation to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
• 19:38
  And while the report didn't name names, the platforms are
• 19:41
  seemingly seeking age assurances using quote UN quote lower
• 19:45
  confidence age checks, which ultimately allows under 16 year
• 19:49
  olds to kind of slide on through.
• 19:51
  And this might be through facial recognition or other kind of
• 19:54
  unreliable forms of age checks. On top of this, E safety also
• 19:58
  made the claim that in some cases, quote platforms have
• 20:01
  enabled children under 16 to repeatedly attempt the same age
• 20:05
  assurance method to ultimately obtain a 16 plus outcome.
• 20:08
  And honestly, that doesn't surprise me because from the
• 20:11
  perspective of the platform, they would want to keep as many
• 20:14
  users online and keep their user base active.
• 20:17
  So if they can allow. These children to continue
• 20:21
  operating on the platform, they will find a way.
• 20:23
  It also seems like these companies will continue to get
• 20:27
  away with wanting the ban, at least for a couple more months.
• 20:30
  The report has said enforcement action will come, but only down
• 20:35
  the line, I think in the middle of 2026, but who even knows what
• 20:38
  that will look like at this stage.
• 20:40
  All that to say, this report did come shortly after the
• 20:43
  Australian government introduced a new legislative rule to ensure
• 20:46
  that the definition of social media platforms includes those
• 20:50
  that have addictive or otherwise harmful design features.
• 20:53
  And this obviously is similar to what I covered about the US last
• 20:57
  week with the verdicts that came down about the social media
• 21:00
  addiction cases. So even while there are clear
• 21:03
  failures with the Australian Under 16 ban, it's clear that
• 21:07
  there is a consistent attempt to push Big Tech to fall in line.
• 21:11
  But who's to say how well it will work?
• 21:14
  That is everything from Mini Tech Scroll today.
• 21:17
  I really hope you guys enjoyed and found it interesting.
• 21:20
  Lauren will speak to you tomorrow and I will be back next
• 21:23
  week as usual for another episode of Mini Tech.
• 21:26
  Actually, hopefully we'll get a new sign soon because I know
• 21:30
  that is disturbing. Lauren, thanks for listening.
• 21:35
  Bye. Centennial World Podcast Network
• 21:37
  operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
• 21:40
  Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this
• 21:43
  land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.