🚫 Australia's teen social media ban didn't work

⛽ Amazon slaps FBA sellers with a new fuel surcharge

🎙️ OpenAI just bought the show that interviews its rivals

🧾 Perplexity launches AI tax tool on its Computer platform

🤖 China deploys 120 humanoid robots as factory interns

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Seven in ten Australian children remain on major platforms despite the world-first social media ban, and eSafety data shows no meaningful drop in cyberbullying or image-based abuse.

The government pushed the legislation through knowing evidence was thin, ignoring over 140 academics and 20 civil society groups — now it's pointing fingers at tech firms for non-compliance.

The ban's loudest critics warned it would create new problems rather than solve old ones — and a hack of Discord's age-verification provider last year exposed around 70,000 government ID photos, making that case for them.

Amazon is hitting FBA sellers with a new 3.5% fuel surcharge starting April 17, as the war in Iran disrupts oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for roughly 20% of global oil supply.

Amazon says it absorbed rising logistics costs as long as it could, but has now followed other major carriers in passing them on — though it claims its surcharge is lower than competitors.

Amazon ran this same playbook in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and crude topped $100 a barrel. If the Iran conflict drags on, that "temporary" surcharge may not be so temporary.

OpenAI acquired TBPN, a daily three-hour live show on YouTube and X where major tech CEOs including Zuckerberg and Nadella regularly appear, marking a notable move into media ownership.

TBPN was already generating over $30 million a year, so this is a strategic acquisition, not a rescue, and the show will report to Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief political strategist.

OpenAI says TBPN keeps full editorial independence, but a media outlet that covers AI now sits inside the world's most prominent AI company, which is a structural tension no promise can fully dissolve.

Perplexity expanded its Computer platform with tax modules that can draft U.S. federal returns on official IRS forms, review professionally prepared returns, and build financial tools for more complex tax situations.

The tool uses loadable "Agent Skills" modules built on current IRS materials, letting it stay up to date with recent legislation like the OBBBA budget bill, which models with older training cutoffs would miss entirely.

In Perplexity's own testing, Computer caught a 67% understatement of overtime deductions in an attorney-prepared return, which is a useful reminder that "professionally prepared" does not always mean error-free.

A motor factory in China's Guangxi region is training UBTech Walker S1 robots on real tasks like sorting parts and moving bins, with 120 humanoid robots currently working alongside human supervisors.

The robots depend on visual recognition sensitive to lighting and layout changes, so Liuzhou built a dedicated AI training center replicating automotive, pharmaceutical, and food production environments.

A separate Guangdong facility already produces one humanoid robot every 30 minutes, suggesting China is scaling output well before the training science is fully figured out.

A) Yes, significantly - 67% 🏆

B) No, not much - 33%