Tech Gets Real
Stagione 1
di David Meyer: Technology Journalist
The European Commission is forcing age verification on the EU internet to protect kids from the ills of social media, without creating a new law – and without admitting that it’s forcing social platforms to adopt the technology. My article on this for Information Security Media Group: https://www.govinfosecurity.com/europe-gliding-toward-mandatory-online-age-verification-a-31547 Including a detail I forgot to mention here – that the Commission is doing all this before hearing the findings of an expert panel who were tasked with advising it on exactly this subject! Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: EC statement on Meta DSA breaches https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_920 Henna Virkkunen’s statement on age verification https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_26_921 BBC on Roblox and age estimation accuracy https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj94y9r0p10o Virkkunen’s press conference https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/video/I-288345 Politico report stating eight countries aren’t keen on the app https://www.politico.eu/article/brussels-tells-eu-countries-to-use-its-age-check-app/ Molly Rose Foundation research on Australia’s social media restrictions https://mollyrosefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/MRF_Australia-Social-Media-Ban-Research_Briefing-April-26.pdf
This week’s TGR is a grab-bag of the latest interesting AI news, starting with SpaceX warning potential IPO investors about the risk posed by xAI and its Grok chatbot. Also included: Grok plays along with user delusions, Meta tracks its workers, the US accuses China of “industrial scale” AI intellectual property theft, and Mythos’s exclusive access program isn’t so exclusive after all. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: Reuters on SpaceX warning investors about xAI risk https://www.reuters.com/world/spacex-warns-that-inquiries-into-sexually-abusive-ai-imagery-may-hurt-market-2026-04-23/ Guardian on the paper about AI and delusions https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/24/musk-grok-x-ai-researchers-delusional-advice-inputs The paper itself https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.13860 TechCrunch on Meta tracking employee mouse movements and keystrokes https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/21/meta-will-record-employees-keystrokes-and-use-it-to-train-its-ai-models/ Financial Times on White House’s China AI accusation https://www.ft.com/content/abde4e1e-c69a-4cc4-ad96-d88308314298 Bloomberg on outsiders accessing Anthropic’s Mythos https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-21/anthropic-s-mythos-model-is-being-accessed-by-unauthorized-users TechCrunch on Sam Altman throwing shade on Mythos https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/21/sam-altman-throws-shade-at-anthropics-cyber-model-mythos-fear-based-marketing/
TGR spoke to Sebastian Vogelsang, co-lead of the now-fully-launched Eurosky social media infrastructure project, at the European Data Summit in Berlin. Eurosky is part of “the Atmosphere” – the frenzy of experimentation happening around the AT Protocol, best known for powering the Bluesky social network. Sebastian has much to say about providing an alternative to US tech infrastructure, embracing vibe coding, and generally starting to imagine a post-Big Tech future. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. Here’s the link to Eurosky’s new portal: https://portal.eurosky.tech/ Event page for the European Data Summit at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation: https://www.kas.de/en/events/detail/-/content/european-data-summit-2026
AI is killing journalism in multiple ways – from inaccurate AI summaries slashing traffic, to newsrooms that think the technology can replace real journalists. That doesn’t just hurt people in the media – it’s bad for democracy. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites REFERENCES: New York Times on accuracy in AI summaries https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/technology/google-ai-overviews-accuracy.html European Broadcasting Union on AI accuracy https://www.ebu.ch/news/2025/10/ai-s-systemic-distortion-of-news-is-consistent-across-languages-and-territories-international-study-by-public-service-broadcaste Pew Research on clickthrough rates https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/ The Verge on AI replacing headlines https://www.theverge.com/tech/896490/google-replace-news-headlines-in-search-canary-coal-mine-experiment
As new AI models promise unprecedented abilities to find vulnerabilities in software – a task that could benefit both attackers and defenders – journalist Iain Thomson joins TGR this week to chat about the technology’s potentially enormous impact on cybersecurity. We also talked about Iran’s surprising lack of offensive capabilities in the cyber domain, the likelihood of Trump changing his mind about AI regulation, and whether AI-infused art is worth paying attention to yet. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites REFERENCES: Anthropic's Nicholas Carlini on new cybersecurity capabilities https://youtu.be/1sd26pWhfmg?si=ZOvrLSs7qxCvTxqb Fortune on Anthropic’s Mythos or Capybara model https://fortune.com/2026/03/26/anthropic-says-testing-mythos-powerful-new-ai-model-after-data-leak-reveals-its-existence-step-change-in-capabilities/ BBC on Iran’s cyber capabilities https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yr0576ygvo Guardian on Gavin Newsom’s AI regulation push https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/30/california-ai-regulations-trump
Spare a thought for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has been having a very tough week. Meta has suffered two unprecedented court losses over child safety and addictive design – potentially opening the floodgates for many more such cases. Its massive AI expenditure continues to be a problem, and its takeover of Chinese AI agent company Manus may be in trouble. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites REFERENCES: Guardian on Meta’s New Mexico loss https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/24/meta-new-mexico-jury Crikey on Australian experience with age verification https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/03/13/teens-social-media-ban-kids-still-using-platforms/ Reuters on Meta and Google’s LA loss https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/jury-reaches-verdict-meta-google-trial-social-media-addiction-2026-03-25/ Andy Stone’s tweet on Meta’s $325 million fine https://x.com/andymstone/status/2036555284521558355 CNBC on Meta’s layoffs https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/25/meta-layoffs-reality-labs-facebook.html European Commission statement on TikTok preliminary findings https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_312 Business Insider on OpenAI shuttering Sora and surprising Disney https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-kills-sora-app-ai-compute-crunch-forces-hard-choices-2026-3 JDSupra on Meta’s AI agent incident https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/when-the-agent-goes-off-script-meta-s-1141491/ Financial Times on Manus trouble https://www.ft.com/content/d9123d9d-c807-41d6-8a17-80ff1111834a
Trying a new feature/format here, called Yay-I (?) It’s a run-down of five AI-related stories that caught my eye in the last week. Here I discuss the British government changing its mind on copyright and AI, new research on AI-triggered delusions, Benjamin Netanyahu’s “proof of life” video, AI’s targeting role in Iran, and Grammarly’s U-turn on fake expert advice. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites REFERENCES: UK government’s report on copyright and AI https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69ba692226909a14239612e4/CP2602959_-_Report_on_Copyright_and_Artificial_Intelligence_web.pdf BBC on UK U-turn https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg1gr5v333o Stanford paper on “Characterizing Delusional Spirals through Human-LLM Chat Logs” https://spirals.stanford.edu/assets/pdf/moore_characterizing_2026.pdf New York Times on Netanyahu’s video trouble https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/technology/netanyahu-ai-video-iran-israel.html Semafor article on AI’s targeting role in Iran https://www.semafor.com/article/03/18/2026/humans-not-ai-are-to-blame-for-deadly-iran-school-strike-sources-say The Guardian on Grammarly’s change of heart https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/13/grammarly-removes-ai-expert-review-feature-mimicking-writers-after-backlash
Lawmakers in Europe are pushing back against the idea that AI companies can freely use artists’ creative works. That makes this a good time to meditate on AI and art, copyright and digital rights, and what creativity really means. (And yeah, I need to remember to lock my white balance.) Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites My band, The Board: https://theboardmusic.com/ REFERENCES: European Parliament press release on “Protecting copyrighted work and the EU’s creative sector in the age of AI” https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20260306IPR37511/protecting-copyrighted-work-and-the-eu-s-creative-sector-in-the-age-of-ai UK House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee report on “AI, copyright and the creative industries” https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ldselect/ldcomm/267/267.pdf
Anthropic’s dispute with Pete Hegseth’s “Department of War” is about AI being used in war – the debate over autonomous weapons or killer robots – but also about mass surveillance. This shows how we are reaching an inflection point where many theoretical digital rights concerns become all too real. Dark times are looming, especially in the context of the Iran war, but we should start thinking about the human rights systems we want to follow. (PS: Yes I’m experimenting with lighting, and this is a This Is Fine vibe. Thoughts?) Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites My book, Control Shift: https://www.amazon.de/Control-Shift-Technology-Affects-Rights/dp/1973393948 REFERENCES: Dario Amodei’s statement on the Department of War spat https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war Euractiv on Palantir’s European government deals https://www.euractiv.com/news/palantir-is-well-on-its-way-to-conquering-europe/
The European Commission’s proposal to water down the General Data Protection Regulation by redefining “personal data” is already stumbling. Privacy watchdogs are outraged and the Council of the EU wants that part struck out of the Digital Omnibus bill. The architect of the GDPR is cautiously happy… but still sees problems with the EU’s big streamlining of tech rules. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites REFERENCES: My ISMG article on the latest developments https://www.govinfosecurity.com/european-capitals-balk-at-proposed-gdpr-change-a-30841 Council’s compromise text for the Digital Omnibus https://www.euractiv.com/content/uploads/sites/2/2026/02/EURACTIV_OMNIBUS-1.pdf The study commissioned by the European Parliament https://ismg-cdn.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/asset_files/external/ectistu2026772641en.pdf