Tech Gets Real

David Meyer: Technology Journalist
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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. In TGR, I provide short, jargon-free guides to help you navigate the new AI era.

  1. 27 ago

    Who decides when your smart devices die?

    We’re used to manufacturers leaving smart devices buggy or completely abandoning them for various reasons. But AI is now proving useful for reverse-engineering firmware – which clearly presents big cybersecurity risks as well as opportunities for taking real ownership of one’s own possessions – and new European laws also promise to force manufacturers to take longevity more seriously. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control at a time of rapid technological change. I'm Berlin-based tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy 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.eurosky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/ REFERENCES: The Guardian on European heatwave deaths https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/25/at-least-35000-excess-deaths-europe-back-to-back-heatwaves Chaz Schlarp’s blogpost on reverse-engineering peripherals https://schlarp.com/posts/everything-i-own-owned/ Tech Radar on Spotify Car Thing’s revival https://www.techradar.com/audio/four-years-after-its-untimely-demise-spotify-car-thing-is-back-for-free-and-with-absolutely-no-help-from-the-streaming-giant-itself Mira on GitHub https://github.com/mira-thing/mira-releases/releases#release-v1.1.0 European Commission on Right to Repair Directive https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/right-repair-new-consumer-rights-easy-and-attractive-repairs-2026-07-31_en Cyber Resilience Act https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/cyber-resilience-act My ISMG article on Cyber Resilience Act guidance https://www.bankinfosecurity.net/iot-sector-given-final-eu-cyber-resilience-act-guidance-a-32349

  2. 29 jul

    Can the AI industry slow down?

    In the wake of OpenAI’s accidental hack of Hugging Face, over 1,000 luminaries from the AI industry have called for an international agreement on slowing down the pace of AI development – signatories include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. That kind of deal is unlikely. But without it, unconstrained capitalism won’t allow any company to slow down unilaterally. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control at a time of rapid technological change. I'm Berlin-based tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy 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.eurosky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/ REFERENCES: Hugging Face post-mortem on OpenAI incident https://huggingface.co/blog/agent-intrusion-technical-timeline Announcement of AI Kill Switch Act bill https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-lieu-and-moran-introduce-bill-require-kill-switch-ai-systems-can Pacing the Frontier petition https://www.pacingthefrontier.com/ Wikipedia article on previous call for an AI development pause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pause_Giant_AI_Experiments:_An_Open_Letter Reuters on suspicious activity of OpenAI agents https://www.reuters.com/business/its-ai-agent-spent-days-hacking-company-sources-say-openai-did-not-notice-week-2026-07-24/

  3. 21 jul

    The US and China's open-source AI showdown is coming

    China’s AI companies have become a huge threat to their US rivals with their more open models, with the likes of Kimi K3, GLM-5.2 and Qwen 3.8 now almost rivalling Anthropic and OpenAI’s best efforts. The Trump administration will soon need to make a decision about how or whether to try to control those Chinese models and the open-source AI movement in general – and China will need to consider whether the many benefits of open AI are worth the risks. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy 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 US-China AI talks https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-china-hold-ai-talks-september-sources-say-2026-07-21/ Hugging Face on its hacking incident https://huggingface.co/blog/security-incident-july-2026 The Diplomat on the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization https://thediplomat.com/2026/07/chinas-new-ai-club-the-world-artificial-intelligence-cooperation-organization/ Xi Jinping’s open AI speech http://english.scio.gov.cn/topnews/2026-07/18/content_118605932.html Financial Times on China considering open AI controls https://www.ft.com/content/6049a031-9e9b-464c-97bb-414da04d5a6a?syn-25a6b1a6=1 Thinking Machines Lab on its Tinker release https://thinkingmachines.ai/news/introducing-inkling/ Ben Thompson’s Stratechery post on the US’s choices https://stratechery.com/2026/whos-afraid-of-chinese-models/ David Sacks vs Dean Ball https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/2078826291638522127

  4. 14 jul

    Europe doesn’t need an “internet passport” for age verification

    It looks like there will be EU-wide age restrictions for social media and other online services that might have content or designs that are unsuitable for kids. Some claim the European Commission is about to roll out an “internet passport” to enforce this, but that’s a misreading of the situation. Thanks to a major report that just landed, we are getting more details of what we really should expect from Europe’s online child safety crackdown. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.eurosky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/ REFERENCES: Ursula von der Leyen speech on age verification legislation https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/statement_26_1590 Child safety online report https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/d833504d-5ec3-4fac-945f-38e7d0bd5326_en?filename=Special-panel-report.pdf “Summary” of the report https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/4c5d55f1-9072-4bb9-a263-094461525ca6_en?filename=Child-Safety-Online-summary.pdf Interface page on national age verification plans https://www.interface-eu.org/publications/social-media-age-gating-eu Le Monde on European Commission chastising France https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/07/06/eu-tells-france-to-amend-social-media-ban-law_6755209_7.html Euronews on viral “internet passport” claims https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/13/no-the-eu-is-not-about-to-censor-access-to-the-internet Guardian on Australia exploring VPN restrictions https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/11/most-popular-porn-sites-now-have-age-checks-for-australians-but-online-watchdog-to-assess-vpn-loopholes

  5. 8 jul

    Why Ireland is a big problem for Europe's tech rules

    European lawmakers are worried that Ireland will favour US Big Tech as it takes a major role in legal negotiations over the second half of 2026. The country, which largely relies on Big Tech for its tax revenues, has assumed the Presidency of the EU Council and will steer the Council’s work on bills like the Tech Sovereignty Package, the revisions to the Cybersecurity Act, and the Digital Omnibus, which could see the watering-down of the General Data Protection Regulation. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: Schwab and Echeverria’s letter to Commissioner McGrath https://enforce.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Letter-to-Commissioner-McGrath-signed-by-MEP-Arias-Echeverria.pdf Wikipedia article on Apple-EU tax dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%E2%80%93EU_tax_dispute Irish Times on DPC not collecting fines https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/01/12/data-protection-commission-owed-more-than-4-billion-in-fines/ Irish Times on Apple, Microsoft and Eli Lilly’s outsized tax role https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/2026/02/19/three-multinational-companies-paid-close-to-50-of-states-corporate-tax-in-2024/ EU Observer on Niamh Sweeney’s selection as Irish DPC https://euobserver.com/4580/outrage-as-ireland-picks-ex-meta-lobbyist-as-new-data-protection-chief/ Politico on delayed DSA enforcement for X https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-exhales-brussels-fines-elon-musk-x/ Irish Council for Civil Liberties demanding Irish recusal https://www.iccl.ie/press-release/ireland-recuse-eu-presidency-digital-files-enforce/

  6. 30 jun

    The US Supreme Court may have doomed Big Tech in Europe

    The US Supreme Court’s Slaughter ruling on Monday, which overturned longstanding precedent called Humphrey’s Executor, is seriously bad news for American companies who handle Europeans’ personal data. That’s because the ruling destroyed the independence of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is an essential part of a deal that enables transatlantic data flows. And now Max Schrems, who blew up that deal’s predecessors, is going in for the kill. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: US Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Slaughter https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-332_qn12.pdf My 2023 Fortune article on the EU-US Data Protection Framework https://fortune.com/europe/2023/07/10/us-eu-trans-atlantic-data-privacy-framework-meta-schrems-cjeu/ Noyb’s statement on the Slaughter ruling’s implications https://noyb.eu/en/us-supreme-court-just-blew-eu-us-data-transfers Noyb’s letter to the European Commission https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2026-06/Letter_noyb_EU-US_data_transfers.pdf My most recent ISMG article on EU tech sovereignty https://www.databreachtoday.com/france-germany-boost-digital-sovereignty-push-a-32031

  7. 25 jun

    Why Anthropic is right to fear Chinese AI distillation

    US AI leader Anthropic has accused China’s Alibaba of “illicitly” copying the knowledge from its Claude model in a process called distillation. Here’s what that means – and why companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have so much to fear from the practice . Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: Wikipedia article on Prohibition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States Wall Street Journal on Anthropic’s Alibaba accusation https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-claims-alibaba-ran-brazen-campaign-to-access-its-claude-ai-model-69d7a392 Alibaba’s Qwen terms of service https://qwen.ai/termsservice Wired’s transcript of Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit appearance https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-distill-openai-models-partly-xai/ DeepSeek’s distillation announcement in early 2025 https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-r1 Nathan Lambert on Z.ai’s GLM-5.2 https://www.interconnects.ai/p/glm-52-is-the-step-change-for-open

  8. 18 jun

    Inside the UK's under-16 social media ban - Heather Burns interview

    In this extended episode of Tech Gets Real, veteran digital policy expert Heather Burns joins the show to chat about the UK’s plans to ban social media for under-16s, and to force Apple and Google to conduct surveillance on the photos people take on their phones. It’s a fascinating conversation about how safety tech vendors may have defeated digital rights advocates in the battle for the attention of British politicians. Heather Burns’s book, Understanding Privacy https://www.amazon.com/-/en/Heather-Burns-ebook/dp/B0C9JSW7S7 Heather’s website https://heatherburns.tech/ Heather’s profile on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/heatherburnstech.bsky.social Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: BBC on Makerfield by-election https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yzgpe2ld3o UK government announcement on client side scanning https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-plans-to-stop-children-taking-sharing-or-viewing-nude-images UK government announcement on social media age limit https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-landmark-government-move-to-givekids-their-childhood-back Deutsche Welle on Elon Musk suing German broadcaster ZDF https://www.dw.com/en/elon-musk-sues-zdf-hunt-for-migrants-belfast/a-77571443 My ISMG article on the client-side scanning news https://www.govinfosecurity.com/uk-vows-device-level-controls-for-smartphone-underage-nudes-a-31933 Politico on Italy’s Meloni rejecting social media age ban https://www.politico.eu/article/meloni-says-social-media-ban-for-kids-is-no-panacea/ Edrith blog post on age ban arguments https://www.edrith.co.uk/p/social-media-ban-responses-to-10 Southport public inquiry website https://www.southport.public-inquiry.uk/

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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. In TGR, I provide short, jargon-free guides to help you navigate the new AI era.

Información

  • Creador
    David Meyer: Technology Journalist
  • Años de actividad
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodios
    44
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © David Meyer
  • Mostrar sitio web
    Tech Gets Real