Some Assembly Required

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover: Trump dismisses concerns about AI risks at UN, says he won't rein it in (PBS News) A.I. Gone Rogue? Trump Proposes Not New Rules but an ‘A.I. Force.’ (New York Times) 22 countries back call to keep AI ‘under human control’ (POLITICO) If AI is going to destroy humanity, Scott Bessent says hyperscalers, not government, must take the fall: ‘We cannot absolve you of responsibility’ (Fortune) Meet the algorithm you can actually control and understand (New_Public) YouTube’s Custom Feeds Give You More Control Over the Algorithm (Wired) YouTube CEO dismisses the idea of joining Meta’s multistate child safety settlement (CNN) Harry Potter Survey Results & Final Decision (Reddit) And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover: Safer for Teens, Same Discord for Adults (Discord) Age Assurance on Discord: Vendors, Methods and Your Data (Discord) How Discord Estimates Age Without Collecting Your Identity (Discord) Ofcom launches investigation into Pornhub’s age checks (Ofcom) Aylo Defends Apple Age Assurance in Response to Ofcom Investigation (Aylo) Discord's age verification era is upon us, despite community backlash (TechCrunch) Angry reaction to Discord’s age assurance (X/Twitter) Our fun links this week include Jev, the super fast new AI classifier, and Persodex, the context layer for your Contacts (PS. hit Ben up if you’re in New York in mid-October). Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky. Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).