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Tech Gets Real

David Meyer: Technology Journalist

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.

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  • 25 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 14 min
  • English

Episodes 25

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  • S1 · E28
    April 24 · 9 min

    xAI is a problem for SpaceX's IPO

    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/

  • S1 · E27
    April 15 · 23 min

    Rolling your own social media? Eurosky can help

    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

  • S1 · E26
    April 9 · 12 min

    Journalist rants about AI breaking the news

    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

  • S1 · E25
    April 1 · 29 min

    “It’s going to be a bit of a bloodbath”: Iain Thomson on AI and security

    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

  • S1 · E24
    March 26 · 8 min

    Meta's major losses over child safety are just the start

    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

Showing 21–25 of 25 episodes