Deus vs. Machina

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter (patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech) 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:
• The Boring Internet (terrygodier.com/the-boring-internet) (Terry Godier)
• Orkney Library & Archive (bsky.app/profile/orkneylibrary.bsky.social/pos…) (Bluesky)
• Silicon Valley takes its AI pitch to the pope (politico.eu/article/pope-leo-xiv-ai-meetings-s…) (Politico)
• Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah's remarks on Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnifica humanitas" (anthropic.com/news/chris-olah-pope-leo-encycli…) (Anthropic)
• Vance calls Pope Leo’s AI warnings ‘profound’ (nbcnews.com/politics/jd-vance/vance-pope-leo-a…) (NBC News)
• American heresy: should Peter Thiel be burned at the stake? (legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/03/14/thiel-heresi…) (Le Grand Continent)
• Spotify chief defends AI-generated music (ft.com/content/dbdec57b-1e24-455b-b9e8-81fd3ef…) (Financial Times)
• OpenAI readies cyber, misinformation defenses ahead of elections (axios.com/2026/05/27/openai-cyber-misinformati…) (Axios)
And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters (patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech), they cover:
• In a surprise, Meta increases funding to the Oversight Board (platformer.news/meta-oversight-board-funding-2…) (Platformer)
• Spotlight: Five Years of the Oversight Board, from Experiment to Essential Institution (podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/episodes/184…) (Ctrl-Alt-Speech)
If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you canget the extended episode on Patreon (patreon.com/collection/2176497?view=condensed).
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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 (techdirt.com)) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation (everythinginmoderation.co)).