Some Assembly Required

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:
• Trump dismisses concerns about AI risks at UN, says he won't rein it in (pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-trump-dismisse…) (PBS News)
• A.I. Gone Rogue? Trump Proposes Not New Rules but an ‘A.I. Force.’ (nytimes.com/2026/09/19/us/politics/trump-ai-fo…) (New York Times)
• 22 countries back call to keep AI ‘under human control’ (politico.eu/article/20-countries-urge-to-stren…) (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.com/2026/09/22/bessent-ai-labs-respons…) (Fortune)
• Meet the algorithm you can actually control and understand (newpublic.substack.com/p/meet-the-algorithm-yo…) (New_Public)
• YouTube’s Custom Feeds Give You More Control Over the Algorithm (wired.com/story/youtube-custom-feeds-let-you-s…) (Wired)
• YouTube CEO dismisses the idea of joining Meta’s multistate child safety settlement (cnn.com/2026/09/23/tech/youtube-ceo-meta-child…) (CNN)
• Harry Potter Survey Results & Final Decision (reddit.com/r/crafts/comments/1wka0ps/harry_pot…) (Reddit)
And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters (patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech), they cover:
• Safer for Teens, Same Discord for Adults (discord.com/blog/safer-for-teens-same-discord-…) (Discord)
• Age Assurance on Discord: Vendors, Methods and Your Data (discord.com/safety/age-assurance-on-discord-ve…) (Discord)
• How Discord Estimates Age Without Collecting Your Identity (discord.com/safety/how-discord-estimates-age-w…) (Discord)
• Ofcom launches investigation into Pornhub’s age checks (ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children…) (Ofcom)
• Aylo Defends Apple Age Assurance in Response to Ofcom Investigation (aylo.com/newsroom/aylo-upgrades-age-assurance-…) (Aylo)
• Discord's age verification era is upon us, despite community backlash (techcrunch.com/2026/09/22/discords-age-verific…) (TechCrunch)
• Angry reaction to Discord’s age assurance (x.com/discord/status/2102952262079549635) (X/Twitter)
Our fun links this week include Jev (typesafe.ai/blog/introducing-system-one-models…), the super fast new AI classifier, and Persodex (persodex.com), the context layer for your Contacts (PS. hit Ben up if you’re in New York in mid-October).
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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)).