Nerd Harder!

Cloudflare’s latest moves to police who can access the internet and governments’ push for age verification set off alarms for the future of the open web, as panelists debate the hidden costs of centralization and regulation.

• Microsoft fires four workers for on-site protests over company’s ties to Israel
• Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 water
• Nvidia says two mystery customers accounted for 39% of Q2 revenue
• FBI cyber cop: Salt Typhoon pwned ‘nearly every American
• Mastodon says it doesn’t ‘have the means’ to comply with age verification law
• UK’s Online Safety Act censors the internet — a preview of US proposal
• Meta updates chatbot rules to avoid inappropriate topics with teen user
• Meta reportedly allowed unauthorized celebrity AI chatbots on its service
• UK’s demand for Apple backdoor may have been broader than previously though
• Bluesky now platform of choice for science community
• SpaceX’s giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight in stunning comeback
• FCC rejects calls for cable-like fees on broadband providers
• The web does not need gatekeepers
• Intel warns a US equity stake could trigger “adverse reactions”
• US firms are racing through a $1 trillion buyback spree in record time
• Microsoft reveals two in-house AI models
• Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
• A rule exempting small packages from tariffs is ending today
• Framework is working on a giant haptic touchpad, Trackpoint nub, and eGPU for its laptops
• Germany fines economist Thomas Vierhaus €16,100 for sarcastic X posts
• Google wants to make sideloading Android apps safer by verifying developers’ identities
• South Korea bans smartphones in all middle and elementary school classrooms

Host: Leo Laporte
Guests: Shoshana Weissmann, Cory Doctorow, and Louis Maresca