Rob Pegoraro<p><strong>Weekly output: Tech Talks podcast, SpaceX Starship, AI data privacy, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, agentic AI, scaling AI, Trump scrubs NASA nomination</strong></p><p>This week will be my fourth in a row with nights away from home–but since the first of those was <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2025/05/16/a-long-goodbye-to-the-queen-of-the-skies/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">something I did for fun</a>, nobody should feel too sorry for me. Plus, last week’s trip for <a href="https://vancouver.websummit.com" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web Summit Vancouver</a> treated me to some beautiful mountain, water and city scenery. This week’s less-scenic trip is to Santa Clara, where I’m moderating three panels about… wait for it… AI at the <a href="https://techexevent.com/northamerica/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TechEx North American conference</a>.</p><p>I wrote an extra post for Patreon readers: a <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/google-i-o-2025-130394495?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">breakdown of my inputs and outputs</a> from Google I/O as compared to two prior trips to cover Google’s developer conference.</p><p><a href="https://robpegoraro.com/?attachment_id=26062" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a>5/26/2025: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/25uBWL739Cr2ZXT70xuS3T?si=e8IkACb3T_KmgH9soqR9tw" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Education, Education, Education! The Biggest Lessons from Rio.</a>, Tech Talks</p><p>I joined this episode of the podcast that my conference pal <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidajsavage/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">David Savage</a> does for his employer <a href="https://www.nashsquared.com/about" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nash Squared</a> almost a month ago at <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2025/05/04/weekly-output-iown-esims-android-sneak-peek-ranking-digital-rights-web3-data-ownership-in-brazil-elon-musks-doge-detour-blanding-passkey-adoption-googles-ai-mode-read-ai-bundles-two-mor/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web Summit Rio</a>, when I sat down in front of a microphone with David, <a href="https://ingralabs.world" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ingra Labs</a> founder Nicole Ingra, and <a href="https://www.koalo.app/legal/imprint" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Koala</a> CEO Benjamin Buthmann.</p><p>5/28/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/ninth-test-flight-spacex-starship-rocket-survives-launch-but-not-space" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">On Ninth Test Flight, SpaceX’s Starship Rocket Survives Launch But Not Space</a>, PCMag</p><p>Instead of taking some time to explore Vancouver after my late-morning arrival, I caught up on e-mail while waiting for my room to be ready, got in an interview for an upcoming story and then watched the livestream of SpaceX’s ninth launch of its gigantic Starship rocket–which proved to be almost as snakebit as the previous two test flights.</p><p>5/28/2025: <a href="https://vancouver.websummit.com/sessions/van25/0b45ab79-05e3-40a9-ad27-3890ee6ec338/whose-data-is-it-anyway/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Whose data is it anyway?</a>, Web Summit Vancouver</p><p>My first of three panels at the summit had me quizzing Pamela Snively, chief data and trust officer at <a href="https://www.telus.com/en/about" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Telus Communications</a>, and Amin Venjara, chief data officer of <a href="https://www.adp.com/about-adp.aspx" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ADP</a>.</p><p>5/29/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/bluesky-figuring-out-how-to-make-money-without-spamming-you-with-ads" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bluesky Still Figuring Out How to Make Money Without Spamming You With Ads</a>, PCMag</p><p>I left my schedule open Tuesday evening to see Bluesky CEO Jay Graber’s talk onstage, then finished writing it up early Wednesday morning after jet lag once again had me wake up before 6 a.m.</p><p>5/29/2025: <a href="https://vancouver.websummit.com/sessions/van25/9ce19a44-9d84-43e8-bbee-e9101d1c7c62/the-agentic-era/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The agentic era</a>, Web Summit Vancouver</p><p>My panel with <a href="https://www.joshsoftware.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Josh Software</a> co-founder Gautam Rege and <a href="https://www.outreach.io/company/about" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Outreach</a> CEO Abhjit Mitra, featured something I hadn’t seen before at Web Summit events: The countdown clock moved backwards. I found out afterwards that since the previous speaker had ended early, the stage producers opted to give us his stoppage time after seeing that we were having fun in our conversation.</p><p>5/29/2025: <a href="https://vancouver.websummit.com/sessions/van25/e9e6082b-3cfd-444d-a6ec-f91678a0e412/building-the-new-internet-lessons-in-simplicity-security-and-scale/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Building the new internet: Lessons in simplicity, security, and scale</a>, Web Summit Vancouver</p><p>My third panel started 20 minutes after my second and on the same stage, leaving just enough time backstage for a quick sync-up with <a href="https://tailscale.com/company" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tailscale</a> CEO Avery Pennarun. He brought a somewhat cranky view of AI-industry hype that I appreciated very much.</p><p>5/31/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/trump-withdraws-private-astronaut-jared-isaacman-nomination-nasa-administrator" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trump Hits ‘Undo’ on Private Astronaut’s Nomination for NASA Administrator</a>, PCMag</p><p>Maybe because I spent a large part of Friday offline in the sky, I couldn’t resist a chance to cover President Trump withdrawing his nomination of payments billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator–because writing that post also let me loop in readers about the brutal budget outline for the space agency posted Friday.</p><p><span></span></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/adp/" target="_blank">#ADP</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/agentic-ai/" target="_blank">#agenticAI</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/bluesky/" target="_blank">#Bluesky</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/british-columbia/" target="_blank">#BritishColumbia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/canada/" target="_blank">#Canada</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/david-savage/" target="_blank">#DavidSavage</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/jared-isaacman/" target="_blank">#JaredIsaacman</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/jay-graber/" target="_blank">#JayGraber</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/josh-software/" target="_blank">#JoshSoftware</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/nasa/" target="_blank">#nasa</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/nasa-administrator/" target="_blank">#NASAAdministrator</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/nash-squared/" target="_blank">#NashSquared</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/outreach/" target="_blank">#Outreach</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/spacex-starship/" target="_blank">#SpaceXStarship</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/tailscale/" target="_blank">#Tailscale</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/telus/" target="_blank">#Telus</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/trump/" target="_blank">#Trump</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/trump-tariffs/" target="_blank">#TrumpTariffs</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/vancouver/" target="_blank">#Vancouver</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/web-summit/" target="_blank">#WebSummit</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/web-summit-vancouver/" target="_blank">#WebSummitVancouver</a></p>