Mongabay: New database captures urban tree diversity. “These are trees lining pavements, planted in orchards and in farm woodlots. Little is known, however, about the diversity of these trees — particularly in rapidly urbanising regions at risk of developing urban heat island effects in the summer. A new database capturing India’s urban tree diversity attempts to bridge this gap.”

UC Santa Cruz: UC Santa Cruz Library publishes vast photo archive from iconic ‘Death of a Valley’. “Seventy years ago, residents of Monticello gathered to mark their last Memorial Day in their small, agricultural town. The spring gathering was always a chance for families and old friends to gather in community. By the time rains came the following year, 1957, Monticello was gone.”

The Gamer: Halo Fan Project Has Archived Millions Of Old Gamertags, Stats. “As part of a sweeping sunset, 343 Studios, now rebranded to Halo Studios, announced back in 2021 that Halo 3, along with Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo Wars, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Spartan Assault would all have their servers shutdown, though the offline campaign functionality remained. That said, a new fan project, titled Halo Archive, is aiming to preserve all the moments and history of those iconic nights online through a new website that has cataloged millions of points of data.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: 10 Hacks Every YouTube Music User Should Know. “YouTube Music isn’t the most feature-rich of all the music streaming services, but it is a great option for those who love music videos, user-generated content, and the YouTube ecosystem overall. If you have YouTube Music, or are considering switching from another platform, these are the best tips and tricks to get the most out of your listening experience.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Tubefilter: France’s national public TV broadcaster is bringing the news to YouTube. “France Télévisions is serving the growing number of consumers who get their news from social media. The Paris-based company, which serves as its home country’s national public TV broadcaster, has announced a partnership with YouTube that will bring breaking headlines online.”

Futurism: Devious New AI Tool “Clones” Software So That the Original Creator Doesn’t Hold a Copyright Over the New Version. “As 404 Media reports, a new tool dubbed Malus.sh — pronounced ‘malice,’ to give a subtle clue where this is headed — uses AI to ‘liberate’ a piece of software from existing copyright licenses, essentially creating a ‘clean room’ clone that technically doesn’t infringe on the original code’s copyright.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Christian Science Monitor: For Ukraine’s museums, Russia’s war gives ‘preservation’ new meaning. “The Kremlin has been waging a long-running ‘Russification’ campaign in parallel with its military efforts – attempting to destroy the very identity and values that are core to Ukraine by repressing Ukrainian language, burning books, and looting artifacts. In response, every cultural institution in Ukraine feels a deep sense of responsibility to the rebuilding of Ukrainian society, says Ms. Kulai, and many are pivoting to strategies that will help fortify future foundations even as the war continues.”

Forward Kentucky: Officials can hide texts, emails on private devices from records requests, state Supreme Court rules. “The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that emails and text messages created by public officials on private devices are not public records, a decision that a dissenting supreme court justice fears could destroy ‘the public’s right to know what its government is doing.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: Women perceive AI as riskier than men do, study finds. “An online survey found that women consistently perceive AI to be riskier than men. The key drivers behind this view are women’s higher general risk aversion and their greater exposure to AI-related risks.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

PetaPixel: You Can Spell Your Name is Aerial Images Thanks to NASA. “Following on from Earth Day (April 22), NASA has publicized a tool that allows people to spell out their name or any word they want using Landsat satellite images.” Good afternoon, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

USGS: New Nationwide Tool Helps Answer: Do We Have Enough Water?. “The USGS National Water Availability Assessment Data Companion provides water managers, agricultural communities and researchers with detailed information about water supply and demand across approximately 80,000 watersheds nationwide.”

The Whig: Grassroots Canadian Peace Museum grows with new digital archive partnerships. “The Canadian Peace Museum has launched a new web archive, preserving and creating a partnership with two peace-related websites. In January 2026, the museum was contacted by Michael Cooke, founding member and chair emeritus of PeaceQuest, based out of the Kingston. Cooke explained that the current digital homes for the PeaceQuest archive and the website War And Children were at risk of being lost, as the current hosts were going through a restructure, which would see the end of their hosting.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Video Game History Foundation: Rolling out the next version of our digital archive. “The digital archive interface has been rebuilt from scratch to improve the browsing experience. We’ve made images larger to make it clearer what you’re looking at, and to differentiate what’s a folder versus a file. This new interface also loads faster than the previous version, has improved loading states, and does a better job keeping track of your navigation when moving between pages.”

New York Times: Rumors and Speculation Swirl Online After Shooting at Washington Dinner. This link goes to a gift article. “Almost as soon as gunshots were reported from the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night, social media was flooded with conspiracy theories and finger-pointing over the attack. In a now-common phenomenon after such incidents, prominent influencers fill the information vacuum with speculation in a bid for attention and followers.”

GitHub Blog: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing. “Today, we are announcing that all GitHub Copilot plans will transition to usage-based billing on June 1, 2026. Instead of counting premium requests, every Copilot plan will include a monthly allotment of GitHub AI Credits, with the option for paid plans to purchase additional usage. Usage will be calculated based on token consumption, including input, output, and cached tokens, using the listed API rates for each model.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Tom’s Hardware: Claude-powered AI coding agent deletes entire company database in 9 seconds — backups zapped, after Cursor tool powered by Anthropic’s Claude goes rogue. “Jer Crane was inspired to write a public response after an AI coding agent deleted his firm’s entire production database. The AI agent’s misdemeanors were then hugely amplified by a cloud infrastructure provider’s API wiping all backups after the main database was zapped. This tag team of digital trouble has wiped out months of consumer data essential to the firm’s, and its customers, businesses.”

Associated Press: College students are changing course in search of ‘AI-proof’ majors. But no one knows what they are. “About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, while recent Gallup polling finds U.S. workers are increasingly concerned about being replaced by new technologies.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

SiliconAngle: Hundreds of Google employees sign letter urging CEO to reject US military AI use. “About 600 employees at Google LLC have signed a letter urging Chief Executive Sundar Pichai not to make the company’s artificial intelligence tools available to the Pentagon in classified settings.”

Bleeping Computer: Home security giant ADT data breach affects 5.5 million people. “The ShinyHunters extortion group stole the personal information of 5.5 million individuals after breaching the systems of home security giant ADT earlier this month, according to data breach notification service Have I Been Pwned.”

The Register: Scotland Yard can keep using live facial recognition on people in London, say judges. “London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has survived a legal challenge that attempted to curb its rollout of live facial recognition (LFR) technology across the capital. The challenge was brought against the Met by civil liberties organization Big Brother Watch, which was representing Shaun Thompson, an anti-knife crime campaigner and youth worker who was falsely identified as a criminal suspect by LFR cameras in Croydon.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

404 Media: Study Finds A Third of New Websites are AI-Generated. “Researchers working with data from the Internet Archive have discovered that a third of websites created since 2022 are AI-generated. The team of researchers—which includes people from Stanford, the Imperial College London, and the Internet Archive—published their findings online in a paper titled ‘The Impact of AI-Generated Text on the Internet.’ The research also found that all this AI-generated text is making the web more cheery and less verbose.”

Georgia Tech: This New Tool Makes AI’s Role in Student Writing Visible. “DraftMarks, a new open‑source tool developed by Georgia Tech and Stanford researchers, makes the writing process itself visible. Instead of trying to assess how much of a finished document was written by AI, DraftMarks shows where a student iterated with AI prompts, what is fully AI, and how a piece evolved — illuminating the often-invisible collaboration between human writers and AI.” Good morning, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

The Digital Orientalist: The Hong Kong Chinese Merchants Collection: An Introduction and its Potential Applications. “From the late 19th century onwards, the Hong Kong Chinese merchants were instrumental in shaping the social, political, and business landscapes of Hong Kong, South China, and the overseas Chinese communities around the world. Their commercial practices and business networks have long captivated both public and academic interest. Existing research, however, rarely incorporates firm-level data or merchants’ personal papers.”

Moscow-Pullman Daily News: NEARBY HISTORY: UI launches digital collection of reporter Ben J. Plastino. “This spring the University of Idaho Library launched a new digital collection that offers a unique window into the political, social and journalistic history of Idaho in the latter half of the 20th century. Built from the papers of Ben J. Plastino, a longtime reporter and editor for the Idaho Falls Post Register, the digital collection reflects more than five decades of close observation of Idaho’s political landscape.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Mashable: What happened to Omegle? The rise and fall of the internet’s favorite stranger danger . “In 2009, Omegle launched with a simple premise: connect strangers from around the world one-on-one via text or video chat. The pairing was random, and anyone with internet access could join for free, no account required…. But not everyone came to Omegle with good intentions. After it shut down for good in 2023, longtime users were left wondering: what happened to Omegle? We’re here to tell you.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Tubefilter: STEM creators are working with researchers in all 50 states to showcase ‘Science Across America’. “The United States is celebrating its 250th birthday this summer, and a group of creators is turning that milestone into a celebration of science. A nonprofit called the Independent Media Initiative (IMI) is behind 50×50: Science Across America, a coast-to-coast ‘YouTube project’ that will pair influential STEM creators with scientists from all 50 states.”

The Mary Sue: From catfishing to patronizing takes on her appearance by a looksmaxxer, this woman just went through the holy grail of tinder date fails. “A woman’s Tinder date with a self-proclaimed “looksmaxxer” turned into a nightmare when the supposed 6’3″ influencer she’d been talking to for six months showed up as a 5’6″ catfish who spent their entire ramen meal critiquing her face.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Crypto scam lures ships into Strait of Hormuz, falsely promising safe passage. “Crypto scammers are targeting the thousands of ships stranded near the Strait of Hormuz—and at least one ship that faced Iranian gunfire may have been tricked into believing it had paid Iran for safe passage.”

The Guardian: Kremlin forcing big firms to join ‘witch-hunt’ against internet rebels, claims report. “Major Russian companies have been conscripted into a ‘witch-hunt’ against users trying to circumvent online controls, researchers have said, as the Kremlin continues trying to cut its citizens off from the global internet.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: Artificial intelligence flatters users into bad behavior. “Artificial intelligence systems tend to excessively agree with and validate users, even when those users describe engaging in harmful or unethical behavior. People who interact with these highly agreeable chatbots become more convinced they are right and less willing to apologize during interpersonal conflicts.”

Bangalore Mirror: Ink to link: Ancient script goes online . “In a major step to safeguard Karnataka’s rich cultural and intellectual heritage, the state government has initiated the process of establishing a dedicated authority for preserving and digitising ancient manuscripts. The move aims to systematically preserve handwritten records that reflect the state’s history, traditions and knowledge systems, and to make them accessible to future generations.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Texas A&M University: Texas A&M opens world’s largest academic controlled-explosions lab. “It’s seemingly over before it even begins, leaving scientists chasing physics the eye can barely follow. Now, after years of planning, construction and anticipation, scientists at Texas A&M University can finally capture those fleeting, violent moments with a front-row seat inside the world’s largest academic controlled-explosions lab, the newly opened Detonation Research Test Facility (DRTF).” Good afternoon, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

Arizona State University: Largest genomic dataset of Indigenous Americans to date sheds light on history, diversity and health. “In a new study published today in Nature, an international team led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, with partners at the University of São Paulo and Arizona State University, analyzed genomes from Indigenous populations spanning North America to Patagonia. The result is the largest dataset of its kind, helping researchers trace the genetic threads of ancestry across the Americas.”

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee: Digitized Copy of 1478 Ptolemy’s ‘Geography’ Available Online. “Thanks to the work of Digital Collections & Initiatives, the American Geographical Society Library has recently made available a digitized 1478 copy of Ptolemy’s Geography. The AGSL holds over 30 volumes from copies of Ptolemy’s Geography, with this digitization marking the tenth volume digitized, and digital access to the oldest volume in the collection.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Engadget: Claude can now connect to lifestyle apps like Spotify, Instacart and AllTrails. “Anthropic is expanding its directory of connected services for its Claude AI chatbot. The platform can now link up with your accounts on AllTrails, Audible, Booking.com, Instacart, Intuit Credit Karma, Intuit TurboTax, Resy, Spotify, StubHub, Taskrabbit, Thumbtack, TripAdvisor, Uber, Uber Eats and Viator. Additional services will be added in the future.”

Search Engine Land: ChatGPT ads expand to logged-out users. “Early reports suggest ads are now appearing seamlessly within conversations for unauthenticated users, even though OpenAI hasn’t formally announced the change. The ads are integrated into chat responses rather than displayed as traditional banners.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: I replaced Lightroom with this free app and I only miss it a little. “So if you’re tired of spending hundreds of dollars, at the very least, to be able to edit a few photos, you’re using the wrong program. There’s a photo-editing app so good that it can easily replace Lightroom, and you give up only one thing in return.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: An OpenAI-linked news outlet appears to be entirely AI-generated. “A new report from The Midas Project’s Model Republic publication has found that news site, The Wire by Acutus, relies almost entirely on AI-generated content. The publication has been operational since the end of 2025 with nearly 100 published articles across tech, energy, media, science, business, and healthcare.”

International Fire & Safety Journal: Peers approve funding for Grenfell Tower archive and preservation works. “The House of Lords has passed the Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Bill to provide statutory authority for the construction and long-term management of a permanent memorial at the tower site.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Tubefilter: The Indian government says it wants to crack down on fake news. Critics worry it wants to censor content creators–and everyone else.. “Basically, the proposal boils down to this: If passed, it would allow the Indian government (specifically its Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) to have control over social media posts it deemed to be about ‘news and current affairs.’ If a person’s post was judged to be inaccurate or unethical, it would be removed–and the platform they posted on could also face consequences.”

Press Gazette: UK publishers urge CMA to curb Google as search giant claims AI does them no harm. “News publishers have disputed a claim from Google that using their content to ‘fine-tune’ its AI models contains ‘no realistic prospect of harm’ to them. ‘Fine-tuning’ enables an AI model that has already been trained to add new data to respond to a specific prompt or task.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: Short video addiction is linked to lower life satisfaction through loneliness and anxiety. “A new study published The Journal of Psychology provides evidence that problematic use of short video platforms is linked to higher feelings of loneliness, which subsequently relate to elevated anxiety and a decrease in a person’s contentment with their life.”

CIDRAP: New global health misinformation survey reveals deep divides. “About a quarter of people worldwide say they believe that raw milk is healthier than pasteurized milk, that use of acetaminophen during pregnancy causes autism, and that vaccines are used for population control. These are a few of the harmful health claims that were surveyed in the 5th annual Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust and Health.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

ScienceDaily: Total solar eclipse led to seismic quiet for cities within its path. “As the Moon swallowed the Sun during the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse, something remarkable happened on the ground—cities went eerily quiet. Scientists analyzing seismic data found that human-generated vibrations, usually caused by traffic, construction, and daily activity, dropped sharply during totality. The effect was so pronounced that it created a clear ‘seismic hush’ across urban areas directly in the eclipse’s path, before quickly rebounding afterward.” Good morning, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

MinnPost: New app using AI aims to expand civic engagement in Minnesota. “For anyone who isn’t familiar with how legislation is written and advanced at the state Capitol, the process can feel like it was deliberately created to confuse. Enter CivicLoon, an app that uses artificial intelligence created by a local programmer with the aim of closing that gap between what elected representatives are doing and what their constituents can see and understand.”

Fold3: Uncover the Stories of Arkansas WWI Heroes!. “We are excited to announce our new collection of Arkansas WWI Discharge Records (1917-1919), documenting the service of over 70,000 soldiers, sailors, and Marines.”

USEFUL STUFF

ZDNet: This free app makes journaling so easy that I’ve managed to do it for 3 months. “Diarly has the perfect collection of features, so you don’t feel like it’s missing anything. Neither is the feature list overwhelming. You can install Diarly and immediately start journaling, which is exactly what I did.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: Why don’t people recycle old smartphones?. “For years, environmental activists have proposed a much easier solution: Simply stop buying so many new electronic devices. Refurbish programs have risen in popularity among tech companies, retail giants, and even the U.S. president, while Right to Repair advocates push for laws that will allow more individuals to extend the life of their personal devices. But even amid these trends, the number of participants needs to multiply tenfold to address the growing e-waste problem.”

The Register: Stale gov.uk pages are feeding AI overviews old data and Brits are believing it. “AI overviews from the likes of Google are serving up false summaries of UK government information by drawing on stale GOV.UK pages, according to content designers at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). The problem, senior content designer Giorgio Di Tunno and content operations lead Neil Starr wrote in a GOV.UK blog post, is that outdated pages no longer maintained are now being actively scraped to answer user queries.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

TorrentFreak: Google Uses Cox Ruling to Kill Last Copyright Claim in Textbook Piracy Lawsuit. “Google is trying to put an end to the copyright liability claim in its textbook piracy battle with several academic publishers. In a motion for partial judgment filed in a New York federal court, Google argues that the recent Supreme Court ruling in Cox v. Sony has effectively killed the copyright liability arguments. That is, unless the publishers can prove Google specifically ‘induced’ infringement or built a service ‘tailored’ exclusively for piracy.”

Reuters: New York sues Coinbase and Gemini Titan, calls their prediction markets illegal gambling. “New York’s attorney general sued Coinbase Financial Markets and Gemini Titan on Tuesday, claiming their prediction markets violate state laws against illegal gambling.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Mississippi Free Press: Mississippi’s Air Quality Is Worsening Amid AI Data Center Boom, Report Finds. “Air quality has declined in metropolitan areas across Mississippi, with some counties ranking among the nation’s worst for various pollutants, new research from the American Lung Association shows.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln: More realistic content may reduce social media harms for new moms. “Scrolling through picture-perfect portrayals of motherhood may be doing real harm to moms, but a new study from University of Nebraska–Lincoln media scholar Ciera Kirkpatrick shows a ‘dose of reality’ may mitigate some of the damage.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Verite News: Sidewalk troubles? Meet the vigilante artist on a pothole-beautifying spree. “The Pothole Bandit, who posts their joyful, themed and often strange creations on Instagram to their small but mighty following of 17,000, has been doing DIY roadwork for three years in their hometown of Buffalo, New York. Lately, they have been expanding their practice by taking their work on the road, quite literally, as they have travelled to cities including Portland, Oregon, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama.” Good afternoon, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

IANS: PM Modi says over 20 crore historical records now accessible online through Abhilekh Patal portal . “Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the National Archives of India has created a unique digital database through its dedicated Abhilekh Patal Portal, enabling access to over 20 crore invaluable documents related to India’s history.”

Oxford Mail: Blenheim Palace digitises centuries-old archive collection. “The Blenheim Archives has finished cataloguing and digitising a collection of material never before seen by the public. The project has brought to light more than 200 documents and revealed fresh detail about life in the villages of Wolvercote, Cutteslowe, and Godstow.”

WHYY: There’s a new tool to track how N.J. spends your tax dollars. “The website provides information about state-funded programs and revenue sources, as well as a tool that breaks down state spending and revenue in the current proposed fiscal year 2027 budget. The site also provides information on how much agencies and departments have spent over the past 10 years and an overview of the budget process state lawmakers follow.”

Block Club Chicago: Illinois Launches Online Resources For Households On Federal Food Assistance. “Ahead of an estimated 150,000 Illinois households losing access to federal food assistance on May 1, Illinois launched two websites aimed at providing work, training and volunteer hours to those households. Job Ready IL collects training programs and employment opportunities, while Serve Illinois shares volunteer opportunities.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

HathiTrust: Activating the Collection: HathiTrust’s Strategy for Stewardship and Growth. “At the 2025 Member Meeting in Brief last fall, and briefly at the 2025 Community Week session ‘Building the HathiTrust Collection Through Special Collections,’ we announced a new HathiTrust Collection Strategy. The completion of this strategy was a long time coming, guided by past work and future thinking.”

Mashable: TikTok tests AI Remix option. What it is, how to opt out. . “With remixes on, any public content can be used by its viewers to create digitally generated images, text-based memes, and more. The reveal and lack of notification stirred widespread concern about privacy and consent. Many wondered where the setting came from — and how to turn it off ASAP.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Wall Street Journal: Trump’s crypto luncheon draws ‘superstars.’ But his token hovers near low . This link goes to an MSN-syndicated article and has no paywall. “President Trump feted the biggest holders of his namesake memecoin on Saturday, cheering on a crypto market still fighting through a monthslong slump. In a wide-ranging address from his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump touched on everything from the Iran war and his crypto friendly policies to the future of artificial intelligence and a recent rally in the shares of Intel, the chip maker in which the U.S. government invested.”

BBC: Heated Rivalry, The Housemaid and Fourth Wing: TikTok launches BookTok bestseller list. “From rapid-fire reviews to emotional reactions, creators are shaping reading habits at scale and #BookTok has more than 77 million posts. Now, this influence is being formalised with the launch of the UK’s first official #BookTok bestseller list.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNBC: Musk v. Altman heads to court next week. Here’s what’s at stake. “Jury selection in Musk v. Altman begins Monday in a federal courthouse in Oakland, just over the Bay Bridge from San Francisco, where OpenAI is headquartered. Should he succeed, Musk said, he wants the court to return all ‘ill-gotten gains’ to OpenAI’s nonprofit, not to him personally. He’s also seeking to have Altman and Brockman removed from their roles and to ‘unwind OpenAI’s for-profit conversion and restructuring.'”

Kyiv Independent: EU sanctions Russian cultural figures involved with illegal archaeological excavations in occupied Crimea. “In a move to underscore its commitment to Ukraine’s cultural heritage, the European Union on April 23 included four Russian cultural figures in its 20th sanctions package for their roles in archaeological excavations in occupied Crimea.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Washington Post: Trump ousts National Science Board members. This link is to an MSN-syndicated article and has no paywall. “Multiple scientists who serve on an independent board established to guide the nation’s nearly $9 billion basic science funding agency were terminated from their positions Friday by President Donald Trump.”

CalMatters: Websites break California privacy law at ‘industrial scale,’ survey finds. “A new audit has found that websites across the internet may be failing to abide by California privacy law, ignoring a requirement to not track visitors who set a privacy control.” Good morning, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

Trendwatching: This vibe-coded tool tells dog owners when pavement is too hot for paws. “The tool is simple. Punch in a city or let it detect your location, and Pawmometer pulls real-time weather data to calculate how hot different surfaces are likely to get.”

Oregon Public Broadcasting: Newly-released records detail federal response to Portland ICE protests. “Newly released court documents detail federal officers’ first-hand accounts of protest activity and what led them to use force outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland over the summer and fall.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: Microsoft’s GitHub grounds Copilot account sign-ups amid capacity crunch. “Microsoft’s GitHub has stopped accepting new Copilot individual subscriptions while the code hosting biz figures out how it can meet its service commitments without breaking the bank.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

WION: ‘Dark Web of USS Abraham Lincoln’: Inside ‘AbeWeb,’ the private internet built specifically for the middle of the Ocean. “Explore the classified, air-gapped intranet of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Discover how ‘Digital Abe’ keeps a floating city of 5,000 connected, trained, and lethal without ever touching the public web.”

Straits Times: Outrage in China after streaming site debuts AI actor ‘database’. “China’s equivalent of Netflix, iQIYI, faced backlash on April 20 over a new initiative that facilitates the use of actors’ likenesses in artificially generated dramas and films. More than 100 celebrities have joined a platform to connect with makers of AI-generated content interested in using their image, a senior executive told a conference in Beijing.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Arkansas Advocate: Federal judge blocks reworked Arkansas law restricting minors’ social media. “A federal judge has temporarily blocked an Arkansas law set to take effect Tuesday that would have restricted minors’ social media access. Tech industry trade group NetChoice in January filed a lawsuit challenging Act 900 of 2025, which sought to amend a 2023 law found to be unconstitutional.”

Maryland Matters: Maryland property search tool goes offline after cyber threat. “Maryland’s online property records database has been offline for nearly a week following a cybersecurity breach, according to a statement from the State Department of Assessments and Taxation. State officials believe that compromised systems only included public records that users could already find on the SDAT property search webpage, according to the news release, issued Saturday.”

Tom’s Hardware: Tokyo court rules movie and anime ‘spoiler articles’ are copyright infringement in landmark criminal case — detailed, monetized plot summaries land man in Japanese prison. “In a new landmark ruling, the Tokyo District Court has sentenced 39-year-old Wataru Takeuchi to 1.5 years in prison and imposed a 1 million Yen ($6,300) fine for posting ‘spoiler articles.’ The defendant ran a website that shared detailed plot summaries of movies and anime, often describing the entire story from start to finish. Prosecutors argued these articles were infringing on copyright because of their strenuous detail.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Greater Greener Washington: What we measured, and how, in our indicators map. “Funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Local Data for Equitable Communities program, and technical support from the Urban Institute, has enabled us to produce an interactive choropleth map aggregating 23 indicators — including demographics, housing production, building permits, traffic safety, infrastructure access, and air quality — across a variety of geographies.”

PetaPixel: Antigravity Is Preserving Historical Sites in 3D Using its 360° Drone. “Antigravity has announced Project Eternal, a global initiative unveiled following the International Day for Monuments and Sites, aimed at preserving cultural heritage through advanced imaging and Gaussian Splatting. The project brings together drone technology, panoramic capture systems, and 3D reconstruction tools to create accessible digital archives of historically significant locations.” Good afternoon, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

Wolfram Blog: Checkmate! Dominate the Competition by Learning Game Theory with Wolfram Language. “I am glad to announce the launch of Introduction to Game Theory, a free interactive course that aims to teach computational game theory to anyone. This course gives the computational basis for the many daily, social and human applications of this branch of mathematics.”

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership: SFP and Hilborn Lab launch 8th edition of the Fishery Improvement Projects Database. “Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and the Hilborn Lab at the University of Washington have released the 8th version of the Fishery Improvement Projects Database (FIP-DB), marking another major step forward in providing structured data to help track the evolution, scale, and performance of fishery improvement projects (FIPs) worldwide.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Gizmodo: OpenAI Unveils New Image Generator to Usher in an AI Slop ‘Renaissance’. “OpenAI just unveiled a brand new image generator that it claims can churn out smarter and more precise slop than ever before. ChatGPT Images 2.0 is going to be a ‘renaissance’ in AI image generation, according to an introductory promo ad that ran before OpenAI’s livestream on Tuesday announcing the news.”

Washington Post: Elon Musk’s near-daily online posts about race are turning off some fans. This link goes to a Yahoo-syndicated version of the article with no paywall. “Over the past seven months, 6 percent of Musk’s posts on X, a total of about 850, have been about race, nearly triple the rate for the previous two years. More than half of those posts have used the word ‘white.’ The billionaire has posted on X about race nearly daily – 166 out of 197 days – from last October to mid-April, The Post analysis found.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Tubefilter: Visa’s U.K. “creator card” aims to combat cashflow issues while upping TikTok Live payouts. “Creators based in the U.K. can now take advantage of a banking solution that serves their unique financial needs. Visa has partnered with TikTok to launch a debit card that offers a number of creator-centric perks.”

My MCM: AI-powered statewide 311 approved. “Maryland will use Artificial Intelligence to establish the nation’s first statewide 311 through the bipartisan bill led by State Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-District 17). The bill was approved by the Maryland legislature during the General Assembly session in Annapolis that recently concluded.”

CNBC: Google to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic as search giant spreads its AI bets. “The pact involves an initial $10 billion from Google at Anthropic’s latest valuation of $380 billion. The remaining $30 billion is contingent on certain performance milestones.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNN: US freezes $344 million in cryptocurrency said to be linked to Iran. “The Trump administration has frozen $344 million in cryptocurrency it says was linked to Iran as the United States ratchets up pressure on Tehran. The move, first reported by CNN, comes as shaky diplomatic efforts to reach a deal to end the war continue to stall and the global economy reels from its impact.”

Associated Press: Trump administration vows crackdown on Chinese companies ‘exploiting’ AI models made in U.S.. “The Trump administration is vowing to crack down on foreign tech companies’ exploitation of U.S. artificial intelligence models, singling out China at a time that country is narrowing the gap with the U.S. in the AI race.”

Missouri Independent: Missouri House forges ahead with bill targeting AI deepfakes and youth social media use. “The legislation would require social media companies to implement age verification measures and prohibit them from targeting youth with ‘manipulative or addictive’ design features. It would also make it a felony to share deepfakes.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Politico: UK quietly increases AI emissions forecast 100-fold. “The U.K. government admitted carbon emissions from data centers could be 100 times greater than previously thought, prompting fresh concern from MPs and campaigners over the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence.”

NOTUS: USDA Moves to Shutter Maryland Research Facility. “The Agriculture Department announced plans Thursday to shut down a massive federal research complex in Prince George’s County, Maryland, over the objection of members of Congress. The department will begin decommissioning the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, a 6,500-acre federal research complex that has operated since 1910 and is considered the world’s largest agricultural research facility.” Good morning, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: Largest open dataset of great ape cognition. “A new publication introduces the EVApeCognition Dataset, a major open-access resource designed to advance research into the cognition of great apes. Compiling 262 experimental datasets from 150 scientific publications, the dataset was produced at the Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center in Leipzig, Germany, between 2004 and 2021.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ecosia Blog: 250 Million Trees!. “We’ve built the world’s largest network of local reforestation organizations, 125 organizations and over 200,000 tree planters — supporting livelihoods, local knowledge, and long-term forest stewardship.”

Engadget: LinkedIn’s new Crosscheck feature lets premium subscribers test competing AI models for free. “You can now use LinkedIn to test out some of the latest AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and other companies without having to worry about token limits or paying for an extra subscription. The professional network is experimenting with a new feature that allows people to test AI platforms’ latest offerings within LinkedIn.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: How to Spot AI Audiobooks on Libby. “Library digital lending app Libby says it does not make decisions when it comes to AI-generated content on its platform; rather, the app simply serves to make available to borrowers the content that libraries themselves have purchased. That means if you’re passionate about your stand against AI-generated books and audiobooks, you may want to give your feedback to your local library. And if you want to avoid listening to AI-generated audiobooks from Libby, there’s a simple way to spot them.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Register: Claude Opus 4.7 has turned into an overzealous query cop, devs complain . “Anthropic’s release last week of Opus 4.7 came with stronger safeguards to prevent misuse. Unfortunately, these safeguards have also managed to thwart legitimate use.”

DigitalTrends: AI streaming is going mainstream in China, whether audiences want it or not. “At its annual content showcase in Beijing, founder and CEO Gong Yu announced that iQiyi is pivoting its popular streaming platform into a social media destination built around AI-generated content. Alongside the announcement, the company debuted Nadou Pro, an AI tool, which, according to the company, is capable of handling almost every aspect of filmmaking, from scriptwriting and storyboards to the final video delivery.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ars Technica: Man with @ihackedthegovernment Instagram account tells judge, “I made a mistake”. “A 25-year-old Tennessee man avoided prison time after pleading guilty to accessing government systems with stolen login credentials and boasting of the deed on an Instagram account with the handle, @ihackedthegovernment.”

TechSpot: A $5 Bluetooth tracker hidden in a postcard exposed a warship’s movements. “Journalist Just Vervaart concealed a Bluetooth tracker inside a postcard. He then mailed it to the vessel using publicly available instructions from the Dutch Ministry of Defense, intended to help families send mail to loved ones stationed on the ship. This protocol provided enough details to get the tracker aboard the ship.”

TechCrunch: Mastodon says its flagship server was hit by a DDoS attack. “Mastodon’s flagship server was hit by a distributed denial-of-service attack on Monday, the social networking software maker said, which rendered the instance unusable at times. Much of the site was inaccessible, throwing error messages or displaying a full-screen outage warning.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Creative Commons: Licensing Best Practices for the Sharing of Scientific Data. “Today, we are sharing our newest report, Licensing Best Practices for Sharing Scientific Data. This report builds on our 2023 report Recommended Best Practices for the Better Sharing of Climate Data with the goal of extending the open data practices originally designed for climate data to other disciplines.” Good afternoon, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.

VietnamNet: Vietnam launches upgraded National Database on Legal Documents. “In the coming time, the database is envisioned as a leading digital legal knowledge platform based on five strategic pillars, including full digitalisation of the legal document lifecycle, an interconnected legal data ecosystem, expanded AI use for legal analysis and alerts, a national big data platform on law, and broader digital legal knowledge for society at large.”

RADII: This Creative Studio Released a “Ciggiedex” of Chinese Cigarette Brands. “…spend a few minutes on the site and it clicks: this isn’t really about cigarettes. It’s about documentation, aesthetics, and the growing instinct among young Chinese creators to catalog the overlooked.”

XOXO: Launching XOXO Explore. “Named after what we thought would be a throwaway title for a short-lived GitHub repo, allow us to introduce XOXO Explore. Each festival year now has its own index, featuring the complete lineup of every speaker, performer, artist, and project from that year, along with a detailed (and accurate!) schedule with descriptions, dates, times, and venues meticulously imported from our print attendee guide.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNBC: China’s DeepSeek releases preview of long-awaited V4 model as AI race intensifies. “Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Friday released a preview version of its long-awaited V4 large language model, allowing users to test its new capabilities and features.”

Politico: Trump picked a fight with Anthropic. Now the administration is backing off.. “Just two months after President Donald Trump declared a government-wide blacklist of the tech startup’s AI software, cybersecurity worries tied to the company’s powerful new Mythos model have both sides searching for a ceasefire, according to six tech lobbyists and policy experts, including two with ties to the White House.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Tubefilter: deviantART says artists made $23 million on its platform last year, boasts that it was “100% right” to embrace generative AI. “Will we see deviantART be a creator economy force alongside YouTube and TikTok in 2026? Thousands of artists are looking for a new home platform after X’s descent into Grokland–but will they be willing to make money on a website that is still doggedly pro-AI?”

The Verge: The Iranian women Trump ‘saved’ from execution are simultaneously real and AI-manipulated. “The collage that Trump posted is, at the very least, AI-modified, Mahsa Alimardani, the associate director of the Technology Threats & Opportunities program at WITNESS, told The Verge. But the women themselves are real.”

TechCrunch: Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles exit OpenAI as company continues to shed ‘side quests’. “OpenAI is losing two of the architects of its most ambitious moonshots. Kevin Weil, who led the company’s science research initiative, and Bill Peebles, the researcher behind AI video tool Sora, both announced their departures on Friday.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: US soldier charged with using classified intel to win $400K Polymarket bet on Maduro raid. “A U.S. special forces soldier involved in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than $400,000 in an online betting market, federal officials announced Thursday.”

Reuters: Brazil regulator approves deeper probe into Google’s news content use. “Brazil’s antitrust watchdog CADE approved on Thursday a recommendation to deepen ​investigations into the use of journalistic content ‌by Alphabet’s Google, which would assess potential abuse of the company’s dominant market position.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Stars and Stripes: Ombudsman column: The Pentagon is trying to silence me. “No one should be surprised that they’re kicking out the one person charged by Congress with protecting Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence. For nearly a year, Pentagon leadership has placed more and more restrictions on the mainstream media. The New York Times sued and when the Defense/War Department lost in court, instead of following the judge’s ruling Secretary Hegseth and company pivoted, finding another way to restrict journalists. The judge rejected that attempt, too.”

PsyPost: Disclosing autism to AI chatbots prompts overly cautious, stereotypical advice. “When autistic people ask artificial intelligence programs for life advice, mentioning their diagnosis prompts these systems to recommend highly conservative choices like skipping social events or avoiding romance. This shift in advice reveals a hidden tension where the technology relies heavily on stereotypes, leaving users torn between feeling safely supported and frustratingly infantilized.” Good morning, Internet…

This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t! Help me afford new socks and fancier bean stew by supporting ResearchBuzz on Patreon. Not interested in commitment? Perhaps you’d buy me an iced tea. Don’t have any money but still want to support? I know how that feels. Share this newsletter or tell a friend about it. I live at Calishat. See my other nonsense at SearchTweaks, RSS Gizmos, Local Search America, WikiTwister, and MiniGladys.