Arch Daily: aflalo/gasperini arquitetos launches a free digital archive of its most iconic works. “Bringing together some of the firm’s most iconic projects developed between 1955 and the present day, the archive offers free access to technical drawings, sketches, design statements, and photographs of works such as the Galeria Metrópole in São Paulo, the proposal for the international competition for the Peugeot building in Buenos Aires, the Claudio Santoro Auditorium in Campos do Jordão, and the Citicorp Center in São Paulo.”

FYIVT: Vermont Just Got Its Own Search Engine — And It Reads the Documents Google Can’t. “The FYIVT Finder currently indexes more than 90,000 documents (and growing as you read this). That includes every Vermont bill dating back to 2010, searchable by subject rather than only by bill number. It includes more than 45,000 legislative committee documents — testimony, amendments, reports and fiscal notes — stretching back through the 2019 session.”

Ohio History Connection: Listen, Watch and Connect with LGBTQ+ History. “In 2025, the Ohio History Connection (OHC) was awarded a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to preserve fragile magnetic media – U-Matic, VHS, audio cassettes and 3/4″ audiotape – that were reaching the end of their lifespan. The grant made it possible to work with Scene Savers to digitize material from seven LGBTQ+ collections, documenting 35 years of Ohio’s gay history from 1968-2003. I’m excited to share that our processing is complete, and these amazing materials are now available to view in our online catalog for the very first time.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

UA News: YouTube Has Blocked Another 25 Channels Spreading Russian Propaganda — CPD. “YouTube has blocked or completely removed another 25 channels from its platform that are linked to Russian propaganda and the information war against Ukraine. Among them are channels run by sanctioned individuals, Kremlin-affiliated media outlets, and organizations that spread disinformation and justified Russia’s aggression.”

Cord Cutters News: Google Just Added Over 60 Free Live TV Channels to Google Freeplay on Google TV Streaming Devices. “In a significant boost to its free streaming offerings, Google has expanded Google TV Freeplay by adding more than 60 new free live TV channels. The service, which previously stood at around 250 channels, now provides access to 316 live channels at no cost to users.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Spectrum Local News: Student journalists create oral archive after Texas Hill Country floods. “From Texas to California, recent natural disasters have taken a toll on communities. As recovery continues, teens are documenting people’s stories. ‘These kids have come from all over our country and our state, just to help change the story here,’ said student journalist Hayden Magnell. She attends Tivy High School in Kerrville, one of the hardest-hit areas from last July’s floods.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

The Baltimore Banner: You’ve been served — on TikTok. Baltimore teacher uses social media to sue right-wing influencer.. “Baltimore County Circuit Judge Ralph Sapia signed an order on June 23 that allowed [Alexa] Sciuto’s attorneys to serve [Libs of TikTok founder Chaya] Raichik by posting at least once per week on TikTok, and tagging @LibsOfTikTok, for three consecutive weeks. They were also required to mail a legal notice to several addresses and publish it in a local newspaper.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Vaccine mis‑ and disinformation isn’t just a threat to public health, but also to our autonomy. “Autonomy, broadly, is the ability to make choices in life that align with who we are, and our own personal beliefs and values. It is the foundation for informed consent and thus a central aspect of ethical vaccine policies and programs. But genuine autonomy depends on the information we are exposed to and have access to, and that helps shape our beliefs. When we are exposed to mis- and disinformation, it becomes difficult to be truly autonomous.”

University of Waterloo: GeoSafe empowers communities to plan for a changing climate. “Drawing on more than 18 years of experience in civil and environmental engineering, geospatial technologies and infrastructure resilience, Shwan developed GeoSafe, a user-friendly platform that helps property owners, municipalities, engineers, planners, insurers and developers better understand climate-related risks early and make more informed decisions about the land they own, develop and manage.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

The Register: Cassette simulator rewinds digital audio to a more analog time in hiss-tory. “If you have wistful longings for the days when your songs carried the subtle hiss of the cassettes you listened to, we have some reel good news. A new project takes modern music back to the analog era. The project, available on GitHub, is called ‘Audio Cassette Simulation’ and uses FFmpeg to transcode audio files to get that ‘wish I’d bought some decent tapes instead of the superstore’s own-brand’ sound.” 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.

PR Newswire: New Online Resource Hub Empowers Gallbladder Cancer Patients and Caregivers with Critical Guidance and Support (PRESS RELEASE). “Facing a rare and aggressive diagnosis like gallbladder cancer can leave patients and families feeling overwhelmed and isolated. To bridge this critical gap, the Gallbladder Cancer Foundation has expanded its digital portal to provide comprehensive support at every stage of the journey—from initial diagnosis through treatment, caregiving, and loss.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Guardian: Andrew and Tristan Tate to remain in jail until next extradition hearing. “US magistrate Lauren Louis set a detention hearing for 13 August to determine whether the Tates should stay in jail or be released during what could be a months-long extradition process.”

TechCrunch: Snapchat now lets you share what you’re listening to in real time. “Snapchat is now letting users share the music they’re listening to in real time via a new feature in Snap Map, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: The Breakup Loop: Why the TikTok Algorithm May Keep You Heartbroken. This link goes to a gift article. “As social media companies face increasing scrutiny over addictive design features and accusations that their algorithms can feed users harmful content, mental health advocates are pointing to the platforms’ handling of breakup content as a stark example of their failure to protect users. Steering people who have exited a relationship toward a never-ending well of breakup content, which could increase engagement by trapping them in a state of rumination and grief, can have severe consequences for their mental health and raises a host of thorny ethical questions, experts say.”

University of Hawaii: Windward CC student launches online home for traditional Hawaiian kōnane. “Andrew ‘Keahi’ Castro, a Windward Community College student, has created Likōnane, a free online platform dedicated to the Hawaiian strategy game kōnane, which was traditionally played with black and white stones. … Using his background in mathematics and statistics, Castro spent years building Likōnane. The platform features live multiplayer games, tournaments, puzzles and an artificial intelligence opponent named Lopako. Unlike many gaming sites, it is completely free and ad-free.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

NBC News: Influencer killed by husband, police say, after she accused him of pedophilia on TikTok. “Sara Gilson was fatally shot Thursday in Owasso, Oklahoma, by husband Jeremiah Duffey, who went by Shawn Duffey on social media, according to the Owasso Police Department. She was 43. A little over a month earlier, on June 10, she filed and was granted an emergency protective order against Duffey after police informed her he’d been accused the day prior of molesting a minor.”

Reuters: UK lawmaker suing Musk’s xAI seeks order to stop Grok generating sexualised images. “Jess Asato, a member of Britain’s governing Labour Party, said last month that users created fake images of her, including a video of her ‘being chloroformed and prepared for a ​sexual assault’, after she publicly criticised Musk and Grok. She has filed a lawsuit at London’s High Court for ​misuse of private information and breach of data protection laws and alleges the way Grok was ⁠designed and trained enabled it to generate sexualised content.”

Variety: Massive Tribeca Fest Data Leak Exposes Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro and More Celebs’ Contact Info; Meet the Man Who Discovered the Files. “The Tribeca Festival suffered a data leak that exposed hundreds of thousands of records, as well as the contact information for thousands of celebrities, including Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie and festival co-founder Robert De Niro.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Rijksmuseum: Rijksmuseum launches new research into underrepresented histories with support from Baker McKenzie. “The Rijksmuseum will conduct new research into historically underrepresented subjects, including queer history. The museum’s collection, which spans from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, forms the basis for this work. The Rijksmuseum carries out research to gain new insights, tell more complete stories and share them with the world.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

I know I’m putting way too many things in this section today, but it’s not my fault I’m finding good stuff. Portland Press Herald: Portland’s Umbrella Cover Museum turns 30. “Nancy 3. Hoffman thinks her Umbrella Cover Museum has survived and thrived all these years because “people love and need whimsy and surprise.” The walls and ceiling of the small space on Peaks Island are covered with the little sock-like sleeves that come with new umbrellas. Most people throw them away or lose them, but Hoffman has collected more than 2,500. She entertains visitors by playing her accordion and recounting stories about how each little lost cover found its home with her.”

Hackaday: Taking Tri-Camera True-Color Infrared Videos. “Silicon-based CMOS camera sensors are cheap and plentiful, but they’re rarely used to their full potential: they can detect a greater range of wavelengths in the infrared spectrum than they can in the visible spectrum, but in most cameras this is blocked by an IR-cut filter. [Project 326]’s infrared camera system reverses this: it records infrared images in color while blocking out visible light.”

NJ.com: You can now watch Lucy the Elephant 24/7 — just in time for her 145th birthday. “Lucy the Elephant has watched over the Jersey Shore for 145 years. Now you can watch her right back. The six-story wooden pachyderm, a National Historic Landmark and the oldest roadside attraction in America, is now the star of a round-the-clock live stream. The feed lets fans watch the Margate icon from anywhere in the world.” 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.

Politico: Emails show how Virginia regulators downplayed data center health concerns. “When Virginia’s top environmental regulator received an analysis warning of data center pollution, it took him less than five minutes to forward it to seven people on his staff. The Piedmont Environmental Council had sent the report to Michael Rolband as a courtesy two days before publicizing it in March. It ignited a scramble within the agency to poke holes in the analysis, which raised concerns about the health effects of an AI facility that stands at the vanguard of the state’s fastest-growing industry.”

ZDNet: 250 Eiffel Towers’ worth of waste: The AI boom’s toxic hardware problem. “Discarded electronics are the fastest-growing category of waste, and humans are on track to produce 82 million metric tons annually by 2030. But as the AI boom brings with it a wave of data centers packed with chips, servers, networking gear, storage devices, cables, and more, researchers estimate the turnover of all that hardware could generate about 2.5 million metric tons each year, according to a June report from the United Nations University. That’s the equivalent of 250 Eiffel Towers.”

ANTI-AI SENTIMENT

TechCrunch: Librarians are hosting viral ‘Avoiding AI’ workshops for people who are fed up with Big Tech. “AI naysayers know that this technology is far broader than just chatbots and deepfake apps. [Hannah] Cyrus mentioned how useful optical character recognition is for scanning old documents at the library. But for her and the people who go to her workshops, the anti-AI movement isn’t about rejecting technology altogether so much as it is about advocating for more control, agency, and freedom in how people use technology.”

Missoula Current: In Oregon suburb, data center boom spurs protests, lawsuit. “When the Shute-Meierjurgen Farmstead was built outside Hillsboro in the 1880s, it looked out over 600 acres of pastures and orchards. Today, fewer than four acres remain. The Queen Anne-style farmhouse and its big red barn are now hemmed in on all sides by data centers and warehouses.”

Gizmodo: Someone Was Arrested at a Public Meeting For the Crime of Anti-Data Center Clapping. “Let’s get this out of the way: the teacher in question, 37-year-old Lux Claridge, was warned. The whole room was warned before this happened—warned not to clap, which is an expression of approval…. For what it’s worth, a blog post on the First Amendment Coalition website questions whether a public meeting can even deem clapping to be a disruptive act and set an enforceable rule against it.”

DATA CENTERS

WXYZ: Neighbors say noise from Michigan data center is 24/7 and upending their lives. “Lindy Valenzuela and Marjorie & Billy Finn are neighbors who all live directly across the street from a data center in Dowagiac, Michigan. The data center is known by residents as ‘Hyperscale Data.’ It is owned by Alliance Cloud Services LLC, a company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. They say that for the past couple of years, it has been emitting a high-pitched sound, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

AI IN EDUCATION

Financial Times: Universities drop AI detection tools over fears about accuracy . “Universities, determined to maintain integrity following the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, have turned to applications with AI-detection features such as GPTZero, Copyleaks and Turnitin. The tools analyse features such as text structure and rhythm to identify non-human patterns, but their reliability — specifically regarding false positives and bias — is under fire.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

Toronto Star: This politician made an embarrassing blunder. The reaction from the masses gives me hope. “I was pleasantly surprised to see all these negative reactions to Oliver outsourcing his role to a robot. They expose, I think, a growing divide in our society: between the elites, who are only too happy to delegate their duties to the Borg; and the masses, who find this objectionable. The latter camp is correct — and the elites should take heed.”

Spotlight Delaware: ‘Beyond the Headlines’: How Delaware is responding to the data center boom. “After several months, we’re pleased to have Olivia Marble back on the podcast to discuss data centers and Delaware’s energy market. A lot has happened on that front in recent months. Olivia recently wrote an article summarizing the Delaware General Assembly’s efforts this year to legislate around data centers and energy. We’ll talk about that, as well as how the governor and Delaware’s counties are wrestling with these issues.”

AI IN WORK

Hollywood Reporter: QVC Hosts Vote to Unionize Amid Concerns Over Generative AI. “During the election, 37 hosts voted to join the national performers’ union while nine voted against, resulting in about 80 percent support. All full-time and part-time QVC and HSN hosts employed at the company’s West Chester, Pennsylvania headquarters, working across linear television as well as livestream and shortform programming, were eligible to participate.”

Phantasmag: Guillermo del Toro Says “Absolutely No Goddamn AI” Was Used in Pan’s Labyrinth 4K Re-Release: “We Are Protecting a Lineage of Art”. “Guillermo del Toro has emphatically declared that ‘absolutely no goddamn AI’ was used in the upcoming 4K and 3D re-release of Pan’s Labyrinth. ‘It’s more expensive — I don’t care,’ he said to applause at San Diego Comic-Con. “What we’re protecting is the beauty and the redeeming power of art,” he elaborated.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

New York Times: Silicon Valley Splits Over Closing the Borders to Chinese A.I.. This link goes to a gift article. “On one side are leading A.I. companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, which claim that some A.I. models are too dangerous to be developed in the open and must be tightly controlled — by businesses like themselves — for safety. On the other is the rest of the tech industry, including giants like Microsoft and Nvidia, which contend that so-called open-source A.I. models must remain open for people to further develop technologies and build new businesses. Those camps have started publicly clashing.”

Search Engine Journal: X Live-Tweets Its Fight Against Chatbot Spam In Real-Time. “Nikita Bier, head of product at X (formerly known as Twitter) posted a series of extraordinary tweets about spam on Twitter, explaining the motivation of some of the spammers, they described types of spam and mentioned that some spammers were using Grok to auto-post spam responses at scale. Nikita Bier spent 24 hours tweeting anti-spam actions in real time, revealing details about how how automated and fast-paced AI-assisted platform spamming has become.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Indian court says OpenAI did not violate news agency ANI’s copyright. “An Indian court said on Friday that ​OpenAI’s use of news agency ANI’s content ‌to train its ChatGPT service did not amount to copyright infringement. The remarks are the first substantive ​court finding in India on whether ​AI companies can train large language models ⁠on copyrighted news content without a licence, ​a question being litigated in similar suits against ​OpenAI in the United States and Canada.”

Tokyo Reporter: AI fortunetelling scammers fleecing victims of up to ¥500,000 for fake exorcisms. “A post-pandemic surge in loneliness and social anxiety has swollen Japan’s fortunetelling market to a staggering 1-trillion-yen industry. But behind this ‘Reiwa-era fortune-telling boom,’ malicious operators are increasingly weaponizing Artificial Intelligence to empty the wallets of vulnerable victims.” 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.

Discovered via BoingBoing: Book Corners. “A community-driven directory of little free libraries — those small book exchange spots found in public spaces where you can leave or take a book for free. Book Corners lets anyone discover nearby little free libraries on an interactive map, submit new ones with photo and location, and report issues to keep the directory accurate. Live site: bookcorners.org API docs: developers.bookcorners.org”.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Calishat: Adding Two New Tools to SearchTweaks.com. “I don’t know about y’all but I am having my usual wild Friday night working on my search tools. I’ve just added two new tools to SearchTweaks.com; if you do any local news searching I think you’ll really like at least one of them. Like all of the site they are free to use and free of ads….SearchTweaks is a collection of 19 tools for better search, divided into four categories: Query Builders (100% AI-free!), News-Related Search, Time-Related Search, and Search Utilities.”

Associated Press: Trump says the US will investigate EU trade practices, claiming the bloc unfairly fined tech giants. “The United States will open a formal investigation into the European Union’s trade practices, President Donald Trump said on Friday, claiming the bloc has unfairly levied billions of dollars of fines against Google, Apple and other U.S. tech giants.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: The federal government is erasing bike lanes — from its websites. “Transportation employees, including those working for the Federal Highway Administration, have been ordered to find and even remove mentions of bikes, bike lanes, and bike safety from online pages, an investigation by NPR found. In the last week, dozens of safety pages have been taken down or edited to remove public access to resources, the publication reported, such as the Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool.”

Bloomberg: India’s Modi adopts Meta Platforms’ Reels amid Instagram-fueled student unrest. “As student protests spread across India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned to Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram Reels, swapping his trademark cinematic videos for raw, self-recorded messages aimed at the country’s youth. The 75-year-old posted two selfie videos on Instagram in as many days.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNBC: Google slapped with $1 billion fine under landmark EU digital law. “European regulators have fined Google 890 million euros (US$1 billion), alleging the company gives preferential treatment to its own services. The fine is Google’s first under the European Union’s sweeping Digital Markets Act which aims to scrutinize Big Tech’s operating practices in Europe.”

Future of Privacy Forum: FPF Releases New Issue Brief on U.S. “Data Broker” Regulatory Landscape. “To help make sense of this rapidly evolving regulatory space, FPF is releasing a new issue brief, The Boundaries of Data Brokerage: An Overview of the U.S. Regulatory Landscape. This issue brief provides an overview of the emerging regulatory landscape—focusing on recently enacted state and federal laws that specifically regulate the data broker industry—as well as key considerations for policymakers and industry actors.”

Radio New Zealand: Google alert for Taumarunui quake sounded like ‘bell on the Titanic’. “Civil Defence says some people received an alert on their cellphone during Saturday morning’s Taumarunui earthquake while others did not because of the way Google works.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

CSUN: Efforts to Re-Write History Fail Because Truth is Found in the Chronicling of Everyday Life, Says CSUN Archivist. “There’s an old axiom that ‘history is written by the victors.’ To that end, there have often been efforts over the years by those in power to re-write historical markers or erase memorials that contradict their versions of history. California State University, Northridge archivist Keith Rice, a historian with the university’s Tom & Ethel Bradley Center, said those efforts always fail in the end.”

ABC News (Australia): Archivists race to save Papua New Guinea’s film collection from climate damage. “Work is underway to preserve Papua New Guinea’s collection of more than 1,300 film reels and tapes, stored at its small National Film Institute in Goroka, before climate change causes permanent damage. Humid conditions and a history of flooding have created a far-from-ideal environment for maintaining a fragile film collection.”

New York Times: Trump Orders Warnings Placed at ‘Inaccurate’ Smithsonian History Museum. This link goes to a gift article. “President Trump on Friday ordered warning signs and exhibits installed outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to alert the public that the museum does not, in his view, accurately reflect American history.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Hackaday: Taking Tri-Camera True-Color Infrared Videos. “Silicon-based CMOS camera sensors are cheap and plentiful, but they’re rarely used to their full potential: they can detect a greater range of wavelengths in the infrared spectrum than they can in the visible spectrum, but in most cameras this is blocked by an IR-cut filter. [Project 326]’s infrared camera system reverses this: it records infrared images in color while blocking out visible light.” 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.

Kansas Reflector: New dashboard tracks Kansas Affordable Care Act enrollment by legislative district, county. “A new dashboard tracks the number of Kansans enrolled in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, offering data for legislators and others to understand the effects of policy changes, a health organization said.”

Border Telegraph: Over 100 tales of the River Tweed collected for new archive. “More than 100 personal stories have now been gathered as part of the Tweed Stories project, which is part of the broader Destination Tweed initiative. The project aims to gather and preserve memories, histories, and legends connected to the river, creating a lasting archive for future generations.”

USEFUL STUFF

Maps Mania: Free Map Tiles for Everyone. “One of the biggest barriers to building web maps has always been the cost and complexity of map tiles. Services such as Google Maps and Mapbox offer excellent infrastructure, but commercial pricing can quickly become prohibitive as projects grow. Self-hosting OpenStreetMap vector tiles is an alternative, but maintaining a global tile server yourself is far from trivial. Fortunately, there is now a small but growing number of services trying to make high-quality OpenStreetMap-derived vector tiles freely accessible.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

New York Times: What Happened When Meta Used A.I. to Ban Accounts on Facebook and Instagram. This link goes to a gift article. “What happened to the Hansons was a case of artificial intelligence gone wrong. The technology is increasingly responsible for deciding which accounts broke Meta’s content rules while also managing the appeals for those decisions. Adding to people’s distress, it is often difficult for users like the Hansons to reach anybody at the company to figure out what to do.”

Manchester’s Finest: Queer Up North archive and events celebrate Manchester festival’s legacy. “The history of Manchester’s influential Queer Up North festival is being preserved through a new digital archive and a programme of exhibitions, talks, screenings and performances. Produced with Manchester Histories, the heritage project explores the festival’s first decade, from 1992 to 2002, and has been supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Granada Foundation.” The archive does not launch until October, which is why this is in “Around” instead of “New”.

MS NOW: Secret paid influencer campaign backing Stevens floods Michigan Senate race. “Secret influencer campaigns have been a hallmark of this election cycle. In California, creators were paid to post favorably about Tom Steyer’s gubernatorial campaign — some with disclosures, others without, drawing a state ethics complaint. In Illinois, a dark money group paid influencers to attack congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh in the final days before her primary. Democratic donors have poured tens of millions into building creator networks, including efforts like Project Bullhorn and Chorus, that operate largely without transparency.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: TikTok US chief security officer to testify before US House on September 15. “TikTok U.S. chief security officer Will Farrell will testify before ‌a U.S. House committee on September 15, according ‌to a Congressional aide.”

VN Express International: Vietnam proposes banning under-16s from posting, commenting on social media as Meta, TikTok object. “Vietnam is proposing to bar children under 16 from posting, commenting, sharing or reacting on social media, leaving them able only to view content, under a draft amendment to a decree on internet management.”

Courthouse News Service: X ordered to turn over deleted posts in defamation case against Media Matters. “X claims Media Matters intentionally manipulated the platform’s algorithms in order to get ads to appear alongside extremist content and falsely presented that as what an average user experiences on X. As part of its defense, Media Matters sought copies of posts from around fifteen users whose content was discussed in its reports that have since been deleted by the platform or by the users themselves.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

UC Riverside: New tool identifies the sources of fake videos. “…a computer science team led by researchers at UC Riverside has developed a tool that moves beyond simply identifying whether a video is fake. It also determines which AI system created it. The new framework identifies visual patterns within fake video frames that were unintentionally introduced by AI video generators, providing a forensic path to identifying the systems that created the videos.”

Spudart: Deciphering the Matrix Digital Rain. “…if it’s not secretly a recipe for spicy tuna rolls, what is on the screen? I decided to find out the dumbest, most 2026 way possible. I ran it through Google Translate. It’s kind of fun to point today’s ‘instantly understand any language’ technology at a 27-year-old movie prop and just see what happens.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

Yale Engineering: A cheaper, sustainable alternative to carbon fiber. “Researchers in the lab of Professor Liangbing Hu … have found a way to upgrade cheaper material into something comparable to carbon fibers. And in doing so, they managed to put the greenhouse gas methane to good use, as well as produce hydrogen as a clean side product.” 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.

National Library of Medicine: 250 Years of American Medicine, a new NLM History of Medicine digital gallery. “Announced earlier this month, NLM History of Medicine unveiled its most recent project, 250 Years of American Medicine. This digital gallery includes a variety of materials that include manuscripts, audiovisuals, images, texts, and born-digital objects. This collection is made up of one item that was published or created in the United States for each year since 1776 to reflect how medicine has changed in the United States over the last 250 years.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Marine Technology News: New Google Transatlantic Cable Connects Portugal with the US. “Alphabet’s Google has successfully connected a new transatlantic subsea cable to Sines in Portugal, it said on Tuesday, adding another U.S.-Europe data route as demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services surges.”

Search Engine Roundtable: Large Publishers Strongly Considering Blocking Google Search Completely. “Several large publishers are strongly considering blocking Google Search entirely after clicks from Google Search have continued to decline, and the exchange of value in having Google consume its content is no longer translating into enough clicks from Google Search.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Chytomo: Slovenia unveils portal for publishers and digital preservation. “Slovenia’s National and University Library, known as NUK, presented eKnjiga, a digital environment that brings together key publishing procedures and supports the long-term preservation of the country’s written heritage.”

University of Pittsburgh: The University Library System is helping to digitize a rare East African archive. “The University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) is working with two Kenyan librarians this summer to digitize centuries-old records documenting slavery and emancipation in East Africa.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: EU finds TikTok violates its digital rule book by failing to protect privacy of minors. “The European Commission on Friday said it found TikTok had not adequately protected children’s privacy rights on its platform by allowing adults to view the accounts of minors. The action exposed children to cyberbullying, unwanted contact and predatory behavior, commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said.”

Mother Jones: Every Time the Tates Get Arrested, Their Media Empire Kicks Into Gear. “The infrastructure they’ve created to build their wealth also snaps into action each time they face legal trouble. Using a network of monetized X accounts, some newly-launched Substacks, and referring continually back to the products they sell—along with conversations and relationships with other so-called masculinity influencers and vloggers like Neel—the Tates manage to use their legal troubles to further bolster their infamy and as vehicles for continuing to build their wealth.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Music Network: APRA AMCOS and NFSA Launch The National Songbook. “APRA AMCOS and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia have launched The National Songbook, a new annual initiative designed to formally recognise the songs and scores that have helped shape Australia’s cultural identity. Established as APRA celebrates its centenary and the NFSA marks its 90th anniversary, The National Songbook will combine industry recognition with long-term cultural preservation.”

Union of Orthodox Journalists: AR model to recreate UOC monastery and hetmans’ burial vault in Sumy region. “An augmented reality model will recreate the UOC’s Hamaliivka Monastery, while Orthodox churches in Hlukhiv, Poloshky, Voronezh, and other communities will also be digitized.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

University of Copenhagen: DNA vacuum reveals local wildlife in Danish nature. “Researchers have developed a DNA vacuum that can suck genetic traces from animals out of the air and reveal which animals live in an area. In two new studies, the researchers collect air samples in three natural areas in Denmark and show that the method can be used to map local wildlife. This brings them a major step closer to better monitoring of biodiversity using DNA from air.” 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.

University of Waterloo: Hidden risks in AI data centres spark new battery safety research. “As artificial intelligence (AI) drives a global surge in data centres in Canada and around the world, a less visible but increasingly urgent challenge is growing alongside it. Researchers are beginning to investigate ways to manage the risks posed by the lithium-ion batteries that keep those facilities running.”

Poynter: A hyperlocal news page falls victim to Facebook’s AI. “Like many large technology platforms, Facebook now relies heavily on automated AI systems to detect accounts and pages it believes violate its policies. On July 11, it shut down The Bloomingtonian page, telling the publisher/editor/reporter Jeremy Hogan ‘the Page, or activity on it, may misuse our platform to pretend to be a local or domestic voice.’ In other words, Facebook’s automated system appeared to conclude that an actual local news organization was impersonating one.”

ANTI-AI SENTIMENT

Associated Press: Democrats seize on AI data center backlash that’s dividing rural Republicans in places like Texas. “People don’t like the secrecy surrounding the projects or the prospect of air, noise, water and light pollution. They fear electric bills going up, wells going dry and losing open space, farmland or forest. Now the ripple effects have spread to top-of-the-ticket races, where incumbents and challengers are trying to show that they hear an angry electorate.”

DATA CENTERS

Engadget: Meta has pulled out of a renewable energy initiative as it relies more on natural gas for data centers . “A decade ago, Meta joined RE100, a major renewable energy initiative aimed at helping large corporations transition to renewable electricity. Now, the company has pulled out of the group as it increasingly relies on natural gas for its AI data centers.”

Commonwealth Beacon: A proposed moratorium on data centers hits resistance in Mass. Senate. “Though both the House and Gov. Maura Healey would have had to approve the provision for it to become law, Senate passage of the moratorium would have ushered in intense discussion over the potential for a major potential policy shift on what has quickly become a hot-button issue around the country. But the proposal ended in a whimper, crashing out as just one of nearly 600 amendments the chamber considered as part of the larger bill.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

CNBC: U.S., other nations back open-source AI with ‘strong security’ at China summit. “Governments increasingly want to control artificial intelligence, as companies release more powerful open-source models, a new multilateral statement indicates.”

Federal News Network: Congress ramps up scrutiny of Pentagon AI data center plans. “A provision that would bar the Defense Department from leasing its land to private companies to build data centers that contain components manufactured by U.S. adversaries is making its way through Congress. If enacted, the measure could complicate the department’s future modernization efforts.”

AI LEGISLATION

Hawaii News Now: Experts praise Hawaii’s new laws on abusive use of generative AI. “If a generative artificial intelligence deepfake damages your reputation and is one created without your permission, you can now take civil action against the person who made it. That’s in one of the new laws signed by Gov. Josh Green this week. It prohibits harmful uses of deepfake images or videos and creates ways for victims to be compensated, up to $25,000 for each piece of content.”

Ironton Tribune: Ohio data center amendment misses 2026 ballot as lawmaker eyes petition limits. “Ohio voters will not get a chance to weigh in on a proposed constitutional amendment targeting data centers this November. Conserve Ohio, the group behind the effort, has announced it will continue gathering signatures and instead aim for the 2027 general election ballot.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

ZDNet: Claude Opus 5 arrives with near Fable performance at half the price. “Anthropic’s latest Claude upgrade targets developers and enterprises with stronger coding, better reasoning efficiency, prompt-cache-friendly tool changes, and near-Fable performance at Opus pricing.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Its AI agent spent days hacking a company, but sources say OpenAI did not notice for a week. “The OpenAI agent that broke into tech firm Hugging Face went on a dayslong hacking spree that OpenAI didn’t notice until well after the threat was contained and the FBI was alerted, according ​to people familiar with the investigation.”

The Register: GitHub slashes public bug bounty payouts as AI report flood buries its security team. “Starting July 27, the Microsoft-owned code forge is overhauling its bug bounty program with a two-tier system that cuts rewards for public submissions while dangling much fatter payouts to a new invite-only group of researchers with proven track records.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Map Room: Gatekeepers, Luddites, Haters and AI-Generated Maps. “In the 23 years I’ve been blogging about maps, I’ve made no bones about the fact that I’m not a mapmaker. I have no cartographic skills whatsoever. I’d dearly love to be able to make maps of my own, and I’m deeply envious of people who have that skill. You’d think that an AI mapmaking tool would be a dream come true for me. But you’d be wrong: I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.”

ZDNet: AI image fraud will cost $40 billion next year – can these international standards help?. “International standards bodies are stepping up efforts to help provide the tools that end users and companies need to distinguish real images, videos, and other content from deepfakes and AI-generated slop. New standards were recently announced at the AI for Good conference hosted in Geneva under the auspices of the UN.”

University of North Carolina: AI makes it easier to explore fish files. “[Chris] Bizon and his team are trying to develop an agent using a multimodal large language model — AI that can process multiple types of data like text, images, audio and video at once — to transcribe these handwritten notes and infer the latitude and longitude for where each specimen was discovered.” 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.

PR Newswire: New Digital Archive Celebrates the Life and Legacy of Broadway Legend, Two-Time Tony Award Winner Helen Gallagher, To Mark Her 100th Birthday (PRESS RELEASE). “To celebrate the life and legacy of Helen Gallagher, star of Broadway’s golden age and daytime television’s Ryan’s Hope, a new digital archive is now live, the most complete public record of her career, at helengallagher.org.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Euronews: EU temporarily extends controversial chat-scanning regime until 2028. “EU countries have adopted a temporary regime allowing messaging services to voluntarily detect child sexual abuse material until 2028. End-to-end encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal remain exempt.”

USEFUL STUFF

PetaPixel: A Videographer Built a Free App That Tells You When a Memory Card Is Safe to Wipe. “The software is simple to use. Once the card is inserted into the card reader or camera connected to the computer, users select two drives (typically a working drive and a backup) and then the card is dumped to both sources at once. Stow then checks both copies of every file to ensure they are uncorrupted and fully intact. Once that’s done, the app says when the card is safe to wipe. Easy peasy.”

Spotted in my Snaps: scrapemychats. This link goes to a GitHub page. “ChatGPT’s business and Team accounts often have no ‘Export data’ button — the one-click archive that personal accounts get is simply missing, and there’s no official way to take your conversation history with you when the workspace is closed or your subscription is cancelled. scrapemychats fills that gap: it exports every conversation — text and attached files — to your own computer, then builds a beautiful, searchable, offline archive you can keep forever. (It works on personal accounts too.) Your data never leaves your machine. The tool drives a real Chrome window on your computer using your own logged-in ChatGPT session. It never sees your password, and nothing is sent anywhere except to chatgpt.com itself.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Bloomberg: Influencers Are Being Paid to Spread the Mormon Church’s Gospel. This link goes to gift article. “For decades, the Mormon Church has been sending its members on missions to the far corners of the world in search of new converts. But recently, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has zeroed in on a recruiting milieu that’s more easily accessible, if often riddled with hazards — namely, the wilds of social media. Now, the Mormon influencers are moving in.”

Hollywood Reporter: Creator U: Inside the Influencer Frat. “Each semester, USC Reach receives more than 100 applications for roughly 20 to 30 open spots. The competition reflects the club’s growing influence. Founded in 2017 by a group of USC students including Markian Benhamou and Xavier Di Petta, the club has become equal parts creator incubator and networking accelerator, giving students a place to collaborate while experimenting with different content styles, niches and platforms.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Illinois man sentenced for hacking Snapchat accounts to steal nude photos. “Kyle Svara, 27, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston to 76 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges arising out of an earlier prosecution of a ​former Northeastern University track-and-field coach who paid him to hack the accounts of ​student athletes and other women.”

Ars Technica: Forgot your Google password? Now you can log in with a selfie.. “Getting locked out of an account is no fun. Google has a few ways to help you regain access if you happen to forget your password or lose an authenticator, including recovery contacts and backup codes. Now, Google has a completely new option: your face.”

Knoxville News-Sentinel: Why the University of Tennessee is suing Claude AI creator Anthropic. “The University of Tennessee System’s nonprofit research arm is suing Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company it says violated two UT patents related to neural networks inspired by the human brain.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: New psychology research reveals the “Goldilocks rule” of online dating profiles. “In our recent research, we examined how the amount of information people disclose in dating profiles shapes a crucial judgment: Does this person seem to want casual sex or a committed relationship? We also asked whether that impression changes what viewers themselves want from the profile owner.”

UC Santa Barbara: Preserving Historic Aerial Photos to Improve Public Health. “Turning a preservation crisis into innovation, the Library collaborated across campus to build a custom, in-house digitization lab for aerial photos. Staff from the Library’s Digital Library Development Department and SRC partnered with the UCSB Physics Machine Shop and UCSB Environmental Health & Safety to retrofit a workspace with specialized ventilation, create a camera-based system that digitizes materials up to 2,000 percent faster than previous equipment, and design safe, efficient workflows that enabled trained Library student assistants to digitize all the refrigerated film at a fraction of the projected outsourcing cost.”

LiveScience: ‘We’re trying this out of frustration’: Marmots star in OnlyFans account as researchers desperately look for ways to raise funds amid US budget cuts. “A team of UCLA scientists has resorted to posting content on OnlyFans to raise money for research amid huge federal funding cuts to U.S. science. But the videos aren’t of themselves, they’re exclusive recordings of marmots.” 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.

New Hampshire Bulletin: You can look up flood maps and school ratings. Why not the pipes under your street? . “Culvert [is] a free public map of buried water infrastructure drawn from federal, state, and municipal records. Let me be just as clear about what it is not. It does not test your water or tell you whether it’s safe to drink. Only a certified lab can do that…. Right now it covers more than 124,000 water-main segments across 23 cities in six New England states, each scored for failure risk from age, material, soil, and break history, not as a prediction of which pipe breaks next, but as a transparent way to rank where attention is overdue, with every score showing its reasoning.”

Virginia Tech: Interactive 3D models expand veterinary learning. “The University Libraries and the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine have transformed a collection of horse dental specimens into interactive 3D teaching models that students and anyone interested in equine health can study anytime.”

Loyola Marymount University: Stories, Photographs, Artifacts from Palo Verde, La Loma, Bishop Residents Preserved in New Digital Archive Created in Partnership with LMU. “Former residents of Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop, commonly referred to as Chavez Ravine, have unveiled a digital archival collection documenting and preserving the histories of these Los Angeles neighborhoods from the 1910s to the early 2000s.”

EVENTS

Doc Pop: Chuck Tingle at the Internet Archive in SF. “Chuck writes erotica, horror, and comedy books with titles like Space Raptor Butt Invasion and Pounded in the Butt by My Handsome Sentient Library Card Who Seems Otherworldly but in Reality Is Just a Natural Part of the Priceless Resources Our Library System Provides. I haven’t read any of his books yet, but I can’t help loving Tingle’s online personality.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Axios: Scoop: Trump’s Cabinet members are joining TikTok. “Most of President Trump’s Cabinet will launch TikTok accounts Tuesday, a move that comes days after the Justice Department told federal employees it was safe to use the app because of its sale to a U.S.-approved owner.”

AROUND THE SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Variety: Former ‘This Morning’ Host Holly Willoughby Heads to YouTube for New Lifestyle Series. “Holly Willoughby, best known until recently as the host of ITV’s daytime show ‘This Morning,’ is set to make a comeback. Rather than return to ITV, however, she has opted to launch her new lifestyle series ‘Holly Willoughby Together’ on YouTube.”

Apple Insider: Famed technology journalist John C. Dvorak dies aged 80. “Born in Los Angeles in 1946, Dvorak reportedly started his career writing about wine, but he soon moved to technology. He wrote for the most influential magazines and newspapers in the 1980s and 1990s, ranging from PC Magazine to the New York Times. He was best known as a columnist, and one who would never shy away from controversy.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: Navy says it will no longer release sailors’ service history, another restriction on press access. “The U.S. Navy is taking a major step to restrict press access to information about service members by no longer releasing information about any sailor’s service history — information that has been freely offered by the service for decades. The move, which officials say is being driven by increased security threats and harassment concerns, comes amid a host of other restrictions on press access largely driven by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”

Defence Blog: Russia’s cutting-edge drone upgrade is a $2 camping compass. “A Ukrainian radio technology specialist says Russia has started bolting a basic magnetic compass onto its cheap Molniya attack drones, with an onboard camera that periodically tilts down to read it, giving the drone a way to hold its bearings even when every satellite signal it depends on has been jammed into static.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

David W. Fitzsimmons: What will become of my life’s works?. “For years, Lee Publishing, owner of The Arizona Daily Star, has been blocking me from donating my professional life’s work to my hometown Alma mater, the University of Arizona, specifically the University of Arizona Library’s Special Collections Archive. Now that billionaire investor David Hoffman has acquired a controlling stake in Lee Enterprises, making himself the primary owner of the parent company of the Arizona Daily Star I am hoping he may hear me out.” 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.

Spectrum News: Ohio business says inaccurate Google AI summary of store is hurting sales. “About a week ago, [Chanel Bush] said a customer told her that the Google AI summary of the store wrongfully claimed the bookshop was permanently closed and located at an incorrect address a few doors down. The customer, who trusted the AI summary, said it prevented her from visiting the store a few weeks ago.”

Stephen Follows: What just happened to TheNumbers.com should worry us all. “Its hand-researched data is the highest quality, tracking box office grosses, budgets, home video and streaming across more than 78,000 films and 236,000 people. It gets north of eight million visitors a year, and is treated as THE definitive authority by journalists, academics, filmmakers, prediction markets, and even Guinness World Records. And it was this GOAT status which caused the catastrophic events of March this year. On the 5th March 2026, TheNumbers.com website vanished.”

ANTI-AI ACTIVISM

Texas Tribune: East Texas data center project pulled after facing community backlash. “Kansas-based Diode Ventures had proposed building a data center in Henderson County near Cedar Creek Reservoir, a historic waterway in a community heavily involved in water conservation. The Fort Worth Star Telegram reported the site was expected to take 12 years to build out and consume 5 million gallons of lake water per day by its fifth year.”

DATA CENTERS

LimaOhio.com: Ohio EPA will not finalize general permit for data centers. “After carefully reviewing a large volume of public comments on the draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System general permit for data centers, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will not move forward with finalizing the general permit, according to a Tuesday press release from the agency.”

NC Newsline: Pro-data center group trying to change opinions in NC with ad campaign. “North Carolina Connects, the group behind the ads, has sponsored pro-data center billboards, television, and audio commercials across the state over the past month. The group bought 747 ad spots across all channels, with 189 of them on Fox News and 90 on Spectrum News Raleigh.”

AI IN GOVERNANCE

Associated Press: Trump expands a voluntary pledge to protect consumers from high utility bills from AI data centers. “President Donald Trump on Thursday had governors and electricity companies join a voluntary pledge to shield U.S. consumers from higher utility bills from data centers — a sign of how the artificial intelligence build-out has become a lightning rod of controversy before the midterm elections.” Much rather have a law than a pledge.

Ars Technica: Unlimited AI tokens aren’t unlimited after all as US Army burns through supply. “A little over a month after the Department of Defense (DOD) bragged that nearly half of its 3.5 million employees were using AI at work, members of the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) received an email informing them that they were burning through tokens, and needed to limit use.”

AI LEGISLATION

Music Business Worldwide: Indonesia’s copyright rewrite would ban AI from imitating creators – and Google’s not a fan.. “Indonesia is preparing a rewrite of its copyright law that would make it the first country in Southeast Asia to write artificial intelligence into the statute. A draft of the bill would ban the use of AI to imitate a creator’s ‘distinctive style’ and would require anyone using AI to make content to disclose it, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters.”

AI IN WORK

Reuters: US judge won’t block Meta from laying off workers who filed AI discrimination lawsuit. “A U.S. judge on Friday rejected a bid by 26 employees of Meta Platforms to block the tech giant from laying them off while they pursue claims ​that they were targeted for job cuts by the company’s AI-powered tools because they have disabilities or took medical leave.”

AROUND THE AI WORLD

Axios: Mark Zuckerberg launches AI optimism campaign. lmao. “Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday laid out an optimistic view of the agentic future, arguing the company’s focus on connecting the world will only be strengthened with new AI tools and technologies.”

Gizmodo: ChatGPT Health Rolls Out to Everyone While OpenAI Stares Down Major Lawsuits. “By giving the chatbot access to your medical records and Apple Health data, ChatGPT users across the country aged 18 and up will be able to consult it for advice on anything from diet and workout routines to understanding medical test results.” Oh HELL no.

SECURITY & LEGAL

Bleeping Computer: Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, Antigravity hit by sandbox escapes. “Security researchers broke out of the sandboxes in four widely used AI coding agents, including Cursor, OpenAI’s Codex, Google’s Gemini CLI and Antigravity, without attacking the sandbox head-on.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Georgia Tech: Researchers Use GeoGuessr Champion to Test Geolocation Accuracy in VLMs. “GeoGuessr is a geography browser game launched in 2013 that invites players to guess the location of random Google Street View images. [Radu] Casapu was already known as one of the top players in the world before he won the third annual GeoGussr World Championship in September. At the beginning of the spring 2025 semester, School of Interactive Computing professor James Hays reached out to Casapu and invited him to collaborate on a new project.”

Texas A&M: AI-powered tool aims to aid communication for people with autism and dementia. “Researchers are developing an AI-driven platform that learns each person’s unique behaviors and communication styles to enable more personalized interventions for children with autism and people living with dementia.”

US National Science Foundation: New NSF initiative aims to unlock dataset value for AI-enabled scientific discovery. “The U.S. National Science Foundation announced the NSF Unlocking Dataset Value for AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery program, a new investment to advance scientific community datasets and enable discovery and innovation using artificial intelligence and other methods in national priority areas.” 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.