NYC Black History, Courtsdesk, Internet Archive, More: Mo…

NEW RESOURCES New-to-me, from Village Preservation Blog: Exploring Black History Through Village Preservation’s Online Resources. “To help make these histories visible and accessible, Village Preservation has created a rich collection of online […]

New-to-me, from Village Preservation Blog: Exploring Black History Through Village Preservation’s Online Resources. “To help make these histories visible and accessible, Village Preservation has created a rich collection of online resources that allow anyone to explore the people, places, and movements that shaped Black life in our communities.” Hold the Front Page: Labour u-turns on court archive deletion.

“A move to permanently delete five years of court records from a widely-used journalism resource has been halted after a government u-turn. As previously reported on HTFP, HM Courts and Tribunal service had ordered the deletion of the Courtsdesk archive, an online tool which helped reporters search through magistrates’ court lists and registers.” Popular Science: The Internet Archive records its 1 trillionth website.

“The Internet Archive—one of cyberspace’s most essential library projects—has achieved a feat that’s hard to even conceptualize. After nearly 30 years of painstaking work, the nonprofit has preserved its trillionth webpage.” National Catholic Reporter: Pope Leo tells priests not to use AI to write homilies or seek likes on TikTok. “Pope Leo XIV has urged priests to not to use artificial intelligence to write their homilies or to seek ‘likes’ on social media platforms like TikTok.

In a question-and-answer session with clergy from the Diocese of Rome, the pope said priests should resist ‘the temptation to prepare homilies with artificial intelligence.'” NPR: ChatGPT promised to help her find her soulmate. Then it betrayed her. “The chatbot doubled down. It told Small she was 42,000 years old and had lived multiple lifetimes. It offered detailed descriptions that, Small admits, most people would find ‘ludicrous.’ But to her, the messages began to sound compelling.” New York Times: Shutdown at D.H.S.

Extends to Cyber Agency, Adding to Setbacks. This link goes to a gift article. “The lapse in funding for the Department of Homeland Security, CISA’s parent agency, is only the latest setback, temporarily winnowing its already thinning ranks. In January 2025, CISA employed about 3,400 people. That number has dropped to below 2,400. The shutdown means employees are now furloughed, leaving fewer than 1,000 of them to continue working.” The Register: SerpApi says Google is the pot calling the kettle black when it comes to scraping.

“SerpApi, a Texas-based web scraping company, has asked a California court to dismiss Google’s claim that that it bypassed digital locks to gather copyrighted content in Google Search results.” Techdirt: Bondi Bragged About Forcing Facebook To Censor Speech. Now FIRE Is Suing.. “FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), has filed suit against Attorney General Pam Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on behalf of Kassandra Rosado, who ran a 100,000-member Facebook group called ‘ICE Sightings – Chicagoland,’ and Mark Hodges, who created the Eyes Up app for documenting and archiving videos of ICE enforcement activity.” Columbia Spectator: To incoming University President Mnookin: Please don’t let artificial intelligence devalue the liberal arts.

“It is clear to me that my professor doesn’t realize that doing coursework with the help of AI cripples our ability to learn. As soon as we want to give up on a hard assignment or reading, we can feed it into a chatbot and ask it to solve it for us. This way of using AI deprives us of ever being unsure, and thus alleviates us of the need to think critically.” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Reminding people they’re talking to chatbots could be harmful, researchers say.

“The researchers say that reminding chatbot users of their companions’ non-human nature may be useful in some contexts, but these reminders must be carefully crafted and timed to avoid unintended negative consequences.” 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.

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Summary

This report covers the latest developments in artificial intelligence. The information presented highlights key changes and updates that are relevant to those following this topic.

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