afternoonbuzz

Field Guide to Journalism AI, Wikiween, YouTube, More: Friday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, October 24, 2025

NEW RESOURCES

NiemanLab: The American Journalism Project’s new “field guide” vets AI vendors for local newsrooms. “AI products targeting journalists and news publishers have flooded the market in recent years, and few organizations are willing to publicly endorse specific tools. A new field guide from the venture philanthropy firm the American Journalism Project (AJP) aims to cut through the noise, with practical information and reviews on AI vendors.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Calishat: Wikiween: Wikipedia Categories Become Spooky Cemeteries. “For the last few years I’ve tried to do a Halloween-themed Wikipedia tool. Finally, this year, on what I think is my third try, I got something I like! Check out Wikiween at https://wikitwister.com/wikiween/ .”

Lifehacker: You Can Now Limit How Many YouTube Shorts You Watch in a Day. “As a safeguard to keep us from scrolling on and on (and on) into the wee hours of the morning, YouTube’s adding a system to limit the amount of Shorts a user watches in a day—but it’s a little less strict than what exists on other apps.”

TechCrunch: X is testing a pay-per-use pricing model for its API. “Two years after revamping its developer programs and pricing, X is expanding the closed beta of a pay-per-use plan for its API to more developers.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Mashable: bbno$ says ‘F*CK AI’ — and he’s putting his money where his mouth is. “When a fan recently posted on X, ‘bbno$ is my favorite rapper why does he have to be so mean to AI artists? 🥺🥺,’ the Canadian musician didn’t offer a gentle explanation. Instead, he fired back with a simple, unambiguous response: ‘FUCK AI.’”

Tubefilter: The Good Good Championship comes to Austin as a top YouTube golf group gets a PGA event. “There’s a new event on the PGA Tour circuit, and the upcoming tournament will shine a spotlight on a group of internet-famous golfers. The links-set channel, led by a sextet of amateur golfers and distributed to an audience of nearly two million subscribers, is putting its name on the Good Good Championship, which will come to Austin in 2026.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Associated Press: Reddit sues AI company Perplexity and others for ‘industrial-scale’ scraping of user comments. “Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI and three other entities on Wednesday, alleging their involvement in an ‘industrial-scale, unlawful’ economy to ‘scrape’ the comments of millions of Reddit users for commercial gain.”

The Verge: Anti-diversity activist Robby Starbuck is suing Google now. “Robby Starbuck is suing Google, claiming that its AI search tools falsely linked him to sexual assault allegations and white nationalist Richard Spencer.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Psypost: People with attachment anxiety are more vulnerable to problematic AI use. “A new study finds that individuals with high attachment anxiety are more prone to developing problematic usage patterns with conversational artificial intelligence. This connection appears to be strengthened when these individuals form an emotional bond with the technology and have a tendency to view it as human-like.”

Talking Points Memo: What Made Blogging Different?. “There’s a part of me that hopes that the most toxic social media platforms will quietly implode because they’re not conducive to it, but that is wishcasting; as long as there are capitalist incentives behind them, they probably won’t. I still look for people with early blogger energy, though — people willing to make an effort to understand the world and engage in a way that isn’t a performance, or trolling, or outright grifting. Enough of them, collectively, can be agents of change.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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