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State Legislative Fiscal Committees, Perplexity, AI Layoffs, More: Saturday ResearchBuzz, November 1, 2025

NEW RESOURCES

National Conference of State Legislatures: New Database Reveals the Anatomy of Legislative Fiscal Committees. “NCSL created the State Legislative Fiscal Committees Database, which provides a comprehensive directory of fiscal committees in the 50 states, the territories and Washington, D.C., allowing users to analyze fiscal processes across legislative bodies.”

The Verge: Perplexity’s new AI tool aims to simplify patent research. “Patents are notoriously difficult to search for, but Perplexity has launched an AI-powered tool that’s supposed to make the process a little easier. Its new patent research agent allows you to search for patents using natural language, rather than a string of keywords.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Register: AI layoffs to backfire: Half quietly rehired at lower pay. “Forrester’s analysis found that using AI for financially driven layoffs can backfire: 55 percent of employers regret laying off workers because of AI. More people in charge of AI investment expect it to increase headcount (57 percent) than to decrease it (15 percent) over the next year.”

Engadget: YouTube will ‘strengthen’ enforcement around violent and gambling games in November. “YouTube will enforce new rules that are supposed to strengthen the enforcement of its guidelines around online gambling and graphic video game content starting on November 17. One of the biggest changes it’s implementing is age-restricting gaming videos featuring realistic human characters in scenes depicting torture or mass violence against non-combatants.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: This app streams live sports legally and it’s free. “As a lifelong sports fan, I have repeatedly tried ‘free’ streaming subscriptions, knowing full well that there would be hidden fees and additional costs further down the road. I recently realized I needed to cancel some subscriptions to save money, but I still had to get my sports fix without resorting to piracy. Thankfully, somebody suggested I try FreeLiveSports (formerly SportsTribal) as a fully legal sports streaming option.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BBC: Market could lose 100 stalls due to Google parking. “North Weald Market, based at the North Weald Airfield in Essex, usually hosts 300 stalls selling clothing, homewares and food every Saturday. Google paid Epping Forest District Council £88.2m for 52 acres (21ha) of land at the former RAF airbase in 2024, and planned to build a car park on some of the market space.”

Tom’s Hardware: Grieving family uses AI chatbot to cut hospital bill from $195,000 to $33,000 — family says Claude highlighted duplicative charges, improper coding, and other violations. “Claude proved to be a dogged, forensic ally. The biggest catch was that it uncovered duplications in billing. It turns out that the hospital had billed for both a master procedure and all its components. That shaved off, in principle, around $100,000 in charges that would have been rejected by Medicare.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Tom’s Hardware: Fake Nvidia GTC stream hosting deepfake Jensen Huang crypto scam garners 100,000 YouTube viewers, AI-generated hoax generates 5x more views than real event. “Unsuspecting YouTube viewers looking for Nvidia’s GTC keynote on Tuesday might well have found themselves accidentally watching an AI-generated Jensen Huang deepfake promoting a cryptocurrency scam, after YouTube promoted the video over the official stream.”

Tokyo Reporter: Boys likely used generative AI in swindles totaling ¥13 million. “Osaka Prefectural Police believe two boys, aged 17 and 18, used information obtained from a phishing site to defraud victims out of more than 10 million yen. To create the phishing site, the suspects appear to have used generative AI, reports Nippon News Network (Oct. 28).”

Deadline: Disney And YouTube Settle Poaching Dispute Over Video Giant’s Hire Of Exec Justin Connolly. “Today’s order follows a filing late Tuesday from Disney’s lawyers at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp first announcing a deal over the much in demand [Justin] Connolly had been reached, sort of.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Diesachsen: Cameroonian cultural heritage to be researched. “Around 500 cultural objects from Cameroon are being researched in German museums. The aim is to reconstruct their history together with experts from Cameroon. Together with the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, the German Lost Art Foundation wants to continue researching Cameroonian cultural heritage in Germany.”

UC Berkeley: Berkeley Risk and Security Lab Launches New Project with Support from Future of Life Institute to Map Trajectories of Chinese and U.S. AI Development and Escalation Risks. “The University of California, Berkeley’s Risk and Security Lab (BRSL) at the Goldman School of Public Policy in collaboration with the Future of Life Institute (FLI) is launching a new multi-phase research project aimed at mapping the trajectories of U.S. and Chinese AI development, reviewing each country’s approaches to undermining each other’s development, and assessing blind spots that may lead to escalation risks.” Good morning, Internet…

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