morningbuzz

Gustavo Gutiérrez, Google, Art Gallery Apps, More: Saturday Afternoon ResearchBuzz, November 15, 2025

NEW RESOURCES

Notre Dame News: ‘More than the written word’: University of Notre Dame to open archive of Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P., audio recordings. “Father Gutiérrez, a Peruvian priest and pioneer of liberation theology, passed away last year at age 96. But scholars and students now have a new opportunity to learn from him — by exploring a digital archive of Father Gutiérrez’s own words.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Ars Technica: Google will let Android power users bypass upcoming sideloading restrictions. “Now, Google has had to acknowledge that its plans for verification are causing major backlash among developers and people who know what an APK is. So there will be an alternative, but we don’t know how it will work just yet.”

Google Blog: Doodle for Google is back to celebrate students’ superpowers. “The annual Doodle for Google contest is back for its 17th year! This time, we’re inviting K-12 students to create artwork about their personal strengths and talents, in response to the theme ‘My superpower is…’ The contest is open for entries from October 15, 2025 to December 10, 2025.”

USEFUL STUFF

New York Times: 5 Apps That Will Make You Love Art Galleries. This link goes to a gift article. “For a decade, See Saw has reigned as the app for art world denizens, but the last year has seen the arrival of new apps and influencers — curator types, reviewers and spirit guides whose mission is to get you to discover art shows, exhibitions and events in New York, even internationally.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Techdirt: Judge Orders OpenAI To Give Lawyers 20 Million Private Chats, Thinks ‘Anonymization’ Can Keep Them Private. “A federal magistrate judge just ordered that the private ChatGPT conversations of 20 million users be handed over to the lawyers for dozens of plaintiffs, including news organizations. Those 20 million people weren’t asked. They weren’t notified. They have no say in the matter.”

Mashable: OpenAI violated copyright law, German court rules. “ChatGPT creator OpenAI violated Germany’s national copyright laws, according to a court in Munich. GEMA, a German music rights group, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI last November claiming that the AI company illegally trained its AI models on popular music without consent from the rights holders.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Harvard Gazette: Is AI dulling our minds?. “The Gazette spoke with faculty across a range of disciplines, including a research scientist in education, a philosopher, and the director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, to discuss critical thinking in the age of AI. We asked them about the ways in which AI can foster or hinder critical thinking, and whether overreliance on the technology can dull our minds. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.”

The Register: AI pilots keep crashing, mostly because firms skip the prep, survey finds. “It is the best of AI times; it is the worst of AI times, depending on whom you ask. Nearly a third of firms are seeing almost total failure of their AI proof-of-concept (PoC) projects, while 46 percent are successfully moving more than 10 percent of theirs into operational use.”

Türkiye Today: How digital archaeology is reconstructing the Battle of Manzikert. “Archaeologists in eastern Türkiye are using cutting-edge 3D technology to digitally resurrect the artifacts unearthed at the site of the legendary Battle of Manzikert—a turning point that reshaped the course of Anatolian and world history nearly a thousand years ago.”

OTHER THINGS I THINK ARE COOL

University of Cambridge: ‘Beautiful energy sandwich’ could power next-generation solar and lighting. “Researchers have achieved a new level of control over the atomic structure of a family of materials known as halide perovskites, creating a finely tuned ‘energy sandwich’ that could transform how solar cells, LEDs and lasers are made.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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