Episode 34

News in AI for the Humanities 5/28/25

Two months, two dozen headline drops, one giant leap for generative AI. In this Spring 2025 roundup we cover: • OpenAI → GPT 4 o’s charm + controversy, GPT 4.1’s mini & nano editions, the o series “reasoning” models, multimodal image/voice upgrades, and long term memory that really remembers you. • Google DeepMind → Gemini 2.5 Pro & Flash with million token context, NotebookLM’s new brain, Veo 2 text to video, MusicLM’s sandbox for song smiths, and free Gemini Advanced for every U.S. college student. • Meta → the stand alone Meta AI app and the open source “Llama 4 herd.” • U.S. policy → a sweeping Executive Order that bakes AI literacy (ethics included) into K 12 and higher ed. Along the way we ask what it all means for historians, writers, artists, and anyone who teaches critical thinking. Speed, breadth, and agency are exploding—now let’s make sure the humanities stay in the driver’s seat. 👉 Watch, comment, and subscribe for the next episode, where we’ll explore the rest of the LLM, image, and music tools shaking up 2025