Writer, Scribbler and Prompt Alchemist
While running around the university yesterday I spotted a lone robot lawn mover doing its thing, see pics. I found the “operator” – an actual human – who took me through how they set an initial program and then just let it go. In this case it was mowing the awkward slopes in the Uni. He also told me about the pitch painting robot they have just got that uses GPS to paint perfect pitch lines.
It is happening all around us – the rise of AI and the machine age.
The web is changing, and AI is playing a big role in that change. AI systems are capable of generating text and images in abundance, which could potentially overrun or outcompete the platforms we rely on for news, information, and entertainment. However, the quality of this machine-generated content is often poor, and it is built in a way that is parasitical on the web today.
Google is trying to kill the 10 blue links. Twitter is being abandoned to bots and blue ticks. There’s the junkification of Amazon and the enshittification of TikTok. Layoffs are gutting online media. A job posting looking for an “AI editor” expects “output of 200 to 250 articles per week.” ChatGPT is being used to generate whole spam sites. Etsy is flooded with “AI-generated junk.” Chatbots cite one another in a misinformation ouroboros. LinkedIn is using AI to stimulate tired users. Snapchat and Instagram hope bots will talk to you when your friends do not. Redditors are staging blackouts. Stack Overflow mods are on strike. The Internet Archive is fighting off data scrapers, and “AI is tearing Wikipedia apart.” The old web is dying, and the new web struggles to be born.
The problem, in extremely broad strokes, is this. Years ago, the web used to be a place where individuals made things. They made homepages, forums, and mailing lists, and a small bit of money with it. Then companies decided they could do things better. They created slick and feature-rich platforms and threw their doors open for anyone to join. They put boxes in front of us, and we filled those boxes with text and images, and people came to see the content of those boxes. The companies chased scale, because once enough people gather anywhere, there is usually a way to make money off them. But AI changes these assumptions.
Google Search underwrites the economy of the modern web, distributing attention and revenue for much of the internet. Google has been spurred into action by the popularity of Bing AI and ChatGPT as alternative search engines, and it’s experimenting with replacing its traditional 10 blue links with AI-generated summaries. But if the company goes ahead with this plan, then the changes would be seismic.
A writeup of Google’s AI search beta from Avram Piltch, editor-in-chief of tech site Tom’s Hardware, highlights some of the problems. Piltch says Google’s new system is essentially a “plagiarism engine.” Its AI-generated summaries often copy text from websites word-for-word but place this content above source links, starving them of traffic. It’s a change that Google has been pushing for a long time, but look at the screenshots in Piltch’s piece and you can see how the balance has shifted firmly in favour of excerpted content. If this new model of search becomes the norm, it could damage the entire web, writes Piltch. Revenue-strapped sites would likely be pushed out of business and Google itself would run out of human-generated content to repackage.
AI dynamics — producing cheap content based on others’ work — that is underwriting this change, and if Google goes ahead with its current AI search experience, the effects would be difficult to predict. Potentially, it would damage whole swathes of the web that most of us find useful — from product reviews to recipe blogs, hobbyist homepages, news outlets, and wikis. Sites could protect themselves by locking down entry and charging for access, but this would also be a huge reordering of the web’s economy. In the end, Google might kill the ecosystem that created its value, or change it so irrevocably that its own existence is threatened.
Google is also experimenting with AI-generated summaries for its search results. This could have a significant impact on the web, as it would favour sites that produce cheap content based on others’ work. This could damage whole swathes of the web that most of us find useful, such as product reviews, recipe blogs, and news outlets.
The evidence so far suggests it will degrade the quality of the web in general. As Piltch notes in his review, for all AI’s vaunted ability to recombine text, it is people who ultimately create the underlying data — whether that’s journalists picking up the phone and checking facts or Reddit users who have had exactly that battery issue with the new cordless ratchet and are happy to tell you how they fixed it. By contrast, the information produced by AI language models and chatbots is often incorrect. The tricky thing is that when it is wrong, it is wrong in ways that are difficult to spot.
In the end, the future of the web is uncertain. It is possible that AI will lead to a degradation of the quality of information available online. However, it is also possible that AI will be used to create new and innovative forms of content. Only time will tell what the future holds.
July is turning into a my culture month ahead of the festival landing – went to see the Grayson Perry retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh yesterday with my mommy.
Putting aside the terrible choice of venue, the National Galleries of Scotland is a beautiful and prestigious institution, but it is not necessarily the best place to show work that is as subversive and challenging as Perry’s. I think the Gallery of Modern Art would have been a more natural home for this exhibition.
In his retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland (Royal Scottish Academy), Grayson Perry reveals a synthesis of his true self and aspirations. In his artwork, “Reclining Artist,” Perry presents a fantasy version of himself, embracing both masculine and feminine qualities. This 2017 vision is an authentic and captivating work, as he gazes seriously at the viewer, breaking away from his familiar blokey persona.
Perry’s undeniable talent in creating detailed images is apparent, yet some of his works suffer from clutter and symbolism overload. For instance, his childhood teddy bear, Alan Measles, seems to occupy an excessive presence in his art, losing some of its symbolic power over time. Nevertheless, Perry playfully portrays his attachment to Alan Measles, making it a self-aware parody rather than a monomania. Perry is not afraid to experiment and to push the boundaries of what we expect from art. He is constantly trying new things, and sometimes this results in works that are not entirely successful. But even when his work is flawed, it is always thought-provoking and engaging.
The exhibition’s theme revolves around Englishness, but Perry’s meditations on national identity lack the depth of George Orwell’s analyses. Despite this, his artwork, “Comfort Blanket,” humorously highlights some aspects of inclusive Englishness, which may resonate with Brexiteers too.
While Perry’s understanding of the English middle class is evident, some of his works lack passion and courage, leaning towards flippancy and satire. Despite his prolific career, he occasionally veers into the territory of whimsy and empty quotation. Nevertheless, Perry has become popular and beloved by sharing the English middle class’s ambivalence towards art, appealing to the national prejudice against those who take themselves too seriously.
In conclusion, Grayson Perry’s art embodies a blend of whimsy and satire, reflecting his exploration of ‘identity’ and Englishness. While some of his works may be perceived as lacking depth, they resonate with audiences who appreciate his humorous and self-conscious approach. As an artist, Perry’s journey continues to provoke thought and laughter, making him a distinctive figure in modern British art.
“It’s not like learning to play the violin, where you can be demonstrably talented at a young age. With art, you really need to find your own voice and that takes a while. Actually, it’s a marathon – and if you are eventually original, you’re lucky.”
Grayson Perry
Another found post in the ‘drafts’ folder, from 2010 I think
what a scorcher. sea’s of red cover the capital. drunken boys and girls frolic on the meadows while drunken men and women argue on the promenade – ah the burgh in the sun x
was checking out a friend of a friends company website last night – http://www.cagoule.tv/ – who make movies, well shorts and music videos etc. some nice stuff.
I was doing some house keeping and reviewed the drafts folder and found this gem from 2010 – feels life a life time ago or maybe just another life. The beach is Tynningham and the beach queen is ?
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic of conversation in recent weeks. Some people believe that AI will eventually replace most jobs, while others believe that it will create new ones and endless opportunities.
One company that is at the forefront of the AI revolution is Spinach.io. Spinach.io is an AI-powered platform that helps teams run more efficient meetings. The platform uses AI to transcribe meetings, generate meeting notes, and identify key decisions and actions. It integrates with Zoom, Teams, Jira, slack and more. You invite it to your meeting and it passively takes notes for you and spits them out to slack – this demo explains it better https://youtu.be/5Z5a-KCUcRY
So, what does this mean for the future of work?
It is hard to say for sure. However, it is clear that AI is already having an impact on the workforce. For example, AI is being used to automate tasks in customer service, manufacturing, and healthcare. This is leading to job losses in some sectors, but it is also creating new jobs in others.
In the case of Spinach.io, the platform is likely to become a valuable tool for project managers or anyone managing teams, and that is maybe a better way to look at AI . . . as a tool. AI has already created a large number of new jobs and even created a new industry platform. For example, Spinach.io is hiring engineers, data scientists, and product managers to build and improve its platform. So there is definitely disruption coming for many industries and human interactions will continue to change but there are also opportunities and new experiences to be had.
So, while AI is likely to have an impact on the workforce, it is not clear that it will lead to widespread job losses. In fact, it is more likely that AI will create new jobs and opportunities if we embrace it.
I went to see the Peter Howson exhibition at the weekend with my mum. Little disappointed but great to see his work “in person” and a get a feel for its scale.
The early work section features some of Howson’s most famous paintings, such as “The Butcher Boy” and “The Crucifixion of the Dog.” These paintings are powerful and disturbing, but they are also incredibly beautiful. They offer a unique and often unsettling glimpse into Howson’s world.
However the religious works did nothing for me – better stuff by better artists at the mound if you want religious nonsense.
The Bosnia section features Howson’s paintings from the 1990s, when he was war artist in Bosnia. I have vivid memories of them as it was the same year Jay was born. These paintings are some of the most powerful and disturbing work that Howson has ever produced. They offer a raw and unfiltered look at the horrors of war. Yet it felt a little tame – like they chose the least offensive (triggering) images – and I would have liked to see more of his sketches of that period. It was a brutal war that Europe just let happen, with no intervention, and exposed the UN as the useless organisation it is. It affected Mr Howson deeply and after watching the videos and reading his commentary it comes across as if he went through 20 years of art therapy and swapped one addiction for a religious one.
No hooligans either which was a giant disappointment as they were my favourite pieces by Howson.
As poster states – on until 10 October @ the City Arts Centre. Overall, the Peter Howson exhibition at the City Arts Centre is a must-see for anyone interested in Scottish art. It is a powerful and moving exhibition that offers a unique glimpse into the mind of one of Scotland’s most important artists.
Just finished East of Eden by John Steinbeck – ended with me in tears but what a lovely story.
East of Eden, published in 1952. It is a sprawling and often brutal novel that follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
The novel is set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, and it begins with the story of Adam Trask, a wealthy man who marries Cathy Ames, a beautiful but unstable woman. The Trasks have twin sons, Cal and Aron, but Cathy is unable to love either of them. She abandons the family when the boys are young, and Adam is left to raise them alone.
Cal and Aron grow up to be very different men. Cal is impulsive and hot-headed, while Aron is gentle and kind. Cal is driven by a desire to win his father’s love, while Aron is content to simply be loved.
The novel follows the lives of Cal, Aron, and their descendants as they struggle with the legacy of their parents. Cal is haunted by his mother’s abandonment, and he tries to win his father’s love through his actions. Aron is more successful in winning his father’s love, but he is also more vulnerable to his mother’s influence.
The novel explores the themes of good and evil, love and hate, and the nature of family. It is a complex and powerful novel that I found very moving and poignant. I found comparisons with my own family life and liked how Steinbeck described and captured the interactions between siblings and the effects of a dramatic change has on a family.
So old man loves to learn and has been lucky enough to have found time this year to explore some new teachings.
Firstly I have picked up Python again and have been learning all about version 3 and trying to become proficient again. By mentioning this in my blog now, anyone can pull me up and ask how I am getting on – this should prompt me to continue the learnings – feel free to suggest some projects I can complete. However I must try not to disappear down rabbit holes like https://www.modular.com/mojo which will be what I move onto once I get through the Udemy course (https://www.udemy.com/course/complete-python-bootcamp/) from Jose Portilla (https://www.udemy.com/user/joseportilla/).
Secondly I have committed to improve my Spanish from the tourist drivel of “dos cervezas, por favor” that got me by in my 20s, travelling Spain with Ricardo and Graham. I have trusted that learning to Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com/), which I have to say I am really enjoying and dare I jinx it, feel like some of it is sticking. I will be looking for some Spanish speakers in August to start practicing if you fancy helping and have lots of patience. I am enjoying learning Spanish, it is such a beautiful language and will be fun to be able to communicate with people from other cultures.
Thirdly the good old guitar. Jeez I cannot count the number of times I have tried to learn the guitar and never been successful. I am not sure if I am tone deaf or if I just do not have the patience, more likely just have zero talent when it comes to music. However I will strum away and attempt yet again to learn some basic tunes. Kumbaya might be the best I can do.
I am excited to continue learning, with the future so uncertain it is hard to know what skills will be needed in 6 months let alone 2 years, but I am open to new challenges and welcome the coming changes. I would also like to share my learnings and experiences with others, but have not found a way to do that yet?
If you are interested in learning new skills, I encourage you to give it a try. It is never too late to learn something new, and it is very rewarding to achieve a goal.
I hope you enjoyed my blog post. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
“The mind is like a muscle.
The more you use it, the stronger it gets.”
– Henry Ford
Shiel Yule 