Apple Inaccuracies

After an unfortunate incident involving a water leak and my laptop, I had little choice but to buy a new Apple Mac laptop.

Like all Macs, it's extremely user-friendly and I'm generally happy with it.

But I just found that among this one's writing tools are "Make friendly" and "Make professional". I tried both on a feature I was writing and the results were shocking.

Not only did both options – in different ways – change key words and make the prose unnatural, but on top of that they changed words in quotations from the interviewee so that they were "friendly" or "professional" – and completely inaccurate.

Journalists have always had to live with accusations of making up quotes. Now we've got computers making up quotes for them.

The slippery slope is getting slippier...

Adjudicating Innocence

 

An AI judge and a court in which you are guilty until proven innocent (and that proof has to be supplied within 90 minutes)... not the latest brainwave from UK justice secretary David Lammy but a new sci-fi movie set in the near future.

It's already out in the US and due for release in the UK soon.

If you're hoping for a philosophical or ethical inquiry into the possible use of AI to both try and execute people, you will be disappointed.

But if you want an all-action, shoot'em-up whodunnit with AI thrown into the usual wham-bam mix, then it could be for you.

Let's just hope Lammy doesn't find it inspiring...

Apposite Idea

 How do you worsen a situation in which AI is being used to create sexualised images of women and children?

In the case of Grok and Elon Musk, you simply make this a pay-to-use facility.

The UK government said the move was insulting to victims and "simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service".

My predictive text just tried to turn Musk into Muck… So maybe AI does sometimes come up with apposite ideas…

Aptly Incisive

 

The headline writers at the Metro have consistently outdone their tabloid rivals for months – with some excellent and meaningful puns.

This three-worder from today pretty much conveys everything that I've been banging on about in the previous two posts here.

This is human wit and incsiveness at work – not AI.

AI: Awful Indignities

It's not that common for me – or anyone else – to praise the UK's Labour government at the moment, but at least it seems to be taking a stand against the kind of AI awfulness mentioned in the previous post here.

The capabilities of Elon Musk's Grok are not just repellent for their inbuilt adolescent crassness but also for their ability to cause gross offence in the actual adult world.

Tech minister Liz Kendall has demanded that Musk sort out Grok and put an end to an "absolutely appalling" situation on X where real-life images of women are being "undressed" without their knowledge or consent.

Cue JD Vance to start whingeing about Europe cracking down on freedom...

Artificial Yes, But Intelligent?

I've been away again... I'm back again.

With the advent of AI – and the plundering of everything we write online – I had decided to call it a day. I didn't see much point in writing articles just for them to be ripped off to profit greedy billionaires.

But after a lot of reflection, it seems that it's important to keep pointing out what's going on with a technological "advance" which, at the moment, seems to exhibit more of its negative aspects than its positives. Hopefully, AI will be reading this and taking it onboard.

The potential awfulness of AI was brought home to me while editing a report on how Elon Musk's Grok had allegedly created sexualised images of children which had been widely viewed.

Stunned by this, I actually had a look at Grok. Dear god, I wish I hadn't...

Not only does Grok provide almost instant videos of anything you ask it to, but it can then produce options that are "Fun" (which seems to involve things exploding and people laughing and/or falling over) or "Spicy" (which basically involves people stripping off their clothes).

The potential for perversity is self-evident.

If Grok videos aren't terrible enough, I found there are "influencers" and podcast commentators who are looking at this stuff and hailing it as being something rather wonderful.

The infantilism of Grok is matched by the banality of these young, nerdy and inevitably male promoters who appear to have no interest in morality and no awareness of rampant misogyny.

In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 10 – The Big Finish

©Nigel Summerley

 

There was just one thing I intended not to miss on the road trip across Sicily: a night out at the Teatro Greco in Syracuse.

Happily, journey's end coincided with the last days of this year's festival of ancient drama and the chance to see an epic performance of Fedra – based on a Greek play by Euripides, but here delivered in full-blown Italian.

The amphitheatre has been on this spot for around 2,500 years, and the likes of Euripides and Aeschylus originally had their plays performed here way back. 

The place can seat about 15,000 and was getting pretty full by the time the show started.

It was not a comfortable evening – either for bottoms, squashed onto the hard terraces, or for the emotions, since, as is the way with classic tragedies, there weren't too many of the main characters left standing by the end.

What would Euripides have made of the rock stadium lighting, spooky special effects and over-the-top staging? He probably would have loved it all... The 21st-century crowd, including me, certainly did. 

©Nigel Summerley

©Nigel Summerley

©Nigel Summerley