It’s been a mixed week, beginning with the AI-created podcast about my blog that Isaac sent. It was created by a Google product that is still in development, and Isaac knew I’d be amused to see how it worked with my blog as a subject.
This was my first personal experience of AI and it was an education. I was amused and intrigued while also being a bit creeped out. (There’s a link in the last post so you can listen too.)
I am not a fan of this genre of podcast - an informal chat on a topic - but of course I listened avidly because the subject was me!
After listening to it just once I was amazed that it had landed on the essence of the blog when the material that it had used was my blog from July to September this year, an uncharacteristic period of the blog as a whole. There were three weeks when I hadn’t blogged, and I’d been away from home for two other weeks.
So how had it come up with the conclusion that the essence of the blog was my focus on the small things of everyday life while being upset by the state of the world? Amazing.
But there were disappointing inaccuracies:
Dave’s letter to the Chief Rabbi was not bridge building, it was a strong challenge.
Dave was not phlegmatic about the lost coat incident. I had clearly written that he “was exuding anxiety and misery.”
I was not over-egging Dave’s or my reactions to the missing coat - they were genuine.
The mention of a tapestry about Gaza in St David’s Cathedral, when there isn’t one.
Those are the four mistakes I can remember.
Isaac has also sent me an AI produced cast of characters from the blog, which included three people that baffled me until I realised they were three characters from Zuzu’s Petals that appeared in an excerpt I’d included. AI had not noticed they were fictional characters, though a blog reader definitely would have.
Having mulled the whole thing over for a day or so, it made me feel uneasy. This is a product in development, but even so, the inaccuracies were disappointing. What if the Home Office decided to use AI to assess a claim for asylum that was absolutely justified but inaccurate conclusions turned the refugee down?
There have been some blissful days of sunshine this week, which have been a gift. I managed to ride in my bike to the end of the Trail for the first time since I damaged my knee. Whooppee!
And another first was going out on my electric bike.
I sat on the top of Longstone Edge with my flask of tea and felt so blessed and thankful that this is my life. How fortunate am I to live somewhere beautiful and safe?
On Thursday Liz and I went on the sightseeing bus and this is her photo of the view from the top of the Hope Valley:
On Friday I read the week’s news thoroughly and sunk into a pit of gloom. I am already horrified by Israel’s genocide in Gaza and now their rampant violence in the West Bank, their torture of Palestinian prisoners - some held without charge - and now they are killing civilians in the Lebanon. This last vicious escapade is in contravention of a law that they are signatories to that states that countries are “prohibited in all circumstances to use booby traps or other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects that are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material.”
What does Israel have to do before the leaders of the western world will condemn them and withdraw all support?
I felt so gloomy yesterday and I wondered how to get out of it. It made me think of a recent conversation I had with my younger brother about the disparity of our cushy lives with those of millions of people around the world. We decided we need to be aware of it, to do what we can, to be kind and to try to spread happiness in our immediate circles. Which reminds me of my mantra during Covid - “stay healthy, stay cheerful and try to be kind.”
The quote below is from a display I saw in St David’s Cathedral in July and is a detail the podcast did pick out:
2 comments:
I am such a luddite where things like ChatGPT for eg is concerned ! Feel like I want to put my fingers in my ears and go la la la la la very loudly!! Here chez moi we were talking about the ongoing Palestine horror and it came to me that ( although I try to limit this) I feel I need to look at what is happening. It is happening to those poor people there, let me at least bear witness as I live my life
As far as AI goes, Marmee, we just have to accept that it is here to stay, whether we like it or not.
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