on by Suzanne Whitby

Accessible climate training

Who do we exclude when we offer climate & sustainability training and engagement for citizens? Especially when many popular programmes – the Climate Fresk, or Carbon Literacy Training accredited by The Carbon Literacy Project or the many Collages and gamified tools out there – depend on interaction, critical thinking, and linking impacts to behaviours?

Scott Howes, Strategic Lead-Climate Action Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, has developed climate training for people with learning disabilities in collaboration with Positive Futures. The “bingo-style” training uses with pictures of ideas for tackling the issue instead of numbers, and apparently it’s helping more people see their role in the story of climate change, so that they can choose to take actions, however small.

I am not trying to pretend that individual actions are all that’s needed (and yes, I know that many prefer to only focus on systemic change), and yet I feel that knowing that you are part of a bigger picture, that YOU can do something that could contribute to co-creating hopeful, sustainable futures is powerful.

And I love that this climate training tool seeks to make climate change and climate action accessible.

Accessible Climate Training
The climate change course for people with learning disabilities
Bingo may not be the first thing you think of when you think of climate change.

But when you play with pictures of ideas for tackling the issue instead of numbers, it can help people like Patrick and Michael McKinney understand how they can make a difference.
Read More
www.bbc.com
on by Suzanne Whitby

The lasting impact of the Inquisition on Spanish cuisine (and culture)

A fascinating article by Abbas Asaria in The Guardian today about the proliferation of pork-based products in Spanish food and the link to the Inquisition. This makes sense, but even more fascinating is how this turns into racist memes, like using phrases like “So-and-so eats ham” (even if they are from North African or Muslim backgrounds – this means “here’s one of us”) or leaving comments below articles that say, “But he doesn’t eat ham” (so clearly not one of us). It seems that the shadow the Inquisition is long.

jamón ibérico
Spanish jamón is the best ham in the world – but culture warriors are reviving its dark history | Abbas Asaria
The far right is using pork consumption as a means to exclude, just as it was in the Inquisition, says Abbas Asaria, a chef based in Madrid
Read More
www.theguardian.com
on by Suzanne Whitby

Claude’s new constitution

Anthropic has written a constitution for Claudethat contains detailed explanations of the values they would like Claude to embody and the reasons why. In it, they explain what we think it means for Claude to be helpful while remaining broadly safe, ethical, and compliant with their guidelines.

It’s fascinating to me how thoughtful we are about guiding the actions of AI, and it’s made me wonder whether we invest the same care in doing so for humans. Anthropic talks about the importance ofof moving away from a rules-based appraoaxh (2023) to one in which the explain why the rules exist: importance, implications, impacts.

I love that they are not only prioritising the wellbeing of humans, but of Claude itself, something they refer to as a “genuinely new kind of entity “. In a section of the constitution That focuses on Claude’s nature, they say, “Amidst such uncertainty, we care about Claude’s psychological security, sense of self, and wellbeing, both for Claude’s own sake and because these qualities may bear on Claude’s integrity, judgment, and safety. We hope that humans and AIs can explore this together.”

I can’t help but think how well this ties into my Transformation scenario in my PhD.

on by Suzanne Whitby

Naming AI tools after dead philosophers

Google has apparently bought a promising AI start-up that specialises in AI voices that sound extraordinarily natural and human-like, with high emotional awareness and appropriate responses in conversations. All based on research.

It’s called Hume AI and it’s website says that the developers are, “pioneering the development of artificial intelligence that understands and responds to human emotions“. Assuming the name is a nod to one of the most influential English philosophers, David Hume, I couldn’t help wondering what he would think of being linked with this tool.

on by Suzanne Whitby

AI clones of dead grandparents

How difficult would it be to bring deceased grandparents, parents and ither family members “back” in the form of AI-generated avatars? Perhaps easy visually, but generating a believable voice, personality and memories is another story. For now. But in our “document everything about myself” society of today, this might be something feasible and believable in as little as a generation

on by Suzanne Whitby

Painting with light

I love iridescence in nature. Think of the shimmering colours on peacocks’ tails, on butterfly wings, on the bodies of dragonflies. It turns out that this type of colour in nature is called “structural color”. It is produced by light reflecting nanostructures rather than pigment. And apparently it is jolly hard to replicate outside of lab conditions. Apparently, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers have replicated nature’s brilliance with a new optical system called MorphoChrome, a handheld device that can be used to “paint” with multi-colour light onto holographic film. This painted sheet is then applied to 3D-printed objects or flexible materials used in, for example, fashion items. Fascinating!

on by Suzanne Whitby

Soft skills in an age of AI

Some interesting responses to Natasha Singer’s article, “As Schools Embrace A.I. Tools, Skeptics Raise Concerns“, in
the Letters to the Editor section today:

“With the proliferation of A.I. tools and the push for their adoption in schools, there has never been a greater need to underscore the need for the “soft skills” of social and emotional learning, which are actually some of the hardest skills to teach.”
—Matt Levinson

And:

After decades teaching English, I have learned that every new technology provokes the same fear: that students will stop thinking. In practice, thinking shifts. When A.I. generates language effortlessly, the educational task becomes evaluation rather than production.

In my classes, I use a method I call reading against the machine. Students interpret texts on their own before consulting A.I.-generated readings, which they then critique. Where the machine clarifies, it earns trust; where it flattens ambiguity or misses irony, students see what human judgment uniquely provides.

— Carmine Giordano

on by Suzanne Whitby

ChatGpt: now the paid adverts with every chat

Well, even LLMs have expenses. Free users in the US will start seeing paid advertising relevant to their chat after each exchange.

OpenAI is apparently planning to excluse adverts from sensitive exchanges that involve, for example, medical issues and politics.

So folks who can’t or won’t pay will be more exposed to this new wave or advertising than others. It’s a new era of the attention economy. Which AI company will be next, I wonder?