This week saw the first AI-generated newspaper by Il Foglio as part of a month-long experiment to test the impact of AI. According to The Gaurdian all the articles were perfectly well written, AI even managed irony - but they lacked direct quotes from humans. Here at TWID we question whether merely quoting other people’s articles, even with added irony, is really justifiable…
To mitigate the existential threat of AI generated news, The Independent is to launch Bulletin, a news service supported by Google’s Gemini and backed by WeAre8. Led by journalists who will write the longer-form articles, and oversee the shorter AI summaries. So now all we need to worry about is good old fashioned human fact checking…
Speaking of fact checking, in recent times disingenuously confused with censorship, free speech-champion Mark Zuckerberg is going all out to block a former employee’s memoir, according to The Guardian, on the basis that it ‘violated a non-disparagement clause in her severance agreement’. Interesting. So while ‘disinformation’ is not a thing anymore and fact-checking is just censorship in a beanie - disparagement is…well something that should be - censored?
In stark contrast to these semantic shenanigans Sir Tim Berners-Lee, our co-founder, inventor of the World Wide Web and co-founder of Solid, outlined in the FT this week what our online world could look like if we developed new interface between users and the web - handily all the things he has been working on.
In other news, The National Education Union spoke to Sky News, warning that the government is "running away with itself" by funding 16 tech companies to build teacher AI tools while there has "not been any meaningful discussion with the sector yet". In doing so, potentially undermining the more human and social aspects of learning - like bunking off and hanging around the local shopping centre.
If, like us, you live and breathe GDPR (hence the unsubscribe at the bottom of the email - but you wouldn’t, would you?) you’ll be interested to hear that DSIT is asking ‘experts to provide insights about the data brokerage industry’ and on why it's been a bit - well - leaky. This is at the same time that the Data (Use and Access) Bill (DUAB) is being rolled out, with the aim to both protect and make better use of our data.
And finally we can reveal the secrets of the dark universe. No, not another story about Meta - but rather a heartening tale of how UK science uncovers mysteries of the dark universe with Euclid data. Which I am guessing is effectively the answer to life, the universe and everything. Right?
Until next time
Jo and David
Join our Director of Consultancy and Learning Stuart Coleman along with panellists Jennifer Brooker Elena Sügis, PhD and Grace Smith at AI in Govtech as they discuss the role of AI in government, bringing perspectives from central government, data science, and public sector AI strategy. You can register for free.
