Kester Brewin

Category: Technology

  • SnapChat is taking your face, and Facebook is taking your chat.

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    Two things caught my eye this week around how big social media companies are looking to harvest content to train AI models. As a sidebar, it’s useful to remember that social media companies really, really don’t give a crap about community, friendship, being social or whatever else you want to say about friendship and relationships.…

  • AI and the Future of Work – Lessons from History

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    Just this week Carl Frey gave a presentation on ‘AI and the Future of Work – Lessons from History’ at a conference organised by Georgetown McDonough School of Business’ Center for Business and Public Policy. Frey is at the Oxford Internet Institute and really is a world-leading thinker on AI impacts, and this lecture is…

  • From Sapiens to God-Like…

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    Not surprising, given the arc of his recent books, that Harari’s next focuses on AI. There’s a review in The Economist: Many may wonder why, for a book about information that promises new perspectives on AI, he spends so much time on religious history, and in particular the history of the Bible. The reason is…

  • Prime Turkeys helping sharpen the Christmas carving knives?

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    Fascinating piece in The Observer this weekend, written (beautifully) by a journalist who works for one of the big AI companies, providing ‘gold standard’ examples of writing to help train their Large Language Model, and improve their Chatbot’s answers. (Thanks to excellent writer-buddy Paul for passing it on). The gut reaction to this for me…

  • BlueSky

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    Not going to lie, it took a long time building a strong presence on Twitter, getting verified etc. But in Musk’s hands the place has become pretty awful, so I’ve started rebuilding on BlueSky. You can find my profile here: https://bsky.app/profile/kesterbrewin.bsky.social Been reflecting on making those tough tech choices, and it feels increasingly wrong to…

  • Greenbelt, why AI might be making us stupid, and booking AI training…

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    Was great to be at Greenbelt Festival talking about the new book, and speaking on a panel about AI and Earthly Futures. Both were recorded, and I’ll post links once they’re available. I mentioned in the talk and the panel the vital need for us to take more radical responsibility for our technology use (and…