Category: Writing

  • BlueSky (ex-X)

    Hardly some great act of activism, but I do not think that Elon Musk is a good person to be wielding power like he does with ownership of X / Twitter. So, I’m out. You can find me on BlueSky here: https://bsky.app/profile/kesterbrewin.bsky.social Fortunate to have gathered an audience there already of over 1000 people. I…

  • Not OK, Computer?

    “The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted.” – AI Training Statement / https://www.aitrainingstatement.org/ Over 11,000 artists, writers, actors, musicians and others in the creative industries have signed the above statement, expressing their opposition…

  • American Psycho x Middle Class

    A very interesting piece the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago. Rachel Monroe documents the story of a wealthy neighbourhood in Arizona that has been terrorised by the ‘Goons’ gang of rampaging, uber-privileged kids… ending with a murder, and seven boys on trial. In south Gilbert, the Goons looked like J. Crew models. “Some…

  • Working Assumptions

    Really enjoying this book by Julia Hobsbawm. She’s been generous in her support for my work, and the work we do at work, and this is a very well written and clear bit of writing setting out the future of work landscape. It’s also really lovely to see an acknowledgements page like this: With the…

  • Benny and the Blue Whale

    Great fun to go hear Mr Gum creator Andy Stanton talk about his new book, Benny and the Blue Whale this week. Andy is a very talented children’s writer – but so much more too, and his deep dive into language and how he used ChatGPT to create a very extraordinary story about a whale…

  • ‘An open approach to AI’ – God-like in the TES

    Good to have been commissioned by TES – the Time Educational Supplement – to write a piece translating the four-point AI Transparency Statement that God-like begins with into the education context. You can read it here. The idea is simple: rather than ‘AI is terrible, and we’re banning it,’ a means by which teachers can…