Eyyyy. You've got until Monday 15 June to register your interest for the upcoming Let's Get Real programme. It's gonna be a doozey, exploring AI and the social impact (positive or negative) that the tools can have for our organisations and communities...
I missed this at the time, but at the start of the year the BBC published an article featuring opinions from tech experts, outlining their thoughts on what technology might be like by 2050. It's mostly nanotech, lunar bases and AI. No auto-tying Nike shoes or hoverboards, I'm afraid. As an aside there's surely a better image to demonstrate the future than that still of Tom Cruise standing in front of a million screens in the Minority Report with his sparkle gloves.
Speaking of images, I sourced the title image for this issue from Better Images of AI and it's by Marcin Wilkowski. The image is designed to raise awareness of the importance of developing better knowledge bases of cultural heritage and museum collections, before working on AI systems to describe those collections.
📰 Latest news
- Major news outlets are cutting off the Wayback Machine, the archive of the internet, from archiving their content. The list includes the New York Times and USA Today, with others restricting some access - like the Guardian. This article explores why it's happening and what it means.
- DCMS has updated their Areas of Research Interest and there's a section on digital technologies. Encouragingly they say that they're "is interested in how digital technologies shape the conditions for a good digital society, including questions of participation, trust, inclusion, governance, public value, and resilience."
- There's been a fair bit of news coverage of the under-16s social media ban in the UK over the last week. That includes the White House urging the UK not to go through with it, because money I assume, and that it's rushed with the risk of unravelling.
- Google is currently testing features which will allow website owners to decide whether or not their content appears in AI Search summaries.
🤓 Useful / shareable
- This is a brilliantly insightful post and video by Jenni Pettican, exploring the challenges of booking a theatre ticket for people with access needs.
- The Edinburgh Festivals have shared their thoughts on how they might respond to the opportunities and challenges of AI, through this great report. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society took part in LGR AI last year.
- The Alan Turing Institute has published some interesting case studies from their Turning Way Practitioners Hub, focusing on AI use.
- The UK Evaluation Society has published some Good Practice Guidelines on how to (and not to) use AI in evaluation.
💥 Distracting / entertaining / inspiring
- This article (from 2024, but it's still good stuff) explores the blending of art and technology, focusing on digital creativity and interpretation around environment.
- This is an interesting article by Olumide Durotoluwa, Senior Product Manager at M-KOPA, exploring trust when designing digital products.
- And sticking with the World Economic Forum, this article takes a deep dive into their Beyond the Frame art exhibition and discusses where and how technology has been used. They state that "innovation and heritage are not opposing forces, but interdependent ones and that technology does not replace human connection; it amplifies it". Which I agree with as a statement, but is difficult in practice.
- A team from Brunel University London and Enosis VR have created a Design and Development Framework for building mixed reality experiences focusing on social impact.
👍 Something good
- People went a bit loopy for a new Swatch watch. How people acted isn't good, but I'm mostly just pleased that pocket watches are cool again. Right? Right.
