The night before last, I watched yet another programme on AI but this time presented by the well-known scientific commentator, Jim Al-Khalali. One surprising thing that I learnt was that in terms of sheer learning power, even in a neural network embodied algorithm, AI does not yet possess the learning power of a two year old human as the AI model requires thousands of repetitions whereas a human child has the ability to conceptualise and to learn first time. In fact even when ‘recognising’ a dog shown in lots of different postures the AI robot would not necessarily have the concept of ‘dog’ and even altering a few pixels on a photograph might lead it to misidentify an object. Whether I find this reassuring or not is hard for me to say given the way in which AI is being incorporated into more and more decision making, not least in the NHS. Another thing that happened to me the night before last was my TV viewing in which I stayed awake after the news to watch Leeds United score their third victory in a week. On this subject, Jim Al-Khalili was attempting a conversation in real time with a conversational robot which did not ‘know’ that Leeds United was a football team and misidentified it as a documentary made about Leeds clothing workers in the 1970’s. After all of this, I fell asleep but woke up to see an astronaut in a science fiction film leaving his mother ship and landing on an alien planet and, upon escaping from his submerged craft, was immediately captured by alien creatures. I had woken up after the start of ‘Planet of the Apes’ which I have never actually seen before and it was sufficiently scary for me to be thankful to drift off to sleep a warm bed and to the strains of Mozart. Yesterday I was destined what I hope to be a new pattern for the weekend in which I attend the early morning service in my church and look forward to the tea and biscuits immediately afterwards after which I collect my Sunday newspaper and fill up with petrol from a local garage. I read some interesting, and encouraging, political news on Sky News overnight. Former transport secretary Louise Haigh will outline an economic agenda to help voters with the cost of living in one of her most significant interventions since being forced out of cabinet 18 months ago. Ms Haigh, an influential figure within the soft-left Tribune group, will speak at an event next week alongside the Labour MP Chris Curtis – a former YouGov pollster seen as a rising star from within the 2024 intake. Mr Curtis chairs the Labour Growth Group (LGG), a caucus of around 100 Labour MPs who are broadly loyal to Sir Keir Starmer but believe the government must be more radical to bring about growth that puts more money in people’s pockets. While from different wings of the party (the LGG defines itself as moderate), the pair will outline polices they believe can unite both the party and Labour’s wider voter coalition. They want to challenge the assumption that Labour MPs, who have forced the government into several U-turns, are unmanageable and nothing can unite them. Speaking together on a panel at the Good Growth Foundation’s National Growth Debate, they are expected to make the case for a revamp of council tax and stamp duty as well as regulatory reform to encourage investment and support businesses to grow. They will argue that this is not about left or right, but a plan that pitches Labour against the status quo rather than as its defenders, with an economy that rewards hard work and takes on profiteering.
In the morning, I went to church which was pretty full even for an 8.30 service. Afterwards, in the parish hall there was a Spring Arts ad Crafts sale so as well as having my coffee and biscuits, I also purchased some raffle tickets, bought a banana and chocolate home-made cake some of which I am going to freeze and a spider plant. Then picked up a copy of my newspaper, put some petrol in the car and got some living money out of the ATM. As the weather was fine and bright this morning, and the grass was starting to look badly neglected, I managed to get the front green area cut. I was a little distraught when the mower refused to start (although it had started at first pull after the long winter break) but a friend of mine had left me some of a special product called ‘Fast Start’ which sprayed into the air intake, and this seemed to do the trick because the mower started soon afterwards. With holidays and other things intervening, the lawns had been left for the best part of three weeks so I was particularly pleased to get this job underway. Afterwards I had a sort of meal of ice-cream, yogurt and rhubarb out of a tin which was all felt I needed. I listened to the ‘World This Weekend’ on Radio 4 and was then intrigued by the programme that followed it at 2.00pm. This was an account of how Sweden had been early adopters of the newly emerging technologies and by the year 2000 all children were provided with a laptop when they entered school. Then the evidence started to accumulate that this policy may have disastrous as things like the international PISA scores of educational attainment showed that Sweden, having been at the top of the table was rapidly siding down the table with reading badly affected. So the Swedes have had an abrupt change of policy as the evidence has accumulated and now screens of all types have been banned in schools and there is now an emphasis upon traditional ‘pen and paper’ skills. The PISA scores have started to improve again and there is a near consensus that too much reliance upon the new technologies has been damaging to educational attainment and social maturation. My son and daughter-in-law called round this afternoon and I told them about my holiday in Scotland, also arranging at the same time that we shall all go out to see ‘The Magic Flute’ next Tuesday. Whilst waving my family goodbye, I was happy to bump into my next door neighbour and we haven’t managed to make contact for some time. So, I have invited them around for a spot of afternoon tea and my son and daughter-in-law are more than happy to join in the party as it were, as soon as we can organise a convenient time.