Michael Webb's Blog

Category: Uncategorized

  • AI investment in the UK

    An interesting set of announcements on AI investment in the UK.It’s difficult to unpick how much of this is because of the UK’s AI action plan, and how much is simply aligned but would have happened anyway. In summary: Microsoft has committed £22bn over four years to expand cloud capacity and build a new AI…

  • Can a cat be a brother, father and son to another cat?

    I guess many of you have seen report on Open AI’s new model. I love that fact that it was code-named strawberry – a nod to the much-shared meme that AI can’t count how many R’s in strawberry. I like less the narrative that it’s some way ‘thinking’. OpenAI have contributed to this – it…

  • YouGov AI in HE Survey

    A fairly detailed survey on AI usage in HE from YouGov has just come out. Any surprises? I don’t think so. The reported AI use is lower than in some other surveys, at 66% of students. I suspect it’s still a slight under-reporting, with some reluctant to ‘admit’ it, but probably reached more people who…

  • Don’t forget the AI we see today is the worst it will ever be?

    I’ve again seen a few messages today repeating “Don’t forget the AI we see today is the worst it will ever be.” It’s up there with “AI won’t take your jobs but someone who can use it will” in my list of top AI quotes that I dislike a lot! It’s also why we need…

  • Joy!

    A bit of a lightbulb moment from yesterday’s Jisc AI roundtable – we don’t talk about joy enough! It started in the context of data and what we’d really like to know about students when they join, and one participant (we aren’t naming individuals, just themes) said it was what brings the learner joy. What…

  • ‘Ghibli-inspired’ AI images

    OK, an interesting one for a Friday morning. You’ve probably seen some of the so called ‘Ghibli-inspired’ images flooding the news and social media today. If you’ve not, here’s one of the many stories about it. The basic premise is that ChatGPT is ripping off Studio Ghibli’s style. I’m sure most of you know this,…

  • Engineering Responsible AI: foundations for environmentally sustainable AI

    You might well have seen news on the National Engineering Policy Centre’s report: ‘Engineering Responsible AI: foundations for environmentally sustainable AI’ The report is an excellent one. There is so much misinformation in this area, so it’s refreshing to see a measured report, focusing on opportunities. The report is pretty readable, other than the dreaded…

  • Lessons from Seattle

    We’ve always stressed the importance of looking beyond your immediate environment to understand what others are doing with AI—in education, industry, and the public sector. So I was really pleased to be invited on a Taith -funded study trip to Seattle, along with leaders from colleges in Wales and Qualifications Wales, organised by ColegauCymru |…

  • Two stories on AI and copyright

    A bit on copyright. There have been two different stories in the news relating to copyright and AI this week. The first, about a petition now signed by over 20,000 musicians and writers that argues: “The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the…