Michael Webb's Blog

AI, Education, Creativity and Society.

  • 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…

  • Prosopagnosia and not recognising people

    Ok, a slightly personal post. I’m partly sharing because writing is my way of thinking things through, but also maybe it’s of interest too. I tend to avoid social events around conferences, for reasons that will soon become clear, but this week, I stepped out of my comfort zone and joined a conference dinner. In…

  • AI, sustainability and copyright

    A few words on terminology A short Friday morning thought on language and terminology. We’ve got a bit of a problem in AI with the terms AI and generative AI getting merged. Nine times out ten now I’d say that when I see people talking about AI they are really talking about just Gen AI.…

  • Malicious LLM Applications

    It’s a lovely sunny morning here in south Wales, a perfect time take a look at a pre-print paper covering some of the darker uses of LLMs: “Malla: Demystifying Real-world Large Language Model Integrated Malicious Services“ So what’s a Malla? I don’t think it’s caught on yet, but ‘Malicious LLM Applications’. They’ve got names like…