Michael Webb's Blog

Tag: ai

  • Claude Cowork – a little more…

    Ok, an uncharacteristically excited post from me, and something I will write more about soon. Having lived with Claude Cowork for a couple of weeks, I can say it is genuinely impressive. It is the first really useful tool I have used that clearly shows the next big stage of GenAI: automation. It is probably…

  • Claude Cowork – First Impressions

    I’ve just installed Claude Cowork on my Mac. The hype: “The Future of AI at Work: Introducing Cowork“. The reality – early stage agentic AI that can process your files and access some applications. I’ve subscribed to Claude Pro – £18 a month, which gives access to the beta version, and I’ve decided to use…

  • AI APPG Horizon Scanning

    I’m on a train heading back from a crowded committee room in the House of Lords for an AI APPG (all-party parliamentary group) evidence session on horizon scanning. AI events always draw a crowd, and I suspect the presence of Yann LeCun was a big attraction. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s a big…

  • End of year reflections

    First, full disclosure – I started writing this for our Jisc AI team blog, but I ran out of time to get my colleagues’ input before the Christmas break! So I’m reviving my Substack for this one, as it’s purely my thoughts and reflections. As we approach the end of 2025, I thought I’d look…

  • Grok says … Elon Musk is the best.

    Something more light-hearted this Friday. You might have heard the reports that Grok on X was claiming Elon Musk is the best at everything – sport, romance, drinking etc. The reports say this was just the X version of Grok, and xAI claimed it was due to adverse prompting. So… I thought I’d give it…

  • Marketing AI

    I’ve been thinking a lot about why I, and others who have been involved with AI for a long time, are often the ones questioning whether AI is really appropriate or useful for a given activity. On panels and in discussions, we can sometimes seem like the sceptics, while others are chomping at the bit…

  • 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.…

  • What is AI Sovereignty and why does it matter for education?

    The phrases ‘Data Sovereignty’, ‘Digital Sovereignty’, and ‘AI Sovereignty’ are coming up more and more, so I thought it would be useful to try to unpack them, and understand why they matter.  The terms sound similar, but I’d argue that they are in fact, quite different, with very different concerns. Data Sovereignty is concerned with control…

  • AI Music Generation

    I’m just catching up on some of the hyped AI apps from the last week or so. One that’s got a lot of attention is music generator Udio. I’ve had a quick play with it, and it’s fun and easy to use. I think the results are perfectly serviceable for some use cases. Basic music…