Ways that modern technology has impressed me recently

Sometimes I find myself completely taken aback at just how far technology has come on in the last few years. It's not all good of course (AI slop on social media I'm looking at you!), but here are some ways that technology has impressed me.

Helping me to re-read a short story that has stuck with me over the years

I had a memory of a short science fiction story that I read as a teenager and I wanted to identify it.

This was my prompt - I’m looking for a short science fiction story. It was written/set I think maybe 1950s or earlier. It is about a group of men, I think two come to visit a third. During their visit a mysterious gas cloud covers the earth and sends everyone to sleep for a day. The men wear gas masks and don’t fall asleep. They observe everyone else sleeping. Then the next morning everyone else wakes up and doesn’t realise that they have missed a day.

I had quite a few key details wrong (there are four men and a woman, they are in a sealed room with oxygen and not wearing gas masks, it was written in 1913, and they actually assume that everyone else is dead and not just sleeping which is a little more horrifying), but not only did ChatGPT find me the story (The Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle) it also found me an online copy as it is in the public domain. I went over to Amazon, and was able to download a free copy for my Kindle to read straightaway.

Deciphering an inscription from a book

I bought an old book recently with some handwritten text in the front that had been crossed out. Being nosy, I wanted to know what it said! I took a photo and uploaded it to ChatGPT which suggested adjusting the colour contrasts. I discovered that the original text was a different colour to the crossed over text, and so I was able to upload the contrasted image to ChatGPT which isolated the original text for me and filled in the gaps. I was able to work out almost all of the text (it's nothing exciting, just a name and location!)

Checking maths homework

My daughter was recently doing some maths homework, solving a geometry problem. She had a diagram where she needed to find the angles, and she had annotated the original worksheet page quite heavily with her workings out and final answer. She showed me how she could take a photo of the page and uploaded it to ChatGPT asking it to check her answers. It was able to find the key information from the question and confirm that she was right (yes we did double check with our resident maths expert!) 

Finding a short YouTube video that I watched once

I had a memory of a poignant video that I saw once on YouTube and wanted to watch again. All I could remember was that it was animated, and was about a woman's life and the last time that anyone thought about her. I had searched over and over on YouTube and elsewhere and couldn't find it, but ChatGPT found it in seconds. 

Here it is, if I have piqued your interest!

But what has not impressed me?!

I was looking for some new wall art recently, and thought I'd quite like a nice poster of a local town or city. How about Brighton? Well, even if you've never visited Brighton I think that you would quickly realise that this interesting effort, almost certainly AI generated, is not an accurate depiction!

Have you found any ways in which technology has impressed you?

An experiment in AI recipe creation

When it comes to AI I am conflicted. I can see many advantages to the technology, and I have been very impressed with some of the ways that I've used AI. But I'm also worried about the future - already a huge amount of the content that I see online is AI generated and it is becoming more and more difficult to tell what is real. Not to mention the number of jobs which are at threat - like online content creation!

My particular interest in AI is how I could use it to improve and enhance my daily life. I use ChatGPT and I've tried it out in various different scenarios - for example I've used AI to generate images for blog posts, experimented fairly successfully with AI for holiday planning and I've even completed an AI generated jigsaw puzzle.

This week I thought I would see how good ChatGPT was at recipe creation. I had some eggs that I wanted to use up, and I fancied doing some baking. With my new year's intention being to eat more healthy food I wanted to come up with a savoury recipe that would be nutritious, with plenty of vegetables. I had in mind something like vegetable muffins, but as a larger cake baked in a loaf tin.

I had a few conversations with ChatGPT where I clarified that I wanted the recipe to use eggs, vegetables, and to be vegetarian. I was after something that would be suitable for a light lunch, to be eaten hot, and that could be kept for several days. I narrowed down the vegetables that I wanted to include, and it suggested adding quinoa for some extra bulk, which was great as I have a pack in the cupboard that needs eating up.

After a bit of going back and forth this is what we came up with:

Cheesy Quinoa Vegetable Slice

Ingredients:

60g dry quinoa, cooked in 120ml water until absorbed

2 eggs

80ml milk

80g grated cheese

50g self-raising flour

1 courgette, grated

1 red pepper, diced

1/2 an onion, chopped

salt, pepper and 1 tsp dried herbs

Method:

Mix the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and herbs. Add the cheese, cooked quinoa, courgette, pepper and onion. Fold in the flour until combined. Bake in a loaf tin at 160 for 30-35 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

Verdict

I'm enough of a cook that that I was reasonably sure the recipe would at least create something edible. I did ask ChatGPT whether I could trust an AI recipe and it admitted that I probably couldn't trust it entirely, in particular the cooking temperature and times. It also told me that the images I was given were also not to be trusted.

The quantities of the ingredients were just right to fit in my loaf tin. However the baking time was off - I ended up baking for 45 minutes and even then I didn't feel like it was cooked as well as it should be. It looked good out the oven, but when I came to slice up the texture wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I was after a cake like texture, but instead it was more like a thick omelette.

Even though it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, I don't like to waste food, so I decided to repurpose it as vegetable fritters. I cut it into slices and then fried on both sides. This worked much better, the slices were tasty, and it would make a great protein and fibre filled breakfast or lunch.

I had fun experimenting with ChatGPT recipes and seeing what ideas it came up with. Adding the quinoa is something that I wouldn't have considered, and it helped me to think about which ingredients would work well together. I'm not going to be using AI for my recipes on a regular basis, but if I was looking for ideas to use up ingredients that I had lying around then it's not a bad place to start!

Using ChatGPT to plan a holiday - what's the best way to use it?

I'm currently in the process of planning a big holiday - a several week trip to Japan which will involve travelling around the country to visit many places of interest - and for the first time I'm experimenting with using ChatGPT to help me come up with places to visit and to plan an itinerary. 

I've been having a really positive experience, so I thought I'd share some of the pros and cons, as well as a few tips for anyone thinking of using AI to plan a holiday. 

Advantages of using AI to plan a holiday

ChatGPT is constantly evolving, and is constantly being updated. ChatGPT now has an excellent memory, so even in a separate query it will remember the ages and interests of family members or information like the fact that you are a vegetarian family. So you don't need to keep repeating yourself with each prompt.  

It's perfect for finding a small piece of information quickly, for example the opening times of a particular attraction, without having to trawl through Google search results. Just remember to ask it for for a link that you can use to check the information!

It's brilliant if you are searching for information online which may be in a different language, for example a small local attraction which may not have an English website. 

I found it very helpful for putting together an itinerary based on attractions which are close together geographically without having to hunt everything down on a map. It's also great for suggesting day trips or other places to visit nearby.

The AI can pick out some less well known information, for example more niche attractions, that wouldn't come up in the first few pages of search engine results. It finds even the most obscure information incredibly quickly.

Some negatives to using ChatGPT to plan a holiday

If you've asked for an itinerary make sure that all the days are included - I had an attempt that missed out an entire day. 

The AI may draw to your attention to the fact that an attraction is closed on a certain day, yet still plan for you to visit on the day when it's closed.

Opening hours or ticket prices may be incorrect, and it may suggest visiting places such as restaurants that have now closed down.

Restaurant suggestions in particular can be a bit random and it's difficult to see why a particular venue has been suggested over others that are just as good or more suitable.

Depending on how you phrase your initial prompt, the AI may pick out something small and run with it. For example, I mentioned shopping as a possible interest among several others and was presented with a three day itinerary which included only shops, rather than any famous sights.

Photo credit Finn Mund via Unsplash

Some tips for using ChatGPT to plan your travels

In your initial prompt, enter as much detail as possible. For example - ages of travellers, interests (history, art, nature, transport...), the type of place that you want to visit (museums, shops, landmarks, places to take a good selfie, ways to experience local cuisine...), attractions that you definitely want to visit and the sights that you aren't bothered about, whether you will have a car or will be using public transport.

Make sure to add in your travel plans, for example flight or train details, and whether any of the dates in your itinerary are fixed, for example if you have booked tickets to an event. Ask the AI to suggest quieter days or times to visit large attractions, and ask whether there are any public holidays or local events to be aware of.

When the AI comes back with suggestions you can keep a thread going and all the information you've received so far will be stored in the chat. For example further prompts like 'do you have any other suggestions that are more suitable for teenagers', 'how about some places with historical significance' or 'what else could I do while I'm in this area'.

You can ask for summary reviews, like 'what do people think of this attraction' or 'is this a popular place to visit with teenagers'.

Finally, check every detail before you leave. In particular opening times, transport links, admission costs, process for purchasing tickets and so on. I've found ChatGPT to be generally accurate, but you can't rely on it entirely! You can also always ask the AI for a link to an official website where you can verify the information.

I hope that this article is helpful - next time you are planning a holiday see whether ChatGPT can help you out!

Using AI to create images for blog posts - an update

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about using AI to generate images for blog posts. I had forgotten about it until recently, when I suddenly started getting lots of spam comments on it. It must have ended up being favoured by search engines for some reason!

Things have really moved on when it comes to AI and image generation since I wrote that post. You can now use ChatGPT to generate images, although there is a limit to the number that you can create in a day using a free account - I think it's officially three although I managed to make five in one session.

I was thinking about how much I'm looking forward to sitting in our newly landscaped garden with a book, so I decided to ask it to generate me an image which would be a suitable illustration for a blog post on that subject. And yes I know, being polite to ChatGPT makes it cost more...I just can't help myself!)

My prompts are in italics.

The blog post is about how I'm looking forward to reading in my new garden. I want a landscape image in a photographic style. No text in the image. The image should be of a lovely new garden with clean fencing, patio etc. There should be a comfortable chair which is suitable for using outdoors with lots of cushions, then a small table next to it with a pile of books, a blanket and a hot drink in a mug. No people in the picture.

I was really pleased with this result! The garden looks fairly realistic, the chair and table aren't bad (I think the table might be missing a leg but it's not too obvious) and the pile of books is pretty good without any attempt at text on the spines.

I decided to amend the image to portray a more realistic British summer:

That's perfect! Now can you create the same image but it's raining?

Again it's not bad! It's a little dark, but it's clearly raining. So I decided to cheer things up a bit. I was interested to see whether asking for changes would make them to my first image or to the amended image.

Thank you! Now can you make it a little more colourful, make the blanket striped and add some colourful cushions, make the mug blue 

It changed the second image which was what I was expecting. This image is probably my least favourite from the set because the colours are just too bright. But I wanted to see what it would look like on a nicer day.

Can you make it sunny again in the image?

This image is so colourful that I think it does look very fake. A leg is now visible on the table though, and it's interesting how the length of the blanket has changed. So I wanted something a little more subtle...

Thank you! Can you tone down the colours a little, make them pastel shades

Although I like the colour scheme for this image a lot more, I do feel that the further I went with amending the image the more fake it looks. This time it has randomly added some extras - I quite like the paints on the table and the open book but you don't typically find decorative globes in a garden, and certainly not two of them! And where did the suitcase come from?!

The quality of the images is definitely an improvement on the ones that I created two years ago. I would happily use the first image in a blog post, and I think that it could easily pass for a real image, especially when scrolling quickly. 

I'm starting to notice images like this more and more, both on social media and on business webpages, and I know that it won't be long at all before it's impossible to identify an artificially generated image. It's really important to be aware that you can't trust anything you see!

Using ChatGPT as a blogger

I'm really interested in the development of AI and I've done lots of reading around the topic. I'm not really interested in how it works, I want to learn about the ethical considerations, and the ways that it might influence our lives both now and in the future.

I can see AI having a massive impact on the media landscape, especially when it comes to social media and online magazines and blogs. I was fascinated by a recent story about how fans of the computer game World of Warcraft laid a trap for an AI bot that was generating news stories based on their Reddit posts - Warcraft fans trick AI article bot with Glorbo hoax - and it did make me wonder how much online content has been created by Artificial Intelligence. It's going to have a huge impact on both online and print publishing. 

I think that we are entering a time when a huge amount of online content will be computer generated (if it's not already!), and because the software is then learning from that generated online content I do wonder about what that means for traditional writers, and for the people that are reading it. I just can't see it being the same in terms of quality and accuracy.

Image generated by Stable Diffusion AI

However I must confess that I have been using ChatGPT when it comes to brainstorming and writing blog posts. I'll say first that I've never used ChatGPT to write an entire blog post and I don't intend to!

 But here are some of the ways that I've used it for blogging:

- Asking for a list of ideas for blog posts around a particular theme. Often none of the titles are exactly what I'm looking for, but they've sparked an idea for something else.

- Asking for blog post outlines around a particular subject. It's a good way of coming up with new ideas even if I don't want to follow the suggested format.

- I needed to write a sponsored post about the benefits of installing a GPS tracker in your car and I could only think of a couple! But ChatGPT provided me with several that I hadn't considered, and I was able to expand on those to fill the article. 

- I used a different AI tool to generate some potential blog post images. You can read about how I got on here - Using AI to generate images for blog posts. There's still lots of work to be done in this area, but I can see it being very useful if you are looking for a very specific image to illustrate something.

- Coming up with craft ideas. I asked it to give me some ideas for crafts involving particular materials for certain occasions. The results weren't ground breaking and I could have just used Google, but again it did help to give me some inspiration.

I've found that for the best results you need to be very specific when it comes to writing your prompt. You can go into a lot of detail and write a whole paragraph about what you are after, and then you can use further prompts or ask it to rewrite for you in a different way. ChatGPT also saves all your queries so you can go back to them and follow up. 

ChatGPT will even come up with text that you can use to share your posts on social media. I had a lot of fun with this, especially if you ask it to make them click bait! I would never use them! But here are some tweets that it suggested for promoting this blog post, complete with emojis and hashtags:

Prompt: 

Please generate me some tweets for sharing my blog post titled "Using ChatGPT as a Blogger". Make them click bait!

Results:

"🚀 Unleash the POWER of ChatGPT! 🤖 Learn how I skyrocketed my blog with AI wizardry! 💥 Read it now: [Blog Post Link] #BloggerMagic #AIWriting"

"💡 Want to BOOST your blog game? Discover my SECRET weapon: ChatGPT! 📚🚀 Dive into the future of blogging here: [Blog Post Link] #ChatGPT #BloggingTips"

"📝 Bloggers, brace yourselves! ChatGPT is your new BEST friend! 😍 Unlock the potential of AI writing today: [Blog Post Link] #BloggersUnite #AIContent"

"🚀 REVOLUTIONIZE your blogging game with ChatGPT! 💥 Get the inside scoop on my blogging journey here: [Blog Post Link] #BloggerLife #AIWriting"

"🌟 BLOGGERS, this is a GAME-CHANGER! 💡 Explore how ChatGPT transformed my content creation! 🔥 Dive in now: [Blog Post Link] #ContentCreation #ChatGPT"

Of course there are drawbacks to using ChatGPT to write content. The biggest one is that it does just make things up. I asked for reading material around a particular subject and was given a list of plausible titles and authors. Some of the authors had written books on similar subjects and the titles sounded good. But the actual books didn't exist!

I also asked for links to blog posts and articles on the subject I was researching and again it listed fake articles. There was a disclaimer saying that the titles had been automatically generated, but a website that is automatically copying and pasting information won't take any notice of that.

Finally, after asking ChatGPT to generate a few blog post articles it's easy to see the format that is being used, and it becomes very repetitive. The articles are nicely written with a beginning, middle and an end and the style is correct but somehow it just sounds a bit off and formulaic. Maybe a blog could get away with the occasional AI generated article but I think readers would soon get bored, especially if reading several articles at once.

I don't intend to ever use ChatGPT to write my blog, it's something that I love doing too much! But I'm definitely going to be more wary of the content that I read online going forwards, and I really hope that we aren't starting to see the end of human generated content.

Will AI mean the end of human created online content?

For a little while now I've been watching with interest as AI becomes more prominent in online life. For some time my Facebook newsfeed has been filled with adverts for companies that will write blog posts and create other online content using AI. I've often suspected that a sponsored post which I've been paid to publish has been heavily influenced by an AI blog post writing tool. 

Two years ago Harry wrote me a simple AI computer programme that would generate blog post titles based on my existing content - Using AI to generate blog post titles. Since then the technology has come on incredibly, especially with the release of ChatGPT meaning that anyone with internet access can easily access user friendly AI tools. I've used ChatGPT to play around with producing blog post ideas as well as writing blog posts, and have been really surprised by how good the results have been. I've not used AI to write a post yet, but I must admit that when I'm suffering from writer's block the thought is very tempting!

It's not just text that AI can produce. I wrote recently about how I'd been using using AI to generate images for blog posts, and although the technology in this area still has some way to go, I can see that it won't be long before AI generated pictures become much more common. They are quick to produce, copyright and royalty free, and you can easily create the exact illustration that you are looking for in an artistic style that suits your needs. 

AI generated images

Last week we started watching the new Marvel series Secret Invasion, and the day before I was interested to read that the Secret Invasion opening titles were created using AI. I definitely wouldn't have realised it if I hadn't known - although the sequence is cartoonish and dreamlike it fitted in with similar opening titles that I've seen. 

Although AI video will probably take a little longer to become more common, I did some research and there is software available that will create AI generated people to read out your scripts, as well as giving you the ability to create videos using your own photographs and video clips. You can easily use AI to edit your clips, and to reduce a longer video to make a short form video which is more shareable for social media.

I think that because of the speed at which people consume online content it will become very difficult to spot artificially generated content. When you scroll quickly through a social media feed like TikTok or Instagram you often barely pause to notice what you have just seen. I think that any of the four images above would easily slot into my Instagram feed without me spotting anything unusual.

Unfortunately I think that AI generated content is going to become prolific and more difficult to spot, and this is a bit of a problem for someone like me that enjoys creating online content! 

Obviously a blog post written by AI lacks the personal touch, but if you are looking to create generic content, for example a travel guide to a city, lifestyle articles about a particular hobby, or tips and advice for different situations, I think that an AI can probably write an article equal to that of many bloggers or online journalists. 

This has all sorts of problems associated with it, not least the accuracy of the information but also the potential for bias and discrimination in the writing. When paired with the social media algorithms which prioritise different content for particular users, AI content can easily encourage people to think in particular ways and to influence their views. Not to mention the fact that it takes away the work from many human creative workers. 

I think we are a few years away yet, but the technology is developing so rapidly that I don't think it will be long before the majority of online content that is being consumed is no longer produced by humans.

What do you think? I'd love to hear other (maybe less pessimistic!) opinions!

Using AI to generate images for blog posts

Since I wrote this post, AI technology has been improving at a startling rate. I recently wrote a follow up blog post here - Using AI to create images for blog posts - an update.

I've been doing a lot of reading around Artificial Intelligence recently, it's a subject which fascinates me. As well as the ethics of AI, as both an online content creator and consumer I'm concerned with how AI could be used to produce content which is indistinguishable from that produced by humans. I've played around with ChatGPT to both generate blog post titles and to see what posts it would write based on those titles, and I've been impressed and I must admit a little bit in awe.  

When I'm looking for an image to illustrate a blog post then I turn to Unsplash for good quality and copyright free photographs that work with my content. The other day I was struggling to find exactly what I wanted, and I remembered reading about the AI image generator Stable Diffusion. I gave it a go and was actually really impressed with the image of a packed suitcase that it generated (the post is to be published next week, the AI image will be clearly disclosed!) so I thought I'd have a go at generating some 'stock' photographs that I could use to illustrate the sorts of things that I often write about!

I started with some crafty requests - bullet journals, art journals and a crochet blanket - and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. The text in the journals is nonsense and the blanket is a little fuzzy, but as part of a quickly skimmed blog post I think that they could pass as real photographs.

I soon discovered that anything involving text or body parts like faces or hands doesn't work well at all, and I ended up with some very creepy images. I was impressed that the tool managed the word 'blog' on the laptop, but all the hands have gone very wrong!

I found that the AI image generator coped much better with images that involved a landscape or food. The images are a little too perfect, very smooth and shiny, but I think that some of them could certainly pass as genuine photos when scrolling through a platform like Instagram!

My favourite AI generated images were these two involving books. It took a few attempts because the tool can't manage text very well so I needed to try for images taken from a distance or a little out of focus. I think that either of these two images would make a great blog post photograph, as long as you don't look too closely!

Finally one of my favourite images was one that went completely wrong. I asked for a person sitting on a sun lounger at the beach reading a book and ended up with this disturbing image!

Clearly the technology has a way to go, but I can see that it won't be long before it will be easy to generate the exact image that you are looking for to illustrate something online, especially if you are just looking for generic images. I'll be looking very carefully at photographs now, because I've started to identify the characteristics that you can look for to identify an AI image. For example differences in the textures, wobbly edges, wonky text, over saturated colours and sometimes a rather grainy feel.

I found it fascinating to play with this tool, and if you have a spare few minutes I'd recommend giving it a go, you might be surprised with how well it works! 

All these images were generated using Stable Diffusion which is currently free to use. All images created using Stable Diffusion Online are fully open source, explicitly falling under the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.