New AI chip for home PCs

Nvidia has announced a new chip for PCs that brings AI to home PCs in a big way rivalling big chip manufacturers like Intel.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmp9mppvzro

Victorian train - London to Edinburgh

This is an AI video showing a train journey from London to Edinburgh in Victorian times. There are some clear errors but, overall, it is very good. 

I am very impressed with these historical AI videos as they give a good insight to what it must have been like.

Apparently you have to watch the video on YouTube.

YouTube AI

It is sad that what you view these days may not be true. 

Using AI videos supposedly by a famous person may not be by this person at all! This is why I never trust a channel I don't know to be genuine as there are a lot of fakes around. 

People can make lots of money by visits to their sites, even if the contents are a load of rubbish.

AI

Yesterday I asked Google AI (Gemini?) about G3XBM.  To my surprise it was accurate. Previous attempts have often included mistakes. I guess in the last few years AI must have improved.

Where will AI be in another 10 years?

Frightening AI

Just now I watched a 15 second video clip. It shows a fight between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Nothing special, except this was entirely created using AI from a 2 second prompt.

I am sure there will be many good things about AI. At the same time AI could be used in the media to, for example, re-create dead people. It could revolutionise movies.... and create a dearth in jobs.

See https://x.com/RuairiRobinson/status/2021394940757209134

AI historical reconstructions

 AI sometimes gets a bad press.  

In the case of historical reconstruction videos some are very good. Occasionally the AI get things very wrong e.g. the reconstruction showing Edinburgh in the 1880s with British Railways engines post 1948!

On the whole I am very impressed.

The march of AI

Just a few years ago most had never heard of AI (artificial intelligence). Now it is everywhere: you look, for example, on YouTube as you see a well known person. The chances are this is created using AI. These days  many, if not most, of the things you see on YouTube are AI creations created so the creator gets money from adverts when the video is viewed.

Sadly, you have to assume it is AI unless you can be absolutely sure it is not. There are very few sites I now trust.

Amazing AI videos

In recent days I have been amazed by some AI videos on YouTube. 

These are produced by MajesticAIStudios. They use old prints as seeds and recreate places as they were hundreds of years ago in moving videos that are ultra realistic. 

Personally I am highly impressed.

See https://www.youtube.com/@MajesticAIStudio

Videos include Amsterdam, London, Paris and Liverpool centuries ago.

Amazing AI of London in the 1600s

Just now, I watched an AI video of London in the 1600s. It was amazing and so very realistic. It was almost like really being there centuries ago. 

In my view, this is an example of AI at it best. The "seed" was old engravings of various London scenes. Truly amazing.

A good use of AI

AI frequently gets a bad press, but there are some things it is very good at. 

Today I chanced upon a movie on YouTube of London in the 1700s. It was created using old black and white prints from that time. 

The finished movie gives you a great impression of how it must have been.

AI crappery

At one time I enjoyed YouTube, but sadly you no longer can be sure that anything is real. 

I watched a very long video supposed to be by Brian Cox. It was clearly not by Brian Cox. Last week I watched a video that was meant to be the thoughts of Einstein.

The message is clear: you cannot know what is real and what is AI. The only thing you can do is assume everything is generated by AI unless you can be absolutely certain of the source.

AI dangers

There is no doubt that AI will have a huge impact on the lives of everyone in the future. It will get better and better and will have impacts for good and evil.

In many ways I have been impressed with AI. For example I asked it to colourise an old black and white photo of my dad in his RAF uniform during WW2. The colourisation was excellent.

On the downside I asked Gemini to "make a picture of Roger G3XBM" as an experiment. I tried this both in "fast" and "thinking" modes.  On both attempts the person looked nothing at all like me. It created a radio shack (far more extensive than mine, HI) and a plaque with my callsign, but the person was totally wrong. I suppose it has to find a photo of me to learn from.

This is one of the dangers of AI. People may believe what they are being told. Often it will be correct. At the same time it can be very wrong! For now, it is best to treat AI with some caution knowing it can go "rogue" and give totally false results. It can only be as good as the sources it learns from.

AI voice?

As many know, I had a stroke in 2013 that left me with a totally poor voice that many find hard to understand. Before my stroke I made quite a few YouTube videos, so I have quite a few samples of what I used to sound like.

My wife has suggested I use these to create an AI voice of me as I once sounded. I have never tried AI for this, but it sounds a good idea. The first stage will be to collect some audio samples from YouTube and then recreate my old voice using an AI tool.

If you know of suitable (preferably free) tools,  please let me know as soon as possible.

AI and data centres

There is no doubt that AI consumes hugs amounts of power. We have some way to go to match the memory and processing power of the human brain. I am sure this will get better with time although we are a long way away at present. 

So far I have been very impressed with Gemini AI that renders old black and white photos in colour in just seconds.

This creates a moral dilemma: we all want the benefits of AI without its power-hungry nature.

What can you believe?

If you look on YouTube you could believe anything.

Many of the videos are now created using AI, so the only thing you can be sure of is "this could be incorrect". It is getting harder and harder to tell what is real and what is fake. 

Unless you are absolutely sure it is safer to assume everything is fake!

AI dangers

Recently I have been watching several videos on YouTube supposed to be the sayings of Albert Einstein. The trouble is we can’t be sure he ever said these words! 

It is now very easy to make videos, photos and texts with AI, The trouble is these AI generated images and words are often believed. So, disinformation is spread. 

I am sure there are lots of good things that become possible with AI where lots of data has to be processed quickly, but there are also great dangers. 

We now have to treat EVERYTHING we see with scepticism sadly. 

Decreasing human contact

Just now I was invited to check my PayPal balance. They wanted to send me a code to my phone to verify it was me. I doubt a human was involved. 

Most chat bots are computers rather than real people.  At supermarket checkouts you are encouraged to use automatic checkouts.  Most bank transactions are getting cash from an ATM. If you are lucky you may get a call centre somewhere on the planet, where a person might understand you and you might understand them! You are just a sort code and account number - no personal contact.

More and more there is less human contact. All this is done in the name of "progress" and to save money or increase profits. 

In my view we are going backwards.

AI and jobs

It seems we are facing a new industrial revolution around the world. Many of the tasks done by humans can be done faster and better by machines running AI.  Jobs we traditionally thought only humans could do are being replaced.

This is a two-edged sword. Boring repetitive work will go. Also, many skilled jobs will go. 

The good side is many people can be employed more usefully. The bad side is many traditional jobs will go and bad actors could use AI for malicious means.

In my view, these things are here to stay and we have to adapt.

The safest jobs will be those that cannot be done by machines i.e. those that need real human interaction.

Many of the jobs that seemed "good" when I was young may not be the jobs to look for in the future.

The murky world

There was a lot of panic when the Chinese launched their AI model DeepSeek earlier this year. 

The West would like to eavesdrop on countries they think could be a threat. I am sure there is a lot that goes on that most have no knowledge of. Perhaps it's best we don't know. 

One thing we can be sure about: every major power is spying!

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gez754mn6o

The fog of war - NOT amateur radio

Recently Israel and Iran have been fighting a war in the air. The Ukraine war has been raging since early 2022. Israel has been at war in Gaza since it was attacked in late 2023.

One common factor is "the fog of war". That is each side tries to outdo the other by spreading often false data. Recently, AI has been used.

All I am saying is this: it is very very easy to believe everything you see whereas it is quite common for this data to be wrong, especially during wars. Caveat emptor.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k78715enxo .