Meeting with Janet Waring Rago –

Today was my first ‘one to one’ meeting with my research supervisor Janet Waring Rago.  I had met Janet briefly a few weeks ago (Zoom Session 26).  Already Janet had given me some great ideas, which I incorporated into my research paper.  However, today’s ‘one to one’ session really made me think!  It was a great opportunity to build on our last meeting ‘in group’.  We discussed ways that I could add depth to my project.  Looking back through my research paper I can see what Janet means in terms of widening the scope of my paper.

Currently, my focus is quite narrow looking at whether people prefer robotic art as opposed to simple text to image art seen through a lens of empathy and sympathy.  Janet pointed out that even the way in which I communicate with ChatGPT is in a polite manner, therefore could this also be a source of primary research?

We also talked about whether or not it would be a good idea to try to publish my research paper.  Janet felt that perhaps this would add a whole extra layer of complexity to the paper.  Therefore we decided that it is possibly better to complete the paper first and think about publishing at a later stage.  She also introduced me to academia.eu and said that maybe this could be a test bed for my paper once it is done?  When I visited the site I realised that I already had an account which was handy.  I must have tried it at some point in the past and then forgotten about it.  It also appears that I’ve been (unbeknown to me), very busy lately (see image below), lol 😂   This did make me smile.  Unfortunately I need a subscription to see what my namesake has been writing, so my curiosity will have to wait.  However, on a more serious note I do think that this will be a very useful website for my research.

After speaking with Janet and following on from the thread of our discussion, I watched a number of interesting YouTube videos about the pros and cons of Ai and where humanity might be heading with this new technology.  Indeed one of the core themes running through each of these videos was that, how we behave will have a direct influence on how Ai behaves.  For example if we are rude, abusive and generally malevolent – then this is what Ai will learn from us.  Conversely, if we are polite and respectful and teach it everything that is great about humanity, then it is much less likely to do us harm.  I then thought about my polite conversations with Ai and how this could be woven into my research paper.

Other things that were discussed were my thoughts about the colonisation of the internet.  I likened it it colonial Britain going out and conquering India and Australia.  Indeed, I tend to think of the internet in terms of regions and areas that are being slowly colonised.  An example might be imagine if Australia was the cyber equivalent of eBay,  India was the cyber equivalent of Amazon, Canada was the cyber equivalent of Etsy and Russia was the cyber equivalent of Microsoft. By using these metaphors it is possible to see how individuals have conquered these regions of cyberspace making them incredibly powerful people.  Janet thought this was an interesting comparison and that maybe this is also something that can be woven into my paper.

Sadly our session ended all too soon as I needed to leave for my tutorial with Jonathan.  However, I’m very much hoping to ‘bounce’ more ideas with Janet over the coming weeks.  I think that her thoughts on adding depth to my research paper is something that I can also take on board with my work as a whole.  I’m really looking forward to working with Janet and our next meeting.

Videos Discussing the Trajectory of Travel for Ai

As mentioned above I watched three videos about where humanity is headed in terms of Ai.  Below are links to those videos for further reference.  I do sometimes wonder if Ai is being deliberately ‘sensationalised’ because scary headlines mean more clicks and more clicks me more ad revenue.  I believe I am beginning to become somewhat sceptical about some of the more dire predictions.  Although that is not to say that the more doom laden scenarios could not happen.  These videos have also been added to my Research Sources, Notes and Appendices Blog for future reference.