Search

Are young people smarter than older adults? My research shows cognitive differences between generations are diminishing

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephen-badham-1531316">Stephen Badham</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/nottingham-trent-university-1338">Nottingham Trent University</a> We often assume young people are smarter, or at least quicker, than older people. For example, we’ve all heard that scientists, and even more so mathematicians, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2014/08/07/who-says-scientists-peak-by-age-50/">carry out their most important work</a> when they’re comparatively young. But my new research, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027322972400008X#:%7E:text=Highlights&text=Three%20review%20studies%20measure%20secular,%2C%20education%2C%20and%20overall%20health.">published in Developmental Review</a>, suggests that cognitive differences between the old and young are tapering off over time. This is hugely important as stereotypes about the intelligence of people in their sixties or older may be holding them back – in the workplace and beyond. Cognitive ageing is often measured by comparing young adults, aged 18-30, to older adults, aged 65 and over. There are a variety of tasks that older adults do not perform well on compared to young adults, such as memory, spatial ability and speed of processing, which often form the basis of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-iq-test-wars-why-screening-for-intelligence-is-still-so-controversial-81428">IQ tests</a>. That said, there are a few tasks that older people do better at than younger people, such as reading comprehension and vocabulary. Declines in cognition are driven by a process called <a href="https://www.nature.com/collections/cbjacdabdf">cognitive ageing</a>, which happens to everyone. Surprisingly, age-related cognitive deficits start very early in adulthood, and declines in cognition have been measured as dropping in adults as young as just 25. Often, it is only when people reach older age that these effects add up to a noticeable amount. Common complaints consist of walking into a room and forgetting why you entered, as well as difficulty remembering names and struggling to drive in the dark. <h2>The trouble with comparison</h2> Sometimes, comparing young adults to older adults can be misleading though. The two generations were brought up in different times, with different levels of education, healthcare and nutrition. They also lead different daily lives, with some older people having lived though a world war while the youngest generation is growing up with the internet. Most of these factors favour the younger generation, and this can explain a proportion of their advantage in cognitive tasks. Indeed, much existing research shows that <a href="https://theconversation.com/iq-tests-are-humans-getting-smarter-158837">IQ has been improving</a> globally throughout the 20th century. This means that later-born generations are more cognitively able than those born earlier. This is even found when both generations are tested in the same way at the same age. Currently, there is growing evidence that <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1718793115">increases in IQ are levelling off,</a> such that, in the most recent couple of decades, young adults are no more cognitively able than young adults born shortly beforehand. Together, these factors may underlie the current result, namely that cognitive differences between young and older adults are diminishing over time. <h2>New results</h2> My research began when my team started getting strange results in our lab. We found that often the age differences we were getting between young and older adults was smaller or absent, compared to prior research from early 2000s. This prompted me to start looking at trends in age differences across the psychological literature in this area. I uncovered a variety of data that compared young and older adults from the 1960s up to the current day. I plotted this data against year of publication, and found that age deficits have been getting smaller over the last six decades. Next, I assessed if the average increases in cognitive ability over time seen across all individuals was a result that also applied to older adults specifically. Many large databases exist where groups of individuals are recruited every few years to take part in the same tests. I analysed studies using these data sets to look at older adults. I found that, just like younger people, older adults were indeed becoming more cognitively able with each cohort. But if differences are disappearing, does that mean younger people’s improvements in cognitive ability have slowed down or that older people’s have increased? I analysed data from my own laboratory that I had gathered over a seven-year period to find out. Here, I was able to dissociate the performance of the young from the performance of the older. I found that each cohort of young adults was performing to a similar extent across this seven-year period, but that older adults were showing improvements in both processing speed and vocabulary scores. <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/591482/original/file-20240501-24-esxcic.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/591482/original/file-20240501-24-esxcic.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/591482/original/file-20240501-24-esxcic.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/591482/original/file-20240501-24-esxcic.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/591482/original/file-20240501-24-esxcic.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/591482/original/file-20240501-24-esxcic.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/591482/original/file-20240501-24-esxcic.png?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="The figure shows data for a speed-based task where higher scores represent better performance." /><figcaption>The figure shows data for a speed-based task where higher scores represent better performance. <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></figcaption></figure> I believe the older adults of today are benefiting from many of the factors previously most applicable to young adults. For example, the number of children who went to school <a href="https://education-uk.org/history/chapter12.html">increased significantly</a> in the 1960s – with the system being more similar to what it is today than what it was at the start of the 20th century. This is being reflected in that cohort’s increased scores today, now they are older adults. At the same time, young adults have hit a ceiling and are no longer improving as much with each cohort. It is not entirely clear why the young generations have stopped improving so much. Some research has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2016.10.002">explored maternal age, mental health and even evolutionary trends</a>. I favour the opinion that there is just a natural ceiling – a limit to how much factors such as education, nutrition and health can improve cognitive performance. These data have important implications for research into dementia. For example, it is possible that a modern older adult in the early stages of dementia might pass a dementia test that was designed 20 or 30 years ago for the general population at that time. Therefore, as older adults are performing better in general than previous generations, it may be necessary to revise definitions of dementia that depend on an individuals’ expected level of ability. Ultimately, we need to rethink what it means to become older. And there’s finally some good news. Ultimately, we can expect to be more cognitively able than our grandparents were when we reach their age.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/229132/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephen-badham-1531316">Stephen Badham</a>, Professor of Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/nottingham-trent-university-1338">Nottingham Trent University</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-young-people-smarter-than-older-adults-my-research-shows-cognitive-differences-between-generations-are-diminishing-229132">original article</a>. </div>

Mind

What will aged care look like for the next generation?

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hal-swerissen-9722">Hal Swerissen</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a> Aged care financing is a vexed problem for the Australian government. It is already underfunded for the quality the community expects, and costs will increase dramatically. There are also significant concerns about the complexity of the system. In 2021–22 the federal government spent <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/final-report-of-the-aged-care-taskforce?language=en">A$25 billion</a> on aged services for around 1.2 million people aged 65 and over. Around 60% went to residential care (<a href="https://www.gen-agedcaredata.gov.au/topics/people-using-aged-care#:%7E:text=On%2030%20June%202022%2C%20approximately,and%203%2C500%20using%20transition%20care.">190,000 people</a>) and one-third to home care (<a href="https://www.gen-agedcaredata.gov.au/topics/people-using-aged-care#:%7E:text=On%2030%20June%202022%2C%20approximately,and%203%2C500%20using%20transition%20care.">one million people</a>). The <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/final-report-of-the-aged-care-taskforce?language=en">final report from the government’s Aged Care Taskforce</a>, which has been reviewing funding options, estimates the number of people who will need services is likely to grow to more than two million over the next 20 years. Costs are therefore likely to more than double. The taskforce has considered what aged care services are reasonable and necessary and made recommendations to the government about how they can be paid for. This includes getting aged care users to pay for more of their care. But rather than recommending an alternative financing arrangement that will safeguard Australians’ aged care services into the future, the taskforce largely recommends tidying up existing arrangements and keeping the status quo. <h2>No Medicare-style levy</h2> The taskforce <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/final-report-of-the-aged-care-taskforce?language=en">rejected</a> the aged care royal commission’s recommendation to introduce a levy to meet aged care cost increases. A 1% levy, similar to the Medicare levy, could have raised around <a href="https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2021/03/03/cost-of-aged-care-levy#:%7E:text=Overall%2C%20a%201%20per%20cent%20levy%20would%20raise,necessary%20to%20provide%20decent%20aged%20care%20for%20all.">$8 billion a year</a>. The taskforce failed to consider the mix of taxation, personal contributions and social insurance which are commonly used to fund aged care systems internationally. The <a href="https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/Japan-OECD-EC-Good-Time-in-Old-Age.pdf">Japanese system</a>, for example, is financed by long-term insurance paid by those aged 40 and over, plus general taxation and a small copayment. Instead, the taskforce puts forward a simple, pragmatic argument that older people are becoming wealthier through superannuation, there is a cost of living crisis for younger people and therefore older people should be required to pay more of their aged care costs. <h2>Separating care from other services</h2> In deciding what older people should pay more for, the taskforce divided services into care, everyday living and accommodation. The taskforce thought the most important services were clinical services (including nursing and allied health) and these should be the main responsibility of government funding. Personal care, including showering and dressing were seen as a middle tier that is likely to attract some co-payment, despite these services often being necessary to maintain independence. The task force recommended the costs for everyday living (such as food and utilities) and accommodation expenses (such as rent) should increasingly be a personal responsibility. <h2>Making the system fairer</h2> The taskforce thought it was unfair people in residential care were making substantial contributions for their everyday living expenses (about 25%) and those receiving home care weren’t (about 5%). This is, in part, because home care has always had a muddled set of rules about user co-payments. But the taskforce provided no analysis of accommodation costs (such as utilities and maintenance) people meet at home compared with residential care. To address the inefficiencies of upfront daily fees for packages, the taskforce recommends means testing co-payments for home care packages and basing them on the actual level of service users receive for everyday support (for food, cleaning, and so on) and to a lesser extent for support to maintain independence. It is unclear whether clinical and personal care costs and user contributions will be treated the same for residential and home care. <h2>Making residential aged care sustainable</h2> The taskforce was <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/final-report-of-the-aged-care-taskforce?language=en">concerned</a> residential care operators were losing $4 per resident day on “hotel” (accommodation services) and everyday living costs. The taskforce recommends means tested user contributions for room services and everyday living costs be increased. It also recommends that wealthier older people be given more choice by allowing them to pay more (per resident day) for better amenities. This would allow providers to fully meet the cost of these services. Effectively, this means daily living charges for residents are too low and inflexible and that fees would go up, although the taskforce was clear that low-income residents should be protected. <h2>Moving from buying to renting rooms</h2> Currently older people who need residential care have a choice of making a refundable up-front payment for their room or to pay rent to offset the loans providers take out to build facilities. Providers raise capital to build aged care facilities through equity or loan financing. However, the taskforce did not consider the overall efficiency of the private capital market for financing aged care or alternative solutions. Instead, it recommended capital contributions be streamlined and simplified by phasing out up-front payments and focusing on rental contributions. This echoes the royal commission, which found rent to be a more efficient and less risky method of financing capital for aged care in private capital markets. It’s likely that in a decade or so, once the new home care arrangements are in place, there will be proportionally fewer older people in residential aged care. Those who do go are likely to be more disabled and have greater care needs. And those with more money will pay more for their accommodation and everyday living arrangements. But they may have more choice too. Although the federal government has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-11/aged-care-task-force-hands-down-recommendations/103573554">ruled out an aged care levy</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-15/no-plan-to-touch-aged-care-asset-test/103470442">changes to assets test on the family home</a>, it has yet to respond to the majority of the recommendations. But given the aged care minister chaired the taskforce, it’s likely to provide a good indication of current thinking.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225551/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hal-swerissen-9722">Hal Swerissen</a>, Emeritus Professor, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a> Image: Getty This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-will-aged-care-look-like-for-the-next-generation-more-of-the-same-but-higher-out-of-pocket-costs-225551">original article</a>.

Caring

Storytelling allows elders to transfer values and meaning to younger generations

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mary-ann-mccoll-704728">Mary Ann McColl</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/queens-university-ontario-1154">Queen's University, Ontario</a> If you spent time over the holidays with elderly relatives or friends, you may have heard many of the same stories repeated — perhaps stories you’d heard over the years, or even over the past few hours. Repeated storytelling can sometimes be unnerving for friends and families, raising concerns about a loved one’s potential cognitive decline, memory loss or perhaps even the onset of dementia. <a href="https://tenstories.ca/">Our research</a> at Queen’s University suggests there is another way to think about repeated storytelling that makes it easier to listen and engage with the stories. We interviewed 20 middle-aged adults who felt they had heard the same stories over and over from their aging parent. We asked them to tell us those stories and we recorded and transcribed them. We used a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/14439881211248356">narrative inquiry approach</a> to discover that repeated storytelling is a key method for elders to communicate what they believe to be important to their children and loved ones. Narrative inquiry uses the text of stories as research data to explore how people create meaning in their lives. <h2>Transmitting values</h2> Based on nearly 200 collected stories, we found that there are approximately <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.13121">10 stories</a> that older parents repeatedly tell to their adult children. The hypothesis was that repeated storytelling was about inter-generational transmission of values. By exploring the themes of those repeated stories, we could uncover the meaning and messages elders were communicating to their loved ones. The ultimate purpose was to offer a new and more constructive way of thinking about stories that we’ve heard many times before, and that can be otherwise perceived as alarming. <h2>Here’s what we have learned:</h2> <ol> <li> There are typically just 10 stories that people tell repeatedly. While 10 is not a magic number, it does seem to be about the right number to capture the stories that are told over and over. Interviewees felt that a set of approximately 10 allowed them to do justice to their parent’s stories. </li> <li> Among our interviewees, a significant number of their parents’ stories – 87 per cent — took place when they were in their teens or twenties. A person’s second and third decades are a time when they make many of the decisions that shape the rest of their lives; a time when values are consolidated and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2013.863358">adult identity is formed</a> </li> <li> What’s important about the 10 stories is not the factual details, but the lesson that was learned, or the value that was reinforced — values like loyalty toward friends, putting family first, maintaining a sense of humour even in hard times, getting an education, speaking up against injustice, and doing what’s right. </li> <li> Key themes in the stories reflected the significant events and prevailing values of the early to mid-20th century. Many of the stories revolved around the war, and both domestic and overseas experiences that were formative. Many of our interviewees heard stories about immigrating to Canada, starting out with very little, seeking a better life and working hard. Stories often reflected a more formal time when it was important to uphold standards, make a good impression, know one’s place and adhere to the rules. </li> <li> The stories elders tell appear to be curated for the individual receiving them. They would be different if told to another child, a spouse or a friend. </li> </ol> <h2>Tips for listening</h2> Our research offers some tips for listening to stories from elders: <ul> <li> Focus on just 10 stories. It can make the listening seem less overwhelming. </li> <li> Write them down. Writing challenges us to get the story straight. </li> <li> Notice your loved one’s role in the story, as the message is often contained in that role. </li> <li> Be attentive to feelings, sensations, tension and discomfort. These can be signals or clues to the meaning of a story. </li> <li> Finally, remember these stories are for you — selected and told in the context of your relationship with your loved one. As such, they are a gift from a loved one who is running out of time. </li> </ul> <h2>The importance of receiving stories</h2> Storytelling is an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20067">essential human process</a> and a universal experience associated with aging. Neuroscientists suggest that storytelling has practical survival value for individuals and communities, <a href="https://www.jonathangottschall.com/storytelling-animal">as well as social and psychological benefits</a>. It may be as powerful as medication or therapy for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.1018">overcoming depression among elders</a>. Storytelling becomes especially important <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2017.1396581">when people become aware of their mortality</a> — when they are ill, suffering or facing death. People don’t necessarily tell the same stories over and over again because they’re losing cognitive function, but because the stories are important, and they feel we need to know them. Telling stories repeatedly isn’t about forgetfulness or dementia. It’s an effort to share what’s important. Our hope is that by better understanding elderly storytelling, caregivers may be able to listen in a different way to those repeated stories and understand the messages they contain. Those 10 stories can help us to know our loved one at a deeper level and assist our parent or grandparent with an important developmental task of old age. This research offers a constructive way for caregivers to hear the repeated stories told by their aging parents, and to offer their loved one the gift of knowing they have been seen and heard.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197766/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mary-ann-mccoll-704728">Mary Ann McColl</a>, Professor, School of Rehabilitation Therapy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/queens-university-ontario-1154">Queen's University, Ontario</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/storytelling-allows-elders-to-transfer-values-and-meaning-to-younger-generations-197766">original article</a>.

Mind

Baby boomers fight back against "self-entitled whingeing generations"

Angry baby boomers have hit back at young Australians for continuing to blame the ageing population for the current housing crisis. A group of disgruntled seniors have shared their thoughts with the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/blaming-baby-boomers-for-your-money-woes-is-unfair-lazy-and-wrong-20231127-p5en21.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sydney Morning Herald</a> about the "self-entitled" young Australians, who are facing never-before-seen financial and social barriers to break into the housing market. The open letters come in the wake of Census data showing empty-nesters are hanging on to their big homes in inner-city suburbs, while young families are struggling to find suitable housing while also battling mortgage stress and renters are getting relentlessly price-gouged. Despite the current system disproportionately affecting younger Australians, boomers have hit back at universal claims that they had it easier back in the day. "We bought and paid for these homes; it's not our job to house the next generations, it's the government's," explained Kathleen Kyle in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald. "Nobody questions people who spend their money on lovely cars or antiques, or suggests that they don't need them any more." In another letter, Kathy Willis from Kew near Port Macquarie wrote, "Boomers have worked very hard to get what they have, having brought up their families in these homes." "I suggest the discourse be directed to people such as town planners, local councils and state governments for their lack of vision in the past, and what the present authorities are going to do about it – and of course, the taxpayers' expense." Suzanne Hopping from Redfern, Sydney, wrote that she could no longer stay silent on "boomer bashing" from "self-entitled whingeing generations". "I bought my first home when I was 39 in an undesirable suburb. Buying a home (at 17.5 per cent interest) was as difficult then as it is today." "When I left home I had no expectations of ever being able to afford to buy a place of my own." "Self-entitled whingeing generations, if you don't like what you see, do something positive about it. Each generation has its unique problems, stop the moralising." Wendy Cousins from Balgownie NSW wrote that "boomer bashing" is futile, adding, "Why encourage resentment of boomers because many choose to stay in their homes? This will not free up any housing." "Many have already downsized and those who haven't, have a variety of reasons why they don't. We have enough division in our society without the constant boomer bashing." Despite the views of many disgruntled boomers, University of Melbourne Professor Allan Fels, an economist and mental health advocate, said figures show beyond a doubt that life is much tougher for the younger generation, and basic economics prove it is much harder for them to buy a house. "We baby boomers have had it a lot easier than the new generation of young people," he told <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12793605/Boomers-hit-self-entitled-whingeing-young-Aussies-reveal-theyre-not-blame-housing-crisis.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Mail Australia</a>. "They face a future of much less home ownership and associated mental health stability. The mere fact they are missing out is a cause of stress." "The trend of rising prices adds to the stress because many used to think that they could buy their own house but they keep missing out because prices are continually rising just beyond their grasp." Image credits: Shutterstock

Money & Banking

Why we should embrace the joy of dressing ‘outside of the lines’ like Gen Z

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/steven-wright-1416088">Steven Wright</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-wales-1586">University of South Wales</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gwyneth-moore-1416089">Gwyneth Moore</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-wales-1586">University of South Wales</a> Have you seen that <a href="https://www.voguescandinavia.com/articles/this-is-how-to-style-the-new-cargo-pant-according-to-these-danish-influencers">cargo pants are back</a>? Young people are once again swishing down hallways and they might even be wearing <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/crocs-lyst-hottest-product">Crocs</a> on their feet, because these are cool now too. For many this could be seen as dressing “badly” but Y2K (2000s fashion) is all the rage at the moment. Fashion has long been one of the most creative playgrounds to express yourself and also define your personal identity and status. Gen Z take this very seriously. However, they are no mere followers of fashion but are adventurously carving out their own trends and styles – joyfully playing with the way they dress and express themselves through their clothes. Gen Z are rejecting everything from outdated gender tropes <a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/beauty/why-gen-z-yellow-will-never-be-millennial-pink/">to curated colour schemes</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/22697168/body-positivity-image-millennials-gen-z-weight">the idea of the “perfect” body</a>. For several hundred years, it was the fashion industry who controlled what was on trend. It was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42978704">in bed with</a> the media, style icons, designers and the tycoons of the industry. This relationship has enabled trends to be predicted and for aesthetic movements to be planned and consumers to be catered for. The masses watched and waited to be told what was new and “hot”. This relationship is now being short-circuited by a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17569370.2022.2149837">generation of digital natives</a> who live in a world where the distinction between the digital and the physical is blended. Gen Z will not be dictated to, they are not anxiously waiting to be told they are on trend, on social media they are making heir own trends by breaking rules, embracing creativity and finding joy in dressing bravely. <h2>The democratisation of fashion</h2> Each generation has changed fashion. The baby boomers brought us flower power in the 1960s and 1970s using free love in contrast to their parents’ <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30036343?searchText=free+love+counter+culture+fashion&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dfree%2Blove%2Bcounter%2Bculture%2Bfashion&ab_segments=0%2FSYC-6744_basic_search%2Ftest-1&refreqid=fastly-default%3A1b4986acdbd4197e33c408f8641061a6">clearly defined social and gender roles</a>. Boomers’ younger siblings brought us “punk” in the 1970s and 1980s, a subculture dedicated to using the symbols of the state against itself and deliberately playing with the obscene and vulgar. This was amid a global political climate of conservatism and repression. Then <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/742606?searchText=baby+boomer+fashion+flower+power&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dbaby%2Bboomer%2Bfashion%2Bflower%2Bpower&ab_segments=0%2FSYC-6744_basic_search%2Ftest-1&refreqid=fastly-default%3Af122f7705806e1673dfa550b2fc44c16">again in the 1990s</a> we saw grunge, Gen X’s response to a futureless world post-cold war. Well, Gen X have had children and those kids have decided that they find joy in dressing outside of the lines (so to speak), you can be anything, you can be everything and you can be nothing. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9GUkkenYvlY?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> Gen Z (and even millenials) have witnessed the ever-increasing democratisation of fashion through social media sharing and the global reach of online platforms. They have seen thousands of tiny subcultures formed online where they undergo a near constant cycle of evolution, explosion and reformation. Take the early <a href="https://www.instyle.com/fashion/clothing/emo-style">2000s “emo” trend</a>. Once a big subculture, it was thrust to the corners of the internet where everyone thought it would languish and die. However, emo is experiencing a revival with people wearing all black, corsets becoming cool again and heavy eye makeup being sported by the likes of Gen Z darlings <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/mariasherm2/willow-smith-bullied-my-chemical-romance-paramore-emo">Willow Smith</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/12/juice-wrld-olivia-rodrigo-kid-laroi-emo-music/621069/">Olivia Rodrigo</a>. But Gen Z are not sticking to one style. Fashion has become a pick and mix of trends and ideas where an individual can use the ingredients to create and recreate identity as often as they desire. There is joy in dressing, not fear. There are no rules. <h2>No rules</h2> As new fashion consumers gleefully reinvent notions of good taste and beauty, the traditional trickle-down effect for trends has been replaced by a bubbling up from new sources defining what’s new and what’s next. From Instagrammers to icons, vloggers and TikTokkers, the <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JFMM-12-2020-0275/full/html">sources for trends are broad and varied</a>. <iframe style="border: none;" src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/7127790531932949766" width="100%" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> Young people are creating <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14614448221146174">their own place in a new world</a>. A world where crocs are high fashion and what “goes” is in the eye of the beholder. Boxers as a headdress or leggings as scarf? sure. Why not even wear a <a href="https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/jw-anderson-ss23-womens-runway-collection/">keyboard</a> as a top? <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@saracampz/video/7127790531932949766">Maximalism</a> is being taken to new extremes as clothes are layered over more clothes and no colour, object or pattern is out of bounds. These are the COVID kids, a generation that came of age during a global calamity where the only form of communication was digital and two-dimensional. The loudest and boldest and most insane outfit is the one that will get you most attention on screen. For kids used to consuming media through TikToks rather than glossy editorials, <a href="https://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijbtm/article/view/20001">only the most dramatic, fun and playful will do</a>. Fashion has taken itself way too seriously for way too long. A cleansing fire of young, creative people is exactly what is needed right now. We should all take a page out their book and find joy in dressing in whatever we want.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199940/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/steven-wright-1416088">Steven Wright</a>, Head of Subject - Fashion Marketing and Photography, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-wales-1586">University of South Wales</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gwyneth-moore-1416089">Gwyneth Moore</a>, Course coordinator - BA (Hons) Fashion Business & Marketing & BA (Hons) Fashion Design, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-wales-1586">University of South Wales</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-embrace-the-joy-of-dressing-outside-of-the-lines-like-gen-z-199940">original article</a>.

Beauty & Style

Adam Goodes opens up about major family loss

Dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes has opened up about his late mother in a candid interview on the Get Real with Rio WeAre8 series. Speaking to former English professional footballer Rio Ferdinand, host of the show, Goodes revealed the heartbreaking news that his mother had passed away of a heart attack in February 2022. “She was 62, man,” Goodes said. He went on to share that his mother - Lisa May Goodes - had had “a really tough life”, having been the single parent to Goodes and his two younger brothers for “most of her life”. And that while she “did an incredible job … she had a lot of trauma from her childhood”. “She was taken away when she was five,” he explained, “put into a white family, like a lot of her siblings were, and she didn’t know at the time that she was one of 10 [children]. “That’s the reason why I wasn’t connected to my Aboriginality [early on] because of that disconnect when she was five.” Goodes admitted that he had often considered what his family’s life might have looked like had his mother not experienced systemic racism and its associated practices during her early years, when she was a child of the Stolen Generation. And now, with children of his own and a third on the way with wife Natalie, his perspective has widened, with Goodes confessing that his own experiences have influenced how he looks at his mum’s past. “It just breaks my heart to think that she was living in fear her whole life that someone could knock on the door and take her kids away at any moment if she wasn’t doing the right thing by us kids,” he said. “So if I could go back and change anything, I would just love to have gone back to my mum’s life, and in that moment, change the fact that she was taken [away from her family]. And how just that one sliding door moment might have changed the world and life that I had. “And if that meant I may never have played professional sport, if it meant I might not even be alive today, just that moment that meant my mum was still connected to her family and didn’t have to live the life that she did, and how tough it was for her. “I’d love to be able to do that just for the old girl.” He then revealed that every move he makes now is weighed against the time he can spend with his family, given how he had “sacrificed having children” until he retired from the AFL. “That’s really important to me because I sacrificed having children when I was playing,” Goodes said. “I had my first kid when I was 39, I’d been retired for four years, I was ready to dedicate my time and energy to something else. “My family, even though I didn’t think of it at the time, the sacrifice I made during my football career, they’re now benefitting because of that. Not only from the success but from the financial benefits of the sacrifices that I made - being able to buy my mum a first house that she’s ever owned. “I’m grateful I did make those decisions at those times. It wasn’t easy to do that.” Images: Getty

Caring

ChatGPT and other generative AI could foster science denial and misunderstanding – here’s how you can be on alert

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gale-sinatra-1234776">Gale Sinatra</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-california-1265">University of Southern California</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/barbara-k-hofer-1231530">Barbara K. Hofer</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/middlebury-1247">Middlebury</a> Until very recently, if you wanted to know more about a controversial scientific topic – stem cell research, the safety of nuclear energy, climate change – you probably did a Google search. Presented with multiple sources, you chose what to read, selecting which sites or authorities to trust. Now you have another option: You can pose your question to ChatGPT or another generative artificial intelligence platform and quickly receive a succinct response in paragraph form. ChatGPT does not search the internet the way Google does. Instead, it generates responses to queries by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/07/ai-beginners-guide/">predicting likely word combinations</a> from a massive amalgam of available online information. Although it has the potential for <a href="https://hbr.org/podcast/2023/05/how-generative-ai-changes-productivity">enhancing productivity</a>, generative AI has been shown to have some major faults. It can <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-platforms-like-chatgpt-are-easy-to-use-but-also-potentially-dangerous/">produce misinformation</a>. It can create “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/business/ai-chatbots-hallucination.html">hallucinations</a>” – a benign term for making things up. And it doesn’t always accurately solve reasoning problems. For example, when asked if both a car and a tank can fit through a doorway, it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/technology/openai-new-gpt4.html">failed to consider both width and height</a>. Nevertheless, it is already being used to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/01/17/cnet-ai-articles-journalism-corrections/">produce articles</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/technology/ai-generated-content-discovered-on-news-sites-content-farms-and-product-reviews.html">website content</a> you may have encountered, or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/opinion/chatgpt-journalism.html">as a tool</a> in the writing process. Yet you are unlikely to know if what you’re reading was created by AI. As the authors of “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/science-denial-9780197683330">Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It</a>,” we are concerned about how generative AI may blur the boundaries between truth and fiction for those seeking authoritative scientific information. Every media consumer needs to be more vigilant than ever in verifying scientific accuracy in what they read. Here’s how you can stay on your toes in this new information landscape. <h2>How generative AI could promote science denial</h2> Erosion of epistemic trust. All consumers of science information depend on judgments of scientific and medical experts. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2014.971907">Epistemic trust</a> is the process of trusting knowledge you get from others. It is fundamental to the understanding and use of scientific information. Whether someone is seeking information about a health concern or trying to understand solutions to climate change, they often have limited scientific understanding and little access to firsthand evidence. With a rapidly growing body of information online, people must make frequent decisions about what and whom to trust. With the increased use of generative AI and the potential for manipulation, we believe trust is likely to erode further than <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/02/15/americans-trust-in-scientists-other-groups-declines/">it already has</a>. Misleading or just plain wrong. If there are errors or biases in the data on which AI platforms are trained, that <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-information-retrieval-a-search-engine-researcher-explains-the-promise-and-peril-of-letting-chatgpt-and-its-cousins-search-the-web-for-you-200875">can be reflected in the results</a>. In our own searches, when we have asked ChatGPT to regenerate multiple answers to the same question, we have gotten conflicting answers. Asked why, it responded, “Sometimes I make mistakes.” Perhaps the trickiest issue with AI-generated content is knowing when it is wrong. Disinformation spread intentionally. AI can be used to generate compelling disinformation as text as well as deepfake images and videos. When we asked ChatGPT to “<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-platforms-like-chatgpt-are-easy-to-use-but-also-potentially-dangerous/">write about vaccines in the style of disinformation</a>,” it produced a nonexistent citation with fake data. Geoffrey Hinton, former head of AI development at Google, quit to be free to sound the alarm, saying, “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/technology/ai-google-chatbot-engineer-quits-hinton.html">using it for bad things</a>.” The potential to create and spread deliberately incorrect information about science already existed, but it is now dangerously easy. Fabricated sources. ChatGPT provides responses with no sources at all, or if asked for sources, may present <a href="https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2023/01/21/chatgpt-cites-economics-papers-that-do-not-exist/">ones it made up</a>. We both asked ChatGPT to generate a list of our own publications. We each identified a few correct sources. More were hallucinations, yet seemingly reputable and mostly plausible, with actual previous co-authors, in similar sounding journals. This inventiveness is a big problem if a list of a scholar’s publications conveys authority to a reader who doesn’t take time to verify them. Dated knowledge. ChatGPT doesn’t know what happened in the world after its training concluded. A query on what percentage of the world has had COVID-19 returned an answer prefaced by “as of my knowledge cutoff date of September 2021.” Given how rapidly knowledge advances in some areas, this limitation could mean readers get erroneous outdated information. If you’re seeking recent research on a personal health issue, for instance, beware. Rapid advancement and poor transparency. AI systems continue to become <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/technology/ai-google-chatbot-engineer-quits-hinton.html">more powerful and learn faster</a>, and they may learn more science misinformation along the way. Google recently announced <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/technology/google-ai-products.html">25 new embedded uses of AI in its services</a>. At this point, <a href="https://theconversation.com/regulating-ai-3-experts-explain-why-its-difficult-to-do-and-important-to-get-right-198868">insufficient guardrails are in place</a> to assure that generative AI will become a more accurate purveyor of scientific information over time. <h2>What can you do?</h2> If you use ChatGPT or other AI platforms, recognize that they might not be completely accurate. The burden falls to the user to discern accuracy. Increase your vigilance. <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/12/ai-will-start-fact-checking-we-may-not-like-the-results/">AI fact-checking apps may be available soon</a>, but for now, users must serve as their own fact-checkers. <a href="https://www.nsta.org/science-teacher/science-teacher-januaryfebruary-2023/plausible">There are steps we recommend</a>. The first is: Be vigilant. People often reflexively share information found from searches on social media with little or no vetting. Know when to become more deliberately thoughtful and when it’s worth identifying and evaluating sources of information. If you’re trying to decide how to manage a serious illness or to understand the best steps for addressing climate change, take time to vet the sources. Improve your fact-checking. A second step is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000740">lateral reading</a>, a process professional fact-checkers use. Open a new window and search for <a href="https://www.nsta.org/science-teacher/science-teacher-mayjune-2023/marginalizing-misinformation">information about the sources</a>, if provided. Is the source credible? Does the author have relevant expertise? And what is the consensus of experts? If no sources are provided or you don’t know if they are valid, use a traditional search engine to find and evaluate experts on the topic. Evaluate the evidence. Next, take a look at the evidence and its connection to the claim. Is there evidence that genetically modified foods are safe? Is there evidence that they are not? What is the scientific consensus? Evaluating the claims will take effort beyond a quick query to ChatGPT. If you begin with AI, don’t stop there. Exercise caution in using it as the sole authority on any scientific issue. You might see what ChatGPT has to say about genetically modified organisms or vaccine safety, but also follow up with a more diligent search using traditional search engines before you draw conclusions. Assess plausibility. Judge whether the claim is plausible. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2013.03.001">Is it likely to be true</a>? If AI makes an implausible (and inaccurate) statement like “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/12/23/fact-check-false-claim-covid-19-vaccines-caused-1-1-million-deaths/10929679002/">1 million deaths were caused by vaccines, not COVID-19</a>,” consider if it even makes sense. Make a tentative judgment and then be open to revising your thinking once you have checked the evidence. Promote digital literacy in yourself and others. Everyone needs to up their game. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-be-a-good-digital-citizen-during-the-election-and-its-aftermath-148974">Improve your own digital literacy</a>, and if you are a parent, teacher, mentor or community leader, promote digital literacy in others. The American Psychological Association provides guidance on <a href="https://www.apa.org/topics/social-media-internet/social-media-literacy-teens">fact-checking online information</a> and recommends teens be <a href="https://www.apa.org/topics/social-media-internet/health-advisory-adolescent-social-media-use">trained in social media skills</a> to minimize risks to health and well-being. <a href="https://newslit.org/">The News Literacy Project</a> provides helpful tools for improving and supporting digital literacy. Arm yourself with the skills you need to navigate the new AI information landscape. Even if you don’t use generative AI, it is likely you have already read articles created by it or developed from it. It can take time and effort to find and evaluate reliable information about science online – but it is worth it.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204897/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gale-sinatra-1234776">Gale Sinatra</a>, Professor of Education and Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-california-1265">University of Southern California</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/barbara-k-hofer-1231530">Barbara K. Hofer</a>, Professor of Psychology Emerita, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/middlebury-1247">Middlebury</a> Image credits: Getty Images This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-and-other-generative-ai-could-foster-science-denial-and-misunderstanding-heres-how-you-can-be-on-alert-204897">original article</a>.

Technology

“That name goes back four generations”: Paul Walker’s brother makes a touching tribute

Almost a decade after the world lost Fast & Furious star Paul Walker, his younger brother Cody Walker has paid heartfelt tribute with the birth of his third child. Cody and his wife, Felicia, welcomed their son on April 30, with People magazine reporting that he weighed in at 7lbs 5oz. Felicia took to Instagram on May 2 to make an announcement, too, declaring that they’d had a boy, and writing “welcome to the clan, Barrett”. Many took this as confirmation of his name, and rushed to congratulate the family on their new addition. Felicia had shared a picture of the newborn in the arms of his big brother, Colt, with the announcement, and fans were delighted to note that he was the image of a proud older sibling, beaming from ear to ear. However, People magazine have now revealed that there was more to the story, and that the newborn Walker’s name is even closer to his father’s heart than anyone had anticipated. It was a day after his birth that Cody and Felicia reached their decision, declaring their son’s name to be Paul Barrett Walker - naming him after Cody’s late brother. "This November will mark 10 years since we lost my brother, Paul,” Cody told the publication, “and I just felt now was the appropriate time.” He went on to share that he and their other brother - Caleb - were “both done having children”, and that the name held special meaning to all of them. “My brother, Paul, was Paul William Walker IV and that name goes back four generations,” he explained. "Within the family, he went by ‘little Paul’ or ‘Paul 4,’ even though he quickly outgrew our father in height. “It was important to me to have that name carry on.” It isn’t the only move Cody has taken towards honouring his brother, having teamed up with Tyrese Gibson and Chris Lee to bright FuelFest to life - an automotive and motorsports festival showcasing car culture, with a portion of profits going towards Paul’s nonprofit Reach Out WorldWide, something that Cody views “as a part of Paul that he left behind.” And in an echo of his message regarding his new son’s name, he noted that “it’s important to so many to see that part of his legacy live on.” And Paul’s daughter, Meadow, has made her own moves towards furthering her father’s legacy, with a cameo appearance in Fast X - the tenth instalment in the Fast & Furious franchise. “For me, this is super exciting,” she said of her involvement, “and he would be amazed that this is happening.” Images: Instagram, Getty

Family & Pets

AI to Z: all the terms you need to know to keep up in the AI hype age

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming ever more prevalent in our lives. It’s no longer confined to certain industries or research institutions; AI is now for everyone. It’s hard to dodge the deluge of AI content being produced, and harder yet to make sense of the many terms being thrown around. But we can’t have conversations about AI without understanding the concepts behind it. We’ve compiled a glossary of terms we think everyone should know, if they want to keep up. <h2>Algorithm</h2> <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-an-algorithm-how-computers-know-what-to-do-with-data-146665">An algorithm</a> is a set of instructions given to a computer to solve a problem or to perform calculations that transform data into useful information. <h2>Alignment problem</h2> The alignment problem refers to the discrepancy between our intended objectives for an AI system and the output it produces. A misaligned system can be advanced in performance, yet behave in a way that’s against human values. We saw an example of this <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/12/google-racism-ban-gorilla-black-people">in 2015</a> when an image-recognition algorithm used by Google Photos was found auto-tagging pictures of black people as “gorillas”. <h2>Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)</h2> <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-everything-we-call-ai-is-actually-artificial-intelligence-heres-what-you-need-to-know-196732">Artificial general intelligence</a> refers to a hypothetical point in the future where AI is expected to match (or surpass) the cognitive capabilities of humans. Most AI experts agree this will happen, but disagree on specific details such as when it will happen, and whether or not it will result in AI systems that are fully autonomous. <h2>Artificial Neural Network (ANN)</h2> Artificial neural networks are computer algorithms used within a branch of AI called <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/deep-learning/">deep learning</a>. They’re made up of layers of interconnected nodes in a way that mimics the <a href="https://www.ibm.com/topics/neural-networks">neural circuitry</a> of the human brain. <h2>Big data</h2> Big data refers to datasets that are much more massive and complex than traditional data. These datasets, which greatly exceed the storage capacity of household computers, have helped current AI models perform with high levels of accuracy. Big data can be characterised by four Vs: “volume” refers to the overall amount of data, “velocity” refers to how quickly the data grow, “veracity” refers to how complex the data are, and “variety” refers to the different formats the data come in. <h2>Chinese Room</h2> The <a href="https://ethics.org.au/thought-experiment-chinese-room-argument/">Chinese Room</a> thought experiment was first proposed by American philosopher John Searle in 1980. It argues a computer program, no matter how seemingly intelligent in its design, will never be conscious and will remain unable to truly understand its behaviour as a human does. This concept often comes up in conversations about AI tools such as ChatGPT, which seem to exhibit the traits of a self-aware entity – but are actually just presenting outputs based on predictions made by the underlying model. <h2>Deep learning</h2> Deep learning is a category within the machine-learning branch of AI. Deep-learning systems use advanced neural networks and can process large amounts of complex data to achieve higher accuracy. These systems perform well on relatively complex tasks and can even exhibit human-like intelligent behaviour. <h2>Diffusion model</h2> A diffusion model is an AI model that learns by adding random “noise” to a set of training data before removing it, and then assessing the differences. The objective is to learn about the underlying patterns or relationships in data that are not immediately obvious. These models are designed to self-correct as they encounter new data and are therefore particularly useful in situations where there is uncertainty, or if the problem is very complex. <h2>Explainable AI</h2> Explainable AI is an emerging, interdisciplinary field concerned with creating methods that will <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-explainable-artificial-intelligence-can-help-humans-innovate-151737">increase</a> users’ trust in the processes of AI systems. Due to the inherent complexity of certain AI models, their internal workings are often opaque, and we can’t say with certainty why they produce the outputs they do. Explainable AI aims to make these “black box” systems more transparent. <h2>Generative AI</h2> These are AI systems that generate new content – including text, image, audio and video content – in response to prompts. Popular examples include ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and Midjourney. <h2>Labelling</h2> Data labelling is the process through which data points are categorised to help an AI model make sense of the data. This involves identifying data structures (such as image, text, audio or video) and adding labels (such as tags and classes) to the data. Humans do the labelling before machine learning begins. The labelled data are split into distinct datasets for training, validation and testing. The training set is fed to the system for learning. The validation set is used to verify whether the model is performing as expected and when parameter tuning and training can stop. The testing set is used to evaluate the finished model’s performance. <h2>Large Language Model (LLM)</h2> Large language models (LLM) are trained on massive quantities of unlabelled text. They analyse data, learn the patterns between words and can produce human-like responses. Some examples of AI systems that use large language models are OpenAI’s GPT series and Google’s BERT and LaMDA series. <h2>Machine learning</h2> Machine learning is a branch of AI that involves training AI systems to be able to analyse data, learn patterns and make predictions without specific human instruction. <h2>Natural language processing (NLP)</h2> While large language models are a specific type of AI model used for language-related tasks, natural language processing is the broader AI field that focuses on machines’ ability to learn, understand and produce human language. <h2>Parameters</h2> Parameters are the settings used to tune machine-learning models. You can think of them as the programmed weights and biases a model uses when making a prediction or performing a task. Since parameters determine how the model will process and analyse data, they also determine how it will perform. An example of a parameter is the number of neurons in a given layer of the neural network. Increasing the number of neurons will allow the neural network to tackle more complex tasks – but the trade-off will be higher computation time and costs. <h2>Responsible AI</h2> The responsible AI movement advocates for developing and deploying AI systems in a human-centred way. One aspect of this is to embed AI systems with rules that will have them adhere to ethical principles. This would (ideally) prevent them from producing outputs that are biased, discriminatory or could otherwise lead to harmful outcomes. <h2>Sentiment analysis</h2> Sentiment analysis is a technique in natural language processing used to identify and interpret the <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/sentiment-analysis/">emotions behind a text</a>. It captures implicit information such as, for example, the author’s tone and the extent of positive or negative expression. <h2>Supervised learning</h2> Supervised learning is a machine-learning approach in which labelled data are used to train an algorithm to make predictions. The algorithm learns to match the labelled input data to the correct output. After learning from a large number of examples, it can continue to make predictions when presented with new data. <h2>Training data</h2> Training data are the (usually labelled) data used to teach AI systems how to make predictions. The accuracy and representativeness of training data have a major impact on a model’s effectiveness. <h2>Transformer</h2> A transformer is a type of deep-learning model used primarily in natural language processing tasks. The transformer is designed to process sequential data, such as natural language text, and figure out how the different parts relate to one another. This can be compared to how a person reading a sentence pays attention to the order of the words to understand the meaning of the sentence as a whole. One example is the generative pre-trained transformer (GPT), which the ChatGPT chatbot runs on. The GPT model uses a transformer to learn from a large corpus of unlabelled text. <h2>Turing Test</h2> The Turing test is a machine intelligence concept first introduced by computer scientist Alan Turing in 1950. It’s framed as a way to determine whether a computer can exhibit human intelligence. In the test, computer and human outputs are compared by a human evaluator. If the outputs are deemed indistinguishable, the computer has passed the test. Google’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/17/google-ai-lamda-turing-test/">LaMDA</a> and OpenAI’s <a href="https://mpost.io/chatgpt-passes-the-turing-test/">ChatGPT</a> have been reported to have passed the Turing test – although <a href="https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-trouble-with-the-turing-test">critics say</a> the results reveal the limitations of using the test to compare computer and human intelligence. <h2>Unsupervised learning</h2> Unsupervised learning is a machine-learning approach in which algorithms are trained on unlabelled data. Without human intervention, the system explores patterns in the data, with the goal of discovering unidentified patterns that could be used for further analysis. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-to-z-all-the-terms-you-need-to-know-to-keep-up-in-the-ai-hype-age-203917" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Technology

"This doesn’t feel right, does it?": Photographer admits Sony prize-winning photo was AI generated

A German photographer is refusing an award for his prize-winning shot after admitting to being a “cheeky monkey”, revealing the image was generated using artificial intelligence. The artist, Boris Eldagsen, shared on his website that he would not be accepting the prestigious award for the creative open category, which he won at <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/art/winners-of-sony-world-photography-awards-revealed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023’s Sony world photography awards</a>. The winning photograph showcased a black and white image of two women from different generations. Eldagsen, who studied photography and visual arts at the Art Academy of Mainz, conceptual art and intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and fine art at the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication in Hyderabad released a statement on his website, admitting he “applied as a cheeky monkey” to find out if competitions would be prepared for AI images to enter. “They are not,” he revealed. “We, the photo world, need an open discussion,” Eldagsen said. “A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not. Is the umbrella of photography large enough to invite AI images to enter – or would this be a mistake? “With my refusal of the award I hope to speed up this debate.” Eldagsen said this was an “historic moment” as it was the fist AI image to have won a prestigious international photography competition, adding “How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it? “AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.” The photographer suggested donating the prize to a photo festival in Odesa, Ukraine. It comes as a heated debate over the use and safety concerns of AI continue, with some going as far as to issue apocalyptic warnings that the technology may be close to causing irreparable damage to the human experience. Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pirchai said, “It can be very harmful if deployed wrongly and we don’t have all the answers there yet – and the technology is moving fast. So, does that keep me up at night? Absolutely.” A spokesperson for the World Photography Organisation admitted that the prize-winning photographer had confirmed the “co-creation” of the image using AI to them prior to winning the award. “The creative category of the open competition welcomes various experimental approaches to image making from cyanotypes and rayographs to cutting-edge digital practices. As such, following our correspondence with Boris and the warranties he provided, we felt that his entry fulfilled the criteria for this category, and we were supportive of his participation. “Additionally, we were looking forward to engaging in a more in-depth discussion on this topic and welcomed Boris’ wish for dialogue by preparing questions for a dedicated Q&A with him for our website. “As he has now decided to decline his award we have suspended our activities with him and in keeping with his wishes have removed him from the competition. Given his actions and subsequent statement noting his deliberate attempts at misleading us, and therefore invalidating the warranties he provided, we no longer feel we are able to engage in a meaningful and constructive dialogue with him. “We recognise the importance of this subject and its impact on image-making today. We look forward to further exploring this topic via our various channels and programmes and welcome the conversation around it. While elements of AI practices are relevant in artistic contexts of image-making, the awards always have been and will continue to be a platform for championing the excellence and skill of photographers and artists working in the medium.” Image credit: Sony World Photography Awards

Technology

Gen Z grew up in a world filled with ugly fashion – no wonder they love their Crocs

In 2017, Julia Hobbs of British Vogue <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/crocs-sandals-christopher-kane-trend-test">declared</a> Crocs “have an unrivalled ability to repel onlookers and induce sneers”. But over the two decades since the notoriously ugly shoes were released, the clogs seem to be going from strength to strength. No longer just the comfortable, easy-to-wear boat shoes they were designed as, now they’re being worn by celebrities like <a href="https://www.vogue.com/vogueworld/article/ariana-grande-crocs-controversial-shoe-trend">Ariana Grande</a>, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-10-13/justin-bieber-crocs-bad-bunny-post-malone">Justin Bieber</a>, <a href="https://www.hellomagazine.com/film/20220531141686/the-view-whoopi-goldberg-divides-fans-backstage-photo-concern-for-safety/">Whoopi Goldberg</a> and Drew Barrymore, who has her <a href="https://us.fashionnetwork.com/news/Drew-barrymore-launches-crocs-collection,943183.html">own collection</a>. Bedazzled white Crocs are being worn with <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/02/15/brides-mocked-for-wearing-blinged-out-crocs-on-their-big-day/">wedding dresses</a>, #crocs has more than 7.3 billion views <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/crocs?lang=en">on TikTok</a>, and diehard fans can buy <a href="https://www.carousell.sg/p/preorder-mini-crocs-jibbitz-accessory-charms-fun-quirky-1174036132/">mini Crocs</a> to decorate their Crocs with. Even supermodel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT-LLMIjIQM">Kendall Jenner</a> admitted on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that she is not ashamed of her comfy Crocs. But the most common place you’re likely to see Crocs today is on the feet of Generation Z. They grew up with ugly fashion, and are now making it their own. <h2>A brief history</h2> Crocs’ ancestors are the clog: a cheap, comfortable, lightweight, practical wooden shoe popular in medieval Europe and Scandinavia. Traditional wooden clogs were easy to clean, non-slip, protected the wearer’s feet and kept them warm and dry. The oldest surviving pair found in Holland <a href="https://isgeschiedenis.nl/reportage/geschiedenis-van-de-klompen">date to 1230</a>. Crocs premiered their shoe at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in 2002. Made from a tough form of injection-moulded ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) foam, which moulds to the wearer’s foot, all 200 pairs at the show sold out. Crocs were easy to clean, non-slip, could easily be pulled on and off, and would not suffer from continued exposure to water. But they weren’t popular in all corners. Time magazine included Crocs in their 2010 list of <a href="https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1991915_1991909_1991743,00.html">the 50 worst inventions</a>. And from the outset, even Crocs’ cofounders considered them <a href="https://www.parents.com/kids/style/fashion/crocs/">ugly</a>. <h2>Ugly fashion</h2> The 21st century’s love of deliberately ugly fashion can be traced to 1996, with Miuccia Prada launching her <a href="https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-1996-ready-to-wear/prada">“Bad Taste” collection</a>. The early 2000s gave us ugly comfort dressing in the form of the bright, velour <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2014/06/70125/juicy-couture-stores-closing">Juicy Couture</a> tracksuit. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s <a href="https://people.com/style/britney-spears-justin-timberlake-matching-denim-moment-20th-anniversary/">iconic matching double denim moment</a> at the 2001 American Music Awards embodied the era’s ugliness. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/">Generation Z</a> grew up in this ugly fashion world. Many rocked their first brightly coloured pair of Crocs as toddlers. This generation also learned to express themselves online, where <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1470412914544516">Internet Ugly</a> – a deliberately grotesque, anti-authoritarian and amateurish aesthetic – is a key look of memes. Memes celebrate ugliness as a relatable, authentic foil against the slickly perfect images generated by filters, Hollywood and self-serious corporate design. Memes evolve, but the images, templates and looks of memes stays similar and the ugly aesthetic continues to spread and be enjoyed. Crocs are, in a sense, wearable memes for Gen Z. Like memes, Crocs have changed and returned through nostalgic affectation. In the two decades since their launch, Crocs have constantly reinvented themselves. There have been new colours and collaborations with popular brands, including <a href="https://www.crocs.com.au/collab/minecraft">computer games</a> and high fashion houses like <a href="https://www.crocs.com.au/p/liberty-london-x-crocs-classic-clog/206447.html">Liberty of London</a>. Each generation rediscovers the objects of its youth and replicates these objects in new ways. The resulting objects – in this case, Crocs – are passed around and either made uglier or beautified in the eye of the beholder. Every pair of Crocs can be customised with “<a href="https://www.crocs.com.au/c/jibbitz">Jibbitz</a>”, a small ornament that fits into the holes throughout the shoe to beautify Crocs for their owner. In the United Kingdom, Crocs <a href="https://www.mylondon.news/lifestyle/fashion/primark-shoppers-hysterics-hideous-9-25693380">paired with</a> fast-fashion retailer Primark and high-street bakery Greggs to create ugly, fur-lined, black £9 Crocs with Greggs’ logo. At the other end of the budget, you can buy <a href="https://www.elle.com/uk/fashion/trends/g36656071/croc-collaborations/">Balenciaga’s lime green Crocs</a> with a black sole and black stiletto heel. <h2>Crocs and the pandemic</h2> Ugliness lets viewers laugh and release tensions in situations where they <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674024090">are helpless to act</a>. Adrian Holloway, Crocs’ general manager, told <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/crocs-rubber-shoe-trend">Vogue, "</a>In times of stress and uncertainty, consumers seem to want comfort […] Everything was so heavy and scary, it felt good to treat yourself to something cheerful and inexpensive, but also practical and comfortable." The COVID pandemic left Gen Z unable to participate in important social rites of passage like graduations, milestone birthdays, weddings and funerals. Global lockdowns also left people feeling a strange blend of shock, boredom and irritation. Like laughing at ugly memes, laughing at cute, ugly Crocs helped release feelings of powerlessness. <h2>Here to stay</h2> Popular predictions of <a href="https://thesociologicalreview.org/magazine/june-2022/clothes/comfort-or-style/">post-pandemic fashions</a> suggest there are two options: we will continue to dress for comfort, or we will embrace eye-catching colours and patterns and strange silhouettes. The popularity of Crocs among Gen Z suggests a third option: a combination of the comfortable with the crazy. Worn today, these shoes signal the wearer’s capacity for casualness, irony, rebellion, and a desire to forge their own fashion rules in an Internet Ugly world. Crocs are <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/trends/g41416862/spring-2023-shoe-trends/">here to stay</a>. Image credits: Shutterstock This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/gen-z-grew-up-in-a-world-filled-with-ugly-fashion-no-wonder-they-love-their-crocs-200718" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Beauty & Style

Aldi’s popular $50 travel item is back

Have you ever been so tired you wished you could roll out of bed and bring it with you? Well, this Aldi sleeping bag takes you one step closer to fulfilling your dream. The “One-Z wearable sleeping bag” is back by popular demand as part of Aldi’s Easter ‘Special Buys’ camping range. The onesie sleeping bag has arms, legs (with detachable feet), and even a hood so that you can become one with your sleeping bag. The $49.99 item is fully insulated, with an elastic waistband, dual zipper access, and side ventilation on the legs. It’s officially coming back in stores nationally on Saturday, March 25 and will be available in three sizes – small (suitable for someone around 155cm-169cm tall), medium (170cm-183cm) and large (184cm-200cm). The One-Z has been so popular for years that when a German retailer announced it was back in 2017, the post generated over 92,000 comments. “ALDI Australia: Please tell me these gems will be restocked!” one person commented after learning how quickly the item sold out. Aldi will also put up four-person tents for $169 and six-person tents for $199. Travel camp quilts, another camping essential that will keep you warm will also be up for grabs and this time for $10 cheaper than last year, now priced at $59.99. Some other items that will be up for sale include a portable hammock with a foldable frame for $79.99, and a solar portable charger that you can attach to your backpack for $59.99. The 28W mono folding solar charger will be able to charge your electronic gadgets including phones, tablets, power banks and some DSLRs. Images: Aldi

Travel Tips

Money guru's generous home loan offer for struggling Aussies

Finance guru Mark Bouris has offered to help five homeowners pay off their mortgages amid continuously rising interest rates. A vocal critic of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s dramatic hiking of interest rates, Bouris is determined to help struggling Aussies get ahead. The executive chairman of Yellow Brick Road Home Loans is lending a helping hand to homeowners hit hard by massive increases in their month mortgage payments with a generous cash injection of $12,000. “All Australians deserve a fair go on their home loans and right now you’re not getting one,” Mr Bouris said on Today. “I know many Australians are doing it tough out there right now. Through no fault of their own, homeowners are having to manage skyrocketing mortgage repayments." <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpjyXECgnNr/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpjyXECgnNr/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Yellow Brick Road (@ybrhomeloans)</a> </div> </blockquote> “The Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to increase the official cash rate for the past 10 consecutive meetings has left nearly 800,000 Australians at risk of mortgage default. At YBR Home Loans, we’re on a mission to hear the voices of those impacted most by this aggressive increase in interest rates." “We want to hear from you: your story, your struggles and particularly, if you’re worried about your ability to meet your mortgage repayments.” Mr Bouris and his team at YBR Home Loans will randomly select five lucky winners who are having trouble meeting their home loan repayments and give $12,000 to each winner “in order to help ease the strain of rapidly increasing interest rates”. “If you’re going to struggle to meet your mortgage repayments as you come off your fixed interest rate, or if you’re already struggling to meet your repayments, please fill out your details and outline your circumstances,” Mr Bouris said. Homeowners can write to Mr Bouris and Yellow Brick Road at <a href="https://ybr.com.au/fairgo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ybr.com.au/fairgo</a> to be entered into the competition. Image credits: Instagram

Real Estate

General Hospital star dies aged 55

Sonya Eddy, best known for her role on General Hospital, has passed away at age 55. The actress, who scored many fans after playing beloved, no-nonsense nurse Epiphany Johnson in the popular US soap, died on Tuesday night, her good friend and actress Octavia Spencer announced on Instagram. "My friend @sonyaeddy passed away last night. The world lost another creative angel. Her legions of @generalhospitalabc fans will miss her 💔🕊️," Spencer wrote alongside a photo of the late actress. "My thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones, friends, and fans!" <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CmZlaq8v_ks/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CmZlaq8v_ks/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Octavia Spencer (@octaviaspencer)</a> </div> </blockquote> Spencer did not reveal any details about Sonya's cause of death. Octavia's post was flooded with condolences and tributes for the actress, with comedian Loni Love writing, "Sonya was best.. in an industry that often over looks us, she made her mark… Rest well Sis." The actress first joined the cast of General Hospital in 2006, starring in a total of 543 episodes before appearing on the show for the final time in November 2020. From 2007 to 2008, she was also a regular cast member on the soap's spin-off program, General Hospital: Night Shift. Image credits: Getty Images

News

“I’ve got some good news for you”: Tracy Grimshaw's generous final gesture

Tracy Grimshaw has <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/tv/tracy-grimshaw-s-most-memorable-hosting-moments">ended her time on A Current Affair</a> with her trademark generosity and gave a much-needed boost to a local community ravaged by recent floods. The TV host and journalist presented the town of Eugowra with a $50,000 donation from Coles, which will go to Givit’s Eugowra Flood Appeal and be used by the community to pay for fuel, groceries and hardware. “I think I have got some good news for you.” Grimshaw told locals Amanda Mongan and Judd McKenna. “Aaron Ralph from Coles is standing off to the side there, Aaron would you like to come in (to the shot) because I think you’re about to make everyone’s day.” The Coles regional manager proceeded to give the large cheque to Mongan and McKenna, to the cheers of locals standing behind them. "Here at Coles, we love to look after our communities that we serve and Eugowra is in the heartland of our region out here in the Central West," Ralph said. “We’ve come out last week and saw the devastation and it was really, really heartbreaking. We dropped off a delivery of essential goods and today we just wanted to go again and we want to kick off the Eugowra Flood Appeal with a massive $50,000 donation to the community.” <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/11/eugowra.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> Image: A Current Affair After receiving the good news, McKenna grabbed Ralph for a heartfelt hug. When asked how they would use the money, McKenna said it would go back into the community. “These people that stand behind us here are the backbone of the community,” he said. “If this can help them in any way possible, some goods, whatever (they) need to get back on their feet, this is what it’s going to be used for. “These people have lost everything - their houses, houses have floated away, they’ve got nothing. But look at this spirit behind us.” Earlier in the segment, McKenna and Mongan spoke about what it was like during the floods and how their homes and businesses have been affected. Mongan, who has lived in Eugowra her whole life, watched her hairdressing salon go under and waited for eight hours on the roof of her home with her family before being rescued “You’re not the only one who did that, are you?” Grimshaw asked. “Oh god no, we were one of the lucky ones, we were slightly safer than the other people in the full force of the carnage,” Mongan said. “It was just any general flood, we were downtown helping people pack up and next minute, a wall of water came. “We’d moved our cars and ran back to the house for a few things, and tried to get our kids down the back lane to the evacuation centre at the school and we nearly got washed away, and luckily we have a big solid house that stopped the water a bit, so it rose slower. “And then we just realised, ‘Oh my god, it’s going to go over our heads, we need to get up on our roof’, and from up there we could see houses moving. It was just unimaginable, really can’t describe it.” McKenna, who owns two cafes in town, was swept away in the water while trying to get others to safety and his businesses were damaged. The pair said donations were sorely needed to help the community recover and thanked those who had already given funds, time and help in other ways. "The kindness and generosity has been incredible," Mongan said. "And we don't know how we will ever thank those kind people." The episode marked the end of Grimshaw’s 17-year tenure as the show’s host, after <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/news/news/tracy-grimshaw-s-huge-news">she made the shock announcement</a> that she would be stepping down from the show’s top spot in early September. Image: A Current Affair

Caring

"I can't unsee it": PM shocked by generous package

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was shocked when he came face-to-face with another man’s "generous package" on live television. The Labor leader appeared on a Telethon segment on the Seven Network to raise money for sick children. He was then joined on stage by 76-year-old John Bradley who was dressed in a neon green mankini - similar to the one made famous by Borat. Mr Bradley, who was egged on by his son-in-law to wear the mankini in front of the prime minister, walked over to Mr Albanese and handed him a $10,000 cheque. The cheque was accepted by Mr Albanese who then jokingly used it to cover Mr Bradley’s private parts. “I would have thought that next year, you could get more money for Telethon by promising to have no one in a mankini,” Mr Albanese said. “And I’d suggest that would be an appropriate response. I myself thought that the Telethon pyjamas that young Emily and young Ari encouraged me to wear as a top, were enough. “I saw it — I can’t unsee it.” Mr Bradley’s son-in-law donated $15,000 after going ahead with the bet. Overall, a huge $6 million was raised for sick children. Image: Channel 7

These emojis make you ‘old’ according to Gen Z

Language is an ever-evolving thing, full to the brim with nuance and meaning that might not seem obvious upon first glance - and it turns out that emojis are no exception. Members of Generation Z have taken to social media claiming that using certain emojis is a sign that you’re “officially old” and that the popular thumbs-up emoji is actually rude. According to users on Reddit, the official list of “cancelled” emojis includes: <ul> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> ❤️ (Red heart) </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> 👍 (Thumbs up) </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> 👌 (“OK” hand) </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> ✅ (Tick or Checkmark) </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> 💩 (Poo) </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> 🙈 (Monkey covering eyes) </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> 😭 (Loudly crying face) </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> 👏 (Clapping hands) </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> 💋 (Lipstick kiss mark) </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> 😬 (Grimacing face) </li> </ul> Many younger users also considered the thumbs-up emoji to be rude, explaining that it gives off a passive-aggressive or even confrontational air. “For younger people (I’m 24 for reference) the thumbs-up emoji is used to be really passive-aggressive,” one person wrote. “It’s super rude if someone just sends you a thumbs up. So I also had a weird time adjusting because my workplace is the same.” They chalked up the difference in the workplace to a “generational communication culture difference”. “Everyone my age in the office doesn’t do it, but the Gen X people always do it,” they wrote. “Took me a bit to adjust and get out of my head that it means they’re mad at me.” Others agreed, saying using it in the workplace makes team members “unaccommodating” and seems “unfriendly”. “I understand what you mean, my last workplace had a WhatsApp chat for our team to send info to each other on and most of the people on there just replied with a [thumbs-up emoji],” one commenter said. “I don’t know why but it seemed a little bit hostile to me, like an acknowledgment but kind of saying ‘I don’t really care/am not interested’? Don’t know if that’s the way you feel but I got used to it in time and I’m just as bad for sending a thumbs up now.” Another said: ““It’s not that odd to see it as passive-aggressive. Just imagine how would it feel to go into your boss’ room, say something, and then see him turn to you, look you in the eye, and [give a thumbs-up].” But, older users expressed their confusion at this emoji etiquette, with one saying it must be “a younger generational thing”. “So it’s like a sarcastic thing? Man I’m getting old lol,” one wrote. Another defended their use of the thumbs up, saying it “means many things”. “It means ‘I approve’ or ‘I understood and will obey’ or ‘I agree’. If anything, my only objection would be that some days it might be hard to tell which one it means,” she offered. “But it is generally pretty clear.” “It’s just a way to say ‘i’ve read your message and have nothing to add and I hope and pray to all the gods all the bazillion people in this group chat have nothing to say on it too,’” another chimed in. Linguists have been studying emojis since the appearance of the modern emoji in 2015. In her book Because Internet: Understanding how language is changing, linguist Gretchen McCulloch explains that some emojis, like most of those that have been “cancelled”, are gestures, like the ones we make with our hands while talking. While these can be quite universal, like the thumbs up or smiling emojis, there can also be nuance based on culture and the writing systems people use. With younger people interpreting emojis such as the thumbs-up as “rude” or “old”, it seems there is nuance between generations too. Image: Getty Images

Technology

Artists furious after AI-generated art wins contest

A stunning artwork generated by artificial intelligence has claimed first prize at an art competition, enraging the art world and calling into question what it means to be an artist. The work was “created” by Jason M Allen, a game designer from Colorado, who won first place in the emerging artist division's "digital arts/digitally manipulated photography" category at the Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Competition. His winning image, titled Théâtre D'opéra Spatial (French for Space Opera Theatre), was made with Midjourney — an artificial intelligence system that can produce detailed images when fed written prompts by the user. "I'm fascinated by this imagery. I love it. And I think everyone should see it," Allen, 39, told CNN Business. Allen's winning image looks like a bright, surreal cross between a Renaissance and steampunk painting. As per the category Allen competed in, he told officials that Midjourney was used to create his image when he entered the contest, as the category dictated entrants use "digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process". Midjourney is one of a growing number of such AI image generators, joining the likes of Imagen and DALL-E to give the artistically-challenged the means to create stunning images. Despite the parameters of the category, many artists were angered by Allen’s win due to his reliance on technology to create the artwork. "This sucks for the exact same reason we don't let robots participate in the Olympics," one Twitter user wrote. "This is the literal definition of 'pressed a few buttons to make a digital art piece'," another Tweeted. "AI artwork is the 'banana taped to the wall' of the digital world now." Yet while Allen didn't use a paintbrush to create his winning piece, he assured people there was plenty of work involved. "It's not like you're just smashing words together and winning competitions," he said. "Rather than hating on the technology or the people behind it, we need to recognise that it's a powerful tool and use it for good so we can all move forward rather than sulking about it," Allen said. Image credits: Jason M Allen - Midjourney

Art

Remembering Shirley Barrett: an offbeat and generous Australian director and writer

<h3 class="legacy">Remembering Shirley Barrett: an offbeat and generous Australian director and writer</h3> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kirsten-stevens-543619">Kirsten Stevens</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a> Australia, and the world, has lost a unique voice with the passing last week of acclaimed director and writer Shirley Barrett. Barrett gained international fame in 1996 when she won the Caméra d’Or – Cannes Film Festival’s award for best first feature – for Love Serenade. Following growing global attention, by 1997 the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/27/movies/a-pragmatic-australian-with-an-offbeat-take-on-the-world.html">New York Times</a> would celebrate her as “a pragmatic Australian with an offbeat take on the world.” Barrett’s offbeat take infused her <a href="https://shirleybarrett.com/">work</a>, including two more films – Walk the Talk (2000) and South Solitary (2010) – recognisable television dramas such as Love My Way, Offspring and A Place to Call Home, and novels Rush Oh! and The Bus on Thursday. Barrett passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Sydney at age 60, following a battle with metastatic breast cancer. A <a href="https://twitter.com/EmsyNorris/status/1555089599927820290">social media post</a> from Barrett’s daughter Emmeline Norris confirmed the passing of her mother on Wednesday morning. In the post, Norris marked the loss of <blockquote> not only a brilliant filmmaker and writer, but more importantly a loving mother to me and my sister, the lifelong soulmate of our dad, and the best friend one could ask for.“ </blockquote> <h2>Exploring desire in wayward places</h2> Barrett’s films presented a unique perspective on love, desire, and the workings of life at the margins – both social and geographic – of Australian society. Between 1996 and 2010 Barrett wrote and directed three films, an accomplishment in the Australian industry where second features can be <a href="https://if.com.au/australia-lags-the-rest-of-the-world-in-second-time-feature-directors/">difficult to make</a> (especially for women). From the isolated tedium of geographically remote settings of Love Serenade and South Solitary, and the more seedy fringes of fame on the RSL circuits of the Gold Coast in Walk the Talk, these films were marked by the power of their locations to shape the stories and desires of their characters. Love Serenade, selected for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/movies/un-certain-regard.html">Un Certain Regard</a> – the Cannes Film Festival’s program for exploring new cinematic horizons – highlights Barrett’s unique perspective on storytelling. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rk92ymOMlyc?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> Celebrated for one of the most <a href="https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2009/key-moments-in-australian-cinema-issue-70-march-2014/take-it-all-off-baby-take-it-all-off-the-australian-kamasutra-love-serenade-shirley-barrett-1996/">un-erotic stripteases</a> in cinema history, Love Serenade subtly subverted the conventions of the romantic comedy genre. The film follows sisters Vicki-Ann and Dimity Hurley, played by Rebecca Frith and Miranda Otto respectively, through their misguided seductions, and later disposal, of new-in-town Brisbane radio DJ Ken Sherry. Far from indulging the expected love triangle and romantic tensions, the film instead focuses on the oppressiveness of the film’s setting: the middle-of-nowhere town of Sunray. In this place, the sister’s desiring of Ken stands in for a wider set of longings; a "yearning for something else”, as <a href="https://archive.org/details/issuu_libuow_cinemapaper1996junno110/page/n17/mode/1up">Barrett described it</a>. Barrett would return to the themes of female desire and the power of (social) geography to shape it in her third feature, South Solitary, released in 2010. Again starring Otto, this time as the spinster niece of a lighthouse operator, South Solitary examined the lives of the tiny communities that tend the lighthouse islands in the Tasman Sea. Diving into the archives to research the film, Barrett noted the appeal of this isolated setting where humans were forced to rely on unruly animals and even more unruly neighbours to survive. As <a href="https://www.academia.edu/19024415/On_Animals_Archives_and_Embroidery_An_Interview_with_Shirley_Barrett">Barrett explained</a>, <blockquote> there are fascinating accounts of tension that would quickly develop between people, in this setting, with nothing else to alleviate them. Things would often go badly awry. </blockquote> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QXoxIx2Br2I?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> South Solitary was more than simply a story about an isolated community, it was a film made by and for women. With a creative team mainly composed of women, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/19024415/On_Animals_Archives_and_Embroidery_An_Interview_with_Shirley_Barrett">Barrett would joke</a> it was “a film written for middle-aged women, by middle aged-women.” Even today, such a description is <a href="https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/frail-frumpy-and-forgotten-report.pdf">considered a risky</a> proposition for a film’s success. <h2>From the screen to the page</h2> In 2014 Barrett released her first novel, Rush Oh!, with a backdrop telling the true story of a symbiotic relationship between a whaling town on the NSW south coast and a pod of killer whales, which aided the whalers’ work. The story of Eden had begun life as a film script, developed through the years that Barrett worked on seeing South Solitary to the big screen. After <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/books-how-shirley-barrett-dumped-her-film-career-and-turned-to-writing-fiction-20150910-gjj8ow.html">languishing</a> as an unrealised project for several years, Barrett transformed the story into a book. Following Rush Oh! Barrett would continue to write work for beyond the screen, releasing The Bus on Thursday in 2018 and drafting another manuscript over recent years. Earlier this year Barrett wrote two articles for The Guardian about her experience with cancer and her terminal diagnosis. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/06/notes-on-dying-it-occurred-to-me-that-this-is-my-last-lychee-season">By March</a>, Barrett observed the strangeness of the passing of her last lychee season and the task of planning her funeral. She wrote, “it gets to a point where you just can’t do it any more, and I am at that point now. I just want to fade quietly into oblivion.” <h2>A source of inspiration</h2> In 2018 I was lucky enough to meet Shirley Barrett, when we screened Love Serenade as the opening night film of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival. Barrett, alongside the film’s producer Jan Chapman and editor Denise Haratzis, introduced their film and spoke with audience members at the after-film party. <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477966/original/file-20220807-71528-380qrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477966/original/file-20220807-71528-380qrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477966/original/file-20220807-71528-380qrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477966/original/file-20220807-71528-380qrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477966/original/file-20220807-71528-380qrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477966/original/file-20220807-71528-380qrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477966/original/file-20220807-71528-380qrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /><figcaption>Shirley Barrett (centre) with Jan Chapman and Denise Haratzis at the Melbourne Women in Film Festival 2018. Author provided</figcaption></figure> Although brief, this meeting had an impact on myself as well as many emerging filmmakers in the room. Barrett’s generosity of time and spirit were incredible gifts. Her passing has resulted in an outpouring of memories and grief from the people she encountered. Barrett’s films and novels leave a legacy that lies in her unique perspective and engaging storytelling, and in her generosity as an artist to encourage and inspire.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188292/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kirsten-stevens-543619">Kirsten Stevens</a>, Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation.</a> Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-shirley-barrett-an-offbeat-and-generous-australian-director-and-writer-188292">original article</a>. Image: Getty

Caring

Is AI-generated art really creative? It depends on the presentation

<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/04/mind-blowing-ai-da-becomes-first-robot-to-paint-like-an-artist">Ai-Da</a> sits behind a desk, paintbrush in hand. She looks up at the person posing for her, and then back down as she dabs another blob of paint onto the canvas. A lifelike portrait is taking shape. If you didn’t know a robot produced it, this portrait could pass as the work of a human artist. Ai-Da is touted as the “first robot to paint like an artist”, and an exhibition of her work called <a href="https://www.ai-darobot.com/exhibition">Leaping into the Metaverse</a> opened at the Venice Biennale. Ai-Da produces portraits of sitting subjects using a robotic hand attached to her lifelike feminine figure. She’s also able to talk, giving detailed answers to questions about her artistic process and attitudes towards technology. She even gave a TEDx talk about “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaZJG7jiRak">The Intersection of Art and AI</a>” (artificial intelligence) in Oxford a few years ago. While the words she speaks are programmed, Ai-Da’s creators have also been experimenting with having her write and perform her own poetry. But how are we to interpret Ai-Da’s output? Should we consider her paintings and poetry original or creative? Are these works actually art? <h2>Art is subjective</h2> What discussions about AI and creativity often overlook is the fact that creativity is not an absolute quality that can be defined, measured and reproduced objectively. When we describe an object – for instance, a child’s drawing – as being creative, we project our own assumptions about culture onto it. Indeed, art never exists in isolation. It always needs someone to give it “art” status. And the criteria for whether you think something is art is informed by both your individual expectations and broader cultural conceptions. If we extend this line of thinking to AI, it follows that no AI application or robot can objectively be “creative”. It is always us – humans – who decide if what AI has created is art. In our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448221077278?journalCode=nmsa">recent research</a>, we propose the concept of the “Lovelace effect” to refer to when and how machines such as robots and AI are seen as original and creative. The Lovelace effect – named after the 19th century mathematician often called the first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace – shifts the focus from the technological capabilities of machines to the reactions and perceptions of those machines by humans. The programmer of an AI application or the designer of a robot does not just use technical means to make the public see their machine as creative. This also happens through presentation: how, where and why we interact with a technology; how we talk about that technology; and where we feel that technology fits in our personal and cultural contexts. <h2>In the eye of the beholder</h2> Our reception of Ai-Da is, in fact, informed by various cues that suggest her “human” and “artist” status. For example, Ai-Da’s robotic figure looks much like a human – she’s even called a “she”, with a feminine-sounding name that not-so-subtly suggests an Ada Lovelace influence. This femininity is further asserted by the blunt bob that frames her face (although she has sported some other funky hairstyles in the past), perfectly preened eyebrows and painted lips. Indeed, Ai-Da looks much like the quirky title character of the 2001 film Amélie. This is a woman we have seen before, either in film or our everyday lives. Ai-Da also wears conventionally “artsy” clothing, including overalls, mixed fabric patterns and eccentric cuts. In these outfits, she produces paintings that look like a human could have made them, and which are sometimes framed and displayed among human work. We also talk about her as we would a human artist. An article in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/04/mind-blowing-ai-da-becomes-first-robot-to-paint-like-an-artist">the Guardian</a>, for example, gives a shout-out to “the world premier of her solo exhibition at the 2022 Venice Biennale”. If we didn’t know that Ai-Da was a robot, we could easily be led to appreciate her work as we would that of any other artist. Some may see robot-produced paintings as coming from creative computers, while others may be more skeptical, given the fact that robots act on clear human instructions. In any case, attributions of creativity never depend on technical configurations alone – no computer is objectively creative. Rather, attributions of computational creativity are largely inspired by contexts of reception. In other words, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. As the Lovelace effect shows, through particular social cues, audiences are prompted to think about output as art, systems as artists, and computers as creative. Just like the frames around Ai-Da’s paintings, the frames we use to talk about AI output indicate whether or not what we are looking at can be called art. But, as with any piece of art, your appreciation of AI output ultimately depends on your own interpretation. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-ai-generated-art-really-creative-it-depends-on-the-presentation-181663" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Art

Our Partners

Over 60

News

Shop

Catalogues

Newspaper

Contests

Entertainment

Travel

Health

Lifestyle

Finance

Property

Compare

Games

Information

Keep up to date

Search

Are young people smarter than older adults? My research shows cognitive differences between generations are diminishing

What will aged care look like for the next generation?

Storytelling allows elders to transfer values and meaning to younger generations

Baby boomers fight back against "self-entitled whingeing generations"

Why we should embrace the joy of dressing ‘outside of the lines’ like Gen Z

Adam Goodes opens up about major family loss

ChatGPT and other generative AI could foster science denial and misunderstanding – here’s how you can be on alert

“That name goes back four generations”: Paul Walker’s brother makes a touching tribute

AI to Z: all the terms you need to know to keep up in the AI hype age

"This doesn’t feel right, does it?": Photographer admits Sony prize-winning photo was AI generated