When most people think about artificial intelligence (AI) they may associate it with chatbots like ChatGPT and its rivals, or with elaborate computer models running in remote data centres. People tend not to think about AI being used in consumer devices that they encounter every day: thermostats, TV streaming services, fridges and telephones, yet AI…
DetailsThe large language models (LLMs) that underlie generative AI rely on being trained on vast volumes of data. This may be text, images or video, but in any case, the answers that a fully trained LLM will give to you will be heavily dependent on the nature of that training data. If you are going…
DetailsIn case you were in any doubt that ChatGPT and its AI cousins were heavily used by students to do their homework, data shows that the usage of ChatGPT dropped substantially during the 2025 summer break, just as it did the previous two summers. Students are heavy users of generative AI, which will not come…
DetailsThe wine industry favours tradition. The first traces of wine production were near Tbilisi in Georgia, around 6,000 BCE, but over the centuries, the industry has adapted to technological advances. The glass bottle was uncommon until the 17th century, though the first ever glass bottle dates back to Roman times. The wine industry is worth…
DetailsIn August 2025 it was revealed in the press that a report produced by Deloitte for the Australian government contained several entirely fabricated citations to articles and books that do not exist, other than in the fevered hallucinations of generative AI. The report, costing taxpayers AU$439,000, was presumably not offered at a substantial discount to…
DetailsFrom time immemorial, people have liked to gamble: the first six-sided dice was found in Mesopotamia, dating back to around 3000 BCE, and in ancient China, wooden tiles for a lottery-style game have been found dating back to 2300 BCE. The first casino emerged in Italy in 1638. More recently, the advent of the internet…
DetailsThe pharmaceutical industry was worth $1.6 trillion in 2024, employing around 8 million people directly and up to 75 million people indirectly. Various flavours of artificial intelligence show considerable promise in these industries. AI can be utilised in various applications, including research and drug discovery, clinical trials, operations such as manufacturing, and for other purposes,…
DetailsThe 26th of August 2025 may end up being quite a significant day when the definitive history book of AI is published. I had written previously about the unresolved issue of copyright associated with the training of large language models (LLMs), which underlie the generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and also the…
DetailsGenerative artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as ChatGPT and its rivals, depends heavily on training data, but what if that training data is deliberately poisoned? The large language models (LLMs) technology that underlie generative AI go through three stages of training. The models are fed vast amounts of raw data, such as The Common Corpus,…
DetailsFinancial services make up at least a fifth of the entire global economy. It has always been a heavy user of technology, investing at least triple as much in technology as the retail sector or manufacturing. Given this, it is unsurprising that financial services have also been early adopters of artificial intelligence (AI). It is…
DetailsThose of us who live in the West tend to associate AI with the USA and Silicon Valley. The titans of the AI industry, from specialist software companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, to platform vendors like Microsoft and Google, to hardware companies like NVIDIA, are all headquartered in the USA. Most Western citizens have barely…
DetailsThe retail industry has long been a heavy technology user, from the cash register to vending machines to the credit card and the advent of e-commerce. It employs around 500 million people across the world. It is no surprise that artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way into many aspects of retail, from customer service…
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