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https://nickfthilton.medium.com/the-tsunamai-are-our-systems-ready-for-the-coming-flood-of-vexatious-ai-e074f79c2560>
"I’m not entirely sure why the word ‘slop’ became synonymous with the current
wave of AI, but I’m sure that etymologists (now, or in the distant future) will
produce fascinating research on this subject. Slop: it connotes both the bland,
formlessness of AI-content (art that looks, simultaneously, like all art and no
art) and also has the Dickensian sense of being serve great lashings of gruel,
almost without consent. “Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had
eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?” Mr Limbkins inquires, incredulously,
after Oliver Twist demands his extra slop. “That boy will be hung!”
It’s an apt word, but I have been thinking of late about another a different
descriptor for AI content:
the TsunamAI.
I spent some of this week working (in my 09:00–17:00 capacity) as a producer on
a podcast looking at the
Employee Rights Bill, which should shortly become
law in the UK. It is a sprawling piece of legislation covering everything from
Day One rights to ‘fire and rehire’ practices, and, while interesting, is not
the subject of this newsletter. On the episode we made, a leading employment
lawyer — David Reade KC — made the following observation. “There are loads of
sites now where AI will write a grievance or draft an ET1 claim,” he said on
the show. “I feel a lot of sympathy for the employment tribunal because they
are typically getting litigants in person and the first task they have to do at
an early stage in litigation is unpick what the legal issues are.”
Essentially, David was making the point that employment tribunals are now
swamped by verbose applications that have been created by AI, from litigants
who might otherwise not have had the time or resources to make a claim. This is
good, on one level — we want people to not be stifled in making unfair
dismissal claims — but bad, in another way. There is already a huge backlog in
terms of dealing with these claims, and it’s quite clear that all parties are
advantaged by a quick resolution. You can use AI to create claims, and while
you might (eventually) be able to use AI to triage claims, the final decision
in cases like this has to be made by a human. And that means the system is
getting gummed up."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
