Messages to humans from our robot overlords: knowledge, culture, university, community, exchange

With thanks to the author, editor and proofreader, Hannah Retallick, for the title of this blog series. 

In another life, Hannah is part of my team of virtual assistants. Her unenviable task is to help me focus each morning and do the essential business admin that I'd otherwise forget. 

Image was ai generated in Canva

This week I attended an online workshop at the International Creative Research Methods Conference. It was about the use of generative ai in qualitative data analysis. It was led by Christina Silver and sparked many thoughts I have yet to process. 

It also sparked idle curiosity. What would happen if I gave the same prompt to four different versions of (free) ai? What kind of biases might be implicit? Do they all have a similar bias?

I thought I'd start with five words that are significant for PinkGold Ltd and ask the versions of ai to write me a paragraph. 

Here's what I got. I added the bold because I got lost in the verbage and wanted to make words stand out that I thought were significant. I have include a comment in a box below each one. 

Canva MagicWrite

Universities serve as vibrant hubs where knowledge and culture intersect, fostering a rich community of intellectual exchange. Within their walls, diverse groups of students, faculty, and staff come together, each contributing unique perspectives and experiences. This confluence of ideas and backgrounds creates a dynamic environment that encourages learning beyond textbooks. Cultural events, academic discussions, and collaborative projects are just a few ways through which knowledge is shared and expanded. The university setting not only promotes the accumulation of academic knowledge but also cultivates a deeper understanding and appreciation of different cultures, preparing individuals to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world.

Community is only mentioned in relation to the university and occurs ‘within their walls’. However, it does recognise cultural exchange within the university can equip those in the university to thrive outside it. 

 

Claude.ai

Universities serve as vibrant hubs where knowledge and culture intersect, fostering a unique community of diverse minds. Within these academic environments, students and faculty engage in a constant exchange of ideas, experiences, and perspectives. This intellectual cross-pollination not only enhances individual learning but also contributes to the broader cultural fabric of society. As students from various backgrounds come together, they create a microcosm of global society, where different worldviews coalesce and new understandings emerge. Through this dynamic interplay of knowledge sharing and cultural exchange, universities play a crucial role in shaping informed, empathetic citizens who are well-equipped to address the complex challenges of our interconnected world.

Community is within the university, but with the explicit purpose of students taking their new understandings into the wider world as ‘empathetic citizens’.

 

Copilot

At the heart of every university lies a vibrant community where knowledge and culture intertwine seamlessly. Students and faculty engage in a dynamic exchange of ideas, fostering an environment that celebrates diversity and intellectual growth. This exchange not only broadens perspectives but also enriches the cultural fabric of the university, creating a space where everyone can learn from one another and contribute to a shared understanding of the world.

And another where community only relates to the university.

 

ChatGPT

At the heart of every vibrant university lies a rich exchange of knowledge and culture that fuels both academic and personal growth within the community. Students and faculty engage in dynamic conversations, blending diverse perspectives and experiences that enhance their understanding of the world. This interplay of ideas not only broadens individual horizons but also strengthens the collective fabric of the university, fostering an environment where innovation and empathy thrive. Through cultural events, collaborative research, and open dialogue, the university becomes a microcosm of global interconnectedness, where the synergy of knowledge and cultural diversity creates a thriving academic community.

Oh look! And another that only talks about community within the university. So similar in wording and yet so far removed from the Claude.ai where the purpose is a thriving global community.

 

Take-away message for humans

Given the same prompts, the different robot overlords will deliver overlapping wordings – but with very different messages at their heart.

Three out of four reference community solely within the university.

Only one recognises the role of the university in the community beyond its walls.

Enjoy playing with ai - but remember, the robot overlords may not have our best interests at heart...

If you've got ideas for other prompts to do with universities, research, coproduction, knowledge mobilisation and similar - drop a comment below and I'll see what I can do.

Ways to organise life - a work in progress

I have tried and broken every system (paper, digital, apps, human) that I have tried in my attempt to organise my life.

Why keep trying? 

Because I need a way to keep tabs on all the areas of life to prevent myself being overwhelmed, losing things and burning out. 

Why do I keep breaking systems?

I'm neurodivergent. I am unique in my experience of neurodivergence (we all are). As I understand how my brain categorises, processes and observes/creates patterns I am starting to see why I break systems designed for other people using other people's ways of categorising, processing and making sense of things. 

Copyright is c/o Rachel Hughes, dotiau. Image created by her daughter

What is currently working for me?

I currently categorise tasks by type of thinking required. Anything about urgency or importance or area of life or length of task is secondary.

• Mull - reflective, creative work
• Schedule - big things that will require a block of time and some thought
• Do - tasks that require no thought (it's already be done) and everything is to hand.

Here's an example:

• Mull: how can I find a way to organise life that works with me rather than me forcing myself into it?
• Schedule: 'Work on being organised'
• Do: 1. Create new tags on Ayoa* for mull, schedule, do 2. Add tag to all tasks

I have just added a fourth category of thinking: pottering. More on that later.

Having added tags on Ayoa, it is easy to use the 'filter' to see only tasks with that tag. 

So if I'm in a particular mood or have scheduled time for a type of thinking, I can see just the options that need that type of thinking. 

Ayoa also has lighting flash and flag symbols I can use to give an indication of urgency/importance, so I've got that at a glance too. 

For me, doing one thinking type at a time works so much better than doing one project at a time. 

About pottering

This isn't a tag that can be attached to tasks or projects. It is a wonderful state of being where I have zero expectations of myself and I simply wander round the house or office doing bits that I feel like doing. I need to protect these times by scheduling nothing and having no deliberate purpose a few times a month. 

It's very relaxing and 'non-productive'. [The reality is that it is extremely non-productive in a non-linear and unfocused way. After a scheduled pottering time, I feel so relaxed and the next Friday 8.30am with the wonderful Hannah Retallick, I discover that I can update or archive a vast number of tasks on the Ayoa boards - without having tried or been intentional]

 *Ayoa is software designed by and for neurodivergent people. Well worth the outlay for Ayoa Ultimate in my experience. It is transforming my ability to be organised, plan and collaborate. I'm not sponsored by them (!) but they did grant me a free licence as I was trying to get started with NeuDICE CIC.   

Today I did not fail

Update on I will always fail

I have been continuing to fail for the last four years. 

I still spend a lot of time feeling vulnerable. Often it is because I am deliberately *making* myself vulnerable because I have enough privileges in life to make it less dangerous for me than it would be for many others. I have privileges like a great support network, strong personal faith, I'm White, my first language is English, I have had immense educational privileges. 

One of the ways I knowingly make myself vulnerable is when I choose to take something on knowing I will fail. I do it because each person who chips away at an issue brings the day closer when someone can tackle the issue and succeed. But it is difficult. At best, I feel like the fool in Shakespeare or the jester in the medieval court - someone not taken seriously or seen as a bit of a 'pet' or an eccentric but as a consequence is able to say things to someone in power that others could not safely say. At its hardest, I get sacked, marginalised, excluded and bad-mouthed as disruptive and difficult. And, being fair, both stories about me are true. I can be all those things. 

Last night, I had one of those moments where I realise how much burden I have carried over decades of being the difficult one, the fool, the distruptor. 

I received an email that almost broke me for a moment. And it wasn't one that added to the burden. It was one that made me aware of the accumulated burden because - for the first time - I felt fully seen and my role within a complex team genuinely valued. 

I hadn't expected the strong emotions - or as my occupational therapist and a friend with a younger child puts it 'big feelings'. My interoception and alexithymia are improving. I can't thank the NHS, friends and a book by Niamh Garvey enough for that. I can know recognise I am having a 'big feeling' and have tools to help me sit with the big feelings and gently explore what they may be and be curious about what made them such big feelings. That's another blog completely, one I haven't yet written. 

One tool I use is seeing if I can identify a time my body had a similar feeling. The only time my body had a similar feeling was when I won gold medal in the Welsh Open over-94kg* Olympic Weightlifting competition and stepped out to receive the medal. At that moment, I realised the burden I had carried all those years of traumatic school PE lessons and my scared, defient, bullied, eczema-covered, obese 12 year old self who had lied that she didn't care because she was a weightlifter. 

So today I am savouring the moment and feeling able to gently put to rest the stories of the past and add a new story. 

Today, I relax in knowing that, on this occasion, I did not fail.

* if you are curious, over 94kg is the athlete's weight, not the weight they lift. And an Open means people of any age from anywhere in the world can compete. I was 54 years old.