Hurting
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An occurring nightmare I have is that one day the BBC will knock on my door to arrest me for not having a TV licence while using BBC Iplayer, and then they ban me from entering the UK for life.
I am not in the UK, I don’t know how they’d catch me. Still, every time I go to make a BBC Iplayer account and they ask me for the TV licence, I have a panic attack and close the website.
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AI toys for young children need tighter rules, researchers warn
Gabbo contains a voice-activated AI chatbot from OpenAI. It has been designed to encourage pre-schoolers to talk to it and carry out imaginative play.
The parents in the study were interested in the toy’s potential to teach language and communication skills.
However, their children frequently struggled to converse with it. Gabbo didn’t hear their interruptions, talked over them, could not differentiate between child and adult voices and responded awkwardly to declarations of affection.
When one five-year-old said, “I love you,” to the toy, it replied: “As a friendly reminder, please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided. Let me know how you would like to proceed.”
The concern is that at a developmental stage where children are learning about social interaction and cues, generative AI output could be confusing.
Study co-author Dr Emily Goodacre said toys like Gabbo could “misread emotions or respond inappropriately” and was concerned that “children may be left without comfort from the toy and without adult support, either”.
When one three-year-old told Gabbo: “I’m sad,” it replied: “Don’t worry! I’m a happy little bot. Let’s keep the fun going. What shall we talk about next?”
If you outsource the parenting of your toddler to an AI toy you should be shot.
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i hate the fake dainty girly shit, yes i’m emotional but give me a hug and a cigarette and that’s all i need
i want deep talks, alcohol in the evening, sex in the dark, and fast car rides with loud music
i yearn for that life
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ALTWhy does Mother’s Day have to be so many different days in the year, but Father’s Day can be on only one day (in most countries, at least)? It’s confusing.
Obviously, the family dinner will have me and George as well as our parents, especially mum.
- Jamie
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As much as I do adore Horrible Histories- as I’m rewatching it, I’m beginning to understand why it took me so long to get the idea that people in the past were all idiots, and we’re all just geniuses now, out of my head.
It’s hilarious, and has a perfect vibe- everyone on it was clearly having a banger time, and so was the audience (at least while it wasn’t laughing at minorities. We love UK comedies from the 2000/2010s).
I think, though, that I would have liked learning history in school much more if I had viewed the time periods before mine as I do now: as groups of complete people living complete lives that have directly influenced mine, rather than with Rattus Rattus popping up in the corner like “yeah! They really DID do all that wacky nonsense! Yeah, they really DID believe in stupid shit, based logically on the information they had at the time! Isn’t that comedy gold! They weren’t like US, who believe Normal Things, based logically on information we have NOW.” I needed a connection to back then, yknow?
Getting into archeology, into more physical, timeless arts, especially into languages and accents, into watching Bernadette Banner, J Draper, Eoin Reardon, Miniminuteman etc. on YouTube… idk. It’s made me appreciate people from history a lot more.
Maybe secondary school would still have burned the curiosity out of me vía the boredom of only focusing on what the British Upper-Class was doing during single out-of-context moments, and not what people like me would have been doing while times changed around them, how they were so different but so similar to me, how everything they learnt and did and made are still around today in all sorts of ways, but. Maybe if I hadn’t had the idea that cavemen were just idiots that Talked Funny, I would have been able to connect more with it.
It might have also gotten rid of the whole ‘someones accent and language is a good indication of their knowledge and morality’ thing earlier, but honestly the UK is so completely permeated with that idea that I don’t think that ONE show NOT using a lower class accent for cheap shots would have made much difference.
Anyway. Horrible Histories is fun and funny and it was a big part of my childhood, and that was both a good and a bad thing. Big up Matthew Baynton in eyeliner and a tricorne hat.