Whether it’s a demolished pub or hundreds of crumbling schools, the UK’s disintegrating infrastructure says a lot about its leaders and its people. — Having been demolished overnight by diggers hired a few days before the building, ahem, ‘burned down’, the sight of the Crooked Inn in ruins elicited anger last month in local people who cherished the ancient public house, even if most of them didn’t use it enough to save it from…

Why we don’t need to worry about AI in the hands of bad actors — We are told that Artificial Intelligence will finish us all, as it will be misused by so-called ‘bad actors’ who will put the technology to catastrophic use. But just who are these bad actors, what are their plans for AI, and how concerned should we be? To answer these questions…

Why developers of AI need more than a guardrail If there’s one thing I have noticed from the hundreds of articles on why AI is good/bad (delete as appropriate), it’s that the word ‘guardrail’ is not only trending but is doing a lot of heavy lifting when deployed. The word may be more commonly used in management theory, but…

Been asked to share your views on AI in yet another 700-word column on the subject? Follow our simple format below, and you can’t go wrong… — Intro (100 words) Generative AI is great — have you tried it!? I have. It may have even helped me with this… No, it did not. Or did it? NO! That’s because AI doesn’t quite hit the spot yet, but did you know it’s passed the US bar exam, can write songs in…

Why the jobs that AI should really steal are those of our leaders — Homo sapiens has got its big-brained, bipedal but end-of-useful-life self in a right pickle over Artificial Intelligence (AI). Armageddon aside, AI threatens to take our jobs, rendering us useless; shares in companies in the education sector fell recently in what the Financial Times called a “first scalp” for AI. …

Amid all the fuss around AI, I have a question. What does Artificial Intelligence look like? — While debates rage about the degree to which artificial intelligence will transform our world, questions about its appearance may seem unimportant. But surely we should be able to recognise those who will take our jobs, even if we cannot stop them? …

Why bias is essential if generative AI is to create great art. — It’s fair to say there is a lot of excitement around AI, and so-called ‘generative AI’, in particular. As you will no doubt have seen for yourself, Chat GPT will produce acceptable, if uninspiring texts on subjects ranging from macroeconomics to microbiology. …

From our political correspondent Voters are demanding drastic legislation to ensure the UK Government sticks to an agreed minimum service level. The move comes as the electorate grows weary of the sight of politicians working to rule while problems mount up around the country. As queues of legislation grow ever…

From oysters cultivated in sewage-tainted waters to the most expensive lamb in the country, these were the dishes that were killing it in 2022! — Chosen by our food critic 1. Gigot d’Agneau, or Lamb Vauxhall Nova One of my most memorable gastronomic experiences in 2022 was lamb. But this was no ordinary lamb. Reared on a West Country farm by a single farmer who, in the past few years, has lost not only the seasonal workers on whom he relied but…