Lynch forever

Striking poster for an interesting David Lynch season at the Prince Charles Cinema in London.

Quote of the Day

”The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”

• Bertrand Russell

Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news

Handel | Lascia ch’io pianga (from Rinaldo) | Voices of Music with Kirsten Blaise, soprano

Link

Long Read of the Day

 Is ethical AI ‘woke’?

Fabulous column by Rory Cellan-Jones on the widening gap between the US and Europe over the regulation of AI, and its implications for the UK.

The EU has passed an AI Act which appears to be quite interventionist, with a framework which assesses AI projects by their level of risk. For instance, using AI for social scoring ,where people are classified according to their behaviour or personal characteristics, would be deemed an unacceptable risk and banned, whereas its use in employment and education would be seen as high-risk with strict rules on transparency enforced. While the UK is no longer in the EU it is widely accepted that our businesses will want to comply with the new law so as to have access to the European market.

By contrast, the US appears determined to have as little regulation as possible, citing the need for American AI companies to keep ahead in the fierce competition with China. Indeed, it would seem that the kind of AI operation that would be deemed an unacceptable risk in the EU might look very attractive to a Trump administration which has not hesitated to declare a national emergency to justify all manner of actions that look legally or ethically dubious.

Another reason then for the UK government to take a long hard look at American tech companies and ask whether we can trust them…

Yep.

My commonplace booklet

The dry and the wet burn together

This LRB essay by Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi is the most insightful thing I’ve read about the assault on Iran.

The war will not restore equilibrium. It will reorder the region both violently and unpredictably. The Islamic Republic is likely to emerge transformed or weakened in ways not yet visible. But the notion that it would simply dissolve under pressure was always fanciful. States formed in revolution and hardened by protracted siege do not yield easily to external diktat.

The dry and the wet burn together. One hundred and sixty-five graves have been dug in Minab, in Hormozgan province, for those killed when US or Israeli missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh school on Saturday morning as classes began. Most of the dead were girls aged between seven and twelve. Washington and Tel Aviv have sought to distance themselves from the carnage; the photographic record of the desolation remains.

Trump has spoken of a campaign lasting weeks; the Islamic Republic’s current leadership has vowed to fight on. Wars of choice rarely confine themselves to their intended targets. They consume not only the combatants but the assumptions that animate them. What began as an attempt to alter the regional balance may instead hasten the erosion of the order that presumed it could interfere with impunity.

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