A tale of two kisses
Robert Doisneau’s famous photograph of two carefree lovers outside the Hotel de Ville in Paris is 1950 must be one of the best-known images in the world. The picture, he later said, “represented a perfect fantasy. It encapsulates the world’s view of Paris as the city of love and freedom.”
And now, another Parisian kiss, this time from May 14, 1941. It shows a woman saying goodbye to her husband, probably for good.
That day, some 3,700 foreign-born Jews obeyed a summons by Paris police with a notice, printed on light green paper (it became known as the “green ticket roundup”), for what they believed would merely be a check of their immigration and identity papers. The operation was organized by a man named Theodor Dannecker, the envoy of Adolf Eichmann in Paris. A photographer with the Nazi propaganda unit in the city was on hand to observe.
Note that the policemen in the picture overseeing proceedings are French gendarmes, not SS thugs. You can perhaps see why some of us balk at the notion of “European civilisation”. Europe, after all, is the continent that — in a single century — hosted two of the bloodiest wars in human history.
Quote of the Day
”If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do.”
- Bertrand Russell
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
Francesco Geminiani | Concerto Grosso nr 11 E major (after Corelli op. V)
New to me, and lovely.
Long Read of the Day
Homer Simpson may be the best AI commentator we have right now
An insightful essay by Martha Lane Fox.
Artificial intelligence is becoming a bit like alcohol.
The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.
Not my line. Homer Simpson’s. But it may be the most accurate description of this entire AI moment.
Public debate about AI swings constantly between two extremes. On one side: the evangelists. Productivity boom. Unlimited growth. A new industrial revolution. On the other: the alarmists. Mass unemployment. Social collapse. Machines replacing humans.
Most people are not living at either extreme. Neither am I.
But one thing feels increasingly clear: the next challenge in AI is not simply capability. It is legitimacy.
Partly because of this, I am chairing a new taskforce for the Mayor of London looking at AI, jobs and the future of work across the capital. We are intentionally keeping it practical, evidence-led and short-term. No mission creep. No speculative AGI debates.
The focus is on what is already changing inside organisations before it fully appears in unemployment statistics: hiring, training, progression, management and job design.
Because the labour market is already shifting…
Do read on. She’s a fountain of common sense about the technology.
My commonplace booklet
AI aces a literary prize?
From the Guardian:
A few syntactical tics – and the verdict of an AI detection platform – have sparked a furore over the possibility that a short story given a prestigious literary award was written by AI.
The foundation that awarded the prize and Granta, the magazine that published the winning story, said they had considered the allegations but had not reached a conclusion as to whether they were true.
“It may be that the judges have now awarded a prize to an instance of AI plagiarism – we don’t yet know, and perhaps we never will know,” the publisher of Granta, Sigrid Rausing, said.
The Serpent in the Grove was named as the winning entry for the Commonwealth prize from the Caribbean on Saturday and published in Granta magazine.
Hmmm… I’n not convinced by the so-called ‘AI detection’ machines either.
Chart of the Day
What people use ChatGPT for.
Screenshot
Feedback
Readers have pointed out that my Observer column on Sunday was behind the paywall. For a pdf version, see here.
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