Talking with Nigel Toon about his book How AI Thinks (p. 50) left me with that uncomfortable mix of elation and fear that is often hard to process. He reminded me that, although artificial intelligence (AI) has been around in different guises since 2012, the first major global demonstration of it was when Chat GBT was launched in 2022. That was when many of us became aware that this latest development in tech was likely to dramatically change our world. Nigel made the point that countries that don’t invest in AI development are likely to be left behind, certainly from an economic position but also from a security perspective. With regard to our awareness of AI, he pointed out that around the time when we were trying to grapple with the campaign on the Brexit vote in 2016, an estimated 240 million people watched a British Deep Mind machine, AlphaGo, beat the world Go champion in South Korea. Go is considered to be one of the most complex board games in the world, which made this such an extraordinary feat. While we were battling with memes and inaccurate statistics, China and other Asian countries were being exposed to the technology of the future, ironically because of what was once a British company. Most people involved in education will be aware that AI is already having an impact on how students learn. In his book Nigel points out that education is one of the many things that AI will help transform. He suggests shifting the system away from the 3 Rs (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) to include developing the 3 Cs of Curiosity, Critical thinking and Creativity. At the other end of the technology scale in this issue, Dr Sam Rose highlights the value of pigs and wild boar (p. 10) and quotes Rewilding Britain describing them as ‘the quintessential soil ecosystem engineer’. Amongst other benefits, their ability to break up ground in search of food allows the seeds of annual wildflowers, shrubs and trees to germinate as well as creating access to food for hungry birds during the leanest months. So far I think most pig farmers only tend to benefit from a different form of AI, but no doubt that will change too.
