AI

On AI-generated Images of Birds

British Birds July 2024 cover

As one who has dedicated decades of his life to helping people learn about, understand, and as a result it is hoped care more about the natural world and the present state it is in, I am particularly troubled by AI-generated images of birds and other wildlife as they present the unreal as real, encouraging many of those seeing them and not understanding that they are nothing more than the random collection of data assembled into visual images by an AI image-generating computer program to develop a distorted expectation of how the natural world truly appears.

The Book of Minds

Book Minds cover

Examining the idea of “mind” as it does or may exist in a wide range of forms from biological to artificial, Mr. Ball envisions a “space of possible minds” through which he can lead his readers in consideration of a number of questions pertaining to minds that doesn’t privilege the human one.

AI in the Wild

AI Wild cover

Back when I was a wee lad, I delighted in watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Every Sunday evening, I sat in rapt attention as Marlin Perkins narrated a new wildlife conservation research project that he had recently filmed with Jim Fowler. Particularly intriguing to me (technophilic child of the space race that I was) was their use of radio tracking collars and related devices to monitor and relocate particular animals as part of their research. At the time, such devices were among the most advanced forms of field-level scientific technology imaginable.

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