This newsletter is 100% certified human
With AI slop on the rise, a British company has set out to verify and label human-written works.
Welcome back to a new edition of mostly cool stuff, a space dedicated to the the random news and things I come across online and offline that get my attention as per the dozens of screenshots, pictures and links in my phone.
Are you ready to don your best sari and put on your finest jewellery for the British Museum Pink Ball tomorrow evening? What? You didn’t get the invitation? Neither did I, which I don’t understand as I could have then given them a bit of free PR by writing about it here. I guess I’m not that kind of media mogul yet. In case you didn’t know about it, the Pink Ball will bring Jaipur splendor to London as its theme has been inspired by the British Museum latest exhibition Ancient India: Living Traditions. Some have already named it London’s take on the Met Gala with tickets going at £2,000 a piece. So far, the exclusive dinner has raised £1.6 million which will go on to support the museum’s international collaborations, including the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry. However, not everyone is thrilled about what is essentially a feast for the rich -no matter how noble their fundraising goals- and climate activists have taken the opportunity to flag the museum’s longstanding partnership with oil giant BP.
And now on to British startup Books by People, which has partnered with a number of independent publishing houses and created an organic literature certification that will be placed on books written by humans. The stamp will be assigned to works where only minimal AI use has been employed (for instance on formatting). If you’re thinking it’s crazy we’ve come to the point we have to prove a human has been 100% involved in the creation and actual writing of a book, I couldn’t agree more. However, with AI slop raining on us and infiltrating the space that used to be reserved for human creativity, I personally appreciate giving my scarce time and even scarcer attention to something that a real person, with real writer’s block, filled with insecurities and self-doubt, and maybe struggling financially has miraculously managed to produce. Like this newsletter1.
You know who would have loved that stamp? The Australian government, which commissioned a $440,000 report from Deloitte that contained several errors and forced the consultancy firm to admit they had used AI to produce it.
Perhaps this is the new normal as a new report has revealed that half of online content is written by AI. Not this newsletter, I remind you. The typos are there to prove it.
Source: Graphite.io - On the topic of books (and reports) made by humans, Stephen Graham has lauched Letters to our Sons, a book project in which he encourages dads from the world to share their experience raising boys.
An all-women team of ex-Guardian and Observer journalists have launched a new publication called The Nerve. Founding member (whose investigative work exposed the data breach that led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal) recently announced the launch in her own Substack and offered a glimpse into their first deep dive, which focuses on Tony Blair’s links with Israel.
Doctor Mary Brunkow, brand new winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, has become my new idol after sharing how she found out about the news and how she didn’t pick up the phone when the Nobel Institute called her because she thought it was spam. If you leave aside her whole award winning career, this could be me.
Coming very soon to a screen near you… Podcasts! You read that right as Spotify and Netflix have announced a partnership that will allow the former to bring its podcasts to the latter in a move to fight off competition on YouTube. As I wrote back in August, YouTube has become the platform of choice for Gen Alpha and it’s also attracting a growing number of viewers among people over 55. As podcasts are already a very popular format on the video platform, it makes sense Spotify and Netflix have joined forces to shoot their shot. It’ll be interesting to see how this works out as it’s difficult to break a habit once it’s been formed. Considering that ad-supported content on YouTube is free the only benefit of shifting to Netflix would be to enjoy the same content ad-free, which comes at a cost. I’m curious to see how this partnership works out when the lowest subscription option in Netflix includes ads, so there is not much of an incentive for those already using either the free version of Spotify or YouTube to listen to/watch podcasts.
Whatever money Netflix fails to make with podcasts, I’m sure they’ll make up for with the Peaky Blinders spin-off series, of which writer Steve Knight has confirmed the BBC has already commissioned two series, which will also air on Netflix. However, given the spin off will follow the Shelby family in the early 50s, it is rather likely Cillian Murphy, aka Tommy Shelby, won’t be in it. At least we have the Peaky Blinders movie to look forward to, The Immortal Man. This will in all likelihood be the last time Murphy appears on screen as our favourite Birmingham mobster taking his iconic haircut for a last spin.
Good news for Irish artists as after a three-year trial, Ireland is making the Basic Income for Arts scheme permanent in 2026. Thanks to this initiative, 2,000 artists will receive €325 per week to support them financially. This is when I realise I’m writing a free newsletter in the wrong country, especially considering that three quarters of jobs in creative industries go to friends and relatives so the barriers for entry for those who lack connections (which often means they don’t come from a priviledged background already), as well as the necessary financial support to focus on creating instead of working three non-creative jobs, remain extremely high.
Have you watched Victoria Beckham’s documentary yet? I have and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s clear that she has successfully rebranded herself as a fashion designer, an identity she reaffirms by choosing to invite mostly people in the fashion industry to be part of this three-part series which leads up to her Paris Fashion Week show. On the other, it feels as if she wanted to fast forward through a part of her past that is the reason she is the subject of a documentary to begin with. I appreciate the honesty (however scripted it may be) of talking about how the identity she had built as part of the Spice Girls collapsed once the group disbanded and David Beckham’s career took off, reversing their roles in their relationship and what it meant for her to rebuilt who she was.
Understandably, both David’s and Victoria’s documentaries barely mention their time in Spain while I remember it very clearly as that’s when the whole Rebecca Loos scandal happened and Loos was invited to several talk shows to spill the beans on the affair. If the first Beckham documentary hinted at it in a blink and you miss it way, Victoria’s ignore it completely and puts the focus on presenting them as a solid couple that has always been there for each other in the good and the bad. Like Meghan and Harry but with two people that have actually made a living for themselves. Anyway, I find Victoria is effortlessly funny and entertaining and I wished the series had allowed her to show more of that side but I get the goal was to tell us how she’s successfully rebranded to become this fashion powerhouse. I bet she’ll be at the Pink Ball at the British Museum this weekend. One of the highlights of the documentary? A picture of her in front of her dad’s Rolls Royce, a reference to the best (and viral) moment in David’s own documentary.
The last issue of this newsletter was an ode to British icons, so allow me to reprise that theme before we part ways by sharing Burberry’s latest campaign Postcards from London starring a woman who makes the gloomy London weather brighter with her smile. I am of course talking about Olivia Colman.
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I might be projecting slightly here.
Oh this is jam packed and fascinating! Also enjoyed eavesdropping on your chat with @storyhasit and totally agree more that Murphy and Graham are excellent humans using their fame for cultural and general good ❤️
I always feel like I have more interesting things to chat about after reading your round-ups Cristina! The Pink Ball better correct the oversight in their invitation list next year (do you think it will always be pink? Not sure I understand the significance). Also loved that Stephen Graham initiative and sent it to Gillian as soon as I saw it - I love how he is taking the opportunity to keep the conversation about masculinity going. And the irony of having to prove you are not a robot has now spilled over onto the page (ugh!).