Tag: Technology and Ageing

A notebook on a wooden desk with colourful creative energy swirling out of it in bright, abstract shapes.
Posted in AI and Creativity

The Creative Renaissance No One Saw Coming (And Why It’s Just Getting Started)

Posted on by Mike

There’s a moment, every so often, when history quietly changes direction and most of us don’t notice because we’re too busy doing other things. The printing press began as a technical curiosity long before it became a cultural turning point. Electricity, too, slipped into daily life one room at a time. When the internet appeared, most of us treated it as a mild curiosity. Something interesting, certainly, but hardly the force that would reshape how we live, work and tell stories.The world rarely recognises a revolution at the moment it begins. Most of us only understand what changed when we look back.

Continue reading “The Creative Renaissance No One Saw Coming (And Why It’s Just Getting Started)” →
A picture showing 'slop' as an introdu.ction to a post about 'AI Slop'
Posted in AI and Creativity

Is Everything Made by AI Really Just “Slop”?

Posted on by Mike

I keep hearing the phrase “AI slop” tossed around with the sort of relish usually reserved for complaining about school dinners or the state of modern television. It’s become one of those instant dismissals, a way to wrinkle one’s nose and wave away anything that happens to have an algorithm involved.

But is it really fair? Is everything touched by AI automatically destined for the creative compost heap? Personally, I don’t buy it, and the more I talk to people about it, the more it feels like the term tells us far more about the speaker than the work itself.

Continue reading “Is Everything Made by AI Really Just “Slop”?” →
AI robot sat at a desk writing, with books piled up either side of him in large piles
Posted in AI and Creativity

Why Ignoring AI Won’t Save Creativity, It Just Lets the Worst of It Win

Posted on by Mike

I’ve just come back from a conversation with a few writer friends, the sort where you expect to chat about books, ideas, how to self-publish your latest book, but instead you find yourself knee-deep in an argument about AI before you’ve even taken your coat off.

They’re lovely people, sharp minds, a great sense of humour, but the moment I mentioned something I’d been experimenting with that morning, faces tightened in unison. Someone actually groaned, which is not an uncommon reaction when I mention “AI”. One friend said she refused to “touch all that AI nonsense”. Another muttered that it was “ruining everything”. And there I was, sitting with my tea cooling in my hand, thinking: If we’re reacting like this now, what on earth will the conversation look like a year from today?

Continue reading “Why Ignoring AI Won’t Save Creativity, It Just Lets the Worst of It Win” →
Haibun, Ukiyo-e,, AI robot writing, llustration,
Posted in AI and Creativity

Wandering With Words: My First Experiments With AI-Written Haibun

Posted on by Mike

A haibun is one of those lovely poetic inventions that sneaks up on you. It is part story, part poem, and entirely its own creature. It comes from 17th-century Japan, made famous by the wandering poet Bashō, who mixed gentle prose observations with small, luminous haiku.

In modern hands, it feels surprisingly fresh: reflective, compact, and a bit like opening a window between the everyday and the poetic. No wonder it appeals to me. I’ve always believed curiosity keeps us young, and haibun offer the perfect excuse to wander, wonder, and watch what AI does with a few well-aimed prompts.

Continue reading “Wandering With Words: My First Experiments With AI-Written Haibun” →
AI Creativity Myths Busted
Posted in AI and Creativity

AI Creativity Myths Busted

Posted on by Mike

The light, chatty truth behind what AI can, and can’t, really do.

There’s a lot of chatter out there about artificial intelligence and creativity.
Depending on who you ask, AI is either a genius, a fraud, or a polite little assistant who can’t draw hands.

So today I thought I’d tackle a few of the biggest myths about AI and creativity, the ones that seem to cause the most panic and the loudest pub arguments. Don’t worry, this isn’t a lecture. Think of it as a chat over a cuppa about what really happens when humans and algorithms start co-creating.

Continue reading “AI Creativity Myths Busted” →