The Affect Of Ai Part 1

 

The Affect of AI

Part 1

Over the last few months I have been 'reading' a lot of audio books about AI. It is so prevalent in everything and growing almost daily it seems, I want to know what is going on; so you have to go in search of information.

Ray Kurzweil's “The Singularity Is Nearer” promises a Utopia of Abundance, a word that is applied consistently in support of AI. “Empire Of AI” by Karen Hao is very informative.--

What a lot of it boils down to is that one bloke in particular brought on Generative AI and the development of Chat GPT which is, currently, the most advanced AI in the Western World. His name is Sam Altman. Originally insisting on 'must be for the benefit of humanity', even non profit a long while ago, he is a very clever fellah.

Gradually as more money was invested in AI, aspirations have been sacrificed, as well as safety priorities. Microsoft is one company that invested heavily in Open AI. In 2023 Sam Altman was ousted as head of Open AI, and the beat goes on.

Perhaps the biggest problem AI is creating at the moment is the excessive amounts of fresh water it takes to cool down the computers to run it. As well as threatening water supplies to communities in the States this water problem has wrecked communities in extremely poor countries like Chile.

As AI's predicted growth happens, more and more Data centres that need all this water are going to be built. On top of the existing environmental crisis, evident even in the UK with more frequent water shortages, it is insane to use fresh water to cool and waste all that energy and further threaten resources needed for human life.

But somehow that is the effect of profit obsession and it is hard to see how Ray Kurzweil's predictions of abundance leading to equality, better health and longer life, would benefit many but the usual suspects; as usual.

The unemployed 'class' is set to grow and with jobs disappearing, the historic stigma associated with being unemployed needs to be addressed.

That's just two of many 'changes' on the way.

Phil Little

4^th August 2025

Revenge Of The Penguini - Leftfield art film by Barry Jones on the Duck Luster Youtube Channel

GM Foods

For quite a while I have been sharing posts on Facebook concerning GM Foods, Bees and Monsanto, because I think there is a serious problem which threatens the fragile future of humans.

Many countries in Europe have banned GM food production yet the USA and UK Governments are openly committed to a GM future for us all, despite the fact that most people don't trust it and don't want it.

In sharing these posts I get to read a number of horrifying stories which you can barely believe to be true. Yet they are backed up with statistics and references and seem to bear out when investigated further. Stories about tricks that giant corporations like Monsanto have pulled over the years in pursuit of their goals. The American food administration being supervised by ex-Monsanto employees. Stories of millions of bees dying close to GM corn cultivation.

The European Parliament have banned neonicotinoid pesticides after claims that they were responsible for the collapse of bee colonies. Because of opposition, Monsanto have backed off Europe but are pursuing areas in the rest of the world even more aggressively.

One story claimed Monsanto were behind the illegal seizure of bee colonies belonging to renowned naturalist, Terrence Ingram, who had been studying the effects of Monsanto's herbicide, Round Up, on bees, which he had been keeping for 58 years. He said "They ruined 15 years of my research".

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=25381

I could not believe it when I read that hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers had committed suicide over two decades, following Monsanto's and their competitor's seed domination strategies which are being brought to bear ruthlessly in the poorest countries.

http://www.navdanya.org/blog/?p=712

Strangely these are the only posts that I put up that drew any 'negative' comments from my friends. Intelligent dudes who seemed to believe that GM would solve the world's food problems just like Barak Obama and David Cameron are promising. One of them very well equipped to argue the science of it. However they seem to over look the fact that Multi-Billion dollar companies like Monsanto can and do hire and house the scientists who publish research which reaches their favoured conclusions. They are also able to hire the most expensive lawyers to have their way, which is the way things are done in America where this industry centres.

You only have to look at history to see that blind profit seeking has never served the people or the planet. The industrial revolution being a prime example, where the consequences of unchecked and ignorant expansion have put in jeopardy the very future of our planet and race. Not to mention Oil.

Some of the material I have been sharing comes from some pretty radical sources on occasion and it concerns me that a few of my 'friends' are beginning to think I am a bit of an anarchist, not that there is anything wrong with being an anarchist. But it isn't my style, too disorganised.

However I am really concerned there is something wrong here and if somebody who knows how to drive doesn't get hold of the wheel soon then we may all really be in a lot of trouble.

You can find out more about this subject through March Against Monsanto who have a Facebook page at,

https://www.facebook.com/MarchAgainstMonstanto

and a website at,

http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/

Mixing My New Cd

Well, after a number of years I seem to have enough self penned tracks for a new CD, my last being released in 2005. The title of the CD will be "It's Cool Man".

This collection of recordings has even less vocals than usual and is mostly instrumental in nature. But it does have lots of drums on it.

Fortunately, Barry Jones, the bass player with my band The Rhythm Section, lives close by so he has been able to pop round and play bass on a few tunes. Otherwise, as usual, all the instruments are fumbled by myself.

In March 2013 I was humbled to be Mike Kennedy's guest on Oystermouth Radio's The Welsh Connection, where he played "Mozambique Tom" and liked it that much he added it to his playlist for this year.

The CD also features an African percussion track I recorded with Steve Banning in Wales called Kassagbe. It features the more traditional instruments found in African drumming which is very popular in West Wales where there are a number of well attended drum circles.

The title track, "It's Cool Man" is a Rumba percussion instrumental which you can hear on Soundcloud,

https://soundcloud.com/littledrum
"Breakout" is also from the new album, and tells the story of an escape on a rock guitar.

The recording is more or less completed and half of the tracks are mixed, so after a bit more hatchet work and a couple of all night session we should be set to rock.

CD Baby, who I market my music through online, advise an Itunes pre-sale so we are looking into the wisdom of that.

Then I can proceed with the next batch of tunes which has already been started.

Thanks for reading

The Great Ticket Scandal

Channel Four's Dispatches programme last week on the Great Ticket Scandal was excellent. One's jaw dropped repeatedly at the series of revelations about how the ticket industry, worth roughly a billion pounds a year in the UK, was rigged to such an extent that the largest ticket agency in the world almost completely manipulated the market.

Members of the public told stories of applying online for tickets the moment they went on sale only to find that the tickets were sold out. Most applicants were referred to 'secondary' ticketing sites where, supposedly, other members of the public offered their excess tickets for sale, sometimes up to double the original ticket price.

Then the shocks just kept coming and coming. Some secondary ticketing agencies were receiving allocations of tickets before they went on sale, especially premium priced tickets like front row seats. "Dispatches...went undercover inside one of the UK's biggest ticket reselling websites - Viagogo - and found that major promoters allocate hundreds or even thousands of tickets to be sold through their website at well above the face value. Tickets for recent gigs and tours by Coldplay, Rihanna, Westlife, Take That, and V Festival have been allocated by the promoters in this way". The programme inferred that agencies, promoters and, in some cases, the artists were involved in these practices.

The tickets were being represented as being sold by individuals when, in fact, they were being acquired and sold on by the agency, sometimes at a phenomenal mark up. One agency was actually buying thousands of tickets with multiple credit cards to re-sell at inflated prices.

One can see why Viagogo took out an injunction to prevent the programme being broadcast, see,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/23/dispatches-to-screen-viagogo-investigation?newsfeed=true

In the USA there was much criticism of the dubious relationship between the largest radio broadcaster, Clear Channel, and the largest ticket agency Ticketmaster, which Clear Channel owned at that time. In 2005 Clear Channel Communications split into three separate companies, one being Live Nation.

This year Clear Channel sponsored the launch of Madonna's new single “Give Me All Your Luvin’” through its 850 radio stations. The 2012 tour will be ticketed by Viagogo/Live Nation in the USA and Europe. A Superbowl appearance was arranged to help promote the record and the singer mimed her performance. Live Nation, eh ? This is a good example of why corporate greed can't be allowed to control the music industry.

It is not just ticketing that is affected. The same corporate greed extends to any aspect of popular music where there is money to be made and unscrupulous methods are rarely shunned in the effort to maximise profit.
Now the press enforces the power of TV shows, such as X Factor, which dominate the public 'culture consciousness'. In the USA Live Nation has bought a stake in American Idol and they will be promoting and ticketing the American Idol tour. I suppose we can expect the same kind of arrangement here when Simon Cowell decides to cash his chips in.

Footnote

Live Nation announce proudly on their own website that they are "the Official Premium and Secondary Ticketing Partner for select shows on Madonna’s 2012 summer tour."

Since 2009, Viagogo has been the official ticket exchange partner for Festival Republic, the organiser of the Reading and Leeds Festivals, Latitude Festival and The Big Chill festival.

Not all electronic ticket purchase companies conduct themselves this way and Music Ally sought the opinions of several others who saw the programme, see,

http://musically.com/2012/02/26/dispatches-ticketing-documentary-wegottickets-aif-and-scarlet-mist-speak-out/



Phil Little
The Live Music Forum

Hope for Live Music Bill

Lord Clement Jones' Live Music Bill received its second hearing in the House of Lords today (4th March) and enjoyed cross-party support and a promise from the Government spokesperson, Baroness Rawling.

Lord Grade and Baroness Bakewell also made excellent speeches and in the penultimate speech Baroness Rawling, on behalf of the Government, said, in closing,

"I offer my congratulations once again to my noble friend on his Bill, and reiterate the Government’s general support, qualified as I have outlined earlier for the measures. We wish to see the Bill amended to take account of the 11 pm noise cut-off for unlicensed live music performance, to make certain that he has continued support. We would like to explore consequential drafting and other amendments with my noble friend in Committee. We are delighted to see that the Bill retains the key protections from the Licensing Act 2003, while making certain that low-risk community events are no longer prevented, or overburdened, by red tape and bureaucracy. The consequences of the Licensing Act 2003 have been to disadvantage many of the cornerstones of local life. It should not be the role of government to restrict creativity and community interaction, but to promote it."

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldtoday/10.htm

However, the Baroness spoke earlier of the Government's concerns in three areas,

"I must, however, add a number of caveats before we can offer unreserved support.

First, we would support my noble friend in examining the technical aspects of the Bill to make certain that the legislation operates as effectively as possible and has no unintended or adverse consequences in the way that it amends the Licensing Act 2003.

Secondly, we wish to explore issues relating to the time limits for live music performance. The previous Government’s public consultation on the removal of restrictions for live music was predicated on a cut-off point of 11 pm, rather than midnight, as currently outlined in the Live Music Bill. This is an important point, and we wish to work with my noble friend to amend the Bill to reflect this, and ensure our continued support.

Thirdly, we will need to explore with my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones issues such as what the effect of the provisions of the Bill should be on conditions imposed by licensing authorities prior to such time as the proposed legislation comes into force."

The Bill will still have to pass through the House Of Commons after amendments have been agreed but Baroness Rawling has declared the Coalition Government's commitment to see the Bill become law."

Live Music supporters will be celebrating tonight as this is the best indication yet that the licensing burdens of the Licensing Act 2003 that are suffered by live music will ultimately be removed.

Phil Little
Live Music Forum

In Answer to recent criticisms

In Answer to recent criticisms contained in an interview with the Morning Advertiser,
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/article/87789?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ma-rss-all-news+

The Live Music Forum

To my knowledge, there is no history, either before or after the Licensing Act 2003, of pubs putting on X rated films in a back room whilst admitting under ages. This was one of the reasons given for the necessity of licensing entertainment when the Licensing Act was originally debated. Even though such an abominable act is obviously covered by a range of laws.

A rush of 18 year old's to a live music gig would just result in more gigs to satisfy the demand and more work for a whole range of occupations. City centre pubs without live music have been crowded with young people every Friday and Saturday night for the past 10 years or more. There is no evidence that live music leads to more accidents.

If Local Authorities or the LGA are concerned about realistic situations which threaten children or the public and which are not already covered by the law, let them list them to us. We would support action to change existing laws to cover these situations and make us all safe. But the licensing of live music is a "sledgehammer to crack a walnut", as the saying goes.

The inclusion of live music in the licensing system just outlaws an innocent activity in order to prevent extremely rare, or, non existent risks.

The result is that it widely discourages a creative, healthy and, therefore, important social activity.

Maybe it's time to just take live music out of the Licensing Act altogether.

Phil Little
The Live Music Forum