Social media has fundamentally changed the nature of public debate. It is becoming increasingly difficult to have reasoned discussions on controversial topics because many users are exposed primarily to information that reinforces what they already believe. Recommendation algorithms, combined with AI-powered search and personalised content, create environments in which individuals repeatedly encounter viewpoints that confirm their existing opinions while filtering out or dismissing opposing evidence. Genuine dialogue becomes increasingly difficult when people are no longer sharing the same factual foundation. A further problem is that much of the most widely shared content is designed to evoke emotion rather than encourage understanding. Short videos, memes, headlines and clickbait often reduce complex political, scientific and historical issues to simplistic talking points. These are frequently produced by bloggers, influencers or commentators whose success depends on attracting atten...
A good example is how AI is affecting our daily lives every minute. Those at the forefront of highly specialised roles have found that more junior, repetitive tasks can be handled by AI and incorporated into their workflows. As a senior software developer, I need to review, refine, and develop complex algorithms. You will begin to notice that some of the simpler, easier tasks can be done by AI. This has been happening for years. Automated code generation in Microsoft Excel has been available for more than 10 years, and most of us have used it to generate baseline code for various features. Then we just refine and make alterations to make it more optimised, specific and refined. Now, a large part of the world has left Microsoft Excel behind and is using Google Sheets with C#, but that did serve as a baseline. The AI can help convert code from Excel/VBA to Google Sheets/C#. The Google Sheets/C# combination offers greater security, greater flexibility, and always keeps the documents up ...