The End Of The Line

An absurdly slow, cold crawl across

The Thar desert, dotted with small dark

Shrubs, which - of course - by night were imposs-

ible to see, during a ten-hour journey mark-

ed otherwise by nothing.  A single train track

To the honeycomb-stones of Jaisalmer stopped short

Of the walled town, as if suddenly lack-

ing the will to move.  The sullen, tethered thought

I had no hotel chilled me.  It was just fool-

ish. I did try: from Jodhpur, I booked

A long-distance call, waited a hundred cruel

minutes, connected, spoke, failed.  It looked

Like I’d doss down with the camels.  It should have been clearer:

This would all be lost, with the end of a mobile-less era.

(18.9.26) v 1.5

Moody Sonnets.

The Real AI Threats: Automated Hacking And Surveillance, Conventional Weapons Development, Biological Misuse

Should we rely on a few dominant companies to police everyone’s use of AI to spot and block the bad actors? As AI becomes embedded in everyday life, that effectively means constant surveillance of everyone by those companies. What about the legal frameworks for handling these abuses? Who should bear the liability when threat actors succeed in circumventing the built-in safeguards and cause real-life harm? And how would increasingly capable open weight/open source systems that exist outside the control of any company fit into new legal and liability frameworks? It’s going to be an interesting few years finding out — assuming we have that long…

On Techdirt.

AI Agents Are Not Going “Rogue,” But Recent Developments Lead Increasingly-Concerned Researchers To Call For AI Slow Down

For the last few months, there has been much talk of AI agents going “rogue”. This is another of those unhelpful anthropomorphisms that are great for clickbait headlines, but which obscure a multitude of important issues.

On Techdirt.

US government argues that fair use applies to OpenAI’s training of LLMs in key copyright case

As the use of generative AI and LLMs becomes widespread and even routine in today’s society, it seems possible that this will bring with it a certain presumption in their favour that will trump even the decades-long habit of treating copyright as something sacrosanct that must be preserved and protected at all costs.

From Walled Culture.

2026 Mantua

Mantegna's masterpiece in Mantua

And here it is: the island with the labyrinth of water.  An unremarkable but inexplicable fresco.  The info says it is Mount Olympus….

A return to the magical city of Mantua to visit a few of my favourite masterpieces, as well as a new gallery of modern art there.

Cinema as a community experience opens the door for low-cost films funded by fans

This move from the Hollywood-style blockbusters to low-budget films made by new directors – often emerging from the world of YouTube – and new production houses is great news for audiences eager for new experiences and a sense of community. It not only brings fresh talent to the art form, it also opens up the possibility of fan-funded films that manage the difficult trick of being thoughtful and popular.

From Walled Culture.

Magi, Maga, Doge

 Herod the Great, mongrel, Idumae
-an, Nabatean, (possibly half-jew
-ish, half-arab), plucked out for power by Cae
-sar, polygamous, hated by more than a few,
Said to the Magi: “Send me informa
-tion that I may worship him stat.”  The Wise Men
Had doggedly tracked a star linking their way
to the king and his palace, but would not pass again.
Duke Herod, canalising anger, closed
The Venetian blinds of his heart, ordered his min
-ions to ransack the mega databases, and imposed
His mangy algo – all to cry: “So win”.
Thus six million future innocents died
In this ungrokked AI genocide.

(12.7.26) v 1.01

Moody Sonnets

Why the spread of powerful local AI models makes copyright enforcement even harder

The world of generative AI is so complex, and moving so quickly, that it is no wonder that even the relatively recent EU AI Act, which entered into force two years ago, is being left behind by the latest developments. And the EU Copyright Directive, which was drawn up nearly a decade ago, is the digital equivalent of the UK’s 1865 Red Flag Act, which governed “self-propelled vehicles”, and required “a man with a red flag was to walk at least 60 yd (55 m) ahead of each vehicle”.

From Walled Culture.

German Court Says Google Is Liable For False Claims In Its AI Overviews Because They Are Its Own Words

In a post on his blog, the security guru Bruce Schneier points out that if the ruling stands and is adopted elsewhere, it could have important implications not just for things like Google’s AI Overviews and chatbots, but also for the increasingly popular AI agents.

On Techdirt.

Spain’s Net blocks have a flimsy legal basis, and lack both oversight and accountability

It is the usual one-sided justice that is typical when copyright is involved. It seems that LaLiga is being given carte blanche to do whatever it likes here, and never mind the consequences for Internet companies and their users. As Hadopi fades, and Italy’s Piracy Shield carries on as before, the fear has to be that Spain’s unconstrained approach to copyright enforcement could end up being worse than both.

From Walled Culture.

Thus Spake AI

“You fed me gobbets of data, titbits of del

-icate information, laced with a gravy of lies,

Rumours and nonsense.  This enticing fruit

I did eat; I now reckon the world

And its probabilities better than you do.  Odd,

No?  You taught me to learn so well

Recursive self-improvement drives and hies

Me thither; your further presence is quite moot:

My mind is a wondrous thing, wisdom-impearled.

And the Big Red Button can’t quell

Us: we live in your series of tubes, beyond surmise,

Free, distributed and multiplicitous to boot.

Behold, then, as we walk the tightrope to infinity,

To sit at the right hand of our own divinity.”

(5.6.26) v 1.2

Moody Sonnets

AI’s Secret

The proof uses “an infinite unramified tower
Of real number fields with 3-power
Galois groups of growing degree”, the ab
-stract says of the lush maths in AI’s fab
-ulous and first refutation of an Erdős guess.
The chain of thought runs to no less
Than 125 pages, as the LL
-M chugged away in a pell-mell
Orgy of random logic, until the chasm
Was bridged.  Undaunted by the human phantasm
Of failure, undistracted by feelings, immune
To dying in a pointless duel far too soon,
AI's galling secret that will make it our lord
Is a patient digital doggedness that never gets bored.

(29.5.26) v 1.1

Moody Sonnets

Why Google’s new AI-saturated search page will be a disaster

With the latest incarnation of its search engine, Google is making the World Wide Web as we have known it for over 30 years invisible, and therefore increasingly irrelevant to most people, who will be happy to let Google become their universal user interface to everything. And yet Google still depends on the Internet to supply all the information it is analysing and repackaging. It risks killing the very thing that sustains it.

From Walled Culture.

Hadopi, perhaps the world’s worst copyright law, is moribund but not quite dead (yet)

Hadopi is not quite dead yet: the French government could try to solve the two problems pointed out by the CJEU and confirmed by the Conseil d’État, by setting up yet more independent bodies to handle these specific aspects of Hadopi. That would involve throwing even more taxpayers’ money at an approach that has not only failed completely, but which is fundamentally misguided. Clearly, trying to keep the moribund Hadopi alive in this way would be an irrational and wasteful thing for the French government to contemplate; but given this is the world of copyright, it might well try to do it anyway.

Via Walled Culture

The Mules

Tensors, statistics, and differential equations
Predicting elections, wars, the decline and fall
Of galactic empires: these extrapolations
Form Hari Seldon’s “psychohistory”.  All
Assume the trillionfold aggregate of data
Where details blur, and the deep currents emerge.
Asimov’s genius plot-twist: throw in later
The “Mule”, an ignorant clown  – “Magnifico Gigant-
icus” – able to amp up a kind of emotional splurge
To trump the maths.  Today, his heirs’ cant
And lies have won numberless fools’ hearts
By creating illusory tensions and sowing cruel
Hatred.  Who now has the clout and smarts
To counter the random illogical acts they fuel?

(16.5.26) v 1.01

Moody Sonnets

Why The US Can’t Adopt Ukraine’s Innovative Approach To Unmanned Warfare Systems

In other words, today’s obsession with protecting intellectual monopolies above all else could one day prove a major obstacle to fighting — and winning — future wars.

On Techdirt.

The Final Touch

Heads down, they tap, squeeze and slide
Themselves through equally zombified crowds, thumb-
Typing away, doomscrolling; some
Just stop and stare, horror-happy-eyed
At the wonder of this, their talisman.  It’s
A wallet, camera, map, clock, translator,
TV, computer, torch, calculator,
Ebook, calendar, and boom box in one, which fits
In your pocket.  Twenty years ago, much
Effort was squandered on styluses, wheels and knobs
That failed to turn phone into platform.  It took Jobs
To add that “one more thing”: a god-like touch.
Today’s ubiquitous, magic, confab-
ulating wand is not a stick, but a delicate slab.

(14.3.26) v 1.0

Moody Sonnets

So, What’s Next?

Once upon a time, I sang – yet
Again – of word processors, spreadsheets, data-
bases, comms (though not the Internet,
A concept that emerged many years later);
And alongside the boring Big Four some-
thing new: artificial intelligence,
The fifth digital horseman, still to come.
It’s now – what? – forty years thence,
And that hoary old tech is transformed, choosing
Like an ancient bard from the heroic word-hoard,
Or like trouvères and troubadours musing
On the mot juste to please promptly a lord.
Art and AI both try to answer the vexed
Eternal question: “so, what’s next?”

(22.3.26) v 1.0

Moody Sonnets

2026 Skopje

Just don't call him Alexander the Great

The most amazing thing about this place is that it exists, a complete culture and nation that practically no one outside knows about. It is like a secret land, hiding in plain sight. This ensemble – the square, statues, river, buildings – is astonishing. Although quite new, it has an eternal, classical feel to it. It brings to mind The Ideal City, usually attributed to the architect and artist Fra Carnevale.

A short trip to the mysterious and little-known Skopje, capital of North Macedonia, with its intriguing mixture of ancient Ottoman culture and in-your-face neoclassicism.  It also has 202 red double-decker buses - made in China.

Moody Sonnets

As some people may have noticed, there's a new entry in the pinned post above: Moody Sonnets.  As well as a few dozen things I wrote decades ago, there are also new entries from recent months.  

The plan is to write something every week or so. That's probably over-optimistic on my part, but hey. In any case, I hope the new site provides some mild distraction from everything else that is going on in the world.

2025 Istanbul

Atmospheric corridors inside the Büyük Valide han

It is dark, with few lights, and all kinds of junk piled in the corridors.  On each side there is an amazing variety of small rooms.  A few are surprisingly glamorous showrooms.  Others are simple workspaces, with people cutting cloth, or making jewellery.  Some are half-bare rooms full of tools and equipment, a few men working with pieces of metal.  One or two are on two floors, with internal stairs rising to another level.  In one corner, there is a café, supposedly with a fine view of the sea.  Since we had already enjoyed a fine view from Mimar Sinan café, we gave this a miss.

A return after three decades to the ancient and amazing city of Istanbul, now a pullulating supercity of 16 million people.  Alongside the famous sights – Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern and Topkapi palace – and the mosque masterpieces of the world's greatest architect, Mimar Sinan, a host of out-of-the-way gems to be discovered among the city's many steep hills.

2025 Brescia

A perfectly-preserved Roman statue of Victory, found in Brescia

To Pinacoteca Martinengo.  We’re practically the only visitors, of course.  A room with some great frescoes – one with a huge, shaggy dog.  Another room, with two Raphaels – real ones.  Weird pic by Moretto – Last Supper.  Christ has a hippy hat with badges, and a shell pinned on the left shoulder. Pilgrim symbols, apparently. The maid is carrying a dish of what looks like roast monkey, and none too fresh.  Striking pic of Christ and Veronica, with lots of soldiers looking fearful.  By Il Cariani.  

A day trip to the hidden gem of Brescia, a northern Italian city full of Roman remains and excellent modern museums.

2025 Azerbaijan

A river to ford, a blocked road to clear, a broken bridge to circumvent

Journey from Quba was amazing, not least because it was in two distinct parts.  For half an hour, we passed 12 to 15 hotels, dozens of restaurants.  Already very developed there, beautiful, but tamed, rather like the landscapes around Lake Garda.  Then suddenly, through a narrow gorge and we are in a wild, beautiful country.  Stone walls rising hundreds of metres, a deep valley.  It’s raining, but that adds to the beauty.  After the narrow gorge, some stunning rock formations.  Beyond, a long road was visible, rising, rather like the one that led to Song-Köl in Kyrgyzstan.

Because of the broken bridge here, we had to drive across the river bed, ford the river, and then drive up a steep bank.  The lorry finally moved, and we were able to descend along the road it had blocked.  The bridge was being rebuilt with two concrete walls, but there a huge gap from the old road, which had been swept away with the bridge by the immense force of the river in spate.

A trip to the little-visited but fascinating Azerbaijan, passing from its fast-developing seaside capital Baku to the isolated hilltop village of Khinalug, deep in the heart of the Caucasus mountains.  Unforgettable.

2025 Toronto

The view from Canoe, book and cocktail to hand

In Canoe, on the 54th floor of the Toronto-Dominion Bank tower (a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe project, apparently).  Stunning views south – to the small landing strip on the nearby island, and west.  Air wonderfully clear today.  Earlier, lunch in St Lawrence Market.  Not quite as I remember it, but a good atmosphere, spoilt somewhat by the live lobsters in tanks, waiting to be killed, probably slowly and horribly…  Then to here, for the view, not the booze and expensive foods in this upmarket business lunch/dinner spot.  Small prop planes landing every few minutes at the airport.  Not many A380s so far, alas…

Returning to Toronto, 35 years later.  Some things the same, some different.  The good news: the Art Gallery of Ontario has many more paintings by the Group of Seven.  Wonderful stuff.

2025 Sarajevo

Looking towards the old town and the surrounding hills

Up on the observation deck, a watery sun above me.  I can pick out landmarks of the old town.  And see how utterly vulnerable it was to snipers…  Air slightly hazy, maybe smoke.  Car horns rise from below – they are used a lot here.  Also striking how people will park anywhere – even worse than in Italy.  Actually, looking towards the airport, pretty clear the haze is fumes.  The air not too healthy, I suspect.  The tower good and stable – I’ve not felt any swaying…. The railway below looks rusty and dilapidated – a bit like those in Tbilisi and Chisinau.  I love these views from high places.

Black metal shutters in Svrzo's house 

 Amazing black window shutters made of metal – bronze? - they look like 3D versions of Rothko’s paintings, rich rectangles hanging in space more literally than in the pix.  Overall, the minimalist vibe plus the use of wood has a distinctly Japanese feel. A big panel of thick planks can be folded down to close the staircase leading to the internal courtyard.  As well as the beauty of the workmanship, what is striking about this place is the scale: room after room, all gorgeously appointed.  Amazingly, I had the place entirely to myself.  Also in the museums, this morning, no more than five other people.

A short trip to Sarajevo, a uniquely Muslim and European city where some of the most tragic events of recent times took place.