News – thepoetryvillage.com http://www.thepoetryvillage.com/ Sharing a passion for poetry Fri, 22 Apr 2022 13:25:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.6 https://www.thepoetryvillage.com/wp-content/uploads/8hkCCT/2022/04/cropped-cropped-Poetry_village_site_logo-32x32.png News – thepoetryvillage.com http://www.thepoetryvillage.com/ 32 32 Pam Ayers to be broadcast in the event of a national emergency https://www.thepoetryvillage.com/pam-ayers-emergency/ https://www.thepoetryvillage.com/pam-ayers-emergency/#respond Fri, 22 Apr 2022 13:06:13 +0000 https://www.thepoetryvillage.com/?p=41 Pam Ayers has always had the propensity to raise the nation’s spirits. She has a warm, funny, and quirky take on the world. Poems like ‘Oh I Wish I’d Taken Better Care Of My Teeth’ and ‘Will I Have To Be Sexy At Sixty’ have earned her national treasure status. She has legions of fans […]

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Pam Ayers has always had the propensity to raise the nation’s spirits. She has a warm, funny, and quirky take on the world. Poems like ‘Oh I Wish I’d Taken Better Care Of My Teeth’ and ‘Will I Have To Be Sexy At Sixty’ have earned her national treasure status. She has legions of fans that span generations. However, it has now been revealed that Pam has been picked as one of the BBC’s emergency voices. This means it will be broadcast to soothe the nation’s collective anxiety in case of a global disaster.

She recorded an interview with Jane Garvey for Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour in 2008. It is thought to be one of a number of broadcasting nuggets the Corporation has lined up. Just in case planned programming is ever forced off the air due to a meteor strike or nuclear war.

Pam expressed surprise at the news but expressed gratitude that the BBC had turned to her to help others in their darkest hour.

She said she was ecstatic that they had picked her to lift the nation’s spirits. Pam acknowledged that it was a big responsibility, but one she was more than willing to take on.

She said she didn’t recall what they talked about, but remembered feeling quite warm towards Jane Garvey. Pam did recall that she really enjoyed the interview. She thought that her material was picked as her material is adequately daft. Playing down her status she said she was very flattered. Adding that she just hoped it never had to be used.

Ms Garvey, who left her position as host of Woman’s Hour at the end of last year, revealed details of the BBC’s emergency contingency programming. She said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that it had long been rumored that her voice would be among those heard on the airwaves as Armageddon approached. She added that they always used to joke about such scenarios. Recent events, however, meant that this type of thing is no longer a laughing matter.

Pam Ayers lives in the Cotswolds with her husband and a menagerie of animals.

She said she had taken advantage of the lockdown to write new material to bring a smile to people’s faces.

She admitted that the lockdown hasn’t been to bad for her. Being required to stay at home hadn’t been that difficult.

When the epidemic first broke out in March, the BBC announced its preparations to inform, educate, and entertain amid extraordinary conditions.

Tony Hall, who was director general at that time said there would be disruption to their productivity. He added there would be problems to face but that the BBC would do its best.

During the height of the Cold War, the broadcaster had a process in place in event of a nuclear attack on Britain. Peter Donaldson, a newsreader, was to be the voice of government radio bulletins. Every broadcast would take place from a nuclear bunker in Worcestershire.

The War Book, a Cold War training handbook that was declassified over 10 years ago was to be implemented by BBC workers.

Originally, music and light entertainment programs were planned to be broadcast as well. But by the 1980s, only governmental announcements would be broadcast to save electricity.

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Ai-Da the robot performs poetry created by her AI https://www.thepoetryvillage.com/ai-da-the-robot-performs-poetry-created-by-her-ai/ https://www.thepoetryvillage.com/ai-da-the-robot-performs-poetry-created-by-her-ai/#respond Fri, 22 Apr 2022 11:45:55 +0000 https://www.thepoetryvillage.com/?p=22 Dante’s Divine Comedy has influenced numerous artists. However, an exhibition commemorating the poet’s 700th birthday features the work of a far more modern devotee. Ai-Da the robot made history by becoming the first robot to publicly read poetry created by AI algorithms. Ai-Da is named after computing pioneer Ada Lovelace and was designed in Oxford […]

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Dante’s Divine Comedy has influenced numerous artists. However, an exhibition commemorating the poet’s 700th birthday features the work of a far more modern devotee. Ai-Da the robot made history by becoming the first robot to publicly read poetry created by AI algorithms.

Ai-Da is named after computing pioneer Ada Lovelace and was designed in Oxford by Aidan Meller. She read Dante’s epic three-part narrative poem and then used her algorithms to create her own reactive work. For this, she drew on her data bank of words and voice pattern analysis.

Ai-Da performed the poetry at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum

Ai-Da isn’t the first robot to be trained to write poetry, but it was the first time an AI robot has written and performed poetry in the manner of a human poet.
The way language models are evolving we’re swiftly approaching the point where they’ll be absolutely indistinguishable from human text. This is obviously bad news for writers.

Some lines of her poetry are also a little unsettling. There are lines about completing a picture with a needle and thread which are quite strange. It feels like the writer is trying something experimental.

The image of the hawk with its eyes stitched up is close to the original and very powerful. It has a strange arrangement but maintains the best part of the passage. The lines’ rhythm flow fairly well.

Ai-Da’s poetry isn’t quite up to the standard of real poets yet but who knows what the future holds

What is likely is that artists and poets and others will become more engaged with and use emerging technologies like AI. Using them is one of the finest ways to criticise, analyse, and expose potential difficulties. It’s not a matter of competing interests but instead a matter of debate and possible action.

The broad usage of AI language models on the internet may affect language and, more importantly, meaning in the future. If computer programs, rather than people, create information that forms and affects the human psyche and society, then the usage and impact of language will undergo a significant transformation.

The performance is part of Ashmolean’s Dante: The Invention Of Celebrity exhibition. It seeks to look at Dante’s influence throughout history and includes various works of art by Ai-Da. Eyes Wide Shut is a response to her detention in Egypt when Egyptian security services were concerned about security concerns around the cameras in her eyes.

Ai-Da has previously had exhibitions in Oxford and the Design Museum in London

She also gave a TEDx Talk in Oxford and had a residence at the Porthmeor Studios in Cornwall.

Her form was created by the female members of the team, who named her after Ada Lovelace; the first computer programmer. It is hoped she will encourage more female computer programmers today and in the future. Presently they are disproportionately underrepresented.

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