Coda

A decade of ingénu/e

I can’t quite believe it. We survived the pandemic and are surviving this extremely challenging economic period concurrent with a war of all things! Meanwhile, various media attempt to scare us half to death with their daily dose of bad news.

But we are still here and so are you!

And so, I now launch into my 40th Coda missive for your delectation.

The future is coming at us fast. Are we ready?

There has been a debate raging for decades as to whether Science Fiction writers are in some way predicting the future or whether it is merely coincidence when something they have written becomes a fact or manifests itself in our modern culture. I have my own ideas about that, but nevertheless it is quite remarkable how, very recently, there have been news reports of UFOs being shot down in the USA and at the same time a remarkable upsurge in the progress of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

Robots and AI were arguably first introduced to us via books and films late in the 19th Century and early in the 20th Century. The first mention of robots was in a play called R.U.R, which stood for Rossum's Universal Robots and was premiered at the National Theatre in Prague in 1921. Written by Czech writer Karel Capek, the play tells of bioengineered artificial humans, almost indistinguishable from humans, who do most of the world's labour so that their masters can enjoy a postwork utopia. Inevitably, the plan goes awry. Humans grow lazy and infertile while the robots plot revolution. Capek has been quoted as saying “This is not the machines’ fault, it is ours”.

Six years later the ground-breaking Fritz Lang film Metropolis was released, one of the first feature length

SF films, setting a trend that continues to this day. Following on we have had many SF novels, short stories and films about AI, some incredibly insightful. One film that stands out for me is the 2014 psychological thriller Ex Machina, written and directed by Alex Garland and starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac. Although released nearly ten years ago, it is very germane to the current debate. In the film (spoiler alert) a very human and attractive looking robot demonstrates how far artificial intelligence could evolve by employing some incredibly intricate and clever scheming to persuade one of the characters to help her become free of her inventor. The result is disastrous.

Hold onto your hat! The future is actually here!

Coming back to the future, there is a news item that human commentators will be replaced by AI voiceovers on the Wimbledon app and website this summer. This is the brainchild of IBM whose PR release states that the AI commentator will use ‘tennis language’, with both male and female sounding voices, with no input from humans. Also, AI line judges are being considered for the future.

Advantage the Robots.

And what about Art with a capital A? Besides the fact that many SF writers and film makers are themselves artists, will there be any repercussions to artists of all genres from the increased use and technological advances of AI?

Well we have already seen AI create fine art and there has already been some computer generated music. But I feel these were merely the starter course. What is to come will no doubt challenge and potentially outstrip the human artist, if one is to believe the AI prophets and their disciples. Let us hope they are wrong.

However there is some worrying evidence they might be correct. Our friends at Bedroom Producers Blog sent us a recent survey of the music industry which in part showed just over 86% think that AI music production tools will replace at least some of the current tools and 73% of surveyed producers think that AI music generators could replace human music producers in the future. To view the full survey visit https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2023/05/30/ ai-music-survey/#.

OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, is an AI research and deployment company whose mission, they say, is ‘To ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence – AI systems that are generally smarter than humans – benefits all of humanity’.

Sound ominous? I particularly dislike the phrase ‘AI systems that are generally smarter than humans’ and I’m not sure I agree that is actually factual. How can something be smarter than that which created it? There’s a question to keep philosophers up at night with their milk and cookies (in joke)!

But look at this… local author Garfield Collins submitted a flash fiction story to us about the attempted takeover of humankind by robots (see page 80). He wrote this well before the current discussion and hype going on about AI. It did seem to him that once AI's were allowed unfettered access to the internet then there was an opportunity for them to coordinate a revolution against humanity.

He ended by kindly saying “I hope that your magazine is doing well. It provides an excellent service for the creative South East.” Thank you Garfield.

However, although he wrote the flash fiction piece himself, he had also invited ChatGPT to write a sonnet about ingénu/e, which he sent to us. His brief to ChatGPT was ‘Write a poem in the sonnet style about an art magazine called ingenue’. Scarily enough, Chat’s response came within ten seconds. Here it is.

Ingenue, oh muse of art so fair, Your pages filled with beauty and grace, A source of inspiration rare, That transports me to another place.

In every issue, a masterpiece, A work of art to marvel and see, That speaks to me, the heart it frees, And fills my soul with harmony.

From the brushstrokes on the canvas spread, To sculptures carved in stone so fine, Every creation alive and bred, Ingenue, you bring them to shine.

In your pages, I find my reprieve, From the mundane, you help me believe.

Oh Ingenue, my heart's delight, In you, I find my solace bright.

The most worrying thing about it is – it’s not that bad! opp from top: artificial intelligence image by Gerd Altmann, Pixabay; Poster for a production of R.U.R. in New York, 1939; Machine Human, Maria from Metropolis, 1927; this page top: Alice Vikander as Ava in Ex Machina; right: ChatGPT image by Mojahid Mottakin

As regards Humanity versus AI, I feel we are losing the first set and our serve has been broken. How are we going to fight back!!?? Gawd help us!!

On a lighter note…

One of the delights of working with an arts magazine is the opportunity it offers to visit artistic events and also sometimes meet and/or interview the creators. Recently we had the pleasure of seeing This Is My Theatre perform their take on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights at the Hawth’s amphitheatre in Crawley. TIMT is a Sussex-based theatre company who tour all over and pride themselves on creating work for all spaces from historic buildings and churches to purpose built theatres and open-air venues.

The performance is reviewed on page 58 and it was a joy to behold. It’s marvellous to see such young, multitalented actors bring a story to life in their own unique way and to have an inspiring chat with them afterwards.

Look out for their summer tour of Robin Hood and Much Ado About Nothing. You are guaranteed an enjoyable and enthralling experience.

You may have noticed quite a few interviews in this special anniversary issue. This is another gift of working on an arts magazine – talking with such interesting people, as artists of all genres tend to be. So we have pushed the boat out as regards interviews in this issue. And why not? I think these can be some of the more interesting aspects of the magazine, especially when the interviewee reveals the deeper aspects of their relationship with their craft or opens up about their life. I think there’s an argument to be had that creative people, artists of any persuasion, are usually the more interesting, intriguing and untamed of people.

As an example, we were recently in conversation with legendary drummer Mick ‘Woody’ Woodmansey at his rustic Sussex art studio. Over the last year or two he has turned his hand to painting, developing a second career as an artist. See Woody’s fascinating interview and view some of his art on page 42.

And finally

I must give a big shout out and acknowledgement to all those subscribers, advertisers, distributors, outlets and admirers and, of course, the artists and contributors who have one way or another supported us for these ten years.

You know who you are.

You bring light, hope and aesthetics to an otherwise dark and troubled world.

And we do what we do for you.