Paul Grenyer

The Machine Crusade is mostly another middle of the road science fiction story, like The Butlerian Jihad , however what saves it are moments of brilliance from time to time and the ending, which accelerates considerably and keeps you wanting more. There are many characters, and I wish I’d made a note of who was who and where they came from and how they were related at the start. However, the characters are quite rich, making this a more enjoyable read. This felt a bit more like a Frank Herbert story, as most of the characters were selfish, narcissists driven by power and wealth. The robots are more believable than before, but the story is starting to date when you consider it in the context of modern AI. I’m pleased I read it. I’m looking forward to the third and final instalment. Let’s see where this goes. Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1848943414

I don’t usually enjoy ‘art’, however I’m often in museums as my wife enjoys it. We’re on the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) mailing list - mostly because my wife wants tickets for the David Bowie exhibition - and an email about the new Bharti Kher (https://bhartikher.com/) exhibition: Hybrid forms and lived realities: the sculpture of Bharti Kher  looked like her sort of thing, so we went. It consists of four sculptures, one outside at the front of the museum and three intermingled with other sculptures in one of the main concourses. My initial thought was that we’d gone all that way, and it was just four sculptures, and I should have read the V&A article properly. The thing is though, they were really good, imaginative and right up my street. I particularly liked Warrior with Cloak and Shield: and even though Ghost looked like a statue that had got out of the shower and taken the shower curtain with it, I really liked it: Animus Mundi: and Gaia were equally impressive....

There’s something about Software Crafters Cambridge - and it’s not just that I can never remember the order the words go in the name. They’re a quiet group of software professionals, but the talks and workshops are always interesting, and it quickly becomes apparent that there’s a lot of knowledge and experience in the room. I’ve known Carl Farmer for several years. I helped him set up SyncIpswich back in the mid-teens. However, I hadn’t seen him for ages, so I was keen to come along and hear what he had to say. I wasn’t disappointed. Carl works in AI at Microsoft as an AI Solutions Engineer - sales, basically - so he’s seen it all. He took us expertly through how to measure the real ROI of AI. It turns out it’s the same way we measured it with human engineers; we just mustn’t forget to keep doing it that way. Carl then explored ways of working with AI, how to get the most out of prompts, and how to minimise costs. I came away with a lot of notes and useful tips. The part that resona...