This newsletter has two topics: Gaza and a lighter little story about AI.

The war goes on

The sunny autumn weekend was a brilliant reminder of how lucky we are here, enjoying nature and a diverse society with very little tension in the air and peace in abundance.

In contrast, Israel's killing of thousands of people in Gaza only received headline coverage when they killed Western aid workers. It sent shockwaves and had a sad irony: Palestinians are not that important, but god for bid to murder our Western brothers and sisters.

Thinking about Gaza and feeling pain in the face of this genocide, I saw a YouTube video made by Miriam Margolyes. She is a jew, an actress and sometimes a very pottymouth truth teller, but in this video, she is the voice of every decent Jew. What she says is painfully truth, and only a Jew could have used the words she is using without being accused of antisemitism. 

I wrote an article on Medium on the 1st of November about this insane war Israle launched. 

In my article, I cite Eli Yishai, the former Deputy Minister of Israel, who said: "The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for 40 years". It is a cruel, irresponsible and sadistic view from a politician who should remember what it was like in Auschwitz-Birkenau. 

If the ghosts of those Jews killed in the gas chambers are watching, they won't believe their eyes when they look at what Israel is doing.

It is not a matter of religion, ethnicity or politics. It is a matter of sadism, hypocrisy and power games. Netanyahu wants to hold on to power and thinks that he could do it by sacrificing not only Palestinians but his own people on the altar of his greed and lust for power. 

As I mentioned in my article, a total ceasefire is the only path to peace. In any war, it is those with overwhelming power who have the capacity to initiate it. Hamas will continue to fight because Israel's actions are inadvertently creating more soldiers for Hamas from the families they have broken. Therefore, the responsibility to make peace does not lie with Hamas but rather with Israel by ceasing all hostilities.

That's why we didn't kill all the Germans after WWII but helped them to rebuild a new Germany. Israel should do the same.

OK. Enough of these sad and global issues and back to business.

AI is here to stay

I am astonished by the resistance to change among so-called creatives regarding AI. Today, I had a morning walk with my friend, a senior leader in a prominent design agency. He told me horror stories about most of his people's attitudes about AI.

Similarly, yesterday, when I had an opportunity at an event to play one song I did with AI just for fun, I got an ice-cold comment from a musician who accused me and AI of stealing his work, jobs, and IP. This artist has struggled for years to gain fame and fortune with little success.

I didn't say it, but I wanted to ask him: "How come AI is the enemy now when, after all the years you have been in this industry, you have not produced anything people would like to listen to?" Instead of externalising and finding enemies from outside our tiny comfort zones again, we should hop on a bandwagon and find new creative roads with the help of AI horses that can pull our carts much farther than our creative muscles alone can. 

When I bought my first electric typewriter, a novelist and a longhand man disgustingly told me that these gadgets destroy creativity. In my books, he was just an ordinary wanker and – truth to be told – after his first successful novel came silence. Maybe his hand shrunk so short that he couldn't hold the pen anymore.

It's not about AI taking over but us thinking it over and looking in the mirror: am I a mediocre longhand dude with aspirations larger than LLM – or will these new tools help me to release something genuinely creative from within when I don't need to bother with the laborious and mundane research, sorting out stuff and spell checking?

In one interview, the owner of an AI startup said that he thinks we should not call AI Artificial Intelligence but Augmented Intelligence. I love that.

I have been using glasses since I was 12. Without them, I wouldn't be able to become a theatre director because I would not have been able to see the actors on the stage. So, I augmented myself with glasses. 

As a slightly dyslexic, I am terrible at spelling, and because English is not my native language, I need somebody to do the grammar and spelling checks for me. AI is handy for that. I don't even dream that it will think for me – that's my job – but everything I write down goes through my diligent AI helper arsenal. 

I have created a few ChatGPTs to assist me. Unlike my virtual assistant a year or so ago, they never complain, understand my style, and are always ready. I don't need to wait but continue without losing the train of thought. So, what's so wrong and dangerous in that?

Back to the musician and my design leader friend. After my conversation with my friend, he was excited and saw a new horizon for his teams. As a result of my disturbing conversation with the musician, he returned to his roots, accusing AI of his failure as a musician. Both of these people are very talented and resourceful – one is forward-looking, and one is using their talent more in brilliant complaints and arguments instead of creating something unique that no AI can match. 

Which category do you belong to? Or your team?

Have a wonderful autumn week – or enjoy the spring if you are in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ngā mihi

Jussi

The book of the week: Death Comes to Marlow

"Death Comes to Marlow" is Robert Thorogood's second book in the Marlow Murder Club series, following the first book, "The Marlow Murder Club." As you might recall, I already wrote about this wonderful series's first book. 

It's about the uncanny detective traits of Judith Potts and her two friends, who spend time helping police to solve murder mysteries. Judith is a 77-year-old woman who enjoys independence and is a professional crossword setter for The Times newspaper. 

 In "Death Comes to Marlow", the Marlow Murder Club of these three old ladies is back and ready to investigate. The book is set in Marlow, a picturesque town in Buckinghamshire, England, and features colourful characters. It is so very British. 

The trio finds themselves in the middle of a locked-room murder mystery when Sir Peter Bailey is found dead in his study, which was locked from inside. First, the police don't believe it's a murder, but the ladies make them change their minds, and with the unexpected help from their friend DS Tanika Malik, the mystery is finally solved.

Like the first book in the series, it is a page-turner. It has all the goodies of Agatha Christie and all the eccentricities of the quintessentially British way of life.

Get it from Apple Bookshop or Amazon—happy murder mystery readings in the darkening autumn evenings.