I use Google a lot to search for information on a wide range of topics. When ChatGPT hit the headlines my mouse itched with curiosity. But is it up to all of the marketing hype or is it genuinely the next step in civilisation?

Somebody once described searching with Google as a bit like a car boot sale where you go from stall to stall until you find what you are looking for. My experience backs this up. It can be time consuming trying to find the correct key words that returns the information that I am trying to find. Like a car boot sale there are piles and piles of rubbish to go through before I find an answer to my question. ChatGPT operates differently. The conversational style makes it easier to ask questions and if ChatGPT is not sure what is being asked it will ask further questions for clarity, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises and reject inappropriate requests.

To test ChatGPT I asked it a range of questions that covered philosophy, mathematics, politics, films from the 1950s and even asked how Ukraine could win the war against Russia. Where it struggled was where I had in-depth knowledge of a subject. Its reply missed some of the subtleties in the question. However, I quickly gathered enough information to achieve the level of understanding that I wanted on a subject. I would give ChatGPT somewhere between 7 to 8 out of 10.

When I asked the question that is the title of the post, ChapGPT replied “As an AI language model, ChatGPT represents a significant advancement in the field of natural language processing and has the potential to be a valuable tool in many applications. However, it is important to recognize that AI and machine learning are still evolving technologies and their future capabilities are subject to further research and development. It is also important to consider the ethical, social, and economic implications of AI and ensure that its use aligns with the values of society. In this sense, the future of ChatGPT and other AI technologies will depend not only on their technical capabilities, but also on the choices and decisions made by those who develop and use them.” I feel ChatGPT gave a realistic answer.

There is no doubt that ChatGPT is a major advance in AI. However there are a number of areas that could be developed further. One way to improve learning, in particular self-learning, is to get some feedback on your understanding about a subject. This could be done by checking something I had written or steps in a maths workings. There are already online systems such as Stack Overflow where a mathematics or computer science question can be submitted along with workings and members of the network put forward answers or improvements. But the replies can be hit and miss and the quality of the answers depends on how clearly the question was asked. If I could put in my understanding of a particular subject and then something like ChatGPT came back with corrections or suggestions to improve my level of understanding then learning online would be significantly improved.

Every other email that I receive is a survey which can range from how well my bank’s ATM has performed ( yes it is hard to believe ) to how a large organisation can improve its customer service. The surveys take the form of giving a number for a particular aspect of the service or product and a text box where a few sentences can be added. How all of the data is analysed is a mystery and nothing ever improves. A better approach could be based on something like ChatGPT carrying a proper in depth interview. ChatGPT would ask questions and based on the answers it would adjust the next question until detailed information about a person’s thoughts and behaviours had been reached. This would give a better picture of how the product or service was being used.

Another area is the ‘how to’ type question. When I asked ChatGPT how I should tie the ‘Tup’s Indispensable’, which is an artificial fly used for trout fishing, it struggled. After asking me several questions it still couldn’t find an answer other than broadly how an artifical fly is tied. Imagine if ChatGPT could give a step by step instructions on how to repair domestic appliances such as a washing machine that would keep it from being sent to household waste!

There are lots more areas that could be developed. For example could ChatGPT, or something equivalent, write its own software. In other words could it develops itself rather than coders writing the software. Now there is a thought!

Forty years ago I started my career writing software. The computers of the day were not much more than big programmable calculators. You put some numbers in and numbers came back. Since then each step in computer technology has had a major impact on our lives starting with Personal Computers to the internet and mobile technology. ChatGPT is another step into the future which I’m sure will have an irreversible impact on how we live.

The government has pushed adult numeracy into the headlines yet again. But their initiatives show that they don’t have a grip on the underlying problems. It will only get worse for future generations unless a different approach is taken to get to the heart of the problem.

The school report for the numeracy skills in UK would fall under the heading of ‘must try harder’. It is in the bottom half of the OECD numeracy skills ranking along with the US, France and Italy. About half of all adults have the numeracy levels expected by the end of primary school.

Adult Numeracy is close to Rishi Sunak’s heart. As Chancellor he introduced the Multiply initiative, at a cost £560 mn, to help improve adult numeracy. We are waiting to see how it has performed. In his recent Building A Better Future speech he made numeracy a central objective for the education system. In particular making all children studying some form of mathematics up to the age of 18. But there isn’t any detail about how the target will be reached.

The level of discussion in the media and the socials was predictable. A group held up Pythagorus’ Theorem as an example of being taught something that was never going to be used after school. Then there was the group who had an opinion about how numeracy was taught but were proud to claim that they ‘couldn’t do maths’ and they didn’t need it anyway ( I wrote about the negative social perception on mathematics in a previous post: The Future Of Maths ). Educational experts moaned about the organisation of the education system and lack of resources. This is an ongoing complaint. In the late 80’s the Cockroft Report concluded that there were not enough maths teachers and judging by the current level of adult numeracy this short fall has never been addressed.

Numeracy means understanding how maths is used in the real world and being able to apply it to make the best possible decisions. Today, the cost of living crises requires numeracy skills to be at their sharpest. Being skilled in maths is the foundation for living in a digital economy as well as the first steps for further maths skills to open up a broader range of career options.

Analysing the problem of poor numeracy skills needs to be looked at in a different way. Rather than assessing adult numeracy skills through a survey there should be a series of in-depth interviews with a sample of adults to get a better understanding of the underlying problems. There are many questions that could be asked as part of the interview. For example, I recently read about an MP’s experience of maths education where a black board duster had been thrown at him when he struggled to answer a question. Hoepfully that doesn’t happen today. But a question could be: what was it about maths education that turned you off?

New research shows 47% of parents dread maths and therefore offer little support to their children. A question would be: what type of support did you get from your parents? There appears to be no real analysis of the effect of maths skills on other subjects such as physics, chemistry and geography. Another question would be: how did your maths skills affect your progress with other subjects at school?

Singapore, who usually top the the international OECD’s Pisa Ranking, are making changes to their education system to spark joy in learning and in particular life long learning. Based on this another question could be: After leaving the education system how did you use your maths skill to continue learning? As mentioned above celebrities and TV personalities are having a negative approach to maths. Therefore: how did people of influence affect your perception of maths?

There are many other questions that could be asked to dig out the underlying blockers for improved numeracy. For example, why is it OK to say I’m no good at maths but nobody likes to admit to be poor at reading skills? If proper interviews were done, rather than surveys, then the information gathered would be used to take a root and branch improvement to maths education. There are over 50 mn adults in the UK which would provide a wide range of people where sample interviews could be carried out. It may take a lot of resources but the results would be better quality than from a survey and they could be used to radically improve maths education.

Numeracy skills have always been the poor relation of the three R’s ( personaly I would add a 4th R - Art - but that is a subject of a future post ). Without maths skills then children achievieng their future potential is very limited. Not only will they have less control of their lives in day to day living such as managing household budgets but their career potential will be restricted. As a nation, if we had stronger maths skills we would have a stronger economy and create the fertile ground for the next Microsoft, Google or Alan Turing.

It is that time of the year when Christmas presents need to be bought. But the decision as to whether to buy online or from our local shops was a dilemma.

On the surface the dilemma is easily resolved. Online shopping is cheaper and convenient. Click on the web site and a few days later a package appears on the doorstep. No walking along the high street searching for a present. But with the recent disruption to the mail by the postal strikes and delivery companies failing to deliver parcels on time then the convenience part of the online shopping equation was under question.

When I was looking for a particular book as a Christmas present I found that there was a £5 difference between my local bookshop and buying online. Given the recent problems with buying online I asked myself whether price and convenience should be the only criteria. Was I drunk on convenience which is fuelled by relentless marketing or should there be other factors that I should take into account?

Searching on the web produced some interesting facts. For example, research has shown that for every £1 spent with a local business, 63p stays in the local community compared to 40p that is spent in a large store. Local businesses pay their taxes while it is not clear if online companies pay any tax at all! There was even a discussion that a vibrant high street increases house prices.

So I headed off to my own high street with open eyes to gather some information. The first, and maybe obvious fact, is that when I see a product in the window or on the shelf I can buy it there and then. Job done! If the shop doesn’t have the product then they can usually get it quicker than I can by going online. Then there is the personal experience in shopping. I can get helpful advice: the butcher gives excellent advice on cooking a particular cut of meat, the wine merchant helps to select a wine to go with a particular meal, the builder’s merchant advises on house repair problems and the my regular chats with the newsagent puts the weeks news into context. If I cannot find the item that I am looking for then I have to blow the dust off s my imagination and came up with something that I wouldn’t have thought about which has produced some interesting presents!

Local businesses are highly innovative and adapt quickly to the changes in their customer’s needs. Also, because they are local they don’t suffer from the much discussed supply chain disruptions. During the recent egg shortage when Sainsbury’s were importing eggs from Italy our local egg producer made sure that there was always eggs on the shelf. There are many more reasons to support local business: they support local charities by donating products and services to raffles, charity shops are part of the recycle movement which reduces waste, reduction in carbon foot print and even the health benefits in carrying the items home.

2022 was the year that I did the vast majority of my Christmas shopping using local businesses. What I have found is that I have bought less presents but better quality, and using second hand, shops my overall budget has been reduced. The power is with us as the shopper as to how we spend our money and we can use the power to develop our local businesses. But what about the difference in price between online and local shops? For me it is an investment in the local shops which will ultimately benefit the local community.

Dear Lord Bird,

I read in an edition of The Big Issue that you had decided to stop work on your paper It’s Expensive Keeping People Poor and concentrate your efforts on tackling the cost of living crisis. However, I would like you to reconsider your decision.

Judging by the title of your paper and the content of the article it was addressing the situation that keeps people in poverty. The article suggested that your paper would argue that moving resources to education and early child and family intervention would prevent poverty. Your paper sounds as though it could make an important contribution to eliminating poverty.

The UK is in a cost of living crisis that is predicted to last many years. Therefore it is important that there is a safety net in place to prevent more people slipping into poverty. Switching your effort into making sure that they are as strong as possible is very important. However, there will always be some crisis that draws our attention to the short term: today it is the rising cost of energy and food caused by the war in Ukraine, tomorrow it could be China flexing its global muscles or another pandemic. In a crisis it is important to keep an eye on the medium to long term if anything is going to fundamentally change for the better.

In a crisis priorities change, things that were thought important are dropped and other areas become more important. Covid, our last major crisis, showed that family and community were more important than the ‘me society’ People on low wages who were keeping us safe and fed have received an increase in public support for an improvement in their lives. I believe now is the time to build on this change in people’s perception. As priorities change then the key factors to eliminate poverty can be embedded in the new priorities. Your paper, along with your other initiatives, such as Big Futures Campaign should be given maximum promotion to push the UK government into taking focused action to eliminate poverty.

I appreciate that you are extremely busy and that you need to concentrate your efforts on the cost of living crisis. However, the solutions to eliminating poverty is not an either / or situation. We need the short, medium and long term situation to be address at the same time if poverty is going to be eliminated. Hope is a quantity that is in short supply at the moment. If you find a few minutes in your busy schedule then please continue with your paper and add a spark of hope.

When we have milk close to its use by date it’s used to bake a milk loaf. Slices of the delicious bread are quickly eaten. When I was kneading the dough for my recent loaf an idea struck me about reducing food waste.

The idea, which was more of a question was, could perishable food that had reached its use by date be baked or cooked into food that can be used to feed a hard pressed community? But with all ideas that seem to pop into my head it needed to be more focused.

The next step was to find out what happens to perishable food when it reaches its use by date. The best place to start was with the supermarkets who by far sell most food in the UK. I know from my regular shops that when items on a supermarket shelf get close to their use by date a yellow sticker appears and the price is dropped. This is a great time to buy the items especially if it can be baked, cooked or frozen for later use. For example vegetables that are close to their use by date can be turned into a big pot of vegetable soup that can last a few meals. But I needed to find out what they did with the perishable food that was not shifted with the yellow sticker. So I contacted all of the major supermarkets with the simple question: “what happens to perishable goods when they get close to their use by date or start to go off?”

The supermarkets replied but there was a wide range of detail which could be a few lines to several screens worth including links to their company policy. In general, the supermarkets go through various stages to reduce the amount of food waste. They have improved their stock control so that the amount of unsold food is reduced. Unfortunately, this is starting to have an impact on food banks where the amount being donated by them is dropping. Any surplus food at the distribution hubs can be donated to people in need using organisations such as FareShare. If there is perishable food on the shelves close to the use by date then a yellow sticker goes on and the price is dropped. Interestingly some supermarket will use damaged fruit and vegetables in their staff restaurant. Lidl have an initiative with their ‘too good to waste’ boxes that are sold at £1.50 and what I have seen of it is good value. Food left at this stage is donated to local causes through organisations such as the: The Trussell Trust, Food Aid Network and Feeding Britain. Other organisations used are Neighbourly and Esther Community Enterprise who distribute food along with clothing within their local communities.

Mobile phone apps such as To Good To Go take unsold food from cafes, restaurants, hotels, shops and manufacturers and distribute it through a network of volunteers. OLIO and Food Waste Heroes collect surplus food from local businesses, bring it home and list it on the OLIO app, and redistribute the food to their neighbours, who pick up the food. Finally, if there is any food left that can not be donated then the supermarkets turn it into green energy using anaerobic digestion.

So what does this all show? Supermarkets have systems and processes in place that ensure that any unsold food is being used in the best way possible and waste is minimised. As for my idea? There are already excellent organisations such as the Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen and other community kitchens that take surplus food and turn them into into meals for their local communities. Therefore the idea that I had is already in use. Oh well, back to baking bread and waiting for another idea.