Politoblog

Have you ever broken up with someone because they said that generative AI could replace the work of creatives? Me neither, but fittingly it did speed the process up. From environmental and security concerns, to embarrassing search engine faux-pas , hallucinations and discrimination , there’s no denying that generative AI’s boom in recent years has come with its fair share of controversies. (I highly recommend watching these videos in which YouTuber Drew Gooden goes into detail on the plethora of ways in which AI is overrunning society.) My focus, however, is on the impact of generative AI on the creative industries. The short version of this article is that I cannot understand why we are so desperate to render ourselves obsolete. And by "we", I of course mean profit-hungry tech giants. And by "obsolete", I mean replaced by soulless AI-produced garbage which all looks and sounds the same. I should be clear that I am not referring to the use of AI as a springboard...

Needing a visa is like being in a permanent limbo. If you have ever requested a work or study visa, then you know what I’m talking about. If not, let me give you the run-down. You spend hundreds of euros on documents, apostilles, translations. You wait countless hours for decisions to come through, scrambling to make appointments at consulates, unable to plan ahead. No one gives you any assurances as to when you might be able to move to your new home or start your new job. And even then, once (if) you finally get your visa, it's still far from plain sailing. You miss out on job opportunities because your visa can’t be renewed on time, or because employers simply don't sponsor visas. Your friendships hang in the balance because you don’t know whether, when your visa expires, you will be able to get a new one, or if you will be given your marching orders. You are suspended in mid-air, a file lost in a backlog at the Ministry of the Interior. In my experience, losing my freedom of...

In Maine, the American lobster is considered a delicious holiday food and an indulgent delicacy. Last year, Maine fisherman caught 93.8 million pounds of lobsters. But besides being a dinnertime favourite, lobsters boast an impressive resume of surviving and thriving. What a shame, then, that so many meet their end at the hands of hungry restaurant-goers. H. americanus, found in waters from Labrador to North Carolina, sometimes dwells in shallow water but is more abundant in deeper water down to 366 metres (1,200 feet). Lobsters caught in shallow water weigh about 0.45 kg (about one pound) and are about 25 cm (about 10 inches) long. They are caught usually in lobster pots—cages baited with dead fish. In deeper water, they weigh about 2.5 kg (about 5.5 pounds) and are often caught by trawling. - Encyclopedia Britannica Survival against all odds Lobsters are engaged in a constant fight for survival throughout their lives. Lobsters hatch from thousands of eggs laid by female...

You might not have bothered to follow the ongoing leadership contest for the British Conservative Party - as the fourth contest in five years, it’s kind of lost its shine. But indeed, a leadership election is ongoing. Against their better judgment, six candidates have stood to become the next leader of the Conservative Party. After four rounds of voting amongst Conservative MPs, two candidates have made it to the final run-off before the wider party membership. You’d think a crushing electoral defeat (their worst ever ) would be enough to push the party in the direction of reform - instead, it has just pushed the party in the direction of Reform, the UK’s new far-right party, headed by Nigel Farage. But who needs ultra-right populist parties when you have the Conservatives? Having lost a significant portion of their vote share to Reform, the solution the Conservatives have come up with is to become just as bad themselves. The two candidates vying to become Leader of the Oppositio...

Belgium is the largest consumer of lobster per capita in the world - live lobsters are found for sale in supermarkets across Belgium. But when supermarkets sell live lobsters, they are giving consumers free reign over how they transform this live animal into meat. In Brussels, 85% of consumers who kill lobsters at home choose to boil the animal alive, while 15% cut the live lobster in half. These two methods, whilst the traditional ways of killing lobsters, are subject to immense scrutiny from animal rights activists and scientists alike. Read the article on The Brussels Times .

Belgium is the largest consumer per capita of lobsters in the world. 4 million lobsters are imported annually to Belgium, and their fate is incredibly disturbing. I recently visited Carrefour Market Etterbeek and was horrified to see that live lobsters imported from Canada were crammed into a barren tank with their claws bound. I wrote to the manager of this store, and received no reply. I have since been made aware of further atrocities, notably in Delhaize, which in January of last year faced backlash for boxing live lobsters in Styrofoam boxes like they were meat. In response to the widespread criticism, Delhaize stated that it had no intention of stopping the sale of live lobsters. Carrefour Market appears to even allow you to order a lobster online and have it delivered to your house. I therefore have decided to take further action and broaden my call to all supermarkets operating in Belgium to stop selling live lobsters. The European Food Safety Authority considers ...