Pictured today is a shot of three dark pink peonies in the front garden, surrounded by cowslips that have gone over, some pink primroses and lots of weeds and grass that shouldn’t be in the border. We haven’t done the ‘big weed’ of the front garden yet (the back garden has been mostly tidied up), and this very ‘real’ pic seemed appropriate to the title of today’s post!
There have been a number of news stories and social media posts about AI recently and I felt I wanted to put down my thoughts and feelings around the subject.
There are certain phrases and structures that are beginning to stand out as massive AI indicators in writing, such as three short phrases each on a new line, “It’s not X, it’s Y, and that makes all the difference”, “and honestly?” and pretty much anything described as “quietly” when it has absolutely nothing to do with volume.
I’m now noticing it in so many things I read; newsletters, articles, social media – even BBC news articles seem to use some of these structures and patterns. Quite often I’ll be reading for a while and then spot one of these things and increasingly it just puts me right off reading any further.
What’s the reason for my antipathy towards AI? There are several! It uses massive amounts of water to run the data centres where it takes place. AI is literally costing human jobs – 8000 Meta employees lost their jobs recently as a way of funding the AI part of the business. It’s also built on the theft of real people’s creativity. Articles, books, poetry, art have all been fed into these machines to ‘teach’ them how to ‘create’ the responses you ask for, often without the permission or even knowledge of the original artists. And it all looks and sounds so much the same after a while. More ‘generic’ AI than ‘generative’.
Woolly Wormhead wrote an excellent post on May 11th on social media, asking people not to input their knitting patterns into ChatGPT or other AI systems when looking for help or translation. I second this plea wholeheartedly. If people need help with a pattern there are videos available, tutorials and groups with lots of people (over a thousand people in Woolly’s case) on Facebook very willing to explain things.
There are also apps that people feed their patterns into in order to mark their progress. This worries me too, as I’m not sure what the companies behind the apps are doing with that data. Please don’t feed the machine!
With my patterns, if you do need help, please just get in touch with me directly via the website and I will answer your questions. I’ve been known to draw diagrams to help explain things and even record videos with little demos of how to do something.
The news that Google search is becoming more AI driven is also a concern, especially since the answers given in the AI overview aren’t always accurate. For example, I just typed into Google “What is Kath Andrews’ most popular knitting pattern?” The AI overview came back:
“Kath Andrews’ most popular designs include the Nevern Throw (a stranded colourwork Celtic knot blanket), the Meg March Shawl (a cozy, large two-colour brioche wrap), and Caramel Slice (an approachable child’s slip-stitch cardigan).”
Me being me, I just did a bit of sales analysis to check this out. Now, the first one is correct as I thought – Nevern Throw is my best selling pattern, by quite some distance. I’ve sold 820 copies of this pattern, with 643 of these being online sales (that number took me a bit by surprise!). Meg March Shawl is well admired and has sold 152 copies, with 60 of those being online sales, but there are several other patterns in between Nevern Throw and Meg in terms of sales. But Caramel Slice? I’ve only ever sold 12 copies of that, and only one of those was an online sale. Although I think it’s a good design, it’s hardly one of my most popular! So, that rather throws the AI answer out of the window.
Anyway, those are my thoughts about AI today. What are your views on the subject?
On the more practical side of things, I am launching Making Tracks as an individual pattern tomorrow!
As always, if you’d like a subscriber discount for the pattern, please do sign up to my newsletter (always written entirely by me, occasional typos and all!). The jumper has finished chest measurements of 101.5-174.5cm (40-68.75 inches) with adjustable body and sleeve lengths.
If the weather cools down enough later I will also photograph my grey 4ply What Do Points Make?. That’s likely to be past 9pm though!
Unfortunately, my Steeking workshop at Ewe Felty Thing that should have been taking place this coming Saturday (May 30th) is being postponed until the autumn, as not enough people wanted to learn how to cut their knitting open safely (that’s what steeking is!) to run the workshop this weekend.
I should be teaching Stacked Stitches and Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche workshops at Ewe Felty Thing on June 20th – there are plenty of spaces. Please do come. Both these workshops are a lot of fun. Stacked Stitches opens up a whole world of amazing designs, mostly created by Xandy Peters, who is a genius! If you have some experience in basic two-colour brioche knitting (straight stripes is sufficient) then you will be able to do the Next Steps workshop and create a little coaster/mat. Again, this workshop will open up a huge range of possibilities for you in brioche knitting patterns.
Before then, the next yarn show we’ll be at is The Wool Monty, at Magna just outside Sheffield, on June 13th and 14th. I’ve never been to this show before, but I’ve heard some wonderful things about it. I’ll have printed copies of the new version of Ice Diamond Mitts, Making Tracks and many many more, as well as kits and postcards. Do come and say hello if you visit the show! I’m teaching my Intro to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting workshop on Sunday morning – and it’s sold out!
I cast off my super secret knit recently which means I’ll be able to show you things that I’m knitting again soon!
That’s all from me for today. It is very hot (it’s 26.2 celsius in the house and apparently ’26 feeling like 31′ celsius outside which is hot as anything for our corner of North Wales in May!). We live only about 5 miles from the place that had Wales’ highest recorded temperature yesterday. I’ve stayed inside so far today in the shade, and I’m trying to remember to drink plenty of water. I may or may not attempt digging up the final mini sycamore tree in the border this evening. Make sure you stay hydrated wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. Take care one and all, K x