AI Week

New newsletter & free ebook!


AI Week is my free weekly newsletter about AI and society.
I’d love for you to join me! Sign up to get a free ebook
of my 2019 novella about AI in the workplace,
"The Auditor and the Exorcist."

New nonfiction: Bergamot oil

Did you know that bergamot oil, which provides the distinctive flavour of Earl Grey tea, can give you a suntan? It used to be included in suntanning lotion (not to be confused with sunblock cream). Unfortunately, bergamot’s suntanning boost is due to a phototoxic chemical that can also give you a nasty sunburn, or even kick off skin cancer.1 So yeah, we don’t do that any more.

Bergamot still smells fantastic, though, and it’s not just useful to flavour Earl Grey tea. There’s some evidence that breathing its delightful scent may promote relaxation, help with sleep, and reduce anxiety. If you’d like to know what the current research says about bergamot oil, I have a new nonfiction article at Examine.com laying it out.

Photo by Marie Z Johnston

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4345801/ ↩︎

Newsletter: AI Week

I recently started a weekly newsletter about AI. It’s not for experts and it’s extremely readable. It’s really aimed at science fiction writers and readers: non-experts (like me) who are interested in the impact of this tech on society.

Last week’s newsletter included:

  • ChatGPT and DALL-E generated carols
  • A new way to make chatbots break their rules
  • A nasty surprise: there’s child sexual abuse material in the AI training data
  • Creepy marketers claiming to spy on your devices and sift through your words with AI (part two)
  • AI-generated songs, alcopop, political speech, and more
  • Plus four very readable longreads about AI and society

I’d love to have you join me. Check out the archives on Buttondown and/or subscribe here:

Free STEAM lessons

With so many families suddenly homeschooling, I made three free astronomy mini-lessons. They’re for kids 8-12, & they explore the number of stars in the sky and the vastness of the universe. If you live in the city & your kids can barely see the Milky Way at night, these lessons are for you.

Each lesson has a short reading and a STEAM activity. Total time about 30-60 mins per lesson, depending on the kid.

Please share, remix, reuse & enjoy. (CC-BY-4.0)

Stars, Skyglow, and You

This image of the Milky Way is by Bruno Gilli/ESO, http://www.eso.org/public/images/milkyway/

Skyglow and you

My young son was excited to make out the constellation of Orion for the first time this winter. Unfortunately for us, we live right downtown and can barely make it out, thanks to skyglow. The image above is a terrific side-by-side of Orion with and without the skyglow of Orem, UT. Here in Ottawa, Ontario, all we can see of Orion is the 7 brightest stars: the belt, shoulders and toes. I was inspired to write a short piece on skyglow for kids.