Table of contents for Issue 318 2023 in The Big Issue

Welcome to our artificial intelligence edition. This time around we worked with special guest editor Genevieve Stanley. Genevieve (French meaning ‘race of women’) however, is not real. She was created on the AI Platform MidJourney which, together with other platforms such as ChatGPT, assisted with the production of The Big Issue. We've brought you the full deal on AI and you can read about it from different perspectives. Particularly from Elon Musk and AI founder Geoff Hinton. That said, keep your eyes open because there's lots of ‘fakery' about. You'll spot it in our Photo Essay which translates deeply to the future use of AI in social media and other industries. Enjoy!…

At The Big Issue we have always believed in giving our vendors a hand up rather than a handout. It is of great importance to us that they get to a point of self-sustenance where they can look after their families all by themselves without expecting someone else to do it for them. We understand that the money vendors earn from selling the magazines is not enough to afford their daily needs, and we always encourage our vendors to not only depend on magazine sales, but to expand their knowledge and practice different skills, too. Giving people a hand up rather than a hand-out instils discipline and a culture of hard work. We want our vendors to gain skills that can make them marketable and employable so they can take…

“Amazing Grace Adams is the story of a 45-year-old woman, Grace, a polyglot and former TV star who's lost everything. She's estranged from her husband and child, just lost her job and, according to an article she's read in the newspaper, at the unhappiest age she could possibly be. She's at breaking point, where normal rules no longer apply, and so, on the hottest day of the year, Grace abandons her car in gridlocked traffic and sets out on foot across London, to try and win back her estranged daughter on her 16th birthday. Grace is on a quest to demonstrate some fierce mother love, and no thing or person is going to stop her. As she journeys across London, she rips up the social contract; she says and does…

ChatGPT produces content that can appear to have been created by a human. There are many proposed uses for the technology, but its impressive capabilities raise important questions about ownership of the content. UK legislation has a definition for computer-generated works. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 they are “generated by computer in circumstances such that there is no human author of the work”. The law suggests content generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) can be protected by copyright. However, the original sources of answers generated by AI chatbots can be difficult to trace – and they might include copyrighted works. The first question is whether ChatGPT should be allowed to use original content generated by third parties to generate its responses. The second is whether only humans…

Why use ChatGPT as a guest editor? To show the power of AI and its capabilities. It can write university papers, CVs, essays, LinkedIn copy, TV scripts and so on. It's been banned by some institutions overseas and by many academic institutions around the world. Some have welcomed it as a progressive learning tool. A concern is the threat to schooling in terms of its writing projects. It can sound age appropriate, for example, you can tell it to do a project on ‘Crustaceans in the Sea' for Grade 6 and to sound like an 11 year old would write it and it does. The problem is, it collates facts – incorrectly. I tried this with our articles to test it and it was painfully inaccurate and had ‘borrowed' without…

What do you think it is about Evan that appeals to readers? As Jack told Evan from the very beginning when he was a scrawny twelve-year-old kid: “The hard part won't be making you a killer. The hard part will be keeping you human.” The latter is Evan's curse and his blessing. He is someone who, no matter how dark it gets, will never let go of his humanity. Does Evan continue to surprise you at times, even though you're eight books in? As an assassin pulled out of a foster home and trained up from the age of twelve, Evan never learnt to speak the strange language of intimacy. He's at ease garrotting a human trafficker in a Muscovite banya [Russian steam bath], but small talk at the mail…

[ AI ] [ THE BIG ISSUE ] “They're training AI to lie … to comment on some things and not others … to withhold …” Elon Musk spoke avidly about ChatGPT and its failure to be accurate and honest to Tucker Carlson at The Media Research Centre. He criticised Microsoft for training the system to lie – ChatGPT is known for its fl awed and untrue versions of reality as is Microsoft's AI offering, Bard. ChatGPT is a so-called large language model, which is trained on an enormous amount of data to interpret text and respond to prompts in a human-like manner. Both confidently flout fake facts and as such, aren't valid research tools that can be relied on. Both make the declaration of the fact upfront before users even…

“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul” - WASSILY KANDINSKY BIG ISSUE ART AT ART POINT GALLERY Big Issue vendors accompanied our Art Facilitator, Elaine Millin, on a visit to Art Point Gallery, Noordhoek recently, during the Noordhoek Open Studios weekend. There they were treated to visual delights and were able to see how art is curated in a gallery. Five vendor artworks were sold to buyers. All the artworks on this page are for sale. Email info@bigissue.co.za to buy an artwork featured here or to donate materials for art classes.…

Gardens, Cape Town FULFIL A WISH! Email our social worker, Melody, at placements@bigissue.org.za The Big Issue can be bought from vendors in the suburbs of Cape Town, or from select Spar, Pick n Pay or CNA stores nationwide. Name: Elsie Ntsini Vendor number: B262 Pitch: Corner Orange and Rheede streets, Cape Town About: 75-year-old widow Elsie has been selling the magazine for five years. She lives in Khayelitsha Site B and is a mother to four boys. Elsie currently stays with two of her grandchildren. She enjoys selling the magazine because it helps put food on the table for herself, her children and grandchildren. Wish list: Elsie dreams of being able to return to the Eastern Cape permanently, to retire there and be with her extended family. She needs to…

What is it about South African history that intrigues you? South Africa's history is complex, convoluted and complicated. As an example, if I were to ask ‘when did South Africa gain its independence?' what would your answer be? Will it be 1910 when we became a union, 1961 when we became a republic or will it be April 1994, when all races could vote in the general elections? It is that very complicated history that makes our modern day challenges and problems have a degree of knottiness. What is it about South Africans that intrigues you? In Milk the Beloved Country, I state it as a matter of fact that sometimes I do not understand (some) South Africans. At times, I think we were bewitched. Sometimes I feel we are…

PUBLISHED ORIGINALLY ON WWW.THECONVERSATION.COM The Covid-19 pandemic was a shock to higher education systems everywhere. But while some changes, like moving lectures online, were relatively easy to make, assessment posed a much bigger challenge. Assessment can take many forms, from essays to exams, to experiments and more. Many institutions and individual academics essentially outsourced the assessment process to software. They increased their use of programmes like Turnitin to check for matched wording in students' assignments. And for closed-book, timed tests they used tools such as Proctorio, which monitor a student's computer or phone while they write exams. But universities did not seize this chance to reflect on what higher education is for, and how assessment might be used to enhance its achievement. Instead they doubled down on the status quo,…

A FRUITY TALE Apple Grumble, by Huw Lewis Jones, illustrated by Ben Sanders Apple Grumble is a truly terrible piece of fruit. He causes havoc beyond his fruit bowl. Now he's back and grumpier than ever before, after a run-in with Snake. In the story Granny Smith and her golden apples step in to teach him a lesson. But Bad Apple decides to play terrible tricks and seals them all up in a delicious apple crumble pie. ALL ABOUT EID Moon's Ramadan, by Natasha Khan Kazi Discover how Muslims celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid. Learn what the moon means to this religious belief and understand the differences in Muslim beliefs. The call to prayer is explained, and you can see how home-cooked food and henna art are made. PLAYFUL…