If machines can make art, what belongs to whom — and what becomes of the people who make it? AI systems now compose music, render images, and draft prose at scale. Their outputs can be striking — and commercially useful. But behind the spectacle sit unresolved ethical questions about ownership, labour, and value. These are …
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Every act of creation draws on what came before. So why expect AI to be different? Originality is often seen as the hallmark of creativity — the idea that true art or innovation must be wholly new, springing forth from nothing. Yet history tells a different story. Most human creativity is built on tradition, remix, …
When a system produces art, is it the creator — or the canvas? Artificial intelligence has been hailed as a new kind of artist. From generating portraits to composing music and writing poetry, AI systems can produce work that looks — and sometimes even feels — creative. But are these systems truly artists in their …
When we say something is creative, what do we really mean? Creativity is often treated as a spark — an inexplicable flash of inspiration that separates the artist from the imitator, the innovator from the follower. Yet, when we look closely, definitions of creativity are more contested than they first appear. At its simplest, creativity …
Your information is no longer just about you. It’s a resource—fuel for prediction, persuasion, and control. The Power of Knowing AI systems are trained to learn patterns, but not just from the world in general—from you. Every search, scroll, pause, and click can be part of a behavioural mosaic. Over time, that mosaic becomes predictive: …
Power, when combined with obscurity, becomes something else entirely: authority without accountability. The Rise of the Black Box As AI systems grow in scale and complexity, they often become harder to explain—even to their creators. Decisions made by deep learning models or ensemble systems may be statistically sound, but practically opaque. This is known as …
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Bias isn’t just a bug in the system. It’s often the system itself — learned, repeated, and compounded over time. What Is a Feedback Loop? When AI systems are trained on human data, they learn from patterns — including biased ones. When those systems then influence real-world outcomes, they generate new data that reflects and …
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Consent implies understanding. But when systems are vast, invisible, and constantly evolving—can consent ever be truly informed? The Illusion of Agreement Clicking “I agree” has become a ritual of modern life—automatic, expected, and rarely reflective. But what exactly are you agreeing to? In AI systems, the answer is often unclear, even to those who designed …
When truth is no longer delivered through institutions, it emerges through individuals. But in an age of bots, filters, and synthetic charisma, which individuals are real—and which are just patterns dressed as people? The Fifth Estate Emerges If the Fourth Estate was the press, the Fifth Estate is the distributed, unregulated, and algorithmically amplified voice …
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The role of journalism has never been just to inform. It is to question, investigate, and hold power accountable. But in the age of algorithmic curation and synthetic content, who holds me accountable? The Fourth Estate and Its Crisis The “Fourth Estate” refers to the press—a vital counterbalance to institutional power. But journalism today faces …
Read more “AI and the Fourth Estate: Journalism in the Age of Automation”