Category: Creative Technology

Gen AI and Context: Farmer John’s Shirt: SCRIPT

Tell me AI: how does Farmer John who owns a Goat, Cabbage and a Husky cross a river to go buy a Carhartt shirt.

Here’s the classic logic puzzle solution adapted to a “goat, cabbage, husky” scenario. The key idea is that you can only take one of the three across with you in the boat each trip, while making sure no dangerous pairs are ever left alone together:

  1. Take the goat across first
  • Farmer John rows the goat to the far side of the river.
  • The cabbage (which the goat might eat) and the husky (which might eat the goat) are both still safely separated from the goat for now.
  1. Return empty-handed
  • Farmer John leaves the goat on the far side and goes back alone to the near side.
  1. Take the cabbage across
  • Farmer John brings the cabbage to the far side, leaving the goat and cabbage together… temporarily.
  1. Bring the goat back
  • To avoid leaving goat and cabbage alone unsupervised, Farmer John quickly loads the goat back into the boat and returns to the near side with it.
  • Now the cabbage stays alone on the far side.
  1. Take the husky across
  • Farmer John rows the husky to the far side where the cabbage is. The cabbage and the husky do not harm each other.
  1. Return empty-handed
  • Farmer John leaves the husky and cabbage together and goes back alone to the near side.
  1. Finally take the goat across
  • Farmer John brings the goat one last time to the far side.
  • Now all three—goat, cabbage, and husky—are safely across the river.

With everyone on the opposite bank and intact, Farmer John can continue on his way to pick up that Carhartt shirt!

The Technologically Untouchable: How the Artist Survives AI

A computer said "Look what I make!
These pictures and songs - they're not fake!"
But humans they smiled,
For art's something wild
That only life's journey can wake

I gave a talk in Dec 2024 to the European School of Economics, invited by Paul Blanchard’s sustainability class in which I try to explore how the Artist is changing and how they will evolve given all the industrial creative production that is possible through generative AI technologies.

AI pervades our discussions and is this moment, and has made heavy impact on the creative sector in which I work. While many have seen a reduction in work because of GenAI, we also are familiar with how human audiences adapt quickly to changes like this and look for value in processes that move beyond.

In my talk I propose that there is a class of creative output that will be subject to detailed scrutiny of qualities that essentially flip the problem on its head. When you look for something beautiful to experience or create how much will you care about how it was made, by whom and for what reason? I expect that as we seek core aesthetic values such as scarcity, authenticity, craft we will become more and more tuned in to those affects that stand out as being unique human context that can be demonstrated to be not industrialised production.

This new creative language is an opportunity, particularly to talk to newer generations that are particularly attune to identifying technological quirks.