From the editor’s keyboard

So, I’m back to editing the newsletter. Hugh Macdonald became President, and I have taken this one burden off his shoulders. But it’s in a much changed format, as pioneered by Hugh. I hope I’ve managed to cobble it together without too many boo boos.

Early glamour shoot of your humble editor,
Colourised using https://palette.fm/

You will notice a bit of emphasis on ChatGPT, the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) that was released for community testing not long ago. It was developed by a startup, (AFAIK), but then bought by Microsoft. It really is a remarkable thing. It has generated huge amounts of controversy, ranging from pure blather to well considered praise and critique. I have included a conversation on pure theological philosophy, something on programming, I should add that just in the few days since I did the programming thing I have delved even deeper, and it knocks my socks off. It is also far from infallible, so like an electric saw it can be very powerful but you could get hurt if you use it unwisely.

We have a piece from Greg Eden about using Google. I look forward to more material from Greg about that. Greg has been a significant contributor to helping members get in to Google, especially on spaces.

Neil Muller has contributed his usual thorough and detailed East SIG report, this one from December.