Spring booster takeup – blame game – AI

Thought I’d look at the spring booster takeup for those of venerable years (i.e. the over 75s) and see if there was any change year on year. I’m very glad to say there isn’t as the charts below. It’s plotted by week, and although there was a slower start this year by the third week of the campaign it looks as if things have caught up with the vaccination figure being 98.78% of last year’s spring campaign. Some dropout but not much.

The current uptake of the booster is 49.25% of the cohort after five weeks. For the autumn booster the uptake at the end of the 13 week process was 69.3%. That’s more than 30% of the cohort who, according to those figures, do not take up the offer. In the figures for age related Covid I wonder how those who are unbolted features in the intuitions table? Is there a greater proportion of those getting Covid who are not vaccinated? The figures are not available. The latest figure on people entering hospital from 28th April) was up, week on week, by 392 (32.6%). What is happening to that 30% who aren’t boosted? Are they in the people in hospital disproportionately?

Blame game – Paula Vennells names five executives she blames over Post Office scandal – Former boss claims IT executives and legal counsels let her down and tells inquiry she ‘loved the Post Office’ – weren’t my fault, guv. Yes, but you were the one in charge. “Have I Got News For You” tonight had an additional take on this from Ian Hislop.

Ai has been on my mind. I woke up during the night and had this question flicking round what may be a brain. “What happens if AI writes everything?” Here’s my logic.

• If it becomes the norm to allow AI to do academic work, how are we increasing the skill levels of our students?
• The trouble with grammar checking using AI – students won’t learn the correct way of doing things as thy’ll never review their work. We should distinguish between, if we can, things like Grammarly correcting work but AI doing for you.
• We even encourage student to use Grammarly in their work, so we’re to blame. 
• Forward in time a bit, if we allow AI to take over, both in creation and marking of academic work, is there any need for academics?
• In the ultimate extension, is there an need for reading and writing to be mastered to a high level?
• AI relies on previous work and programming and styles itself on and looks up existing work to create what it puts out.
• If we lack creativity and new work, how will AI develop any work that is effective?
• And if everything is run by AI, what’s the point of creating stuff anyway?

As I have said, I will not use AI to ‘improve’ my work. All mistakes are my own.

Another one today that’s coming clean – Google Gemini Cheat Sheet (Formerly Google Bard), Google’s generative AI.

As is said on Facebook: “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.”

After I retire do I rant about lack of robustness in education? Maybe.

Marking: every year I think that the answers to simple tasks can’t get any more weird and wonderful. Each year they manage to surprise me.

Got the car back temporarily today so I now have food and will be out and about at the weekend.

Music

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) Romeo and Juliet – Dance of the Knights, choreography Kenneth MacMillan, The Royal Ballet