If it’s only AI that’s keeping you up at night, maybe you’re doing OK | Letters
Reading Alexander Hurst’s column on the frictionless experience of life promised – or threatened – by AI algorithms, I was struck by how little I recognised the picture he painted of daily experience being stripped of the friction necessary to furnish it with meaning (To be human is to live with friction.That’s something AI boosters will never understand, 23 April).Rather, isn’t it the case that, bar the mega-rich, we’re all suffering from an excess of friction due to rising living costs, an avoidably dilapidated public realm, poor housing and innumerable related stresses?I belong to a volunteer group that twice a week cooks hot meals for homeless and destitute people in central Liverpool.The hot meal they collect from us may be the only relief they get that day from the constant, grinding analogue hassles of invisibility, illness, disrespect and material poverty: the only recognition they receive that a degree of comfort is a prerequisite for survival.The specific depredations of AI, created and encouraged by men without souls, seem so distant in these cases as to be nonexistent.
There’s no question that the acceleration of AI will only deepen these gaping structural inequalities, but if someone is kept awake at night less by the thought of people sleeping outdoors on cardboard than by AI’s threat to one’s experience of the Louvre, it makes you wonder how much, or how little, friction exists in their own daily life.Lynsey Hanley Liverpool I am disappointed by the responses of the professors of chemistry and thermodynamics who failed to answer Alexander Hurst’s question: “How fast do you have to strike a match to get it to light?” but instead talked of concepts.The correct answer is: “I’ll do the experiment” (ie get some students to do it as a project).Experimental data beats all mental hand-waving and is frequently quicker.It is then for the theoreticians to explain how their ideas do or not match the observations, and if necessary adapt their thought to get a better theory.
Martin PittLeeds I think I have the answer to Alexander Hurst’s question about the minimum speed at which you need to move a match when striking it for it to produce a flame.If it doesn’t work the first time, have another go, moving the match a bit quicker.If that still doesn’t work, buy a cigarette lighter.Michael BulleyChalon-sur-Saône, France
From Mother Mary to Foo Fighters: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
An idiosyncratic thriller sees Anne Hathaway’s pop icon and Michaela Coel’s fashion designer embark on a psychosexual romance, while Dave Grohl and his boys are back with album number 12Mother MaryOut now Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel play a pop star and a fashion designer embroiled in a psychosexual affair in this A24 drama-slash-thriller from the reliably idiosyncratic director David Lowery. Also starring FKA twigs, Sian Clifford and Hunter Schafer.Rose of NevadaOut now Starring George MacKay and possible future James Bond Callum Turner, this is a sci-fi drama from talented director Mark Jenkin about a boat lost at sea for three decades that mysteriously reappears. Some might suggest it’s advisable to stay away from this clearly uncanny boat, but that would make for a shorter movie.Exit 8Out now Based on the hit video game set in a Japanese metro station passageway, this high-concept horror has its protagonist, The Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya) trapped in a seemingly inescapable spatial loop, looking for the anomalies that will help him progress through the eerie environment
The play’s the thing – but everyone has their own favourite | Letters
Thank you for Michael Billington’s brilliant and fascinating ranking of Shakespeare’s plays, which will surely give rise to much debate (To see or not to see? Every single Shakespeare play – ranked!, 22 April).I’d like to make a case for promotion of The Tempest from its lowly 25th position. Admittedly my fondness for it started with doing it for A-level in 1968, but, having the good fortune to see both the all-female women’s prison version, starring Harriet Walter, and the RSC magical hi-tech production within a few months, I think its versatility deserves a higher ranking. I would swap it with The Winter’s Tale, which for me is just a bit too weird.Marian SainsburyEdinburgh I studied A Midsummer Night’s Dream at school in the 1960s
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: ‘A delicate snowflake with the thinnest fat skin of any human being ever’
Late-night hosts imagined an alternative White House correspondents’ dinner roast and recapped Donald Trump’s latest erratic threats on Iran.On Thursday evening, Jimmy Kimmel looked ahead to this weekend’s annual gala hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which Donald Trump promised would be the “GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER, OF ANY KIND, EVER!”“The only thing hotter than this dinner are his diapers on the golf course,” the host quipped.This will be the first time that Trump attends the annual event for press and politicians as president, and the Daily Beast reported that his plan for the occasion is to lambast the media and leave, in an intentional “mic-drop moment” – “which I think would be disappointing”, said Kimmel.“This is the first time Trump is even going to the correspondents’ dinner as president,” he added, “but he doesn’t have to worry about being made fun of, because the event isn’t being hosted by a comedian this year.” Instead, the White House Correspondents’ Association hired mentalist Oz Pearlman to perform
Seth Meyers on Kash Patel: ‘He has resting “run for your lives” face’
Late-night hosts dug into the allegations of FBI director Kash Patel’s excessive drinking, Donald Trump’s Iran war struggles and some questionable math by RFK Jr.On Wednesday evening, Seth Meyers relished more details from a shocking Atlantic report from this weekend detailing alleged excessive drinking and erratic behavior by the FBI director, Kash Patel. According to more than two dozen current and former FBI officials, Patel was known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication, and many people expected him to be fired for his unreachability and impulsivity.“Generally speaking, you don’t want to hear that the country’s top law enforcement official is known for having freak-outs, you know?” the Late Night host said. “When you’re the head of the FBI, you’re supposed to be calm and level-headed
Post your questions for Melanie C
Some former girl- and boyband stars spend a lifetime trying to escape the image that made them famous. Not Melanie C. Since the Spice Girls debuted 30 years ago this summer (What’s that sound? Oh, it’s just the unadulterated violence of mortality) she has never shied away from her past as Sporty Spice. Her ninth album, Sweat, leans firmly into it. Led by its gauntlet-throwing title track, these are work-bitch bangers for the gym, the dancefloor – inspired by her pre-Spice raving youth – and quite possibly the bedroom, sung by a triathlon fiend who forged a reputation as a world-renowned DJ
Make universal access to culture a priority | Letters
A V&A everywhere. It’s not such a silly idea (Editorial, 17 April). Labour’s postwar conviction that good things should be available for everyone led to the founding not only of the Arts Council but also the NHS. Universal basic healthcare: a good idea, right? What about universal basic culture?I can see a new era of cities thriving with agency to imagine and create the conditions in which more inclusive, diverse, devolved, responsive and self-driving culture emerges – regardless of income. The UK can be a global creative powerhouse
Cannes AI film festival raises eyebrows – and questions about future
Facing AI and a tough job market, gen Z turns to entrepreneurship: ‘I have to prove myself’
TikTok and Visa launch debit card to speed payouts to UK creators
Officials hugely underestimated impact of AI datacentres on UK carbon emissions
‘Look, no hands’: China chases the driverless dream at Beijing car show
What is a passkey, how does it work and why is it better than a password?