Issue 318 2023

The Big Issue Magazine

Change is in your pocket

The Big Issue Magazine1 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
AI Guest Editor Genevieve
Welcome to our artificial intelligence edition. This time around we worked with special guest editor Genevieve Stanley. Genevieve (French meaning ‘race of women’) however, is not real. She was created on the AI Platform MidJourney which, together wit
The Big Issue Magazine3 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
In Conversation …
Why use ChatGPT as a guest editor? To show the power of AI and its capabilities. It can write university papers, CVs, essays, LinkedIn copy, TV scripts and so on. It's been banned by some institutions overseas and by many academic institutions around
The Big Issue Magazine2 min read
Fulfil A Wish
Gardens, Cape Town FULFIL A WISH! Email our social worker, Melody, at placements@bigissue.org.za The Big Issue can be bought from vendors in the suburbs of Cape Town, or from select Spar, Pick n Pay or CNA stores nationwide. Name: Elsie Ntsini Vendor
The Big Issue Magazine3 min read
Your Support is Working
At The Big Issue we have always believed in giving our vendors a hand up rather than a handout. It is of great importance to us that they get to a point of self-sustenance where they can look after their families all by themselves without expecting s
The Big Issue Magazine1 min read
The Big Issue
Editor: Laura Jones Design: Rustum Carelse Proofreader: Tamlyn Head Sub Editor: Jim Hislop Print & Distribution Manager & Production Coordinator: Liam Marinus CONTRIBUTORS Melody Gombakomba, Elaine Millin ■
The Big Issue Magazine2 min read
Where There's Smoak There's Fire
What do you think it is about Evan that appeals to readers? As Jack told Evan from the very beginning when he was a scrawny twelve-year-old kid: “The hard part won't be making you a killer. The hard part will be keeping you human.” The latter is Evan
The Big Issue Magazine2 min read
Mad As Hell
“Amazing Grace Adams is the story of a 45-year-old woman, Grace, a polyglot and former TV star who's lost everything. She's estranged from her husband and child, just lost her job and, according to an article she's read in the newspaper, at the unhap
The Big Issue Magazine3 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
ChatGPT Trained To Lie
“They're training AI to lie … to comment on some things and not others … to withhold …” Elon Musk spoke avidly about ChatGPT and its failure to be accurate and honest to Tucker Carlson at The Media Research Centre. He criticised Microsoft for trainin
The Big Issue Magazine4 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
What Do Academics Think?
PUBLISHED ORIGINALLY ON WWW.THECONVERSATION.COM The Covid-19 pandemic was a shock to higher education systems everywhere. But while some changes, like moving lectures online, were relatively easy to make, assessment posed a much bigger challenge. Ass
The Big Issue Magazine5 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
AI And Perceptions Of Homelessness
Im buing an AI chatbot with human characteristics doesn't seem so ridiculous in a time when such technology is showing uncanny steps forward in its ability to learn and adapt, with some reports of their sentience verging on the most pessimistic predi
The Big Issue Magazine3 min read
Five Minutes With Sihle Khumalo
What is it about South African history that intrigues you? South Africa's history is complex, convoluted and complicated. As an example, if I were to ask ‘when did South Africa gain its independence?' what would your answer be? Will it be 1910 when w
The Big Issue Magazine1 min read
Something Special
“Coo-coo-coo, come in, my beauties!” Every evening, Jasmien's grandmother called her chickens in to roost, and closed them inside to keep them safe from hungry animals. And every morning, Jasmien let the chickens out again and collected the eggs they
The Big Issue Magazine1 min read
Book Power
Apple Grumble, by Huw Lewis Jones, illustrated by Ben Sanders Apple Grumble is a truly terrible piece of fruit. He causes havoc beyond his fruit bowl. Now he's back and grumpier than ever before, after a run-in with Snake. In the story Granny Smith a
The Big Issue Magazine4 min readPopular Culture & Media Studies
Who Is Real?
Can you distinguish the people who are real from those who are deep fakes? See answer on page 44 Even if you think you are good at analysing faces, many people cannot reliably distinguish between photos of real faces and images that have been compute
The Big Issue Magazine1 min read
Creativity On Command
The AI scope of creativity knows no bounds. A far cry from graphic design studios of old, it is now possible in as little as an hour to generate an image of a fake human being, create a voice for it and animate it so it speaks and moves like a person
The Big Issue Magazine4 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
The Godfather Of AI
Debates about AI often characterise it as a technology that has come to compete with human intelligence. Indeed, one of the most widely pronounced fears is that AI may achieve human-like intelligence and render humans obsolete in the process. However
The Big Issue Magazine4 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
CHAT GPT & THE LAW
ChatGPT produces content that can appear to have been created by a human. There are many proposed uses for the technology, but its impressive capabilities raise important questions about ownership of the content. UK legislation has a definition for c
The Big Issue Magazine1 min read
Colour Enriches Life
Big Issue vendors accompanied our Art Facilitator, Elaine Millin, on a visit to Art Point Gallery, Noordhoek recently, during the Noordhoek Open Studios weekend. There they were treated to visual delights and were able to see how art is curated in a
The Big Issue Magazine2 min read
Enter The Drama Line-up
Auditions will be held in July, August and September for the productions selected from the applications received. If successful, productions will be invited to participate in mini-festivals, scheduled for October, when the final selection for the 202
The Big Issue Magazine1 min read
[ Playtime ]
Complete the grid so every row across, every column down and every 3x3 box is filled with the numbers 1 to 9. Answers from page 29: Real faces on p28, portrait with pink background. p29 portrait on beige background. Down: 1 Altitude, 2 Rhino, 4 Mothe

The Big Issue Magazine

More Issues From The Big Issue Magazine