Chloe VS History: time travel that delivers a glimpse of the future

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Chloe VS History: time travel that delivers a glimpse of the future

2 July 2026

Perhaps we see something of the future when we look to the past.

Chloe VS History, a YouTube channel, presents significant chapters of our history, hosted by a buoyant young woman named Chloe, a would-be time traveller, and seen through the lens of what is presumably a smartphone.

While it’s moot point, the smartphone, or whatever recording device Chloe uses, seems to go unnoticed by the multitudes of people she encounters. Be that Ancient Rome, on board the Titanic, or in Tudor age London, capital of the United Kingdom, among other places. Could it be the locals — where there are people present — think she is holding a hand mirror of some sort?

Regardless, Chloe’s enthusiasm for her subject matter is infectious. I studied history in my final year of high-school, and have the feeling the class would have been at least ten times more engaged, if we’d had the option to learn about historical events in this fashion.

The concept, the brainchild of British content creator Jonathan Laramy, may not be entirely unique, there’s a lot to say about the execution. To date, only five “full-length” features have been produced, though there are nearly forty “short” videos.

Of course, just about all of what we see in the Chloe VS History series, including Chloe herself, is created using AI powered applications. And while a substantial amount of research also goes into each production, I’ll take a punt that AI is only doing some of this work.

The educational merits of resources like this are obvious. And not just for history either, but other — sometimes not so exciting — subjects on a school’s curriculum also.

So far, there are only five in-depth Chloe VS History features, but doubtless the number will grow, given there’s a lot of history to explore from across the globe.

I don’t know a whole lot about reality headsets, such as, for instance, Apple’s Vision Pro, but I wonder what the experience of viewing these sorts of videos on reality headset devices would be like. Immersive, to say the least, if device support is available.

AI does not so much take work away as it changes the way we work

30 June 2026

CJ Chilvers:

Before influencers, there were bloggers. Before bloggers, there were TV stars, rock stars, and movie stars. Call them whatever you want, but individuals have always been the drivers of engagement and trust.

This is a point Alex Cowen reiterated in a recent talk given in the UK. It seems to me you don’t so much need a great of knowledge of AI — hard to gain when the technology is ever evolving — than you do a distinct personal brand. In whatever your field of endeavour is.

Microsoft wants users to be addicted to Scout, their AI personal assistant

6 June 2026

Jason Koebler, and Emanuel Maiberg, writing for 404 Media:

An internal Microsoft strategy document says that the plan for its just-announced “Scout” personal assistant AI is to “make people addicted” to the tool before rolling out additional functionality, 404 Media has learned. “Three phases from addictive app to agentic platform,” the documentation.

Is anyone surprised? The big tech company has long been in the business of building not so much addiction, but rather dependency, on their products.

The Windows operating system (OS) started out, possibly, once, a long time ago, as a good OS. Little by little though, users became ever more addicted/dependent on the OS, through numerous lock-ins and lock-outs. Only when Windows 11 arrived did people realise just how dependent, and trapped, they’d become.

DuckDuckGo sees user uptick following Google plans for an AI search box

4 June 2026

Search engine DuckDuckGo has experienced a noticeable surge in users in recent weeks, says Rebecca Bellan, writing for TechCrunch.

Many of these new arrivals are concerned about Google’s proposals to significantly change its search experience, through the use of AI, something I think is being called AI Mode.

DuckDuckGo said U.S. app installs went up 18.1% week-over-week on average during the May 20 to May 25 period, compared to May 13 to May 18. The company said that growth was sustained for six consecutive days and peaked at 30.5% on May 25. On iOS, the rate of install is even higher, with week-over-week growth hitting a 33% average, peaking at 69.9%.

In addition to its regular search engine, DuckDuckGo also offers a completely AI-free search option.

AI: you cannot live with it, you cannot live without it

1 June 2026

Daniel Jalkut:

My take on AI is, essentially, everybody who’s against it is too against it and everybody who’s for it is too for it.

From where I sit, somewhere in the middle of this, that’s the way it looks.

WordPress 7 shipped with new AI features, where are they hiding?

25 May 2026

The latest version of WordPress (WP), seven, which shipped a few days ago, comes with, according to the accompanying release notes/marketing copy, a number of AI features.

I’m yet to see even one of these, despite installing version seven last week now. The only noticeable difference I can discern — to date — is a change in some of the hyperlink colours on the dashboard.

I’m not interested, by the way, in activating these AI “enhancements”, just curious as to why I can’t see them. I was expecting the interface to look all new when I logged back in after running the update, but as I say, barely anything has changed.

Presumably the powers that be are leaving WordPressers to opt-in to the AI features themselves — the way it should be — rather than foisting them upon us. Works for me, I have no use for them.

On the other hand, it might be some combination of plug-ins, or edits to WP code I’ve made (though that’s rare for me) that are somehow blocking out the AI options.

Whatever is happening: long may it last. And if this is all a dream I’m having — and the AI features are there, but I just can’t see them — then no one wake me up.

UPDATE: Jeff Bridgforth addresses changes to hyperlink colours on the WP dashboard. These can be adjusted in the Administration Colour Scheme area, located on the WP profile page.

The Serpent in the Grove, winner of the Commonwealth Prize, written with AI help?

23 May 2026

Congratulations to Trinidad and Tobago based writer Jamir Nazir for taking out the Commonwealth Short Story Prize this year, with his work, The Serpent in the Grove.

Since being named winner though, suggestions have emerged that the work is the product of an AI agent. When asked to assess the story, a number of other AI agents (how else would you check?) concluded The Serpent in the Grove was likely written with at least some AI assistance.

Prize organisers say they do not use tools to seek out the use of AI in submissions, considering the short story prize is for unpublished works. I see the logic in this argument, because anything parsed by an AI agent is probably only going to be regurgitated by the same agent later on, somewhere else.

The Commonwealth Prize operates on the principle of trust, say organisers. Here be another minefield of AI making that we need to tip toe our way through.

New Google AI powered search box poses a threat to website traffic

21 May 2026

The AI generated result summaries on Google searches, that we’ve become accustomed to recently, sound like they will be a thing of the past when a new search… experience is rolled out shortly.

Because your curiosity doesn’t always fit into keywords, we’re also introducing the biggest upgrade to our Search box in over 25 years — now completely reimagined with AI. This intelligent Search box puts our most powerful AI tools right at your fingertips, making it easier to ask your questions.

Blame the upgrade — the first in a quarter of century — on our boundless curiosity then.

One can only imagine the impact the new search results will have on website traffic. Particularly if links to the sources of information used to compile search results are not shown.

Emma Roth, writing for The Verge, notes that people will still be able to see “traditional” search results by clicking/pressing on the “web” tab on the search page.

I wonder how many people will select that option, as my guess is the majority of searchers will probably be satisfied with the default AI generated results.

Apple Intelligence bolsters accessibility features, aiding people with disabilities

21 May 2026

From the Apple Newsroom:

Apple today previewed a suite of accessibility updates that use Apple Intelligence to bring new capabilities to features users rely on every day, including VoiceOver, Magnifier, Voice Control, and Accessibility Reader. Apple also announced on-device generated subtitles for uncaptioned video content coming to the Apple ecosystem, as well as a new feature for Apple Vision Pro users to control compatible wheelchairs with their eyes.

The promised enhanced accessibility features, to be rolled out across a number of Apple devices, seem like they could make a positive difference for people with disabilities.

Apple Intelligence is the name Apple gives to the suite of AI technologies they are developing.

It might be argued there are not a great many favourable applications of AI technology, but these initiatives could well be an exception.

Falling birth rates and smartphones: a technology as malevolent as AI?

19 May 2026

Om Gupta, writing for India Today:

The researchers believe smartphones fundamentally changed how young people interact with each other. More time shifted online, while face-to-face socialising declined. According to the study, this reduction in in-person interaction may have contributed to lower fertility rates. The pattern appears to extend beyond just the US and UK. Financial Times analysis found that birth rates in several countries began falling sharply around the same time smartphones became widely adopted.

Gupta cites research published a few days ago by the Financial Times (paywalled).

I doubt the blame for the reported decline in birth rates globally can be placed wholly at the feet of smartphones, but it’s not unreasonable to believe they are playing some role.

It’s hardly empirical proof, but increasingly I need to sidestep people walking along the footpath who are focused only on their smartphone, almost oblivious to the presence of anyone else. If people can’t go without phones during a short walk from one place to another, when are they ever supposed to focus on other things, let alone meeting, and interacting with others, face-to-face?

I’m a smartphone user the same as everyone else, and couldn’t begin to imagine managing without one. But if indeed it is the case that smartphones are contributing — at least partly — to falling birth rates, shouldn’t we be alarmed?

In recent weeks we have been witnessing a growing, at times hostile, backlash against AI technologies. People are angry and fearful. They are concerned by the threat AI poses to their livelihoods. Of the three epoch-defining shifts in technology — to use the words of John Gruber — in recent decades, being the web, smartphones, and AI, it is the last, AI, that is seen as malevolent.

Or the more malevolent.

But if birth rates are falling across the world, and smartphone usage has something to do with that, can we continue to regard these devices as anything less than pernicious?

But pointing the finger of blame at smartphones is the easy part. What to do about the problem, if that’s even how the situation can be described, is far from straightforward.

It somewhat feels like we are painting ourselves into a corner, if we haven’t already, with, really all three of these epoch-defining shifts in technology.

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