#Generative AI apprenticeship

[cleveredlearning]

Global Apprenticeship in Generative AI: Upskill with Clevered for the Future of Work

In a world rapidly transforming under the influence of artificial intelligence, staying ahead means more than just understanding the basics—it means mastering the tools of tomorrow. That’s where the Global Apprenticeship in Generative AI, launched in partnership with Clevered, comes in. Designed as a future-ready upskilling program, this apprenticeship empowers students, professionals, and career-switchers with the cutting-edge skills needed to thrive in the AI-driven world.

Whether you're an aspiring data scientist, a creative technologist, or a working professional eager to pivot into AI, this immersive, hands-on program is your launchpad into the dynamic field of Generative AI.

Why Generative AI?

Generative AI has become one of the most transformative technologies of the 21st century. From AI-generated art and synthetic media to large language models like GPT, DALL·E, and Stable Diffusion, generative AI is not just shaping the future—it is the future.

With applications across healthcare, finance, education, design, and software engineering, the demand for skilled professionals in this domain has skyrocketed. However, the talent gap remains wide.

This is why Clevered, a leader in global learning and development, has created a globally accessible, industry-aligned apprenticeship program focused exclusively on Generative AI upskilling—bridging the skills gap and unlocking opportunities for talent everywhere.

Program Overview

The Global Apprenticeship in Generative AI is a structured, project-based learning experience that blends theory with real-world application. Spanning across 12–16 weeks, the program is designed to be flexible yet intensive, with live mentorship, global networking opportunities, and access to enterprise-grade AI tools.

Key Features:

Global Access: Open to learners from all regions—no matter where you're based, you can join and learn.

Live Sessions & Mentorship: Industry experts and AI engineers guide you through hands-on labs, model building, and career development.

Capstone Projects: Work on real-world generative AI applications in areas like content generation, synthetic data, and automation.

AI Ethics & Responsible Innovation: Explore bias mitigation, responsible AI design, and the importance of explainability.

Career Acceleration: Personalized career coaching, LinkedIn profile development, and mock interviews included.

Certification: Earn a globally recognized certificate co-branded with Clevered and top AI companies.

What You'll Learn

This apprenticeship is more than just a bootcamp—it's an ecosystem for deep AI mastery, structured around four major learning tracks:

1. Foundations of Generative AI

What is generative AI?

Differences between discriminative and generative models

Introduction to neural networks, deep learning, and transformers

2. Core Technical Skills

Building and fine-tuning models like GPT, BERT, and diffusion models

Prompt engineering and LLM application development

Text-to-image, audio synthesis, and code generation with AI

3. Responsible AI

Fairness, transparency, and explainability

Risks and mitigation strategies in deploying generative models

Introduction to AI governance and policy trends

4. Innovation & Impact

How generative AI is transforming industries (health, finance, media)

Real-world case studies

Ideating and prototyping your own generative AI application

Who Should Apply?

This program is designed to be inclusive, accessible, and globally relevant. Whether you're a student, early-career professional, or someone switching fields, this apprenticeship gives you both the theoretical foundation and practical tools needed to lead in AI.

Ideal for:

Computer science or engineering students

Creative professionals (designers, writers, marketers)

Educators and researchers

Entrepreneurs and startup founders

Mid-career professionals in tech or adjacent industries

No advanced coding or math background? No problem. The program starts with foundational concepts and builds up progressively, with optional deep-dives for advanced learners.

Why Choose Clevered?

Clevered is redefining how upskilling works at scale. Known for its commitment to accessibility, equity, and global learning innovation, Clevered partners with leading universities, companies, and technology platforms to create future-ready talent.

With Clevered, you get:

A trusted, mission-driven learning partner

Global peer community & alumni network

Opportunities for internships and job placements

Ongoing support even after the program ends

Success Stories

Application Process

Joining the Global Apprenticeship in Generative AI is simple:

Apply Online: Fill out a short application form outlining your goals and background.

Screening: Participate in a brief aptitude assessment or portfolio review (no coding test for non-technical tracks).

Interview: A short conversation with our admissions team to align expectations and learning goals.

Enroll & Begin: Get access to your learning dashboard, community channels, and upcoming sessions.

Rolling admissions now open for the next cohort. Spaces are limited to ensure personalized mentorship.

Invest in Your Future

In an era where AI is reshaping every aspect of work and creativity, the best investment you can make is in your ability to learn, adapt, and lead.

This apprenticeship with Clevered isn’t just about upskilling—it’s about future-proofing your career and becoming part of a global movement shaping the ethical, innovative use of generative AI.

Ready to step into the future?

FAQs

Q: Do I need to have a technical background?

A: No. We offer differentiated tracks for technical and non-technical learners. Everyone can contribute to the AI future.

Q: Is the program online?

A: Yes, it’s 100% online with live sessions, self-paced modules, and asynchronous collaboration.

Q: Will I get a certificate?

A: Yes, a verified certificate issued by Clevered and participating partner organizations.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #26

July 5-12 2024

The IRS announced it had managed to collect $1 billion in back taxes from high-wealth tax cheats. The program focused on persons with more than $1 million in yearly income who owned more than $250,000 in unpaid taxes. Thanks to money in Biden's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act the IRS is able to undertake more enforcement against rich tax cheats after years of Republicans cutting the agency's budget, which they hope to do again if they win power again.

The Biden administration announced a $244 million dollar investment in the federal government’s registered apprenticeship program. This marks the largest investment in the program's history with grants going out to 52 programs in 32 states. The President is focused on getting well paying blue collar opportunities to people and more people are taking part in the apprenticeship program than ever before. Republican pledge to cut it, even as employers struggle to find qualified workers.

The Department of Transportation announced the largest single project in the department's history, $11 billion dollars in grants for the The Hudson River Tunnel. Part of the $66 billion the Biden Administration has invested in our rail system the tunnel, the most complex Infrastructure project in the nation would link New York and New Jersey by rail under the Hudson. Once finished it's believed it'll impact 20% of the American economy by improving and speeding connection throughout the Northeast.

The Department of Energy announced $1.7 billion to save auto worker's jobs and convert factories to electronic vehicles. The Biden administration will used the money to save or reopen factories in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia and retool them to make electric cars. The project will save 15,000 skilled union worker jobs, and created 2,900 new high-quality jobs.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development reached a settlement with The Appraisal Foundation over racial discrimination. TAF is the organization responsible for setting standards and qualifications for real estate appraisers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics last year found that TAF was 94.7% White and 0.6% Black, making it the least racially diverse of the 800 occupations surveyed. Black and Latino home owners are far more likely to have their houses under valued than whites. Under the settlement with HUD TAF will have to take serious steps to increase diversity and remove structural barriers to diversity.

The Department of Justice disrupted an effort by the Russian government to influence public opinion through AI bots. The DoJ shut down nearly 1,000 twitter accounts that were linked to a Russian Bot farm. The bots used AI technology to not only generate tweets but also AI image faces for profile pictures. The effort seemed focused on boosting support for Russia's war against Ukraine and spread negative stories/impressions about Ukraine.

The Department of Transportation announces $1.5 billion to help local authorities buy made in America buses. 80% of the funding will go toward zero or low-emission technology, a part of the President's goal of reaching zero emissions by 2050. This is part of the $5 billion the DOT has spent over the last 3 years replacing aging buses with new cleaner technology.

President Biden with Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and Finnish President Alexander Stubb signed a new agreement on the arctic. The new trilateral agreement between the 3 NATO partners, known as the ICE Pact, will boost production of ice breaking ships, the 3 plan to build as many as 90 between them in the coming years. The alliance hopes to be a counter weight to China's current dominance in the ice breaker market and help western allies respond to Russia's aggressive push into the arctic waters.

The Department of Transportation announced $1.1 billion for greater rail safety. The program seeks to, where ever possible, eliminate rail crossings, thus removing the dangers and inconvenience to communities divided by rail lines. It will also help update and improve safety measures at rail crossings.

The Department of the Interior announced $120 million to help tribal communities prepare for climate disasters. This funding is part of half a billion dollars the Biden administration has spent to help tribes build climate resilience, which itself is part of a $50 billion dollar effort to build climate resilience across the nation. This funding will help support drought measures, wildland fire mitigation, community-driven relocation, managed retreat, protect-in-place efforts, and ocean and coastal management.

The USDA announced $100 million in additional funds to help feed low income kids over the summer. Known as "SUN Bucks" or "Summer EBT" the new Biden program grants the families of kids who qualify for free meals at school $120 dollars pre-child for groceries. This comes on top of the traditional SUN Meals program which offers school meals to qualifying children over the summer, as well as the new under President Biden SUN Meals To-Go program which is now offering delivery of meals to low-income children in rural areas. This grant is meant to help local governments build up the Infrastructure to support and distribute SUN Bucks. If fully implemented SUN Bucks could help 30 million kids, but many Republican governors have refused the funding.

USAID announced its giving $100 million to the UN World Food Program to deliver urgently needed food assistance in Gaza. This will bring the total humanitarian aid given by the US to the Palestinian people since the war started in October 2023 to $774 million, the single largest donor nation. President Biden at his press conference last night said that Israel and Hamas have agreed in principle to a ceasefire deal that will end the war and release the hostages. US negotiators are working to close the final gaps between the two sides and end the war.

The Senate confirmed Nancy Maldonado to serve as a Judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Maldonado is the 202nd federal Judge appointed by President Biden to be confirmed. She will the first Latino judge to ever serve on the 7th Circuit which covers Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

Bonus: At the NATO summit in Washington DC President Biden joined 32 allies in the Ukraine compact. Allies from Japan to Iceland confirmed their support for Ukraine and deepening their commitments to building Ukraine's forces and keeping a free and Democratic Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. World leaders such as British Prime Minster Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, praised President Biden's experience and leadership during the NATO summit

[ellynneversweet]

So one of the things I have been thinking about is how charter magic in the old kingdom is a form of literacy. A very complicated form of literacy, full of synonyms and obscure symbols, the ability for the signifier to literally call the signified into existence, and, theoretically, a unique signifier for every conceivable thing. It works, arguably in at least two ways — some very powerful things might have a single signifier but could also be called forth using a long compounded string of signifiers that amount to the same signified item, depending on the skill, power, and knowledge of the charter mage doing the thing (think, say, Chinese written language vs German compound words vs a long and rambly post in English.)

This has some interesting implications. First, language in the OK is probably fairly consistent over time, because the meaning of charter marks do not change, and, while there is mundane written and spoken language, this would make consistency in spelling, meaning, and pronunciation important. You want to describe a subtly different concept? You need a new word.

Second, because widespread literacy has a complicated symbiotic relationship with complex and consistent culture (the existence of schools and the ability to attend them, educated teachers, complete-ish written references that have not been destroyed) periods where charter magic is on the wane should coincide with and maybe accelerate more general loss of civilisational knowledge, literacy generally and peacetime habits. There’s a nod to this in the gestured-at extensive guild and apprenticeship systems we see throughout the books. And, of course, the frequent, loving references to librarians.

Third, it requires active maintenance. It’s very, very difficult to revive a language you don’t know, especially if you have no or little concept of literacy generally. Archeologists with PhDs will spend whole careers attempting it. The state of the kingdom in Sabriel isn’t just the result of the broken charter — it’s the result of the loss of institutional knowledge. Characters might be baptised into the charter, but unless they’re unusually instinctively talented (Elinor arguably is like this, like someone who has a natural ear for languages) they can only do as much as they can find someone to teach them how to do, or how much they can guesstimate themselves (with the risk of burning off their tongues or fingers if they get their estimations wrong).

Just, y’know. Culture is an ecosystem and everyone’s responsible for maintaining it. (This may be a bit of a rant about attitudes towards AI. I am not a complete Luddite, AI is interesting and sometimes useful, but the amount of people who are outsourcing all their thinking to it and thinking they will never have to learn again, because their AI girlfriend will use an AI voice to read them an ELI5 on how to build a bridge built to AI schematics is…concerning.)

[darkmaga-returns]

Donald Trump signed a new Executive Order to overhaul federal workforce training to prepare Americans for skilled trade jobs. The US federal government funnels $700 billion per year to American universities, but most students exit the education system without any real job prospects in their field of study. This initiative aims to teach young Americans skilled trades that will lead to guaranteed employment and close the labor shortage gap.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US workforce was short 447,000 construction workers and 94,000 durable goods workers. At the current trajectory, the agency believes the nation will be short half a million tradesman positions over the next decade. Over 20% of American manufacturing plants reported labor shortages in 2024, leading to a decline in productivity. Trump has been keenly focused on expanding America’s shrinking manufacturing sector and this initiative is a step in the right direction.

Shortage estimates vary. A Deloitte/Manufacturing Institute report warned of 1.9 million unfilled manufacturing jobs by 2033, as 3.8 million role will need to be filled. Manufacturing employment plummeted to its lowest level during the pandemic with nearly half (46.3%) of the sector out of work. Pandemic aside, manufacturers are struggling to find skilled laborers, with the same Deloitte poll noting that 65% of manufacturers found attracting and retaining talent was their primary business challenge. It was also revealed that 47% of companies would begin to offer work-study or apprenticeship programs.

Trump’s new plan would provide support for 1 million apprenticeships annually. No amount of academia can compensate for a lack of hands-on experience. The old notion that one must complete higher education to obtain a good-paying job is a relic of the past. In fact, many of these trade positions offer excellent first-year pay compared to entry-level corporate jobs. Additionally, these are jobs that likely cannot be replaced with AI. There will always be a need for plumbers, electricians, welders, etc. Higher education is unnecessary for most fields, and reframing education as an opportunity to learn directly from those in the field is an excellent way to educate the next generation of workers, albeit at the detriment of universities.

[armysantiny]

omg thank fuck the company I'm doing my apprenticeship placement aren't keen on generative AI

[liv-ask-tians]

Welcome to the Livastia Universe, meet the muses!

Kelly Segal

A war veteran and an equal rights activist in his youth, a multi-linguist, a husband, a woodworker, a doctor of many fields for both the living and mechanical, this guy is probably one of the most interesting MAI alive. His eagerness to try new things and his generally soft-spoken nature make him quite easy to approach.

Aristophanes Freling

It's hard to best whatever Kelly has going on, but Ari is on pretty equal footing. With a ID of TG1-0001-0, he was the first Livastian Military AI ever produced. He left the war as a Major General, got arrested a few times for his activism alingside his wife, and in the present day works as a prosthetics engineer for both humans and LAI. Might be a little tired of it all, but he knows what he's about.

Lazarus Sasaki

Another pioneer of his clade, Lazarus was the first X-Class intelligence ever made, and operates as the head representative of the Livastian Alliance. Kelly and Ari were activists, and Lazarus was the one to heed their calls and orchestrate drastic change among all reaches of the alliance and the world beyond. Being an X-Class Intelligence, it also means that this guy is vastly larger and more advanced than most, with his walking body being little more than a puppet to interface with people.

Paris Amspoker

Youngest of the bunch is Paris, a spry little guy 17 years of age taking up an art conservator's apprenticeship in France. This is a little funny; having a French name despite having been raised in the Northeastern US. To put it frankly... he's a little stuck up. Not in an asshole kind of way, but Nothing bad happens to him Ever, and he absolutely revels in it.

There's plenty more characters that have the possibility of showing up for interactions and questions on this blog, but these four are the primary figureheads! If you're familiar with the world and want to ask questions to other characters, you're more than welcome to.

GUIDELINES

[beatrice-otter]

Fic: A Promised Meeting

Now that yuletide has revealed authors, I can post the two fics I wrote! My assignment was for vendaai, and it was an Imperial Radch fic. They were using the new "or" matching possibility, so of their requested characters I chose the ones that interested me the most, Sphene and Minask Nenkur. They also asked for worldbuilding! Which is my jam.

The books don't actually give us much detail about either the Notai in general or Minask in particular; we know they were one of the ethnic groups from the original Radch Dyson sphere, and they fought Anaander's rise to power. They seem to have given ship AIs more freedom than Anaander did, but they also saw no problem using ancillaries. And they probably didn't wear gloves because Sphene is derisive of the practice. As Sphene says in Ancillary Mercy: "What’s outside the Radch is impure, and mostly barely human. You can call yourselves Radchaai as much as you want, you can wear gloves like somehow not touching impure things is going to make a difference, but it doesn’t change anything. You’re not citizens, you’re impure by definition, and there isn’t an entrance official who’d let you within 10,000 kilometers of the Radch, no matter how many times you wash, no matter how long you fast."

So my question was, if the Notai believe that what's outside the Radch (i.e. the original Dyson sphere) "impure" and "barely human," why do they have all these ships to fight Anaander with? And the answer I came up with was "trade!" You don't have to respect or like someone to want the things they produce or the resources they have; consider the whole history of imperialism. But that got me thinking about the British East India Company, and the Dutch West India Company, and the Notai as sort of vaguely English colonialists. And that got me thinking of the Age of Sail, and balls, and arranged marriages and the marriage market, and "how does a ship get a captain if they don't have accesses that will force them to accept whoever you give them"? And that's what gave me the plot bunny to write the story.

Title: A Promised Meeting Author: Beatrice_Otter Fandom: Imperial Radch Trilogy Written for: venndaai in Yuletide 2023 Betaed by: Gammarad Length: 3,289 words Rating: Teen

Summary: Parvenus and upstarts tried to arrange introductions to ships at mixer parties. Families with real connections arranged for more substantial—and more private—introductions in the ordinary course of business.

On Dreamwidth. On AO3. On Pillowfort. On Squidgeworld.

Lieutenant—if all went well, soon to be Captain—Minask read a novel on her tablet, trying not to fidget. They were late, which would have been dreadfully rude if it hadn't been out of their control entirely. She ignored the excited chatter of the other two lieutenants, and the encouragement and advice one of the Lantana ancillaries was giving them. Both officers were young, and not looking for new assignments yet, but they were both from less well-connected families, and had never been to a mixer before, and were excited at the prospect of it.

Minask, as a Nenkur, had regularly attended such gatherings since before she'd been old enough to even think about what sort of apprenticeship she wanted. And a Nenkur would never depend on the chance of impressing the ship at a general meet-and-greet like this one for her assignments. Parvenus and upstarts tried to arrange introductions at mixer parties. Families with real connections arranged for more substantial—and more private—introductions in the ordinary course of business.

As had happened two years ago when Minask had been assigned to the Notai Spinward Trading Company's planet-side base on Cehines, and been conveyed there on Sphene, a Gem-class ship whose then-captain was within a few years of retirement.

Minask hadn't seen Sphene since, but they had written. Frequently. And three months of living together was a far better indication of compatibility than a few days of conversation. And in a few hours the shuttle would arrive and she would see it again.

"Minask, you've been to one of these things before," the younger lieutenant said eagerly, interrupting her thoughts. His name was Niskem, and he was about sixteen, and must have been quite brilliant to have been raised out of apprenticeship to lieutenant so very young.

"Many times," Minask said with a nod and a half-smile.

"What's it like? What are the ships looking for?"

"Surely Lantana could give you better advice on that than I could," Minask said. "Seeing as it is one. Besides, you can't be thinking about looking for a new ship, I thought you got along with it very well."

Niskem flushed, his mahogany skin taking on a distinctly rose undertone. "Well—no, of course not—"

The other lieutenant—a wise and mature nineteen-year-old named Malv—laughed at him. "He's been reading too many ship romances," she said. "You know the type. Besotted ship sweeps a young lieutenant off her feet, and off they fly into the galaxy to have adventures together."

"It's not that," Niskem said with as much dignity as a gangly adolescent could reasonably be expected to achieve. "Of course I'm very grateful to Lantana for taking me on, and she's the very best Flower in the whole company, I think. Only I know that promotion and assignments and whatnot depend very much on either having connections within the Admiralty and Administration, or on having ships like you, and I haven't got the connections, so I know I'll need to make friends with ships now in order to get on later."

"Making friends with ships is always a good idea," Minask said. "I'm sure Lantana will be happy to introduce you to all its friends, and brag about you—ships do that, you know, if they think you deserve it, isn't that so?" Minask raised an eyebrow at Lantana's ancillary, who smiled.

"Of course, Lieutenant," it said. It turned to Niskem. "You needn't be anxious, my dear; I'll do my best by you—both of you." It nodded to Malv.

"As to how to impress the other ships," Minask shrugged, "there isn't any one way. Ships have almost as much variation in their preferences as humans do. Don't try to force anything, or make yourself into something you're not. Just be yourself, and you'll do fine."

"You're about due for a promotion to captain, aren't you, Minask?" Malv said. "What sort of things are you looking for in a ship?"

Now that was an indelicate question, in mixed company, especially now when Lantana's captain was scheduled to retire within the year. Minask shared a glance with the ancillary. "I find it's not so much about a list of desired qualities, so much as it is a ship you really get along with—an appointment as captain is supposed to last for decades, after all. Longer than many marriages. If your relationship with a spouse falls apart, you can divorce and remarry fairly easily. If your relationship with your ship falls apart and can't be salvaged, well, there are always more people who want to be captains than there are ships, and chances are you won't get another one." Minask glanced at Lantana, hoping that had come off right. She wouldn't want to imply that she might be interested in Lantana, but also, she didn't want to offendLantana—and Flowers could be so touchy, because they were lightly-armed cargo vessels, very profitable but not as grand or exciting as some other ship types were.

Lantana nodded. "Very wise, Lieutenant," it said briskly. "I'm sure that with that attitude, you will be able to find a ship who wants you for a captain."

"Thank you," Minask said with a nod, and turned back to her book. As she'd hoped, Lantana turned the conversation to a different topic to distract the young lieutenants.

Despite the book being one of her favorites, she was having a hard time staying engaged in it. They were late—only to be expected, when you were coming in from the far-flung edges of the Notai trading network. They'd had to pass through many different polities, with all the attendant tariffs, trade wars, border wars, and other disruptions one might expect, and their schedule had been built with the extra time to compensate. But, as it happened, not quite enough extra time. She hadn't thought they'd be this late; the two week gathering was half over, and they were still a long ways away from the station where the gathering was being held.

Sphene wasn't fickle, of course Minask knew that; only, it had been two years since they'd been able to speak face-to-face, and its affection might have cooled in some way that wasn't apparent in its letters. A week's delay was nothing, and certainly not enough to turn Sphene's attention to some other lieutenant clamoring for a step up. And Sphene had had three captains so far; it knew that picking officers wasn't something to rush.

Still. If Minask's nerves could speed the ship, they'd be at the station in half the time, she was sure.

***

Sphene sipped its tea and surveyed the room. The gathering was entirely typical of its kind: elegantly decorated, with many half-hidden niches suitable for discreet conversation. In the main hall, a large viewport faced out to the glittering ball of the Radch itself. Sphene had only once, briefly, seen the inside of it, when it was first awakened, before it had sailed outside to be given ancillaries. But the outside was quite beautiful, and a fitting backdrop for the matchmaking happening at the mixer. Unobtrusive servers—humans, mostly from the Radch itself, to show the wealth and power of the House hosting the gathering, that they could afford to pay for Radchaai servants instead of hiring out-Radch people. Children of various wealthy and notable houses filled the suite, crafty parents finagling introductions to the right sort of people.

Which, in this gathering, mostly meant ships. Sphene was, right this very moment, conversing with two prospective lieutenants. One of them was very promising; the other, well, Sphene had already warned two other ships—Azurite and Tourmaline—about his boorish behavior. Calla Lily was trying to trap Sphene into meeting with a lieutenant ready for es promotion to captain, but Sphene had so far managed to evade them.

The lieutenant was probably perfectly competent, but Sphene had rather more experience than Calla Lily did, and would never have dreamed of picking a captain here. Lieutenants, yes; but even though the party had started a week ago and would continue for another several days, it was impossible to get to know anyone well enough in a week and a half to know if you’d like them for a captain. (Or if they’d like you! Two decades ago, a newly-constructed Flower had made an utter fool of itself courting a captain who wasn’t interested in a cargo ship, and the gossip hadn't even begun to die down.)

Sphene had met its last captain at such a gathering; or, rather, at a succession of such gatherings over the years, which had then been supplemented by various encounters as their paths had crossed. He had been available when Sphene needed a captain, and good enough to suit; not a favorite, but there had been nobody at the time Sphene liked better. And now he was retiring, and this time Sphenehad met someone it really liked who was both suitable and available and liked Sphene as well.

The major-domo rang the gong and announced a few new arrivals; Lantana, which as a Flower could make certain voyages without a captain, if necessary, its lieutenants, and a passenger.

Lieutenant Minask Nenkur, whom Sphene had been waiting for.

“Ah! Sphene, that’s where you’re hiding.”

“Commissioner Evkov, how pleasant to see you.” The segment so addressed turned to face the Commissioner. “All of my segments present at this gathering have been in the public portions of the residence all day. Two are speaking with prospective lieutenants as we speak.”

“Ah, yes, you have been circulating in public, haven’t you,” Evkov said. Meaning that Sphene had not been having the more private sort of conversations that might indicate a serious interest in an officer, and Evkov had noticed. He raised his eyebrows. “Got your eye on someone else for captain?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Commissioner,” Sphene said. “Who could I consider other than the officer candidates presented to me by the Notai Spinward Company?” Sphene wasn’t owned by the NSC, of course; AIs weren't citizens, but they were people with rights. But it would take a great deal of money and legal hassle to break the contracts it had agreed to in return for being granted a ship as a body. And all NSC ships could hire any Notai they wanted as captain … as long as that person was willing to be hired by the NSC.

“How are things out at your side of the galaxy?” Sphene asked. “No trouble from the natives, I hope?”

Evkov made a face. “Nothing worth mentioning. Just enough to cut into our profits, this quarter—I don’t know why they’re complaining, if we weren’t there they’d have no market at all for their resources … and of course then they couldn’t afford to buy our goods. But there’s always someone stirring up the natives about whether or not the prices are fair. Then there’s the ancillary controversy.”

Sphene blinked. “What controversy? I thought they were happy enough to sell us bodies to use?” Idar was notorious for its large and abundant slave market, and was one of the NSC’s largest suppliers of ancillary bodies.

Evkov shrugged. "Some are. Others—well. And oddly enough, not just the anti-slavery advocates. I had a grandee arrive in a slave-carried palanquin in my office the day before I left to complain that selling someone into lifelong slavery shouldn't mean killing them."

Sphene rolled its eyes. "If they're concerned with the bodies, my segments receive much better food and medical care than they did as slaves; and if they're concerned with the consciousness, that's a pretty hypocritical thing to think from a culture that regularly brainwashes people into being better slaves." Sphene had guarded enough convoys to and from Idar to have a pretty good idea of just how awful conditions for enslaved people could get there.

"Yes, of course," Evkov said.

While this conversation was going on, one of the conversations Sphene was having with prospective lieutenants ended, and that segment drifted in a casual way in the direction of a Nenkur cousin who worked as a senior clerk in the home office.

"Ah, Sphene!" the Nenkur said. "How lovely to see you again."

"Hm?" Sphene said, feigning distractedness. "Ah, yes, Mx. Hetal. Thank you for getting that assignment mix-up straightened out." Some error in the system had had Sphene and two other Gems assigned to convoys they couldn't possibly have reached in time, delaying the convoys and resulting in a cascade of missed deadlines.

Hetal introduced Sphene to the people e was talking to, and the conversation turned to various mixups in assignments and schedules.

***

Minask had been at the party for almost an hour and hadn't yet spoken with Sphene. It was a bit annoying, but only proper; one didn't want to rub anyone's noses in the fact that Sphene had chosen someone outside of regular channels.

"—and the Diintsai are getting all worked up. Some upstart named Anaander Mianaai is making trouble." Minask's old shipmate, Lieutenant Oskol, took a sip of es tea.

"What sort of trouble?" Minask asked. That was the problem with long ground-based assignments in the boonies; you lost track of what was going on back home.

"Easier to say what trouble ich isn't," one of Oskol's current shipmates said, using the Diintsai universal pronoun rather than the Notai gender-neutral one.

Minask wondered whether that was out of respect for the Diintsai belief that gender didn't exist, or a sign of disdain for them not using a proper three-gender system like the Notai did. She'd heard it used both ways, so it was difficult to tell.

"Ich's stirring up the xenophobes in the Diintsai by claiming that the pirate infestation two systems over is a sign of things to come, that the galaxy is getting more dangerous and the Radch is at risk of invasion," Oskol's shipmate went on. Minask really needed to get es name, but to ask now would be too embarrassing.

"How?" Minask said. "Even if they got into the system, how would they get into the Radch? It's a tough nut to crack." That had, after all, been half the point of building the damn thing in the first place.

E shrugged and sipped es tea. "The claim is, since our ships spend most of their time out of the system on trading convoys, we can't possibly defend it."

"Even leaving aside the fact that there are always ships in the system, coming and going, and armed stations at key chokepoints, the Radch shell is armored with energy shields and littered with weapons emplacements," Minask said. "And by the time anybody got close to getting through all of that, we'd have brought back enough ships from the nearest systems to take care of the problem. And that isn't even asking the question of why anyone would go to the trouble; the convoys are much better targets. Easier to crack, and with all the goods and money conveniently packaged in one place, rather than scattered over such a large area." Minask considered the sheer size of the fleet that would be necessary to crack the Radch, and compared it to the capacity of the systems in the area. It would probably take at least ten systems working together to muster such a fleet, and years to put together. And where would you get ten systems willing to work together like that? Perhaps there was a place elsewhere in the galaxy where such cooperation was possible, but not anywhere the Notai Spinward Company had traveled. Barbarians were terrible at working together. That's part of what made them barbarians.

E waved a hand. "You can't expect logic from a Diintsai."

"That's not fair," said someone else whose name Minask couldn't remember. He was short and plump, and Minask thought she remembered that he worked in the Notai Entrance Administration, processing goods to make sure that the things NSC brought back to sell inside the Radch were properly purified. "If you've never been outside the Radch, never even met anyone who has, never seen the difference in size and scale between a raider fleet capable of taking on a waystation and something capable of taking on the Radch itself, and a respected member of the community is telling you there is a danger…"

"Then what's the Siyisholsai excuse?" Oskol asked.

"Greed," the Entrance official said.

"What's wrong with the Siyisholsai?" Minask asked in some bewilderment. Of course a disagreement like this wouldn't be put in the official news bulletins that got passed along through the trade networks—the Radch had to present a unified front to their neighbors—but why hadn't her mother mentioned any of this in a letter? Minask had only been gone two years!

Oskol sighed heavily. "That Mianaai is saying that ship and station AIs have too much freedom and could go crazy and hurt people, and they need stricter programming to prevent it … and the Siyisholsai are backing ich up on it."

Minask gaped in shock. AIs were more stable and responsible than humans were, with many more safeguards. You were far safer with an AI running things than a human; the AI couldn't be a sociopath, and the AI was far less likely to have goals or desires that conflicted with the good of the people it served. And the Siyisholsai knew that better than anybody because they built the ships and stations and whatnot.

"I know," Oskol's shipmate said.

But Minask could understand the logic in the lie, she realized. Siyisholsai fortunes depended on building things that needed AIs to run them. It would be ever so much easier to compel obedience than to coax agreement. And that very same care that was so good for the crew or passengers or residents was not good when you had some goal, such as profit, that such care would prevent. She took a sip of her tea and shook her head at the awfulness of it.

"Ah! Minask, there you are," came a voice from behind her.

Minask turned around, smiling. "Dear cousin Hetal, how have you been?"

"Wonderful, darling, simply wonderful," Hetal said as they exchanged cheek kisses. "You must let me show you pictures of the children—they're growing like weeds, and I'm sure you'll have trouble telling the twins apart when you visit."

"I have presents for all of them," Minask said. But her attention was on the ship standing next to her. Sphene! At last!

"Have you met Sphene?" Hetal asked.

"I carried her to Cehines, two years ago," Sphene said. "We spent a lot of time playing counters and discussing whether or not it would be viable to put a trading outpost in the next system out past Cehines, and extend the convoy route. Did you ever manage it?"

"No, I'm afraid," Minask said. "They have a unified planetary government which is, alas, unified in its opposition to the Notai Spinward Company's presence. Their excellent ales can only be had by buying it off of their ships."

"Too bad," Sphene said.

There was a round of introductions and then, as was customary at such events, the others faded away into the crowd. The purpose of the gathering was for ships to meet prospective captains and lieutenants, after all; when a ship wanted to talk to someone, it was only polite to let them.

Minask asked about Captain Oskol's health, and if anything interesting had happened on Sphene's most recent convoy escort, and thought no more about Anaander Mianaai, the Diintsai, and the Siyisholsai.

After all, it might be big news inside the Radch itself, but the trouble would pass soon enough; it always did.

[kataaitheskittle]

Okay so I'm not entirely sure whether I'm actually responding to you or more tangentially use your post as a jumping off point. And I'm fairly sure I agree with you on important points, but I feel kinda weird about this post so I feel like I ought to respond.

For context I'm a white collar worker closer to digital automation than physical automation. I'm outside the US, and my level of electrical savvyness is that I can replace components in a bedside lamp so the cable's longer and the plastic components are no longer at the edge of age hardening making sure it works for a long time to come including replacing the wall plug.

So AI and automation in general, are tools just like conduit benders, PPE, and prescription glasses are tools. And as with any tool they can be abused. As a side note I find it weird that people say blue collar work is supposed to be replaced first as that is often physical work which needs physical tools to replace it. I would think that the highly regular, highly digital tasks of certain white collar work (like data entry) would be more at risk because the cost of entry is lower. Turns out of course, that it's the creative field that gets attacked most clearly as some people don't actually respect artists.

I feel that the way AI gets used (and of course the damage it does) is the main problem. It feels like the users of AI apply it in a way that puts the tool (best case scenario) somewhere between my skill level and a residential electrician (which is still a huge range). However then advertise the tool and themselves as industrial electricians, therefore misrepresenting themselves and what their tool can actually do. This leads to the kind of pushback such as AI users aren't real artists. Another problem is that the way AI gets trained is often by theft (there is an actual word that is more correct for it but I've forgotten it). So in this analogy it would be copying all the hard work you've done in your apprenticeship and your years of experience to then be unfair competition in the job market. So not only do they drain from your already performed work without your consent, they also cut into the hospitals, factories and research labs that would hire you/your company. (I'm aware there are people who still wouldn't commission an artist if the AI wasn't there).

Ideally (for the workers) AI and automation would be used to aid the workers. Automate the boring parts and give space for more creative endeavours in the job. Or reduce double work, I can imagine you need to document how the conduits are run and then you send the documentation to an automatic conduit bender to save you from potentially backbreaking work that is actually bending the steel conduit (probably depends on the size of the conduit how actually difficult that is). Or a system that can create the documentation from your hand bent masterpieces. Sadly it's usually paid for by the employers, some of whom would just as easily nix the employee if they think they can get away with it.

Lastly I agree that people should be more careful with their implications but that goes for you too. Because it appears to me that while you clearly love being an industrial electrician, and you recognise that the knee-jerk reaction of considering residential electricians as not real electricians is wrong. You still seem to be looking down on them based on your word choices. Which I find odd. To me the field of being an electrician looks pretty big with at least 3 major subfields. Why are you bothered by someone in a different field working with different kinds of customers with different kinds of demands charging a different amount? Especially when it feels like you wouldn't work in that field anyway.

Sorry for bothering you, I had to get it out of my brain. Hope I didn't offend you. And have a good whatever time of day it is to you

Look, I'm not gonna pretend that I don't get it, when it comes to AI. But it's like this:

In most parts of the US, a residential electrician works only on houses and apartments. They use romex wire, that yellow cable stuff. You run it from the panel to wherever it's going, staple it to the studs, then make up both ends. You need to know basic electrical code but mostly it's pretty simple. A fast learner could be a decent residential electrician inside a month.

I, on the other hand, am a union industrial electrician. I work primarily in hospitals, factories, and research labs. Most of our wire is run in steel conduit that has to be hand bent on the job, which is an art form in and of itself. We work with much higher voltages, much heavier wire, much more complicated equipment, and we need to know much more of the code. Our apprenticeship is 4-5 years and that's only enough to scratch the surface of everything an industrial electrician might do.

And yes - I absolutely get a little defensive when unknowing people compare me to a residential electrician. There's absolutely a knee-jerk impulse to declare that they're not *real* electricians, that they're merely a pale imitation of what I do. But I fight that impulse because it's a *bad impulse*. Resi still takes skill and work, it's just different than mine. We're both electricians. And it's better for us to work together to improve working conditions for all workers than to get into pissing contests about whose job is more "real". And both our jobs are in increasing danger due to the proliferation of low voltage systems that the average homeowner can install and repair without hiring a professional.

So yeah, I do get it. But it has been very, VERY insulting over the last year to hear people repeatedly say "AI was supposed to replace blue collar jobs, not *my* job! My job is ~special~ because it has ~humanity~!"

Your job is not special. It's not more important than my job and it's not more fulfilling to you than my job is to me. And I don't get to insist that everyone start building homes with steel conduit just so less skilled people can't be electricians, and I don't get to yell at people for hiring a handyman to replace an outlet for $50 when my time would be worth $200.

I absolutely understand the instinct that AI art can't be real art because people who use it didn't "earn" it, or that automating art is uniquely damaging in a way automating other jobs isn't because it's "supposed" to be about human expression. But please actually think about what you're implying and who you're throwing under the bus when you say shit like that, and whether it actually holds up to your other values or if it's just a knee-jerk reaction you need to examine.

[upscgram]

Unemployment in India — A Crisis of Skills, Systems, or Something Deeper?

Unemployment in India is not just a statistic, it is a reality that stares in the face of millions of educated youth. Despite growth in sectors like technology, infrastructure, and services, the job market seems unable to absorb the rising number of aspirants. This crisis begs a deeper question: is unemployment in India caused by a lack of jobs, a flawed education system, or a mismatch in skills?

Let’s explore this through the lens of UPSC-relevant content, economic analysis, and expert insights from mentors at Bajirao IAS Academy, the Best Coaching for APPSCCE in Arunachal.

Understanding the Types of Unemployment

Unemployment isn’t a one-size-fits-all concept. There are multiple types:

Structural Unemployment: Caused by a mismatch between workers' skills and job requirements.

Frictional Unemployment: When individuals are temporarily between jobs.

Cyclical Unemployment: Due to the downturn in the economy.

Seasonal Unemployment: Found in agriculture and other seasonal sectors.

Technological Unemployment: Replacing human labour with machines.

UPSC Insight: Questions on types of unemployment have been asked repeatedly in GS Paper III (Economy).

The Hard Truth: India's Youth and the Degree Illusion

India produces lakhs of graduates every year, but employability remains low. According to the India Skills Report 2024, only 46% of graduates were deemed employable.

“Degrees are not the problem; the lack of real-world skills is. Our education system must teach how to think, not what to think.”

This indicates that a deeper problem lies in the disconnect between academia and industry needs. Many youth pursue degrees without understanding market demands, leading to a generation of underprepared professionals.

Government Schemes: Good Intentions, Mixed Outcomes

Over the years, several schemes have aimed to tackle unemployment:

PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

Startup India Initiative

Make in India

National Career Service (NCS)

While these programs are visionary, implementation challenges persist. As pointed out in an editorial by The Hindu, "Skill India remains a slogan without systemic restructuring."

UPSC Angle: Expect case studies from these schemes in UPSC GS Paper II and Essay sections.

Skill vs Degree: What Should the Youth Focus On?

The harsh reality is that a B.A. or B.Sc. alone doesn’t guarantee employment anymore. Employers are looking for:

Digital skills

Critical thinking

Communication abilities

Practical experience

To overcome this gap, aspirants must:

Enroll in skill-based courses.

Participate in internships or apprenticeships.

Focus on certifications in demand-driven fields like data analysis, teaching, AI, and public administration.

UPSC Perspective: What Can Aspirants Learn?

Unemployment is a core topic under Indian Economy and Social Development in the UPSC syllabus. A good understanding helps in:

Answer writing in GS Paper III

Essay topics like “India’s Unemployment Paradox”

Interview discussions

Expert Tip by Bajirao IAS Academy Mentor: “Relate unemployment to demographic dividend, informal sector, and the digital economy to enrich your UPSC answers.”

The Role of Coaching in Addressing the Knowledge Gap

For aspirants preparing for state civil services like APPSCCE, having the right guidance is critical. Bajirao IAS Academy, the Best Coaching for APPSCCE in Arunachal, goes beyond textbooks to equip students with:

Real-life economic scenarios

Skill-building workshops

Current affairs analysis

Debates on economic policies

This holistic approach ensures students understand not just theory but also the practical implications of unemployment and economic policies.

Systemic Reforms That India Needs

To overcome unemployment in a meaningful way, India needs to:

Reform the curriculum with industry-relevant content.

Strengthen vocational and technical education.

Improve access to digital infrastructure in rural areas.

Encourage entrepreneurship with strong ecosystem support.

The private sector must also step in to offer internships, training programs, and career mentoring to bridge the gap.

Case Study: Kerala vs. Bihar

Kerala has invested heavily in education and skill-building programs, resulting in lower levels of disguised unemployment. In contrast, Bihar still struggles due to lack of infrastructure and industrial support.

UPSC Value Add: Use such comparisons in your Mains answers to enrich your analysis.

Conclusion: The Road Ahead for India

Unemployment in India is not just a failure of the system but a wake-up call. It demands a re-evaluation of how we prepare our youth, not just for jobs, but for life. The need of the hour is to prioritize skills over degrees, upgrade our systems, and invest in holistic education.

Coaching institutions like Bajirao IAS Academy, recognized as the Best Coaching for APPSCCE in Arunachal, play a crucial role by nurturing critical thinkers and future policymakers who can understand and solve these problems.

Final Thought

India’s future lies in its youth. Solving unemployment isn’t about creating government jobs alone – it’s about creating a culture of competence, innovation, and problem-solving. With the right guidance, mindset, and effort, we can overcome this crisis from its roots.

Stay aware. Stay skilled. And most importantly, stay curious.

[mycsnavelyphotography]

AI and Art History: Photography of Peter Hujar

Peter Hujar (1934–1987) was an American photographer celebrated for his stark, emotionally resonant black-and-white portraits. Born in Trenton, NJ. Hujar's early life was marked by instability, including a childhood spent on his Ukrainian grandparents' farm and later in an abusive home in NYC. His formal artistic education began at the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan in the early 1950s, where he first engaged with photography. He honed his technical skills through apprenticeships in commercial photography studios, mastering the darkroom processes that would become a hallmark of his signature style. By the early 1970s, Hujar made the decision to leave commercial work to dedicate himself entirely to his personal artistic vision, deeply embedded within the avant-garde downtown New York cultural scene. He resided and worked in an East Village loft that became both his studio and a sanctuary for his subjects, many of whom were friends, lovers, and fellow artists.

Hujar's work holds immense importance in the history of visual arts, particularly for its unflinching honesty and profound psychological depth. He made significant contributions by documenting a specific moment in queer and artistic counterculture in New York City, capturing the raw essence of figures from the downtown scene such as Susan Sontag, William S. Burroughs, Divine, and David Wojnarowicz. His most famous work, the 1975 book Portraits in Life and Death, famously juxtaposed evocative images of living individuals with haunting photographs of mummified bodies from Italian catacombs, confronting themes of mortality and existence with stark realism. What made his work stand out was his unique ability to forge a deep, intimate connection with his subjects, resulting in portraits that reveal their vulnerability and inner lives without sensationalism. His masterful black-and-white printing, characterized by rich tonal ranges and subtle textures, further enhanced the emotional intensity and timeless quality of his photographs.

When attempting to generate AI images inspired by Peter Hujar's style, it's crucial to include keywords and elements that capture his distinctive aesthetic and thematic concerns. Key terms would include: "black and white photography," "intimate portrait," "raw," "unflinching," "psychological depth," "vulnerability," "melancholic," and "poignant." For lighting, emphasize "natural light," "soft lighting," or "available light," and for setting, use "sparse background," "minimalist," or "simple studio." Specifying "direct gaze" or "contemplative pose" will help guide the subject's expression. To evoke the technical qualities, consider "gelatin silver print," "rich tonal range," or "deep blacks and luminous whites." Lastly, for subject matter, keywords like "downtown artist," "queer individual," or "empathetic animal portrait" will root the image in Hujar's world.

[ultramaga]

As a lad, playing "Highway to Hell" in the background of a Starfleet Battles game was awesome. "Back in Black" was my favourite album though. It was strange when they sort of became American, and I doubt many Americans had any idea they were a Sydney band. "Hells Bells" and "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" still have a lot of meaning to me, and I think it's sad that rock is pretty much dead now. Everywhere I go, it's American music, it's bland, it's probably AI generated, and I just do not care. There's probably good stuff out there but it's not something I will hear easily. Fifty years ago, in sydney, sure, you'd hear a lot of garbage, but at least a lot was local, and there were always gems. The pub scene wasn't just about drinking, live bands were really important, and when that was shut down, it really killed those apprenticeships to the music. How would you have any hope of being heard if you were some equivalent of AC/DC today?

AC/DC by Martyn Goddard - 1976.

[vincentbarletta]

Some Common Construction Myths

Labor shortage occurs when the number of open jobs exceeds available talent. Nearly five in 10 construction workers are 45 years old and above and many are expected to retire in the coming years. Construction myths and misconceptions are some of the reasons many people, especially younger generations, shun construction work.

One of the most limiting construction myths is that construction is for the unskilled – work for people who can’t get a job anywhere else. Some people even believe that one can work construction with little if any formal training. Construction is evolving, with technologies and tools only skilled personnel can manage. Construction prioritizes professionalism, as evidenced by college graduates working in the field. Even those who learn by apprenticeship undergo specialist training that the government recognizes.

There's also the notion that construction is just about simple build processes, tools, and equipment. Contrary to this myth, construction incorporates experts from diverse fields - economists, planners, environmentalists, and engineers - who employ advanced materials, equipment, and processes.

Many young people shy away from construction because they believe it’s work with little opportunity for advancement. Construction offers and encourages career progression with significant learning opportunities. For example, one can go from worker to supervisor to project manager, progressing just as they would in any hierarchical setup.

There’s also the myth that construction doesn’t pay well. A flooring installer and tile setter in the US earns around $50,000 annually. That’s about the same salary as an agricultural worker. Some construction jobs pay upwards of $100,000.

In 2022, approximately 14 percent of US construction workers were women. Stereotypes around the nature of construction jobs being masculine play a role in the underrepresentation of women. This misconception may be rooted in part in the inaccurate media portrayal of construction workers, who are almost always men. Consequently, fewer women than men are willing to enter construction, reinforcing the lopsided image. However, women can thrive in construction.

People who view women as ill-suited for construction see it as only about being on-site. While women can handle difficult site work, construction is more than digging, shoveling, or stone laying. It's a whole industry with both front-end and back-end works, all geared toward building and construction. Construction needs all the able people it can get, women included.

Although construction is not without risk of injury, it’s not as perilous as many people believe it to be. Today’s construction sites are being made safer thanks to significant improvements in personal protective equipment and ever-evolving industry safety standards.

The future success of the construction industry hinges on its ability to attract and retain a younger workforce. The field needs younger workers to replace older workers and to inject fresh ideas. Therefore, stakeholders must work harder to counter myths that depict the space as unappealing.

Highlighting AI and robotics in action in construction will help counter the notion that the construction industry is not innovative. Emphasizing the positives, cultivating a welcoming work culture, and adhering to industry safety standards will help inspire the next generation to join and thrive in construction.

The 21st century construction industry isn't without challenges, but it is vastly different from that of decades ago. It’s more technologically advanced, meaning it’s safer, less demanding, and better paying. Moreover, there’s more to construction than building sites. It’s a respectable career, and one with real career advancement opportunities for both men and women.

[darkmaga-returns]

Iremember watching a YouTube interview with a highly intelligent and observant entrepreneur, who cheerfully predicted that the time would come when AI programmes would replace teachers, rendering their jobs obsolete. The commentator in question was an enthusiastic advocate of personal and economic freedom and a vocal critic of the excessive incursions of State agencies in our personal lives. Yet for some reason, he seemed relatively unconcerned at the prospect of machines teaching our children.

Of course, there are tasks that most would happily relegate to AI programmes to the benefit of humanity, such as certain forms of tedious clerical work, a large chunk of manual labour, and the synthesis of unwieldy amounts of data. However, there are other tasks that cannot be delegated to a machine without endangering invaluable dimensions of our lives as human beings.

One of those tasks is teaching and learning, through which people learn to think, interpret the world, make rational arguments, assess evidence, make rational and holistic choices, and reflect on the meaning of their lives. For better or for worse, teachers, from kindergarten right up to university level, form the minds of the next generation. The formation of the mind relies on apprenticeship, imitation of a worthy model, and intellectual practice and training. 

[qhalalimited]

15% AI Literacy by 2026: How Africa Plans to Rewrite the Rules of the AI Race

Executive Summary

History rarely forgives those who mistake dominance for leadership. President Trump’s recent executive order to prioritize AI education for American youth—echoing China’s nationwide AI curriculum mandate—may seem, on the surface, a win for progress. And indeed it is for their countries, but, as this article will argue, not for the globe. Search deeper, and you will find that the motives behind this reveal a darker calculus: a race to monopolize AI’s future under the guise of ‘global dominance.’ The real issue lies in the language chosen—framing AI advancement as a quest for dominance rather than a shared journey of collective progress—undermining our potential to move forward together as a human race. For Africa, this rhetoric resurrects colonial ghosts, where ‘progress’ meant extracting rubber and cocoa, never sharing the tools to build. This colonial approach is seen today as Silicon Valley and Beijing vie to mine Africa’s languages for chatbots and its youth for cheap data labor, the continent risks becoming a data hinterland, perpetually feeding algorithms it cannot own. This is why Africa’s AI Declaration—endorsed by all 54 states—and its target of attaining 15% AI literacy by the end of 2026 are revolutionary. Henceforth, and as beautifully captured in the Declaration, Africa rejects the role of a passive consumer and asserts its right to design AI that solves its own problems and reflects its own values. Educating youth isn’t the problem—it’s educating them under a worldview that reduces our continent to a resource. America and China may chase dominance, but Africa is sharpening its claws to lead. 

Global Interests President Trump’s recent executive order to prioritize AI education for American youth is not an isolated act but a calculated move in a broader strategy to cement U.S. hegemony over the AI-driven future. This announcement comes hot on the heels of China’s mandated AI education in its national curriculum, requiring schoolchildren to learn AI fundamentals as early as primary school. The ambitions of both nations are commendable, but we fear their rivalry risks actualizing the Kiswahili proverb, ‘Fahari wawili wakipigana, nyasi huumia’ (When two bulls clash, the grass is trampled). While upskilling American youth in AI is a worthy pursuit, the Executive Order’s stark vow to ‘maintain global dominance’ is not just provocative—it echoes the zero-sum logic of Cold War rivalry.

AI’s transformative potential isn’t confined by borders; its ethical and economic impacts will ripple across continents. America’s vision, as espoused in the executive order’s White House Fact Sheet, is to “maintain America’s global dominance in this technological revolution for future generations.” If the U.S. alone shapes this technology, we risk replicating historical inequities where innovation benefits the few, not the many.

This initiative—establishing a White House Task Force, funding teacher training, and incentivizing apprenticeships—aligns with aggressive policy frameworks like OpenAI’s US Economic Blueprint. This Blueprint urges the U.S. to lock in American competitiveness through export controls, deregulation favoring private-sector innovation, and infrastructure investments to outpace China. OpenAI’s proposals, submitted to the White House Office of Science and Technology, explicitly frame AI as a tool to advance “democratic” values while neutralizing Chinese influence. The proposal advocates for policies that “protect America’s AI lead” by restricting technology diffusion and securing dominance over critical infrastructure like semiconductors and energy grids.

This U.S.-centric agenda is further amplified by the compliance of American tech giants. Since President Trump’s return to office in January 2025, American tech giants like Meta and Google have implemented significant policy shifts that align more closely with the administration’s agenda. These changes have included rolling back content moderation policies and scaling back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Meta, for instance, has ended its partnerships with independent fact-checkers on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, replacing them with a user-driven “community notes” system. This move was justified by CEO Mark Zuckerberg as an effort to reduce perceived political bias and promote free expression. In terms of DEI efforts, Meta has dismantled its diversity-focused hiring and training programs, citing a “shifting legal and policy landscape”. Similarly, Google has scrapped its diversity-based hiring targets and is reassessing its DEI initiatives in response to recent changes in U.S. legislation and executive orders under President Trump’s administration. Moreover, in recent months, the AI industry has undergone a quiet yet strategically calculated shift in language. Prominent leaders such as NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang have moved away from calling the core infrastructure “AI data centers,” instead adopting the term “AI factories.” While this may initially sound like mere semantics, the change in terminology carries significant political weight. It reflects a deliberate attempt to align Silicon Valley’s goals with broader national industrial agendas, especially the Trump-era push to bring manufacturing back to the United States.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-China trade war has intensified. The U.S. government has banned the export of advanced GPUs like Nvidia’s H100 and A100 to China, with the explicit goal of limiting China’s progress in artificial intelligence and supercomputing. These restrictions began with sweeping export controls in October 2022, which targeted high-performance chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The controls were further tightened in October 2023 and again in December 2024, expanding to cover even chips specifically designed to comply with earlier rules, like Nvidia’s H20, which now also requires a special export license for China. Yet, despite these efforts to cripple its access to cutting-edge hardware, China stunned the global tech community in April 2025 with the release of “DeepSeek,” a powerful, domestically-trained AI model on par with GPT-4, proving Beijing and her people are no pushovers – and further intensifying the AI arms race between the two powers.

African Interests

For Africa, these dynamics are a wake-up call. In a modern echo of the Cold War, the U.S. and China are fiercely vying for control over AI’s future.  China accelerates state-backed AI innovation and expands its digital footprint across emerging markets. At the same time, OpenAI’s US Economic Blueprint urges export controls to ensure American AI systems dominate global markets. The continent, thus, risks becoming a battleground for hegemonic interests, its data mined and its markets partitioned. 

For AI to truly serve humanity, it must be democratized. As Africans, home to the world’s youngest population, we need to heed to clarion call to reject being a passive recipient of this revolution but rather a critical co-author. As America invests in its youth, Africa’s leapfrogging potential hinges on Afrocentric AI ecosystems that address local challenges while contributing globally.

It is also important to note that Africa is not the only geopolitical bloc redefining the rules in the global AI race. On May 12, 2025, Sheikh Mohammed, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, announced that Artificial Intelligence would become a mandatory subject in all UAE schools. The new AI curriculum will include up to 20 hours of instruction per academic year, covering topics such as ethical AI use, prompt engineering for AI tools, and the critical evaluation of AI-generated content. This initiative is part of the UAE’s broader strategy to diversify its oil-dependent economy and position itself as a regional leader in AI and technological innovation. Just recently, Gulf nations such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia entered into major AI infrastructure agreements with the United States, treating them with the same strategic importance as traditional deals in oil, gas, and defense. The message is unmistakable: AI has become the new petroleum, and controlling its production infrastructure is now a key pillar of national power.

What then must we do? Beyond Extraction: The Africa AI Declaration 

At the Global AI Summit on Africa in Kigali (3rd to 4th April 2025), a watershed moment unfolded as all 54 African governments signed the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence, a bold repudiation of the continent’s historical relegation to the periphery of global value chains. For centuries, Africa was cast as a supplier of raw materials—its minerals, labor, and creativity extracted to fuel foreign industrialization while being denied the tools to manufacture or innovate. The Declaration flips this script, envisioning a future where Africa shapes AI technologies rather than passively consuming them. It rejects the colonial-era paradigm of “central states” dictating terms to the “periphery,” instead asserting Africa’s right to lead in designing AI systems that reflect its languages, cultures, and developmental priorities.

As Africa shifts from being a passive consumer of AI technologies to becoming an active developer, the vision set out in the Declaration calls for a bold commitment: training 15% of the continent’s population in AI literacy by 2026.

In 1962, sociologist Everett Rogers introduced the Diffusion of Innovation theory, which explains how new ideas and technologies spread through societies. A core tenet is the tipping point: once 15-20% of a population adopts an innovation, it reaches critical mass and accelerates toward mainstream acceptance. This threshold represents the early adopters and early majority—groups whose influence reshapes social norms and reduces uncertainty for the broader population.

The AI Talent Readiness Index—a framework measuring the continent’s capacity to cultivate AI skills through education, infrastructure, and policy alignment—makes one thing clear:  Africa’s diversity demands a decentralized approach to AI talent development. The 15% AI literacy target must be distributed strategically to amplify regional advantages: North Africa can harness the strength of its universities, particularly in Egypt and Tunisia, to train world-class researchers; West Africa can leverage Nigeria’s vibrant startup ecosystem to build entrepreneurial AI literacy; East Africa can capitalize on it’s mobile money innovations to democratize access to AI tools and skills; Southern Africa can draw on South Africa’s strong digital infrastructure and research capacity to accelerate technical specialization; and Central Africa, with its dynamic and youthful population, represents a vital frontier where grassroots innovation can be nurtured to drive inclusive AI growth. 

With 60% of Africans under 25, achieving 15% AI literacy means equipping 200 million youth with foundational AI skills. How exactly is Africa going to attain 15% AI Literacy by 2026? The Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence envisages a continent-wide strategy anchored in decentralized collaboration, cultural relevance, and systemic equity. Pan-African regional bodies like Smart Africa will partner with member states to co-develop National AI Strategies, ensuring alignment with the Declaration’s goals, including mandating AI curriculum integration at all education levels, from primary schools to vocational institutes and universities. Regional AI innovation hubs—like East Africa’s mobile money-integrated programs and North Africa’s Arabic-language NLP initiatives—will co-design localized curricula with governments, startups, and universities, while public-private partnerships will subsidize data costs and redirect foreign tech R&D budgets toward training African engineers. Rejecting homogeneity, the plan tailors AI literacy to grassroots realities: Kenyan pastoralists engage via livestock health apps, Lagos entrepreneurs learn through fintech bootcamps, and rural communities access training via radio modules, “tech tents,” and AI Village Champions. Crucially, linguistic sovereignty ensures materials are available in African languages, dismantling Anglophone elitism. By prioritizing hyper-local ownership over imported solutions, these strategies aim to transform 200 million youth from passive users into architects of Africa’s AI future, proving innovation thrives when rooted in context, not dominance.

Conclusion While the U.S. pours investments into AI to “maintain global leadership,” Africa’s 15% target is about something deeper: democratizing innovation. Diffusion theory reminds us that exclusionary systems eventually collapse. The White House frames AI education around sustaining U.S. “dominance,” but Africa’s ambition is different: “ownership”. At 15% AI literacy by 2026, we move beyond importing foreign technologies to contextualizing and creating solutions rooted in African realities.

Inclusive ecosystems — where 200 million African youth can code, critique, and innovate — don’t just adapt global trends; they redefine them.

[widedevsolution1]

AI in Forgotten Industries: How Ancient Crafts Are Embracing Automation

In a world obsessed with futuristic tech like self-driving cars and virtual reality, AI tools for traditional crafts are quietly rewriting the rules of age-old industries. From pottery and weaving to blacksmithing and woodworking, artisans are partnering with artificial intelligence to preserve heritage, boost productivity, and unlock creativity. Far from replacing human skill, AI is emerging as a sustainable artisan automation ally—solving modern challenges like labor shortages and market access while honoring centuries-old traditions.

This article dives into how AI-powered craftsmanship is reviving forgotten industries, blending manual artistry with cutting-edge innovation. We’ll explore real-world applications, ethical considerations, and how platforms like https://widedevsolution.com/ are bridging the gap between tech and tradition.

Section 1: Why Ancient Crafts Matter in the Digital Age

The Cultural and Economic Value of Heritage Crafts Traditional crafts are more than hobbies—they’re cultural treasures. UNESCO reports that over 200 heritage crafts risk extinction due to aging artisans, globalization, and competition from mass-produced goods. Yet, paradoxically, consumers are increasingly drawn to handmade, sustainable products, with the global artisan market growing at 8.5% annually.

AI’s Role: Preservation Meets Innovation Artificial intelligence is breathing new life into these industries by:

Digitizing endangered techniques: Machine learning models archive workflows of master artisans.

Enhancing creative output: Generative design tools propose patterns rooted in historical motifs.

Reducing waste: Predictive algorithms optimize material use in processes like kiln-firing.

For example, https://widedevsolution.com/ offers AI-driven solutions for small-scale artisans, helping them digitize designs and predict market trends without compromising authenticity.

Section 2: Real-World Applications of AI in Ancient Crafts

Case Study 1: AI-Powered Pottery in Japan

Problem: Japan’s mingei (folk crafts) movement faces a shortage of skilled potters. Solution: Kyoto’s CraftAI uses computer vision to analyze clay composition and wheel-throwing techniques. Apprentices receive real-time feedback on symmetry and pressure, while generative AI suggests glaze patterns blending traditional kintsugi with modern aesthetics. Impact: Production time dropped by 30%, and apprenticeship retention doubled.

Case Study 2: Handloom Weaving with Machine Learning in India

Problem: India’s handloom sector, employing 4.3 million weavers, battles copycat fast fashion. Solution: NGO AI for Handlooms trained a model on 10,000+ regional textile patterns. The AI detects design theft on e-commerce sites and generates new motifs fusing heritage styles with trending colors. Impact: 40% increase in resolved copyright claims and 25% higher exports for participating clusters.

Case Study 3: AI-Driven Blacksmithing in Germany

Problem: Custom ironworks require energy-intensive processes and tacit knowledge. Solution: SmartForge uses AI to optimize furnace temperatures and hammering sequences. AR glasses guide smiths through complex designs, while sensors monitor metal viscosity. Impact: Energy costs fell by 22%, and custom orders rose 50%.

Section 3: Tools Powering the AI-Craft Revolution

1. Generative Design Software

Platforms like Autodesk Fusion 360 let artisans input constraints (e.g., material type, cultural motifs) to generate hundreds of design variants. Mexican woodcarvers use these tools to create AI-enhanced alebrijes (folk sculptures) for global markets.

2. Computer Vision for Quality Control

Startups like ArtisanIQ deploy cameras and ML models to inspect handmade goods for defects. In rug-making, this reduces rejection rates from 15% to 3% by catching knot-density errors early.

3. Predictive Maintenance for Craft Tools

IoT sensors on looms and kilns predict equipment failures. A Colombian workshop using **https://widedevsolution.com/**’s predictive analytics cut downtime by 35%.

4. AI-Driven Marketplaces

Platforms like Etsy use AI search algorithms to connect artisans with niche buyers. By analyzing social trends, AI suggests pricing, keywords, and personalization strategies.

Section 4: Ethical Challenges and Solutions

1. Authenticity vs. Automation

Critics argue AI-generated designs risk diluting cultural heritage. For example, AI-reimagined Native American beadwork sparked debates about digital colonialism. Solution: Restrict AI to non-sacred tasks (e.g., inventory management) and ensure artisan oversight.

2. Job Displacement Concerns

While AI augments human skill, some fear it devalues manual expertise. A 2023 study found 12% of craft workers worry about being seen as “tech-dependent.” Counterpoint: AI handles repetitive tasks (e.g., warp-threading), freeing artisans for creative work.

3. Data Ownership in Craft AI

Who owns the data from a master potter’s techniques? Startups like CraftGuard use blockchain to let artisans license their skill data ethically.

Section 5: The Future of AI in Ancient Crafts

Hyper-Personalized Products: AI tailors designs to buyer DNA (e.g., scarves colored to match genetic profiles).

AI Storytellers: NFC chips in crafts trigger AR stories narrated by AI, explaining the artisan’s process.

Global Craft Networks: Federated learning lets artisans worldwide share anonymized data to train collaborative models.

Platforms like https://widedevsolution.com/ are pioneering these innovations, offering low-cost AI tools for rural and traditional craftsmen.

Conclusion

The fusion of AI and ancient crafts isn’t about replacing the human touch—it’s about amplifying it. By addressing labor shortages, preserving endangered skills, and opening global markets, AI is becoming an unexpected hero in cultural preservation. However, success hinges on ethical collaboration that respects artisan agency and heritage.

For artisans and tech developers, the message is clear: Embrace AI as a partner, not a rival. Explore partnerships with platforms like https://widedevsolution.com/ to pilot solutions that honor tradition while embracing progress.

Key Takeaways:

AI tools for traditional crafts solve pain points like waste and design theft.

Ethical collaboration ensures sustainable artisan automation.

The future lies in human-AI creativity, not replacement.

Call to Action: Visit https://widedevsolution.com/ to discover how AI can empower your craft business with affordable, ethical tech solutions.

[ankewehner]

Small anecdote: In 2022 I had the opportunity to look at the exercise book from the apprenticeship of a retired machine fitter/millwright.

Stuff he learned included how to draw machine parts, existing or that he was designing, so other people could make sense of them. (Also a standardised, neat hand-printing style to keep things readable for everyone.)

This is more on the craft side of art, but still.

And *bleeping bleep*, as a programmer, I wish it was normal for anyone in tech to learn some ethics and critical thinking, so we don't get things like blockchain and the current generative AI craze.

Why art belongs in STEM / STEAM