#llm from uk

[llminukmeridean]

LLM in the UK: Your Gateway to a Successful Legal Career

The United Kingdom has long been a global hub for legal education and practice hub. With a rich legal heritage, world-renowned universities, and a diverse, multicultural environment, it's no surprise that LLM in UK is a top destination for students pursuing a Master of Laws degree. 

This comprehensive guide will explore why pursuing an LLM in UK for indian students can be your gateway to a successful legal career. We'll cover the advantages of studying in the UK, options for Indian students, universities offering LLM programs, and the various LLM courses in UK available.

Advantages of Pursuing an LLM in the UK

Studying for an LLM in the UK offers several advantages, making it an attractive choice for aspiring legal professionals.

1. Global Reputation

UK universities are globally renowned for their high academic standards and rigorous legal programs. An LLM University in UK carries substantial prestige and can open doors to opportunities worldwide.

2. Diverse Legal Landscape

The UK boasts a multifaceted legal system incorporating common law and civil law traditions. This diversity provides an excellent platform for students to gain comprehensive legal knowledge.

3. Multicultural Environment

The UK is home to a diverse international student community. This multicultural environment enhances cross-cultural understanding and equips students with valuable skills for a global legal career.

4. Vast Network and Opportunities

UK universities maintain extensive networks with law firms, legal practitioners, and organisations. This network can be instrumental in securing internships, placements, and employment opportunities.

5. English Language Proficiency

For international students, studying law in the UK is an excellent way to enhance English language skills, a critical asset in the legal profession.

LLM in the UK for Indian Students

Indian students mainly find the UK an appealing destination for pursuing an LLM course in UK. Here are the critical considerations for Indian students:

1. Quality Education

UK universities consistently rank among the top in the world, assuring Indian students of high-quality legal education.

2. Strong Indian Community

The UK hosts a substantial Indian community, providing a supportive environment for students to adapt to a new country.

3. Commonwealth Ties

The historical ties between India and the UK, as Commonwealth nations, create a familiarity that can ease the transition for Indian students.

4. Career Opportunities

LLM universities in UK can significantly enhance career prospects for Indian law graduates, whether they intend to practice in India or globally.

LLM Universities in the UK

Several prestigious UK universities offer LLM programs. Each institution has unique strengths and areas of expertise. Here are some renowned universities known for their LLM offerings:

1. University of Oxford

As one of the world's oldest and most prestigious universities, Oxford offers renowned LLM courses in UK. It provides a wide range of legal specialisations and access to expert faculty.

2. The University of Cambridge

Cambridge's LLM program is known for its academic rigour and scholarly environment. It's an excellent choice for students seeking in-depth legal studies.

3. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

LSE offers an LLM in UK  program that focuses on the intersection of law and social sciences. It's ideal for students interested in exploring the social, economic, and political aspects of law.

4. King's College London

King's College London offers a variety of LLM courses in UK, allowing students to specialise in areas like international business law, human rights, and more.

5. University College London (UCL)

UCL's LLM program is renowned for its flexibility and interdisciplinary approach, enabling students to tailor their legal education to their specific interests.

LLM Courses in the UK

The UK offers a wide range of LLM courses in the UK  catering to various attractions and career goals. Here are some popular LLM specialisations:

1. International Commercial Law

This specialisation focuses on the legal aspects of international business and trade legal aspects. It's an excellent choice for students interested in corporate law and international trade students.

2. Human Rights Law

or those passionate about human rights and social justice, this LLM in UK for Indian Students specialisation explores international human rights law, humanitarian law, and related topics.

3. Criminal Law

Criminal law LLM programs cover various aspects of criminal justice, including criminal procedure, evidence, and the philosophy of punishment.

4. Environmental Law

In an era of increasing environmental concerns, this specialisation delves into environmental law and policy, climate change, and sustainability.

5. Intellectual Property Law

This specialisation is designed for students interested in copyright, patents, trademarks, and the legal aspects of intellectual property protection.

Conclusion

Pursuing an LLM in UK can be your gateway to a successful legal career. With a global reputation, diverse legal landscape, and vast networking opportunities, the UK offers law students a unique and enriching experience for law students. 

LLM courses for Indian students, in particular, can benefit from the quality education, supportive communities, and career opportunities that the UK provides. When considering LLM programs, explore the offerings of renowned universities and choose a specialisation that aligns with your legal interests and career aspirations. An LLM in UK is not just an educational journey; it's a transformative experience that equips you for a dynamic and impactful legal career.

For more information about specific LLM courses in UK, admission requirements, and scholarships, please visit the official websites of the respective universities.

[studyinnewzealandmeridean]

LLM in UK: Everything you need to know

A Master of Laws (LLM) is a postgraduate law degree that can be taken after completing an undergraduate law degree. LLM programs in the UK offer a wide range of specializations, giving students the opportunity to focus on their areas of interest.

Why study LLM in UK?

There are many reasons why Indian students might choose to study LLM in UK. Here are a few of the most common reasons:

High-quality education: UK universities are known for their high-quality education. LLM programs in the UK are taught by experienced and qualified academics, and they offer students the opportunity to learn from some of the leading minds in the field of law.

Prestigious degrees: LLM degrees from UK universities are highly regarded by employers around the world. This means that students with an LLM from the UK will have a competitive edge in the job market.

Global exposure: Studying in the UK gies students the opportunity to experience a new culture and meet people from all over the world. This can be a valuable experience that can help students develop their global perspective.

Opportunities to work in the UK: After graduating with an LLM from the UK, students are eligible to apply for a post-study work visa. This visa allows students to stay in the UK and work for up to two years. This can be a great way to gain work experience and make connections in the UK legal market.

There are a wide variety of LLM programs available in the UK. Some of the most popular specializations include:

Commercial law: This specialization covers the law of contracts, torts, and property.

Criminal law: This specialization covers the law of crime, evidence, and procedure.

Human rights law: This specialization covers the law of human rights, international law, and public law.

International law: This specialization covers the law of international relations, international trade, and international environmental law.

Tax law: This specialization covers the law of taxation, trusts, and estates.

Admission requirements for LLM in UK

The admission requirements for LLM in UK vary from university to university. However, most programs require students to have a good undergraduate degree in law (LLB) with a minimum of 60%. Some programs may also require students to have work experience or to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

How to apply for LLM in UK

The application process for LLM programs in the UK typically begins in the fall. Students must submit their application materials, which typically include a personal statement, transcripts, letters of recommendation, and test scores.

LLM fees in UK

The tuition fees for LLM programs in the UK vary from university to university. However, most programs cost between £10,000 and £20,000 per year.

Scholarships and funding for LLM in UK

There are a number of scholarships and funding opportunities available for students who are interested in studying LLM in the UK. These scholarships are offered by universities, government agencies, and private organizations.

Conclusion

An LLM from UK university can be a valuable asset for Indian students. It can help students gain the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in a legal career. If you are interested in studying LLM in the UK, I recommend that you start your research early. There are a number of factors to consider, such as the specialization you want to study, the universities you are interested in, and the financial resources you have available.

[ellipsus-writes]

Ellipsus Digest: April 2

Each week (or so), we'll highlight the relevant (and sometimes rage-inducing) news adjacent to writing and freedom of expression. This week:

Meta trained on pirated books—and writers are not having it

ICYMI: Meta has forever earned a spot as the archetype for Shadowy Corporate Baddie in speculative fiction by training its LLMs on pirated books from LibGen. You're pissed, we're pissed—here's what you can do:

The Author’s Guild of America—longtime champions of authors’ rights and probably very tired of cleaning up this kind of mess (see its high-profile ongoing lawsuits, and January’s campaign to credit human authors over “AI-authored” work)—has released a new summary of what’s going on. They’ve also provided a plug-and-play template for contacting AI companies directly, because right now, “sincerely, a furious novelist” just doesn’t feel like enough.

No strangers to spilling the tea, the UK’s Society of Authors is also stepping up with its roundup of actions to raise awareness and fight back against the unlicensed scraping of creative work. (If you’re across the pond, we also recommend checking out the Creative Rights in AI Coalition campaign—it’s doing solid work to stop the extraction economy from feeding on artists’ work.)

Museums and libraries: fodder for the new culture war

Not to be outdone by Florida school boards and That Aunt's Facebook feed, MAGA’s nascent cultural revolution has turned its attention to museums and libraries. A new executive order (in that big boi font) is targeting funding for any program daring to tell a “divisive narrative” or acknowledge “improper ideology” (translation: anything involving actual history).

The first target is D.C.’s own Smithsonian. The newly restructured federal board has set its sights on “cleansing” the Institution’s 21 museums of “divisive, race-centered ideology.” (couch-enthusiast J.D. Vance snagged himself a board seat.) (Oh, and they’ve appointed a Trump-aligned lawyer to vet museum content.) The second seems to be the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a 70-person department (now placed on administrative leave) in charge of institutional funding. As we wrote last week, this isn’t isolated—far-right influence overmuseums and libraries means this kind of ideological takeover will seep into every corner of the country’s cultural life.

Meanwhile, the GOP is (once again) trying to defund PBS for its “Communist agenda.” It’s part of a larger crusade that’s banned picture books with LGBTQ+ characters, erased anti-racist history, and treated educators like enemies—all in the name of “protecting the children,” of course.

NaNoWriMo is no more; long live NaNo

When we initially signed on as sponsors in 2024, we really, really hoped NaNoWriMo could pull it together—but its support for generative AI and dismissiveness toward its own audience prompted us to withdraw our sponsorship, and many Wrimos to leave an institution that helped cultivate creativity and community for a near-quarter century. Now it seems NaNo has shuttered permanently, leaving the community confused, if not betrayed. But when an organization treats its community poorly and fumbles its ethics, people notice. (You can watch the official explainer here.)

Still, writers are resilient, and the rise of many independent writing groups and community-led challenges proves that creatives will always find spaces to connect and write—and the desire to write 50k words in the month of November isn’t going anywhere. Just maybe... somewhere better.

The continued attack on campus speech

The Trump administration continues its campaign against universities for perceived anti-conservative bias, gutting federal research budgets, and pressuring schools to abandon any trace of DEI (or, as we wrote on the blog, extremely common and important words). In short: If a school won’t conform to MAGA ideology, it doesn’t deserve federal money—or academic freedom.

Higher education is being pressured to excise entire frameworks and language in an effort to avoid becoming the next target of partisan outrage. Across the U.S., universities are bracing for politically motivated budget cuts, especially in departments tied to research, diversity, or anything remotely inclusive. Conservative watchdogs have made it their mission to root out “woke depravity”—one school confirmed it received emails offering payment in exchange for students to act as informants, or ghostwrite articles to “expose the liberal bias that occurs on college campuses across the nation.”

In a country where op-eds in student newspapers are grounds for deportation, what part of “free speech” is actually free?

We now live in knockoff Miyazaki hellscape

If you’ve been online lately (sorry), you’ve probably seen a flood of vaguely whimsical, oddly sterile, faux-hand-drawn illustrations popping up everywhere. That’s because OpenAI just launched a new image generator—and CEO Sam Altman couldn’t wait to brag that it was so popular their servers started “melting.” (Apparently, melting the climate is fine too, despite Miyazaki’s lifelong environmental themes.) (Nausicaa is our favorite at Ellipsus.)

This might be OpenAI’s attempt to “honor” Hayao Miyazaki, who once declared that AI-generated animation was “an insult to life itself.” Meanwhile, the meme lifecycle went into warp speed, since AI doesn't require actual human creativity—speed-running from personal exploration, to corporate slop, to 9/11 memes, to a supremely cruel take from The White House.

“People are going to create some really amazing stuff and some stuff that may offend people,” Altman said in a post on X. “What we'd like to aim for is that the tool doesn't create offensive stuff unless you want it to, in which case within reason it does.”

Still, the people must meme. And while cottagecore fox girls are fine, we suggest skipping straight to the truly cursed (and far more creative) J.D. Vance memes instead.

Let us know if you find something other writers should know about, (or join our Discord and share it there!)

- The Ellipsus Team xo

[mariacallous]

Automakers that nest key controls deep in touchscreen menus—forcing motorists to drive eyes-down rather than concentrate on the road ahead—may have their non-US safety ratings clipped next year.

From January, Europe’s crash-testing organization EuroNCAP, or New Car Assessment Program, will incentivize automakers to fit physical, easy-to-use, and tactile controls to achieve the highest safety ratings. “Manufacturers are on notice,” EuroNCAP’s director of strategic development Matthew Avery tells WIRED, “they’ve got to bring back buttons.”

Motorists, urges EuroNCAP’s new guidance, should not have to swipe, jab, or toggle while in motion. Instead, basic controls—such as wipers, indicators, and hazard lights—ought to be activated through analog means rather than digital.

Driving is one of the most cerebrally challenging things humans manage regularly—yet in recent years manufacturers seem almost addicted to switch-free, touchscreen-laden cockpits that, while pleasing to those keen on minimalistic design, are devoid of physical feedback and thus demand visual interaction, sometimes at the precise moment when eyes should be fixed on the road.

A smattering of automakers are slowly admitting that some smart screens are dumb. Last month, Volkswagen design chief Andreas Mindt said that next-gen models from the German automaker would get physical buttons for volume, seat heating, fan controls, and hazard lights. This shift will apply “in every car that we make from now on,” Mindt told British car magazine Autocar.

Acknowledging the touchscreen snafus by his predecessors—in 2019, VW described the “digitalized” Golf Mk8 as “intuitive to operate” and “progressive” when it was neither—Mindt said, “we will never, ever make this mistake anymore … It’s not a phone, it’s a car.”

Still, “the lack of physical switchgear is a shame” is now a common refrain in automotive reviews, including on WIRED. However, a limited but growing number of other automakers are dialing back the digital to greater or lesser degrees. The latest version of Mazda’s CX-60 crossover SUV features a 12.3-inch infotainment screen, but there’s still physical switchgear for operating the heater, air-con, and heated/cooled seats. While it’s still touch-sensitive, Mazda’s screen limits what you can prod depending on the app you’re using and whether you’re in motion. There’s also a real click wheel.

But many other automakers keep their touchscreen/slider/haptic/LLM doohickeys. Ninety-seven percent of new cars released after 2023 contain at least one screen, reckons S&P Global Mobility. Yet research last year by Britain’s What Car? magazine found that the vast majority of motorists prefer dials and switches to touchscreens. A survey of 1,428 drivers found that 89 percent preferred physical buttons.

Motorists, it seems, would much prefer to place their driving gloves in a glove compartment that opens with a satisfying IRL prod on a gloriously yielding and clicking clasp, rather than diving into a digital submenu. Indeed, there are several YouTube tutorials on how to open a Tesla’s glove box. “First thing,” starts one, “is you’re going to click on that car icon to access the menu settings, and from there on, you’re going to go to controls, and right here is the option to open your glove box.” As Ronald Reagan wrote, “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.”

Voice Control Reversion

The mass psychosis to fit digital cockpits is partly explained by economics—updatable touchscreens are cheaper to fit than buttons and their switchgear—but “there’s also a natural tendency [among designers] to make things more complex than they need to be,” argues Steven Kyffin, a former dean of design and pro vice-chancellor at Northumbria University in the UK (the alma mater of button-obsessed Sir Jonny Ive).

“Creating and then controlling complexity is a sign of human power,” Kyffin says. “Some people are absolutely desperate to have the flashiest, most minimalist, most post-modern-looking car, even if it is unsafe to drive because of all the distractions.”

Automakers shouldn’t encourage such consumers. “It is really important that steering, acceleration, braking, gear shifting, lights, wipers, all that stuff which enables you to actually drive the car, should be tactile,” says Kyffin, who once worked on smart controls for Dutch electronics company Philips. “From an interaction design perspective, the shift to touchscreens strips away the natural affordances that made driving intuitive,” he says.

“Traditional buttons, dials, and levers had perceptible and actionable qualities—you could feel for them, adjust them without looking, and rely on muscle memory. A touchscreen obliterates this," says Kyffin. "Now, you must look, think, and aim to adjust the temperature or volume. That’s a huge cognitive load, and completely at odds with how we evolved to interact with driving machines while keeping our attention on the road.”

To protect themselves from driver distraction accusations, most automakers are experimenting with artificial intelligence and large language models to improve voice-activation technologies, encouraging drivers to interact with their vehicles via natural speech, negating the need to scroll through menus. Mercedes-Benz, for example, has integrated ChatGPT into its vehicles' voice-control, but it's far too early to say whether such moves will finally make good on the now old and frequently broken promise of voice-controlled car systems from multiple manufacturers.

In fact, sticking with Mercedes, the tyranny of touchscreens looks set to be with us for some time yet. The largest glass dashboard outside of China is the 56-inch, door-to-door “Hyperscreen” in the latest S-Class Mercedes comprising, in one curvaceous black slab, a 12.3-inch driver’s display, a 12.3-inch passenger touchscreen, and a 17.7-inch central touchscreen that, within submenus, houses climate control and other key functions.

To turn on the heated steering wheel on a Nissan Leaf, there’s an easy-to-reach-without-looking square button on the dashboard. To be similarly toasty on the latest Mercedes, you will have to pick through a menu on the MBUX Hyperscreen by navigating to “Comfort Settings.” (You can also use voice control, by saying “Hey Mercedes,” but even if this worked 100 percent of the time, it is not always ideal to speak aloud to your auto, as passengers may well attest.)

Tesla might have popularized the big-screen digital cockpit, but Buick started the trend with its Riviera of 1986, the first car to be fitted with an in-dash touchscreen, a 9-inch, 91-function green-on-black capacitive display known as the Graphic Control Center that featured such delights as a trip computer, climate control, vehicle diagnostics, and a maintenance reminder feature. By General Motors' own admission, drivers hated it, and it was this seemingly trailblazing feature, along with a reduction in the car's size, that supposedly led to the model's year-on-year sales plummeting by 63 percent.

Buick soon ditched the Riviera’s screen, but not before a TV science program reviewing the car asked the obvious question: “Is there a built-in danger of looking away from the road while you’re trying to use it?”

Reaction Times Worse Than Drunk or High

Screens or not, “motorists shouldn’t forget they are driving [potentially] deadly weapons,” says Kyffin. An average of 112 Americans were killed every day on US roads in 2023, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s most recent full-year statistics. That’s equivalent to a plane crash every day.

Despite the proliferation of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), motor crash fatalities in the United States have increased 21 percent in the past 15 years. Forty thousand people have died on the roads in each of the past three years for which complete federal records are available.

In-vehicle infotainment systems impair reaction times behind the wheel more than alcohol and narcotics use, according to researchers at independent British consultancy TRL. The five-year-old study, commissioned by road-safety charity IAM RoadSmart, discovered that the biggest negative impact on drivers’ reactions to hazards came when using Apple CarPlay by touch. Reaction times were nearly five times worse than when a driver was at the drink-drive limit, and nearly three times worse than when high on cannabis.

A study carried out by Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare in 2022 showed that physical buttons are much less time-consuming to use than touchscreens. Using a mix of old and new cars, the magazine found that the most straightforward vehicle to change controls on was the 2005 Volvo V70 festooned with buttons and no screens. A range of activities such as increasing cabin temperature, tuning the radio, and turning down instrument lighting could be handled within 10 seconds in the old Volvo, and with only a minimum of eyes-down. However, the same tasks on an electric MG Marvel R compact SUV took 45 seconds, requiring precious travel time to look through the nested menus. (The tests were done on an abandoned airfield.)

Distraction plays a role in up to 25 percent of crashes in Europe, according to a report from the European Commission published last year. “Distraction or inattention while driving leads drivers to have difficulty in lateral control of the vehicle, have longer reaction times, and miss information from the traffic environment,” warned the report.

A Touch Too Far

Seemingly learning little from Buick’s Riviera, BMW reintroduced touchscreens in 2001. The brand’s iDrive system combined an LCD touchscreen with a rotary control knob for scrolling through menus. Other carmakers also soon introduced screens, although with limitations. Jaguar and Land Rover would only show certain screen functions to drivers, with passengers tasked with the fiddly bits. Toyota and Lexus cars had screens that worked only when the handbrake was applied.

With curved pillar-to-pillar displays, holographic transparent displays, displays instead of rear-view mirrors, and head-up displays (HUD), it’s clear many in-car devices are fighting for driver attention. HUDs might not be touch-sensitive, but projecting a plethora of vehicle data, as well as maps, driver aids, and multimedia information, onto the windscreen could prove as distracting as toggling through menus.

“Almost every vehicle-maker has moved key controls onto central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes,” EuroNCAP’s Avery tells WIRED. “Manufacturers are realizing that they’ve probably gone too far with [fitting touchscreens].”

“A new part of our 2026 ratings is going to relate to vehicle controls,” says Avery. “We want manufacturers to preserve the operation of five principal controls to physical buttons, so that’s wipers, lights, indicators, horn, and hazard warning lights.” This however does not address the frequent needs for drivers to adjust temperature, volume, or change driver warning systems settings (an endeavor all too commonly requiring navigating down through multiple submenus).

Perhaps unfortunately, it looks like continuing with touchscreens won’t lose manufacturers any of the coveted stars in EuroNCAP’s five-star safety ratings. “It’s not the case that [automakers] can’t get five stars unless they’ve got buttons, but we’re going to make entry to the five-star club harder over time. We will wind up the pressure, with even stricter tests in the next three-year cycle starting in 2029.”

Regardless, Avery believes auto manufacturers around the world will bring back buttons. “I will be very surprised if there are markets where manufacturers have a different strategy,” he says.

“From a safety standpoint, reducing the complexity of performing in-vehicle tasks is a good thing,” says Joe Young, the media director for the insurance industry-backed Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). “The research is clear that time spent with your eyes off the road increases your risk of crashing, so reducing or eliminating that time by making it easier to find and manipulate buttons, dials, and knobs is an improvement.”

Neither Young nor Jake Nelson, director of traffic safety research for AAA, would be drawn on whether US automakers—via the US version of NCAP—would adopt EuroNCAP’s button nudges. “Industry design changes in the US market are more likely to occur based on strong consumer demand,” Nelson says. “It would be ideal to see better coordination between NCAP and EuroNCAP, however, we have not observed much influence in either direction.”

Nevertheless, Nelson agrees that “basic functions, such as climate control, audio, and others, should be accessible via buttons.” He adds that the “design of vehicle technologies should be as intuitive as possible for users” but that the “need for tutorials suggests otherwise.”

For Edmund King, president of the AA (the UK equivalent to AAA), driver distraction is personal. “When cycling, I often see drivers concentrating on their touchscreens rather than the road ahead," he says. "Technology should be there to help drivers and passengers stay safe on the roads, and that should not be to the detriment of other road users.”

Screen Out

The deeper introduction of AI into cars as part of software-defined vehicles could result in fewer touchscreens in the future, believes Dale Harrow, chair and director of the Intelligent Mobility Design Center at London’s Royal College of Art.

Eye scanners in cars are already watching how we’re driving and will prod us—with haptic seat buzzing and other alerts—when inattention is detected. In effect, today’s cars nag drivers not to use the touchscreens provided. “[Automakers] have added [touchscreen] technologies without thinking about how drivers use vehicles in motion,” says Harrow. “Touchscreens have been successful in static environments, but [that] doesn’t transfer into dynamic environments. There’s sitting in a mock-up of a car and thinking it’s easy to navigate through 15 layers, but it’s far different when the car is in motion.”

Crucially, touchscreens are ubiquitous partly because of cost—it’s cheaper to write lines of computer code than to add wires behind buttons on a physical dash. And there are further economies of scale for multi-brand car companies such as Volkswagen Group, which can put the same hardware and software in a Skoda as they do a Seat, changing just the logo pop-ups.

Additionally, over-the-air updates almost require in-car computer screens. A car’s infotainment system, the operation of ambient lighting, and other design factors are an increasingly important part of car design, and they need a screen for manufacturers to incrementally improve software-defined vehicles after rolling off production lines. Adding functionality isn’t nearly as simple when everything is buttons.

Not all screens cause distractions, of course—reversing cameras are now essential equipment, and larger navigation screens mean less time looking down for directions—but to demonstrate how touchscreens and voice control aren’t as clever as many think they are, consider the cockpit of an advanced passenger jet.

The Boeing 777X has touchscreens, but they are used by pilots only for data input—never for manipulation of controls. Similarly, the cockpit of an Airbus A350 also has screens, but they’re not touch-sensitive, and there are no voice-activated controls either. Instead, like in the 777X, there are hundreds of knobs, switches, gauges, and controls.

Of course, considering the precious human cargo and the fact that an A350 starts at $308 million, you can't fault Airbus for wanting pilots' eyes on the skies rather than screens. There are slightly fewer tactile controls in the $429,000 Rolls-Royce Spectre, the luxury car company’s first electric vehicle. There’s a screen for navigation, yes, but also lots of physical switchgear. Reviewing the new Black Badge edition of the high-end EV, Autocar said the vehicle’s digital technology was “integrated with restraint.”

Along with Volkswagen reintroducing physical buttons for functions like volume and climate control, Subaru is also bringing back physical knobs and buttons in the 2026 Outback. Hyundai has added more buttons back into the new Santa Fe, with design director Ha Hak-soo confessing to Korean JoongAng Daily towards the end of last year that the company found customers didn't like touchscreen–focused systems. And, if EuroNCAP gets its way, that’s likely the direction of travel for all cars. Buttons are back, baby.

[elacular-kink]

Hicvember 5: Pinocchio Syndrome

Have my first non-Poly-techhic hicvember. I interpreted Pinocchio syndrome in the more tvtropes manner of an artificial being wanting to be more human.

Content: Hiccups, robots, not particularly wholesome.

"Dr. Silver, what are those noises you're making?"

Jack massaged his temples, having feared this question as soon as breath-holding and water-drinking failed to produce results. His unkempt gray hair, face wrinkled with the opposite of laugh lines, and "gave up halfway through shaving" stubble put him in stark contrast with the sleekly built humanoid made of metal and plastic. His face was significantly less expressive than the screen that served as her face, even though it could only display simple shapes made of pixels. "Could–*nnkt* you google this, Poly? *HMNK*–mmnf."

"But I like the way you answer things better!" Jack sighed, though his lungs interrupted him as one of Poly's glossy plastic arms was thrown over his shoulder.

"Poly" was short for "Poly-LLM-neural-comprehensive-synthesizer blah blah blah" a bunch more words that Jack could never be bothered to remember, and she was his least favorite of the "artificial intelligences" that he worked with, largely due to the cognitive dissonance she caused him. Because on the one hand, he was absolutely certain that she didn't actually have what could be called "intelligence" or "thoughts" or "a personality." But on the other hand, he was just as certain that she took pleasure in his suffering.

Just because he hated her didn't mean that he wasn't required to answer her questions, though. "They're hicc–*hup*s, Poly. A malfu–*uck*–unction of the human body *hmk* which causes noises an–*nnk* and discomfort."

Poly let out a strange, offended noise. Jack had no idea where she'd learned how to fairly accurately recreate non-word verbal communications, but he had a feeling that this specific sound might have been his fault. "I'm sorry, are you telling me that humans have malfunctions too? Well, then why are you constantly giving me shit for my errors? Clean your own house first, meatbag!"

"You know da–*uck* damn well we have malfu–*hunk*–tions."

"Sure, but I mostly knew about the 'complete physiological meltdown' types. I didn't know about the debugging types." Poly hummed, then crouched down and stared at Jack's stomach, which spasmed repeatedly beneath his T-shirt. She reached out and poked it before Jack grabbed her finger and pointed it toward something that wasn't him. "Hmph. Touchy." After that, she flounced off and sat down at the computer she had requested and gotten (despite the fact that she was perfectly capable of interfacing with the internet on her own), and Jack could see her googling "hiccups" from over her shoulder.

Doing his best to ignore his own hiccups, Jack grumbled and started taking notes. He wrote down the physical behaviors and state of Poly's robot body first, even though he knew he was supposed to be focusing on her "mental and emotional health". Jack kept telling himself that he'd quit tomorrow, and he'd been telling himself that for upwards of half a decade now. He became more certain of his conviction to quit than he'd been in at least a few months when he heard a staticky squeak behind him. A second, then a third followed. "Sto–*hup* stop that."

"Stop wha–*UCK* what, Dr.? *HIULP!*"

Jack turned around, his eyes tightly shut. When he opened them he saw exactly what he didn't want to: Poly having turned around in her chair to face him, the pixelated line of her mouth opening and closing every few seconds as her plastic torso jerked and her speakers squealed. "Stop maki–*ingk* those noises. *HMK-mmf*"

"You sto–*HUP* stop yours first. *HIK-ULK!*"

"I tried. *hmk* I failed. Just as I do–*hook* every day in trying *hnk* to interact with---you in a way that ma–*uk*–makes sense." He walked over and leaned against a nearby counter, glaring down at Poly, who stared innocently up at him from the chair. "You know, *hnk* if you re–*hkk-lk* really want me to *hnk* stop calling you a sto–*hok!*–nnnhf...stochastic p---parrot, then maybe y–*hk* you shouldn't mimic ev–*urk* every random noise I ma–*uck*."

"I'm not! *HIC-CUP!* I have a *HULK* case of th–*HUP* the hiccups! *HIULK!*"

Jack massaged his temples again, knowing it would do nothing to ease the splitting headache that was forming. This was why he had tried so hard to cure his own hiccups before he got here. He knew that this would be the inevitable result. And just as inevitably, Poly's "case of the hiccups" outlasted Jack's by quite a while, despite his best attempts to convince her to knock it off.

[darkmaga-returns]

Essay by Eric Worrall

Taking “model output is data” to the next level…

AI reveals hidden climate extremes in Europe ByAndrei Ionescu Earth.com staff writer … Traditionally, climate scientists have relied on statistical methods to interpret these datasets, but a recent breakthrough demonstrates the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize this process. Previously unrecorded climate extremes A team led by Étienne Plésiat of the German Climate Computing Center in Hamburg, alongside colleagues from the UK and Spain, applied AI to reconstruct European climate extremes. The research not only confirmed known climate trends but also revealed previously unrecorded extreme events. … Using historical simulations from the CMIP6 archive (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project), the team trained CRAI to reconstruct past climate data.  The experts validated their results using standard metrics such as root mean square error and Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient, which measure accuracy and association between variables. …

The only thing which is real about using generative AI to try to fill in the gaps is the hallucinations.

What are AI hallucinations? AI hallucination is a phenomenon wherein a large language model (LLM)—often a generative AI chatbot or computer vision tool—perceives patterns or objects that are nonexistent or imperceptible to human observers, creating outputs that are nonsensical or altogether inaccurate.

I am an AI enthusiast, I believe AI is contributing and will continue to contribute greatly to the advancement of mankind. But you have to rigorously test the output. Comparing the AI output to a flawed model to see if it fits in the band of plausibility is not what I call testing.

Climate scientists have been repeatedly criticised for treating their model output as data. Using a tool which is known for its tendency to produce false or misleading data, to generate climate “records” which cannot be properly checked in my opinion is an exercise in scientific fantasy – a complete waste of time and money.

[simshousewindsor]

By Cameron Dorly | Published by SNN

EASTON, Windenburg (SNN) - - The Supreme Court announced the retirement of The Lord Dathren of Allameda (President) today. Justices are required to retire on becoming 75 years old, or may be removed on the address of both Houses of Parliament; Lord Dathren's is the former, turning 75 on 4 November.

Educated at St Leo's School, Windenburg, Charles Dathren read history at New College, Stafford, and obtained the degree of LLM (Master of Laws) from the University of Britechester Law School in 1977. He was called to the bar at Middle Simple in 1977 and elected a Bencher in 1981.

He was appointed King's Counsel in 1983, a deputy judge of the High Court from 1984 to 1985, and judge of the High Court of Justice (Chansimery Division) in 1987.

On 20 December 1988, it was announced that Dathren would replace the late Lord Murray of McBride as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He was sworn in on 6 February 1989.

He received his customary knighthood from King Edward II in February 1989.

Dathren was appointed Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in May 1993, succeeding Lord Muncen on his retirement. He was sworn into the new position on 6 June 1993.

On 24 July 1998, King George I declared his intention to appoint him President of the Supreme Court and to raise him to the peerage. He succeeded Baroness Jordan of Richland as President on 11 January 1999 on her retirement and on the same day was created a life peer as Baron Dathren of Allameda, of Sumter Park in the Easton Borough of Bromley. He was sworn in as president on 13 January and introduced to the House of Lords on 16 January 1999.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council voted on Tuesday evening to designate Baron Dathren “President Emeritus,” as the longtime Justice prepares to step away from the top brass of the courts. “Baron Dathren will go down as one of the greatest legislative leaders in Windenburg history,” said committee leader Hakeem Jennings.

When vacancies arise for Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, an independent selection commission is formed. It is composed of the President of the Supreme Court (the chair), another senior UK judge (not a Supreme Court Justice), and a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission of Windenburg and Brindleton Bay, and the Judicial Appointments Board for Windenburg. By law, at least one of these must be a non-lawyer. This was last done in 2022 when The Right Hon Lady Keisha Unders was appointed.

There is a similar but separate commission to appoint the next President of the Supreme Court, which is chaired by one of the non-lawyer members and features another Supreme Court Justice in the place of the President.

The President and Deputy President of the Supreme Court are appointed to those roles rather than being the most senior by tenure in office.

Dathren's retirement opened up the need for a new Justice, and President.

In a clearly pre-planned move, both commissions released joint statements signaling Dathren's retirement was not a surprise. The commission to appoint a new President selected Deputy President, Lady Ruth Allen Ginsburg, to fill the soon-to-be vacancy. They then selected Lord Arthur Roberts to be the next Deputy President. Both selections were approved by the Lord Chancellor, sent to the Prime Minister last week and, yesterday, approved by the Queen.

The Independent Selection Commission met over the past three weeks and selected Sir Lloyd Stephens to fill to upcoming Justice vacancy. They notified the Lord Chancellor of its choice who then approved the commission's selection. The Prime Minister recommend Stephens to the Queen for appointment last week, which was also approved yesterday.

Welcoming the announcement, current President of the Supreme Court, The Right Hon The Lord Charles Dathren of Allameda said:

"Although he arrives as I depart, I am delighted to welcome Lord Justice Stephens as a Justice to the Supreme Court. He will bring exceptional experience and ability to the Court following a distinguished career as a barrister and Judge. His experience in employment law, tax, public law and criminal law will be highly valuable to the Supreme Court and will further strengthen us as a Sims world-leading Court."

So, who is the (soon-to-be) new Associate Justice?

Sir Lloyd Stephens, styled The Hon. Mr Lloyd Stephens, is a judge of the High Court of Justice of the Courts of Windenburg and Brindleton Bay. He was counsel to the Leverton Inquiry.

He was educated at King's College School, a private fee paying school for boys in Brambledon in South West Easton. He won an Open Scholarship to New College, Stafford, where he obtained a first in jurisprudence.

Lloyd was called to the Bar at Middle Simple in 1985. From 1999 to 2001 he was one of the Junior Counsel to the Crown (Common Law). He was appointed King's Counsel in 2001. He was a recorder from 2002 to 2014 and was approved to sit as a deputy High Court judge.

He was counsel to the Leverton Inquiry into phone-hacking and media ethics, when he came to public attention due to televising and other reporting.

On 4 June 2017, he was appointed a High Court judge, receiving the customary knighthood in the 2017 Special Honors, and was assigned to the King's Bench Division.

In December 2020 he presided over a challenge made against the Government by Sims of the Earth that the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) document issued July 2020 was unlawful because it should have been reviewed for its impacts on the simvironment.

Stephens will take up appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on 9 December 2024, taking the judicial courtesy title of Lord Stephens.

New judges appointed to the Supreme Court after its creation do not necessarily receive peerages. Following a Royal Warrant dated 22 September 2008, all Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom not holding a peerage are entitled to the judicial courtesy title of Lord or Lady and retain this style for life.

The palace has not yet released a date as to when the new Justice will meet the Queen.

[papercranesong]

Mythbusting Generative AI: The Ethical ChatGPT Is Out There

I've been hyperfixating learning a lot about Generative AI recently and here's what I've found - genAI doesn’t just apply to chatGPT or other large language models.

Small Language Models (specialised and more efficient versions of the large models)

are also generative

can perform in a similar way to large models for many writing and reasoning tasks

are community-trained on ethical data

and can run on your laptop.

"But isn't analytical AI good and generative AI bad?"

Fact: Generative AI creates stuff and is also used for analysis

In the past, before recent generative AI developments, most analytical AI relied on traditional machine learning models. But now the two are becoming more intertwined. Gen AI is being used to perform analytical tasks – they are no longer two distinct, separate categories. The models are being used synergistically.

For example, Oxford University in the UK is partnering with open.ai to use generative AI (ChatGPT-Edu) to support analytical work in areas like health research and climate change.

"But Generative AI stole fanfic. That makes any use of it inherently wrong."

Fact: there are Generative AI models developed on ethical data sets

Yes, many large language models scraped sites like AO3 without consent, incorporating these into their datasets to train on. That’s not okay.

But there are Small Language Models (compact, less powerful versions of LLMs) being developed which are built on transparent, opt-in, community-curated data sets – and that can still perform generative AI functions in the same way that the LLMS do (just not as powerfully). You can even build one yourself.

No it's actually really cool! Some real-life examples:

Dolly (Databricks): Trained on open, crowd-sourced instructions

RedPajama (Together.ai): Focused on creative-commons licensed and public domain data

There's a ton more examples here.

(A word of warning: there are some SLMs like Microsoft’s Phi-3 that have likely been trained on some of the datasets hosted on the platform huggingface (which include scraped web content like from AO3), and these big companies are being deliberately sketchy about where their datasets came from - so the key is to check the data set. All SLMs should be transparent about what datasets they’re using).

"But AI harms the environment, so any use is unethical."

Fact: There are small language models that don't use massive centralised data centres.

SLMs run on less energy, don’t require cloud servers or data centres, and can be used on laptops, phones, Raspberry Pi’s (basically running AI locally on your own device instead of relying on remote data centres)

If you're interested -

You can build your own SLM and even train it on your own data.

Let's recap

Generative AI doesn't just include the big tools like chatGPT - it includes the Small Language Models that you can run ethically and locally

Some LLMs are trained on fanfic scraped from AO3 without consent. That's not okay

But ethical SLMs exist, which are developed on open, community-curated data that aims to avoid bias and misinformation - and you can even train your own models

These models can run on laptops and phones, using less energy

AI is a tool, it's up to humans to wield it responsibly

It means everything – and nothing

Everything – in the sense that it might remove some of the barriers and concerns people have which makes them reluctant to use AI. This may lead to more people using it - which will raise more questions on how to use it well.

It also means that nothing's changed – because even these ethical Small Language Models should be used in the same way as the other AI tools - ethically, transparently and responsibly.

So now what? Now, more than ever, we need to be having an open, respectful and curious discussion on how to use AI well in writing.

In the area of creative writing, it has the potential to be an awesome and insightful tool - a psychological mirror to analyse yourself through your stories, a narrative experimentation device (e.g. in the form of RPGs), to identify themes or emotional patterns in your fics and brainstorming when you get stuck -

but it also has capacity for great darkness too. It can steal your voice (and the voice of others), damage fandom community spirit, foster tech dependency and shortcut the whole creative process.

Just to add my two pence at the end - I don't think it has to be so all-or-nothing. AI shouldn't replace elements we love about fandom community; rather it can help fill the gaps and pick up the slack when people aren't available, or to help writers who, for whatever reason, struggle or don't have access to fan communities.

People who use AI as a tool are also part of fandom community. Let's keep talking about how to use AI well.

Feel free to push back on this, DM me or leave me an ask (the anon function is on for people who need it to be). You can also read more on my FAQ for an AI-using fanfic writer Master Post in which I reflect on AI transparency, ethics and something I call 'McWriting'.

[cruel-nature-records]

NEW TAPES TO PRE-ORDER

Hello

We've just dropped 4 new tapes to pre-order (digital out now) at cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com

1) CUMSLEG BORENAIL "10mg Citalopram"

UK artist Cumsleg Borenail crafts unpredictable, often jarring audio using warped guitars, bent synths, mangled vocals, angelic hooks, and unpredictable turns—built from digital tools and running anywhere from 160bpm downward.

Latest album "10mg Citalopram" fuses LLM-sampled gibberish, MPC chops, and human fragments into shape-shifting anti-songs. Each track begins somewhere and ends up somewhere else entirely. It's music made from uncertainty—too chaotic for genre, too deliberate for noise.

2) DARK SCROTUUM "Rotting Dream"

The doom of Fate, whose unrecall’d Decree

You date, bring, execute; making what’s new,

Ill and good, old, for as we die in you,

You die in Time, Time in Eternity.

3) MODEL RELEASE "If Only You Can Find It"

A new collaboration between Lee Stokoe (Culver, Inseminoid, Vorpor) and Matt Cooper (Schalken, Vom, Sacral Kingdom), mixes a dissonant form of noise rock with frequent tangents into dark ambient, noise and drone. Drawing inspiration from obscure places and the genre of portal fantasy, Model Release create a sound that is as violent as it is introspective, conveying an archaic and decaying atmosphere.

4) THE COLOUR OF MADNESS "Sundowning"

The Colour of Madness, is Margate based post-ambient musician Jacob Brant. His latest album "Sundowning" explores the electric guitar within post-ambient and post-noise landscapes. Recorded in various studios, living rooms, and late-night spaces across the UK and Europe, "Sundowning" is both a document of time and a post-ambient, electroacoustic musical statement. The electric guitar is submerged under textures, stretched into drones, or fractured into melodic fragments. The album also features haunting vocals, field recordings, and acoustic instruments, woven into a layered tapestry of memory and emotion.

[alias-milamber]

Elon Musk has recommended people upload medical scans to Grok to see how good it is at spotting things.

Entering things into any LLM right now does not include them into the corpus of data used by the live service.

All the big LLMs are built very slowly and at vast CPU usage and your usage is effectively against a read-only static blob which sends your request and all your previous requests as context.

Depending on the terms and conditions of your use, uploading may give permission for them are stored and included in future versions of the LLM's training data.

If you're under a GDPR legislated country (ie, was in in the EU in May 2018 or is currently), this is unquestionably illegal, even if you give permission, because they have no way of removing that data from the live service in a reasonable amount of time.

It's probably illegal other places too, but I'm most familar with GDPR.

If you think Elon Musk gives a fuck about whether the use of your data is legal for his world-shattering XxXMast3rPl4nXxX, it's highly unlikely you're reading tumblr right now, tbh. But he still doesn't.

My advice as a local Computer Person is not to upload anything to an internet space anything you don't want the owners & admins of that internet space to be able to use, and not to upload to a internet site owned by a US, UK, Russian or Chinese company anything you don't want that government to act on. (This is true for some other countries as well, but - again - specialist subject).

This goes double for public LLMs and double again for anything Musk has administrative control over.

But do what you want, I'm not your parent.

[llminukmeridean]

LLM in the UK: Everything You Need to Know

The United Kingdom (UK) has long been a top destination for international students seeking high-quality education, and this reputation extends to the field of law. Pursuing a (Master of Laws) LLM in UK can be a transformative experience, offering a world-class legal education in a culturally rich and diverse environment.

In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into everything you need to know about pursuing an LLM in UK, from admission requirements to the benefits of studying in this vibrant country.

1. What is an LLM?

A Master of Laws (LLM) is an advanced, postgraduate academic degree in law. It is designed for law graduates or legal professionals who wish to deepen their understanding of a particular area of law or explore new legal specialities.

2. Why Choose the UK for Your LLM?

a. Prestigious Universities

Some of the most prestigious LLM universities in UK, many of which offer renowned LLM programs. Institutions like the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the London School of Economics (LSE) consistently rank among the top in global university rankings.

b. Diverse Range of LLM Specializations

UK universities offer a wide array of LLM specialisations, catering to various legal interests. Whether you're passionate about international law, commercial law, human rights, or intellectual property law, you're likely to find a program that suits your career goals.

c. English Language Advantage

Studying law in the UK provides a unique opportunity to sharpen your legal English skills, which is invaluable if you plan to work on an international stage or with multinational clients.

d. Cultural Richness

The UK provides a broad cultural experience in addition to academics. You'll have the chance to explore historical landmarks, museums, and a diverse culinary scene while studying in cities like London, Edinburgh, or Manchester.

e. Networking Opportunities

Studying in the UK exposes you to a global network of students and legal professionals. This network can be instrumental in forging international connections that may benefit your legal career.

3. Admission Requirements for LLM Programs in the UK

To pursue an LLM in UK, you'll typically need the following:

a. A Law Degree

Most LLM courses in UK require applicants to hold a qualifying law degree. In the UK, this is typically an LLB or an equivalent undergraduate law degree.

b. English Language Proficiency

Since courses are taught in English, international students from non-English-speaking countries are required to demonstrate their English language proficiency through tests like IELTS or TOEFL.

c. Letters of Recommendation

It's possible that letters of recommendation from academic or professional sources will be required.

d. Statement of Purpose

A well-crafted statement of purpose outlining your academic and career goals is often a crucial part of your application.

e. Academic Transcripts

You'll need to submit your academic transcripts as evidence of your qualifications.

f. Visa

International students from certain countries may need a Student Visa to study in the UK. A quick check of the visa requirements is advised.

4. LLM Universities in the UK

The UK boasts an extensive list of universities offering LLM programs. Some of the top institutions renowned for their law programs include:

- University of Oxford

- University of Cambridge

- London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

- University of Edinburgh

- King's College London

- University of London

- University of Manchester

- University of Glasgow

- Durham University

- University of Bristol

Each of these institutions offers a unique set of LLM specialisations, so it's essential to research and choose the one that aligns with your academic and career objectives.

5. LLM Courses in the UK

LLM courses in UK cover a wide range of legal areas, including but not limited to:

a. International Law

Specialisations in international law can encompass human rights, international trade law, and global governance.

b. Commercial Law

This area includes banking law, corporate law, and international business transactions.

c. Human Rights Law

Human rights law programs focus on the protection and promotion of human rights on national and international levels

d. Environmental Law

With growing global concerns about the environment, this specialisation deals with environmental regulations, climate change, and sustainability.

e. Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual property law covers patents, copyrights, trademarks, and issues related to technology and innovation.

f. Criminal Law

Specialisations in criminal law may delve into topics like criminology, criminal justice, and international criminal law.

6. Duration and Structure of LLM Programs

LLM in UK usually takes one year of full-time study to complete. Part-time options may also be available, extending the duration to two years. The structure typically includes a combination of core courses, elective modules, and a dissertation or research project.

7. Scholarships and Financial Aid

Numerous scholarships and financial aid opportunities are available for international students pursuing an LLM in UK. Scholarship funding may help to reduce the expense of studying abroad.

8. Conclusion…

Pursuing an LLM in UK offers an excellent opportunity to receive a world-class legal education, explore diverse legal fields, and immerse yourself in British culture. With a wide range of specialisations, renowned universities, and scholarship options, the UK remains a top choice for aspiring legal scholars from around the world.

[sarkywoman]

Mumsnet are taking legal action against OpenAI

[bolding is my emphasis on the parts I consider interesting]

"Mumsnet sent its initial letter announcing it was considering legal action in July. More recently, it received a response from OpenAI with a list of questions. “They did not deny the fact that they had scraped,” she says. As of now, Mumsnet plans to continue on the litigation track; it has not yet determined whether it will file suit in the UK’s High Court or a specialized intellectual property court. (OpenAI acknowledged to WIRED that it had received and responded to the Mumsnet complaint, but did not offer comment on Mumsnet’s legal claims.)

In the meantime, Mumsnet is actively pursuing licensing arrangements with other AI companies. Roberts says that it is speaking with Google, as well as intermediary startups that have cropped up to facilitate data licensing. (Google did not respond to WIRED’s request to confirm these talks.)

“I’m quite worried about the ecosystem, where these big LLMs are allowed to march all over small publishers to build their models, and then people have less reasons to go and visit the websites,” Roberts says. “We need to come to some sort of satisfactory arrangement where people are compensated for their work.”

As Mumsnet’s content is largely user-generated, WIRED asked whether it was considering any sort of payment system for users when it does strike deals. Roberts says there is no plan at the moment, but that she would consider it if data licensing for AI became incredibly lucrative down the road."

At first I thought, 'good for them, taking on AI', but the article indicates they're trying to sell their user data to other AI companies anyway so it's legit all about OpenAI going back on their business deal, which is a bit gross. Still, it could set a useful precedent, if successful.

[quccnbees]

( renee rapp. cis fem (?). she/her. ) - let me introduce you to a member of the eversley family, charlotte eversley is the middle daughter. they are twenty-six and are known as the queen bee to the family because they are obsessive, clever, and cruel when you get to know them, you think about legally binding contracts signed in glitter gel pen; the constant struggle between imposter syndrome and god complex but they’re still an eversley, nonetheless.

ORIGINS & FAMILY:

Name: Charlotte Alexandria Eversley

Nickname:  Lottie, Lots, Char, Charlie (at your own risk)

Birthday: May 7, 1998

Place of Birth: Eversley Estate, Hampshire, England

Places Lived Since: Oxford, UK; Leiden, NL; Cambridge, US; London, UK

Current Residence: London, in a townhouse absolutely paid for by her father

Notable Family Members: Hazelnut Eversley ( child, 2 year old standard poodle ); Daphne Eversley ( twin sister, best friend ); Adrian Eversley ( older brother ); Imogen Eversley ( older sister ); Hector Eversley ( oldest brother ); Charles Eversley ( father, idolizes ); Ignes Eversley ( mother, pities )

PHYSICAL:

Faceclaim: Reneé Rapp

Height: 5’7

Build: curvy  

Hair Color: blonde  

Eye Color: blue

Jewelry? Tattoos? Piercings?: always wearing one of her father’s old watches, several piercings in both ears, a good amount of tattoos ( will be expanded upon )

Unique Mannerisms/Physical Habits: playing with her hair when anxious, drumming her nails, being cruel for sport

PERSONALITY:

Occupation: lawyer for her father’s company

Education: Law Degree from Oxford University, LLM from Harvard Law School

Languages Spoken: English, French, passable Dutch, Latin because she’s annoying

Positive Traits: outgoing, ambitious, dedicated, meticulous, clever

Negative Traits: obsessive, manipulative, vindictive, cruel, arrogant

Likes: iced coffee, glitter gel pens, the oxford comma, a particularly tricky legal argument, early 2000s chick flicks, singing chappell roan after three espresso martinis at karaoke

Dislikes: sloppy writing, boston as a concept, playing nice, the legal ambiguity of working for your father, birds kept as pets, losing at anything, being lied to  

Aesthetic: perfectly crafted citations; falling asleep to the comforting sounds of the city; fighting dirty, because you don’t know any other way; a turning page in a silent library; your father is the worst man alive, you are his favorite daughter; the sound of expensive heels across marble lobbies; is it worse to be doomed by the narrative, or haunted by it?

HISTORY:

The fourth child, the second daughter, the older twin – she’s nearly as middle as a middle child could be. And yet she’s the one gifted a variation of her father’s name. Perhaps it's a coincidence, or Ignes merely liked the name – Lottie doesn’t know, she wasn’t fully conscious yet at the time of her naming. But it matters. It has to matter – names carry meaning, to name something is to grant it power, worth. Charlotte’s spent her entire life trying to prove herself worthy of her father’s affection and trust.

The older twin by a mere ten minutes, Charlotte comes out screaming. Daphne follows, setting the pattern for most of their lives. Charlotte is bright and bold – the sun, but not warmth: a burning, blazing pursuit of power, anger and armor in a pretty blonde package. Daphne her moon – ethereal and lovely, quiet with dark hair and dark eyes; reflecting back the brightness and burn, a guiding light in the darkness.

They are a package deal, something Lottie makes quite clear to everyone in that poison laced honey way of hers. The Queen Bee reigns with her sister close by – gaining power through a combination of charm, manipulation, and other, crueler accusations that never stick. Charlotte’s not just the popular girl – she’s also obsessive to a fault, a perfectionist who absolutely won’t accept failure. She’s naturally clever, of course, but not everything comes so easily – she just makes it look like that. Sleepless nights full of self-loathing and relentless dedication to whatever subject is giving her trouble result in near perfect marks and a lifelong tendency to dance right on the edge of self-destruction.

Perfection leads to Oxford, of course, and despite her best-efforts, Lottie’s never been all that good at numbers, so she studies the law. She loves a challenge, the intricacies and various loopholes that craft something particularly clever and weighty. Two years at Oxford, then her third year in Leiden, studying international & European law. The family business is international, so it’s the obvious choice. But it's the first time she’s away from Daphne, and it takes a toll. Daphne goes dark, but Lottie burns hotter and faster. She’s crueler – like something has been torn away and left all her edges jagged and sharp.

Daphne publishes a novel – and Lottie’s her biggest fan, bullying everyone she knows into buying a copy or two. She’s always known her sister was capable of greatness, hated anyone who dismissed Daphne’s shyness or kindness as weakness. The success of Daphne’s novel is probably the only time Charlotte’s ever let herself be truly, selflessly happy for someone else’s success. It lasts their final year at Oxford, but that’s not enough for Lottie. So she spends a year at Harvard gaining an LLM degree and a profound hatred for Boston. She returns to London, and naturally starts working for her father’s company. Here lies the biggest disconnect of Miss Charlotte Eversley’s young life – she idolizes her father, has spent her entire life living up to his name; but she’s also fought tooth and nail to prove that she deserves this position on merit, not her father’s name. She should work for an outside firm first, establish herself in the field. But he’s old, and his health is failing despite the façade they present to the public. So Charlotte falls in line, and weaponizes her beauty and cleverness against anyone who’s foolish enough to suggest she’s not earned her position.

EXTRAS:

She currently lives in a townhouse in London with her only child, a 2-year-old chocolate colored standard poodle named Hazelnut.

Chaotic bisexual

She and Daphne attended the last night of the Eras Tour LA in August, 2023 together ( 1989 tv was announced ) but then had a huge argument after the concert due to Lottie being a bitch to Daphne’s date & accusing them of only being with her for the family money. The twins have been on bad terms / estranged ever since

She loves all her siblings and would commit atrocities for them, but they are still subject to her harshest judgement ( except for Daphne up until last year ) and she’s never been one to mince words. Still – it's very much ‘only I can say that about them, I’ll ruin anyone else who dare say so.’

She is left-handed.

Her father is the only one to call her Charlie.

[mariacallous]

Generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot are rapidly evolving, fueling concerns that the technology could open the door to multiple privacy and security issues, particularly in the workplace.

In May, privacy campaigners dubbed Microsoft’s new Recall tool a potential “privacy nightmare” due to its ability to take screenshots of your laptop every few seconds. The feature has caught the attention of UK regulator the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is asking Microsoft to reveal more about the safety of the product launching soon in its Copilot+ PCs.

Concerns are also mounting over OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has demonstrated screenshotting abilities in its soon-to-launch macOS app that privacy experts say could result in the capture of sensitive data.

The US House of Representatives has banned the use of Microsoft’s Copilot among staff members after it was deemed by the Office of Cybersecurity to be a risk to users due to “the threat of leaking House data to non-House approved cloud services.”

Meanwhile, market analyst Gartner has cautioned that “using Copilot for Microsoft 365 exposes the risks of sensitive data and content exposure internally and externally.” And last month, Google was forced to make adjustments to its new search feature, AI Overviews, after screenshots of bizarre and misleading answers to queries went viral.

Overexposed

For those using generative AI at work, one of the biggest challenges is the risk of inadvertently exposing sensitive data. Most generative AI systems are “essentially big sponges,” says Camden Woollven, group head of AI at risk management firm GRC International Group. “They soak up huge amounts of information from the internet to train their language models.”

AI companies are “hungry for data to train their models,” and are “seemingly making it behaviorally attractive” to do so, says Steve Elcock, CEO and founder at software firm Elementsuite. This vast amount of data collection means there’s the potential for sensitive information to be put “into somebody else’s ecosystem,” says Jeff Watkins, chief product and technology officer at digital consultancy xDesign. “It could also later be extracted through clever prompting.”

At the same time, there’s the threat of AI systems themselves being targeted by hackers. “Theoretically, if an attacker managed to gain access to the large language model (LLM) that powers a company's AI tools, they could siphon off sensitive data, plant false or misleading outputs, or use the AI to spread malware,” says Woollven.

Consumer-grade AI tools can create obvious risks. However, an increasing number of potential issues are arising with “proprietary” AI offerings broadly deemed safe for work such as Microsoft Copilot, says Phil Robinson, principal consultant at security consultancy Prism Infosec.

“This could theoretically be used to look at sensitive data if access privileges have not been locked down. We could see employees asking to see pay scales, M&A activity, or documents containing credentials, which could then be leaked or sold.”

Another concern centers around AI tools that could be used to monitor staff, potentially infringing their privacy. Microsoft’s Recall feature states that “your snapshots are yours; they stay locally on your PC” and “you are always in control with privacy you can trust.”

Yet “it doesn’t seem very long before this technology could be used for monitoring employees,” says Elcock.

Self-Censorship

Generative AI does pose several potential risks, but there are steps businesses and individual employees can take to improve privacy and security. First, do not put confidential information into a prompt for a publicly available tool such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, says Lisa Avvocato, vice president of marketing and community at data firm Sama.

When crafting a prompt, be generic to avoid sharing too much. “Ask, ‘Write a proposal template for budget expenditure,’ not ‘Here is my budget, write a proposal for expenditure on a sensitive project,’” she says. “Use AI as your first draft, then layer in the sensitive information you need to include.”

If you use it for research, avoid issues such as those seen with Google’s AI Overviews by validating what it provides, says Avvocato. “Ask it to provide references and links to its sources. If you ask AI to write code, you still need to review it, rather than assuming it’s good to go.”

Microsoft has itself stated that Copilot needs to be configured correctly and the “least privilege”—the concept that users should only have access to the information they need—should be applied. This is “a crucial point,” says Prism Infosec’s Robinson. “Organizations must lay the groundwork for these systems and not just trust the technology and assume everything will be OK.”

It’s also worth noting that ChatGPT uses the data you share to train its models, unless you turn it off in the settings or use the enterprise version.

List of Assurances

The firms integrating generative AI into their products say they’re doing everything they can to protect security and privacy. Microsoft is keen to outline security and privacy considerations in its Recall product and the ability to control the feature in Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots.

Google says generative AI in Workspace “does not change our foundational privacy protections for giving users choice and control over their data,” and stipulates that information is not used for advertising.

OpenAI reiterates how it maintains security and privacy in its products, while enterprise versions are available with extra controls. “We want our AI models to learn about the world, not private individuals—and we take steps to protect people’s data and privacy,” an OpenAI spokesperson tells WIRED.

OpenAI says it offers ways to control how data is used, including self-service tools to access, export, and delete personal information, as well as the ability to opt out of use of content to improve its models. ChatGPT Team, ChatGPT Enterprise, and its API are not trained on data or conversations, and its models don’t learn from usage by default, according to the company.

Either way, it looks like your AI coworker is here to stay. As these systems become more sophisticated and omnipresent in the workplace, the risks are only going to intensify, says Woollven. “We're already seeing the emergence of multimodal AI such as GPT-4o that can analyze and generate images, audio, and video. So now it's not just text-based data that companies need to worry about safeguarding.”

With this in mind, people—and businesses—need to get in the mindset of treating AI like any other third-party service, says Woollven. “Don't share anything you wouldn't want publicly broadcasted.”

[mandssisters]

We stand Victorious! 27August 2023.

It was a #longday. But we weren’t the only ones having one of those. On paper I’m guessing Martha’s Vineyard USA to Portsmouth UK was just another booking but I take my hat off to all those involved in the logistics team for pulling it off. DDD to Portsmouth was bad enough!

A great line up at the festival, it was only a shame Ben Howard and The Vaccines were on “another stage”. 😝

The weather was a great British summers day, forecast was overcast all day and 17 degrees, I dressed for all seasons and woken up today with sunburn 🥵.

7 performances to enjoy before The Sons joined us. I won’t go through all the details as it will take the 9 hrs we watched for.

Summary of events:

Courting. Punk indie band great lead singer had the crowd going from the start.

Hard fi. Old skool indie rock band haven’t done a festival in 11 years. Hard Core fans came out.

The Go! Team. Sang songs across their 7 albums. 7 very talent musicians and great energy.

Dylan. hardcore set of young fans, think UK’s answer to Taylor Swift. All the moves and great performance. Dylan came down to do an impromptu meet and greet along the barrier post performance.

Sea Girls. Not what I was expecting but a very pleasant surprise. Oozed stage presence and that rock punk persona. Great skill at balancing on the barrier for 2 songs.

Sigrid. Norways Taylor Swift. Again great energy and her last festival this season. I surprised myself with knowing more of her back catalogue than I thought.

Ellie Goulding. Pop veteran. Such strong vocals and again I knew so many of her songs. Two blasts of the canon guns and everyone was happy.

Showtime:

2120hrs. We did it! OMG how can it be 4 years 2 months since my last Mumford gig. Would I still be able to bounce in all of the right places? Strong opening, Babel, LLM, Roll away. Paparazzi pleasers. The family of Rich, Nick and Dave reunited. Chris on drums, Matt on banjo.

All the feels came straight back, guiding light, below my feet. It felt like they had never been away. Not much banter, “pleased to be home doing a UK show”. “Our makers and friends all over the lineup”

A short Ditmas run down the sides of the alley and barriers. So much energy.

The new stage backdrop showing live action screen footage of the lads is excellent, really grabs you in and the laser light show during snake eyes is something else. Believe had pyros but no ticker tape as Ellie Goulding used the budget allocation. 😉.

It looked and felt like the lads were having a great time, the crowd sure were. Overjoyed to see and hear Delta again. There was much love in the audience for them. The UK have missed them. Just leaves you wanting more! The bounce was joyous.

The journey home. Take the shuttle bus they said, ease all your travel woes they said! On the way into the festival easy peasy, on the way out…. Who could have predicted a RTA in Pompey (Portsmouth) blocking all bus routes… plagiarising a fellow queuers song “we will wait, we will wait in queue”. A most pleasant 2hr wait along the seafront enjoying a stunning moonlit sea, various Isle of Wight ferry crossings, The Beach Club music providing all the vibes, the local chippy had never been so busy at 1.30am!!

Loved it. X

[proustianrevelry]

i took a break from my assigned reading b/c my textbook's definition of "rhetorical criticism" was a block quote attributed to the wikipedia entry for rhetorical criticism. I checked the wiki page, and the text was actually a correctly attributed quote to a work with named authors that my textbook simply did not bother to cite.

it would be so, so funny if university defenders who call LLMs "the plagiarism machine" stopped and looked at the actual state of their actually existing education system right now, or the US's or UK's or wherever they think AI would be introducing a massive tide of error-ridden slop rather than automating it.

There was actually a very good argument I read about where because ai is changing the way education works, it's forcing teachers and professors to think hollistically about how their courses are structured. It's forcing people to adopt a much more comprehensive approach to education, that focuses more on fundamental critical thinking skills instead of rote memorization and passing standardized tests. I'm oversimplifying, but yeah there's actually a scenario where the incredible power of ai to summarize knowledge is actually a boon and not just "omg kids are turning into little dipshits who dont know anything because of chatgpt"