Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 20h

(My dad struggled with apps & spent last driving yrs safely going v.short distances to get him & wheelchair bound mum some fresh air, well apart from when he temporarily lost licence as too embarrassed to tell ppl he couldn't use gov.uk & austerity/digital meant local post office wouldn't support)

1

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 20h

@radiobeartime.com

From this evidence yes, they're not the same skills. Judging from a short news report is quite tricky tho.

Generally the driving test/checks quite sensibly measure driving, not having a smartphone or comfort in using apps

1 1

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 22h

*starts looking at complexity of selling elderly relatives house to a) reduce maintenance effort and b) pay care home bills, given c) another member of family helped buy house, but with no clear legal statement about that*

*wonders when the magic AI agents will arrive to sort it all out*

1

Reposted by peterkwells

Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 1d

It will all be fine, I'm sure www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

2 2

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 1d

Quite

Rather than - or as well as, if they've got the capacity to do both - the National Parking Platform (which embeds apps in parking) UK govt really should have been looking at making it actually easier for everyone who drives to pay - via cash, contactless, &c

www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/m...

Parking fail: three-quarters of drivers have run into difficulties when paying to park by mobile app

Three-quarters of UK drivers (73%) who have used a mobile app to pay for parking in the last 12 months experienced difficulties doing so, with most preferring the reliability that comes from using ban...

www.rac.co.uk

1

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 1d

I'm sorry, UK govt wrote in a petition response that they'll consult on extending the proposed digital ID card thingy scheme to 13 year olds, without saying anything about that elsewhere before?

Doh, and double doh!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Now Labour pushes ID cards for children as young as 13

A petition against digital ID signed by almost three million people has been dismissed by ministers who vowed to press ahead with imposing them before the election.

www.dailymail.co.uk

2 2

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 1d

It wasn't intended to be a fursona convo, well not until now!

(if I was a bear then I'd be a polar bear in tribute to a Love and Rockets comic that I can't find online right now. But I'm fickle and change my mind all the time)

1

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 1d

Maybe a dolphin or seal in tribute to the sea life of Whitley Bay 🤔

1

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 1d

Sure, I'm meant to be tidying up a report for a meeting at 11.30 but at least 20% of my brain is pondering what costume to wear if a UK ICE tries to nick my friends and neighbours

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 2d

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

3 1 4

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 1d

'In 1983, Linda Chavez called the novel "a sickening book", describing it as "racist, xenophobic and paranoid.'

'A 2001 report from the SPLC described the novel as "the favorite racist fantasy of the anti-immigrant movement in the US"'

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cam...

The Camp of the Saints - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 1d

I see the Daily Mail has written an article about Jean Raspail's Camp of the Saints, which neglects to point out how the book has apparently become beloved of white supremacists

archive.ph/LUJCx

The apocalyptic novel written in 1971 that foresaw the migrant crisis so precisely the author believed it must have been dictated by a higher power: Now CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reveals the shocking details - and ending we should all fear
By CHRISTOPHER STEVENS, TV CRITIC
PUBLISHED: 01:09 BST, 10 October 2025 | UPDATED: 01:09 BST, 10 October 2025
e-mail
View comments
At a sprawling holiday villa half way between Cannes and Saint-Tropez, the writer and explorer Jean Raspail experienced an apocalyptic vision.
Staring out across the sparkling blue waters of the French Riviera, he imagined an invasion – an armada of small boats crammed with immigrants, packed so tightly that many were already dead, a million hungry, desperate people swarming onto the shore.
‘And what if they came?’ he asked aloud. This was 1971, decades before the mass migration crisis began and the question triggered a surge of manic creativity. Over the next few weeks, Raspail wrote frantically.
‘I had no plan and not the least idea of how things would go, nor of the characters who would populate my story,’ he said. ‘To my great surprise, my pencil raced unhindered across the paper. If ever I was inspired while writing a book, it was this one.’

1 1

Reposted by peterkwells

Rev. Dr. Liz Gloyn @lizgloyn.bsky.social · 2d

I have just learned about the existence of the Chicago Rat Hole. What a start to the morning. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago...

2 4 8

Reposted by peterkwells

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 2d

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

590 6K 19K

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 2d

Yeah, the usual challenge of "what do we mean by AI?"

(There's also a bit where it says that training data should be checked for completeness / bias / &c and the LLM ppl will just be going ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

1

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 2d

p.s. yes, yes I know that they they are just gulls that live by the sea. People know them as seagulls so I call them seagulls.

1

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 2d

Proof:

x.com/peterkwells/...

Peter Wells on X: "Some ppl tell me that posting on social media has no meaningful impact on the world Have I got a new seagull*-related story to tell them! https://t.co/xDUlN3thKl" / X

Some ppl tell me that posting on social media has no meaningful impact on the world Have I got a new seagull*-related story to tell them! https://t.co/xDUlN3thKl

x.com

1

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 2d

I accidentally got seagulls blocked from all Google Meet calls, sorry to both seagulls and people who like the sound of seagulls!

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 4d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

1

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 2d

Lots of good stuff in this new UK govt AI Testing and Assurance Framework for Public Sector

Particularly good to see a mix of both automated and human monitoring and evaluation, it can be easy to slip into over-reliance on automated assurance of models (eg via evals)

github.com/Testing-AI-S...

Core practices
Performance Monitoring in Production

Set up dashboards and alerts for:

Technical metrics (latency, throughput, uptime, errors)
AI-specific metrics (accuracy, fairness, confidence levels, drift indicators)
Define thresholds for alerting

Drop in monthly approval accuracy >X%
Fairness score diverges by >X% across groups
Compare real-world outcomes (e.g. loan approvals) against model predictions.

Flag input distribution shifts and investigate early signs of drift.

Error and Incident Logging

Log all AI errors and unexpected behaviours.
Tag incidents with root cause (e.g. input error, model mismatch, integration fault).
Maintain an incident response plan: Who investigates?, What triggers rollback?, When is public disclosure needed?
Track trends: do errors cluster in specific use cases, user groups, or time periods?
Regular Model Re-evaluation

Retest models with recent data (e.g. quarterly).
Run the full test suite with new inputs especially fairness, bias, and performance tests.
Incorporate this into CI/CD via MLOps. Retrain and redeploy on a cycle (e.g. every 3 months) with validation at each step.

Feedback Loops

Collect feedback from users, operators, and impacted stakeholders.
Build in UI level flags like 'this output seems wrong' or 'Did this help?'
Review flagged cases during retros or sprint planning, prioritise those for retesting or adjustment.
Watch for qualitative patterns:
'Users misinterpret this output'
'System response too slow under stress'
'Chatbot tone inappropriate for this audience'
Continuous Compliance Checks

Stay aligned with evolving regulations (e.g. GDPR, Equality Act, new AI standards).
Check if new legal guidance affects retraining, logging, or audit frequency.
Ensure logs meet retention standards and delete or archive safely (e.g. auto-delete personal data after expiry).
Model & Data Lifecycle Management

Archive past model versions and training datasets with version tags.
Capture metadata: who approved it, what test results it passed, what data was used.
Be able to roll back a model if needed (e.g. last version was flawed).
Consider storing output logs where needed for future FOI, audits, or investigations.
Ongoing Ethical Oversight

Regularly review societal impact:

Have complaint rates risen?
Are marginalised groups being disproportionately affected?
Track real-world impact beyond accuracy — trust, harm, usability, bias.

Update your AI risk register and ethics documentation.

Continuous Improvement Process

Use monitoring and feedback to:

Refine prompts, thresholds, outputs, and models
Simplify workflows
Reduce false positives/negatives

1 5

Reposted by peterkwells

Royal Statistical Society @royalstatsoc.bsky.social · 3d

Statisticians worked with fragmented data to estimate the scale of the NHS’s biggest scandal: the Infected Blood Inquiry. In a masterclass of balancing data with quality results, their models clarified the impact.

🔗 Read more and find out what policymakers can learn: rss.org.uk/news-publica...

Policy recommendations and final case study published in the Statistics Under Pressure initiative

rss.org.uk

3 6

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 2d

*starts a new project with a digital team in UK public sector*

*hears team say "we don't do policy! that's other people!!"*

*starts slow process of explaining that many product, service and tech design choices fundamentally shape policy and outcomes as it's all one big sociotechnical system*

2 7

Reposted by peterkwells

Ada Lovelace Institute @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social · 2d

📣Job alert: We're hiring a Public Services Research Lead!

This role will develop and lead the delivery of Ada’s work on public sector use of data and AI.

Closing: 09:30 GMT, 29 October 2025

www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/job/public-s...

Public Services Research Lead

The Ada Lovelace Institute is hiring a Public Services Research Lead to evaluate and shape UK public service decisions about the use of data and AI.

www.adalovelaceinstitute.org

1 5 8

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 2d

ASI, Britain Remade, LFG / Crush Crime

a picture from an article in the Times titled "meet the young Tories dreaming of a bright blue future" it shows three men. the one on the left is wearing a tweed suit, jumper, homberg hat and carrying an umbrella, the one in the middle is wearing a suit, tie, and a jumper with question marks on it, the one on the right is wearing a suit/tie and a "make Britain great again" hat

2

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 3d

I'm all for less restrictive pub licensing hours but it would be a *lot* more fun if the extra licensing objective was "promoting fun" rather than "promoting economic growth"...

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

text from the article saying "The plans centre on major reforms of the Licensing Act 2003, under which local councils grant licences to 224,000 pubs, clubs, restaurants and supermarkets to sell alcohol within set hours. Council licensing committees of elected councillors base their decisions on four “licensing objectives”: the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of public nuisance and protecting children from harm.

But the government-appointed taskforce behind the plan has suggested the creation of a new fifth objective – promoting economic growth – which councils would have to take into account when deciding on applications for new premises or longer opening hours. That has sparked claims that the government has become too close to the alcohol industry."

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 3d

Presumably expanding the scope of the digital ID plans to include child/parental responsibility and school applications (which happen at local authority level in England) is a next Parliament thing...

1 3

peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 3d

I'd expect both national security/data protection reqs and environmental sustainability of energy have become bigger factors in the intervening period, as more people buying space in data centres will ask about those?

1