I’m wondering if the way someone elects to use generated content from generative AI models is way more potentially problematic and subject to debate than anything related to models training using content from the open web.

Also: generative AI content used to train generative AI models is also source of concerns to me. I call that process “knowledge desinfection” or “knowledge toxification” or even better “knowledge asphyxiation”. Or should I replace “knowledge” with “intelligence”?

One more thing: the more I think about generative AI training, the less I think it should be considered plagiarism. More on that one soon.

Thinking out loud about generative models training.

In a way, we’ve all been trained ourselves in our life by the books we read, the movies we saw, the music we listened. Some people have been trained on very specific knowledge bodies, in very specific fields. People use this accumulated “training” also forming “culture” to create new things and produce new content. Some people might be trained on a specific music style or dancing style. We’ve been trained by teachers. As “trained” creators, do we ask a permission when writing something new or writing music using our training data? Now because it happens at a large scale by large (and “nasty”?) corporations to create products, we cry foul?! Where is the line to be drawn here? I don’t know.

Today we left for Zadar and Vodice where we will stay for five days in a small apartment. We arrived at noon in Zadar and had a nice picnic in a small park, under the shade of big trees. It was a quiet place and we wondered about how few tourists seem to be present since we arrived in Croatia. It might not be peak season just yet. We spent nearly three hours in Zadar, a great coastal city of Croatia, to walk in the city’s small streets behind the fortified perimeter. It felt a bit hot even for a coastal city, yet the weather was splendid. We saw (and heard) the sea organ and we were pleased by the sound of it.

We left Zadar for Vodice at 3PM, a one-hour drive on a coastal road. As we drove away from Zadar we saw the surroundings slowly change in appearance. Vodice is a small village where we can find great places to have dinner and visit the marina surrounded by typical summer houses and beach clubs. Tomorrow I should have more to say about this small village.

Thanks for reading my short travel updates!

Earlier this morning, the weather was better than yesterday, so we decided to revisit Plitvicka Jezera National Park. The improved lighting allowed us to better appreciate the lake’s renowned blue and green hues, and there were fewer tourists. However, we didn’t stay as long as our previous visit because we wanted to explore a small village called Rastoke. This village, known for its charming houses and numerous waterfalls, was highly recommended by our host. We enjoyed a picnic there before exploring, and we were not disappointed; the place was delightful.

On our way back, we stopped to see the river’s source near the road. To our surprise, we found several old, barely standing buildings, which made for great photography. However, a thunderstorm was forming nearby, forcing us to cut our visit short. After checking the local radar, we realized we had just enough time to escape and return to our car.

And we were back at our B&B at four fifty. It’s another great day in Croatia. Now loading up a new batch of photos into my iPad.

We left Zagreb today to go visit the Plitvicka Jezera national park. it was a two hour drive from Zagreb. After a nice and smooth ride we arrived at around 11:15 AM in the park ready to tackle the 4-6 hour circuit. Boy this place is wonderful! It took us about four hours. We had a rain shower or two but each time we were lucky to be at the right place either on the boat or in the forest so we didn’t get wet! Lucky me because I wasn’t ready for rain with my unprotected photo equipment. Speaking of photography, I don’t know how many shots I did but I’m pretty sure there are a few quite impressive with such natural surroundings. I can’t wait to process those images.

Tonight, we’re going to have dinner at a house near our B&B in Grabovac, a very small village be close to the national park. They served grilled fish and meat. It supposed to be really good. We’ll see, but I trust the Croatians so far!

We went for another walking session in Zagreb after the rain finally went on pause in the second half of the afternoon. We visited another portion of the city before ending up near the restaurant where we planned to have dinner, a Sri Lanka restaurant called “Curry Bowl” which again was rated five stars. It was absolutely delicious. But just before going for the dinner we stopped at a little bar because the rain started again. It was “apéro time”. All in all we enjoyed Zagreb: a nice, relativelyely quiet European city where we always felt in safe.

Tomorrow heading off to Plitvice Lakes National Park for two days. It will be quite a different environment.

I’m currently writing this from our room as there are some heavy showers outside. We had a chance to walk a lot since morning in Zagreb and had a great lunch at the restaurant called “Heritage” which is close to our B&B. It’s a very small place where only maybe ten people can have lunch at the same timee (counting those 3 tables outside!). They make absolutely great sandwiches with Croatian ingredients (ham, truffle spread, local cheese, etc.). We also all a great walnuts salad and a drink. Eating is our great pleasure when visiting a place like Zagreb. This place has five stars and is not that expansive.

Back to our room, I’m writing this post after I imported my first batch of images (62 in all) and started to tag which one I would process. All this is done on my iPad, Files and Photomator. Works great so far. The only thing is that I forgot to change the time zone so my pictures got the wrong time stamp. Not that big of a deal. If the internet speed was better, I would have included an image to this post, but that’s not the case. Too bad.

First full day in Croatia. It is the morning here in Zagreb. Yesterday, we arrived and spent the first few hours wandering in the city center where all the night life is happening. It was the time to spot the places that we were to revisit later (today). We were tired following our two flights by night.

There was a soccer match at 9PM and people were quite excited and were looking forward to it. It ended end up in a tie 1-1 Croatia against Italia. I don’t care too much about soccer but Croatian do quite a lot!

I didn’t take my camera with me as I felt my iPhone would be enough. It was a good call anyway because it was rather late in the evening. We had dinner at a restaurant and had goulash and beer. It was a typical plate for Croatian apparently. We came back to the B&B exhausted by our air travelling. I do feel the jet lag this morning but I expect thing to improve in the next two to three days.

This blog post was a writing exercise to practice my daily journaling while traveling abroad.

The CEO of the company I work for (450 employees) called me today over Microsoft Teams because he was seeking for help and explanations for a problem with repeated authentification requests when using Microsoft 365 services on his devices (an iPhone, an iPad). He wasn’t sure why he was getting that many requests. After calling the IT department for support, he was baffled by the responses he got for his problem: reboot your phone, uninstall Apple Mail and re-install, that type of shitty responses. After a few tries, he finally got the “real” reasons: iPhone aren’t supported officially and weakening the security posture of the whole company, he should get an Android. What a shitload of bullshit, which is often typical from IT guys who don’t understand or know Apple devices. I’m so tired of this, after all those decades.

Back to my call with my CEO, after trying to understand the situation and find a sound explanation, I told him that the type of answers he got was unacceptable. We are an IT company for god’s sake! He was shy of admitting the same and surprised by this nonsense. He is the CEO, a smart guy. We should do better.

The iPhone is not weakening the security posture of the company, some IT support guys are¹.

In a week, I’ll be preparing to fly to Croatia for a three-week vacation with my wife. I’m still considering several aspects of the trip. How much blogging should I do during this time? Should I stay quiet and focus entirely on my vacation and photography? What camera equipment should I bring? Should I bring my MacBook Air in addition to my iPad Pro?

I need to decide the right balance between being present in the moment and documenting the journey through my blog. While I enjoy sharing my experiences, I also want to fully immerse myself in the trip without the constant pressure of content creation. As for the camera gear, I’ll need to carefully assess what I’ll actually use versus what I might pack just in case. The MacBook Air could be helpful for editing photos on the go, but the iPad Pro is a more compact and convenient option. Ultimately, I want to travel light and focus on making the most of this vacation with my wife.

I still have a week to figure this out.