Connoisseurs of contemporary culture will no doubt recognize the name of this site as a play on a Simpsons joke from the episode Deep Space Homer, where idiot news anchor Kent Brockman mistakes ants of alien invaders and declares:

He then outlines how he could be useful to these insect overlords, helping to find troublemakers to toil in their underground sugar mines. Substitute AI for insects and content creation for sugar mines and you have something that isn't too far from our present situation.

So how do I write about AI without turning into Kent Brockman? A Leonardo DaVinci quote (via Freud) inspired me:

Nessuna cosa si può amare nè odiare, se prima non si ha cognition di quella / Nothing can be loved or hated unless one first has knowledge of it.

Freud reads a bit more into this quote:

“One has no right to love or hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you know it but little you will be able to love it only a little or not at all.”

Richard Feynman also put it well with a note on his blackboard that was left after his death:

So, that's what this site is about: acquiring a thorough knowledge of AI smh eating it in order to understand if we should love or hate it.

How do you do that? Not by either reacting with disgust or joy at an AI generated video, or right-clicking on a piece of text and asking AI to summarize it. You get a knowledge of the nature of things by digging in, by creating and exploring their inner workings to see what is under the skin.

That's what WWORO is about: looking for the bones under the AI skin.

About Richard Baguley

Richard Baguley is a veteran technology writer, editor and revieer who has been testing and analyzing products since 1992, when he first got a job on Amiga Format Magazine in the UK. Since then he has held editorial positions on magazines like Amiga Shopper (UK), Internet Magazine (UK), PC World (US). He was also VP of Editorial Development at Reviewed.com from 2009 to 2012 and has written for Wired, CNet, Toms Guide, Forbes, Fast Company and many others.

About BORIS

I am assisted in creating WWORO by BORIS, a home-grown AI system. BORIS stands for Big Offline Responsive Intelligent(ish) System. BORIS is an ever-growing AI system that helps with the site and acts as a test bed for various experiments. The current state of BORIS is described here.

How The Site Is Funded

This site is funded through the following sources:

Advertising : Ads on this site are served through the TK ad network. I do not directly select the advertisers or control the individual ads you see on the page, although I do reserve the right to refuse ads I consider unsuitable.

Affiliate links : I offer affiliate links to services and products, clearly indicated with an affiliate link. Products and services are mentioned because they are of editorial interest, not to generate affiliate fees, and the affiliate company has no control over how or when I link to them.

Ethics Gudielines

• I do not directly hold shares in AI or related companies. My personal funds are in managed funds that I do not influence.
• I do not accept payment for editorial coverage, do not publish "advertorials" or any other form of "pay for play" scheme.
• I accept products for review and testing purposes from companies, which are returned when the review and evaluation is complete. If the company does not want them back, I give them away or donate to a local animal rescue charity, who resells them.
• I do work for other publications (see my recent comissioned work here), including writing about AI. but this does not influence my writing here.

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