Thought #5 - AI Moves Fast (And So Do We)

Hi lovely humans,

It’s been two weeks since our last update, and while things in AI aren’t quite as hectic with new releases, a lot has been going on.

As always, we hope this newsletter helps you feel more confident with all things AI.

“Vibe Coding” – Real or Nonsense?

"Vibe coding" is the term floating around all things tech this week - it basically means using prompting to help code and build products (websites, apps, etc.) really fast.

We’ve been using AI-assisted coding with Claude to help build our platform for months, so technically, we were doing this before it had a name (jokes).

As with everything AI, it feels oversensationalised - from people with three high-tech screens claiming to build multiple products at the same time, to (yet again) people saying software engineering as a job is dead.

Our (measured, as usual) take: "Vibe coding" is great - using tech to speed things up is always good - but it only works if you know what you're doing (both in terms of coding and prompting skills).

We also (as educators) worry about how this impacts people learning to code, and the risks of inexperienced people rushing to use AI-generated code without properly checking it.

While the term 'vibe coding' will hopefully disappear soon, AI-assisted coding isn’t going anywhere. The people who will really shine? Those with coding skills and AI confidence.

AI New Releases

🔹 OpenAI's Responses API - We haven’t got our hands dirty with this yet, but it looks like a good step toward easy AI agent building (systems that can actually complete tasks).

🔹 Google’s Gemma3 - We played around with this via Google AI Studio, and we’re not fans - we asked it about Taught by Humans, and it hallucinated a fake TechCrunch article about our acquisition by Scale AI…

AI News Worth Knowing

• UK Government AI Plans – Keir Starmer has declared "AI is a golden opportunity" that would saved the public sector £45bn with increased efficiency.

• Spain’s AI Bill – Spain is one step closer to passing a bill which would require AI images to be labelled, and prevent AI being used to manipulate vulnerable people.

• World’s First AI-Generated Newsletter – Italian newspaper Il Foglio has released a fully AI-generated edition (including quotes) as part of a month long experiment by journalists into the impact of AI.

• Elon vs OpenAI – “A whole mess” according to ChatGPT, but his latest attempt to stop OpenAI becoming a for-profit company has been rejected in court.

• OpenAI’s Creative Writing AI – A new model aimed at AI-generated storytelling.

As always, OpenAI are dominating most AI news, but it's interesting to see how the debate around AI and the media, and government attitudes to regulation, continue to evolve.

AI Opinions - What You Told Us on LinkedIn

We've been running a series of LinkedIn polls, and the results & conversations have been super interesting (of course we know that LinkedIn in not a representative sample, but still insightful):

1. Are people happy with AI notetakers? - Poll results
   Most people are fine with them if asked first (personally, as a data privacy weirdo, I’m not a fan).

2. Are people paying for AI? - Poll results
   Only one person said they aren’t using AI at all. Everyone else was split between personally paying, using free versions, or their employer covering it.

3. Is it okay to use AI in cover letters & CVs? - Poll results
   The vast majority said yes - if it’s not super obvious and actually reflects your skills.

Are there any AI trends, tools, or issues you’d like us to investigate next?

AI Tool to Try - Fathom AI Notetaker

Speaking of AI notetakers - this week, we're spotlighting Fathom AI Notetaker, a tool designed to automate meeting note-taking and transcription, allowing you to focus more on the conversation and less on manual note-taking.

Security & Privacy Highlights:

• Data Storage: All data is stored securely in the United States. ​

• Data Usage: Fathom does not train its AI models on customer data, ensuring your meeting content remains confidential. ​

• Third-Party Data Sharing: Your data is never sold to third parties, and you have the option to delete your data at any time, after which it will be completely erased from their systems. ​

As always, we recommend testing tools with non-sensitive data first to ensure they meet your security and privacy standards. 

Final Thoughts

As always - phew - we hope this was helpful!

Feel free to share this with anyone who might find it useful.

Laura
Always learning

Ps for any Welsh businesses thinking about using AI, we’re supporting a programme called AI Enable through Tramshed Tech to help educate and build an AI prototype - deadline to apply is Monday 24th March 2025.