Keeping Tabs #16: ‘Bad’ art, press trip etiquette, and the media industry’s war against AI
A weekly dose of news, views and things I’ve learned
This might have been my tabbiest week yet – four Chrome windows, dozens of tabs, most of them devoted to birthday venues for my daughter’s forthcoming fifth and furniture for the new “zen room” I’m carving out at home.
I’ve been distracted by those tasks and a couple of big projects I have on this week, but I managed to squeeze a little industry-relevant reading, too.
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Now, here goes…
💬 Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who made it to the Desert Prose meet-up this week at Alserkal Avenue’s gorgeous Efie Gallery in Dubai. It was a pleasure to see you all. We had some truly fascinating chats and it was such a wonderfully supportive group, all ready to share knowledge and help each other out. I can’t wait for the next one! In the meantime, I’ll be releasing the details of our upcoming virtual workshop ASAP, so everyone everywhere can join in.
🖼️ I enjoyed this piece on The Hyphen by Emma Gannon about the idea that there is no such thing as “bad” art. I have to agree. I’m a big believer in that everyone has something to offer and something to say that we can all learn from, whether your audience is 1 or 1 million. Creating art – whatever that might look like for you – also doesn’t always have to be a monetisable pastime, so long as you enjoy creating, who cares if it’s ‘bad’ or ‘good’, and by whose standards?
To quote Emma:
“I’m not sure I trust anyone who claims they’re too good to ever be bad.”
Word.
📉 Back in media land, the feud over Google’s AI overviews is heating up, as a legal complaint has been submitted to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, aiming to “stop Google stealing the work of British journalists”. I get it – AI training itself on people’s work, then using it to inform users without giving credit, is blatantly exploitative. Not only is it nicking content, but also traffic, since fewer people click on articles once they’ve seen the overview. But a part of me can’t help but think this is just how things will be done now and we’re going to have to find a way to work around it rather than trying to stop it. What do you think?
🚫🤖 In a similar vein, major UK and US publishers have joined forces to block AI scrapers, according to the Press Gazette. This seems fair – they can’t simply trawl every website willy-nilly and train AI on the data without permission. As stated in the article, it seems like a good idea to give website owners the option to decide whether they want to give access or even charge for it.
💼 I got the opportunity to work on an interesting story for The National this week about how the UAE is facing a talent surplus, with a flood of skilled job seekers now grappling with fewer roles and lower offers. Shazia Bharuchi, a lovely careers consultant in the UAE, told me it’s common for some roles to get 1,000 applications! Meanwhile, companies, apprehensive about how AI is going to change the work landscape, are initiating hiring freezes and turning to freelancers to get the jobs done. In case I haven’t said it in a while – it’s a good time to be freelance, folks.
✈️ Is it me or are fewer UAE publishers than ever willing to pay travel writers for their words these days? I’m not sure if it’s just on the back of free press trips or travel in general, but it seems increasingly endemic. I don’t mind doing free hotel reviews – particularly if I’ve already paid for my flight – but not longer features on destinations. It’s different if you’re in-house and still get a salary at the end of the month. Press trips aren’t holidays – and unless freelancers are commissioned, we aren’t earning while there. And, ultimately, when writing becomes an unpaid afterthought, quality will inevitably suffer. Thoughts?
🪵 And, lastly, for those of you based in the UAE, slightly off topic but I highly recommend checking out Wood Culture in Al Quoz, which currently has an awesome sale on with deals up to 70% off (no, I get nothing for telling you this, I’m just a fan and went there today). They have some really lovely pieces that aren’t unaffordable and the physical location also has a shop within a shop – a Holly Holistic, where you can peruse crystals and have some coffee. It would make a cute co-working space.
With the issue around a talent surplus, they might be getting more than 500 or 1,000 applications per post, but how many of those are actual quality applications vs people blindly hitting 'apply now' on LinkedIn? Even when I had to hire people during my full-time roles in the past, I remember being inundated with CVs but barely any were qualified to do what the position needed.