Lloyds Bank Unpredictable Errors?

Lloyds Bank IT ‘glitch’

A quote from the above: Modern banking methods mean we can now perform a variety of tasks on our phones in a matter of seconds, and almost anywhere,” said Dame Meg.

“What this incident brings into focus is the fact that there is a trade-off.”

She said interacting with banks online more means consumers “place our faith
in technology which can suffer unpredictable errors” – adding it was important this was made clear to customers.

I take particular exception to the description ‘unpredictable errors’. These errors are predictable, and are the result of sloppy design and implementation of the facilities provided. As such, the bank should be prosecuted for their illegal display of private information to those other than the rightful person.

Instead a sloppy wringing of hands, and piddling amounts of ‘goodwill payments’ are trotted out. Put this alongside all of the branch closures and what are customers left with? If Nationwide is any example for online help,the banking systems is making a rapid descent into complete chaos.
It is impossible to ‘chat’ with a real person. Instead a ‘bot’ is thrust at you, and is about as capable of dealing with your problem as a wooden puppet. Where I was dragged up, a ‘bot’ is another name for an arse – rather apt I thought, capable of one task only, that of expelling excrement.

There is one common factor driving this nonsense – money. Let’s see how many tasks we can derogate to save cash. How many folks we can get rid of. Skip testing our systems, let the users find the faults for us.

The Treasury Select Committee need some informed members on it, or consultants that know what is taking place. Philosophy, Politics and Economics, plus a spat as a journalist does not qualify a person to make remarks on the effects of sloppy software design and implementation.
Having said that, I agree that customers should be warned about what they are using. Can I suggest ‘This Application May Seriously Damage Your Confidence In Online Banking.‘ I had in mind a more pithy quote, but will leave that for another day.

I love You! Yes. Maybe you do, but let’s stick to the script..

From the BBC post Inappropriate AI Bullshit

Gabbo contains a voice-activated AI chatbot from OpenAI. It has been designed to encourage pre-schoolers to talk to it and carry out imaginative play.

What intelligent parent let’s loose a bag of shit like OpenAI on their five-year old?

Another quote: ‘When one five-year-old said, “I love you,” to the toy, it replied: “As a friendly reminder, please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided. Let me know how you would like to proceed.”‘

Apparently Gabbo doesn’t come with instructions to destroy it after removing the packaging..

Deep in your DNA, you know?

Take a look at this: AI sparks creativity

Apparently ‘We are programmed deep in our DNA to be comforted by the authority and the reliability of big brand names, and that applies more than ever to the names of big writers.’

These are the words of the chief executive officer of Bloomsbury Mr.Nigel Newton.
Well Nigel, in my recollection DNA is a molecule carrying genetic instructions for an organism’s development, functioning, and reproduction. There is more, much more but it has eff all to do with comfort about any authority, including names of big writers. (Are these writers oversized Nigel?)
Go home and play with your teddy bear Nigel.

Google Translate – Beware Of The Holier Than Thou AI

Hi Google.
A recent translation of ‘bag of shit’ into Portuguese was ‘translated’ into ‘pagina horrivel’.
While I might agree that a bag of shit is unpleasant, it isn’t a ‘horrible page’.
If this is an example of what we have to put up with from your adoption of AI – another misrepresentation, you can stick your translation service up your rectum – yes I can be offensive without using anglo-saxon.

Is the BBC publishing AI Slop on it’s website?

BBC Account of Bridge damaged once again.

Quote from BBC Account: “Network Rail said over-height vehicles crashed into the bridge over the Cambrian railway line despite numerous warning signs, causing more than 1,110 minutes of train delays and the A470 to temporarily close.”

Updated: 1st December 2025
Seems like my observation was correct, but…
What is a road bridge?
It’s a bridge carrying a road over an obstacle.
So Network Rail’s account is complete rubbish, and the BBC blindly copied the rubbish.

My original observation was of the photo shown, It is a RAILWAY BRIDGE, NOT A ROAD BRIDGE.
Slop, slop and more slop.

Below is Network Rails account of the latest incident.
Network Rail Media

AI – There’s also those that don’t know they don’t know.

Yes. Said by a Yorkshire man many years ago. The full quote is:
There’s those that know, and there’s those that don’t know, There’s also those that don’t know, they don’t know.
The stifling effects of industrialisation on humankind are already known. Individualism in the design of clothes, carpets, curtains etc., has virtually disappeared, with the exception of those resourceful folks which chop up rags, and create original pieces of their own design.
The same can be said for almost every utensil, or machine we make use of.
The BBC recently published an article on AI chatbots Sadly they did not publish a link on their post to the study itself. I found that using a search it is here.

It’s interesting where a study of some other’s work takes you, especially when the BBC itself employs folk who simply repeat what they have read from an unreliable source, such as boasts by a company regarding a motionless wind generation system.

One such item I followed was regarding the recommendation of vaping to give up smoking. Again, the report does not provide a link to the source. So I checked the NHS website on giving up smoking. This makes grim reading. The three options ‘recommended’ are all chemical options. The NHS comments giving up is difficult: Many people try to quit with willpower alone, but going cold turkey can be tough.
That apparently is the help you get for a non-chemical approach. This is nothing short of appalling. No wonder AI chatbots get it wrong.

I gave up in 1986. After smoking from the age of 12. I’m 78. I’ll leave you to do the arithmetic.
I had a friend, who had been a smoker, but was then a member of ASH – Action on smoking and health. He advised me, and informed me about both the good things that would happen and the bad. He warned me about ‘transferring’ my addiction to alcohol or food. He also informed me of more colds, and personal plumbing failures.
It was bad, very bad at times, but ‘situation normal’ was eventually resumed. I’ve never smoked a cigarette since.
On the NHS site the chemical ‘solutions’ are presented first. Only later are you invited to contact your ‘local’ Stop Smoking Service – everyone has one, don’t you know.. Significantly ASH are never mentioned. Their summary on vaping is interesting.

My advice on giving up is simple. Don’t transfer your addiction by consuming nicotine by other means. Talk to those who have given up by ‘cold turkey’. Enjoy the extra spending in your wallet.

The Scraped Crap Leading The Blind

Take a look at this: Crisp packet gun
Yes, there will be more. It ain’t intelligent – it’s a bag of shit. What is intelligent about relying on an image recognition system that can’t distinguish the difference between a gun and a packet of crisps?

The idiots that mandate installion of this crap, should be penalised heavily. Saying ‘Sorry’ should be a million dollar fine.

AI – The madness continues

Jerry Kaplan, an early entrepreneur in AI has recently commented:
“We’re creating a new man-made ecological disaster: enormous data centres in remote places like deserts, that will be rusting away and leaching bad things into the environment, with no one left to hold accountable because the builders and investors will be long gone”

A post on BBC.com gives an account comparing the ‘bubble’ of investment now, with the hype and swipe of the dotcom.bubble.
There is one particular statement made by Jeff Boudier, who builds products at the AI community hub Hugging Face, made me laugh at its’ absurdity.
“The thing that comforts me is that the internet was built on the ashes of the over-investment into the telecom infrastructure of yesterday,”
The ‘Internet’ Mr Boudier, was built on the back of military spending, primarily by the US government on it’s ARPANET project. The ‘ashes’ you refer to are the ashes of the dreams of greedy investors in a bubble.

But I’m guessing your ‘comfort’ is an attempt to soothe concerns for investors in your company.
In a separate post I relate my experience with ChatGPT, simply a lazy way of accessing scraped items from other folks postings on the web. ‘Comfort’ is not the word I would use for idiotic crap ‘counselling’ worrying young folks about their personal relationships.
BBC post: A Tangled Web Of Dreams
My post regarding ChatGPT: Advice to young people

AI chips communicate faster than the speed of light?

A recent post by the BBC regarding AI Data Centres What’s the big deal about AI data centres? by Michael Dempsey Technology Reporter, asks the following important question:

Why is proximity so important?
Every metre of distance between two chips adds a nanosecond, one billionth of a second, to the processing time.

Really?

The definition of the speed of light is: 299,792,458 metres per second.

So light can travel 0.299792458 metres in 1 nanosecond.
A rough multiplication shows that it takes approximately 3 nanoseconds for light to travel 1 metre.

Information cannot be conveyed at a speed faster than that of light.

On first principles then, the article is incorrect.
I could go on regarding inter-chip comms, but won’t.

Footnote. I investigated into making a comment on the article to the BBC, but was faced with spending time giving details, that I considered were not important, and I simply gave up. No, they didn’t ask what colour toilet paper I use..

Watching You, Watching Me.

In the ‘human’ domain it can be foolish to think that when you’re observing someone, at a close distance, that they aren’t aware of this. They may be aware and are watching you also.

Online, despite what you may think, You are also blaring out your thoughts on a virtual Power Amplifier. Your ‘target’ listener, hears you, but so can a myriad of other entities.
Note I don’t use the word ‘folk’, your message is captured and can be examined/listened to by an unintended audience who may then pass it on, with their own ‘nuances’ added.This ‘audience’ may not necessarily be human.

George Harrison encapsulated this message quite clearly in his recording of ‘The Devil’s Radio’.
His message is even more clearer today. Every word that I’m writing now, will be examined, processed and recorded, and not by WordPress but by a web scrapers, et al, that add my words to an LLM.

Interfacing directly with tools such as Chatgpt, can be useful to me. It is also useful to ‘them’, WTF they are. You are led to believe ‘it’ is a ‘big friendly big brother’. Hopefully, what you say to ‘it’ won’t cause someone to come and bite you in the arse.