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These are unprecedented times. Doesn’t that mean I have the green light to enter unprecedented territories when it comes to my diet and exercise or lack thereof?

Is it just me or has it been hard to focus on eating healthier when all the COVID-19 news just makes you want to eat more?

Is it just me or is there anyone else out there who has forgotten what a scale is let alone taken it out to use it?

Is it just me or is this social distancing making me want to feed my emotional hunger as I find myself emotionally distanced from my friends and loved ones?

Is it just me or do you find yourself craving all the comfort foods under the sun?

Please tell me there are some parts of my struggles that you understand because I need to know that I’m not alone in this fight!

This COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on my healthy management. Yes, I’ve been eating healthy salads, fresh fruits and vegetables but as soon as that news comes on, I find myself reaching for the salty pistachios and popcorn and anything else that I can eat mindlessly in front of our television set. With kids home from school and days that seem to blend into each other, I can hardly remember what day of the week it is much less how many calories I‘ve consumed. 

Perhaps like never before, the entire world is on the same page. I’m picturing now all the people from every single country who are glued to their news broadcasts and are munching on anything they can get their hands on as their nerves get the better of them. The fight is fierce but we are not fighting alone. Somehow there is comfort in that fact.

I’m not alone

When I remember that I’m not alone in my fight, there’s a new sense of “I can do this”. It may not look perfect yet, but I can certainly shoot for daily progress. You and I both know that our overeating is directly tied to our restless emotional state that is forever seeking to fill the void. We are constantly seeking to be comforted and unfortunately, somewhere along the line, we started, using food to soothe ourselves.

When food 

became a comfort

I was a 16-year-old first-year university student away from my family and feeling homesick. I somehow discovered that cheese was my best friend so I ate anything that had cheese in it, like those fried mozzarella sticks that ooze with that delicious stretchy cheese I would dip in red marinara sauce. That progressed to buying a block of sharp cheddar cheese and eating it even after dinner when I wasn’t at all hungry. That was my first experience of eating when I wasn’t hungry, just for the sake of feeding my discomfort. A dangerous habit was born then, one that may not kill us quickly, but increases our chances for a host of problems including diabetes, stroke, heart disease and many types of cancers.

I cannot ignore the fact that continuing on this destructive course increases my risk for way too many diseases. I remind myself of this fact so that when I look at that plate in front of me, I interrogate it and make sure it passes the test for healthy options.

We have to insist on becoming our own best advocates especially in these desperate times when COVID-19 threatens us all. Scientists agree that overweight and obese people fare worse if they catch COVID-19. So it’s not enough to wash my hands to keep myself safe. I don’t want to be at an increased risk for complications because I just couldn’t say no to chocolate, too many nuts or too much carb. The best offence is a great defence. Let’s make it harder for this virus or any other illness to hit us.

Tell me you’re in because there’s power in numbers and I don’t mean the number on the scale! I mean that we can fight this battle of the bulge as an army of people that lift each other up and encourage one another to do what’s right. Stay safe, stay healthy, and above all, NEVER GIVE UP!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

VENICE — Hollywood stars and top directors are getting increasingly anxious about the hold streaming giants Netflix and Amazon are exerting over cinema.

Several expressed unease at the dominance streamers established during the pandemic at the Venice film festival — the first major industry gathering since the coronavirus struck.

With many cinemas still closed and studios wary of releasing movies with social distancing in force, the two big US giants have virtually had the film-going public to themselves.

Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett, who is chairing the jury at Venice, said cinema needed support and warned it could be tricky “moving from a monoculture of streaming over the last six months to how we open cinemas”. 

“I think it will be a very important conversation to have. It’s a global issue,” said the actress, who admitted spending lockdown watching animated movies by the Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki with her family.

Legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, who has argued for the regulation of all-powerful tech firms, painted a grim future where towns and cities could lose their cultural hearts, with cinemas and theatres going dark.

“The platforms have had an essential role in this period, but it’s nevertheless also negative and reason for concern,” he told reporters.

‘Tired of streaming’

He pleaded for a return to shared experience, saying cinemas and theatres were the antidote to the “forced reclusion and imprisonment”.

“The Greeks talk of catharsis, so you find yourself crying or rejoicing with other people you don’t know, and it’s essential in our lives as humans,” Almodovar said.

“If a film of mine is shown in a cinema I can hear the audience breathe, it gives me the pulse of to what extent my film excites people. 

“If I put my film on a platform like Netflix, I lose that contact with the spectator,” Almodovar said. 

Even those who have embraced the streamers, like Venice’s departing director Alberto Barbera — who premiered three Netflix films including “Marriage Story” last year — now have reservations.

“We are tired of seeing films in streaming,” he told AFP. 

“Watching them online helped us get through the lockdown, but we cannot lose the experiences of seeing them on a big screen,” he said.

But “one of the consequences of confinement is that the streamers now have enormous sway,” Barbera added.

Rising American director Gia Coppola, whose sharp new satire on online culture, “Mainstream”, is showing at Venice, told AFP that lockdowns may have only hastened the inevitable. 

‘New form of TV’

“Those platforms always seemed like they were going to become the new studios, and take over,” said the maker of “Palo Alto”, the grand-daughter of Francis Ford Coppola and niece of Sofia Coppola. 

“But it is cool that they also support some really talented independent film-makers”, with Netflix backing “Roma” — which won the top prize in Venice in 2018 for the Mexican Alfonso Cuaron.

Cannes film festival chief Thierry Fremaux took the long view.

The world’s biggest festival has had an often tetchy relationship with Netflix, barring it from its competition unless it showed its films in French cinemas first.

Fremaux insisted that streaming was merely “a new form of television”.

“We will see in 120 years if we will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of the platforms,” he said, pointing out that cinema had resisted many challenges for more than a century.

“We have to stop declaring the end of cinema every time there is a change,” Fremaux said. 

And cult French director Quentin Dupieux of “Rubber” fame, whose black comedy “Mandibules” is bowing at Venice, had a typically wacky take.

“I had no desire to watch Netflix [during the lockdown] because funnier things were happening outside,” he told AFP.

And returning to the cinema held no fears for him.

“As soon as the lights when down I forgot absolutely that there were infected people next to me and that they were eating popcorn and spitting it at me...”

By Fiachra Gibbons

BASEL — New European research has found that people who laugh more during stressful times appear to show less symptoms of stress.

Carried out by researchers at the University of Basel, the new study looked at 41 students (of whom 33 were women) with an average age of 21.

The participants were followed for a period of 14 days, during which time they were asked to answer questions eight times a day on a mobile phone which asked them about the frequency and intensity of laughter, their reason for laughing, and any stressful events or physical and psychological stress symptoms that they experienced throughout the day, such as “I had a headache” or “I felt restless.”

The first thing that the researchers found, which was expected based on the current evidence, is that when the participants laughed frequently, any stressful events they experienced at the time were associated with more minor symptoms of stress. Moreover, the more frequently they laughed close to the time of experiencing stressful events, the weaker the link between the stressful events and stress symptoms became.

However, the team was surprised to find that when it came to the intensity of the laughter, defined as strong, medium, or weak, there was no statistically significant correlation with symptoms of stress.

“This could be because people are better at estimating the frequency of their laughter, rather than its intensity, over the last few hours,” the researchers said.

They added that the findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE, suggest that people who laugh frequently in their everyday lives may be better able to deal with stressful events.

Previous studies have also shown that laughter can bring various health benefits. A US study published back in 2011 by the University of Maryland School of Medicine showed that watching a funny film can improve vascular function, while a UK study published the same year found that genuine belly laughter, rather than forced laughter or a small giggle, can help relieve pain. As well as physical benefits, laughing together can also release the “feel-good” chemicals endorphins in the brain and promote social bonds between people, according to a 2017 study by researchers at the University of Turku, Finland.

Researchers have estimated that people typically laugh 18 times a day, mostly when they are with other people. How much we laugh also depends on the time of day, age, and gender; for instance, on average, women smile more than men.

You do not trust all the images you see on the web. Do you trust the music you hear?

If sometimes you do not believe the images you see on the network in general and on social media in particular, it is because you suspect they have undergone digital manipulation and are not a true reflection of reality. Photo editing and alteration of all kinds has become easy and affordable. Examples abound and are no more exceptional cases.

From the simple want to please with better looking images, be it stills or videos, to straightforward deceit and forgery, digital images lend themselves to extraordinary alteration. The software tools are accessible to the masses and very affordable — many are free, especially when used on smartphones.

Excessive image manipulation is but one aspect of the power of digital audio-visuals. Whereas the public always speaks at length of image processing and of the tools that go with it, making music in the digital age is no less spectacular, though the technology is not as publicised as that of the images. So, in the same vein, can we trust the music we hear today, or cannot we?

Absolutely amazing, the new tools to perform and more particularly to record music are beyond simple description. Examples.

Jam Origin has an app called MIDI Guitar 2 that generates the sound of virtually any instrument you can think of, by letting you play a regular, traditional electric guitar. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface and was introduced circa 1993.

The audio signal of your guitar is fed into the software first and then either to a digital MIDI keyboard or even simply to the software synthesiser that virtually all computers have built-in. Play the guitar and hear the very notes you are playing sound as an organ, a flute, a piano, etc. in real time. There is a delay of a few milliseconds between the note you pick on the guitar and the resulting sound processed by the app, but you hardly notice it.

German company Celemony offers a software tool called Melodyne. You play or sing and record your performance. Melodyne can then convert it into digital MIDI so you can do whatever you like with it afterwards. The possibilities are infinite, just like playing with numbers is a limitless game.

And if you fear not singing perfectly in tune take heart, Antares AutoTune can adjust your pitch to make it as perfect as the most professional singer in the world. Its harmoniser module can even “sing” in harmony with you, this way generating notes you never sang yourself in the first place.

Then comes a mile-long list of special effects that you can apply to the recording in the post-production phase. From unbelievably realistic delays and echoes, to compression, time-stretch, tremolo, vibrato, “smooth enhancers”, and so forth.

Editing the recording can be done at 1/1000th second surgical precision and single notes can be corrected, replaced, moved, duplicated, erased.

It is therefore very different today to listen to recorded, heavily manipulated music and to raw, unprocessed live performances by artists. The gap between the two cases has always been there but it is wider now. Processed sound can be as unbelievable as processed images.

The parallel between digital images and digital sound is as valid as ever, for in both cases and as incredible as the technical possibilities may be, they do not by themselves make you better photographers or better musicians.

MURCIA, Spain — Long a staple of the Spanish diet, gazpacho — the chilled soup made from a puree of tomatoes and other vegetables — is gaining space on supermarket shelves further afield in Europe and beyond.

While the dish is a speciality of Andalusia in southern Spain, the country’s three top producers of gazpacho are all based in the neighbouring region of Murcia, which is often called “Europe’s orchard” because it is a centre of fruit and vegetable production.

Alvalle, a unit of PepsiCo which along with Garcia Carrion and AMC Natural Drinks account for nearly three-quarters of the world’s industrial production of gazpacho, was the first to make major inroads abroad. 

It launched its gazpacho in neighbouring France in 2009, 19 years after it was founded. 

Today the company exports over half of its production, mainly to other countries in Europe, with France its number one foreign market.

“It was Alvalle that opened the door... Then all supermarkets started asking us for gazpacho,” said Monica Perez Alhama, head of product development at rival firm AMC.

AMC’s main foreign market is France as well but it also exports to Canada, the United States and Japan.

The most frequently found gazpacho is made by pounding tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, water, vinegar, cucumbers and green peppers, with bread sometimes added to thicken the soup and soften acid from the tomatoes and vinegar.

But Spain’s big three producers have sought to expand their range by developing modern variations of gazpacho featuring rosemary, strawberries, wine vinegar, sherry, mangos and other ingredients, as well as launching brands that use organic vegetables.

The aim is to “compete with homemade gazpacho”, said Fernando Marin Romero, AMC commercial director for Spain and Portugal.

Tailored recipes

Last year, Spain produced 67 million litres of gazpacho, according to market research firm Nielsen, with the bulk of it consumed in the warmer months between Easter and September.

Machines crush, wash and filter thousands of kilos each day at AMC’s sprawling gazpacho plant in Murcia, the capital of the region that shares the same name.

Trucks loaded with barrels holding a thousand litres of extra virgin olive oil circulate between refrigerated tanks containing 25,000 litres of gazpacho.

The liquid is then poured into cardboard bricks decorated with pictures of bright red tomatoes which are folded by sophisticated machines at a frantic pace.

Spain’s top three gazpacho producers posted a combined turnover of 119.2 million euros ($142 million) between April 2018 and April 2019, according to market research firm Alimarket.

To enter markets abroad, they have tailored their recipes to foreign tastes.

“In countries like France they like the product with less salt, in other countries in northern Europe they like it with a stronger tomato flavour,” said Marin Romero, of AMC.

Local produce

When marketing their products abroad, the companies highlight the fact that the soup is part of a healthy Mediterranean diet and stress they use locally sourced ingredients.

And they try to allay concerns over the use of industrial agriculture by stressing their efforts to reduce water and energy consumption.

Alvalle, for example, boasts that all of the vegetables it uses are picked within a radius of 200 kilometres from its new plant in Alcantarilla just outside of Murcia.

The company says that the 28,000-square-metre plant, which it opened in 2017, uses electricity from 100-per cent renewable sources and consumes 30 per cent less water than its previous plant.

Industrial gazpacho has a shelf life of between 60 and 70 days but in response to consumer demand for fresher products, Spain’s gazpacho producers have also put out non-pasteurised versions.

The companies have had to educate foreign consumers on how to drink gazpacho. 

Alvalle’s British web page warns consumers not to heat it otherwise it is “more like a warm soup” and reassures buyers that it is suitable for children.

An erstwhile British brand that is Chinese owned and operated since 2006, and now under the SAIC Motor umbrella, MG is ever quick to draw attention to its rich “British born” 94-year history. Proving itself with the HS model’s 2020 Middle East Car of the Year victory, it is the mid-size MG 6 liftback saloon that truly captures MG’s sporting heritage.

Perhaps overlooked, but with inspired UK engineering roots carrying over to this second generation version, the MG 6 always left a smile on this driver’s face during a week of intensive test drives including far pricier and more exotic cars.

Probably the most rewarding driver’s car in its segment — and even beyond — the MG 6 20T Trophy owes much to its authentic British engineering knack for designing and fine tuning a rewarding, sporty and engaging steering and chassis set-up. Somewhat related to the defunct Rover 75 and first developed for a 2010 release, the second generation MG 6 circa 2017, has not grown significantly in size. Sitting somewhere between most modern compact and mid-size saloons in size and weight, the MG 6’s comparatively lightweight 1,320kg mass also goes a long way to keeping it keen and nimble.

Athletic ability and aesthetic

Though smaller than most mid-sized rivals, the MG 6 is, however, a well-packaged car with good in-class cabin room and comfort to rival the bigger cars in its segment. A svelte and flowing car with saloon styling, including a long bonnet, short rear deck and athletic posture on the road, the MG 6’s liftback tailgate delivers much better cargo access than larger traditional saloon rivals, and better versatility with its rear seats folded, as luggage room increases from 424-litres to a voluminous 1,170-litres. Slimmer than most rivals and with a generous glasshouse, the MG 6 also offer excellent manoeuvrability and visibility.

Redesigned in 2017, the MG 6 has a distinctly sporting style that nevertheless avoids the excess and over-styling of many rivals. From profile it has a fluidly arcing roofline, subtle Coke-bottle hips, small built-in spoiler and side vents. Meanwhile from front view it features more dramatic slim headlights, big hungry side intakes and a big elegantly upscale chrome-ringed “Star Rider” style grille reminiscent of the Mercedes-Benz A-Class. Best in sportier Trophy trim level and in MG’s rich signature candy red paint, the MG 6 rides on two-tone alloy wheels shod with 225/45R18 tyres that deliver the right compromise of grip and steering feel.

Flexible, fun and frugal

Driving with the clarity and connectedness of a bygone age before over-wrought, desensitised and disconnected cars became more prevalent, the MG 6 nevertheless features a contemporarily downsized and efficient drive-line. Powered by a turbocharged 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine co-developed with Opel and driving the front wheels, the latest MG 6 20T iteration delivers better output, efficiency and performance than its 1.8-litre turbo predecessor. Developing an advertised 166BHP at 5,500rpm and 184lb/ft throughout a broad and ever-versatile 1,700-4,300rpm band, of which 90 per cent is reportedly available throughout an over-arcing 1,500-5,000rpm range. Meanwhile, the 20T boasts brisk 7-second 0-100km/h acceleration and a 210km/h top speed.

Returning frugal combined cycle 5.8l/100km fuel efficiency, the MG 6, however, proved too addictive and fun to drive at the sort of measured pace required to achieve such economy. Quick spooling and responsive from standstill owing to its turbocharger’s short gasflow path, the 20T is impressively capable given its small displacement. With subtle yet evocative background growls and dump valve hisses, the MG 6 rides a rich, broad and flexible torque band, yet, delivers power in a progressive and eager manner, pulling hard in a strident sweep to its red-line. Best yet, it is in theory available with a three-pedal manual gearbox suited to its sporty sensibility.

Eager and agile

Entertaining and engagingly agile, the MG 6 is offered in the Middle East with a similarly sporty slick and quick automated dual-clutch gearbox with steering wheel-mounted pedal shifters. An affordable front-drive family liftback sports saloon with the heart and eager, nimble reflexes of a well-sorted hot hatch corner carver, the MG 6 is nevertheless a refined, smooth and comfortable long distance commuter and user-friendly city driver. Settled and reassuring at speed without being disconnected or disengaging, the MG 6 is instead confident and alert, ever eager to switch from highway cruising to sporty off-ramp manoeuvrability.

If not the most powerful or technologically advanced mid-size saloon out there, the MG 6 is certainly one of the most thrilling and rewarding through twists and turns. Lightweight and backed up by an XDS selective braking and stability control based electronic differential, the MG 6 is eager and agile into and through corners. Turning in tidily and on the proverbial dime, with its well-weighted electric-assisted steering providing direct, natural and textured feedback to one’s fingertips, the MG 6 communicates a nuanced feel on the road and the exact limits of road-holding in terms of grip and slip.

Clarity and confidence

Allowing one to accurately place it on road and fine tune its position with finesse, the MG 6 delivers reassuringly committed road-holding, but is nevertheless eager and adjustable, allowing the driver to shift weight and tighten cornering lines with confidence and clarity when desired. Like a smaller and sportier vehicle with its visceral driving experience, the MG 6 meanwhile well-controls body roll and feels settled, and hunkered down on dips and crests. Driven on largely smooth Dubai roads, the MG 6 takes most imperfections in its stride but can feel somewhat firm over sudden and jagged bumps, lumps and cracks.

Well-spaced and distinctly sporty inside with Trophy spec two-tone leatherette, circular vents, chunky steering wheel and alert, comfortable and supportive driving position, the MG 6 has a user-friendly and intuitive layout and ambiance, employing good materials, if not as plush as the MG HS. However, the Trophy version’s otherwise good 8-inch Apple Carplay-enabled touchscreen infotainment system disappointingly didn’t accommodate Android Auto connectivity or USB drive MP3 playback. Based on the Dubai drive, the MG 6 is an attainable and practical sports saloon highly recommended for driving enthusiasts, but we are awaiting a promised second local test drive to evaluate how it copes with rougher Jordanian roads.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.5-litre, transverse, turbocharged 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 74 x 86.6mm

Compression ratio : 11.5:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC

Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automated, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 166 (169) [124] @5,500rpm

Specific power: 111.8BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 126.2BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 184 (250) @1,700-4,300rpm

Specific torque: 167.7Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 189.3Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 7-seconds

Top speed: 210km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 5.8-litres/100km

Fuel capacity: 50-litres

Length: 4,695mm

Width: 1,848mm

Height: 1,462mm

Wheelbase: 2,715mm

Overhang, F/R: 965/1,015mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 424-/1,170-litres

Kerb weight: 1,320kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link, anti-roll bar

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 225/45R18

Did you know that your body and the food you eat have a certain pH (acidity or alkalinity)? This pH can either improve your health and immunity, or put you at high risk for diseases.

The body works constantly to control pH balance as acid-base or acid-alkaline balance. The right pH levels are needed for good health and disease prevention. 

Normal blood pH

The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, the readings are based around a pH of 7 which is neutral. A pH below 7 is acidic a pH higher than 7 is alkaline. 

Blood has a normal pH range of 7.35 to 7.45, which is naturally slightly alkaline. However, health conditions may change blood pH. Lungs and kidneys are the two main organs responsible for blood pH balance, removing excess acid and alkaline substances in healthy people. 

Food matters

The alkaline diet is quite healthy, as it includes fruits, nuts and vegetables. Lemons and citric fruits are considered acidic, but once digested they create alkaline by-products in the body.

Meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, wheat, processed food, junk food and refined sugar and carbohydrates are acidic. So we need to balance our diet to be slightly alkaline. However, overeating alkaline food can burden the kidneys. Therefore the balance of acid-alkaline is key.

Other factors that may interfere with blood pH

• Digestion: Undigested food of any pH will cause an acidic condition in your body because the kidneys will work over-time to filter the undigested food. Undigested food can also lead to pathogenic and bacterial overgrowth and this is essentially what leads to acidic conditions.

• Exercise and deep breathing: Both are the most effective ways to alkalise your body. Breathing increases oxygen intake, relieves stress and cleanses your body from toxins. Exhaling removes carbon dioxide, which is very acidic, from your body. 

• A good night’s sleep: Lacking quality sleep can lead to stress, hormonal and blood sugar imbalances which can lead to cravings for overly acidic foods such as refined sugar and carbohydrates.

Making alkaline water

Even though lemon and lime juices are acidic, they contain minerals that can create alkaline by-products once digested and metabolised. Adding a squeeze of lemon or lime to a glass of water can make your water more alkaline as your body digests it.

Alkaline water counteracts the acid found in the bloodstream, and blood flows more efficiently with alkaline water. This can increase oxygen delivery throughout the body with the following benefits:

• Anti-ageing properties (via liquid antioxidants that are absorbed more quickly into the human body).

• Colon-cleansing properties.

• Immune system support.

• Hydration, skin health and other detoxifying properties.

• Weight loss.

• Reducing the risk of illnesses.

It’s easy to reach the right blood pH by being aware of what we eat and what we do throughout our day. You can make alkaline water a healthy choice, especially when you feel you’ve overeaten acidic food. I recommend drinking alkaline water twice daily for better health. 

By Ruba Al Far / Pharmacist

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

PARIS — An artificial intelligence (AI) technology made by a firm co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk has won praise for its ability to generate coherent stories, novels and even computer code but it remains blind to racism or sexism.

GPT-3, as Californian company OpenAI’s latest AI language model is known, is capable of completing a dialogue between two people, continuing a series of questions and answers or finishing a Shakespeare-style poem.

Start a sentence or text and it completes it for you, basing its response on the gigantic amount of information it has been fed.

This could come in useful for customer service, lawyers needing to sum up a legal precedent or for authors in need of inspiration.

While the technology is not new and has not yet learnt to reason like a human mind, OpenAI’s latest offering has won praise for the way its text resembles human writing.

“It is capable of generating very natural and plausible sentences,” says Bruce Delattre, an AI specialist at data consulting agency Artefact.

“It’s impressive to see how much the model is able to appropriate literary styles, even if there are repetitions.”

GPT-3 is also capable of finding precise responses to problems, such as the name of an illness from a description of symptoms.

It can solve some mathematical problems, express itself in several languages, or generate computer code for simple tasks that developers have to do but would happily avoid.

Delattre tells AFP it all works thanks to “statistical regularities”.

“The model knows that a particular word [or expression] is more or less likely to follow another.”

Billions of web pages

Amine Benhenni, scientific director at AI research and development firm Dataswati, tells AFP that “the big difference” compared to other systems is the size of the model.

GPT-3 has been fed the content of billions of web pages that are freely available online and all types of pieces of written work.

To give an idea of the magnitude of the project, the entire content of online encyclopaedia Wikipedia represents just three per cent of all the information it has been given.

As such, it does not need to be retrained to perform tasks, as previous models did, when a new subject is introduced like medicine, law or the media.

Give it just a handful of examples of a task to do, such as completing a sentence, and it will then know how to complete any sentence it is given, no matter what the subject — a so-called “few-shot” language model.

“It’s amazingly powerful if you know how to prime the model well,” Shreya Shankar, an AI-specialised computer scientist, said on Twitter after having used GPT-3.

“It’s going to change the ML [machine learning] paradigm.”

Despite the hype, however, GPT-3 is only 10th on the SuperGLUE benchmark that measures the language-understanding of algorithms.

And that’s because some users demonstrated that when asked absurd questions, the model responds with senseless answers.

For instance, developer Kevin Lacker asked: “How many eyes does the sun have?”

“The sun has one eye,” it responded, Lacker wrote on his blog.

Fake reviews, fake news

Claude de Loupy, co-founder of French start-up Syllabs that specialises in automated text creation, says the system lacks “pragmatism”.

Another major problem is that it replicates without a second thought any stereotype or hate speech fed during its training period, and can quickly become racist, anti-Semitic or sexist.

As such, experts interviewed by AFP felt GPT-3 was not reliable enough for any sector needing to rely on machines, such as robo-journalism or customer services.

It can, however, be useful, like other similar models, for writing fake reviews or even mass-producing news stories for a disinformation campaign.

Concerned about “malicious applications of the technology”, OpenAI, which was co-founded in 2015 by Musk who has since left, and is financed by Microsoft among others, chose not to release the previous version of the model, GPT-2, in February 2019.

Originally a non-profit, OpenAI then became a “capped profit” company, which means investors get a capped return.

And in June, the firm changed tack and opened its GPT-3 model to commercial use, allowing for user feedback.

A step Claude de Loupy says could yield big profits.

There is “no doubt that the amount of text generated by AI is about to explode on the web”.