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Construction firm BAM has said it rejects incorrect allegations made at the Oireachtas Committee on Health by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.

The company said it is only looking for the money to which it is properly entitled for work done under the contract.

It claimed that many of the issues currently being faced are due to the lack of a final hospital design by the development board in 2019.

It has emerged that the security shelter adjacent to the Department of Finance cost more than €1.4 million.

Chairman of the OPW John Conlon revealed the figure at the Oireachtas Finance Committee, where he has been answering questions on the cost of the contentious bike shelter.

Mr Conlon said the installation of the security shelter followed an extensive consultation with gardaí and included significant mechanical, electrical and security considerations.

He said there were also significant underground, ventilation, CCTV and other costs “there was a huge security element”, he said.

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Google’s AI Bard was renamed Gemini February 8th 2024 – but how good is AI at being a Bard, a Poet where code is poetry and poetry comes from code?

Well we asked ChatGPT to write a poem about Tallaght Dublin 24.

Below is the result. the prompt

“write a poem about Tallaght Dublin 24“

In Tallaght, where the city breathes its lore, Dublin 24, a place of heart and more, Mountains watch over, tall and grand, As stories of old whisper through the land.

The streets are alive with laughter and cheer, A tapestry of cultures, all gathered here, From the bustling Square to the Village green, Every corner holds a tale unseen.

Tallaght Stadium roars with a crowd’s delight, As Shamrock Rovers take to the night, Echoes of goals and the fans’ embrace, In this spirited, lively, communal space.

Dodder and Tymon weave their way, Through parks where children run and play, Green spaces that breathe life anew, Where the past and the future gently strew.

Tallaght’s people, resilient and strong, In unity, they’ve carried on so long, With a history rich, diverse, and deep, Memories and dreams in their hearts they keep.

From the Old Bawn stones to the high-rise sky, In every sunset, in every sigh, Tallaght whispers its secrets, bold and bright, A community bound by love and light.

So here’s to Tallaght, Dublin 24, A place of pride, where spirits soar, Where every stone and every street, Tells a story, rich and sweet.

So we asked Gemini to pen us a poem with the same prompt

In Dublin’s sprawl, where mountains rise, Lies Tallaght, kissed by open skies. A modern heart with history’s touch, A tapestry woven, loved so much.

The Square aglow, a bustling beat, Shops and cafes line the street. Laughter rings, a friendly sound, Community on common ground.

Castles whisper, stories untold, Of battles fought and legends bold. The O’Tooles, their legacy grand, In echoes carried by the land.

Parks unfold, a verdant dream, Where families picnic, sunlight streams. The wind sighs soft through rustling leaves, A moment’s peace the spirit weaves.

Sports alight, a passionate roar, Tallaght Stadium, hearts soar. Colours clash, a thrilling chase, Victory’s dance, a joyous space.

From humble homes to soaring towers, A city’s spirit, unbowed by hours. Through changing times, a constant thread, The resilience of all who’ve tread.

So raise a glass, to Tallaght D24, A place that holds you, evermore. With open arms and stories bright, It shines a beacon, day and night.

There has been much editorial content given to the pro’s and cons of AI and ChatGPT. In this article by Angela Yang of NBC, Angela discusses some of the commentary about the new music video released last week (and reported on here on @Tallaghtsociall.com May 3rd 2024 – https://tallaghtsocial.com/2nd-may-2024-first-official-music-video-made-with-open-ais-sora/) using OpenAI’s Sora

Angela Yang – NBC

A chillwave musician last week uploaded the first entirely artificial intelligence-generated music video created by OpenAI’s text-to-video model, Sora.

Washed Out’s latest song, “The Hardest Part,” was released Thursday, complete with a four-minute music video following a couple’s romance from high school through the rest of their adult lives together — speeding through scenes alluding to a wedding, child-rearing and eventual death.

The video’s director, Paul Trillio, wrote in a statement shared by Washed Out’s record label, Sub Pop, that he had wanted to film such an “infinite zoom” concept for a decade now but never attempted it because he believed it would be too ambitious.

“I was specifically interested in what makes Sora so unique. It offers something that couldn’t quite be shot with a camera, nor could it be animated in 3D, it was something that could have only existed with this specific technology,” Trillio wrote. “The surreal and hallucinatory aspects of AI allow you to explore and discover new ideas that you would have never dreamed of.”

Sora, which is not yet available to the public, can generate videos up to a minute long based on ideas typed into a text box. Edited together, the clips could feasibly be used to make full-length projects. The technology had roused a mixture of excitement and concern online after OpenAI unveiled its hyper-realistic video-generation capabilities in February.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The Hardest Part,” the lead single from Washed Out’s coming album, “Notes From a Quiet Life,” is the longest music video made with Sora so far. There is something dreamlike, almost uncanny, about the visuals — an effect that seems intentional, according to Trillio, who wrote that it’s “boring” to try to re-create reality with AI.

“I wasn’t interested in capturing realism but something that felt hyperreal. The fluid blending and merging of different scenes feels more akin to how we move through dreams and the murkiness of memories,” Trillio wrote. “While some people feel this may be supplanting how things are made, I see this as supplementing ideas that could never have been made otherwise.”

Washed Out, whose real name is Ernest Greene, also wrote in a statement shared by Sub Pop that Sora managed to bring the fictitious couple’s story, centered on nostalgia and love lost, to life in ways that he believes only AI can.

“What [Trillio’s] come up with is nostalgic, sad, uplifting, and often quite strange. However, he still manages to make you feel for the characters and invested in the journey of how their lives progress,” Greene wrote, adding, “In my opinion, the hallucinatory quality of Sora clips feel like the beginning of a new genre unto itself — one that is surreal and unpredictable and entirely unique to traditional cinema or even animation.”

Some artists online criticized the use of AI to create the video, expressing doubt that it enhanced the video’s creativity or helped evoke emotion from viewers.

The explosion of generative AI technology has permeated creative industries in recent years, raising questions of how the influx of new tools — enabling internet users everywhere to create music, write scripts or lyrics and generate visual media with nothing but a few text prompts — will affect the labor of real-life artists and producers.

Concerns about generative AI were already top of mind for entertainment industry workers during last year’s labor strikes. And many musicians continue to push for protections around use of AI models. Just last month, Drake pulled his diss track “Taylor Made Freestyle” from his social media accounts after Tupac Shakur’s estate threatened to sue him for using an AI-generated version of Shakur’s voice.

Despite a flurry of lawsuits around AI algorithms’ learning from human artists’ copyrighted work without consent or compensation, others in the tech space have few qualms about using the technology — often arguing that the accessibility of generative AI tools will allow lower-budget artists to pursue bigger projects.

Trillio wrote that he remains optimistic about how artists will adapt as AI reveals new technological and creative possibilities.

“This offers a glimpse at a future where music artists will be given the opportunity to dream bigger,” he wrote. “An overreliance on this technique may become a crutch and it’s important that we don’t use this as the new standard of creation but another technique in the toolbelt.”

In our original article dates May 2nd. The video had achieved 36,000 views and 1.6k likes. Today 6th May that figure has risen to 159,200 views and 3.2k likes.

OpenAI’s text-to-video tool has been a busy bee recently, helping to make a short film about a man with a balloon for a head and giving us a glimpse of the future of TED Talks – and now it’s rustled up its first official music video for the synth-pop artist Washed Out (below)

This isn’t the first music video we’ve seen from Sora – earlier this month we saw this one for independent musician August Kamp – but it is the first official commissioned example from an established music video director and artist.

That director is Paul Trillo, an artist who’s previously made videos for the likes of The Shins and shared this new one on X (formerly Twitter). He said the video, which flies through a tunnel-like collage of high school scenes, was “an idea I had almost 10 years ago and then abandoned”, but that he was “finally able to bring it to life” with Sora.

With thanks to techradar for original article – edited by Sharon

At the time of posting- 3rd May @ 16.40gmt – this video has already achieved 1.6k likes, 36k views.

In 1990, it is the absolute glory for the clogs which return in force to tread the parterres of parades of the big Houses of fashion as Chanel, Gucci, Dior. Since winter 2023, the clogs are back with the added bonus of new lighter materials, colors and heels to make it even more sexy.

we are now heading into the coming summer of 2024 and traffic trend have started to stock their summer edition watch this space.

www.traffictrend.ie

https://traffictrend.ie

www.traffictrend.ie