No, I made that bit up – it’s “clickbait”. Sorry. But this is a big “shout out” to my many friends in the BSA IT Team, some of whom are leaving the company as part of its downsizing and restructuring. The Team – led by the superb Alex Bramley – held a victory/farewell dinner on Friday 12 July 2025, and they invited me along as an honorary team member. And jolly good company they all were. They have also – during my lengthy and ongoing stay at BSA Limited – proved repeatedly to be smart, helpful and resourceful.
To celebrate them and a great evening, I searched for a nice picture and quote about “hanging around with nice people”. (I do like a good quote, as readers know.) I used the AI-assisted DuckDuckGo search engine, as recommended by BSA IT. Look what it provided as the top result!
(I have to agree with the first three lines, Sylvester. Who would have thought of such wisdom from John “Philosopher” Rambo ??!!)
I had, however, anticipated something more like the pastoral scene below which was much lower ranked in the search results. The exercise just shows that you get exactly what you search for. (“Garbage in, garbage out”, with a twist.)
That was a useful reminder for me: artificial intelligence will answer the question you put to it, not, it seems, the question you should have put to it. Two things arise from that:
- this technology-based result will be “old news’ for the champions of the BSA IT Team (hurrah!) and the rest of you; and
- in this, it mirrors the advice we lawyers give those of our clients called to give witness evidence: “Answer the question the cross-examining barrister puts to you; NOT the question that you think she/he should have asked you.”
As you may have now deduced, we Quirks are not renowned for our IT skills (you would never have guessed by looking at the two Rambos above, would you? We’re better lawyers, I assure you.) Perhaps we are still a little frightened by technology, even if we dabble with it before seeking expert help from the BSA IT team (hurrah!) and similar gurus. In support of that contention, my brother Jerome provided me a “Quote of the Day“ from Geoffrey Hinton (said to be “the Godfather of AI”). Darkly, Mr Hinton has warned as to the dangers of AI: “If you want to know what life is like if you are not the Apex intelligence, ask a chicken!”
To return to the human level, however: you may need IT expertise and start recruiting. If you see “served in BSA IT” on an applicant’s CV, then I urge you: “While they remain available, grab them: you won’t regret it. That is a statement as to their quality.”
Toodlepip
BenQ
Artifex Antiquus: welcome to all 