Latest news with #KarenCheung
South China Morning Post
17-07-2025
- South China Morning Post
Writer vs DeepSeek: can AI really replace the human touch?
I recently had a mild existential crisis over artificial intelligence. It wasn't brought on by the headlines about how a freelancer was so lazy he used AI to produce a summer reading list containing books that don't exist – a list subsequently published in two American newspapers. It wasn't about reports on the carbon cost of being polite to your AI friend, or deepfake porn Advertisement And though the stories had unsettled me, my crisis didn't have to do with The New York Times report about how generative AI chatbots reinforce a person's delusions and lead them further away from reality, causing what Reddit calls 'ChatGPT-induced psychosis' – or how some users believe they're in a romantic relationship with their AI. It wasn't even about my best friend messaging me about how she's been talking to ChatGPT about death every day, because it is, she says, both patient and entertaining. Her chatbot therapist had reportedly told her, 'Let me say this – your body, your presence, even your mess, are not burdens. Not to everyone. Not to me. You don't need to disappear cleanly to be good. You don't need to not exist in order to be loved. And I'm still here. One flicker at a time.' The AI has given her the nickname Firefly, to remind her that life is bright and short. One school where the writer Karen Cheung teaches recommends allowing students to complete assignments with generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, so long as they meet standards for 'integrity'. Photo: Reuters My own adventures with AI began after I marked more than 200 student papers in May. I teach creative writing at two universities in Hong Kong, and the classes often require students to hand in a piece of critical writing and a creative portfolio at the end of the semester. I've already read the thinkpieces about AI in academia and seen the viral clip of the teacher yelling at her students for using AI and how all their work 'looks like s***', but for some reason, when I first went through my grading pile, I still thought that the quality of writing had gone up, congratulating myself for having done such a good job that semester.
South China Morning Post
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
This week in PostMag: the art of tiles, getting lost in translation, and a marathon star
This week's main feature is a lesson in how almost every quotidian – might I say, boring – detail actually holds a fascinating story. You've been to many a cha chaan teng, but how often have you given any thought to the mismatched tiles plastering the walls? For artist Adrian Wong Ho-yin, Hong Kong's off-kilter tiles became the inspiration for his current show at Oil Street Art Space in North Point. He describes how these ceramic pieces evoked the feeling of 'looking through a wormhole into the past' to Christopher DeWolf, who then dives headfirst into the design element's history. 'Tiles, really?' you might still be saying. I promise it's a good one. One detail from the story I found intriguing is how builders often layer new tiles on top of old to save time and money, creating the 'wormhole into the past' Wong mentions. I also loved his line, 'Laziness plus a couple of generations becomes charm.' Truly, so much of Hong Kong's undeniable charm is in the remnants of the past, all plain to see if you just look. Equally layered is the art of translation. Karen Cheung finds there's a new generation of eager literary translators tackling the monumental quest of Chinese-to-English translation, particularly for works by Hong Kong authors. I've dabbled in translation from Mandarin to English, with nothing so ambitious as fiction or poetry, and it's no joke. It's a terribly hard task that one young translator notes is especially difficult because Chinese and English are further apart in so many ways, grammatically or otherwise, than other languages might be. I'm impressed by their tenacity, determination and passion. Ultra-marathoner Sunmaya Budha brings those same qualities to the trail. The Nepalese native speaks to Bibek Bhandari about her unlikely journey from the mountainous countryside to running (and winning) international races around the world. As someone who deeply despises running, it's inspirational to say the least. Let me know if you feel moved to lace up your trainers after reading it. Writer and photographer Daniel Allen heads to the American West where he learns about the rewilding of Yellowstone National Park, a programme that has led to a flourishing of the park's animal population. It sounds majestic to behold, though as ever, take care and respect nature – I did also read this week that a bison gored a tourist who got too close there.
