GCS GUIDE: Your guide rope for using generative AI in public sector comms is here

When I was a kid Dad would take us to see my Gran and Grandpa in the Lake District where he was born.

At one end of Derwentwater, he’d point up at a rockface where little human specs with orange helmets could be seen hundreds of feet up. Trailing brown ropes trailed behind them. As we’d stop and watch those figures would carefully manoeuvre themselves and stretch an arm for a new grip on the crag in a slow motion drama.

“They’re rock climbers,” Dad would tell us. “They’re all a bit mad.”

Years later I would go on my own reading binge of rock climbing memoirs. Climber Joe Simpson whose climbing career was fired by such books tells of overcoming the deep fear by technique, clear thinking and process. Where any sane person would panic a climber would overcome their terror by calmly going through a check list and balance the risk.

In the climbing community, there is special respect for the climber who turns round just short of the summit because they can see from their check list it is the only safe thing to do.

With AI, like rock climbing it is perfectly acceptable to be both terrified and excited at the same time.

Thankfully, good ropes, carabiniers and orange helmets are now being supplied by UK Government. They can help keep communicators safe. Yes, it is scary. Yes, it can be done. There are risks and there is a checklist.

The latest piece of equipment to keep the AI Alpinist safe is the UK Government’s Government Communications Service generative AI policy. It is a profoundly useful addition to your rucksack of comms safety equipment.

When social media emerged in the public sector it was done through a band of militant optimists. I’m proud to be one of them. Our mantra was that it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. With AI, I think it’s now more demanding permission. These documents will help you climb safely.

This will keep you safe 

The most important thing about the GCS generative AI policy is that it will help keep you safe if you’ve got common sense.

At no stage is this a green light to go charging ahead with AI in any way you may dream of.

Firstly, the brass tacks. Generative AI basically means the tools that use AI that will help you create something. This includes text and images.

Let’s look at the key points. 

Always use generative AI in accordance with the latest official government guidance. 

This part of the policy links itself safely by a piece of climbing rope to the UK Government Generative AI Framework. I’ve blogged on this here. By securing it against Government policy this gives you an unbeatable scissors paper stone option.

Uphold factuality in our use of generative AI.

You can’t use AI to create something that misleads. This is a really important piece of policy equipment to be guided by. I can see this being useful to a communicator being put under any implied pressure to try and spin something that isn’t there. It’s also a public declaration of how to use it.

Engage with appropriate government organisations, strategic suppliers, technology providers, and civil society, around significant developments in generative AI, and the implications for its use in government communications.

It’s important that a dialogue is created and maintained to show the wider world how AI is being used. There is no doubt that doubt creates fear and misinformation which can damage hard won reputation.

Continue to review reputable research into the public’s attitudes towards generative AI and consider how this policy should evolve in response.

Again, this is important to root the work in a wider discussion and debate. For example, the Ada Lovelace Foundation have been a beacon of common sense in the field. Their 2023 research on what people in the UK think about AI should be part of your reading list. 

Government Communications may use generative AI where it can drive increasingly effective, and engaging government communications, for the public good, in an ethical manner.

This is an absolute winner of a paragraph. Print it out and memorise it. It is the starting pistol, the green light, the permission granted and the opening of the door. In days to come people will look at this and be baffled that there was a time before this technology. 

Interestingly, the document refers to first draft text visuals or audio. It can also be a useful tool in making content more accessible. Note that isn’t waving through the final draft sight unseen. To borrow the title of the CIPR document, humans are still very much needed in this process.

Government communications aims to build trust in our approach through acting transparently.

In this section, GCS say that permission will be sought before using a human as an avatar. In plain language, an avatar is a computer generated representation of a person. This can be entirely off-the-shelf and created using some of the tools that are already available. The problem with this is that they can have an American accent or come over as being insincere.

What this particular line also tackles is seeking the permission of people to have their likeness converted into an avatar. This could be useful for HR to create a training avatar to talk you through processes. Tools such as veed.io can do this although the cost of doing so is price on application. 

The benefit of having a human avatar is clear. If you’re in the Black Country, a Black Country accent will land better with the local audience. It can also speed up and cut the cost of training video production. However, while I can see this working in HR if it is marked as AI.

I’m really not sold on the idea of an avatar spokesperson tackling a thorny issue. 

We will clearly notify the public when they are interacting with a conversational AI service rather than a human.

This is essential. People have mixed views about AI and feel far happier when they are told they are speaking to a robot. This chimes with EU regulations that to me is common sense. We generally don’t mind talking to a customer service live chat pop-up if its marked as AI asking some basic questions a human operator can then use to help you.

Government communications will not apply generative AI technologies where it conflicts with our values or principles.

This makes sense but its probably worth spelling it out. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Government communications will not use generative AI to deliver communications to the public without human oversight, to uphold accuracy, inclusivity and mitigate biases. 

Again, humans are involved with this process. 

A useful template for communicators

Of course, this is handy if you are a government communicator but its also useful if you are in the public sector or even third sector. 

So much hard work I’m sure has gone into this. It would be daft not to take advantage of the learning. To tie what you are looking to do in your own team to these principles or to base your own version on them is common sense. 

Huge credit for those involved with this.

I deliver training that now has the elements of AI that you need ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER and ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED.

COMMUNITY GROUPS: Two of the biggest campaigns of 2024 have recruited an army advocates to speak for them. Could you?

I’ve been shouting about Facebook groups for the last six years so I’m professionally fascinated at how they’ve played an important role twice in 2024.

The campaigns in question are Labour in the UK General Election and the US Democrats in the upcoming Presidential campaign.

The single idea shared by both is this. People trust people like them more than politicians so why don’t we help them to talk about the issues of the day?

It plays out like this. A politician talking about, say, the NHS gets treated with a degree of scepticism while your neighbour’s struggles to get an appointment at Thorns Road surgery around the corner from you gets a hearing.

In fact, the politician may not even be let into the community group to have that conversation.

Both Labour and the Democrats have recruited local teams of volunteers to talk about their own experiences on key issues and share content in Facebook groups, Nextdoor and WhatsApp groups.

This strategy was a key reason why Labour won a 167-seat majority and it’s a factor in Kamala Harris being a short head in front in the US elections.

There’s research that underpins this. In short, if we see something from someone who look like us, we’re more likely to listen. We know this. The Edelman Trust Barometer puts ‘someone like myself’ behind scientists as the second most trusted people in the UK on around 70 per cent.

The theory of normative social behaviour tells us that we are more likely to listen to someone we know.

How Labour won using an army of advocates

The Times [paywall] reported in a story headlined ‘The army of digital sleeper agents who propelled Labour to power’. The story reports that Labour may well have spent £6 million on online ads but it’s the conversations online that were a new battle front.

“An unobtrusive but effective guerilla campaign was also launched, to softly target those in the comparatively new battleground of community Facebook groups with what one source dubbed “digital sleeper agents”.

“Community Facebook groups have exploded in recent years, with millions of people sharing local news, opinions, and getting into spats, and Labour is understood to have used them all over the country.

“The tactic is not new and has been used by the Conservatives, including the setting up of local community groups, but Labour believes its approach was “more organised” and rejected “vanity metrics” of likes or follower count.

“It’s about encouraging people to be active in the online space, in their community, and basically encouraging candidates to go into these groups and say ‘Hey I’m standing in the election, what are the local issues?’ If you’re a local candidate you should be visible in these places because that’s where people report and talk about antisocial behaviour or services not working. You have to be visible,” the source said, adding that “genuine local people” needed to be delivering the messages.”

The piece went onto say that WhatsApp groups in Muslim communities proved to be damaging as there was not the same ability to gain access.  

In the USA, this technique is also being used by Democrats with national memes and images being distributed and shared locally with a local spin.

But this is not just in Facebook community groups.

The impact of Taylor Swift

The ability to encourage people to come onboard and share their own content is exactly what’s electrifying about singer Taylor Swift coming out for Kamala Harris.

There is no more dedicated fans than the Swifties who bought a billion dollars of concert tickets in her recent global tour.

Mariana Spring, the BBC Misinformation reporter, in a recent edition of the Today Podcast, said the benefit to the Harris Walz campaign is that it dominates the algorithm.

“That fandom are able to generate loads of their own content memes, videos and posts. They make that for free and it’s organic. It doesn’t look sponsored by anyone. It’s coming from real voters real people. It’s coming from a genuine other voter who might be like you and that stuff keeps cropping up at the top of your feed and that is the thing that’s most valuable.”

Here, the impact isn’t in local Facebook groups but across a community of interest – Taylor Swift fans. The strategy is just as likely to reach a fan in the UK as it is in the swing state of North Carolina. But by keeping the Swifties for Harris star’s name at the top of feeds this can only help the Democrat campaign.

The ideas remain the same. Get real people to talk about it. It’s organic and free.

What does this mean for the public sector?

Often when I’m training people will see the benefit of actively sharing content in community Facebook groups. There’s some good examples where sharing to Nextdoor or Facebook groups has had real results.  

But the most common barriers are a lack of time and the fear of abuse.

These are reasonable issues to flag. Time is finite. People are busy. How can people be everywhere all the time? They simply can’t.

Organisations  can certainly start the ball rolling on sharing their own targeted content in targeted Facebook groups.

But wouldn’t it be good to have fellow travellers who can share what you are doing?

Thinking about it, this would work best on a micro-level. The Friends of Barnford Park already have a network. Could they share something about the new play equipment or the fun day?

Or the leisure centre user. Could they be enlisted to share about the New Year drive to get fitter?

When I worked in local government we tried to start a Facebook page for parents and children. It was to pull together things from leisure, libraries, schools and events which mums, dads and carers would benefit from. It failed. It didn’t work because we had nine admins and everyone else thought the other person was taking the lead. But could you recruit a group of advocates from them?

Maybe.

Yes, we do have share icons on a lot of content. But when was the last time you used them?

What Labour and the Democrats have done in their campaigns is to recruit advocates who are passionate about a topic.

So what are people passionate about? They may be passionate about their library. They may be passionate about being a parent of young children and sharing things that people can do like park events.

This leads me to what is the most popular content in Facebook groups. It is events. It’s things with dates, times and places where people can do things.

So, museum exhibitions, town centre fun days, leisure centres, fundraising campaigns, police information days, fire and rescue information all feel like people will put their hand up to be advocates.

I help deliver ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER to help people communicate more effectively in a changing landscape.

AI: Generated art is the new political cartoon

I’ve been amazed while I scroll these past few months how much AI has become a political tool. 

We were warned that AI would be used to make deep fake to create online storms. Theres been some of this but the tools are being used far more as AI cartoons.

So what am I talking about?

I’m talking about the slew of AI art I’m seeing in some – not all – Facebook groups.

In the run-up to the General Election there was plenty and more around the far right riots in England and Northern Ireland.

What do they look like?

Well, there’s this one which shows a patriotic British Lion with a red white and blue mane chasing down their enemy to publicise a far right march in London.

Or this AI image of a British hourglass with the sands of time slipping and the question ’How long do we have left before its gone.’

It’s a far right trope that the Britain we know is disappearing.

It’s clever because its a dog whistle that stays the right side of the law.

But while they are noticeably far right in character the style is open to parody from more left wing campaigners. 

In the riots in England in summer 2024 these two AI images collided.

Firstly, the Aryan-looking child appealing for Britain’s lion to awaken. Then the parody with the drunk lion sleeping off a hangover surrounded by a traffic cone and beer bottles the results of a drunken night out.

“Daddy, the police are at the door,” Aryan child asks “What did you do?”

Or this one.

The message is clear, that the far right protestors are drunk, patriotic and misguided. The symbolic bulldog we’ve seen before. Both the left and right are using established symbols to male a point.

The origins of these AI pieces goes back to before American Independence.

The long history of the political cartoon

In the late 18th century, a single image in a pamphlet or newspaper became a powerful tool.

Print technology allowed the line drawing to be replicated in the printing press. The political cartoon became a common feature.

By the mid-19th century magazines like Punch held power to account with cartoons which mocked, argued and teased on issues of the day. 

Here, the British Lion roaring at the Indian Bengal tiger from 1857. This was the year of the Indian Mutiny or India’s First War of Independence depending on your national standpoint.

Of the 40,000 British civilians in India, 6,000 were murdered in the incident which prompted outrage in the British Isles.

Pic credit: Creative Commons licence.

In the image, Britain is represented by the lion defending the naked woman and child on the floor from the savage Indian. 

Why is AI art effective messaging?

We know this AI art is not real. But these images are a snippet that makes a point in the time it takes to scroll. It can be read, understood, downloaded and reposted in a way that a Peanuts cartoon strip or a video clip can never be. 

The speed with which it can make a point and then be shared makes it hugely powerful.

ONLINE TREND CHASING? Relax, don’t feel like you have to chase them

The question was posed recently by a worried lady in her 40s as to where she could find out about online trends.

My immediate counter question was ‘should you?’

That response has re-appeared for me repeatedly in the wake of the online trend of Gen Z writing the marketing scripts. 

If you’ve not seen this trend, this was a TikTok where a posh woman in her sixties takes you on a tour of her historic bed and breakfast giving a Gez Z speak commentary written by her daughter.

So, the lady’s Medieval kitchen has ‘so much rizz’, her panelled room ‘understood the assignment, slay’ and her bedrooms help you recover from a ‘Brat summer or a menty B’.

In plain English, the kitchen has lots of charm, the panelled room is perfect, which is great and the bedrooms can help you overcome a wild time or nervous exhaustion.

The comedy of this is that the older lady clearly didn’t know what the heck she was talking about. It’s a mix of grown-ups not knowing the kids and well heeled attempting to be street. It’s funny. After just over a week, the TikTok from Fyfield Manor has 2.2 million views while Curry’s who did a similar thing around the same time has 2.1 million.

The Fyfield Manor one is here…

I’m not linking the Curry’s one. In 1985, my Mum had to have a stand-up row in their Stafford branch to get them to replace a faulty cassette recorder. Some things run deep.

Since then, TikTok and Instagram have been inundated with brands making their own copies of the Gen Z marketing script. The innocence of the first clips’ work has now gone.

So, where did it all go wrong? 

Blame Kamala Harris 

I’ve a feeling Gen Z speak really came into the mainstream when savvy 20 somethings on Kamala Harris’ campaign borrowed the lime green imagery and black typeface of Charlie XCX’s ‘Brat Summer’ album.

It connected with a younger audience almost overnight.

Who are Gen Z, anyway? By 2025, 27 per cent of the workforce will be Gen Z. This is everyone born from 1997 to 2012 and their ages range from a hefty 27 to a just starting High school 12-year-old.

By the way, If you’re a Gen X like me but have two Gen Z kids, using Gen Z slang in their presence is magnificent. “A little piece of my dies, Dad,” my daughter told me, “when you say ‘skibbidy toilet rizz.’”

Reader, this phrase expresses displeasure at something. My offspring’s own displeasure at me qualifies her to use it but she declines. She just glares instead.

An alternative language is nothing new.

Victorian criminals used an alternative language. To ‘dry up’ was to be quiet while to be ‘peery’ was to be a snitch. The British LGBTQ community in the past have used ‘Polari’ to conceal intention from a straight audience that can sometimes mean them harm. The words ‘naff’ and ‘camp’ jumped the fence from this patois.

A trend has the life of a gadfly 

So, back to the Gen Z marketing script trend. Just over a week later and dozens of brands and organisations are getting in on the act with their own copies of the trend. It now feels, to borrow a Gen Z phrase ‘a bit cringe’. Why? Because what made it work in the first place was originality, creativity and humour. Johnny Rotten once said that when they first started to wear safety pins and ripped t-shirts it was original. When everyone did it it became a uniform.

If you’ve made one yourself feel free to disregard this. But I’m starting very quickly to absolutely get tired of it. It feels like the digital equivalent of the chief exec asking you to make a rap about finance and audit scrutiny so they can connect with the kids.

In the hit 80s teen movie The Breakfast Club, Bender ridicules the teacher by asking him if Barry Manilow knows he’s raiding his wardrobe. It’s that.

So, we can safely say that trends can often have a life span the length of a gadfly.

What to do?

All this returns to the original question of knowing where trends are and should you?

There is no getting around spending time on the internet to spot trends emerge and fall like waves in the sea.

As a strategy, I still love the approach Black Country Living Museum seeing a trend then seeing if they could put their own historical spin on it. If they could they’d try it. If they couldn’t they wouldn’t.

In short, you really don’t have to know where trends are to be a communicator. If it works for you, fine. If not, don’t worry.

If you’re using a channel where these trends simply don’t really matter then don’t bother. If you’re using a channel where this can help then spend time on the platform, take out a TikTok Business account and you’ll see in the backend a list for you of the popular videos.

If you’re late to a trend you may as well not bother.

Why trends chasing can be a bad idea

I’ve been puzzling why I’ve been in despair at the large numbers of Gen Z wrote the marketing script videos. Eugene Healey, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, defined it well for me in a TikTok.

In it, he complains that brands are getting too savvy at finding and replicating original ideas. Once a trend becomes identified with generating money for a brand, he says, the fun dies and it becomes exhausting to the audience.

When one or two do it, its fun. When loads of people are do it it’s not. He calls this ‘trend inflation’.

I’ve nothing against creativity. It’s just better if you’re being creative with a new idea that may or may not work rather than something that’s a fifth generation photocopy of the Mona Lisa. 

NEW TRAINING DATES: I’ve introduced an AI element to my training and here’s three reasons why

It was never going to be like a robot invasion, was it?

There was never going to be a single cinematic moment when an AI UFO hovered over the town playing three notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and then took over.

Instead, AI has quickly become part of the day-to-day almost seamlessly buried in the tools we use. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Canva and Kinemaster all have AI in them. That’s even before the explosion of more than 14,000 new AI tools that have become available for comms people. 

There’s three challenges facing public sector communications people. 

Firstly, there’s trust. You can burn through trust very quickly if you’re using AI in a place where people aren’t happy. Take cancer care. Almost nine in 10 people think using AI in cancer care is fine but this collapsed to three in ten for targeted political ads. Remember Kate Middleton’s problematic picture? 

You can maintain trust by using just enough AI in the right time and the right space. There are some seriously useful UK Government guidelines that can help you with this. Applying them and knowing the best tools to use is the next step.

Second issue is knowledge. What to use and when? People often don’t have the time to invest. I’ve read, watched and tried out the tools so you don’t have to. 

Third is the idea that AI won’t replace a comms person but a comms person who knows how to use AI WILL replace one that doesn’t. Imagine being the comms person who didn’t know how to use the internet or social media effectively. You won’t have a long career. 

All this is why I’ve included an AI element into the training that I run. This post sets out the new round of dates but also what that means in practice.

Have a look at the dates. 

ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER – UPDATED

Given what’s happened to X, formerly Twitter over the last few months, taking a fresh look at the channels you use should be data driven and strategic. I’m updating the training deck at least once a week now.

There are now SIX sessions which cover what a comms person needs to know. This includes:

  • #1 Media landscape, comms planning and evaluation
  • #2 Making the most of algorithms
  • #3 Emerging channels – TikTok, WhatsApp, Threads and Nextdoor
  • #4 Facebook groups and LinkedIn
  • #5 How to deal with comment, criticism and abuse

And introducing:

  • #6 Using AI safely and with confidence

This new session will look at the basics you need to get in place, the pitfalls to avoid and some tips on the best AI platforms that can offer you the best return. I’ve done the work so you don’t have to.

We’ll look at how to use AI tools as a force for good and give you some tools for responding to deep faked AI that can be aimed at you as a force for bad.

New dates:

  • Programme #56 Starts on 9.9.24. 
  • Programme #57 starts on 1.10.24
  • Programme #58 starts on 8.11.24

For more information and to book a place head here.

ESSENTIAL VIDEO SKILLS REBOOTED

Video has been at the frontline of AI development as a force for good as well as bad.

The training will continue to show you how to plan, shoot, edit and post effective video. The data and insight is fresh to help you build and refine a case.

We’ll look at how to use AI safely as well as some tools that can help you from speeding up the subtitling phase to adding value by using AI to animate your cutaways. But we’ll remind you of how to mark it so as not to scare your audience.

New dates:

  • Programme #32 starts on 9.9.24
  • Programme #33 starts on 17.10.24

For more information and to book a place head here.

ESSENTIAL MEDIA RELATIONS 

It’s been fascinating seeing how the media landscape has been evolving in 2024.

Riots across England and Northern Ireland fired by misinformation has underlined the need for good journalism. But the journalism many communities has is not what it was 20 years ago.

In this session, we’ll look at how to pitch a story idea for coverage as well as dealing with the incoming media query. Time was when every comms team was stuffed with ex-journos. That’s not the case now. That’s not such a bad thing but those skills are still needed by the effective comms team.

New dates:

  • Programme #21 starts on 16.9.24
  • Programme #22 starts on 5.11.24 

For more information and to book a place head here.

Yes, you can book on to a public session and yes, I can run the sessions for you in-house so your whole team is updated. 

Shout if you have a follow-up question. I’m dan@danslee.co.uk.

THREAD PATH: What does public sector Threads look like in 2024?  

With X, formerly Twitter, experiencing turbulence how is Threads shaping up as a platform for public sector organisations? 

Threads, you may know, is Meta’s platform to try and take down the Elon Musk platform. Globally, it has 175 million users against 400 million users for what used to be Twitter.

In the UK, figures are harder to come across with Ofcom suggesting ‘hundreds of thousands’ of monthly users in the UK.

The Threads figure may have taken a bounce in summer 2024 after Elon Musk went to war with UK Government and organisations started to move away from the platform.

So, how is it shaping out? 

As a platform there is life on Threads

In the UK, Arsenal Football Club have the largest presence on the platform with more than three million followers.

https://www.threads.net/@arsenal

Sure, a Premier League club like this has a global following rather than simply a UK one. But the size of those numbers do show that there is life on Threads.

The top 100 UK Threads influencers according to influencer platform Starngage are dominated by football teams and Instagram influencers who are already plenty big on sister site Instagram.

But how about public sector organisations? 

The public sector top 10 in 2024

Doing some digging, here’s the UK public sector top 10 on Threads. 

I’ve used a fairly liberal use of what makes public sector. Topping the list is Kew Gardens which is classed as a non-departmental public body. That’s 142nd in the Starngage list.

Kew Gardens https://www.threads.net/@kewgardens 103,000

British Library https://www.threads.net/@britishlibrary 87,800

British Army https://www.threads.net/@britisharmy 84,900

The Met Office https://www.threads.net/@metoffice 77,200

Royal Marines https://www.threads.net/@royalmarines 58,200

Royal Air Force https://www.threads.net/@royalairforceuk 27,900

Ordnance Survey https://www.threads.net/@ordnancesurvey 25,900

Transport for London https://www.threads.net/@transportforlondon 25,400

Discover Cymru https://www.threads.net/@discovercymru 13,800

Visit NI https://www.threads.net/@discoverni 12,200

British Library comes in second place.

Elsewhere in the list the armed forces figure strongly with three places in the top 10 and  tourism-focussed also taking up space.

Let me know if I’ve missed any.

Government is lagging 

When Threads first launched there was a spate of councils, police forces, NHS bodies and others taking out an account to stop cyber-squatting. Since then, they’ve more often and not turned dormant.

The largest government accounts are:

UK Government, Scotland https://www.threads.net/@ukgovscotland?hl=en 5,061

Welsh Government https://www.threads.net/@welshgovernment?hl=en 1,426

Given that 3.5 million people live in Scotland a return of 5,000 is a poor return. 

Elsewhere, the biggest police account is… 

British Transport Police https://www.threads.net/@britishtransportpolice 10,400

The biggest fire and rescue account is…

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue https://www.threads.net/@wyfrs 1,081

The biggest council is…

Exeter City Council https://www.threads.net/@exetercouncil?hl=en 1,027 

So what‘s the bottom line?

It’s clear that the audience for Threads is building in the UK but the public sector are being hesitant in diving in with it. This is not such a bad strategy. There’s plenty to occupy the time of people who work in the sector.

At some point it does become chicken and egg. If you don’t post you don’t get followers. But the lack of followers on space holder accounts does make it a bit dull. 

This isn’t a X/Twitter or Threads straight swap. If there’s an audience then by all means do both but right now for me Threads is a nice to have rather than a must have. 

PHOTO SHOT: AI and the worker’s bus in the late 1960s

It’s an astonishing picture.

Taken from the back of the bus there are rows of cloth capped steel workers on a bus with the heavy haze of cigarette smoke hanging above them.

It’s posted to a Facebook group called It’s All About Sheffield In’it.

The shot is of a long lost Britain travelling to work without a mobile phone in sight.

Members of the Sheffield Facebook group quickly warmed to the image.

“Great depiction of the early days and how society has changed,” one said.

“Wow what a photo! I can smell it,” wrote another.

One group member was prompted to recall the distinct smell of soluble oil which used to hang over Sheffield in the 1960s. It came from a cutting lubricant in engineering factories, he said, and it hung to the clothes of people travelling home. He recalled the pride as an apprentice smelling of it.

Another remembered the route.

“Number 103 Bus out of Hackenthorpe was Vulcan Road if my memory serves me correctly,” another added filling in some recollection-dredged gaps.

One Facebook group member recalled how she used to catch that Hackenthorpe bus sometimes. Sitting upstairs meant you could smoke.

All these memories are genuine and recalled with warmth.

But the image isn’t real. It’s been made by AI.

“Bloody AI again,” one person points out. “No central aisle, how’s the conductor going to take fares?”

For two minutes scrolling this thread I was taken in myself by the power of the imagery and the power of people’s memories giddily remembered.

But of course, there’s no central aisle. How will the conductor get around and people climb on board?

It is, in effect, the bus to nowhere where like the Hotel California it is impossible to get off.

It never existed yet the memories of the people who recall it absolutely do.

That’s where we are with AI images in 2024.

AI CHECK #5: runwayml.com to create video

This week I’m taking a look at a commercial generative AI tool that’s been named as one of the most influential 100 companies in the world.

Runway was founded six years ago and has been used by Hollywood filmmakers as well as music videos.

So far so fancy, but how can it be used for everyday filmmaking?

Creating video

What may have begun as a text to video product is now very firmly asking the user to upload a prompt image for it to base its work on. But unlike Pika when I looked at it you’re able to ask it to produce 10 seconds of footage instead of five seconds.

So, here is a picture of a British amusement arcade.

The image is creative commons. Credit to Paul Glazzard / Teddy’s Amusements, Withernsea.

Helpfully, the platform makes some suggestions for the prompt. Firstly, what the camera may do but also what happens in the picture.

I used this as a prompt.

[Camera pans slowly from left to right] [We can see movement from the amusement arcade players as they load money into the slot machines or move around] [the neon lights blink on and off] [lens flare].

It created this.

Handy, but with a few glitches. The lady on the left appears to leave her foot behind.

Can it do better? I tried again.

[Camera stays static] [We can see movement from the amusement arcade players as they load money into the slot machines or move around] [the neon lights blink rapidly on and off] [lens flare].

https://videopress.com/v/K9ENzMTH?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Again, glitches. People blur and melt into each other. But the overall shot of moving into the image is still amazing. Would using those people be problematic for a filmmaker? Absolutely. GDPR would need to be sought.

Lip synching

Firstly, I tried using a creative commons image of Margaret Thatcher but got closed down as it closely resembled a public figure.

Drat and also wow.

So I uploaded stock picture from istock I have a licence for.

Here’s the picture.

And here’s the lipsynched video with some existing audio of Taylor Swift I also uploaded as an mp3 file.

Ten for effort. At a glance its plausible but an old face with a young mouth doesn’t cut it.

How about a recognisable face?

Well, here’s Mrs Slee. She’s recognisable to me but probably not to you.

Frankly, instead of the lovely person I married the interpretation looks more like Barry the bricklayer who has been punched in the face. Anyone who knows her would spot the fraud a mile off.

In summary

Like Pika, this may be useful for turning stock pictures into cutaways to add a voiceover too. Maybe there’s also room for lip synching an old image with some period text but only if it is marked up as AI.

There’s no question that experimentation is going to be of benefit but you’ll burn through the free trial pretty quickly. The standard package – which is the cheapest – will get you a minute of footage a month for £105 a year.

For Pika versus Runway? Runway wins.

There’s a lot of YouTube tutorials to play with and extra tools but this this an exensive business right now and it will cost you to refine what you are doing.

Image to video

Really handy but look out for the glitches.

4 out of 5

Lip synching

Worth playing with but aside from heritage projects I’m not sure how it can be used by the wider public sector.

3 out of 5.

GUEST POST: An internal comms post to explain why an NHS organisation has left X, formerly Twitter

The Health Research Authority makes it easy to do research that people can trust. The regulator, an NHS organisation, recently closed its X account. Head of Communications Eve Hart wrote an update for colleagues on what this decision means for the HRA, and has agreed to share it here to support comms colleagues still deciding what to do with the accounts that they manage.


If you can’t measure it, you shouldn’t be doing it. 

The HRA’s communications team is part of the Government Communications Service (GCS), and its operating model for communications is clear that data and evaluation should inform our practice. 

Since the social media platform Twitter was bought by billionaire Elon Musk and rebranded X, this has been a challenge. Where once the HRA’s highest performing social media account had a trusted blue tick and was rich with engagement, in the last year the site has changed beyond all recognition. And our analytics have gone. Without paying £1,000/month (which is greater than the cost of keeping our whole corporate website up and running!) it’s no longer possible to measure the impact of our social media content … what’s worked well, what missed the mark, and what have we learned? 

At the end of 2023, confused about what the lack of data meant for @HRA_Latest, I asked my friends. At CommsCamp (a free conference for public sector communications professionals with tiny budgets!) I ran a session consulting with equivalents in other organisations. The consensus was that watchful waiting was the best way forward. Whilst we felt the winds of change, many of our audiences remained on the platform, and they still expected to hear from us. 

By mid-2024 things had not improved. Accounts removed from previous iterations of the platform for harassment or discrimination were allowed to return, and the site’s algorithm was changed to push content from organisations like ours down in feeds. If we added a link, our posts would be shown to fewer people. But there were new shoots of hope as alternative platforms started to spring up and grow leaves. Maybe we should move to Mastodon, think about Threads, bring it on Bluesky? We registered our account names, just in case. 
 
We started a social media review, well underway today. This includes an assessment of the range of platforms available to us. Using the HRA’s stakeholder categories and data from Ofcom we’re assessing what the different options would mean. Where do researchers expect us to post if our systems are down? Where does the HRA Community want to see us celebrate the amazing contribution they make to UK research? Where is the patient and public involvement community, we miss their input? 
 
But whilst the starting point had been to use data to drive a decision to finally leave X (or not), this work is now looking forward rather than back, as our corporate profile on the platform was deactivated last week.  

The media regulator has criticised social media platforms (especially X) for their role in the racially-aggravated violence which appalled us all earlier this month, and the owner of the platform has himself helped misinformation to spread. X is no longer a safe space for communications colleagues to manage as part of their roles, nor should we direct our stakeholder there for the latest information from the HRA. It’s counter to our values, and the careful work we’ve done to make sure ours is an organisation which people trust, and where they want to work, volunteer, or get involved. 

In the coming weeks we’ll be talking to you about your comms plans. If we’re supporting you with a project or piece of work as part of which we were going to use X, we’ll work with you to identify other channels to reach the audiences you want to, and to measure the impact of your work. These are exciting times for team comms as we work to find new ways to achieve our external comms objectives and support the HRA. 

Where we can measure it, we’ll be doing it. And we’re going to be proud of it too.

Eve Hart is head of communications at the Health Research Authority.

GUEST POST: The benefits of neurodivergence* in your comms team 

Neurodivergence is becoming more recognised as research improves. Research shows that as much as eight per cent of us have our brains wired this way. Rather than a challenge to employers Gabby Willis, who has had her own diagnosis, explains that it can be an asset in the team that’s not hard to accommodate. 

How long have you worked in comms? For your neurodivergent colleagues, it might be longer than you think.  

I was diagnosed with ADHD-C (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – Combined Type) just over six months ago, after years of wondering why everything in my life felt so much more difficult than everyone else expected it to be. One of these things, despite me having completed a journalism degree and worked in digi-comms for the past few years, was communication. Oh, the irony.  

My ADHD means that I can struggle with interpreting social situations and have done so since I was a child. My professional communication skills have been honed by years of masking my anxiety around speaking to and interpreting the tone and intention of others. 

Behind the calm and knowledgeable exterior is a woman second guessing every single word. This can be frustrating, but ultimately, I believe it has served me well in my career. I have been a professional communicator for most of my life, always conducting a ‘vibe check’ of my audience and making sure my need for accessible communications is a two-way street.  

I’ve been told many times that I make communicating look effortless. I’m ‘polite’, I’m ‘professional’, I approach everything from emails to social media with measured consideration and am in many ways the picture-perfect confident communicator. In reality, I feel anything but. It is often a mask that requires a huge amount of effort to maintain. 

 My manager, who is also neurodivergent, calls me a “natural born professional communicator”. He’s always quick to clarify that this is by no means to downplay the years of professional development I have also put into my craft, and the effort it takes. But it’s made me think deeply about what neurodivergent colleagues can bring to a comms team.  

So, without further ado, here are some skills you should embrace from your neurodivergent colleagues (with the obvious caveat that not all people with neuro differences experience these traits in the same, positive way, and that many of these things will also apply to neurotypicals. As the old adage goes, if you’ve met one neurodivergent colleague, you have met one neurodivergent colleague): 

Vibes checks 

Many of us exhibit hyper vigilance to varying degrees. Whilst this is unpleasant for us, it can benefit you because we are more likely to spot when something is ‘off’ in the mood of Teams call or meeting with external stakeholders. We may also be the first ones to notice that colleagues are uncomfortable with messaging about organisational change, or if the air-con in the office is too cold, alerting internal comms to any potential issues.

Reading between the lines: clarification, and concise communication 

Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) is also common, particularly in those of us with ADHD or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). This leads some of us to over-communicate to avoid being misunderstood, or to second guess our interactions with others. ‘What did they really mean when they said X?’ and ‘Can you clarify point X, please’ may be things you hear from us. Instead of being frustrated by this, I encourage you to see it as an opportunity to reevaluate your approach. We may be able to help you make something clearer and more concise, or to identify ways to clarify ambiguous calls to action.

Accessibility and inclusion 

Accessible and inclusive communication is second nature to many of us. As above, we put a lot of effort into making sure that our communication to others reflects the accessibility that we need to be shown in return. There may be nobody better than us to bang the drum for WCAG requirements, diversity of contributors to audio-visual content, and appropriately responding to awareness moments.

Empathy 

Empathy can be as much a learned skill as something you are born with. When you are responding to audiences who may be experiencing hardship or heightened emotions, such as during the recent harrowing events in Southport and subsequent rioting, look to your neurodivergent colleagues. We may be struggling with internalising the atmosphere and battling our strong sense of social justice, or we may again be the first to suggest an empathetic approach to acknowledging and dispersing tension.

Crisis management and problem solving 

Hand in hand with empathy comes crisis management; many of us (with ADHD in particular) thrive in a crisis. My brain is chaotic, and there is nothing like a crisis to give me the challenge I need to remain stimulated and on task. After facing many made-up crises from my own co-morbid anxiety, a real professional crisis will see me remain level headed and pragmatic. This also means that I love to get stuck into solving a problem and will happily do the research and deep dives needed to investigate all avenues needed for a potential crisis response. It is better to be safe and prepared than to be sorry. 

Strategy, project management and seeing the bigger picture 

Following on from the above, a need for structure is a common neurodivergent trait. This can show up in a keen eye for strategy and project management. If you’re planning a big campaign, it might be one of us who is keeping you on schedule, helping you see the bigger picture, and coming up with exciting new ideas. We might also make excellent meeting chairs. 

Perfectionism and pattern recognition 

Do you hate proof reading, or analysing social media statistics with a passion? One of your neurodivergent colleagues might love to take this off your hands. It must be clarified that it is cliche to expect everyone with ASD to be a whizz with numbers, but many neurodivergent people count pattern recognition and analytical skills among their strengths.

Creativity, passions and enthusiasm 

Need a creative solution to a problem? I’m ya gal! There’s nothing quite like the opportunity to do creative work to keep me motivated and working at pace. A common ADHD trait is hyperfixation, and whilst this needs to be carefully managed so that it doesn’t become a problem, I can hyperfixate for hours on creating a stunning branded social media campaign of graphics that will stand out from the rest. This is not quite a special interest (which is a potentially contentious term for some) for me, but in a similar vein many neurodivergent colleagues will be extremely skilled at or knowledgeable about the areas of work they feel most passionate about, leading to boundless enthusiasm and a drive to share this with others. 

Whilst I have only scratched the surface here, I hope this blog has given you something to reflect upon personally or within your team, whether you’re neurodivergent or neurotypical.

Gabby Willis is communications and external affairs officer (digital) at IfATE Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

Extra help

* Neurodivergence can include a number of diagnosis including autism, attention defecit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD). While some people may still identify with the diagnosis of ADD, ADD is no longer diagnosed by medical professionals. Instead, they diagnose three types of ADHD (inattentive/ADHD-I, hyperactive-compulsive/ADHD-HI, or combined/ADHD-C).

In addition, neurodivergence can also include dyscalculia, dyslexia, dyspraxia or developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD). 

For more information on the conditions that come under the umbrella of neurodivergence, read this handy guide from Cambridge University Hospitals. 

To learn more about workplace adjustments your team members might need, ADHD UK has a guide to reasonable adjustments.