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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en-GB"><generator uri="https://jekyllrb.com/" version="3.8.7">Jekyll</generator><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" /><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" hreflang="en-GB" /><updated>2024-08-01T09:28:56+01:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/feed.xml</id><title type="html">Harvinder Atwal</title><subtitle>A man after a dream, after mystery but ultimately just after fun.</subtitle><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><entry><title type="html">Dissecting a pig butcher</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/dissecting-a-pig-butcher/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Dissecting a pig butcher" /><published>2024-07-31T00:00:00+01:00</published><updated>2024-07-31T00:00:00+01:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/dissecting-a-pig-butcher</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/dissecting-a-pig-butcher/">&lt;h1 id=&quot;safety&quot;&gt;Safety&lt;/h1&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First up: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;but it was good fun though. 😈&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This post seems to contain sensitive information or PII, but it’s all false.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There are also a few images of a medical injuries.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;lets-begin&quot;&gt;Let’s begin&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It started innocently enough. A kind lady named Nathalie accidently texted the wrong number. I get these all the time and treat them like a scam, so I just run along with it and see what happens. Generally just try to waste their time but as you see I could potentially do a lot more damage.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;initial_content.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;initial_content.png&quot; alt=&quot;initial_content.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It follows a certain trope of a genuine mistake but trying to make an opportunity out of it.
Ok sure lets see what happens. Some nice pleasantries are exchanged. Also they send a photo of “themselves”, an attractive young asian woman.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;1_business.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;1_business.png&quot; alt=&quot;1_business.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;She explains she is an owner of a heytea franchise (chinese milk tea chain) and tries to be even more inviting.
The aim here is just introduce casual conversation and work out their target.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;2_collecting_the_mark.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;2_collecting_the_mark.png&quot; alt=&quot;2_collecting_the_mark.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At this point they are working out if they can try a romance scam. I shut that angle down. They also check my age, I guess to see how much money I could have or maybe they have some morals around the young or elderly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;the-handoff&quot;&gt;The handoff&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;3_switch_up.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;3_switch_up.png&quot; alt=&quot;3_switch_up.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Then they need to switch up as this is a business phone.
This seems to be a triage system where they hand over to another person to carry on with the scam.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;4_injury.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;4_injury.png&quot; alt=&quot;4_injury.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On the new number and immediately get a sad story of abuse and even some disturbing images. At this point I know something is up and try to look for the name in the x-rays and research who this woman is. I find a facebook page and instagram, so there is some credibility but the facebook page was created a month before and then soon after it was made private.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;5_france.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;5_france.png&quot; alt=&quot;5_france.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I then follow up to see what they can say about their trip to France. They post a picture which doesn’t appear in search engines. Some conversation here but the continuity is lacking. No mention of the tourist attraction I recommended ever comes up again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;6_meeting.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;6_meeting.png&quot; alt=&quot;6_meeting.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I then surprisingly get a video of a meeting, which seems pretty strange but fits the narrative where this person was learning some financial training as part of being a franchisee? or something.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;the-turning-point&quot;&gt;The turning point&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;7_app.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;7_app.png&quot; alt=&quot;7_app.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I then ask about that training but then get a screenshot of some app or website that doesn’t seem to be real. There are no images that match the app and the screenshot doesn’t look like it’s taken on a phone screen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;8_chatgpt.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;8_chatgpt.png&quot; alt=&quot;8_chatgpt.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;8a_actual_chatgpt.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;8a_actual_chatgpt.png&quot; alt=&quot;8a_actual_chatgpt.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This was another red flag. The language seems to switch between a person giving responses and then a chatgpt response. I do a comparison between the two and they are eerily similiar.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;9_altruistic.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;9_altruistic.png&quot; alt=&quot;9_altruistic.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So I explore more on their motives and surprise, they are an altruistic rich lady. They even go to villages and just give away money, I’m sure that imagery won’t portray colonialist overtones.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I never got the pictures by the way.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;10_paris.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;10_paris.png&quot; alt=&quot;10_paris.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I even get pictures of Paris during the olympics, so they are sticking to the narrative and these are obviously recent pictures. I reverse image search these and nothing comes up. It could be they are actually there? I think the problem here is a lot of these images could be behind a social media login wall and probably can’t be scraped.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;11_crypto.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;11_crypto.png&quot; alt=&quot;11_crypto.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I then get a strange pivot to the British economy and it’s now bankrupt. Oh noes! I should invest in Tether coin. Well I mean if it’s that bad I guess I should try it out.
At this point they should be worried that I’m even entertaining it at this point. I report the last few messages to whatsapp but they are not blocked.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At this point there are many red flags.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Let’s go through them:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Change in conversational style and tone&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Inconsistant flow of thought, just straight up ignoring messages and repeating questions. No reference back to the points they bring up&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;These pictures are either of themselves or just stock. Sending a picture straight off the bat with a stranger&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Screenshots of an app that doesn’t seem to exist&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Seems to know a lot about crypto but not about other aspects of their life&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Also for the record at this point they know my nickname, phone number, which city I live and that’s it. They’ve got no pictures or other identifying information. They voice and video call me but I don’t answer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Then I talk to a friend about this and learn about the pig butcher scam.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;the-pig-butcher-scam&quot;&gt;The pig butcher scam&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jackpot! So &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.investopedia.com/pig-butchering-scams-8605501&quot;&gt;The pig butcher scam&lt;/a&gt; works with the analogy that you fatten the target up by using a combination of the romance and investment scam. The target gains trust by seeing the returns on their investment until you do a rug pull. At this point the target could’ve “invested” £10,000+&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There’s a &lt;a href=&quot;https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/141/&quot;&gt;great podcast on this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now I know what it is and how it works, what to do next? Well make money of course ;-)
Can I just reiterate? DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SCAM A SCAMMER.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So they need to show that people can invest and even get money out to gain trust, so with that in mind how much can I get out of them? More on that later.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I test out the theory and lean into the baiting.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;12_relationships.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;12_relationships.png&quot; alt=&quot;12_relationships.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So just to see if they would take the bait of turning it into a love scam, I claim that I have a big argument with my girlfriend but they actually try to give me advice. Oh well worth a shot.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;13_ghost.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;13_ghost.png&quot; alt=&quot;13_ghost.png&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I ghost them for a bit to see how they respond, they try a bit of passive-aggressive and I agree to buy some USDT (Tether coin). They want me to buy $100 but I say I’m only going to buy $10.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Data for search engines&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Nathalie Chen
+44 7367 443253 - triage scammer
+44 7453 486329 - pig butcher&lt;/p&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="scam" /><summary type="html">Safety</summary></entry><entry><title type="html">AI UK Conf - Day 2</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/aiuk-conf-day2/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="AI UK Conf - Day 2" /><published>2024-03-20T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2024-03-20T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/aiuk-conf-day2</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/aiuk-conf-day2/">&lt;h1 id=&quot;late-start&quot;&gt;Late start&lt;/h1&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Back again for Day 2, right next to the glorious Westminster Abbey&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;westminister.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;westminister.png&quot; alt=&quot;westminister.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;pitchfest&quot;&gt;PitchFest&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;20th March 10:00&lt;/code&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;img.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img.png&quot; alt=&quot;img.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;img_1.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_1.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_1.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;img_2.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_2.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_2.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;img_3.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_3.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_3.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Researchers (enrichment students) have 90 seconds to pitch their projects and highlighting its real-world impacts, creativity and innovation. They will be judged.&lt;br /&gt;
We are really trying to get the crowd excited but it’s a tough morning&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pitches&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;A wearable robot tail to support lifting tasks, using AI reinforcement learning to adapt to the body&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Using language models to write code without errors generate code, explains what is wrong, fix the errors&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;What’s in the box? - XAI describing what rules determine AI models, highlighting auditability and traceability&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WINNER&lt;/strong&gt;: Why facts don’t change minds - belief networks reinforce bad ideas. Use NLP to work out the underlying structure of the belief network to show how irrational beliefs can have rational origins &lt;a href=&quot;https://ai-uk.turing.ac.uk/speakers/trisevgeni-papakonstantinou/&quot;&gt;Trisevgeni Papakonstantinou&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Tweeting away hate - how to respond to hate on social media&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Volcano defence - slow and manual to check rock crystals using AI to analyse&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;stalls&quot;&gt;Stalls&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;11:00&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;img_4.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_4.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_4.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;img_5.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_5.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_5.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;img_6.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_6.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_6.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;autonomous-cyber-defense&quot;&gt;Autonomous Cyber Defense&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;14:35&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;img_7.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_7.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_7.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What happens when cyberattacks exceed the capacity for humans to respond?
Deep Reinforcement Learning is the major tool for cyber security.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/cage-challenge&quot;&gt;CAGE challenge&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It’s been mainly simulated and not rolled out to real systems or constrained problem space.&lt;br /&gt;
This particular lab is looking to find real attackers on real systems. Having more complex agents.&lt;br /&gt;
Using AI to find vulnerabilities in systems before humans do.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https://llama.meta.com/purple-llama/&quot;&gt;Purple Llama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https://aicyberchallenge.com/&quot;&gt;AIxCC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;img_8.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_8.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_8.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
How do humans oversee a system that runs faster than them?&lt;br /&gt;
How can we stop them being used against us?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Lots of questions around policy issues
&lt;a href=&quot;img_9.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_9.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_9.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Questions:
&lt;strong&gt;How do you counteract bad actors?&lt;/strong&gt;
It’s already an arms race&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Good to use lots of small models instead of a generalised model.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DRT how have you defined a reward function in cyber defence?&lt;/strong&gt;
Less concerned about reward and more on real world systems as opposed to simulated. Easy to emulate lots of issues in a simulated env.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;ai-and-the-battlefield-of-the-future&quot;&gt;AI and the battlefield of the future&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;15:00&lt;/code&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;img_10.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_10.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_10.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
Military is looking at AI and it crosses every aspect.&lt;br /&gt;
Only 40% of mil are available for deployment at any one time.&lt;br /&gt;
Lots of mil assets ready to be deployed but just waiting and need lot’s of maintenance. Could be an AI problem&lt;br /&gt;
AI Logistics - interoperability is tough. Buying the right tech is hard.&lt;br /&gt;
Weapons review process for new weapons on the ethics of use.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;digital-twins-for-the-environment&quot;&gt;Digital Twins for the Environment&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;15:30&lt;/code&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;img_11.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;img_11.png&quot; alt=&quot;img_11.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Digital replica of a system for forecasting. Difference between that and a simulator? Digital twin can be used by many users and can be continuously updated.&lt;br /&gt;
Most people believe that you need AI to create a digital twin. It needs real time infusion of data, be accessible to all types of users, highly complex.&lt;br /&gt;
Optimising observing systems.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Digital twin is the intersection of modelling and monitoring. As a specialised user you can use a digital twin without having the expertise of various systems/disciplines&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Oceanographic institute made a model of a protected area.&lt;br /&gt;
NASA is looking at many prototypes for coastal zones, wildfires. It is also support projects in symbolic AI as they fit the problem space nicely.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;NASA is still investing in the infra needed for earth science and AI.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Challenges&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
How do we communicate these complex ideas to people? We need to find tools to visualise these ideas to decision makers.&lt;br /&gt;
We would like to use digital twins to predict extreme events.&lt;br /&gt;
Big uncertainty in digital AI systems.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Interoperability should be a requirement for digital twins.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
We want to be confident about a problem we don’t know about.&lt;br /&gt;
We can expect users to be reasonably smart around uncertainty i.e. weather forecasts how do we make users act the same way with digital twins.&lt;br /&gt;
Twins are realtime and hard to use with AI or really simple but can run 1000x realtime&lt;br /&gt;
Skills to be in a digital twin team needs to be multidisciplinary. Social science, health, hard sciences, essentially mirroring the class of users.&lt;br /&gt;
Call out to AI people to solve environmental systems.&lt;br /&gt;
Components can be built for digital twins.&lt;/p&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="ai" /><summary type="html">Late start</summary></entry><entry><title type="html">AI UK Conf - Day 1</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/aiuk-conf-day1/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="AI UK Conf - Day 1" /><published>2024-03-19T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2024-03-19T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/aiuk-conf-day1</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/aiuk-conf-day1/">&lt;h1 id=&quot;registration&quot;&gt;Registration&lt;/h1&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Good morning everyone and welcome to AIUK 2024.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;entrance.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;entrance.png&quot; alt=&quot;entrance.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;westminister.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;westminister.png&quot; alt=&quot;westminister.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;a-sneak-peek-inside-isambard-ai&quot;&gt;A Sneak Peek Inside Isambard-AI&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;19th March 09:20&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First talk is up on one of the most powerful supercomputers built in the UK
&lt;a href=&quot;isambard1.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;isambard1.png&quot; alt=&quot;isambard1.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Outline - How did it start?&lt;br /&gt;
Part of the Uk’s national AI research resource&lt;br /&gt;
Built on ARM processors&lt;br /&gt;
UX is a key measure of success&lt;br /&gt;
Sustainable, accessible,
It is part of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ukri.org/news/300-million-to-launch-first-phase-of-new-ai-research-resource/&quot;&gt;£300 million to launch first phase of new AI Research Resource – UKRI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;isambard2.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;isambard2.png&quot; alt=&quot;isambard2.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Building work is still underway.&lt;br /&gt;
Very optimised for Power usage effectiveness&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is this supercomputer for?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;isambard3.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;isambard3.png&quot; alt=&quot;isambard3.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Each blade has 900GBs+ of high bandwidth memory 🤯&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;isambard4.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;isambard4.png&quot; alt=&quot;isambard4.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;All these layers will be available to use&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;isambard5.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;isambard5.png&quot; alt=&quot;isambard5.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It will have guardrails for LLMs to stay within boundaries, eliminate bias and lower toxicity.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On to UX?&lt;br /&gt;
SSO and MFA.. ok&lt;br /&gt;
So it’s just AI as a service&lt;br /&gt;
Flexible Consumption rates… so Ai as a service&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Phase 1 is already here and it’s being tested.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Great to see the UK investing in AI supercomputers not owned by BigTech. Reference to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-safety-summit-2023-the-bletchley-declaration/the-bletchley-declaration-by-countries-attending-the-ai-safety-summit-1-2-november-2023&quot;&gt;The Bletchley Declaration by Countries Attending the AI Safety Summit, 1-2 November 2023 - GOV.UK&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Questions &lt;strong&gt;how do you get user requirements?&lt;/strong&gt; Is it just build it and they will come?&lt;br /&gt;
Requirements came from a report and it will be iterated on.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;is-agi-imminent&quot;&gt;Is AGI imminent?&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;11:05&lt;/code&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
No. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
&lt;a href=&quot;agi1.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;agi1.png&quot; alt=&quot;agi1.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is AGI?&lt;/strong&gt;
Ai is a mirror on ourselves.
Differentiate between AGI and artificial super intelligence.
Why are we pursuing AGI as a replication of humans when we should be using them to do the things we don’t/can’t do?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is the physical world part of AGI?&lt;/strong&gt; But robotic AI is behind.
Could be misleading to think AGI would be fair in education, welfare.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bias analysis of GPT2 shows a lot of bias due to the datasets involved.
“LLM is an improv comedy group” 😂
The bar will keep moving on AI and what good looks like.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Audience Poll: &lt;strong&gt;does AGI need to interact with the physical world?&lt;/strong&gt; Answer is no. Approx 300 people
AI Completeness - if you could solve an AI hard problem then a lot of others are also solved.
Maybe not as data comes in different forms and will be broken down in a different way.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Causality is another issue to look into for AI.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;People are using chatGPT as an advanced search and don’t see past that.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;AGI in the world of work&lt;/strong&gt;
Expect low level video/content creation will go.
Constant retraining. Jobs will only be available to seniors, polarising juniors.
Ability to write legal documents could go, where it’s a highly skilled profession and they could disappear.
A symbiotic relationship between AGI to do jobs in a different way. People will lose out to people who do use these AI tools.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does it mean for the UK?&lt;/strong&gt;
Public vs private sector. Private sector has massive resources compared to public sector. Even with Isembard
Optimistic and it will be an exciting ride even if the UK is not the biggest player and may not be.
This tech seems concentrated compared to the early days of the web.
US vs UK mindset on startups.
UK could lead on safety in AI. Data is more safe in the UK hands as opposed to private companies.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Audience poll : are you optimistic on AI?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Audience questions:
&lt;strong&gt;Have LLMs peaked? do we need another breakthrough?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Should we get insurance against AI models?&lt;/strong&gt; Staged insurance policies. It will be very different from what we have now.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Are we framing AGI in the wrong type of intelligence model i..e human?&lt;/strong&gt; Dishwasher AI&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Why do we worry about not owning the tech in public sector AI?&lt;/strong&gt; Distinction between foundation and frontier models, concern we can’t put that much money in cutting edge models.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Audience poll: AGI is imminent?&lt;/strong&gt; No.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;lunch&quot;&gt;Lunch&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;12:10&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;stalls&quot;&gt;Stalls&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;13:00&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;stalls.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;stalls.png&quot; alt=&quot;stalls.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;stalls1.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;stalls1.png&quot; alt=&quot;stalls1.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;stalls2.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;stalls2.png&quot; alt=&quot;stalls2.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;ai-culture-long-table&quot;&gt;AI Culture Long table&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;13:30&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;longtable.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;longtable.png&quot; alt=&quot;longtable.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Can AI generate something new?&lt;br /&gt;
Can AI be good for art? Turning memories into a poem. Opening up access to an experience that wouldn’t normally be available.&lt;br /&gt;
Making art is more important than the art itself, the effort of making it is important.&lt;br /&gt;
Clicking a button may depersonalise it.&lt;br /&gt;
Intentionality means that kinda makes it ok.&lt;br /&gt;
AI art is the first autonomous tool but we do have examples of primitive tools that could be considered as autonomous.&lt;br /&gt;
Lowering the barrier&lt;br /&gt;
Who is the inspiration if you use AI to start creating art?&lt;br /&gt;
We are terrified of but excited for a computer that can imagine beyond human thought.&lt;br /&gt;
Unintended consequences of for example a 3 hour conversation with your mom compared to talking an LLM that’s trying to be concise.&lt;br /&gt;
Co-designing is important going forward with AI art.&lt;br /&gt;
Drag performances get a rise in economic downturns&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;data-labour-and-ai&quot;&gt;Data, Labour and AI&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;14:40&lt;/code&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Strong start: it seems to be about the abuse of labour and knowledge for AI.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;labour.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;labour.png&quot; alt=&quot;labour.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First-hand experience for detoxifying GPT during its training stages.&lt;br /&gt;
Knowledge was stolen from sites (we knew that).&lt;br /&gt;
Same firm that detoxified chatGPT also worked in content moderation for FB. While some was done by AI, the rest was outsourced to third world countries.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We are looking at a global gig economy,&lt;br /&gt;
There is a perception that tech workers are paid well but it’s hidden with low paid workers. Lot’s of low paid workers were used to help build chatGPT.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Gig economy has created back channels that has increased solidarity and could lead to unionisation.
AI workers or gig workers should have the same protections as perm employees even though they should do.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;During training/content moderation they were not told about the work they were about to do, so can be quite jarring and can have side effects. Instead of manual labour being exploited it’s people’s mental health.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There won’t be an AI revolution unless workers embrace it. Our restructuring is dependent on 3rd world country workers to do some of the work. We need to choose what work looks like for all of us, globally.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Equity is not for the benefit of the employee. It’s for executives to get more productivity from workers. How workers get paid globally is a choice.
Lack of knowledge about working in 3rd world countries means there is heavy exploitation. Got paid 75cents an hour for training chatGPT compared to what it is worth now. Workers are now asking if this work is dignified.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We are creating global experts.&lt;br /&gt;
A different model is emerging where datasets can be resold for training multiple times and that can be used to pay workers more for AI works in 3rd world countries.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Audience questions: &lt;strong&gt;hidden labour, how is hiding it?&lt;/strong&gt;
Employees have to sign NDAs and the company didn’t disclose their clients. Work is siloed and crowdsourced.Essentially it’s built into the system.
You can tell where the work is being done based on what is being paid.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How is AI exploitation new compared to other manual labour like mining?&lt;/strong&gt;
It’s not new but it’s like care work. Stuff is curated.
What is new is how the public sees it, we think tech is cushy. How bad can it be to look at a computer all day?
Government in Kenya has opened the borders to digital labour without regulation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Algorithmic management needs to be able to be questioned.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does solidarity look like across the global south?&lt;/strong&gt;
Unions in the south are connecting with each other.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1 id=&quot;keynote&quot;&gt;Keynote&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;code class=&quot;highlighter-rouge&quot;&gt;16:00&lt;/code&gt;
Angela McLean, Government Chief Scientific advisor.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;keynote.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;keynote.png&quot; alt=&quot;keynote.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We need a scientific and systems approach to AI.
Systems approach: AI superpower in 2030&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;5 critical technologies
AI,
Semiconductors,
Quantum,
Something something&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This framework is a way to go across government departments and unify.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;R&amp;amp;D investment update UK&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
UK in a good place to be a science superpower.&lt;br /&gt;
£100 million into the Turing institute from UKGov.&lt;br /&gt;
We know we need more compute to bring AI into UK funded research programmes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;70 experts in government to invest in building AI.&lt;br /&gt;
Understand the benefits of AI and the harms.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scientific approach to AI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Transparent, Rigour, Reproducibility. Seems obvious but people don’t do it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Her department has consulted a lot of people.&lt;br /&gt;
Pretty optimistic view on AI with a plan.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Questions:
&lt;strong&gt;What were the takeaways from the AI safety summit?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Current set of architectures is not safe. Building a framework to make it safe.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where does the public voice fit here?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Looking at a consulting opp but they don’t know. Missing value in number polls, analysis of free text answers is now possible.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How are you advising the higher ups?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Believe their role is to amplify other scientific advisors. Be optimistic about science&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Are you confident we have the talent to be an AI superpower?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Yes. We are building capability already. Big investments in compute to attract talent. There are visa systems in place.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How do we study the environmental impact?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Gather data of our energy use and how it is made. While big it could pale in comparison.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How much is bias on your radar in AI (and in government)?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
We know it’s a massive issue. Talked a lot about what you can and can’t do around bias. Make it visible.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Final message&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Be hopeful and it’s exciting. It’s about information on people’s lives and it will help. It’s a once in a generation opportunity.&lt;/p&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="ai" /><summary type="html">Registration</summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Hamper Extravaganza</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/hamper-extravaganza/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Hamper Extravaganza" /><published>2020-12-18T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2020-12-18T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/hamper-extravaganza</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/hamper-extravaganza/">&lt;p&gt;This is a big one, like multiple times too big.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;degusta-box.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First up let’s start with the classic degusta box&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;pipers-crisps&quot;&gt;Pipers crisps&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - The cheesy one was nicely cheesy. The thyme and rosemary was rather different, good for a small portion but would eat too many of them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;odysea-aubergine-meze-dip&quot;&gt;Odysea Aubergine Meze Dip&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;leon-aioli-vegan&quot;&gt;Leon Aioli vegan&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Despite the vegan, nice taste and good consistency. The jar is a bit tall and getting the last stuff out is tricky but worth it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;brave-roasted-chickpeas&quot;&gt;Brave Roasted Chickpeas&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Nice and crunchy, good taste.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;dash-water&quot;&gt;Dash Water&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;cocoa-caramel-peanuts&quot;&gt;Cocoa caramel peanuts&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;club-tropica-ipa&quot;&gt;CLUB Tropica IPA&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Great IPA, I’ve added to my beer app.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;good-earth-tea&quot;&gt;Good Earth Tea&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - not tried yet, too much other tea at home&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;peters-yard-sourdough-bites&quot;&gt;Peter’s Yard Sourdough Bites&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - the Sourdough taste was good but a bit too much on the salty side.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;nexba-pineapple-soft&quot;&gt;Nexba Pineapple soft&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Was alright. Could have it again, would be a good summer drink.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;capsicana-cooking-paste&quot;&gt;Capsicana cooking paste&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - We made it with chicken and it was juicy, fruity and spicy at the same time. Would recommend.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;tonys-chocolonely&quot;&gt;Tony’s Chocolonely&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - rather nice and rich taste. I only had a bite but it was a good one.&lt;/p&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="food" /><summary type="html">This is a big one, like multiple times too big.</summary></entry><entry><title type="html">November box</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/november-box/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="November box" /><published>2020-11-18T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2020-11-18T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/november-box</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/november-box/">&lt;p&gt;A surprisingly warm november&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;november-box.jpeg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;brioche-baguettes&quot;&gt;Brioche Baguettes&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - We made them into oven baguettes and they were surprisingly tasty.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;kitkat-christmas&quot;&gt;Kitkat Christmas&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - There was one big one and a bag with much smaller ones. The big ones was a good portion, the smaller one, same taste but really tiny.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;wolf-wine&quot;&gt;Wolf Wine&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Cute little bottles, average taste of chardonnay and cabernet, as far as my uncultured pallet can judge this&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;hot-chocolate&quot;&gt;Hot chocolate&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Harvy - I think I remember having this but it seems to be just all the other instant hot chocoate out there.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;protein-bars&quot;&gt;Protein bars&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Nice and nutty without getting too dry and crumbly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;stroop-waffles&quot;&gt;Stroop waffles&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Stroop waffles can’t be bad! EVER!
Harvy - Agreed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;advent-tea&quot;&gt;Advent Tea&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Threw it out after many months and several tries as they were all super fruity and weird. Just not my cup of tea.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;lindt&quot;&gt;Lindt&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Rather delicious, both the mint and the orange. 
Harvy - Had them before, so nothing surprising here. Still very good.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;orange-and-cranberry-jaffa-cakes&quot;&gt;Orange and Cranberry Jaffa cakes&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Quite nice and juicy.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;dijon-mustard&quot;&gt;Dijon Mustard&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - It’s mustard. Nicely strong but we had already mustard at home, and how many open mustard jars do you really need.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;coriander-and-basil-pesto&quot;&gt;Coriander and basil pesto&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Not tested it yet.&lt;/p&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="food" /><summary type="html">A surprisingly warm november</summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Cozy October box</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/october-box/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Cozy October box" /><published>2020-10-18T00:00:00+01:00</published><updated>2020-10-18T00:00:00+01:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/october-box</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/october-box/">&lt;p&gt;As the summer draws to a close, some cozy treats for october.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;october-box.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;yes-plant-protein-bar&quot;&gt;YES. Plant protein bar&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Surprisingly tasty and crunchy. Would buy again. Had the almond version.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;maltesers-instant-hot-chocolate&quot;&gt;Maltesers Instant Hot Chocolate&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It’s hot chocolate, what’s not to love. I ignored their recommendation of using water and it was still good. But I prefer my hot chocolate powder from Lidl.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;reeses-peanut-butter-minis&quot;&gt;Reese’s Peanut Butter Minis&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Too good. We devoured them in under 20 min.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;flapjack&quot;&gt;Flapjack&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Good for a lazy snack. But it’s bigger than one thinks, so not for mini-peckish moments&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;chocolate-crepes&quot;&gt;Chocolate crepes&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - A bit dry and tasteless. Warm they were definitely better but still not great&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;costa-coffee&quot;&gt;Costa Coffee&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Pretty much like millicano, I suspect you can’t improve on nearly-instant coffee anymore.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;cashew-and-oat-cookie&quot;&gt;Cashew and Oat Cookie&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Great little cookiie, wish it was bigger but then it’s good portion control.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;pretzels&quot;&gt;Pretzels&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;attack-a-snak&quot;&gt;Attack a Snak&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;kitkat-senses&quot;&gt;Kitkat senses&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;brioche-burger-buns&quot;&gt;Brioche Burger Buns&lt;/h5&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="food" /><summary type="html">As the summer draws to a close, some cozy treats for october.</summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Simmering September box</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/simmering-september-box/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Simmering September box" /><published>2020-09-18T00:00:00+01:00</published><updated>2020-09-18T00:00:00+01:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/simmering-september-box</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/simmering-september-box/">&lt;p&gt;September is here.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;simmering-september-box.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;hartleys-jelly-pot&quot;&gt;Hartley’s Jelly Pot&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - “There is always room for Jello” and Bill Murray was right. Nice jello, like all jello.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvey - I don’t think I had this&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;mc-vitiess&quot;&gt;Mc Vities’s&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Normally not a fan of orange flavoured cookies but these were nice. Good mix of crunchiness, gooiness and chocolate taste.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvey - Tina have you been eating all these? Pretty sure I didn’t have this either. /whispers I did it was great. Slightly chewy but the taste and texture made up for that.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;emily-veg-thins&quot;&gt;Emily Veg Thins&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Interesting alternatives for crisps, crunchy and nice tastes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvey - I stayed away from these.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;peters-yard-original-sourdough-crispbread&quot;&gt;Peter’s Yard Original Sourdough Crispbread&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nice take on the cracker, good with smelly cheese and a drop of sour marmalade. Yum yum.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;fulfil-chocolate-hazelnut-whip-bar&quot;&gt;FULFIL Chocolate Hazelnut Whip Bar&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Nice and smooth, very indulgent and not too bad on the calorie count.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Agree very smooth and just the right mix of textures and flavours.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;whitworths-chocolate-biscuit--hazelnut-treat-mix&quot;&gt;Whitworths Chocolate Biscuit &amp;amp; Hazelnut Treat Mix&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - The bits and pieces were not bad, but the mix of raisins and nuts and chocolate freaks me out. I want to know if it is crispy, sweet or gooey and salty before i bite on it, even if I chuck them down without looking.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Really like the mix of different but complimentary snacks. Just shove a load in your mouth and let it all mix up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;thatchers-cloudy-lemon-cider&quot;&gt;Thatchers Cloudy Lemon Cider&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Surprisingly a refreshing drink that’s good for the summer days/nights. Reminds me of a bottled &lt;a href=&quot;https://germanfoods.org/recipes/radler/&quot;&gt;radler from germany&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;chicken-yakisoba&quot;&gt;Chicken Yakisoba&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;more-maple-syrup-this-time-mini&quot;&gt;More Maple syrup, this time mini&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Did we even use this? It’s probably just disappeared&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;vegetable-barley-soup&quot;&gt;Vegetable Barley soup&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;lucozade&quot;&gt;Lucozade&lt;/h5&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="food" /><summary type="html">September is here.</summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Hot Hot August Box</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/hot-hot-august-box/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Hot Hot August Box" /><published>2020-08-18T00:00:00+01:00</published><updated>2020-08-18T00:00:00+01:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/hot-hot-august-box</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/hot-hot-august-box/">&lt;p&gt;The August Box arrived and we were not there to pick up. Shout out to Alan who put in our house as we were away.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;hot-hot-august-spread.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id=&quot;harvy&quot;&gt;Harvy&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Feeling a bit lighter than other boxes, so was just expecting no drinks but suprise! Iced coffee. To be honest I’m not that excited with this one, between the chai tea and chai breakfast blend going to the puds sweets, there’s not much inspiration here.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;swizzels-puds&quot;&gt;Swizzels Puds&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - I didn’t feel that these wanted production, I’ve had a lot of chewy streets and especially refreshers which this comes very close to. The different flavours were a mixed bag. Sticky toffee I think didn’t work out well and the rest were palatable. Probably won’t buy.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - Imagine a colourful blob made almost entirely of sugar with an artificial hint of a flavour of some popular desserts. There you go. You never get all of the slowly melting stuff out of your teeth again. But it is so sweet, do you really want to? (Not recommended by 100/10 dentists)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;boundless&quot;&gt;Boundless&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - The only thing I remember from this is the hit of chilli after you finish the nuts. I’m not sure why this is a thing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;simpleas&quot;&gt;Simpleas&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Tina didn’t want it as it had vinegar. The pea taste for me was just overpowered by the salt and vineger and texture was just like eating mush. Not a fan.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;capsicana---cooking-paste&quot;&gt;Capsicana - cooking paste&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - We tried a variety of the added recipe and it was rather nice. A different taste to the usual cooking pastes. Not too spicy and tastes almost naturally. Intense smell during cooking. Would buy again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - I only tasted the end result but I was impressed, would also buy and then make Tina cook with again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;sunny-fruit-mix-up&quot;&gt;Sunny fruit mix up&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No comments, I guess it was just meh then.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;pickup&quot;&gt;Pickup&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - I know them from other countries, and they are a nice snack. Had the hazelnut one which had soft chocolate in the middle. Looking forward to the white and milk chocolate versions too.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;iced-coffee&quot;&gt;Iced Coffee&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;cold-infused-tea&quot;&gt;Cold Infused “Tea”&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;yet-another-chai-latte&quot;&gt;Yet another Chai Latte&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;protein-bar&quot;&gt;Protein Bar&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;porridge&quot;&gt;Porridge&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tina - Good but how bad can porridge be?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;start-me-chia&quot;&gt;Start me Chia&lt;/h5&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="food" /><summary type="html">The August Box arrived and we were not there to pick up. Shout out to Alan who put in our house as we were away.</summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Summer July box</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/summer-july-box/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Summer July box" /><published>2020-07-18T00:00:00+01:00</published><updated>2020-07-18T00:00:00+01:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/summer-july-box</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/summer-july-box/">&lt;p&gt;The July Box arrived.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;summer-july-spread.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;nesquik&quot;&gt;Nesquik&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - 5 stars for effort, as it doesn’t have artificial sweetener, less sugar and even the package is paper based and can be recycled. We compared it with a chocolate powder we already had at home, and it unfortunately didn’t do well in comparison. Not bad, but not great either.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;nativa&quot;&gt;Nativa&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - Tested this in a drink for sweetening. I just wished the package would have a warning, that it is more potent than sugar. Would have used less than a full teaspoon. So sparsely dosed it does the job with sweetening your drinks and foods. They say you can use it for baking as well. While that is great news, it seems very experimental without a conversion ratio. Wouldn’t mind a sweet cake without sugar, but could end up with way too much or not enough.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;skinny-food-sauces&quot;&gt;Skinny food sauces&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - We got 4 sachets of sauces and sirups from this company. I tried the sirup for a Latte but it was hardly detectable in sweetness or flavour. Great that is has hardly any calories, but without any flavour not the best trade.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - It’s all horrible, don’t buy it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;golden-creek-maple-syrup&quot;&gt;Golden Creek (Maple syrup)&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - For people who can’t live without syrup on their pancakes definitely a good option. Sticky and sweet as advertised. The non-maple part is dominating, making it a bit too sweet for my taste.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - I don’t normally buy syrup but was pretty nice on pancake, which I think is the only thing they can be used for? I can’t remember what normal syrup tastes like, so can’t compare.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;premier-protein-chocolate-brownie-flavoured-protein-bar&quot;&gt;Premier Protein (chocolate brownie flavoured protein bar)&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - Tastes like it looks, sweet, dense and good flavour of chocolate. Good portion for when you are hungry but too busy or too lazy to actually make yourself a sandwich. Good after gym or outdoor snack. Available only at ocado and WHSmith travel, so won’t see any of them for a while.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;wunda-pea-drink&quot;&gt;Wunda (pea drink)&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - If you are used to Oat and Almond drinks, this is just as good or bad, depending on what your experience was with Oat and Almond drinks. With 1.99 per litre definitely on the pricey side even compared to other plant based milk replacements. 
Harvy - I already dislike oatly and this is probably worse.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;bebeto-sugar-candy-box&quot;&gt;Bebeto (sugar candy box)&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - Like all sugary candy which comes in small portions in large boxes, one easily gets hooked and keeps on eating without reason. The mix of sour, sugar and the refreshing artificial flavours of the different items make it fun. Unfortunately the least fun item makes up 50% of the whole box. Was fun to eat, but probably would buy again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Great little sugar box but just too much of the watermelon sweet, maybe a few more different flavours. Probably would get it at the right price but pretty sure supermarket do own label versions and I don’t buy those sooooo….&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;plant-pops-popped-lotus-seeds&quot;&gt;Plant pops (popped Lotus seeds)&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tina - I heard about lotus seeds and was very excited about this. But once they are popped like sweetcorn kernels and flavoured with peanut, it’s hard to find an original taste. Definitely a fun snack and good alternative for popcorn.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;pravha&quot;&gt;Pravha&lt;/h5&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Surpisingly refreshing pilsner, fairly light as well and filled up my 1 litre jug quite nicely. I could be seen drinking the bigger bottles for a nice summer beer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h4 id=&quot;chai-latte&quot;&gt;Chai Latte&lt;/h4&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - Finally got around to this a few months later. Tasted pretty much like most chai lattes. I’m used to the starbucks supermarket versions and it was pretty much it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h4 id=&quot;manilife&quot;&gt;Manilife&lt;/h4&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy - It’s just peanut butter but barely enough to cover toast. What was the USP here?&lt;/p&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="food" /><summary type="html">The July Box arrived.</summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Yummy yummy June box</title><link href="https://harvinderatwal.com/yummy-yummy-june-box/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Yummy yummy June box" /><published>2020-06-12T00:00:00+01:00</published><updated>2020-06-12T00:00:00+01:00</updated><id>https://harvinderatwal.com/yummy-yummy-june-box</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://harvinderatwal.com/yummy-yummy-june-box/">&lt;p&gt;The June Box arrived and was looking good at first sight.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;yummy-yummy-june-spread.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id=&quot;tina&quot;&gt;Tina&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The big bottle of Gin Fizz was dominating in the box, just a shame it was pink. Nevertheless, looking forward to taste it, after cooling it of course.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There were also several snack items, which waited for that afternoon motivation plunge to be devoured - Chickpea puffs, fruit jellies, roasted corn and sweet cereal and marshmallow bars. There was also another bottle of salad dressing, which - together with the two from last month - mean, we better start eating salads. We will have to fight the slugs in the veg-bed more rigorously.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id=&quot;harvy&quot;&gt;Harvy&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A few things have caught my eye but there’s also a few that I’m not bothered about (yet another salad dressing).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There’s “Attack a Snak” which reminds me of lunchables, they were a desperation food but would probably have it again, so interested to see how these turn out.
I’m looking forward to Baru (?) because who doesn’t like chocolate marshmallow in a bar. Noisy snacks looks intreg they boast they use double the flavouring of other snacks. Is that a good thing?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;superfruit-jellies&quot;&gt;Superfruit Jellies&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overwhelming smell to the point of artificial. The choice of flavours was :shaky hands but not trump: It just seemed to break up in your mouth but not really melt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;baru-chocolate-marshmallow-bar&quot;&gt;Baru Chocolate Marshmallow Bar&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Looks like expected for a Marshmallow chocolate bar, nice and soft. A little too sweet for the generous size, but marshmallow lovers will probably like it. It was supposed to be Chai Latte flavour, but there wasn’t much of it, which I actually preferred.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;le-joli&quot;&gt;Le Joli&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Basically flavoured sparkling water. Which has never tasted nice… ever.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;attack-a-snack&quot;&gt;Attack A Snack&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Small nachos with some overpowering bbq chipoltle sauce (way too much sugar as well) and not sure why they included the cream sauce as well. Can’t really recommend this, like cinema nachos but worse.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;noisy-corn&quot;&gt;Noisy corn&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Heavily flavoured corn, works pretty well actually. Good little snack but I feel it might too pricey when released&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;ollys-olives&quot;&gt;Olly’s Olives&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Not sure what the product is supposed be here. It’s just olives with garlic and basil. I mean the olives were good but you can find this in different variation from stock supermarket food in the deli section. Snack sized which worked in its favour.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;lizis-granola-high-protein-40g&quot;&gt;Lizi’s Granola High Protein (40g)&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The miniture package is a harsh reminder of how small a “recommended portion” really is. However, the stuff in my bowl looked promising, nicely brown coloured, suggesting a good roast or the grains. But once you add the milk everthing starts to float. Turns out, most is puffed grains, not much to chew on. Taste was plesant but the overall impression falls behind the high expectantions I got from their cover picture.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Harvy thought it needed more sugar.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;nine-bar&quot;&gt;Nine Bar&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Good meal replacement options for a hectic day or after exercise. Good flavour and the full stomach feeling you get from dense energy bars like this. A bit too much for a light snack.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;gregorys-tree&quot;&gt;Gregory’s Tree&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Essentially the healthier version of fruit twists? I’m not sure why these exist to be honest. I’m sure the standard full fat version costs less and I think they are supposed to bad for you.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h5 id=&quot;hippeas&quot;&gt;Hippeas&lt;/h5&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Liking the big crunchy pieces. It was vinegar flavour but it wasn’t as overpowering as your normal salt and vinegar snack but would look forward to other flavours. Kinda reminded me of wotsits but less chessy, and I assume it’s more healthy.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;overall&quot;&gt;Overall&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;h2 id=&quot;harvy-1&quot;&gt;Harvy&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Really liked the marshmellow bar (of course who wouldn’t), I think the unexpected winner here was the noisy corn snack.&lt;/p&gt;</content><author><name>Harvinder Atwal</name><email>blog@harvinderatwal.com</email></author><category term="food" /><summary type="html">The June Box arrived and was looking good at first sight.</summary></entry></feed>