Women's Right to Vote in Australia

I was reading recently about Edith Cowan, the first Australian woman to be elected to a State or Federal Parliament in Australia. In 1921, at the age of 59, she was elected in WA, to the seat of West Perth.

She was a pioneer, not without her quirks or difficult aspects, but a fascinating character. 

I was reading about Edith Cowan as I have another blog, where I write about history topics that interest me (check it out if you like). As part of the reasearch, I thought I would create a simple info-graphic, to show the states of Australia and when they granted women's suffrage.

Normally I would turn to Canva for something like this, and make it myself. But this did seem like the ideal opportunity to deploy some A.I. capability.

I am always hearing, at work especially, how A.I. will save everyone so much time making presentations and packs. It will all be done - snap! - in an instant, freeing us up to do more and different kinds of work.

Which, applying the same principles, A.I. will also be better at. Which will free us up to do more and different kinds of work, which A.I. will also be better at, and so on to infinity. 

This was my prompt:

Make a simple infographic of a map of Australia, showing the states and the year that they granted women the right to vote.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT has produced something not very inspired, but this is what I asked for. And really, simplicity as a design principle is something I mostly appreciate. I like the fact that the states are different colours too.

And - and this will become more important below - all the information is accurate.

One issue: there is no date for Victoria. I add a response to my query, pointing this out, asking if the image can be updated with the Victorian date (it is really a force of habit to ask: I re-watched 'Interstellar' recently, and there is a funny bit where Matthew McConnaughey points out that you don't have to ask a robot to do anything).

ChatGPT thinks a minute, and produces the exact same image, with Victoria's date missing. I have another go, the same thing occurs.

I now have a go at ChatGPT, hassling it about its mistake.

The same image occurs, after which I give up. I suppose if I wanted to use this graphic, I could add the date myself, fulfilling the vision some people espouse, of these tools as a collaborator, rather than a replacement.

From this point forwards, things get nutty.

Gemini

Google produces a similar underlying image to ChatGPT, but with most of the information incorrect: the dates are right, but some of the states are labelled incorrectly, while 'Tasmaia' has been renamed.

In a display of solidarity with ChatGPT, Victoria has been excised outright.

The wild inaccuracy catches me by surprise. Australia is a long established country, with maps readily available; how could it get this so wrong?

I respond and point out the errors, and ask Gemini to have another go.

Now the state names on the map are correct, but secondary, inaccurate labels, have been applied as well.

Queensland has gained some rogue territories - including 'New Nowth Wales' - and Tasmania has been relocated to central NSW. As least this is a progressive enclave: they granted women the right to vote 1000 years before anyone else.

I am really very surprised. This task, I thought, would be simple.

I go to google maps, get a screenshot of the map of Australia, feed this into the chat, put a link to the online version of the same. I think: let's get the map right first, then add the date info.

I say: use this information to make an info graphic of the map of Australia showing the state names.

This one helpfully has the ocean names, including the lesser known 'Pdiecn'. Some of Australia's significant towns are also highlighted, including 'Warmalla', 'Mangly', 'Noso Farang', and 'Holes'.

Although the Australian Government would probably object to the inclusion of Noso Farang, as this is where we send our asylum seekers.

Grok

Grok has seemingly understood the assignment as requiring a poster, and has produced something that would not look out of place in a retro futuristic sci-fi movie (Elon does love space). The categories and info keys also reflect a tech guy's love of data.

It has gotten even more creative than Gemini, inventing not only new names for the states, but seemingly an entirely new language. 'Niust the Yourd, Grant an Women' sounds like something written in Nadsat.

Despite the baffling wording and statistical 'information', I actually do quite like the look of these, at least aethestically. It would be fascinating to know, where 'Bush-1910' and 'Kelim' (among others) came from.

Co-Pilot

In what seems likely to become a running theme, the strangest result came from Co-Pilot. If Grok's output showed some detachment from reality, Co-Pilot has taken this a new, and vastly more complex, level.

We seem to be viewing the Australia of the future, where Federation has collapsed and the country has splintered into a hundred micro states. Reflecting these turbulent times, we have both a new flag - with a white space, possibly honouring victims of WWIII - and a new name, 'Aaustr Allia'.

I think conservatives will tell you: this is what COULD happen, if we invest too much money in renewables. 

Wondering how it could have produced something so strange - the map of Australia is simple! - a friend suggested that the tool may have used the Indigenous map of Australia, showing all the traditional owner groups, as the basis. I can see that as a possibility; the futuristic cruise ships and space capsules, harder to say.