xai – Stilgherrian

13 February 202612 February 2026

The 9pm S-Bend of Technology with David Gerard

A balding clean-shaven white man in spectacles, probably Gen X, looking disdainfully at the camera. Itâ€™s David Gerard! — David Gerard watches patiently as he waits for the AI bubble to burst. (Photo: Pauline Martindale )

As the summer series continues we’re joined once more by David Gerard for a suitably cynical look at what’s happening in and around the AI bubble. Bros, do not send hate mail, but we do not believe your claims.

20 July 202510 August 2025

Weekly Wrap 790: I’m still thinking about that trip to my birthplace, which was Gawler

Looking across the street at two classic Victorian-era civic buildings. On the left is a two-storey stone building, three windows wide, with a portico at the front finished in white plaster. Across the top it reads INSTITUTE and on the facade there’s the text “In Memoriam 1914 - 1918”. On the right is a shorter but similar building, with a terrace on top of its portico, and a row of four flagpoles. The flags are limp because there’s no wind, and they can’t be recognised. On the top of the facade is a set of arms (featuring a hawk, wheat, and lion, but drawn incorrectly), and the words TOWN HALL. In between them is a hint of modern architecture, namely the glass entry to a new building behind these two. The sky is bright blue with a few fluffy clouds.

Ages back I suggested that my productivity runs to a fortnightly cycle, and perhaps that’s still the case. My week of Monday 14 to Sunday 20 July 2025 involved quite a lot of sleep, but I still produced a podcast and a newsletter â€” and posted another photo from my recent expedition to South Australia.

14 July 202514 July 2025

Weekly Wrap 789: Podcasts! Three podcasts! (And another view from Granite Island)

A view from a hill on an island. In the right-hand foreground is a pile of massive weathered granite boulders, the upper ones coated in orange lichen where they’re above the salt spray, the lower ones washed bare by the waves. On the left and out to the horizon is the endless ocean under a grey sky. And in the upper right-hand background, running in about a third of the way in from the right of the frame, the distant shoreline ends in a lump of a headland, bare of trees.

My week of Monday 7 to Sunday 13 July 2025 was a podcast-productive week, with three episodes recorded and one of them posted. This was despite losing a couple of days to fighting off a cold or something. Such a good week. But the photo is from last week.

22 June 202530 June 2025

Weekly Wrap 786: Cleaning the pipes before the mind

A smallish bird is perched on a brown wooden window frame, looking in. Its head is black with a white chin, and its chest is also white. Its beak is white with a black tip that ends with a little downwards hook. Its wings are black on top and white bellow, but they can’t really been seen because they’re closed. In the background, out of focus, is a dirt path and some shrubs.

My week of Monday 16 to Sunday 22 June 2025 began with a continuation of the gastro that began late last week, but somehow I still managed to stay relatively productive. There’s no new podcast, but I’ve started mapping out episodes for the coming couple of months — and planning next week’s holiday.

27 April 202528 April 2025

Weekly Wrap 778: I take the ferry to Manly during an inside-out week, for some reason

It’s a beach scene, looking out onto the ocean with small, gently-rolling waves washing up on a yellow sand beach. The water is turquoise in the shallows, grading to a deep blue on the horizon. Overhead, threatening clouds billow and brood, although for the moment the beach itself is in sunlight. In the right-hand foreground, an older man in dark green t-shirt and brown shorts carries a red and yellow surfboard toward the water’s edge. Never change, Manly. Minutes after this photo was taken, the entire scene disappeared into a grey blur of drizzle and cloud.

My week of Monday 21 to Sunday 27 April 2025, like the one before it, was inside out. It’s the public holidays and the weekend days which have been busy, with fatigue hitting during the week. So it was a trip to Manly on Tuesday, and podcast work on the holidays.

30 March 202506 April 2025

Weekly Wrap 774: Magpies are so talonted, yeah?

Close-up photo of the feet of an Australian magpie perched on a wooden doorframe. On each foot, there are three curved toes with claws in front of the wooden frame and one behind. All is shiny and black. Slightly out of focus in the upper background is the lower part of the bird’s body, white feathers below and black chest and wing feathers above.

During my week of Monday 24 to Sunday 30 March 2025 the numbers of my magnificent Magpie Army started to swell again, with 18 of them visiting the other morning. I took a photo. I also produced a podcast, launched a crowdfunder, and squeezed out a newsletter.