I used AI to recommend talks at Wilderness festival

If you don’t know it, Wilderness Festival is as much about talks and debates as it is music (as well as arts, food, wellness and more…)

There’s a packed programme with some really good stuff. But with 81 talks and debates this year, there’s a lot to look through. Honestly, I was too lazy to click through 81 pages but didn’t want to miss out on gems.

Could AI help?

I wondered if AI could help. Perhaps I could tell it my interests, what kind of talks I’ve attended before, and get it to look through the programme for me?

Using Claude AI

I love Claude AI’s projects feature. It allows you to create a project - “Wilderness 2024” - with “permanent knowledge”. That just means you can add a bunch of files, and this context is available every time you start a chat in that project.

It’s a simple feature that I find incredibly valuable. I can upload relevant context once then mess around with fresh chats as much as I like.

Hat tip to Tom Halloran for encouraging me to trial Claude AI and putting me on to Projects.

Dumping the programme

Thank you Wilderness HQ for publishing your lineup on the web in a straightforward format. Plain HTML, no Javascript required, one page per event. Nice job.

It was fiddly but ultimately easy to dump the programme and convert it into text format:

• wget the lineup HTML
• grep all links from the HTML containing /experiences/talks/
• tweak the links by hand with vim
• download each talk page: wget -i talks_urls.txt --no-parent --no-directories --content-on-error

• extract the title and body sections:

  for f in index.html*
  do
  cat $f | htmlq ".SecondaryHeader-heading, .RichText" --text
  echo "----------"
  echo
  done
  

I dumped that into a 72K file wilderness-2024-talks-programme.txt and uploaded it as permanent knowledge in to the Claude project.

Blog posts about previous festivals

I’d written three blog posts about talks I attended at previous festivals. These aren’t interesting: they’re basically an archive of the event description and speakers’ names to aid my memory.

But they gave me a short-cut for telling Claude what kind of talks I’d be interested in.

I used Safari on iOS to make a whole page screenshot PDF and saved them as What I went to at [festival]. I uploaded them to the project’s permanent knowledge.

Stating my interests

This was the hardest bit because it’s so open ended. I added a permanent knowledge text note called my areas of interest containing:

• climate change solutions
• renewable energy
• co-operatives and practical alternatives to conventional business
• wilding and regenerative farming
• improving democracy
• tech for good
• effective altruism
• ethics
• artificial intelligence for good
• solving inequality
• redistributing wealth
• progressive politics
• climate activism and human rights

Finally, the prompt

The programme of talks, 3 blog posts and my interests used 15% of the available knowledge size.

All that was left was to ask the question:

Based on the blog posts I wrote about previous festivals I attended and the interests I told you about, which talks do you think I should see at Wilderness this year and why?

And Claude came back with 7 very good suggestions:

Based on your previous festival experiences and stated interests, here are some talks I think you would enjoy at Wilderness this year:

1. “Material World: A Substantial History of Our World Past and Future” by Ed Conway This aligns with your interests in climate change solutions and renewable energy. Conway explores how six key materials have shaped human development and will impact our future, which should provide interesting insights into sustainability challenges.

2. “Doughnut Economics” with Kate Raworth Given your interest in co-operatives, practical alternatives to business, and solving inequality, Raworth’s discussion of her economic model that aims to meet people’s needs within planetary boundaries would likely be fascinating for you.

3. “The Future of Geography” with Tim Marshall This talk about space exploration and its geopolitical implications touches on your interests in technology for good and artificial intelligence. It could provide interesting perspectives on how space development might impact global issues.

4. “A vision for a better future” with Kate Pickett and Danny Dorling Their discussion of progressive policies aligns well with your interests in improving democracy, solving inequality, and redistributive politics.

5. “History For Tomorrow” by Roman Krznaric This talk about learning from history to tackle current challenges like climate change and inequality fits perfectly with many of your stated interests.

6. “The Smartphone Free Childhood Movement” with Jamie Bartlett and Clare Fernyhough While not directly mentioned in your interests, this topic relates to the social impacts of technology, which seems relevant to your tech for good interest.

7. “AI for Humans” with Madhumita Murgia This exploration of AI’s impact on daily life connects to your interest in artificial intelligence for good.

These talks cover a range of your interests from climate change and renewable energy to progressive politics, inequality, and the societal impacts of technology. They should provide thought-provoking content similar to what you’ve enjoyed at previous festivals.

I’d already earmarked 4 out of those 7 from browsing the programme. I’d completely missed the other 3 so it’s proven really helpful.

Just to be sure, I asked:

Are there any other events I might like?

To which it politely came up with more suggestions…

Certainly! Based on your interests and past festival experiences, here are some additional events you might enjoy at Wilderness this year:

1. “State of The Nation” This debate-style event could appeal to your interest in democracy and progressive politics. It’s described as “Question Time with balls” and features an eclectic selection of minds, which might provide diverse perspectives on current issues.

2. “Sunday Papers Live” This event brings the broadsheets to life section by section, which could cover a range of your interests from climate change to politics. It’s a unique way to engage with current affairs and might be reminiscent of the “Sunday Papers Live” events you enjoyed at How The Light Gets In.

3. “Reading Between the Wines” While not directly related to your stated interests, you’ve mentioned enjoying literary events at previous festivals. This unique combination of books and wine tasting could be an interesting and fun experience.

4. “Letters Live” You’ve highlighted this as a highlight in your previous Wilderness experiences, noting it as “one of the finest hours of entertainment you will ever experience.” Given your past enjoyment, you might want to attend again.

5. “How To Ask for What You Really Really Want” with Adam Taffler This workshop on communication and relationships might offer insights into improving social dynamics, which could relate to your interest in improving democracy and social structures.

6. “Engl-ish” hosted by Heydon Prowse This discussion about English national identity and its relationship to progressive politics could be interesting given your interest in progressive politics and improving democracy.

7. “Philosophy Slam!” Given your attendance at philosophy festivals in the past, this improvisational philosophy event might appeal to you. It could offer interesting perspectives on various topics related to your interests.

8. “PoliticsJOE Pubcast Live” This live podcast focusing on British politics with a humorous twist could be enjoyable given your interest in progressive politics and improving democracy.

I’m disappointed it missed “Letters Live” in the first attempt. It literally told me I’d called it a past highlight!

The wine one’s an oddball but I can see the link from How the Light Gets In.

“Engl-ish” and “PoliticsJOE Pubcast Live” look great and I’m adding those to my list.

This was fun, interesting and extremely impressive

OK, so I totally didn’t need to do this. But it was a fun and interesting and I’m really impressed.

For Claude to suck in that whole programme and rapidly answer what is a pretty complex question is … mind blowing.

I don’t like adding to the AI hype because much of it is bollocks. But increasingly I’m finding that using AI as a pairing buddy (rather than a subordinate) gives me superpowers.

Cheers Claude!