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An AI Valentine? Enough said

Claire Brine gives her take on a story catching the attention of War Cry reporters

ROSES are red, violets are blue,/ This isn’t a very good poem for trying to woo. But, though my efforts at writing verse are drawing a blank, it seems I don’t need to worry about penning a card in time for Valentine’s Day next Tuesday (14 February). An article in The Times reassures me that AI is coming to the rescue.

According to technology business editor Katie Prescott, the online card retailer Moonpig is exploring the possibilities of integrating ChatGPT into its systems. This means that ‘customers will be able to ask the software to generate a personalised message or poem without having to scratch their heads for the right words’.

Putting the software to the test, The Times asked the Valentine bot to come up with a poem for a football-mad boyfriend. The poem kicked off with the words: ‘Soccer is love, and you’re the one/ Who makes my heart beat as fast as a goal is won.’ Maybe there’s someone who would love such a sentiment, but I have to admit that my own heart was not set a-fluttering.

Love is more than sentimental statements

Call me old-fashioned, but I won’t be using AI to help me write a Valentine’s card or any other heartfelt messages I am inclined to send. Yes, the technology might promise to save me a bit of time or come up with words and phrases that I wouldn’t have thought of, but what’s wrong with someone sending a less-than-perfect message of love, provided it is sincerely meant? Do our words really have to be eloquent for true love to be expressed and understood?

I don’t think so.

Though Valentine’s Day advertising may suggest otherwise, love is so much more than sentimental statements in cards, romance and sex. Love – between any two people – can be found in simple sentences such as ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I’m listening’ and ‘I’m thinking of you’. I see love when my four-year-old daughter comes in from the garden and, without a word, hands me the best pine cone she could find.

I also learn about love in the Bible, which describes it as kind, patient, supportive and loyal, never jealous, angry or selfish. It points out that the character of God encompasses everything that love is –and that the love he has for us never, ever fails. Need I say more?

Holidaymakers altar their plans

ABOUT 1,500 people camped in churches last year as part of a trend called ‘champing’, The Guardian reports.

Launched in 2015 by the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT), the initiative lets people enjoy overnight accommodation in 18 sites across England and Wales.

Fiona Silk, who oversees CCT’s champing business, said: ‘It does generate extra funds for upkeep and repair work and is a way of helping keep a church sustainable.

‘It’s also about providing a warm welcome to people who might not ordinarily go into a church – and supporting rural communities, as visitors will also eat out.’

Priscilla Moxey, from the parish council at participating church St Laurence in Hilmarton, Wiltshire, added: ‘The idea that people from far and, indeed, near can come and stay in our beautiful Grade I village church and have the key for one or several nights, enabling them to enjoy and absorb the history, beauty and architecture, is an amazing concept.

‘These wonderful buildings need to be used as much as possible.’ nTHE Salvation Army is setting up a community hub in Scarborough to support Ukrainian refugees.

The Sunflower Hub, based at the church and charity’s premises, aims ‘to provide a home from home’ for those in the community who have fled the Ukrainian conflict.

Open from noon till 3pm every Friday, the hub will offer practical support such as language lessons and training for employment. There are also plans for an onsite café, which will cook a selection of Ukrainian-inspired dishes.

More than 120 Ukrainian refugees have settled in Scarborough since the Russian invasion of their country last year.