BTW, the Cake was Real - and so is Human in the Loop

BTW, the cake was real!

When we won our Innovate UK grant for Virtual Guide Dogs, we wanted to celebrate in a way that was more than icing on a cake; the RedNought way, by combining human and AI in a way that makes things better.

So we asked AI to dream with us.

It gave us ideas - wild ones, colourful ones, ones that made us smile. Also a lot with creative spelling mistakes, but you know what AI is like...

But ideas are only half the journey.

The other half is rolling up your sleeves, getting your hands covered in flour and fondant, and bringing that dream into the real world.

And that’s exactly what we did.

We baked the cake.

Then, after 30 minutes at gas mark 4, we had the basics; a delicious chocolate sponge ready for an artist to create the amazing icing. Time for Rachel Barton to shine...

Finally, using Sora, we sent it back into a fantasy world - a place where imagination lives, and technology helps us visit.

That’s the beauty of human in the loop.

AI can help us see further, but it’s still the human heart that decides where to go.

Because in the end... the magic isn’t in the machine.

It’s in the moment when people and AI create something wonderful together - something you can see, touch, and maybe even taste. 

John Thornewill

28th October 2025