Washington Apple Pi

A Community of Apple iPad, iPhone and Mac Users

May 2023

David Pogue: Artificial Intelligence Gets Real

Saturday, May 20, 2023, 10 am - 12:30 pm

Virtual meeting via Zoom and YouTube

David Pogue: Artificial Intelligence Gets Real

2023 will go down in human history as the year that AI (artificial intelligence) suddenly, explosively, became useful—and terrifying. One app can turn anything you type into art, in any style. ("A skateboarding banana in Times Square, in the style of Renoir," for example.) Another app does your writing for you—anything you ask for, on any topic. Letters. Song lyrics. Research papers. Recipes. Therapy sessions. Poems. Essays. Outlines. Software code. Educators are calling it "the end of teaching writing skills."
 
Other apps create music, perfectly mimic anybody's voice, or even generate complete video scenes from typed descriptions. 
 
Some experts are terrified: These tools seem poised to eliminate millions of jobs, allow writing and other creative skills to fade out of humanity, and unleash disinformation, violence, and porn on a scale never seen before. Optimists insist that these tools will bring creative expression to millions of people who have good ideas without the skills to bring them to light.
 
In this funny, unforgettable talk, David Pogue demonstrates the state of the art in AI creativity—and prepares you for the years to come.

Note: this image was created on Adobe Firefly using the prompts "artificial intelligence" "mad scientist" "newspaper" "blinky lights" "cute kitten." Click on the image for a larger view.

AI cat and mad scientist


We'll also try to stream the meeting to our YouTube page here:

https://www.youtube.com/WashingtonApplePi

This link can be freely shared.

The Zoom meeting invitation will be posted on the Pi's conferencing system, the TCS, and sent out to members via Email. Please check your Zoom profile online to be sure it contains your full name, because for security reasons, we can't let anyone in without their full name.

Important! if you use the Zoom app (instead of a web browser), check in advance that you have version 5.14.7 or better. There are significant security issues with older versions.

We'll start with a Q&A, so please send us any questions for us to queue up for the panel.

Please complete our Pi attend form on Saturday - we'll do a drawing from the remote attendees on that form. Attendance Check-in link, https://wap.org/attend