Words and Machines: The Future of Writing

In-person at the American Writers Museum and online via livestream!

Friday, November 10, 2023, 6pm CDT at 180 North Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60601

$14 adults | $9 seniors, students, teachers -- registration fee includes admittance to the museum which doesn't have to be used the same day as the event

FREE | livestream registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/words-and-machines-the-future-of-writing-online-tickets-736747330097

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Words and Machines: The Future of Writing (IN PERSON)

Are you ready to embark on a literary journey into the future?Join us for an evening of exploration at the intersection of literature, technology, and artificial intelligence as we welcome writers Jonathan Taplin and Michi Trota to the American Writers Museum. These two prominent voices will engage in a dynamic discussion—accompanied by an actual AI chatbot—and together they will delve into how technology has reshaped the world of writing, the advantages and challenges of AI, and the profound implications of AI for the future of creative expression.

This is an in-person program at the American Writers Museum. This program will also be livestreamed.

Taplin’s new book The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto is a brilliant takedown and exposé of the great con job of the twenty-first century—the metaverse, crypto, space travel, transhumanism—being sold by four billionaires (Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreesen, Elon Musk), leading to the degeneration and bankruptcy of our society. Books will be available for purchase and the authors will be signing them following the program.

With a distinguished career in technology journalism, Jonathan Taplin‘s expertise in the tech industry uniquely positions him to offer a journalist’s perspective on the transformative power of AI on storytelling. His new book The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto addresses these issues and more.

As an accomplished writer, editor, and five-time Hugo Award-winner, Michi Trota brings a wealth of experience and insight into the evolving landscape of writing in the digital age. Her perspective on the creative ramifications of technology is sure to inspire and captivate.

More about the speakers:

JONATHAN TAPLIN is a public intellectual, writer, film producer, and scholar. He is the director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California and was a professor at the USC Annenberg School in the field of international communication management and digital media entertainment until 2017. Since his graduation from Princeton University in 1969, his extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century: he was tour manager for Bob Dylan and the Band, producer of major films such as Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, an executive at Merrill Lynch, creator of the Internet’s first video-on-demand service, and a cultural critic and author writing about technology in the new millennium.

MICHI TROTA is a five-time Hugo Award-winning Filipino American writer, editor, and narrative expert. Her work explores empowerment, representation, storytelling, and autonomy, and how to exercise those tools for collective liberation and to dismantle oppressive institutions, not just survive them. Her publications include the Wing Luke Museum 2018-19 exhibit Worlds Beyond Here: Expanding the Universe of APA Science Fiction and Chicago Magazine, and she’s been featured in The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, and CNN: Philippines. She is also a member of the Filipino Young Leaders Program 2022 Immersion cohort and a fire performer with Raks Geek/Raks Inferno Fire+Bellydance.