Hearing the term "Generative Artificial Intelligence" but not sure what it is or if/when/how to use it? Maybe you want to know about the tools and resources available at Penn. This workshop will orient you to some materials to get the lay of the Gen AI landscape at Penn and beyond. 

In this introductory workshop developed under the Draw Down the Lightning grant, you will engage in hands-on games and activities to explore the core functions of popular generative AI tools, including those available at Penn. You will learn how to identify appropriate tools for common tasks and evaluate the reliability of their outputs.

This is an in-person, beginner-friendly, non-technical workshop, that is a part of the AI Literacy Interest Group at Penn Libraries Book Club series, where we are discussing Empire of AI by Karen Hao this year.

• What you will learn in this session:

  • Identifying Gen AI

  • Short History of AI

  • How do Gen AI tools do what they do?

  • Errors & Biases, Environmental, Copyright, Socio-Technical Concerns

  • Evaluating Gen AI Outputs and Uses

• Prerequisites:

  • No prior AI experience is required.

  • You are welcome to contextualize yourself to the session by reading Karen Hao’s Empire of AI Chapter 4 “Dreams of Modernity”

• Software required:

  • Bring a device you might use Gen AI tools on.

• About the Instructor:

  • Jaj Karajgikar: library.upenn.edu/staff/jajwalya-karajgikar

This event is a part of the AI Literacy Interest Group at Penn Libraries Book Club series.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

2:00pm - 4:00pm

Research Data and Digital Scholarship Exchange

Open to All

Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center

AI Literacy, AILIG, Data Science, Digital Humanities, Textual Analysis, Digital Scholarship, Information Literacy, Penn Libraries AI Studio